{"id":11327,"date":"2017-10-31T18:11:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T12:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=11327"},"modified":"2017-11-02T21:26:29","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T15:56:29","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-october-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-october-31\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 October 31"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Q.1) Logistics Data Bank\u2019s (LDB) services will soon be extended to all major ports in India. In this context highlight the objectives of Logistic Data Bank\u2019s (LDB) project. What are the advantages of this project for logistic sector in India? What are the government initiatives to boost this sector? (GS-3)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Logistics Data Bank\u2019s (LDB) services will soon be extended to all major ports in India<\/p>\n<p>The discussions in this regard have begun between the Government and the Indian Port Association (IPA). The IPA is the apex body for India\u2019s major ports under the shipping ministry\u2019s supervisory contro<\/p>\n<p>Till now, the LDB project covered only the India\u2019s western logistics corridor<\/p>\n<p><b>Objectives of LDB Project:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The LDB project\u2019s objective is to ensure greater efficiency in the country\u2019s logistics sector through the use of information technology.<\/li>\n<li>To boost foreign trade: The LDB project was unveiled in July 2016 as an important \u2018ease of doing business\u2019 initiative to boost the country\u2019s foreign trade and bring about greater transparency.<\/li>\n<li>It helps in reducing the overall lead time of container movement, besides bringing down transaction costs that consignees and shippers incur.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Advantages of LDB project:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The LDB project covers \u201cthe entire movement through rail or road till the Inland Container Depot and Container Freight Station\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>The services include providing users the \u2018average delivery time\u2019 as well as notifications through SMS and email.<\/li>\n<li>The project also provides other services such as \u2018congestion and bottleneck analysis\u2019 as well as \u2018performance bench-marking\u2019 that aids the users to pinpoint supply chain inefficiencies, and in turn help improve the system.<\/li>\n<li>The project will help in cutting down the overall lead time of container movement as well as reduced transaction costs that consignee and shippers incur<\/li>\n<li>It is billed as a major \u2018ease of doing business\u2019 initiative aimed at boosting India\u2019s foreign trade and ensuring greater transparency.<\/li>\n<li>The service integrates information available with the agencies across the supply chain to provide detailed, real-time information within a single window.<\/li>\n<li>The services include providing users the \u2018average delivery time\u2019 as well as notification through SMS and email<\/li>\n<li>LDB will generate visibility for containers during their transition.<\/li>\n<li>The visibility would bring in more transparency and open up competition among each logistics operators to provide better services to end-customers i.e. export\/import related companies.<\/li>\n<li>Competitive environment would help reducing lead-time and transaction cost for export\/import process<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Government initiatives:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The government\u2019s ambitious Sagar Mala project would transform the logistic sector and change the lives of those living along the 7,500 km coastline in the country.<\/li>\n<li>The industry anticipates more schemes under Make in India, Skill India, and Digital India initiatives, which would help in the boost of the upstream and downstream economic activities.<\/li>\n<li>The Road Ministry has initiated a project for the development of Multimodal Logistic Parks at 15 identified locations at a cost of about Rs 30,000 crore, about one-third of which would be for land acquisition.<\/li>\n<li>Another major development in the infrastructure sector is the enactment of the law on inland waterways, and the declared intention to promote cargo movement on these waterways.<\/li>\n<li>The Central government has reiterated its commitment to promote coastal shipping. The Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020 consolidated and\/or modified several schemes and simplified the procedures for export.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Logistics is regarded as the backbone of the economy, providing efficient and cost effective flow of goods on which other commercial sector depends. Therefore, there is urgent need for reduction in logistics costs in order to increase the international competitiveness and to promote the expansion of export. Focus has to be on research in process excellence which can help to eliminate inefficiencies and bring Indian logistics on part with global practices.<\/p>\n<p>Q.2) The US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson&#8217;s, recent visit to India has drawn attention to an enduring paradox that marks the relationship between India and America. In the light of the statement highlight the important areas of cooperation between the two countries? What are the various challenges to further improvement of relations?(GS 2)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has drawn attention to an enduring paradox that marks the relationship between India and America.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Two paradoxes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One such paradox is about the gap between expert expectations and actual outcomes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The relationship remains very below potential. Neither side has taken full advantage of all the possibilities that have emerged.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>India-U.S relations:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1- \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><b>\u00a0Economic dimensions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India ranks just <\/span><b>130th<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the World Bank\u2019s annual survey on the ease of doing business. Yet Tillerson cited the growth of the two countries\u2019 economic partnership, saying 600 American companies work there and that U.S. investment in the country has risen 500 percent in two years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bilateral trade will climb beyond the record $115 billion reached last year, noting that a U.S. shipment of crude oil arrived in India this month for the first time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Citing India\u2019s role as the world\u2019s most populous democracy, Tillerson said the two nations \u201cshare a vision for the future.