Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 1
NATIONAL
UNION BUDGET
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget 2016
speech stressed on Indian economy's resilience
amidst the current global economic turmoil.
"Global economy is in a serious crisis. Financial
markets have been battered but Indian economy
has held its ground firmly."
"IMF has hailed India as a bright spot. Let us look
at our achievements compared to the last three
years of the last government. We inherited an
economy with low growth and high inflation,"
Jaitley said.
"We have bridged the trust deficit created by the
previous government," Jaitley added. We take a
look at highlights from his speech:
Introduction
> Growth of Economy accelerated to 7.6 per cent
in 2015-16.
> India hailed as a 'bright spot' amidst a slowing
global economy by IMF.
> Robust growth achieved despite very
unfavourable global conditions and two
consecutive years shortfall in monsoon by 13 per
cent
> Foreign exchange reserves touched highest ever
level of about 350 billion US dollars.
> Despite increased devolution to States by 55 per
cent as a result of the 14th Finance Commission
award, plan expenditure increased at RE stage in
2015-16 - in contrast to earlier years.
Challenges in 2016-17
> Risks of further global slowdown and
turbulence.
> Additional fiscal burden due to 7th Central Pay
Commission recommendations and OROP.
Roadmap & priorities
> 'Transform India' to have a significant impact on
economy and lives of people.
> Government to focus on:
> ensuring macro-economic stability and prudent
fiscal management.
> boosting on domestic demand
> continuing with the pace of economic reforms
and policy initiatives to change the lives of our
people for the better.
> Focus on enhancing expenditure in priority areas
of - farm and rural sector, social sector,
infrastructure sector employment generation and
recapitalisation of the banks.
> Focus on Vulnerable sections through:
> Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
> New health insurance scheme to protect against
hospitalisation expenditure
> facility of cooking gas connection for BPL
families
> Continue with the ongoing reform programme
and ensure passage of the Goods and Service Tax
bill and Insolvency and Bankruptcy law
> Undertake important reforms by:
> giving a statutory backing to AADHAR platform
to ensure benefits reach the deserving.
> freeing the transport sector from constraints and
restrictions
> incentivising gas discovery and exploration by
providing calibrated marketing freedom
> enactment of a comprehensive law to deal with
resolution of financial firms
> provide legal framework for dispute resolution
and re-negotiations in PPP projects and public
utility contracts
> undertake important banking sector reforms and
public listing of general insurance companies
undertake significant changes in FDI policy.
Agriculture and farmers' welfare
> Allocation for Agriculture and Farmers' welfare
is Rs 35,984 crore
> 'Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana' to be
implemented in mission mode. 28.5 lakh hectares
will be brought under irrigation.
> Implementation of 89 irrigation projects under
AIBP, which are languishing for a long time, will
be fast tracked
> A dedicated Long Term Irrigation Fund will be
created in NABARD with an initial corpus of
about Rs 20,000 crore
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 2
> Programme for sustainable management of
ground water resources with an estimated cost of
Rs 6,000 crore will be implemented through
multilateral funding
> 5 lakh farm ponds and dug wells in rain fed
areas and 10 lakh compost pits for production of
organic manure will be taken up under
MGNREGA
> Soil Health Card scheme will cover all 14 crore
farm holdings by March 2017.
> 2,000 model retail outlets of Fertilizer
companies will be provided with soil and seed
testing facilities during the next three years
> Promote organic farming through 'Parmparagat
Krishi Vikas Yojana' and 'Organic Value Chain
Development in North East Region'.
> Unified Agricultural Marketing ePlatform to
provide a common e- market platform for
wholesale markets
> Allocation under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak
Yojana increased to Rs 19,000 crore. Will connect
remaining 65,000 eligible habitations by 2019.
> To reduce the burden of loan repayment on
farmers, a provision of Rs 15,000 crore has been
made in the BE 2016-17 towards interest
subvention
> Allocation under Prime Minister Fasal Bima
Yojana Rs 5,500 crore.
> Rs 850 crore for four dairying projects -
'Pashudhan Sanjivani', 'Nakul Swasthya Patra', 'E-
Pashudhan Haat' and National Genomic Centre for
indigenous breeds
Rural sector
> Allocation for rural sector - Rs 87,765 crore.
> Rs 2.87 lakh crore will be given as Grant in Aid
to Gram Panchayats and Municipalities as per the
recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission
> Every block under drought and rural distress will
be taken up as an intensive Block under the Deen
Dayal Antyodaya Mission
> A sum of Rs 38,500 crore allocated for
MGNREGS.
> 300 Rurban Clusters will be developed under the
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission
> 100 per cent village electrification by 1st May,
2018.
> District Level Committees under Chairmanship
of senior most Lok Sabha MP from the district for
monitoring and implementation of designated
Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
> Priority allocation from Centrally Sponsored
Schemes to be made to reward villages that have
become free from open defecation.
> A new Digital Literacy Mission Scheme for rural
India to cover around 6 crore additional household
within the next 3 years.
> National Land Record Modernisation
Programme has been revamped.
> New scheme Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan
proposed with allocation of Rs 655 crore.
Social sector including health care
> Allocation for social sector including education
and health care - Rs 1,51,581 crore.
> Rs 2,000 crore allocated for initial cost of
providing LPG connections to BPL families.
> New health protection scheme will provide
health cover up to Rs One lakh per family. For
senior citizens an additional top-up package up to
Rs 30,000 will be provided.
> 3,000 Stores under Prime Minister's Jan
Aushadhi Yojana will be opened during 2016-17.
> 'National Dialysis Services Programme' to be
started under National Health Mission through
PPP mode
> "Stand Up India Scheme" to facilitate at least
two projects per bank branch. This will benefit at
least 2.5 lakh entrepreneurs.
> National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe
Hub to be set up in partnership with industry
associations
> Allocation of Rs 100 crore each for celebrating
the Birth Centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal
Upadhyay and the 350th Birth Anniversary of
Guru Gobind Singh.
Education, skills and job creation
> 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas will be opened
> Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to increasing focus on
quality of education
> Regulatory architecture to be provided to ten
public and ten private institutions to emerge as
world-class Teaching and Research Institutions
> Higher Education Financing Agency to be set-up
with initial capital base of Rs 1000 Crores
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 3
> Digital Depository for School Leaving
Certificates, College Degrees, Academic Awards
and Mark sheets to be set-up.
Skill development
> Allocation for skill development - Rs 1804
crore.
> 1500 Multi Skill Training Institutes to be set-up.
> National Board for Skill Development
Certification to be setup in partnership with the
industry and academia
> Entrepreneurship Education and Training
through Massive Open Online Courses
Job creation
> GoI will pay contribution of 8.33 per cent for of
all new employees enrolling in EPFO for the first
three years of their employment. Budget provision
of Rs 1000 crore for this scheme.
> Deduction under Section 80JJAA of the Income
Tax Act will be available to all assesses who are
subject to statutory audit under the Act
> 100 Model Career Centres to operational by the
end of 2016-17 under National Career Service.
> Model Shops and Establishments Bill to be
circulated to States.
Infrastructure and investment
> Total investment in the road sector, including
PMGSY allocation, would be Rs 97,000 crore
during 2016-17.
> India's highest ever kilometres of new highways
were awarded in 2015. To approve nearly 10,000
kms of National Highways in 2016-17.
> Allocation of Rs 55,000 crore in the Budget for
Roads. Additional Rs 15,000 crore to be raised by
NHAI through bonds.
> Total outlay for infrastructure - Rs 2,21,246
crore.
> Amendments to be made in Motor Vehicles Act
to open up the road transport sector in the
passenger segment
> Action plan for revival of unserved and
underserved airports to be drawn up in partnership
with State Governments.
> To provide calibrated marketing freedom in
order to incentivise gas production from deep-
water, ultra deep-water and high pressure-high
temperature areas
> Comprehensive plan, spanning next 15 to 20
years, to augment the investment in nuclear power
generation to be drawn up.
> Steps to re-vitalise PPPs:
> Public Utility (Resolution of Disputes) Bill will
be introduced during 2016-17
> Guidelines for renegotiation of PPP Concession
Agreements will be issued
> New credit rating system for infrastructure
projects to be introduced
> Reforms in FDI policy in the areas of Insurance
and Pension, Asset Reconstruction Companies,
Stock Exchanges.
> 100 per cent FDI to be allowed through FIPB
route in marketing of food products produced and
manufactured in India.
> A new policy for management of Government
investment in Public Sector Enterprises, including
disinvestment and strategic sale, approved.
Financial sector reforms
> A comprehensive Code on Resolution of
Financial Firms to be introduced.
> Statutory basis for a Monetary Policy framework
and a Monetary Policy Committee through the
Finance Bill 2016.
> A Financial Data Management Centre to be set
up.
> RBI to facilitate retail participation in
Government securities.
> New derivative products will be developed by
SEBI in the Commodity Derivatives market.
> Amendments in the SARFAESI Act 2002 to
enable the sponsor of an ARC to hold up to 100
per cent stake in the ARC and permit non
institutional investors to invest in Securitization
Receipts.
> Comprehensive Central Legislation to be bought
to deal with the menace of illicit deposit taking
schemes.
> Increasing members and benches of the
Securities Appellate Tribunal.
> Allocation of Rs 25,000 crore towards
recapitalisation of Public Sector Banks.
> Target of amount sanctioned under Pradhan
Mantri Mudra Yojana increased to Rs 1,80,000
crore.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 4
> General Insurance Companies owned by the
Government to be listed in the stock exchanges.
Governance and ease of doing business
> A Task Force has been constituted for
rationalisation of human resources in various
Ministries.
> Comprehensive review and rationalisation of
Autonomous Bodies.
> Bill for Targeted Delivery of Financial and
Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services by using
the Aadhar framework to be introduced.
> Introduce DBT on pilot basis for fertilizer.
> Automation facilities will be provided in 3 lakh
fair price shops by March 2017.
> Amendments in Companies Act to improve
enabling environment for start-ups.
> Price Stabilisation Fund with a corpus of Rs 900
crore to help maintain stable prices of Pulses.
> "Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat" programme will
be launched to link States and Districts in an
annual programme that connects people through
exchanges in areas of language, trade, culture,
travel and tourism.
Fiscal discipline
> Fiscal deficit in RE 2015-16 and BE 2016-17
retained at 3.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent.
> Revenue Deficit target from 2.8 pecent to 2.5 per
cent in RE 2015-16
> Total expenditure projected at Rs 19.78 lakh
crore
> Plan expenditure pegged at Rs 5.50 lakh crore
under Plan, increase of 15.3 per cent
> Non-Plan expenditure kept at Rs 14.28 lakh
crores
> Special emphasis to sectors such as agriculture,
irrigation, social sector including health, women
and child development, welfare of Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes, minorities,
infrastructure.
> Mobilisation of additional finances to the extent
of Rs 31,300 crore by NHAI, PFC, REC, IREDA,
NABARD and Inland Water Authority by raising
Bonds.
> Plan / Non-Plan classification to be done away
with from 2017-18.
> Every new scheme sanctioned will have a sunset
date and outcome review.
> Rationalised and restructured more than 1500
Central Plan Schemes into about 300 Central
Sector and 30 Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
> Committee to review the implementation of the
FRBM Act.
Relief to small tax payers
> Raise the ceiling of tax rebate under section 87A
from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 to lessen tax burden on
individuals with income upto Rs5 lakhs.
> Increase the limit of deduction of rent paid under
section 80GG from Rs 24000 per annum to Rs
60000, to provide relief to those who live in rented
houses.
Boost employment and growth
> Increase the turnover limit under Presumptive
taxation scheme under section 44AD of the
Income Tax Act to Rs 2 crores to bring big relief
to a large number of assessees in the MSME
category.
> Extend the presumptive taxation scheme with
profit deemed to be 50 per cent, to professionals
with gross receipts up to Rs 50 lakh.
> Phasing out deduction under Income Tax:
> Accelerated depreciation wherever provided in
IT Act will be limited to maximum 40 per cent
from 1.4.2017
> Benefit of deductions for Research would be
limited to 150 per cent from 1.4.2017 and 100 per
cent from 1.4.2020
> Benefit of section 10AA to new SEZ units will
be available to those units which commence
activity before 31.3.2020.
> The weighted deduction under section 35CCD
for skill development will continue up to 1.4.2020
> Corporate Tax rate proposals:
> New manufacturing companies incorporated on
or after 1.3.2016 to be given an option to be taxed
at 25 per cent + surcharge and cess provided they
do not claim profit linked or investment linked
deductions and do not avail of investment
allowance and accelerated depreciation.
> Lower the corporate tax rate for the next
financial year for relatively small enterprises i.e
companies with turnover not exceeding Rs 5 crore
(in the financial year ending March 2015), to 29
per cent plus surcharge and cess.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 5
> 100 per cent deduction of profits for 3 out of 5
years for startups setup during April, 2016 to
March, 2019. MAT will apply in such cases.
> 10 per cent rate of tax on income from
worldwide exploitation of patents developed and
registered in India by a resident.
> Complete pass through of income-tax to
securitization trusts including trusts of ARCs.
Securitisation trusts required to deduct tax at
source.
> Period for getting benefit of long term capital
gain regime in case of unlisted companies is
proposed to be reduced from three to two years.
> Non-banking financial companies shall be
eligible for deduction to the extent of 5 per cent of
its income in respect of provision for bad and
doubtful debts.
> Determination of residency of foreign company
on the basis of Place of Effective Management
(POEM) is proposed to be deferred by one year.
> Commitment to implement General Anti
Avoidance Rules (GAAR) from 1.4.2017.
> Exemption of service tax on services provided
under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya
Yojana and services provided by Assessing Bodies
empanelled by Ministry of Skill Development &
Entrepreneurship.
> Exemption of Service tax on general insurance
services provided under 'Niramaya' Health
Insurance Scheme launched by National Trust for
the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral
Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disability.
> Basic custom and excise duty on refrigerated
containers reduced to 5 per cent and 6 per cent.
Make in India
> Changes in customs and excise duty rates on
certain inputs to reduce costs and improve
competitiveness of domestic industry in sectors
like Information technology hardware, capital
goods, defence production, textiles, mineral fuels
& mineral oils, chemicals & petrochemicals,
paper, paperboard & newsprint, Maintenance
repair and overhauling [MRO] of aircrafts and ship
repair.
Moving towards a pensioned society
> Withdrawal up to 40 per cent of the corpus at the
time of retirement to be tax exempt in the case of
National Pension Scheme (NPS). Annuity fund
which goes to legal heir will not be taxable.
> In case of superannuation funds and recognized
provident funds, including EPF, the same norm of
40 per cent of corpus to be tax free will apply in
respect of corpus created out of contributions
made on or from 1.4.2016.
> Limit for contribution of employer in recognized
Provident and Superannuation Fund of Rs 1.5 lakh
per annum for taking tax benefit. Exemption from
service tax for Annuity services provided by NPS
and Services provided by EPFO to employees.
> Reduce service tax on Single premium Annuity
(Insurance) Policies from 3.5 per cent to 1.4 per
cent of the premium paid in certain cases.
Promoting affordable housing
> 100 per cent deduction for profits to an
undertaking in housing project for flats upto 30 sq.
metres in four metro cities and 60 sq. metres in
other cities, approved during June 2016 to March
2019 and completed in three years. MAT to apply.
> Deduction for additional interest of Rs50,000 per
annum for loans up to Rs35 lakh sanctioned in
2016-17 for first time home buyers, where house
cost does not exceed Rs 50 lakh.
> Distribution made out of income of SPV to the
REITs and INVITs having specified shareholding
will not be subjected to Dividend Distribution Tax,
in respect of dividend distributed after the
specified date.
> Exemption from service tax on construction of
affordable houses up to 60 square metres under
any scheme of the Central or State Government
including PPP Schemes.
> Extend excise duty exemption, presently
available to Concrete Mix manufactured at site for
use in construction work to Ready Mix Concrete.
Resource mobilization for agriculture, rural
economy and clean environment
> Additional tax at the rate of 10 per cent of gross
amount of dividend will be payable by the
recipients receiving dividend in excess of Rs 10
lakh per annum.
> Surcharge to be raised from 12 per cent to 15 per
cent on persons, other than companies, firms and
cooperative societies having income above Rs 1
crore.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 6
> Tax to be deducted at source at the rate of 1 per
cent on purchase of luxury cars exceeding value of
Rs ten lakh and purchase of goods and services in
cash exceeding Rs two lakh.
> Securities Transaction tax in case of 'Options' is
proposed to be increased from .017 per cent to .05
per cent.
> Equalization levy of 6 per cent of gross amount
for payment made to non- residents exceeding Rs
1 lakh a year in case of B2B transactions.
> Krishi Kalyan Cess, @0.5 per cent on all taxable
services, w.e.f. 1 June 2016. Proceeds would be
exclusively used for financing initiatives for
improvement of agriculture and welfare of
farmers. Input tax credit of this cess will be
available for payment of this cess.
> Infrastructure cess, of 1 per cent on small petrol,
LPG, CNG cars, 2.5 per cent on diesel cars of
certain capacity and 4 per cent on other higher
engine capacity vehicles and SUVs. No credit of
this cess will be available nor credit of any other
tax or duty be utilized for paying this cess.
> Excise duty of 1 per cent without input tax credit
or 12.5 per cent with input tax credit' on articles of
jewellery [excluding silver jewellery, other than
studded with diamonds and some other precious
stones], with a higher exemption and eligibility
limits of Rs 6 crores and Rs 12 crores respectively.
> Excise on readymade garments with retail price
of Rs 1000 or more raised to 2 per cent without
input tax credit or 12.5 per cent with input tax
credit.
> 'Clean Energy Cess' levied on coal, lignite and
peat renamed to 'Clean Environment Cess' and rate
increased from Rs200 per tonne to Rs400 per
tonne.
> Excise duties on various tobacco products other
than beedi raised by about 10 to 15 per cent.
> Assignment of right to use the spectrum and its
transfers has been deducted as a service leviable to
service tax and not sale of intangible goods.
Providing certainity in taxation
> Committed to providing a stable and predictable
taxation regime and reduce black money.
> Domestic taxpayers can declare undisclosed
income or such income represented in the form of
any asset by paying tax at 30 per cent, and
surcharge at 7.5 per cent and penalty at 7.5 per
cent, which is a total of 45 per cent of the
undisclosed income. Declarants will have
immunity from prosecution.
> Surcharge levied at 7.5 per cent of undisclosed
income will be called Krishi Kalyan surcharge to
be used for agriculture and rural economy.
> New Dispute Resolution Scheme to be
introduced. No penalty in respect of cases with
disputed tax up to Rs 10 lakh. Cases with disputed
tax exceeding Rs 10 lakh to be subjected to 25 per
cent of the minimum of the imposable penalty.
Any pending appeal against a penalty order can
also be settled by paying 25 per cent of the
minimum of the imposable penalty and tax interest
on quantum addition.
> High Level Committee chaired by Revenue
Secretary to oversee fresh cases where assessing
officer applies the retrospective amendment.
> One-time scheme of Dispute Resolution for
ongoing cases under retrospective amendment.
> Penalty rates to be 50 per cent of tax in case of
underreporting of income and 200 per cent of tax
where there is misreporting of facts.
> Disallowance will be limited to 1 per cent of the
average monthly value of investments yielding
exempt income, but not exceeding the actual
expenditure claimed under rule 8D of Section 14A
of Income Tax Act.
> Time limit of one year for disposing petitions of
the tax payers seeking waiver of interest and
penalty.
> Mandatory for the assessing officer to grant stay
of demand once the assesse pays 15 per cent of the
disputed demand, while the appeal is pending
before Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals).
> Monetary limit for deciding an appeal by a
single member Bench of ITAT enhanced from Rs
15 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs.
> 11 new benches of Customs, Excise and Service
Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT).
Simplification and rationalization of taxes
> 13 cesses, levied by various Ministries in which
revenue collection is less than Rs 50 crore in a
year to be abolished.
> For non-residents providing alternative
documents to PAN card, higher TDS not to apply.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 7
> Revision of return extended to Central Excise
assesses.
> Additional options to banking companies and
financial institutions, including NBFCs, for
reversal of input tax credits with respect to non-
taxable services.
> Customs Act to provide for deferred payment of
customs duties for importers and exporters with
proven track record.
> Customs Single Window Project to be
implemented at major ports and airports starting
from beginning of next financial year.
> Increase in free baggage allowance for
international passengers. Filing of baggage only
for those carrying dutiable goods.
Technology for accountability
> Expansion in the scope of e-assessments to all
assessees in 7 mega cities in the coming years.
> Interest at the rate of 9 per cent p.a against
normal rate of 6 per cent p.a for delay in giving
effect to Appellate order beyond ninety days.
> 'e-Sahyog' to be expanded to reduce compliance
cost, especially for small taxpayers.
Union Health Minister launched National
Framework for Elimination of Malaria
2016-2030
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat
Prakash Nadda on 11 February 2016 released the
National Framework for Malaria Elimination
(NFME) 2016-2030 at New Delhi. The framework
outlines India‘s strategy for elimination of the
disease by 2030. NFME document defines goals,
objectives, strategies, targets and timelines to
eliminate malaria from the country. It will serve as
a roadmap for advocating and planning malaria
elimination from the country in a phased manner.
The objectives of the NFME are to
• Eliminate malaria from all low (Category 1) and
moderate (Category 2) endemic states/UTs (26) by
2022
• Reduce incidence of malaria to less than 1 case
per 1000 population in all States/UTs and the
districts and malaria elimination in 31 states/UTs
by 2024
• Interrupt indigenous transmission of malaria in
all States/ UTs (Category 3) by 2027
• Prevent re-establishment of local transmission of
malaria in areas where it has been eliminated and
to maintain malaria-free status of the country by
2030
The milestones and targets are set for 2016, 2020,
2022, 2024, 2027 and 2030 by when the entire
country has sustained zero indigenous cases and
deaths due to malaria for 3 years and initiated the
processes for certification of malaria elimination
status to the country
The NFME 2016-2030 also defines key strategic
approaches such as
• Programme phasing considering the varying
malaria endemicity in the country
• Classification of States/UTs based on API
(Annual Parasite Incidence) as primary criterion
(Category 0: Prevention of re-introduction phase;
Category 1: Elimination phase; Category 2: Pre-
elimination phase; Category 3: Intensified control
phase)
• District as the unit of planning and
implementation
• Focus on high endemic areas
• Special strategy for P. vivax elimination
An enabled environment and necessary resources
would remain critical to realize the objectives in
the pathway to malaria elimination.
Expectations from States/Union Territories
• By the end of 2016, all states/UTs are expected
to include malaria elimination in their broader
health policies and planning framework
• By the end of 2017, all states are expected to
bring down API to less than 1 per thousand
population
• By the end of 2020, 15 states/UTs under category
1 (elimination phase) are expected to interrupt
transmission of malaria and achieve zero
indigenous cases and deaths due to malaria
• It is also envisaged that in states with relatively
good capacity and health infrastructure, such as,
Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, accelerated
efforts may usher malaria elimination sooner -
within two to three years
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 8
• As per the targets under the 12th Five Year Plan,
the country is to achieve API<1 at state and district
level by 2017 and pave way to malaria elimination
in subsequent years
Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North-East
released
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for
Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan
on 9 February 2016 released the Hydrocarbon
Vision 2030 for north-east India. The Union
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has
consciously and constantly focused efforts towards
making hydrocarbons a tool to enable social and
economic development. One such initiative has
been the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North East
Region. It undertook series of consultations with
the state governments while drafting the vision
document. While, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory
has been the knowledge partner to develop the
Vision report. The states covered under this vision
are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur,
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and
Tripura.
Main Features of the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030
• It outlines the steps to leverage the hydrocarbon
sector for development of the region in Guwahati.
