1. Consider the following statements with respect to the Bureau of Immigration (BOI).
1. It was setup in 1971 by Government of India to undertake Immigration function in the country.
2. It is headed by Commissioner of Immigration and assisted by FRROs for immigration facilitation service at airports.
3. The Bureau of Immigration works under the administrative control of Ministry of External Affairs.
Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?
(a) 2 and 3 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer-b
Explanation-
Bureau of Immigration (BOI)
Bureau of Immigration (BoI) was setup in 1971 by Government of India to undertake Immigration function in the country.
BoI is headed by Commissioner of Immigration and assisted by FRROs for immigration facilitation service at airports and work relating to registration of foreigners under various Acts and Rules.
Altogether, there are 86 Immigration Check Posts all over India, catering to international traffic. Out of these, 37 ICPs are functioning under the BoI, while the remaining is being managed by the concerned State Governments.
At present, there are 12 FRROs in major cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai Kolkata, Chennai, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Calicut, Kochi, Trivandrum, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
Apart from this, there are 12 Chief Immigration Officers in the cities i.e. Goa, Jaipur, Gaya, Varanasi, Nagpur, Pune, Mangalore, Trichy, Coimbatore, Bagdogra, Chandigarh and Guwahati.
At remaining places District Superintendent of Police (SP) or the prescribed authority functions as FRO to facilitate foreigners.
To strengthen the Immigration system, a modernization programme viz. Mission Mode Project on Immigration, Visa Foreigners’ Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) has been undertaken by MHA/BoI, with the assistance of National Informatics Center (NIC).
Under the project, all the Indian Missions, Immigration Check posts (ICPs); FRRO/FRO offices are being computerized and networked to develop a secure and integrated delivery framework to facilitate legitimate travelers.
Vision, Mission and Values Vision
To develop a professional, effective and efficient Immigration service for facilitating legitimate travelers, while ensuring national security.
Mission
To enforce Indian laws with integrity and strive to achieve the highest standards in the duties we perform, the professionalism we display and the service we render with the overall objective of facilitating legitimate travelers without compromising national security.
Values
The core values are the guiding beacons for all that do and provide the benchmark for assessing our performance.
• Integrity: To maintain a high standard of integrity and professionalism through uniform application of law and policies.
• Courtesy: To treat each member of the public with respect, courtesy and compassion.
• Dynamism: To respond positively to the ever-changing socio-politico-economic environment and to realign strategies to meet new challenges.
• Excellence: To continuosly strive for excellence in whatever we do and seek to create benchmark for Immigration services worldwide.
• Innovation: To encourage new ideas, methods, processes and practices.
• Collaboration: To work together with other stakeholders to achieve common goals.
https://boi.gov.in/?q=node/248
2. Consider the following statements with respect to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
1. This is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life
2. UNDP is central to the UNSDG, a network that spans 165 countries and unites the 40 UN funds, programmes, specialized agencies and other bodies working.
3. UNDP has its headquarters in New York City, but works primarily through its offices in about 170 countries and territories.
4. It also reinforces joint action on development in such forums as the Economic and Social Council and the UNGA.
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 2, 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 3 and 3 only
(d) All of the above
Answer-d
Explanation-
UN Development Programme (UNDP)
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.
We are on the ground in some 170 countries and territories, supporting their own solutions to development challenges and developing national and local capacities that will help them achieve human development and the Sustainable Development Goals. Our work is concentrated on three main focus areas:
Sustainable development
Democratic governance and peace building
Climate and disaster resilience
UNDP helps countries attract and use aid effectively. In all our activities, we promote gender equality and the protection of human rights.
How is UNDP related to the UN?
UNDP is central to the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), a network that spans 165 countries and unites the 40 UN funds, programmes, specialized agencies and other bodies working to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General and with UNDP Administrator as Vice-Chair, the UNSDG provides strategic direction and oversight to ensure UNDS entities deliver coherent, effective and efficient support to countries in their pursuit of sustainable development.
UNDP has a critical advisory role in driving the sustainable development agenda, based on Member States’ priorities and country context and plays an important role in fostering coordination within the UN system at country level, including by providing key system-wide services and country support platforms to support the implementation of the SDGs.
UNDP participates in 66 “Delivering as One” initiatives which, together with the Standard Operating Procedures, enable UN Country Teams to operate more coherently, effectively and efficiently, minimizing transaction costs, reducing duplication and scaling up common approaches and joint initiatives.
UNDP also reinforces joint action on development in such forums as the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Where is UNDP located?
UNDP has its headquarters in New York City, but works primarily through its offices in about 170 countries and territories.
When and how did UNDP come into being?
UNDP is based on the merging of the United Nations Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance, created in 1949, and the United Nations Special Fund, established in 1958.
UNDP, as we know it now, was established in 1965 by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Does UNDP offer financial assistance to individuals for study/training programmes or other type of projects?
No. UNDP’s mandate does not permit us to provide financial assistance to individuals (including students seeking scholarships for their studies), companies or private groups. We work in collaboration with governments on development programmes and projects.
What is the Human Development Report?
The annual Human Development Report is UNDP’s flagship independent publication.
Its editorial autonomy is guaranteed by a special resolution of the General Assembly, which recognizes the Human Development Report as “an independent intellectual exercise” and “an important tool for raising awareness about human development around the world”.
The reports focus the global debate on key development issues, providing new measurement tools, innovative analysis and often controversial policy proposals.
They are guided by the belief that development is ultimately a process of enlarging people’s choices, not just raising national incomes.
