UPSC Prelims Test Series 2019 - Test 12

The India Meteorological Department, also referred to as the Met Department, is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India.
System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting Research (SAFAR) operates under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It facilitates information on air quality, weather and radiation (Ultraviolet index).
The system, first of its kind in the country, was developed indigenously in record time by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and operationalized by India Meteorological Department (IMD).

National Song
“The song Vande Mataram, composed in Sanskrit by Bankimchandra Chatterji, was a source of inspiration to the people n their struggle for freedom.
" It has an equal status with Jana-gana-mana. "
It was first sung at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress.

Sub-Programmes under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
The Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat (PBBB): For classes I and II. It is focusing on foundational learning in early grades with an emphasis on reading, writing and comprehension and mathematics.
The Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA): Aims to motivate and engage children of the age group 6-18 years, in science, mathematics and technology by observation, experimentation, inference drawing and model building, through both inside and outside classroom activities. Schools have been adopted for mentoring by institutions of higher education like IIT’s, IISER’s and NIT’s.
Vidyanjali: Launched to enhance community and private sector involvement in Government run elementary schools across the country. The aim of the programme is to strengthen implementation of co-scholastic activities in government schools through services of volunteers.
ShaGun portal: An initiative to monitor the implementation of SSA: MHRD has developed this web portal called ShaGun (from the words Shaala and Gunvatta).

Central Statistics Office (CSO) is responsible for preparing IIP. National Statistics Office (NSO) consists of CSO and NSSO. It comes under Ministry of Statistics and Planning.
IIP is sectorally classified into three categories: Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity. Manufacturing accounts for 77.6% of weight under IIP. Mining and Electricity account for 14.4% and 8% respectively. The base year has been updated to 2011-12

Determinants of MSP
Cost of production (CoP) is one of the important factors in the determination of MSP of mandated crops.
Besides cost, the Commission considers other important factors such as demand and supply, price trend in the domestic and international markets, inter-crop price parity, terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and the likely impact of MSPs on consumers, in addition to ensuring rational utilization of natural resources like land and water.
The pricing policy is rooted not in ‘cost plus’ approach, though cost is an important determinant of MSP.

A broad-spectrum antibiotic is an antibiotic that acts on both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
It is the nodal agency in the central government for overseeing the implementation of India’s environment and forest policies, programmes and related schemes.
The Ministry is also the nodal agency for the:
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP);
• International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD); and
• United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).
The Ministry also coordinates with multilateral bodies such as the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and regional bodies such as Economic and Social Council for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on matters pertaining to environment.

Sex ratio, defined as the number of females per thousand males is an important social indicator to measure the extent of prevailing equality between males and females in a society at a given point of time.
The sex ratio in the country has always remained unfavourable to females.
The sex ratio from 1901-2011 has registered a 10 point increase at census 2011 over 2001; however, child sex ratio has declined to 919 per thousand male.

National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)
It is a statutory Board constituted under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
It is chaired by the Prime Minister. Its vice chairman is Minister of Environment.
It is involved in framing policies and promoting wildlife conservation and controlling poaching and illegal trade of wild life.
It makes recommendations on the setting up of and management of national parks, sanctuaries and other protected areas and restriction of activities in those areas.

National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons (NACWC) is a multilateral international treaty which outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors.
The CWC came into force with effect from 1997. " The National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention (NACWC) was set up as an office of the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India to fulfill, on behalf of the Government of India, the obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and to act as the national focal point for effective liaison with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and other state parties on matters relating to the Convention.

The shipyards at Alang recycle approximately half of all ships salvaged around the world.It is considered the world's largest graveyard of ships.The yards are located on the Gulf of Khambat,

By the Census definition of 2011, anyone above the age of seven who can read and write with understanding in any language is considered literate' and it is not necessary for the literate person to have received any formal education or to have attained any minimum educational standard.

Recently, the threshold limit for opting into composition scheme has been increased to Rs. 1.5 crores from the existing 1.0 crore.