• It is focused and consultative exercise to develop
a common and shared aspiration for benefiting
people of the north east region with involvement
and inputs of various stakeholders, industry
players and state governments.
• It not only includes the ambition for the region
but also an actionable roadmap.
• The objectives of the plan are to leverage the
region‘s hydrocarbon potential, enhance access to
clean fuels, improve availability of petroleum
products, facilitate economic development and to
link common people to the economic activities in
this sector.
• It rests on five pillars: People, Policy,
Partnership, Projects and Production.
• People: It foresees clean fuel access to
households alongside fostering skill development
and involvement of the local community.
• Policy: It focuses on moderation in light of
specific terrain and weather conditions of the
region coupled with ensuring fund planning for
new projects.
• Partnership: The stress is on greater involvement
of state governments in planning and
implementation, and on boosting trade with
neighbouring nations.
• Projects: The focus is on pipeline connectivity
for carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG),
natural gas, and petroleum products, oil and
lubricants (POL); building refineries and import
links; and development of compressed natural gas
(CNG) highways and city gas distribution
network.
• Production: It emphases include production
enhancement contracts, technology deployment
and fast-track clearance, and development of
service provider hubs.
• It aims at doubling Oil and Gas production by
2030, making clean fuels accessible, fast tracking
projects, generating employment opportunities and
promoting cooperation with neighbouring
countries.
DGCA signed grant agreement with
USTDA for India Aviation Safety
Technical Assistance Phase II
India‘s the Directorate General of Civil Aviation
(DGCA) and United States Technical
Development Agency (USTDA) were on 9
February 2016 signed the grant agreement for
India Aviation Safety Technical Assistance Phase
II in New Delhi. The phase II of the project is
aimed at sustaining efforts undertaken during 2014
for restoration of IASA Category 1 status and
bringing in more systemic improvements in the
area of operation, airworthiness and licensing. It
will include components on general aviation and
business aviation.
The International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) had raised certain safety concerns about
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 9
Indian aviation in its 2012 audit. Following this
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of
USA carried out an International Aviation Safety
Assessment (IASA) audit in September 2013 and a
review in December 2013. India was assigned
Category 2 rating in January 2014. In March 2014,
United States Technical Development Agency
(USTDA) in coordination with FAA approached
DGCA and offered assistance under a USTDA
Grant Agreement project to address the FAA
IASA findings and help restore Category 1 status
to India. Under the Grant Agreement, US based
Contractor ‗The Wicks Group‘(TWG) assisted
DGCA in addressing the findings and prepared for
a reassessment by FAA in December 2014. Based
on this reassessment and a follow-up visit in
March 2015, India‘s Category 1 status was
restored in April 2015.
TRAI issued Prohibition of Discriminatory
Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on
8 February 2016 issued the Prohibition of
Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services
Regulations, 2016. This would disallow service
providers to offer or charge discriminatory tariffs
for data services on the basis of content being
accessed by a consumer. The Authority issued the
Regulations:
• Aimed at ensuring that consumers get an
unhindered and non-discriminatory access to the
internet; and
• Intend to make data tariffs for access to the
internet non discriminatory on the basis of the
content.
The Authority also mandated the following:
• No service provider shall offer or charge
discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis
of content.
• No service provider shall enter into any
arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever
name called, with any person, natural or legal, that
has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data
services being offered or charged by the service
provider for the purpose of evading the prohibition
in this regulation.
• Reduced tariff for accessing or providing
emergency services at times of public emergency
has been permitted.
• Financial disincentives for contravention of the
regulation have also been specified.
TRAI will keep a close watch on the
implementation of the mandate by the service
providers and may undertake a review after two
years or at an earlier date as it may deem fit.
Union Government launched 24x7 toll free
Tourist Infoline in 12 International
Languages
Union government on 8 February 2016 launched
the 24x7 Toll Free Tourist Infoline in 12
International Languages including Hindi and
English in New Delhi. The languages handled by
the contact centers include ten International
languages besides English and Hindi, namely,
Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. This
project is being implemented by the Union
Ministry of Tourism through M/s TATA BSS who
have been associated with the work after open
bidding process. This Infoline service will provide
information relating to Travel and Tourism in
India to the domestic and International tourists or
visitors. And it will assist the callers with advice
on action to be taken during times of distress while
travelling in India and if need be alert the
concerned authorities. The calls made by tourists
both international and domestic while in India will
be free of charge and can seek help and
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 10
information for a hassle free experience. The
international tourists in India and also international
callers who speak the aforesaid languages will be
directed to the call agents proficient in the
respective language. This service will primarily
serve those who know very little about India or
about travel within India, and those who do not
understand Indian systems and often not even
English.
Project Sunrise to improve HIV
interventions among PWID in North-
Eastern states launched
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare
Jagat Prakash Nadda on 6 February 2016 launched
the Project Sunrise in Imphal, Manipur. The
project seeks to improve interventions against
human immunodeficiency virus infection and
acquired immune deficiency syndrome
(HIV/AIDS) among People Who Inject Drugs
(PWID) in eight north east States.
Features of Project Sunrise
• It seeks to improve coverage, quality and scale of
HIV interventions among PWID, Female Injecting
Drug Users (FIDU) and spouses of PWID.
• It is a 5-year programme aimed at
complementing the ongoing National AIDS
Control Programme (NACP).
• It will be implemented in 20 districts of 8 north
eastern states at an estimated cost of 70 crore
rupees.
• Under the project, needles and syringes will be
made available through secondary distributors
such as Government health care facilities,
preferred healthcare providers, non-traditional
outlets and peer volunteers,
• It includes lower threshold strategies to improve
Opoid Substitution Therapy (OST), coverage and
sensitization workshops for law enforcing
officials.
• It also includes HIV intervention in prison
settings and will adopt the National Human
Resource reduction strategy.
• It will be implemented in a customized flexible
approach so as to increase the availability and
accessibility to clean needles and syringes.
• Initiatives under the project are to be
implemented through the existing system in close
co-ordination with State AIDS Control Societies
(SACS).
Union Government to set up National
Organic Farming Research Institute in
Sikkim
The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers
Welfare on 5 February 2016 decided to set up the
National Organic Farming Research Institute in
Sikkim. The institute will be established by
upgrading the existing Regional Centre of the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in
Gangtok. The setting up of the institute is of
primary importance for Sikkim as it was declared
as the first organic farming State in the country in
January 2016 by the Prime Minister Narendra
Modi.
PM Narendra Modi launched Rurban
Mission in Chhattisgarh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 February
2016 launched Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
National Rurban Mission. The mission was
launched from Kurubhat village in Dongargarh
block of Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh. The
Rurban Mission seeks to develop smart village on
the line of smart cities and reduce the burden of
migration to the cities through adopting ‗cluster
approach‘.
Under the Mission, Murmunda village cluster in
Rajnandgaon will cater 16 village panchayats. In
the first stage, four districts - Rajnandgaon,
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 11
Dhamtari, Kabirdham and Bastar of the state will
be covered under the scheme. These clusters will
be developed at an investment of 120 crore rupees.
Besides, the prime minster also launched Jan
Aushadhi Medical Store project under which 100
generic medicines stores will be opened at
government district hospitals and community
health centres. These stores will help people to buy
medicines at cheaper rates.
Further, he also laid down the foundation stone of
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana –Housing for All
(Urban) at the Naya Raipur, the new capital of
Chhattisgarh. The Yojana was launched on 25
June 2015.
Modi also felicitated Kuwar Bai, 104-year-old
woman of island-like Barari village of Dhamtari
district, for building toilets. Bai sold off her goats
to build toilet at her home and inspired the whole
village to build toilets at Dhamtari district.
Union Cabinet approved proposal to
establish Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)
and SETU in NITI Aayog
Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on 24 February 2016 gave its nod
for a proposal to establish Atal Innovation Mission
(AIM) and Self Employment and Talent
Utilisation (SETU) in NITI Aayog with
appropriate manpower. It was observed that AIM
is a mission and SETU is an approach to
encourage innovation ecosystem and
entrepreneurship. The proposed Mission activities
will be implemented in a focused manner with the
establishment of AIM and AIM Directorate.
Features of the Mission
• Mission High Level Committee (MHLC) would
guide the Mission to take all decisions relating to
approval of requisite guidelines which include
Grand Challenge areas, prize money and
implementation of various elements of AIM and
SETU.
• Mission Director and other appropriate
manpower will be hired by NITI Aayog.
• They will be established with an initial sum of
500 crore rupees and 1000 crore rupees
respectively.
• New Delhi will be headquarters to the Mission.
Background
The AIM and SETU are being initiated as a follow
up of Union Budget 2015-16 announcements.
Expenditure Finance Committee of NITI Aayog
(EFC) considered the proposal on 28 August 2015
and constituted an Expert Committee on
Innovation and Entrepreneurship to work out
detailed contours of AIM and SETU under the
Chairmanship of Prof. Tarun Khanna, Director,
South Asia Institute, Harvard University, USA.
The Committee recommended for the short-term
where action can be taken relatively quickly to
deliver almost immediate payoffs, medium-term
that can be addressed within a 5-7 years time
frame and long-term, which are likely to have long
gestation period, but will lead to a profound
transformation in the entrepreneurial fabric of the
country.
Union Cabinet approved collaboration in
Traditional Medicine between Ministry of
AYUSH and WHO
The Union Cabinet on 17 February 2016 approved
signing of a collaborative agreement between the
Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy,
Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) and
the World Health Organisation (WHO). The
agreement will help the Ministry in leveraging the
WHO‘s potential in improving acceptability and
branding of Ayush systems across the world.
Features of the collaboration
• It will facilitate awareness generation regarding
AYUSH systems of Medicine by means of
education, skill development, workshops and
publications.
• It involves exchange programs between AYUSH
and WHO for capacity building; facilitate
advocacy and dissemination of information on
AYUSH systems amongst the member States.
• It will facilitate collaboration with third Parties
for creating synergies in implementation of WHO
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 12
Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023
particularly in the context of AYUSH systems.
• The expenditure for carrying out collaborative
activities will be met from the allocated budget
under the existing plan schemes of Ministry of
AYUSH.
Amendment to the Delimitation Act, 2002
and Representation of the People Act, 1950
approved
The Union Cabinet on 17 February 2016 gave its
approval to amend Section 11 of the Delimitation
Act, 2002 and Section 9 of the Representation of
the People Act, 1950. This approval will enable
the Election Commission to carry out limited
delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary
Constituencies in the Cooch Behar District of
West Bengal. This became necessary consequent
upon the exchange of 51 Bangladeshi enclaves and
111 Indian enclaves respectively between India
and Bangladesh with effect from 31 July 2015.
This is in pursuance of the Constitution (One
Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015 and also allows
for introduction of a Bill, namely, the Election
Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in Parliament.
In a historic pact between India and Bangladesh,
51 Bangladeshi enclaves (Chhitmahals) in Indian
Territory and 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh
territory were exchanged with effect from 31 July
2015. The move altered the geography and
demography of the district of Cooch Behar in West
Bengal.
With a view to carry out consequential geographic
and demographic alterations vis-à-vis the electoral
mosaic of the affected areas, the Election
Commission requested to amend Section 11 of the
Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 9 of the
Representation of the People Act, 1950. This will
enable them to carry out limited delimitation of
constituencies in the affected areas before the
ensuing State Assembly elections in West Bengal.
Delimitation means the act or process of fixing
limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in
a country or a province having a legislative body.
The job of delimitation is assigned to a high power
body. Such a body is known as Delimitation
Commission or a Boundary Commission. In India,
such Delimitation Commissions have been
constituted 4 times – in 1952 under the
Delimitation Commission Act, 1952, in 1963
under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, in
1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002
under Delimitation Act, 2002. The Delimitation
Commission in India is a high power body whose
orders have the force of law and cannot be called
in question before any court.
VVPAT to be introduced in 10
constituencies in Assam assembly polls
Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), a
method of providing feedback to voters using a
ballot less voting system, was in news on 23
February 2016. It came in news, after Assam‘s
Chief Electoral Officer announced that VVPAT
will be introduced in 10 constituencies (around
2400 polling booths) in upcoming assembly polls.
He said that Dispur and Jalukbari assembly
constituencies in Kamrup Metro district will be
included in the VVPT trial.
VVPAT is intended as an independent verification
system for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)
that allows voters to verify that their votes are cast
as intended and can serve as an additional barrier
to changing or destroying votes. The printer-like
apparatus linked to the Electronic Voting Machine
(EVM) will generate a receipt showing serial
number, name and symbol of the candidate. This
will confirm the voter that his/her vote reached to
the person to whom it was casted.
The receipt, once viewed, goes inside a container
linked to the EVM and can only be accessed by the
election officers in rarest of rare cases. The system
allows a voter to challenge his or her vote on basis
of the paper receipt for the first time. As per a new
rule, the booth presiding officer will have to record
the dissent of the voter, which would have to be
taken into account at time of counting.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 13
The idea of using VVPAT was for the first time
suggested during an All Party Meeting on 4
October 2010. Subsequently, the Union
Government issued a notification on 14 August
2013 amending the Conduct of Election Rules,
1961, to enable the Commission to use VVPAT
with electronic voting machines.
For the first time Voter Verifiable Paper Audit
Trail (VVPAT) with Electronic Voting Machines
was used for the Noksen Assembly seat in
Tuensang district of Nagaland in September 2013.
Former CJI HL Dattu selected as
Chairperson of National Human Rights
Commission
Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Handyala
Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu was selected as the
next Chairperson of National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) on 23 February 2016. 65-
year-old Justice Dattu will have tenure of five
years.
His name was cleared for the post by a committee
headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other
members of the committee were Lok Sabha
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh, leader of Opposition in Rajya
Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Deputy Chairman
of Rajya Sabha P J Kurien.
ECONOMY
Highlights of the Railway Budget 2016-17
Stressing on the need for constant innovation,
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his second
Railway Budget speech said, "We need to
reimagine the conventional ways of solving things.
We plan to do this by drawing upon our inherent
strengths." These are the highlights of the Railway
Budget 2016
Theme of the Budget
Overcoming challenges - Reorganize, Restructure
Rejuvenate Indian Railways: 'Chalo, Milkar Kuch
Naya Karen' Three pillars of the strategy i.e. Nav
Arjan - New revenues, Nav Manak - New norms,
Nav Sanrachna - New Structures.
Financial Performance 2015-16: Savings of Rs.
8,720 crore neutralizing most of the revenue
shortfall, expected OR 90%;
2016-17: Targeted Operating Ratio (OR) - 92%,
restrict growth of Ordinary Working Expenses by
11.6% after building in immediate impact of 7th
PC, reductions planned in diesel and electricity
consumption, Revenue generation targeted at Rs
1,84,820 crore.
Investments and Resources
Process bottlenecks overhauled including
delegation of powers to functional levels; average
capital expenditure over 2009-14 is Rs. 48,100
crore, average growth of 8% per annum. 2015-16
investment would be close to double of the
average of previous 5 years. 2016-17 CAPEX
pegged at Rs. 1.21 lakh crore; implementation
through joint ventures with states, developing new
frameworks for PPP, etc.
Vision
By 2020, long-felt desires of the common man to
be fulfilled i.e, reserved accommodation on trains
available on demand, time tabled freight trains,
high end technology to improve safety record,
elimination of all unmanned level crossings,
improved punctuality, higher average speed of
freight trains, semi high speed trains running along
the golden quadrilateral, zero direct discharge of
human waste.
2015-16-Achievements
Action initiated on 139 budget announcements of
2015-16.
Project execution
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 14
2015-16: assured funding through LIC;
commissioning of 2,500 kms Broad Gauge lines;
commissioning of 1,600 kms of electrification,
highest ever. In 2016-17 -targeted commissioning
2,800 kms of track; commissioning Broad Gauge
lines at over 7 kms per day against an average of
about 4.3 kms per day in the last 6 years. Would
increase to about 13 kms per day in 2017-18 and
19 kms per day in 2018-19; will generate
employment of about 9 crore man days in 2017-18
and 14 crore man days in 2018-19. Outlay for
railway electrification increased in 2016-17 by
almost 50%; target to electrify 2,000 kms.
Dedicated Freight Corridor
Almost all contracts for civil engineering works to
be awarded by March 31st 2016; Rs 24,000 crore
contracts awarded since November 2014 as against
Rs 13,000 crore contracts awarded in last 6 years;
propose to take up North-South, East-West & East
Coast freight corridors through innovative
financing including PPP.
Port connectivity
Tuna Port commissioned and rail connectivity
projects to ports of Jaigarh, Dighi, Rewas and
Paradip under implementation; implementation of
rail connectivity for the ports of Nargol and Hazira
under PPP in 2016-17.
North East
BG Lumding-Silchar section in Assam opened
thus connecting Barak Valley with rest of the
country; Agartala brought on to the BG network.
States of Mizoram and Manipur shortly to come on
BG map of the country with commissioning of the
Kathakal-Bhairabi and Arunachal-Jiribam Gauge
Conversion projects.
Jammu and Kashmir
Work on Katra-Banihal section of Udhampur-
Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project progressing
satisfactorily- 35 kms of tunnelling out of total of
95 kms completed; Decongestion work on
Jalandhar - Jammu line in full swing and doubling
of two bridges to be commissioned by March
2016, while the other two bridges will be
completed by 2016-17.
Make in India
Finalised bids for two loco factories; proposed to
increase the current procurement of train sets by
30%.
Capacity Building for the future through:
1. Transparency: Initiated recruitments online in
2015-16, process now being replicated for all
positions, social media being used as a tool to
bring in transparency, all procurement including
procurement of works moved to the e-platform,
completed trial of process leading to award of
tender electronically and to be rolled out on a
PanIndia basis in 2016-17.
2. Governance: Delegation led to compression of
project sanction time to 6-8 months from 2 years
earlier, key result areas identified to judge
performance of GMs and DRMs, performance
related MOUs signed with few Zones, to be
replicated for all zones.
3. Internal audit measures: Specialised teams
mandated to screen railway operations in specific
areas to detect inefficiencies and prevent wastages,
every zone preparing 2 reports by March 31, 2016.
4. Partnerships: Cabinet approval for JVs with
State Governments, 17 consented and 6 MOUs
signed with State Governments. 44 new
partnership works covering about 5,300 kms and
valuing about Rs. 92,714 crore have been
indicated in the Budget documents.
Customer Interface
1. Interaction and feedback through social media
& dedicated IVRS system.
2. Making travel comfortable by generating over
65,000 additional berths, installing 2,500 water
vending machines; introducing 'Mahamana
Express' with modern refurbished coaches; 17,000
bio-toilets in trains; world's first Bio-Vacuum
toilet developed.
3. Improving punctuality: Operations audit for
Ghaziabad to Mughalsarai section.
4. Ticketing: Introduced 1,780 Automatic Ticket
Vending Machines, mobile apps & GoIndia
smartcard for cashless purchase of UTS and PRS
tickets, enhanced capacity of e-ticketing system
from 2,000 tickets per minute to 7,200 tickets per
minute and to support 1,20,000 concurrent users as
against only 40,000 earlier.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 15
5. Social initiatives: One-time registration for
availing concessions while booking tickets online,
online booking of wheelchairs & Braille enabled
new coaches introduced for the Divyang, increased
quota of lower berths for senior citizens and
women, middle bays reserved in coaches for
women.
6. Wi-Fi provided in 100 stations, to be provided
in 400 more.
7. Stations being redeveloped - financial bid
received for Habibganj, Bhopal; Cabinet approval
for stations to be taken up under PPP.
8. Security through helplines & CCTVs.
9. Safety: 350 manned level crossings closed,
eliminated 1,000 unmanned level crossings, 820
ROB/RUB completed in the current year and work
going on in 1,350 of them.
Other major achievements
1. Energy: Annualized savings of Rs. 3,000 crore
to be achieved in the next financial year itself, a
year earlier than announced; achieved by
procuring power directly at competitive rates using
IR's status as Deemed Distribution Licensee.
2. Rail University: Initially identified the National
Academy of Indian Railways at Vadodara.
3. Digital India: Application of Track
Management System (TMS) launched, inventory
management module of TMS has resulted in
inventory reduction by 27,000 MT resulting in
saving of Rs.64 crore and scrap identification of
22,000 MT equivalent to Rs.53 crore.
The Way Ahead
Improving quality of travel
For the unreserved passenger -
1. Antyodaya Express unreserved, superfast
service.
2. Deen Dayalu coaches - unreserved coaches with
potable water and higher number of mobile
charging points.
For the reserved passenger -
1. Humsafar: Fully air-conditioned third AC
service with an optional service for meals
2. Tejas: Will showcase the future of train travel in
India. Will operate at speeds of 130 kmph and
above.Will offer onboard services such as
entertainment, local cuisine, WiFi, etc. through
one service provider for ensuring accountability
and improved customer satisfaction
3. Humsafar and Tejas to ensure cost recovery
through tariff and non-tariff measures
4. UDAY: Overnight double-decker, Utkrisht
Double-Decker Air-conditioned Yatri Express on
the busiest routes, has the potential to increase
carrying capacity by almost 40%.
Ticketing: Sale of tickets through hand held
terminals; e-ticketing facility to foreign
debit/credit cards; bar coded tickets, scanners and
access control on a pilot basis. Expansion of
Vikalp - train on demand to provide choice of
accommodation in specific trains to wait listed
passengers. E-booking of tickets facility on the
concessional passes available to journalists;
facility of cancellation through the 139 helpline
post verification using 'One Time Password' sent
on registered phone number, to improve tatkaal
services CCTV cameras on windows and periodic
audit of PRS website.
Cleanliness: 'Clean my Coach' service through
SMS, ranking of A1 and A stations based on
periodic third party audit and passenger feedback;
waste segregation and recycling centres;
'Awareness campaigns'; additional 30,000 bio-
toilets; providing portable structures with
biotoilets at all platforms of select stations for
senior citizens, Divyang and women travellers,
plan to explore innovative means of providing and
maintaining toilets such as advertisement rights,
CSR, voluntary support from social organizations.
Catering and stalls at stations: IRCTC to
manage catering services in a phased manner;
explore possibility of making catering services
optional, adding 10 more IRCTC operated base
kitchens; to build local ownership and
empowerment, weightage will be given to district
domicile holders for commercial licenses at
stations.
Stoppages: Convert all operational halts into
commercial halts for the benefit of the common
man
Rail Mitra Sewa: Expanding Sarathi Seva in
Konkan Railway to help the old and disabled
passengers, strengthening the existing services for
enabling passengers to book battery operated cars,
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 16
porter services, etc. on a paid basis in addition to
the existing pick up and drop, and wheel chair
services.
Measures for Divyang: All stations under
redevelopment accessible by Divyang; to provide
at least one Divyang friendly toilet at each
platform in A1 class stations during the next
financial year and also ensure availability of
wheelchairs in sufficient numbers at these stations.
Travel Insurance to passengers: To offer
optional travel insurance for rail journeys at the
time of booking.
Hourly booking of retiring rooms: Will be
handed over to IRCTC.
Janani sewa: Children's menu items on trains,
baby foods, hot milk and hot water would be made
available.
SMART (Specially Modified Aesthetic
Refreshing Travel) Coaches: design and layout
of our coaches to ensure higher carrying capacity
and provision of new amenities including
automatic doors, bar-code readers, bio-vacuum
toilets, water-level indicators, accessible dustbins,
ergonomic seating, improved aesthetics, vending
machines, entertainment screens, LED lit boards
for advertising, PA system.
Mobile Apps: Integrate all facilities into two
mobile apps dealing with ticketing issues and for
receipt and redressal of complaints and
suggestions.
Improving customer interface: Skilling our
front-end staff and those we employ through our
service providers, information boards in trains
enumerating the on-board services and also GPS
based digital displays inside coaches to provide
real time information regarding upcoming halts.
