DAY – 76 (InstaTest-75): Insta 75 Days Revision Plan-2020: Topic – Science & Technology , Previous year UPSC paper – 2018, April 2020 CA

Solution: B

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) was a French explorer and merchant. He was the first European to describe the diamond mines in India.

In 1676, Tavernier published an account of his six journeys to India and Persia from 1631 to 1668 in Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (translated into English in 1678 as The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier).

Though Tavernier provided a wealth of information about his travels and work, he did not record the details of his important transactions. It is likely that he did not want to reveal the source and the price of gems that he purchased since that information could negatively affect his business.

Solution: D

Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) has fanned fear among the villagers and health officials of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur and neighboring districts amid the novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) lockdown.

 At least three children have reportedly died of the disease, locally known as chamki bukhar, in 2020.

About AES:

• Acute encephalitis syndrome is a basket term used for referring to hospitals, children with clinical neurological manifestation that includes mental confusion, disorientation, convulsion, delirium, or coma.
• Meningitis caused by virus or bacteria, encephalitis (mostly Japanese encephalitis) caused by virus, encephalopathy, cerebral malaria, and scrub typhus caused by bacteria are collectively called acute encephalitis syndrome.
• The disease most commonly affects children and young adults and can lead to considerable morbidity and mortality.

Symptoms:

It is characterized as acute-onset of fever and a change in mental status (mental confusion, disorientation, delirium, or coma) and/or new-onset of seizures in a person of any age at any time of the year.

Cause of the disease:

Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) is considered a very complex disease as it can be caused by various agents including bacteria, fungi, virus and many other agents.

Viruses are the main causative agents in AES cases, although other sources such as bacteria, fungus, parasites, spirochetes, chemicals, toxins and noninfectious agents have also been reported over the past few decades.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the major cause of AES in India (ranging from 5%-35%).

Nipah virus, Zika virus are also found as causative agents for AES.

How is it related to litchi fruits? How it affects?

In India, AES outbreaks in north and eastern India have been linked to children eating unripe litchi fruit on empty stomachs.

Unripe fruit contain the toxins hypoglycin A and methylenecyclopropylglycine (MCPG), which cause vomiting if ingested in large quantities. Hypoglycin A is a naturally occurring amino acid found in the unripened litchi that causes severe vomiting (Jamaican vomiting sickness), while MCPG is a poisonous compound found in litchi seeds.

 Why it affects undernourished children?

• Blood glucose falls sharply causing severe brain malfunction (encephalopathy), leading to seizures and coma, and death in many cases.
• This is because under-nourished children lack sufficient glucose reserve in the form of glycogen and the production of glucose from non-carbohydrate source is blocked midway leading to low blood sugar level.
• This causes serious brain function derangement and seizures.

Measures needed:

1. Increase access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation facilities.
2. Improve nutritional status of children at risk of JE/AES.
3. Preparative measures to be in place before the possible outbreaks.
4. Vector control.
5. Better awareness generation among children, parents through Anganwadi workers, ANMs etc.

Solution: A

What is ANtarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna or ANITA?

What to study?

For Prelims and Mains: ANITA- objectives m functions and findings.

Context: The news that a NASA experiment has indicated the possibility of a parallel universe has created headlines across the world. WIth this, ANtarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna or ANITA has suddenly come into the limelight as the cosmic-ray shower that is key to the new discovery was a part of NASA’s ANITA and IceCube experiment taking place in Antarctica.

What is ANITA?

Designed by NASA, the ANITA instrument is a radio telescope which is used to detect ultra-high energy cosmic-ray neutrinos from a scientific balloon flying over Antarctica.

ANITA is the first NASA observatory for neutrinos of any kind.

It involves an array of radio antennas attached to a helium balloon which flies over the Antarctic ice sheet at 37,000 meters.

 How many ANITAs?

1. ANITA-I was launched from McMurdo, Antarctica in 2006.
2. ANITA-II, a modified instrument with 40 antennas, was launched from McMurdo Station in 2008.
3. ANITA-III, which was equipped with systems to improve sensitivity by a factor of 5–10, was launched in December 2014.
4. ANITA-IV was launched in December 2016 and it was loaded with tunable notch filters and an improved trigger system.

