What is black money? Discuss its implication in context of India?

Black money is defined  as assets or resources that have neither been reported to the public authorities at the time of their generation nor disclosed at any point of time during the possession. The problem with  black money is huge . It has serious socio-political and economic implications. According to sources the estimate of GDP is to the extent of 60% of GDP.

The implications of Black money are:

Political:

• Black money infusion into the economy lead to the weakening of institutions
• The trust on the institution decreases.
• Transnational crimes increase as they act as a source of terror funding and anti-national activities. Black money also affects the elections.
• Especially in a country like India, it infuses money power. Money power does not allow genuine candidates to compete in the election.

Economic

• Corruption raises its ugly head.
• Black money also leads to inflationary tendencies in the market.
• It also effects the transmission of monetary policies.
• It also demoralized the genuine tax payer. Loss of tax revenue is also its serious implication. It brings inefficiency in the economic architecture.

 Social

• Black money leads to widening of inequality.
• Concentration of wealth in the few increases.
• So it destroyed the work ethics.

Thus Black money is a menace to society its implication does not restrict to economy but it has wider connotation.

 

RPSC RAS Mains Exam Paper-I Complete Study Notes

 

Write short notes on Neemchuna and Mev Farmers Movement.

Neemchuna Farmers Movement, 1925

• Maharaja Jai Singh of Alwar increased the Lagaan rates in 1924.
• Rajput peasants of Khalsa lands in Alwar started the movement & took to arm rebellion.

 

• Government setup an enquiry commission but meanwhile Maharaj decided to crush revolt by force.
• On 14th May 1925 forces opened fire on around 800 farmers gathered at Neemchuna.
• Mahatma Gandhi considered this masaccare as even extreme of Jallianwallah Bagh and termed it “Dyrism Double Distilled” in Young India.

 

Mev Farmers Movement, 1932-35

• In 1932 farmers of Kishangarh, Ramgarh, Laxmangarh & Tijara (Mev Region) started movement under leadership of Mohd. Ali.
• In 1933, in Alwar demands of farmers were agreed.
• However, in Bharatpur Farmers stopped paying land revenue for Kharif crops but government did not let the movement to succeed.
• Gradually the movement turned communal and leader Anjuman Khaidm-ul-Islam raised demands for separate schools for Muslims, significant place for Urdu language and jobs to Muslims in Govt.

 

Why desert are on the western margins of the continent?

 

A glance at the world map reveals that most of the desert region is on the western part of the continent for example Mohave Desert in North America, Atacama in Southern America, Namib, Sahara in Africa, Arabian in west Asia.

The reasons for such homogeny are:

• The hot desert lies astride the Horse latitudes or the sub tropical high pressure belts where the air is descending, a condition least favourable for precipitation of any kind to take place.
• The rain bearing Trade winds blow off-shore and the wester lies that are on shore blow outside the desert limits. Whatever winds reach the desert blow from cooler to warmer regions, and their relative humidity is lowered, making condensation almost impossible. The relative humidity reaches to about 30%. This makes condition for drought.
• On the western coast, the presence of cold currents gives rise to mists and fogs by chilling the oncoming air. This air is later warmed by contact with the hot land, and little rain falls. The desiccating effect of the cold Peruvian current along the Chilean coast is so pronounced that the mean annual rainfall for the Atacama Desert is not more than half an inch.

 

Explain the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and its role in keeping Antarctica frozen?

 

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current or ACC is changing as the world’s climate warms. Scientists are studying the current to find out how it might affect the future of Antarctica’s ice sheets, and the world’s sea levels.

It’s significance:

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current, or ACC, is the strongest ocean current on our planet. It extends from the sea surface to the bottom of the ocean, and encircles Antarctica. It is vital for Earth’s health because it keeps Antarctica cool and frozen.

 

The ACC carries an estimated 165 million to 182 million cubic metres of water every second (a unit also called a “Sverdrup”) from west to east, more than 100 times the flow of all the rivers on Earth. It provides the main connection between the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

 

The tightest geographical constriction through which the current flows is Drake Passage, where only 800 km separates South America from Antarctica. While elsewhere the ACC appears to have a broad domain, it must also navigate steep undersea mountains that constrain its path and steer it north and south across the Southern Ocean.

 

What is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current?

 

Antarctica is a frozen continent surrounded by icy waters. Moving northward, away from Antarctica, the water temperatures rise slowly at first and then rapidly across a sharp gradient. It is the ACC that maintains this boundary.

 

The ACC is created by the combined effects of strong westerly winds across the Southern Ocean, and the big change in surface temperatures between the Equator and the poles.

