DAY – 33 (InstaTest-33): Insta 75 Days Revision Plan-2020: Topic – Modern India, Subject-wise Test 4, Textbook based Test 25, March 2020 CA

Solution: D

The National Policy on Biofuels-2018 approved by the Government envisages an indicative target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of bio-diesel in diesel by 2030.

National Policy on biofuels- salient features:

1. Categorization: The Policy categorises biofuels as “Basic Biofuels” viz. First Generation (1G) bioethanol & biodiesel and “Advanced Biofuels” – Second Generation (2G) ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to dropin fuels, Third Generation (3G) biofuels, bio-CNG etc. to enable extension of appropriate financial and fiscal incentives under each category.
2. Scope of raw materials: The Policy expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of Sugarcane Juice, Sugar containing materials like Sugar Beet, Sweet Sorghum, Starch containing materials like Corn, Cassava, Damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, Rotten Potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
3. Protection to farmers: Farmers are at a risk of not getting appropriate price for their produce during the surplus production phase. Taking this into account, the Policy allows use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee
4. Viability gap funding: With a thrust on Advanced Biofuels, the Policy indicates a viability gap funding scheme for 2G ethanol Bio refineries of Rs.5000 crore in 6 years in addition to additional tax incentives, higher purchase price as compared to 1G biofuels.
5. Boost to biodiesel production: The Policy encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, Used Cooking Oil, short gestation crops.

Solution: A

Lala Lajpat Rai

Lala Lajpat Rai is remembered for his role during the Swadeshi movement and for his advocacy of education.  He became a follower of Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, and went on to become one of the society’s leaders.  He also helped found the Punjab National Bank.

• In 1885, Rai established the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School in Lahore and remained a committed educationist throughout his life.
• Rai, Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal (called Lal-Bal-Pal) fervently advocated the use of Swadeshi goods and mass agitation in the aftermath of the controversial Partition of Bengal in 1905 by Lord Curzon.
• He founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in New York City in 1917.
• He was elected President of the Indian National Congress during its Special Session in Kolkata in 1920, which saw the launch of Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-cooperation Movement.
• The patriot died at Lahore in 1928 after he was attacked by police during a protest rally against the Simon Commission.

His important works include: ‘The Arya Samaj’, ‘Young India’, ‘England’s Debt to India’, ‘Evolution of Japan’, ‘India’s Will to Freedom’, ‘Message of the Bhagwad Gita’, ‘Political Future of India’, ‘Problem of National Education in India’, ‘The Depressed Glasses’, and the travelogue ‘United States of America’.

Solution: A

Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Missile

It’s essentially a missile that can destroy or jam an enemy country’s satellite in space.

It is a DRDO-developed Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) Interceptor Missile which successfully engaged an Indian orbiting target satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in a ‘Hit to Kill’ mode.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/anti-satellite-missile-capability-showcased-in-r-day-parade/article30657451.ece

Solution: B

Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya

Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya was a freedom fighter and social reformer.  He had served as the President of the INC on four occasions.  He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 2014.

He was the editor of a Hindi magazine, ‘Hindosthan’.  He became the editor of the ‘Indian Opinion’ in 1889. He also started a Hindi weekly ‘Abhyudaya’, an English daily ‘Leader’, a Hindi newspaper ‘Maryada’.

• Pandit Malaviya was instrumental in founding the Benares Hindu University in 1916. He also became its Vice-Chancellor till 1939.
• He was opposed to separate electorates to Muslims and the Lucknow Pact.
• He was also against the INC’s participation in the Khilafat Movement.
• He was a participant in the Second Round Table Conference in 1931.
• He started the Ganga Mahasabha to oppose construction of dams in the Ganga.
• He was also a social reformer who opposed untouchability. He worked for the temple entry of Dalits at the Kalaram Temple at Nashik, Maharashtra.
• He also founded the organisation Shri Mathura Vrindavan Hasanand Gochar Bhoomi in Vrindavan.

Solution: D

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy

Born in 1879, Periyar is remembered for the Self Respect Movement to redeem the identity and self-respect of Tamils. He envisaged a Dravida homeland of Dravida Nadu, and launched a political party, Dravidar Kazhagam (DK).

He associated himself with the Justice Party and the Self Respect Movement.

Periyar’s fame spread beyond the Tamil region during the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924, a mass movement to demand that lower caste persons be given the right to use a public path in front of the famous Vaikom temple.

