IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Oct 09 & 10, 2015

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:
- Exercise Malabar 2015 will see Japan’s participation in a naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal after eight years, but Australia will not be participating.
- Exercise Malabar is a bilateral naval exercise involving the United States and India. Participation has been expanded in some years to include Japan, Australia and/or Singapore.
- The annual Malabar series began in 1992, and includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers, through Maritime Interdiction Operations Exercises.
- 2014 Malabar exercise were held at Sasebo naval base in Japan.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:
- The IPCC does not carry out its own original research, nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself.
- The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature, which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources.
- Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute on a voluntary basis to writing and reviewing reports, which are then reviewed by governments.
- Hoesung Lee of South Korea has been elected Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
- Lee succeeds environmentalist R.K. Pachauri who resigned following the sexual abuse scandal.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:
- The Cabinet cleared a national watershed management plan, Neeranchal to be done under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana.
- It will be implemented at the national level as well as in the nine states of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.
- Neeranchal will bring about institutional changes in watershed and rainfed agricultural management practices in India.
- It will build systems that ensure watershed programs and rainfed irrigation management practices are better focused, and more coordinated, and have quantifiable results.

ANSWER: All

Explanation:
The newly launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) have allocation of Rs 50,000 crore spread over a period of five years

The major objectives of the PMKSY are: -
1. To achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level,
2. To expand cultivable area under assured irrigation (Har Khet ko pani),
3. To improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage of water,
4. To enhance the adoption of precision-irrigation and other water saving technologies (More crop per drop),
5. To enhance recharge of aquifers and introduce sustainable water conservation practices by exploring the feasibility of reusing treated municipal based water for peri-urban agriculture,
6. To attract greater private investment in precision irrigation system.

ANSWER: 1,2,4

Explanation:
The programmes, which would be brought under one roof are:

1. The Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme of the Ministry of Water resources
2. Integrated Watershed Management Programme of the Ministry of Rural development and land resources,
3. The Farm Water Management component of the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture of the Department of Agriculture.

ANSWER: Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana

Explanation:
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana will encourage farmers to adopt eco-friendly concept of cultivation and reduce their dependence on fertilizers and agricultural chemicals to improve yields.
- Government has made budgetary allocation of Rs. 300 Crores for Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana.

ANSWER: Belarus

Explanation:
- It has been half a century since a writer working primarily in non-fiction won the Nobel - and Alexievich is the first journalist to win the award.
- Her best-known works in English translation include Voices from Chernobyl, an oral history of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe; and Zinky Boys, a collection of first-hand accounts from the Soviet-Afghan war.
- Alexievich has previously won the Swedish PEN prize for her "courage and dignity as a writer

ANSWER: 1,3,4

Explanation:
Three new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Nagpur in Maharashtra, Manglagiri in Andhra Pradesh and at Kalyani in West Bengal under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna. This will cost Rs 4,949 crore.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
In view of the vast potential of the greater Pearl River Delta region, Chinese authorities are developing the Pearl River-Xijiang River Economic Belt. When fully developed, the waterways would strongly reinforce Nanning’s state-of-the-art rail and road connectivity to the coast. An active high-speed link has already slashed transit time between Nanning and Guangzhou to four hours.

ANSWER: Torpedo launch and recovery vessel

Explanation:
INS Astradharani was commissioned into Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is Indian Navy’s first totally indigenously-designed and built Torpedo launch and recovery vessel (TRV). It is advanced replacement for INS Astravahini which was decommissioned from India Navy in July, 2015.

ANSWER: Ghaziabad

Explanation:
National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF) was a central sector scheme since 10th Five Year Plan. NPOF is being implemented by National Centre of Organic Farming at Ghaziabad and its six Regional Centres at Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Panchkula, Imphal, Jabalpur and Nagpur.

ANSWER: All

Explanation:
Vector-borne diseases are infections transmitted by the bite of infected arthropod species, such as mosquitoes, ticks, triatomine bugs, sandflies, and blackflies. Many such vectors are haematophagous, which feed on blood at some or all stages of their lives. When the insects blood feed, the parasite enters the blood stream of the host. This can happen in different ways.
Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) is the central nodal agency for the prevention and control of vector borne diseases.

ANSWER: 1 & 2

Explanation:
Trigeminal neuralgia is a type of Non-nociceptive pain. Nociceptive pain is when something very hot touches your skin; specific pain receptors sense the heat. Nociceptive pain is when pain receptors sense temperature, vibration, stretch, and chemicals released from damaged cells. Non-nociceptive pain, or neuropathic pain, comes from within the nervous system itself.