Economics– Miscellaneous Topics – Old Year Questions (Part 1)

• K. Kasturirangan (ex-leader of ISRO) was in charge of the group that wrote up the National Education Policy in June 2017.

• The Union Cabinet of India approved a new National Education Policy (NEP) on July 29th, 2020.
• This policy replaces the National Policy of Education from 1986 that had been in place for 34 years.
• This NEP was created by a team led by the former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Dr. K. Kasturirangan, based on the T.S.R.
• Subramanian Committee report. Statement 1 is true, but Statement 2 is false.

• Collaborative filtering is a method used by recommendation systems to decide what information to show a person based on what similar people have liked.
• It assumes that if two people have similar opinions about things they have both seen before, then they are probably going to have similar opinions about something that only one of them has seen.

• Robert Erza Park, an American urban sociologist, introduced the concept of ‘Marginal Man’ in his article ‘Human Migration and the Marginal Man’ (1926).
• E.V. Stonequist later expanded on it.
• ‘Marginal Man’ is an idea that explains how a person can have difficulty figuring out who they are while being caught between two different cultures.

• Amartya Sen came up with the phrase “Missing Women” in 1990 when he realized that in some parts of the world, there were fewer women than should be expected.
• This phrase refers to the lack of women compared to what is expected.

• The idea of a ‘Global Village’ was created by Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan.
• It explains how the world is becoming more connected due to advances in transportation and communication technology.

• Gartner suggests that the four levels of maturity can be ordered in this order:
  • Information (Level 1), Interaction (Level 2), Transaction (Level 3), and Transformation (Level 4).

• Social networks are very important in our lives, influencing things like job opportunities, goods and services, disease transmission, what we buy, what languages we know, and how we vote.
• Graphs and trees can be used to represent social networks.
• Both options are correct.

• Smt. Hansa Mehta was a very active person who worked towards social change, freedom and education.
• In 1947-48, she became the first Indian to join the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
• She later became the Vice-Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of the UN in 1950.
• She was also a part of the Executive Board at UNESCO.
• Smt. Vijaya Laxmi Pandit represented India in the UN Human Rights Commission in 1979.

• The Competition Commission of India was set up in 2003 under the Competition Act, 2002.
• Its purpose is to ensure fair competition in the economy and make sure that the markets are good for consumers.
• Its job is to get rid of practices that are bad for competition, help keep competition fair, protect the customers, and make sure that trade is free in India.

• Dr. Ashok Chawla was the Chairman of the Competition Commission of India during the Q&A session.
• Ashok Kumar Gupta, an IAS Officer from 1981, has been the Chairperson of the Commission since November 2018.

• The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) was founded in 1946 and specializes in marketing milk.
• Their product, AMUL, is well-known.
• In 1965, the National Dairy Development Board was created with the goal of copying the AMUL Model.
• Dr. Verghese Kurien was chosen to be the Chairman of the institution.

• India’s Airport Authority made a deal with the Assam Government to help improve the quality of life in villages in Kamrup district, as part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives.

• Onkar S. Kanwar, the leader of Apollo Tyres, was selected to lead Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in 2004-05.
• Uday Shankar has recently become FICCI’s President for 2020-21.
• FICCI, created in 1927, is India’s most prominent business organization.

• Dr. D. Subbarao was chosen to be the 22nd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 2008.
• Before that, he had been the Finance Secretary for the Indian government.
• Currently, Shakti kanta Das is the Governor of RBI, since 2018.

• Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist, is the current Managing Director and Chairwoman of the IMF, and has been in this position since October 1, 2019.
• Before this, she was the Chief Executive of the World Bank Group from 2017-2019, and she was the Acting President of the World Bank Group from February 1, 2019 to April 8, 2019 after Jim Yong Kim resigned.
• She also worked as Vice-President of the European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker from 2014-2016.

• From October 2003 to December 2006, Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• His research areas included Banking, Corporate finance and Economic Development.
• In October 2018, Gita Gopinath was appointed Chief Economist of IMF.
• Before this, she was the economic adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala, India.
• In December 2021, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva appointed Gopinath to the number 2 position of the IMF, which she started in January 2022.

• A.M. Khusro was the appointed leader of the 11th Finance Commission created in 1998.
• He was never made the leader of the Union Public Service Commission.
• The other pairs of options are correctly matched.

• M.S. Swaminathan is associated with the Green Revolution in India.
• L.K. Jha, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is linked to Indirect Taxation.
• C.T. Kurian is the one who started the Milk Revolution in India.
• Morarji Desai is famous for his desire to have social control over banking institutions.

