Economy, Banking & Business: previous-year questions

Answer: (A) National Highway Development Project

The Golden Quadrilateral is the roughly 5,846 km network of four- and six-lane national highways linking Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. It formed Phase I of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), launched under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee around 1999-2001 and executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Phase II was the North-South Corridor (Srinagar to Kanyakumari) and the East-West Corridor (Silchar to Porbandar), which cross at Jhansi. Do not confuse it with the Diamond Quadrilateral (proposed high-speed rail network), National Waterway 1 (Prayagraj to Haldia on the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly), Sagarmala (ports) or UDAN (regional air connectivity).

Answer: (B) Sailor

Sailor is a Japanese fountain-pen maker founded in 1911 in Hiroshima prefecture; with Pilot and Platinum it forms Japan's 'big three'. Other famous fountain-pen brands are Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman (Lewis Waterman patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884), Montblanc, Pelikan and Lamy of Germany, and in India Camlin and the Swadeshi-era Sulekha ink of Kolkata. The distractors are well-known companies in other fields: Voltas (Tata group, air-conditioners), Hyundai (South Korean cars, misspelt in the booklet) and Kirloskar (pumps and engines, Pune). Graham Greene was the English novelist of 'The Power and the Glory' and 'The Quiet American'.

Answer: (B) Strict data localization regulations (DPDP Act 2023)

Answer as of 2024 — this may have changed since.

PSC's answer 'B' is the regulatory push for storing Indian data in India. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (with its Rules notified in November 2025), together with sectoral mandates such as the RBI's 2018 direction that payment data be stored only in India, obliges companies to build or rent local data-centre capacity. Other drivers are rapidly growing data use (5G, UPI, cloud and AI), 'infrastructure status' given to data centres in 2022 and state incentive policies; Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Noida are the main hubs. The other options are not recognised reasons: power and water availability are concerns for data centres, not attractions, and neither weak environmental enforcement nor India-US relations is driving the growth.

Answer: (A) World Bank

The Country Partnership Framework is the World Bank Group's multi-year plan for its lending and support to a member country, as in the India CPF. The IMF uses programmes and Article IV reviews, the ADB uses a Country Partnership Strategy, and the WEF is not a lender.

Answer: (B) Toyota

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

Toyota sold about 10.5 million vehicles in 2022 and stayed the world's top-selling car-maker for the third year in a row, ahead of the Volkswagen Group. Skoda is a Volkswagen brand with far smaller sales.

Answer: (B) 57%

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

In 2023 thermal power stations (mainly coal and lignite, with some gas and diesel) made up about 57% of India's installed electricity capacity, as reported by the Central Electricity Authority. 50% is roughly coal's share alone, and 64% overstates the thermal share of capacity at that time.

Answer: (C) Industry

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

Industry is the largest consumer of commercial energy (coal, oil, gas and electricity) in India, using roughly half of the total. Transport, households and agriculture each use smaller shares.

Answer: (B) Gujarat

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

In 2023 Gujarat overtook Tamil Nadu to become the state with the largest installed wind power capacity in India, at a little over 10 GW. Tamil Nadu led for many years, which makes (C) the tempting wrong option; Karnataka is third and Kerala has little wind capacity.

Answer: (B) Department of Fin-Tech

The Reserve Bank of India set up a separate Fintech Department with effect from 4 January 2022 by subsuming the Fintech Division of its Department of Payment and Settlement Systems. It deals with innovation in the financial sector, the regulatory sandbox and the Central Bank Digital Currency: the e-rupee pilot began in the wholesale segment on 1 November 2022 and in the retail segment on 1 December 2022. The RBI has no departments named after artificial intelligence, data science or digital currency. Basics: the RBI was established on 1 April 1935, nationalised on 1 January 1949 and has its central office in Mumbai.

Answer: (C) Australia

The India–Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA) was signed on 2 April 2022 and came into force on 29 December 2022. It was India's first trade agreement with a developed country in about a decade and gives duty-free access to most Indian exports; a fuller Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement is to follow. Do not confuse it with the India–UAE CEPA (signed February 2022, in force from 1 May 2022). India's trade agreement with the United Kingdom was signed only in July 2025, and there is no free-trade agreement with the USA or France (France falls under the India–EU negotiations).

Answer: (A) UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

The North Eastern Region District SDG Index and Dashboard 2021–22 was released on 26 August 2021 by NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, with technical support from the UNDP. It was the first district-level SDG index for a region in India and ranked districts of the eight north-eastern States; East Sikkim came first. NITI Aayog's national SDG India Index has been published since 2018. The UNDP (headquarters New York) also brings out the Human Development Report. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (Manila) and the IMF were not partners in this index.

Answer: (C) TCS

Answer as of 2021 — this may have changed since.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), founded in 1968 and headquartered in Mumbai, was India's largest IT services company by revenue, market capitalisation and number of employees in 2021 (it crossed 5 lakh employees that year). It was followed by Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Tech Mahindra. TCS's first chief, F. C. Kohli, is called the 'father of the Indian IT industry'. Rankings are time-sensitive, but TCS has consistently held the top position.

Answer: (A) Arun Jaitley

GST was rolled out on 1 July 2017 when Arun Jaitley was the Union Finance Minister.

Answer: (B) 77th rank

Answer as of 2019 — this may have changed since.

India jumped 23 places to rank 77th in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Report 2019, a significant improvement from its 100th-place ranking the previous year, driven by reforms in areas like construction permits and cross-border trade.

Answer: (A) First

In the 2017 Global Retail Development Index of the consulting firm A. T. Kearney, India ranked first among 30 developing countries, overtaking China, which came second. The index ranks developing countries on their attractiveness for retail investment. The ranking was credited to India's fast-growing economy, relaxed FDI rules and consumption boom.

Answer: (A) Switzerland

Answer as of 2018 — this may have changed since.

Switzerland is the largest source of India's gold imports, because it is the world's biggest gold refining and transit centre; the UAE is usually second, with South Africa and other countries following. India is among the world's largest consumers of gold along with China, and gold is one of its biggest import items after crude oil, which adds to the current account deficit.

Answer: (A) Canara Bank

Canara Bank opened its first digital banking branch, named 'CANDI', at Bengaluru in 2017; it offers paperless, self-service banking with tablets and a humanoid robot. Canara Bank has its headquarters at Bengaluru and was founded in 1906 at Mangaluru by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai. Of the other options, Andhra Bank and Dena Bank have since been merged into Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda respectively.

Answer: (D) Ensure credit to PSUs

Answer as of 2016 — this may have changed since.

According to RBI's Annual Report 2014–15, the short-term priorities were: bringing down inflation, resolving distressed assets, and supporting new lending. 'Ensure credit to PSUs' was not listed as a short-term priority. The source key gives (D).

Answer: (B) Japan

Answer as of 2016 — this may have changed since.

Mauritius was the top source of FDI into India in 2013–14 (due to the India-Mauritius tax treaty). The second largest source was Japan. The source key gives (B) Japan.

Answer: (D) None of the above

Answer as of 2016 — this may have changed since.

The source key gives (D) None of the above — suggesting the highest FDI-receiving sector in 2014–15 doesn't match any of the listed options. Services sector and computer software/hardware typically topped FDI in this period.