 

Ocean density increases as water gets colder and as it gets more salty. The warm, salty surface waters of the subtropics are much lighter than the cold, fresher waters close to Antarctica. The depth of constant density levels slopes up towards Antarctica. The westerly winds make this slope steeper, and the ACC rides eastward along it, faster where the slope is steeper and weaker where it’s flatter.

Fronts and bottom water:

In the ACC there are sharp changes in water density known as fronts. The Subantarctic Front to the north and Polar Front further south are the two main fronts of the ACC (the black lines in the images). Both are known to split into two or three branches in some parts of the Southern Ocean, and merge together in other parts. Scientists can figure out the density and speed of the current by measuring the ocean’s height, using altimeters.

 

The path of the ACC is a meandering one, because of the steering effect of the sea floor, and also because of instabilities in the current. The ACC also plays a part in the meridional (or global) overturning circulation, which brings deep waters formed in the North Atlantic southward into the Southern Ocean. Once there it becomes known as Circumpolar Deep Water, and is carried around Antarctica by the ACC. It slowly rises toward the surface south of the Polar Front.

 

Once it surfaces, some of the water flows northward again and sinks north of the Subarctic Front. The remaining part flows toward Antarctica where it is transformed into the densest water in the ocean, sinking to the sea floor and flowing northward in the abyss as Antarctic Bottom Water. These pathways are the main way that the oceans absorb heat and carbon dioxide and sequester it in the deep ocean.

 

Changing current:

The ACC is not immune to climate change. The Southern Ocean has warmed and freshened in the upper 2,000 m. rapid warming and freshening has also been found in the Antarctic Bottom Water, the deepest layer of the ocean.

 

Waters south of the Polar Front are becoming fresher due to increased rainfall there, and waters to the north of the Polar Front are becoming saltier due to increased evaporation. These changes are caused by human activity, primarily through adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and depletion of the ozone layer. The ozone hole is now recovering but greenhouse gases continue to rise globally.

 

Winds have strengthened by about 40% over the Southern Ocean over the past 40 years. Surprisingly, this has not translated into an increase in the strength of the ACC. Instead there has been an increase in eddies that move heat towards the pole, particularly in hotspots such as Drake Passage, Kerguelen Plateau, and between Tasmania and New Zealand.

Scientists have observed much change already. The question now is how this increased transfer of heat across the ACC will impact the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet, and consequently the rate of global sea-level rise.

 

What is Soil? Given an account on the types of soil in India?

Soil is defined as upper layer of the earth composed of loose surface material. It is a mixture of many substances including endless variety of minerals, remnants of plants and animals, water and air. It is the end product of continuing interaction between the parent material, local climate, plant and animal organisms and elevation of land.

 

According to ICAR Indian soils are classified as:-

 

1. Alluvial soils:-Alluvial soils are formed mainly due to silt deposited by Indo Gangetic Brahmaputra Rivers. In coastal regions some alluvial deposits are formed due to wave action.

 

2. Black soils:-The black soils are found mainly on the Deccan lava region covering large parts of Maharashtra, some parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and small parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The soils are formed by disintegration of volcanic basaltic lava. The colour of the soil is generally black due to presence of compounds of aluminium and iron.

 

3. Red soils: – these soils are light textured with porous and friable structure and there is absence of lime Kankar and free carbonates. They have neutral to acidic reaction and are deficient in nitrogen humus, phosphoric acid and lime.

 

4. Laterite and Lateritic soils:-These soils are red to reddish yellow in colour and low in N, P, K, lime and magnesia. These soils are formed in-situ under conditions of high rainfall with alternation dry and wet periods. On account of heavy rainfall there is an excessive leaching of soil colloids and silica hence the soils are porous.

 

5. Forest and Mountain soils:-These soils occur at high elevations as well as at low elevations, where the rainfall is sufficient to support trees. These soils are very shallow, steep, stony, and infertile for the production of field crops. However, they serve a very useful purpose by supplying forest product such as timber and fuel.

 

6. Arid and Desert soils:-These soils occur in western Rajasthan, Saurashtra and Kutchch, western Haryana and southern Punjab. The soil is sandy to gravelly with poor organic matter, low humus contents, infrequent rainfall, low moisture and long drought season. The soils exhibit poorly developed horizons.

 

7. Saline and Alkaline soils:-These soils occur in areas having a little more rainfall than the areas of desert soils. They show white incrustation of salts of calcium & Magnesium and sodium on the surface. These are poor in drainage and are infertile.

 

8. Peaty and Marshy soils:-These are soils with large amount of organic matter and considerable amount of soluble salts. The most humid regions have this type of soil. They are black, heavy and highly acidic. They are deficient in potash and phosphate.

