INSIGHTS REVISION TEST for Preliminary Exam 2018: Test – 33 (Art and Culture)

Solution: b

Justification:

Karachi session 1931

1. It was held to endorse the Gandhi-Irwin or Delhi Pact
2. Reiterated the goal of Poorna Swaraj
3. Resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme

(Hence statement 1 is correct)

4. Background

• Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru had been executed six days earlier. Even though Gandhiji had made every attempt to save their lives, there was anger among the people, especially the youth, as to why he had not refused to sign the Pact on this question. All along Gandhiji’s route to Karachi he was greeted with black flag demonstrations.
• The Congress passed a resolution drafted by Gandhiji by which it, ‘while dissociating itself from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or form,’ admired ‘the bravery and sacrifice’ of the three martyrs.

Communal Award, 1932

1. expression of ‘Divide and Rule’ policy of British
2. Award allotted to each minority a number of seats in the legislatures to be elected on the basis of a separate electorate that is Muslims would be elected only by Muslims and Sikhs only by Sikhs, and so on. Muslims, Sikhs and Christians had already been treated as minorities. The Award declared the Depressed Classes (Scheduled Castes of today) also to be a minority community entitled to separate electorate and thus separated them from the rest of the Hindus.

(Hence statement 2 is incorrect)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: d

Justification:

The impact of the Russian Revolution

1. It overthrew the despotic Czarist regime and declared the formation of the first socialist state.
2. The new Soviet regime unilaterally renounced its imperialist rights in China and other parts of Asia.
3. It showed if the common people — the workers and peasants and the intelligentsia — could unite and overthrow the mighty Czarist empire and establish a social order where there was no exploitation of one human being by another, then the Indian people battling against British imperialism could also do so.
4. Socialist doctrines, especially Marxism, the guiding theory of the Bolshevik Party, acquired a sudden attraction, especially for the people of Asia.

Socialist ideas became even more popular during the 1930s as the world was engulfed by the great economic depression. Unemployment soared all over the capitalist world. The world depression brought the capitalist system into disrepute and drew attention towards Marxism and socialism.

Impact on India

1. Socialist ideas now began to spread rapidly especially because many young persons who had participated actively in the Non- Cooperation Movement were unhappy with its outcome and were dissatisfied with Gandhian policies and ideas as well as the alternative Swarajist
2. Several socialist and communist groups came into existence all over the country. In

• Bombay, S.A. Dange published a pamphlet Gandhi and Lenin and started the first socialist weekly, The Socialist;
• Bengal, Muzaffar Ahmed brought out Navayug and later founded the Langal in cooperation with the poet NazruI Islam
• Punjab, Ghulam Hussain and others published Inquilab;
• Madras, M. Singaravelu founded the Labour-Kisan Gazette.

3. Student and youth associations were organized all over the country from 1927 onwards. Hundreds of youth conferences were organized all over the country during 1928 and 1929 with speakers advocating radical solutions for the political, economic and social ills from which the country was suffering. Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Bose toured the country attacking imperialism, capitalism, and landlordism and preaching the ideology of socialism.
4. The Revolutionary Terrorists led by Chandrasekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh also turned to socialism.
5. Trade union and peasant movements grew rapidly throughout the 1920s.

Within the Congress the left-wing tendency found reflection in the election of Jawaharlal Nehru as president for 1936 and 1937 and of Subhas Bose for 1938 and 1939 and in the formation of the Congress Socialist Party. (Hence option d is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: b

Justification:

Government of India Act of 1935

• Act provided for the establishment of an All-India Federation to be based on the union of the British Indian provinces and Princely States. The representatives of the States to the federal legislature were to be appointed directly by the Princes who were to be used to check and counter the nationalists.
• The franchise was limited to about one-sixth of the adults.
• Defence and foreign affairs would remain outside the control of the federal legislature, while the Viceroy would retain special control over other subjects.
• The provinces were to be governed under a new system based on provincial autonomy under which elected ministers controlled all provincial departments.
• Once again, the Governors, appointed by the British Government, retained special powers. They could veto legislative and administrative measures, especially those concerning minorities, the rights of civil servants, law and order and British business interests.

(Hence option b is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: d

Justification:

The commitment of the Congress to the defence and extension of civil liberties was as old as the Congress itself, and it is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Congress Ministries registered major achievements in this sphere.

