Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC / IAS / 07-11-19

Table of Contents

MCQ 1

The Real Estate Act makes it mandatory for all residential real estate projects where the land is over 500 square metres, or eight apartments, to register with the Real Estate Regulatory (RERA) for launching a project
Appellate Tribunals will now be required to adjudicate cases in 90 days

Choose correct

(A) Only 1

(B) Only 2

(D) None

Registration

The Real Estate Act makes it mandatory for all commercial and residential real estate projects where the land is over 500 square metres, or eight apartments, to register with the Real Estate Regulatory (RERA) for launching a project, in order to provide greater transparency in project-marketing and execution. For ongoing projects which have not received completion certificate on the date of commencement of the Act, will have to seek registration within 3 months. Application for registration must be either approved or rejected within a period of 30 days from the date of application by the RERA. On successful registration, the promoter of the project will be provided with a registration number, a login id, and password for the applicants to fill up essential details on the website of the RERA. For failure to register, a penalty of up to 10 percent of the project cost or three years’ imprisonment may be imposed.[7] Real estate agents who facilitate selling or purchase of properties must take prior registration. Such agents will be issued a single registration number for each State or Union Territory, which must be quoted by the agent in every sale facilitated by him.

Real Estate Regulatory Authority and Appellate Tribunal

It will help to establish state-level Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs) to regulate transactions related to both residential and commercial projects and ensure their timely completion and handover.
Appellate Tribunals will now be required to adjudicate cases in 60 days as against the earlier provision of 90 days and Regulatory Authorities to dispose of complaints in 60 days while no time-frame was indicated in earlier Bill
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 is an Act of the Parliament of India which seeks to protect home-buyers as well as help boost investments in the real estate industry.
The Act establishes Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in each state for regulation of the real estate sector and also acts as an adjudicating body for speedy dispute redressal.
The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 10 March 2016 and by the Lok Sabha on 15 March 2016

MCQ 2

Press Council of India is not a constitutional or statutory body
Only retired CJIs can be the chairman of the council

Choose correct

(A) Only 1

(B) Only 2

(D) None

The Press Council of India is a statutory, adjudicating organization in India formed in 1966 by its parliament. It is the selfregulatory watchdog of the press, for the press and by the press, that operates under the Press Council Act of 1978.
The Council has a chairman – traditionally, a retired Supreme Court judge, and 28 additional members of which 20 are members of media, nominated by the newspapers, television channels and other media outlets operating in India.
In the 28 member council, 5 are members of the lower house (Lok Sabha) and upper house (Rajya Sabha) of the Indian parliament.
Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad is Chairman of the Council as of 2015. He has been appointed for a second term. The predecessor was Justice Markandey Katju (2011 – 2014)

PCI presents 2019 National Awards

The Press Council of India on Wednesday presented National Awards For Excellence in Journalism, 2019.
Chairman of Rajasthan Patrika Pvt. Limited Ghulab Kothari won the Raja Ram Mohan Roy award for his contribution to journalism.
Raj Chengappa, Group Editorial Director (Publishing) India Today, shares the award on ‘Rural Journalism’ with Dainik Bhaskar correspondent Sanjay Saini.
Shiv Swaroop Awasthi, reporter Dainik Jagran and Anu Abrahim, subeditor Mathrubhumi, won in the “Developmental Reporting” category.
Krishn Kaushik and Sandeep Singh of Indian Express won in “Financial Reporting” category for their ICICI bank fraud series.
Ruby Sarkar of Deshbandhu and Anuradha Mascarenhas was awarded for “gender based reporting”.
Saurabh Duggal of Hindustan Times won in “sports reporting” category.
P.G. Unnikrishnan and Akhil E.S. of the Mathrubhumi share the photojournalism award for “single news picture”.

MCQ 3

Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) are regulated by SEBI
These are specific type of mutual funds only

