Q1) Consider the following statements :
A) Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2018 will amend arbitration and
Conciliation Act, 1996.
B) It is a part of the efforts of the Government to encourage institutional arbitration for
settlement of disputes and make India a centre of robust Alternative Dispute
Resolution (ADR) mechanism.
C) The amendment provides for creation of an independent body namely the
Arbitration Council of India (ACI)
D) The Chairperson of ACI shall be a person who has been a Judge of the Supreme Court
or Chief Justice or Judge of any High Court or any eminent person
Options:
1) A , C & D are correct
2) All are correct
3) A, B & C are correct
4) B, C & D are correct
Q2) Consider the following statements :
A) Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka are the eight members of SAARC
B) The Headquarters of ASEAN is located in Jakarta, Indonesia
C) Amjad B. Hussain from Bangladesh is the Secretary General of SAARC
Options
A) All are correct
B) A & C are correct
C) Only B is correct
D) B & C are correct
Make the neighbourhood first again
India is sliding towards a situation where it is neither feared nor loved by other South Asian countries Almost four years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his term with a “Neighbourhood First” moment, by inviting leaders of all South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries to his swearing-in ceremony, India’s neighbourhood policy is clearly adrift. New Delhi’s connect with its South Asian neighbours is weaker than it has been for a very long time.
A perfect storm?
The first problem is that for various reasons other governments in the SAARC region are either not on ideal terms with New Delhi, or facing political headwinds. In the Maldives, President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has gone out of his way to challenge the Modi government, whether it is on his crackdown on the opposition, invitations to China, or even breaking with New Delhi’s effort to isolate Pakistan at SAARC. In Nepal, the K.P. Sharma Oli government is certainly not India’s first choice, and Kathmandu’s invitation to the Pakistani Prime Minister this week confirms the chill. And no matter which party is in power in Pakistan, it is difficult to see Delhi pushing for official dialogue, especially with the military on the ascendant once again. In other parts of the neighbourhood, where relations have been comparatively better for the past few years, upcoming elections could turn the tables on India. In Sri Lanka, the recent local election results that have gone the way of the Mahinda Rajapaksa-backed party could be a portent of
his future re-election. In Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh, elections this year and the next could pose challenges for India.
The next problem is the impact of China’s unprecedented forays into each of these countries.
Instead of telling the Nepal government to sort out issues with India, for example, as it had in
the past, China opened up an array of alternative trade and connectivity options after the 2015
India-Nepal border blockade: from the highway to Lhasa, cross-border railway lines to the
development of dry ports. In Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Pakistan, China holds
strategic real estate, which could also be fortified militarily in the future. At present, it means
China has a stake in the internal politics of those countries.
While China’s growing presence in infrastructure and connectivity projects has been welldocumented, its new interest in political mediation must be watched more carefully as a result. When China stepped in to negotiate a Rohingya refugee return agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh, or host a meeting of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s foreign ministers to help calm tensions and bring both on board with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) connection between them, or offer to mediate between the Maldivian government and the opposition, it wasn’t just breaking with its past policy of ignoring political dynamics in countries it invests in. Beijing is now taking on a role New Delhi should have been in a better position to play, and by refusing to play it Delhi is being shown up as unfeeling, partisan or, worse, ineffective in the bargain.
The third issue is that the Modi government’s decision to use hard power tactics in the
neighbourhood has had a boomerang effect. Theoretically, given its central location in South
Asia and being the largest geographically and economically, India should be expected to hold
greater sway over each of its neighbours. However, the “surgical strikes” on Pakistan of 2016
have been followed by a greater number of ceasefire violations and cross-border infiltration on
the Line of Control. The 2015 Nepal blockade and a subsequent cut in Indian aid channelled
through the government did not force the Nepali government to amend its constitution as
intended, and the subsequent merger of Mr. Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (UML) with
Prachanda’s CPN(Maoist) is seen as a reversal of India’s influence there.
Mr. Modi’s decision to abruptly cancel his visit to Male in 2015 did not yield the required
changes in the government’s treatment of the opposition, and New Delhi’s dire warnings about
Mr. Yameen’s emergency in the past month have led to the Maldives cancelling its participation
in the Indian Navy’s “Milan” exercises. Even in Bangladesh, the Indian Army chief, General
Bipin Rawat’s tough talking last week about immigration has drawn ire there, with Bangladesh’s
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan describing the remarks as untrue, unfounded and not
helpful.
While many of these factors are hard to reverse, the fundamental facts of geography and
shared cultures in South Asia are also undeniable, and India must focus its efforts to return to a
more comfortable peace, and to “Making the Neighbourhood First Again”.
Time for reversal To begin with, despite conventional wisdom on the benefits of hard power and realpolitik, India’s most potent tool is its soft power. Its successes in Bhutan and Afghanistan, for example, have much more to do with its development assistance than its defence assistance. It’s heartening, therefore, that after sharp drops in 2016 (of 36%) and 2017 (of 19%) year on year, the budget allocations for South Asia have seen an increase (of 6%) in 2018. After the Doklam crisis was defused in 2017, India also moved swiftly to resolve differences with Bhutan on hydropower pricing, and this February it announced a tariff hike for
energy from Bhutan’s Chhukha project, the first in several years.