1. All emergency powers acquired by the provincial governments during 1932, through Public Safety Acts and the like, were repealed
2. bans on illegal political organizations such as the Hindustan Seva Dal and Youth Leagues and on political books and journals were lifted. Though the ban on the Communist Party remained, since it was imposed by the Central Government and could only be lifted on its orders, the Communists could in effect now function freely and openly in the Congress provinces.
3. All restrictions on the press were removed. Securities taken from newspapers and presses were refunded and pending prosecutions were withdrawn. The blacklisting of newspapers for purposes of government advertising was given up.
4. Confiscated arms were returned and forfeited arms licenses were restored.

The Congress could not attempt a complete overhaul of the agrarian structure by completely eliminating the zamindari system. This, for following reasons

• According to the constitutional structure of the 1935 Act, the provincial Ministries did not have enough powers to do so.
• They also suffered from an extreme lack of financial resources, for the lion’s share of India’s revenues was appropriated by the Government of India.
• The Congress Ministries could also not touch the existing administrative structure, whose sanctity was guarded by the Viceroy’s and Governor’s powers.
• What is more important, the strategy of class adjustment also forbade it. A multi-class movement could develop only by balancing or adjusting various, mutually clashing class interests.

(Hence option d is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: d

Justification:

The 1930s bore witness to a new and nation-wide awakening of Indian peasants to their own strength and capacity to organize for the betterment of their living conditions. This awakening was largely a result of the combination of particular economic and political developments.

• The great Depression that began to hit India from 1929-30
• new phase of mass struggle launched by the Indian National Congress in 1930.

Effect of depression

It brought agricultural prices crashing down to half or less of their normal levels dealt a severe blow to the already impoverished peasants burdened with high taxes and rents. The Government was obdurate in refusing to scale down its own rates of taxation or in asking zamindars to bring down their rents. The prices of manufactured goods, too, didn’t register comparable decreases. All told, the peasants were placed in a situation where they had to continue to pay taxes, rents, and debts at pre-Depression rates while their incomes continued to spiral steadily downward

Civil Disobedience Movement

• was launched in this atmosphere of discontent in 1930, and in many parts of the country it soon took on the form of a no-tax and no-rent campaign. Peasants, emboldened by the recent success of the Bardoli Satyagraha (1928), joined the protest in large numbers. In Andhra, for example, the political movement was soon enmeshed with the campaign against re-settlement that threatened an increase in land revenue.
• In U.P., no-revenue soon turned into no-rent 3nd the movement continued even during the period of truce following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Gandhiji himself issued a manifesto to the U.P. kisans asking them to pay only fifty per cent of the legal rent and get receipts for payment of the full amount.
• Peasants in Gujarat, especially in Surat and Kheda, refused to pay their taxes and went hijrat to neighbouring Baroda territory to escape government repression. Their lands and movable property were confiscated.
• In Bihar and Bengal, powerful movements were launched against the hated chowkidara tax by which villagers were made to pay for the upkeep of their own oppressors.
• In Punjab, a no-revenue campaign was accompanied by the emergence of kisan sabhas that demanded a reduction in land revenue and water-rates and the scaling down of debts.
• Forest satyagrahas by which peasants, including tribals, defied the forest laws that prohibited them from use of the forests were popular in Maharashtra, Bihar and the Central Provinces.
• Anti-zamindari struggles emerged in Andhra, and the first target was the Venkatagiri zamindari, in Nellore district.

Also, in 1934, with the formation of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP). the process of the consolidation of the Left forces received a significant push forward. The Communists, too, got the opportunity, by becoming members of the CSP to work in an open and legal fashion. This consolidation of the Left acted as a spur to the formation of an all-India body to coordinate the kisan movement, a process that was already under way through the efforts of N.G. Ranga and other kisan leaders.

(Hence option d is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: c

Justification:

The advance of the national movement in British India, and the accompanying increase in political consciousness about democracy, responsible government and civil liberties had an inevitable impact on the people of the States.

In the first and second decade of the twentieth century, runaway terrorists from British India seeking shelter in the States became agents of politicization.

