{"id":41905,"date":"2019-02-12T11:01:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T05:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=41905"},"modified":"2019-02-12T11:01:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T05:31:57","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-february-11-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-february-11-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 February 11, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Q.1) What is leprosy? What is the cause of leprosy? What steps has the government taken to reduce the stigma associated with leprosy?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Answer:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leprosy is a chronic, progressive bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Causes:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">close and repeated contact with nose and mouth droplets from someone with untreated leprosy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Poor detection of cases<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Steps taken:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is currently running one of the largest leprosy eradication programs in the world, the National Leprosy Eradication Program (NLEP)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Health Policy 2017 (NHP) has elimination of Leprosy as a national level target<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leprosy Case Detection Campaign (LCDC) is being implemented by the Union Health Ministry<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SPARSH Leprosy Awareness Campaign (SLAC) was launched on 30th January 2017 to promote awareness and address the issues of stigma and discrimination.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supreme Court ruling<\/span>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supreme Court asked the Centre, states and Union Territories to undertake a campaign to spread awareness about the curability of leprosy so that those suffering from it are not discriminated<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It recommended for repealing archaic provisions from 119 statutes that stigmatise leprosy patients<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No government hospital shall decline treatment to leprosy patients<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People suffering from leprosy also have the right to live with human dignity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Programs should be telecast on All India Radio and Doordarshan<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The campaign should be done even at \u2018gram panchayat\u2019 level to help end \u2018discrimination and ostracisation\u2019 of those suffering from leprosy<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Q.2) What do mean by bank mergers? \u00a0\u00a0What are the issues and challenges in merging banks?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Answer:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amalgamation is different from merger. In amalgamation, as in the present case, old banks are destroyed for creating a new entity. \u00a0In case of merger of SBI associates with SBI, all are merged into an existing entity(SBI).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Challenges:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consolidation will present individual implementation challenges for the banks. There will be a possible rise in bad loan ratios. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lenders will also have to do significant amount of rearranging of their branch networks. Over time, most banks have set up branches and ATM networks in similar locations particularly in Tier-1, Tier-2 towns. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite automation, most Indian banks have gone for massive expansion of their branch networks in urban India, which will be redundant when some of them merge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In case of SBI, following the merger, gross NPAs have jumped from Rs1.08 trillion to Rs1.79 trillion. While its own net profit was Rs2,815 crore in the March quarter, the merged entity reported a loss of Rs3,300 crore. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RBI has already created D-SIBs to reduce systemic risk from financial conglomerates that can send shocks to other parts of the financial system. The creation of banking giants through mergers should increase the regulations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several case studies have shown that merger announcements trigger confusion, anxiety and insecurity in staff, leading to slowdowns in business. Weak talent management and poor communications often exacerbate these challenges.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Q.3) What is Public Credit Registry? What is its purpose? What are its shortcomings? <\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Answer:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A public credit registry is an information repository that collates all loan information of individuals and corporate borrowers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Purpose:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The repository can capture and certify details of collaterals, enable writing of contracts and prevent over-pledging of collateral by a borrower.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will help in credit assessment and pricing by banks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also enables risk-based, dynamic and countercyclical provisioning at banks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It provides for careful supervision and early intervention by regulators<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also helps in restructuring stressed bank credits effectively<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A transparent public credit registry would help the bankers to rely on objective data for making credit decisions and also enable them to defend their actions with market evidence when subjected to scrutiny<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Shortcomings:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protecting data privacy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of comprehensive data \u2013 The Indian credit registry ecosystem is currently quite fragmented with RBI having a database of borrowers with outstanding loans over Rs 5 crore while a number of private credit information providers exist, each with distinctive customers and coverage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dependency on Self Disclosures by borrowers \u2013 Reliance on self-certified data by customers e.g. KYC, income details, financial details (assets &amp; liabilities), net worth, contact numbers, nationality etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Authenticity \u2013 Since various portals have to cross verify diverse pieces of information, quite often inaccurate entries are passed on.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reliable Reporting \u2013 Due to multiple inputs and time lag there are difficulties to ascertain the up-to-date information.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paid Portals \u2013 Private credit information companies are paid portals and the lender has to bear the cost of extracting data.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Q.4) Who are the Rohingyas? What is India\u2019s policy towards the Rohingya Refugees?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Answer:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rohingya are Myanmar\u2019s Muslim minority who reside in the northern parts of the Rakhine region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>India\u2019s policy:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has labelled them \u201cillegal immigrants,\u201d accused them of posing a \u201cnational security threat,\u201d and pushed for their deportation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Government also stated that India does not have to adhere to non refoulement as India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nearly 200 Rohingyas are presently detained in India on the charges of illegal entry<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s refugee policy toward the Rohingyas in particular has four major planks:<\/span>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">competition with China<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s economic interests and ambitions in Myanmar<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the fragile geopolitics of India\u2019s northeast<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rising Hindu nationalism in the nation<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives Q.1) What is leprosy? What is the cause of leprosy? What steps has the government taken to reduce the stigma associated with leprosy? Answer: Leprosy is a chronic, progressive bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. Causes: close and repeated contact with nose and mouth droplets from someone with untreated leprosy. Poor detection&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-february-11-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 February 11, 2019<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mains-marathon-answers","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":1702688493},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41905","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=41905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41905\/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=41905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}