HPPSC HPAS Prelims Paper 1 Mock Test - 8 - HPPSC HPAS (Himachal Pardesh) MCQ

Greeks who came through the northwest about 2500 years ago and were familiar with the Indus, called it the Hindos or the Indos, and the land to the east of the river was called India. The name Bharata was used for a group of people who lived in the northwest, and who are mentioned in the Rigveda.

Statement 2 is incorrect. It has four beautifully decorated toranas depicting various events from the life of the Buddha and the Jatakas. About Sanchi Stupa: Narratives get more elaborated, however, the depiction of the dream episode remains very simple showing the reclining image of the queen and the elephant at the top. Carving techniques appear more advanced than Bharhut.

Symbols continue to be used representing the Buddha and the Manushi Buddhas or the past Buddhas (according to the textual tradition, there are twenty-four Buddhas but only the first one, Dipankar, and the last six are pictorially represented).

1. Village Headman was known as Grama Bhojaka.

This statement is incorrect. During the Pre-Mauryan period, the village headman was known as Gramani or Gramabhojaka. The term Grama Bhojaka is more commonly associated with the Mauryan period and later.

2. Use of Iron began in India from the times of the Indus Valley Civilization.

This statement is also incorrect. The Indus Valley Civilization (also known as the Harappan Civilization) was predominantly a Bronze Age civilization. The use of iron in India began around 1500 BCE, during the later Vedic period, which is after the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Therefore, none of the statements given are correct.

Statement 1 is correct. In the northern part of the country, the village headman was known as the grama bhojaka. The grama bhojaka was often the largest landowner. Generally, he had slaves and hired workers to cultivate the land. The post was hereditary as usually, men from the same family held the position for generations.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The use of iron began in the subcontinent around 3000 years ago. It was after the Indus Valley Civilization. In the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent, an "Iron Age" is recognized as succeeding the Late Harappan culture.

• Delhi first became the capital of a kingdom under the Tomara Rajputs, who were defeated in the middle of the twelfth century by the Chauhans (also referred to as Chahamanas) of Ajmer.
• It was under the Tomaras and Chauhans that Delhi became an important commercial centre.
• Coins minted here, called dehliwal, had a wide circulation.
• The transformation of Delhi into a capital that controlled vast areas of the subcontinent started with the foundation of the Delhi Sultanate in the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Hence, option (b) is correct.
 

• Peasants formed the overwhelming majority of the population in medieval India. It was, however, not a homogenous group. One end of the spectrum was represented by rich peasants (khuts & muqaddams during Delhi Sultanate and khudkasht during the Mughal period), having large holdings and cultivated their lands with the help of hired labour.
• Statement 1 is correct: Khudkashts were the rich/prosperous peasants who owned tracts of land and tools of agriculture.
• Statement 2 is not correct: They paid land revenue at customary rates. Some of them had many ploughs and bullocks which they let out to their poorer brethren, the tenants or muzarian who generally paid land revenue at a higher rate. These two groups were the largest section among the cultivators in the village.
• Statement 3 is not correct: The khudkasht who claimed to be the original settlers of the village often belonged to a single dominant caste or castes. These castes not only dominated the village society, they exploited the other or weaker sections. In turn, they were often exploited by the zamindars.
  • Muzarian belonged to the same village but did not have either land or implements and hence were dependent on the Khud-kasht for their supply.
     

