TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. GS1 Related B. GS2 Related INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1. Dhaka faces Rohingya ire on shift plan C. GS3 Related INFRASTRUCTURE 1. Bullet train plan stalls on land row HEALTH 1. Challenging the emperor of all maladies D. GS4 Related E. Editorials ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY 1. G.D. Agarwal Save Ganga crusader (Save Ganga) 2. The lowdown on NCR’s air quality INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1. Dhaka faces Rohingya ire on shift plan - Editorial F. Tidbits 1. Mother Power G. Prelims Fact 1. Concepts at a glance H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
A. GS1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
B. GS2 Related
Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Dhaka faces Rohingya ire on shift plan
Context
- Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali clarified at a meeting with a foreign media delegation that the Rohingya are not Bengalis and have a distinct identity that should be recognised.
- India and China are building homes in Rakhine to accommodate those who return home. But no one on the ground is sure that they would return after the assault they experienced.
- The Minister clarified that storm-shelters had been built on the islet, located in the path of deadly annual cyclones that visit the region, to help the Rohingya settle there.
- However, it remains unclear whether any of the current refugees of Kutupalong would shift there voluntarily as the community leaders have disagreed with Dhaka’s plan to leave the safe surrounding of what was once an elephant sanctuary.
Who are Rohingyas?
- Rohingya Muslims comprise one million out of the 53 million people that live in Myanmar, forming the world’s largest stateless population in a single country.
- Universally reviled by the country’s Buddhist majority, they have been oppressed by the government since the late 1970s when the government launched a campaign to identify ‘illegal immigrants’.
- Serious abuses were committed, forcing as many as 250,000 Rohingya refugees to flee to Bangladesh.
- The 1982 Citizenship Law in former Burma made the Rohingyas stateless people.
- They have often been called the most persecuted minority in the world.
- The 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims squeezed precariously into the north-west state of Rakhine, in mainly Buddhist Burma, bordering majority Muslim Bangladesh, are stateless and unwanted.
What are the living conditions?
- The 2017 monsoon was a shocker as most of the refugees had come with almost nothing and they had nowhere to stay.
- But now at least most of them have a roof overhead, though conditions are far from perfect, with large families cramped in tiny hutments.
- Just a year ago, the hills near Kutupalong used to host wild elephants and leopards, but the tide of Rohingya refugees from across the Myanmar border has evicted the wildlife and removed the forest. On the denuded hills and knolls has emerged a gigantic slum colony supported mainly by Bangladesh.
- China and India have also pledged support, but the real issue is the return of the refugees and ensuring justice for the victims who faced atrocities at the hands of the Myanmar military.
- The ultimate fate of the 13 lakh refugees is being debated and it is not clear where they will finally reside.
C. GS3 Related
1. Bullet train plan stalls on land row
Context
- The Narendra Modi government’s Shinkansen bullet train project is threatening to go off the rails as conflicts over acquisition of private land persist in Maharashtra.
- Ahead of the annual summit between Mr. Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on October 28-29, State officials have warned of an imminent delay in meeting the December 2018 deadline for completion of survey and acquisition. They say the progress is “saddening and disappointing.”
- Unless the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) implements an urgent time-bound schedule, the project is likely to miss its first deadline for acquisition of private plots, warns the latest status report submitted by the office of the Collector of Palghar.
Bullet Train Project in India
- Owing to the growing economy and dependence on railways for transportation, India has planned to increase the speed of its trains.
- It has planned a multi-point strategy for running of high speed trains (with a speed >300 kmph), semi speed trains (with a speed >160 kmph to 200 kmph), introduction of fast & faster train sets and increasing the speed of existing trains.
Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train
- The Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor will have a high speed train, with financial assistance from the Japanese Government.
- The Shinkansen high speed technology will be used in this train. “National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited”, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been formed for the implementation of this project.
- Indian railways will hold 50% of the equity in the SPV. The project cost is estimated at 1.10 Lakh Crore.
- Financial assistance has been provided by the Japanese government in the form of a loan upto 81% of the project cost to be repaid in 50 years with a 15 year moratorium at a nominal interest rate of 0.1%.
