PRELIMS 2017 REVISION TEST 29

Solution: b

The speed of sound in a medium depends upon the following two factors:

• the elasticity E of the medium and
• the density ρ of the medium.

Statement 1: The speed of sound in a gas increases with increase in temperature of the gas.

Molecules at higher temperatures have more energy, thus they can vibrate faster. Since the molecules vibrate faster, sound waves can travel more quickly.

Statement 2: The speed of sound is inversely proportional to the square root of density of the gas. It means it increases with the decrease in density.

Statement 3: The speed of sound in air increases with the increase in humidity in the air. Sound travels faster in humid air than dry air.

Solution: a

Statement 1: SWIFT assigns each financial organization a unique code that has either eight characters or 11 characters. The code is called interchangeably the bank identifier code (BIC).

Prior to SWIFT, Telex was the only available means of message confirmation for international funds transfer. Telex was hampered by low speed, security concerns, and a free message format–in other words, Telex did not have a unified system of codes like SWIFT to name banks and describe transactions.

Statement 2: It is only a messaging system—SWIFT does not hold any funds or securities, nor does it manage client accounts.

SWIFT India Domestic Services last year (2016) rolled out services to provide harmonised exchange of structured financial information between banks, the Reserve Bank of India, stock exchanges, clearing houses, corporations, and their customers.

Learning: Assume a customer of a Bank of America branch in New York wants to send money to his friend who banks at the SBI branch in India.

The New Yorker can walk into his Bank of America branch with his friend’s account number and SBI, India unique SWIFT code for its India branch.

Bank of America will send a payment transfer SWIFT message to the SBI branch over the secure SWIFT network.

Once SBI receives the SWIFT message about the incoming payment, it will clear and credit the money to the friend’s account.

Solution: b

The scheme is expected to encourage foreign investment in India and facilitate Make in India Programme. Under the Scheme, suitable provisions will be incorporated in the Visa Manual to provide for the grant of PRS to foreign investors.

Permanent Residency Status will be granted for a period of 10 years initially with multiple entry facility, which can be renewed for another 10 years.

PRS will serve as a multiple entry visa without any stay stipulation and PRS holders will be exempted from the registration requirements. PRS holders will be allowed to purchase one residential property for dwelling purpose.

The spouse/ dependents of the PRS holder will be allowed to take up employment in private sector (in relaxation to salary stipulations for Employment Visa) and undertake studies in India.

This status will be subject to the relevant conditions in the FDI Policy notified by the Central Government from time to time.

Solution: c

The year to year fluctuations arise out of three factors namely, (i) fluctuation in rainfall during the sowing season (nearly 80% jute cultivation is rainfed), (ii) the average raw jute prices realized during the previous jute season, and (iii) the returns realized from competing crops during the previous season.

For e.g. a significant area under jute used to compete with paddy during the same season. Hence, year to year fluctuations in the prices of jute relative to the prices of paddy would generally influence the relative allocation of land between the two crops.

Solution: c

Statement 1: Jet streams are like rivers of wind high above in the atmosphere.

The seasons of the year, location of low and high-pressure systems and air temperature all affect when and where a jet stream travels. Jet streams form a border between hot and cold air.

Jet streams generally push air masses around, moving weather systems to new areas and even causing them to stall if they have moved too far away.

Statement 2: Jet streams also have an impact on air travel and are used to determine flight patterns. An airplane can travel much faster, and save fuel, by getting “sucked up” in the jet stream. That can also cause a bumpy flight, because the jet stream is sometimes unpredictable and can cause sudden movement, even when the weather looks calm and clear.

Solution: d

Among hydrogen production methods such as steam methane reforming, thermal cracking, coal and

biomass gasification and pyrolysis, electrolysis, and photolysis, biological ones are more eco-friendly and less energy intensive.

In addition, a wide variety of waste and low-value materials such as agricultural biomass as renewable sources can be utilized to produce hydrogen via biochemical pathways.

Statement 1: Bio-hydrogen can be produced biologically, most commonly by algae, bacteria and archaea from waste organic materials.

Statement 2: There are fermentation of all kinds – dark and light, so 2 is wrong.

Enteric bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Enterobacter aerogenes are capable of dark biohydrogen fermentation.

Cyanobacteria are frequently mentioned capable of hydrogen production by oxygenic photosynthesis.

Refineries are large-volume producers and consumers of hydrogen. Today 96% of all hydrogen is derived from fossil fuels, with 48% from natural gas, 30% from hydrocarbons, 18% from coal, and about 4% from electrolysis.

Solution: b

Freshwater animals cannot live for long in sea water as well as many sea water animals also cannot live for long in freshwater.

If a freshwater animal is put in salt water, the salty sea water would absorb the water from the animal via its gills due to osmosis until it dies.

The opposite happens to a saltwater animal placed in fresh water. It instead absorbs too much freshwater through its gills due to reverse osmosis and dies as a result.

Some animals, for e.g. fish can live in both fresh and salt water (salmon, eels, bull sharks for instance) but they require time to adjust between the two.

Solution: d

It is the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot and is located in Arunachal Pradesh.

It is also the third largest national park in India in terms of area. The park harbours the northernmost lowland evergreen rainforests in the world at sub-tropical latitude.

The habitat changes with increasing altitude from tropical moist forests to Montane forests, temperate forests and at the higher elevations, to Alpine meadows and perennial snow.