\u201d He called for closer defense ties, referring to a range of hardware the U.S. is prepared to sell India<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Trade relations:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The U.S. is India\u2019s second largest trading partner, and India is its 11th largest trading partner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2015, the US exported $ 21.5 billion worth of goods to India and imported $ 44.8 billion worth of Indian goods.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Major items imported from India include information services, textiles, machinery, gems, and diamonds, chemicals and iron and steel products, coffee etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Major items imported by India include aircraft, fertilizers, computer hardware, scrap metal and medical equipment.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2- \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><b>Civil Nuclear Partnership:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement was finalized in July 2007 and signed in October 2008. During Prime Minister Modi\u2019s visit to the US in September 2014, the two sides set up a Contact Group for advancing the full and timely implementation of the India-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, and to resolve pending issues.The India-United States Civil Nuclear Agreement also referred to as the \u201c123 Agreement\u201d signed \u00a0in 2008 is a bilateral agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation which governs civil nuclear trade between American and Indian firms to participate in each other\u2019s civil nuclear energy sector. \u00a0For the agreement to be operational, nuclear vendors and operators must comply with India\u2019s 2010 Nuclear Liability \u00a0Act which stipulates that nuclear suppliers, contractors and operators must bear financial responsibility in case of an accident.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Counter terrorism:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cooperation in counter-terrorism has seen considerable progress with intelligence sharing, information exchange, operational cooperation, counter-terrorism technology and equipment. India-US Counter-Terrorism Cooperation Initiative was signed in 2010 to expand collaboration on counter-terrorism, information sharing and capacity building.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Energy and climate change:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The U.S.-India Energy Dialogue was launched in May 2005 to promote trade and investment in the energy sector, and held its last meeting in September 2015 in Washington DC. There are six working groups in oil &amp; gas, coal, power and energy efficiency, new technologies &amp; renewable energy, civil nuclear cooperation and sustainable development under the Energy Dialogue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd received its first crude oil shipment from the US on Monday, after Washington re-entered the export market last year, increasing competition in an already depressed oil market<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Recent development on their relations:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two countries have now advanced to $115 billion, with the surplus in India\u2019s favour.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still there are multiple obstacles remain in boosting two-ways trade to the proclaimed goal of $500 billion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America has become a major arms supplier for India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The volume of Indian defence imports has grown from near zero at the turn of the century to about $15 billion presently.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And now, both Trump and Tillerson have signalled renewed strategic enthusiasm for India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the last couple of decades, both the nations made progress by setting aside their differences on Pakistan and China.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America has begun to clear the path for strategic regional coordination between two nations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Challenges:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are residual issues in Washington about supplying advanced defence technologies to India and Delhi remains reluctant to inject greater political content into the security partnership.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under-estimation of the bipartisan political commitment in both countries to build a strong strategic partnership.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conflicts related to the IPR regime under the aegis of \u00a0WTO.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased Protectionism being brought in by the Trump Regime.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President George W.Bush invested huge political capital to reconcile America with the reality of India\u2019s nuclear weapons programme and lifted the decade-old domestic and international restrictions on atomic energy cooperation with India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President Barack Obama resisted the temptations to connect the problems in Kashmir and Afghanistan, completed the negotiations on the nuclear deal, and elevated India to a central position in America\u2019s strategy towards Asia and the Indo-Pacific.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India should resist the temptation for an endless debate on whether America can move away from China and Pakistan and be India\u2019s reliable partner. Delhi should focus, instead, on strengthening practical cooperation wherever possible with Trump\u2019s Washington.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New Delhi must seek to stiffen America\u2019s resolve to confront the Pakistan Army\u2019s sponsorship of terror, encourage him to discard the residual bureaucratic hesitations in Washington about supporting India\u2019s rise and delineate the pathways for constructing a stable balance of power system in the Indo-Pacific.