Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC / IAS / 08-10-19

Table of Contents

MCQ 1

Public Finance Management System (PFMS) portal is a statutory body
It is administered by dept of expenditure

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

Background
Public Financial Management System (PFMS) initially started as a Plan scheme named CPSMS of the Planning Commission in 2008- 09 as a pilot in four States of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Mizoram for four Flagship schemes e.g. MGNREGS, NRHM, SSA and PMGSY. After the initial phase of establishing a network across Ministries / Departments, it has been decided to undertake National rollout of CPSMS (PFMS) to link the financial networks of Central, State Governments and the agencies of State Governments. The scheme was included in 12th Plan initiative of Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance.
In December, 2013 the Union Cabinet approved the national roll out of PFMS for all States and schemes for a period of four years till 2017 as follows:

(i) Total outlay of the scheme to be implemented through the O/o CGA would be not more than Rs. 1080 crore. (ii) Four tiered project organization structure viz. I. Project Implementation Committee (PIC) at apex level

The Central Project Management Unit (CPMU) at Centre III. State Project Management Unit (SPMU) at State level IV. District Project Management Unit (DPMU) at district level to be manned through outsourcing

Mandate
The mandate given to PFMS by Cabinet decision is to provide:
A financial management platform for all plan schemes, a database of all recipient agencies, integration with core banking solution of banks handling plan funds, integration with State Treasuries and efficient and effective tracking of fund flow to the lowest level of implementation for plan scheme of the Government.
To provide information across all plan schemes/ implementation agencies in the country on fund utilization leading to better monitoring, review and decision support system to enhance public accountability in the implementation of plan schemes.
To result in effectiveness and economy in Public Finance Management through better cash management for Government transparency in public expenditure and real-time information on resource availability and utilization across schemes. The roll-out will also result in improved programme administration and management, reduction of float in the system, direct payment to beneficiaries and greater transparency and accountability in the use of public funds. The proposed system will be an important tool for improving governance.
Under pressure from the Centre, the Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Department has directed all government procurement agencies to link the bank accounts of farmers with the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) portal before the procurement of paddy begins. This has angered the arhatiyas (commission agents), a large number of whom want the government to roll back its decision.

About PFMS:

It is an end-to- end solution for processing payments, tracking, monitoring, accounting, reconciliation and reporting.
Administered by the Department of Expenditure.
It is implemented by the Controller General of Accounts.

Functions:

It provides scheme managers a unified platform for tracking releases and monitoring their last mile utilisation.
It provides platform for efficient management of funds through tracking of funds and real time reporting of expenditure and receipts through treasury and bank interface.
The line ministries/departments utilise this platform to monitor the utilisation of funds provided to the implementing agencies and state governments.
PFMS is also used for DBT payments under MGNREGA and other notified schemes of the Government of India.

Significance of PFMS:

Introduction of the PFMS resulted in effectiveness and economy in public finance management through better cash management for government transparency in public expenditure and real-time information on resource availability and utilisation across schemes.
It also resulted in improved programme administration and management, reduction of float in the system, direct payment to beneficiaries and greater transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.

MCQ 2

RBI released its annual study of state-level budgets. According to it, choose correct statements

most states ended up meeting the fiscal deficit target not by increasing their revenues but by reducing their expenditure and increasingly borrowing from the market
FRBM Review Committee and in line with the revised FRBM implied debt target of 40 per cent of GDP for states

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

Key findings:

Except during 2016-17, state governments have regularly met their fiscal deficit target of 3% of GDP. This should allay a lot of apprehensions about state-level finances, especially in the wake of extensive farm loan waivers that many states announced as well as the extra burden that was put on state budgets after the UDAY scheme for the power sector was introduced in 2014-15.
Concern: However, most states ended up meeting the fiscal deficit target not by increasing their revenues but by reducing their expenditure and increasingly borrowing from the market.
There has been a reduction in the overall size of the state budget in 2017-19. This retarding fiscal impulse has coincided with a cyclical downswing in domestic economic activity and may have inadvertently deepened it.
Also worrisome is that while states have met their fiscal deficits, the overall level of debt-to-GDP (Chart 4) has reached the 25% of GDP prudential mark. A slightly stringent criterion as prescribed by the FRBM Review Committee and in line with the revised FRBM implied debt target of 20 per cent will put most of the states above the threshold.
States have found it difficult to raise revenues: States revenue prospects are confronted with low tax buoyancies, shrinking revenue autonomy under the GST framework and unpredictability associated with transfers of IGST and grants.
Unrealistic revenue forecasts in budget estimates thereby leave no option for states than expenditure compression in even the most productive and employment-generating heads.