• The Rekhi Committee had nothing to do with making exporting and importing easier.
• It dealt with indirect taxes, and it was set up in 1992.
• The other three options match up correctly.

• The Gadgil Committee and the Kasturirangan Committee both looked at protecting the Western Ghats.
• The Gadgil Committee, led by the ecologist Madhav Gadgil, suggested that the whole area be declared an Ecologically Sensitive Area with limited development in certain zones.
• The Kasturirangan Committee, lead by K. Kasturirangan, looked at both development and environment protection and recommended only 37% of the Western Ghats be declared an Ecologically Sensitive Area.

• Ashok Gulati is an agricultural economist who used to be the chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.
• Parthsarthi Shome was the chair of the Tax Administration Reform Commission.
• C. Rangarajan used to be the governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
• Arvind Panagariya was the first vice-chairman of NITI Aayog.
• M. Govinda Rao was a member of the 14th Finance Commission and previously the director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy’.

• C.D. Deshmukh was a high-ranking civil servant in India.
• He was the first Indian to be chosen as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India before India became independent in 1943.
• He later served as the Finance Minister in the Union Cabinet from 1950 to 1956.

• In 2014-15, India’s then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the Constitution of the Expenditure Management Commission (EMC) in his Budget Speech.
• On September 4th, 2014, the EMC started working, with the first Chairman being the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Bimal Jalan.

• Option d is the right answer.
• In 2021, Mukesh Ambani was ranked 10th and Gautam Adani and Family were 24th on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires.

• The Self-Employed Women’s Association was founded in 1972 in Ahmedabad as an organization to help poor self-employed women.
• Their goal is to make sure the members have secure jobs, enough income, food, healthcare, childcare, insurance, pension, and housing.
• They even represented India at the Micro Credit Summit in Washington D.C. in 1997.

• The expansion of the following abbreviations is as follows:TRYSEM: Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment.
  • SJRY: Swarna Jayanti Rozgar Yojana.
  • OGL: Open General License.
  • FOB: Free on Board, a term used in trade to determine value.
  • WPI: Wholesale Price Index.
  • CPI: Consumer Price Index.
  • CRR: Cash Reserve Ratio.
  • SLR: Statutory Liquidity Ratio.

Therefore, based on the given information, option (a) is the correct answer.

• In December 2004, P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister, created a three-person Investment Commission with the goal of bringing in $150 billion in investments over the next 10 years.
• The members of the commission were Ratan Tata (Chairman), Deepak Parekh, and Ashok Ganguly.

• Pressure groups are groups of people with shared interests or goals who come together to try to influence government policy.
• However, they don’t want to gain control of political power like political parties.
• The reasons for the formation of these groups are related to the structure of the state, political culture, and how the public and politicians interact.

• When the question was asked, Dr. C. Rangarajan was the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
• This is an independent group that gives advice to the Indian government, particularly to the Prime Minister.
• Currently, Dr. Bibek Debroy is the Chairman of the EAC-PM.

• Nicholas Stern is a British economist and academic.
• He was a very important person at the World Bank from 2000 to 2003, and his work focused on economic development and growth.
• This means that he is associated with Economics, not construction technology.
• The other options are matched correctly.

• Ratan Tata chose to relocate his Lakhtakia Nano Car venture from Singur, West Bengal to Sanand, Gujarat.

• When the question was asked, R. Sheshsai was the leader of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• For 2021-22, T.V.
• Narendran is the leader of CII.
• He is the CEO & Managing Director of Tata Steel Limited.

• The Mail on Sunday’s “The Rich Report 2004” said that Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was the wealthiest person in Asia.

• Amartya Sen is an Indian economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1998 for his work in welfare economics and social choice theory, which looks at how economic policies affect people’s wellbeing, particularly those in the most disadvantaged parts of society.

• The Nobel Prize Committee has given out the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to Angus Deaton, Paul R. Milgram, Robert B. Wilson, David Card, Joshua D. Angrist, and Guibo W. Imbens over the years.
• Deaton was awarded for his research into consumption, poverty, and welfare, while Milgram and Wilson won for their improvements to auction theory and new auction formats.
• The card was recognized for his work in labor economics, and Angrist and Imbens for their methods to study causal relationships.

• Former Prime Minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh, wrote a book called ‘India’s Economic Policy: The Gandhian Blue Print’.

• Banaras Hindu University is a highly respected University located in the sacred city of Varanasi.
• This inventive and imaginative university was founded in 1916 by the famous nationalist leader Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, with the help of prominent people like Dr.
• Annie Besant, who viewed it as a University representing India.

• When India had to send some of its gold to other countries’ banks, Chandrashekhar was the Prime Minister of India.

