IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Mar 18, 2016

ANSWER: Lord Rishabhdeva

Explanation:

• A 108-feet tall idol of the first Teerthankar of Jains Lord Rishabhdeva, located at Nashik in Maharashtra, has entered the "Guinness World Records" as the world's tallest Jain statue.
• Before this statue, the 57 feet idol of Lord Bahubali at Shravana-bela-gola in Karnataka was considered the world's tallest Jain statue.
• It is carved out of a single rock.
• The impressive statue is located atop Mangi Tungi mountain near Teharabad village of Baglan tehsil in Nashik district.

ANSWER: State of Weightlessness

Explanation:

• The term micro-g environment (also µg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less a synonym of weightlessness and zero-g, but indicates that g-forces are not quite zero, just very small.
• In microgravity, astronauts can float in their spacecraft - or outside, on a spacewalk. Heavy objects move around easily. For example, astronauts can move equipment weighing hundreds of pounds with their fingertips. Microgravity is sometimes called "zero gravity," but this is misleading.
• For the same reason microgravity exists in orbit, it can also be found on Earth. NASA uses airplanes to create microgravity for short periods of time. The airplane does this by flying in up-and-down parabolas. At the top of the parabola, people and objects inside the airplane are in free fall for about 20-30 seconds at a time. For the same reasons, a person can even experience free fall very briefly going over a large hill, like on a roller coaster. Microgravity also can be experienced in amusement park free-fall rides.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• There is combustion but there is change in nature of flame in microgravity. Due to lack of gravity, flame is rounder.
• Crystals grow better. Without gravity, their shapes are more perfect. Proteins as well as insulin crystals were grow as experiments in microgravity environment.
• Japanese researchers are monitoring the growth of crystals in a specially-designed chamber on board the International Space Station (ISS) to understand the effects of microgravity on protein crystals.
• Muscles and bones can become weaker without gravity making them work as hard.

ANSWER: Denmark

Explanation:

• Denmark overtook Switzerland as the world's happiest place, according to a report that urged nations regardless of wealth to tackle inequality and protect the environment.
• The report is prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
• The top 10 this year were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden. Denmark was in third place last year, behind Switzerland and Iceland.
• India was ranked 118th in the list, down one slot from last year on the index. The report said that India was among the group of 10 countries witnessing the biggest happiness declines.
• The report takes into account the GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness.
• Switzerland was ranked second on the list, followed by Iceland (3), Norway (4) and Finland (5).
• India comes below Somalia (76), China (83), Pakistan (92), Iran (105), Palestinian Territories (108) and Bangladesh (110).
• The World Happiness Report 2016, published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative of the United Nations, released ahead of the UN World Happiness Day on March 20, for the first time gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions.

ANSWER: Burundi

Explanation:

• Burundi is least happy country to live in.
• Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries as the 10 least happy places on earth to live.
• The World Happiness Report 2016, published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative of the United Nations, released ahead of the UN World Happiness Day on March 20, for the first time gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions.
• The report takes into account the GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness.
• For the first time it gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:

• The worrisome state of financials of most listed companies has led to promoters increasingly pledging their shares.
• Promoters of listed companies often pledge their shares to raise short-term capital to fund working capital requirements.
• The shares are typically pledged with NBFCs or even banks, which lend up to a certain percentage of the value of shares that are offered to be pledged.
• Pledging cannot be generalized. Promoters could be pledging more due to increasing debts. The borrowing could be going up without any corresponding rise in profitability.
• It could also be for raising funds for other ventures. The promoter could be facing a default scenario and might have to furnish additional securities to avoid default. Investors should carefully look at the purpose of pledging and then take an informed decision

ANSWER: Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation:

• An Advance Pricing Agreement, or APA, is essentially a negotiated deal between a taxpayer and the tax authorities that sets out the method for determining the transfer pricing pertaining to transactions between a subsidiary and its foreign parent.
• The agreement relates to pricing of assets, tangible and intangible, services and funds that are transferred within an organisation in a cross-border transaction.
• India had introduced the APA regime in 2013-14, which is gaining traction.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• They are known as Parsis and Iranis.
• The long presence of the Parsis in the Gujarat and Sindh areas of India distinguishes them from the smaller Zoroastrian Indian community of Iranis, who are more recent arrivals.
• Although the term 'Irani' is first attested during the Mughal era, most Iranis are immigrants who arrived on the subcontinent during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

ANSWER: PDS and food grains

Explanation:

• Online Depot System to bring FCI food grain management and distribution online is launched.
• Capturing data online on a real time basis, the system will bring total transparency in the working of FCI. It would help in better monitoring and supervision to reduce leakages and losses.
• The system will provide various types of data regarding stock position, movement, quality and quantity on line. It will generate SMS alerts to depot officials, area manager and other decision making authorities.
• All the data will be available on dashboard also for top management to monitor centrally and help in automatic reconciliation and generating of MIS reports about food grain management.
• The application will integrate with the weighbridge installed within the depot.
• The system will track chemical spraying, fumigation & procurement quality check.

ANSWER: Cell Death

Explanation:

• Scientists have developed a new blood test that may detect multiple diseases, including diabetes, cancer, traumatic injury and neurodegeneration, in a highly sensitive and specific manner.
• The novel method infers cell death in specific tissue from the methylation patterns of circulating DNA that is released by dying cells.
• However to date, it is not possible to measure cell death in specific human tissues non-invasively.
• The new blood test detects cell death in specific tissues by combining two important biological principles. First, dying cells release fragmented DNA to the circulation, where it travels for a short time. The second principle is that the DNA of each cell type carries a unique chemical modification called methylation.
• Methylation patterns of DNA account for the identity of cells (the genes that they express), are similar among different cells of the same type and among individuals, and are stable in healthy and disease conditions.
• The researchers have identified multiple DNA sequences that are methylated in a tissue-specific manner, and can serve as biomarkers for the detection of DNA derived from each tissue.
• They then developed a method to detect these methylated patterns in DNA circulating in blood, and demonstrated its utility for identifying the origins of circulating DNA in different human pathologies, as an indication of cell death in specific tissues.
• They were able to detect evidence for pancreatic beta-cell death in the blood of patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes, oligodendrocyte death in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis, brain cell death in patients after traumatic or ischemic brain damage, and exocrine pancreas cell death in patients with pancreatic cancer or pancreatitis.