IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - June 03, 2016

ANSWER: Movement disorder

Explanation:

• Parkinson's disease is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over time.
• The cause is unknown, and although there is presently no cure, there are treatment options such as medication and surgery to manage its symptoms.
• Tremors - Shaking of the hand, slowed movement, reduction in ability to move or slow movement, Person takes more time for activities like walking, bathing & clothing, Simple tasks become difficult & time-consuming, Muscle stiffness, stiff muscles can limit range of motion, may cause pain, It may cause difficulty in movement and Impaired posture & balance, these are the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

ANSWER: Salma Dam

Explanation:

• The completion of the dam project represents culmination of years of hard work by about 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions.
• It also highlights India’s continued commitment to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development. He said the dam will help irrigate 44,000 hectares of land.
• The Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam is in Herat province.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Realizing the spread and importance of yoga world over, the Government has decided to include “attending a short term yoga programme” in the list of permissible activities under Tourist Visa.
• Presently, a Tourist Visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sightseeing and casual visit to meet friends or relatives.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Presently, an E-Tourist Visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sightseeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit.
• The Government has decided to include “attending a short term yoga programme” and “short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine” in the list of permissible activities under e-Tourist Visa.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• With Indian Railways aggressively focusing on renewable energy, India’s first solar panel-fitted train is all set to commence trial runs shortly. What makes this trial run special is that all coaches of the train would be lit from power generated by the rooftop solar panels.
• The solar-panel powered train will be tested on the Jodhpur division of the North Western Railways. The DEMU train which is being used for the trial run has six coaches, with each coach fitted with twelve solar panels.
• Each solar panel will generate 300 watt of electricity, which means 3.6KW of power per coach. This, the Indian Railways says will be enough to provide electricity for lights and fans inside the coach. However, enough power would not be generated to run air-conditioners.
• The solar train is not the only green initiative taken by the Indian Railways. Last year, Indian Railways had introduced India’s first CNG DEMU train on the Rewari-Rohtak section of Northern Railways. The DEMU train runs on dual fuel system – CNG and diesel. Railways have modified the 1,400 HP engine to run on dual fuel – diesel and CNG – through fumigation technology.
• Also, a 1 megawatt solar power plant was set up at Katra station in 2015, a move that can save up to Rs 1 crore annually on energy bills. This is the biggest rooftop solar plant built in Jammu and Kashmir and the largest solar power plant built by Indian Railways.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of India and the Government of the United States of America was signed to enhance cooperation on energy security, clean energy and climate change.
• The objective of the MoU is to enhance cooperation on energy security, clean energy and climate change through increased bilateral engagement and further joint initiatives for promoting sustainable growth. These activities are intended to increase incentives for innovation including research and development, and voluntary and mutually-agreed technology transfer, as well as the deployment of clean energy technologies in both countries; contribute to a global effort to curb the rise in greenhouse gas emissions; and enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Priority initiatives under the MoU would be:

• US-India Energy smart Cities Partnership
• Greening the Grid.
• Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE) expansion
• Energy Efficiency including space cooling
• Renewable energy.
• Energy security.
• Clean energy finance
• U.S-India partnership for Climate Resilience
• Air quality
• Forestry, Landscapes and REDD+
• Fellowships
• Accelerating innovation on clean energy and climate change

Approval has also been given for a MoU for wildlife conservation. An arrangement between the authorized governmental agencies of the Government of India and the Government of the United States of America for exchange of terrorist screening information was also signed in New Delhi.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has formulated the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), as a nation-wide campaign for achieving universal accessibility for PwDs.
• The campaign targets three separate verticals for achieving universal accessibility namely the built up environment, transportation eco-system and information & communication eco-system.
• The campaign will use IT and social media for spreading awareness about the campaign and seeking commitment / engagement of various stakeholders.
• The Department has asked various State Govts. to identify about 50 to 100 public buildings in big cities and also identify citizen centric public websites, which if made fully accessible would have the highest impact on the lives of PwDs.
• Once identified, “Access Audit” of these buildings and websites will be conducted by professional agencies. As per the audit findings, retrofitting and conversion of buildings, transport and websites would be undertaken by various government departments. This will be supported by the Scheme of Implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act (SIPDA), an umbrella scheme run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) for implementing various initiatives for social and economic empowerment of PwDs.

ANSWER: 1, 3

Explanation:

• Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities is collaborating with Ministry of Home, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Tourism for creating ‘Accessible police stations’, “Accessible hospitals’ and ‘Accessible tourism’ respectively across the country.
• The Department is also coordinating with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for enhancing accessibility of Television programmes by incorporating features like captioning, text to speech and audio description.
• DEPwD is also in the process of creating a mobile app, along with a web portal for crowd sourcing the requests regarding inaccessible places. With the app, downloaded on his/her mobile phone, any person would be able to click a photograph or video of an inaccessible public place (like a school, hospital, government office etc.) and upload the same to the Accessible India portal.
• The portal will process the request for access audit, financial sanction and final retrofitting of the building to make it completely accessible. The mobile app and portal will also seek engagement of big corporates and PSUs to partner in the campaign by offering their help to conduct access audit and for accessibility- conversion of the buildings/transport and websites.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
Priority Areas are -

• Health including food security and nutrition: Focus on recognizing women’s reproductive rights, shift of family planning focus also to males, addressing health issues in a life cycle continuum such as psychological and general well-being, health care challenges related to nutrition/ hygiene of adolescents, geriatric health care, expansion of health insurance schemes and addressing the intergenerational cycle of under-nutrition
• Education: Improve access to pre-primary education, enrolment and retention of adolescent girls, etc.
• Economy: Raising visibility, engendering macro-economic policies and trade agreements, generate gender-disaggregated land ownership database, skill development and training for women, entrepreneurial development, review of labour laws and policies, equal employment opportunities with appropriate benefits related to maternity and child care services, address technological needs of women.
• Governance and Decision Making: Increasing women’s participation in the political arena, administration, civil services and corporate boardrooms,
• Violence Against Women: Address all forms of violence against women through a life cycle approach, Legislations affecting /relating to women will be reviewed/harmonized to enhance effectiveness, Improve Child Sex Ratio (CSR), strict implementation of advisories, guidelines, Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) and protocols, prevention of trafficking at source, transit and destination areas for effective monitoring of the networks.
• Enabling Environment: Gender perspective in housing and infrastructure, ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation, gender parity in the mass media & sports, concerted efforts towards strengthening social security and support services for all women especially the vulnerable, marginalized, migrant and single women.
• Environment and Climate Change: addressing gender concerns during distress migration and displacement in times of natural calamities due to climate change and environmental degradation. Promotion of environmental friendly, renewable, non–conventional energy, green energy sources for women in rural households.