IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - July 10 & 11, 2016

ANSWER: Barefoot College

Explanation:

• Barefoot College, Tilonia (Rajasthan) has been promoting and training rural women solar engineers (solar mamas) from Africa in fabrication, installation, use, repair and maintenance of solar lanterns and household solar lighting under Government of India supported programmes.
• They have set up a Barefoot women vocational training college in Zanzibar Islands of Tanzania and other countries in Africa for imparting solar electrification skills (training) and distributing solar kits to trainees.
• These colleges also support various entrepreneurial skills such as bee-keeping, tailoring, etc. The solar mamas have fabricated and installed solar kits, and now maintain these solar electrification systems in their communities.

ANSWER: Mahatma Gandhi

Explanation:

• The Indian Opinion was a newspaper established by Mahatma Gandhi.
• The publication was an important tool for the political movement led by Gandhi and the National Indian Congress to fight racial discrimination and win civil rights for the Indian immigrant community in South Africa.
• In India, he would publish Young India, Harijan, and Navjivan.
• Indian Opinion continued to publish for many decades and played a significant role in the wider civil rights struggle of South Africa. But it also suffered from not being a commercial enterprise but rather a publication serving social causes committed to.

ANSWER: Phoenix

Explanation:

• Gandhiji established the community settlement called Phoenix at Inanda, some 20 km north of Durban, in 1904.
• He established the settlement as a communal experimental farm with the view of giving each family two acres of land which they could develop.
• He believed that communities like Phoenix which advocated communal living would form a sound basis for the struggle against social injustice.
• While living in South Africa, Gandhi was inspired by a visit to a Trappist community in Mariannhill and by John Ruskin’s book ‘Unto This Last’ to found a communal living system. In 1904, Gandhi chose Phoenix to establish a community based on self-reliance and the value of labour on the land for the common good.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• Sarvodaya Ashram was Gandhiji's residence in Phoenix which is termed as a house for justice and a home for compassion.
• In addition to a printing press for his newspaper ‘Indian Opinion’, Gandhi’s settlement featured a clinic, school and homes, including his cottage, ‘Sarvodaya, meaning ‘well-being for all’, where he lived with his family.
• Tolstoy Farm (another Ashram) was a community started by Gandhi in Transvaal, South Africa, in 1910. It became the headquarters of the campaign of satyagraha (non-violence) which he lead at that time.

ANSWER: Mahatma Gandhi

Explanation:

• In 1904, publishing office was relocated to the Phoenix Settlement, South Africa.
• It was here that Gandhi published his first book ‘Indian Home Rule’, which outlined his political vision for India and the principle of inter-faith harmony.
• In it he expresses his views on Swaraj, modern civilization, mechanisation etc.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Seeking to enhance its ties with resource-rich Tanzania, India extended its full support to the country to meet its development needs and signed five agreements, including one for providing a Line of Credit of $92 million for rehabilitation and improvement of Zanzibar’s water supply system.
• Other agreements signed included an MoU on water resource management and development, an MoU for establishment of vocational training centre at Zanzibar, an MoU on visa waiver for diplomatic/official passport holders and an agreement between the National Small Industries Corporation of India and the Small Industries Development Organisation, Tanzania.

ANSWER: Crude oil

Explanation:

• Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer
• Its major export to India is crude.
• There are over 100 Indian companies present in Nigeria mainly in telecom, hydrocarbons, textiles, chemicals, electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, plastics, IT and auto sectors.

ANSWER: Development of new blood vessels

Explanation:

• Blood vessels form a network throughout the body to deliver the nutrients necessary to keep the tissues and organs alive and healthy.
• The formation of this network is controlled by a process called angiogenesis.
• Angiogenesis inhibition is commonly targeted in cancer treatment development that aims to starve tumours of the nutrients necessary for their survival.
• In the heart, increasing angiogenesis can help heart pump function.
• Finding a way to control angiogenesis not only provides a target for the development of anti-cancer therapies, but may also prove useful in similarly starving abnormal blood vessel growth elsewhere in the body, like in diabetic eye disease.
• A gene named ‘Wars2’ is found to have profound effect on angiogenesis.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• India and South Africa signed MoU's in four areas of co-operation including Information and Communication technology, Tourism, Grass root innovation and 'art, culture' sport.
• India and South Africa signed a MoU on grassroot innovation in selected areas, including agricultural technology and indigenous knowledge systems.
• The two countries share an interest in the development of grassroots innovations that can provide the affordable and accessible technological solutions needed by both countries.
• The MoU will cover technology demonstration, training, capacity building, sharing of open-source technologies and joint product development.

ANSWER: Cooperatives

Explanation:

• The 97th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2011 gave a constitutional status and protection to co-operative societies.
• It added a new Part IX-B in the Constitution which is entitled “The Co-operative Societies” (Articles 243-ZH to 243-ZT).
• February 15, 2012, is the date of commencement of the Constitution (Ninety-seventh Amendment) Act, 2011. The Centre has asked state governments to amend their respective State Cooperative Society Act in tune with the Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011 before February 14, 2013.