Why understanding about state government finances is becoming more and more important?

States now have a greater role to play in determining India’s GDP than the Centre. States now spend one-and-a-half times more than the Union government.
They are the bigger employment generators. They employ five times more people than the Centre.
Since 2014-15, states have increasingly borrowed money from the market.
Thus, this overall trend has serious implications on the interest rates charged in the economy, the availability of funds for businesses to invest in new factories, and the ability of the private sector to employ new labour.

Why fiscal deficit matters? What happens if the debt-to-GDP ratio widens?

Each year’s borrowing (or deficit) adds to the total debt. Paying back this debt depends on a state’s ability to raise revenues.
If a state, or all the states in aggregate, find it difficult to raise revenues, a rising mountain of debt — captured in the debt-to-GDP ratio — could start a vicious cycle.
Then, states end up paying more and more towards interest payments instead of spending their revenues on creating new assets that provide better education, health and welfare for their residents.
That is why, the 14th Finance Commission had mandated prudent levels of both fiscal deficit (3% of state GDP) and debt-to-GDP (25%) that must not be breached.

MCQ 3

Recently it was in space news, what is a Geotail ?

The dust visible before earth in its orbit
a stretched magnetic envelope around Earth
Emitted particles from asteroids
None

An instrument on Chandrayaan-2, CLASS, designed to detect signatures of elements in the Moon’s soil, had detected charged particles during the mission. This happened in September, during the orbiter’s passage through the “geotail”.

What is Geotail?

A region in space that allows the best observations. The region exists as a result of the interactions between the Sun and Earth.

How is it formed?

The Sun emits the solar wind, which is a continuous stream of charged particles.
These particles are embedded in the extended magnetic field of the Sun. Since the Earth has a magnetic field, it obstructs the solar wind plasma.
This interaction results in the formation of a magnetic envelope around Earth.
On the Earth side facing the Sun, the envelope is compressed into a region that is approximately three to four times the Earth radius.
On the opposite side, the envelope is stretched into a long tail, which extends beyond the orbit of the Moon.
It is this tail that is called the geotail.
Once every 29 days, the Moon traverses the geotail for about six days.

MCQ 4

Multidisciplinary drifting observatory for the study of arctic climate (mosaic) expedition is the largest ever arctic expedition in history for knowing about magnetic poles of earth
India is not a part of it

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC, /ˌməʊˈzɛɪɪk/) expedition is a one-year-long expedition into the Central Arctic, planned to take place from 2019 to 2020. For the first time a modern research icebreaker will operate in the direct vicinity of the North Pole year round, including the nearly half year long polar night during winter. In terms of the logistical challenges involved, the total number of participants, the number of participating countries, and the available budget, MOSAiC represents the largest Arctic expedition in history.
During its one-year-long journey, the central expedition ship, the research icebreaker Polarstern from Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), will be supported and resupplied by the icebreakers Akademik Fedorov and Admiral Makarov (Russia), Oden (Sweden) and Xue Long II (China). In addition, extensive operations involving helicopters and other aircraft are planned. In total, during the various phases of the expedition, more than 600 people will be working in the Central Arctic. The international expedition, which will involve more than 60 institutions from 19 countries, will be conducted by the AWI and is led by the polar and climate researcher Markus Rex. MOSAiC’s main goals are to investigate the complex and still only poorly understood climate processes at work in the Central Arctic, to improve the representation of these processes in global climate models, and to contribute to more reliable climate projections

MCQ 5

The recent agreement and SOP permit the movement of goods in Bangladesh through road only
News Roads will connect Chattogram port in Bangladesh to akhaura in assam

