UPSC CSE Prelims Paper 1 Practice Test - 20 - UPSC MCQ

• Article 30 grants right to minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.

• Statement 1 is correct: Article 30 grants the minorities, whether religious or linguistic, the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Minority educational institutions are of three types:

  • institutions that seek recognition as well as aid from the State;

  • institutions that seek only recognition from the State and not aid; and

  • institutions that neither seek recognition nor aid from the State.

• The institutions of first and second type are subject to the regulatory power of the state with regard to syllabus prescription, academic standards, discipline, sanitation, employment of teaching staff and so on.

• The institutions of third type are free to administer their affairs but subject to operation of general laws like contract law, labour law, industrial law, tax law, economic regulations, and so on.

• Statement 2 is correct: In Secretary of Malankara Syrian Catholic College case (2007), the Supreme Court held that the right conferred on minorities under Article 30 is only to ensure equality with the majority and not intended to place the minorities in a more advantageous position vis-a-vis the majority. There is no reverse discrimination in favour of minorities. The general laws of the land relating to national interest, national security, social welfare, public order, morality, health, sanitation, taxation etc., applicable to all, will equally apply to minority institutions also.

• Statement 3 is correct: In the Secretary of Malankara Syrian Catholic College case (2007), the Supreme Court held that the right to establish and administer educational institutions is not absolute. There can be regulatory measures for ensuring educational character and standards and maintaining academic excellence. Regulations made by the State concerning generally the welfare of students and teachers, regulations laying down eligibility criteria and qualifications for appointment, as also conditions of service of employees (both teaching and non-teaching), regulations to prevent exploitation or oppression of employees, and regulations prescribing syllabus and curriculum of study fall under this category. Such regulations do not in any manner interfere with the right under Article 30(1).

• Statement 1 is correct: Ecological pyramids are the diagrammatic representations of the feeding relationship and energy transfers in the ecosystem. They are of three types: Pyramid of Numbers, Pyramid of Biomass and Pyramid of Energy.

• Statement 2 is correct: Pyramid of Energy represents the total amount of energy used at each trophic level per unit of area per unit of time. The ecological pyramid of energy is always upright because the distribution of energy is always reducing as the trophic level becomes higher (from primary producer to tertiary consumer). The total amount of energy available for utilization in the layers above is less than the energy available in the lower levels.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: Pyramid of Biomass: Biomass is the total mass (in gram dry weight) of living organisms in an area at a particular point of time. A pyramid of biomass is obtained when the rectangles used to construct the pyramid represent the masses of organisms at each trophic level. Pyramid of biomass can be upright (e.g., in the grassland ecosystem) or inverted. Inverted pyramids can occur in aquatic ecosystems. This happens because in aquatic ecosystems producers are tiny phytoplankton. Thus, consumer biomass exceeds producer biomass.

10th Schedule:

• Constitutional basis:

  • The Tenth Schedule was inserted in the Constitution by the 52nd Amendment Act.

  • It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection.

• Statement 1 is incorrect:

  • The law does not provide a time frame within which the presiding officer has to decide a defection case.

  • The court in its recent judgment has held that, ideally, Speakers should take a decision on a defection petition within three months.

• Statement 2 is correct:

  • Legislators may change their party without the risk of disqualification in certain circumstances.

    • The law allows a party to merge with or into another party provided that at least twothirds of its legislators are in favour of the merger.

    • In such a scenario, neither the members who decide to merge, nor the ones who stay with the original party will face disqualification.

• Statement 1 is correct: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found. The permanent secretariat of the Convention is located in Bonn, Germany.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: ‘Desertification’ as defined in the UNCCD refers to land degradation in the drylands (arid, semi-arid and dry sub humid regions) resulting from various factors and does not connote spread or expansion of deserts.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: The UNCCD is particularly committed to a bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating desertification and land degradation. The Convention is based on the principles of participation, partnership and decentralization.

• The President is the head of the Indian State. He is the first citizen of India and acts as the symbol of unity, integrity and solidarity of the nation. All executive power is vested in the President of India. The Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister aids and advises the President who exercises his powers in accordance to such advice.

• Statement 1 is correct: Article 87 of the constitution provides two instances when the President specially addresses both Houses of Parliament. The President of India addresses both the Houses of Parliament assembled together at the beginning of the first session after each general election when the reconstituted lower house meets for the first time. The President also addresses both the houses of at beginning of the first session of each year.

