Solution: D

Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU)

• Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units was set up in January 2016 under the aegis of the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. (NCGTC), a wholly-owned company of Government of India, to provide guarantee to:
  1. 1. Loans extended to eligible micro units under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) up to ₹10 lakh, by Banks/ Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)/ Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs)/ other financial intermediaries;
     2. Overdraft loan amount of ₹5,000 (enhanced to ₹10,000 in Sep, 2018) sanctioned under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts; and
     3. Self Help Group (SHG) portfolio between ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh (w.e.f. 01.04.2020).

Solution: B

• Mohenjodaro (Sind) is situated on the right bank of the Indus.
•  Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan) is located on the left bank of the Ravi.
• Chanhudaro (Sind) lies on the left bank of the Indus, about 130 km south of Mohenjodaro.
• Kalibangan (Rajasthan) was on the banks of the river Ghaggar which dried up centuries ago.
• Lothal (Gujarat) is at the head of the Gulf of Cambay.
• Banawali (Haryana) was situated on the banks of the now extinct Sarasvati river.
• Surkotada (Gujarat) is at the head of the Rann of Kutch.
• Dholavira (Gujarat), the latest city to be excavated, is in the Kutch district.

Solution: D

The Concept of Arya or Aryan

In the discussion of the Indo-European problem, several terms are used. The Indo-Europeans are called Aryans although the term arya is found mainly in the eastern Indo-European languages. This term may indicate the culture shared by the Avesta and the Rig Veda. The two terms ‘Indo-Iranian’ and ‘Indo-Aryan’ are frequently employed. The term ‘Indo-Iranian’ is used to signify the undifferentiated language which was spoken by the Aryans comprising the Indians and Iranians before their separation. The term ‘Indo- Aryan’ means the speech and its speakers who appear in India; sometimes, the term ‘Proto-Indian’ is used to denote the same.

The term arya occurs in both the Rig Veda and the Avesta. The term ‘Iran’ itself is connected with the term arya. Since Afghanistan was occupied by the Indo-Aryans and the Iranian Aryans for some time, a part of this country came to be known as ‘Araiya’ or ‘Haraiva’. In the sixth century BC, King Darius I of Persia called himself an Aryan. In the Rig Veda, the term arya connotes a cultural community. Speakers of both the Indo-Aryan and the Indo-Iranian languages are called Aryans. The Avesta mentions the country of the Aryans where Zoroastrianism began. This might indicate the ‘Aria’ or ‘Ariana’ mentioned by classical writers. It covered a large area including Afghanistan and a part of Persia. It also included parts of Bactria and Sogdia to its north. Megasthenes speaks of ‘Arianois’ as one of the three peoples inhabiting the countries adjacent to India.

Solution: B

The main Smritis are given as under.

The Manu Smriti is the most ancient and authoritative among them. It has twelve chapters dealing with achara, vyavahara, and prayaschitta. It is looked upon as having served as a model to all the later Smritis. It has many masterly commentaries like those of Medhatithi, Govindaraja, and Kulluka Bhatta. The extant work is a version compiled by Bhrigu, one of the disciples of Manu.

The next in importance is the Yajnavalkya Smriti, which has three kandas (sections) on achara, vyavahara, and prayaschitta. It agrees with the Manu Smriti on many points, but disagrees on issues like niyoga, inheritance, and gambling. It has got a few valuable commentaries like Balakrida, Apararka, and Mitaksara, of which Mitaksara is the most critical and authoritative.

The Parasara Smriti is noted for its advanced views and it is considered most suited for the kaliyuga. It deals with achara and prayaschitta only. It mentions the apaddharma of the four castes: agriculture, trade, and commerce for the Brahmins, etc. Its commentary by Madhavacharya is very popular and authoritative and explains vyavahara under raja-dharma.

The Narada Smriti occurs in two recensions and deals with vyavahara only. It closely follows Manu, but introduces a few innovations in the eighteen titles of law and permits niyoga, remarriage of women, and gambling under certain conditions.

The Brihaspati Smriti has seven sections dealing with vyavahara, achara, and prayaschitta. It closely follows the Mannu Smriti and is known as a parisista (supplement) to the latter.

The Katyayana Smriti follows closely the works of Manu, Brihaspati and Narada. It specially deals with stridhana (a woman’s personal property).

