Daily Quiz #11 UPSC Prelims Marathon – August 13, 2019

Explanation: The Government of India launched a new agricultural insurance scheme in
January 2016. The new scheme-Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)-has been termed as a path breaking scheme for farmers’ welfare.
The highlights of this scheme are as given below:
•There will be a uniform premium of only 2 per cent to be paid by farmers for all kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all rabi crops.
•In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5 per cent.
•The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance premium will be paid by the government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities.
•There is no upper limit on Government subsidy. Even if balance premium is 90 per cent, it will be borne by the Government.
•25 per cent of the likely claim will be settled directly on farmers account and there will be one insurance company for the entire state as well as farm level assessment of loss for localized risks and post harvest loss.

Explanation: 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. The Uruguay Round was, without a doubt, the largest trade negotiation ever, and may very well have been the largest negotiation ever. It set out rules and principles to cover all global trade, from banking to consumer products. The subjects for negotiations, the widest of any GATT round, were tariffs, non-tariff measures, tropical products as a priority area, natural resource-based products, textiles and clothing, agriculture, review of GATT articles, safeguards, Tokyo Round agreements ad arrangements, subsidies and countervailing measures, dispute settlement, trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, trade-related investment measures and the Functioning of the GATT System (FOGS).

Explanation: The Global Competitiveness Report was originally co-published by the IMD World Competitiveness Center and the World Economic Forum (WEF) under the title of “World Competitiveness Report.” Subsequently, from this collaboration, two publications evolved. In 1996, the name of the report published by the IMD World Competitiveness Center was officially changed to World Competitiveness Yearbook after the co-publication with the WEF ended. Both IMD and WEF began to publish their own World Economy Rankings and eventually, the WEF’s publication will become the global competitiveness report.

Explanation: A stimulus package is a number of incentives and tax rebates offered by a government to boost spending in a bid to pull a country out of a recession or to prevent an economic slowdown. A stimulus package can either be in the form of a monetary stimulus or a fiscal stimulus. A monetary stimulus involves cutting interest rates to stimulate the economy. When interest rates are cut, there is more incentive for people to borrow as the cost of borrowing is reduced. An increase in borrowing means there’ll be more money in circulation, less incentive to save, and more incentive to spend. Lowering interest rates could also weaken the exchange rate of a country, thereby leading to a boost in exports. When exports are increased, more money enters the economy, encouraging spending and stirring up the economy.

Explanation: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was set up in 1935 (by the RBI Act, 1934) as a private bank with two extra functions—regulation and control of the banks in India and being the banker of the government. After nationalization in 1949, it emerged as the central banking body of India and it did not remain a ‘bank’ in the technical sense. Since then, the governments have been handing over different functions to the RBI, which stand today as given below:
•It is the issuing agency of the currency and coins other than rupee one currency and coin (which are issued by Ministry of Finance itself with the signature of the Finance Secretary on the note).
•Distributing agent for currency and coins issued by the Government of India.
•Banker of the government.
•Bank of the banks/Bank of last resort.
•Announces the credit and monetary policy for the economy.
•Stabilizing and targeting (CPI–C) the rate of inflation.
•Stabilizing the exchange rate of rupee.
•Keeper of the foreign currency reserves.
•Agent of the Government of India in the IMF.
•Performing a variety of developmental and promotional functions under which it did set up institutions like IDBI, SIDBI, NABARD, NHB, etc.