PRELIMS 2017 REVISION TEST 31

Solution: b

Statement 1:  The major pillars were – (a) high savings rate: It was believed that high savings rate would help finance large investment in heavy industries. When savings are high consumption can’t be high, so 1 is wrong.

Statement 2:  Other pillars were heavy industry bias and protectionist policies and public sector. If protection was not granted to the weak Indian domestic industries, they may not have survived against strong foreign competition. So, 2 is also wrong.

Statement 3:  Import substitution was favoured due to India’s harsh colonial experience with foreign and the need to develop an indigenous base of capital goods and other industries. So, 3 is correct.

Statement 4: Nehru was a socialist, so 4 can’t be correct.

Solution: c

Total fertility rate (TPFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime under certain conditions (including her survival).

Replacement level fertility is the total fertility rate at which women give birth to enough babies to sustain population levels in the nation. At this rate death rates become equal to the birth rates and population growth stops, i.e. population is constant throughout and does not decline. This is crucial for a stable demography and reducing population pressure. At this rate a population will exactly replace itself from one generation to the next, without migration. This rate is roughly 2.1 children per woman for most countries, although it may modestly vary with mortality rates and be higher for some developing countries. In India, Kerala has achieved below replacement level fertility rates at around 1.8, which means its population will see a decline in the coming decades.

Solution: b

The Guinness World Records has recently given official designation Assam’s Majuli as the largest river island in the world.
In June 2016, Assam Government had officially declared the island as the district making it India’s first island district. The island has been nominated for the World Heritage Site status. It has been included in the tentative list by UNESCO.

Solution: d

Single-cell protein (SCP) refers to edible unicellular microorganisms.

The biomass or protein extract from pure or mixed cultures of algae, yeasts, fungi or bacteria may be used as an ingredient or a substitute for protein-rich foods, and is suitable for human consumption or as animal feeds.

Whereas industrial agriculture is marked by a high water footprint, high land use, biodiversity destruction, general environmental degradation and contributes to climate change by emission of a third of all greenhouse gases, production of SCP does not necessarily exhibit any of these serious drawbacks.

Solution: a

Following are the nodal agencies in the GoI for early warning of different natural hazards:

These agencies shall be responsible for keeping track of developments in respect of specific hazards assigned to them and inform the designated authorities/agencies at National,

State and District levels about the impending disasters. All these agencies have developed guidelines forearly warning of disasters.

Solution: c

The Changthangi or Pashmina goat inhabits the plateaus in Tibet and neighbouring areas of Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir. They are raised for ultra-fine cashmere wool (pashmina).

Tibetan Antelope of Chiru is native to Tibet.

Chiru is an antelope, whereas Changthangi is a goat. Primate are apes, humans etc.

In recent years Chiru has become endangered due to poaching for their soft and warm wool which is usually obtained after death. This wool is known as shahtoosh and is used to weave shawls . At present, international trade in their products is strictly prohibited.

Solution: c

The Middle Andamans harbours mostly moist deciduous forests. North Andamans is characterised by the wet evergreen type. Western Ghats and NE states harbour both deciduous and evergreen forests. We will be covering more questions specific to vegetation in various parts of India in later tests.

Solution: d

SAMOA was an outcome document of the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the ‘SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.

The Samoa Pathway recognizes the adverse impacts of climate change and sea-level rise on SIDS efforts to achieve sustainable development as well as to their survival and viability, and addresses economic development, food security, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and ocean management, among other issues.

Since the agreement came about in 2014, it cannot be a part of the Paris Climate agreement 2015. So, 1 is wrong

Solution: c

Option A: This is because it is perpendicular to monsoon winds and receives high rainfall, unlike Eastern Ghats which are parallel to Monsoon winds.

Option B: Eastern Ghats are broken at several places.

Option C: Average height of WG is between 900-1500 m whereas that of EG is around 600 m. Highest peak of WG is Anaimudi which is at around 2595 m.

Solution: C

Statement 1: In agriculture, fungi are useful if they actively compete for nutrients and space with pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria or other fungi. For example, certain fungi may be used to eliminate or suppress the growth of harmful plant pathogens, such as insects, mites, weeds, nematodes.

Statement 2: Certain fungi, in particular “white rot” fungi, can degrade insecticides, herbicides, pentachlorophenol, creosote, coal tars, and heavy fuels and turn them into carbon dioxide, water, and basic elements.

Fungi have been shown to biomineralize uranium oxides, suggesting they may have application in the bioremediation of radioactively polluted sites.

Solution: d

It is the international currency in which the highest faith is shown and is needed by every economy.

The strongest currency of the world is one which has a high level of liquidity. Basically, it belongs to the economy with the highest as well as highly diversified exports that are compulsive imports for other countries.

This can be due to high level technology, defence products, life saving medicines and petroleum products) will also create high demand for its currency in the world and become the hard currency.

It is always scarce. Some of the best hard currencies of the world today are the US dollar, the Euro(€), Japanese Yen (¥) and the UK Sterling Pound (£).

Solution: d

It is a field-specific printed report card issued to farmers in once in three years indicating the status of his soil in terms of 12 parameters.

