General Knowledge Mock Test - 4 - CDS MCQ

Balance of Payments
The Balance of Payment is an organized record of an overall economic transaction between the
Residents of the country and the rest of the world during the particular time period. It
comprises of Current account payments and Capital account payments.
There are two key accounts in the Balance of Payment. They are:
• Current Account: The current account registers exports and imports in goods, trade in
services and transfer payments.
• Capital Account: The capital account registers entire international procurements and sales
of assets such as money, bonds, etc.

Any currency may be current account or capital account convertible or both.Current account convertibility implies that the Indian rupee can be converted to any foreigncurrency at existing market rates for trade purposes for any amount. It allows easy financialtransactions for the export and import of goods and services. Any individual involved in tradecan get foreign currency converted at designated banks or dealers.

The Department of Economic Affairs , Finance Ministry of India presents the EconomicSurvey in the parliament every year, just before the Union Budget . It is prepared under theguidance of the Chief Economic Adviser , Finance Ministry.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic, and securityorganisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by theleaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation Charter was signed in June 2002 and entered into force on 19September 2003. The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against terrorism, separatism and extremism.

The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspectivein Human Rights Watch’s signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative workundertaken in 2016 by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic humanrights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats,and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights inevery corner of the globe.

India’s Foreign Trade Policy
The Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced New Foreign Trade
Policy on 01st April 2015 for the period 2015-2020, earlier this policy known as Export Import
(Exim) Policy.
• All export and import-related activities are governed by the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), which
is aimed at enhancing the country's exports and use trade expansion as an effective instrument
of economic growth and employment generation.
• The Department of Commerce has announced increased support for export of various products
and included some additional items under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)
in order to help exporters to overcome the challenges faced by them.
• The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has developed an 'integrated declaration'
process leading to the creation of a single window which will provide the importers and
exporters a single point interface for customs clearance of import and export goods.

Asia-Africa Growth CorridorThe Asia-Africa Growth Corridor or AAGC is an economic cooperation agreement betweenthe governments of India and Japan .India on 25 May 2017 launched a vision document for Asia-Africa Growth Corridor or AAGC atthe African Development Bank meeting in Gujarat. The Research and Information System forDeveloping Countries (RIS), New Delhi, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and EastAsia (ERIA), Jakarta, and Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO), Tokyo, havedeveloped the Vision Document based on consultations with Asian and African think-tanks.It aims for Indo-Japanese collaboration to develop quality infrastructure in Africa,complemented by digital connectivity, which would undertake the realization of the idea ofcreating free and open Indo-Pacific Region.

India's external debt accounts for commercial borrowings, short term trade credits, and rupee denominated Non-resident Indian deposits. External debt includes both the government and private debt. The strategy of the government in external debt management consists of emphasis on raising sovereign loans on concessional terms with longer maturities, regulating the levels of commercial borrowing and their end-use, rationalizing interest rates on NRI deposits, monitoring short term debt and encouraging non-debt creating capital flows. External debt payment can be done in USD, INR, YEN and EURO, not in SDR. Internal debt includes loans raised by the government in the open market through treasury bills and government securities, special securities issued to the RBI and most importantly various bonds like the oil bonds, fertilizer bonds etc.

The divergence between the statutory tax rate and effective tax rate (defined as the ratio oftotal tax revenue collected to the aggregate tax base) is mainly on account of tax exemptions.Tax expenditure is also termed as ‘revenue forgone’, but it does not necessarily imply that thisquantum of revenue has been waived by the government.

FRBM Act had the objective of ensuring prudence in fiscal management by eliminating revenuedeficit, reducing fiscal deficit, establishing improved debt management and improvingtransparency in a medium-term framework with quantitative targets to be adhered by the statewith regard to deficit measures and debt management. The act was also expected to givenecessary flexibility to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for managing inflation in India.

Reduction in private investment due to increase in interest rate which is due to fiscal deficit iscalled crowding out. If the interest rate increases due to monetary policy, then it is notcrowding out. It increases the vulnerability of the domestic economy from economic shockswhich adversely affects business or economic activity of the country.

Phytoremediation is the direct use of living green plants for removal, degradation, orcontainment of contaminants in soils, sludges, sediments, surface water and groundwater. It can be used both in-situ (by using these plants at the site of contamination) and ex-situ (bytransferring contamination to these plants e.g. contaminated groundwater can be pumped toirrigate these plants which in turn will trap the contamination).

A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of thePresident passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of thetotal membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two third of the members ofthe House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for suchremoval on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacitySpecial majority: As per article 368(2), it requires a majority of not less than two-thirds of themembers of the House present and voting supported by a majority of the total membership ofthat House. This type of majority is used for most of the Constitutional amendment bills.‘Violation of the Constitution’ is the basis for impeachment of President

The National Leprosy Eradication Programme is a centrally sponsored Health Scheme of theMinistry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India with the objective to arrest the diseaseactivity in all the known cases of leprosy through early diagnosis and treatment.The country achieved the goal of elimination of leprosy as a public health problem, defined asless than 1 case per 10,000 population, at the National Level in the month of December, 2005.However, while the country as whole has eliminated leprosy, few pockets like state ofChhattisgarh and union territories like Delhi, Dadra & Nagar Haveli have remained to achieveelimination.South-East Asia region (SEAR) currently has highest prevalence of leprosy cases and highestnew case detection rate. India alone accounts for more than half of the global leprosy burden.