  • Article 87(1) originally required the President to address both Houses of Parliament at the commencement of every session. However, The First Amendment to the Constitution in 1951 changed this position and made the President’s address once a year.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: The practice of the President addressing Parliament can be traced back to the Government of India Act of 1919. This law gave the Governor-General the right to address the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State. But the Government of India Act of 1919 did not have any provision for a joint address.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: Currently, the address of the President follows a general structure. It highlights the government’s accomplishments from the previous year and sets the broad governance agenda for the coming year. The government also uses the President’s address to make policy and legislative announcements. For example, in 1996, PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s (13-day) government used the president’s address to announce its intention of giving statehood to Uttaranchal and Vananchal (Jharkhand) and 33 percent reservation to women in legislatures. And in 2015, the Narendra Modi government used the president’s address to announce its plan to fast pace financial sector reforms.

• Shadow entrepreneurs are individuals who manage a business that sells legitimate goods and services but they do not register their businesses. This means that they do not pay tax, operating in a shadow economy where business activities are performed outside the reach of government authorities.

• Types of businesses include unlicensed taxicab services, roadside food stalls and small landscaping operations. Researcher at Imperial College Business School found that, India has second highest number of shadow entrepreneurs in the world after Indonesia.

• Deputy Speaker

• Statement 1 is not correct.

• Election of deputy speaker:

• President is not required to fix the election date:

  • The date of election of the Speaker is decided by the President who needs to go by the advice of the Union cabinet which, in fact, chooses the date.

  • In the case of the Deputy Speaker, there is no constitutional requirement for him to wait for the advice of the Union cabinet in fixing the date of election of the Deputy Speaker.

  • Mandate to Speaker: As per Rule 8 of the Rules and Procedure of Lok Sabha it is the Speaker who has to fix the date of the election of the Deputy Speaker.

• Statement 2 is not correct.

  • No appeal: Although the Deputy Speaker gets to exercise these powers only in the absence of the Speaker his decisions are final and binding when he gives a ruling.

  • It has been repeatedly held that no appeal lies to the Speaker against a ruling given by the Deputy Speaker.

• Statement 3 is correct.

  • Independent from Speaker: The Deputy Speaker is independent of the Speaker, not subordinate to him, as both are elected from among the members of the House.

• Statement 1 is correct: Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is an alternative corporate business form in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. Under this, partners are not responsible or liable for another partner’s misconduct or negligence. This is an important difference from the traditional unlimited partnership in which each partner has joint liability.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: All limited liability partnership in India is governed under the Limited Liability Partnership Act of 2008. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs implements the Act.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: The LLP is same as ordinary partnership and the only difference between LLP and ordinary partnership is the liability of LLP partners is limited. LLP cannot issue IPO and cannot use public money as a company does.

• Statement 1 is correct: The provision was enacted in 1898 and was not in the original penal code. In 1969, the offence was amended (made cognisable – arrest without a warrant) to enlarge its scope to prevent communal tensions.

• Statement 2 is correct: It penalises ‘promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony’.

• In negative yield bond, an investor receives less money at the bond's maturity than the original purchase price for the bond. A negative bond yield is an unusual situation in which issuers of debt are paid to borrow. In other words, the depositors, or buyers of bonds, are effectively paying the bond issuer a net amount at maturity instead of earning a return through interest income.

• Statement 1, 2 & 4 are correct and statement 3 is incorrect: The reason for investors buying a negative yielding debt or bonds can be:

  • Asset Allocation and Pledged Assets: Many hedge funds and investment firms that manage mutual funds must meet certain requirements, including asset allocation. Asset allocation means that the investments within the fund must have a portion allocated to bonds to help create a diverse portfolio. Allocating a portion of a portfolio to bonds is designed to reduce or hedge the risk of loss from other investments, such as equities. As a result, these funds must own bonds, even if the financial return is negative. (Statement 1 is correct)

  • When expected currency moves will likely offset the negative yields: Some investors believe they can still make money even with negative yields. For example, foreign investors might believe the currency's exchange rate will rise, which would offset the negative bond yield. In other words, a foreign investor would convert their investment to a country's currency when buying the government bond and convert the currency back to the investor's local currency when selling the bond. The investor would have a gain or loss merely from the currency exchange fluctuation, irrespective of the yield and price of the bond investment. (Statement 2 is correct)