Choose correct

(A) Only 1

(B) Only 2

(D) none

₹25,000-cr. fund to help housing sector

Centre, SBI and LIC to pool funds
The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) of ₹25,000 crore to provide last-mile funding for stalled affordable and middle-income housing projects across the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Wednesday.
The Minister had announced the proposal to create this fund in midSeptember, which the Cabinet has now approved. All affordable and middleincome housing projects that are net worth positive and are registered with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and that have not been deemed liquidation-worthy will be eligible.
“The fund size will initially be ₹25,000 crore with the government providing ₹10,000 crore and the State Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation providing the balance,” Ms. Sitharaman said. “The fund is not capped at ₹25,000 crore and will likely grow as a lot of sovereign funds have shown interest.”
The funds will be set up as Category-II Alternative Investment Fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and will be managed by SBICAP Ventures Limited.
According to the government’s estimates, there are more than 1,600 housing projects in which 4.58 lakh crore units are stalled.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012 (also called AIF Regulations) are a set of regulations introduced by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2012, to regulate pooled investment funds in India, such as real estate, private equity and hedge funds
These regulations apply to all pooled investment funds registered in India which received capital from Indian or foreign investors. These were made to regulated funds that were not covered under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996; SEBI (Custodian Of Securities) Regulations, 1996 and any other regulations of SEBI.
This was introduced to bring unregistered funds in India under the ambit of law. Prior to the introduction of this, many funds were operating in India that could not be classified as domestic venture capital funds (VCF), foreign venture capital investors (FVCI) or foreign institutional investor (FII). After introduction of these regulations in July 2012, 123 entities registered themselves by November 2014.

The Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) have been categorised into three classes:

Category I: These funds receive incentives from the government. These include social venture funds, infrastructure funds, venture capital funds and SME funds.
Category II: These funds are allowed to invest anywhere in any combination, but cannot take debts, except for day-to-day operation purposes. These include private equity funds and debt funds.
Category III: Funds that make short-term investments and then sell, like hedge funds, come under this

MCQ 4

H1B visa is an non-immigrant visa given to Indians by other countries
It can be extended for up to 6 years.

Choose correct

(A) Only 1

(B) Only 2

(D) None

It is a temporary work visa but it has dual purpose. If the employer who sponsored it likes you, thy might petition for your green card during your H-1B work term, which makes you a US permanent resident.
Main points of H-1B visa are
It is issued to the employer, not to the employee. Hence you can only work for that employer who sponsored it. Employee can ask another employer to transfer it and start working for them but lately it has a lot of problems doing this.
Employee can not do any side work to make more money. It is against visa rules and doing so results in immediate deportation. Passive income sources, like investment proceeds, rental income from a house you own and managed by a professional company, interest income from your accounts are acceptable
Applying for employee’s green card is totally at the discretion of the employer. If not done, at the end of your visa term, you need to leave the country and stay outside at least 1 full year before attempting to get another H-1B visa. Initial term allowed is 3 years but USCIS can cut this short if your work is not lining up with the reason you were brought in. But if you are up and up with your visa rules, it can be extended for up to 6 years. 6 years is the absolute cap.
While on H-1B employee is subject to all taxation and other lawful fees taken out of his or her pay check, but he/she is not eligible to benefit from many of them, unless they become permanent residents. Such as unemployment insurance, social security pensions, medicare deductions etc.

MCQ 5

Third Battle of Panipat was Fought between Maratha forces and Mughals
It marked a loss of prestige for the Marathas, who lost their preeminent position in north India after this war, paving the way for British colonial power to expand here.

Choose correct

(A) Only 1

(B) Only 2

(D) None

The First Battle of Panipat, in 1526, laid the foundation of the Mughal Empire in India after its first ruler, Babur, ended the Delhi Sultanate, which at the time was led by the Lodi dynasty.
The Second Battle of Panipat, in 1556, cemented Mughal rule when Akbar fought off a threat from the king Hemu ‘Vikramaditya’.
What was the Third Battle of Panipat all about?
Fought between Maratha forces and invading armies of Afghan general Ahmed Shah Abdali of Durrani Empire in 1761.
Abdali was supported by two Indian allies—the Rohillas Najib-uddaulah, Afghans of the Doab region and Shuja-ud-Daula-the Nawab of Awadh.
After the death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, there was a sudden rise of the Marathas. The Marathas reversed all his territorial gains in the Deccan and conquered a considerable part of India.
The decline was hastened by the invasion of India by Nader Shah, who also took away Takht-i-Taus (the Peacock Throne) and the Kohinoor Diamond in 1739.
Abdali planned to attack the Marathas when his son was driven out of Lahore.
By the end of 1759, Abdali with his Afghan tribes reached Lahore as well as Delhi and defeated the smaller enemy garrisons.
The two armies fought at Karnal and Kunjpura where the entire Afghan garrison was killed or enslaved.
The massacre of the Kunjpura garrison infuriated Durrani to such an extent that he ordered for crossing the river at all costs to attack the Marathas.
Smaller battles continued through months and forces from both the sides amassed for the final assault. But food was running out for the Marathas.

