Revision Series | Economic Survey | Contemporary Affairs (Part-2) | 84

Answer: C

Answer: A

• With an aim to increase the oil palm production area to 10 lakh ha.,  and boost the Crude Palm Oil production to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26, the Government of India launched National Mission for Edible Oils- Oil Palm in August 2021.
• In addition to the marked growth in production of edible oils, the Mission is also successfully leading India towards an ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ by reducing the import burden.
• Under the Mission, the State Governments along with Oil Palm processing companies have initiated a Mega Oil Palm Plantation drive from 25thJuly 2023 to further increase the oil palm cultivation in the country. Three major oil palm processing companies, namely, Patanjali Food Pvt. Ltd., Godrej Agrovet, and 3F are actively promoting and participating with the farmers in their respective states for record area expansion.

Answer: A

• RuPay is a product of the National Payments Corporation of India.
• RuPay has both debit and credit cards on offer for individuals and corporates.
• It also has prepaid and ‘Kisan Credit Card’ as well.
• Banks that issue RuPay cards enjoy an advantage because they don’t need to pay network registration fees, unlike in the case of a MasterCard or Visa registration. This is because RuPay is a domestic framework.

Answer: D

Reasons for India’s Rising Deficit with China:

• The growth of the trade deficit with China can be attributed to two factors:

a)A narrow basket of commodities mostly primary, that India exports to China;

b)Market access impediments for most of India’s Agri products and the sectors where India is competitive such as pharma, IT/ITES.

• According to experts, a large part of the import growth is being driven by the rise in chemicals and engineering equipment including electrical & non-electrical instruments.
• This reflects rising demand from a reviving manufacturing sector in India.

Answer: C

IFC is a non-deposit accepting loan company which complies with:

• A minimum of 75% of the total assets of an IFC-NBFC should be deployed in infrastructure loans.
• The company should have a minimum net worth of INR 300 crore.

Answer: C

Answer: A

Digital Payment Index:

• It has been constructed by the RBI to measure the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.
• It is based on multiple parameters and reflects the expansion of various digital payment modes accurately.
• It is a first-of-its kind index to measure the spread of digital payments across the country.
• It contains five broad parameters that measure the deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different time periods.
• Payment Enablers with a weight of 25% (Internet, mobile, Aadhaar, bank accounts, participants, merchants)
• Payment Infrastructure– Demand-side factors weight 10% (Debit and credit cards, PPIs, Customers registered in mobile and internet banking, FASTags),
• Payment Infrastructure– Supply-side factors weight 15% (Bank branches, BCs, ATMs, PoS Terminals, QR Codes, Intermediaries),
• Payment Performance– weight 45% (Digital payment volumes, value, unique users, paper clearing, currency in circulation, cash withdrawals) and
• Consumer Centricity weight– 5% (awareness and education, declines, complaints, frauds, system downtime).

Answer: D

Answer: C

Loan-loss provision-

• The RBI defines a loan loss provision as an expense that banks set aside for defaulted loans.
• Banks set aside a portion of the expected loan repayments from all loans in their portfolio to cover the losses either completely or partially.
• In the event of a loss, instead of taking a loss in its cash flows, the bank can use its loan loss reserves to cover the loss.
• The level of loan loss provision is determined based on the level expected to protect the safety and soundness of the bank.

Answer: B

Sovereign Green Bonds:

• These are bonds issued by any sovereign entity, inter-governmental groupsor alliances and corporates.
• The proceeds of the bonds are utilised forprojects classified as environmentally sustainable.
• These are issued with longer maturity period.
• In India, the framework for the sovereign green bond was issued by the government on November 9, 2022.

Answer: C

Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR):

• The European Union’s FSR entered into force on 12 January 2023.
• Aim: Combating distortions of competition on the EUinternal market caused by foreign subsidies. 
• It will allow EU to investigate financial contributions granted by non-EU governments to companies active in the EU, and prohibit the award of public contractsto a company that has unduly profited from foreign subsidies.
• It imposes mandatory notification and approval requirements for acquisitions of significant EU businesses and large EU public tenders, and gives the European Commission (EC) extensive powers to launch ex officio investigations.
• The EC is the sole enforcer of the FSR.

Answer: C

Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS):

• BBPS is an integrated bill payment systemor a platform which acts as a connect between various billers and users. 
• It is a one-stop ecosystem for payment of all bills providing an interoperable and accessible “Anytime Anywhere” Bill payment service to all customers across India with certainty, reliability and safety of transactions.
• It offers customers the convenience of payment by cataloguing various utility providers under one platform.
• It acts as a central reference for a customer who wants to make different payments— whether utility bills, loan repayments, FasTag recharge, and so on.
• BBPS was conceptualised by the Reserve Bank of India in 2013 and is a product of the National Payments Council of India (NPCI).
• It was piloted in 2016and went live a year later.
• By 2019, BBPS onboarded all recurring payments.

Answer: C

Answer: D

Answer: C