Miscellaneous Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: different parts of the economy grow in harmonious manner

Balanced growth means the sectors expand in proportion to one another, so that each provides the demand and the inputs the others need - agriculture feeding industry, industry supplying agriculture. It does not mean equal rates of growth; a sector that is already large need not grow as fast to stay in balance.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Housing Development Finance Corporation

HDFC is the Housing Development Finance Corporation, founded in 1977 as India’s first specialised mortgage lender. It promoted HDFC Bank in 1994, and the two merged in 2023.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Species of cotton.

Gossypium is the cotton genus, and India is the only country growing all four cultivated species: the two Old World diploids G. arboreum and G. herbaceum, and the two New World tetraploids G. hirsutum and G. barbadense. G. hirsutum supplies most of the world’s cotton, and G. barbadense the long-staple varieties.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Low-skilled labour in unorganized sector

The great majority of Indian workers are in the unorganised sector - agriculture, construction, petty trade and services - and most of that work is low-skilled. That is why employment growth and skill development are so central to Indian policy: the labour exists in abundance, but not in the form the modern economy needs.

Answer: A

Correct answer: HSBC

HSBC installed India’s first automated teller machine, at Mumbai in 1987. Indian banks followed over the next few years, but the network only became genuinely useful once the National Financial Switch made cards work across banks.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 11

An IFSC is 11 characters, not all of them digits: the first four are letters identifying the bank, the fifth is always the digit 0, and the last six identify the branch. It is what routes an NEFT or RTGS transfer to the right branch.

Answer: B

The general superintendence and direction of the RBI is entrusted with the 21-member Central Board of Directors. They are the Governor, 4 Deputy Governors, 2 Finance Ministry representatives, 10 government-nominated directors, and 4 directors to represent local boards headquartered at Mumbai. Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 1949

The Banking Regulation Act was passed in 1949, giving the Reserve Bank power to license banks, inspect them, control their management and set their capital requirements. It is still the principal statute governing banking in India, and Section 22 - the licensing provision - is the one under which every bank operates.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Suma Verma Committee

The Suma Verma Committee reviewed the Banking Ombudsman scheme and recommended widening the grounds of complaint and improving the process for customers. The Banking Ombudsman offers a free, quick alternative to the courts for grievances a bank has failed to resolve.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank has been the principal lender for Indian railway modernisation - track, rolling stock, signalling and station redevelopment. Founded in 1966 and based at Manila, it lends for infrastructure across the Asia-Pacific region.