Facts for Prelims:

The neutrinos have energies on the order of 1018 eV and they are capable of producing radio pulses in the ice because of the Askaryan effect.

What are neutrinos?

Neutrinos are high-energy particles that pose no threat to us and pass through most solid objects without anyone even noticing.

Neutrinos constantly bombard Earth and as per some estimates emerging from studies, 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second.

Do they interact with matter?

Rarely do they interact with matter. But if they do smash into an atom, they produce a shower of secondary particles we can detect, which allows us to probe where they came from in the universe.

Solution: B

CPI was the single largest party in the opposition.

In the Lok Sabha, if a party does not have a minimum of 55 members, its leader cannot be recognized as the Leader of the Opposition.

Solution: C

LOCAL TREATMENT OF URBAN SEWAGE FOR HEALTHY REUSE(LOTUS-HR) PROGRAM

Recently, the second phase LOTUS-HR was launched.

• This project was initiated in 2017 and is jointly supported by Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India and Government of Netherlands.
• The innovative pilot scale modular plant will treat 10,000 L sewage water per day and aims to develop universal water management and risk assessment strategies that are applicable for megacities all around the world.
• The location of the project is Barapullah drain, New Delhi and the partners in the project are IIT-Delhi, NEERI and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
• First Phase involved cleaning of Barapullah drain in Delhi using compact, robust and nature-based technology of Vital Urban Filters (VUFs). o The Vital Urban Filters are based on the principle of conventional vertical flow constructed wetland that are commonly used in decentralized wastewater management.
  • o The filter consists of a flat bed of hydroponic filter material planted with ornamental plants.
  • o The filter materials are highly porous providing a high surface area for biomass. As the influent percolates through the filter, heavy metals, pathogens and micro pollutants are removed through the interaction of the plants, filter materials and bacteria.

Solution: B

Arktika-M satellite:

Russia will be launching its first Arktika-M satellite to monitor the Arctic climate and environment later this year.

Russia`s Arktika-M remote-sensing and emergency communications satellites will gather meteorological data in the polar regions of the Earth, which will allow to improve weather forecasts and will enable scientists to better study climate change.

Solution: A

India does not even produce half of its edible oil requirements, mainly due to rainfed conditions, high seed cost, smallholding with limited resources, low seed replacement rate, and low productivity. The country needs 25 million tonnes of edible oils to meet its requirement at the current consumption level of 19 kg per person per year. “Out of the total requirement, 10.50 million tonnes are produced domestically from primary and secondary sources and remaining 60%, is met through import

Indian government imposes custom duty on edible oils.

Solution: C

Government launches ‘UMMID’ initiative to tackle inherited genetic diseases of new born babies.

UMMID (Unique Methods of Management and treatment of Inherited Disorders) initiative:

Department of Biotechnology has started the UMMID Initiative which is designed on the concept of ‘Prevention is better than Cure’.

UMMID aims to create awareness about genetic disorders amongst clinicians and establish molecular diagnostics in hospitals so that the fruits of developments in medical genetics reach the patients in India.

UMMID initiative aims to:

1. Establish NIDAN (National Inherited Diseases Administration) Kendras to provide counselling, prenatal testing and diagnosis, management, and multidisciplinary care in Government Hospitals wherein the influx of patients is more.
2. Produce skilled clinicians in Human Genetics.
3. Undertake screening of pregnant women and new born babies for inherited genetic diseases in hospitals at aspirational districts.

Need for and significance of the initiative:

In India’s urban areas, congenital malformations and genetic disorders are the third most common cause of mortality in newborns. With a very large population and high birth rate, and consanguineous marriage favored in many communities, prevalence of genetic disorders is high in India.

Establishment of patient care services for genetic disorders is the need of the time.

Solution: D

On the occasion Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan gave away the Biotechnology Research Innovation and Technology Excellence (BRITE) awards. The Union Minister emphasized the role of Department of Biotechnology during the last 33 years in creating a large scale impact across the multiple sectors by development and commercialization of affordable solutions for healthcare, improved crop varieties, animal diagnostics and technology for generation of clean energy. Further, he highlighted the progress made in the area of capacity building, generation of new knowledge, translational research and in nurturing of Biotechnology startup ecosystem.