A much more powerful influence was exercised by the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement launched in 1920; around this time and under its impact, numerous local organizations of the States’ people came into existence. Some of the States in which praja mandals or States’ People’s Conferences were organized were Mysore, Hyderabad, Baroda, the Kathiawad States, the Deccan States, Jamnagar, Indore, and Nawanagar.

This process came to a head in December 1927 with the convening of the All India States’ People’s Conference (AISPC) which was attended by 700 political workers from the States. The men chiefly responsible for this initiative were Baiwantrai Mehta, Manikial Kothari and G.R. Abhayankar.

Indian national congress

1) The policy of the INC towards the Indian states had been first enunciated in 1920 at Nagpur when a resolution calling upon the Princes to grant full responsible government in their States had been passed.

2) Simultaneously, however, the Congress, while allowing residents of the States to become members of the Congress, made it clear that they could not initiate political activity in the States in the name of Congress but only in their individual capacity or as members of the local political organizations.

3) Given the great differences in the political conditions between British India and the States, and between the different States themselves, the general lack of civil liberties including freedom of association, the comparative political backwardness of the people, and the fact that the Indian States were legally independent entities, these were understandable restraints imposed in the interest of the movements in the States as ell as the movement in British India.

4) The main emphasis was that people of the States should build up their own strength and their capacity to struggle for their demands.

5)  In 1927, the Congress reiterated as resolution of 1920, and in 1929. Jawaharlal Nehru, in his presidential address to the famous Lahore Congress, declared that ‘the Indian states cannot live apart from the rest of India. The only people who have a right to determine the future of the states must be the people of those states’) In later years, the Congress demanded that the Princes guarantee fundamental rights to their people.

In the mid thirties, two associated developments brought about a distinct change in the situation in the Indian States.

1. Government of India Act of 1935 projected a scheme of federation in which the Indian States were to be brought into a direct constitutional relationship with British India and the States were to send representatives to the Federal Legislature. The catch was that these representatives would be nominees of the Princes and not democratically elected representatives of the people. They would number one-third of the total numbers of the Federal legislature and act as a solid conservative block that could be trusted to thwart nationalist pressures. The Indian National Congress and the AISPC and other organizations of the States’ people clearly saw through this imperialist maneuver and demanded that the States be represented not by the Princes’ nominees but by elected representatives of the people. This lent a great sense of urgency to the demand for responsible democratic government in the States.
2. assumption of office by Congress Ministries in the majority of the provinces in British India in 1937. The fact that the Congress was in power created a new sense of confidence and expectation in the people of the Indian States and acted as a spur to greater political activity. The Princes too had to reckon with a new political reality — the Congress was no longer just a party in opposition but a party in power with a capacity to influence developments in contiguous Indian States.

The years 1938-39, in fact, stand out as years of a new awakening in the Indian States and were witness to a large number of movements demanding responsible government and other reforms. Praja mandals mushroomed in many States that had earlier no such organizations. Major struggles broke out in Jaipur, Kashmir, Rajkot, Patiala, Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and the Orissa States.

These new developments brought about a significant change in Congress policy as well. Whereas, even in the Haripura session in 1938, the Congress had reiterated its policy that movements in the States should not be launched in the name of the Congress but should rely on their own independent strength and fight through local organizations, a few months later, on seeing the new spirit that was abroad among the people and their capacity to struggle. Gandhiji and the Congress changed their attitude on this question. The radicals and socialists in the Congress, as well as political workers in the States, had in any case been pressing for this change for quite some time.

Following upon this, the Congress at Tripuri in March 1939 passed a resolution enunciating its new policy: ‘The great awakening that is taking place among the people of the States may lead to a relaxation, or to a complete removal of the restraint which the Congress imposed upon itself, thus resulting in an ever increasing identification of the Congress with the States’ peoples’.3 Also in 1939, the AISPC elected Jawaharlal Nehru as its President for the Ludhiana session, thus setting the seal on the fusion of the movements in Princely India and British India.The outbreak of the Second World War brought about a distinct change in the political atmosphere.

(Hence option c is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: c

Justification:

The economic development of the Indian capitalist class in the colonial period was substantial and in many ways the nature of its growth was quite different from the usual experience in other colonial countries. This had important implications regarding the class’s position vis-a-vis imperialism.

First, the Indian capitalist class grew from about the mid 19th century with largely an independent capital base and not as junior partners of foreign capital or as compradors. Hence statement1 is correct.

