DAY – 48 ( INSTA REVISION TEST – 48)INSTA REVISION PLAN 3.0, 2021

Solution: D

What is Mission Indradhanush?

To strengthen and re-energize the programme and achieve full immunization coverage for all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace, the Government of India launched “Mission indradhanush” in December 2014.

Mission Indradhanush’s Goal:

The ultimate goal is to ensure full immunization with all available vaccines for children up to two years of age and pregnant women.

Diseases covered:

It provides vaccination against 12 Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (VPD) i.e. diphtheria, Whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, meningitis and pneumonia, Hemophilus influenza type B infections, Japanese encephalitis (JE), rotavirus vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and measles-rubella (MR).

● However, Vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis and Haemophilus influenzae type B is being provided in selected districts of the country.

Solution: C

Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) is a joint venture of MoE Government of India and Canara Bank for financing creation of capital assets in premier educational institutions in India as part of rising 2022 HEFA’s scope is greatly expanded to cover school education, educational institutes under Ministry of health etc.

HEFA is registered under Section 8 [ Not-for-profit] under the Companies Act 2013 as a Union Govt company and as Non–deposit taking Systematically Important (NBFC-ND-SI) with RBI.

HEFA incorporated on 31st May 2017, is a joint venture of MoE, GOI and Canara Bank with an agreed equity participation in the ratio of 90.91% and 09.09% respectively

Solution: B

Kala Utsav Kala Utsav is an initiative of the Ministry of Education under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, to promote arts in education by nurturing and showcasing the artistic talent of school students at the secondary stage in the country.

Solution: D

About PMMVY: It is a Maternity Benefit Programme that is implemented in all the districts of the country in accordance with the provision of the National Food Security Act, 2013.

• Under PMMVY, pregnant women and lactating mothers (PW&LM) receive ₹5,000 on the birth of their first child in three instalments, after fulfilling certain conditionalities.
• They receive a cash benefit of Rs. 5,000 in three instalments on fulfilling the respective conditionality, viz. early registration of pregnancy, ante-natal check-up and registration of the birth of the child and completion of first cycle of vaccination for the first living child of the family.
• It excludes those PW&LM who are in regular employment with the Central Government or the State Governments or PSUs or those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law for the time being in force.
• The direct benefit cash transfer is to help expectant mothers meet enhanced nutritional requirements as well as to partially compensate them for wage loss during their pregnancy.
• The scheme was announced on December 31, 2016.
• Funding: The scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under which cost sharing ratio between the Centre and the States & UTs with Legislature is 60:40 while for North-Eastern States & three Himalayan States; it is 90:10. It is 100% Central assistance for Union Territories without Legislature.

Solution: A

Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0:

Launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

• CSCAF initiative intends to inculcate a climate-sensitive approach to urban planning and development in India.
• The objective of CSCAF is to provide a clear roadmap for cities towards combating Climate Change while planning and implementing their actions, including investments.
• The Climate Centre for Cities under National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is supporting MoHUA in implementation of CSCAF.

The framework has 28 indicators across five categories namely:

1. Energy and Green Buildings.
2. Urban Planning, Green Cover & Biodiversity.
3. Mobility and Air Quality.
4. Water Management.
5. Waste Management.

Solution: D

UNICEF is a key technical partner to the Government of India on water and sanitation programming and is dedicated to supporting the nation’s progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 – universal access to safely managed water and sanitation by 2030.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme is of UNICEF

Solution: B

‘Women-led Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Resilient Practices Project’ or W-SHARP : Joint project between Maharashtra and UNICEF

It was implemented in 2018 to test the effectiveness of risk-informed planning driven by local contexts and communities such as those of Marathwada, especially during lean periods, March to June

Solution: B

G 9-40b is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits a M-type star. Its mass is 4.76 Earths, it takes 5.7 days to complete one orbit of its star

Solution: C

As per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the eighth schedule includes the recognition of the following 22 languages:

• Assamese
• Bengali
• Bodo
• Dogri
• Gujarati
• Hindi
• Kannada
• Kashmiri
• Konkani
• Maithili
• Malayalam
• Meitei
• Marathi
• Nepali
• Odia
• Punjabi
• Sanskrit
• Santali
• Sindhi
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Urdu

Solution: C

Hydrogen is a clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind. These qualities make it an attractive fuel option for transportation and electricity generation applications. It can be used in cars, in houses, for portable power, and in many more applications.

Hydrogen is an energy carrier that can be used to store, move, and deliver energy produced from other sources.

THERMAL PROCESSES

Thermal processes for hydrogen production typically involve steam reforming, a high-temperature process in which steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel to produce hydrogen. Many hydrocarbon fuels can be reformed to produce hydrogen, including natural gas, diesel, renewable liquid fuels, gasified coal, or gasified biomass. Today, about 95% of all hydrogen is produced from steam reforming of natural gas.