The Minister announced key missions at the foundation day ceremony including Atal JaiAnusandhan Biotech Mission – Undertaking Nationally Relevant Technology Innovation (UNaTI), which is expected to transform Health, Agriculture and Energy sectors during the next 5 years. This mission includes GARBH-ini – A Mission to promote Maternal and Child Health and develop prediction tools for pre-term berth, IndCEPI – A Mission to develop affordable vaccines for endemic diseases, Development of Biofortified and Protein Rich wheat – contributing to POSHAN Abhiyan, Mission on Anti Microbial Resistance for Affordable Diagnostics and Therapeutics and Clean Energy Mission – Innovative Technology interventions for Swachh Bharat.

Solution: C

LUCA stands for Last Universal Common Ancestor A team of scientists led by William Martin have discovered the ancestor of all things on earth and its name is LUCA.

It is the most recent organism from which all organisms now living on Earth have a common descent. Thus, it is the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all current life on Earth. As such, it should not be assumed to be the first living organism. Two of three major life domains: Bacteria and Archae share common genetic features with LUCA.

1. A single-cell organism is said to be no less than 4 billion years old
2. LUCA, an autotroph is said to have inhabited a ‘geochemically active environment rich in hydrogen, carbon dioxide and iron
3. An autotroph is an organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple substances

https://www.livemint.com/Science/INwvOmoTx0FcCpDcu5hwpL/Meet-Luca-the-ancestor-of-all-living-things-on-Earth.html

Solution: D

Spike Missile

• Indian Army places order for Israeli anti- tank Spike missiles.
• Israeli anti-tank Spike missiles from Israel are multi- platform, cutting-edge precise, multi-mission, and multi-range electro-optical missiles. These missiles have capabilities of fire, observe, update, fire-and- forget as well as allowing attack of hidden targets.
• Israeli anti-tank Spike missiles are manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.
• These missiles have the capability of targeting anything at a range of four kilometers. These can be deployed in both plains and mountains.

Solution: D

What is NAVIC?

The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), with an operational name of Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) is an independent regional navigation satellite system designed to provide position information in the Indian region and 1500 km around the Indian mainland.

Services provided:

IRNSS would provide two types of services, namely Standard Positioning Services available to all users and Restricted Services (an encrypted one) provided to authorised users (including the military).

NavIC-based vehicle trackers system has been made compulsory to all commercial vehicles.

Its applications include:

1. Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation.
2. Disaster Management.
3. Vehicle tracking and fleet management.
4. Integration with mobile phones.
5. Precise Timing.
6. Mapping and Geodetic data capture.
7. Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers.
8. Visual and voice navigation for drivers.

How many satellites does NAVIC consist of?

It is a regional system and so its constellation will consist of seven satellites.

Three of these will be geostationary over the Indian Ocean, i.e., they will appear to be stationary in the sky over the region, and four will be geosynchronous – appearing at the same point in the sky at the same time every day. (two additional satellites on ground as stand-by.)

This configuration ensures each satellite is being tracked by at least one of fourteen ground stations at any given point of time, with a high chance of most of them being visible from any point in India.

Solution: A

Fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.

Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology.

Biofortification differs from conventional fortification in that bio fortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during processing of the crops.

Biofortification may therefore present a way to reach populations where supplementation and conventional fortification activities may be difficult to implement and/or limited.

There is no legal ban on bio-fortification in India.

Examples of bio fortification projects include:

• iron-biofortification of rice, beans, sweet potato, cassava and legumes;
• zinc-biofortification of wheat, rice, beans, sweet potato and maize;
• provitamin A carotenoid-biofortification of sweet potato, maize and cassava; and
• amino acid and protein-biofortification of sourghum and cassava.

https://www.who.int/elena/titles/biofortification/en/

Solution: C

Geotail

An instrument on Chandrayaan-2, CLASS (Chandrayaan 2 Large Area Soft X-ray

Spectrometer), designed to detect signatures of elements in the Moon’s soil, had detected charged particles during the mission.

