IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - May 29 & 30, 2016

ANSWER: Chandigarh

Explanation:

• “Kalpana Chawla Chair” will be setup at at PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh as she is an alumnus of the institute.
• The objective of this chair is to encourage research activities in Geo-spatial Technology and to strengthen Indian Railways especially Railway projects where use of remote sensing data , global positioning system (GPS) and Geographical information System (GIS) is predominant.
• This will immensely help Indian Railways to develop in house solutions to the problems which are often outsourced to western countries.

ANSWER: Messaging Platform

Explanation:

• E-Sampark is a messaging platform.
• Centre will also launch an 'e-sampark' portal on a crowd-sourcing model, where private citizens could also sign up for the e-mail alerts by leaving their email addresses and telephone numbers and later unsubscribe at any stage.
• The government says that in the absence of a central repository of all Indian citizens, the ability to reach out to an individual is missing and the e-sampark database can fill that gap and can be used for diverse purposes like feedback and alerts.

ANSWER: Sleep/wake cycle

Explanation:

• A circadian rhythm is any biological process that displays an endogenous, entrainable oscillation of about 24 hours. These 24-hour rhythms are driven by a circadian clock, and they have been widely observed in plants, animals, fungi, and cyanobacteria.
• Most living organisms, including humans, have a biological clock that resets every 24 hours, regulating functions such as sleep/wake cycles and metabolism.
• Our biological clock is basically run by four “master regulator” proteins that work in tandem. CLOCK and BMAL1, when combined, promote the production of the proteins PER and CRY. These proteins, in turn, block CLOCK and BMAL1, thus closing the cycle.
• This cycle of activation, production and stop/block goes around once a day and is also influenced by a compound called FBXL3, which flags CRY for degradation by cellular enzymes.

ANSWER: Neither 1 nor 2

Explanation:

• ‘Track Child’ portal that belongs to the Ministry of Home Affairs, but in that portal only police communicates with the police. So the Track Child is a limited portal.
• Whereas everybody can participate in the new portal ‘Khoya-Paya’. The new Khoya Paya web portal establishes citizen to citizen contact and allows India to take part in search for missing children.
• The Khoya Paya portal is a citizen based website to exchange information on missing and found children. It has been developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
• The Khoya Paya website is an enabling platform, where citizens can report missing children, as well as sightings of their whereabouts without wasting much time. The ‘Found’ children can also be reported on this web portal. The reporting can be done through text, photographs, videos and other means of transmitting and uploading information to the KhoyaPaya site. Information about missing and sighted children can be uploaded at Khoyapaya.gov.in.

ANSWER: IIT Delhi

Explanation:

• Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) is a descriptive index of pollution. It is a rational number between 0 and 100, assigned to characterize the environmental quality at a given location.
• It is also an indication of large percentage of population experiencing health hazards. The CEPI index is based on the parameters related to incidence of pollution in water, land (ground water) and air.

ANSWER: 1, 3

Explanation:

• Comprehensive environmental pollution index (CEPI) is a composite measurement of air and water pollution and land degradation that is used in 88 industrial clusters.
• The CEPI is based on parameters such as the nature of toxins, the scale of industrial activities, the level of ambient pollution, impact on humans and eco-geological features and the number of people potentially affected within a 2 km radius. It has a maximum composite score of 100.
• The revised index will no longer take into account the adverse impact of pollutants on human health and environmental degradation as it is difficult to make a quantified assessment on the impact on people or on the ecosystem.
• The developers of the index acknowledged that it may not be possible to always have reliable evidence of the adverse impact on people and eco-geological features. For this reason, they made the assessment on a scale, with zero given when there was no reliable evidence and a maximum of 6 when there was evidence of fatalities and loss of fauna and flora due to exposure to pollutants produced in the cluster.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:

• The Bill aims to create a strong legal, economic and social environment against trafficking of persons and related matters.
• The Bill is victim oriented and makes clear the distinction between the ‘trafficker’ and the ‘trafficked’. The draft Bill plugs loopholes in existing laws and brings within its fold additional crimes pertaining to trafficking which don’t find a place in the existing laws.
• It also envisages creation of an Anti-Trafficking Fund for rehabilitation of victims of trafficking, she said. Under the Bill, an institutional mechanism is also sought to be set up to deal with this highly specialized subject which will also include members from Civil Society Organizations.
• Since the problem is trans-border with our neighbouring countries, protocols will also be worked out for those trafficked from other countries.
• The proposed draft Bill aims to place dedicated institutional mechanisms at District, State and Central level. It also envisages a designated Agency for the investigation of offences. It provides for Protection Homes and Special Homes for short term and long term rehabilitation support.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:

• For speedy trial with a view to increase prosecution and to reduce the trauma faced by the victims, the proposed draft Bill provides for establishing Special Courts in each district and experienced Special Prosecutors.
• Recovery of back wages and other monetary losses of the victim of trafficking is also proposed.
• The draft Bill provides for mandatory reporting within 24 hours by a Police Officer, Public servant, any officer or employee of Protection Home or Special Home having custody of the victim of trafficking to the District Anti-Trafficking Committee or in case of child victim to the Child Welfare Committee.
• The draft Bill has also taken into its ambit the ‘placement agencies’ by making mandatory for them to also register for the purposes of this Act.

ANSWER: 1, 2, 4, 5

Explanation:

• Before attaining full statehood, Meghalaya was given semi-autonomous status in 1970. It was a sub-state.
• In 1971, the Parliament passed the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganization) Act, 1971, which conferred full statehood on the autonomous state of Meghalaya. Meghalaya attained statehood on 21 January 1972, with a Legislative Assembly of its own.
• In 1972, the political map of Northeast India underwent a major change. Thus, the two Union Territories of Manipur and Tripura and the Sub-State of Meghalaya got statehood and the two union territories of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh (originally known as North-East Frontier Agency—NEFA) came into being.