Indian Economy Quiz: Revision |28 Feb, 2021

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), set up in 1966 is an investment dispute settlement body whose decisions are binding on the parties.

• It was established under the 1966 Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States.
• Though recourse to the centre is voluntary, but once the parties have agreed to arbitration, they cannot withdraw their consent unilaterally.
• It settles the investment disputes arising between the investing foreign companies and the host countries where the investments have been done.
• India is not its member (that is why the Enron issue was out of its preview). It is believed that being signatory to it encourages the foreign investment flows into an economy, but risks independent sovereign decisions, too.

Source: Sriram’s IAS

The Intensive Agriculture District Programme (IADP) was launched as the first major experiment in intensive agriculture development in the year 1960.

• The IADP popularly known as package programme was launched in three districts in 1960 – 61 and four districts in 1962 – 63.
• The major objectives of the programme were to demonstrate the most effective ways of achieving rapid and significant increase in agriculture production through adoption of a package of improved practices and to suggest successful and adoptable innovations, approaches and procedures which could be adopted in similar areas of the country.

Source: TMH Ramesh Singh

The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), spanning from 1986 to 1994 and embracing 123 countries as “contracting parties”.

• The negotiations and process ended with the signing of the Final Act of the Marrakesh Agreement in April 1994 at Marrakesh, Morocco.
• The round led to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), with GATT remaining as an integral part of the WTO agreements.

Source: TMH Ramesh Singh

The year 1980 saw the return of the same political party at the Centre. The new government revised the Industrial Policy of 1977 with few exceptions in the Industrial Policy Resolution, 1980. The major initiatives of the policy were as given below:

• Foreign investment via the technology transfer route was allowed again (similar to the provisions of the IPS, 1973).

• The ‘MRTP Limit’ was revised upward to Rs. 50 crores to promote setting of bigger companies.
• The DICs were continued with.
• Industrial licensing was simplified.
• Overall liberal attitude followed towards the expansion of private industries.

Source: TMH Ramesh Singh

Doing Business report, an annual publication (since 2004) of the World Bank Group ranks the countries of the world on the basis of their ‘regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it’. Popularly known as the ‘ease of doing business report’, it measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business:

• Starting a business,
• Dealing with construction permits,
• Getting electricity,

• Registering property,
• Getting credit,
• Protecting minority investors,
• Paying taxes,
• Trading across borders,

• Enforcing contracts,
• Resolving insolvency, and
• Labour market regulation.

Source: The Hindu

India enjoys a ‘competitive advantage’ in food processing sector given its huge production base of a number of agricultural, dairy, fishing and horticultural items.

• To ensure that this sector gets the stimulus it deserves, the MoFPI has been implementing a number of schemes for infrastructure development, technology up-gradation and modernization, human resources development and R&D in this sector.

• In the context of the 12th Plan, it is felt that there is a need to decentralize the implementation of schemes through involvement of the states/UTs for better outreach, supervision, monitoring and ensuring job creation.
• Accordingly, National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme in 2012.
• The NMFP contemplates establishment of a National Mission as well as corresponding Missions at the state and district levels.

Source: TMH Ramesh Singh

The Twenty Point Programme (TPP) is the second Central Plan which was launched in July 1975.

• The programme was conceived for coordinated and intensive monitoring of a number of schemes implemented by the Central and the state governments.

• The basic objective was of improving the quality of life of the people, especially of those living below the poverty line.
• Under this, a thrust was given to schemes relating to poverty alleviation, employment generation in rural areas, housing, education, family welfare and health, protection of environment and many other schemes having a bearing on the quality of life in rural areas.

Source: TMH Ramesh Singh

International Debt Statistics (IDS) is the World Bank’s database on the external debt and financial flows (debt and equity) of 128 countries in the World Bank’s debtor reporting system. More than 200 indicators are available.

Data is from 1970 to 2019. The database combines observations from ‘Quarterly External Debt Statistics’ and ‘Quarterly Public Sector Debt’ published by the World Bank. (IDS were formerly known as ‘Global Development Finance.’)

Source: World Bank

All subsidies which are supposed to distort production and trade fall into the amber box, i.e., all agricultural subsidies except those which fall into the blue and green boxes.

These include government policies of minimum support prices (as MSP in India) for agricultural products or any help directly related to production quantities (as power, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, etc.).

Source: TMH Ramesh Singh

The Basel Accords (i.e., Basel I, II and now III) are a set of agreements set by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS), which provides recommendations on banking regulations in regards to capital risk, market risk and operational risk.

The purpose of the accords is to ensure that financial institutions have enough capital on account to meet obligations and absorb unexpected losses.

They are of paramount importance to the banking world and are presently implemented by over 100 countries across the world.

Source: The Hindu