Economy, Banking, Tax and Consumer Days: Exam Notes

The correct answer is A, 15 March. World Consumer Rights Day takes its date from 15 March 1962, when United States President John F. Kennedy sent a message to Congress setting out the rights of the consumer, the first time a head of government did so; the consumer movement began observing the day in 1983. Option B is wrong because 24 December is National Consumer Rights Day in India, tied to the assent given to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Option C is wrong because 5 December is the International Day of Banks, declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2019. Option D is wrong because 15 May is the International Day of Families and has nothing to do with consumer protection. Remember the pair: the world day in March, the Indian day in December.

The correct answer is A, the Consumer Protection Act received the assent of the President. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was given assent on 24 December 1986, and the Department of Consumer Affairs observes that date every year as National Consumer Rights Day with a theme. Option B is wrong because the observance marks the law, not the opening of any particular district forum, and consumer courts were set up after the Act came into operation. Option C is wrong because the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which replaced the 1986 Act and created the Central Consumer Protection Authority, came into force in 2020; the date of the observance did not move with it. Option D is wrong because the Bureau of Indian Standards came from a separate Act and is a standards body, not a consumer grievance law.

The correct answer is B, 24 July. Income tax was introduced in India on 24 July 1860 by Sir James Wilson, the first finance member of the Viceroy council, to repair the finances of the government after the revolt of 1857, and the Income Tax Department has observed the day since 2010, the hundred and fiftieth year of the tax. Option A is wrong because 1 April is the first day of the financial year and the day the Reserve Bank of India began operations in 1935, which makes it a tempting distractor. Option C is wrong because 31 July is only the usual last date for filing a return, not the day of the tax. Option D is wrong because 1 July is GST Day, the day the goods and services tax came into force in 2017.

The correct answer is C, 2017. The goods and services tax came into force on 1 July 2017, and the day is observed every year as GST Day. The legal foundation was the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016, which inserted Article 246A and created the GST Council under Article 279A, but the tax itself started a year later. Option A is wrong because 2014 is the year the amendment Bill was introduced in Parliament, not the year the tax began. Option B is wrong because 2016 is the year of the constitutional amendment, which is the commonest trap in this question. Option D is wrong because 2019 brought later changes in rates and in the return system, not the launch. Keep the pair in mind: amendment in 2016, tax from 2017.

The correct answer is B, P. C. Mahalanobis. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis was born on 29 June 1893, founded the Indian Statistical Institute, gave the country its large-scale sample survey system and the statistical distance known by his name, and shaped the Second Five Year Plan. The Government declared his birth anniversary as National Statistics Day in 2007. Option A is wrong because C. R. Rao, though a statistician of the first rank and a student of Mahalanobis, is not the figure the day honours. Option C is wrong because V. K. R. V. Rao was an economist who founded the Delhi School of Economics and the Institute for Social and Economic Change. Option D is wrong because D. R. Gadgil was an economist associated with the Gokhale Institute and with the formula for plan assistance to states.

The correct answer is C, 5 December. The United Nations General Assembly declared 5 December as the International Day of Banks in 2019, to recognise the part that banks, and especially development banks, play in financing sustainable development. Option A is wrong because 1 April is the day the Reserve Bank of India began operations in 1935 and the first day of the Indian financial year, but it is not a United Nations observance. Option B is wrong because 19 July is remembered in India as Bank Nationalisation Day, the day fourteen large commercial banks were nationalised in 1969. Option D is wrong because 31 October is World Savings Day, also called World Thrift Day, which came out of the First International Thrift Congress held in Milan in 1924 and is not a United Nations day either.

The correct answer is A, 31 October. The day goes back to the First International Thrift Congress, held in Milan in 1924, whose closing day was 31 October; savings banks across the world have marked it since, and in India banks use it to promote small savings and deposit habits. Option B is wrong because 30 August is National Small Industry Day in India. Option C is wrong because 27 June is Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day, declared by the United Nations in 2017. Option D is wrong because 20 October is World Statistics Day, observed at an interval of five years since 2010, and it is easy to confuse the two October dates. Note also that 31 October is Rashtriya Ekta Diwas in India, so one date carries two observances.

The correct answer is A, 27 June. The United Nations General Assembly declared 27 June as Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day in 2017, in recognition of the share of such enterprises in employment and in world output. Option B is wrong because 30 August is National Small Industry Day, an Indian observance, and the two are the classic pair in this question: one is a United Nations day in June, the other an Indian day in August. Option C is wrong because 7 August is National Handloom Day, chosen because the Swadeshi movement was launched on that day in 1905. Option D is wrong because 12 February is National Productivity Day in India, which opens National Productivity Week and is observed by the National Productivity Council.

The correct answer is B, Chaudhary Charan Singh, who was born on 23 December 1902, served as Prime Minister of India and is remembered for the laws and the politics that put the peasant at the centre of Indian public life. Option A is wrong because Verghese Kurien, born on 26 November 1921, is honoured on National Milk Day for building the dairy co-operative movement and Operation Flood. Option C is wrong because M. S. Swaminathan is associated with the green revolution in wheat and rice and with the commission on farmers, but Kisan Diwas is not his birth anniversary. Option D is wrong because Jagjivan Ram was a labour and agriculture minister of long standing, and his birth anniversary falls in April, not December.

The correct answer is B, the first session of the Customs Co-operation Council was held. That inaugural session took place in Brussels on 26 January 1953; the Council took the working name World Customs Organization in 1994, and 26 January is kept as International Customs Day, a date Indian students remember easily because it is also Republic Day. Option A is wrong because the World Trade Organization came into being on 1 January 1995. Option C is wrong because the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed in 1947 and took effect in 1948, before the Council existed. Option D is wrong because the Customs Act of India was passed in 1962 and governs Indian customs law, which is a separate matter from the international observance.

The correct answer is A, Verghese Kurien, born on 26 November 1921, who built the Kaira district co-operative at Anand into the Amul model, led the National Dairy Development Board and designed Operation Flood, which made India a large milk producer. The observance began in 2014. Option B is wrong because Tribhuvandas Patel was the farmer leader who founded the Kaira union and brought Kurien into it, but the day marks Kurien. Option C is wrong because Amrita Patel chaired the National Dairy Development Board after Kurien and is a later figure in the same story. Option D is wrong because H. M. Dalaya was the technologist who worked with Kurien on making milk powder from buffalo milk, a contribution often remembered with him but not the reason for the date.

The correct answer is B, 1945. The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded on 16 October 1945 at Quebec in Canada, and the day has been observed as World Food Day since 1981; its headquarters are at Rome. Option A is wrong because 1943 is the year of the conference at Hot Springs that proposed a permanent organisation for food and agriculture, a step before the founding. Option C is wrong because 1948 is the year the World Health Organization came into being and the year the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade took effect, neither of which is tied to 16 October. Option D is wrong because 1951 is the year the organisation moved its headquarters to Rome from Washington, which is a different fact from its founding.