The National Statistical Office:
- NSO is the central statistical agency of the Government mandated under the Statistical Services Act 1980 under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
- It is responsible for the development of arrangements for providing statistical information services to meet the needs of the Government and other users for information on which to base policy, planning, monitoring and management decisions.
-The services include collecting, compiling and disseminating official statistical information.
-All business operations in NSO are done in compliance with international standards, procedures and best practices.
Solicitor general:
- Solicitor General is the second highest law officer in the country.
- He is subordinate to the Attorney General of India, the highest law officer and works under him.
- He also advises the government in legal matters.
- Solicitor general is appointed for period of three years by Appointment Committee of Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister.
- While, Solicitor General and Additional Solicitor Generals’ office and duties are governed by Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987 and not by Constitution (thus they are statutory posts and not constitutional).
- Moreover, attorney generals has right to participate in the proceedings of Parliament, but cannot vote.
- Whereas, Solicitor General and Additional Solicitor Generals’ do not have these rights wrt to participation in parliament.
PIL:
- Public interest Litigation (PIL) means litigation filed in a court of law, for the protection of “Public Interest”, such as Pollution, Terrorism, Road safety, Constructional hazards etc. Any matter where the interest of public at large is affected can be redressed by filing a Public Interest Litigation in a court of law.
- Public interest litigation is not defined in any statute or in any act. It has been interpreted by judges to consider the intent of public at large.
- Public interest litigation is the power given to the public by courts through judicial activism. However, the person filing the petition must prove to the satisfaction of the court that the petition is being filed for a public interest and not just as a frivolous litigation by a busy body.
Contract farming:
- Contract farming (CF) can be defined as agricultural production carried out according to an agreement between a buyer and farmers, which establishes conditions for the production and marketing of a farm product or products.
- Typically, the farmer agrees to provide agreed quantities of a specific agricultural product.
These should meet the quality standards of the purchaser and be supplied at the time determined by the purchaser. - In turn, the buyer commits to purchase the product and, in some cases, to support production through, for example, the supply of farm inputs, land preparation and the provision of technical advice
GST:
- GST is one indirect tax for the whole nation, which will make India one unified common market.
- It is a single tax on the supply of goods and services, right from the manufacturer to the consumer.
- It is a destination based tax i.e will be collected at the state where the goods are sold instead of the manufacturing states.
- In India, GST Bill was first introduced in 2014 as The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill.
- This got an approval in 2016 and was renumbered in the statute by Rajya Sabha as The Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016.
Finance commission:
- The Finance Commission is constituted by the President under article 280 of the Constitution, mainly to give its recommendations on distribution of tax revenues between the Union and the States and amongst the States themselves.
- Two distinctive features of the Commission’s work involve redressing the vertical imbalances between the taxation powers and expenditure responsibilities of the centre and the States respectively and equalization of all public services across the States.
Economic advisory council:
- Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (PMEAC) is a non-constitutional, non-permanent and independent body constituted to give economic advice to the Government of India, specifically the Prime Minister.
- The council serves to highlight key economic issues facing the country to the government of India from a neutral viewpoint. It advises the Prime Minister on economic issues like inflation, microfinance, and industrial output.
- For administrative, logistic, planning and budgeting purposes, the NITI Aayog serves as the Nodal Agency for the PMEAC.
Nominal and real GDP:
- Nominal Gross Domestic Product is GDP evaluated at present market prices. GDP is the financial equivalent of all the complete products and services generated within a nation’s in a definite time. Nominal varies from real GDP, and it incorporates changes in cost prices due to an increase in the complete cost price.
- Real GDP is an inflation-adjusted calculation that analyzes the rate of all commodities and services manufactured in a country for a fixed year. It is expressed in foundation year prices and is referred to as a fixed cost price. Inflation rectified GDP or fixed dollar GDP. Real GDP is regarded as a reliable indicator of a nation’s economic growth as it solely only considers production and free from currency fluctuations.