NITI Aayog’s Health Index 2021:
• Statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 and 3 are incorrect.
• It ranks all states and Union territories based on their year-on-year incremental change and overall performance in health. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• All States and UTs have been ranked in three categories to ensure comparison among similar entities. They are accordingly Larger States, Smaller States, and Union Territories (UTs).
• The report has been developed by NITI Aayog with technical assistance from the World Bank. Hence Statement 2 is incorrect.
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) was also consulted in the process. The report is the first attempt to establish an annual systematic tool to measure and understand the nation’s health performance.
• Key Findings of Health Index 2021
o Kerala retained its top rank on the health index among the larger states while Uttar Pradesh was the worst. Hence Statement 3 is incorrect.
o Mizoram topped the health index among smaller states while Nagaland was ranked at the bottom.
o Among union territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu was ranked at the top and Andaman & Nicobar was ranked at the bottom.
o Nearly half the states and UTs did not reach the half way mark in the Composite Overall Index Score, and despite good performance, even the top ranking states and UTs could benefit from further improvements.
o The Health Index Score for the Reference Year (2019-20) revealed wide disparities in Overall Performance across the Larger States.

• Statements 2 and 3 are correct. Statement 1 is incorrect.
• Statement 1 is incorrect. The Logistics Sector is not a Priority Sector. Priority Sector means those sectors which the Government of India and Reserve Bank of India consider as important for the development of the basic needs of the country and are to be given priority over other sectors. The banks are mandated to encourage the growth of such sectors with adequate and timely credit.The categories of priority sector are as follows:
1. Agriculture
2. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
3. Export Credit
4. Education
5. Housing
6. Social Infrastructure
7. Renewable Energy
8. Others
• Statement 2 is correct. The introduction of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) by the government has reduced transit times and it has been a huge boon to the logistic sector. DFC is a high speed and high capacity railway corridor that is exclusively meant for the movement of freight, or in other words, goods and commodities. It has two arms – Eastern DFC connecting Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal and Western DFC which connects NCR to Nhava Sheva, Mundra & Pipavav.
• The Gati Shakti scheme will subsume the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline that was launched in 2019. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

Strategic Petroleum Reserves:
• Statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 and 3 are incorrect.
• Strategic petroleum reserves are huge stockpiles of crude oil to deal with any crude oil-related crisis like the risk of supply disruption from natural disasters, war or other calamities. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• According to the agreement on an International Energy Programme (I.E.P.), each International Energy Agency (IEA) country has an obligation to hold emergency oil stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of net oil imports.
o In case of a severe oil supply disruption, IEA members may decide to release these stocks to the market as part of a collective action.
o India became an associate member of the International Energy Agency in 2017.
• India’s strategic crude oil storages are currently located at Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Mangalore (Karnataka), and Padur (Karnataka).
• The government has also given approval for setting up of two additional facilities at Chandikhol (Odisha) and Padur (Karnataka). Hence Statement 2 is incorrect.
• Underground storage is, by far the most economic method of storing petroleum products because the underground facility rules out the requirement of large swathes of land, ensures less evaporation and, since the caverns are built much below the sea level, it is easy to discharge crude into them from ships.
• The construction of the Strategic Crude Oil Storage facilities in India is being managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL). Hence Statement 3 is incorrect.

PM-DevINE:
• Statement 2 is incorrect. Statement 1 and 3 are correct.
• Union Budget 2022-23 provided for a new scheme, Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East (PM-DevINE) will be implemented through the North-Eastern Council. Hence Statement 2 is incorrect.
• It will fund infrastructure, in the spirit of PM GatiShakti, and social development projects based on felt needs of the northeast. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• This will enable livelihood activities for youth and women, filling the gaps in various sectors.
• While the Central Ministries may also pose their candidate projects, priority will be given to those posed by the States.
• Gap funding for eco-friendly Ropeway (Cable Car) from Dhapper to Bhaleydhunga in South Sikkim and Pilot project for the construction of Bamboo Link Road at different locations in various districts in Mizoram will be done under PM-DevINE. Hence Statement 3 is correct.

Direct Tax Proposals:
• Statement 1 and 3 are correct. Statement 2 and 4 are incorrect.
• The Union budget 2022 allows taxpayers to file updated income tax return within 2 years for correcting errors. It also provides tax relief to persons with disability. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.
• The budget also reduces Alternate minimum tax rate and surcharge for cooperatives. To provide a level playing field between co-operative societies and companies, the government proposed to reduce this rate for the cooperative societies also to 15%. Hence statement 4 is incorrect.
• As an incentive for startups, period of incorporation of eligible startups has been extended by one more year.
• The budget proposes to increase tax deduction limit on employer’s contribution to NPS account of state government employees to bring parity with central government employees.
• Newly incorporated manufacturing entities will be incentivized under concessional tax regime. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• Income from transfer of virtual assets will be taxed at 30%. The budget proposes better litigation management to avoid repetitive appeals. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• Option A is correct.
• The ‘Reskilling Revolution initiative’ is a global coalition of 50 CEOs, 25 ministers, and 350 organizations committed to realizing the gains of skilling.
• It aims to provide 1 billion people with better education, skills, and economic opportunity by 2030.
• It was launched in 2020 at the World Economic Forum’s (WEFs) 50th Annual Meeting.
• Recently, the initiative marked two years of progress at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos, Switzerland.

