All questions of International Economic Organisations & India for BPSC (Bihar) Exam

Explanation: 
A Grant Agreement from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the World Bank of USD 24.64 million for “Ecosystem Service Improvement Project” was signed on 16th Aug 2017 by the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of India and the World Bank. 
The size of Project is USD 24.64 million which entirely will be financed by the World Bank out of its GEF Trust Fund. 
The project’s duration is 05 years.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) will implement the Project in the States of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh through Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education under the National Mission for Green India. 
The objective of the Project is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Departments of Forestry and Community Organisations to enhance forest ecosystem services and improve the livelihoods of forest dependent communities in Central Indian Highlands.

Explanation: 
world-bank Incentives, safe and conducive environment besides a level playing field were critical to boost women participation in the Indian workforce, the World Bank said.
In its India Development Report released on 29th May 2017, the World Bank said the country had one of the lowest female participation in the workforce, ranking 120th among 131 countries for which data was available.
While overall job creation has been limited, most of the new ones have been grabbed by men given the social norms, the report said.
What is worrisome is the fact that the participation level has been dropping since 2005, despite having 42% women who are graduates. 
The report highlighted that India’s potential GDP growth rate can be boosted by a percentage point if women participation increased. Jobs for Indian women remain primarily in the agriculture sector. 
The share of women in services and industry is less than 20%.
Amid lower rate of job generation, most regular jobs were being grabbed by men. India created only 0.9% jobs equivalent of the adult population between 2005 and 2012.

Explanation: 
The World Bank has cleared a USD 250-million loan to aid the Skill India mission. 
The loan amount would be used for making Indian youth more employable through reskilling. 
The USD 250 million Skill India Mission Operation (SIMO) is set to increase the market relevance of short-term skill development programmes (3-12 months or up to 600 hours) both at the national and state levels. 
It will help the government of India to better equip the young workforce with employable skills. 
SIMO will be a six- year programme in support of National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2017-23). 
Under the programme, persons in the age group of 15-59 will acquire skill training irrespective of their employment status. 
This will benefit 1.2 crore youngsters in the age bracket of 15 and 29 years who are entering the labour market every year. 
The programme is expected to benefit approximately 15,000 trainers and 3,000 assessors.
The programme has also a mandate to offer placement and entrepreneurship opportunities to women and increase their exposure to skill training. 

Need for Programme: Know More

Explanation: 
Bolivia’s President Eva Morales declared on twitter that his nation has achieved “total independence” from the IMF and the World Bank
The socialist leader published his comments after meeting with his peers Friday at a gathering in Argentina of the Mercosur, a sub-regional economic bloc.
Bolivia begins its process of becoming a full member of the Mercosur, also called the Southern Common Market, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. 
Until now Bolivia has served as an associate member along with Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname.
Also on Friday, President Morales accused world powers of intervening in oil rich nations such as Libya, Iraq, and Venezuela to “appropriate resources”.
Historically, Bolivia has relied heavily on the IMF for loans to fund their socialist government expenditures. 
President Morales has even previously quipped that his nations past dependence on the agencies was so great that the IMF had an office in government headquarters and even participated in their meetings.
President Morales become Bolivia’s first indigenous leader in 2006, and gained popularity after the nations popular uprising known as “The Cochabamba Water War”, which occurred in 2000, and was waged against the U.S.-based Bechtel Corporation over water privatization.
The World Bank at the time, which was closely associated with the Bechtel Corporation, shed light on the growing debt issues facing the country through policy publications.
According to a report from teleSUR, some of Bolivia’s largest resistance struggles in the last 60 years have targeted the economic policies carried out by the IMF and the World Bank.

Explanation: 
IMF on June 7th 2016 approved the US $1.5 billion loan to Sri Lanka. IMF has transferred 168 million US dollars as the first instalment with immediate effect to provide support for the country’s economy

Explanation: 
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced American economist Paul Romer will succeed Kaushik Basu as the Chief Economist and Senior VP of the World Bank.

Explanation: 
World Bank India, the world’s largest remittance recipient in 2015 may receive a remittance of USD 65.5 billion this year, a drop of 5 percent according to the World Bank.

The challenges listed are unsustainable extraction from marine resources, physical alterations and destruction of marine and coastal habitats, unplanned and unregulated development, marine pollution, impacts of climate change, ineffective governance institutions, inadequate economic incentives, and lack of full implementation of legal instruments.

Increasing domestic trade through modernizing port infrastructure is a significant benefit of the Blue Economy for India, as mentioned in the introductory passage.

India has received sanction from the International Seabed Authority for deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules in the Central Indian Ocean.

The Blue Economy encompasses both living renewable resources (like fisheries) and non-living non-renewable resources (like seabed mining and offshore oil and gas) when undertaken sustainably.