• Sri Vallabhacharya (c. 1479 – 1531 CE) was a devotional philosopher who founded the Pushtimarg sect in India, following the philosophy of Shuddha Advaita (Pure Non-dualism). Shuddadvaita is the purely non-dual philosophy propounded by him. It was a Hindu Vaishnava tradition that focused on the worship of Krishna. Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• Dadu Dayal (c. 1544-1603 CE) was a significant representative of the Nirguna Saint tradition in North India (Gujarat & Rajasthan). Nirgun is a form of aniconic worship of the formless as opposed to the saguna tradition, which is the worship of religious icons and deities with form. Hence statement 2 is correct.
  • Dadu means brother, and Dayal means the compassionate one; later, his followers came to be known as the Dadupanthis, who set up ashrams known as Thambas.
• Surdas (c. 1483-1563 CE) was a disciple of the Vallabhacharya. He was a blind poet whose songs were centered around Krishna. His Sursagar recounts the exploits of Krishna during his childhood and youth with gentle affection and delightfulness. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• Statement 1 is not correct: 'Latina' or the rekha-prasada type buildings have simple shikhara which is square at the base and whose walls curve or slope inward to a point on top. Another major type of architectural form in the nagara order is the phamsana. Phamsana buildings tend to be broader and shorter than latina ones. Their roofs are composed of several slabs that gently rise to a single point over the centre of the building, unlike the latina ones which look like sharply rising tall towers.
• Statement 2 is correct: In many North Indian temples you will notice that the phamsana design is used for the mandapas while the main garbhagriha is housed in a latina building. Later on, the latina buildings grew complex, and instead of appearing like a single tall tower, the temple began to support many smaller towers, which were clustered together like rising mountain-peaks with the tallest one being in the centre, and this was the one which was always above the garbhagriha.
• Statement 3 is correct: These are rectangular buildings with a roof that rises into a vaulted chamber. The edge of this vaulted chamber is rounded, like the bamboo or wooden wagons that would have been drawn by bullocks in ancient times. They are usually called ‘wagon- vaulted buildings’.

• During the Vedic period, women were given equal opportunities as men for their spiritual and intellectual development. There were women poetesses like Apala, Viswavara, Ghosa and Lopamudra during the Rig Vedic period. Women could even attend the popular assemblies. There was no child marriage and the practice of sati was absent.

• However, with the transition to the later Vedic period, the position of women declined, as the society became more patriarchal. Women also lost their political rights of attending assemblies. Child marriages had become common. According the Aitreya Brahmana, a daughter has been described as a source of misery. However, the women in the royal household enjoyed certain privileges. The social divisions were not rigid during the Rig Vedic period, as it was in the later Vedic period. Larger kingdoms were formed during the later Vedic period.

• The four divisions of society (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras) or the Varna system was thoroughly established during the Later Vedic period. The two higher classes - Brahmana and Kshatriya enjoyed privileges that were denied to the Vaisya and Sudra. Many sub- castes, on the basis of their occupation appeared in this period. The two outstanding Rig Vedic gods, Indra and Agni, lost their former importance. On the other hand, Prajapati, the creator, came to occupy the supreme position in the later Vedic period.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The village panchayat was an assembly of elders, usually important people of the village with hereditary rights over their property. In mixed-caste villages, the panchayat was usually a heterogeneous body. The panchayat being an oligarchy represented various castes and communities in the village, though the village menial-cum-agricultural worker was unlikely to be represented there. The decisions made by these panchayats were binding on the members.

Statement 2 is correct. A headman known as muqaddam or mandal headed the panchayat. According to some sources, the headman was chosen through the consensus of the village elders, and this choice had to be ratified by the zamindar. Headmen held office as long as they enjoyed the confidence of the village elders, failing which they could be dismissed by them. Statement 3 is correct. The chief function of the headman was to supervise the preparation of village accounts, assisted by the accountant or patwari of the panchayat.

• Option (a) is incorrect: Raleigh Commission: The Viceroy filled with imperialistic design was not in favor of giving any power to the Indians. He concluded the Indian Universities and the college were slowly becoming cradle of Propaganda against the Government. So, with an idea to bring the Universities under control, Lord Curzon appointed Raleigh Commission under Sir Thomas Raleigh.

• Option (b) is incorrect: Mahalwari System: In Mahalwari system, all the properties of a Mahal were jointly and severally responsible, in their persons and property, for the sum assessed by the government on that Mahal. If the number of the proprietors was large, some of them were made representatives of all. The ownership and occupancy right was reserved for individual peasants. Even cultivation was to be done individually. But for the payment of the land revenue, the peasants were jointly responsible. Usually the village as a whole would be designated a Mahal and it paid the revenue via its headman called Lambardar. Thus, Lambardars worked as a link between the individual tillers and the government, but they were not given rights like those of Zamindars under permanent settlement.