Second, the capitalist class on the whole was not tied up in a subservient position with pro-imperialist feudal interests either economically or politically. (Hence statement 2 is correct. )In fact, a wide cross section of the leaders of the capitalist class actually argued, m 1944-45, in their famous Bombay plan (the signatories to which were Purshottamdas Thakurdas, J.R.D. Tata, G.D. Birla, Ardeshir Dalal, Sri Ram, Kasturbhai Lalbhai, A.D. Shroff and John Mathai) for comprehensive land reform, including cooperativization of production, finance and marketing.’

(Hence option c is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: b

Justification:

Why cripps mission was sent?

As the war situation worsened, President Roosevelt of the USA and President Chiang Kai-Shek of China as also the Labour Party leaders of Britain put pressure on Churchill to seek the active cooperation of Indians in the War. To secure this cooperation the British Government sent to India in March 1942 a mission headed by a Cabinet minister Stafford Cripps, a leftwing Labourite who had earlier actively supported the Indian national movement.

Cripps Mission

Even though Cripps announced that the aim of British policy in India was ‘the earliest possible realization of self- government in India,’ the Draft Declaration he brought with him was disappointing. The Declaration promised India

• Dominion Status
• constitution-making body after the War whose members would be elected by the provincial assemblies and nominated by the rulers in case of the princely states.

The Pakistan demand was accommodated by the provision that any province which was not prepared to accept the new constitution would have the right to sign a separate agreement with Britain regarding its future status

For the present the British would continue to exercise sole control over the defence of the country. Amery, the Secretary of State, described the Declaration as in essence a conservative, reactionary and limited offer. Nehru, a friend of Cripps, was to write later: When I read those proposals for the first time I was profoundly depressed.’

(Hence option b is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: a

Justification:

Cabinet Mission

1. It was convinced that Pakistan was not viable and that the minorities’ autonomy must somehow be safeguarded within the framework of a united India. (Hence statement 1 is incorrect).
2. The Mission Plan conceived three sections

• A — comprising Madras, Bombay, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, C.P. and Orissa;
• B — consisting of Punjab, NWFP and Sind;
• C — of Bengal and Assam

3. These sections would meet separately to decide on group constitutions.
4. There would be a common center controlling defence, foreign affairs and communications. After the first general elections a province could come out of a group. After ten years a province could call for a reconsideration of the group or union constitution.

Congress Reaction

It wanted that a province need not wait till the first elections to leave a group, it should have the option not to join it in the first place. It had Congress- ruled provinces of Assam and NWFP (which were in Sections C and B respectively) in mind when it raised this question.

Muslim League — wanted provinces to have the right to question the union constitution now, not wait for ten years.

There was obviously a problem in that the Mission Plan was ambivalent on whether grouping was compulsory or optional. It declared that grouping was optional but sections were compulsory. This was a contradiction, which rather than removing, the Mission deliberately quibbled about in the hope of somehow reconciling the irreconcilable.

(Hence option a is correct)

Source: Bipan Chandra

Solution: c

Justification:

Sanskrit literature during Rashtrakutas

1. Trivikrama — Nalachampu
2. Halayudha — Kavirahasya (during the reign of Krishna III)

Jain literature under Rashtrakutas

1. Amogavarsha I, who was a Jain patronized many Jain scholars.
2. Jinasena — Parsvabhudaya (biography of Parsva)
3. Gunabhadra — Adipurana (life stories of various Jain saints)
4. Sakatayana — Amogavritti(grammer work)
5. Viracharya (mathematician) – Ganitasaram

Kannada literature during Rashtrakutas

1. Amogavarsha — Kavirajamarga (first poetic work in Kannada language)
2. Pampa – Vikramasenavijaya
3. Ponna — Santipurana.

(Hence option c is correct)

Source:  Tamil Nadu History Class 11.

Solution: b

Justification:

Cambodia was colonised by Indians in the first century A.D. They influenced the native people called the Khemers. The ruling dynasty was known as Kambojas and their country was Kamboja or modern Cambodia. Under the early rulers Saivism and Vaishnavism made steady progress. The Kamboja Empire at its greatest extent included Laos, Siam, part of Burma and the Malay Peninsula. Numerous Sanskrit inscriptions give us a detailed history of its kings. A number of Hindu literary works like the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, Panini’s grammar, Hindu philosophical treatises were all known to the people of Cambodia. Like the Pallava kings, they were called Varmans. Yasovarman and Suryavarman II were two well-known rulers.