ELECTROLYTIC PROCESSES

Water can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen through a process called electrolysis. Electrolytic processes take place in an electrolyzer, which functions much like a fuel cell in reverse—instead of using the energy of a hydrogen molecule, like a fuel cell does, an electrolyzer creates hydrogen from water molecules.

Solution: B

Lombardy is one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy, in the northwest of the country, with an area of 23,844 square kilometres. About 10 million people, forming more than one-sixth of Italy’s population, live in Lombardy and more than a fifth of Italy’s GDP is produced in the region, making it the most populous, richest and most productive region in the country. This province is severely affected by novel coronavirus.

Hubei is a landlocked province of the People’s Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means “north of the lake”, referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The provincial capital, Wuhan, serves as a major transportation hub and the political, cultural, and economic hub of central China. Wuhan is the capital of this province.

The Golan Heights, a rocky plateau in south-western Syria, has a political and strategic significance which belies its size. Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War.

Solution: C

The ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ programme aims to quickly and effectively transform these districts.

The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a mass Movement.

With States as the main drivers, this program will focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.

The 112 districts were identified from 27 states, at least one from each state, in a transparent manner by a committee of Senior Officers to the Government of India, in consultation with State Officials using a composite index of key data sets that included deprivation enumerated under the Socio-Economic Caste Census, key health and education sector performance and state of basic infrastructure.

Officers at the level of Joint Secretary / Additional Secretary have been nominated to become the ‘Central Prabhari Officers’ of each district. States have appointed state-nodal and Prabhari officers.

Solution: D

Aarogya Setu ( lit. ‘Health Bridge’) is a COVID-19 tracking mobile application developed by the National Informatics Centre that comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.

The Government of India  launched a mobile app ArogyaSetu developed in public-private partnership to bring the people of India together in a resolute fight against COVID-19.
The App, called ‘AarogyaSetu’ joins Digital India for the health and well-being of every Indian. It will enable people to assess themselves the risk of their catching the Corona Virus infection. It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence.

Once installed in a smart phone through an easy and user-friendly process, the app detects other devices with AarogyaSetu installed that come in the proximity of that phone. The app can then calculate the risk of infection based on sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts has tested positive.

The personal data collected by the App is encrypted using state-of-the-art technology and stays secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating medical intervention.

Solution: B

MeitY functions around the ambit of two major Acts of which the IT act is the all-encompassing one.

The Information Technology Act, 2000 provides legal recognition to the transaction carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as electronic commerce which involves the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information, to facilitate electronic filing of documents with the government agencies.

It gives provisions for the use of electronic records and digital signature with the provision of authentication and security. It also directs the establishment of Cyber Appellate Tribunal.

This Act was amended through the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 which substituted the word “digital signature” with “electronic signature” with major changes in various sections along with insertion of other sections.

Solution: D
The first hour of every parliamentary sitting is slotted for Question Hour.
During this time, the members ask questions and the ministers usually give
answers. The questions are of three kinds, namely, starred, unstarred and
short notice

A starred question (distinguished by an asterisk) requires an oral answer
and hence supplementary questions can follow.
An unstarred question, on the other hand, requires a written answer and
hence, supplementary questions cannot follow.
A short notice question is one that is asked by giving a notice of less than ten days. It is answered orally.

Solution: B
As provided by the Constitution, the Speaker of the last Lok Sabha vacates
his office immediately before the first meeting of the newly-elected Lok
Sabha. Therefore, the President appoints a member of the Lok Sabha as the Speaker Pro Tem. Usually, the senior most member is selected for this. The President himself administers oath to the Speaker Pro Tem.

The Speaker Pro Tem has all the powers of the Speaker. He presides over
the first sitting of the newly-elected Lok Sabha. His main duty is to
administer oath to the new members. He also enables the House to elect the new Speaker. When the new Speaker is elected by the House, the office of the Speaker Pro Tem ceases to exist.

Solution: C

Both the statements are correct.

The Constitution contains the following provisions to secure cooperation and co-ordination between the Centre and the states:

• The Parliament can provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect tothe use, distribution and control of waters of any inter-state river and river valley.
• The President can establish (under Article 263) an Inter-State Council to investigate anddiscuss subject of common interest between the Centre and the states. Such a council was setup in 1990.

During the operation of a national emergency (under Article 352), the Centre becomes entitled to give executive directions to a state on ‘any’ matter. Thus, the state governments are brought under the complete control of the Centre, though they are not suspended.

Solution: A

A state cannot raise any loan without the consent of the Centre, if there is still out-standing any part of a loan made to the state by the Centre or in respect of which a guarantee has been given by the Centre. Hence Statement 1 is correct.