Outcomes:

The Marathas were defeated in the battle, with 40,000 of their troops killed, while Abdali’s army is estimated to have suffered around 20,000 casualties.
It marked a loss of prestige for the Marathas, who lost their preeminent position in north India after this war, paving the way for British colonial power to expand here.
The Marathas lost some of their most important generals and administrators, including Sadashivrao and heir-apparent Vishwasrao of the Peshwa household, Ibrahim Khan Gardi, Jankojirao Scindia, and Yashwantrao Puar.

MCQ 6

Cities located on INSTC

Delhi
Karachi
Bandar Abbas
Baku
Kabul

Choose correct

(A) 1,2,3,4

(B) 2,3,4

(C) 3 & 4

(D) All

The International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a 7,200-km-long multimode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. The route primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road.
The objective of the corridor is to increase trade connectivity between major cities such as Mumbai, Moscow, Tehran, Baku, Bandar Abbas, Astrakhan, Bandar Anzali, etc.
Dry runs of two routes were conducted in 2014, the first was Mumbai to Baku via Bandar Abbas and the second was Mumbai to Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas, Tehran and Bandar Anzali. The objective of the study was to identify and address key bottlenecks. The results showed transport costs were reduced by “$2,500 per 15 tons of cargo”.
Other routes under consideration include via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
This will also synchronize with the Ashgabat agreement, a Multimodal transport agreement signed by India (2018), Oman(2011), Iran (2011), Turkmenistan (2011), Uzbekistan (2011) and Kazakhstan (2015) (figure in the bracket indicates the year of joining the agreement), for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.[6] This route will be operationalised by mid-January 2018
Iran has taken further steps away from its crumbling nuclear deal with world powers by announcing it is doubling the number of its advanced centrifuges, calling the move a direct result of the United States’ withdrawal from the agreement last year.

What next?

By doing so, Iran is trying to increase the pressure on Britain, France and Germany in particular to find some arrangement that will allow them to sell the oil they were buying when Iran was not under sanctions. That requires some level of US support to waive sanctions against European firms by the United States. So far, the US has no agreed to do that.

What’s happening?

Iran is now operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges. Such a centrifuge can produce enriched uranium 10 times as fast as the first-generation IR-1s allowed under the accord.
By starting up these advanced centrifuges, Iran further cuts into the one year that experts estimate Tehran would need to have enough material for building a nuclear weapon – if it chose to pursue one.
The Security Council adopted a resolution in 2015 that endorsed the nuclear agreement and ended U.N. sanctions against Iran. The resolution, 2231, includes what is known as a “snapback” provision that could reinstate those sanctions if other parties to the agreement complained that Iran was cheating. Such a step would likely doom the agreement.

Impact of escalated tension between Iran and the US:

Iran can make things difficult for the U.S. in Afghanistan as also in Iraq and Syria.
The U.S.’s ability to work with Russia in Syria or with China regarding North Korea will also be impacted.
And sooner or later, questions may be asked in Iran about why it should continue with other restrictions and inspections that it accepted under the JCPOA, which would have far-reaching implications for the global nuclear architecture.
Coming after the rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Paris climate change accord and the North American Free Trade Agreement, President’s decision further diminishes U.S. credibility.

Implications for India:

Oil and Gas: The impact on world oil prices will be the immediately visible impact of the U.S. decision. Iran is presently India’s third biggest supplier (after Iraq and Saudi Arabia), and any increase in prices will hit both inflation levels as well as the Indian rupee.
It would impact the development of Chahbahar port.
INSTC: New U.S. sanctions will affect these plans, especially if any of the countries along the route or banking and insurance companies dealing with the INSTC plan also decide to adhere to U.S. restrictions on trade with Iran.
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: China may consider inducting Iran into the SCO. If the proposal is accepted by the SCO, which is led by China and Russia, India will become a member of a bloc that will be seen as anti-American, and will run counter to some of the government’s other initiatives like the Indo-Pacific quadrilateral with the U.S., Australia and Japan.
Rules-based order: By walking out of the JCPOA, the U.S. government has overturned the precept that such international agreements are made by “States” not just with prevailing governments or regimes.

Global Implications:

Down trends in global economy.
Fuel prices would reach high points.
Iran may block Strait of Hormuz which is a strategic choke point which in turn would affect global trade.
Giant economy like India, China and Russia will suffer.
US has cancelled airlines from US to India because they pass over Iran which would affect airspace industry.