UPPSC GS I Practice Test - 8 (Old Pattern) - UPPSC (UP) MCQ

Key-Points

• Mumbai is the most popular city or urban agglomeration by population in India.

• Mumbai stood first with a population of 18.41 Million.

• In the year 2001, it was still the first with a population of 16.37 million.

8th Schedule:

• Presently the Indian constitution has 22 recognized languages.

• Earlier, there were 14 recognized languages.

• The recent amendments included the 21st amendment included the Sindhi language. The 71st amendment included Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali languages, and the 92nd amendment included Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali languages in this 8th schedule.

• The Global Vaccine Summit was hosted by the United Kingdom (UK).

Key-Points

• Almost 50 ​countries, including the business leaders, UN agencies, civil society, government ministers, Heads of State, participated in the Summit.

• The Summit was intended to urge nations around the world to pledge to fund vaccinations to protect the world from future outbreaks of infectious diseases.

• The Summit was aimed at raising USD 7.4 million to immunize a further 300 million children in the world's poorest countries by 2025.

Key-Points

• Both Khangchendzonga and Nandadevi National park do not have tropical vegetation.

• They have temperate and arctic vegetation. Hence statements 1 and 2 are not correct.

• Balphakram National Park consists of tropical vegetation, an ideal habitat for various species of animals like elephants, deer, etc. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• World Wildlife Day is observed on March 3 every year to raise awareness about the dangers faced by the planet’s fauna and flora.

• The aim of the day is to celebrate and raise awareness of the world's wild fauna and flora.

• The theme for the year 2020 is "Sustaining all life on earth.”

• The theme for the year 2021 is 'Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet.’

• William Harvey was the first person to correctly describe blood circulation in the body.

• He showed that arteries and veins form a complete circuit. The circuit starts at heart and leads back to the heart.

Key-Points

• William Harvey was an English physician and anatomist. In 1628, he discovered the circulation of the blood.

• This finding is a landmark in medical history that marked the beginning of modern physiology.

• His findings on blood circulation were published in De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis (On the Motions of the Heart and Blood.)

• He is also known for his studies in the field of embryology.

• Harvey was one of the first scientists to use quantitative methods in biological research.

• His view of the heart as a pump helped establish a way of thinking that contributed much to science.

In the news -

• Recently the Jharkhand government convened a special session and passed a resolution to send the Centre a letter to recognize the Sarna religion and include it as a separate code in the Census of 2021.

In the news -

• The government has constituted a three-member expert committee to assist in the assessment of relief to bank borrowers. The committee will submit its report within one week.

The correct answer is Addressing chronic poverty by providing guaranteed wage employment to unskilled laborers.

Key-Points

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  Addressing chronic poverty by providing guaranteed wage employment to unskilled laborers is one of the primary objectives of MNREGA.

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  Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was started in 2005.

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  The MGNREGA was initiated with the objective of “enhancing livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year".

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  This scheme was called the Employment Assurance Scheme, which later evolved into the MGNREGA.

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  Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act increases economic security.

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  It gives a significant amount of control to the Gram Panchayats for managing public works.

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  It incorporates accountability in its operational guidelines.

• The book "I Do What I Do" has been authored by the ex-governor of RBI, Shri Raghuram Rajan.

• The book was published by HarperCollins India and was launched in Chennai on 4th September 2017.

• The book conveys what it was like to be at the helm of RBI in those turbulent but exciting times.

• He was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to 2016.

The Correct answer is Uttar Pradesh.

• Uttar Pradesh the only Indian State which has a maximum number of neighboring states.

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  Uttar Pradesh shares a border with eight Different states and one Union Territory.

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  ​Northwest - Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

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  West - Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan.

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  South - Madhya Pradesh.

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  East - Jharkhand, and Bihar.

• Up touches border with chatisgarh also

  Uttar Pradesh is a state in Northern India. Its capital is Lucknow. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is Yogi Aditya Nath, and Governor is Anandiben Patel.

• The G20 summit of 2020 was hosted by Saudi Arabia recently.

• The subsequent G20 summits are held in Italy in 2021, Indonesia in 2022, India in 2023, and Brazil in 2024.

Key- Points

• Harmful species are not in the IUCN classification of threatened species.

• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, also called IUCN Red List, one of the most well-known objective assessment systems for classifying the status of plants, animals, and other organisms threatened with extinction.

• IUCN red list was founded in 1964.

• It uses a set of criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of a thousand species and subspecies.

There are 7 categories of the IUCN Red List:

• Data Deficient

• Least concern- unlikely to become extinct in the near future.

• Near Threatened- close to being at high risk of extinction in the near future.

• Vulnerable

• Endangered- very high risk of extinction in the wild.

• Critically Endangered- in a particular and extremely critical state.

• Extinct In The Wild- Survives only in captivity, cultivation, and outside the native range, as presumed after exhaustive surveys.

• Extinct- beyond a reasonable doubt that the species is no longer extant.

• Gastrointestinal disorders include constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, perianal abscesses, anal fistulas, perianal infections, diverticular diseases, colitis, colon polyps, etc.

• They are not caused by air pollution.

Key-Points

• Among the options, only Louise Glück is NOT a recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.

• Louise Glück is an American writer.

• She was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2020.

• She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1993.

Notable works of Louise Glück are:

• Firstborn.

• A Village Life

• The House on Marshland.

• Vita Nova.

• Descending Figure.

India's first sugar mill was established at Pratappur in 1903.

• The Sugar Cane Act, 1934, passed by the British, authorized the State Government to fix the minimum price for sugarcane.

• Sugarcane Development Department was established in Uttar Pradesh in the year 1935.

• Uttar Pradesh is the largest sugar-producing State in the country.