Solution: D

Political History

Imperial Guptas

Early Guptas: Srigupta & Ghatotkacha Gupta

Chandragupta I: Vajjika’s Kaumudi Mahotsava gives detailed account

Samudragupta: Harisena’s Allahabad Prasasti gives details of his military campaigns

Chandragupta II: Visakhadatta’s Devichandra-guptam talks about his reign; Supplemented by Mehrauli Iron Pillar Inscription

Kumaragupta I: Founded Nalanda Mahavidyalaya

Skandagupta: Junagarh Inscription narrates his achievements and problems

Later Guptas: Visnugupta was the last Gupta

Solution: C

1020- 1030 Al-Beruni in India

1288- 1293 Marco Polo (the Venetian traveller) in India

1336- 1342 Ibn Battutah’s stay in India (Moroccan traveller)

1420 Visit of Nicolo de Conti (Venetian traveller) to Vijayanagar

Solution: C

Ijara

It was the practice of revenue farming. According to this practice, the right to farm or collect revenue was granted temporarily to the highest bidder in an auction by the government through the zaminder. In return for this function, the ijaradar (revenue farmer) was rewarded with a commission of 4 to 6 per cent and few other benefits.

Having its origins in the reign of Shah Jahan, it become common during Aurangzeb’s period and widely practiced under the Later Mughals. The British also used this practice for some time in eastern India.

Solution: C

CERT-In

It is an office within the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) established in 2004 under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

CERT-In is operational since January 2004. The constituency of CERT-In is the Indian Cyber Community. CERT-In is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and when they occur.

In the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008, CERT-In has been designated to serve as the national agency to perform the following functions in the area of cyber security:

• Collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents.
• Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents
• Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents
• Coordination of cyber incident response activities.
• Issue guidelines,advisories,vulnerability notes and whitepapers relating to information security practices,procedures, prevention,response and reporting of cyber incidents.

Solution: B

A rare disease (also called “Orphan” disease) is a condition that affects a small number of people compared to the general population— one or less than one per 1000 people (WHO); one or less than one in 2500 (India definition). There are 7,000 known rare diseases ( over 72% of them are genetic) with an estimated 300 million patients in the world.

The Government has launched National Policy for Rare Diseases (NPRD), 2021 in March, 2021 for the treatment of rare disease patients. The salient features of NPRD, 2021 are as under:

• The rare diseases have been identified and categorized into 3 groups namely Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3.

Group 1:  Disorders amenable to one-time curative treatment.

Group-2: Diseases requiring long term/lifelong treatment having relatively lower cost of treatment and benefit has been documented in literature and annual or more frequent surveillance is required.

Group 3:- Diseases for which definitive treatment is available but challenges are to make optimal patient selection for benefit, very high cost and lifelong therapy.

• Provision for financial support of up to Rs. 50 lakhs to the patients suffering from any category of the Rare Diseases and for treatment in any of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) mentioned in NPRD-2021, outside the Umbrella Scheme of Rashtriya Arogaya Nidhi.
• In order to receive financial assistance for treatment of rare disease, the patient of the nearby area may approach the nearest Centre of Excellence to get him assessed and avail the benefits.
• Eight (08) Centres of Excellence (CoEs) have been identified for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of rare diseases.
• Five Nidan Kendras have been set up for genetic testing and counselling services.

Solution: B

Environmental impact assessment in India

The International Association for Impact Assessment- an International Authority comprising of professionals involved with impact assessments- both socially and environmentally, defines EIA as “the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made.” The entire EIA procedure can be attributed as the outcome of the 1992 Rio Declaration, which emphasized the need for direct public participation in the decision-making process pertaining to environmental issues.

The origin of EIA can be traced to the highly recognized and well-established ‘Precautionary Principle of environmental jurisprudence in India as well as around the world.

Applicability in India

EIA was first introduced in 1978 with regard to the various river valley projects all over the country and later expanded to include various other developmental procedures in its scope. EIA is now mandatory for over 30 classes of projects.