It is also accompanied by an advice on the various fertilizers and other soil amendments he is suppose to make including in Major Nutrients, pH (Soil Reaction; acidity / alkalinity of the soil), Total Dissolved salts etc.

Justification: Statement 1: SHC will ensure that farmers do not spend money unnecessarily on purchase of fertilizers by adding more than required. Once there is economy on the use of chemical fertilizers, the cost of production is expected to decrease.

Statement 2: India imports large quantity of various fertilizers to meet the demand.

About 25-30% of the requirement of Urea, 90% of the requirement of Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and 100% of the requirement of Muriate of Potash (MOP) are met by imports.

The soil test based fertilizer usage will reduce import bill and will also ensure higher yields per unit.

Fertilizers also account for huge subsidy bills lowering of which will reduce our fiscal deficit.

Statement 3: The existing Nitrogen – Phosphorous – Potassium (NPK) consumption ratio in the country is skewed at 8.2:3.2:1 (2012-13) as against the preferred ratio of 4:2:1.

A great variability is observed in fertiliser consumption among States from 250 kg /ha in Punjab to 2 kg / ha in Arunachal Pradesh, during 2012-13.

However, imbalanced application of fertilisers have caused deficiency of primary nutrients (i.e. NPK), secondary nutrients (such as sulphur), and micronutrients (boron, zinc, copper etc.), in most parts of country.

Solution: a

Statement 1: The policy seeks to create self-sufficiency in steel production by providing policy support & guidance to private manufacturers, MSME steel producers, CPSEs. There is no word on strategic acquisitions. So, 1 is wrong.

Statement 2: It also talks about facilitating foreign investment to boost steel production in India.

Statement 3: Natural gas and coal are the two primary fuels used in iron production, hence vital for steel industry.

Solution: c

Albedo is the fraction of solar energy (shortwave radiation) reflected from the Earth back into space.

It is a measure of the reflectivity of the earth’s surface. Ice, especially with snow on top of it, has a high albedo: most sunlight hitting the surface bounces back towards space.

Water is much more absorbent and less reflective. So, if there is a lot of water, more solar radiation is absorbed by the ocean than when ice dominates.

Soil has least reflectivity among all options A to D, and thus the most appropriate answer.

Solution: c

Since 1896, reports have been coming in of sporadic instances of red coloured rain over parts of Kerala and Sri Lanka.

The latest one was in 2012 over Kerala.

It was initially thought that the rains were coloured by fallout from a hypothetical meteor burst.

But a study commissioned by the Government of India concluded that the rains had been coloured by airborne spores from a locally prolific terrestrial green alga from the genus Trentepohlia. The exact species was later identified as T. annulata.

Solution: a

In economics, moral hazard occurs when one person takes more risks because someone else bears the cost of those risks.

It is one among the two kinds of market failures associated with the insurance sector. It means that the people with insurance cover may take greater risks than the uncovered ones as they know they are protected so the insurer may get more claims it bargained for. The other kind of market failure is the adverse selections also related to insurance business. Adverse selection occurs when there’s a lack of symmetric information prior to a deal between a buyer and a seller. Here the insurer is confronted with the probability of loss due to risk not factored in at the time of sale.

Solution: d

Statement 1:  RBI purchases (or sells) government securities to the general public in a bid to increase (or decrease) the stock of high powered money in the economy. This is called OMOs. So, 1 is wrong as it is not always the case.

Statement 2:  Only when OMOs are used for sterilization, do we see a change in the forex reserves. If used only in the domestic market, forex does not change. So, 2 is wrong as well.

Statement 3:  These remain unaffected by OMOs and decided independently by the Central bank (or MPC now).

Solution: a

The Constitution authorised the Parliament to establish a ‘Contingency Fund of India’, into which amounts determined by law are paid from time to time. So, 1 is correct.

Accordingly, the Parliament enacted the contingency fund of India Act in 1950. So, 2 is correct. This fund is placed at the disposal of the president, and he can make advances out of it to meet unforeseen expenditure pending its authorisation by the Parliament. So, 3 is incorrect. The fund is held by the finance secretary on behalf of the president. Like the public account of India, it is also operated by executive action.’

Solution: b

In-situ conservation is the on-site conservation or the conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species, such as forest genetic resources in natural populations of tree species, for e.g biosphere reserves, wildlife sanctuaries etc.

Ex-situ conservation is the preservation of components of biological diversity outside their natural habitats. This involves conservation of genetic resources, as well as wild and cultivated or species, and draws on a diverse body of techniques and facilities. Such strategies include establishment of botanical gardens, zoos, conservation strands and gene, pollen seed, seedling, tissue culture and DNA banks. Hence, all options other than B are wrong.

Solution: a

Biosphere is that part of the earth inwhich living organisms exist or whichsupports life. Please note we are not talking about the “biosphere reserve”.
Protected areas, just like any large ecosystem, are a significant part of our biosphere that is established to protect our flora, fauna and their habitats. So, the most appropriate analogy is option A where a tree is one among many (species both plant and animals) in a forest.
Option D:This in invalid as biosphere is much larger than any protected area on earth. Two celestial bodies may be of the same size.