Test: National - 1 (2019 - 2017) - UPSC MCQ

2019-Feb Indian Express: Denisovan culture was discovered in 2010 and still awaits taxonomic classification. Aboriginal Australians have significant Denisovan genetic material. So, it ought to be B- a human species.

From the data released by the Commerce Ministry: 

Export data of spices is given but import data is not given, which points out that we are importing either NIL/negligible amount of spices.

Area under cultivation: Jowar: 5.1 million ha, while Oilseeds is 26.2. So, statement#2 is wrong, by elimination we arrive at answer A: 1 and 3 only.

Project Sashakt by Finance Ministry: It has 5 Pronged approach to resolve the NPA problem in time bound manner for Public Sector Banks. Approach #2: For Mid-sized bad loans 50-500cr: Intercreditor pact. So, D is the correct choice.

• Majority of the external debt is by the private sector's external commercial borrowing (ECB). So #1 is wrong.
• Second statement is extreme worded hyperbole so it's wrong. But just to crosscheck: Page 154 of 154 Economic Survey 2016-17: US dollar denominated debt accounted for 55.6 per cent of India's total external debt at end- September 2016, followed by Indian rupee (30.1 per cent), SDR (5.8 per cent), Japanese Yen (4.8 per cent) Pound Sterling (0.7 per cent), Euro (2.4 per cent) and others (0.6 per cent).

2018-March: IndianExpress: As per the the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central (Amendment) Rules, 2018:

• No workman employed on fixed term employment basis shall be entitled to any notice or pay, if his services are terminated by non-renewal of contract. So, #1 is right.
• No notice of termination of employment shall be necessary in the case of temporary workman. So, #2 is right. Answer C: both correct.

• Every waste generator shall segregate and store the waste generated by them in three separate streams namely biodegradable, non-bio-degradable and domestic hazardous wastes in suitable bins. So #A is wrong.
• Rules are now applicable beyond Municipal areas and extend to urban agglomerations, census towns, notified industrial townships, areas under the control of Indian Railways, airports, airbase, Port and harbour, defence establishments, special economic zones etc. So, #B is wrong.
• The rules specifies criteria for site selection, development of facilities at the sanitary landfills, specifications for land filling operations and closure on completion of landfilling, pollution prevention, Closure and Rehabilitation of Old Dumps, specifies Criteria for special provisions for hilly areas. So, C is correct.
• There is no mention of district requirement, so D is wrong.

• Government announces MSP on 23 crops. These include seven cereal crops (paddy, wheat, jowar, bajra, maize, ragi and barley), five pulse crops (gram, tur, moong, urad and lentil), seven oilseeds (groundnut, sunflower seed, soyabean, rapeseed, mustard, safflower, nigerseed and seasmum), copra (dried coconut), cotton, raw jute and sugarcane.
• So, Coffee is not in the list, #3 is wrong, by elimination we get correct answer (B)

• PMKVY is the flagship outcome-based skill training scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). So, #1 is wrong,
• Ministry of Skill Development is created with core focus on converging all skill development initiatives in the country under one National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). So, #3 ought to be right. Thus by elimination we get the answer C: 2 and 3 only.

• In 2013, NFSA was enacted to provide food security to 67% of the population in the form of highly subsidized foodgrains at Rs. 2 and 3 per Kg for wheat and rice respectively. The coverage under NFSA has been delinked from poverty estimates. So, #1 is wrong.
• Pregnant women and lactating mothers are entitled to a nutritious "take home ration" of 600 Calories and a maternity benefit of at least Rs 6,000 for six months. So #3 is wrong.
• Thus, by elimination, we are left with correct answer B: only 2.

• After the formation of the FSS Act, 2006 a number of Acts and Orders that no longer served any purpose were repealed viz. The Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order 1998, Fruit Products Order (FPO), 1955, Meat Food Products Order (MFPO), Prevention of Food Adulteration Act,1954 etc. So, #1 is right.
• While FSSAI acts under the Administrative control of Health ministry, FSSAI has an independent chairperson enjoying rank of Secretary to Government of India So, #2 is wrong.

These features are lifted Verbatim from Nandan Nilekani's Blog in TimesofIndia in 2016, where he said, "Aadhaar provides open Application Programming Interfaces or APIs, which can be integrated easily into any electronic device. These APIs enable online authentication using a fingerprint or iris." Therefore both statements are right.

• Statement 1- Incorrect. Even it is written on the Aadhar Card itself.
• Statement 2- Incorrect. By August 2017, UID has deactivated close to 81 lakh Aadhar numbers.

As per Economic Survey, first statement is right but Central Government's domestic liability is ~46% so #2 is wrong. By elimination, we get (C)

This was introduced in 2016, as a separate legislation under Finance Bill, and it doesn't provide tax credit in home country so both wrong.

In the pursuance of section 70-B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (the "IT Act"), Central Government issued the Information Technology (The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team and Manner of Performing Functions and Duties) Rules, 2013, these CERT Rules also impose an obligation on service providers, intermediaries, data centres and body corporates to report cyber incidents within a reasonable time so that CERT-In may have scope for timely action.
Hence answer "D".

HRD Ministry's Smart India Hackathon is a 36 hours non-stop digital programming competition during which student teams will compete to offer innovative solutions for any given problem.

First statement is wrong, as per India Yearbook (IYB) 2017- Chapter 21 Labour & Skill development. Labour Ministry launched this portal in 2015. Second statement is correct, by the same source- it's a 'mission mode' project.