The Environmental Protection Rules, 1986 warrant for the imposition of certain restrictions on the construction/ expansion/ modernization of specific projects without prior approval from the Central, State, or Union Territory level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (EIAA) constituted under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

Categorisation of projects

The rules categorize the projects into two categories- A and B on the basis of the magnitude of their scale and impact on the natural and artificial resources. The projects belonging to Category A require approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forests on behalf of the Central Government, on the advice of an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), constituted by the Central Government for this specific purpose; eg. Construction or Expansion of Ports, harbours, airports, nuclear power, and related projects, Primary metallurgical industries (iron, steel, copper, etc), individual projects, etc. Projects and Activities falling under Category B require the approval of a State EIAA, based on the advice of a State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), constituted under the said notification.

Solution: A

Nagri Dubraj rice

Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Source: BS

Context: The Geographical Indication Registry has granted Chhattisgarh’s aromatic rice, Nagri Dubraj, a geographical indication (GI) tag facilitating the brand to get a unique identity and a wide market.

Solution: B

The British diverted the nation’s enormous forest wealth to fulfil their economic demands during the colonial era. While legislation such as the Indian Forest Act of 1927 provided for the settlement of rights, they were rarely implemented. As a result, tribal and forest-dwellers, who had previously lived in harmony with forests, began to live in tenurial insecurity instead; a scenario that persisted even after independence as they were marginalised. The National Forest Policy of 1988 recognised the symbiotic link between forests and forest-dwelling inhabitants. The strategy emphasised the need for including tribal people in forest conservation, regeneration, and development. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006 was designed to safeguard marginalised persons and strike a balance between their right to the environment and their right to life and livelihood.

Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006

The Act covers individual rights such as self-cultivation and habitat, as well as community rights such as grazing, fishing, and access to water bodies in forests, habitat rights for PVTGs, traditional seasonal resource access for Nomadic and Pastoral communities, biodiversity, community right to intellectual property and traditional knowledge, recognition of traditional customary rights, and the right to protect, regenerate, conserve, or manage natural resources. It also grants rights to the distribution of forest areas for development activities in order to meet the community’s basic infrastructure needs.

Solution: B

The European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft is to blast off Thursday on an eight-year journey through the Solar System to discover whether Jupiter’s icy moons are capable of hosting extraterrestrial life in their vast, hidden oceans.

Are we alone in the universe?

The spacecraft is wrapped in 500 layered thermal insulation blankets to protect itself against temperatures expected to soar above 250 degrees Celsius (480 degrees Fahrenheit) as it flies past Venus, then plummet below minus 230C near Jupiter.

It has a record 85 square metres of solar panels, which stretch out to the size of a basketball court, to collect as much energy as possible near Jupiter, where sunlight is 25 times weaker than on Earth.

Once the probe arrives at Jupiter in 2031 — now with two billion kilometres on the odometer — it will need to very carefully hit the brakes to enter the orbit of the gas giant.

From there, JUICE will focus on Jupiter’s system, including the gas giant and its three icy moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Its 10 scientific instruments — including an optical camera, ice-penetrating radar, spectrometer and magnetometer — will inspect and analyse the moons’ weather, magnetic field, gravitational pull and other elements.

The mission will not be able to directly detect the existence of alien life, but instead aims to establish whether the moons have the right conditions to harbour life.

Solution: D

What is the Good Friday Agreement?

• Signed on April 10, 1998, between factions of Northern Ireland and the governments of Britain and Ireland, to end 30 years of the violence known as ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland.
• The Agreement has been hailed as a model deal to end long-standing conflicts and fetched a joint Nobel peace prize.

What were ‘The Troubles’?

• Northern Ireland was created in 1921 and in 1922 the rest of Ireland gained independence from the British (the today’s Republic of Ireland, with its capital in Dublin).
• Northern Ireland remained with the UK, but tensions simmered between those who wished to remain with the UK (Protestants) and those who wanted to join Ireland (Catholics).
• By the 1960s, the Protestants had become more powerful and the Catholics started facing discrimination.
• The violence erupted between both factions – The Troubles, claiming the lives of more than 3,500 people.

Solution: A

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), successfully neutralised a satellite in space with its anti-satellite (ASAT) missile on 27 March 2019, in Mission Shakti. The successful mission demonstrated DRDO’s technical prowess and ability to defend country’s assets in space, the 4th dimension of warfare.

The mission was one of the most complex operation under taken by DRDO in which a missile launched from ground had to hit and neutralise with pinpoint accuracy a fast-moving satellite in orbit hundreds of kilometres away.

