Malala Yousafzai - student and education activist

A school student and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. She is famous for her education and women’s rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban has at times opposed girls from attending school. Yousafzai gained prominence by giving interviews in print and on television. She was appointed as chairperson of the District Child Assembly Swat.

• She was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu, and has won Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize.

Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. She is currently in critical condition and is under intensive care at a hospital in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation.

What is the difference between foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign indirect investment?

Investing directly in production in another country, either by buying a company there or establishing new operations of an existing business. This is done mostly by companies as opposed to financial institutions, which prefer indirect INVESTMENT abroad such as buying small parcels of a country's supply of SHARES or BONDS. Foreign direct investment (FDI) grew rapidly during the 1990s before slowing a bit, along with the global economy, in the early years of the 21st century. Most of this investment went from one OECD country to another, but the share going to developing countries, especially in Asia, increased steadily.

There was a time when economists considered fdi as a substitute for trade. Building factories in foreign countries was one way of jumping TARIFF barriers. Now economists typically regard FDI and trade as complementary. For example, a firm can use a factory in one country to supply neighbouring markets. Some investments, especially in SERVICES industries, are essential prerequisites for selling to foreigners. Who would buy a Big Mac in London if it had to be sent from New York?

Governments used to be highly suspicious of FDI, often regarding it as corporate imperialism. Nowadays they are more likely to court it. They hope that investors will create jobs, and bring expertise and technology that will be passed on to local FIRMS and workers, helping to sharpen up their whole economy. Furthermore, unlike financial investors, multinationals generally invest directly in plant and equipment. Since it is hard to uproot a chemicals factory, these investments, once made, are far more enduring than the flows of HOT MONEY that whisk in and out of emerging markets (see DEVELOPING COUNTRIES).

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS are a significant form of FDI. For instance, in 1997, more than 90% of FDI into the United States took the form of mergers rather than of setting up new subsidiaries and opening factories.

Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India  

is an authority, established by the Constitution of India under Chapter V, who audits all receipts and expenditure of theGovernment of India and the state governments, including those of bodies and authorities substantially financed by the government. The CAG is also the external auditor of government-owned companies. The reports of the CAG are taken into consideration by the Public Accounts Committees, which are special committees in the Parliament of India and the state legislatures. The CAG is also the head of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, which has over 58,000 employees across the country.

The CAG is mentioned in the Constitution of India under Article 148 – 151.

The CAG is ranked 10th and enjoys the same status as a judge of Supreme Court of India in Indian order of precedence. The current CAG of India is Vinod Rai, who was appointed on 7 January 2008. He is the 11th CAG of India and Nationalist.

Recently the CAG under Vinod Rai has constantly been in the limelight for its reports exposing mega corruption, particularly in 2G spectrum scam, CWG scam and Coal mining scam.

Public Accounts Committee (India) (PAC) 2G Spectrum Case

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a committee of selected members of Parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India, for the auditing of the expenditure of the Government of India.

The PAC is formed every year with a strength of not more than 22 members of which 15 are from Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, and 7 fromRajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament. The term of office of the members is one year. The Chairman is appointed by the Speaker of Lok Sabha. Since 1967, the chairman of the committee is selected from the opposition. Earlier, it was headed by a member of the ruling party. Its chief function is to examine the audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) after it is laid in the Parliament. CAG assists the committee during the course of investigation. None of the 22 members shall be a minister in the government.

The present PAC is headed by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi of the Bharatiya Janata Party.President of India is required by constitution of India to lay before parliament the findings of Public Accounts Committee.

2G spectrum scam

In 2011, the Public Accounts Committee probed the 2G spectrum scam which brought the committee to public attention. The committee, on 4 April 2011, summoned Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, and Niira Radia, corporate lobbyist regarding the scam. The PAC asked Congress members to apologise to Comptroller and Auditor General of India for making allegations against it

National Food Security Mission (NFSM)

1. Introduction

1.1 The National Development Council (NDC)

in its 53rd meeting held on 29th May, 2007

adopted a resolution to launch a Food Security

Mission comprising rice, wheat and pulses to increase

the production of rice by 10 million tons, wheat by

8 million tons and pulses by 2 million tons by the

end of the Eleventh Plan (2011-12). Accordingly, A

Centrally Sponsored Scheme, 'National Food Security

Mission', has been launched from 2007-08 to

operationalize the above mentioned resolution.

1.2 The National Food Security Mission will

have three components (i) National Food Security

Mission - Rice (NFSM-Rice); (ii) National Food

Security Mission - Wheat (NFSM-Wheat); and

National Food Security Mission - Pulses (NFSMPulses).

2. Mission Objectives

2.1 Increasing production of rice, wheat and

pulses through area expansion and productivity

enhancement in a sustainable manner in the

identified districts of the country;

2.2 Restoring soil fertility and productivity at the

individual farm level;

2.3 Creation of employment opportunities; and

2.4 Enhancing farm level economy (i.e. farm

profits) to restore confidence amongst the farmers.

3.1 To achieve the above objectives, the Mission

would adopt following strategies:

National Food Security Mission

Operational Guidelines

i. Implementation in a mission mode

through active engagement of all the

stakeholders at various levels.

ii. Promotion and extension of improved

technologies i.e., seed, Integrated Nutrient

Management including micronutrients,

soil amendments, IPM and resource

conservation technologies along with

capacity building of farmers.

iii. Flow of fund would be closely monitored

to ensure that interventions reach the

target beneficiaries on time.

iv. Various interventions proposed would be

integrated with the district plan and targets

for each identified district would be fixed.

v. Constant monitoring and concurrent

evaluation for assessing the impact of the

interventions for a result oriented approach

by the implementing agencies.

Provisions for Protection of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in Constitution of India.

􀁸 The first statement is not correct because Constitution provides for the reservation for SCs and STs in the Lower House i.e. Lok Sabha via Article 330. Allocation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the Lok Sabha are made on the basis of proportion of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the State concerned to that of the total population.

􀁸 The second statement is correct because initially the constitution made provisions for a NCSCST but later it was amended and two separate commissions were brought into existence.

􀁸 The third statement is correct. Article 15, state is prohibited to discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. However, constitution gives overriding power to the state in case of the SCs and STs via Article 15(4) and other articles.

􀁸 The notifying and de-notifying of SCs and STs is an important power which can not be vested in local bodies. This power is vested in President of India.