The World Economic Forum has launched a new Global Centre for Cybersecurity to help build asafe and secure global cyberspace. The centre will be based in Geneva, Switzerland, and willfunction as an autonomous organization under the auspices of the World Economic Forum.The aim of the centre is to establish the first global platform for governments, businesses,experts and law enforcement agencies to collaborate on cybersecurity challenges.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act was enacted in 1958 to bring under control what thegovernment of India considered ‘disturbed’ areas.According to The Disturbed Areas (Special Courts) Act, 1976 once declared ‘disturbed’, the area has to maintain status quo for a minimum of 3 months.In most cases, for example during elections, when the local police may be stretched too thin tosimultaneously handle day-to-day tasks, the central government obliges by sending in the BSF and the CRPF. Such cases do not come under the purview of AFSPA. AFSPA is confined tobe enacted only when a state, or part of it, is declared a 'disturbed area'. Continuedunrest, like in the cases of militancy and insurgency, and especially when borders arethreatened, are situations where AFSPA is resorted to.

Ind AS or Indian Accounting Standards govern the accounting and recording of financialtransactions as well as the presentation of statements such as profit and loss account andbalance sheet of a company. For long, there has been a heated debate about Indian companies moving to the globally accepted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their accounts.But firms have resisted this shift, stating that this will lead too many changes in the capture andreporting of their numbers. Ind AS has been evolved as a compromise formula that triesto harmonise Indian accounting rules with the IFRS. The Ind AS are named and numberedin the same way as the corresponding IFRS. These are issued under the supervision and control of Accounting Standards Board (ASB), which is a committee under Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

ASER stands for Annual Status of Education Report. This is an annual survey that aims toprovide reliable estimates of children’s enrolment and basic learning levels for each district andstate in India. ASER has been conducted every year since 2005 in all rural districts ofIndia by NGO (non-governmental organization) named Pratham.Unlike most other large-scale learning assessments, ASER is a household-based rather thanschool-based survey. This design enables all children to be included – those who have neverbeen to school or have dropped out, as well as those who are in government schools, privateschools, religious schools or anywhere else.

India is all set to have its own automated ocean pollution observation system, called automatedmoorings, this year that will help keep a tab on ocean pollution levels apart from offeringinsights on how the marine system is changing.It will do away with the present practice of collecting water samples from sea and studying their pollution levels thereafter. It will help in monitoring the pollution level of the ocean water and the impact of climate change in light of the reports that the water is becoming anoxic and it could change the marine system.

The Union government is set to come up with India’s first National Urban Policy framework thisyear. With urban development being a state subject until now, there has never been acomprehensive national policy that spells out the country’s plan for urbanisation.The policy is meant to align with the ‘New Urban Agenda’, agreed to at Habitat III, whichdefines what nations are expected to do towards the cause of sustainable urban development inthe period 2016-30.

NeSL is India’s first Information Utility and is registered with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) under the aegis of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). The company has been set up by leading banks and public institutions and is incorporated as a union government company. The primary role of NeSL is to serve as a repository of legal evidence holding the information pertaining to any debt/claim, as submitted by the financial or operational creditor and verified and authenticated by the other parties to the debt.

The Ro-Ro ferry services are vessels made to carry wheeled cargo such as cars, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers, and railroad cars.First of this kind of service started between between Ghogha in Bhavnagar district and Dahej in Bharuch district.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas launched Start-up Sangam initiative to develop new business models, marketing plans, technology and innovations in heavy oil and gas industry sector by supporting 30 start-ups.

Ministry of Power, Government of India has launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana for rural areas having following objectives:

(i) To provide electrification to all villages

(ii) Feeder separation to ensure sufficient power to farmers and regular supply to other consumers

(iii)Improvement of Sub-transmission and distribution network to improve the quality and reliability of the supply

(iv) Metering to reduce the losses

MCA 21 is an ambitious e-Governance project of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India . The core objective of this project is to transform the Ministry’s mode of working from traditional paper to paperless format. This initiative was launched to deliver over 100 services to citizens electronically covering almost completely the Companies Act of 1956. These services are provided in easy and secured manner via Ministry of Corporate Affairs portal. The MCA 21 is also the first portal under the Government to use the Digital Identity of the Users.

Unnat Chulah Abhiyan (UCA) is a programme of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.

(i)To develop and deploy improved biomass cook - stoves for providing cleaner cooking energy solutions in rural, semi - urban and urban areas using biomass as fuel for cooking.

(ii)To mitigate drudgery of women and children using traditional chulha for cooking.

(iii)To mitigate climate change by reducing the black carbon and other emissions resulting from burning biomass for cooking.

The inner core is in solid state and the outer core is in the liquid state (or semi-liquid). The asthenosphere (in between 80-200km) is a highly viscous, mechanically weak and ductile, deforming region of the upper mantle which lies just below the lithosphere. Earth's lithosphere includes the crust and the uppermost mantle, which constitute the hard and rigid outer layer of the Earth. The lithosphere is subdivided into tectonic plates.

Except President and Governor all other given dignitaries shall take oath 'to uphold sovereignty & integrity of India' in their Oath before entering the office. The office of speaker and deputy speaker of Loksabha, and Chairman and Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha are not required to take Oath before entering their office. They take Oath before taking membership of parliament.

Statement 1 is not correct as it is part of Constitution under article 136.
Statement 2 is not correct because Special Leave petition has no jurisdiction over military tribunal & court martial. Only President has power to pardon sentence inflicted by court martial & military court.
Statement 3 is correct because it is a discretionary power of SC and hence, cannot be claimed as matter of right. Because being an exceptional & overriding power it has to be exercised sparingly & with caution and only in special extraordinary situations.