 

 

What is navigation satellite? India launched IRNSS recently, what is IRNSS? What is its application?

 

Navigation satellite is a system which provides system of artificial satellite that helps in providing autonomous geospatial positioning. It helps to provide positioning information regarding local time to high precision. Global positioning system launched (GPS) by NASA is an example of it.

India Launched Indian regional navigation satellite system called IRNSS. It is a constellation of eight satellites. Three satellite in geostationary position and five satellites in geosynchronous position. It is designed to provide accurate positioning information upto 1500 km from its primary service area. IRNSS will provide two types of services namely standard positioning service which is provided to all users and restricted service which is encrypted service provided only to authorize users only.

Application of IRNSS:

• Mapping and geodetic data capture.
• Self reliance in navigation. Will help during war like situation
• to boost disaster management
• Terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation
• Precision timing
• Traffic management
• Visual and voice navigation for drivers
• Navigation for army, will boost national security

 

RAS Mains Paper-2 Important Notes

       

RAS MAINS EXAM PAPER-2 COMPLETE STUDY MATERIAL DOWNLOAD

RAS MAINS PAPER-2 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY NOTES DOWNLOAD

 

What are malware? What are its different types?

These are destructive software or malicious one which exists in the form of computer virus, computer worm, Trojan or Trojan horse which may get attached to email or gets in a file while downloading from a website or via compact discs. In the world of cyber era these software are highly dangerous. The types of Malware are as follows:

Computer Virus: It is a malicious programme which is written with the intention of slowing down the system operation or to delete the file. The reason they are called virus because they are easily spreads to other machines to which the communicate.

 Computer worm: It is a self-replicating malicious programme i.e. it multiplies on its own, such that it keeps on creating up its copies and eats up entire disc space or memory. It is self installing, harder to detect and it tries to erase or steal the data from the hard disk. It is more dangerous than virus Eg. ILOVEYOU, MSBlast etc

Trojan/Trojan horse: It is a malicious programme that comes to the system disguised as the useful application programme and when it is opened the Trojan starts executing and tries to destroy the file.

 Adware: It is advertising supported software. It is any software application in which advertisement banners are displayed while the programme is running. It generates the revenue by delivering the Add.

Spyware: It is computer software installed secretly on a Computer through user’s internet connection that secretly monitors user’s behaviour and transmits information gathered from the computer back to the unethical hacker.

 Ransomware: It is a subset of malware in which the data on victim’s computer is locked, typically by encryption and payment is demanded before the ransom data is decrypted and access return to the victim.

 

What is coral bleaching? What are the causes of coral bleaching? 

When there are changes in the condition like temperature, light or nutrients the symbiotic linkage between algae and zooxanthellae gets deteriorated, causing them to turn white.

• In coral bleaching the density of zooxanthellae decline and the concentration of photosynthetic pigment decline which lead to decline in color. 20% of the coral reefs have already been destroyed so it is important to conserve them. There are various causes of coral bleaching which are summarised below:
• Bleaching is mostly affected by the rising sea temperature. Corals have usually narrow range of temperature profile which increases their vulnerability whenever there is change in temperature. Up-welling and sudden drop in temperature is another cause of coral bleaching.
• Another reason is sudden exposure to high tides or some major tectonic activity in the oceans. They are supposed to be one of the causes.
• Sediment augmentation may be another reason. It can also be the cause of bleaching. Rapid dilution of sea water is another such cause.

 

List down the basic function of Panchayati Raj department in Rajasthan?

 

Decentralizing the decision making process is a fundamental policy of democratic setup. India achieved this by passing 73rd and 74th CAA. Rajasthan has always been pioneer in empowering local self government. Panchayati Raj system was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, on 2nd October, 1959 in Nagaur, Rajasthan.

Basic Functions of Panchayati Raj Department/Institutions are:

• To ensure the decentralization as per the spirit of 73rd constitutional amendment.
• Effective Implementation of Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Rules.
• All administrative/establishment matters including recruitments of PRI’s Functionaries.
• Building up of the organizational capacity of PRIs, the professional capacity of Elected Representatives with special focuses on women representatives and the functionaries, so that they can perform their mandated roles effectively.
• Institutionalizing and using integrated decentralized participatory planning through the Panchayati Raj Institutions and District Planning Committees for convergence of plethora of schemes and pooling of diverse resources for better outcomes.
• Monitoring and implementation of various Schemes (FFC, SFC V, Untied Fund for PRIs)including State and Central flagship programmes [Swatch Bharat mission(Rural)] of the Government that directly touch the lives of the poor in rural areas and promote inclusive growth.
• Mitigating regional backwardness through PRIs.
• Access to sanitation and clean environmental facilities to all in a time bound manner with the functional arrangement for solid and liquid waste management.
• To enable all households to have access to and use toilets and to ensure that all government schools and anganwadi’s have functional toilets, urinals.
• Supporting the Panchayats to achieve transparency and accountability in their functioning through e-enablement.