Work underway on installation of a high-tech
centralized network of 20,000 screens across 2000
stations for enabling real time flow of information
to passengers and also unlock huge advertising
potential. All A1 class stations will be manned
with duly empowered Station Directors supported
by cross functional teams; to make one person
accountable for all facilities on trains.
1. Pilgrimage centres: To take up on priority the
provision of passenger amenities and
beautification on stations at pilgrimage centres
including Ajmer, Amritsar, Bihar Sharif,
Chengannur, Dwarka, Gaya, Haridwar, Mathura,
Nagapattinam, Nanded, Nasik, Pali, Parasnath,
Puri, Tirupati, Vailankanni, Varanasi and Vasco;
also intend to run Aastha circuit trains to connect
important pilgrim centres.
2. Porters: Intend providing them with new
uniforms and train them in soft skills, henceforth,
to be called sahayak.
3. High Speed Rail: Passenger corridor from
Ahmedabad to Mumbai being undertaken with the
assistance of the Government of Japan. SPV for
implementing high speed projects will be
registered this month. Prime benefit would be
providing IR with technology advancements and
new manufacturing capability.
4. Entertainment: Propose to invite FM Radio
stations for providing train borne entertainment;
extend 'Rail Bandhu' to all reserved classes of
travelers and in all regional languages.
Passenger traffic: Suburban traffic: in-principle
approval for MUTP III received. Early award of
tenders for elevated suburban corridors between
Churchgate-Virar and between CSTM-Panvel;
revive Ring Railway system in Delhi; launching a
new investment framework for developing
suburban systems in partnership with State
Governments, development in Ahmedabad,
Bangaluru, Hyderabad Chennai and
Thiruvananthapuram on the anvil.
Winning back the lost modal share Expanding
the freight basket of IR: To start time-tabled
freight container, parcel and special commodity
trains on a pilot basis, container sector would be
opened to all traffic barring coal, specified mineral
ores and part-loads during the non-peak season.
All existing terminals/sheds would be granted
access to container traffic, where considered
feasible.
Rationalising the tariff structure: Undertake
review of tariff policy to evolve a competitive rate
structure vis a vis other modes, permit multi-point
loading/unloading and apply differentiated tariffs
to increase utilization of alternate routes, explore
possibility of signing long term tariff contracts
with our key freight customers using pre-
determined price escalation principles.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 17
Building terminal capacity: Proposed to develop
Rail side logistics parks and warehousing in PPP
mode, 10 goods sheds will be developed by
TRANSLOC, the Transport Logistics Company of
India, in 2016-17. To soon inaugurate India's first
rail auto hub in Chennai. Encourage development
of cold storage facilities on vacant land near
freight terminals. Local farmers and fisherman
would be given preferential usage of the facility. A
policy in this regard would be issued in the next 3
months.
Nurturing customers: Will appoint Key
Customer Managers to liaison with our major
freight stakeholders; each Zonal Railway will
develop customer commitment charter indicating
service level commitments of IR, will explore the
feasibility of opening up leasing of general
purpose wagons.
Non fare revenues
Station redevelopment; monetizing land along
tracks; monetizing soft assets - website, data, etc;
advertising - in 2016-17 target 4 times the revenue
of 2015-16; overhaul of parcel business - liberalize
the current parcel policies including opening the
sector to container train operators; revenues from
manufacturing activity - by 2020, aim at
generating annualised revenues of about Rs 4,000
crore
Process Improvements
1. EPC projects standard document finalized, will
implement at least 20 projects through this mode
in 2016-17; by 2017-18, endeavour to award all
works valuing above Rs. 300 crore through
contracts.
2. Performance output parameters based contracts -
to review service contracts to integrate them and
make them simpler and outcome focused.
3. Leveraging technology for project management-
intend to use the latest drone and Geo Spatial
based satellite technology for remotely reviewing
the physical progress across major projects;
monitoring of DFC to be operationalised through
this mode in 2016-17.
4. System-wide Information Technology
integration - initiated system wide integration,
both horizontal and vertical, akin to an ERP
through innovative partnership models.
Rail Development Authority
To enable fair pricing of services, promote
competition, protect customer interests and
determine efficiency standards; draft bill to be
ready after holding extensive stakeholder
consultations.
Undertaking Navarambh - A new beginning
Navinikaran - Structural Interventions
Organisational Restructuring- Proposed to
reorganize the Railway Board along business lines
and suitably empower Chairman, Railway Board.
As a first step, cross functional directorates to be
set up in Railway Board to focus on areas like non-
fare revenues, speed enhancement, motive power
and information technology; explore the
possibility of unifying cadres for fresh recruitment
of officers; strengthen PPP cell to improve ease of
doing business with IR.
Sashaktikaran - Improving our planning practices
To set up a Railway Planning & Investment
Organisation for drafting medium (5 years) and
long (10 years) term corporate plans; identify
projects which fulfill the corporate goal. Prepare a
National Rail Plan to harmonise and integrate the
rail network with other modes of transport and
create synergy for achieving seamless multi-modal
transportation network across the country.
Aekikaran - Consolidation: Forming a holding
company of companies owned by IR.
Shodh aur vikas - Investing in the future: to set
up a R&D organization, a Special Railway
Establishment for Strategic Technology & Holistic
Advancement, SRESTHA. RDSO will now focus
only on day to day issues while SRESTHA would
drive long term research..
Vishleshan - Analyzing data: a dedicated, cross
functional team called Special Unit for
Transportation Research and Analytics (SUTRA)
would be set up for carrying out detailed analytics
leading to optimized investment decisions and
operations.
Navrachna - Innovation: by setting aside a sum of
Rs 50 crore for providing innovation grants to
employees, startups and small businesses.
Avataran - Seven Missions for the transformation
of IR
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 18
Missions will be headed by a Mission Director
reporting directly to the Chairman, Railway Board
and heading a cross functional team empowered to
take all relevant decisions for a timely targeted
delivery. Annual outcome based performance
targets for the Mission would be announced and
the Missions will finalise the implementation plans
for short, medium and long terms and proceed
accordingly.
Mission 25 Tonne for 25 tonne axle load, Mission
Zero Accident for safety, Mission PACE
(Procurement and Consumption Efficiency),
Mission Raftaar for higher speeds, Mission
Hundred for commissioning 100 sidings/ freight
terminals, Mission beyond book-keeping for
accounting reforms, Mission Capacity Utilisation
to prepare a blueprint for making use of the
capacity created once DFC is commissioned.
Sustainability and Social Initiatives: Human
Resources/ Skilling, Social initiatives,
Environment
1. To tie up with the Ministry of Health for
ensuring an exchange between Railways hospitals
and Government hospitals; to introduce 'AYUSH'
systems in 5 Railway hospitals; provide gang men
with devices called 'Rakshak' for intimating them
about approaching trains, also reduce the weight of
the tools carried by them while patrolling. To
provide toilets and air-conditioning in cabs for our
loco pilots.
2. Set up two chairs: One C T Venugopal chair on
Strategic Finance, research and policy
development and another Kalpana Chawla chair on
geo-spatial technology.
3. For youth: Open our organisation to 100
students across Engineering and MBA schools for
2-6 months' internships each year.
4. Partnering with Ministry of Skill Development -
skill development on IR premises.
5. Undertaken energy audits for reducing energy
consumption in non-traction area by 10% to 15%:
All new light provisions will be LED luminaire
and all Railway stations to be covered with LED
luminaire in next 2 to 3 years.
6. Action plan drawn up for environmental
accreditation, water management and waste to
energy conversion. More than 2,000 locations
provided with Rain Water Harvesting facility. In
place of steel sleepers on steel bridges
environmentally friendly composite sleepers made
of recycled plastic waste will be used over all
girder bridges.
7. 32 stations and 10 coaching depots have been
identified for installation of water recycling plants
in the coming years.
Tourism
1. Partnering with State Governments for
operating tourist circuit trains; recent upgradation
of National Rail Museum, promotion of tourism
through Railway museums and UNESCO world
heritage Railways.
2. To spread awareness about our National
Animal, the Tiger, complete packages including
train journey, safaris and accommodation to cover
the wildlife circuit comprising Kanha, Pench and
Bandhavgarh will be offered.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 2015-16:
1. Net reduction in Gross Traffic Receipts by Rs
15,744 crore in RE 2015-16 compared to the BE
target of Rs 1,83,578 crore. Passenger earnings
scaled down keeping in view the persistent
negative growth trend since 2013-14 both in the
suburban and non-suburban non-PRS segment of
travel.
2. Freight earnings impacted mainly on account of
low demand from the core sector resulting in
resetting the target in R.E. 2015-16 to Rs 1,11,853
crore.
3. Stringent economy and austerity measures
adopted to contain the Ordinary Working
Expenses (O.W.E.) due to which budgeted
Ordinary Working Expenses of Rs 1,19,410 crore
decreased in the Revised Estimates 2015-16 to Rs.
1,10,690 crore i.e. by Rs 8,720 crore.
4. BE provided for an appropriation of Rs 34,900
crore to the Pension Fund. However, based on
trend, the pension outgo moderately decreased to
Rs 34,500 crore in RE.
5. Internal resource generation diminished and
appropriation to DRF moderated to Rs 5,500 crore
in RE from the BE 2015-16 provisioning of Rs
7,900 crore. Excess of receipts over expenditure in
RE 2015-16 stands at Rs 11,402.40 crore.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 19
6. Plan size for 2015-16 is currently estimated at
1,00,000 crore i.e. the BE level.
Budget Estimates 2016-17:
1. The intention to improve revenues and ensure
appropriate investments which can continue the
road-map of decongestion and enhance line-
capacity enhancement as detailed in 2015-16. The
focus is on enhanced CAPEX with a mix of
various sources of funding in order to ensure that
the projects are given assured funding.
2. Gross Traffic Receipts kept at Rs 1,84,820 crore
. Passenger earnings growth has been pegged at
12.4% and earnings target budgeted at Rs 51,012
crore. The freight traffic is pegged at incremental
traffic of 50 million tonnes, anticipating a healthier
growth in the core sector of economy. Goods
earnings is accordingly proposed at Rs. 1, 17,933
crore. Other coaching and sundries projected at Rs
6,185 crore and Rs 9,590.3 crore respectively.
3. OWE provides for the implementation of the 7th
CPC.
4. Pension outgo budgeted at Rs 45,500 crore in
2016-17.
5. Higher staff cost and pension liability impacts
the internal resource position of the Railways.
Accordingly, appropriation to DRF from revenue
placed at Rs 3,200 crore and that from Production
Units at Rs 200 crore. A withdrawal of Rs 3,160
crore from DRF on net basis proposed though the
gross expenditure to be met from DRF in the
Annual Plan estimated at Rs 7,160 crore. Rs 5,750
crore proposed to be appropriated to the Capital
fund. With a draw-down of Rs 1,250 crore from
previous balances in the fund, plan requirement of
Rs 7,000 crore for repayment of principal
component of lease charges to IRFC met.
6. Railways are preparing a Plan size of Rs
1,21,000 crore in 2016-17
Economic Outlook, Prospects and Policy
Challenges
• Macroeconomic fundamentals in 2014-15 have
dramatically improved. Highlights are:
• Inflation has declined by over 6 percentage
points since late 2013.
• The current account deficit has declined from a
peak of 6.7 percent of GDP (in Q3, 2012-13) to an
estimated 1.0 percent in the coming fiscal year.
• Foreign portfolio flows have stabilized the rupee,
exerting downward pressure on long-term interest
rates, reflected in yields on 10-year government
securities, and contributed to the surge in equity
prices.
• In response to the favourable terms of trade
shock (especially with regard to oil),
macroeconomic policy has appropriately balanced
government savings (two-thirds) and private
consumption (one-third).
• After a nearly 12-quarter phase of deceleration,
real GDP has been growing at 7.2 percent on
average since 2013-14, based on the new growth
estimates of the Central Statistics Office.
Notwithstanding the new estimates, the balance of
evidence suggests that India is a recovering, but
not yet a surging, economy.
• From a cross-country perspective, a Rational
Investor Ratings Index (RIRI) which combines
indicators of macro-stability with growth,
illustrates that India ranks amongst the most
attractive investment destinations. It ranks well
above the mean for its investment grade category
(BBB), and also above the mean for the
investment category above it (on the basis of the
new growth estimates).
• Several reforms have been undertaken and more
are on the anvil. The introduction of the GST and
expanding direct benefit transfers can be game-
changers.
• Structural shifts in the inflationary process are
underway due to lower oil prices, deceleration in
agriculture prices and wages, and dramatically
improved household inflation expectations. Going
forward inflation is likely to remain in the 5-5.5
percent range, creating space for easing of
monetary conditions.
• In the short run, growth will receive a boost from
the cumulative impact of reforms, lower oil prices,
likely monetary policy easing facilitated by lower
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 20
inflation and improved inflationary expectations,
and forecasts of a normal monsoon in 2015-16.
Using the new estimate for 2014-15 as the base,
GDP growth at constant market prices is expected
to accelerate to between 8.1 and 8.5 percent in
2015-16.
• Medium-term prospects will be conditioned by
the ―balance sheet syndrome with Indian
characteristics‖ that has the potential to hold back
rapid increases in private sector investment.
Private investment must be the engine of long-run
growth. However,there is a case for reviving
targeted public investment as an engine of growth
in the short run to complement and crowd-in
private investment.
• India can balance the short-term imperative of
boosting public investment to revitalize growth
with the need to maintain fiscal discipline.
Expenditure control, and expenditure
switchingfrom consumption to investment,will be
key.
• The outlook is favourable for the current account
deficit and its financing. A likely surfeit, rather
than scarcity, of foreign capital will complicate
exchange rate management. Reconciling the
benefits of these flows with their impact on
exports and the current account remains an
important challenge going forward.
• India faces an export challenge, reflected in the
fact that the share of manufacturing and services
exports in GDP has stagnated in the last five years.
The external trading environment is less benign in
two ways: partner country growth and their
absorption of Indian exports has slowed, and
mega-regional trade agreements being negotiated
by the major trading nations in Asia and Europe
threaten to exclude India and place its exports at a
competitive disadvantage.
• India is increasingly young, middle-class, and
aspirational but remains stubbornly male. Several
indicators suggest that gender inequality is
persistent and high. In the short run, the renewed
emphasis on family planning targets,backed by
misaligned incentives, is undermining the health
and reproductive autonomy of women.
Fiscal Framework
• India must adhere to the medium-term fiscal
deficit target of 3 percent of GDP. This will
provide the fiscal space to insure against future
shocks and also to move closer to the fiscal
performance of its emerging market peers.
• India must also reverse the trajectory of recent
years and move toward the golden ruleof
eliminating revenue deficits and ensuring that,
over the cycle, borrowing is only for capital
formation.
• Expenditure control combined with recovering
growth and the introduction of the GST will ensure
that medium term targets are comfortably met.
• In the short run, the need for accelerated fiscal
consolidation is lessened by the dramatically
changed macro-circumstances and the less-than-
optimal nature of pro-cyclical policy. The ability
to do so will be conditioned by the
recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance
Commission (FFC).
• Nevertheless, to ensure fiscal credibility and
consistency with medium-term goals, the process
of expenditure control to reduce the fiscal deficit
should be initiated. At the same time, the quality
of expenditure needs to be shifted from
consumption, by reducing subsidies,
towardsinvestment.
• Finally, implementing the FFC recommendations
will lead to states accounting for a large share of
total tax revenue. This has the important
implication that, going forward, India‘s public
finances must be viewed at the consolidated level
and not just at the level of the central government.
If recent trends in state-level fiscal management
continue, the fiscal position at the consolidated
level will be on a sustainable path.
Subsidies and the JAM Number Trinity
Solution
The debate is not about whether but how best to
provide support to the poor and vulnerable. The
government subsidises a wide variety of goods and
services with the aim of making them affordable
for the poor, including: rice, wheat, pulses, sugar,
railways, kerosene, LPG, naphtha, iron ore,
fertiliser, electricity, water.
The direct fiscal cost of these select subsidies is
roughly Rs. 378,000 crore or 4.2 percent of 2011-
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 21
12 GDP. This is roughly how much it would cost
to raise the expenditure of every household to the
level of a 35th percentile household (well above
the 21.9percentTendulkar Committee poverty
line).
Are these subsidies effectively targeted at the
poor? Unfortunately, subsidies can sometimes be
regressive and suffer from leakages. For example,
electricity subsidies by definition only help
electrified households. Even in the case of
kerosene, 41 percent of PDS kerosene is lost as
leakage and only 46 percent of the remaining 59
percent is consumed by households that are poor.
The JAM Number Trinity – Jan Dhan Yojana,
Aadhaar, Mobile – can enable the State to transfer
financial resources to the poor in a progressive
manner without leakages and with minimal
distorting effects.
The Investment Challenge
• The stock of stalled projects stands at about 7
percent of GDP, accounted for mostly by the
private sector. Manufacturing and infrastructure
account for most of the stalled projects. Changed
market conditions and impeded regulatory
clearances are the prominent reasons for stalling in
private and public sectors, respectively.
• This has weakened the balance sheets of the
corporate sector and public sector banks, which in
turn is constraining future private investment,
completing a vicious circle.
• Despite high rates of stalling, and weak balance
sheets, the stock market valuations of companies
with stalled projects are quite robust,which is a
puzzle.
• Combining the situation of Indian public sector
banks and corporate balance sheets suggests that
the expectation that the private sector will drive
investment needs to be moderated. In this light,
public investment may need to step in to ramp up
capital formation and recreate an environment to
crowd-inthe private sector.
The Banking Challenge
• The Indian banking balance sheet is suffering
from ‗double financial repression‘. On the
liabilities side, high inflation lowered real rates of
return on deposits. On the assets side, statutory
liquidity ratio (SLR) and priority sector lending
(PSL) requirements have depressed returns to bank
assets. As inflation moderates and the banking
sector exits liability-side repression, it is a good
time to consider addressing the asset-side
counterpart.
• In a cross-country comparison, controlling for the
level of development, the size of the Indian
banking system, measured by credit indicators,
does not seem too high either in absolute terms or
relative to other sources of financing. However,
going forward, capital markets and bond-financing
need to be given a boost.
• Private sector banks did not partake in the
biggest private-sector-fuelled growth episode in
Indian historyduring 2005-2012. This is reflected
in the near-constant share of private sector banks
in deposits and advances in those years.
• There is substantial variation in the performance
of the public sector banks, so that they should not
be perceived as a homogenous block while
formulating policy.
Putting Public Investment on Track – the Rail
Route to Higher Growth.
• The Indian Railways over the years have beenon
a ‗route to nowhere‘characterized by
underinvestment resulting in lack of capacity
addition and network congestion; neglect of
commercial objectives; poor service provision; and
consequent financial weakness. These have
cumulated to below-potential contribution to
economic growth.
• Very modest hikes in passenger tariffs and cross-
subsidisation of passenger services from freight
operations over the years have meant that Indian
(PPP-adjusted) freight rates remain among the
highest in the world, with the railways ceding
significant share in freight traffic to roads (that is
typically more costly and energy inefficient).
• As a result, the competitivenessof Indian industry
has been undermined. Calculations reveal that
China carries about thrice as much coal freight per
hour vis-à-vis India. Coal is transported in India at
more than twice the cost vis-à-vis China, and it
takes 1.3 times longer to do so.
• Econometric evidence suggests that the railways
public investment multiplier (the effect of a Rs. 1
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 22
increase in public investment in the railwayson
overall output) is around 5.
• However, in the long run, the railways must be
commercially viable and public support must be
linked to railwayreforms: adoption of commercial
practices; tariff rationalization; and technology
overhaul.
Skill India to Complement Make in India
What should we ‗Make in India‘? Sectors that are
capable of facilitating structural transformation in
an emerging economy must:
Have a high level of productivity.
Show convergence to the technological frontier
over time.
Draw in resources from the rest of the economy to
spread the fruits of growth.
Bealigned with the economy‘s comparative
advantage; and
Betradeable.
Registered manufacturing, construction and
several service sectors — particularly business
services — perform well on these various
characteristics. A key concern with these sectors
however is that they are rather skill-intensive and
do not match the skill profile of the Indian labour
force.
India could bolster the Make in India‘‘initiative,
which requires improving infrastructure and
reforming labor and land laws by complementing
it with the‗‘Skilling India initiative. This would
enable a larger section of the population to benefit
from the structural transformation that such sectors
will facilitate.
A National Market for Agricultural Commodities
• Markets in agricultural products are regulated
under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee
(APMC) Act enacted by State Governments. India
has not one, not 29, but thousands of agricultural
markets.
• APMCs levy multiple fees of substantial
magnitude, that are non-transparent, and hence a
source of political power.
• The Model APMC Act, 2003 could benefit from
drawing upon the ‗Karnataka Model‘ that has
successfully introduced an integrated single
licensing system. The key here is to remove the
barriers that militate against the creation of choice
for farmers and against the creation of marketing
infrastructure by the private sector.
Climate Change
• India has cut subsidies and increased taxes on
fossil fuels (petrol and diesel along with a coal
cess) turning a carbon subsidy regime into one of
carbon taxation. The implicit carbon tax is US$
140 for petrol and US$64 for diesel.
• In light of the recent falling global coal prices
and the large health costs associated with coal,
there may be room for further rationalization of
coal pricing. The impact of any such changes on
affordable energy for the poor must be taken into
account.
• On the whole, the move to substantial carbon
taxation combined with India‘s ambitious solar
power program suggests that India can make
substantial contributions to the forthcoming Paris
negotiations on climate change.
The Fourteenth Finance Commission
• The FFC marks a watershed in the history of
Indian federalism. Unprecedented increases in tax
devolution will confer more fiscal autonomy on
the states. This will be enhanced by the FFC-
induced imperative of having to reduce the scale of
other central transfers to the states. In other words,
states will now have greater autonomy both on the
revenue and expenditure fronts.
• All states stand to gain from extra resources
although there will be some variation between the
states.
• FFC transfers are highly progressive; that is,
states with lower per capita NSDP receive on
average much larger transfers per capita. In
contrast, plan transfers were much less
progressive.
• The concern that more transfers will undermine
fiscal discipline is not warranted because states as
a whole have been more prudent than the centre in
recent years.
Union Cabinet approved Trade Facilitation
Agreement
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 23
Union Cabinet on 17 February 2016 approved
Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of the World
Trade Organization (WTO). It approved the
Notification of Commitments, its ratification and
acceptance of the Instrument of Acceptance of
Protocol of TFA to the WTO Secretariat. India is
the 71st country to give nod to the agreement that
seeks to ease customs procedures to boost
commerce.
As per the Trade Facilitation Agreement adopted
by the WTO on 27 November 2014 in Geneva,
Switzerland, the TFA shall enter into force for the
notified members (107 countries) upon acceptance
by two-third WTO Members. The TFA contains
provisions for expediting the movement, release
and clearance of goods, including goods in transit.
It also sets out measures for effective cooperation
between customs and other appropriate authorities
on trade facilitation and customs compliance
issues. These objectives are in consonance with
India‘s ―Ease of Doing Business‖ initiative.
Besides, Union Cabinet also approved the
constitution of the National Committee on Trade
Facilitation (NCTF). NCTF will facilitate both
domestic coordination and implementation of the
provisions of the Agreement and it will be set up
under the Joint Chair of Secretary, Department of
Revenue and Secretary, Department of Commerce.
Ministry of Heavy Industries unveiled
National Capital Goods Policy 2016
Union Ministry of Heavy Industries on 15
February 2016 unveiled National Capital Goods
Policy 2016.
The policy, with the theme Building India of
Tomorrow, seeks to achieve the vision of Make in
India initiative and establish India as a global
manufacturing hub by unlocking the potential for
capital goods sector.