- The foundation stone for India’s first high speed rail project was laid by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Sabarmati Station Ground, located in Ahmedabad.
- The Mumbai to Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project will cover a distance of 508 kms and is expected to be completed by 2022.
- The project fulfills the twin complimentary objectives of “Make in India” and employment generation. It is expected to give a stimulus to manufacture of advanced components and create about 15 lakh jobs in India.
Shinkansen Technology
- Shinkansen means “new trunk lines” in literal terms, which refers to the high speed rail network in Japan.
- The train attains a high speed without having to compromise on comfort and safety, through the use of this technology.
- Unlike conventional rail lines, Shinkansen routes are strictly off-limits to any other kind of traffic.
- This network makes use of viaducts and tunnels to go through the obstacles, rather than going around them, thereby saving time spent on covering the distance.
- Due to the lighter vehicles used, chances of damage to the tracks is minimal. These trains offer fast acceleration & deceleration.
1. Challenging the emperor of all maladies
Context
- The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet on October 1, 2018 awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo “for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation”.
- The scientists’ groundbreaking work on the immune system has paved the way for a new class of cancer drugs that are already dramatically changing outcomes for patients. It is the first time the development of a cancer therapy has been recognized with a Nobel Prize.
- Cancer kills millions of people every year and is one of humanity’s greatest health challenges. The laureates James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo successfully established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy by stimulating the ability of immune system to attack tumour cells.
- Both immunologists had figured out entirely new principle for cancer therapy by stimulating the ability of immune system to attack tumour or cancer cell. Their discovery has led to treatments targeting proteins made by some immune system cells that act as brake on body’s natural defences killing cancer cells.
- This therapy is landmark in fight against cancer and has revolutionized cancer treatment. It also has fundamentally changed way to manage cancer.
What is the Cancer?
- Cancer is an uncontrolled growth and multiplication of cells in a given organ (for example, the lung or stomach), which are damaged due to inborn (genetic) or external triggers (such as smoking or high doses of radiation).
- While normal cells are programmed to multiply and grow to a certain size and stay so, cancer cells, whose DNA is mutated due to such damage, go on a rampant growth leading to tumours, weakening the body and ultimately even death.
What are the treatment options?
- Treating and winning over cancer has been a great challenge, and the oncologist-writer Siddartha Mukherjee has rightly named cancer as “The Emperor of all Maladies.”
- There have been a variety of approaches to win over this emperor. Surgical removal of the tumour has been one option, but it does not guarantee total removal (even a few leftover cells might grow again), nor its recurrence if the original cause is not addressed. Radiation therapy using high power gamma rays has also been tried, again with limited success.
- Several anti-cancer drugs, such as cis-platin or carboplatin, 5-fluorouracil, doxyrubicin have been used. Many doctors have tried combining drugs along with shining the tumour using radiation such as gamma-rays for short periods of time. But the trouble is that they need to be used for sustained periods.
- Immunological approach has been tried for a variety of cancers. This uses the in-built defense mechanism in the body.
D. GS4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
E. Editorials
Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. G.D. Agarwal Save Ganga crusader (Save Ganga)
Larger Background:
Who was Guru Das Agrawal?
- Guru Das Agrawal also known as Sant Swami Sanand, Sant Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand (20 July 1932 – 11 October 2018) was an Indian environmental engineer, religious leader, monk, environmentalist activist, professor, and he was the Patron of Ganga Mahasabha founded by Madan Mohan Malviya in 1905.
-
- He is notable for a number of fasts undertaken to stop many projects on River Ganga. His fast in 2009 led to the damming of the Bhagirathi River being stopped.
- He was the first member-secretary of the Government of India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). He was formerly head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at IIT Kanpur.
- Guru Das Agrawal had adopted the name Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, and was formerly a professor in the civil engineering department at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. As an environmentalist, Guru Das Agrawal was vocal about disallowing hydroelectric projects in Uttarakhand along the Ganga and was disappointed with the Central and Uttarakhand governments for not doing enough to protect the river.