Vanbandhu kalyan yojana aims at creating enabling environment for need based and outcome oriented holistic development of the tribal people.This process envisages to ensure that all the intended benefits of goods and services under various programmes/schemes of Central as well as State Governments actually reach the target groups by convergence of resources through appropriate institutional mechanism
Objectives
• Improving the quality of life in tribal areas
• Improving the quality of education
• Qualitative and sustainable employment for tribal families
• Bridging infrastructure gaps with focus on quality
• Protection of tribal culture and heritage

Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR) is a biennial effort led by the UN Environment and its partners.It provides important insights into long-term economic growth and human well-being through the Inclusive Wealth index, a tool assessing a nation’s ability to look after its wealth in a way that is sustainable and safeguards its future generations.The biennial report finds The Republic of Korea, Singapore and Malta as the nations that have had the most economic growth.The report also revealed that carbon damage is relatively larger in high-income countries.

Sharada Peeth is said to be where the texts written by Pāṇini and other grammarians were stored. It is said in the Prabhavakacarita that when Jain scholar Hemachandra was commissioned by Jayasimha, King of Gurjara Desa (present-day eastern Rajasthan and northern Gujarat) to write the Siddhahema.

The Economic Survey 2017-18 estimates a learning poverty headcount (LPC) as well as a learning poverty gap (LPG). The LPC simply measures the number of children who do not meet the basic learning benchmark, whereas the LPG additionally takes into account how far each student is from the benchmark. In other words, the LPG measures the gap between the basic learning benchmark and the average scores of those students who did not meet the benchmark.

Cabinet Secretariat
The Cabinet Secretariat functions directly under the Prime Minister.
The administrative head of he Secretariat is the Cabinet Secretary who is also the ex-officio Chairmen of the Civil Services Board.
The business allocated to Cabinet Secretariat is (i) secretarial assistance to the Cabinet and Cabinet Committees; and (ii) rules of business.

National Anthem
"The song Jana-gana-mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version as the National Anthem of India on January 24, 1950. "
It was first sung on December 27, 1911 at the Kolkata Session of the Indian National Congress.
It has five stanzas with first stanza containing the full version of the National Anthem.
The duration of the National Anthem is approximately 52 seconds

Minimum Support Prices
Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.
The minimum support prices are announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
MSP is price fixed by Government of India to protect the producer - farmers - against excessive fall in price during bumper production years.
The minimum support prices are a guarantee price for their produce from the Government. The major objectives are to support the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution.
In case the market price for the commodity falls below the announced minimum price due to bumper production and glut in the market, govt. agencies purchase the entire quantity offered by the farmers at the announced minimum price.

National Statistical Commission
The Government of India through a resolution in 2005 decided to set up the National Statistical Commission (NSC).
The NSC was initially constituted in 2006, to serve as a nodal and empowered body for all core statistical activities of the country, to evolve, monitor and enforce statistical priorities and standards and to ensure statistical coordination.
Composition of the Commission:
The Commission consists of a part-time Chairperson, four part-time Members, an ex-officio Member and a secretary.
The Chief Statistician of India who is the Head of the National Statistical Office is the Secretary of the Commission and the Chief Executive Officer of the NITI Aayog is the ex-officio Member of the commission.

India ranks first, with 179.8 Mha (9.6 percent of the global net cropland area) of net cropland area according to United States Geological Survey 2017.
The all India percentage of net irrigated area to total cropped area was 34.5 per cent, which makes a large segment of cultivation dependent on rainfall. The State-wise percentage distribution of net irrigated area to total cropped area shows that only two States, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have more than 50 per cent net irrigated area to total cropped area

It is located in the state of Assam.It is the home of the only population of feral horses in India and houses several riverine islands of Lohit river which are identified as Important Bird Area by Birdlife International . proposed 1750 MW Demwe Lower hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh to be constructed on river Lohit is meeting heavy oppositions from environmental activists.It is said to affect the neighbouring Dibru Saikhowa National Park.Feral Horse is classified as 'Endangered' by IUCN.

Swarms are made up of numerous earthquakes that occur locally over an extended period, without a clear sequence of high-intensity main quakes, preceded and succeeded by lower-intensity foreshocks and aftershocks.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing ―Ujjawala – a Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of Trafficking and Rescue, Rehabilitation, Re-integration and Repatriation of Victims of Trafficking for Commercial Sexual Exploitation.The rehabilitative centres are given financial support for providing shelter and basic amenities such as food, clothing, medical care, legal aid; education in the case the victims are children, as well as for undertaking vocational training and income generation activities to provide the victims with alternate livelihood option.

