IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Apr 07, 2016

ANSWER: Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation:

• The National Hydrology Project (NHP) is intended for setting up of a system for timely and reliable water resources data acquisition, storage, collation and management.
• It will also provide tools/systems for informed decision making through Decision Support Systems (DSS) for water resources assessment, flood management, reservoir operations, drought management, etc.
• NHP also seeks to build capacity of the State and Central sector organisations in water resources management through the use of Information Systems and adoption of State-of-the-art technologies like Remote Sensing.
• The NHP will help in gathering Hydro-meteorological data which will be stored and analysed on a real time basis and can be seamlessly accessed by any user at the State/District/village level. The project envisages to cover the entire country as the earlier hydrology projects covered only 13 States.
• The components of the proposal are:

1. In Situ Hydromet Monitoring System and Hydromet Data Acquisition System.
2. Setting up of National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC).
3. Water Resources Operation and Management System
4. Water Resources Institutions and Capacity Building

ANSWER: Issue of vulnerability in border fencing

Explanation:

• The Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Madhukar Gupta, Retd. Home Secretary, in order to strengthen border protection and address the issue of gaps and vulnerability in border fencing along Indo-Pakistan border.
• The mandate of the Committee will be to study all types of gaps in fencing and all other vulnerabilities in the International Border on Indo-Pakistan Border and to suggest comprehensive approach to fix these gaps in fencing and other vulnerabilities on interim and permanent basis.

ANSWER: Tax Havens

Explanation:

• ‘Panama papers’ — a set of over 11 million leaked documents that reveal how the rich and the connected around the world used tax havens for salting away their wealth.

ANSWER: UK

Explanation:

• “Transnational Skill Standards” in India. These standards in skill development are benchmarked to United Kingdom across 82 identified job roles.
• It is government’s endeavor to benchmark the standards so as to support international mobility of Indian workforce and also prepare them to work in international companies having their operations in the country.
• The Transnational Standards will highlight the gaps in Indian Standards against the UK standards. To cover the gaps, those intending to migrate, will undergo ‘bridge training’.

ANSWER: 2, 3 and 4

Explanation:
For a startup to be recognized as one,

• It must be an entity registered/incorporated as

a) Private Limited Company under the Companies Act, 2013; or
b) Registered Partnership firm under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932; or
c) Limited Liability Partnership under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008.

• Five years must not have elapsed from the date of incorporation/registration.
• Annual turnover (as defined in the Companies Act, 2013) in any preceding financial year must not exceed Rs. 25 crore.
• Startup must be working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialisation of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property.
• The Startup must aim to develop and commercialise:

a) a new product or service or process; or
b) a significantly improved existing product or service or process that will create or add value for customers or workflow.

• The Startup must not merely be engaged in:

a) Developing products or services or processes which do not have potential for commercialisation; or
b) undifferentiated products or services or processes; or
c) products or services or processes with no or limited incremental value for customers or workflow

• The Startup must not be formed by splitting up, or reconstruction, of a business already in existence.
• The Startup has obtained certification from the Inter-Ministerial Board, setup by DIPP to validate the innovative nature of the business, and (any one of the following conditions are met)

a) be supported by a recommendation (with regard to innovative nature of business), in a format specified by DIPP, from an incubator established in a post-graduate college in India; or
b) be supported by an incubator which is funded (in relation to the project) from GoI as part of any specified scheme to promote innovation; or
c) be supported by a recommendation (with regard to innovative nature of business), in a format specified by DIPP, from an incubator recognized by GoI; or
d) be funded by an Incubation Fund/Angel Fund/Private Equity Fund/Accelerator/Angel Network duly registered with SEBI* that endorses innovative nature of the business; or
e) be funded by the Government of India as part of any specified scheme to promote innovation; or
f) have a patent granted by the Indian Patent and Trademark Office in areas affiliated with the nature of business being promoted.

