Answersheet of 10 Jan 2010

ANSWERS

Q1 (a)Ms. Tessy Thomas “the missile woman of India” was appointed the project director of the country’s ambitious missile project “Agni-v”.
(b)Ms. Asha Khemkha an NRI academic was conferred the prestigious ‘Order of the British Empire’ ,First Asian to get this award.
(c)The rules by which people exercise authority in companies and economic systems.
(d)Exercise Cope India-09: a five day joint air exercise between India air force and USA Air force, conducted at air force station Agra.
(e)Enhanced Data Rates for global Evolution (EDGE) it is a radio based high speed mobile data standard. It allows the data transmission speeds of up to 384 Kbps.
(f)JAGO MUMBAI as the community radio station will generate awareness for demo centers for composting and vermiculture, rainwater harvesting and solar power.
(g)Geographic information system, computer system that records, stores and analyzes in formations about the features that make up the earth’s surface.
(h)Cyclone storm PHYAN developed as tropical disturbance to the south west of Colombo in sri lanka in Nov. and moved northeastwards and lay centered in Mumbai.
(i)in Kerala, School wiki on the lines of Wikipedia as a part of its attempt to foster a culture of collaborative learning has been launched in school.
(j)National Environment Protection Authority. This shall be an autonomous body to grant environmental clearance and compliance and enforcement of environmental laws.
(k)India’s first indigenously developed Robot. This was developed at BITS-Pilani.It could walk, climb steps, dance and play soccer.
(l) TEAM-9: Techno-Economic approach for Africa India Movement. Rationale behind this initiative is that would share its development and technological experience with Burkina Faso, Chad,Cote d’Ivoir,,Equatorial Guinea,Ghana,Guinea Bissau,Mali,Congo and Senegal.
(m)Indian Leather Development Programme.Under the ILDP Govt. has approved a sub scheme titled “Development of Leather Park” with an allocation of Rs.300 crore.
(n)Bi-valent OPV: Bivalent oral polio vaccine, Governmnt will soon launch to combat type1 and typ3 polio virus.
(O)It is the duty imposed to raise the price of the imported commodity so that it becomes higher than the price of domestic goods.
(p)Voice over Internet Protocol refers to voice calls transported as IP packets over a public or private network. It is also known as IP telephony.
(q)Group farming is a farming technique in which farmers share machinery and other resources. Group farming is to cultivate crops in groups. So there is a group of people and everyone gives a share for the expenditure. When the crops are ready and is taken and sold to markets the money is distributed among each members of the group.
Q2:(i) These are the crops with genetic material from another organism. BT cotton was the India’s first GM crop with Bollworm resistant .These are crops with high yield and improved resistance to herbicides and disease. These have low cost productivity.
(ii)Alpha -9 is the shortest route to link the Sinhala-speaking south sri lanka and the Jaffna peninsula.
(iii)Special Drawing rights is an international reserve asset. It was created by IMF in 1969 to support bretton wood’s fixed exchange rate system. After the collapse of bretton wood system in1973 ,the SDR was redefined as a basket of currencies today comprising of US dollar, the euro, the British pound and Japanese yen.
(IV)NSDC is a unique public private partnership enterprise has been launched to skill 3o per cent of the overall target of 500 million people by the year 2022.It has been launched by Ministry of finance. It has been formed as 51:49 shareholdings of private and government.
(v)India is ranked at 134 place among 182 countries on the Human Development Index report of UNDP report 2009.HDI is based on the concept of Physical quality of life Index(PQLI).HDI calculates three elements:Longevity,Knowledge and standard of living.
(VI)Fist stage is based on the Pressurized Heavy water reactor, second stage envisages setting up of fast breeder reactors backed by reprocessing plants and plutonium based fuel fabrication plants. Third stage is based on thorium-uranium-233 cycle.
(vii) These are the part of budgetary process which seeks to reduce the amount of grants. These are moved in lok sabha only. These are classified in three categories. Policy cut: Amount of demand be reduced by Rs.1, Economy cut: Amount of the demand be reduced by a specified amount, Token cut: The amount of the demand be reduced by Rs.100.
(viii)Bt Brinjal is the first genetically modified food crop.The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has given its nod to th environmrntal release of Bt Brinjal.Bt. brinjal will be the first GM food in the country being developed by Maharashtar Hybrid Seed Company(mahyco) a subsdiary of US multinational Mosanto.
