Prelim Bits

Ashfaqulla Khan (1900 – 1927) was a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement. He was born in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He was involved in the NCM . After the withdrawal of NCM he was greatly disappointed and joined revolutionaries. In the mid-1920s, Khan and Bismil went on to found the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), with the aim of winning freedom for the country through an armed revolution . The immediate object of the revolutionary party in the domain of politics was to establish a federal Republic of the United State of India by an organized and armed revolution . In August 1925 , an armed robbery took place on board the Kakori Express, going from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow , whose objective was to fund the activities of HSRA . The trial for robbery ended in April 1927 , with Bismil, Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh sentenced to death , and the others being given life sentences. He was put to death by hanging on 19 December 1927 at Faizab...

It is defined in terms of the number of months of import equivalent to reserves . Import cover is an important indicator of the stability of the currency . According to currency experts, eight to ten months of import cover is essential for the stability of the currency.

Currency swap is a temporary reciprocal currency arrangement between two central banks. Under the arrangement, central banks agree to keep a supply of their country’s currency available to trade to another central bank at the current exchange rate . The parties agree to swap back these quantities of their two currencies at a specified date in the future , which could be the next day or even three months later, using the same exchange rate as in the first transaction . India already has a $75 billion bilateral currency swap line with Japan , which has the second highest dollar reserves after China. The RBI also offers similar swap lines to central banks in the SAARC region within a total corpus of $2 billion . Significance Manage exchange rate Ensure liquidity A significant monetary policy tool

LPG prices are determined using an Import Parity Price (IPP) formula based on international product prices. The contract prices of Saudi Aramco , a public petroleum and natural gas company in Saudi Arabia, are used as a guideline for this calculation . Saudi Aramco's LPG prices, free-on-board prices, ocean freight charges, customs duties, and port dues are all factored into the IPP formula. The rise in global prices is a major reason for the increase in the Indian rate.

Reserve assets are currencies or other assets, such as gold, that can be readily transferable and are used to balance international transactions and payments . A reserve asset must be readily available, physical, controlled by policymakers, and easily transferable. The U.S. dollar is a reserve currency, meaning it is widely held as a reserve asset around the world. Reserve assets accounted for 68.5% of India’s international financial assets in September 2021 .  

Old vehicles will have to pass a fitness test before re-registration and as per the policy government commercial vehicles more than 15 years old and private vehicles which are over 20 years old will be scrapped. As a disincentive, increased re-registration fees would be applicable for vehicles 15 years or older from the initial date registration. The state governments may be advised to offer a road-tax rebate of up to 25% for personal vehicles and up to 15% for commercial vehicles to provide incentive to owners of old vehicles to scrap old and unfit vehicles.

Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of the Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) India Forum-2021 was organised by the  Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation  (MoSPI) in virtual format.  The MoSPI has taken up several initiatives under the  project “Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (NCAVES)”  which  aims to advance the theory and practice of ecosystem accounting in India. The NCAVES Project, funded by the European Union , has been jointly implemented by the  United Nations Statistics Division  (UNSD), the  United Nations Environment Programme  (UNEP) and the  Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity   (CBD). India   was one of the   five countries taking part in this project   - the other countries were Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico. In India, the NCAVES project is   being implemented by the MoSPI   in close collaboration with the...

Sources of Information: Sam Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda . Other sources : Brahmanas - The Detailed commentaries/ explanations on the Vedas. Aranyakas (forest books)- Explains metaphysics & symbolism of sacrifice. Upanishads or books on philosophy or deeper knowledge about ‘aatma’, ‘brahma’ etc. They are antiritualistic. Geographical Expansion Aryans became generally familiar with the major portion of the Gangetic valley where they gradually settled. Western Ganga-Valley was called ‘ Aryavarta’ Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean , Several Himalayan peaks and Vindhya mountains (indirectly) are mentioned. Society Visible 4-fold varna system and appearance of several ‘ jaatis’ or castes made the social system complex . Untouchability appeared; women’s position degraded as they no longer got formal education. Gotra was the place where cattle resided together with ‘janas’ and later developed into an identity for the ‘janas’. Nishad , Ch...