  • Purchasing power is maintained: The most important reason investors would willingly choose to invest in negative-yielding bonds is when there is deflation, or a sustained drop in the price level for goods and services. For instance, consider a one-year bond that yields minus 5% but at the same time inflation is expected to be minus 10% over the same period. That means the investor in the bond would have more purchasing power at the end of the year because prices for goods and services would have declined far more than would the value of the investment in the fixed-income security. (Statement 3 is incorrect)

  • Safe Haven Assets: Investors might also be interested in negative bond yields if the loss is less than it would be with another investment. In times of economic uncertainty, many investors rush to buy bonds because they're considered safe-haven investments. These purchases are called the flight-to- safety-trade in the bond market. During such a time, investors might accept a negative-yielding bond because the negative yield might be far less of a loss than a potential double-digit percentage loss in the equity markets. (Statement 4 is correct)

• Crown Colony Plan: It was a secret plan conceived during the closing years of the British rule and discussed at the highest levels of the colonial administration for setting up a Crown Colony comprising the hill areas of the North East India and the tribal areas of Burma.

• This Crown Colony would have included all tribal areas of NE India as well as the contagious tribal areas of Burma. As such, most of the tribal areas of the NE, mainly the hills of the province of Assam, were classified as ‘Excluded’ or ‘Partially Excluded Areas’. Therefore, a Crown Colony, like Singapore, Hong Kong, Aden or Gibraltar, on the eastern periphery of India, consisting of tribal areas from Indian and Burma, ruled by benign and tribal-loving British administrators, was achievable. Separation from India was inherent in the plan.

• The plan finally did not succeed but was a near miss. It would have significantly changed the map of India and Burma, and challenged the very idea of a diverse India.

• Option a is incorrect: The Sergeant Plan (Sergeant was the educational advisor to the Government) was worked out by the Central Advisory Board of Education in 1944. The objective was to create within 40 years, the same level of educational attainment as prevailed in England.

• Option b is incorrect: The British government proposed a plan, announced on 3 June 1947, that included these principles: Principle of the partition of British India was accepted by the British Government. Successor governments would be given dominion status. Autonomy and sovereignty to both countries. The Indian Independence Act is also referred to as the 3 June Plan or the Mountbatten Plan.

• Option c is incorrect: Wavell presented Breakdown Plan to the Cabinet Mission in May 1946. It visualised a middle course between “repression” and “scuttle”. This plan envisaged the withdrawal of the British Army and officials to the Muslim provinces of North-West and North-East and handing over the rest of the country to the Congress. Wavell’s plan was evidence of British recognition of the impossibility of suppressing any future Congress-led rebellion. Desire in some high official circles to make a “Northern Ireland” of Pakistan.

• Option C is correct: Right against Exploitation contains articles prohibiting traffic in human beings and forced labour and employment of children in factories, etc.

  • Right to equality aims at promoting equality and protects against discrimination.

  • The right to privacy offers protection against activities that seek unwanted and intrusive interference in an individual's personal affairs such as the DNA information of a child.

  • Cultural and educational rights are guaranteed by the Constitution to religious and linguistic minority groups in India, to enable them to preserve their distinct culture, language or script.

• Recently, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the constitution of a ‘Fly Ash Management and Utilisation Mission in its order dated January 18, 2022. The Mission’s primary goal will be to ‘coordinate and monitor issues relating to the handling and disposal of fly ash and associated issues.’ The order by the NGT takes note of the ‘unscientific handling and storage’ of the fly ash by coal thermal power stations.

• Statement 1 is correct: The Fly Ash Management and Utilisation Mission, besides monitoring the disposal of annual stock of unutilised fly ash, will also see how 1,670 million tonnes of legacy (accumulated) fly ash could be utilized in the least hazardous manner and how all safety measures could be taken by the power plants. The Mission will hold its first meeting within one month to assess the fly ash management situation in coal power plants and to prepare action plans to build road maps for ash utilisation by individual plants. These meetings shall be conducted each month, for a year.