• A committee was set up with Dr. Jayant Patil (from the Planning Commission) as the Chair to work on improving areas that get very little rain.
• The committee had the power to make plans for the next 25 years.

• In 2007, the Indian Government set up a committee of important people, led by Raghuram Rajan, to make changes to the financial sector.

• In 2002, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) released the “Citizens’ Guide to Fight Corruption”.
• The CVC was developed in 1964 on the advice of the K. Santhanam Committee on the Prevention of Corruption.
• Parliament passed the CVC Bill in 2003 and the President signed it into law in September 11, 2003. So, the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 was in effect since then.

• The government of Rajasthan set up a group called the ‘Economic Policy and Reforms Council’ to give suggestions to the government about economic changes.

• The Public Accounts Committee is made up of 22 people (15 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha) and their job is to look closely at the government’s spending and the reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
• They then present their findings to the Parliament.

• The Indian Constitution’s Article 148 deals with the job and hiring of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
• The CAG is chosen by the President of India and can only be removed in the same way and for the same reasons a Supreme Court Judge is.
• The CAG oversees all spending from India’s Consolidated Fund and the Consolidated Fund of each State or Union Territory with a legislative assembly.
• He certifies the amount of money made from taxes and duties, and his certificate is the final decision on the matter.
• The CAG then sends his audit reports to the President and Governor, who will put them before both houses of Parliament and the State Legislature.
• The CAG of India is the guardian of public funds.

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Climate Change, Terrorism, and Protectionism are some of the biggest problems facing the world today at the 2018 World Economic Forum Annual Summit in Davos, Switzerland.

• In 2009, India was the fifth most powerful economy out of 112 countries, with the US, China, Japan, and Germany taking the top four spots respectively, according to the Index of Government Economic Power (IGEP).

• Based on the Planning Atlas 2005 published by the Planning Department of Uttar Pradesh, the rankings of the top five developed districts in the state are as follows:Gautam Budh Nagar: Ranked 1st with a value of 413.15.
  • Ghaziabad:    Ranked 2nd with a value of 167.46.
  • Meerut:          Ranked 3rd with a value of 139.66.
  • Kanpur city:  Ranked 4th with a value of 135.94.
  • Lucknow:       Ranked 5th with a value of 131.93.

Therefore, the 2nd and 3rd statements provided are correct.

• According to the Transparency International’s ‘Corruption Perception Index’, India’s ranking in the past years have been 85th in 2014, 94th in 2012, 95th in 2011 and 87th in 2010.
• In the 2021 Corruption Perception Index, India is still 85th out of 180 countries.
• New Zealand, Finland and Denmark have the highest rankings (88/100 each), and South Sudan has the lowest ranking (11/100).

• NHB RESIDEX was started by the National Housing Bank, at the request of the Indian Government’s Ministry of Finance.
• It began in 2007 and was updated regularly until 2015, with the base year being 2007.
• During this time, the number of cities included in the index was increased to 26.
• Then, it was changed with a bigger scope and coverage, with the base year being 2012-13, and was updated up until 2018.
• From April 2018, a new series was published with 2017-18 as the new base year and is now updated regularly.

• The Government of India’s Consumer Protection Act, 1986 does not provide discounted prices for the less privileged in society.
• Other statements related to the Act are correct.

• In 1958, the government passed a law called the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act.
• This law was created to help protect businesses by registering trademarks and stopping people from using fake marks on products.

• The POCSO Act was passed in 2012 to protect children under 18 years old from sexual abuse, harassment, and exploitation through pornographic materials.

• The Lok Sabha voted and passed the Land Acquisition Bill with nine changes.
• The official name for the Bill is the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill 2015 and it was brought to the Lok Sabha on February 24th, 2015, and passed on March 10th, 2015.

• On June 30, 2014, the Indian government approved the Marrakesh Treaty.
• India was the first country to take this action.
• The goal of the Marrakesh Treaty is to make it easier for people who are blind, have vision problems, or can’t read printed materials to access published works.

• The four Acts are connected to protecting biodiversity.
• It is not allowed to bring in or send out GMOs or foreign species, but certain medicinal plants have to pay high taxes to control trade.
• Regulations for mines and forests also help with conserving biodiversity.

• In 1957, the Indian government asked Justice N. Rajagopala Ayyangar to take a look at the patent law and suggest changes.
• In 1965, the government tried to pass a new patent bill, but it didn’t work out.
• Two years later, a new bill was put in front of a Parliamentary Committee and then passed in 1970.
• This law replaced the one from 1911. Most parts of this law went into effect in 1972.