 

Enumerate the difference between Himalayan and Peninsular drainage system?

 

S.No.	Himalayan drainage	Peninsular drainage
1.	Perennial in nature.	Seasonal in nature
2.	Both snow fed and monsoon n fed	Monsoon fed
3.	Voluminous	Less voluminous
4.	Very large command area	Less Command area
5.	Himalayan river exhibits antecedent character	Consequent character is exhibited
6.	All Himalayan rivers form delta at the mouth	Form both delta and estuaries at the mouth
7.	Navigable for huge distance as they entered in plain area.	Not so navigable for long distance. Because of rapids, waterfall, cataracts
8	Hydroelectric potential is huge. But project feasibility is under question due to high seismic activity in the region.	Hydroelectricity potential is low but it is advisable to harness it as rivers are flowing through stable land reform.
9.	Himalayan rivers as they flow over long distance exhibit lot of meandering activity, sometimes to an extent that it led to the formation of oxbow lake	Very less meandering because they are flowing in region where well defined slopes are there.
10.	Very prone to floods-both in terms of frequency and intensity.	Less prone to fluids both in terms of frequency and intensity.
11	Relatively low disputes	Interstates disputes are more

 

What is groundwater contamination? What are the causes of ground water contamination?

Groundwater contamination is the adulteration of water because of the increase in the concentration of certain pollutants. The major pollutants contributing to contamination are Arsenic, fluoride, Iron, uranium, nitrate etc.

Causes of groundwater contamination are:

1. Natural: Groundwater naturally contains high amount of pollutant due to geological formation. For example occurrence of fluoride is related to the abundance and solubility of fluoride containing mineral such as fluorite.
2. Agriculture: Intensive use of agriculture has lead to the seepage of nitrate into groundwater. Exploitation by excessive use of irrigation is another reason as it leads to decline ungrounded water table.
3. Industrial waste: Industrial waste is discharged without effluent treatment. They seep through the soil and pollute the groundwater.

Indiscriminate extraction of groundwater for irrigation purpose has led to the salinity problem. Excessive discharge of water from coastal region has led to the sea water intrusion hence it has also leaded to increase salinity.

 

Write Short notes on Maternity Benefit Amendment Act?

Answer: Important features of this Act are-

1. The recently passed bill will amend the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
2. It increases the paid maternity leave for pregnant women working in the organised sector from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.
3. The 26 weeks of leave will be for the first two pregnancies.
4. For the third child, it will be of 12 weeks and 6 weeks for the fourth.
5. It allows 12 weeks of paid maternity leave to mothers who are adopting a child below the age of three months and also to commissioning mothers who opt for surrogacy.
6. It mandates employers to allow a woman to work from home.
7. Organisations which employ more than 30 women (or 50 people, whichever is less) will now have to provide a crèche.
8. The mother is allowed to visit the crèche four times during the day.

Benefits                                                               

• In line with international practice.
• Giving benefit to adoptive mothers and as well as women who get children using embryo transfer signals India is a progressive step.
• Social security for working mothers.

 

What are the causes of diversity in Indian society?

 

    Historical reasons: oldest society in the world. Long time period had led to growth of various social institutions in its own way.

    Geographical reasons: Earlier the geographical barrier was difficult to crossed and hence become the cause for isolation and hence independent development which led to variety.

    Economic factors: Trade and commercial activities have carried Indians too far off areas throughout the ages. These groups maintain closer contact with outside world continuously brought new features.

• During most of the phases of the Indian history, different political class and entities existed in India. Even at the time of Indian Independence, 565 princely states were there.
• The political class had different set of rules and policies which led to different social-cultural practices.
• The open and assimilatory outlook of Indian culture has also contributed to intensification of diversity.

 

Discuss the importance of animal husbandry sector with special reference to Rajasthan? Discuss the key initiative taken by Government of Rajasthan.