Temples were built in South Indian style. There are plenty of Sanskrit inscriptions. The most famous of these temples was the temple (wat) of Vishnu built by Suryavarman II in his capital city Angkor. (Hence statement 1 is incorrect). It was popularly called as the Angkorwat Temple. It is standing on top of a terraced structure. Each terrace is a sort of a covered gallery which contains numerous relief sculptures. The temple is constructed on the Dravidian style (Hence statement 2 is correct) and the sculptures depict episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The Kambhoja kingdom declined only in fifteenth century.

(Hence option b is correct)

Source: Tamil Nadu History Class 11.

Solution: b

Justification:

Balban was determined to break the power of the Forty, the     Turkish nobles. He spared only the most obedient nobles and eliminated all others by fair or foul means. Malik Baqbaq, the governor of Badaun, was publicly flogged for his cruelty towards his servants. Haybat Khan, the governor of Oudh, was also punished for killing a man who was drunk. Sher Khan, the governor of Bhatinda was poisoned. Instead of expanding his kingdom, Balban paid more attention to the restoration of law and order. He established a separate military department – diwan-i-arz – and reorganized the army. The outskirts of Delhi were often plundered by the Mewatis. Balban took severe action against them and prevented such robberies. Robbers were mercilessly pursued and put to death. As a result, the roads became safe for travel.

(Hence option b is correct.)

Source: Tamil Nadu History Class 11.

Solution: c           

Justification:

Muhammad bin Tughlaq

He increased the land revenue on the farmers of Doab (land between Ganges and Yamuna rivers) in order to overcome financial difficulties. A severe famine was also ravaging that region at that time. It had resulted in a serious peasant revolts. They fled from the villages but Muhammad bin Tughlaq took harsh measures to capture and punish them. The revolts were crushed. However, the Sultan realized later that adequate relief measures and the promotion of agriculture were the real solution to the problem. Hence

• He launched a scheme by which takkavi loans (loans for cultivation) were given to the farmers to buy seed and to extend cultivation.
• A separate department for agriculture, Diwan- i- Kohi was established.
• Model farm under the state was created in an area of 64 square miles for which the government spent seventy lakh tankas. This experiment was further continued by Firoz Tughlaq.

(Hence option c is correct)

Source: Tamil Nadu History Class 11.

Solution: c

Justification:

Firoz Tughlaq

1. He strictly followed the advice of the ulemas in running the administration.
2. He pleased the nobles and assured hereditary succession to their properties. Thus the iqta system was not only revived but also it was made hereditary.
3. As per the Islamic law he levied the taxes.

• Jiziya was strictly imposed on non-Muslims.
• first Sultan to impose irrigation tax. But at the same time he dug irrigation canals and wells. The longest canal was about 200 kilometres from Sutlej to Hansi. Another canal was between Yamuna and Hissar.
• The special tax on 28 items was abolished by him since they were against the Islamic law.

4. He also developed royal factories called karkhanas in which thousands of slaves were employed.
5. About 300 new towns were built during his reign. The famous among them was Firozabad near Red Fort in Delhi, now called Firoz Shah Kotla.
6. Old monuments like Jama Masjid and Qutb-Minar were also repaired.
7. A new department called Diwan-i-Khairat was created to take care of orphans and widows.
8. Free hospitals and marriage bureaus for poor Muslims were also established.
9. Firoz patronized scholars like Barani and Afif.
10. As he was guided by the ulemas, he was intolerant towards Shia Muslims and Sufis. He treated Hindus as second grade citizens and imposed Jiziya. In this respect he was the precursor of Sikandar Lodi and Aurangazeb.
11. Also he increased the number of slaves by capturing the defeated soldiers and young persons.

(Hence option c is correct)

Source: Tamil Nadu History Class 11

Solution: b

Justification:

After consolidating their position in India, the Delhi Sultans introduced reforms in the land revenue administration. The lands were classified into three categories:

• iqta land – lands assigned to officials as iqtas instead of payment for their
• khalisa land – land under the direct control of the Sultan and the revenues collected were spent for the maintenance of royal court and royal household.
• inam land – land assigned or granted to religious leaders or religious institutions.