In the 1940s, Periyar launched Dravidar Kazhagam, which espoused an independent Dravida Nadu comprising Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada speakers.

As a social reformer, he focused on social, cultural and gender inequalities, and his reform agenda questioned matters of faith, gender and tradition.  He asked people to be rational in their life choices. He argued that women needed to be independent, not mere child-bearers, and insisted that they be allowed an equal share in employment.

Solution: C

Operation Vanilla is launched by Indian Navy in the Southern Indian Ocean. The Operation has been launched to assist the population of Madagascar that were affected by Cyclone Diane.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/indian-navy-launches-operation-vanilla-to-help-flood-hit-madagascar/article30677388.ece

Solution: A

The final shape to the of all-India organisation idea was given by a retired English civil servant, A.O. Hume, who mobilised leading intellectuals

of the time and, with their cooperation, organised the first session of the Indian National Congress at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay in December 1885.

As a prelude to this, two sessions of the Indian National Conference had been held in 1883 and 1885, which had representatives drawn from all major towns of India. Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose were the main architects of the Indian National Conference.

The first session of the Indian National Congress was attended by 72 delegates and presided over by Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee.

In 1890, Kadambini Ganguly, the first woman graduate of Calcutta University, addressed the Congress session, which symbolised the commitment of the freedom struggle to give the women of India their due status in national life.

Solution: C

The Chabahar port project will be the first overseas venture for Indian state-owned ports such as JNPT and the Deendayal Port Trust. It is located in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province on Iran’s South-eastern coast (outside the Persian Gulf).

The port provides access to the resources and markets of landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia bypassing Pakistan.

Chabahar port will be linked to International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), thus serve as India’s outreach in region to Afghanistan and beyond to Russia, Eastern Europe.

Solution: D

The Congress split at Surat came in December 1907, around the time when revolutionary activity had gained momentum.

The two events were not unconnected. In December 1905, at the Benaras session of the Indian National Congress presided over by Gokhale, the Moderate-Extremist differences came to the fore.

The Extremists wanted a strong resolution supporting their programme at the Benaras session. The Moderates, on the other hand, were not in favour of extending the movement beyond Bengal and were totally opposed to boycott of councils and similar associations.

At the Calcutta session of the Congress in December 1906, the Moderate enthusiasm had cooled a bit because of the popularity of the Extremists and the revolutionaries and because of communal riots. Here, the Extremists wanted either Tilak or Lajpat Rai as the president, while the Moderates proposed the name of Dadabhai Naoroji, who was widely respected by all the nationalists.

The Extremists wanted the 1907 session to be held in Nagpur (Central Provinces) with Tilak or Lajpat Rai as the president along with a reiteration of the swadeshi, boycott and national education resolutions. The Moderates wanted the session at Surat in order to exclude Tilak from the presidency, since a leader from the host province could not be session president (Surat being in Tilak’s home province of Bombay).

Instead, they wanted Rashbehari Ghosh as the president and sought to drop the resolutions on swadeshi, boycott and national education. Both sides adopted rigid positions, leaving no room for compromise.

Solution: C

By the 1870s, Calcutta’s student community was honeycombed with secret societies, but these were not very active. The first revolutionary groups were organised in 1902 in Midnapore (under Jnanendranath Basu) and in Calcutta (the Anushilan Samiti founded by Promotha Mitter, and including Jatindranath Banerjee, Barindra Kumar Ghosh and others.)

But their activities were limited to giving physical and moral training to the members and remained insignificant till 1907-08.

In April 1906, an inner circle within Anushilan (Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Bhupendranath Dutta) started the weekly Yugantar and conducted a few abortive ‘actions’.

Solution: A

Komagata Maru Incident

The importance of this event lies in the fact that it created an explosive situation in the Punjab. Komagata Maru was the name of a ship which was carrying 370 passengers, mainly Sikh and Punjabi Muslim would-be immigrants, from Singapore to Vancouver.

They were turned back by Canadian authorities after two months of privation and uncertainty. It was generally believed that the Canadian authorities were influenced by the British government. The ship finally anchored at Calcutta in September 1914. The inmates refused to board the Punjab bound train. In the ensuing conflict with the police at Budge Budge near Calcutta, 22 persons died.

The Komagata Maru incident involved the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru, on which a group of people from British India attempted to emigrate to Canada in 1914, but most were denied entry and forced to return to Budge Budge Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), India.