• Option (c) is correct: Permanent Settlement: In permanent settlement, fixed revenue demand would give zamindars a sense of security and, assured of returns on their investment, encourage them to improve their estates. Initial demands were very high. The revenue was invariable, regardless of the harvest, and had to be paid punctually. In fact, according to the Sunset Law, if payment did not come in by sunset of the specified date, the zamindari was liable to be auctioned.

• Option (d) is incorrect: Macdonnell Commission: When the people were dying out of starvation and diseases, a MacDonnell Commission was appointed by Lord Curzon in 1901 which submitted its report in the same year. This commission came out with a “Moral Strategy”, distribution of advances and loans to the peasants and setting up a Famine Commissioner in the famine affected province.

Statement 2 is incorrect. In 1883, Surendranath Banerjea became the first Indian journalist to be imprisoned. In an angry editorial in The Bengalee Banerjea had criticised a judge

Option c is correct

• Policy of Ring Fence: It is followed by Warren Hastings, under which aimed at creating buffer zones to defend the Company’s frontiers. Broadly speaking, it was the policy of defence of their neighbours’ frontiers for safeguarding their own territories. This policy of Warren Hastings was reflected in his war against the Marathas and Mysore. NOT by Lord Hastings. Both are different.

• Policy of Subsidiary Alliance: It is followed by Lord Wellesley, under which the allying Indian state’s ruler was compelled to accept the permanent stationing of a British force within his territory and to pay a subsidy for its maintenance. Also, the Indian ruler had to agree to the posting of a British resident in his court. Under the system, the Indian ruler could not employ any European in his service without the prior approval of the British. Nor could he negotiate with any other Indian ruler without consulting the governor-general. In return for all this, the British would defend the ruler from his enemies and adopt a policy of non-interference in the internal matters of the allied state.

• Policy of Doctrine of Lapse: It is followed by Lord Dalhousie, under which the adopted son could be the heir to his foster father’s private property, but not the state; it was for the paramount power (the British) to decide whether to bestow the state on the adopted son or to annex it.

• Statement 1 is not correct: The share-croppers demand two-third of the produce from the land. There was huge participation of peasants from rural areas. North Bengal was the epicentre of the movement. The demands of sharecroppers were incorporated in the Bengal Bargadars Temporary Regulation Bill. At the request of the jotedars, the police suppressed the sharecroppers and the movement slowly disappeared by the end of March 1947.

• Statement 2 is not correct: The demands were based on the recommendation of the Floud Commission also known as the Bengal Land Revenue Commission which recommended two-third share to the bargardars (sharecroppers).

• In 1935, the Government of India Act was passed. It evolved into the concept of the All India Federation. Provincial Autonomy was introduced. There was to be a transfer of financial control from London to Delhi in response to the long-standing demand of the Government of India for fiscal autonomy. Provinces were given independent financial powers and resources. Provincial governments could borrow money for their own security. So, Statement 1 is correct.
• The Government of India Act 1935 expanded the size of the electorate to 30 million but retained high property qualifications. Only 10 percent of the Indian population got the right to vote. So, Statement 2 is not correct.
• The Government of India Act 1935 expanded women's franchise through preferential or special franchise qualifications, it also reserved seats for women in legislatures in accordance with the allocation of seats for different communities. So, Statement 3 is correct.
• The Government of India Act 1935 replaced the diarchy. At the same time, it gave provincial governors enormous 'discretionary power' to call the legislature, to not give consent to bills passed in legislatures, and, most important and undemocratic of all, to take over the control of a province from its elected majority ministry on the grounds of public order. Dyarchy was introduced at the center under the condition of several safeguards, and the Viceroy retained full control over foreign affairs, defense, and internal security. So, Statement 4 is correct.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT, 1935
Main Features 3⁄4 The establishment of an All-India Federation in which Governors' Provinces, the
Chief Commissioners' Provinces, and those Indian states which might accede to
be united were to be included.