DIPP may publish a ‘negative’ list of funds which are not eligible for this initiative.

ANSWER: 1, 3

Explanation:

• AMU was founded as the Madrasatul Uloom in 1875 in Aligarh, and evolved into the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College.
• It had very progressive roots — its founder, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, spoke for women’s education and personally passed the hat for funds.
• AMU has no reservation for Muslims, but has preferences and reservations for local candidates, irrespective of faith.
• AMU, which was declared a minority institution by the AMU Amendment Act in 1981 by the Parliament.
• The seeds of JMI were sown in Aligarh by a group of nationalist students and members who formed a camp there as Jamia Millia Islamia, which later moved to Delhi. Leaders like M A Ansari, Zakir Husain and Mahatma Gandhi encouraged the university to push nationalist values and ideas.
• There was friction between JMI and AMU along political lines, as a significant section at AMU was said to be “League-y”, or tilting towards the Muslim League, while the ‘nationalist’ JMI was wholeheartedly supported by the Congress.
• JMI gives reservation/preference to Muslims after the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) granted it minority status in 2011.
• The government has said that Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia are not minority educational institutions. In the case of AMU, the Attorney General has argued that this is because it was set up by an act of Parliament, not by Muslims. But critics say this is a narrow reading of the history and background of AMU and JMI.

ANSWER: Which is established or maintained by a person or group of persons from amongst the minorities

Explanation:

• “Minority Educational Institution” means a college or institution (other than a University) established or maintained by a person or group of persons from amongst the minorities.
• Linguistic as well as religious minorities are recognized to form Minority Educational Institution

ANSWER: 4312

Explanation:

• Make in India was launched in September 2014. However it caught attention and momentum in 2015-2016.
• Swachh Bharat was launched in October 2014 and is going strong since then.
• Digital India was launched on 1 July 2015
• Skill India was launched on 15 July 2015

ANSWER: Drugs

Explanation:

• LSD blotters carry attractive brand names such as Scorpion, Shiv, and Om.
• Absorbent paper strips, or “blotters” in drug parlance, hold the LSD or “acid” residue. The drug is often orally ingested.
• The “acid” also finds its way into a region in sugar cubes and in liquid form.
• The colorless and odorless drug could also be sent in crystal form and also as stickers on envelopes.
• LSD is the most common hallucinogen and is one of the most potent mood changing chemicals.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:
Duties and Responsibilities of local authorities and village Panchayats of census towns and urban agglomerations.

• The local authorities and Panchayats shallprepare a solid waste management plan as per State Policy within six months
• arrange for door to door collection of segregated solid waste;integrate rag pickers / informal waste collectors in solid waste management
• direct waste generators not to litter and to segregate the waste at source and hand over the segregated waste to authorized waste pickers the waste collector authorized by the local authority;
• setup material recovery facilities or secondary storage facilities and provide easy access to waste pickers and recyclers for collection of segregated recyclable waste;
• establish waste deposition centre/s for domestic hazardous waste and ensure safe storage and transportation of the domestic hazardous waste to the hazardous waste disposal facility or as may be directed by the state pollution control board/ committee;
• provide training on solid waste management to waste-pickers and waste collectors;
• promote setting up of decentralized compost plant or bio-methanation plant at suitable locations in the markets or in the vicinity of markets ensuring hygienic conditions;
• collect horticulture, parks and garden waste separately and process in the parks and gardens, as far as possible;
• transport segregated bio-degradable waste to the processing facilities like compost plant, bio-methanation plant or any such facility. Preference should be given for on site processing of such waste;
• transport non-bio-degradable waste to the respective processing facility or material recovery facilities (MRF) or secondary storage facility;
• transport construction and demolition waste as per the provisions of Construction and Demolition Waste management Rules, 2016
• involve communities in waste management and promotion of home composting, bio-gas generation, decentralized processing of waste at community level subject to control of odour and maintenance of hygienic conditions around the facility