(ix)1.National Solar Mission,2.National mission for Enhanced energy efficiency,3.National mission on sustainable habitat,4.National water mission,5.National mission for sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem,6.National mission for Green India,7.National mission for sustainable agriculture &8.National mission on strategic Knowledge for climate change.
(x) The Ministry of Rural development had set up a committee on credit related issues under swarna jyanti gram swarojgar yojana under the chairmanship of Prof. R.Radhakrishna to examine the constraints in the adequate flow of credit to self help groups of SGSY and to suggest measures and strategy for effective credit linkages to the self help groups.
(XI)Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, was a bilateral treaty between USA and USSR on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive Arms.Treaty was signed on july31,1991.Treaty expired on Dec. 5,2009 but remains in force indefinitely pending agreement on successor.
(xii)The panda is china’s key cultural icon. During the cold war the animals were given as goodwill gestures, to such an extent that the term “Panda diplomacy” was coined to describe the exchange of these furry amabassadors.Taiwan is the latest potential recipient.
(xiii)Bioremediation can be defined as any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the natural environment altered by contaminants to its original condition.
(xiv)India’s second ocean observation satellite.Oceansat-2 is continuity mission to Oceansat-1,unlike the oceansat-1 that could essentially observe only color of the ocean, the oceansat-2 is a much comprehensive system and it would additionally observe surface winds and tempratute,among other things.
(xv) The Government has launched the National Mission for female literacy a renewed effort to make 70 millionpeople-60 million of them women functionally literate by 2012.The Saakshar Bharat Mission as the national Mission for Female literacy has been christened, would fully involve the community in its implementation and utilize the potential and promise of panchayati raj institution and women self help groups.
Q3: (a) Article 155:Appontment of Governor: The Governor of a state shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.
Article 156:Term of office of Governor: The governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the president. The Governor may, by writing under his hand addressed to President resign his office. Subject to the forgoing provisions of this article, a Governor shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office: provided that a Governor shall ,notwithstanding the expiration of his term,continue to hold office until hs successor enters upon his office.
(b) The CSPOC was created in 1969 as an initiative of then speaker of Canada's House of Commons, Lucien Lamoureux.The aims of the conference are the maintenance, fostering and encouragement of the impartiality and fairness of speakers and presiding officers of parliaments, the promotion of knowledge and understanding of parliamentary democracy in its various forms and the development of parliamentary institutions. The last conference was held in London in 2008.This is the third time the Indian parliament hosts the CSPOC. India had earlier hosted the conference in 1971 and 1986.

Q4.(a)Indo-Japan bilateral development cooperation has seen remarkable and progressive expansion in the recent years. For centuries India and Japan have engaged in cultural exchange. Japan’s investment towards India has grown manifold to $8 bn.Auto companies such as Suzuki ,Toyota &Nissan are looking at expanding their production capacities in India. Besides Auto even pharma and telecom have started showing interest n Indian Market. For instance, acquisition of India Pharma Major Ranbaxy by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo marks entry into market. Similarly NTT DOCOMO picked up 26% stake in tata communitaion.The biggest potential between two countries exist in economic and business relations. Economic relationship will pave the way for social relationship. Increased steps are also being taken to promote exchange of students between two countries. In collaboration with MHRD the Govt. Of Japan invites around 500 indian students to vistit Japan every year. Tourism is yet another major focus area.JNTO (Japan National Tourism Organisation)defined India as apriority market for 2010-11 along with Russia & Malaysia. Besides business both the countries are laying huge emphasis on promoting culture. A lot of works need to be done on the cultural front.