{"id":16448,"date":"2018-03-01T13:33:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T08:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=16448"},"modified":"2018-02-27T18:36:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T13:06:53","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-february-28-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-february-28-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 February 28, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.1)<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the wide ranges of opportunities for the tourism sector of India? What are the roadblocks faced by the sector in excavating these opportunities? GS \u2013 3<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s rank in the Travel &amp; Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), 2017.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rank of India in TTCI Report of 2017 was 40<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as compared to 52<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nd<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2015 and 65th in 2013.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the wide ranges of opportunities for the tourism sector of India?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The wide ranges of opportunities for India in the tourism sector are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Geographical diversity: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From Kashmir to Kanyakumari or from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat, the wide variety in the landscape offers a range of choices to tourists from within India and the abroad.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Cultural heritage: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apart from the natural landscapes, the cultural heritage spread across the country also offers huge potential for the development of tourism in the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Birthplace of Religions:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> India is the birthplace of three religions \u2013 Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The vast landscape has innumerable sacred and religious tourist places which are bound to attract tourists from across the South East and East Asian countries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Domestic tourists: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is the second most populous country in the world with over 1.25 billion populations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, they offer a minimum of potential 1.25 billion domestic tourist visits if the right policies and the infrastructure are in place.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the major roadblocks for the tourism sector of India?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The three-fold major roadblocks for the tourism sector of India are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Lack of Infrastructure:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is a major challenge for the Indian tourism sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tourism-associated economic and social infrastructure \u2013 hotels, connectivity, human resources, hygiene, health facilities, etc are largely under developed in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The poor quality of infrastructure is reflected in India\u2019s 112nd rank in the ICT readiness component and 104th rank in the health and hygiene components of the WEF\u2019s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2017.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Safety and security:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Safety and security of tourists, especially of the foreign tourists, is a major roadblock to the tourism development.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attacks on foreign nationals, especially on women, raise questions about India\u2019s ability to welcome tourists from far away countries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the 130 countries surveyed, India was placed at the 114th position in terms of safety and security aspect in the WEF Index 2017.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Accessibility:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Majority of the tourist spots in the country are not accessible to poor, women and elderly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is because of high costs of travelling, poor connectivity and a series of permissions required for various reasons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2) \u00a0What do you understand by \u2018shell companies\u2019? Discuss the problems associated with these companies. Also provide necessary steps which need to be taken in order to tackle problems arising from shell companies. GS \u2013 3<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shell companies are companies without active business operations or significant assets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shell companies can be set up by business people for both legitimate and illegitimate purposes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Illegitimate purposes include hiding particulars of ownership from the law enforcement, laundering unaccounted money and avoiding tax.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the shell company as a front, all transactions are shown on paper as legitimate business transactions, thereby turning black money into white.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this process, the business person also avoids paying tax on the laundered money.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All shell companies are not illegal. Some companies could have been started to promote start-ups by raising funds.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the problems associated with shell companies?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problems associated with shell companies are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shell companies were used to deposit large amount of cash during the period of demonetization<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kolkata is a hub of such companies and about 145 entities under the securities market scanner are registered there.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shell companies were being used to hid assets and money.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shell companies support much of the fraud and embezzlement in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The owners of shell companies create elaborate smokescreens, including naming personal servants, and chauffeurs as board directors, route money to evade tax, commit fraud or manipulated tenders.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What can be possible solutions?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The following steps need to be taken in order to tackle problems arising from shell companies:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government should be careful in taking action against listed companies as it can affect investor confidence<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government needs to use information technology more effectively to track such transactions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government need to target individuals who are suspected to be avoiding taxes instead of taking action against companies in the listed space as it could affect other stakeholders also. Last month, the authorities ordered nearly 200,000shell companies to be shut dow<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The systematic crackdown on shell companies, which have no active business operations, is one of the outcomes of demonetization.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The crackdown of shell companies will hit tax evasion and move India towards cashless, digital transactions that leave a paper trail.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Need of Investigation and enforcement mechanism to check misuse of stock market platform for generating \u201cbogus\u201d long-term capital gains to curb black money.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Serious Fraud Investigation Office is creating a database of shell companies, and has so far identified 114,269 as front firms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The database contains details of those involved in the shell company \u2018eco-system\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.3) Write short notes on:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a) Cockroach Theory in economics (GS &#8211; 3 )<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">b) &#8216;Icarus<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">factor&#8217; in economics (GS &#8211; 3 ) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">c) Project BharatNet (GS &#8211; 3) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>a) Cockroach Theory in economics (GS &#8211; 3 )<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cockroach Theory refers to the observation that companies that report unexpected bad news to their investors may report even more negative news in the future.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is generally used to warn investors about the likelihood of bigger problems emanating from companies that are not transparent in their reporting to investors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The theory is named after the common observation that the presence of a single cockroach in the kitchen likely suggests that there may be more hidden in the same area.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many investors might refrain from investing in companies that have reported bad news as they expect worse to follow.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>b) &#8216;Icarus factor&#8217; in economics (GS &#8211; 3 ) <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8216;Icarus<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">factor&#8217; refers to the tendency among managers and owners of a company to pursue ambitious new projects that eventually fail to earn sufficient returns, thus harming the long-term financial health of the company.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, a new product launched to capture market share from competitors can deplete the existing cash reserves of the company or even increase its debt burden and other costs without a commensurate increase in income.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is named after the Greek mythological character Icarus who, in his excitement to fly with his new wings made of wax, flew too close to the sun despite advice to the contrary and fell to his death as a result.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>c) Project BharatNet (GS &#8211; 3) <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>BharatNet network:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BharatNet network built under Phase 1 envisages delivery of high-speed broadband services in over 2.5 lakh villages benefitting more than 200 million rural Indians.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The BharatNet is the world\u2019s largest rural broadband project created on the mantra of Create, Collaborate and Conquer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project will generate massive employment opportunities both direct and indirect in the country in days to come.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>1<\/b><b>st<\/b><b> phase of the BharatNet:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To complete the Phase-1 of BharatNet, the entire eco-system of the department responded to the call of the Hon\u2019ble Minister Shri Manoj Sinha.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has given boost to <\/span><b>Make-in-India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as the key highlight of the project is that the telecom equipment deployed in it has been <\/span><b>fully designed, developed and manufactured in India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project also achieved a global record of laying of 800 kilometres of optical fibre per day.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>2<\/b><b>nd<\/b><b> phase of the BharatNet:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nd<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> phase of the BharatNet is to be completed well before the target of March, 2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It aims to usher in a rural digital revolution by connecting 2 lakh and 50,000 Gram Panchayats with broadband network. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives Q.1) What are the wide ranges of opportunities for the tourism sector of India? What are the roadblocks faced by the sector in excavating these opportunities? GS \u2013 3 Introduction: India\u2019s rank in the Travel &amp; Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), 2017. Rank of India in TTCI Report of 2017 was 40th as compared to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-february-28-2018\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 February 28, 2018<\/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-16448","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":5,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16448","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=16448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16448\/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=16448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}