[Mission 2024] QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 29 September 2023

Solution: c)

Article 24:

Prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc. No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Once the revised National Curriculum Framework (NCF) comes into effect next academic year, students will study three languages in grades 9 and 10, two of which will have to be Indian; and two languages in grades 11 and 12, one of which will have to be Indian.

The revised framework makes the study of Indian languages an integral part of school education, and allows students the freedom to choose from a range of subjects across streams.

This is in line with the vision of the National Education Policy 2020 to promote teaching and learning in Indian languages, and make greater interdisciplinarity possible in school education.

Neither the NEP, nor the NCF are binding on the states.

Source

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

A desalination plant turns salt water into water that is fit to drink. The most commonly used technology used for the process is reverse osmosis where an external pressure is applied to push solvents from an area of high-solute concentration to an area of low-solute concentration through a membrane. The microscopic pores in the membranes allow water molecules through but leave salt and most other impurities behind, releasing clean water from the other side. These plants are mostly set up in areas that have access to sea water.

Desalination has largely been limited to affluent countries in the Middle East and has recently started making inroads in parts of the United States and Australia. In India, Tamil Nadu has been the pioneer in using this technology, setting up two desalination plants near Chennai in 2010 and then 2013.

Desalination is an expensive way of generating drinking water as it requires a high amount of energy. 

Solution: d)

Ruminant species are hooved grazing or browsing herbivores that chew cud. Ruminants such as cows, sheep, goats, and buffaloes have a special type of digestive system that allows them to break down and digest food that non-ruminant species would be unable to digest.

Stomachs of ruminant animals have four compartments, one of which, the rumen, helps them to store partially digested food and let it ferment. This partially digested and fermented food is regurgitated by the animals who chew through it again and finish the digestive process.

However, as grass and other vegetation ferments in the rumen, it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Ruminant animals such as cows and sheep release this methane mainly through burping.

Given the very large numbers of cattle and sheep on farms in dairy-producing countries, these emissions add up to a significant volume. It is estimated that the ruminant digestive system is responsible for 27 per cent of all methane emissions from human activity.

Solution: b)

The balance of payments divides transactions into two accounts: the current account and the capital account. The current account includes transactions in goods, services, investment income, and current transfers.

The capital account, broadly defined, includes transactions in financial instruments and central bank reserves.

The current account is included in calculations of national output, while the capital account is not.