INSIGHTINSIGHT GSGSGSINSIGHT TESTTEST SERIESSERIESSERIESTEST PRE-CUM-MAINS-2018 MODEL ANSWER for ADVANCE LEVEL Economic Survey, Budget & Indian Year Book (*Only for INSIGHT TEST SERIES STUDENTS) India’India’ss BeBestst InsInstitutetitute forfor CivilCivil ServicesServices Prep.Prep. INSIGHT GEN.STUDIES & CSAT ECONOMIC SURVEY, BUDGET & INDIAN YEAR BOOK (ADVANCE LEVEL) 1. D Budget 2018-19 has announced a major step to help small and marginal farmers in the fisheries and animal husbandry sector to meet their working capital needs by extending the facility of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to the sector. This would give the benefit of crop loans and interest subvention, so far available to agriculture sector only under KCC, for rearing of cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep poultry and fisheries. The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme was introduced in 1998 for the issue of Kisan Credit Cards to farmers on the basis of their holdings for uniform adoption by the banks so that farmers may use them to readily purchase agriculture inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. and draw cash for their production needs. The scheme was further extended for the investment credit requirement of farmers viz. allied and non-farm activities in the year 2004. The Kisan Credit Card Scheme is to be implemented by Commercial Banks, RRBs, Small Finance Banks and Cooperatives. Thus, Option D is correct. 2. D Demand elasticity refers to how sensitive the demand for a good is to changes in other economic variables, such as the prices and consumer income. Demand elasticity is calculated by taking the percent change in quantity of a good demanded and dividing it by a percent change in another economic variable. Engel's law is an observation in economics stating that as income rises, the proportion of income spent on food falls, even if absolute expenditure on food rises. In other words, the income elasticity of demand of food is between 0 and 1. The law was named after the statistician Ernst Engel (1821–1896). Engel's law does not imply that food spending remains unchanged as income increases: It suggests that consumers increase their expenditures for food products in percentage terms less than their increases in income. Thus, Option D is correct. 3. C DIKSHA will serve as National Digital Infrastructure for teachers. All teachers across the nations will be equipped with advanced digital technology. Diksha portal will enable, accelerate and amplify solutions in the realm of teacher education. It will aid teachers to learn and train themselves for which assessment resources will be available. It will help teachers to create training content, profile, in-class resources, assessment aids, news and announcement and connect with teacher community. Central Delhi: 60/17, Above Subway, Old Rajinder Nagar, Delhi - 60 North Delhi: B-18, Satija House, Main Road, Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi - 09 Ph: 011 - 45090051, 9818333201, 9871216382 INSIGHT GEN.STUDIES & CSAT The platform will cater to the teachers from all stages of school education including pre-primary, primary, upper primary, secondary and senior secondary. All institutions, groups and individuals catering to the above can be enrolled as members of the platform and can contribute to the creation, curation and use of resources on the platform. States, government bodies and even private organisations, can integrate DIKSHA into their respective teacher initiatives based on their goals, needs and capabilities. Thus, Option C is correct. 4. C Labour Force Participation Rate is defined as the section of working population in the age group of 16-64 in the economy currently employed or seeking employment. People who are still undergoing studies, housewives and persons above the age of 64 are not reckoned in the labour force. Only 27% of Indian women are in the labour force–the lowest among BRICS countries; among G-20 countries. As per Economic Survey 2017-18, the steps taken by the government to improve the labour force participation rate are: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is one of the important schemes which ensures participation by women in the economic activity by stipulating minimum 33 per cent participation by women. About 4.6 crore households were provided employment totaling 177.8 crore person days during 2017-18 as on 14th January, 2018. Out of this, 54 per cent were generated by women, 22 per cent by Schedule Castes and 17 per cent by Schedule Tribes. Trends from 2013-14 to 2017-18 show that participation by women in the total person days generated has been more than 50 per cent. Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) - For economic empowerment of women through promoting the spirit of creating self-employment ventures, Mahila E-Haat, an initiative for meeting aspirations and needs of women entrepreneurs has been launched with the objective to provide an e-marketing platform by leveraging technology for showcasing product made/manufactured/sold by women entrepreneurs/SHGs/NGOs. This is impacting directly and indirectly over 26000 SHGs and 3.75 lakh beneficiaries. As per the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, the women are entitled to enhanced maternity leave for a period of 26 weeks (6 months) working in registered establishment under any Central or State law. It has been made mandatory for the establishments employing 50 or more employees to provide crèche facility, either separately or along with common facilities within a prescribed distance. Economic Survey observed that for leadership development and to address women’s issues at village levels, Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme has been launched at the village level. This will improve the access of rural women to services of health, education, addressing violence, employment, savings etc. Also, this will empower rural women through community participation to create an environment in which they realize their full potential. Thus, this scheme is not aimed directly to improve the female lbour force participation in an economy. Thus, Option C is correct. Central Delhi: 60/17, Above Subway, Old Rajinder Nagar, Delhi - 60 North Delhi: B-18, Satija House, Main Road, Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi - 09 Ph: 011 - 45090051, 9818333201, 9871216382 INSIGHT GEN.STUDIES & CSAT 5. C Salient Features of the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) The scheme has the benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. The target beneficiaries of the proposed scheme will be more than 10 crore families belonging to poor and vulnerable population based on SECC database. This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures. To ensure that nobody is left out (especially women, children and elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age in the scheme. AB-NHPM will subsume the on-going centrally sponsored schemes – Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS). The benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country. State Governments will be allowed to expand AB-NHPM both horizontally and vertically. States will be free to choose the modalities for implementation. They can implement through insurance company or directly through Trust/ Society or a mixed model. For giving policy directions and fostering coordination between Centre and States, it is proposed to set up Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission Council (AB-NHPMC) at apex level Chaired by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister. Thus, Option C is correct. 6. B The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) provides for the establishment of three new institutional structures whose functioning will be critical for the smooth implementation of the IBC - A regulator, to be called the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. The regulator's mandate is to regulate insolvency professionals, insolvency professional agencies and information utilities as well as to frame regulations under the IBC. A new profession of insolvency professionals and insolvency professional agencies, and Information utilities to collect and store information on debts and defaults. The regulator's mandate is to regulate insolvency professionals, insolvency professional agencies and information utilities as well as to frame regulations under the IBC. Insolvency resolution cases will be heard by the National Company Law Tribunals ("NCLTs") in the case of corporate debtors and the Debt Recovery Tribunals ("DRTs") in the case of individuals, partnerships and unincorporated entities. NCLT was set up under Companies Act, 2013 Debt Recovery Tribunals was set up under Recovery of Debt Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993. Thus, Option B is correct. Central Delhi: 60/17, Above Subway, Old Rajinder Nagar, Delhi - 60 North Delhi: B-18, Satija House, Main Road, Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi - 09 Ph: 011 - 45090051, 9818333201, 9871216382 INSIGHT GEN.STUDIES & CSAT 7. A Statement I is correct: Market Stabilization scheme (MSS) is a monetary policy intervention by the RBI to withdraw excess liquidity (or money supply) by selling government securities in the economy. The MSS was introduced in April 2004. Initially, the MSS was launched to withdraw the excess liquidity in the system that was generated as a result of the RBI’s purchase of foreign currencies in the foreign exchange market. From 2002 onwards, there was huge inflow of foreign capital into India. This led to the appreciation of rupee. Since appreciation is not good for exports, the RBI intervened in the foreign exchange market by buying dollars. To buy dollars, the RBI has to give rupees. In this way, high selling of rupees led to the excess liquidity (rupee) in the market, thereby creating a potential for inflation. To overcome this situation, the RBI has sold government bonds on a general basis depending upon the volume of excess liquidity in the system. Here bonds go to financial institutions and money goes back to the RBI.