UPSC Editorials Quiz : 13 February 2024

Solution: a)

Given its long duration and being a relatively water-intensive crop, cotton needs a minimum of 5-6 irrigations, especially during the flowering, bud and boll formation stages. “Tur is also a long-duration crop, but doesn’t need more than 2-3 irrigations. The crop’s deep taproot system allows its plants to draw moisture from the soil better than cotton.

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve months immediately preceding the date of application for enrolment, based on their biometric and demographic data.

Aadhaar number is a random number devoid of any intelligence. Person willing to enrol has to provide minimal demographic along with biometric information during the enrolment process. The Aadhaar enrolment process does not capture details like caste, religion, income, health, geography, etc.

Solution: c)

• Everything that has a temperature gives off electromagnetic radiation (light). Shortwave radiation (visible light) contains a lot of energy; longwave radiation (infrared light) contains less energy than shortwave radiation (shortwave radiation has a shorter wavelength than longwave radiation).
• Solar energy enters our atmosphere as shortwave radiation in the form of ultraviolet (UV) rays (the ones that give us sunburn) and visible light.
• The sun emits shortwave radiation because it is extremely hot and has a lot of energy to give off. Once in the Earth’s atmosphere, clouds and the surface absorb the solar energy. The ground heats up and re-emits energy as longwave radiation in the form of infrared rays.
• Earth emits longwave radiation because Earth is cooler than the sun and has less energy available to give off.

Solution: a)

Public goods are goods that can be consumed simultaneously by a large number of people without the consumption by one imposing an opportunity cost on others.

The characteristics of a public good:

• Non excludability i.e., the citizens can enjoy its benefits at no explicit financial cost.
• Non rival consumption i.e., the marginal cost of supplying this public good to an extra citizen is zero.
• Non-Rejectable i.e., collective supply for all citizens means that it cannot be rejected.

Solution: d)

Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring fissile isotope, and it makes up only 0.7 % of natural uranium. Fissile material excludes natural uranium and depleted uranium that have not been irradiated, or have only been irradiated in thermal reactors.