10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: December 17, 2020

Statement 1 is correct. ‘Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP)’ of sugarcane announced by the Central Government is decided on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in consultation with the State Governments and after taking feedback from associations of sugar industry.
Statement 2 is correct. Price of sugar is market driven & depends on demand & supply of sugar. However, with a view to protect the interests of farmers, concept of Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of sugar has been introduced since 2018 so that industry may get atleast the minimum cost of production of sugar, so as to enable them to clear cane price dues of farmers.
Government fixes the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of white/refined sugar for sale by sugar mills at the factory gate for domestic consumption. MSP of sugar has been fixed taking into account the components of Fair & Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane and minimum conversion cost of the most efficient mills.

Statement 1 is correct. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the specialized agency of the United Nations on Telecommunications. India has been a member of ITU since 1869. The ITU has three sectors viz. Standardization, Radio, Development. For Asia Pacific regional coordination, it has a regional office in Bangkok. India is also a Member in the current council.
Statement 2 is correct. The spectrum licenses auctioned by DoT are valid for 20 years and can be renewed by the respective buyers.
The Union Cabinet has recently approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing commercial mobile services.
The auction will be for spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency bands. Spectrum will be offered for assignment for validity period of 20 years.

Statement 1 is correct. The Prime Ministers Special Scholarship Scheme aims to build the capacities of the youths of J&K and Ladakh by Educating, Enabling and Empowering them to compete in the normal course. Under the Scheme, the youths of J&K and Ladakh are supported by way of scholarship in two parts namely the academic fee & maintenance allowance.
Statement 2 is incorrect. The Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) is being implemented by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi.

The Government of India has identified four critical areas for reforms by the States:
–Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System,
–Ease of doing business reform,
–Urban Local body/ utility reforms and
–Power Sector reforms.
States successfully completing the reforms are eligible to get two benefits. Such States get the facility of additional borrowing equivalent to 0.25 percent of their Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP) for completing each reform. Under this facility, additional borrowings of up to Rs.2.14 lakh crore is available to the States on completion of all the four reforms.
Further, States completing three out of the four reforms is additional funds assistance under the “Scheme for Financial Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure”. Under the scheme, an amount of Rs.2,000 crore is earmarked for the States that will complete at least three out of the four stipulated reforms.

Statement 1 is incorrect. National Hydrology Project (World Bank supported initiative of Ministry of Jal Shakti) is a Central Sector Scheme, with 100% grant to the States. Its Budget Outlay is about Rs3,680 Crore, with World Bank Assistance to the tune of 50% of the project cost.
Project Timeline: 8 years from 2016-17 to 2023-24.
Statement 2 is correct. Project Objective is to improve the extent, quality, and accessibility of water resources information, decision support system for floods and basin level resource assessment/planning and to strengthen the capacity of targeted water resources professionals and management institutions in India.
The Project, in its mid-term, has made significant progress in the fields of Water resource monitoring system, water resource information system (WRIS), water resource operation and planning systems and institutional capacity enhancement. Under the NHP, a nationwide repository of water resources data – NWIC has been established. NHP is focusing on establishment of real time data acquisition system (RTDAS) on pan India basis.

Causes and events leading up to the 1971 India-Pakistan war:
–Mass genocide & atrocities by Pakistan Army of their people in East Pakistan
–Cultural & economic domination of West Pakistan over East Pakistan
–Awami League launched non-cooperation and civil disobedience movement after General Elections of December 1970
–25 March 1971: Pak Army launched ‘Operation Searchlight’ to quell the autonomy movement committing atrocities against unarmed Bengalis
–Millions of refugees from East Pakistan took shelter in India
–Mukti Bahini stepped up guerilla warfare
–PAF carried out pre-emptive air strikes on five Indian airfields on 03 December 1971 starting a full scale war

Statement 1 is correct. The Government of India and the New Development Bank (NDB) today signed a loan agreement for lending $1,000 million for ‘supporting India’s economic recovery from COVID-19’ by supporting expenditures on rural infrastructure related to natural resource management (NRM) and rural employment generation under Government of India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Statement 2 is correct. The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a $400 million project to support India’s efforts at providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households, severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the second operation in a programmatic series of two. The first operation of $750 million was approved in May 2020. The programme will strengthen the capability of state and national governments in India to provide coordinated and adequate social protection to the poor and vulnerable from the shocks triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) is a facility extended by RBI to the scheduled commercial banks and Primary Dealers to avail of liquidity in case of requirement or park excess funds with RBI in case of excess liquidity on an overnight basis against the collateral of G-Secs including SDLs. Basically, LAF enables liquidity management on a day-to-day basis.
The operations of LAF are conducted by way of repurchase agreements (repos and reverse repos) with RBI being the counter-party to all the transactions.
As per a recent RBI circular, in order to provide an additional avenue for liquidity management to Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), it has been decided that Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) and Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) will be extended to Scheduled RRBs meeting the following criteria:
–Implemented Core Banking Solution (CBS)
–There is a minimum CRAR of nine per cent and
–Fully compliant with the terms and conditions for availing LAF and MSF issued by Financial Markets Operations Department (FMOD), Reserve Bank of India.

Commonly used bands for cellular communication are 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, and 2300MHz. Beyond that are the unlicensed bands used for technology such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – Wi-Fi used to be 2.4GHz (2400MHz) and has started to shift to the 5GHz band.
The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing commercial mobile services.
The auction will be for spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency bands.

At the broadest level, spectrum is regulated in two ways, it is either managed through a spectrum licence or it is licence exempt (i.e. unlicensed).
The vast majority of radio spectrum is licensed and encompasses a range of technologies that operate with enough power to allow the services to cover a relatively wide area.
Licence holders include commercial organisations, such as TV and radio broadcasters or mobile operators, and non-commercial organisations, such as the emergency services and the military.
The frequency band for FM radio is about 88 to 108 MHz.
Unlicensed frequency bands have more limited applications, and are designated for certain specific types of use. There is no need for a licence from the regulator as long as the devices used meet certain technical standards in order to minimise interference.
The most notable examples of ‘unlicensed’ technologies are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which both operate in the 2.4 GHz band, other examples are cordless telephones, baby monitors, car key fobs and garage door openers.