Economic and Social Development - 2

Water treatment and food processing are exempted. Likewise, certain establishments such as those generating employment viz. SSI, cottage and tiny industries are exempted from excise duty.

Since 1999, SARAS exhibitions have been a regular annual event and have been able to elicit wide participation by the beneficiaries of the programmes of the Ministry from all over the country. SARAS was promoted as an umbrella brand for promoting rural products in Indian urban centres. A major initiative was taken by the Ministry of Rural Development in the direction of promoting rural products and building capacities of Swarozgaris during 1999-2000 when it participated in India International Trade Fair (IITF), 1999 under the banner of SARAS.

The National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) has been set up by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India on 24^th January, 1997. NHFDC functions as an apex institution for channelising the funds to persons with disabilities through the State Channelising Agencies (SCAs) nominated by the State Government.
Loan assistance is provided to disabled persons for manufacturing, fabrication and production. The disabled person will be the owner/chief executive of the company and will employ at least 15% disabled persons. A maximum loan of 25 lakh is provided for the same.

Goa became the first state in India to launch Swarnajayanti Aarogya Bima Yojana providing health insurance cover for the entire resident population of the state. 

The Gold Bond Scheme was launched with a minimum deposit limit of 500 grams to attract even small holders. It allows gold deposits without any investigation into the source of the gold (to encourage voluntary disclosure) and places no upper limit on deposits. All the features mentioned in options A, B, and C are correct.

Credit cooperative societies were the first type of cooperatives established in India, starting with the establishment of the first cooperative credit society in 1904 in Maharashtra. These were modeled after the German cooperative system and focused on providing rural credit to farmers, who were exploited by moneylenders.

Option (2) is the correct answer. 

Correct Answer: UTI-II

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), established in 1875 at Dalal Street, Mumbai, is Asia's oldest stock exchange and India's first. It was founded by Premchand Roychand. The BSE predates exchanges in other major cities and played a pioneering role in India's capital market development.

The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) is a comprehensive programme to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with broader goals to eradicate the practice of open defecation. Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation governs this programme.

Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India introduced SFURTI (Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries) programme all over India to generate employment in rural areas. The main objective of the scheme is to provide employment to rural artisans.

National income measures the net value of goods and services produced in a country during a year and it also includes net earned foreign income.

CENVAT (Central Value Added Tax) is a form of indirect tax in India that allows manufacturers to claim credit for taxes paid on inputs. It replaced the earlier MODVAT system and applies to excise duties and service taxes. Income tax is a direct tax, not indirect, and CENVAT specifically deals with indirect taxation on goods and services.

The primary purpose of taxation is to generate revenue for the government to run state machinery and provide public services. While taxation can incidentally affect wealth redistribution and economic growth, these are secondary effects, not the primary purpose. The fundamental goal is to fund the operations of the state.

While customs duties include both import and export duties, but as export duties contribute only nominal revenue, due to emphasis on raising competitiveness of exports, import duties alone constitute major part of the revenue from customs duties.
As per Section 12 of the India Customs Act, customs duty is imposed on goods belonging to Government as well as goods not belonging to Government.

Correct Answer: 1 and 3

In 1991, India faced its worst balance of payments crisis since independence, with foreign exchange reserves depleted to just 3 weeks of imports. The government pledged 47 tonnes of gold to the Bank of England to secure a $400 million loan. This emergency measure, which included airlifting gold in July 1991, helped avert default and triggered economic liberalization.

Population explosion is considered the biggest challenge to India's development success because it puts enormous pressure on resources, infrastructure, employment, and social services. While poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment are serious problems, they are both causes and effects of overpopulation. Rapid population growth makes it extremely difficult to improve living standards despite economic progress.

India adopted the rolling plan concept for the first time in 1978. The rolling plan was introduced by the Janata Party government after coming to power in 1977, abandoning the fixed Five Year Plan approach. The Fifth Five Year Plan was terminated early, and the rolling plan (1978-80) was adopted as a more flexible planning mechanism that could be adjusted annually based on performance and changing circumstances.

Imperative planning is followed in socialistic economies, where the state mandates production targets, resource allocation, and prices. In this model, planning is directive and binding rather than indicative. Capitalist economies use market mechanisms, mixed economies combine market and planning, while communist economies (a subset of socialist economies) also use imperative planning. The question specifically asks about imperative planning's domain.

Correct Answer: Iron ore

On account of rampant corruption and inefficiency, the poverty alleviation programme failed to make much.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is an autonomous apex statutory body which regulates and develops the insurance industry in India. It was constituted by a Parliament of India Act called Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 and duly passed by the Government of India.
The agency has its headquarters at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh where it shifted from Delhi in 2001.