Features of National Capital Goods Policy 2016
• Vision: To increase the share of capital goods
contribution from present 12 to 20 percent of total
manufacturing activity by 2025
• Mission: To become one of the top capital goods
producing nations of the world by raising the total
production to over twice the current level
• To raise exports to a significant level of at least
40 percent of total production and thus gain 2.5
percent share in global exports of capital goods
• To improve technology depth in Indian capital
goods from the current basic and intermediate
levels to advanced levels
• Objectives: Increase total production to achieve
total production in excess of 5 lakh crore rupees by
2025 from the current 2.2 lakh crore rupees
• To increase domestic employment from the
current 15 lakhs to at least 50 lakhs by 2025 thus
providing additional employment to over 35 lakhs
people
• To increase the share of domestic production in
India's capital goods demand from 56% to 80% by
2025 and in the process improve domestic capacity
utilization to 80-90 percent
• To improve skill availability by training 50 lakhs
people by 2025
• To improve 'technology depth' in capital goods
sub-sectors by increasing research intensity in
India from 0.9 percent to at least 2.8 percent of
GDP
• Programmes: To achieve the above objectives the
policy proposed a new scheme Heavy Industry
Export & Market Development Assistance Scheme
(HIEMDA) on pilot basis, Technology
Development Fund under PPP model, start-up
centre for capital goods sector.
• In addition, the policy recommended for
strengthening the existing Scheme on
Enhancement of Competitiveness of Capital
Goods and modernize the CG manufacturing units,
especially SMEs.
Nine-point action plan: The policy has proposed a
comprehensive set of policy actions which would
enable the achievement of the objectives for the
sector and had recommended a set of nine new
initiatives and policy actions and they are:
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 24
1) Devising a long term, stable and rationalized tax
and duty structure to ensure cost competitiveness
of the sector
2) Drafting a comprehensive public procurement
policy with amended qualifying criteria and
introducing special provisions in contracts for
domestic value addition
3) Promoting development of new technology
through indigenous sources
4) Providing Technology Upgrade Fund Support
across all capital goods sub-sectors
5) Creating a level playing field vis-à-vis imports
by restricting imports of second hand machinery
and mitigating duty disadvantages
6) Supporting availability of short and long term of
financing at competitive rates to capital goods
manufacturers
7) Enabling skill development by setting up sub-
sector specific Skill Councils.
8) Enabling higher participation of India in
standard creation and developing support system
to improve compliance.
9) Developing manufacturing clusters with shared
facilities especially for SMEs
Governance Mechanism: The policy proposes a
governance mechanism for smooth
implementation and effectiveness of the policy.
The mechanism will be in the form of inter-
ministerial and inter-departmental committees at
the highest level to ensure due consideration of the
interests of all stakeholders.
Periodic Review of Policy: The capital goods
sector operates in a dynamic local and global
environment and it is imperative for the policy to
undergo a periodic review and revision to maintain
its relevance.
The National Capital Goods Policy 2016 will be
reviewed every five years and revised
appropriately to take account of progress in
implementation and emerging trends in the
national and international environment.
India ranked 37 in USSC’s 2016
Intellectual Property Index
India ranked 37 out of the 38 economies surveyed
in the 2016 Intellectual Property Index (IPI). The
index was released on 10 February 2016 by the
Global Intellectual Property Centre (GIPC) of the
United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC).
Out of the 38 economies surveyed, while the USA
topped in terms of intellectual property protection
by securing 28.61 points out of 30, Venezuela was
at the bottom of the index. The index was prepared
on the basis of 6 key parameters including patents,
trademarks and copy rights related rights and
limitations, trade secrets, enforcement and
participation in international treaties.
In the index, India secured 0.18 less than the 2015
index (7.05) due to its bar on patentability of
incremental changes under Section 3(d) of the
Patent Act 1970, compulsory licensing provisions
and uncertainty regarding computer-related
inventions (CRI). Further, India‘s non
participation in the major international treaties
including the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement
was also a reason for its poor performance in the
index.
580 crore rupees sanctioned for
construction of railway track to connect
Kolkata & Tripura via Bangladesh
To connect Kolkata with Tripura via Bangladesh
through railway, the Union Government on 10
February 2016 sanctioned about 580 crore rupees.
The money was sanctioned for constructing the
15-kilometer railway track between Kolkata and
Tripura. The project that is expected to be
completed by 2017 will pass through Bangladesh.
The Agartala-Akhaura rail-link between Indian
Railway and Bangladesh Railway will reduce the
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 25
current 1700 km road distance between Kolkata to
Agartala via Siliguri to just 350-kilometer by
railway. The project ranks high on Prime
Minister's 'Act East‘ Policy, and is expected to
increase connectivity and boost trade between
India and Bangladesh. The two countries had
agreed to lay the Agartala-Akhaura rail-link during
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in
2010, the modalities of which were finalised
during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
visit to Bangladesh in 2011.
Chettinad cotton saree won India
Handloom tag
The Chettinad cotton saree in the first week on
February 2016 won the India Handloom tag for its
unique designs and identity. The Textiles
Committee, Union Ministry of Handlooms and
Textiles, Mumbai, registered the Chettinad cotton
saree under the India Handloom Brand Scheme
after checking various quality parameters
stipulated by the Standard Operating Procedure
(SOP). The Ministry authorised the Amarar Rajiv
Gandhi Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society,
which produced the sarees, to use the brand and
logo for marketing the product.
The Chettinad cotton saree, also known as
kandaangi, is unique in the dramatic and
spontaneous use of colour and pattern with bold
checks, stripes and contrasting hues. Its vibrancy
and weight are its distinguishing factors. Records
and old photographs show the use of saree by
previous generations, before the advent of blouses
and underskirts, which is worn rather differently
from the regular sari.
India Handloom Brand is an endorsement to
quality of the handloom products in terms of raw
material, processing, embellishments, weaving
design and other parameters besides social and
environmental compliances for earning the trust of
the consumers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi
launched the India Handloom Brand at Chennai on
7 August 2015 as part of the First ever National
Handloom Day celebrations.
Union Government granted Miniratna
Category-I Status to HSCC
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP
Nadda on 1 February 2016 awarded the certificate
of Miniratna Category-I status to Hospital Services
Consultancy Corporation (I) Ltd (HSCC). It got
the status for its consistency in excellent
performance in top and bottom-line growth along
with its turnover, particularly for the last five
years. These status are granted by the Department
of Public Enterprises under Union Ministry of
Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. HSSC is
a Public Sector Enterprise under the Union
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare since its
inception it has been a profit making organisation.
As a result, it attained the Miniratna-II status in
2002.
Cabinet approves formation of Joint
Venture Companies with State
Governments
The Union Cabinet has given its approval for
allowing the Ministry of Railways to form Joint
Venture Companies with the State Governments to
mobilize resources for undertaking various rail
infrastructure projects in States. The Joint Venture
Companies would be formed with equity
participation of Ministry of Railways and
concerned State Governments. Each Joint Venture
(JV) would have an initial paid up capital of Rs.
100 crores based on the quantum of projects to be
undertaken. The Ministry of Railways‘ initial paid-
up capital will be limited to Rs. 50 crore for each
State. Further infusion of fund/equity for the
purpose of the projects shall be done after approval
of the project and its funding at the level of
appropriate competent authority. The JV can form
project-specific SPVs with equity holding by other
shareholders like Banks, ports, public sector
undertakings, mining companies etc.
Joint Venture exercise would ensure greater
participation of State Governments in
implementation of Railway Projects both in terms
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 26
of financial participation as well as decision
making process. This will also facilitate in faster
statutory approvals and land acquisition. With this,
various cement, steel, power plants etc. would also
get the necessary rail link for transportation of
their raw material and finished products.
Appellate Board order
The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB)
has ordered issue of the ‗Geographical Indication‘
tag for basmati rice grown in the Indo-Gangetic
Plains on the foothills of the Himalayas. This
means north Indian Basmati rice-producing states
like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and
Uttarakhand and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu
& Kashmir will get the GI tag. The board
observed, ―Basmati rice has been one of the fastest
growing export items from India in recent years
and in view of the paramount national interest, it is
imperative to protect Basmati rice as a
geographical indication.‖ The order comes seven
years after APEDA initiated steps to protect and
get GI recognition for Basmati cultivated in the
IGP. This will preserve the unique identity of the
aromatic rice in the international markets.
Originally, the Agricultural and Processed Food
Products Export Development Authority
(APEDA), the statutory authority functioning
under the Union Ministry of Commerce and
Industry, had applied for registration of GI basmati
rice in its favour in May 2010. But various other
organisations and associations in several States,
including Madhya Pradesh, opposed it, seeking to
be granted the GI tag for the produce from their
area.
And in December 2013, the GI Registry had asked
APEDA to include all areas where basmati is
cultivated and submit an amended application
including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.
APEDA appealed against that order as diluting the
GI application will be against the interest of
Basmati growers in traditional areas. A host of rice
exporters, NGOs and growers associations from
Madhya Pradesh who opposed APEDA‘s stand
appealed to IPAB. Even a Basmati Growers
Association from Pakistan opposed addition of
new areas such as Madhya Pradesh. However, the
IPAB has upheld APEDA‘s appeal and ordered the
GI Registry to give GI recognition within four
weeks based on the application filed by APEDA.
IPAB has also said that the claim of Basmati
farmers and exporters for including Madhya
Pradesh can be considered afresh by the GI
Registry and a decision be taken within six
months. But, it dismissed the Pakistan Basmati
Growers Association‘s objections to including
Madhya Pradesh.
GI status is an indication that identifies goods as
produced from a particular area, which has special
quality or reputation attributable to its
geographical origin.GI registration confers: Legal
protection to the products; Prevents unauthorised
use of a GI by others; Helps consumers get quality
products of desired traits; Promotes economic
prosperity of producers of goods by enhancing
demand in national and international markets; GI
registration is essential to get protection in other
countries.
PMKVY completes 10 lakh enrolments
under Skill India, 70% have completed
their skill trainings since its launch
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY),
the flagship of Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship has completed 10 lakh
enrolments under the scheme. The scheme has
been implemented by National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC) through a network of 1012
training partners affiliated to the scheme. Till
today, the scheme has seen 10,28,671 enrolments
under 382 active job roles out of which 70% have
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 27
already completed their trainings. The scheme has
been implemented across all 29 states and 6 union
territories of the country, and covered 596 districts
and 531 constituencies. The states which reflect
maximum enrolments under PMKVY are Uttar
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West
Bengal and Andhra Pradesh while the sectors
which saw maximum enrolments are Logistics
(135615), Agriculture (90489), Electronics
(82903), Beauty and Wellness (72316), Retail
(65901) and Automotive (61846).
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY):
This is the flagship scheme for skill training of
youth to be implemented by the Ministry of Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship through the
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
The scheme will cover 24 lakh persons. Skill
training would be done based on the National Skill
Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led
standards.
Under the scheme, a monetary reward is given to
trainees on assessment and certification by third
party assessment bodies. The average monetary
reward would be around Rs.8000 per trainee. The
scheme would be implemented through NSDC
training partners. Currently NSDC has 187
training partners that have over 2300 centres. In
addition, Central / State Government affiliated
training providers would also be used for training
under the scheme.
Focus under the PMKVY would be on improved
curricula, better pedagogy and better trained
instructors. Training would include soft skills,
personal grooming, behavioral change for
cleanliness, good work ethics. Sector Skill
Councils and the State Governments would closely
monitor skill training that will happen under
PMKVY.
RBI extended SAARC Swap Arrangement
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 February 2016
extended the 2 billion US dollars SAARC
Currency Swap Arrangement till 14 November
2017. The extension aims at enhacing economic
cooperation and strengthens financial stability
within the SAARC region. Under this
arrangement, RBI will offer Swap Arrangement up
to and overall amount of 2 billion US dollar both
in foreign currency and Indian rupee to SAARC
nations.
RBI offered the SAARC Swap Arrangement to
SAARC nations on 15 November 2012. All
SAARC member countries including Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka can avail the facility. The swap
amount available to various member central banks
has been arrived at broadly based on two months
import cover subject to a floor of 100 million US
dollar and a maximum of 400 million US dollar
per country.
Maharashtra tops Internet readiness index:
report
According to the recently released, ‗Index of
Internet Readiness of Indian States‘, Maharashtra
has emerged as the top ranking state in terms of
the overall Internet readiness index, followed by
Karnataka, Gujarat, Telengana and Tamil Nadu,
according to a report released. The report was
published by the Internet and Mobile Association
of India (IAMAI) and Indicus Analytics.
Among the smaller states, Delhi has emerged as
the topmost state, followed by Puducherry and
Goa. Even among the smaller states, those in
northeast India do not figure among the top three.
Hence, the report notes, much more needs to be
done in the form of investment and infrastructure
development in this region. Among the Union
Territories, Chandigarh is ranked at the top in
terms of Internet readiness index.
The Internet readiness index is a composite index
on components like e-infrastructure index, e-
participation index, IT services and e-governance
index. The purpose of the Internet Readiness
report is to help business and governments to
leverage the strength, and policy measures can also
be taken where improvements are required. Given
the rapid advancement in e-services and e-
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 28
commerce, it is essential to understand the
strengths and weaknesses of the states.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme expanded
in additional 61 districts
The Ministry of Women and Child Development
has expanded Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme in
additional 61 districts, covering 11 states. This
expansion was recommended by the Standing
Finance Committee (SFC) in its recently held
meeting, after seeing the overwhelming response
by stakeholders in the form of various initiatives
and innovations.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme was
launched in January, 2015 at Panipat in Haryana.
The scheme is aimed at promoting gender equality
and the significance of educating girls. The
Scheme is targeted at improving the Child Sex
Ratio through multi sectoral interventions
including prevention of gender biased sex
selection and promoting girls‘ education and her
holistic empowerment. It is a tri-ministerial effort
of Ministries of Women and Child Development,
Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource
Development. In the first phase, 100 districts with
low Child Sex Ratio were selected for the Scheme
implementation for creating awareness and
advocacy about the issue. During the last one year,
the BBBP Scheme is being implemented under the
overall guidance and supervision of concerned
District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioners.
Electronics Development Fund (EDF)
The government has launched the Electronics
Development Fund (EDF) in collaboration with
Canbank Venture Capital Fund Ltd. A formal
announcement in this regard was recently made by
the Communications and information technology
minister Ravi Shankar Prasad by handing over the
letter of commitment to the first group of daughter
funds. With the launch of the fund, the government
aims to develop the electronics system design and
manufacturing sector to achieve ―net zero imports‖
by 2020.
EDF is an initiative of Deity to create a ―fund of
funds‖ which will work with venture capitalists
(VCs) to create funds, known as ―daughter funds‖,
which in turn will provide risk capital to
companies developing new technologies in the
area of electronics, nano-electronics and
information technology (IT).
The idea is that the EDF will put in 20% of the
capital in daughter funds and the rest 80% will be
invested by VCs. The daughter funds will then
invest in companies, primarily start-ups. While
promoting innovation, research and development,
and product development within the country in the
specified fields of electronics, nano-electronics
and IT, the daughter funds will also support
acquisition of foreign companies and technologies
for products imported in India in large volume as
well as focus on developing domestic design
capabilities, thereby creating a resource pool of IP
(intellectual property) within the country in the
specified fields.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the
EDF policy during the inauguration of Digital
India Week on 1 July 2015. However, the idea of
creating EDF was first proposed in the Draft
National Policy on Electronics 2011. It should be
noted here that the EDF is different from
Rs.10,000 crore micro, small and medium
enterprises (MSME) fund which was announced in
budget 2014 and the recently announced Rs.10,000
crore start-up fund.
Import of duty-free capital goods for power
sector banned
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 29
To support domestic manufacturing, the
government has barred duty-free import of capital
goods for power generation and transmission
projects under the Export Promotion Capital
Goods Scheme. The EPCG scheme allows zero-
duty import of capital goods on the condition that
goods produced be exported worth six times of the
duty saved under the scheme in six years.
The impact of this ban is minimal on domestic
producers because they do not export much to
comply with the obligation under the EPCG
scheme. Small capital goods producers have hailed
the move. This decision will have a positive
impact on the indigenous power equipment
industry. In the past few years, the domestic power
equipment capacity was underutilised as cheap
imports flooded the market and orders shrank.
This order would provide small producers the
much-needed level playing field. This would also
encourage ‗Make in India‘. The EPCG scheme
was launched by the government in the early
1990s with an aim to allow exporters to import
machinery and equipment at affordable prices to
facilitate production of quality products for the
export market.
‘Uncover’ Project
The centre recently launched ‗Uncover‘ project of
the Geological Survey of India. This state-of-the-
art project to be implemented in two selected areas
in the country is focused on probing for deep
seated/ concealed mineral deposits. This
programme is also one of the important action
points of the draft National Mineral Exploration
Policy (NMEP).
Main components of the project: Characterizing
India‘s geological cover, investigating lithospheric
architecture, resolving 4D geodynamic and
metallogenic evolution, and detecting and
characterizing the distal footprints of ore deposits,
would be the main components of this initiative.
Agreement for Commercialisation of
Ayurvedic Formulations
National Research Development Corporation
(NRDC), an Enterprise of the Department of
Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of
Science & Technology and M/s Dabur India Ltd.
have entered into License Agreements for
commercialization of two Ayurvedic formulations.
Ayush-64, an ayurvedic formulation for treatment
of Malaria. The Ayurvedic Drug Ayush-64 is very
effective for the treatment of Malaria which is one
of the most prevalent; destructive widely spread
disease, well known to Ayurvedic Physicians as
Visama Jvara from ancient times. In view of its
wide prevalence and drug resistant malarial
parasite, a poly-herbal non-toxic drug has been
developed by CCRAS after carrying out extensive
pharmacological, toxicological and Clinical
studies.
Ayush-82, an ayurvedic Formulation for
management of Diabetes. Ayush-82; an anti
diabetic drug also developed by CCRAS is a
combination of known and tested hypoglycemic
drugs. The use of these two drugs would help
millions of people suffering from Malaria and
Diabetes. Both these medicines were developed by
Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic
Sciences (CCRAS), New Delhi, an Autonomous
body of the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga
and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy).
Unemployment down in urban centres, but
persists in rural areas, says survey
The National Sample Survey Office has released
the details of a survey conducted to assess the
unemployment rate across the country.
Highlights of the survey:
The unemployment rate in urban areas reduced
from 4.5% in 2004-05 to 3.4% in 2011-12. In rural
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 30
areas, the rate has been stable at around 1.7%
during this period.
The unemployment rate across all the religious
groups in rural areas was on the lower side than
those in urban areas for both males and females.
Christians have the highest rate of unemployment
in both rural (4.5%) and urban (5.9%) areas in
2011-12.
Unemployment level in India is highest among
those people who are richer and more educated.
The reason is that poor people can‘t afford to stay
unemployed, and hence, opt for any kind of work,
irrespective of the nature of the job. The better off
have the capacity to be unemployed as they look
for the right job. Christians are the most educated
group, hence unemployment rate is higher among
them.
Among the persons of age 15 and above, the
proportion of people who are not literates was the
lowest for Christians. Also, the proportion of
persons with educational level secondary and
above is highest for Christians.
While the unemployment rate in rural areas has
decreased for Sikhs (from 3.5 to 1.3%) — now the
lowest across all religious groups — it has slightly
increased for Muslims (from 2.3 to 2.6%). At
3.3%, Hindus have the lowest unemployment rate
in urban areas.
Self-employment is the major source of income for
almost half the households, across all religious
groups, in rural areas, followed by casual labour.
In urban areas, the proportion of households
deriving major income from regular wage or salary
earnings is the highest. Half the Muslim
households in urban areas have self-employment
as major source of income, the highest among all
religions, while regular wage or salary earnings
was the highest for Christians with 45.8%
households.
Lack of ‘suitable’ jobs holding back women
employment
A report by the International Labour Organization
has placed India at 120th position among 131
countries on women labour participation. The
report blames a ―jobs deficit‖ for the decline in
female labour force participation over the past
decade. It says a scarcity of ―suitable job
opportunities‖ outside farming and close to the
place of residence are the main reasons why fewer
women have joined the workforce. A culturally
patriarchal society and rising family incomes,
which allow more women to stay at home, are also
to be blamed.
What the NSSO data says?
According to National Sample Survey Office
(NSSO), employment surveys, women
participation rates in India fell sharply after 2004-
05. Between 2004-05 and 2010-11, women labour
participation in rural areas fell 12-14% points. To
a large extent, this was because of a fall in
agricultural employment.
In the preceding five years (1999-00 to 2004-05),
women participation had firmed up, increasing by
roughly 14.6 million. Economists have argued this
increase was in response to rural distress.
Agricultural growth during these years had slowed
to less than 2% annually, putting pressure on farm
incomes. This prompted women‘s entry into
labour force, boosting household incomes.
The situation reversed after 2004-05. The
conventional explanation for reversal rests on the
―income effect.‖ With rural incomes steadily
increasing because of a combination of rising
commodity prices and government support, female
labour force participation fell sharply.
According to the WHO, part of the decline could
also be because women are staying in educational
institutions for a longer period. Other reasons for
their low participation include greater involvement
in domestic duties and care work, poor skills
training, lack of support for women entrepreneurs,
occupational segregation and informality of work.
Private Banks employees should be
considered public servants under
Prevention of Corruption Act: SC
Supreme Court of India on 23 February 2016 ruled
that the top officials and employees of private
banks will be considered as public servants for the
purposes of the Prevention of Corruption Act,
1988. With this, the investigating agencies like
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be able
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 31
to examine frauds and scams involving private
banks operating in the country.
• Within the meaning of the Section 46A of the
Banking Regulation Act, 1949, the chairman,
managing director, director, auditor, liquidator,
manager or any employee of a banking company is
deemed to be a public servant for the offences
under Indian Penal Code (IPC).
DJ Pandian appointed Vice President of
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Former chief secretary of Gujarat DJ Pandian was
appointed vice-president and chief investment
officer of the newly-created Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank (AIIB) on 3 February 2016.
The Beijing-based 100 billion dollar multi-lateral
lender, AIIB was set up in Beijing on 25
December 2015. It was established to boost
lending for infrastructure projects such as energy,
transportation, urban construction and logistics as
well as education and healthcare. China had
nominated its former finance minister Jin Liqun as
the first president of AIIB.
The three largest shareholders of the bank are
China (30.34 percent), India (8.52 percent) and
Russia (6.66 percent). Their voting shares are
calculated at 26.06 percent, 7.5 percent and 5.92
percent, respectively.
Christine Lagarde appointed as MD of
IMF for second term
he Executive Board of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) on 19 February 2016 selected
Christine Lagarde to serve as IMF Managing
Director for a second five-year term starting on 5
July 2016.
Lagarde, the only candidate nominated for the
post, was backed by the UK, Germany, China, and
her home country, France, to stay on for another
five years.
INTERNATIONAL
India, Nepal signed seven agreements
including utilisation of Indian grant of 250
million US dollars
India and Nepal on 20 February 2016 inked and
exchanged seven agreements and Memorandum of
Understandings (MoUs) to boost the bilateral
cooperation. The agreements covered utilisation of
Indian grant of 250 million US dollars to Nepal for
post-earthquake reconstruction and another on
improving of roads in Terai region. These
agreements were signed during the state visit of
Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli to India.
Oli is on a five day visit to India (19-24 February
2016), which was his first foreign visit after
assuming office in October 2015.
The signed agreements/MoUs were
• MoU on utilization of 250 US dollars million
Grant component of India‘s Assistance package
for Post-earthquake reconstruction assistance – the
grant will be ustilised in four identified sectors and
they are housing, health, education and cultural
heritage.
i. In housing, 100 million US dollars would be
utilised for construction of 50000 houses in 14
severely earthquake affected districts.
ii. 50 million US dollars each would be utilised in
health, education and cultural heritage sectors in
31 earthquake affected districts of Nepal.
