Indian Economy Mixed Practice — MCQs with Answers (Set 37)

The Foodgrains Policy Committee of 1957 recommended a dedicated body for procurement and storage, an idea realised eight years later as FCI.

FCI was set up under the Food Corporations Act, 1964, after repeated post-independence food shortages exposed gaps in grain procurement and storage.

The 2018 policy set 20% blending for 2030. The Cabinet amended it on 18 May 2022. The amendment advanced the target to Ethanol Supply Year 2025-26. An ESY runs from November to October.

The Government raised the onion procurement price by 13%, to ₹2,125 per quintal, aimed at better returns for onion farmers and strengthening buffer procurement.

The Committee set strict preconditions for safe CAC, including cutting the fiscal deficit to 3.5% of GDP, alongside keeping inflation within 3-5% and reducing gross NPAs to 5%.

The RBI set up a second Tarapore Committee in 2006. Its report, submitted in September 2006, proposed a fresh roadmap targeting 2011 — a target that also passed without full CAC.

The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98 broke out the same year, exposing the dangers of opening the capital account too early — so the roadmap was never implemented.

The RBI set up the Committee on Capital Account Convertibility in 1997, chaired by S.S. Tarapore, a former RBI Deputy Governor.

Not every 2002 recommendation survived: wealth tax was abolished only in 2015, and long-term capital gains tax was reintroduced on equities in 2018 — both later departures from the task force’s original direction.

The Direct Taxes report recommended raising the income-tax exemption limit to ₹1 lakh for general taxpayers, alongside abolishing long-term capital gains tax and wealth tax.

GST was first proposed by the Kelkar Task Force in 2002, but launched nationwide only on 1 July 2017 — a 15-year gap between proposal and law.

The Indirect Taxes report proposed a comprehensive, VAT-based Goods and Services Tax — the first formal proposal for a unified GST in India.

In September 2002, the Finance Ministry set up two task forces, one on direct taxes and one on indirect taxes, both chaired by economist Vijay L. Kelkar.

Procurement of improved-quality rice began immediately, with phased rollout to all procuring states by KMS 2027-28.

Homi Bhabha asked the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust for money to set up a research institute. With support from JRD, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was founded in 1945.

Air India was nationalised in 1953, and JRD stayed on as chairman. He held the post for 25 years, until 1978. Reports say he served without pay. The Morarji Desai government removed him in 1978.

JRD became chairman of Tata Sons in 1938, when he was 34. He stayed until 1991. That is 53 years. The 1988 date marks his fiftieth year as chairman, not his exit.

JRD Tata piloted the first flight, carrying airmail from Karachi to Bombay via Ahmedabad, on 15 October 1932.

Walchand Hirachand is widely called the ‘father of India’s transportation industry,’ for building shipping, aviation, and automobile manufacturing almost from scratch, before independence.

In April 1942, the British Indian government fully nationalised Hindustan Aircraft Limited. This came a year after it had already bought a one-third stake, in April 1941.

Hindustan Aircraft Limited was founded in Bangalore in December 1940, by Walchand Hirachand and American businessman William D. Pawley, with backing from the Kingdom of Mysore.

The SS Loyalty’s Bombay-to-London voyage was the first Indian-owned steamship service to the United Kingdom, and is commemorated annually as India’s National Maritime Day, first observed in 1964.

Walchand Hirachand co-founded the Scindia Steam Navigation Company in 1919, along with three other industrialists.

Shashwat Sharma was named Airtel India’s new MD & CEO, effective 1 January 2026. Gopal Vittal, the outgoing MD & CEO, moved into a newly created Executive Vice Chairman role, not a competing CEO seat.

Bharti Enterprises became the largest shareholder in the merged Eutelsat OneWeb, holding about 21.2% of the combined satellite communications company.