• The Green Gross Domestic Product, or Green GDP is an indicator of economic growth with environmental factors taken into consideration along with the standard GDP of a country.
• Green GDP is a term used generally for expressing GDP after adjusting for environmental damage. Hence option (c) is the correct answer.
• The standard GDP measurement has limitations on account of being indicators of economic growth and desirable standards of living.
• The normal GDP also does not have any way of knowing whether the level of income created in a country will be sustainable or not. To overcome this limitation the green GDP is sought after.
• The process of environmental accounting involves three steps viz. Physical accounting; Monetary valuation; and integration with national Income/wealth Accounts.
• Physical accounting determines the state of the resources, types, and extent (qualitative and quantitative) in spatial and temporal terms.
• Monetary valuation is done to determine its tangible and intangible components. Thereafter, the net change in natural resources in monetary terms is integrated into the Gross Domestic Product in order to reach the value of Green GDP.

• Statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is not correct.
• There are two types of open market operations: outright and repo.
• Outright open market operations:
o They are permanent in nature: when the central bank buys these securities (thus injecting money into the system), it is without any promise to sell them later.
o Similarly, when the central bank sells these securities (thus withdrawing money from the system), it is without any promise to buy them later. Hence statement 1 is correct.
o As a result, the injection/absorption of money is of permanent nature.
• Repo open market operations:
o When the central bank buys the security, the agreement of purchase also has specifications about date and price of the resale of this security.
• This type of agreement is called a repurchase agreement or repo. The interest rate at which the money is lent in this way is called the repo rate.
• Similarly, instead of an outright sale of securities the central bank may sell the securities through an agreement which has a specification about the date and price at which it will be repurchased.
• This type of agreement is called a reverse repurchase agreement or reverse repo. The rate at which the money is withdrawn in this manner is called the reverse repo rate.
• Open market operations via Repo and Reverse Repo operations are conducted under Liquidity Adjustment Facility.
• While the outright OMO are directed at influencing enduring (long term) liquidity, the LAF OMO operations target the temporary liquidity in the system. Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.

Reforms Based and Results Linked Scheme: DISCOMs
• Statements 1 and 2 are correct and statement 3 is incorrect.
• The scheme requires that DISCOMs (Power Distribution Companies) submit detailed project reports (DPRs) on how they plan to reduce their operational losses to avail of funding.
• Scheme Objectives: Reduction of AT&C (aggregate technical & commercial) losses to pan-India levels of 12-15% by 2024-25. Hence statement 1 is correct.
o Reduction of ACS-ARR gap (i.e. between the total cost of electricity and revenues generated from supplying power) to zero by 2024-25.
• Conditional Financial Assistance: The Scheme seeks to improve the operational efficiencies and financial sustainability of all DISCOMs (excluding Private Sector DISCOMs) by providing conditional financial assistance to DISCOMs for strengthening of supply infrastructure.
• Subsuming of Various Schemes: It is proposed that the currently ongoing approved projects under the following Schemes would be subsumed:
o Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS)
o Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY). Hence statement 2 is correct.
o Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY)
• Solarization of Agricultural Feeders: The Scheme has a major focus on improving electricity supply for the farmers and for providing daytime electricity to them through solarisation of agricultural feeders.
• Smart Metering: A key feature of the Scheme is to enable consumer empowerment by way of prepaid Smart metering to be implemented in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.

Non-Bank PSPs to Join Centralised Payment System
• Statement 1, 3 and 4 are correct and statement 2 is incorrect.
• Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed non-bank Payment System Providers (PSPs) to participate in Centralised Payment Systems (CPS – RTGS and NEFT), as direct members.
• PSPs such as Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs), card networks and White Label ATM (WLA) operators will be allowed access. z ATMs set up, owned and operated by non-banks are called WLAs. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Presently, only banks and select non-banks such as NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) and Exim Bank (Export-Import Bank of India) are allowed access to CPS owned by RBI – NEFT and RTGS. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.
• Separate IFSC to Non-Banks: It means allotment of a separate Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) to non-banks, opening a current account with the RBI in its core banking system (e-Kuber) and maintaining a settlement account with the RBI. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• Core Banking System is a solution that enables banks to offer a multitude of customer-centric services on a 24×7 basis.
• It will also mean membership of Indian Financial Network (INFINET) and use of Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) to communicate with CPS. Hence statement 4 is correct.
• INFINET is a membership-only Closed User Group (CUG) Network that comprises the RBI, Member Banks and Financial Institutions. SFMS is India’s backbone for inter-bank financial messaging & CPS.