• MoU on strengthening of road infrastructure in
the Terai area of Nepal - This MoU will enable
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 32
speedy implementation of remaining work on 17
Roads in Package 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Terai
Road Phase-I project, totaling 518 kms. Two roads
in Package 1 totaling 87 kms have already been
completed.
• MoU between Nepal Academy of Music and
Drama and Sangeet Natak Academy - This MoU
aims to enhance relations between India and Nepal
in the field of performing arts through exchanges
of experts, exponents, dancers, scholars and
intellectuals.
• Letters of Exchange on Transit Routes - the
routes include
i. Transit between Nepal and Bangladesh through
Kakarbitta-Banglabandh corridor
ii. Operationalization of Vishakhapatnam Port
This Exchange of Letters between India and Nepal
would result in simplification of modalities for
traffic of goods between Nepal and Bangladesh
while transiting through India, through the
Kakarbhitta (Nepal) and Banglabandha
(Bangladesh) corridor. This Exchange of Letters
would provide for transit facilities for Nepal
through the Vishakhapatnam port.
• Letters of Exchange on Rail Transport - the areas
include
i. Rail transport to/from Vishakhapatnam
ii. Rail transit facility through Singhabad for
Nepal’s Trade with and through Bangladesh
This Exchange of Letters would allow for rail
transport to and from Vishakhapatnam to Nepal.
This Exchange of Letters would help
operationalise rail transit facility through Singabad
in India for Nepal‘s trade with and through
Bangladesh.
• Inauguration of Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar
transmission line [Initial supply of 80 MW, to be
augmented to 200 MW by October 2016 and 600
MW by December 2017] - The Nepal portion of
the 400 KV Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar transmission
line is being implemented by Government of
Nepal, under an LoC of 13.5 million US dollar.
80 MW power would flow immediately through
this line, with an initial charge of 132 KV.
Thereafter, it will be augmented to 200 MW in
October 2016 at 220 KV, and then to 600 MW by
December 2017 at 400 KV.
• Establishment of Eminent Persons Group - At the
third meeting of the India–Nepal Joint
Commission held at Kathmandu in July 2014, it
was decided to establish an Eminent Persons
Group (EPG).
The EPG comprises eight members with each
country nominating four members, preferably a
parliamentarian, a lawyer, an economist and a civil
society activist.
The EPG has now been constituted. Its mandate
would be to comprehensively review bilateral
relations and recommend measures including
institutional frameworks to further enhance
bilateral ties.
Indo-Nepal Battalion level combined
Exercise Surya Kiran IX
The Ninth Indo-Nepal Combined Battalion level
Military Training Exercise SURYA KIRAN is
being conducted at Pithoragarh in Uttarkhand
under the aegis of Panchshul Brigade of Central
Command. During the exercise, an Infantry
battalion each from Indian Army and the Nepalese
Army would be training together and sharing their
experiences of Counter Terrorism operations and
Jungle Warfare in mountain terrain.
The Surya Kiran series of exercises is a bi-annual
event which is conducted alternatively in Nepal
and India. The aim of this combined training
exercise is to enhance inter-operability between
the Indian and the Nepalese Army units in Jungle
Warfare and Counter Terrorism operations in
mountainous terrain. The training will also focus
on Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief including
medical and aviation support. Both the Armies will
stand to benefit mutually from shared experiences.
Standard Operating Procedure for India-
Myanmar Coordinated Patrol signed
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 33
Indian Navy and Myanmar Navy on 16 February
2016 signed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
for India-Myanmar Coordinated Patrol (IMCOR)
at the Tri-Service Headquarters in Port Blair,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. With this signing
of SOP, Myanmar became the third country with
which India has signed a formal agreement for
maritime coordinated patrols.
The signing of SOP reflects growing naval
interaction between India and Myanmar. It will
facilitate smooth conduct of coordinated patrols
between two neighbours that share a long maritime
boundary in the strategically significant Andaman
Sea and Bay of Bengal. The SOP was signed
during the closing ceremony of the 4th IMCOR
that was successfully held by the two navies along
the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL)
in the Andaman Sea.
First Silk Road train arrived in Tehran
from China
The first train connecting Iran and China packed
with Chinese goods arrived in Tehran on 15
February 2016. The arrival revived the ancient Silk
Road trade route and also highlighted the
economic possibilities for Iran since the lifting of
international sanctions.
The train, also referred to as Silk Road train,
passed through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to
Iran, travelling a distance of 10399 kilometres. It
had left Yiwu city in east China's Zhejiang
province on 28 January 2016. The train, carrying
32 containers of commercial products, took 14
days to make the journey. Compared to the sea
voyage of the cargo ships from China's Shanghai
city to Iran's Bandar Abbas port city, the travel
time of the train was 30 days shorter.
Why the revival of ancient Silk Route?
• In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed
the idea of creating a new Silk Road through
Russia and the Ukraine into Europe. Under the
title One Belt, One Road, this plan is China's new
national vision to improve its connectivity to
Europe, Asia, and Africa.
• The revival will reduce the overall transportation
cost as the journey through train was 30 days
shorter than the sea voyage from Shanghai to the
Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
• China is Iran‘s biggest trading partner and
accounts for one third of its foreign trade. The rail
route will boost bilateral trade between both
countries as Chinese President Xi Jinping and
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had agreed in
January 2016 to build economic ties worth up to
600 billion US dollars within the next 10 years.
India, UAE signed nine agreements
including renewable energy and finance
India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 11
February 2016 signed nine agreements. The
agreements covered a wide range of sectors like
the sphere of cyber security, infrastructure,
renewable energy and finance. The pacts were
inked after talks between visiting Crown Prince of
Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al
Nahyan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at
Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
The signed agreements were
• MoU on Technical Cooperation in Cyber Space
and Combating Cyber Crime: The agreement
signed between the Ministry of Interior of the
United Arab Emirates and the Ministry of Home
Affairs of the Republic of India MoU provides for
technical cooperation in Cyber Space and in the
area of Combating Cyber Crime.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 34
• MoU on Establishing a Framework for
Facilitating the Participation of UAE institutional
investors in Infrastructure Investments in India:
The MoU aims at establishing a framework for
facilitating the participation of UAE institutional
investors in Infrastructure Investments in India.
• General Framework Agreement on Renewable
Energy Cooperation: The framework agreement
provides for bilateral cooperation through
extensive projects, investments, cooperation in R
& D in renewable and clean energy. Knowledge
sharing platforms could also be enacted.
• MoU on Cooperation in the Exploration and use
of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes: It was inked
between Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) and the United Arab Emirates Space
Agency and establishes a framework for
cooperation in space science, technology and
applications including remote sensing; satellite
communication and satellite based navigation.
• MoU for bilateral cooperation in the field of
insurance supervision: The MoU between
Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDA)
and the Insurance Authority of UAE aims at
promoting cooperation between the concerned
authorities in the field of insurance supervision
through a framework for cooperation and by
increasing mutual understanding through the
exchange of regulatory and relevant supervisory
information to ensure compliance with their
respective laws and regulations.
• Executive Programme for Cultural Cooperation
(EPCC) between India and UAE: The Cultural
Exchange Programme 2016 – 2018 follows from
the existing bilateral cultural agreement (1975) and
provides for a range of cultural exchange activities
under the new EPCC.
• Letter of Intent on Cooperation for skill
development and recognition of qualifications: It
was inked between the Ministry of Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), India
and The National Qualifications Authority (NQA),
UAE and provides collaboration on skill
developments and mutual recognition of
qualifications.
• MoU for exchange of information on trade and
business opportunities: The MoU was signed
between Dubai Economic Council (DEC) and
Export-Import bank of India. It provides for both
parties to exchange information on trade and
business opportunities and to further the goal of
facilitating procurement of Indian goods and
services by Dubai Government.
• MoU on Indian Rupee (INR)/UAE Dirham
(AED) Bilateral Currency Swap Arrangement: The
agreement between Reserve Bank of India and
Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates
promotes bilateral financial relations through
currency swap arrangement between the RBI &
Central Bank of UAE.
National Assembly of France voted for
stripping of nationality for terrorists
National Assembly, the Lower House of the
bicameral Parliament of France, on 9 February
2016 passed a proposal to amend the Constitution
to strip people convicted of terrorist offences of
their French nationality. National Assembly voted
by 162 to 148 to incorporate a passport-stripping
clause into the Constitution, despite misgivings by
some lawmakers that it is too extreme. A follow-
up vote is scheduled on 10 February 2016 in which
the lower house is due to reaffirm the vote. To
change the constitution, the government's proposal
will need approval by the upper house of
parliament, the Senate, and then finally by both
houses by a three-fifths majority.
UN Secretary‑General launched One
Humanity: Shared Responsibility report
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-
Moon on 9 February 2016 launched a report titled
One Humanity: Shared Responsibility. The report
called for a global campaign to prevent the erosion
of humanitarian law and protect civilians in
conflict. The report was launched as part of the
first-ever World Humanitarian Summit that is
scheduled to be held from 23 May to 24 May 2016
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 35
with the theme One Humanity: Shared
Responsibility. The summit aims at providing an
opportunity for concrete steps towards ending the
suffering experienced by billions of people at
present.
The Secretary-General‘s Agenda for Humanity
calls on global leaders to commit to five core
responsibilities. They are:
Global leadership to prevent and end conflict
• Preventing conflicts and finding political
solutions to resolve them.
• As per the report, conflicts drive 80 per cent of
all humanitarian needs.
Uphold the norms that safeguard humanity
• Every day, civilians are deliberately or
indiscriminately killed in wars. In this regard,
leaders must recommit to upholding the rules that
protect humanity.
• As per the report, 90 per cent of people killed or
injured by the use of explosive weapons in
populated areas are civilians.
Leave no one behind
• Reaching everyone and empowering all women,
men, girls and boys to be agents of positive
transformation. It means reducing displacement,
supporting refugees and migrants, ending gaps in
education and fighting to eradicate sexual
violence.
Change people's lives – from delivering aid to
ending need
Ending need will require three fundamental shifts
in the way system works:
• Reinforce, don't replace national systems
• Anticipate, do not wait for crises
• Transcend the humanitarian-development divide
At present, 43 per cent of people live in fragile
situations. By 2030, the figure is estimated to
reach 62 per cent.
Invest in humanity
• Accepting and acting upon the shared
responsibilities for humanity requires political,
institutional and financial investment.
• As per the report, only 0.4 per cent of official
development assistance spent on disaster
preparedness in 2014.
Background The report states that the year 2015
witnessed some of the greatest challenges of the
time:
• 125 million people were in need of humanitarian
assistance
• 60 million people were forced to flee from their
homes
• 37 countries were affected
• 20 billion US dollars were needed
The above statistics forced the UN Secretary-
General to organise the first ever World
Humanitarian Summit, which aims at reaffirming
the commitment to humanity and charting a course
for change.
Hindu Marriage Bill 2015 approved in
Pakistan
A National Assembly committee of Pakistan on 8
February 2016 unanimously passed Hindu
Marriage Bill 2015. The National Assembly‘s
Standing Committee on Law and Justice cleared
the final draft of the bill, where five Hindu
lawmakers were specially invited.
The committee adopted the bill unanimously after
making two amendments to fix the minimum age
of the marrying male and female at 18 and making
the law applicable to the whole of Pakistan.
The bill will now be tabled in the National
Assembly where it has fair chances of being
passed as the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-
Nawaz (PML-N) party is supporting it.
The panel recommended following amendments in
clauses 2 to 25:
• As per the Clause 12 sub-section (2)(C), a spouse
may also apply for termination of his/her marriage
on the grounds that the other partner has been
sentenced to imprisonment for a period of four
years instead of three years.
• Clause 12(2d) that relates to termination of
marriage will be deleted.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 36
Hindus in Pakistan have been living without
documentation of their marital status ever since
Independence. Zero documentation of their marital
status affects particularly Hindu women as they
are deprived of legal rights such as inheritance,
adoption of children or remarriage.
Zimbabwe's President declared a state of
disaster in rural parts of the country
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on 5
February 2016 declared a state of disaster in rural
parts of the country hit by a drought.
The announcement comes days after the European
Union urged Mugabe to declare a state of disaster.
This declaration of disaster will allow international
donors to raise money quickly to provide food aid
to the nation.
An estimated 2.4 million people are now in need
of food aid, more than a quarter of the population.
The government also urged Zimbabweans not to
panic, as it is importing maize from neighbouring
Zambia.
The United Nations World Food Programme
(WFP) in January 2016 said some 14 million
people face hunger in southern Africa because of a
drought that has been exacerbated by the El Nino
weather phenomenon. South Africa, Namibia and
Botswana have also been badly hit.
It seems that the worst drought in a quarter of the
century is expected to increase the problems of the
southern African nation, which is struggling to
overcome a steep 1999-2008 recession that saw its
economy contract by nearly 50 percent.
India ratified Convention on
Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear
Damage
India on 4 February 2016 submitted its Instrument
of Ratification of the Convention of
Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage
(CSC), 1997 to International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) at Vienna, Austria. The
instrument is an important multilateral treaty
relating to liability and compensation for damage
caused by a nuclear incident. The Convention will
come into force for India on 4 May 2016 because
as per law, the convention comes into force after
90 days of submission of ratification.
Why the need to submit the instrument of
ratification of CSC?
Certain clauses, especially Section 17(b) and
Section 46 under India's Civil Liability Nuclear
Damage Act, 2010 were major impediments in the
progress of building reactors with the help of the
established firms of the US as well as France and
Russia in India.
The clause Section 17(b) relates to the Right of
Recourse and Section 46 deals with potential
claims against the supplier of nuclear equipment.
These clauses made equipment suppliers like
General Electric potentially accountable for
accidents, not just the plant operators as is the
global norm.
Advantages to India
However, with India submitting the instrument of
ratification, the following advantages are expected:
• It will help establish a worldwide liability regime
and to increase the amount of compensation
available to the victims of nuclear accidents.
• It will help India in addressing the concerns of
foreign nuclear suppliers over civil nuclear
liability in India, although in 2015 India launched
an insurance pool with a liability cap of 15 billion
Indian rupees (225 million dollars) to cover the
suppliers' risk of potential liability
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 37
• It will help in drawing the foreign nuclear
suppliers to Indian nuclear market which is worth
billions of dollars.
• It will help India achieving the objective of
increasing the share of nuclear power from barely
3 percent to 25 percent by 2050.
• It will give India access to international funding,
beyond those available through national resources,
to pay for damages in the event of a nuclear
accident.
India’s interaction with nuclear suppliers
India plans to construct about 60 nuclear reactors
and has been in talks with Westinghouse Electric
Co LLC, GE as well as France's Areva for setting
them up at sites already selected around the
country.
Russia is separately building six reactors in south
India and is in talks for another six. The total size
of the Indian market is estimated at 150 billion
dollars making it equal to or just behind China's.
About Convention of Supplementary
Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC)
• The CSC was adopted on 12 September 1997,
together with the Protocol to Amend the Vienna
Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear
Damage, and entered into force on 15 April 2015.
• It aims at increasing the amount of compensation
available in the event of a nuclear incident through
public funds to be made available by the
Contracting Parties on the basis of their installed
nuclear capacity and UN rate of assessment.
• It also aims at establishing treaty relations among
States that belong to the Vienna Convention on
Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, the Paris
Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of
Nuclear Energy or neither of them.
• It leaves intact the 1988 Joint Protocol that
establishes treaty relations among States that
belong to the Vienna Convention or the Paris
Convention.
India signed agreement to become an
Associate Member State of EMBO
India through the Department of Biotechnology,
Ministry of Science and Technology signed a
Cooperation Agreement to acquire the status of the
Associate Member State European Molecular
Biology Organisation (EMBO). The agreement
will strengthen scientific interaction and
collaborative research between India and Europe
in this field. After the signing of an agreement
with Singapore by Engineering in Medicine and
Biology Society (EMBC) in July 2015, India
became second such country outside the European
region.
Researchers working in India are now eligible to
participate in all EMBO programmes and
activities. Indian scientists can apply to EMBO‘s
programmes, such as long-term fellowships for
postdoctoral researchers, short-term fellowships,
courses and workshops, as well as the EMBO
Young Investigator Programme. At the same time,
Europe will benefit from networking with the top-
level scientists in India‘s research community.
About EMBO
• The European Molecular Biology Organization is
a professional organization of life scientists in
Europe.
• Its goal is to promote research in life science and
enable international exchange between scientists.
• It organizes courses, workshops and conferences,
publishes four scientific journals and supports
individual scientists and projects.
• The organization was founded in 1964.
• The current EMBO Director is Maria Leptin.
Canadian province of Prince Edward
Island & Ontario signed MoUs in
Chandigarh
Canadian Provinces of Prince Edward Island (PEI)
and Ontario in first week of February 2016 inked
Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) in
Chandigarh. The MoUs were inked during the
India visit of the premiers of PEI and Ontario
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 38
Wade MacLauchlan and Kathleen Wynne
respectively. MacLauchlan and Wynne were
leading a week-long trade mission to India with a
focus on building economic and education
relationships between the two nations. During the
visit the duo premiers met with several leaders of
India like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other
senior Ministers. The meetings were focused on
cultivating relationships with India in renewable
energy, sustainable development, food products,
and post-secondary education.
Pacific Rim nations signed Trans-Pacific
Partnership agreement
All twelve Pacific Rim countries on 4 February
2016 signed the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) agreement in New Zealand. This is one of
the biggest trade deals in history. The ceremonial
signing event on the pact was led by New Zealand
Prime Minister John Key and US Trade
Representative Mike Froman at Auckland's Sky
City Convention Centre.
The trade deal looks to facilitate investment
between 12 countries across the Pacific Rim,
which together account for about 40 percent of the
global economy. The agreement was signed by
Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia,
Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United
States of America and Vietnam. The TPP was
agreed in October 2015 after five years of
negotiations and multiple missed deadlines. The
signing of the pact ends the process of negotiation
but the member countries have two years to get
approval on the deal at home. The deal was signed
even after the US is struggling to get the pact
ratified in Congress.
The US-led initiative is a key part of President
Barack Obama's so-called pivot to Asia but has
proved to be a controversial issue ahead of the US
elections in November 2016. Obama has barely a
year left on his term and his administration warns
that the US economy will suffer if politicians don't
ratify the TPP agreement.
India, Brunei signed 3 MoUs to deepen
bilateral cooperation
India and Brunei on 2 February 2016 signed 3
Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to
deepen bilateral cooperation. The MoUs were
signed in Brunei capital Bandar Seri Begawan
during the Vice President Hamid Ansari‘s 3-day
visit to the country.
Details related to 3 MoUs
• MoU in health cooperation: The objective of this
MOU is to establish cooperation in the field of
health by means of pooling technical, scientific,
financial and human resources and to upgrade the
health care, medical education, research between
the two countries.
• MoU on Defence cooperation: The purpose of
this MOU is to enhance Defence cooperation
between India and Brunei in various fields.
Cooperation in defence already exists in the form
of naval ship visits, training of senior military
officers in Staff colleges and exchange of
experience.
• MOU on cooperation in youth and sports affairs:
It seeks to provide a framework for exchanges of
sports persons and sports teams; to facilitate the
exchange of expertise in coaching, sports talent
identification, sports management and
administration and exchange of information in the
field of youth affairs.
Apart from signing of the MoUs, the Vice
President‘s tour included his meeting with the
Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah
Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah and a visit to the sultan
omar ali saifuddin mosque in Bandar Seri
Begawan.
CBDT signed two bilateral Advance
Pricing Agreements (APAs) with United
Kingdom
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 39
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on 29
January 2016 signed two bilateral Advance Pricing
Agreements (APAs) with United Kingdom. With
this signing, CBDT has concluded three bilateral
APAs the first one being a bilateral APA signed
with Japan in December 2014. This is a significant
step towards providing a stable and predictable tax
regime. With this signing, CBDT has so far signed
41 APAs out of which 38 are unilateral and 3 are
bilateral.
Silent Features of two bilateral Advance Pricing
Agreements (APAs)
• The two bilateral APAs were signed with two
Indian group entities of a UK based Multi-
National Company (MNC).
• The APAs have been entered into soon after the
Competent Authorities of India and United
Kingdom finalised the terms of the bilateral
arrangement under the Mutual Agreement
Procedure (MAP) process contained in the India-
UK DTAA.
• The APAs cover the period 2013-14 to 2017-18
and also have a Rollback provision for 2 years that
is 2011-12 and 2012-13.
• Transfer pricing disputes on the same transaction
were recently resolved under MAP for each of
these two companies for the years 2006-07 to
2010-11.
• With the signing of the bilateral APAs, the two
Indian companies are provided with tax certainty
for 12 years each which was split into 5 years
under MAP and 7 years under APA.
• The two APAs are also significant because they
address the issues of payment of management and
service charges and payment of royalty.
• These transactions generally face prolonged and
multi-layered transfer pricing disputes.
What are APAs?
APAs are a meant to settle transfer prices and of
setting prices of international transactions in
advance. There are two types of APAs. They are
bilateral APA and unilateral APA.
Bilateral APAs are those which include
agreements between the tax authorities of the two
countries. While, the Unilateral APAs are those
agreements that are agreed between Indian
taxpayers and the CBDT, without involvement of
the tax authorities of the country where the
associated enterprise is based.
ENVIRONMENT
Union Environment Ministry released
Draft National Wildlife Action Plan (2017-
2031)
Draft National Wildlife Action Plan (2017-2031)
prepared by the Committee under the
chairmanship of JC Kala was released on 3
February 2016 by Union Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate (MoEF). The Committee was
constituted by the MoEF to review the
implementation of the National Wildlife Action
Plan (2002-2016) and to suggest a new Plan of
Action for Wildlife Conservation. It will be the
third National Wildlife Action Plan (NWAP-3) of
the country. The other two are NWAP-1, adopted
in 1983 and implemented from 1983 through 2001.
NWAP-2, revised plan was put in place for the
period 2002-2016. The MoEF called for
suggestions and comments on the released draft
NWAP-3 latest by 17 February 2016.
Highlights of the Draft Plan
• It is based on the premise that essential
ecological processes that are governed, supported
or strongly moderated by ecosystems, are essential
for food production, health and other aspects of
human survival and sustainable development. And
maintenance of these ecosystems which can be
termed as Life Support Systems is vital for all
societies regardless of their stage of development.
• It also emphasizes on other two aspects of living
resource conservation which are preservation of
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 40
genetic diversity and sustainable utilization of
species and ecosystems which has direct bearing
on our scientific advancements and support to
millions of rural communities.
• It adopts landscap e approach in conservation of
all uncultivated flora and undomesticated fauna
that has ecological value to mankind irrespective
of where they occur.
• It accords special emphasis to rehabilitation of
threatened species of wildlife while conserving
their habitats which include inland aquatic, coastal
and marine eco-systems.
• It also takes note of concerns relating to climate
change on wildlife by integrating it in to wildlife
management Planning.
• It underlines the fact that despite being one of 12
mega biodiversity countries of the world, national
planning has not taken serious note of adverse
ecological consequences of reduction and
degradation of wilderness areas from the pressures
of population, commercialization and development
projects.
• Accordingly, the plan has brought to focus the
alarming erosion of our natural heritage
comprising of rivers, forests, grasslands,
mountains, wetlands, coastal and marine habitats
arid lands and deserts
• The plan underscores the increasing need for
people‘s support for conservation of wildlife and
to this effect recommends strengthening the core
buffer multiple use surround structure with higher
inputs for eco-development, education, innovation,
training, extension, conservation awareness and
outreach programs.
• The plan is alive to communities, inhabiting
forest lands and other wilderness areas, to be
treated appropriately in the light of Forest Rights
Act and their inadequacy of resources and strong
dependence on natural biomass resource.
• The plan takes note of and addresses rising
human animal conflict owing to shrinkage,
fragmentation and deterioration of habitats
generating animosity against wild animals and
protected areas.
