IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Feb 01, 2016

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Recurrent insurgency, Chinese claims over Indian territory, a communal Chief Minister and a document signed by a “majority” 34 MLAs urging for President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh are factors listed by the Centre to justify the proclamation of emergency in the sensitive border State on Republic Day. The Centre said President’s rule was imposed on Arunachal Pradesh in the interest of the country. It said political stability is imperative in Arunachal Pradesh as it is a strategically located State. The country cannot afford a whiff of instability in the State which has seen recurrent insurgency as well as attempts by China to “claim large parts of its territory, which has been resisted by India very strongly.”

ANSWER: Tamil Nadu

Explanation:
The report of NITI Aayog’s sub-group of Chief Ministers on Skill development, which was released in September last year, has suggested that the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu can expand its activities across the country if the academy is given requisite support by the State Governments concerned. Instead of replicating the ICT Academy model in each State, the existing organisation can open chapters in willing States, it said. With focus on skill development, the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) has trained over 18,000 teachers, conducted 677 programmes, and has 13 corporate partners. It also takes up entrepreneurship development. According to Lakshmi Narayanan, chairman of the academy, the ICTACT has enabled college educated students in Tamil Nadu grab a little over 50 per cent of all entry level hiring throughout the country, competitively. This has made tier-two and tier-three college students competitive and has enabled them join the IT workforce in larger numbers. The ICTACT model has come for praise from NITI Aayog, with it recommending that this programme and model be expanded in other States. It plans to take up specific projects, depending on the requirement of a State and also the support from the industries and the respective State Governments. In a couple of States, it is in talks with the government to take up training activities. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and West Bengal are some of the States that have more IT sector presence.

ANSWER: 1 and 2

Explanation:
A simple step of holding meetings with women on health issues brought down neonatal death rates in five remote districts of Jharkhand and Odisha – a success story recorded in 2011 and 2012 that will feature in the February edition of The Lancet Global Health. Encouraged by this, the Union Health Ministry is sending a circular to 10 States with a high burden of neonatal and maternal mortality earlier this month to emulate the ‘meeting’ approach to bring down neonatal mortality. A quarter of the world’s neonatal deaths and 15 per cent of maternal deaths are recorded in India. The appeal lies in its simple, yet effective approach. The trial, led by an NGO, Ekjut, that is active in Jharkhand and Odisha over the last decade, was carried out in 30 geographical clusters (each cluster with a population of 5,000 people and covering three to five villages) in five districts. Government-accredited social health activists (ASHAs) were asked to spend an additional one hour in their meetings with women in the 15 to 49 age group. During these meetings, they discussed maternal and newborn health issues and possible solutions. They also set the agenda for the next meeting, identifying subjects such as nutrition or hygiene. Health workers made home visits following child birth to counsel families on newborn care and meetings were held with midwives and Anganwadi workers. In the subsequent meetings, women discussed if the solutions had worked practically. The outcome? The early neonatal death mortality rate dropped from 49.8 to 30.2 in the first year of the research and then to 23 in the next year, much lower than the control clusters where the meetings were not held. A drop was recorded in the late neonatal mortality rate as well — from 13.7 to 3.8 in the first year to 2.8 in the second year. A drop was recorded in maternal mortality ratio as well. Ekjut carried out this trial in collaboration with the Institute for Global Health, University College London (UK). Communities were able to navigate through health issues better, choose a better midwife, and even choose a better vehicle (to take women for check-ups, delivery), and keep the newborn baby warm. The initiative, that even Union health officials concede is a low-cost one, involved a financial incentive of Rs. 100 to each ASHA worker during the training that was facilitated by Ekjut, and Rs. 200 for each woman’s group meeting. In Odisha, the model is already being scaled up in 15 districts and is called ‘Shakti Varta’.

ANSWER: Google

Explanation:
Internet giant Google’s Street View service allows users to have a panoramic view of places in cities, as they would look in real life. The Internet giant uses cars and bikes fitted with cameras to collect 360-degree images of a place. In April 2015, Google representatives made a presentation on Street View for the MHA. “They told officials that this platform was useful for tourism and disaster management. However red flags are raised concerning security of the nation, data protection issues and privacy of people.

ANSWER: Pranab Mukherjee

Explanation:
President Pranab Mukherjee shares an insider’s account of several significant events during the 1980’s and early 1990’s. It’s a second volume.

ANSWER: Fungi

Explanation:
A set of fungi from the Antarctic that was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) for research survived the simulated hostile Martian conditions. A team travelled to the remote McMurdo Dry Valleys in the Antarctic Victoria Land, which is the most similar earthly equivalent to Mars to collect samples of two species of cryptoendolithic fungi: Cryomyces antarcticus and Cryomyces minteri . These fungi were sent to the international orbiting laboratory and after exposing to conditions similar to those on Mars for 18 months on board, they found more than 60 percent of their cells remained intact with stable DNA.
Mountain species - Fungi, which can withstand extreme high-mountain environments, were also gathered from the Sierra de Gredos (Spain) and the Alps (Austria) and sent into space for the same experiment. These species showed double the metabolic activity of those that had been subjected to space conditions, even reaching 80 percent more in the case of the species Xanthoria elegans .

ANSWER: Painter

Explanation:
Amrita Sher-Gil is a painter and one of her famous painting is of ‘group of three girls’, 1935. Sometimes she is known as India's Frida Kahlo, and today considered an important woman painter of 20th century India, whose legacy stands on a par with that of the Masters of Bengal Renaissance; she is also the 'most expensive' woman painter of India. Sher-Gil's art has influenced generations of Indian artists from Sayed Haider Raza to Arpita Singh and her depiction of the plight of women has made her art a beacon for women at large both in India and abroad. The Government of India has declared her works as National Art Treasures, and most of them are housed in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.

ANSWER: Awareness of child abuse and its reporting

Explanation:
Encouraged by the impact of the Delhi Police’s ‘Operation Nirbheek’ within six months since its launch, the Union Government is preparing for a nationwide launch of the programme. The overwhelmingly large number of children — mainly girls — the Delhi Police have reached out to, has left the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development wanting the ‘Operation’ be conducted in each and every school in this country. The police have been doing well to install complaints boxes in schools and promising confidentiality to the children. Ministry is working on a very effective film that will be shown to every child to educate them about ‘good touch and bad touch’. Armed with the video, the police across the country will be instructed to periodically visit all schools in their area. The initiative has also caught the attention of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP), a unit under the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency. The CEOP has been interacting with some of the top Delhi Police officers to share their expertise in order to strengthen the ‘Operation’. Conceived by Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-East Delhi) Veenu Bansal, the initiative was first launched in his district in the first week of August last year. Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi came out with a standing order two months later asking other districts to follow suit. In Operation Nirbheek, the police personnel take their time to create a situation of trust, after which the children confide in them. The police deal at a personal level with the complaints received about stalking, staring and eve-teasing. However, in some cases they are compelled to register an FIR. The perpetrators most often are found to be the victims’ fathers, brothers or relatives, all who have been indulging in sexual abuse for months and even years in some cases.