‘Mission Shakti’ was country’s first ever Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Missile Test successfully conducted on 27th March 2019 from Dr AP J Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha, where a fast-moving Indian orbiting target satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) was neutralised with pinpoint accuracy. This was a highly complex mission, conducted at extremely high speed with remarkable precision.

Anti-satellite weapons (ASATs) are created to destroy or incapacitate satellites. There are many countries which have this capability, but only four countries — including India — have demonstrated their ASAT capabilities. The US first tested ASAT technology in 1958, the USSR followed in 1964 and China in 2007. In 2015, Russia tested its PL-19 Nudol missile and followed it up with other tests.

Solution: B

Guru Ravidas was a poet and saint of the Bhakti movement.

Born in Varanasi to the ‘untouchable’ leather tanners caste.

He is believed to be a disciple of the bhakti saint-poet Ramananda and a contemporary of the bhakti saint-poet Kabir.

One of his famous disciples was the saint, Mirabai.

Ravidas’ devotional songs were included in the Sikh scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib.

The Panch Vani text of the Dadupanthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Ravidas.

Ravidas taught removal of social divisions of caste and gender, and promoted unity in the pursuit of personal spiritual freedoms.

Among Ravidas’s moral and intellectual achievements were the conception of “Begampura”, a city that knows no sorrow; and a society where caste and class have ceased to matter.

Solution: D

An inscription from Manur (Tirunelveli district), dating to 800, provides an account of village administration during Pandya Kingdom. It looks similar to Chola’s local governance, which included village assemblies and committees. Both civil and military powers were vested in the same person. The Pandya kings of the period supported and promoted Tamil and Sanskrit.

The Harappan seals and materials have been found in the Sumerian sites in Oman, Bahrain, and Iraq and Iran. The cuneiform inscriptions mention the
trade contacts between Mesopotamia and Harappans. The mention of “Meluhha” in the cuneiform inscriptions refers to the Indus region.

The Naneghat inscription refers to tax exemptions given to the lands granted to Buddhist monks during Satavahana period. Thus, we notice the beginning of priestly groups attaining higher status. These land donations created a group of people who did not cultivate, but owned land. This led to the development of land-based social hierarchy and divisions in the society.

Solution: D

Vasubandhu: A proponent of Mahayana Buddhism in 4th- 5th century AD from Gandhara and wrote from the perspectives of the Sarvastivada and Sautrantika schools.

Bodhidharma: lived around 5th or 6th century AD and transmitted Buddhism to China

Atisa: a Buddhist Bengali religious leader and master and is one of the major figures in the spread of 11th-century Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Asia. He inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra.

Solution: A

Manjusri: One of three protective deities around Buddha is also depicted in Ajanta Caves. He is associated with the Wisdom of Buddha and is a male Bodhisattva with a wielding sword in his hand.

Vajrapani: One of three protective deities around Buddha and is also depicted in Ajanta Caves. Vajrapaṇi is contemplated to manifest all the powers of Buddha as well as the power of all five tathagatas namely Vairocana, Akshobhya, Amitabha, Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi.

Solution: A

Razia Sultana was the fifth Mamluk Sultan and the only female ever to rule as the Sultan of Delhi. She was the daughter of the third ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, and granddaughter of the first Sultan of Delhi, Qutb ud din Aibak

Solution: A

Rig Vedic period

• The Rig Veda, the oldest literary creation not only in India, but in the entire Indo-European literature too, talks of a simple socio-economic, political set up and religious life.
• The material life, revolving around cattle keeping and incipient agriculture, was associated with a political set up where clan organisations led by chiefs (raja, vispati and gopati) were the order of the day.
• The later Vedic times, as known to us from the rest of the Vedic literature, saw the spread of the Vedic culture from the Punjab area to the south, east and southeast, i.e., in various parts of the Ganga valley.

The political system was on the threshold of a state system, as a full-fledged monarchical state was yet to evolve, largely because of the absence of a regular revenue system as well as a standing army

Solution: A

Sources for Gupta Empire

Legal Texts

• Kamandaka’s Nitisara, belonging to the reign of Chandragupta I, is the Gupta equivalent of Kautilya’s Arthasastra. It gives us a fair idea of the polity and administration of the Guptas.