- A trigger for Guru Das Agrawal’s fast this year was the “unfulfilled” promises by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had vowed to clean the Ganga after winning the Varanasi seat. Guru Das Agrawal was subsisting on a diet of honey, lemon and water since June and had given up even water in the week before he died.
- He was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, where he died.
A Note on the ‘Namami Gange’ Project:
- It is important to note that the Central Government approved the ‘Namami Gange’ program on 13th May, 2015 as a comprehensive approach to rejuvenate the river Ganga and all its tributaries under one umbrella by consolidating the existing ongoing efforts and planning for a concrete action plan for the future.
- Also, as per the mandate of NMCG, all the projects have a targeted completion by 2020.
- ‘Namami Gange’ will focus on pollution abatement interventions namely Interception, diversion & treatment of wastewater flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation / appropriate in-situ treatment / use of innovative technologies / sewage treatment plants (STPs) / effluent treatment plant (ETPs); rehabilitation and augmentation of existing STPs and immediate short term measures for arresting pollution at exit points on river front to prevent inflow of sewage etc.
- Significantly the approach is underpinned by socio-economic benefits that the program is expected to deliver in terms of job creation, improved livelihoods and health benefits to the vast population that is dependent on the river.
Latest Updates on the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG):
- The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology for improving planning, execution and monitoring of projects as well as providing platform for central repository of all data related to Ganga river basin including Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) / Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), water quality monitoring location, afforestation, ghats and crematorium, river front development.
- This assists NMCG in improving its effectiveness in pollution abatement and river rejuvenation work.
- Namami Gange an integrated Ganga Conservation Mission is an umbrella programme with the aim to integrate previous, currently ongoing and new projects planned as part of the programme at an indicative cost of Rs. 20,000 crore.
- The programme is to be implemented over a period of five years ending on December 2020. ‘Namami Gange’ approaches Ganga Rejuvenation by consolidating the existing and ongoing efforts and planning for a comprehensive action plan for future.
- Under Namami Gange programme, a total of 195 projects have been sanctioned for various activities such as sewage infrastructure, ghats and crematoria development, river front development, river surface cleaning, institutional development, biodiversity conservation, afforestation, rural sanitation, and public participation.
2. The lowdown on NCR’s air quality
Larger Background:
A Brief Note on the Air Quality Index:
- It is important to note that air pollution has been a matter of environmental and health concerns, particularly in urban areas. Central Pollution Control Board along with State Pollution Control Boards has been operating National Air Monitoring Program (NAMP) covering 240 cities of the country.
- In addition, continuous monitoring systems that provide data on near real-time basis are also installed in a few cities.
- Traditionally, air quality status has been reported through voluminous data. Thus, it was important that information on air quality is put up in public domain in simple linguistic terms that is easily understood by a common person.
- Air Quality Index (AQI) is one such tool for effective dissemination of air quality information to people.
- An Expert Group comprising medical professionals, air quality experts, academia, advocacy groups, and SPCBs was constituted and a technical study was awarded to IIT Kanpur. IIT Kanpur and the Expert Group recommended an AQI scheme.
|
AQI |
Associated Health Impacts |
|
Good (0–50) |
Minimal Impact |
|
Satisfactory (51–100) |
May cause minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people. |
|
Moderately polluted (101–200) |
May cause breathing discomfort to people with lung disease such as asthma, and discomfort to people with heart disease, children and older adults. |
|
Poor (201–300) |
May cause breathing discomfort to people on prolonged exposure, and discomfort to people with heart disease |
|
Very Poor (301–400) |
May cause respiratory illness to the people on prolonged exposure. Effect may be more pronounced in people with lung and heart diseases. |
|
Severe (401-500) |
May cause respiratory impact even on healthy people, and serious health impacts on people with lung/heart disease. The health impacts may be experienced even during light physical activity. |
A Note on the Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi:
- Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi was launched in Delhi recently by the Union Minister for Earth Sciences and Environment, Dr. Harsh Vardhan.
- The System is designed to predict extreme air pollution events and give alerts to take necessary steps as per Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) of the Government of India. The air pollution system has been developed jointly by the scientists at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, India Meteorological Department and National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF).
- Speaking at the launch, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that the early warning system will help in proactively forewarning, 3-4 days in advance, any large scale air pollution events which may occur over the Delhi region.
