{"id":17163,"date":"2018-03-17T12:38:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T07:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=17163"},"modified":"2018-03-15T14:38:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T09:08:54","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-march-16-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-march-16-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 March 16, 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) French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s visit to India stands out for its strategic content. What are these major strategic takeaways from President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s recent visit to India? (GS &#8211; 2) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s \u2018fairly successful\u2019 visit to India paves way for a \u2018clear roadmap\u2019 for heightened Indo-French engagement over a range of areas from clean energy, education, trade, space, defence ties to maritime cooperation and geopolitics.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Major strategic takeaways from President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s recent visit to India: <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The agreements and discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen strategic partnership are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two leaders welcomed the signing of the <\/span><b>\u201cAgreement between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the Republic of France regarding the Exchange and Reciprocal Protection of Classified or Protected Information\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between India and France.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both sides also agreed to create an annual defence dialogue at the ministerial level.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The leaders also welcomed the <\/span><b>\u201cJoint Strategic Vision of India-France Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as a guiding beacon for such partnership.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two leaders welcomed the signing of the <\/span><b>\u201cAgreement between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the Republic of France for the provision of reciprocal logistics support between their Armed Forces\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which seeks to extend logistical support on reciprocal access to respective facilities for Indian and French armed forces.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two leaders noted with satisfaction the on-schedule progress in the implementation of acquisition related agreements, including the<\/span><b> Rafale aircraft agreement <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">signed in 2016.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They acknowledged that the <\/span><b>Make-in-India initiative<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offers a valuable opportunity for Indian and French defence enterprises to enter into arrangements for co-development and co-production of defence equipment in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The leaders noted ongoing discussions between <\/span><b>DRDO and SAFRAN<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on combat aircraft engine and encouraged necessary measures and forward looking approaches to facilitate early conclusion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two leaders agreed to strengthen counter-terrorism in <\/span><b>Multilateral Fora such as UN, GCTF, FATF and G20 etc.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They called upon all UN member countries to implement the <\/span><b>UNSC Resolution 1267<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other relevant resolutions designating terrorist entities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The leaders also agreed to work together on early adoption of the <\/span><b>Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the UN.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also appreciated the long-standing relations and continuing interactions between their <\/span><b>nuclear regulatory authorities, India\u2019s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and France\u2019s Autorit\u00e9 de s\u00fbret\u00e9Nucl\u00e9aire (ASN) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which have facilitated sharing of valuable experiences, best practices and developments related to nuclear safety and regulatory issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2) What do you think are the reasons of replacing Simple ballot paper with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Can EVMs be tampered with? GS &#8211; 2 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electronic Voting Machines (&#8220;EVM&#8221;) are being used in Indian General and State Elections to implement electronic voting in part from 1999 elections and recently in 2017 state elections held in five states across India. <\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EVMs have replaced paper ballots in local, state and general (parliamentary) elections in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Need of EVM over simple ballot paper:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EVMs have had several advantages over ballot paper. They are as follows:<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The foremost being the<\/span><b> elimination of invalid votes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A statistical exercise found that in more than 300 of the 36,000-odd seats where elections were held over the years, invalid votes were significant enough to have affected the mandate. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The EVM has rendered the invalid vote moot. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A paper by Brookings India also found that <\/span><b>EVMs reduced electoral fraud and re-polling<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> due to electoral rigging, and made elections a safe affair, thereby enhancing voter turnout.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Tempering of Electronic Voting Machine:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike voting machines in some countries which are connected to a network, <\/span><b>Indian EVMs are standalone. <\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tampering an EVM through the hardware port or through a Wi-Fi connection is not possible as there is <\/span><b>no frequency receiver or wireless decoder in the EVM machine.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For EVMs to be manipulated at the manufacturing level is impossible as <\/span>there is no prior way in which the order of the candidate can be known <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">besides the location where the EVMs will be used.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, VVPAT machines now <\/span>display the voter\u2019s choice,<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> thereby bringing an extra layer of verification.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Q.3) Write short notes on:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a) 20:80 gold import scheme of 2013-14 (GS &#8211; 3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">b) National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) (GS &#8211; 3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">20:80 gold import scheme of 2013-14 (GS &#8211; 3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In<\/span><b> response to a stressed current account deficit in 2012-13 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">due to a surge in gold imports, the government at the time introduced an import scheme in 2013, which mandated that <\/span><b>20% of all gold imports would have to be exported<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the time of its implementation, the 20:80 scheme was open only to banks and to public sector companies such as the Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation and the State Trading Corporation of India. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In May 2014, the RBI in consultation with the government widened the scheme to also allow Premium Trading Houses (PTH) and Star Trading Houses (STH), both private sector entities, to import gold.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Objective: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scheme was designed to <\/span><b>restrict the import of gold, conserve foreign exchange by imposing export obligations, and ensure that the premium from purchase and sale of gold resided in the hands of public agencies.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Review of the scheme: <\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the Commerce Ministry, a review of the scheme found that since liberalisation in May 2014, gold imports had increased substantially, averaging about 140-150 tonnes a month.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Within this, the government found that gold imported by STHs and PTHs increased 320% following the May 2014 decision compared with the earlier period.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The share of these entities in the total gold imported into the country also increased from 20% before May to 60% after, according to the government.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government on <\/span><b>November 28, 2014 scrapped the 20:80 scheme and removed all restrictions on gold imports.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">b) National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) (GS &#8211; 3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre recently approved the proposal to set up the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), intended to serve as an independent regulator for the auditing profession.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Basis for the move:<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Section 132 of the Companies Act, 2013<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> gives the Centre the power to set up such an authority. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>Parliamentary Standing Committee<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had also recommended that the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards proposed in the Companies Bill, 2009 be institutionalised.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Powers and Functions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Financial Reporting Authority can recommend to the Centre about:<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">formulation of accounting and auditing standards and policies to be adopted by companies and auditors; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">monitor and enforce such standards and policies;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">oversee quality of services of the professions associated with the compliance of these standards and policies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can also investigate into professional matters or misconduct of any member or a firm of chartered accountants.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can issue summons and examine on oath; it can also inspect any book, registers and documents of any professional\/firms probed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It may impose penalties and even powers to debar a member of a firm. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives Q.1) French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s visit to India stands out for its strategic content. What are these major strategic takeaways from President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s recent visit to India? (GS &#8211; 2) Context: French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s \u2018fairly successful\u2019 visit to India paves way for a \u2018clear roadmap\u2019 for heightened Indo-French engagement over a range&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-march-16-2018\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 March 16, 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-17163","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":1704804690},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17163","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=17163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17163\/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=17163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}