IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Dec 09, 2015

ANSWER: All

Explanation:
- Kaliningrad is the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
- Sevastopol is a city located in the southwestern region of the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea which is currently disputed territory due to annexation of Crimea by Ukraine.
- Vladivostok is near the Russia's borders with China and North Korea on pacific ocean.
- INDRA NAVY is a bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian and Russian navies Initiated in 2003.
- The 8th edition of INDRA NAVY will be conducted in the Bay of Bengal in 2015.

ANSWER: Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim

Explanation:
- Article 3 in Constitution of India deals with formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing States.
- The bill can be presented in parliament based on recommendation of the President.
- The Bill has been referred by the President to the Legislature of that State for expressing its views thereon within such period as may be specified in the reference or within such further period as the President may allow.

ANSWER: Union list

Explanation:
- The Seventh Schedule contains the Union List, State List and Concurrent List.
- The lists specify which subjects Parliament, State Legislatures and both Parliament and State Legislatures can legislate on.

ANSWER: 1,4,5

Explanation:
- PSLV is an expendable launch system developed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- It puts satellite into Sun synchronous orbits.
- Russia’s converted missile launcher, Dnepr, Soyuz and the newer European vehicle Vega are in the same category as the PSLV.
- PlanetiQ, the Colorado-based commercial weather satellites operator, recently signed a deal with Antrix Corporation for launching its first two weather satellites.

ANSWER: Ministry of Water Resources

Explanation:
- National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) is a financing, planning, implementing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Ganges River
- It functions under the water resource ministry of India.
- Mission : To safeguard the drainage basin which feeds water into the Ganges by protecting it from pollution or overuse.
- In July 2014, the NGRBA has been transferred from the Ministry of Environment and Forests to the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, formerly Ministry of Water Resources.
- The Prime Minister the chair of the Authority. Other members include the cabinet ministers who include the Ganges among their direct concerns and the chief ministers of states through which the Ganges River flows.
- The Chief Ministers as members are not from all the 11 states through which Ganges flow but only from 5 (Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal) of the 11 states.

ANSWER: Rajendra Singh

Explanation:
- Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) is a non-governmental organization in Rajasthan under the leadership of Rajendra Singh.
- Rajendra Singh is known as waterman of India.
- The organization is best known for doing ecological research and land development to provide clean water to people.
- It was founded in 1975 in Jaipur by a group of students and professors from the University of Rajasthan.
- Rajendra Singh build johad, traditional rainwater storage tank with help of villagers.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:
- Gaseous propellants have to be compressed to very high pressures or cooled to very low temperatures in order to achieve a high density.
- Propellants that are usually gases at room temperature but become liquids when cooled to very low temperatures to achieve the high density are called cryogenic liquid propellants.
- Cryogenics is the science and technology of temperatures below 120 Kelvin (-153° Celsius), the limit being defined by the boiling point of methane, a principal component of natural gas.
- The most common cryogenic propellants used in rocket engines are liquid hydrogen (LH2), which liquefies at -253° C, as the fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX), which liquefies at -183° C, as the oxidiser.
- Propellants like oxygen and hydrogen in liquid form give very high amounts of energy per unit mass.
- Hydrogen and oxygen are extremely clean fuels, when they combine they give out only water.

ANSWER: None

Explanation:
- Udaan is the Special Industry Initiative (SII) for J&K.
- It is funded by Ministry of Home Affairs and implemented by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
- The program is a part of the overall initiative for addressing economic issues in J&K.
- Udaan program addresses the needs of the educated unemployed in J&K.
- It is targeted towards graduate, post graduate and three year diploma engineers.
- The aim is to provide skills and job opportunities to the youth.
- Simultaneously, the aim is also to provide exposure to corporate India towards the rich talent pool available in J&K.
- The target was to reach out to 40,000 youth in J&K over a period of 5 years.
- The Udaan program encourages corporates to travel to J&K meet with the youth and hire aspiring youth in J&K who wish to explore the opportunity to work with corporates.

ANSWER: None

Explanation:
- National Investigation Agency (NIA) is a federal agency established by the Indian Government to combat terror in India.
- It acts as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency.
- The agency is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states.
- The Agency came into existence with the enactment of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008 by the Parliament of India on 31 December 2008.