• The Federal Legislature was to have two chambers (bicameral)—the Council of States and the  Federal Legislative Assembly. The Council of States (the Upper House) was to be a permanent body
• There was a provision for joint sitting in cases of deadlock between the houses. There were to be three subject lists—the Federal Legislative List, the Provincial Legislative List, and the Concurrent Legislative List. Residuary legislative powers were subject to the discretion of the governor-general.
• Dyarchy in the provinces was abolished, and provinces were given autonomy, Provinces derived their power and authority directly from the British Crown. They were given independent financial powers and resources Provincial legislatures were further expanded.
• The principles of 'communal electorates' and 'weightage' were further extended to depressed classes, women, and labor The franchise was extended, with about 10 percent of the total population getting
• the right to vote.
• The Act also provided for a Federal Court
• The India Council of the Secretary of State was abolished
   

Satyasodhak Samaj – 

1. It was a social reform organisation founded by Jyotiba Phule 1873. It espoused a mission of education and increased social rights and political access for underprivileged groups, focused especially on women, shudras and Dalits in Maharashtra. 
2. Satyasodhak Samaj argued equality of all human beings. It maintained faith in one-god, rejected any kind of intermediary between god and man (No need of Brahmans to connect with God) and rejected the caste system. 
3. Phule in his book Ghulamgiri claimed that Brahmans were Aryan invaders who came from Central Asian and invaded India. Later they enslaved all the other population of India. They wrote scriptures, law and custom to conceal their crimes. 
4. The Samaj thus advocated that to reclaim their social status, low caste group should oppose priests as middlemen between man and God in religious rituals. The Samaj also advocated for less expensive weddings, inter-caste marriages, end of child marriage and right to marry for the widows.
5. Emphasised on English education

• The Sanyasis rose in rebellion after the great famine of 1770 in Bengal which caused acute chaos and misery. The Bengal famine of 1770 led peasants whose lands were confiscated, displaced zamindars, and disbanded soldiers, and poor to come together in a rebellion. They were joined by the Sanyasis (who were originally peasants) and Fakirs.
• However, the immediate cause of the rebellion was the restrictions imposed by the British upon pilgrims visiting holy places among both Hindus and Muslims. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Two famous Hindu leaders who supported them were Bhawani Pathak and a woman, Devi Choudhurani. They attacked English factories and seized their goods, cash, arms and ammunition. Maznoom Shah was one of their prominent leaders.
  • It was only after a prolonged action that Lord Warren Hastings (Governor-General of Bengal) could subdue the sanyasis. Equal participation of Hindus and Muslims characterized the uprisings. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• Anandamath, a semi-historical novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, is based on the Sanyasi Revolt. Bankim Chandra also wrote a novel, Devi Chaudhurani, as he saw the importance of women too taking up the struggle against an alien rule that posed a threat to traditional Indian values. Hence statement 2 is correct.

The main form of political work by the early Communists was to organize the peasants‘ and workers‘ parties, and work through them. The basic objective of the Workers‘ and Peasants‘ Party (WPP) was to work within the Congress to give it a more radical orientation. The first such organization was the Labour-Swaraj Party of the Indian National Congress, organized by Muzaffar Ahmed, Qazi Nazrul Islam, Hemanta Kumar Sarkar and others in Bengal in November, 1925.

• In late 1926, a Congress Labour Party was formed in Bombay and a Kirti- Kisan Party in Punjab. A Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan had been functioning in Madras since 1923.
• By 1928, all of these provincial organizations had been renamed the Workers‘ and Peasants‘ Party (WPP) and knit into an All India party. All Communists were the members of this party. Moreover, Jawaharlal Nehru and other radical Congressmen welcomed the WPPs’ efforts to radicalize the Congress. In 1924, the Government had tried to cripple the nascent Communist Movement by trying S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupa and Shaukat Usmani in the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. All four were sentenced to four years of imprisonment.

