General Knowledge Questions

1) ASEAN - a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries in Southeast

Asia. which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political,
security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration among its members. (Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand)
 
2) TPP-Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, was a proposed trade agreement between
Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore,
Vietnam, and the United States signed on 4 February 2016.

3) CPTPP - The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

(CPTPP), also known as TPP11 or TPP-11, is a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei,
Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. It
evolved from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which never entered into force due to the
withdrawal of the United States

4) APEC - The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an inter-governmental forum for 21

member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-
Pacific region. (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New
Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, US, Taiwan, Hongkong, China, Mexico, Papua new
Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia, Vietnam)

5) NAFTA - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented in order to

promote trade between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The agreement, which eliminated
most tariffs on trade between the three countries, went into effect on January 1, 1994.

6) Act east policy - India’s ‘Act East’ policy is a diplomatic initiative to promote economic,

strategic and cultural relations with the vast Asia-Pacific region at different levels.. Act East
Policy seeks economic integration of India's economy with global supply chains which are
concentrated in Southeast Asia and East Asia.

7) Who is Trade Minister of India? – Piyush Goyal

8) Who in Minister of Commerce & Industry? – Piyush Goyal

9) Who is current chief economic advisor of GOI? - Krishnamurthy Subramanian

10) MSME Minister – Nitin Gadkari

11) Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare – Narendra singh Tomar

12) Ministry of Food processing Industries – Harsimrat Kaur Badal

13) Ministry of steel – Dharmendra Pradhan

14) Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries – Giriraj Singh

15) First RCEP summit - Manila, Philippines 14th Nov 2017
Second RCEP summit - Singapore, 14th Nov 2018
Third RCEP summit - Bangkok, (31 October – 3 Nov 2019).
(35th ASEAN summit happened on same day)

16) What US need to do if they want to join RCEP?

Ans- They need to make a trade deal with ASEA first then only they can join RCEP.

17) What are the countries there in RCEP?

There are 15 countries involved in RCEP: the 10 members of ASEAN—Brunei-Darussalam,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Viet Nam plus the six countries with which ASEAN has free trade agreements—Australia,
China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand. These five countries are known as the ASEAN free
trade partners.

18) Trade deficit with China- $54 (decreased to $48.66 Billion)

Trade deficit with all RCEP countries- $105 billion

19) Current GDP growth rate of India- (shrank by 23.9%)- 4.2%

20) Secretary (east) of Ministry of External Affairs- Vijay Thakur Singh

21) Why India is forcing to put Base year as 2019 but not 2014?

Ans- Basic reason why India want base year as 2019 but not 2014 , because in 2014 the tariff
rates for importing goods were so low. Due to this China had managed to sell cheaper goods
in Indian market which also cost domestic manufacturers. Due to this the trade deficit
between India and China reached up to $54 Billion. Thus India wants to apply new tariff
rates so that they can restrict flood of cheaper goods in the Indian market.

22) Custom Duty vs Tariff Rates

CUSTOM DUTY TARIFF RATES

Meaning
charged to importers and distributors, who Charged on goods and services imported
then pass it on to the consumer. from or exported to a different country.

Type of Tax
Indirect Tax Direct Tax

Why it is Charged?
To generate Income to the government.  to protect domestic production and
restrict trade from a particular
country, as well as generate
revenue for the government.
 to drive up the cost of
domestically-produced goods, thus
 protecting home-based
manufacturers.
 To reduce imports of a particular
product and customer demand can
instead be met by domestic
suppliers.

Countries with higher Duty/Rates

 United States: 1.66%  The Bahamas (18.56%)
 European Union: 1.79%  Gabon (16.93%)
 Japan: 2.51%  Chad (16.36%)
 People’s Republic of China:  Bermuda (15.39%).
3.83%

23) Country of origin

Country of Origin means the country or countries of manufacture, production, design, or brand
origin where an article or product comes from. 

24) What is FTA?

A free trade agreement is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports
and exports among them. Under a free trade policy, goods and services can be bought and sold
across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies, or
prohibitions to inhibit their exchange.

25) Dairy Companies

New Zealand

1. Tatua
2. OCD
3. Synlait
4. Fonterra
5. Westland

Australia
1. Golden Dairy
2. Victorian Dairy
3. Fortends

India
1. Amul
2. Motherdairy

26) NITI Ayog

 National Institution for Transforming India.

Objectives

1. To create a vision and plan of national development with the active involvement of the
States.
2. To create an innovation, entrepreneur and knowledge support system.
3. To offer a common platform for solving any kind of inter-departmental or sectoral
issues to speed up the implementation of development agenda.
4. To focus on up-gradation of technology for proper implementation of programmes and
initiatives.
5. To pay attention to the communities of our society that are not adequately benefited
from economic progress.

Chairman – Narendra Modi

Vice Chairman – Rajiv Kumar

27) What is Liberalisation?

When something which used to be banned is no longer banned, or when govt regulations are
relaxed

Introduced in 1991

28) Reasons behind -23.9% GDP

Private Consumption & Investment by Business has decreased (Total 88% of GDP)

29) Way out

When incomes fall sharply, private individuals cut back consumption. When private
consumption falls sharply, businesses stop investing. Since both of these are voluntary
decisions, there is no way to force people to spend more and/or coerce businesses to invest
more in the current scenario.

Under the circumstances, only government (G). Only when government spend more — either
by building roads and bridges and paying salaries or by directly handing out money — can the
economy revive in the short to medium term. If the government does not spend adequately
enough then the economy will take a long time to recover.