The independent teams of experts who write the Reports draw on a worldwide network of leaders from academia, government and civil society who contribute data, ideas, and best practices.
https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/about-us/faqs.html#being
3. Consider the following statements regarding the Debt Exchange Traded Fund (ETFs).
1. These are simple investment products that allow the investors to take an exposure to the fixed income securities.
2. These debt ETFs combine the benefits of debt investments with the flexibility of stock investment and the simplicity of mutual funds.
3. Debt ETFs are passive investment instruments that are based on indices and invest in securities in same proportion as the underlying index.
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(a) 2 and 3 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer-d
Explanation-
Debt Exchange Traded Fund Route
G-sec issuances through Debt Exchange Traded Fund Route
Debt Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are simple investment products that allow the investors to take an exposure to the fixed income securities. These debt ETFs combine the benefits of debt investments with the flexibility of stock investment and the simplicity of mutual funds. These Debt ETFs trade on the cash market of the National Stock Exchange, like any other company stock, and can be bought and sold continuously at live market prices.
Debt ETFs are passive investment instruments that are based on indices and invest in securities in same proportion as the underlying index.
Because of its index mirroring property, there is a complete transparency on the holdings of an ETF. Further due to its unique structure and creation mechanism, the ETFs have much lower expense ratios as compared to mutual funds.
https://www1.nseindia.com/products/content/equities/etfs/liquid.htm
4. Consider the following statements regarding the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
1. The Chisti order in India was established in India by Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti in 1192.
2. His tomb in Ajmer was constructed by Ghiasuddin Khalji of Malwa.
3. The main principle of his order was kept aloof from royal court and popularised music recitations called Sama.
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(a) 2 and 3 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer-d
Explanation-
Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti
Chishtī Muʿīn al-Dīn Ḥasan Sijzī (1142–1236 CE), known more commonly as Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī or Moinuddin Chishti or Khwājā Ghareeb Nawaz, or reverently as a Shaykh Muʿīn al-Dīn or Muʿīn al-Dīn or Khwājā Muʿīn al-Dīn by Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, was a Persian Muslim preacher, ascetic, religious scholar, philosopher, and mystic from Sistan, who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the famous Chishtiyya order of Sunni mysticism.
He died in 1236 and his tomb in Ajmer was constructed by Ghiasuddin Khalji of Malwa. Mohammed Bin Tuqlaq visited the tomb and later it came under State Management during Mughal Ruler Akbar’s reign.
One of the other notable Sufi saints was Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki who organized work in Delhi and the contemporary Delhi Sultanate Ruler was Illtutmish who was deeply devoted to Chisti Order.
Another famous Sufi saint was Nizamuddin Auliya and he adopted yogic breathing exercises, so much so that the yogis called him sidh or ‘perfect.’
Auliya’s famous disciple was Amir Khusrow who is called as “father of Qawwali” and “Parrot of India” and introduced the Ghazal Style to India.
After the death of Nasruddin Chiragh-i-Delhi in the 14th century, the chishtis order declined.
Chishtīyah, Muslim Ṣūfī order in India and Pakistan, named for Chisht, the village in which the founder of the order, Abū Isḥāq of Syria, settled.
Great emphasis was originally placed by the Chishtīyah on the Ṣūfī doctrine of the unity of being (waḥdat al-wujūd), oneness with God; thus, all material goods were rejected as distracting from the contemplation of God; absolutely no connection with the secular state was permitted; and the recitation of the names of God, both aloud and silently (dhikr jahrī, dhikr khafī), formed the cornerstone of Chishtī practice. Members of the order were also pacifists. The ideals of the early adherents are still revered, but some modifications of practice—e.g., ownership of property—is tolerated.
In the history of the Chishtīyah, the period of the Great Sheikhs (c. 1200–1356) was marked by the establishment of a centralized network of monasteries (khānqahs) in the northern provinces of Rājputāna, the Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. From the 14th century, these monasteries were provincial institutions where various branches of the order took root, notably the Ṣābirīyah branch in the 15th century at Rudawlī and the Niẓāmīyah, revived in the 18th century in Delhi.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chishtiyah#ref21005
5. Consider the following statements with reference to the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1968.
1. ESMA gives police the right to arrest, without a warrant, anybody violating the Act’s provisions.
2. The employees can’t even refuse to work overtime if their work is considered necessary for the maintenance of any of the essential services.
3. The Act allows states to choose the essential services on which to enforce ESMA.
Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?
(a) 2 and 3 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer-d
Explanation
Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1968
The Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) was enacted in 1968 by the Parliament of India.
It aims to maintain certain essential services that are necessary for the normal life of the community.
Any service with respect to which the Parliament has power to make laws or the government feels that its discontinuation would affect the maintenance of supplies and services necessary for sustaining life is considered an essential service.
It extends to the whole of India provided that it shall not apply to the State of Jammu and Kashmir except to the extent to which the provisions of this Act relate to Union employees.
The Act includes a long list of “essential services” ranging from post and telegraph, railway, airport and port operations etc, and it prohibits the key employees in these services from striking.
The employees can’t even refuse to work overtime if their work is considered necessary for the maintenance of any of the essential services.
The Act allows states to choose the essential services on which to enforce ESMA.
It gives police the right to arrest, without a warrant, anybody violating the Act’s provisions.
Any person who instigates the strike or commences a strike or otherwise takes part in any such strike shall be punishable with imprisonment or financial penalty or both.
The interpretation of “essential services” varies from state to state.
Legal mechanisms exist for challenging a decision taken under the terms of this Act if a dispute arises.
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/902835/