(Hence option b is correct)

Source: Tamil Nadu History Class 11

Solution: d          

Justification:

1. The Delhi Sultans patronized learning and literature. Many of them had great love for Arabic and Persian literature. Learned men came from Persia and Persian language got encouragement from the rulers. Besides theology and poetry, the writing of history was also encouraged. Some of the Sultans had their own court historians.

2. The most famous historians of this period were Hasan Nizami, Minhaj-us-Siraj, Ziauddin Barani, and Shams-Siraj Afif

3. Barani’s Tarikhi- Firoz Shahi contains the history of Tughlaq dynasty

4. Minhaj-us-Siraj wrote Tabaqat-i- Nasari, a general history of Muslim dynasties up to 1260.

(Hence option d is correct)

Source: Tamil Nadu History Class 11

Solution: b

Justification:

Theosophical Society

• founded in United States in 1875. In 1882, the headquarters was shifted to Adayar, on the outskirts of Madras. (Hence statement 1 is incorrect).
• Founders — Madame H.P. Blavatsky (1831-1891) and Colonel M.S. They were inspired by Indian thought and culture.
• The society believed that a special relationship could be established between a person’s soul and God through contemplation, prayer, revelation, etc.
• It accepted the Hindu beliefs in reincarnation and karma, and drew inspiration from the philosophy of the Upanishads and samkhya, yoga and Vedanta schools of thought. (Hence statement 2 is correct).

(Hence option b is correct)

Source: Spectrum

Solution: c

Justification:

vesara architecture – developed in southern part of the Deccan, i.e., in the region of Karnataka. It’s hybrid of Nagara and Dravida style of temple architecture.  (Hence statement 3 is correct).

Pulakesin I established the early western Chalukya kingdom when he secured the land around Badami in 543. The early western Chalukyas ruled most of the Deccan till the mid-eighth century when they were superseded by the Rashtrakutas.

Early Chalukyan activity also takes the form of rock-cut caves while later activity is of structural temples. The earliest is probably the Ravana Phadi cave at Aihole which is known for its distinctive sculptural style. One of the most important sculptures at the site is of Nataraja, surrounded by larger-than-life-size depictions of the saptamatrikas: three to Shiva’s left and four to his right. The figures are characterised by graceful, slim bodies, long, oval faces topped with extremely tall cylindrical crowns and shown to wear short dhotis marked by fine incised striations indicating pleating. They are distinctly different from contemporary western Deccan or Vakataka styles seen at places such as Paunar and Ramtek. The hybridisation and incorporation of several styles was the hallmark of Chalukyan buildings.

(Hence statement 1 and 2 are correct).

(Hence option c is correct)

Source: NCERT Class 11-An introduction to Indian Art part 1.

Solution: c

Justification:

Padmavat (or Padmawat)

1) It’s an epic poem written in 1540 by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi, who wrote it in the Hindustani language of Awadhi, and originally in the Persian Nastaʿlīq script. (Hence statement 2 is correct).

2) It is the oldest extant text among the important works in Awadhi. A famous piece of Sufi literature from the period, it relates an allegorical fictional story about the Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khalji’s desire for the titular Padmavati, the Queen of Chittor. Alauddin Khalji and Padmavati’s husband Ratan Sen are historical figures, whereas Padmavati is a fictional character.

Mathnawi or masnavi — a poem written in rhyming couplets, or more specifically, “a poem based on independent, internally rhyming lines”. (Hence statement 1 is correct).

(Hence option c is correct)

Source: Tamil Nadu History Class 11 and Wiki

Solution: b

Justification:

Hill temple architecture in Kashmir

1) Place of development : hills of Kumaon, Garhwal, Himachal and Kashmir

2) Influence :

• Kashmir’s proximity to prominent Gandhara sites (such as Taxila, Peshawar and the northwest frontier) lent the region a strong Gandhara influence by the 5CE.
• This began to mix with the Gupta and post-Gupta traditions that were brought to it from Sarnath, Mathura and even centres in Gujarat and Bengal.
• Brahmin pundits and Buddhist monks frequently travelled between Kashmir, Garhwal, Kumaon and religious centres in the plains like Banaras, Nalanda and even as far south as Kanchipuram. As a result both Buddhist and Hindu traditions began to intermingle and spread in the hills.
• The hills also had their own tradition of wooden buildings with pitched roofs.
• At several places in the hills, therefore, you will find that while the main garbhagriha and shikhara are made in a rekha-prasada or latina style, the mandapa is of an older form of wooden architecture. Sometimes, the temple itself takes on a pagoda shape.
• The Karkota period of Kashmir is the most significant in terms of architecture. One of the most important temples is Pandrethan, built during the eighth and ninth centuries.