• Uttar Pradesh has a total of 157 established sugar mills.

• Brazil is the world's largest sugar producer.

• India is the second-largest sugar-producing country in the World.

Major Centres for sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh:

• Gorakhpur

• Deoria

• Basti

• Gonda

• Meerut

• Saharanpur

• Muzaffarnagar

• Bijnor

• Moradabad

• The United States leads the world in plastic waste creation and is also among the top marine polluters, according to new research.

• The US produced the largest mass of plastic waste of any country in the world and also had the largest annual per-capita plastic generation among surveyed nations.

USA:

• Capital - Washington, D.C.

• Currency - US Dollar.

In News -

The Union Cabinet has given its approval to introduce the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme in the following 10 key sectors for Enhancing India’s Manufacturing Capabilities and Enhancing Exports.

• In a first-of-its-kind virtual summit, World Digital Awards announced its first edition awardees in India, ratified by the premier accrediting agency in the world, IAA, on 1st September.

• Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, Mukesh Ambani, and NR Narayana Murthy were conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Awards.

• Eminent Psychologist Dr. Jawahar Surisetti, Debjani Ghosh (President Nasscom), Actor Sonu Sood were conferred Special Recognition Awards for immense contribution in their fields.

• Vijay Shekhar Sharma of PayTM for promoting entrepreneurship; Ritesh Agrawal of OYO for entrepreneurial excellence, Chef Vikas Khanna for Humanitarian aid were also conferred Special Recognition Awards.

• Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as lowland equatorial evergreen rainforest.

• A mangrove is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water.

• The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species.

• Mangroves occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics, mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S.

• Tropical Rainforests have the maximum biodiversity among the given options.

• Kamala Harris has made history by becoming the first woman vice president of the United States.

• Harris is the former Attorney general of California and now the first Black woman and African American elected as the vice president.

• As her mother is from India, she has also become the first person of Indian descent to hold the national office in the United States.

USA:

• Capital - Washington, D.C.

• Currency - US Dollar.

• President- Joe Biden

• Valtteri Bottas has won for Mercedes at the Austrian Grand Prix.

• Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took second place and Mclaren’s Lando Norris third.

• The race was interrupted three times by a safety car, and 9 of 20 drivers abandoned, including Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon — who tried to overtake Hamilton on the outside with 10 laps left, touched wheels, and flew off the track. Valtteri Bottas has won for Mercedes at the Austrian Grand Prix.

• The Indian Councils Act 1909 or Morley-Minto Reforms or Minto-Morley Reforms was passed by British Parliament in 1909 in an attempt to widen the scope of legislative councils, placate the demands of moderates in the Indian National Congress, and to increase the participation of Indians in the governance.

• This act got royal assent on 25 May 1909.

• Acid rain means the presence of excessive acids in rainwater.

• The causes of acid rain are Sulfur and Nitrogen particles which get mixed with the wet components of rain.

• Sulfur and Nitrogen particles that get mixed with water are found in two ways, either man-made as the emissions are given out from industries or by natural causes.

• Natural causes of acid rain are oxides of sulfur and nitrogen from volcanoes, swamps, and plankton in the oceans.

• However, most of the acids are produced by human activities like power generation from fossil fuels which produces around 70% of the SO₂ produced in the atmosphere. However, this is not a natural source but is an anthropogenic source. Hence all the options are correct.

• India’s newest and fastest supercomputer, PARAM-Siddhi AI, has been ranked 63rd in the Top500 list of most powerful supercomputers in the world.

• The supercomputer was established earlier in 2020, under the National Supercomputer Mission (NSM).

• The Top500 project tracks the most powerful supercomputers in the world and is published twice a year.

Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD):

• It is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms to break down organic material present in a given water sample at a certain temperature over a specific time period to break down organic material present in that water.

• BOD is often used in wastewater-treatment plants and is used as an index of the degree of organic pollution in water.

• Assam won four awards in the fisheries sector from the National Fisheries Development Board operating under the Ministry of Fisheries on November 18, 2020.

Key-Points

• Assam received the best state award under the category of best hilly and North Eastern State in Fisheries.

• The Assam Apex Cooperative Fish Marketing and Processing Federation Limited (FISHED) won first place in the category of hilly and North Eastern Government Organization.

• The Nagaon district of Assam has selected the best hilly and North Eastern district category.

• Amal Medhi, a farmer from the Nalbari district of Assam, won first place under the category of hilly and North Eastern fish farmer category.

• Odisha bagged the best state in the marine state category.

• Uttar Pradesh won the best state award in the Inland State category.

Key-Points

• The sacred groves are forest fragments of varying sizes.

• They are communally protected and have a significant religious connotation for the protecting community.

• Usually, hunting and logging are strictly prohibited within these patches.

• It is a traditional method of conservation of green resources where sacred groves are dedicated to a local deity.

• Examples: sacred groves in the hills of Garhwal and Kumaon, the largest sacred grove in Hariyali in Chamoli district, Khasi hills of Meghalaya, etc.

• The gharial is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ in the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.

• The Project Crocodile was initiated by the United Nations Development Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation in 1976.

• It included an intensive captive rearing and breeding programme intended to restock depleted Gharial habitats.

• The World Wide Fund has launched the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 (IRV 2020).

• The programme aimed to increase the total rhino population in Assam to about 3000 by the year 2020.

• Brahmos is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India (DRDO) and the NPOM of Russia.

• Brahmos is named for the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva.

• It is a two-stage (solid propellant engine in the first stage and liquid ramjet in second) air to surface missile with a flight range of around 300 km.

• It is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile capable of being launched from submarines, warships, fighter jets, or land and has a strike range of nearly 300 kilometers.

• The missile is operational with the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force.

• The Brahmos is regarded as the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world.