IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Feb 05, 2016

ANSWER: All the above

Explanation:

• Maharashtra has rolled out a deradicalisation programme for the minority community.
• Setting up an independent media outlet to deliver ‘mainstream thoughts and values’ to the minority youth in the State.
• The plan aims to create an environment of solidarity and trust among the minority, and envisages different departments undertaking various schemes to reach out to the minority, implement a scheme a year, while setting aside 15% of their funds for the same.
• As per the government resolution on ‘deradicalisation of youth and preserving communal amity’, the State Education Department will launch a mid-day meal scheme in Urdu schools, provide textbooks at subsidised rates, and teach Urdu as optional subject in 300 Marathi shalas (schools).
• Teaching merits of democratic States and demerits of dictatorships as a separate chapter in the Urdu textbooks.
• Muslim scholars have already criticised the efforts to label the community as radicalised.
• The State Home Department has rolled out a 50-point socio-economic strategy with the aim of ‘bringing youth of the minority community into the mainstream’ and making coordinated efforts and policies in 13 sectors, including education, sports, urban planning, law and order, skill development, women and child, social justice, and health.
• Developing 5 minority areas in Mumbai as urban smart clusters

ANSWER: 1, 4

Explanation:

• Jorhat (Assam) comes in eastern sector and Agra in central sector.
• The western airbase of Pathankot was attacked by six terrorists.
• Other western Air bases are - Siachen Glacier, Srinagar, Amritsar, Leh, Palam, Sirsa, Udhampur, Bathinda, Halwara, Awantipur, Adampur, Hindon, Sarsawa

ANSWER: Manmohan Singh

Explanation:

• The glacier's region is the highest battleground on Earth,[52] where Pakistan and India have fought intermittently since April 1984. Both countries maintain a permanent military presence in the region at a height of over 6,000 m (20,000 ft).
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the area.
• The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram Range in the Himalaya Mountains. It is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world's non-polar areas.
• It falls at an altitude of 5,753 m (18,875 ft) above sea level at its head at Indira Col on the China border down to 3,620 m (11,875 ft) at its terminus.
• Entire Siachen Glacier with all major passes is currently under administration of India since 1984 while Pakistan controls the region west of Saltoro Ridge.

ANSWER: Spread of the disease from one organ to another

Explanation:

• Spreading of cancer is called metastasis and because of this metastasis cancer kills.
• Metastatic cancer has the same name and the same type of cancer cells as the original, or primary, cancer. For example, breast cancer that spreads to the lung and forms a metastatic tumor is metastatic breast cancer, not lung cancer.
• Although some types of metastatic cancer can be cured with current treatments, most cannot. Nevertheless, treatments are available for all patients with metastatic cancer. In general, the primary goal of these treatments is to control the growth of the cancer or to relieve symptoms caused by it. In some cases, metastatic cancer treatments may help prolong life. However, most people who die of cancer die of metastatic disease.

ANSWER: Decreasing pH lets cancer cell out of extracellular matrix

Explanation:

• Metastasis of cancer refers to spread of the disease from one organ to another not directly connected with it.
• The pH of a tumour has been heavily correlated with metastasis. For a cancer cell to get out of the extracellular matrix, or the cells around it, one of the methods it uses is a decreased pH.
• Using nanoparticles of the main ingredient in common antacid tablets can help prevent a cancerous tumour from growing, says a study led by an Indian-origin researcher.
• The scientists used novel methods to create nanoparticles from calcium carbonate that were injected intravenously into a mouse model to treat solid tumours.
• The compound changed the pH (a scale that measures how acidic or basic a substance is) of the tumour environment, from acidic to more alkaline, and kept the cancer from growing.
• This work shows for the first time that it is possible to modulate pH in solid tumours using intentionally designed nanoparticles, the researchers said.
• Commonly, nanoparticles have been made with gold and silver. However, neither is present in the human body, and there are concerns about their accumulating in the body.
• Calcium and carbonate are both found heavily in the body, and they are generally non-toxic. When calcium carbonate dissolves, the carbonate becomes carbon dioxide and is released through the lungs, and calcium is often incorporated into the bones.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Most of the above temples cite reason of menstrual cycle to avoid women entry into the temple. Kerala’s Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala bans girls and women between the ages of 10 and 50 from entering. Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple has an odd rule that it’s okay for women to pray here, but they can’t enter the temple vault to do inventory of the riches. According to legend, women entering the temple will be cursed instead of getting blessed. Entry of women in close proximity of grave of a male Muslim saint is a grievous sin in Islam told the trustees of the iconic Haji Ali Dargah to the Bombay High Court. There other temples like Shani Shingnapur where women are not allowed to worship.

ANSWER: Vegetation

Explanation:

• Loktak lake in Manipur is the largest freshwater lake in northeast India.
• The lake is characterized by its unique floating biomass, known as ‘Phumdi’, which is the primary source of livelihood for fishermen who live on huts built on the Phumdis.
• Rich and abundant in bio-diversity, the lake also serves as a source for hydropower generation, irrigation and drinking water supply.
• Phumdis are a series of floating islands, exclusive to the Loktak Lake in Manipur state, in northeastern India. They cover a substantial part of the lake area and are heterogeneous masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter, in different stages of decay.
• The largest single mass of phumdi is in the southeastern part of the lake, covering an area of 40 km2 (15.4 sq mi). This mass constitutes the world’s largest floating park, named Keibul Lamjao National Park. The park was formed to preserve the endangered Eld's deer subspecies, called sangai in the Manipuri language, indigenous to this area.
• Athapums are artificial circular phumdis, built by the villagers as enclosures for fish farming; aquaculture has caused proliferation of the phumdis in the lake.
• Manipuri documentary film Phum-Shang has bagged the prestigious Golden Conch Award for the best documentary film (up to 60 minutes) at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival 2016.
• Directed by Haobam Paban Kumar, an alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata, the 52-minute Phum-Shang critically examines the serious environmental problems faced by the Loktak lake.

ANSWER: HPV test

Explanation:

• Cervical Cancer is screened by Pap smears or Human Papillomavirus (HPV) tests.
• Other method is Visual Inspection With Acetic Acid (VIA) in which vinegar is applied to the cervix to detect pre-cancerous lesions.
• Mammography, breast MRI is for breast cancer.
• CA-125 test for ovarian cancer
• PSA test for prostate cancer

ANSWER: Gwalior Gharana

Explanation:

• Khan hails from a family of great musicians of the Gwalior gayaki . An illustration that begins with a Mughal miniature painting links him to Tansen through a family tree. But he worked as a tailor first and then came into music after he was challenged by a cousin.
• Khan became one of the prolific Hindustani vocalists who sang dhrupad, dhamar and thumri with equal ease.
• An individual performer from a gharana may choose to borrow appealing stylistic aspects of another gharana in his or her gayaki.
• In Hindustani music, a gharana is a system of social organization linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and by adherence to a particular musical style. A gharana also indicates a comprehensive musicological ideology. This ideology sometimes changes substantially from one gharana to another. It directly affects the thinking, teaching, performance and appreciation of music.

ANSWER: Gastric cancer

Explanation:

• Gastric cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer and the second most common cause of death from cancer.
• There are many contributing factors, prime among them being one’s lifestyle. A medical study using the South Indian population found some of the common contributing factors to be the reuse of cooking oil, a high intake of salt, consumption of red meat, low intake of fruits and vegetables, improperly preserved food, smoking, alcohol, and H.Pylori infection.