IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Nov 20, 2015

ANSWER: 1,2,3,5

Explanation:
- The Gauhati High Court was established on 1 March 1948 after the Government of India Act 1935 was passed.
- It was originally known as the High Court of Assam and Nagaland, but renamed as Gauhati High Court in 1971 by the North East Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971.
- It has largest jurisdiction in terms of states, with its area covering the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram.

ANSWER: Sutlej

Explanation:
- The Sutlej River is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan
- It is located north of the Vindhya Range, south of the Hindu Kush segment of the Himalayas, and east of the Central Sulaiman Range in Pakistan.
- The Sutlej River is also known as Satadree.
- It is the easternmost tributary of the Indus River.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
- The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched on the 11th January, 2010 by the Prime Minister.
- The Mission has set the ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022 is aimed at reducing the cost of solar power generation in the country through (i) long term policy; (ii) large scale deployment goals; (iii) aggressive R&D; and (iv) domestic production of critical raw materials, components and products, as a result to achieve grid tariff parity by 2022.
- Mission will create an enabling policy framework to achieve this objective and make India a global leader in solar energy.

ANSWER: New Delhi

Explanation:
- Indian Council of Medical Research is an apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research.
- It is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world.
- The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- Government has approved setting up of a National Resource Facility for Bio-medical Research (NARF) at Genome Valley in Hyderabad, Telangana. NARF will be set up by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:
- ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject.
- It will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment, which is currently building the world's largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor adjacent to the Cadarache facility in the south of France.
- The ITER project aims to make the long-awaited transition from experimental studies of plasma physics to full-scale electricity-producing fusion power plants.
- The project is funded and run by seven member entities — the European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The EU, as host party for the ITER complex, is contributing about 45 percent of the cost, with the other six parties contributing approximately 9 percent each.

ANSWER: Oil & gas exploitation policy

Explanation:
- The government plans to launch the 10th round of auctions of oil and gas exploration blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP)
- NELP round X would require bidders to quote the amount of oil or gas output they were willing to offer to the government from the first day of production.
- At present, oil companies can recover costs of exploration and production before sharing profit with the government.
- The Controller and Auditor General (CAG) had criticised this system on the grounds that it encouraged companies to increase capital expenditure and delay the government’s share of profit petroleum.

ANSWER: None

Explanation:
SAARC: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
IOR – ARC:Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:
- The Sendai Framework is a 15-year voluntary, non-binding agreement that maps out a broad, people-centred approach to disaster risk reduction, succeeding the 2005-2015 Hyogo Framework for Action.
- Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. Kiren Rijiju, has been designated as the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Champion for the Asia Region by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
- Mr. Rijiju is the first regional champion for DRR after the Sendai Agreement. He is also the first Indian to be conferred with this honour.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
- Aditya-1 Satellite will be put in a halo orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun system which would get rid of any eclipses so that the observation time is lengthier.
- The new launch schedule will allow ISRO engineers and scientists to study the solar maxima - an event of intense activity on the Sun that repeats every 11 years.

ANSWER: Disaster risk reduction

Explanation:
- The R!SE Initiative is an ambitious global response to a daunting global challenge, a new way of collaborating, to unlock the potential for public and private sector actors who are ready and willing to make a step forward and take leadership on disaster risk reduction.
- The overall goal of the initiative is to make all investments risk-sensitive.
- R!SE will facilitate the exchange of experience and knowledge to implement tangible disaster risk reduction projects through 8 streams of activities: Strategies for global business, risk metrics for economic forecasting, industry sector certification, education, principles for responsible investing, resilience of cities, insurance, and resilience of UN programming.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:
- Barak 8 is an India-Israeli surface-to-air missile (SAM), designed to defend against any type of airborne threat including aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs as well as cruise missiles and combat jets.
- Both maritime and land-based versions of the system exist.

ANSWER: Cripps' Mission

Explanation:
- The Cripps' Mission and its failure also played an important role in Gandhi's call for The Quit India Movement.
- It was a civil disobedience movement launched in India during World War II on 9 August 1942 by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

ANSWER: Savana

Explanation:
- The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a conservation area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania.
- The area is named after Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera within the area
- The Serengeti National Park is a Tanzanian national park in the Serengeti ecosystem in the Mara and Simiyu regions.
- It is famous for its annual migration of over 1.5 million white bearded (or brindled) wildebeest and 250,000 zebra and for its numerous Nile crocodile.

ANSWER: Vijayanagar architecture

Explanation:
- The Veerabhadra temple of Lepakshi, which was built by the brothers Viranna and Virupanna, is dedicated to Veerabhadra.
- It is an example of the Vijayanagar architectural style.
- Several stories like the Mahabharatha and the Ramayana; Vijayanagara murals and Kannada inscriptions on the walls.