10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: July 27, 2020

All of the above statements are correct and are provided for by the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.

The superior courts can take action on its own motion or on a motion made by the Attorney/Advocate-General or any other person, with their consent in writing.

While the Constitution allows superior courts to punish for their contempt, the Contempt of Courts Act additionally allows the High Court to punish for contempt of subordinate courts.

Section 5 of the act provides that fair criticism of judicial act not contempt. Therefore, a person shall not be guilty of contempt of court for publishing any fair comment on the merits of any case which has been heard and finally decided.

Both statements are incorrect.

NASA has begun to work on a new mission that will carry a cutting-edge 8.4-foot (2.5-meter) telescope high into the stratosphere on a balloon. It is tentatively planned to launch in December 2023 from Antarctica.

ASTHROS (short for Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths) will spend about three weeks drifting on air currents above the icy southern continent.

It will be managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The ASTHROS observes far-infrared light, or light with wavelengths much longer than what is visible to the human eye.

ASTHROS will carry an instrument to measure the motion and speed of gas around newly-formed stars.

During flight, the mission will study four main targets: two star-forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy, the Messier 83 galaxy and TW Hydrae, a young star surrounded by a wide disk of dust and gas where planets may be forming.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Special Window for Affordable and Mid Income Housing (SWAMIH) fund provides priority debt financing for the completion of stalled housing projects that are in the Affordable and Middle-Income Housing sector.

This fund would provide relief to developers that require funding to complete a set of unfinished projects and consequently ensure delivery of homes to the home-buyers.

Statement 2 is correct. For the purposes of the fund, the government acts as the Sponsor.

The fund is set up as an Alternate Investment Fund debt fund registered with SEBI. The SBICAP Ventures Limited is the Investment Manager for first AIF under the Special Window.

During the recent review by Ministry of finance, it was reported that the fund has so far approved 81 projects with an investment of Rs 8767 crore.

Statement 1 is correct. The Government of India reviewed the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy for curbing opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. Therefore,

-a non-resident entity can invest in India, subject to the FDI Policy except in those sectors/activities which are prohibited. However, an entity of a country, which shares land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment into India is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, can invest only under the Government route.

Further, a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in Pakistan can invest, only under the Government route, in sectors/activities other than defence, space, atomic energy and sectors/activities prohibited for foreign investment.

Statement 2 is correct. As per the present FDI Policy, 100% FDI is permitted in scheduled Air Transport Service/Domestic Scheduled Passenger Airline (Automatic upto 49% and Government route beyond 49%). However, for NRIs 100% FDI is permitted under automatic route in Scheduled Air Transport Service/Domestic Scheduled Passenger Airline.

Further, FDI is subject to the condition that Substantial Ownership & Effective Control (SOEC) shall be vested in Indian Nationals as per aircraft rules, 1937.

Ministry of Human Resource Development has stated that the Chairman, UGC, Mr. DP Singh will head a committee to prepare guidelines and measures to ensure that more and more students stay here for study in India and come out with mechanism for increasing intake in well performing universities.

Mechanisms will be explored for starting Multi-disciplinary and innovative programs, twinning and joint degree programs, Cross Country designing of centers, facilitating online lectures by eminent faculty abroad, linkage between academia and industry, facilitate Joint degree ventures and lateral entry to Indian Higher Education Institutions.

During the year 2019 around 7 lakh 50 thousand students travelled abroad to pursue their studies.

Statement 1 is correct. Dadabhai Naoroji was the first Indian to become a Member of Parliament of the British, as a member of the Liberal Party in 1892.

Statement 2 is correct. Dadabhai Naoroji founded the London Indian Society in the year 1865 and the East India Association in 1866, in collaboration with Indians and retired British officials in London. It superseded the London Indian Society and was a platform for discussing matters and ideas about India, and to provide representation for Indians to the Government.

Statement 3 is correct. Dadabhai Naoroji was an economist and proponent of the ‘drain theory’, building up a detailed economic critique of British imperialism in India. In the year 1901, he published ‘Poverty and un-British Rule in India’. The book spoke of how the British plundered the resources of India that consistently led to the rise of destitution and misery in India.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The corporate income-tax (CIT) is applicable to an Indian company and as well as foreign company working in India. A resident company is taxed on its worldwide income while a non-resident company is taxed on income that it received in India, or is deemed to accrue or arise, in India.

Statement 2 is correct. Data from Economic Survey 2019-20 shows that, CIT revenue as percent of GDP has been consistently higher than that of GST revenue.

The Finance Minister as part of the Budget Speech for FY 2019-20 had announced steps towards creating an electronic fund raising platform- a social stock exchange-under the regulatory ambit of Securities and Exchange Board of India for listing social enterprises and voluntary organizations working for the realization of a social welfare objective so that they can raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund.

Accordingly, SEBI constituted a working group on ‘Social Stock Exchanges’ (SSE) under the Chairmanship of Ishaat Hussain in September, 2019. The committee has recently submitted its report.

The SSE will have two primary roles: to effectively deploy the fundraising instruments and structures available under the regulatory guidelines towards social enterprises and to foster overall sector development by creating a capacity building unit.

Statement 1 is correct. Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 states that:

-The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.

-The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.

-The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.

Statement 2 is correct. Article 11 of the convention states that:

-In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal.

-The receiving State may equally, within similar bounds and on a non-discriminatory basis, refuse to accept officials of a particular category.

Both statements are incorrect.

As per the article 174 of the Constitution: (1) The Governor shall from time to time summon the House or each House of the Legislature of the State to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit, but six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session.

(2) The Governor may from time to time—(a) prorogue the House or either House; (b) dissolve the Legislative Assembly.

As is the case for Rajysabha, Legislative councils are not subject to dissolution but one-third of their members retire every second year.