ele ted       s    23.9
             their needs. In case the firm defaults in    17. (d) Abenomics is the name given to a suite
             servicing the loans the LoU-issuing bank/            of measures introduced by the Japanese
             institution is supposed to compensate the            Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after his
             lending banks/financial institutions. It             December 2012 re-election to the post
             was in news by late February 2018 when               he has held since 2007. Such measures
             a firm (led by Nirav Modi) was accused               by a government to boost growth is not
             of a Rs. 11,500 crore borrowings from                possible in the case of the recession-hit
             several overseas branches of the Indian              economies of the Western world—the
             banks on the basis of a LoU issued by                Japanese economy has an edge over them
             the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in the                due to its low levels of inflation and fiscal
             name of his firm (Gitanjali).                        deficit.
     12. (b) The idea was for the first time used by the  18. (d) SWIFT (Society             for Worldwide
             GoI in the Union Budget 2011–12, but                 Interbank Financial Telecommunica-
             it was not borrowed from the Western                 tion) is a ‘messaging network’ that con-
             nations—this is an Indian idea.                      nects banks and financial institutions
     13. (d) The agricultural provisions (i.e., the               across the world. The letter of undertak-
             Agreement on Agriculture) of the WTO                 ings (LoUs) are communicated through
             have put a ceiling on the amount of farm             it only by the banks/financial institutions
             subsidies (both direct and indirect) of              across the globe.
             the member country—as they distort the
                                                          19. (d) As interest rate goes up the investment
             free market prices of farm goods.
                                                                  decreases because the cost of fund
     14. (b) The BIPA is a kind of India alternative of           increases.
             the ICSID (one of the World Bank group
                                                          20. (a) Demand deposits will have more
             entity). But it has no links either with the
             ICISD or IMF. By now, India has signed               liquidity than the saving deposits as the
             such agreements with 82 countries.                   former includes the ‘current accounts’ of
                                                                  the firms (the most liquid deposit with
     15. (c) NSEL (National Spot Exchange Ltd.) is
                                                                  the banks).
             promoted by a private firm (which owns
             it by 99 per cent) Financial Technologies    21. (b) This method is being used by the GoI
             India Ltd. and NAFED (National                       for the first time, though, it has been
             Agricultural Cooperative Marketing                   already used by the states (Andhra
             Federation of India Ltd.) for ‘spot trading’         Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, MP, Punjab,
             in commodities in India, operating since             etc.). By late January 2016, the Ministry
             2008. Other such bourses—the NCDEX                   of Railways used this method to award
             Spot and R-Next, are promoted by the                 contracts for development of 400 railway
             NSE and Reliance Capital, respectively.              stations in the country. Though, the
             Since February 2012 ‘spot contracts’ are             government has been discouraged by the
             being looked after by the Forward Market             Vijay Kelkar Expert Committee (set up
             Commission (FMC)—regulated under                     on ‘Revisiting and Revitalising the PPP
             the Forward Contract (Regulation) Act,               Model of Infrastructure Development’).
             1952.                                                The committee submitted its report in
     16. (d) All of the statements are correct about              January 2016 itself.
             the P-Notes.                                 22. (c) Both of the statements are correct.