Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon – April 30, 2019

The Union Cabinet has approved for setting up the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) as a Public Limited Company under the Department of Posts (which is under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting), with a 100% Government of India (GOI) equity. The India Post Payments Bank will leverage the Department ‘s network, reach, and resources to make simple, low-cost, quality financial services easily accessible to customers all over the country. A Payments Bank can hold a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per customer; can an issue ATM/debit cards but not credit cards; offer payments and remittance services; deal in simple financial products like mutual fund units and insurance products. They, however, cannot undertake lending service.

It is the largest organization conducting socio-economic surveys in India. Its nation-wide surveys on various socio-economic aspects include follow-up enterprise surveys of Economic Census, field work relating to Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), supervision of area enumeration and crop estimation surveys conducted by state agencies under the Improvement of Crop Statistics scheme, Urban Frame Survey with a view to prepare a frame of compact units of urban areas as the first stage sampling units (FSUs), organizing methodological studies and pilot surveys on important subjects and collection of price data from rural and urban sectors.

The organisation functions under the overall direction of a Governing Council with requisite independence and autonomy in the matter of collection, processing and publication of National Sample Survey (NSS) data.

Human labour and land contribute to production. Capital goods are machines which are used to produce other goods. Consumer goods are finished products. They are not factors of production, but products

The World Bank has been publishing poverty line since 1990 World Development Report (WDR) on Poverty.  It has anchored its international poverty lines to the national poverty lines used in the poorest countries. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a figure (revised largely due to inflation) of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity (PPP). The common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. In 2015 World Bank updated international poverty line to US $1.90 a day. Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year.

Crowding out effect: A situation when increased interest rates lead to a reduction in private investment spending such that it dampens the initial increase of total investment spending is called crowding out effect.Sometimes, government adopts an expansionary fiscal policy stance and increases its spending to boost the economic activity. This leads to an increase in interest rates. Increased interest rates affect private investment decisions. A high magnitude of the crowding out effect may even lead to lesser income in the economy.Fiscal deficit means Government need to borrow from the market which leads to crowding-out of funding for private players.

The WTO was founded in 1995 as the successor organisation to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT). GATT was established in 1948 with 23 countries as the global trade organization to administer all multilateral trade agreements by providing equal opportunities to all countries in the international market for trading purposes. WTO is expected to establish a rule-based trading regime in which nations cannot place arbitrary restrictions on trade. In addition, its purpose is to enlarge production and trade of services, to ensure optimum utilisation of world resources and to protect the environment. Hence, statements 1 and 3 are correct.  IMF aims to lessen the degree of disequilibrium in the international balance of payments of members. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

All except NABARD are the Institute structure of rural banking involves in direct credit to rural population. Hence option (c) is correct.

Among all commercial banks is the biggest lender to the rural population.

Whereas NABARD do not involves in direct credit system. It mainly provide loan to RRB, cooperatives and State government in the area of Rural Development and Agricultural Development.