Explanation: 
Loan and projects agreement for WB assistance of US $100 million for the Karnataka Urban Water Supply Modernisation project was signed between Government of India/Karnataka and the World Bank.

Explanation: 
India on 5 June 2017 signed a USD 39.2 million loan agreement with the World Bank for the Assam Citizen Centric Service Delivery project. 
The loan will be provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), an international financial institution under the World Bank that offers loans to middle-income developing countries. 
The loan agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary under Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of India and Hisham Abdo, Manager Operations (India) on behalf of the World Bank. 
The Implementing Entity Agreement was signed by the Additional Chief Secretary, Assam Government and the Country Director (India) on behalf of the World Bank.
The total estimated cost of the Citizen Centric Service Delivery project is USD 49 million, out of which USD 39.2 million will be financed by the World Bank. 
The remaining funds will be utilised from the Assam Budget. The objective of the project is to improve access in the delivery of selected public services in Assam. 
The Project seeks to enable citizens to access services under the Assam Right To Public Services Act, 2012 in a timely, efficient, and accountable manner. 
The Project adopts an integrated approach to improve access and accountability. The programme duration is of 5 years.

The Matsaya Sampada Yojana is a flagship scheme for focused and sustainable development of the fisheries sector in India.

Explanation: 
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on Asian economies to learn from Japan’s experience and act early to cope with rapidly ageing populations, warning that parts of the region risk getting old before becoming rich.
Asia has enjoyed substantial demographic dividends in the past decades, but the growing number of elderly is set to create a demographic “tax” on growth, according to the IMF.
Adapting to ageing could be especially challenging for Asia, as populations living at relatively low per capita income levels in many parts of the region are rapidly becoming old.
Some countries in Asia are getting old before becoming rich.
The population growth rate is projected to fall to zero for Asia by 2050 and the share of working-age people, now at its peak, will decline over the coming decades, the report said.
The share of the population aged 65 and older will increase rapidly and reach close to two-and-a-half times the current level by 2050, it said.
That means demographics could subtract 0.1 percentage point from annual global growth over the next three decades, it said.
The challenges are particularly huge for Japan, which faces both an ageing and shrinking population. Its labour force shrank by more than 7 per cent in the past two decades.
The high percentage of its citizens living on pensions may be behind Japan’s excess savings and low investment, which are weighing on growth and blamed in part for keeping inflation below the Bank of Japan’s 2 per cent target. 
Japan’s experience highlights how demographic headwinds can adversely impact growth, inflation dynamics and the effectiveness of monetary policy.
The IMF called on Asian nations to make changes like introducing credible fiscal consolidation plans, boosting female and elderly labour force participation, and revamping social safety nets.

Explanation: 
A Financing Agreement for IBRD loan of US$ 119 million (equivalent) for the "Odisha Higher Education Programme for Excellence & Equity (OHEPEE) Project" was signed with the World Bank. 
The Objective of the project is to improve the quality of 'students' equitable access to selected institutions and enhance governance of the higher education system in Odisha.

Project Component:
Result Areas are:
(I) Improved quality of and students' equitable access to selected institutions of higher education: Institutional Development Plan (IDP) Grants (performance – based Financing)
(II) Enhanced governance of the higher education system: (i)Improvement of governance in colleges (ii)Improvement of financial and procurement management and accounting in all government and government-aided colleges.

The Sagarmala Project's vision is to reduce logistics costs for export-import and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment.

The Blue Economy concept seeks to promote economic growth, social inclusion, and the preservation or improvement of livelihoods while ensuring the environmental sustainability of the oceans and coastal areas.

Gunter Pauli's book "The Blue Economy: 10 years, 100 innovations, 100 million jobs" played a significant role in promoting and popularizing the Blue Economy concept.

The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) aims to promote cooperation among Indian Ocean littoral states for blue economy initiatives.

India should focus on balancing economic benefits with sustainability across various sectors to meet the broader goals of growth, employment generation, equity, and protection of the environment.

Explanation: 
IMF has cut down India's growth rate for the current fiscal year to 6.6 percent. The previous estimate was 7.6%.
The slowing of the growth rate is on account of temporary negative consumption shock of demonetisation after the WB decelerated India's growth estimates.
Growth forecast for the current and next fiscal year were trimmed by one percentage and 0.4 percentage points, due to temporary negative consumption shock .
This has been caused by cash shortage and payment disruption noted with recent currency note withdrawal and exchange, as per World Economic Outlook released by the IMF.
IMF also said after a lackluster outturn in 2016, economic activity will pick up in the next 2 years. This is more so for the emerging market and developing economies.
Global growth for 2016 is now 3.1 percent in line with the Oct 2016 forecast.
The economic activities in emerging markets and developing economies/EMDEs is to accelerate in 2017-2018 with global growth at 3.4 and 3.6 percent respectively.
India's growth in 2017 is projected at growth rate of 7.2% as against previous growth forecast of 7.6 percent.
Indian economy is expected to revive with 7.7% growth in 2018.
Cut in the growth rate comes after WB decelerated India's GDP growth for 2016-2017 fiscal to 7 percent from previous estimate of 7.6 percent citing impact of demonetisation.
India would regain momentum in coming years. India continues to be among the fastest growing countries in the emerging economies.
In 2016, China with a growth percentage of 6.7% has outperformed India. IMF has forecasted China's growth rate to 6.5% for 2017 based on continued policy support.
In 2018, China is projected to grow at 6 percent against India's 7.7%.