Kalidasa’s Works

• They include Abhijnana Shaku-ntalam. Meghadootam. Raghuvamsam. Malavikag-nimitram. Ritusamhara. and Kumarasamhhava.
• Though their subject-matter is love, nature and beauty, they nevertheless give us reliable information about the government, society and religion of the Gupta period.

Political Dramas

• Visakhadatta’s Devichandra-guptam tells us about Ramagupta’s defeat by a Saka ruler (Basana), murder of the Saka ruler as well as Ramagupta by Chandragupta II, his accession to the throne and his marriage to Dhruvadevi (his brother’s widow).
• Vajjika’s Kaumudimahotsava talks about the succession of Chandragupta I to the throne and his achievements.
• Sudraka’s Mrichchhakatika is essentially the love story of Charudatta (a pious Brahmin) and Vasantsena (a famous courtesan) but also portrays the unstable political conditions of the period.

Solution: A

Qutbuddin Aibak (1206-1210)

• Qutbuddin Aibak was a slave of Muhammad Ghori, who made him the Governor of his Indian possessions.
• After the death of Ghori in 1206, Aibak declared his independence. He severed all connections with the kingdom of Ghori and thus founded the Slave dynasty as well as the Delhi Sultanate.
• He assumed the title Sultan and made Lahore his capital.
• His rule lasted for a short period of four years. Muslim writers call Aibak Lakh Baksh or giver of lakhs because he gave liberal donations to them. Aibak patronized the great scholar Hasan Nizami.
• He also started the construction of after the name of a famous Sufi saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakthiyar.

Iltutmish (1211-1236)

• Iltutmish was a great statesman.
• He received the mansur, the letter of recognition, from the Abbasid Caliph in 1229 by which he became the legal sovereign ruler of India.
• Later he nominated his daughter Raziya as his successor. Thus the hereditary succession to Delhi Sultanate was initiated by Iltutmish.

Iltutmish introduced the Arabic coinage into India and the silver tanka weighing 175 grams became a standard coin in medieval India.

Solution: C

Mansabdari System

• Akbar introduced the Mansabdari system in his administration.
• Under this system every officer was assigned a rank (mansab).
  • The lowest rank was 10 and the highest was 5000 for the nobles. Princes of royal blood received even higher ranks.
• The ranks were divided into two – zat and sawar.
  • Zat means personal and it fixed the personal status of a person.
  • Sawar rank indicated the number of cavalrymen of a person who was required to maintain. Every sawar had to maintain at least two horses.
• The mansab rank was not hereditary.
  • All appointments and promotions as well as dismissals were directly made by the emperor.

Solution: D

Mahayana produced physical theories that had a profound influence on Hinduism.

• The two chief schools of Mahayana philosophy were the Madhyamika (Doctrine of the Middle Position) and the Vijnanavada (Doctrine of Consciousness) or Yogachara (The Way of Yoga or Union).
• The former school, the founder of which was Nagarjuna (first to second centuries AD), taught that the phenomenal world had only a qualified reality; that all beings labour under constant illusion of perceiving things where in fact there is only emptiness.
  • This emptiness or void (sunyata) is all that truly exists, and hence the Madhyamikas were sometimes also called Sunyavadins (exponents of the doctrine of emptiness).

• The Vijnanavada school, founded by Maitreyanatha, was an idealist school of thought.
  • According to it the whole universe exists only in the mind of the perceiver. It is possible for a monk in meditation to raise before his eyes visions of every kind that have as much vividness and semblance of truth as have ordinary perceptions; yet he knows that they have no objective reality.

Answer : B) Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A.

Explanation:

Diamond is very hard due to its rigid three dimensional structure and so, it is used for cutting glass. Refractive index of diamond is high and gives it the greater transparency and brilliance.

Answer: A) 1

Explanation:

Some Students can be Cricket players. Some Cricket players can be Tennis fans. Some Students can be Tennis fans. So, the given items are partly related to each other.

Answer: Option D) Neither (1) nor (2) follows

Explanation:

Ans. C.

The focus of the passage is on recognising the physical destruction of undersea cables, which does not come under the traditional way of cyber warfare. Hence C is the focus area.

Ans. A.

The focus of the passage is on explaining how the problem of food wastage can be tackled by appropriate steps and messaging. Hence A is the most logical and critical inference.