Editorial Analysis:
- Recently, figures released by the Union Health Ministry showed the total emissions of Particulate Matter (PM) less than 2.5 micrometre in diameter increased by 15% in 2018, compared to 2010.
- Government figures show the levels of PM 2.5, a known carcinogenic, have gone up, with the transport sector contributing 40%, and wind-blown dust from road and other sources 21.5%.
- Further, the Central Pollution Control Board said PM 10 levels mid-week this time stood at 326.8 micrograms per cubic metre, three times higher than the prescribed limit.
What is contributing to the rising pollution levels?
- A senior official of the Ministry has said that the following factors have contributed to the rising pollution levels in the city:
- Dropped wind speed
- change in the direction of wind to northwest bringing in pollution from stubble- burning in Punjab and Haryana,
- increasing vehicular traffic owing to the festive season,
- lowered temperature,
- garbage dumping and
- waste burning
- Further, Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, Research and Advocacy, Centre For Science and Environment has given certain warnings.
- She has warned that winter air will turn more toxic soon. She asserted that this would happen due to toxic emissions from vehicles, industrial units, waste-burning, land-fill fires, and dust from construction and roads and stubble- burning.
Concluding Remarks:
- It is important to note that the present air quality has become a threat to the people. High pollution levels directly harm skin. It can cause watering of eyes and nose. Smaller particles less than 2.5 micron can directly enter our body through the respiratory pathway.
- The immediate symptoms include breathlessness, cough, fever and even choking sensation. The nervous system also gets affected and we may have headache and dizziness. Nausea and vomiting may occur. Studies have shown direct harmful effect of pollution on our heart also.
- Finally, Delhi has brought in a graded action plan for emergency response. The plan includes shutting of the Badarpur thermal power station and water sprinkling and mechanised sweeping of select roads.
- These plans seek a transition to clean energy in all sectors and an overhaul of waste management practices. Experts want the State governments to micro-map pollution hotspots across Delhi and the NCR for customised action. The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority has also asked all agencies to enforce the graded response action plan.
Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Dhaka faces Rohingya ire on shift plan – Editorial
Larger Background:
Who are the Rohingyas?
- Rohingya are an ethnic group, largely comprising of Muslims, who predominantly live in the Western Myanmar province of Rakhine.
- They speak a dialect of Bengali, as opposed to the commonly spoken Burmese language.
- The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), places them among the “the most vulnerable groups of the forcibly displaced”.
- Though they have been living in Myanmar for generations, Myanmar considers them as persons who migrated to their land during the Colonial rule. So, it has not granted Rohingyas full citizenship. According the 1982 Burmese citizenship law, a Rohingya (or any ethnic minority) is eligible for citizenship only if he/she provides proof that his/her ancestors have lived in the country prior to 1823. Else, they are classified as “resident foreigners” or as “associate citizens” (even if one of the parent is a Myanmar citizen).
- Since they are not citizens, they are not entitled to be part of civil service. Their movements are also restricted within the Rakhine state.
The Turning Point of 2012
- It is important to note that Myanmar was ruled by the military junta until 2011.
- Myanmar has been accused of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine by the United Nations.
- It deported thousands of Rohingya’s to Bangladesh in the seventies and the citizenship law was also enacted by the junta.
- Things changed little for the Rohingya even after the political reforms in 2011 that eventually led to the first general elections in 2015.
- Sectarian violence between Rohingyas and Rakhine’s Buddhist natives began flaring up in June 2012, following the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman in a Rohingya-dominated locality.
- The riots, which were triggered as a result, went on for almost a month with causalities on both the sides.
- Thousands of Rohingyas fled their homes and sought refugee in neighbouring Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation. Some of them sought asylum in South East Asian nations of Thailand, The Phillipines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- This ethnic conflict flared up as religious violence spreading to the other provinces of Myanmar.
The Indian Context:
- Some experts believe that as India is the subcontinent’s biggest nation and also a neighbour to both Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well as the country most likely to be affected if the numbers of Rohingya refugees continue to grow, India in fact should be showing the most initiative in this crisis.