 

1. Parallel to agriculture, animal husbandry is a key sector of rajasthan especially in arid and semi arid areas. It is not merely subsidiary to agriculture but a major component in Rajasthan economy. The importance of animal husbandry are:
2. It provide insurance to the farmers in the Rainfed region. Especially for the semi arid and arid areas of Rajasthan.
3. It act as a source of income and provide a kind of stability and sustainable livelihood.
4. The state of Rajasthan is rich in live stock wealth. The state is endowed with finest drought hardy milch breeds (Rathi, Gir, Sahiwal and Tharparkar), dual purpose breed( kankrej and Haryana) and the famous drought breeds of nagori and malvi.
5. The state contributes 12.73% of total milk production and 32.89 % of wool production to the nation total production.

Government of Rajasthan is also aware of the importance of this sector and hence it is giving thrust to the sector by taking following measures:

• Efforts of the Animal Husbandry Department are focused on increasing the out stretch through creation of institutions and infrastructure to provide an integrated package of services for efficient health care and genetic improvement of livestock along with awareness building programmes to ensure better participation of the livestock owners.
• Bhamashah Pashu Bima Yojna’ is being implemented in the State for the welfare of livestock breeders. Under this insurance scheme, 70 per cent subsidy on premium of cattle insurance for SC/ST/BPL livestock breeders and 50 per cent subsidy on premium of cattle insurance for general livestock breeders is provided.
• Avika Kavach Bima Yojna’ is being implemented in the State for the welfare of sheep breeders.
• Breed improvement programme has also been strengthened. Breeding services are being improved through extension of private integrated livestock development centres.
• Under the mandate of Foot and Mouth Diseases (FMD), free Rajasthan FMD-CP is being implemented in the State with the assistance of Government of India.

 

What is OSIRIS-Rex mission and write down facts on asteroid Bennu?

 

 For the first time in more than two years, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has unfurled its robotic arm and put it through a series of maneuvers to ensure its space-worthiness after being packed away for launch and a long flight to the asteroid Bennu.

This arm and its sampler head, known as the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism or TAGSAM, is critical to the mission’s goal of retrieving at least 60 grams of material from the surface of Bennu and returning this sample to Earth by 2023.The collection device will act something like a reverse vacuum cleaner.

The launch of the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission took place on September 8, 2016. Since then, the spacecraft has been two years travelling through space to reach its target, primitive asteroid Bennu, in October and 2018.

About the mission:

OSIRIS-Rex stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer.

OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers program, which previously sent the New Horizons spacecraft zooming by Pluto and the Juno spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter.

What will the OSIRIS-Rex do?

OSIRIS-REx will spend two years travelling towards Bennu, arriving at the asteroid in August 2018. The probe will orbit the asteroid for 3 years, conducting several scientific experiments, before returning to Earth, with the sample capsule expected to land in Utah, USA in September 2023.

Scientific Mission Goals:

During its three year orbit of Bennu, OSIRIS-REx will be conducting a range of scientific experiments in order to better understand the asteroid.

As part of this, the asteroid will be mapped using instruments on the probe, in order to select a suitable site for samples to be collected from.

The aim of the mission is to collect a sample of regolith- the loose, soil-like material which covers the surface of the asteroid.

In July 2020, the probe will move to within a few metres of Bennu, extending its robotic arm to touch the asteroid’s surface. The arm will make contact with the surface for just 5 seconds, during which a blast of nitrogen gas will be used to stir up the regolith, allowing it to be sucked into the sample collector.

OSIRIS-REx has enough nitrogen on board for 3 sample collection attempts, and NASA are hoping to collect between 60 and 2000g of regolith material to bring back to Earth.

 

Why was Bennu chosen?

Bennu was selected for a the OSIRIS-REx mission from over 500,000 known asteroids, due to it fitting a number of key criteria. These include:

 

Proximity to Earth: In order for OSIRIS-REx to reach its destination in a reasonable time frame, NASA needed to find an asteroid which had a similar orbit to Earth. Around 7000 asteroids are ‘Near-Earth Objects’ (NEOs), meaning they travel within around ~30million miles of the Earth. Out of these, just under 200 have orbits similar to Earth, with Bennu being one of these.

 

Small asteroids, those less than 200m in diameter, typically spin much faster than larger asteroids, meaning the regolith material can be ejected into space. Bennu is around 500m in diameter, so rotates slowly enough to ensure that the regolith stays on its surface.

 

Composition: Bennu is a primitive asteroid, meaning it hasn’t significantly changed since the beginning of the Solar System (over 4 billion years ago). It is also very carbon-rich, meaning it may contain organic molecules, which could have been precursors to life on Earth.

 

Additionally, Bennu is of interest as it is a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA). Every 6 years, Bennu’s orbit brings it within 200,000 miles of the Earth, which means it has a high probability of impacting Earth in the late 22nd Century.