The park has extensive bamboo forests and secondary forests in addition to the primary forests.

Solution: b

Botnet is a combination of the words robot and network.

Botnets have been identified as growing security threat.

Such infected computers are referred to as a zombie. It is used to steal data, send spam.

The popular attacks that happen these days using botnets are called the Distributed Detail of Service (DDOS) attacks.

OPTION A describes Malware which is a malicious software specifically designed to disrupt, damage, or gain authorized access to a computer system.

It is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive malicious softwares including computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, ransomware, adware, scareware etc.

Solution: c

Novel was a new genre, borrowed from the West, and was characterized by a spirit of revolt, right from its adoption into the Indian system.

Historical novels were written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Bengali), Hari Narayan Apte (Marathi), and others, to describe the glorious past of India, and to instill nationalist fervour in her people.

The first Tamil novel by Samuel V. Pillai was written with didactic intentions and to re-examine evil social customs and practices. So, right from its beginning, it had a social orientation.

Solution: b

The Government amended the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 during the present financial year.

The amended Act provides for inflation target to be set by the Government, in consultation with the Reserve Bank, once in every five years and further provides for a statutory basis for the constitution of an empowered Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

As per the revised monetary policy framework, the Government has fixed the inflation target of 4 per cent with tolerance level of /- 2 per cent for the period beginning from 2016 to 2021.

Solution: d

Statement 1: Established by the Parliament, it has the twin objective of preserving the freedom of the press and maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and the news agencies in India exercising equal quasi-judicial functions over the authorities as well the press person.

Statement 2: The Council has its own funds for performance of its functions under the Act that comprises of the fee collected by it from newspapers, other receipts and also Grants in-Aid by from the Central Government.

Statement 3: This is because the council is a quasi-judicial authority and independent from the government. Moreover, it’s a self regulatory body of the Press and not a government tribunal. This is why its orders can’t be questioned except by way of a writ.

Solution: b

The criteria for declaring a language as classical mandates:

High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years, a body of ancient literature/texts which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers and a literary tradition that is original and not borrowed from another speech community.

Once a language is declared classical, it gets financial assistance for setting up a centre of excellence for the study of that language and also opens up an avenue for two major awards for scholars of eminence.

Besides, the University Grants Commission can be requested to create – to begin with at least in Central Universities – a certain number of professional chairs for classical languages for scholars of eminence in the language.

Solution: b

Lands, minerals and other things of value under the waters of the ocean within the territorial waters of India, the continental shelf of India and the exclusive economic zone of India vests in the Union.

Hence, a state near the ocean cannot claim jurisdiction over these things. India’s territorial waters extend to a distance of 12 nautical miles from the appropriate base line.

Similarly, India’s exclusive economic zone extends upto 200 nautical miles.

Solution: b

The term Intellectual Property (IP) reflects the idea that its subject matter is product of mind or intellect. These could be in the form of patents; trademarks; geographical indications; industrial designs; semiconductor integrated circuits layout-design; plant variety protection and copyright.

IP, protected through law, like any other form of property, can be a matter of trade, i.e., it can be owned, bequeathed, sold or bought.

All aspects of IPRs are administered by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

These are administered through the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM)

Solution: a

Statement 2 and 3: IFAD provides low interest loans and grants to developing countries to finance innovative agricultural and rural development programmes and projects. So, 2 and 3 are correct.

Statement 4: 176 countries are members of the IFAD, and these are grouped into three lists: List – A: Developed Countries; List – B: Oil Producing Countries; and List  C: Developing Countries.

India is in List – C. Since 1979, IFAD has provided financial support to India through projects in the realm of agriculture, rural development, tribal development, etc. So, 4 is incorrect.

Solution: a

Statement 1: Suppose an economy produces only cars.

If the price of car this year is Rs. 1000, and 2 cars were produced, the GDP this year is Rs. 2000.

Next year if prices increase to 3000 and still 2 cars are produced, GDP will be Rs. 6000 without an actual increase in production, thanks to inflation of 200%.

So, when inflation is adjusted in nominal GDP, we get real GDP which shows how much production (without the influence of prices) has actually grown.

Statement 2: GDP means an estimate of both goods and services, so 2 is wrong.

Solution: d

The population of India, which at the turn of the twentieth century was around 238.4 million, increased to reach 1,210.9 million by 2011.

The population of India as recorded at each decennial census from 1901 has grown steadily except for a decrease during 1911-21. So, A is wrong.

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. It was 972 at the beginning of the twentieth century and thereafter showed continuous decline until 1941.

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.

So, R is wrong.

Solution: a

It will work to support local member countries of South Asia viz. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka to build human and institutional capacity and implement policies for growth and poverty reduction.

SARTTAC is financed mainly by its six member South Asia countries (mentioned above) with additional support from Australia, South Korea, European Union and United Kingdom.

It will allow the IMF to meet more of the high demand for technical assistance and training from the region. It is expected to become the focal point for the delivery of IMF capacity development services to South Asia.

The opening of SARTTAC is part of the MoU (between IMF and India and other nations) and marks a major milestone in the partnership between the IMF and its member countries in the region.

Solution: b

Statement 1: There are only four lions resting on the circular abacus in the original figure.

Statement 2 and 3: The frieze of the abacus is adorned with sculptures in high relief of an elephant, a galloping horse, a bull and a lion separated by intervening Dharma Chakras. The abacus rests on a bell shaped lotus.