• Statement 2 is incorrect: The Fly Ash Management and Utilisation Mission seek to coordinate and monitor issues relating to the handling and disposal of fly ash and associated issues. The Mission is to be jointly headed by the secretaries of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Union Ministry of Coal and Power, keeping on board chief secretaries of respective states where the mission is being implemented. The secretary of MoEF&CC will be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance.

• Disqualification of a legislator

• Constitutional provisions:

  • The provision for disqualification is given in Article 102 of the Constitution.

  • It specifies that a person shall be disqualified for contesting elections and being a Member of Parliament under certain conditions.

  • If he holds any office of profit under the Union or state government (except that of a minister or any other office exempted by Parliament). Hence option 2 is correct.

  • If he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a court.

  • If he is an undischarged insolvent.

  • If he is not a citizen of India or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign state or is under any acknowledgement of allegiance to a foreign state; and Hence option 1 is correct.

  • If he is so disqualified under any law made by Parliament.

  • Article 102 also authorises Parliament to make law determining conditions of disqualifications.

  • There are analogous provisions for members of state legislatures.

• The Representation of the People Act, 1951: Disqualification on imprisonment:

  • The Representation of the People Act, 1951 provides that a person will be disqualified if convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more. Hence option 3 is incorrect.

  • The person is disqualified for the period of imprisonment and a further six years.

  • A member incurs disqualification under the defection law: If he voluntarily gives up the membership of the political party on whose ticket he is elected to the House; Hence option 4 is correct.

  • If he votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction given by his political party;

  • If any independently elected member joins any political party; and

  • If any nominated member joins any political party after the expiry of six months.

The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (RBI Act) provides that the Bank shall prepare separately a weekly account of the Issue Department and of the Banking Department in the forms prescribed by the Central Government. This weekly statement is reviewed every week by a Committee of the Central Board of the RBI. The same form holds good in the case of annual accounts of the Bank which is adopted by the Central Board. While Balance Sheets for the Issue and Banking Departments have been kept separate, only one Profit and Loss Account is prepared for the entire bank. The assets of the Issue Department comprise broadly, gold coins and bullion, rupee coins, rupee securities and foreign securities. As per the RBI Act, the only liability of the Issue Department is 'Notes in Circulation'.

• Seismic waves:

  • When an earthquake occurs, the shockwaves of released energy that shake the Earth and temporarily turn soft deposits are called seismic waves.

  • There are three basic types of seismic waves:

    • P-waves, S-waves and Surface waves (Rayleigh and Love waves).

    • P-waves and S-waves are sometimes collectively called Body Waves.

• Body waves:

  • Generated due to the release of energy at the focus and move in all directions travelling through the body of the earth. Hence, the name – body waves.

  • Travel only through the interior of the earth.

  • Faster than surface waves.

• There are 2 types of body waves: P- primary waves and S-secondary waves.

  • P waves travel through gaseous, liquid and solid materials whereas S waves travel only through solid materials.

• Surface Waves:

  • When the body waves interact with surface rocks, a new set of waves is generated called surface waves.

  • These waves move along the earth's surface.

  • Surface waves are transverse wavesin which particle movement is perpendicular to the wave propagation. Hence, they create crests and troughs in the material through which they pass. They are the most damaging waves.

  • 2 common surface waves are Love waves and Rayleigh waves.

  • Speed of different Waves in descending order:

  • Primary Waves > Secondary Waves > Love Waves > Rayleigh Waves.

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Employment elasticity is a measure of the percentage change in employment associated with a 1 percentage point change in economic growth (not inflation rate). The employment elasticity indicates the ability of an economy to generate employment opportunities for its population as a percent of its growth (development) process.

• Statement 2 is correct: The employment elasticity refers to the percentage change in employment associated with a 1% increase in GDP. Therefore, the higher the employment elasticity, the more labour- intensive growth.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: As per the Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS), jobs growth slowed down to 1.1 per cent between 2012 and 2016 from 2.4 per cent between 2000 and 2005. Employment elasticity, which measures employment growth with GDP growth, reduced to 0.17 in 2016 from 0.20 in 2000. In other words, for every 10 per cent increase in output, employment grew by 1.7 per cent during 2012 and 2016 as against 2 per cent between 2000 and 2012.