 

Revolt of 1857 was a major landmark in National freedom struggle. What changes it brought to the governance system?

Revolt of 1857 was the  outburst of anger by the Indians against the exploitative policies of the Britishers. Even though  Britishers manage to suppress the revolt. It made them to look into administration and way of governance. As a result they brought “ Act for betterment of India” . This act replace the rule of company with the crown. Other salient features are as follows:

• It abolished Court of directors and Board of director and commissioned a post of secretary of state who would be member of British cabinet. It was to be advised by council of 15 members, this is known as India council.
• The Governor general received the new designation called the Viceroy. He was to be advised by council of 4 members. The viceroy retained overriding power.
• The act put an end to the further annexation and conquest. Thus the princess, Zamidar remain the favorite children of British imperialism from now on.
• To prevent any further revolt there were changes made in the Army composition. English to Indian ratio was kept at 1:2 in the Bengal army and 2:5 in Madras and Bombay armies. Strict European monopoly over key geographical locations and departments such as artillery, tanks and armed corps. The brought caste identity in recruitment.

Hence Crown took over the control of the British Empire and administration in India was made directly responsible to British crown. There was no betterment for Indians in the act.

 

What are the types of pressure groups? Discuss the significance of Pressure groups?

 

• Pressure group is an organised group of people that wants to influence the policies or activities of those in able to make decision. This could be at a local, national or international level of government. There are various types of Pressure groups summarised below:
• Social or Identity based groups: They have one particular identity. There are two types of this category. Community service like Singh Sabha movement and Mobilisation for political ends eg. RSS and VHP
• Associational or Professional groups like FICCI, CII, bar council
• Institutional groups – They exist within the government and exert pressure through government machinery. Example IAS lobby, IPS lobby etc
• Ad hoc groups- formed for a specific purpose and dissolve after goal is achieved

Significance of pressure groups:

• Serve as a channel of communication between state and citizen
• They help to keep democracy alive between the elections.
• It prevents the emergence of any dominate force in society.
• They provide data information, technical inputs
• They check the arbitrary use of state power.
• They broaden the scope of popular participation.
• They are reservoir of political leadership
• Pressure group acts as legislatures behind legislators.

 

Explain the following terms: – write short notes         

 1) Taccavi

2) Repo rate

 3) Base rate

4) Marginal cost of fund based lending rate

• Taccavi is agricultural loan given to poor cultivators to relieve their distress and enable them to pay land revenue in time.
• Repo rate is the interest rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks. It is a monetary policy instrument which can be used to control the money supply and thereby inflation.
• Base rate is the minimum rate set by the RBI below which banks are not allowed to lend to its customers. Banks calculate the lending rates to its customers based on the base rate.
• The marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) refers to the minimum interest rate of a bank below which it cannot lend, except in some cases allowed by the RBI. It is an internal benchmark or reference rate for the bank. MCLR actually describes the method by which the minimum interest rate for loans is determined by a bank – on the basis of marginal cost or the additional or incremental cost of arranging one more rupee to the prospective borrower.

 

What is artificial intelligence? List down its application

Artificial intelligence is a way of programming a computer, robot to perform human like task such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making and translation between languages.

1. Artificial intelligence has wide application cutting across all sectors:
2. In agriculture artificial intelligence is used for precision farming. This will increase the productivity and lower the input cost. It also provides real time advisory.
3. Health – Can be used for diagnosis, test and minor operation. It will help to achieve more efficiency in health sector.
4. In education also customized learning, interactive and intelligent tutoring can be achieved. Eg- Parsons ‘write to learn’.
5. Urban planning: In traffic management artificial intelligence can be used. In Kerala engineers have designed a robot to clean potholes. It will also help to fight social evil manual scavenging.
6. In manufacturing sector it will help to develop good manufacturing practices. It will help to bring smoothness in supply chain. It will help to manage work floor in better way.
7. In energy sector also it will help to develop energy infrastructure. In defence also it will help to man difficult areas and terrain. It will help to bring efficiency in cyber defence.

 

What are the causes of unemployment in India?

Even though India has experienced a high growth period in the last 15 years but its employment elasticity has remained on lower side. The period is sometimes termed as Jobless growth period. Following are the reasons for unemployment in India:

Low productivity in agriculture. Disguised unemployment in agriculture is a serious issue. More than 48% of work force is dependent on agriculture, but agriculture contributes only 14% of GDP to the

• Every year 12.8 million work force is entering into work force but job creation is not upto that pace.
• Manufacturing sector, which is an employment generator, is also passing through stagnant phase. Investment climate is passing through dormancy hence less job creation.
• Globally there is tendency of protectionism going on. It is also creating hurdle in getting job. Like H1B issues, nitaqat law etc.
• Now it is an era of technology, where industrial revolution 4.0 is coming. This revolution majorly relies on artificial intelligence, robotics and hence low job creation.