- Experts have also suggested that it may be necessary for India to put its own concerns about repatriation on hold until it is able to work with both Bangladesh and Myanmar on the issue, preferably in a trilateral format.
- Finally, the government must also iron out internal contradictions on India’s refugee policy.
- Even though India is not a signatory to any UN refugee convention, India has a proud tradition of giving a home to neighbours in distress: from Tibetans in 1960s to East Pakistanis in the 1970s, from Sri Lankans in the 1980s to the Afghans in the 1990s.
- In the past, Muslim-majority countries such as Bangladesh and Malaysia, at the receiving end of refugee flows from Myanmar numbering in the tens and even hundreds of thousands, have acted forcefully to prevent the Rohingya from entering their territories.
- However, in the year 2017, everything changed, with Bangladesh, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan at the forefront of international demands to stop the flight of refugees from Myanmar, in an effort to lower their suffering.
- Behind this change lay a number of causes. These causes include the humanitarian, political and economic emergency created by the influx of refugees among Myanmar’s neighbours, to growing Muslim protests around the world at the treatment of the Rohingya.
- The crisis also presented an opportunity for politicians to claim leadership in an otherwise fragmented Muslim world by demanding relief and justice for the Rohingya.
Editorial Analysis:
-
- The Kutupalong camps near the beaches of Cox’s Bazaar have emerged as the home for 13 lakh Rohingya refugees who were displaced from Myanmar by its military.
- It is important to note that the Myanmar military is the enemy back home for the refugees, but they have to remain alert for the weather shocks in Bangladesh as plans are underway to shift them to an islet that lies in the way of violent storms.
- Recently, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali clarified at a meeting with a foreign media delegation that the Rohingya are not Bengalis and have a distinct identity that should be recognised.
- Currently, we observe that India and China are building homes in Rakhine to accommodate those who return home.
- However, no one on the ground is sure that they would return after the assault they experienced. The Minister clarified that storm-shelters had been built on the islet, located in the path of deadly annual cyclones that visit the region, to help the Rohingya settle there.
- However, it remains unclear whether any of the current refugees of Kutupalong would shift there voluntarily as the community leaders have disagreed with Dhaka’s plan to leave the safe surrounding of what was once an elephant sanctuary.
- Further, it is important to note that the 2017 monsoon came as a big setback as most of the refugees had come with almost nothing and they had nowhere to stay.
- However, now at least most of them have a roof overhead, though conditions are far from perfect, with large families cramped in tiny hutments.
- Just a year ago, the hills near Kutupalong used to host wild elephants and leopards, but the tide of Rohingya refugees from across the Myanmar border has evicted the wildlife and removed the forest. On the denuded hills have emerged a gigantic slum colony supported mainly by Bangladesh.
Brief Timeline of Movement:
- The history of Rohingya refugees is nearly four decades old.
A small Rohinya colony had sprung up in the area in 1979 when the first wave of a military campaign targeted the community in Myanmar’s Rakhine province. - Along with other ethnic groups such as the Karens and Kachins in eastern Myanmar, the Rohingya on the western coast have been at the receiving end of the mainly Buddhist military. The 2017 monsoons resulted in a huge spike in terms of Rohingya refugees.
- Today, nearly 6,000 acres of land across this region, allows one to peer deep into Myanmar. This region is covered with homes made of bamboo and plastic sheets.
- It is important to note that the displacement of the Rohingya is an enormous tragedy, but the quick response of the government of Bangladesh and support from countries like Turkey, India and Australia and relief organisations has helped in preventing the tragedy from going out of control.
Concluding Remarks:
- In conclusion, it is important to note that China and India have also pledged support.
- However, the real issue at hand, is the return of the refugees and ensuring justice for the victims who faced atrocities at the hands of the Myanmar military.
- Currently, the ultimate fate of the 13 lakh refugees is being debated and it is not clear where they will finally reside.
- It must also be pointed out that this growing population is altering the demography of Chittagong. There is fear of an epidemic outbreak.
