IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Mar 23, 2016

ANSWER: Russia

Explanation:

• India assumed chairmanship of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) from Russia on February 15 and it will last till December 31.
• India will adopt a five-pronged approach during our Chairmanship. It will comprise Institution Building, Implementation, Integration, Innovation, and Continuity with Consolidation (IIIIC or I4C).
  
• India’s emphasis would be on institution building, implementation of previous commitments flowing from the past Summits, and exploring synergies among the existing mechanisms.

ANSWER: 1, 3

Explanation:

• Five places were being developed as "Panchteerth" in honour of Dr. Ambedkar.
• These included his birthplace in Mhow; the place in London where he stayed while studying in the UK; Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur; Mahaparinirvan Sthal in Delhi; and Chaitya Bhoomi in Mumbai.
• In addition, a building for the Dr. Ambedkar Foundation is being built at Janpath in New Delhi.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• Kisaan Suvidha is an omnibus mobile app which will provide information to farmers on subjects such as weather, market prices, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and agriculture machinery.
• With click of a button, they can get the information on weather of current day and next 5 days, dealers, market prices, agro advisories, plant protection, IPM Practices etc.
• Unique features like extreme weather alerts and market prices of commodity in nearest area and the maximum price in state as well as India have been added to empower farmers in the best possible manner.

ANSWER: Self-help Groups

Explanation:

• The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) will extend its ‘eShakti’ project for digital book-keeping of self-help groups to another 23 districts in the country.
• This move follows successful eShakti pilot projects in two districts of Ramgarh in Jharkhand and Dhule in Maharashtra.
• eShakti has strengthened the quality of book keeping at the SHG level and brought the SHG movement under the digital platform.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• The applications Samadhan, Suvidha, Sugam have been deployed in the election going States for facilitation and better election management
• Samadhan is a Public Grievance Redressal System which has been conceptualized as a Comprehensive system with multiple modes for receiving complaints (through online, toll free 1950), email, mobile application, fax, post, sms, online processing and tracking of complaints. An Android App for Public grievance redressal system has also been developed.
• Suvidha is a single window system for Candidates and Political Parties to apply for permissions (Meetings, Rallies, vehicles, temporary election office, loudspeakers, helicopters and helipads etc). The ECI has issued directions to give permissions within 24 hours.
• Sugam is a Vehicle Management System with the facility of Issuance of requisition letters for vehicles, Capturing of vehicle details with address, mobile number and bank details of Owner & Driver, Transfer of vehicles from one district to another district etc. An Android App for Vehicle Management System (Sugam) has also been deployed.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• India has higher rate of unemployment (4.90%) over China (4.05%).
• India has larger share of people under age of 15 years at 27.7 years as compared to China’s 17.1%.
• Japan has the highest share of persons above 65 years at 27.3% with an unemployment rate of 3.2%.
• India’s population is 1.25 Billion and China’s is 1.37 Billion.

ANSWER: 2, 3, 4

Explanation:
The Supreme Court has reaffirmed its judgement in the Menaka case in the subsequent cases. It has declared the following rights as part of Article 21:

a. Right to live with human dignity.
b. Right to decent environment including pollution free water and air and protection against hazardous industries.
c. Right to livelihood.
d. Right to privacy.
e. Right to shelter.
f. Right to health.
g. Right to free education up to 14 years of age.
h. Right to free legal aid.
i. Right against solitary confinement.
j. Right to speedy trial.
k. Right against handcuffing.
l. Right against inhuman treatment.Right against delayed execution.
m. Right to travel abroad.
n. Right against bonded labour.
o. Right against custodial harassment.
p. Right to emergency medical aid.
q. Right to timely medical treatment in government hospital.
r. Right not to be driven out of a state.
s. Right to fair trial.
t. Right of prisoner to have necessities of life.
u. Right of women to be treated with decency and dignity.
v. Right against public hanging.
w. Right to hearing.
x. Right to information.
y. Right to reputation.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• The Railway Ministry has signed an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to leverage space technology for providing passenger information in all trains, map railway assets and help survey new route alignments.
• It also requested ISRO to conduct a study to find ways to ensure smooth rail traffic during the foggy season.
• At present, Indian Railways uses space technology to provide connectivity to passenger reservation counters, unreserved ticketing system in remote areas, and emergency communication using satellite phones during disaster.
  
• The Memorandum of Understanding aims at developing applications in the field of remote sensing and graphic information system, proposes to provide information such as train stoppages, real-time train tracking, survey of new rail route alignments in hilly and difficult terrain.

ANSWER: E-Commerce taxation

Explanation:

• A Committee on Taxation of e-commerce was constituted by the Central Board of Direct Taxes to examine the business models for e-commerce, identify the direct tax issues in relation to e-commerce transactions and suggest an approach to deal with these issues.
• The Committee included officers of the CBDT, representatives from the industry, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and tax experts. The 8-member committee was headed by Akhilesh Ranjan, Joint Secretary (FT&TR-I), CBDT, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance.
• The committee has recommended a 6-8 per cent tax on several online services such as online advertising, cloud computing, website-hosting, digital platforms for sale of goods and services or download of software and applications, provided by a company not resident in India.
• Committee recommended that payments of over Rs.1 lakh made by a resident individual or company to a non-resident enterprise will be covered by this levy.
• The report was submitted to Finance Minister prior to the Budget, based on which he proposed a fee of 6 per cent to be levied only on online advertising and restricted to B2B transactions.
• Though the Budget proposal is to apply this levy currently only on online advertisements, more categories of digital goods and services may be added later.

ANSWER: NABARD

Explanation:

• NABARD launched the Agri-Credit Monitoring portal, which will help financial institutions to monitor the status of agricultural loans given to farmers.