Real estate sector is under slowdown from a long time. Construction sector was one of the major absorber of migrated landless laborers. But this is also not able to create jobs.

 

A healthy infrastructure is must for a sustained economic growth. BharatMala project was one of the steps towards healthy infrastructure. What is BharatMala project? What are the challenges in its implementation?

BharatMala is an ambitious project to improve the road infrastructure in the country. It is an umbrella project under the Ministry of road transport and highways. It will subsume the unfinished project under National Highway development programme.

Under the plan the government intends to develop 83,677 km of highways and roads at an investment of around Rs 7 lakh crore over the next five years. The ambitious project also plans to create new industrial corridors and urban centres, which should enhance economic activity in the country.

It focuses on the new initiatives like development of Border and International connectivity roads, Coastal & port connectivity roads, improving efficiency of National Corridors, Economic corridors and others.  The government also expects that 70-80 per cent of freight traffic will move on national highways, up from 40 per cent now.

The funding will be a big issue. 15% is expected from private sector. But how this investment will be raised is yet to be cleared. Land acquisition and environment clearance is another issue. There are inherent issues with PPP models. To speed up the process of approvals, the government has already empowered NHAI to approve all Projects. Government need to improve its execution skills and work closely with state governments to realise the desired objectives.

 

What are the objectives and features of Pradhanmantri Krishi Sichai Yojana (PMKSY)?

According to the World Bank report, agriculture irrigated land is 36% of the total agricultural land. Most of the unirrigated area lies in the poverty hit areas like Vidarbha region, Budndhelkhand, Telangana plateau etc. As a result of this there is complete dependency on Monsoon which itself is no reliable. Hence Government came up with a plan to increase irrigated land and launched Pradhana Mantri Krishi Sichai Yojana.

Objective:

• To achieve convergence of investment in irrigation at the field level.
• To enhance recharge of aquifers and introduce sustainable water conservation practices.
• To attract greater Pvt Investment in Agriculture.
• To explore the feasibility of reusing treated municipal waste water for peri urban agriculture.

Features of Agriculture are as follows:

• Long Term Irrigation Fund has been instituted under PMKSY in NABARD for funding and fast tracking the implementation of incomplete major and medium irrigation projects.
• Water budgeting is done for all sectors namely, household, agriculture and industries.
• Investments will happen at farm level.
• PMKSY has been formulated amalgamating ongoing schemes viz. Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP); Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP); and On Farm Water Management (OFWM) component of National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• A National Executive Committee (NEC) is to be constituted under the Chairmanship of the Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog to oversee programme implementation.

 

What is Respiratory system? Give an Overview of Respiration Process?

 

The respiratory system is the body system that brings air containing oxygen into the body and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The job of the respiratory system is the exchange of gases between the body and the outside air. This process, called respiration, actually consists of two parts. In the first part, oxygen in the air is drawn into the body and carbon dioxide is released from the body through the respiratory tract. In the second part, the circulatory system delivers the oxygen to body cells and picks up carbon dioxide from the cells in return.

The respiration process contains basically four steps:

Ventilation

Respiration begins with ventilation. This is the process of moving air in and out of the lungs. The lungs are the organs in which gas exchange takes place between blood and air.

Pulmonary Gas exchange

Pulmonary gas exchange is the exchange of gases between inhaled air and the blood. It occurs in the alveoli of the lungs.  Alveoli (singular, alveolus) are grape-like clusters surrounded by networks of thin-walled pulmonary capillaries. After you inhale, there is a greater concentration of oxygen in the alveoli than in the blood of the pulmonary capillaries, so oxygen diffuses from the alveoli into the blood across the capillaries.

Gas Transport

Pulmonary gas exchange is the exchange of gases between inhaled air and the blood. It occurs in the alveoli of the lungs. Alveoli (singular, alveolus) are grape-like clusters surrounded by networks of thin-walled pulmonary capillaries.   After you inhale, there is a greater concentration of oxygen in the alveoli than in the blood of the pulmonary capillaries, so oxygen diffuses from the alveoli into the blood across the capillaries

Peripheral Gas Exchange

The cells of the body have a much lower concentration of oxygen than does the oxygenated blood in the peripheral capillaries. Therefore, oxygen diffuses from the peripheral capillaries into body cells.  Carbon dioxide is produced by cells as a by-product of cellular respiration, so it is more concentrated in the cells than in the blood of the peripheral capillaries. As a result, carbon dioxide diffuses in the opposite direction.