Marine Museum inaugurated at Marine
Aquarium and Regional Centre in Digha
The Marine Museum was inaugurated on 3
February 2016 at the Marine Aquarium and
Regional Centre (MARC) of Zoological Survey of
India (ZSI) in Digha, West Bengal. It was
inaugurated along with one day National Seminar
on Coastal Zone Management and Marine
Biodiversity at East Medinipur district of West
Bengal. The newly constructed museum that is
thrown open to the public contains Fish gallery,
Coral gallery, and Molluscan gallery with more
than 500 marine species display. The species
include fishes, sea snakes, molluscs, corals, crabs,
prawns, lobsters, echinoderms, horse-shoe crabs
etc.
Committee on Aviation Environmental
Protection of ICAO proposed binding
carbon emission standards for aviation
industry
Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection
(CAEP) of United Nations‘ (UN) International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on 8 February
2016 proposed binding carbon emission standards
for aviation industry. Hence, it paved the way for
its ultimate adoption by ICAO Governing Council.
CAEP has ensured that the full range of sizes and
types of aircraft used in international aviation used
in present times are covered while proposing the
standards. And it comprehensively encompassed
all technological feasibility, emissions reduction
potential, and cost considerations.
CAEP Recommendations on the Carbon Emission
Standards(CES):
• The new CO2 emissions standard would not only
be applicable to new aircraft type designs as of
2020, but also to new deliveries of current in-
production aircraft types from 2023.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 41
• A cut-off date of 2028 for production of aircraft
that do not comply with the standard was also
recommended.
• In its current form the standard equitably
acknowledges CO2 reductions arising from a
range of possible technology innovations, whether
structural, aerodynamic or propulsion-based.
• The proposed global standard is especially
stringent where it will have the greatest impact: for
larger aircraft.
• Operations of aircraft weighing over 60 tonnes
account for more than 90% of international
aviation emissions.
• They also have access to the broadest range of
emissions reduction technologies, which the
standard recognizes.
The goal of this process is ultimately to ensure that
when the next generation of aircraft types enters
service, there will be guaranteed reductions in
international CO2 emissions. The aviation sector
at present accounts for fewer than 2 percent of the
world‘s annual CO2 emissions. However, it is
estimated that global passengers and flights would
be doubled by 2030 which should be managed
responsibly and sustainably.
About International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO)
• It is a UN specialized agency which was
established in 1944 to manage the administration
and governance of the Convention on International
Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention).
• It works with the Convention‘s 191 Member
States and industry groups to reach consensus on
international civil aviation Standards and
Recommended Practices (SARPs) and policies in
support of a safe, efficient, secure, economically
sustainable and environmentally responsible civil
aviation sector.
National Air Quality Indices for 24 cities
released by Central Pollution Control
Board
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in the
first week of February 2016 published National
Air Quality Indices (NAQI) for 24 cities. The AQI
published with a colour code and a numerical
value will help in comparing pollution levels in
each cities. The NAQI is determined on the basis
of concentration of eight pollutants, including
Particulate Matter (PM2.5 fine, respirable
particles), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide
(NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3),
ammonia (NH3) and lead (Pb).
Main highlights
• Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Muzzafarpur in
Bihar topped the list and were coded as ‗severe‘ in
terms of air pollution in January 2016 with an AQI
value of 409 points each.
• These two cities are followed by Faridabad
(399), Patna (388) and Agra (372) at 3rd, 4th and
5th position respectively.
• The national capital Delhi stood at the sixth
position with 362 points and was coded as ‗very
poor‘.
• Earlier in December 2015, Delhi was coded as
‗Poor‘ in AQI with 293 points. Seven other Indian
cities were ahead of it and rated as ‗very poor‘ and
they were Agra (342), Faridabad (345), Kanpur
(347), Lucknow (353), Muzzaffarpur (400), Patna
(373) and Varanasi (366).
• In November 2015, Delhi was ranked at third
position with a score of 360 with Lucknow and
Patna at top two positions with 374 and 366 AQIs
respectively.
• In the months of September 2015 and October
2015, Delhi was at the top of air pollution chart.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO),
Delhi is the most polluted city in the world in
terms of air pollution. In fact, air pollution in Delhi
is 12 times higher than WHO standards.
However, NAQI shows that other major cities like
Lucknow, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Agra
and Varanasi continue to show alarmingly high
air-pollutant levels – 10 times higher than WHO
standards making air pollution truly a national
emergency.
Isro orbiter to scan India’s air for
pollutants
The Space Applications Centre (SAC) of Isro and
Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) of University of
Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies are
collaborating on developing the ‗Next Generation
Earth Monitoring and Observation and Aerosol
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 42
Monitoring‘ (NEMO-AM) satellite. This is among
Isro‘s most important high-performance nano-
satellite missions for the country.
The NEMO mission is designed to cover, each
day, up to 50,000 square kilometer area of the
country‘s 32.87 lakh sq km. The NEMO-AM
satellite with its powerful imaging sensor analyses
the sunlight reflected from the earth‘s surface. This
light, which passes through the earth‘s atmosphere
before reaching NEMO will be analyzed by the
satellite from different angles to deter mine the
nature of suspended particles and aerosol
concentration in the ambient air of India cities.
The data will be handy for estimating emissions
from vehicles, tracking pollutants plumes, and
supporting activities to forecast air quality in cities
and towns. New policies can be framed around this
data. The nano-satellite will monitor suspended
particles and aerosols that have made the air of
major Indian cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad,
Lucknow, Amritsar and Allahabad among the
most polluted in the world. SAC is providing the
necessary software for instruments that are to be
made in Canada. The nano-satellite will be
launched 500 km above the earth.
The tiny particles and aerosols in the exhaust of
vehicles, emissions from industrial chimneys and
even dust particles from construction work fill the
air we breathe. These aerosols and particulate
matter of size 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) enter our
lungs and restrict the free flow of air.
Environment Minister launches envis
portal
The Union Environment minister recently
launched the Environment Information System
(ENVIS) portal. Environmental Information
System (ENVIS) Portal runs parallel with the
Digital India Objective, which works on
improving the digital literacy in the environment
sector and deliver services digitally all over the
country. The digitization of valuable data covering
the broad spectrum of subjects on environment
will serve as an asset in generating feature rich
repository of information.
About ENVIS: Environmental Information System
(ENVIS), a Central Sector Scheme of the
Environment Ministry has been implemented since
1982. The purpose of the scheme is to integrate
country-wide efforts in environmental information
collection, collation, storage, retrieval and
dissemination through ENVIS websites, which are
dedicated to different interesting themes.
The network presently consists of 69 Centres, of
which 29 are hosted by the environment/forest
department of State governments/UT
Administrations and deal with ―State of the
environment and related issues‖, while 40 Centres
are being hosted by environment-related
governmental and non-governmental
organisations/institutes of professional excellence
and have a thematic mandate.
Major users of ENVIS include Central and State
Governments, institutes and individual scientists,
researchers, students and agencies carrying out
environmental impact assessment of projects, as
well as public. The challenge before ENVIS is to
find out new ways to reach out to people and how
to popularise science and sustainable practices.
Seismic Microzonation reports
The centre recently released Seismic
microzonation reports for Delhi and Kolkata.
Microzonation helps to minimize the impact of
earthquakes by: Proper assessment of Seismic
Hazard, Implementation of safe building
construction code and Adopting appropriate land-
use planning.
Seismic microzonation is a process of identifying
geological, seismological, hydrological and
geotechnical site characteristics in a specific
region. These would help design of safe structures
to reduce loss of human life. Under microzonation
the emphasis is given on the impact of earthquake
on the habitat.
Under the microzonation process various
investigations viz, ambient noise survey, Multi-
Channel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW)
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 43
survey, in-situ geotechnical testing, in-situ seismic
measurements etc. will be carried out.
After analysis of data sets different maps viz.,
Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), spectral
accelerations for different periods, liquefaction
potential, predominant frequency, amplification
factor, average shear wave velocity at 30 meters
depth, geology & geomorphology and projected
Hazard Scenarios at GIS platform etc. will be
prepared.
Earlier a seismic zoning map for entire India was
prepared and published by the Bureau of Indian
Standards (BIS), classifying the entire country into
4 major groups Zone-V (High intensity) to Zone-II
(Low intensity). These zones encompass wider
area for which specific design spectra is
commonly used, despite geological and geo-
morphological variability within the respective
zones.
World Wetlands Day observed with theme
Wetlands for our Future – Sustainable
Livelihoods
The World Wetlands Day was observed on 2
February 2016 across the globe to mark the
adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in the city
of Ramsar in Iran in 1971. The theme of World
Wetlands Day this year is Wetlands for our Future
– Sustainable Livelihoods. It highlights the value
of wetlands in securing local livelihoods through
activities as fishing, rice farming, tourism, and
water provision. The day is observed on the same
day every year to promote, create awareness and
ensure positive and affirmative action for
conservation of wetlands. This year the World
Wetlands Day is being celebrated by the Union
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change in collaboration with the West Bengal
Government at Sunderbans.
Tropical Cyclone Winston lashed Fiji
killing scores of people
The tropical cyclone Winston lashed Fiji with
winds up to 330 kilometers per hour on 20
February 2016. The cyclone that was accompanied
with torrential rain and strong winds killed at least
29 people. The cyclone did a considerable damage
across the main island Viti Levu and the island of
Koro, which were directly hit by strong winds. The
Winston, a category five storm, is thought to be
the biggest to ever hit the Southern Hemisphere,
leaving a trail of destruction in its wake while
moving west away from Fiji. The cyclone left
many cities without power and running water. It
also destroyed homes and flooded the low-lying
areas.
SCIENCE
Physicists Detect Gravitational Waves
From Violent Black-Hole Merger
After decades of effort, physicists have finally
succeeded in detecting gravitational waves from
the violent merging of two black holes in deep
space. This confirms a key prediction of Albert
Einstein‘s General Theory of Relativity. These
waves were detected by the scientists working
with the gigantic optical instruments in the U.S.
called LIGO [Laser Interferometer Gravitational-
wave Observatory].
Signals of gravitational waves emanated from two
merging black holes located 1.3 billion light years
away. That is to say, this cataclysmic event of two
black holes merging occurred 1.3 b yrs ago, when
multi-cellular organisms were just beginning to
form on the Earth, the gravitational waves from
which are being received now on the Earth.
The observatory, described as ―the most precise
measuring device ever built,‖ is actually two
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 44
facilities in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford,
Washington. They were built and operated with
funding from the National Science Foundation,
which has spent $1.1 billion on LIGO over the
course of several decades. The project is led by
scientists from the California Institute of
Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and is supported by an international
consortium of scientists and institutions. This
discovery may inaugurate a new era of astronomy
in which gravitational waves are tools for studying
the most mysterious and exotic objects in the
universe.
The biggest victory for the Indian gravitational
wave astronomy community as a result of this
discovery has been the in-principle approval from
Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting up of
the Indian component of the advanced LIGO,
which has been hanging fire for more than three
years since the proposal was approved by the
National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S.
What are Gravitational Waves?
Gravitational waves are the ripples in the pond of
spacetime. The gravity of large objects warps
space and time, or ―spacetime‖ as physicists call it,
the way a bowling ball changes the shape of a
trampoline as it rolls around on it. Smaller objects
will move differently as a result – like marbles
spiraling toward a bowling-ball-sized dent in a
trampoline instead of sitting on a flat surface.
These waves will be particularly useful for
studying black holes (the existence of which was
first implied by Einstein‘s theory) and other dark
objects, because they‘ll give scientists a bright
beacon to search for even when objects don‘t emit
actual light. With this, mapping the abundance of
black holes and frequency of their mergers could
get a lot easier. Since they pass through matter
without interacting with it, gravitational waves
would come to Earth carrying undistorted
information about their origin. They could also
improve methods for estimating the distances to
other galaxies.
The reason that gravitational waves have been so
difficult to detect is that their effects are tinier than
tiny. In fact, the signals they produce are so small
that scientists struggle to remove enough
background noise to confirm them.
Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves in
his general theory of relativity a century ago.
Under this theory, space and time are interwoven
into something called ―spacetime‖. Einstein
predicted that mass warps space-time through its
gravitational force.
When objects with mass accelerate, such as when
two black holes spiral towards each other, they
send waves along the curved space-time around
them at the speed of light, like ripples on a pond.
The more massive the object, the larger the wave
and the easier for scientists to detect. Gravitational
waves do not interact with matter and travel
through the Universe completely unimpeded.
Union Cabinet gave in-principle approval
to LIGO-India project to study
gravitational waves
The Union Cabinet on 17 February 2016 gave in-
principal approval to the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) - India
project to study gravitational waves. The approval
coincided with the announcement of international
scientists in February 2016 about the detection of
gravitational waves in the LIGO facilities located
in the USA.LIGO-India is a part of the IndIGO
(Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave
Observations) initiative and seeks to move one
Advanced LIGO detector from Hanford to India.
Features of LIGO-India Project
• It will establish a state-of-the-art gravitational
wave observatory in India in collaboration with the
LIGO Laboratory in the USA that is run by
Caltech and MIT.
• It will involve constructing eight kilometer long
beam tube at ultra-high vacuum on a levelled
terrain.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 45
• The project will bring unprecedented
opportunities for scientists and engineers to dig
deeper into the realm of gravitational wave and
take global leadership in this new astronomical
frontier.
• It will bring considerable opportunities in cutting
edge technology for the Indian industry.
• The project will motivate Indian students and
young scientists to explore newer frontiers of
knowledge, and will add further impetus to
scientific research in the country.
• It piloted by the Department of Atomic Energy
and Department of Science and Technology
(DST).
• It is envisaged as an international collaboration
between the LIGO Laboratory and three lead
institutions in the IndIGO consortium.
• The three lead institutions are - Institute of
Plasma Research (IPR) Gandhinagar, Inter
University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
(IUCAA), Pune and Raja Ramanna Centre for
Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore.
ISRO successfully tested high-thrust
Cryogenic Engine CE-20
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
on 19 February 2016 successfully tested high-
thrust cryogenic engine CE-20 at its Propulsion
Research Centre in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.
The successful hotbed test lasted 640 seconds and
paved the way for the first developmental flight of
the GSLV Mark 3 in December 2016. The GSLV
Mark 3, the biggest rocket made in India, will be
capable of launching 4-tonne satellites into
geosynchronous orbit. So far India's GSLVs were
being powered by cryogenic engines given by
Russia. But this development marks a milestone in
the country's effort to develop a big cryogenic
engine to fly satellites of up to five tonnes.
About Cryogenic Engine: It uses Hydrogen as fuel,
stored at minus 253 degrees Celsius and liquid
oxygen as oxidizer at minus 193 degrees Celsius.
The CE-20 has been developed at the Liquid
Propulsion System centre (LPSC) in
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. It can develop the
thrust needed in the final stage of the rocket to put
satellites, weighing two tonnes or more, into a
geosynchronous orbit. It will also give boost to
India‘s interplanetary probes and manned space
missions. It is essential to master this technology
for any space power as launching heavier satellites
requires cryogenic engines even in the lower
stages of the rocket.
Japan launched astronomy satellite
ASTRO-H
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on
17 February 2016 successfully launched
astronomy satellite ASTRO-H from the
Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima
Prefecture. ASTRO-H is the eye to study the hot
and energetic universe. The ‗H‘ refers to the word
Japanese word Hitomi that means pupil or
entrance window of the eye. The mission involves
the 2700-kilogram satellite that is equipped with 4
telescopes and 6 detectors, allowing it to study
both ―hard‖ and ―soft‖ x-rays and gamma rays.
The high-energy astronomy mission primarily
seeks to study x-rays emanating mainly from black
holes and galaxy clusters. The mission was led by
the JAXA in partnership with the NASA,
European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency,
Netherlands Institute for Space Research and
universities in Japan, Europe and North America.
Scientists discovered five Jupiter-like
Planets
The team, led by Pierre Maxted of the Keele
University in Staffordshire of UK, discovered five
new Jupiter-like planets that orbits very close to
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 46
their host stars. The discovered planets exhibits
similar characteristics that of our solar systems
biggest planet. The findings of the discovery were
published online on 4 February 2016 in the arXiv
journal.
The planets were studied in their light curve by
using the Wide Angle Search for Planets-South
(WASP-South) instrument—an array of eight
cameras observing selected regions of the southern
sky. The instrument is located at the site of the
South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO),
outside Sutherland in South Africa. To confirm the
planetary nature of the observed targets, the
researchers used photometry from the EulerCam
instrument on the Swiss Euler 1.2-m telescope and
the TRAPPIST telescope, as well as spectroscopy
obtained with the CORALIE spectrograph—all
installed at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The
newly discovered planets were designated WASP-
119 b, WASP-124 b, WASP-126 b, WASP-129 b
and WASP-133 b. Their masses range from 0.3 to
1.2 the mass of the Jupiter, with radii between one
to 1.5 Jupiter radius, and their orbital periods vary
from 2.17 to 5.75 days.
India, NASA to study Ladakh region under
Spaceward Bound programme
India and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) entered into a partnership
in January 2016 to explore the environment of
Ladakh under NASA‘s Spaceward Bound
programme. Under the partnership, a team of
scientists from NASA, the Mars society Australia
and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany,
Lucknow will undertake an expedition to Ladakh
in August 2016. During their 10-day expedition,
the scientists will study the similarities of certain
parts of the region‘s topography and microbial life
to the surroundings of Mars.
Ladakh offers a cold, high altitude (3500 - 5500
meter above sea level), high UV exposed, dry
ecosystem with Mars analogue topological
features. The pristine Ladakh environment will tell
us about the origin and evolution of Earth‘s
topological features and also about how microbial
life has adapted itself to sustain itself in such harsh
conditions. High passes, permafrost regions,
glaciers, hot springs, shallow and palaeo lakes and
high altitude night skies help the
astrobio/geoscientsts to conduct experiments in
order to find answer some of the most fundamental
questions about life. India‘s success in executing
the Mars Orbiter Mission will be an added
advantage for international scientists for achieving
greater results as part of the collaboration.
About Spaceward Bound programme
It is an educational program developed at NASA
Ames Research Center in California, the USA. It
mission is to train the next generation of space
explorers by having students and teachers
participate in the exploration of different regions
on the planet. The regions are of scientifically
interesting but remote and extreme environments
on Earth as analogs for human exploration of the
Moon and Mars. Previous spaceward bound
expeditions were Atacama Desert (South
America), Mojave Desert (the USA), Pavilion
Lake (Canada) and Arctic region among others.
Ladakh is the first region chosen for study in India
under the programme.
Indian-origin Ashutosh Tiwari-led Utah
Engineers discovered 2D Semiconducting
Material made of Tin Monoxide
Engineers belonging to the University of Utah, the
USA, discovered a new kind of 2D
semiconducting material for electronics that is
made up of the elements tin and oxygen or tin
monoxide (SnO). The discovery was made by a
team of engineers led by Indian-Orgin Ashutosh
Tiwari and published online on 15 February 2016
in the journal Advanced Electronic Materials. The
only one atom thick 2D SnO material allows
electrical charges to move through it much faster
than conventional 3D materials such as silicon and
will facilitate development of much speedier
computers and smartphones.
Differences between 2D and 3D materials
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 47
Transistors and other components used in
electronic devices are currently made of 3D
materials such as silicon and consist of multiple
layers on a glass substrate. But the downside to 3D
materials is that electrons bounce around inside the
layers in all directions. 2D materials, which came
into prominence five years ago, are made up of
one layer with the thickness of just one or two
atoms. Consequently, the electrons can only move
in one layer so it‘s much faster and the devices
made up of them consume less power. And, as the
electrons move through one layer in 2D material
instead of bouncing around in a 3D material, there
will be less friction, meaning the processors will
not get as hot as normal computer chips.
Difference between SnO and other 2D materials
While researchers in the field of materials science
and engineering discovered new types of 2D
material such as graphene, molybdenun disulfide
and borophene, they are of limited use as they only
allow the movement of N-type, or negative,
electrons. However, in order to create an electronic
device, there is a need for semiconductor material
that allows the movement of both negative
electrons and positive charges known as ―holes‖.
The present SnO material fills this vacuum as it
has become the first stable P-type 2D
semiconductor material ever in existence.
Significance of the discovery
Typically, a computer processor is comprised of
billions of transistors and the more transistors
packed into a single chip the more powerful the
processor can become. With the availability of P-
type and N-type 2D semiconductors, the scientists
will be able to manufacture smaller and faster
transistors than that are available now. Since
transistors are the lifeblood of all electronic
devices such as computer processors and graphics
processors the discovery could lead to
development of computers and smartphones that
are more than 100 times faster than regular
devices. The low-battery requirement of 2D
semiconductor-based material is of particular
significance for medical devices such as electronic
implants that run longer on a single battery charge.
Internet by light promises to leave Wi-Fi in
the shade
French start-up Oledcomm demonstrated the Li-Fi
technology at the recently held Mobile World
Congress, the world‘s biggest mobile fair, in
Barcelona. Laboratory tests have shown theoretical
speeds of over 200 Gbps — fast enough to
―download the equivalent of 23 DVDs in one
second‖.
Li-Fi, or light fidelity, invented by German
physicist and professor Harald Haas, is a wireless
technology that makes use of visible light in place
of radio waves to transmit data at terabits per
second speeds—more than 100 times the speed of
Wi-Fi. Li-Fi is a Visible Light Communications
(VLC) system. This means that it accommodates a
photo-detector to receive light signals and a signal
processing element to convert the data into
‗stream-able‘ content. Unlike Wi-Fi, which uses
radio waves, Li-Fi runs on visible light. Here, data
is fed into an LED light bulb (with signal
processing technology), it then sends data
(embedded in its beam) at rapid speeds to the
photo-detector (photodiode). The tiny changes in
the rapid dimming of LED bulbs is then converted
by the ‗receiver‘ into electrical signal. The signal
is then converted back into a binary data stream
that the user would recognise as web, video and
audio applications that run on internet enables
devices. An LED lightbulb is a semi-conductor
light source meaning that the constant current of
electricity supplied to an LED lightbulb can be
dipped and dimmed, up and down at extremely
high speeds, without being visible to the human
eye.
Li-Fi could make a huge impact on the internet of
things too, with data transferred at much higher
levels with even more devices able to connect to
one another. Li-Fi offers great promise to
overcome the existing limitations of Wi-Fi by
providing for data-heavy communication in short
ranges. Due to its shorter range, Li-Fi is more
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 48
secure than Wi-Fi. Since it does not pollute, it can
be called a green technology for device-to-device
communication in the Internet of Things (IoT). Li-
Fi systems consume less power.
Limitations of Li-Fi: As visual light can‘t pass
through opaque objects and needs line of sight for
communication, its range will remain very
restricted to start with. In order to enjoy full
connectivity, more capable LED bulbs will need to
be placed at various places. Li-Fi requires the
lightbulb is on at all times to provide connectivity,
meaning that the lights will need to be on during
the day. Li-Fi is likely to face interference from
external light sources, such as sunlight and bulbs,
and obstructions in the path of transmission, and
hence may cause interruptions in communication.
Also, initially, there will be high installation costs
of visual light communication systems as an add-
on to lighting systems.
India's first Ayurvedic anti-diabetic drug,
BGR-34, launched by CSIR
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) on 3 February 2016 launched the BGR-34,
the country's first anti-diabetic ayurvedic drug for
Diabetes. BGR is acronym for blood glucose
regulator. The ayurvedic drug BGR-34 was
launched at Kozhikode, Kerala by CSIR's Senior
Principal Scientist Dr AKS Rawat as part of the
Global Ayurveda Festival in the city. BGR-34 is
designed for type 2 Diabetes mellitus, has been
scientifically validated for its efficacy and safety.
Priced at 5 rupees per tablet, the medicine is now
available at all major chemist counters of Kerala.