• The two main types of nucleic acids are Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) and Ribonucleic Acid (RNA). Both DNA and RNA are made from nucleotides, each containing a five-carbon sugar backbone, a phosphate group, and a nitrogen base. DNA provides the code for the cell’s activities, while RNA converts that code into proteins to carry out cellular functions.

• Statement 1 is correct: DNA is located in the nucleus of a cell and in the mitochondria. RNA is found in the cytoplasm, nucleus and in the ribosome.

• Statement 2 is correct: The DNA is a double-stranded molecule that has a long chain of nucleotides. The RNA is a single-stranded molecule which has a shorter chain of nucleotides.

• Statement 3 is correct: DNA replicates on its own, it is self-replicating. DNA replication is the process by which DNA makes a copy of itself during cell division. RNA does not replicate on its own. It is synthesized from DNA when required.

• Heat Dome:

  • A heat dome occurs when the atmosphere traps hot ocean air like a lid or cap.

• How does it form?

  • Extreme heat waves have become more frequent in recent decades. Sometimes, the scorching heat is ensnared in what is called a heat dome.

  • This happens when strong, high-pressure atmospheric conditions combine with influences from La Niña, creating vast areas of sweltering heat that gets trapped under the high-pressure "dome."

  • Hence options 1, 3 and 4 are correct.

• Correlation with jet streams:

  • Typically, heat domes are tied to the behavior of the jet stream, a band of fast winds high in the atmosphere that generally runs west to east.

  • Normally, the jet stream has a wavelike pattern, meandering north and then south and then north again.

  • When these meanders in the jet stream become bigger, they move slower and can become stationary. That’s when heat domes can occur. Hence option 2 is correct.

• Statement 1 is correct: A Governor is a constitutional functionary whose office generally has a term of 5 years. However, his/her term is subject to the ‘pleasure of the President’. This means that he can be removed at any time by the President if he so wishes. The Supreme Court also clarified regarding this matter, that the ‘pleasure of the President’ is not justifiable, i.e. the President needn’t specify his reason for removing a governor. So, a Governor has no fixed term of office and no security of tenure.

• Statement 2 is correct: Article 356 empowers the President to declare emergency in a state known as President’s Rule if he’s convinced that there has been a breakdown of constitutional machinery in a state, and its government can no longer be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.

• The President may determine that such a situation has arrived:

  • Either on the basis of a report by the Governor of that state

  • Suo motu

• Thus a report by the governor saying that there has been a breakdown of constitutional machinery in a state is not a necessary precondition for declaration of President’s Rule in that state.

• Statement 3 is incorrect: Unlike the President, the Governor of a state cannot Pardon (meaning that a person has been absolved of his crime) a death sentence. Under Article 161 of the Indian constitution, the Governor can however commute, remit, suspend or provide reprieve from a death sentence awarded under a law of the state.

Ukraine, a country located in eastern Europe, the second largest on the continent after Russia. The capital is Kyiv (Kiev), located on the Dnieper River in north-central Ukraine. Ukraine is bordered by Belarus to the north, Russia to the east, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea to the south, Moldova and Romania to the southwest, and Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland to the west. In the far southeast, Ukraine is separated from Russia by the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

• Sterilization is a form of monetary action in which a central bank seeks to limit the effect of inflows and outflows of capital on the money supply.

• Scenarios 1 is correct: Sterilization most frequently involves the purchase or sale of financial assets by a central bank and is designed to offset the effect of foreign exchange intervention. An excess demand for goods and financial assets leads to a disequilibrium in the foreign exchange market and the balance of payments. The resulting excess supply of real money balances leads to changes in domestic prices, interest rates, and output. Thus, sterilization is performed.

• Scenarios 2 and 3 are incorrect: Stagflation is characterized by slow economic growth and relatively high unemployment. Both Stagflation and Unemployment do not have causation and direct correlation with ‘Sterilization’ as it is done in view of keeping a check on the volatility of domestic currency.

• Option a is incorrect: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates to "let there be bread". It was founded on 16th October 1945. Its parent Organisation is United Nations Economic and Social Council.

• Option b is incorrect: UNESCO is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). UNESCO was founded on 16 November 1945. The main goals of the organization are to ensure lasting stability and peace within realms of humanity, culture, and education through unification of many nations.