IMF: Know More

Explanation: 
The World Bank Group on 25th October 2016 released the report entitled Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All.

Explanation: 
International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde was on 19th Dec 2016 convicted for negligence over a massive state payout to a tycoon when she was French finance minister.
Though convicted, she was not given a sentence.
The 2007 decision by Lagarde to permit a dispute over flamboyant businessman Bernard Tapie's sale of the Adidas sports brand to Credit Lyonnais bank to be resolved by private arbitration panel was under scrutiny.
The 60-year-old former corporate lawyer is also accused of failing to challenge the 404-million-euro (USD 422 million) award that emerged from the arbitration.
The payout raised concerns given Tapie's overt support for Lagarde's then boss, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, and it was subsequently cancelled by the courts.
Tapie had sold Adidas to Credit Lyonnais for the equivalent of 315.5 million euros in 1993.
The bank sold it on the following year for 701 million euros, prompting claims from Tapie that he had been cheated.
Another ex IMF head, Rodrigo Rato of Spain, is currently standing trial on charges of misusing funds when he was head of Spanish lender Bankia.

International Monetary Fund

Explanation: 
The World Bank Group on 13th Dec 2016 halted the two concurrent processes initiated by India and Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty.
The bank initiated this move to protect the treaty.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim informed the finance ministries of both countries to this effect.
India planned to construct the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric power plants on Indus River System in J&K.
Pakistan raised objections against these projects claiming they would affect Pakistan by impacting the river flow adversely.
To resolve the differences between India and Pakistan, the two countries asked the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert and a court of arbitration respectively.
Bank in its earlier communication to both countries said that necessary processes will be put in place by Dec 12, 2016.
Bank withdrew this communication and made the announcement that the concurrent process would make the treaty unworkable over time. 
These processes were therefore stopped.

Indus Water Treaty

Explanation: 
S. Aparna, an IAS officer from Gujarat cadre has been appointed as Executive Director, World Bank to represent the constituency of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for three years.
A 1988-batch IAS, she is currently Principal Secretary to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. At the World Bank, she will replace Subhash Garg.
Garg was recently appointed Economic Affairs Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared 
Ms. Aparna’s name for the position.
Her appointment order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Among the top positions she held in Gujarat includes Principal Secretary, Economic Affairs, Surat Municipal Commissioner and Joint Secretary, urban development at centre.
Known for her integrity and focused approach, she was the most influential bureaucrat in the State administration under Mr. Rupani.
Meanwhile, according to sources, a senior Gujarat cadre officer serving the central deputation is likely to return the state as her replacement.

Explanation: 
India is the world’s fourth fastest growing economy in the world thus far in 2017.
That’s according to the World Bank’s latest edition of Global Economic Prospects. 
For 2017, India’s economy is expected to advance 7.2%. 
That’s slightly above the country’s long-term growth. 
GDP Annual Growth Rate in India averaged 6.12% from 1951 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 11.40% in the first quarter of 2010 and a record low of -5.20% in the fourth quarter of 1979.
The Indian economy has benefited from a stable macroeconomic environment of low inflation and interest rates.
This has helped shake off a temporary slow-down in consumer spending and a drop in investment that followed the demonetization program back in November 2016 - which took 86% of the country’s currency out of circulation.
India’s economy has also benefited from ongoing market reforms that have improved competitiveness. 
For 2016-17, India scored 4.52 points out of 7, according to Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum, slightly above its ten year average of 4.33 points. 
That helped the country climb to rise to the position as the 39th most competitive nation in the world out of 138 countries ranked in the report.
The Competitiveness Rank in India averaged 52.73 from 2007 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 71.00 in 2015 and a record low of 39.00 in 2017. 
Improved competitiveness, in turn, has helped narrow the country’s current account deficit to 0.70% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2016. 
Current Account to GDP in India averaged -1.40 percent from 1980 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 2.28% in 2003 and a record low of -4.80% in 2012.
Financial markets have taken note. The iShares S&P India have gained 20.76 percent over the last twelve months.