• In 2002, the Indian Parliament passed the Patents (Second Amendment) Bill, which became the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002.
• It took effect on May 20th, 2003.
• In 2004, the Patents (Amendment) Ordinance was created and it went into effect on January 1st, 2005.
• This Ordinance was later changed to the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005.

• Every year on 15th March, the consumer movement celebrates World Consumer Rights Day to spread knowledge about consumer rights and needs around the world.
• This tradition was started in 1962 when President John F. Kennedy sent a message to the U.S. Congress about consumer rights.

• The Indian Government’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has a Central Statistics Office that puts out a book every year called ‘Energy Statistics’.
• Currently, the NSSO and CSO have joined together to become the National Statistical Office.

• The Indian Government’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has a Central Statistics Office that produces an annual report called ‘Energy Statistics’.
• Currently, the National Sample Survey Office has merged with the Central Statistics Office to form the National Statistical Office.

• Since 2008, a newspaper called Bahini Darbar has been published in Dabhora, a block of Java tehsil in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.
• It is a handwritten paper written in the Bagheli language and created by and for women.

• Right now, China has the highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
• According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2021, China, the US, India, and Russia were the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.

• The 6th Central Pay Commission, led by B.N. Srikrishna, was put into effect in 2006.
• The 7th Central Pay Commission, headed up by Justice A.K. Mathur, gave their report to the Finance Minister in November 2015.
• These new recommendations started on January 1st, 2016.
• The Central Government forms the Pay Commission every 10 years to change the pay scale of its staff and sometimes states will adjust them slightly.

• The IICT is the only institute of its kind in Asia and was created by the Ministry of Textiles in India to help the textile, carpet and related industries.
• It opened in 2001 and is situated in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh.

• The V.V. Giri National Labour Institute is based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
• It was set up in 1974 and is an independent organisation of the Indian Government’s Ministry of Labour and Employment.

• The National Institute for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, which used to be called the Centre, is in New Delhi.
• It was created by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 1991.

• In 1983, the National Land Use and Conservation Board was set up, which was later changed to the National Land Resources Conservation and Development Commission.
• This Commission’s main job is to find land that can be used for farming and make sure it is developed.

• None of the three statements is true. The Finance Commission is a body that is legally established according to Article 280 in the Indian Constitution.
• The Planning Commission was not a body with legal status and the Reserve Bank of India was taken over by the government on January 1, 1949

• Roche Holding AG is a Swiss pharmaceutical and diagnostic company that is involved in healthcare.
• Option (b) is the correct answer because the other pairs are matched correctly.

• The NWDA was made in 1982 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti as a registered society.
• Its task was to examine and research the water sources in the Peninsular region.
• In 1990, the Government changed the NWDA’s job to include researching water sources in the Himalayan region.

• The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
• It first opened in 1983 and is an independent, non-profit organization.

• NIESBUD is located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh and is part of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
• It was created in 1983 by the Indian government to help people develop their skills and promote entrepreneurship.
• It does this through training, consulting, and research.

• The Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya is located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
• Its main goals are to tell the story of how humans and cultures evolved, especially in India; to save and protect Indian culture before it is lost; to research and fund related topics; etc.

• The Swadesh Darshan Scheme is a program by the Indian Government’s Ministry of Tourism.
• It works to make tourism better in India by focusing on particular areas.
• 15 different themes have been chosen for development, including North-East, Buddhist, Himalayan, Coastal, Krishna, Desert, Tribal, Eco, Wildlife, Rural, Spiritual, Ramayana, Heritage, Sufi, and Tirthankara Circuits.

• In October 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Urja Ganga gas pipeline project in his constituency, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
• A pipeline with a length of 2540 km is being built from Uttar Pradesh to Odisha and will provide households with clean fuel and piped cooking gas in Varanasi, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.
• The seven main station cities that will benefit from this project are Varanasi, Patna, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

• The Government of India created the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in 2002 with the goal of decreasing the amount of energy used in India.
• To help people save energy and money, the Standards and Labelling Program was launched in 2006.
• This program gives people information about how much energy certain appliances and equipment use, like air conditioners, ceiling fans, TVs, computers, refrigerators, washing machines, lightbulbs, electric geysers, microwaves, stoves, LED lamps, and batteries.

• The Indian Government’s Ministry of Power launched the UDAY scheme, which was accepted by the Union Cabinet on November 5th, 2015.
• This plan is meant to help improve the financial stability of power distribution companies, reduce the cost of power generation, and increase the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency and conservation.

• The Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana is aimed at improving the lives of people in rural areas by building up social and economic infrastructure in five key areas.
• This includes plans for health, education, water access, housing and roads.
• Rural electrification has been added to the project, but not as a main priority.
• Statements 2 and 3 are correct.