The drug works by controlling blood sugar level
(anti-hyperglycaemic property) and limiting the
harmful effects of other drugs and is not toxic in
nature nor carries any side-effects. The drug was
developed by CSIR in collaboration with National
Botanical Research Institute and Central Institute
for Medicinal and Aromatic Plant. It was
developed as diabetes has become a major threat in
the health sector and about 6 crore of adult Indian
population has been found to be diabetic and there
is no effective solution for the disease yet.
Union Government to set up a BGRL to
understand earthquake mechanism in
Koyna region
Dr Harsh Vardhan, the Union Minister for
Science, Technology and Earth Sciences on 2
February 2016 inaugurated the construction work
of Borehole Geophysics Research Laboratory
(BGRL) at Hazarmachi, Karad of Maharashtra.
BGRL is being developed at Karad to understand
and address the challenges of the seismological
problems (natural calamities) of societal relevance
in the Koyna Region through drilling
investigation. BGRL was conceptualised as part of
the Ministry‘s programme of Scientific Deep
Drilling in Koyna Intra-plate Seismic Zone for
geographical investigations and modeling
dedicated to earthquake research in the area.
It is proposed to drill deep boreholes to reach the
depths of earthquakes in this region and set-up a
deep borehole observatory. Direct observations in
the source zone of the earthquakes will provide
new and critical information to model these
earthquake mechanisms. The goal of BGRL is to
emerge as an Institution of international repute
housing highly specialized geophysical, geological
and geotechnical facilities related to earthquake
research.
Shri J P Nadda launches National
Deworming initiative
As part of the National Deworming initiative to
benefit more than 270 million children, Union
Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda
on February 9th, 2016 launched the 2nd National
Deworming Day at a function in Telengana.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had
first launched National Deworming Day (NDD) in
2015 which was implemented in 11 States and
Union Territories (UTs) covering all Government
and Government-aided schools and Anganwadi
centres targeting children aged 1 to 19 years. Now,
the initiative will be extended to cover the whole
country.
It is aimed at protecting more than 24 crore
children in the ages of 1-19 years from intestinal
worms. Through this initiative, the government
aims to create mass awareness about the most
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 49
effective and low-cost Soil- Transmitted
Helminths (STH) treatment— administering
Albendazole tablets.
Along with Albendazole administration, behaviour
change practices in terms of cleanliness, hygiene,
use of toilets, wearing shoes/chappals, washing
hands etc. is also important to reduce incidents of
re-infection.
SPORTS
Punjab Warriors defeated Kalinga Lancers
to win 2016 Hockey India League
The Jaypee Punjab Warriors on 21 February 2016
defeated Kalinga Lancers 6-1 to clinch Hockey
India League (HIL) title in the fourth edition of the
six-team tournament at the Birsa Munda Hockey
Stadium in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The Punjab
Warriors were third time lucky as they had
finished runners-up in the last two editions. They
lost to Delhi Waveriders in 2014 and to Ranchi
Rays in 2015. The Player of the Tournament
Award of 50 lakh rupees was awarded to Rupinder
Pal Singh of Delhi Waveriders.
Indian Women Cricket Team won three-match
ODI series against Sri Lanka
The Indian women cricket team on 19 February
2016 won the three-match ODI series against Sri
Lanks, 3-0. In the third and final match played in
Ranchi, India defeated the Sri Lankan team by
seven wickets.
2016 South Asian Games concluded; India
finished at top with 308 medals
12th South Asian Games (SAG) 2016 concluded
on 16 February 2016 at the Indira Gandhi Athletic
Stadium, Sarusajai of Guwahati, Assam. The game
that saw 228 events in 23 sports disciplines was
held from 5 February to 16 February 2016. The
event saw participation of about 2600 athletes
from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives. It was
co-hosted by Guwahati, Assam and Meghalaya
capital, Shillong. The games were conducted in 26
venues across the cities of Guwahati and Shillong.
17 venues were in Guwahati and 9 venues were in
Shillong.
India finished at the top with a record 308 medals -
188 Gold, 90 Silver and 30 Bronze, which put to
shade its previous best of 214 medals at the 2006
Games in Colombo. Athletics, Shooting, Archery,
Wrestling, Boxing, Weightlifting and Swimming
were the events that witnessed the Indian master-
class.
Countries Gold
Medal
Silver
Medal
Bronze
Medal
Total
India 188 90 30 308
Sri Lanka 25 63 98 186
Pakistan 12 37 57 106
Afghanistan 7 9 19 35
Bangladesh 4 15 56 75
Nepal 3 23 34 60
Maldives 0 2 1 3
Bhutan 0 1 15 16
India won three-match T-20 series against
Sri Lanka, 2-1
India on 14 February 2016 won the three-match T-
20 series against Sri Lanka, 2-1. In the third and
final Twenty20 match played in at Visakhapatnam,
Andhra Pradesh, India defeated Sri Lanka by nine
wickets.
The series win also helped India retain its numero
uno position in the ICC T20 rankings. Man of the
series: Ravichandran Ashwin
West Indies won maiden ICC U19 Cricket
World Cup
The West Indies on 14 February 2016 lifted their
maiden ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup title. In
the final played at Mirpur, West Indies defeated
three time champions India by five wickets. It was
the first major title for the West Indies at any level
since Darren Sammy‘s senior team won the ICC
World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in 2012.
Novak Djokovic won the 2016 Australian
Open Men's Singles Title
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 50
World Number One Novak Djokovic on 31
January 2016 won the Australian Open Men‘s
Singles title. In the final played at Melbourne, the
Serbian defeated Andy Murray of Britain in
straight sets 6-1, 7-5, 7-6.
With this, Djokovic retained his title and also
equalled the record of Roy Emerson's record of six
Australian Open Singles titles.
India won three-match T-20 series against
Australia, 3-0
India on 31 January 2016 won the three-match T-
20 series against Australia, 3-0. In the third and
final Twenty20 match played in Sydney, India
defeated Australia by seven wickets.
• Virat Kohli of India was declared as the player of
the series.
Australia won Trans-Tasman Trophy of
Cricket against New Zealand
Australia on 24 February 2016 won Trans-Tasman
Trophy of Cricket against New Zealand and
became World Number 1 in ICC Test ranking. It
replaced India in the test rating by defeating New
Zealand by 2-0 in two-Match Series.
MISCELLANEOUS
Sammakka Saralamma Jatara
Asia‘s biggest tribal fair, Sammakka-Saralamma
Jatara, was recently concluded in Telangana.
Lakhs of devotees bid farewell to the tribal
goddesses at Medaram village in Warangal
district. About a crore people from various parts of
the country attended the fair.
Sammakka Saralamma Jatara or Medaram Jatara is
a tribal festival of honouring the goddesses
celebrated in the state of Telangana, India. It
commemorates the fight of a mother and daughter,
Sammakka and Saralamma, with the reigning
rulers against an unjust law. It is believed that after
Kumbha Mela, the Medaram jatara attracts the
largest number of devotees in the country. It is a
four-day festival held once in two years. The
festival is celebrated in Medaram during the time
the goddesses of the tribals is believed to visit
them. Medaram is a remote place in the
Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary, a part of
Dandakaranya, the largest surviving forest belt in
the Deccan.
Exercise IBSAMAR between India, South
Africa, Brazil started in Goa
The fifth edition of exercise IBSAMAR between
Brazil, India and South Africa kicked off on 19
February 2016 in Goa. The exercise will conclude
on 29 February 2016. This is the first time that
Exercise IBSAMAR is being conducted in Indian
waters. All the previous editions were being held
off South Africa. The primary aim of the exercise
is to increase interoperability amongst the three
navies as well as develop common understanding
and procedures for maritime security operations.
7th India, Seychelles joint military exercise
LAMITYE 2016 began in Seychelles
LAMITYE 2016, the 7th joint military training
exercise between the Indian Army and the
Seychelles People‘s Defence Forces (SPDF) began
on 15 February 2016. It will be a 2-week long
exercise till 28 February 2016 and conducted at
Seychelles Defence Academy (SDA) in Victoria,
Seychelles. Lamitye, which means friendship in
Creole dialect, will be conducted with the aim of
enhancing military cooperation and
interoperability between the two countries.
International Fleet Review 2016 concluded
in Visakhapatnam
International Fleet Review (IFR) 2016 of the
Indian Navy was concluded on 8 February 2016
along the coast of Visakhapatnam in Andhra
Pradesh. The 5-day long event was hosted by the
Indian Navy with the theme United through
Oceans. It was attended by the President of India
Pranab Mukherjee and the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi.
Features of International Fleet Review 2016
• The review was aimed at assuring the country of
the Indian Navy‘s preparedness, high morale and
discipline.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 51
• Considered as country‘s biggest military
exercise, friendly naval contingents from around
the world joined Indian navy‘s ships and
submarines.
• It saw the participation of 50 navies, 90 ships,
including 24 warships and over 70 aircraft.
Besides, ships of Indian Coast Guard and
mercantile marine also participated in the review.
• The list of participating countries included the 5
permanent members of the UNSC – the USA,
China, the UK, Russia and France, South Korea,
Brazil, Canada, etc.
India to participate in Cobra Gold 2016
military exercise in Thailand
The term Cobra Gold was in news on 3 February
2016 as India confirmed its participation in the
annual amphibious military exercise in 2016. The
decision in this regard was conveyed to Thailand,
the host country, during Vice President Hamid
Ansari‘s visit to the country.
• It is the largest Asia-Pacific military exercise and
held in Thailand every year.
• It is among the largest multinational military
exercise in which the United States participates.
• As of 2014, Cobra Gold has three distinct
activities, namely, the Combined Arms Live Fire
Exercise (CALFEX), Command Post Exercise
(CPX) and activity related to assisting the local
Thai population.
• It was first held in 1982 to improve coordination
between the armed forces of the USA and
Thailand in both hostile military and humanitarian
efforts.
• As of 2015, the exercise expanded to include 26
nations - Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore,
South Korea, and other South Asian and Pacific
Ocean countries among others.
• China was admitted to the exercise for the first
time in 2015.
• The exercise was proven effective in improving
coordinated military response to natural disasters,
including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2011
Tōhoku tsunami, and disaster relief provided to the
Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan struck in
November 2013.
Tamil film Kanavu Variyam to be
honoured with Remi Award
Kanavu Variyam, a Tamil movie directed by a
Chennai-based techie Arun Chidambaram, in the
third week of February 2016 was selected for the
prestigious Remi Award. The award will be
handed over to Chidambaram during the 49th
WorldFest Houston International Film Festival,
which will be held from 8 April 8 to 17 April
2016.
Malayalam film Ottal named best children's
film at Berlin International Film Festival
Malayalam film ―Ottal‖ was named the Best
Children's Film at the 2016 Berlin International
Film Festival in Germany. It was honoured with
the Crystal Bear Award in the 'Generation K-Plus'
section. The film, directed by Jayaraj Rajasekharan
Nair, is about the story of an old fisherman and his
grandson. The movie is an adaptation of Anton
Chekhov's short story 'Vanaka'.
Union Government launched Swachh
Paryatan Mobile App
Union Tourism Ministry on 22 February 2016
launched Swachh Paryatan Mobile App. The App
will facilitate the public to communicate their
complaints about any unclean area and garbage
piles in and around tourist destinations. Initially,
25 Adarsh Smarak Monuments protected by
Archaeological Survey of India have been
identified for inclusion in the app.
World Day of Social Justice observed
World Day of Social Justice was observed on 20
February 2016 with the theme A Just Transition -
environmentally sustainable economies and
societies. To mark the occasion, various activities
were organised across the world to stress
importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development which laid special emphasis on
achieving social justice.
International Mother Language Day observed
on February 21
International Mother Language Day 2016 was
celebrated across the world on 21 February 2016.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 52
The theme for the year 2016 is Quality education,
language(s) of instruction and learning outcomes.
International Mother Language Day was
proclaimed by the General Conference of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November
1999 and has been observed every year since
February 2000. It also proclaimed 2008 as the
International Year of Languages, to promote unity
in diversity and international understanding,
through multilingualism and multiculturalism.
The day, February 21, represents the date in 1952
when students from Bangladesh demonstrating for
recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the
two national languages of the then Pakistan, were
shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of
what is now Bangladesh.
World Cancer Day 2016 observed with theme
We can. I can.
World Cancer Day (WCD) 2016 was observed
across the world on 4 February 2016. The day was
observed with year‘s theme – We can. I can.
World Cancer Day unites the world‘s population
in the fight against cancer. The tagline of the
theme reflects on what you can do and asks to
make a pledge and take action and make a
difference in fight against cancer.
4th World Government Summit concluded
in Dubai
The 3-day long annual World Government Summit
(WGS) concluded on 10 February 2016 in Dubai,
the UAE. The summit was 4th in the series since
the launch of WGS in 2013 by the UAE
Government.
The 2016 WGS was attended by 4500 participants
from more than 130 countries to discuss
challenges and opportunities before present and
future governments worldwide.
It also provided an opportunity to showcase
innovations, best practice and smart solutions to
inspire creativity to tackle these future challenges.
Highlights of 2016 World Government Summit
• It discussed key challenges faced by the
humanity – climate change, financial inclusion,
pension sustainability, education for all, etc.
• Talks and conferences were held on
technological solutions and strategies like
sustainable development goals, internet of things,
virtual health, etc.
• It was attended by around 2500 government
officials and heads of multilateral agencies
including Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-
moon.
• During the summit, 2016 Best m-Government
Service Awards presented. Karnataka‘s Mobile
One project the award in the One Stop App
category at the international level.
• Edge of Government report was released that
captures leading edge case studies of government
innovation across the world.
• At the summit, it was announced that the WGS
would commence operations as an international
organisation and work throughout the year to
achieve its global goals.
• While the summit was hosted by the UAE
Government, the UN, the World Bank, OECD and
World Economic Forum (WEF) were among the
list of strategic partners.
Veteran singer Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan
died
Veteran Hindustani classical singer Ustad Abdul
Rashid Khan died in Kolkata on 18 February 2016.
He was 107. Born in Uttar Pradesh in 1908, Khan
belonged to Gwalior Gharana, was a resident Guru
at ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata.
Khan's traditional compositions have been
recorded by the BBC and Iraq Radio. On the other
hand, organizations like Uttar Pradesh Sangeet
Natak Academi, Lucknow and ITC Sangeet
Research Academy, Kolkata have recorded and
preserved many compositions.
MOCK TEST
1. Union Cabinet approved Pradhan Mantri
Fasal Bima Yojana. It include
1. Farmers will pay a uniform premium of only 1.5%
percent for all Kharif crops and 2% for all Rabi
crops.
2. there is a provision of capping the premium rate
that will be paid by the Government
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 53
Which of the above are correct
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) both 1and 2 d) none
2. What is true about Alternate Investment
Funds (AIFs)
1. Anything alternate to traditional form of
investments
2. It include investments in stocks or bonds or fixed
deposits or real estates
3. It include Privately pooled investment fund, in the
form of a trust or a company or a body corporate or a
Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
4. Deepak Mohanty Committee appointed by SEBI to
suggest measures for development of the alternative
investment funds (AIFs)
Which of the above are correct
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 3 and 4 d) 1 and 3
3. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on
27 January 2016 implemented the long-pending 2010
Quota and Governance Reforms. They include
1. Greater representation to emerging markets
2. India‘s voting rights increased to 3.8 percent from
the current 2.6 percent
3. For the first time, the IMF‘s Board will consist
entirely of elected Executive Directors, ending the
category of appointed Executive Directors
Which of the above is correct?
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) all
4. Union Government unveiled National
Biotechnology Development Strategy 2015-2020. It
includes
1. The Strategy aims to establish India as a world-
class bio-manufacturing hub
2. Launching Four Major Missions – Healthcare,
Food and Nutrition, Clean Energy and Education
3. Create a strong infrastructure for R&D and
commercialization and empower India‘s human
resources
Which of the above are correct?
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) all
5. what is true about Zika virus
1. mosquito-borne virus which gets its name from the
Zika tribe in Uganda, Africa
2. babies being born with microcephaly, a rare,
incurable condition in which their heads are
abnormally small
3. The virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti
mosquito, which is also responsible for the spread of
dengue and chikungunya
Which of the above are correct?
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) all
6. PSLV-C31 successfully launched IRNSS-
1E satellite. Which of the following is true about
IRNSS-1E satellite
1. The satellite will provide navigation, tracking and
mapping services to the Indian sub continent
2. The satellite is the fourth of the IRNSS
constellation
3. IRNSS consists of seven satellites to provide real-
time data on the position of objects to aid road, air
and maritime traffic apart from providing mapping
and tracking services
4. By using the IRNSS as a platform, the Government
of India is planning to launch its own Global
Navigational Satellite Services, GINS (Global Indian
Navigation Satellite) system
a) 1, 2 and 3 b) 2, 3 and 4
c) 1, 3 and 4 d) all
7. PM launched Start-up India initiative. Key
features are
1. A fund will be created with 10000 crore rupees
corpus for development
2. The Atal Innovation Mission with a focus on
strengthening incubation facilities for startups
3. Profits of Start-up units will be made tax-free for 3
years
4. Capital gains tax to be exempted for venture
capital investments
a) 1, 2 and 3 b) 2, 3 and 4
c) 1, 3 and 4 d) all
8. What is true about BIOFIN project
1. The initiative is run by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) with support from
the Governments of Germany, Switzerland and the
European Union.
2. The purpose of the fund is to reduce carbon
emission
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) both 1and 2 d) none
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 54
9. Consider following points regarding
Corruption Perceptions Index
1. It is released by Transparency International
2. Denmark, with rank 1, was adjudged as the most
corruption-free country
3. India ranked highest in SAARC Countries
Which of the above are correct?
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) all
10. India successfully test-fired indigenously
Pinaka II at Pokhran. What is Pinaka
a) Tank b) Missile
c) Rocket launcher d) Drone
11. Consider the following statements on
miniature paintings
1. Pala Miniature paintings were used to illustrate the
texts of manuscripts
2. The most notable traditions of miniature painting
in India are the Mughal, Rajasthani, Pahari and
Deccani courts.
Which of the statements above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
12. Which of the following statements is/are
correct?
1. The warm ocean currents originate near the
equator and move towards the poles
2. The cold currents carry water from polar or higher
latitudes to tropical or lower latitudes.
3. The areas where a warm and cold current meet
experience foggy weather making it difficult for
navigation
4. The Labrador Ocean current is warm current while
the Gulf Stream is a cold current.
Answer using the codes below
a) 1,2 and 4 Only b) 1 and 2 Only
c) 1, 2 and 3 Only d) 1,2,3 and 4
13. With reference to Mediterranean vegetation,
consider the following statements
1. This type of vegetation is also found in in
California in the USA, south west Africa, south
western South America and South west Australia
2. Citrus fruits such as oranges, figs, olives and
grapes are commonly cultivated here
3. Mediterranean trees adapt themselves to dry
summers with the help of their thick barks and wax
coated leaves which help them reduce transpiration.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 2 and 3 Only b) 2 Only
c) 3 Only d) 1,2 and 3
14. Consider the following statements about
tides
1. The strong gravitational pull exerted by the sun
and the moon on the earth‘s surface causes the tides.
2. Neap tides are the highest tides
3. when the moon is in its first and last quarter, the
ocean waters get drawn in diagonally opposite
directions by the gravitational pull of sun and earth
resulting in neap tides
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 3 Only
c) 1 and 3 Only d) 1,2 and 3
15. Consider the following statements about
Rhizobium,
1. lives in the roots of gram, peas, moong beans and
other legumes and provides them with nitrogen.
2. It can take atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into
a soluble form.
3. It can make its own food
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 1 and 3 Only
c) 2 and 3 Only d) 3 Only
16. Consider the following statements
1. This region is bound by the Drakensburg
Mountains on the east
2. These are rolling plateaus with varying heights
ranging from 600 m to 1100 m.
3. Temperatures vary between 5°C and 10°C and July
is the coldest month.
4. Gold and diamond mining are major occupations
of people of this region.
The above statements refer to
a) Velds b) Pampas
c) Steppes d) Downs
17. Consider the following statements with
reference to regions of Northern plains of India
1. The rivers, after descending from the mountains
deposit pebbles in a narrow belt of about 8 to 16 km
in width lying parallel to the slopes of the Shiwaliks.
It is known as Terai.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 55
2. South of Terai, the streams and rivers re-emerge
and create a wet, swampy and marshy region known
as Bhabar.
3. The largest part of the northern plain is formed of
older alluvium. They lie above the flood plains of the
rivers and present a terrace like feature. This part is
known as Khadar.
4. The newer, younger deposits of the flood plains are
called Bhangar.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 1 and 4 Only b) 2, 3 and 4 Only
c) 1, 2, 3 and 4 d) None of the above
18. Consider the following statements
1. The Garo, the Khasi and the Jaintia Hills in
Meghalaya are geologically part of the peninsular
plateau
2. The Western Ghats are higher than the Eastern
Ghats in elevation.
3. The Deccan Plateau is higher in the east and slopes
gently westwards.
Answer the above question using the codes given
below
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 2 Only
c) 1 and 3 Only d) 3 Only
19. A Central Public Sector Enterprise cannot
attain Maharatna status if
1. It is not listed on the stock exchange.
2. Its operations are limited to India.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2 d) None
20. Consider the following statements about
Western Disturbances
1. Western Disturbance causes winter and pre
monsoon season rainfall across northwest India.
2. Over the Indo-Gangetic plains, it brings cold wave
conditions and occasionally dense fog and cold day
conditions
3. This is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern
driven by the Easterlies.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 1 and 2 Only
c) 2 and 3 Only d) 3 Only
21. With reference to various weather
phenomena occurring during hot weather season in
Northern part of India, consider the following
statements
1. Loo are strong, gusty, hot, dry winds blowing
during the day over the north and northwestern India
2. Dust storms are very common during the month of
May in northern India. These storms bring temporary
relief as they lower the temperature and may bring
light rain and cool bjreeze.
3. ‗Kaal Baisakhi‘ or calamity for the month of
Baisakh, is a localised thunderstorm, associated with
violent winds, torrential downpours, often
accompanied by hail.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 1 and 3 Only
c) 2 Only d) All Three
22. Consider the following statements with
respect to the Himalayas
1. The northern most range is known as the Great or
Inner Himalayas or the ‗Himadri‘.
2. The core of Great Himalayas is composed of
sedimentary rocks.
3. Shiwalik ranges are composed of unconsolidated
sediments brought down by rivers from the main
Himalayan ranges located farther north.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 2 Only b) 2 and 3 Only
c) 1 and 3 Only d) 3 Only
23. The loss and damage‗ subject in climate
change negotiations refers to
a) The demand from the poorest and most vulnerable
countries that they must be paid for the damage that
will occur to life and property from the level of
emissions already up in the atmosphere and which
cannot be prevented even by adaptation.
b) The demand from India and China that they must
be first compensated for taking any positive steps
towards greenhouse gases reductions
c) The demand by coastal countries that all countries,
including developing countries should create a fund
to manage any loss and damage to their biodiversity
and livelihood in future because of global warming
d) None of the above
24. Consider the following statements
1. In orographic rain is formed when moist air is
forced to ascend over a mountain barrier
2. On the leeward side of a mountain, descending air
is compressed and hence humidity decreases
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 56
3. On the rain shadow area of a mountain rainfall will
be less
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 2 and 3 Only
c) 1 and 3 Only d) All
25. Consider the following statements
1. Westerlies originate in the horse latitudes and
move towards the poles
2. Westerlies move from west to east
3. Westerlies are strong in the Northern Hemisphere
and weakest in the Southern Hemisphere
Which of the above is /are correct?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 2 and 3 Only
c) 1 and 3 Only d) All
26. With reference to Agenda 21, consider the
following statements
1. One major objective of the Agenda 21 is that every
local government should draw its own local Agenda
21.