• Option c is correct: International Labour Organization (ILO) was founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations. It is the first and oldest specialised agency of the UN. The ILO has 187 member states. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with around 40 field offices around the world. Its mandate is to advance social and economic justice through setting international labour standards. In 1969, the ILO received the Nobel Peace Prize for improving fraternity and peace among nations, pursuing decent work and justice for workers, and providing technical assistance to other developing nations. Within the UN system the ILO has a unique tripartite structure: all standards, policies, and programmes require discussions and approval from the representatives of governments, employers, and workers.

• Option d is incorrect: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co- ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. The Nobel Peace Prize 1954 was awarded to Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

• Statement 1 is correct: A glacial lake is a body of water that originates from a glacier. It typically forms at the foot of a glacier but may form on, in, or under it. They are commonly divided into two main groups: ice-contact lakes which are characterized by the presence of glacier ice terminating in lake water and distal lakes which are somewhat distant but still influenced by, the presence of glaciers and/or ice sheets.

• Statement 2 is correct: Glacial lakes are often found in steep, mountainous regions.

• Anatolian tectonic plate:

  • The Anatolian Plate is a continental tectonic plate comprising most of the Anatolia (Asia Minor) peninsula (and the country of Turkey).

  • Turkey is frequently shaken by earthquakes due to the location of this plate.

• Boundaries:

  • To the east, the East Anatolian Fault.

  • To the left, it forms a boundary with the Arabian Plate.

  • To the south and southwest is a convergent boundary with the African Plate.

• Aegean Sea Plate:

  • In addition to this, the Aegean Sea Plate, located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and western Turkey, is also a source of seismic activity in the region

• Kelp forests:

  • Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds.

  • Kelp are not plants, but rather extremely large brown algae, and many different species of kelp make up kelp forests.

  • Habitat: Kelps usually live further from the tropics than coral reefs, mangrove forests, and warmwater seagrass beds, so kelp forests do not overlap with those systems.

  • Global presence: Kelp forests grow predominantly along the Eastern Pacific Coast, from Alaska and Canada to the waters of Baja, California.

• Anatolian tectonic plate:

  • The Anatolian Plate is a continental tectonic plate comprising most of the Anatolia (Asia Minor) peninsula (and the country of Turkey).

  • Turkey is frequently shaken by earthquakes due to the location of this plate.

• Boundaries:

  • To the east, the East Anatolian Fault.

  • To the left it forms a boundary with the Arabian Plate.

  • To the south and southwest is a convergent boundary with the African Plate.

• The Sutlej River is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan.

• Option a is incorrect: The Indus River also originates from Tibet. It originates from a glacier near Bokhar Chu in the Tibetan region. The Sutlej originates in the Rakshastal lake near Mansarovar lake in Tibet where it is known as Langchen Khambab. Rakshastal lake is located just west of Lake Mansarovar and south of Mount Kailash. It originates at Rakshastal's northwestern tip.

• Option b is incorrect: Sutlej is the easternmost tributary of the Indus River. It is also the longest of the five main tributaries of the Indus River.

• Option c is correct: The Sutlej River crosses two states in India namely Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Flowing northwestward and then west-southwestward through Himalayan gorges, it enters and crosses the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh before beginning its flow through the Punjab plain near Nangal, Punjab state.

• Option d is incorrect: Sutlej is joined by the Chenab River in Pakistan. The Sutlej is joined by the Beas River in Hari-Ke-Patan, Amritsar, Punjab, India. It continues southwest into Pakistan to unite with the Chenab River, forming the Panjnad River near Bahawalpur.

Agnipath Recruitment Scheme:

• About:

• Around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually, and most will leave the service in just four years.

• Of the total annual recruits, only 25 percent will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under permanent commission.

• Recruits under the scheme will be known as “Agniveers”.

• Statement 1 is correct:

  • Concerns: No Pilot Project to Test the Scheme; Lead to the militarization of the society. May Dilute professionalism, military ethos and fighting spirit (takes 7-8 yrs to become fully ready combat soldier) Will hit the basic ethos of Naam, Namak & Nishan (reputation of Battalion, fidelity & ensign) Tourist soldiering is not a good idea for India’s security challenges.

• Statement 2 is not correct: The government also told the court that the impugned scheme is the result of various studies and deliberations such as the Kargil Review Committee, which proposed the retention of soldiers for a shorter duration of time as opposed to the existing structure of 15 to 20 years.