UPSC 2016 Economy PYQs with Answers

Mangalyaan is the Mars Orbiter Mission and made India the first country to reach Mars orbit successfully on its first attempt. India was not the second country overall to orbit Mars.

Astrosat was not unique to India apart from the USA and Russia; other space agencies had launched space observatories. Its mass and orbit were also not as stated, so both statements are incorrect.

ITER is an experimental fusion project. Success would help India acquire knowledge and capability relevant to building fusion reactors for power generation.

The Global Financial Stability Report is published by the International Monetary Fund.

Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana provides formal finance to micro and small non-corporate entrepreneurs, bringing them into the formal financial system.

The gold schemes aimed to mobilize idle household/institutional gold and reduce dependence on imported gold by bringing domestic gold into productive use. They were not FDI-promotion schemes.

The New Development Bank was set up by BRICS, not APEC. Its headquarters is in Shanghai.

Bitcoin is decentralized and not tracked/issued by central banks. Users with Bitcoin addresses can transact, and payments can be made pseudonymously without the parties knowing each other's real identity.

The first National Investment and Manufacturing Zone was proposed at Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh.

Base Erosion and Profit Shifting refers to tax-avoidance strategies by multinational enterprises that shift profits to low/no-tax jurisdictions, eroding tax bases.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is an international accounting framework/tool used by governments and businesses to measure, manage and report greenhouse gas emissions.

The millets initiative demonstrated improved production, post-harvest and value-addition technologies using a cluster approach, with poor/small/marginal/tribal farmers as key stakeholders. It was not meant to shift commercial-crop farmers by free micro-irrigation kits.

MCLR was introduced to make banks' lending-rate calculation more transparent and improve transmission/fairness of lending rates for borrowers and banks. Both stated purposes are correct.

The Ease of Doing Business ranking was published by the World Bank.

Core Banking Solutions network a bank's branches so customers can access accounts from any branch on the network. It is not an RBI control mechanism or an NPA takeover procedure.

Import cover measures how many months of imports can be financed by a country's foreign exchange/international reserves.

Rashtriya Garima Abhiyaan is a campaign focused on ending manual scavenging and rehabilitating manual scavengers.

The IMFC advises the IMF Board of Governors on global monetary/financial issues and IMF work. The World Bank participates in IMFC meetings as an observer.

The Chinese renminbi was proposed for inclusion in the IMF Special Drawing Rights basket and was added from 2016.

UNCCD promotes national programmes and international partnerships and emphasizes a participatory bottom-up approach. It does not have the stated special financial-resource focus only on South Asia and North Africa.

Capital budget includes capital expenditure on asset creation, capital receipts such as loans from foreign governments, and loans/advances given to States and Union Territories.

Amber box, blue box and green box refer to categories of agricultural subsidies under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.

IFC is part of the World Bank Group, and Masala Bonds are rupee-denominated bonds used to raise debt finance for public/private sector needs.

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions were country climate-action pledges submitted in the context of global climate-change negotiations before the Paris Agreement.

Resident-owned mobile companies and supermarket chains can promote Payments Banks. Payments Banks may issue debit/ATM cards but cannot issue credit cards, and they cannot undertake lending.

A deficit can be reduced by cutting revenue expenditure and rationalizing subsidies. Introducing new welfare schemes or reducing import duty would tend to increase expenditure or reduce revenue.

The Global Hunger Index uses undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. Among the listed indicators, all three are used.