Next, instead of opposing every project by China in the region, the government must attempt a threepronged approach. First, where possible, India should collaborate with China in the manner it has over the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic corridor. Second, when it feels a project is a threat to its interests, India should make a counter-offer to the project, if necessary in collaboration with its Quadrilateral partners, Japan, the U.S. and Australia. Third, India should coexist with projects that do not necessitate intervention, while formulating a set of South Asian principles for sustainable development assistance that can be used across the region. This will all only be possible if India and China reset bilateral ties, which have seen a marked slide over the past few years. It is noteworthy that the government appears to have started this process with Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s recent visit to Beijing.
Learning from ASEAN
It will also be impossible to renew the compact with the neighbours without
reviving the SAARC process. In their book The ASEAN Miracle, Kishore
Mahbubani and Jeffery Sng describe in detail the need for SAARC to learn from
the success of ASEAN. Mr. Mahbubani suggests that leaders of SAARC
countries meet more often informally, that they interfere less in the internal
workings of each other’s governments, and that there be more interaction at
every level of government. They also say that just as Indonesia, the biggest
economy in the ASEAN, allowed smaller countries such as Singapore to take
the lead, India too must take a back seat in decision-making, enabling others to
build a more harmonious SAARC process.
“It is much safer to be feared than to be loved,” wrote Niccolo Machiavelli,
“when one of the two must be wanting.” The government’s challenge is to steer
India towards a course where it is both feared and loved in appropriate
measure, and away from a situation in which it is neither feared nor loved.
Q3) Consider the following statements :
A) An electoral bond is designed to be a bearer instrument like a
Promissory Note that is payable to the bearer on demand and free of
interest
B) So far, all donations above ₹50,000 were disclosed to the Election
Commission
C) Donors can donate the bonds to their party of choice which can then
be cashed in via the party’s verified account within 30 days.
Options:
A) All are correct
B) A & B are correct
C) Only A is correct
D) Only C is correct
Q4) Consider the following statements :
A) SFIO stands for the Severe Fraud Investigation Office , a fraud
investigating agency in India.
B) SFIO is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance
C) The agency has 4 regional offices in Hyderabad, Mumbai,
Kolkata and Chennai
Options:
1) All are correct
2) Only B is correct
3) A & B are correct
4) Only C is correct
Q5) So far Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has signed Memorandum of
Understandings (MoUs) with which Public Service Commission of other countries?
A) Mauritius
B) Canada
C) Bhutan
D) Myanmar
Options
1) A, B & C are correct
2) B , C & D are correct
3) A, C & D are correct
4) All are correct
Q6) Consider the following statements :
A) Kolkata has world’s largest organic ‘sewage treatment plant’, the East Kolkata
wetland
B) This Wetland of Kolkata has the capacity to treat 750 million liters of wastewater
per day.
C) Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica
Options
1) A & C are correct
2) All are correct
3) B & C are correct
4) A & B are correct
Q7) Consider the following statements :
A) Today, in India, approximately 35 crore women menstruate and it is estimated that
only 12 percent use proper menstrual hygiene practices and menstrual products
B) International Women’s Day 2018 theme was “Time is Now: Rural and urban
activists transforming women’s lives”
C) Women’s Day was first observed on February 28, 1909 in New York.
Options:
1) A & C are correct
2) A & B are correct
3) All are correct
4) B & C are correct
Q8) Match the following : Portals Cause
A) Udyam Shakti Portal 1) details on 350 different schemes for
women
B) NARI portal 2) For teachers
C) Diksha Portal 3) Women Entrepreneurs
D) ShaGun 4) Elementary Education sector of India by
continuous monitoring of the flagship
scheme – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
Options:
1) A-4, B – 2, C – 3, D – 1 2) A – 3, B – 1, C – 2 , D – 4
3) A – 1, B – 3, C – 2, D -4 4) A – 2, B – 4, C – 1, D -4
Q9) Consider the following statements :
A) Delirium, or an acute state of confusion, occurs commonly in the
youngsters
B) Delirium could be linked to abnormally low levels of sodium.
C) For patients with sundowning syndrome, a multitude of behavioral
problems begin to occur in the evening or while the sun is setting.
Options
1) All are correct
2) A & C are correct
3) B & C are correct
4) A & B are correct
Q10) Consider the following statements, according to Airport Service Quality (ASQ)
ranking:
A) Singapore Changi Airport won the best airport award for passenger service under
the category of airports handling over 40 million passengers per annum (mppa)
B) Delhi Airport is managed by GMR group and Mumbai airport is managed by GVK
group
C) Delhi airport is now the seventh-busiest airport in Asia and among the top 20
busiest airports across the world.
Options :
1) All are correct
2) A & C are correct
3) B & C are correct
4) Only B
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