IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - May 22 & 23, 2016

ANSWER: Reusable Launch Vehicle

Explanation:

• The first technology demonstrator of indigenously made Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), that can launch satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter the atmosphere, will be flight tested from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
• This will be the first time ISRO will be launching a winged flight vehicle. After launch it will be glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal, some 500 km from the coast. The mission, known as the hypersonic flight experiment, is expected to last about 10 minutes from lift off to splashdown.
• Reusable Launch Vehicle—Technology Demonstration Programme or RLV–TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that has been conceived by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) re-usable launch vehicle.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:
A winged reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator (RLV-TD) has been configured. The RLV-TD will act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies like powered cruise flight, hypersonic flight, and autonomous landing using air-breathing propulsion. Application of these technologies would bring down the launch cost by a factor of 10. A total of four RLV-TD flights are planned by ISRO.

• HEX (Hypersonic Flight Experiment)
• LEX (Landing Experiment)
• REX (Return Flight Experiment)
• SPEX (Scramjet Propulsion Experiment)

ANSWER: Type 1

Explanation:

• Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar. Diabetes may be directly inherited.
• Type 1 Diabetes - the body does not produce insulin. Approximately 10% of all diabetes cases are type 1.
• Type 2 Diabetes - the body does not produce enough insulin for proper function. Approximately 90% of all cases of diabetes worldwide are of this type.
• Gestational Diabetes - this type affects females during pregnancy.
• The most common diabetes symptoms include frequent urination, intense thirst and hunger, weight gain, unusual weight loss, fatigue, cuts and bruises that do not heal, male sexual dysfunction, numbness and tingling in hands and feet.

ANSWER: 2, 3

Explanation:
Improving the health and lives of women and children in India, by strengthening nutrition programs in order to promote their holistic development is one of the topmost priorities of the Government. In sync with this focus, the four priority areas of work as part of this MoC would include:

• Development and deployment of ICT solutions for improving and strengthening ICDS Service Delivery System.
• Support Ministry of Women & Child Development in developing a shared national communications campaign for maternal and child nutrition among target populations.
• Provision of technical support for the National Nutrition Mission, Restructured ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) and Restructured ICDS through a Technical Support Unit at the national and state level for strengthening their capacities to deliver nutrition especially during pre- conception, pregnancy and first two years of life.
• Technical support and Knowledge management support to strengthen human resource capabilities at various levels in order to deliver effective nutrition interventions.
  This collaboration will strengthen the government’s restructured ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) and National Nutrition Mission, with a focus on technological innovation, sharing best practices and use of data and evidence to enhance performance at the national and state level.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
There are two components of the National Nutrition Mission as follows:

1. Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Campaign against malnutrition
2. Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Programme
The key objectives of these programmes are as under:

• To create awareness relating to malnutrition amongst pregnant women, lactating mothers, promote healthy lactating practices and importance of balanced nutrition;
• To improve maternal and child under-nutrition in 200 high burdened districts and to prevent and reduce the under-nutrition prevalent among children below 3 years;
• To reduce incidence of anaemia among young children, adolescent girls and women.

ANSWER: An elephant

Explanation:

• Compared to mammoths, mastodons had shorter legs, a longer body and were more heavily muscled, a build similar to that of the current Asian elephants.
• Mastodons are distantly related to elephants, and inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.
• Mastodons lived in herds and were predominantly forest dwelling animals that fed on a mixed diet obtained by browsing and grazing with a seasonal preference for browsing, similar to living elephants.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• The government has granted permission to the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) to use drones for aerial surveillance of its pipelines. This follows the use of drones for similar purposes by the Indian Railways and the National Highways Authority of India.
• Line patrolling is extremely difficult for pipeline sections passing through forests, rivers, environmentally sensitive areas and other inaccessible areas. GAIL (India) Limited has awarded an order for aerial surveillance of 200 kilometres for the Hazira Vijaipur Jagdishpur /Dahej Vijaipur pipelines with drones as a pilot project.
• Surveillance of a vast network of pipelines across the country is required to ensure the safety and reliability of pipelines and guard against sabotage, exposure, soil erosion, excavation and construction works. Currently, it is being achieved through regular, periodic, foot-patrolling and air surveillance by hiring helicopter services on a monthly basis. The drones will carry out surveillance using high-resolution and infrared cameras.
• NHAI signed a pact with the Indian Space Research Organization's National Remote Sensing Centre and the North East Centre for Technology Application and Research for the use of UAVs to aid in surveillance of construction work. Separately, the Indian Railways has used drones to monitor the progress on the Dedicated Freight Corridor.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Demographic pressure, industrial development, pollution, urbanisation, agriculture and aquaculture and water transport have been adding pressure on the wetlands.
• Reclamation of wetlands and the aquatic ecosystems, which are often considered as wastelands, is spelling trouble to several taxa.
• The stake nets used for fishing removes a wide array of non-target organisms, which are functionally important to the aquatic environment. Destructive fishing practise are also taking a toll on the bird population.
• Unregulated fishing, reclamation of wetlands, dumping of solid waste and domestic sewage too posed threats to the wetlands.

ANSWER: UVB

Explanation:

• UV-B is responsible for production of vitamin D in our body.
• UV-B gives much protection against sun burn on a long-term basis. It is effectively controlled by sunscreens. But UV-B is associated with the risks of ageing, skin cancer (due to DNA damage) and long-term tanning.
• Hence, one can judiciously choose the time and extent of exposure to sunlight to enjoy the benefits of the sunlight and at the same time not becoming vulnerable to its ill effects.