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

Ministry of Shipping

Shri Mansukh Mandavia says conclusion of SOP with Bangladesh on Chattogram and Mongla ports a win win situation for both countries
The SOP will open 8 routes to North Eastern states through Bangladesh
Shri Mansukh Mandavia, MoS(I/C) Shipping has said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s foreign policy initiative regarding use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports in Bangladesh for movement of goods to and from India will bring revolutionary cost-cutting in shipments to and from the North Eastern States.
During the official visit of H.E Sheikh Hasina ,Prime Minister of People`s Republic of Bangladesh to India , a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) wherein Bangladesh allowed the use of its Chattogram and Mongla Ports for movement of goods to and from India through its territory was signed and exchanged by India and Bangladesh before the Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh on 5.10.2019 . The SOP on use of Chattogram and Mongla ports has been finalized after the two countries signed an MOU on 6.6.2015 and an Agreement on 25.10.18.
The agreement and SOP permit the movement of goods in Bangladesh through waterways, rail, road or multimodal transport. Eight routes are provided under the Agreement which would enable access of North East Region (NER) via Bangladesh. The routes are:
Chattogram/Mongla Port to Agartala (Tripura) via Akhura
Chattogram/Mongla Port to Dawki (Meghalaya) via Tamabil
Chattogram/Mongla Port to Sutarkandi (Assam) via Sheola
Chattogram/Mongla Port to Srimantpur (Tripura) via Bibirbazar

MCQ 6

William Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza share the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics
It has been awarded to three scientists for unraveling the structure and history of the universe and for changing our perspective of Earth’s place in it.

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

William Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza share the 2019 Nobel Prize for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.
New therapies for cancer and conditions such as anemia are in the pipeline based on these discoveries.
The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to three scientists for unraveling the structure and history of the universe and for changing our perspective of Earth’s place in it.
Canadian-American James Peebles of Princeton University received onehalf of the Nobel “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said this morning. The other half will be shared by Swiss scientists, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star,” the Academy said. Mayor is a professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and Queloz is at both the University of Geneva and the University of Cambridge in the U.K.
Peebles was key in transforming the field of cosmology — the study of the universe’s origin and evolution — from one of speculation to actual science, according to the Nobel Prize organization.
His research led to the revelation that just 5% of the universe is normal matter and energy, while about 95% is invisible stuff that physicists call dark matter and dark energy.

MCQ 7

The Union Ministry of science & technology has launched an advanced Air Quality Early Warning System
It is specifically for PM 2.5 and PM 10 & will be established in all cities of the country

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched an advanced Air Quality Early Warning System, which can predict places neighbouring Delhi that are likely to burn crop residue on a given day.

Key facts:

The system has been developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, under MoES.
It uses data of stubble burning incidents from the past 15 years to predict the date and place of the next burning, and help authorities to act in advance.
Using the data, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), under the aegis of the Central Pollution Control Board, creates probability maps to alert government agencies about areas where the chances of stubble burning is going to be high.
The system can also track pollution load from stubble burning in places neighbouring the national capital, using satellite data. It can predict the air pollution level for next 72 hours. It can also forecast the level of pollutants like particulate matter (PM) 2.5, PM10, and dust, coming from sources other than stubble burning.
This will help authorities to take preventive steps to control pollution levels as well as mitigate pollution from existing sources.

Advantages of stubble burning:

It quickly clears the field and is the cheapest alternative.
Kills weeds, including those resistant to herbicide.
Kills slugs and other pests.
Can reduce nitrogen tie-up.

Alternative solutions that can avoid Stubble Burning:

Promote paddy straw-based power plants. It will also create employment opportunities.
Incorporation of crop residues in the soil can improve soil moisture and help activate the growth of soil microorganisms for better plant growth.
Convert the removed residues into enriched organic manure through composting.
New opportunities for industrial use such as extraction of yeast protein can be explored through scientific research.

MCQ

8 Acceptance Development Fund was proposed by

World Bank
IMF
BRICS
RBI

Acceptance Development Fund

RBI has proposed to set up an ‘Acceptance Development Fund’ to develop debit and credit card acceptance infrastructure in the country.
The fund will be used to ensure the growth of card acceptance infrastructure such as swipe machines, particularly in Tier III and Tier IV cities.
Once infrastructure becomes widely available even in smaller towns, it will become easier to adopt digital payments.
The framework will be operationalised by December 2019.