Explanation:

‘Escape clause’ generally refers to a contract provision that specifies the conditions under which a party can be freed from an obligation. The escape clause under the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act details a set of events in which the Central government can deviate from fiscal deficit targets. The fiscal deficit is the total amount by which the government’s expenses for a year exceed its revenues. Escape clauses provide flexibility to governments to overshoot fiscal deficit targets in times of need, enabling them to respond to economic shocks. To ensure escape clauses are not misused, they are generally allowed only in exceptional circumstances, and with a check on the quantum of deviation. In 2017, the FRBM Review Committee headed by NK Singh said that the exceptional circumstances cited in the FRBM Act, 2003 were defined opaquely and were liable to misuse. In 2018, the FRBM Act was amended to specify three conditions upon which the escape clause can be invoked. First, over-riding considerations of national security, acts of war, and calamities of national proportion and collapse of agriculture severely affecting farm output and incomes. Second, far-reaching structural reforms in the economy with unanticipated fiscal implications. Three, a sharp decline in real output growth of at least 3 percentage points below the average for the previous four quarters. The FRBM amendments also mentioned that the deviation from the stipulated fiscal deficit target must not exceed 0.5 percentage points in a year. In the recent Budget, the government seems to have invoked the second condition. The quantum of deviation taken was the upper end of the limit — 0.5 percentage points

Explanation:

The Capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. Minsk is the capital of Belarus.

Explanation:

External debt is the portion of a country’s debt that is borrowed from foreign lenders, including commercial banks, governments, or international financial institutions. These loans, including interest, must usually be paid in the currency in which the loan was made. To earn the needed currency, the borrowing country may sell and export goods to the lending country. If Governments borrow money from abroad ie from World Bank, IMF etc such borrowings are classified under the category of “Soveriegn Debt”

NRI Deposits constitute borrowings of Commercial Banks. Hence, an increase in NRI Deposits increases the External Debt of India. Since the external debt is denominated in Dollars, an appreciating rupee can lead to an decrease in the external debt.

Explanation:

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), also known as the Indian Niño, is an irregular oscillation of sea surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer (positive phase) and then colder (negative phase) than the eastern part of the ocean.The IOD affects the strength of monsoons over the
Indian subcontinent. According to scientists, the broad belt of high pressure around the Mascarene Islands generates a cross-equatorial flow known as the Somali Jet which brings heavy rain to India’s west coast. A strong, low level jet usually means a strong monsoon over peninsular India.

Explanation:

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of the following 22 languages:
(1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu ,(19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili and (22) Dogri. Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution. Sindhi language was added by the 21st Amendment Act of 1967. Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included by the 71st Amendment Act of 1992. Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali were added by 92nd Amendment Act of 2003. Art 394-A empowers the President to issue a Hindi Translation of the Consitution in Hindi and such Translation shall be deemed to be an authoritative translation. In addition to that the official languages act 1963 empowers the president to translate all acts and orders and bye-laws in Hindi and such translations to be considered as authoritative texts. Hindi is used as the official language between the union
Government and other State Governments which have accepted to Hindi to be used as the Official language. In the case of other states that the communication between Union Government and such state governments shall be in English.