IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Apr 22, 2016

ANSWER: Ministry of Commerce & Industry

Explanation:

• In a major initiative to get administration of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry closer to people and changing the paradigm of Governance, the Ministry of State for Commerce & Industry (I/C) launched the “Twitter Seva”.
• Through this Twitter Seva, queries on matters relating to Department of Commerce (DoC) and Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) will be answered.
• Queries regarding DGFT, DGS&D, SEZs, Tea, Coffee, Rubber & Spices Boards, APEDA, MPEDA and any other matter relating to Department of Commerce will be addressed by DoC.
• Queries regarding Manufacturing Policy, Industrial Corridors, Investment Promotion, Make in India, Start-up India, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), FDI, Intellectual Property Rights, Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, Geographical Indicators, Copyrights, Paper, Light Engineering Industry, Cement, Linoleum and Rubber Industry will be addressed by DIPP.
• Under this Seva, anyone who is desirous of assistance from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry can use the hashtag #mociseva.
• An institutionalized mechanism with a special Twitter cell has been created in the Ministry manned by a set of dedicated officers who will monitor and direct all the tweets to the concerned officers of the Department. All officers have been sensitized to respond to the tweets within a short time frame.
• This Seva is open to all the services provided by the Department of Commerce and Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion.
• This is an initiative of the Minister of Commerce & Industry keeping in line the dictum “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” of the Prime Minister.

ANSWER: Chemical Ecology

Explanation:

• Ministry of Science and Technology launched the Twinning Network Programme on Chemical Ecology of North Eastern Region (NER) at the Nagaland Science & Technology Council (NASTEC), Kohima.
• This programme is the first of its kind in the country and is expected to bring about huge impact for the North-East researchers.
• It is a Twinning Network Programme that would link institutes from the North-East with Bangalore-based scientists.
• The programme is envisaged for human capacity building for the North-East region, especially in Chemical ecology. It is expected to produce at least 15 PhDs from the North-East region at the end of the 5 year programme.
• Ministry of Science and Technology also launched the "CSIR-NBRI Herbarium Online" on the CSIR-NBRI website (www.nbri.res.in), thus making One Hundred Thousand Herbarium collections accessible worldwide.
• ‘Herbi Chew’ is a potentially useful product to replace the cancer causing tobacco-based GUTKA currently available in the market.

ANSWER: Rice Variety

Explanation:

• Indian scientists from the Lucknow-based Council of Scientist and industrial Research (CSIR) – National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) have developed a new rice variety named ‘Muktashri’/’Muktashree’ which minimizes absorption of arsenic from the soil.
• The variety minimizes absorption of arsenic to a large extent even when grown in areas with high arsenic levels in soil. The variety accumulates arsenic less than the maximum permissible daily intake and also provides high yields.
• Further, it was found that rice growing areas in the Indo-Gangetic plains are having arsenic levels, which are feared to cause serious health concerns

ANSWER: Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002

Explanation:

• The case is based on Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 for diverting loan money to buy property abroad.
• The PMLA, 2002 defines money maundering as ‘any activity connected with the proceeds of crime including concealment, possession, or use and projecting it as untainted property.’

ANSWER: Hand Painted cotton textile

Explanation:

• Kalamkari or Qalamkari is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in parts of India. The word is derived from the Persian words ghalam (pen) and kari (craftmanship), meaning drawing with a pen (Ghalamkar).
• There are two distinctive styles of kalamkari art in India - the Srikalahasti style and the Machilipatnam style.
• The Machilipatnam Kalamkari craft made at Pedana near by Machilipatnam in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, evolved with patronage of the Mughals and the Golconda sultanate. Kalamkari art has been practiced by many families in Andhra Pradesh.
• Only natural dyes are used in Kalamkari. Dyes for the cloth are obtained by extracting colors from various roots, leaves, and mineral salts of iron, tin, copper, and alum.
• Kalamkari specifically depicts epics - Ramayana. Mahabarata, Puranas and the mythological classics. However, there are recent applications of the Kalamkari technique to depict Buddha and Buddhist art forms.
• Alum is used in making natural dyes and also while treating the fabric. Alum ensures the stability of the color in Kalamkari fabric.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:

• Judges are open to judicial review.
• The judiciary can revise its own verdicts.
• Judicial review is one of the basic structures of the constitution.
• In Bommai case (1994), the following propositions have been laid down by the Supreme Court on imposition of President’s Rule in a state under Article 356:

1. The presidential proclamation imposing President’s Rule is subject to judicial review.
2. The satisfaction of the President must be based on relevant material. The action of the president can be struck down by the court if it is based on irrelevant or extraneous grounds or if it was found to be malafide or perverse.
3. Burden lies on the Centre to prove that relevant material exist to justify the imposition of the President’s Rule.
4. The court cannot go into the correctness of the material or its adequacy but it can see whether it is relevant to the action.
5. If the court holds the presidential proclamation to be unconstitutional and invalid, it has power to restore the dismissed state government and revive the state legislative assembly if it was suspended or dissolved.
6. The state legislative assembly should be dissolved only after the Parliament has approved the presidential proclamation. Until such approval is given, the president can only suspend the assembly. In case the Parliament fails to approve the proclamation, the assembly would get reactivated.
7. Secularism is one of the ‘basic features’ of the Constitution. Hence, a state government pursuing anti-secular politics is liable to action under Article 356.
8. The question of the state government losing the confidence of the legislative assembly should be decided on the floor of the House and until that is done the ministry should not be unseated.
9. Where a new political party assumes power at the Centre, it will not have the authority to dismiss ministries formed by other parties in the states.
10. The power under Article 356 is an exceptional power and should be used only occasionally to meet the requirements of special situations.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• The Act applies to establishments with 10 or more workers, if the premise is using power and to establishments with 20 or more workers, without electricity connection.
• The Factories Act is a legislation that deals with safety, health and welfare of workers.
• All factories that manufacture or deals with hazardous substance and processes and dangerous operations will be covered under this Act even if they employ a single worker. The sectors that manufacture hazardous processes include coal, gas, iron and steel, petroleum, cement and leather.
• In a bid to promote start-ups, the government wants to speed up the process of setting up a factory.
• An employer’s proposal to treat different departments of his factory as separate companies will have to be approved or rejected in a month.
• Registration of factories will also be made online and entrepreneurs will only have to submit a self-certified declaration on the safety, health and welfare standards of the factory to get approvals for setting up a factory.
• The trade unions said this would allow more factories to stay out of the ambit of the Factories Act.
• The issue is that government have made factories with less than 40 workers out of purview of this Act. This will encourage factories to divide their department into separate factories.
• Apart from speeding up registration and compliance processes to help new entrepreneurs and start-ups, the proposed new Factories Act seeks to do away with the ‘inspector raj.’

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states with which ASEAN has existing FTAs (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand).
• It consists of 16 Asia-Pacific Countries.
• RCEP is viewed as an alternative to the TPP trade agreement, which includes the United States but excludes China.
• The arrangement is also open to any other external economic partners, such as nations in Central Asia and remaining nations in South Asia and Oceania.
• RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• Emphasising the importance of a floor test for upholding democracy, a High Court Bench said that failing of Money Bill obliges the Chief Ministers to resign, but if they don’t resign then you either bring a no confidence motion or the Chief Minister is asked to seek confidence through a floor test.
• The Bench observed that on many occasions governments don’t resign. They’ve developed a thick skin. If they don’t resign then that’s not a matter to be seen by the President.
• Though president’s Rule can be applied. It may be termed unconstitutional if the reasons are not strong enough.