Ans: B

Exp:

Statement 1 is incorrect: Jal Jeevan Mission, is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India.  The programme will also implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through grey water management, water conservation, rain water harvesting. 

Statement 2 is correct: The broad objectives of the Mission are:

• To provide FHTC to every rural household.
• To prioritize provision of FHTCs in quality affected areas, villages in drought prone and desert areas, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) villages, etc.
• To provide functional tap connection to Schools, Anganwadi centres, GP buildings, Health centres, wellness centres and community buildings
• To monitor the functionality of tap connections.
• To promote and ensure voluntary ownership among the local community by way of contribution in cash, kind and/ or labour and voluntary labour (shramdaan).

Ans: B

Exp:

The Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s Higher Educational Institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions and the best institutions in the world from 28 selected nations to jointly solve problems of national and/or international relevance.

The scheme proposes to enable productive academic co-operation by supporting the following critical components that can catalyze impact making research, namely:

• Visits and long-term stay of top international faculty / researchers in Indian institutions to pursue teaching and research
• Visits by Indian students for training and experimentation in premier laboratories worldwide
• Joint development of niche courses, world-class books and monographs, translatable patents, demonstrable technologies or action research outcomes and products
• Consolidation of Bilateral co-operation through academic and research partnerships through Indo-X Workshops in India
• Publication, Dissemination and Visibility through a high profile annual international Conference in India

The expected outcomes include tangible results in terms of the large quantity of high quality research publications, the solution to key national and international problems etc.

 Ans: D

Exp:

Option (a) is incorrect: The Government of India (GoI) announced  Atal Pension Yojana (APY)1 in 2015-16 budget. The APY is focused on all citizens in the unorganized sector.

Option (b) is incorrect: Under the APY, there is a guaranteed minimum monthly pension for the subscribers ranging between Rs. 1000 and Rs. 5000 per month. GoI will also co-contribute 50% of the subscriber’s contribution or Rs. 1000 per annum, whichever is lower. Government co-contribution is available for those who are not covered by any Statutory Social Security Schemes and is not income tax payer.

Option (c) is incorrect: APY is applicable to all citizen of India aged between 18-40 years.

Option (d) is correct: The scheme is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) through NPS architecture. The exit from APY is permitted at the age with 100% annuitisation of pension wealth. On exit, pension would be available to the subscriber.

Ans: D

Exp:

The Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) was launched by the Government of India on 20-11-2015 for operational and financial turnaround of State owned Power Distribution Companies (DISCOMs). The Scheme aims to reduce the interest burden, reduce the cost of power, reduce power losses in the Distribution sector, and improve the operational efficiency of DISCOMs. 

The scheme objectives:

• Financial Turnaround
• Operational improvement
• Reduction of cost of generation of power
• Development of Renewable Energy
• Energy efficiency & conservation

The Scheme incentivizes the States by exempting State takeover of DISCOM debts from Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limits for two years; increased supply of domestic coal; coal linkage rationalization; liberally allowing coal swaps, allocation of coal linkages to States at notified prices and additional/priority funding in Schemes of Ministry of Power and Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, if they meet the operational milestones in the Scheme.

 Ans: B

Exp:

The concept of Sagarmala was approved by the Union Cabinet on 25th March 2015. As part of the programme, a National Perspective Plan (NPP) for the comprehensive development of India’s 7,500 km coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways and maritime sector has been prepared which was released by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, on 14th April, 2016 at the Maritime India Summit 2016.

Statement 1 is incorrect: The Sagarmala programme is the flagship programme of Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

Statement 2 is correct: The vision of the Sagarmala Programme is to reduce logistics cost for EXIM and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment. This includes:

• Reducing cost of transporting domestic cargo through optimizing modal mix
• Lowering logistics cost of bulk commodities by locating future industrial capacities near the coast
• Improving export competitiveness by developing port proximate discrete manufacturing clusters
• Optimizing time/cost of EXIM container movement