IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Nov 13 & 14, 2015

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:
- The Bank for International Settlements is an international company limited by shares owned by central banks
- Its aim is to fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks.
- It also provides banking services, but only to central banks and other international organizations.
- It is based in Basel, Switzerland, with representative offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:
- Raghuram Rajan, Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has been elected vice-chairman of the Bank of International Settlement (BIS).
- The board of directors elects a chairman and a vice-chairman from among its members each for a three-year term.
- Nine governors of other member central banks may be elected to the board.
- The BIS board meets at least six times a year.

ANSWER: 1,4,5

Explanation:
- Special drawing rights (XDR or SDR) are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- Their value is based on a basket of key international currencies reviewed by IMF every five years.
- Based on the latest review conducted on December 30, 2010, the XDR basket consists of the following four currencies: U.S. dollars ($), euro (€), pounds sterling (£), and Japanese yen (¥): 9.4 percent (compared with 11 percent at the 2005 review).
- The weights assigned to each currency in the XDR basket are adjusted to take into account their current prominence in terms of international trade and national foreign exchange reserves.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
- The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system.
- It was established after the 2009 G-20 London summit in April 2009 as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF).
- The Board includes all G-20 major economies, FSF members, and the European Commission.
- It is based in Basel, Switzerland.
- Mark Carney , Governor of the Bank of England and former Governor of the Bank of Canada is current chairman of Financial Stability Board.
- Financial Stability Forum (FSF), a group of finance ministries, central bankers, and international financial bodies.
- The FSF was founded in 1999 to promote international financial stability, after discussions among Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G7 countries, and a study which they commissioned.
- The FSF facilitated discussion and co-operation on supervision and surveillance of financial institutions, transactions, and events.

ANSWER: None

Explanation:
- Basel III is a global, voluntary regulatory framework on bank capital adequacy, stress testing and market liquidity risk.
- It was agreed upon by the members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 2010–11, and was scheduled to be introduced from 2013 until 2015; however, changes from 1 April 2013 extended implementation until 31 March 2018 and again extended to 31 March 2019.
- The third installment of the Basel Accords (see Basel I, Basel II) was developed in response to the deficiencies in financial regulation revealed by the financial crisis of 2007–08.
- Basel III was supposed to strengthen bank capital requirements by increasing bank liquidity and decreasing bank leverage.

ANSWER: FDI allowed up to 49% under the automatic route

Explanation:
- Foreign investment up to 49% has been allowed under automatic route from the earlier government approved route.
- Proposals for foreign investment in excess of 49% will be considered by FIPB.

ANSWER: None

Explanation:
- FDI limit in news channels has been hiked from 26% to 49%.
- In the non-news category, now FDI up to 100% has been allowed without the government’s approval.
- The FDI limit in DTH (direct-to-home) and cable networks has been increased to 100%. Earlier, the limit was 74% in DTH services.

ANSWER: All

Explanation:
- The government has opened plantation activities in coffee, rubber, cardamom, palm oil tree and olive oil tree to 100% FDI. Right now, only tea plantations are open to foreign investment.
- The term Plantation crops refers to those crops which are cultivated on an extensive scale in a large contiguous area, owned and managed by an Individual or a company.
- The crops include tea, coffee, rubber, cocoa, coconut, arecanut, oil palm, palmyrah, cashew, cinchona, cotton, Sugar cane, Tobacco etc.
- These plantation crops are high value commercial crops of greater economic importance and play a vital role in our Indian economy.
- Plantation industry supports many by-product industries and also many rural industries.
- The area and production is more in Kerala followed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
- Single-brand retail firms also have been allowed to sell products through e-commerce, subject to government approval.
- Manufacturers have been permitted to sell their products through wholesale/retail – including through e-commerce.
- Also, a single entity has also been allowed to carry out business in wholesale/cash & carry and single-brand retail.

ANSWER: National Payments Corporation of India

Explanation:
- Rupay card is launched by launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
- It was created to fulfill the Reserve Bank of India’s desire to have a domestic, open loop, and multilateral system of payments in India.
- RuPay facilitates electronic payment at all Indian banks and financial institutions, and competes with MasterCard and Visa in India.
- NPCI maintains ties with Discover Financial to enable the card scheme to gain international acceptance