What is Geotail?

A region in space that allows the best observations. The region exists as a result of the interactions between the Sun and Earth.

How is it formed?

• The Sun emits the solar wind, which is a continuous stream of charged particles.
• These particles are embedded in the extended magnetic field of the Sun. Since the Earth has a magnetic field, it obstructs the solar wind plasma.
• This interaction results in the formation of a magnetic envelope around Earth.
• On the Earth side facing the Sun, the envelope is compressed into a region that is approximately three to four times the Earth radius.
• On the opposite side, the envelope is stretched into a long tail, which extends beyond the orbit of the Moon.

It is this tail that is called the geotail.

• Once every 29 days, the Moon traverses the geotail for about six days.

Solution: B

Very Large Telescope (VLT)

Using the European Space Organisation’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have noticed the unprecedented dimming of Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star (over 20 times bigger than the Sun) in the constellation Orion.

Along with the dimming, the star’s shape has been changing as well, as per recent photographs of the star taken using the VISIR instrument on the VLT.

About VLT:

It is the world’s most advanced optical instrument, consisting of four Unit Telescopes with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter and four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes.

• The telescopes can work together, to form a giant ‘interferometer’, the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer, allowing astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes.

Location: Atacama Desert, Northern Chile.

The VLT consists of four individual telescopes. They are generally used separately but can be used together to achieve very high angular resolution.

The four separate optical telescopes are known as Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun, which are all words for astronomical objects in the Mapuche language.

The VLT operates at visible and infrared wavelengths.

Solution: C

International Monetary and Financial Committee:

• It is the Ministerial-level committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Composition: The IMFC has 24 members, drawn from the pool of 187 governors. Its structure mirrors that of the Executive Board and its 24 constituencies. As such, the IMFC represents all the member countries of the Fund.
• Functions: The IMFC meets twice a year, during the spring and Annual Meetings. The Committee discusses matters of common concern affecting the global economy and also advises the IMF on the direction its work.
• At the end of the Meetings, the Committee issues a joint communiqué summarizing its views. These communiqués provide guidance for the IMF’s work program during the six months leading up to the next spring or Annual Meetings. There is no formal voting at the IMFC, which operates by consensus.
• IMFC has 24 members, drawn from the pool of 189 governors, and represents all member countries. India is one of the current members.

Significance:

• The IMFC advises and reports to the IMF Board of Governors on the supervision and management of the international monetary and financial system, including on responses to unfolding events that may disrupt the system.
• It also considers proposals by the Executive Board to amend the Articles of Agreement and advises on any other matters that may be referred to it by the Board of Governors.
• Although the IMFC has no formal decision-making powers, in practice, it has become a key instrument for providing strategic direction to the work and policies of the Fund.

Solution: A

Hera mission

The European Space Agency (ESA) had approved the budget of Hera, the European component of the mission to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid.

What is Hera?

Hera is the European contribution to an international double-spacecraft collaboration.

Hera is named after the Greek goddess of marriage.

How is it planned?

Due to launch in 2024, Hera would travel to a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair of near-Earth asteroids.

NASA will first perform a kinetic impact on the smaller of the two bodies, then Hera will follow-up with a detailed post-impact survey that will turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique.

What is DART mission?

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will target Didymoon as part of its planetary defence programme.

• DART will deliberately crash itself into the moonlet at a speed of approximately 6 km per second, using an onboard camera and autonomous navigation software.
• The collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body.

Why Didymoon?

• Didymoon was chosen because of its close proximity to Earth and its size. Didymoon is small and in a tight enough 12-hour orbit around its parent, that its orbital period can indeed be shifted in a measurable way.

Significance:

• DART and Hera were conceived together as part of the international ‘Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment’ experiment.

Why we need a planetary defence mechanism?

• There are around 25,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) that orbit the Sun on a trajectory that brings them close to our planet’s orbit. Certain near-Earth objects have been classified as “potentially hazardous”.
• As of now, there are about 900 near-Earth objects measuring more than 1 km. An impact from one of these NEOs can bring devastating effects to Earth.
• That is why scientists are working on a number of planetary protection initiatives to deflect asteroids if they threaten to impact the Earth.