2. It aims at achieving global sustainable
development
Which of the above is/are incorrect?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
27. Which of the following are criteria for
declaring an area „Hot Spot‟?
1. Number of endemic species
2. Degree of threat to the species measured in terms
of habitat loss
Choose the correct option from the codes given
below:
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None of the above
28. Consider the following statements:
1. DNA fingerprinting of every individual would be
unique and the DNA cannot be altered by any known
treatment.
2. The fingerprints of individuals are also unique, but
they can be altered by surgery.
Which of these is/are true?
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None of the above
29. Consider the following statements
1. The Nilgiri Tahr is endemic to the Nilgiri Hills and
the southern portion of the Western Ghats
2. The Nilgiri Tahr is categorized as Endangered
species under IUCN list
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
30. Consider the following statements:
Assertion (A): Scientists can cut apart and paste
together DNA molecules at will, regardless of the
source of the molecules.
Reason (R): DNA fragments can be manipulated
using restriction endonucleases and DNA ligases.
In the context of the statement above, which is true?
a) Both A and R are individually true and R is the
correct explanation of A
b) Both A and R are individually true but R is NOT a
correct explanation of A
c) A is true but R is false
d) A is false but R is true
31. Arrange the following ecosystems in
decreasing order of the organic matter decomposition
that microorganisms can do within a certain amount
of time:
1. Tropical desert
2. Tropical rainforest
3. Steppe
Choose the correct order from the codes below:
a) 2>1>3 b) 2>3>1
c) 3>2>1 d) 3>1>2
32. Consider the following statements about
Bio-fertilizers:
1. It increases the availability of natural soil nutrients
and builds soil organic matter.
2. It can also protect the crop against drought and
soil-borne diseases.
3. It works slower than conventional chemical
fertilizers.
Choose the correct statements from the codes given
below.
a) 1 and 2 b) 1 and 3
c) 2 and 3 d) All of the above
33. Consider the following about Breeding and
Recombinant DNA technology:
1. The change in genotype can be precisely controlled
in Recombinant technology, whereas change occurs
in multiple traits in breeding.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 57
2. Recombinant technology can recombine DNA
across biological kingdoms too, but in breeding it
cannot be.
Which of these is/are true?
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None of the above
34. The Bagh Caves where beautiful frescoes
have been found, is located in which of the following
states?
a) Maharashtra b) Madhya Pradesh
c) Gujarat d) Chhattisgarh
35. Which of the following biosphere reserve in
India is not a part of the World Network of Biosphere
Reserves, based on the UNESCO Man and the
Biosphere (MAB) Programme list?
a) Nokrek b) Panna
c) Panchmarhi d) Nicobar Islands
36. Consider the following statements
1. These are the most widespread forests of India.
They are also called the monsoon forests and spread
over the region receiving rainfall between 200 cm
and 70 cm.
2. Teak is the most dominant species of this forest.
Bamboos, sal, shisham, sandalwood, khair, kusum,
arjun, mulberry are other commercially important
species.
To which type of forests in India does above
description refer to?
a) Tropical deciduous forests
b) Tropical rain forests
c) Montane forests
d) Tropical rain forests
37. Consider the following statements about
tropical cyclone
1. The centre of the cyclone is mostly a warm and
high-pressure cloudless core known as eye of the
storm.
2. Tropical cyclones are characterized by large
pressure gradients
3. In case of the Bay of Bengal, cyclones mostly
develop during the months of October and
November.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 2 and 3 Only
c) 1 and 3 Only d) All Three
38. The Census of India defines an urban area
as having:
1. A minimum population of 10000
2. At least 50 per cent of male working population
engaged in non-agricultural occupations.
3. A density of population of at least 400 persons per
sq.
Select the correct code.
a) 3 Only b) 1 Only
c) 1 and 2 Only d) 1 and 3 Only
39. GDP of a country as an index of greater
well-being of the people of that country may not be
correct because,
1. Many activities in an economy are not evaluated in
monetary terms.
2. The presence of positive or negative externalities
affects the actual estimation of GDP
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
40. Consider the following statements,
1. If we deduct depreciation from GNP the measure
of aggregate income that we obtain is called Net
National Product (NNP).
2. s Gross National Product (GNP) is nothing but
GDP + Net factor income from abroad
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
41. Which one of the following statement is
true?
a) GDP is always greater then GNP
b) GDP is always lower than GNP
c) GDP is equal to GNP when ―income from Abroad‖
is zero
d) GDP is equal to GNP when ―depreciation‖ is zero
42. Consider the following statements regarding
Gross Domestic Production.
1. It is a ‗quantitative‘ concept which indicates the
internal strength of the economy.
2. It is used by IMF/WB in the comparative analyses
of its member nations.
3. GDP is widely criticized for not considering
‗qualitative‘ aspect of the economy.
Which of the following is/are correct?
a) 1 and 3 only b) 1 and 2 only
c) 1 only d) All of the above
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 58
43. Which of the following step/s may result in
inflation?
1. Increase in the repo rate.
2. Increase in the indirect taxation rate.
3. Proper maintenance of buffer stock of major
agricultural products.
4. Decrease in the crude oil production.
Select the correct code from below.
a) 2, 3 and 4 only. b) 4 only.
c) 2 and 4 only. d) 1 and 3 only.
44. Consider the following statements regarding
Regional Rural Banking.
1. Contribution to the share capital of the RRBs by
the ‗sponsored bank‘ is 50%.
2. The RRBs are also come under the ambit of
priority sector lending.
Which of the above statement/s is/are correct?
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2 d) Neither 1 nor 2
45. Consider the following statements regarding
recently launched MUDRA bank.
1. In lending, MUDRA bank focuses on enterprises
set up by the under-privileged sections
of the society.
2. MUDRA is setup as a refinance institution.
3. Regulation of micro finance institutions (MFIs) is
not the mandate of MUDRA bank.
Which of the above statement/s is/are correct?
a) 1 and 2 only b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only d) All the above
46. Why are whales and dolphins mammals and
not most other fishes?
1. Like mammals, whales and dolphins breathe air
through a pair of lungs.
2. Like most mammals, they are cold-blooded.
3. Like most mammals, they give birth to live young
ones.
Select the correct answer using the codes below.
a) 1 and 2 only b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only d) 1 only
47. Why do policymakers stress on high
savings rate in the Indian economy?
1. Investments are financed by savings.
2. Saving discourages inflation causing consumption
expenditure.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2 d) None
48. Net factor income from abroad includes
1. Remittances 2. Foreign investment
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2 d) None
49. During a situation of low demand, what role
monetary policy can play?
1. It can boost aggregate demand by printing more
currency.
2. It can Increase liquidity in the market by selling
bonds to the public.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2 d) None
50. Plan expenditure includes those kinds of
expenditure which
a) Fall under Revenue expenditure
b) Create assets for the nation
c) Involve printing of currency
d) Generate tax expenditure
51. When the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR)
is increased
a) Banks may cut their lending rates.
b) Money circulation in the economy becomes weak.
c) Inflation will shoot up in the next quarter.
d) Banks will lend lesser funds to retail customers
52. Non-plan expenditure are
1. Interest payments 2. Defence services
3. Subsidies 4. Salaries
5. Pensions
Select the correct answer using the code below.
a) 3, 4 and 5 only b) 1 and 2 only
c) 1, 2 and 3 only d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
53. The exercise of Gender Budgeting usually
involves which of these activities in India?
1. Special initiatives for empowering women
2. Examination of the utilisation of resources
allocated for women
3. Impact of public expenditure and policies of the
government on women
Select the correct answer using the code below.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 59
a) 1 and 2 only b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only d) 1, 2 and 3
54. Which of these factors affect the exchange
rate of rupee?
1. Demand for Indian goods abroad
2. Net foreign investments in India
3. Political stability of India
Select the correct answer using the code below.
a) 1 and 2 only b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 and 3 only d) 1, 2 and 3
55. Fiscal deficit is the difference between
a) Government's total expenditure and its total
receipts excluding borrowing
b) Government's total revenue expenditure and its
revenue receipts excluding borrowing
c) Government's planned expenditure and its total
receipts
d) Government's total expenditure and its total
receipts including borrowing
56. The term 'twin deficits' is often in news. It
occurs
a) When an economy has both current account deficit
and fiscal deficit
b) When an economy has deficits in both trade and
remittances
c) When an economy is suffering from both
depreciation of exchange rate and high inflation
d) When a nation with high fiscal deficit is suffering
from savings deficit
57. Which of the following statements is correct
with regard to the Preamble of the Indian
Constitution?
1) The Preamble is a source of power to the
legislature
2) Preamble is a part of the Constitution
3) Preamble cannot be amended
4) It is non-justiciable, or it is not enforceable in
courts of law.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
a) 2 and 4 b) 2 only
c) 1, 3 and 4 d) 1, 2 and 4
58. On account of National Emergency the
government may require funds to meet unexpected
demand for money for which it may not be possible
to give a detailed estimate. In such a case, the
Parliament can grant money through
a) Vote of Credit b) Supplementary grants
c) Vote on Account d) Exceptional Grants
59. Consider the following statements:
1. A no-confidence motion need not state the reasons
on which it is based, unlike a censure motion.
2. There is no mention of a No-Confidence Motion in
the Constitution of India.
3. The Leader of the Opposition decides whether a
No-Confidence Motion is in order or not.
4. A No-Confidence Motion is moved only against
the Council of Ministers
Choose the correct statement/s from the code below.
a) 1 and 3 only b) 2, 3 and 4
c) 1, 2 and 3 d) 1, 2 and 4
60. Consider the following statements:
1. The government cannot withdraw money from the
Consolidated Fund of India till the enactment of the
Financial Act
2. The President authorizes the withdrawal of funds
from the Contingency Fund of India.
Choose the correct statement/s from the code below.
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2 d) None
61. Vice President can be removed by a
resolution passed in the Rajya Sabha which requires a
special majority ie effective majority is required in
this case of removal.
What constitutes Effective Majority?
a) 2/3rd of members present and voting in the House.
b) Majority of the total membership of the House.
c) Majority of the total membership of the House
excluding the vacancies in the House.
d) Majority of the persons present and voting in the
House.
62. With reference to Vote on Account,
consider the following statements:
1. It is passed after general discussion of the Budget
is over.
2. It is passed before the discussion on demands for
grants is taken up
3. Parliament is authorised to make any grant in
advance in with regard to Vote on Account
Choose the correct statement/s from the code below.
a) 1 and 3 only. b) 1 and 2 only.
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 60
c) 2 and 3only. d) 1, 2 and 3
63. Article 75 of the Indian Constitution clearly
states Council of Ministers is collectively
responsible to the Lok Sabha. What does the phrase
collective responsibility imply?
1) All the Ministers own joint responsibility to the
Lower House.
2) If a no-confidence motion is passed by Lok Sabha
against Council of Ministers, then every Minister is
supposed to resign provided he is not from the Rajya
Sabha.
3) Council of Ministers swim or sink together and
they work as a team.
4) Cabinet decisions bind on all the Council of
Ministers.
Choose the correct statement/s from the codes below.
a) 1, 2 only. b) 2, 3, 4 only.
c) 1, 3, 4 only. d) All the above.
64. Consider the following statements.
1) A minister, who is not the member of either
House, cannot participate in the proceedings of any
of the House.
2) Advocate General of the state can take part in the
proceedings of any of the House despite he being not
the member of either of the Houses.
Choose the correct statement/s from the following
code.
a) 1 only. b) 2 only.
c) Both. d) None of the above.
65. Consider the statements regarding the
Money bill.
1) It can be introduced in either House of State
Legislature (if it is bicameral legislature) but on
recommendation of the Governor.
2) It is considered to be a Government bill.
3) Legislative Council can at the maximum delay
passage of money bill by 14 day.
4) Governor enjoys ‗Suspensive Veto‘ with respect to
this bill.
Choose the correct statement/s from the following
codes.
a) 1, 2 only. b) 3 only.
c) 2, 3 only. d) 2, 3, 4 only.
66. Consider the following statements:
1. A constitutional amendment bill ends in case of a
disagreement between the two houses.
2. The president can not return a constitutional
amendment bill to the Parliament for reconsideration.
Which of these is/are true?
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None
67. Which of the following are the
circumstances under which an elected Member of
Parliament may be disqualified on the ground of
defection?
1. If he voluntarily gives up his membership of a
political party
2. If he votes or abstains from voting contrary to any
direction issued by his political party without prior
permission of the political party
3. If he speaks against the political party
4. If he joins a political party other than the party on
whose ticket he contested and got elected
Select the correct answer from the codes given
below:
a) 1, 2 and 3 b) 1, 2 and 4
c) 1, 3 and 4 d) 2, 3 and 4
68. Which of the following statements
regarding the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme
Court are correct?
1. It is binding on the Supreme Court to give its
opinion on any matter referred to it by the President.
2. The full bench of the Supreme Court hears any
reference made to it under its power of advisory
jurisdiction.
3. The opinion given by the Supreme Court on a
reference under advisory jurisdiction is not binding
on the government.
Choose the correct answer from the codes given
below:
a) 1 and 2 b) 1 and 3
c) 2 and 3 d) Only 3
69. Consider the following statements regarding
the National Human Rights Commission of India:
1. Its Chairman must be a retired Chief Justice of
India.
2. It has formations in each state as State Human
Rights Commission.
3. Its powers are only recommendatory in nature.
4. It is mandatory to appoint a woman as a member
of the Commission.
Which of the above statements are correct?
a) 1, 2, 3 and 4 b) 2 and 4
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 61
c) 1, 2 and 3 d) 1 and 3
70. The Parliament can make any law for the
whole or any part of India for implementing
International treaties
a) with the consent of all the States
b) with the consent of the majority of States
c) with the consent of the States concerned
d) without the consent of any State
71. Which of the following is/are among the
functions of the Election Commission of India ?
1. Conduct of election for the posts of the Speaker
and the Deputy Speaker, Lok Sabha and the Deputy
Chairman, Rajya Sabha.
2. Conduct of election to the Corporations and
Municipalities.
3. Deciding on all doubts and disputes arising out of
the elections.
Select the correct answer from the codes given
below.
a) I and 2 b) I and 3
c) 2 and 3 d) None of these
72. Which of the following was/were the
difference(s) between the moderates and the
extremists?
1. Boycott of legislative councils
2. Boycott of government Institutions and strikes
3. Self-government for India
Choose the correct answer using the codes below:
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) All of the above
73. Which of the following were the outcome(s)
of the Lucknow Session of Indian National Congress
and Muslim League n 1916?
1. A joint scheme of constitutional reforms by the
two parties submitted to government
2. Return of some extremists to Congress
3. Congress accepted separate electorates for
Muslims
Choose the correct answer using the codes below:
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) All of the above
74. The Rowlatt Act provided for:
1. Stricter control of the Press
2. Arrests without warrant
3. Indefinite detention without trial
Choose the correct statements from the codes below:
a) Only 1 b) 1 and 2
c) 1, 2 and 3 d) 2 and 3
75. Consider the following statements about the
Nehru report, 1928:
1. It was the first major attempt by Indians to draft a
constitutional framework for the country.
2. The report was published by a sub-committee
chaired by Jawahar Lal Nehru.
3. The report did not aim for complete independence
of India and instead envisaged only a dominion
status.
Choose the correct statements from the codes given
below.
a) 1 and 2 b) 1 and 3
c) 2 and 3 d) None of these
76. Consider the following statements about the
cabinet mission plan:
1. It proposed the partition of India with autonomous
provinces.
2. It proposed stronger states and a weak centre.
3. The constituent assembly was to be formed on
democratic lines.
Choose the correct answer using the codes below:
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) All of the above
77. Historians see which of the following as
possible reasons for the immediate breakout of the
Quit India Movement in 1942?
1. Failure of the Cripps mission.
2. Acute food shortages and high food inflation.
3. British withdrawal of only British citizens from the
ongoing war in South-east Asia.
Which of these is/are true?
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) All of the above
78. Consider the following statements about the
Simla conference called to discuss the Wavell plan in
1945:
1. In the conference, Jinnah made Muslim league as
the sole spokesperson for the whole Muslim
community in India.
2. There was a demand to disproportionately increase
the voting powers of the Muslims in the executive
council.
Which of these is/are NOT correct?
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 62
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None of the above
79. Consider the following statements about the
Individual Satyagrah 1940-41:
1. It was not a mass movement.
2. It was not to seek independence but to affirm the
right to speech.
3. Non-violence was at its centerpiece.
Which of these is/are true?
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) All of the above
80. Consider the following statements about the
Cripps Mission, 1942:
1. It recognized the right of the Indians to a dominion
status and to frame their own constitution.
2. It provided for heavily disproportionate
representation of Muslims in the executive and
legislative councils.
Which of these is/are true?
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None of the above
81. Consider the following statements about the
C Rajagopalachari Plan:
1. It offered the Muslim league the option of a
plebiscite in the Muslim majority provinces to
include them in Pakistan.
2. The plan would be binding only if the British gave
full power and responsibility to Indians for
governance.
Which of these is/are true?
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None of the above
82. What is tax expenditure?
a) The total expenditure of the government which is
earned only by the taxes.
b) The use of government earnings through taxes in
non-productive sectors.
c) Revenue foregone by the government on account
of deductions, exclusions or exemptions made in the
taxes.
d) None of the above
83. Consider the following statements about
Special Economic Zone (SEZ):
1. It is considered to be a foreign territory and Indian
laws are not applicable to these areas.
2. It is a duty free enclave.
3. Domestic sales from SEZs are treated as foreign
import and treated accordingly.
Which of these is/are true?
a) 1 and 2 b) 2 and 3
c) 1 and 3 d) All of the above
84. Consider the following statements:
1. The swarajists‘ (swaraj party) objective behind
entering the legislative councils was to use them as
an arena for political struggle.
2. The popularly known ‗no-changers‘ opposed
council entry mainly on the ground that
parliamentary work would lead to the neglect of
constructive work amongst the masses.
Which of these is/are true?
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None of the above
85. With reference to Madame Blavatsky,
consider the following statements
1. She established the Theosophical Society
2. A.O Hume was a member of Theosophical Society
and was influenced by Blavatsky
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
86. With reference to the ‗safety valve theory‗,
consider the following statements
1. According to it, the Indian National Congress was
started by A.O. Hume and others under the official
direction, guidance and advice of no less a person
than Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy.
2. It was done to provide safe and constitutional
outlet for the rising discontent among the masses, to
avert a popular and violent revolution
Which of the above statements is/are incorrect?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
87. Consider the following statements
1. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, who organised the dalits into
the Depressed Classes Association in 1930, clashed
with Mahatma Gandhi at the second Round Table
Conference by demanding separate electorates for
dalits.
2. Gandhiji believed that separate electorates for
dalits would slow down getting poorna swaraj from
the British
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 63
3. Ambedkar ultimately accepted Gandhiji‘s position
and the result was the Poona Pact of September 1932.
4. It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as
the Schedule Castes) reserved seats in provincial and
central legislative councils, but they were to be voted
in by the general electorate.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) All b) 1,2 and 4 Only
c) 1,3 and 4 Only d) 2,3 and 4 Only
88. Consider the following:
1. Most Ashokan inscriptions were in the Pali
language while those in the northwest of the
subcontinet were in Aramaic and Greek.
2. Most Ashokan inscriptions were written in the
Brahmi script; however, some, in the northwest, were
written in Kharosthi.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
89. Consider the following statements about the
Sufi saints:
1. The Dargah of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya is
located in Delhi.
2. The famous Dargah of Ajmer is the tomb of
Shaikh Muinuddin Sijzi.
3. Both Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya and Shaikh
Muinuddin Sijzi belong to the Chisti silsila.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 1 and 3 Only
c) 2 and 3 Only d) All the above
90. Consider the following statements related to
the 1857 uprising:
1. During the 1857 uprising, religious divisions
between Hindus and Muslim were hardly noticeable
despite British attempts to create such divisions.
2. The fear that the British were bent on converting
Hindus and Muslims to Christianity was also a reason
for the uprising.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
91. Histories of the Gupta rulers have been
reconstructed from literature, coins and inscriptions.
Consider the following statements about the Gupta
rule in India:
1. The Prayaga Prashasti (also known as the
Allahabad Pillar Inscription) composed by
Banabhatta.
2. Banabhatta, was the court poet of Samudragupta.
3. The Prayaga Prashasti was composed in praise of
SamudraGupta in Prakrit language.
Which of the above is/are incorrect?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 1 and 3 Only
c) 2 and 3 Only d) All the above
92. Consider the following about the The
Khilafat Movement, (1919-1920) :
1. The Khilafat Movement was a movement of Indian
Muslims, led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
2. It demanded that the Turkish Sultan or Khalifa
must retain control over the Muslim sacred places in
the erstwhile Ottoman Empire.
3. Mahatma Gandhi supported the movement but the
congress didn't support it.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) 3 Only d) 2 and 3 Only
93. Subsidiary Alliance was a system devised
by Lord Wellesley in 1798. Consider the following
terms and conditions of the system:
1. The British would be responsible for protecting
their ally from both the external as well as internal
threats to their power.
2. The ally could not enter into agreements with other
rulers or engage in warfare.
3. The British would assist the ally in maintaining an
armed contingent.
Which of the above is/are incorrect?
a) 3 Only b) 1 and 2 Only
c) 2 and 3 Only d) None
94. Consider the following statements about the
Harappan Civilization:
1. The Harappan seals which contained animal motifs
and signs, most of them, were made of fine quality
metals.
2. The evidences show that Rice was the main food
grain consumed by the people.
Which of the above statement/s is/are correct?
a) 1 only b) 2 only
c) Both d) None
95. Consider the following statements about
Jainism:
MENTOR APRIL 2016
Page 64
1. Vardhamana, who came to be known as Mahavira,
founded Jainism in the sixth century BCE.
2. According to Jaina teachings, the cycle of birth and
rebirth is shaped through karma.
3. Jaina scholars produced a wealth of literature in a
variety of languages including Tamil.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 1 and 3 Only
c) 2 and 3 Only d) All the above
96. Perhaps the most unique feature of the
Harappan civilisation was the development of urban
centres. Consider the following statements about
Mohenjodaro, the most well-known site:
1. The settlement is divided into two sections, one
smaller but higher and the other much larger but
lower.
2. The upper section (citadel) was walled but the
lower section was not walled.
3. The bricks used for construction were either sun-
dried or baked and were of a standardized ratio where
the length, breadth and height were in the ratio 4:2:1
respectively.
Which of the above statement/s is/are correct?
a) 1 only b) 1 and 2 only
c) 1 and 3 only d) 1, 2 and 3
97. Consider the following statements about the
followers of Buddha:
1. Sangha was a body of disciples of the Buddha to
which women were never allowed as members.
2. chaityas were the shrines which were regarded as
sacred by the Bhikkus where the prayers were made.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
98. Consider the following statements about
Buddhism:
1. Dhamma as taught by Buddha was the path of
righteous living.
2. According to Buddhist philosophy, the world is
transient and constantly changing and does not have a
soul.
3. According to Buddhist philosophy, happiness is
intrinsic to human existence.
Which of the above is/are correct?
a) 1 and 2 Only b) 1 and 3 Only
c) 2 and 3 Only d) All the above
99. Consider the following statements with
reference to antecedent rivers
1. An antecedent stream is a stream that maintains its
original course and pattern despite the changes in
underlying rock topography.
2. The Subansiri and the Kosi are examples of
antecedent rivers in India
Which of the statements given above is /are correct?
a) 1 Only b) 2 Only
c) Both d) None
100. Consider the following statements:
1. Kalaripayattu is performed in North-Eastern state
of Assam.
2. It is a form of painting prevalent since the
Mauryan Age.
Select the correct option:
a) Only 1 b) Only 2
c) Both d) None
