IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Mar 04, 2016

ANSWER: Maharashtra

Explanation:

• 40 rock paintings recently discovered in the Kondane caves in Raigarh district in Maharashtra.
• The style and articulation of these paintings suggest that they have been drawn during the late historical period of second century B.C. onwards” because some of the caves [where these images have been found] were excavated in the first century B.C.
• The images were found in both natural caverns and man-made caves. The man-made caves also feature Buddhist architecture such as a ‘chaitya’ (prayer hall) and a monastery.
• Maharashtra was absent on the rock art map of India before 2003. However, several rock art sites in the Chandrapur and Nagpur regions of Vidarbha were found.
• The rock paintings, in red and black hues, were found in the corners and the ceilings of the caves.
• Since the paintings are on basalt rock surface, exfoliation is a problem. So the images require proper chemical treatment.
• A chaitya is a Buddhist prayer hall with a stupa at one end. A vihara is a monastery. The Buddhist rock-cut architecture found in these caves belongs to the Hinayana phase of Buddhism.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• The ‘Setu Bharatam’ project aims to make all national highways free from railway level crossing by 2019 to ensure road safety.
• Under the project, 208 rail-over bridges and rail-under bridges will be built.

ANSWER: 1, 3, 4

Explanation:
Through Navrachna – Innovation, IR will provide innovation grants to employees, startups and growth oriented small businesses to support internal and external innovation. On an annual basis IR will seek out solutions to IR’s most critical problems through an Innovation Challenge. The initiative would be administered by an Innovation Committee comprising reputed investors, representatives from National Academy of Indian Railways, Railway Board and ‘Kayakalp’ headed by Shri Ratan Tata. A program management structure will be put in place to manage this initiative. For this year, the areas for the annual challenge are:

• Accessibility to trains from low level platforms
• Increasing capacity of coaches
• Digital capabilities at stations.

ANSWER: Tobacco

Explanation:

• The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 or COTPA is an Act of Parliament of India enacted in 2003 to prohibit advertisement and regulation of tobacco business in India.
• The Act put restriction on tobacco products including cigarettes, gutka, panmasala (containing tobacco), cigar, cheroot, Beedi, Snuff, chewing tobacco, hookah, tooth powder containing tobacco.
• The Act specifies restriction on smoking in public places, advertisement norms and warning labels to be mentioned on the Tobacco products.

ANSWER: Micro biology

Explanation:

• From crop improvement and food testing to forensic applications, carcinogenic and toxic nucleic acid, stains are something biologists and genome experts have been using for long, notwithstanding concerns over the effects of exposure to these stains.
• The most commonly and widely used stain (ethidium bromide nucleic acid stain) is a potent carcinogenic, mutagenic bio hazard and scientists in a lab deal with carcinogenic and mutagenic strains all the time to run their DNA tests.
• Their basic use is to impart colour to tissues or cells and they also facilitate microscopic study and identification, important for researchers.
• Indian Institute of Science's (IISc) J Fathima Benazir has developed a stain - Tinto Rang - is safe even on consumption as per her. Tinto (crimson red in Portuguese language which the colour of the strain) Rang is an Indian product from the Indian Institute of Science.
• Tinto rang stains DNA within a few seconds or at best a minute. It is developed from edible plants found in South India.
• She has launched it from her firm Azooka Life Sciences, which is an incubation supported by the institute's Society for Innovation and Development.
• The focus of Azooka is to develop safe DNA/RNA fluorescent stains for applications in biological sciences and genomics and tinto tang is safe even on consumption as it is a food additive making it the safest option currently available in the world.
• The basic requirement of stains was that the nucleic acid dye has to be fast, sensitive and selective to the nucleic acid so that it can be used in various applications to detect minute quantity of nucleic acids in a biological sample.
• It is not photosensitive unlike EtBr and therefore does not require incubation in dark.
• The production and easy availability of a safe nucleic acid stain in India will have direct impact on the cost of molecular diagnostics, by eliminating import and excise duties.

ANSWER: Bhagat Singh

Explanation:

• Rechristening the Chandigarh airport after its upgradation as an international airport has been a bone of contention between Punjab and Haryana, the main stakeholders of the project.
• Punjab and Haryana governments have finally agreed to name the Chandigarh international airport after legendary freedom fighter, Bhagat Singh.

ANSWER: 1, 2, 4

Explanation:

• Very few states in India have two or more international airports in them.
• They are - Punjab, Odisha, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.