Solution: B

Virtual human’ NEONs

The first project of Samsung’s Star Labs, NEONs are being called the world’s first artificial humans.

What are they?

• NEONs are computationally created virtual humans — the word derives from NEO (new) + humaN.
• For now the virtual humans can show emotions when manually controlled by their creators.
• But the idea is for NEONs to become intelligent enough to be fully autonomous, showing emotions, learning skills, creating memories, and being intelligent on their own.

How do they work?

There are two core technologies behind his virtual humans.

• First, there is the proprietary CORE R3 technology that drives the “reality, real time and responsiveness” behind NEONs.
• The next stage will be SPECTRA, which will complement CORE R3 with the “spectrum of intelligence, learning, emotions and memory”.

How could NEONs be used?

NEONs might be the interface for technologies and services.

• They will answer your queries at a bank, welcome you at a restaurant, or read out the breaking news on television at an unearthly hour.
• This form of virtual assistance would be more effective, for example, while teaching languages, as NEONs will be capable of understanding and sympathising.

How are NEONs different from Virtual Assistants?

Virtual Assistants now learn from all the data they are plugged into. NEONs will be limited to what they know and learn. Their leaning could potentially be limited to the person they are catering to, and maybe her friends — but not the entire Internet. They will not be an interface for you to request a song, rather they will be a friend to speak to and share experiences with, says Star Labs.

Solution: D

CollabCAD:

Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog& National Informatics Centre (NIC) jointly launched CollabCAD in ATL schools.

What is CollabCAD?

• It is a collaborative network, computer enabled software system, providing a total engineering solution from 2D drafting & detailing to 3D product design.
• The aim of this initiative is to provide a great platform to students of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) across country to create and modify 3d designs with free flow of creativity and imagination.
• This software would also enable students to create data across the network and concurrently access the same design data for storage and visualization.

`Tinker from Home campaign:

• In light of the current situation, the ATL program has launched a ‘Tinker from Home’ campaign to ensure that the children across the county have access to useful easy-to-learn online resources to keep themselves fruitfully occupied.
• The objective of the initiative is to harness the creativity and innovativeness of children by encouraging learning through self-initiation.

Solution: A

Extraocular Vision

The ability to see without eyes is known as extraocular vision. Previous researchers have defined it as the ability to resolve scenes without discrete eyes.

Researchers have shown that red brittle star, which are relatives of starfish, can see even though it does not have eyes. The red brittle star (Ophiocoma wendtii), which lives in the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea, becomes only the second creature, after a sea urchin species, known to have this ability (barring freak cases in other species).

How it works?

In sea urchins and brittle stars, researchers suspect that extraocular vision is facilitated by the photoreceptor cells found on their bodies.

Solution: A

Operation SHIELD

• Launched by Delhi government
• ‘Operation SHIELD’, which includes sealing, identifying and quarantining people in containment zones, doorstep delivery of essential items and door-to-door chec-king of people in those areas, will be undertaken by the Delhi government
• The operation mainly involves sealing of hotspot areas, identifying and quarantining suspected cases or contact cases, ensuring doorstep delivery of essential services and door-to-door checking of people to check for asymptomatic cases or those with mild symptoms.

Solution: D

Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV)

Supreme Court had directed the government to look into the feasibility of introducing vehicles based on a hydrogen cell technology to deal with air pollution in the National Capital Region.

How does the hydrogen fuel cell work in electric vehicles?

A fuel-cell electric vehicle is essentially a hybrid electric vehicle wherein, the internal combustion engine is replaced with a fuel-cell stack. The onboard sources of power include hydrogen as well as an advanced battery system.

The fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to generate an electric current, water being the only byproduct.

Fuel cells generate electricity through an electrochemical process.

And, there are no moving parts in the fuel cell, so they are more efficient and reliable by comparison.

How is it different from an electric vehicle (EV)?

Unlike a battery-electricity vehicle, it does not store energy and, instead, relies on a constant supply of fuel and oxygen — in the same way that an internal combustion engine relies on a constant supply of petrol or diesel, and oxygen.

