Daily Quiz 23 September 2023

Explanation:

• Option (1) is correct: Infrastructure bonds are bonds issued for the purpose of attracting financing for long-term infrastructure development projects (construction of roads, railways, ports, etc.).
• Option (2) is incorrect: Infrastructure Bonds are issued with a maturity of seven years or more. The entire amount of proceedings can be deployed in lending operations. The funds raised through this issuance will be directed towards bolstering long-term resources for funding infrastructure projects and supporting the affordable housing segment, contributing to the nation’s development.
• Option (3) is correct: The proceeds from infrastructure bonds are exempt from reserve requirements like Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) and Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), according to RBI norms. Cash Reserve Ratio is the percentage of total deposits (Net Demand and Time Liabilities or NDTL) that banks are required to hold as cash reserves with the RBI. CRR should be kept on a daily basis. Statutory Liquidity Ratio is the percentage of total deposits (demand and time deposits) that banks are required to hold in the form of liquid assets such as government securities. The SLR should not exceed forty per cent.
• Option (4) is correct: The Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Infrastructure Development Finance Company and any non-banking financial institution recognised by the Reserve Bank of India as an infrastructure finance company can issue infrastructure bonds. Recently, the State Bank of India (SBI) achieved a milestone by raising Rs 10,000 crores through infrastructure bonds. The bonds were issued at a coupon rate of 7.49 per cent, further establishing SBI’s strong position in the market.

Explanation:

The Karnataka government has asked the Supreme Court to instruct the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to review its recent decision about maintaining a flow of 5,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu.

• Statement 1 is correct: Under Article 262, Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution or control of the waters of, or in, any inter-State River or river valley. Parliament may, by law provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint as mentioned above.
• Statement 2 is correct: TheCWDT (Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal) was established in 1990. The dispute involves 3 states and one Union Territory (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry). It took 17 years to arrive at the final order (2007) on how Cauvery water should be shared between the 4 riparian states in normal rainfall conditions. CWDT was constituted by the Central Government, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 4 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
• Statement 3 is correct: Inter-State Water Dispute Act, 1956 was amended in 2002, to include the major recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission. The amendments mandated a one year time frame to setup the water disputes tribunal and also a 3 year time frame to give a decision.

Explanation:

JP Morgan has announced that it will include India in the Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) index from June 2024.

• Statement 1 is correct: A Government Security (G-Sec) is a tradeable instrument issued by the Central Government or the State Governments to borrow money. It acknowledges the Government’s debt obligation. The government securities are issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on behalf of the Government of India in order to finance the fiscal deficit.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: The returns that government bonds are less than that on corporate bonds or equity instruments. Especially in the case of long-term bonds, when market interest rates go on increasing, the returns on government bonds eventually turn out to be very low.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: In India, the Central Government issues both, treasury bills and bonds or dated securities while the State Government issue only bonds or dated securities, which are called State Development Loans (SDLs). Government securities are short term usually called treasury bills, with original maturities of less than one year. Long Term Government securities are usually called Government bonds or dated securities with an original maturity of one year or more).

Explanation:

According to a new study published in the journal Science Advances, six out of the nine planetary boundaries have been breached due to human-induced pollution and the destruction of the natural world.

• Option (4) is correct: Planetary boundaries are like a set of environmental thresholds that, if crossed, could lead to abrupt and irreversible changes, posing significant risks to human societies and the stability of the planet. The nine planetary boundaries include the following:
  • Biosphere integrity: The health of ecosystems and rate of extinction of species and functioning of biosphere as a whole.
  • Climate change: Atmospheric CO2 concentration and the change in radiative forcing.
  • Novel entities: Levels of plastic, concrete, synthetic chemicals, gene-modified organisms, etc.
  • Stratospheric ozone depletion: The anthropogenic release of manufactured chemicals that destroy ozone molecules.
  • Freshwater change: It includes an examination of the human-induced impact on blue water (found in lakes, rivers, and reservoirs) and green water (available in the soil for plants and soil microorganisms).
  • Atmospheric aerosol loading: Tracking various particles from anthropogenic emissions that affect cloud formation as well as global and regional atmospheric circulation.
  • Ocean acidification: Reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period of time.
  • Land system change: Changes in land use, especially the conversion of tropical forests to farmland.
  • Biogeochemical flow: Alteration in the natural flows and the forms of nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, which are essential elements for plant growth.

Explanation:

The Delhi High Court passed an interim order protecting the personality rights of a Bollywood actor and restrained various entities from misusing his image, name, voice or other elements of his persona for monetary gains without his consent.

• Statement 1 is correct: Personality rights refer to a person’s ability to safeguard his or her identity in the context of a property or privacy right. Celebrities value these rights since their names, images, or even voices may be inappropriately used in commercials by various businesses to increase sales. Personality rights includes the right of publicity, it protects individuals from having their likeness or image used for commercial purposes without their consent or financial compensation. This right is similar to the use of a trademark but not the same.
• Statement 2 is correct: There is no separate codified law in India dealing with personality or celebrity rights. The closest statute to protect personality rights is Article 21 of the Constitution of India under rights to privacy and publicity. In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs. Union of India 2017, Supreme Court ruled that Right to Privacy is “intrinsic to life and personal liberty” under Article 21. Also, the court found publicity to be an element of privacy that is protected as a fundamental right.