F. Tidbits
1. Mother Power
- Sita Devi, 55, from Barmer is getting ready to go to the residential Barefoot College in the small village of Tilonia in Ajmer district of Rajasthan. She is one of the 17 women from far-flung villages in the State that the college is hosting to train in solar home-lighting system fabrication, assembling of solar panels and trouble shooting.
- The college was started by the visionary social worker Bunker Roy 43 years ago. It is now home to women solar engineers, popularly called solar mamas. The students stay in the college for six months, attending classes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Many of them have never stepped out of their homes, and when they come out of college, there is nothing stopping them.
- “Going to college has increased my self-confidence. I am proud of myself as I have not only fulfilled my dreams but today I am also working in a similar position like my husband. I earn for my home. This is something I had never imagined,” Laxmi, an alumna, says.
- The 2,200 unlettered women who have been trained so far are proficient in designing, installing and maintaining solar energy systems that light up their villages and supply power for various equipments. After completing the course, the solar mamas take care of the systems of nearly 50 homes around their village, earning around Rs. 6,700 each.
G. Prelims Fact
What is a cashless economy?
- It is a situation in which the flow of cash within an economy is non-existent and all transactions have to be through electronic channels such as direct debit, credit and debit cards, electronic clearing, payment systems such as Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), National Electronic Funds Transfer and Real Time Gross Settlement.
Benefits of a cashless economy
- Usage of cashless mechanisms would ensure that loopholes in public systems get plugged, and the intended beneficiaries are able to avail the benefits due to them. It also leads to increased efficiency in welfare programmes as money is wired directly into the accounts of recipients.
- Efficiency gains can also be seen as transaction costs across the economy come down.
- Reducing use of cash would also strangulate the grey economy, prevent money laundering and even increase tax compliance, which will ultimately benefit the customers at large.
- It also provides an on-ramp to financial inclusion and enables e-commerce growth.
Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)
- MSY is the maximum level at which a natural resource can be routinely exploited without long-term depletion.
- MSY is a concept that is frequently encountered in any discussion on the management of fisheries.
- It is derived from the understanding that in a given population of organisms (be they trees, fish, or crops), a certain number of adults get added to the population each year due to reproduction and growth. At the maximum growth rate, only a fraction of these are required to replace dying adults and maintain the population.
- Hence, the rest are considered to be “surplus” individuals that can be harvested each year, without any long-term decline in the population, especially if these are older individuals that are anyway likely to die off in the near future.
- In other words, proponents of MSY believe that a steady peak rate of harvest can be calculated for a given species.
- It follows that such extraction is beneficial for the population because it eliminates competition for resources by removing the excess, older individuals, and thereby enables the population to maintain its maximum growth rate or productivity for perpetuity.
- Utilitarianism – According to this theory, the quality of one’s life can be judged by the effect of one’s actions and people should strive to do whatever would be beneficial for most of society.
- It advocated hard work in all domains, in order to serve certain practical social goals, and included the view that nature should be used efficiently to serve human needs.
H. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam
Question 1. With reference to “Chandrayaan-2”, which of the following statement(s)
is/are correct?
- Chandrayaan-2 planned to be launched to the Moon by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III.
- The project Chandrayaan-2 is a joint mission of ISRO with Roscomos.
- 1 only
- 2 only
- Both 1 and 2
- Neither 1 nor 2
See
Question 2. With reference to “Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) initiative”, recently in news,
which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
- The initiative was launched by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas.
- Under this initiative, 64 companies at 101 locations have been identified to enable collection of used cooking oil.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- 1 only
- 2 only
- Both 1 and 2
- Neither 1 nor 2
See
Question 3. Consider the following statements regarding “Kanyashree Prakalpa Scheme:
- It is a Small Cash transfer scheme for adolescent girls from disadvantaged families.
- The scheme recently received United Nations Public Service Award.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- 1 only
- 2 only
- Both 1 and 2
- Neither 1 nor 2
See
I. Practice Questions for UPSC Mains Exam
- Mention core strategies for the transformation of aspirational districts in India and explain the nature of convergence, collaboration and competition for its success. (250 words)
- ‘Women’s movement in India has not addressed the issues of women of lower social strata.’ Substantiate your view. (250 words)
Also, check previous Daily News Analysis
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