ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD admission and fellowship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe laws an agribusiness manager meets most, from contracts and sale of goods to company, commodity, consumer and competition law, and the ethics of business.
In the exams: agricultural master's entrance examinations, principles of corporations (present)
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Agribusiness Law & Ethics. Difficulty: 1 easy, 15 medium, 17 hard.
| Regulation of international business | 10 | |
| Competition Act 2002 | 5 | |
| Regulation of agricultural trade and supply | 4 | |
| Legal systems: common law, civil law and mixed systems | 3 | |
| Contract law principles (with national contract acts as examples) | 3 | |
| Companies Act | 3 | |
| Business ethics | 2 | |
| Sale of Goods Act 1930 | 1 | |
| Consumer Protection Act | 1 | |
| Right to Information Act | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration 1992 states that lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures against serious or irreversible environmental damage. This is the:
B. precautionary principle
Principle 15 is the precautionary principle; the polluter pays principle is Principle 16. The public trust doctrine is a common-law idea applied by US courts since 1892 and by courts in several other countries.
Which ILO convention specifically sets standards for occupational safety and health in agriculture, covering machinery, chemicals, animal handling and welfare facilities on farms?
D. Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention 2001 (No. 184)
Convention 184 (2001) is the agriculture-specific safety and health standard. Convention 29 concerns forced labour, Convention 138 minimum ages, and the Maritime Labour Convention seafarers. Because many countries long exempted farm work from labour laws, buyers increasingly audit farms against these standards.
A listed agri-input company has 12 directors on its board. If the governance rules it follows require at least one-third of the board to be independent, at least how many directors must be independent?
C. 4
One-third of 12 is 4. Rules differ by country: India requires one-third for listed companies, the UK Corporate Governance Code asks for at least half the board excluding the chair, and US exchanges require a majority; 6 would be one-half, and 2 or 3 fall short of one-third.
In the United States, which law gives agricultural producers a limited exemption from antitrust law so that they can market their produce jointly through cooperatives?
C. The Capper-Volstead Act 1922
Capper-Volstead allows farmers to act together in cooperatives for processing and marketing. The Sherman Act is the general antitrust law the exemption qualifies; the Packers and Stockyards Act regulates livestock markets. EU market rules give recognised producer organisations similar room.
Under a stock-limit rule requiring a 50 per cent rise for non-perishable foodstuffs, measured against the lower of the preceding twelve months' price and the five-year average, a pulse cost 110 currency units per kg over the preceding twelve months, the five-year average is 100 and the current price is 160. Is the trigger met?
D. Yes: against the lower baseline of 100 the rise is 60 per cent, above the trigger
Baseline = lower of 110 and 100 = 100. Rise = (160 - 100) / 100 x 100 = 60 per cent, above the 50 per cent trigger. Using 110 gives (160 - 110) / 110 = 45.5 per cent, the wrong baseline; 100 per cent is the horticultural trigger.
A seed company's variety-performance data held by a public research institute is requested under a freedom-of-information law by a rival firm. The most relevant exemption is:
A. the commercial-confidentiality exemption for trade secrets, subject to a public-interest override
FOI laws protect commercial confidences: Exemption 4 of the US Act and section 43 of the UK Act, usually with a public-interest override and consultation of the third party. Proactive disclosure and penalty provisions do not create exemptions.
A seed company licenses a patented trait to other seed firms with conditions designed to protect the patent. How do most competition laws treat such conditions?
C. Reasonable conditions protecting the right are allowed; ones extending market power can be challenged
The EU's technology-transfer rules and the US agencies' IP licensing guidelines allow reasonable conditions that protect IP, while unreasonable restraints or abuse by a dominant licensor remain open to challenge.
The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement names international bodies whose standards serve as benchmarks. The body for plant health is the:
C. International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC)
The SPS 'three sisters' are Codex (food safety), WOAH (animal health) and IPPC (plant health). UPOV deals with plant breeders' rights, not plant health.
Anti-dumping duties on imports are governed internationally by:
B. GATT Article VI and the Anti-Dumping Agreement, applied through national trade-remedy law
WTO rules set the conditions (dumping, injury, causation) and each member levies duties under its own law, for example the EU's basic anti-dumping regulation. Predatory pricing inside a market is a competition matter, a different law.
TRIPS Article 27.3(b) allows WTO members to exclude plants and animals from patentability but requires them to protect plant varieties by:
C. patents, an effective sui generis system, or a combination of the two
Article 27.3(b) leaves the choice to members; UPOV is one sui generis model but not mandatory. Several countries chose their own laws instead, for example India (2001) and Malaysia (2004), while about 80 members belong to UPOV.
Ten here, 33 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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