Advantages of fuel cells:

• They produce much smaller quantities of greenhouse gases and none of the air pollutants that cause health problems.
• If pure hydrogen is used, fuel cells emit only heat and water as a byproduct.

• They are also energy efficient than traditional combustion technologies.
• Unlike battery-powered electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles do not need to be plugged in, and most models exceed 300 km of range on a full tank. They are filled up with a nozzle, just like in a petrol or diesel station.

Disadvantages:

• The process of making hydrogen needs energy — often from fossil fuel sources. That has raised questions over hydrogen’s green credentials.
• There are questions of safety — hydrogen is more explosive than petrol.
• Besides, the vehicles are expensive, and fuel dispensing pumps are scarce.

Solution: D

Integrated Command and Control Centres:

• It has been set up under the Smart Cities Mission
• ICCCs set up under the Mission are meant to coordinate traffic management, surveillance, utilities and grievance redressal
• It has been designed to serve as nodal point for all online data related to Smart City applications, including CCTV-based public safety and adaptive traffic management system, pollution monitoring, smart parking system, water supply management system, asset management system and property tax management system, asset management system and property tax management system. ICCC was built at cost of Rs38 crore.

Solution: A

Microdots

Govt notifies rules for fixation of microdots identifiers on vehicles.

• Microdot technology involves spraying the body and parts of the vehicle or any other machine with microscopic dots, which give a unique identification.
• These microdots can be read physically with a microscope and identified with ultra violet light source.
• The microdots and adhesive will become permanent fixtures/affixation which cannot be removed without damaging the asset, that is the vehicle itself.
• Benefits: Use of this technology will help check theft of vehicles and also use of fake spare parts.

Solution: B

Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation (SATYAM)

• A new programme called SATYAM-“Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation” has been launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology to strengthen research in the areas of yoga and meditation.
• The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has initiated the Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation (SATYAM) programme.
• Main objective of the programme: To harness knowledge obtained in academic institutions and other related agencies for finding Science & Technology -led solutions that would enable the government to cope with stress and strain associated with fast changing social, economic, environmental and professional circumstances.

The programme will encourage research in two major thematic areas:

• Investigations on the effect of Yoga and meditation on physical and mental health.
• Investigations on the effect of Yoga & meditation on the body, brain and mind in terms of basic processes occurring therein.
• Research under SATYAM will seek to identify various issues and challenges related to human well-being and address them.

Significance:

Given the ever increasing prevalence of physical and mental health problems, the holistic approach of Yoga and meditation is believed to have the potential to find beneficial treatment that is relatively safer and more cost-effective.

Solution: A

The probability of getting a multiple of 3 on one die and multiple of 4 on the other dice (Multiple of three on first dice AND multiple of 4 on the second dice) OR (multiple of 4 on the first dice AND Multiple of three in second dice)

= (2/6 * 1/6) + (1/6 * 2/6)

= 2/6 + 2/6

= 4/6 = 2/3

Solution: B

Part filled in 1 min. = 2/11.

Remaining part = (1- 2/11)= 9/11

Let the required time be x min.

Therefore, 2/11: 9/11:: 1: x ⇒ 2x/11 = (9/11*1) ⇒ x= 4.5.

Solution: B

Given, the ratio of two numbers = 4 : 3
Let the two numbers be 4x and 3x
Given, their sum = 91
=> 4x + 3x = 91
=> x = 13
Smaller number = 3x = 39

Solution: B

Let his usual speed = S kmph

Let his usual time = t hours

Let the distance to the office = D km

We know that, D = S * t —(1)

New speed is ¾ of usual speed or ¾ S kmph

His new time  = t + 20 min or t + (1/3) hour

Distance to the office remains same = D kms

Therefore, D = ¾ S * (3t + 1)/3

Or D = S * (3t + 1)/4 —- (2)

By equating (1) and (2), we get

S * t = (3St +S)/4

Or 4 St = 3St + S

Or  S * t = S

Or t =1 hour or 60 min

Solution: C

The passage states that the devolution of power gains legitimacy when there is a demand for it from lower level. It is important to have free expression of the will of the people as the passage states that people at the lower level should be able to create a political force for it which would require active participation at the grassroot level. Hence C.