Solution: A

The Home Rule Movement was the Indian response to the First World War in a less charged but a more effective way than the response of Indians living abroad which took the form of the romantic Ghadr adventure.

Two Indian Home Rule Leagues were organised on the lines of the Irish Home Rule Leagues and they represented the emergence of a new trend of aggressive politics.

Annie Besant and Tilak were the pioneers of this new trend.  Although Besant failed to get the Congress to approve her scheme of Home Rule Leagues, the Congress did commit itself to a programme of educative propaganda and to a revival of local-level Congress committees.

Not willing to wait for too long, Besant laid the condition that if the Congress did not implement its commitments, she would be free to set up her own league—which she finally had to, as there was no response from the Congress.

Tilak and Besant set up their separate leagues to avoid any friction.

Tilak set up his Home Rule League in April 1916 and it was restricted to Maharashtra (excluding Bombay city), Karnataka, Central Provinces and Berar. It had six branches and the demands included swarajya, formation of linguistic states and education in the vernacular.

Solution: D

In line with the government policy contained in Montagu’s statement of August 1917, the government announced further constitutional reforms in July 1918, known as Montagu-Chelmsford or Montford Reforms. Based

on these, the Government of India Act, 1919 was enacted.

Legislature

(i) Provincial legislative councils were further expanded and 70 per cent of the members were to be elected.

(ii) The system of communal and class electorates was further consolidated.

(iii) Women were also given the right to vote.

(iv) The legislative councils could initiate legislation but the governor’s assent was required. The governor could veto bills and issue ordinances.

(v) The legislative councils could reject the budget but the governor could restore it, if necessary.

(vi) The legislators enjoyed freedom of speech.

Legislature

(i) A bicameral arrangement was introduced.

(ii) The Council of State had a tenure of 5 years and had only male members, while the Central Legislative Assembly had a tenure of 3 years.

(iii) The legislators could ask questions and supplementaries, pass adjournment motions and vote a part of the budget, but 75 per cent of the budget was still not votable.

Solution: D

Context: The Supreme Court has held that courts are empowered to order parties in a contempt case to surrender their passport in order to ensure their presence in the proceedings.

Background:

The court was hearing a contempt case in connection with a civil suit on partition of a disputed property in Delhi.

What is contempt under the Indian law?

In India, the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, divides contempt into civil contempt and criminal contempt.

• ‘Civil contempt’ is a ‘wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other processes of a Court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to the court’.
• ‘Criminal contempt’ is ‘the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which:
• Scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court.
• Prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with the due course of any judicial proceeding.
• Interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.’

Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Act, 2006:

• The statute of 1971 has been amended by the Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Act, 2006 to include the defence of truth under Section 13 of the original legislation.
• Section 13 that already served to restrict the powers of the court in that they were not to hold anyone in contempt unless it would substantially interfere with the due process of justice, the amendment further states that the court must permit ‘justification by truth as a valid defence if it is satisfied that it is in public interest and the request for invoking the said defence is bona fide.’

Constitutional Background:

• Article 129: Grants Supreme Court the power to punish for contempt of itself.
• Article 142(2): Enables the Supreme Court to investigate and punish any person for its contempt.
• Article 215: Grants every High Court the power to punish for contempt of itself.

Solution: B

It seeks to make use of the antibodies developed in the recovered patient against the coronavirus.

The whole blood or plasma from such people is taken, and the plasma is then injected in critically ill patients so that the antibodies are transferred and boost their fight against the virus.

A study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases said a COVID-19 patient usually develops primary immunity against the virus in 10-14 days.

Therefore, if the plasma is injected at an early stage, it can possibly help fight the virus and prevent severe illness.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/recovered-covid-19-patients-plasma-what-is-this-experimental-therapy-6337764/

Solution: C

Champaran Satyagraha (1917)—First Civil Disobedience

Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the problems of the farmers in context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar. The European planters had been forcing the peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 part of the total land (called tinkathia system).

When towards the end of the nineteenth century German synthetic dyes replaced indigo, the European planters demanded high rents and illegal dues from the peasants in order to maximize their profits before the peasants could shift to other crops. Besides, the peasants were forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by the Europeans.

When Gandhi, joined now by Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul- Haq, Mahadeo Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani, reached Champaran to probe into the matter, the authorities ordered him to leave the area at once.