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.3)<\/span>Electronic commerce is the most emerging discipline in today\u2019s digitalized world. In this context highlight the importance of e-commerce? What are the challenges e-commerce business is facing \u00a0\u00a0in India? (GS-3)<\/p>\n<p><b>Ans.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic commerce is the most emerging discipline in today\u2019s digitalized world. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Some statistics related to e-commerce:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With $ 681 billion in online retail sales in 2016, China is the largest market for e-commerce globally, followed by the US, and the fastest growing one is India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has an Internet user base of about 243.2 million as of January 2014.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite being third largest user base in the world, the penetration of Internet is low compared to markets like United States, United Kingdom or France but is growing at a much faster rate, adding around 6 million new entrants every month.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the e-retail activities. \u00a0The retail market in India is expected to rise from 2.5% in 2016 to 5% in 2020.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is E-Commerce?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic commerce or e-commerce is a type of business model, or segment of a larger business model, that enables a firm or individual to conduct business over an electronic network, mainly from the internet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic commerce operates in all four of the major market segments: business to business, business to consumer, consumer to consumer and consumer to business.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-Commerce processes are conducted using applications, such as email, fax, online catalogues and shopping carts, electronic data interchange (EDI), file transfer protocol and web services and e-newsletters to subscribers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic commerce emerged in the early 1990\u2019s and its use has increased at a rapid rate. Today the majority of companies have an online presence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Some of the importance of \u00a0e-commerce are given below:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faster buying and selling procedure, as well as easy to find products.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Buying and selling day and night<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More reach to customers, there is no theoretical geographic limitations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No need of physical company set-ups<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Easy to start and manage a business.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers can easily select products from different providers without moving around physically.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-Commerce helps in creating new job opportunities due to information related services, software app and digital products.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-commerce offers the consumer or enterprise various information they need, making information into total transparency, and enterprises are no longer is able to use the mode of space or advertisement to raise their competitive edge.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Challenges e-commerce business facing in India:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The growth of ecommerce volumes in India is attracting the attention of players around the globe. India, the second most populous country in the world, is home to 1.2 billion people. The combined populations of Germany, UK, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, and Greece equal one-fourth the population of India alone. Despite lower per-capita purchasing power, this still makes India one of the most attractive emerging markets for ecommerce. But India is far from being a bed of roses. Here are some challenges that ecommerce businesses face in India<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian customers return much of the merchandise they purchase online.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cash on delivery is the preferred payment mode<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-commerce companies using Indian payment gateways are losing out on business, as several customers do not re attempt payment after a transaction fails.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though the total number of mobile phone users in India is very high, a significant majority still use feature phones, not smart phones. So, for all practical purposes this consumer group is unable to make ecommerce purchases on the move.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The logistics challenge in India is not just about the lack of standardization in postal addresses. Given the large size of the country, there are thousands of towns that are not easily accessible. Metropolitan cities and other major urban centers have a fairly robust logistics infrastructure.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overfunded competitors are driving up cost of customer acquisition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The vibrancy in the Indian startup ecosystem over the past couple of years has channeled a lot of investment into the ecommerce sector. The long-term prospects for ecommerce companies are so exciting that some investors are willing to spend irrationally high amounts of money to acquire market share today. Naturally the Indian consumer is spoiled for choice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives\u00a0 Q.1) Logistics Data Bank\u2019s (LDB) services will soon be extended to all major ports in India. In this context highlight the objectives of Logistic Data Bank\u2019s (LDB) project. What are the advantages of this project for logistic sector in India? What are the government initiatives to boost this sector? (GS-3) Ans. The Logistics Data&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-october-31\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 October 31<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":2292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mains-marathon-answers","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/pen-paper-laptop.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704928966},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}