The Swachh Iconic Places is an initiative under the Swachh Bharat Mission. It is a special clean-up initiative focused on select iconic heritage, spiritual and cultural places in the country. The initiative is being coordinated by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in association with the Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and the concerned State governments.

The Department of Economic Affairs is also responsible for preparation and presentation of Union Budget to the Parliament and the Budget for the state governments under President’s Rule and union territory administrations.
Under the Constitution, Budget has to distinguish expenditure on revenue account from other expenditure. Government Budget, therefore, comprises (i) Revenue Budget; and (ii) Capital Budget.
There is no mention of the word capital account in the budget.

Indian Railways divides its operations into zones, which are further sub-divided into divisions, each having a divisional headquarters. There are a total of 18 zones. South Coast Railway zone is the newest zone in India.

The Kudremukh National Park in the Western Ghats is a part of the world’s 38 ‘hottest hotspots’ of biological diversity, a UNESCO world heritage site. It forms the largest protected block within the Western Ghats. The park is home to unique, threatened and endangered biodiversity including lion-tailed macaques, tigers, Malabar civets and great pied hornbills. The Kudremukh mines have a unit devoted entirely to export. The deposits at Kudremukh are one of the largest in the world. They are exploited mostly for export. The ore is transported as slurry through pipeline to a port near Mangaluru.

Low interest rates are preferred by domestically oriented firms as they can avail credit at a lower cost, increase their capability to invest and ultimately increase their profits. At the same time, their debt burden due to past loans also decreases. Households prefer higher interest rates which helps them to increase their returns on savings. This is true as households save much more than they borrow.
Domestic equity investors (investing in domestic corporate firms) prefer lower interest rates as it helps increase the corporate profits (as in the case of domestically oriented firms). This increases the returns received by investors.

Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme
The Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) was launched on 23rd December, 1993. Initially, Ministry of Rural Development was the Nodal Ministry for this scheme.
In October, 1994 this scheme was transferred to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The Salient Features:
“MPLADS is a Central Plan Scheme fully funded by the Government of India under which funds are released in the form of grants-in-aid directly to the district authorities.
“The funds released under the Scheme are non-lapsable, i.e. the entitlement of funds not released in a particular year is carried forward to the subsequent years, subject to eligibility. At present, the annual entitlement per MP/Constituency is Rs. 5 crore.
Under MPLADS, the role of the Members of Parliament is limited to recommend works. Thereafter, it is the responsibility of the district authority to sanction, execute and complete the works recommended by Members of Parliament within the stipulated time period.
“The elected LokSabha Members can recommend works in their respective constituencies. The elected members of the RajyaSabha can recommend works anywhere in the state from which they are elected. Nominated Members of the LokSabha and RajyaSabha can recommend works for implementation, anywhere in the country.
“There is no limit for works to be executed for the Government. However, for the works meant for trust/society there is a ceiling of Rs. 50 lakh for the lifetime of each Trust/Society. An MP can recommend funds only upto Rs. 100 lakh in all in a financial year, from MPLADS funds for works to Trusts/Societies.
“MPLADS works can be implemented in areas affected by natural calamities like floods, cyclone, hailstorm, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, landslides, tornado, earthquake, drought, tsunami, fire and biological, chemical, radiological hazards, etc.
" In order to accord special attention to the development of areas inhabited by Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), 15 percent of MPLADS funds are to be utilized for areas inhabited by SC population and 7.5 per cent for areas inhabited by ST population.
“If an elected Member of Parliament finds the need, to contribute MPLADS funds, to a place outside that state/UT or outside the constituency within the State or both, the MP can recommend eligible works, under these Guidelines upto a maximum of Rs. 25 lakh in a financial year. Such a gesture on the part of an MP will promote national unity, harmony, and fraternity among the people, at the grass roots level.
“MPs may recommend their MPLADS funds to aided educational Institutions which are receiving financial assistance from state government and are recognized by a State/UT/Central Board of Secondary Education in the case of schools and by State/Central university in case of colleges and are not charging commercial fee from students. Such aided educational institutions are eligible for receiving MPLADS funds for all permissible items under the Guidelines with no ceiling.

As per India Year book 2019 (page number - 30 )Cabinet Secretariat, President's secretariat, Prime Minister's office and Niti Aayog are independent office.

Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is the main survey conducted by Central Statistics Office (CSO) Industrial Statistics (IS) wing. ASI is principal source of industrial statistics in India.
CSO is under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The shares of various modes of transportation in Inland Freight Transportation are:
Roadways: Around 60%
Railways: Nearly 30%
Waterways: Coastal shipping (7%), including 0.5% through inland waterways.
While the rest comes from airways.

Flag Code of India, 2002:
There is no restriction on the display of the National Flag by members of general public, private organizations, educational institutions, etc., except as provided for by the above statutes.
The bench headed by Chief Justice V N Khare said that under Article 19(1)A of the Constitution, citizens had the fundamental right to fly the national flag on their premises around the year, provided the premises do not undermine the dignity of the tricolor.
Half-mast: The flag should be flown at half-mast as a sign of mourning. The decision to do so lies with the President of India, who also decides the period of such mourning.

As per Economic Survey 2017-18, the share of Indian railways in freight movement has been declining over a period of time primarily due to non-competitive tariff structure.
While the passenger fare had remained more or less flat, the freight fare has increased sharply over the year.

India is the world’s third largest diamond consumer, accounting for 8% of the global market. It exports 95% of the total imported rough diamond, as per statistics from the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC)

Building tax, including property/house tax, are collected at the municipality (ULG) and Gram Panchayat level. Land tax is assessed and collected by the state government. Property taxes are the principal sources of direct tax revenue at the third tier of government.

SARTTAC - South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centre : A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between India and International Monetary Fund for setting up of South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) in India by the International Monetary Fund in 2016.
SARTTAC will serve six member countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka

“Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana” is a scheme for providing Physical Aids and Assisted-living Devices for Senior citizens belonging to BPL category. The scheme is implemented through the sole implementing agency Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO), a PSU working under the aegis of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

The NOTA provision does not mean that all candidates in a constituency stand rejected or defeated if the number of NOTA votes exceeds the number garnered by the highest vote-getter. Thus, this is not giving the electors the right to reject. NOTA may discourage parties from fielding candidates with questionable track record.

The President of India is a visitor to the Nalanda University. The university was financed by the governments of many foreign countries.

Botanical Survey of India (BSI)
BSI is the apex research organization under Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEFCC) for carrying out taxonomic and floristic studies on wild plant resources of country.
It was established in 1890 with objective to explore plant resources of country and to identify plants species with economic virtues.
It has nine regional circles situated at different regions of the country.
BSI is not a statutory body

Flexi funds are not the normal statutory or discretionary grants given by the Centre. They are a component of the CSS support received by the States. With the exception of CSS, the funding under CSS is to be strictly spent on the implementation of that particular CSS only. Under the new norms, flexi-funds in each CSS has been increased from the current 10% to 25% for states and 30% for Union Territories This means that states if they so desire can set aside 25% of any CSS as flexi-fund to be spent on any sub-scheme or innovation or component that is in line with the overall aim and objective of the approved Centrally Sponsored Scheme. States can use the fund to satisfy local requirements in areas affected by internal security disturbances or to undertake mitigation or restoration activities in case of natural calamities. State governments will have to constitute a state-level sanctioning committee (SLSC) to avail of the flexi-fund facility.

Presently, the administrative expenditure of the Commission is a voted expenditure. There is no independent secretariat for the Election Commission of India.

Setu Bharatam programme aims to make all National Highways free of railway level crossings by 2019. This is being done to prevent the frequent accidents and loss of lives at level crossings. The Minister informed that 208 Railway Over Bridges (ROB)/Railway Under Bridges (RUB) will be built at the level crossings at a cost of Rs. 20,800 crore as part of the programm

1. A bill pending in the Rajya Sabha but not passed by the Lok Sabha does not lapse.
2. If the president has notified the holding of a joint sitting before the dissolution of Lok Sabha, does not lapse.
3. A bill passed by both Houses but pending assent of the president does not lapse.
4. A bill passed by both Houses but returned by the president for reconsideration of Rajya Sabha does not lapse.
5. Some pending bills and all pending assurances that are to be examined by the Committee on Government Assurances do not lapse on the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.
6. A motion passed by the Lok sabha for the removal of a judge of the Supreme Court doesn't lapse upon the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.