Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon- August 29

Disinflation is a slowing in the rate of price inflation. It is used to describe instances when the inflation rate has reduced marginally over the short term. Although it is used to describe periods of slowing inflation, disinflation should not be confused with deflation, which can be harmful to the economy.

When the overall price level decreases so that inflation rate becomes negative, it is called deflation. It is the opposite of the often-encountered inflation.

The seventeenth Meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) was held in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of the Union Minister of Finance ArunJaitley. The meeting was attended by RBI Governor Dr. Urjit R. Patel, SEBI chairman, IRDAI Chairman along with heads and other seniorofficers of the Government and financial sector regulators.

FSDC is super regulatory body for regulating financial sector which is a vital for bringing healthy and efficient financial system in the economy. The idea to create it was first mooted by the RaghuramRajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms in 2008.

Statement 1 is Correct:The Logistics Data Bank (LDB) project, unveiled in July 2016 to make India’s logistics sector more efficient through the use of Information Technology. The facility — where every container is attached to a Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) tag and then tracked through RFID readers — aids importers and exporters in tracking their goods in transit. This has, in turn, cut the overall lead time of container movement as well as reduced transaction costs that consignees and shippers incur. It is billed as a major ‘ease of doing business’ initiative aimed at boosting India’s foreign trade and ensuring greater transparency.

The LDB is being implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle called Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Logistics Data Services Ltd. (DLDSL) — that is jointly (50:50) owned by the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Trust and Japanese IT services major NEC Corporation.

Statement 2 is Incorrect:  The Union Ministry of Shipping is planning to expand Logistics Data Bank (LDB) project to the country’s southern region as well. So far, it had covered only the western logistics corridor.

Both the Statements are Incorrect:

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has set up a committee on ‘fair market conduct’. It will be headed former law secretaryT K Viswanathan. The committee will suggest measures for improving surveillance of the markets and strengthen rules for algorithm trades, among other norms.

Its members include representatives from law firms, mutual funds, retail and institutional brokers, forensic auditing firms, foreign portfolio investors, stock exchanges, chambers of commerce, data analytics companies and the markets regulator.

All statements are correct:

Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) is a price support mechanism implemented on the request of State Governments for procurement of perishable and horticultural commodities in the event of a fall in market prices. The Scheme is implemented when there is at least 10% increase in production or 10% decrease in the ruling rates over the previous normal year.

Market Intervention Scheme works in a similar fashion to Minimum Support Price based procurement mechanism for food grains, but is an adhoc mechanism.

Proposal of MIS is approved on the specific request of State/Union Territory (UT) Government, if the State/UT Government is ready to bear 50% loss (25% in case of North-Eastern States), if any, incurred on its implementation. Further, the extent of total amount of loss shared is restricted to 25% of the total procurement value which includes cost of the commodity procured plus permitted overhead expenses.

The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation is implementing the scheme. Under MIS, funds are not allocated to the States. Instead, central share of losses as per the guidelines of MIS is released to the State Governments/UTs, for which MIS has been approved, based on specific proposals received from them.

Statement 1 is correct: APEC is regional economic forum of 21 Pacific Rim member economies that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. These 21 member countries collectively account for nearly 50% of the world’s trade and about 57% of GDP. It was established in 1989 in order to leverage growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific region’s economies and promote free trade in the region.

Statement 2 and 3 is Incorrect:
Headquarters: Singapore.

India is observer of APEC since 2011 and has applied for membership.

Statement 4 is correct: The 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum’s Leaders Summit will be held in Vietnam.

All are correctly matched.