IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Sep 09 & 10, 2016

ANSWER: 1>2>3>4

Explanation:
Government had commissioned Quality Council of India (QCI) to carry out the assessment ‘Swachh Survekshan’ for rural India. Each district has been judged on four distinct parameters. Maximum weightage was places on accessibility to safe toilets and water. The parameters to judge sanitation status include:

• Households having access to safe toilets and using them (toilet usage, water accessibility, safe disposal of waste) (40%)
• Households having no litter around (30%)
• Public places with no litter in the surrounding (10%)
• Households having no stagnant wastewater around (20%).

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May 2016.
• Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in “Hills” category and Sindhudurg as the cleanest in the “Plains” category.

Overall Ranking - Swachh Survekshan Gramin

Category	Rank	District	State	Cleanliness Score
Hills	1	Mandi	Himachal Pradesh	98.4
Hills	2	West Sikkim	Sikkim	96.4
Hills	3	Shimla	Himachal Pradesh	94.1
Plains	1	Sindhudurg	Maharashtra	96.8
Plains	2	Nadia	West Bengal	95.0
Plains	3	Satara	Maharashtra	92.9

ANSWER: Global Alliance for Literacy

Explanation:

• Global Alliance for Literacy has been launched by UNESCO to mobilize investment and promote innovative initiatives, with a focus on gender and new information and communication technologies.
• The new global partnership for literacy aims to bring governments, NGOs, academic institutions and the private sector together to look afresh at how to boost progress.
• The Global Alliance for Literacy within the Framework of Lifelong Learning (GAL) was born from deep concern expressed at the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 at the fact that the world’s literacy agenda remained unfinished.
• GAL aims to harness the potential of technology to increase access to quality literacy learning and stimulate and promote collaborative programmes which connect literacy with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The initiative coordinated by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in Hamburg, comprises UN, government and private sector representatives, regional organizations, donors, national and international non-governmental organizations and experts.

ANSWER: He won a medal at Rio

Explanation:

• Shri Varun Bhati won a Bronze Medal at the Rio Paralympic Games-2016.
• He won in the Men’s High Jump T42 event.
• Bhati cleared a height of 1.68 metres making him one of only three athletes to do so.
• It was the first instance of two Indians finishing on the podium in the same event of a Paralympic Games. Other was Shri Mariyappan Thangavelu who won Gold.
• The T-42 classification is for athletes with lower limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired range of movement.

ANSWER: He won a medal at Rio

Explanation:

• Shri Mariyappan Thangavelu became the first Indian high jumper to win a Gold Medal at the Rio Paralympic Games-2016.
• Thangavelu won the gold with the best jump of 1.89m, defeating the world champion Sam Grewe who had made 1.86m.
• It was the first instance of two Indians finishing on the podium in the same event of a Paralympic Games.
• The T-42 classification is for athletes with lower limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired range of movement

ANSWER: Depositing academic awards and certificates

Explanation:

• Government intends to establish a digital depository of academic awards to be known as National Academic Depository (NAD) on the pattern of securities depository.
• The NAD would help in validating the authenticity of these awards and ensuring their safe storage and easy retrieval.
• Maintaining academic awards in a digital depository would provide benefit to educational institutions, students and employers by enabling online access and retrieval; eliminate fraudulent practices such as forging of certificates and mark-sheets and facilitate validation.
• NAD would be available online 24X7 access to the stakeholders.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:

• China becomes the third country to master sky train technology, after Germany and Japan.
• The two compartments can hold more than 200 passengers.
• When compared with subways and trams, sky trains have lower costs, better climbing and turning ability, and higher wind resistance.
• The construction period of sky trains is also much shorter than that of subways, lasting only three to five months for dozens of kilometres of rails.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Railways new flexi system is experimental and would apply to three premium trains only.
• The fares will be applicable on Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains.
• 10 per cent of the seats will be sold in the normal fare in the beginning; it will go on increasing by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold with a ceiling of 50 per cent.
• Indian railways is not the only railways following flexi pricing. Russian railways, European railways, UK, French, American railways, Japanese railways have been following dynamic pricing since long.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• Government has issued fresh flexi-fund guidelines that will give more freedom to states in spending money under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) to meet local developmental requirements.
• Under the new norms, flexi-funds in each CSS have been increased from the current 10 per cent to 25 per cent for states and 30 per cent for Union Territories.
• Finance Ministry said, States can use the fund to undertake mitigation or restoration activities in case of natural calamities, or to satisfy local requirements in areas affected by internal security disturbances.
• The flexi-fund facility is not for CSS which emanate from legislation, like MNREGA.

ANSWER: It mimics cartilage of human body

Explanation:

• Scientists from Imperial College London in the UK and University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy have developed a bio-glass material that mimics the shock-absorbing and load bearing qualities of real cartilage.
• The material can also mimic cartilage and encourage it to re-grow, which will be helpful in damaged cartilage replacements between discs in vertebrae.
• The bio-glass consists of silica and a plastic or polymer called polycaprolactone.