(Hence option b is correct)

Source: NCERT class 11-An introduction to Indian Art part 1

Solution: b)

Goa, Daman and Diu India acquired these three territories from the Portuguese by means of a police action in 1961. They were constituted as a union territory by the 12th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1962. Later, in 1987, Goa was conferred a statehood. Consequently, Daman and Diu was made  a separate union territory.

Solution: d)

The Centre will formally launch Swayam Prabha – a project for telecasting ‘High-quality educational programmes’ through 32 DTH channels on Sunday at a National Convention on Digital Initiatives for Higher Education.

Every day, there will be content of four hours that will be repeated six times, thus covering all 24 hours of the day. This will allow the student to choose a time of his own convenience,” said an official. “The channels will cover curriculum-based course content covering arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences, engineering, medicine, law, agriculture, etc.”

http://www.thehindu.com/education/schools/coming-direct-to-home-coaching-for-students-iit-aspirants/article19240986.ece;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/more-channels-to-train-teachers/article22339416.ece;

Solution: c)

Knowledge is now recognised as the driver of productivity and economic growth, leading to a new focus on the role of information, technology and learning in economic performance. The term “knowledge-based economy” stems from this fuller recognition of the place of knowledge and technology in modern economies.

To gain fully from the genomics revolution, India needs to collect information about the genetics of its population and train manpower capable of interpreting it. The information that is needed has to come from a large and sustained collection of data — fully sequenced individual genomes along with medical histories for the individuals who volunteer for this effort. This knowledge could then also be quickly applied to the task of managing diseases as well as be used for genetic counselling that could reduce their incidence in future generations. As an example elsewhere, the founder group of Ashkenazi Jews have almost eliminated Tay-Sachs disease from their population by such means.

Q45, CS(P) 2017: http://www.insightsonindia.com/2017/06/19/answer-key-upsc-civil-services-prelims-exam-2017-general-studies-paper-1/;

We are just providing the source for definition of KBE, no need to refer to it: https://www.oecd.org/sti/sci-tech/1913021.pdf;

Source/improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/towards-a-genomics-revolution/article22361004.ece;

Solution: c)

There are six official languages of the UN.  These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The correct interpretation and translation of these six languages, in both spoken and written form, is very important to the work of the Organization, because this enables clear and concise communication on issues of global importance.

• A delegate may speak in any official UN language. The speech is interpreted simultaneously into the other official languages of the UN.
• At times, a delegate may choose to make a statement using a non-official language. In such cases, the delegation must provide either an interpretation or a written text of the statement in one of the official languages.
• Most UN documents are issued in all six official languages, requiring translation from the original document.

Additional Information:

• Minister Sushma Swaraj said the process required a two-thirds majority vote, and that other countries using Hindi should share the expenditure incurred in making the language an official one.
• Though there are six official languages in the U.N., only two — English and French — were working languages.

http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/official-languages/;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/what-is-the-purpose-of-hindi-as-an-official-language-in-un-asks-tharoor/article22357862.ece;

Solution: b.

In contrast with the MCI, which does everything from advising universities on curriculum to disciplining errant doctors, the NMC distributes powers among four autonomous boards — those for undergraduate education, postgraduate education, medical assessment and rating, and ethics and registration. Also, unlike the MCI, the commission includes non-doctors like patient-rights advocates and ethicists, in line with the medical regulators of the U.K., Australia and Canada.

Where the NMC bill trips up is in how it chooses the members of the new regulator. The NMC Bill’s solution to the pitfalls of the MCI electoral process is for the central government to select most of the commission’s members… The Bill also misses an opportunity to plan for India’s rural health-care needs (especially the issue of shortage of doctors) in the coming decades.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/prescription-for-the-future/article22413556.ece;

http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-national-medical-commission-bill-2017-5024/;