Certain users are designated as "merit sources". They can create new merit out of nothing, up to a limited number per month (which differs per source). I will not be posting a definitive list of merit sources (so that people don't bug them too much), though you'll soon figure out who they are if you pay attention.

Q6 How merit points will be distributed to sources every month and in what ratio?
Each source has a different limit per 30 days. The current average is 185, and in total up to 8125 merit could be created per month.