IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - June 08, 2016

ANSWER: Maharana Pratap

Explanation:

• Union Home Minister announced that a new reserve battalion will be raised and it will be named after Maharana Pratap. It will be called Maharana India Reserve Battalion.
• The move comes in the wake of the Cabinet in January this year approving a proposal for raising 17 Indian Reserve Battalions for Jammu and Kashmir and Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states.
• It had included five battalions in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Chhattisgarh, three each in Jharkhand and Odisha and two in Maharashtra.
• The government had introduced the scheme of Indian Reserve Battalions in 1971 and so far, 153 battalions have been sanctioned to various states.

ANSWER: MTCR

Explanation:

• US has supported India’s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
• The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is an informal and voluntary partnership among 35 countries prevent the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology.
• India is going to be the newest member of MTCR with consensus of 35 nations.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) was established in April 1987 by the G7 countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States.
• The MTCR was created in order to curb the spread of unmanned delivery systems for nuclear weapons, specifically delivery systems that could carry a minimum payload of 500 kg a minimum of 300 km.
• At the annual meeting in Oslo in 1992, it was agreed to expand the scope of the MTCR to include non-proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for all weapons of mass destruction.
• China, Israel, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, etc. are not a part of the group. There are 35 members currently.
• India recently got an entry into the group.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:

• Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, and often referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City, and the Red Dot, is a global city and sovereign state in Southeast Asia and the world's only island city-state.
• It lies one degree (137 km) north of the equator, at the southernmost tip of continental Asia and peninsular Malaysia.
• India and Singapore held the first dialogue between their defence ministers as they agreed to enhance the scale and complexity of existing bilateral military interaction, at a time when freedom of navigation in international waterways has emerged as a major concern.

ANSWER: Ministry of New & Renewable Energy

Explanation:

• Ministry of New & Renewable Energy launched “Surya Mitra” mobile App at National Workshop on Rooftop Solar Power.
• The GPS based mobile app is developed by National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) which is an autonomous institution of Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE).
• This App is a high end technology platform which can handle thousands of calls simultaneously and can efficiently monitor all visits of Suryamitras. Suryamitras provide services like installation, operation and maintenance of Solar devices.
• The trained Suryamitras who opt for entrepreneurship have joined in the Mobile App in several states.
• This innovative mobile approach shall enhance the employment of trained youth in solar PV technology and also improve the businesses of solar entrepreneurs because of quality servicing, maintenance and repairing professionals are now available to customers at the click of a button on their mobiles.
• Overall this technical platform which is very useful in the field of Renewable energy to serve customers at their doorsteps with quality installation, repair, and O&M services. Suryamitras with the help of NISE ensure standard functioning and servicing of Solar PV and thermal systems to all customers.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:

• Suryamitra initiative is also a part of Make in India. Suryamitra course is a 600 hours (i.e. 3 months) skill development program designed to create skilled manpower in installation, commissioning, and Operation & Maintenance of solar power plants and equipment.
• The course is jointly designed by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE).
• MNRE set a target of 50,000 “Suryamitras” of skilled manpower in solar energy sector in next 3 years.
• National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), an autonomous institution of Ministry of New and Renewable (MNRE), is the apex National R&D institution in the field Solar Energy. The institute is involved in demonstration, standardization, interactive research, training and testing of solar energy technologies and systems.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• The objective of this program is to provide employability and entrepreneurship to rural and urban youth & women. Special emphasis is given to skill youth from SC/ST/OBC categories.
• The qualification required to participate in the program is ITI (Electrical & Wireman) / Diploma in Engineering (Electrical, Electronics & Mechanical). Higher qualified participants such as B. Tech etc. are not eligible.
• The course teaches the basics of electrical, SPV applications and solar power plant including standards, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting etc.
• To achieve and maintain the target of 100 GW solar power plants for 25 years, India requires about 6.5 lakh personnel, trained in solar energy sector (estimated by CII). This course is designed and oriented as per requirement of solar industry.
• ‘Suryamitra’ is a residential program which is 100% funded by Govt. of India and implemented by NISE across the country. The institutes like universities, polytechnics, ITIs etc. are executing the ‘Suryamitra’ skill development program at various locations in the country.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:
The operational strategies for the bill are -Enabling safety and security of women – with initiatives such as One Stop Centres, Women Helpline, Mahila Police Volunteers, Reservation of women in police force, creating immediate response mechanism through panic buttons in mobiles, public and private transport, surveillance mechanisms in public places.

• Creating eco-systems to encourage entrepreneurship amongst women – through platforms like Mahila E-Haat, dedicated theme based exhibitions, focussed skill training, mentoring through Women Entrepreneurship Council, availability of easy & affordable credit and financial inclusion.
• Training and capacity building of all stakeholders - including youth through Gender Champion initiative, frontline workers, women sarpanches and all officials dealing with policy and delivery systems impacting women.
• Facilitating women in workplace – through gender friendly work place, flexi timings, increased maternity leave, provision of child care / creches at workplace, life cycle health care facilities.

The policy also describes emerging issues such as making cyber spaces safe place for women, redistribution of gender roles, for reducing unpaid care work, review of personal and customary laws in accordance with the Constitutional provisions, review of criminalization of marital rape within the framework women’s human rights, etc. relevant in the developmental paradigms.

ANSWER: Discover Earth-size planets

Explanation:

• Kepler is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars.
• The spacecraft, named after the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler.
• Designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets, Kepler's sole science instrument is a photometer that continually monitors the brightness of over 145,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view.