The Central government can make loans to any state or give guarantees in respect of loans raised by any state. Any sums required for the purpose of making such loans are to be charged on the Consolidated Fund of India. Hence Statement 2 is incorrect.

Solution: D

All the statements given above are correct.

Sarkaria Commission

In 1983, the Central government appointed a three-member Commission on Centre–state relations under the chairmanship of R S Sarkaria, a retired judge of the Supreme Court.

The Commission made 247 recommendations to improve Centre–state relations. The important recommendations are mentioned below:

1. A permanent Inter-State Council called the Inter-Governmental Council should be set up under Article 263.
   2. Article 356 (President’s Rule) should be used very sparingly, in extreme cases as a last resort when all the available alternatives fail.
2. When the president withholds his assent to the state bills, the reasons should be communicated to the state government.
3. The Centre should have powers to deploy its armed forces, even without the consent of states.

Solution: B

The Zonal Councils are the statutory (and not the constitutional) bodies. They are established by an Act of the Parliament, that is, States Re-organisation Act of 1956. The act divided the country into five zones (Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern) and provided a zonal council for each zone. Hence Statement 1 is incorrect.

The home minister of Central government is the common chairman of the five zonal councils. Each chief minister acts as a vice-chairman of the council by rotation, holding office for a period of one year at a time. Hence Statement 2 is incorrect.

The zonal councils aim at promoting cooperation and coordination between states, union territories and the Centre. They discuss and make recommendations regarding matters like economic and social planning, linguistic minorities, border disputes, inter-state transport, and so on. They are only deliberative and advisory bodies. Hence Statement 3 is correct.

Solution: D

All the statements given above are correct.

The Article 22 has two parts—the first part deals with the cases of ordinary law and the second part deals with the cases of preventive detention law.

(a) The first part of Article 22 confers the following rights on a person who is arrested or detained under an ordinary law:
(i) Right to be informed of the grounds of arrest.
(ii) Right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner.
(iii) Right to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours, excluding the journey time.
(iv) Right to be released after 24 hours unless the magistrate authorises further detention.

These safeguards are not available to an alien or a person arrested or detained under a preventive detention law

Solution: C

Solution: D

All the statements given above are correct.

The Directive Principles resemble the ‘Instrument of Instructions’ enumerated in the Government of India Act of 1935. In the words of Dr B R Ambedkar, ‘the Directive
Principles are like the instrument of instructions, which were issued to the Governor-General and to the Governors of the colonies of India by the British Government under the Government of India Act of 1935.

The Directive Principles are non-justiciable in nature, that is, they are not legally enforceable by the courts for their violation. Therefore, the government (Central, state and local) cannot be compelled to implement them

The Directive Principles constitute a very comprehensive economic, social and political programme for a modern democratic State. They aim at realising the high ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as outlined in the Preamble to the Constitution.

Solution: D

The 42nd Amendment Act of 1976 added four new Directive Principles to the original list. They require the State:
1. To secure opportunities for healthy development of children (Article 39).
2. To promote equal justice and to provide free legal aid to the poor (Article 39 A).
3. To take steps to secure the participation of workers in the management of industries (Article
43 A).
4. To protect and improve the environment and to safeguard forests and wild life (Article 48 A)

Solution: C

Willingdon Island is the largest artificial island in India, which forms part of the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala. Much of the present Willingdon Island was claimed from the Lake of Kochi, filling in dredged soil around a previously existing, but tiny, Natural Island. Willingdon Island is significant as the home for the Port of Kochi, as well as the Kochi Naval Base (the Southern Naval Command) of the Indian Navy, Plant Quarantine station, Custom House Cochin and Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, a constituent unit of Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

The second sentence of the passage gives the answer.

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

Answer can be inferred from the second last sentence of the passage.

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

The given passage states that some decisions are very easy to take under certain circumstances like if your bank account is low, then you’d readily accept an offer of free accommodation from your family members, or if you feel ready to move ahead in your career, then you’d be eager to step in for your boss who’s going away for some time. Hence, the gist is that some decisions are obvious to make under some circumstances and this is what option (a) says. Whereas, other options do not talk about the existence of the circumstances which make those decisions easy to make. Option (b) is wordy and the first two sentences make it look like a standalone definition and not a summary. Option (c) is far-fetched with its “… abound in our lives” and option (d) is focusing on examples and not summarizing the passage.

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

The author concludes that the option of euthanasia must be discussed with one’s vet. Hence the author assumes that a vet can help in considering various facets of the decision. Thus option c) is correct. Option a) and b) are already stated in the passage. Hence, they cannot be assumptions.

Correct Answer: B

Explanation: A is vague and not the most critical corollary that can be drawn. The passage establishes the need of collecting constituency level data which is mentioned in option B. C is not implied in the passage. D is not as accurate as B which is more specifically worded and hence is the correct corollary.