Daily Mains Practice Questions 17-03-2023

KEY POINTS

·        The smile and satisfaction on the face of that elderly woman in Jhansi’s Purwa village of Bundelkhand, on seeing a newly installed functional tap water connection at her residence, was heart-warming.

·        In Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous State, functional tap water connections have been provided to about 33 per cent of the rural population.

·        UP is among the top four States in terms of rolling out drinking water connections. Much back-room planning has gone behind ensuring this.

·        More than 90 per cent of schools and ‘anganwadi centres’ in the State that lacked access to drinking water, now have a functional tap water connection.

·        UP’s efforts are now visible in terms of the rankings, with some districts making it to the starred category for the first time and others improving their rankings on the water roll-out plan.

·        In 37 districts of UP, the groundwater level has increased. In 2017, about 129 development blocks across the State were in ‘dark zone’ and today less than a 100 are there in this category.

·        Also, wastewater is being recycled for irrigation, and the intention is to tap each drop of water for the larger good.

·        When each house has access to drinking water along with a simultaneous increase in groundwater levels, it would mean a secure future for generations.

KEY POINTS

·        A private bank failure in the first decade of this century and timely intervention by the RBI in the second decade to prevent two likely collapses, have marked India’s contemporary private banking space.

·        In regulatory supervision, the number of entities to be overseen is also material to quality.

·        In the public sector, thanks to the concerted efforts of the Union Government, the number of banks has been reduced from 27 in 2017 to just 12. Except four, they are all large banks now.

·        As owners of capital, the government’s focus on performance monitoring and evaluation has improved vastly.

·        They have been around for more than 75 years, older than our republic. They cannot complain about lack of opportunities for growth as the ownership was entirely private.

·        All of them are licensed as “universal” banks  they can conduct all the activities that the much bigger national banks do, including infra credit and forex/NRI business.

·        Hence the options are clear: become “niche” players as local area banks by focusing on the regional economy or consolidate/merge to continue as “universal” banks with a minimum critical mass.

·        The lessons from private bank failures here as well as recent ones abroad, the efforts required for supervision/regulatory oversight of these tiny entities, the benefits.

KEY POINTS

·        From smartphones to planes, semiconductors are present in everything that make our lives modern.

·        No wonder then this industry is anticipated to grow to $1 trillion in revenues by 2030, a recent report by Deloitte said.

·        While the US was a leader in the 1960s, competition from other countries increased as commercial demand rose.

·        The US, Europe, Japan, China and Taiwan now dominate the sector. Despite the challenges, companies were able to work together and cater to the ever-growing demand for electronic goods.

·        Two events have disrupted the order – China’s “Made in China 2025” policy push and the Covid-19 pandemic.

·        The Chinese government has been increasing investments in this sector, and the West, especially the US, fears that the Asian giant will overtake them in the sector.

·        Not a day goes by without news of a semiconductor major talking about setting up a plant in India.

·        Recently, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that India’s first semiconductor fab will be announced soon and that the country is set to have a vibrant chip industry in 3-4 years.

·        Though this is a good first step, India is just at the start line while others are far ahead in the race. The government must also look at ways to make domestic companies global players.

Data governance