 

What are the constitutional safeguards there for SC and ST?

Social safeguards:

• Art 17- abolition of untouchability
• Art 23- Traffic in human beings and beggar
• Art 24- prevent child labour. A substantial portion of child labor comes from SC and ST
• Art 25(2)(b)- Hindu religious institution shall be open to all section without any discrimination.

Economic safeguards

• Art 23
• Art 24
• Art 46 – The state shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the scheduled Tribes,
• Art 15(4) – reservation of seats

Political safeguard:

• Art 243D – in Panchayats seats reserved
• Art 243 T- Municipality reservation
• Art 332- seats reserved in Legislative assembly

 

Service safeguards

• Art 16(4)- reservation in jobs
• Art 16(4A)- promotions in jobs

Human rights safeguard:

• National commission for SC- 338
• National commission for ST- 338A

 

Big data is always in the news recently. What do you understand by the term bio data? What is its potential application?

 

Big data is the huge amount of data which is present in an unprocessed way. It is a complex data. Big data is characterised by 3 Vs ie. Volume of data, velocity of data i.e. processed and complex variety of data. Big data has various useful applications. The application of Big data can be seen in various fields. These are as follows:

• Can utilise big data to analyse the performance of the schemes and policies. It will give them a chance to bring efficiency in the policies and programmes. It will act as a feedback mechanism.
• Healthcare: it will help to create database of patients, public health monitoring, how to respond during epidemic, diagnosis and consulting, to create database of genomics.
• Agriculture: Precision farming, scientific inputs, real optimization of farm machinery, automated irrigation recommendation, monitoring of grain prices and management of inventories etc.
• E commerce: Consumer behaviour, to choose market models, real time feedback, forecasting the trend, Customer segmentation on the basis of preference.
• Disaster management: efficiency in risk warning, early identification of disaster, improve response, post disaster assessment will be easier.
• Social sector schemes: It will help to bring efficiency in social sector schemes by bringing efficiency in the feedback. Govt. can change the provisions by looking at the result.

 

What are the issues with Service sector in Rajasthan? Provide solution to address those issues?

 

The service sector provides a service, not an actual product that could be held in your hand. Activities in the service sector include retail, banks, hotels, real-estate, education, health, social work, computer services, recreation, media, communications, electricity, gas and water supply. Services contribute 47.41% to the GDP in Rajasthan. Even though service sector growth rate is 9.90% It is facing some issues such as:

• Infrastructure bottlenecks: Power shortage, lack of quality roads and highways especially village roads is an issue.
• There is a lack of adequate infrastructure which creates hurdles in setting up of Industries. Quality of soft skills is not developed to its potential. Rajasthan has huge potential for tourism. Hence, soft skills in Human resource can certainly boost up the sector.
• Lack of scaling up of traditional industries like art and craft industries eg Bagru prints, Kishangarh paintings. Less use of Digital platform to provide commercial access to these products.
• Service trade barriers, unavailability of single window clearance

Solution:

• Create investor friendly environment
• Infrastructure enhancement: Like DMIC, make use of UDAAN scheme to utilise the potential of inactive airports.
• World class institute for imparting soft skills to person engaged in hospitality sector.
• Removal of trade barriers by providing single window clearance
• Use cooperative federalism to learn from other developed state and use competitive federalism too attract investor from domestic and international arena.
• Government of Rajasthan should come up with more innovative advertising skills like Jane kya dikh jaye for tourism

 

What is blockchain technology? List down advantage and application of the technology

 

A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks (the most recent transactions) are recorded and added to it in chronological order; it allows market participants to keep track of digital currency transactions without central record-keeping. Each node (a computer connected to the network) gets a copy of the blockchain, which is downloaded automatically.

Adv:

• High security is the feature of blockchain technology.
• Decentralized form of data. As a result there is no single point of failure of blockchain technology.
• High quality data is produced in blockchain technology.

Application:

• Health care: repository of electronic health record. Exchange of electronic health record, putting all medical licenses on a blockchain, fraudulent doctors can be prevented from practicing.
• Education: student records, faulty records and educational certificate can be maintained. It cans simply the process of attestation.
• Food processing: Will help to keep a track on food item from agricultural land to consumers. Whether the Good manufacturing practices, hygiene and health standards are followed or not. Recording of agricultural records.
• Civil registration: birth, death, marriage, property certificate and records can be put up in blockchain. This can help make citizen records tamper-proof, resilient, secure and private, thus providing wide-ranging benefits for a variety of stake holder.
• Banking sector: to make transaction hack proof.