Solution: b)

India’s first railway university, The National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI) was inaugurated in Vadodara, Gujarat.

Additional Information

Solution: d)

The objectives of the Central Consumer Protection Council is to promote and to protect the rights of the consumers such as:-

1. The right to be protected against the marketing of goods and services which are hazardous to life and property.
2. The right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or services, as the case may be so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices;
3. The right to be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety of goods and services at competitive prices ;
4. The right to be heard and to be assured that consumer’s interest will receive due consideration at appropriate forums;
5. The right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices or restrictive trade practices or unscrupulous exploitation of consumers; and
6. The right to consumer education.

Solution: c)

The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), previously named the Bangkok Agreement, was signed in 1975 as an initiative of ESCAP. Being the oldest preferential trade agreement among developing countries in Asia-Pacific, APTA aims to promote economic development through the adoption of mutually beneficial trade liberalization measures

Currently, the following six Participating States are parties to APTA:

People’s Republic of Bangladesh

People’s Republic of China

Republic of India

Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Republic of Korea

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Mongolia has concluded its bilateral negotiations on tariff concessions with the current Participating States, and is soon to become the seventh member of APTA.

Additional Information:

Solution: c)

About 30 highways projects have been awarded under HAM by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

HAM’s a hybrid — a mix of the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) and BOT (build, operate, transfer) models. Under the EPC model, NHAI pays private players to lay roads. The private player has no role in the road’s ownership, toll collection or maintenance (it is taken care of by the government). Under the BOT model though, private players have an active role — they build, operate and maintain the road for a specified number of years — say 10-15 years — before transferring the asset back to the government.

Under BOT, the private player arranged all the finances for the project, while collecting toll revenue or annuity fee from the Government, as agreed. The annuity fee arrangement is known as BOT-Annuity; essentially, the toll revenue risk is taken by the government, while the private player is paid a pre-fixed annuity for construction and maintenance of roads.

Now, HAM combines EPC (40 per cent) and BOT-Annuity (60 per cent). On behalf of the government, NHAI releases 40 per cent of the total project cost. It is given in five tranches linked to milestones. The balance 60 per cent is arranged by the developer. Here, the developer usually invests not more than 20-25 per cent of the project cost (as against 40 percent or more before), while the remaining is raised as debt.

TH:

Solution: b)

Echolocation, also called bio sonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals. Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects.

TH: Asia’s river dolphins may be nearly blind, but compensate by using many methods to catch prey. Though chiefly known as echolocators, researchers now suggest that these dolphins could also be listening for surface-swimming fish and sensing electrical signals emitted by bottom-dwelling prey on the river-bed.