Gandhi defied the order and preferred to face the punishment. This passive resistance or civil disobedience of an unjust order was a novel method at that time. Finally, the authorities retreated and permitted Gandhi to make an enquiry.

Now, the government appointed a committee to go into the matter and nominated Gandhi as a member. Gandhi was able to convince the authorities that the tinkathia system should be abolished and that the peasants should be compensated for the illegal dues extracted from them. As a compromise with the planters, he agreed that only 25 per cent of the money taken should be compensated.

Solution: C

Context: The first Gender Social Norms Index was recently released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

About the index:

• This index measures how social beliefs obstruct gender equality in areas like politics, work, and education, and contains data from 75 countries, covering over 80 percent of the world’s population.
• The index found new clues to the invisible barriers women face in achieving equality – potentially forging a path forward to breaking through the so-called “glass ceiling”.

Key findings:

• Despite decades of progress closing the equality gap between men and women, close to 90 percent of men and women hold some sort of bias against women.
• Almost half of those polled feel that men are superior political leaders.
• More than 40 per cent believe they make better business executives and are more entitled to jobs when the economy is lagging.
• Moreover, 28 per cent think it is justified for a man to beat his wife.
• The analysis also highlighted a bias shift in some 30 countries, revealing that while some show improvements, attitudes in others appear to have worsened in recent years – signaling that progress cannot be taken for granted.

Solution: D

The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, popularly known as the Rowlatt Act, was based on the recommendations made in the previous year to the Imperial Legislative Council by the Rowlatt Commission, headed by the British judge, Sir Sidney Rowlatt, to investigate the ‘seditious conspiracy’ of the Indian people. (The committee had recommended that activists should be deported or imprisoned without trial for two years, and that even possession of seditious newspapers would be adequate evidence of guilt.)

All the elected Indian members of the Imperial Legislative Council voted against the bill but they were in a minority and easily overruled by the official nominees. All the elected Indian members—who included Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Mazhar Ul Haq – resigned in protest.

The act allowed political activists to be tried without juries or even imprisoned without trial. It allowed arrest of Indians without warrant on the mere suspicion of ‘treason’. Such suspects could be tried in secrecy without recourse to legal help. A special cell consisting of three high court judges was to try such suspects and there was no court of appeal above that panel. This panel could even accept evidence not acceptable under the Indian Evidences Act.

The law of habeas corpus, the basis of civil liberty, was sought to be suspended.

Solution: B

One section led by C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru and Ajmal Khan wanted an end to the boycott of legislative councils so that the nationalists could enter them to expose the basic weaknesses of these assemblies and use these councils as an arena of political struggle to arouse popular enthusiasm.

They wanted, in other words, to ‘end or mend’ these councils, i.e., if the government did not respond to the nationalists’ demands, then they would obstruct the working of these councils.

Those advocating entry into legislative councils came to be known as the ‘Swarajists’, while the other school of thought led by C. Rajagopalachari, Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad and M.A. Ansari came to be known as the ‘Nochangers’.

The ‘No-changers’ opposed council entry, advocated concentration on constructive work, and continuation of boycott and non-cooperation, and quiet preparation for resumption of the suspended civil disobedience programme.

Solution: C

About North East Venture Fund (NEVF):

• Launched in September 2017.
• Set up by North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi)in association with Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (M-DoNER).
• It is a close ended fund with capital commitment of Rs 100 crore.
• It is the first dedicated venture capital fund for the North Eastern Region.
• Objective: to contribute to the entrepreneurship development of the NER and achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns through long term capital appreciation by way of investments in privately negotiated equity/ equity related investments.
• The investment under this schemer ranges from Rs. 25 lakh to Rs.10 crore per venture, which is long term in nature with investment horizon of 4-5 years.

Solution: C

The Mudumalai National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary also a declared tiger reserve, lies on the northwestern side of the Nilgiri Hills in Nilgiri District, in Tamil Nadu, India. It shares its boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala.

It is a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve along with Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala) in the West, Bandipur National Park (Karnataka) in the North, Mukurthi National Park and Silent Valley in the South. The sanctuary is divided into five ranges – Masinagudi, Thepakadu, Mudumalai, Kargudi and Nellakota.

Solution: D

The Nehru Report confined itself to British India, as it envisaged the future link-up of British India with the princely states on a federal basis. For the dominion it recommended:

1. Dominion status on lines of self-governing dominions as the form of government desired by Indians (much to the chagrin of younger, militant section—Nehru being prominent among them).
2. Rejection of separate electorates which had been the basis of constitutional reforms so far; instead, a demand for joint electorates with reservation of seats for Muslims.
3. Linguistic provinces.
4. Nineteen fundamental rights including equal rights for women, right to form unions, and universal adult suffrage.
5. Responsible government at the Centre and in provinces
6. Full protection to cultural and religious interests of Muslims.
7. Complete dissociation of State from religion.

Solution: C

The government had taken the adamant position that no constitutional advance could be made till the Congress came to an agreement with the Muslim leaders. It issued ordinance after ordinance taking away the freedom of speech and that of the press and the right to organise associations.

Towards the end of 1940, the Congress once again asked Gandhi to take command. Gandhi now began taking steps which would lead to a mass struggle within his broad strategic perspective. He decided to initiate a limited satyagraha on an individual basis by a few selected individuals

in every locality.

The aims of launching individual satyagraha were—

(i) to show that nationalist patience was not due to weakness;

(ii) to express people’s feeling that they were not interested in the war and that they made no distinction between Nazism and the double autocracy that ruled India; and

(iii) to give another opportunity to the government to accept Congress’ demands peacefully.

The demand of the satyagraha would be the freedom of speech against the war through an anti-war declaration. If the government did not arrest the satyagrahi, he or she would not only repeat it but move into villages and start a march towards Delhi, thus precipitating a movement which came to be known as the ‘Delhi Chalo Movement’.

Vinoba Bhave was the first to offer the satyagraha and Nehru, the second. By May 1941, 25,000 people had been convicted for individual civil disobedience.

Solution: B

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India is a statutory organisation under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). It was established in 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of pollution) Act, 1974.

CPCB is entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. It serves as a field formation and also provides technical services to the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It Co-ordinates the activities of the State Pollution Control Boards by providing technical assistance and guidance and also resolves disputes among them.

Solution: C

Desai-Liaqat Pact

Desai-Liaqat Pact was concluded between Bhulabhai Desai of the Congress and Liaqat Ali Khan of the Muslim League. It was to find out the way out of the 1942-45 political impasses.

Efforts continued to end the deadlock. Bhulabhai Desai, leader of the Congress Party in the Central Legislative Assembly, met Liaqat Ali Khan, deputy leader of the Muslim League in that Assembly, and both of them came up with the draft proposal for the formation of an interim government at the centre, consisting of—

• an equal number of persons nominated by the Congress and the League in the central legislature.
• 20% reserved seats for minorities.

 No settlement could be reached between the Congress and the League on these lines, but the fact that a sort of parity between the Congress and the League was decided upon had far-reaching consequences.

Solution: A

For a number to be divisible by 8; its last 3 digits should be divisible by 8
So, (45x) is divisible by 8

Thus, x = 6 is the correct answer

Solution: C

There are 7 digits 1, 2, 0, 2, 4, 2, 4 in which 2 occurs 3 times, 4 occurs 2 times.

Number of 7 digit numbers = 7!/(3!×2!) = 420

But out of these 420 numbers, there are some numbers which begin with ‘0’ and they are not 7-digit numbers. The number of such numbers beginning with ‘0’.

=6!/(3!×2!) = 60

Hence the required number of 7 digits numbers = 420 – 60 = 360

Solution: D

Number of ways of choosing 2 black balls from 5 black balls in 5C2 ways.

Number of ways of choosing 2 white balls from 3 white balls in 3C2 ways.

Number of ways of choosing 2 red balls from 4 red balls in 4C2 ways.

By the Counting Principle, 2 black balls, 2 white balls, and 2 red balls can be chosen in 10 x 3 x 6 =180 ways.

Solution: B

The number of ways of drawing 2 balls out of (6+4) = 10C2

= (10 * 9)/(2 * 1) = 45

Event of getting both balls of same colour = no of ways (2 balls out of six) or (2 balls out of 4)

= 6C2 + 4C2

= (6 * 5)/(2*1) + (4*3)/(2*1)

= 15 + 6 = 21

Probability of getting 2 same colour balls = 21/45

= 7/15

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

Though green revolution helped in the past at that situation, on long run it made dependent on mono-cropping there by posing threat to biodiversity.

Avoid extreme statements as in option C and A.