• By 1929, the government was deeply worried about the rapidly growing Communist influence in the National and Trade Union Movements.
• It decided to strike hard. In a sudden swoop, in March, 1929, it arrested 32 radical political and trade union activists, including three British Communists — Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley and Lester Hutchinson — who had come to India to help organize the Trade Union Movement.
• The basic aim of the government was to behead the Trade Union Movement and to isolate the Communists from the National Movement.
• The 32 accused were put up for trial at Meerut.
• The Meerut Conspiracy Case was soon to become a cause celebre.
• The defence of the prisoners was to be taken up by many nationalists, including Jawaharlal Nehru, M.A. Ansari and M.C. Chagla. Gandhiji visited the Meerut prisoners in the jail to show his solidarity with them and to seek their co-operation in the coming struggle.

● The famous Bardoli Satyagraha occurred at this time. In 1928, under the leadership of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel the peasants organised a No Tax Campaign and in the end won their demand.

● The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was the first Satyagraha movement inspired by Gandhi and a major revolt in the Indian Independence Movement. It was a farmer's uprising that took place in Champaran district of Bihar.

● The Kheda Satyagraha of 1918, in Kheda district of Gujarat, India during the period of the British Raj, was a Satyagraha movement organised by Mohandas Gandhi. It was a major revolt in the Indian independence movement.

● Ahmedabad Mill Strike, 1918 was one of the initial movements led by Gandhi in the beginning of the 20th century after his return from South Africa. It was one of the formative events in the political career of Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi intervened in a dispute between the workers and mill owners of Ahmedabad. He undertook a fast unto death to force a compromise.

• Venus is wrapped in a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide that traps in heat.

• The temperature of Venus is too high, and its atmosphere is highly acidic, just two of the things that would make life impossible.

• Surface temperatures reach a scorching 880 degrees Fahrenheit (471 degrees Celsius), hot enough to melt lead.

• It has no moons and no rings.

• It spins from east to west, the opposite direction from all other planets in our solar system but the same as Uranus.

• Venus’ solid surface is a volcanic landscape covered with extensive plains featuring high volcanic mountains and vast ridges.

Left hand tributaries of Indus River:

• The Zaskar river, Suru river, Soan river, Jhelum river, Chenab river, Ravi river, Beas river, Satluj river, Panjnad river are its major left-bank tributaries.

Right hand tributaries of Indus river:

• The Shyok river, Gilgit river, Hunza river, Swat river, Kunnar river, Kurram river and Kabulriver are its major right-bank tributaries.

• Statue of Prosperity is the statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda. He was the chieftain under the Vijayanagara Empire of the 16th century. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• As per the ‘World Book of Records’, it is the first and the tallest bronze statue of a founder of a city. Renowned sculptor and Padma Bhushan awardee Ram Vanji Sutar has designed the statue. Hence, statement 2 is correct. Sutar had built the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat and the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Bengaluru’s ‘Vidhana Soudha’.

• The double village settlements spread on both sides of a river where there is bridge or a ferry.

• It is a group of two settlement unit grown up simultaneously or one after another at a place. In this village pattern nallah, stream, river act as a boundary between the two settlements. These villages occupy similar geographic conditions but their revenue and administration dealt separately.

Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

• As the monsoon winds approach the Indian subcontinent, their southwesterly direction is modified by the relief and thermal low pressure over northwest India. The monsoon approaches the landmass in two branches: the Arabian Sea branch and the Bay of Bengal branch.
•  The monsoon winds originating over the Arabian Sea splits into three branches.
  • Its one branch is obstructed by the Western Ghats. They bring heavy rainfall in the windward side of the Sahyadris and western coastal plains.
  • Another branch of the Arabian sea monsoon strikes the coast north of Mumbai. Moving along the Narmada and Tapi river valleys, these winds cause rainfall in extensive areas of central India.
  • A third branch of this monsoon wind strikes the Saurashtra Peninsula and the Kachchh. It then passes over west Rajasthan and along the Aravalis, causing only a scanty rainfall. In Punjab and Haryana, it too joins the Bay of Bengal branch. These two branches, reinforced by each other, cause rains in the western Himalayas. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The Bay of Bengal branch strikes the coast of Myanmar and part of southeast Bangladesh. But the Arakan Hills along the coast of Myanmar deflect a big portion of this branch toward the Indian subcontinent. The monsoon, therefore, enters West Bengal and Bangladesh from the south and southeast instead of from the south-westerly direction. Hence, statement 2 is correct. 

• Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics. These columns of vapor move with the weather, carrying an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River. When the atmospheric rivers make landfall, they often release this water vapor in the form of rain or snow. Hence option (c) is the correct answer.
• Not all atmospheric rivers cause damage; most are weak systems that often provide beneficial rain or snow that is crucial to the water supply. Atmospheric rivers are a key feature in the global water cycle and are closely tied to both water supply and flood risks

• India follows a single standard time knows as ‘Indian Standard Time’ which is GMT+30. The 82.5’E longitude which passes through Mirzapur near Allahabad is used for its measurement. India does not observe daylight savings time. They were briefly used during the Sino–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pak Wars of 1965 and 1971. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• CSIR-NPL monitors the Indian Standard Time along with maintaining other standards. It’s suggestion for a different time zone for the north eastern states was recently denied by the government. Statement 2 is correct. Bagaan time or Chai Bagaan time is used by tea gardens in Assam to save their daylight working hours. It is one hour ahead of the IST.

• Statement 3 is incorrect. KB) Daylight saving time (DST), also daylight savings time or daylight time (United States) and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks during the summer months so that evening daylight lasts longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use daylight saving time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring and adjust them backward in the autumn. In effect, DST causes a lost hour of sleep in the spring and an extra hour of sleep in the fall.

Terminal and recessional moraines are of little use for economic activities but fluvio-glacial deposits are very significant for economic activities of Man.

• Eskers and Kames are excavated to provide sand and gravel for highway and building construction.

• The purest sands are excavated to make moulds for metal casting.

• The lake basins of glaciated mountains provides natural reservoirs.

• Streams and waterfalls that plunge down from hanging valleys provides natural condition for hydro power generation.

• Along with all these economic activities Skiing, Mountain climbing, sightseeing etc. contributes to tourism industries allot.

Sands and gravels for highway Construction, Moulds for metal casting, Natural reservoirs, Hydro-electric power generation, Tourism- all contributes to economic activities.

• Ocean basins cover approximately 71 per cent of Earth's surface. Their average depth is 5,000 meters. There are five major subdivisions of the world ocean: the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.

• The Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans are conventional ocean basins and are bounded by the continental masses or by ocean ridges and currents; they merge below 40° South latitude in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, or west Wind Drift, at the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean. In the North Polar Region, the nearly circular Arctic Ocean, almost landlocked except between Greenland and Europe, is considered the fifth ocean subdivision.

• Oceans form a single, large, continuous body of water encircling all the landmass of the earth. They account for four-fifths of the Southern Hemisphere and three-fifth of the Northern Hemisphere. They contain 97.2 per cent of the world’s total water. Hence both statements 1 and 2 are correct.

• There are four principal oceans in the world which are separated largely on the basis of their geographical locations. These are the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. All the other seas, inland seas or the arms of the oceans, are counted within these four main oceans.

• Shale gas is a natural gas produced from shale, a type of sedimentary rock. Due to constant announcements of shale gas recoverable reserves, as well as drilling in Central Asia, South America, and Africa, deepwater drilling, estimates are undergoing frequent updates, mostly increasing.

• Unlike conventional hydrocarbons that can be extracted from permeable rocks easily, shale gas is trapped under low permeable rocks. It requires a mixture of ‘pressurized water, chemicals, and sand’ (shale fluid) to break low permeable rocks and have the access to the shale gas reserves. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

• Around 5 to 9 million litres of water is used per attempt of extraction (fracturing) activity. These (fracturing) activities are likely to deplete water sources and cause pollution due to the disposal of flow back (produced) water. Flowback water is the fluid that returns to the surface when shale fluid is injected underground at a high pressure to fracture the rock. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• China is estimated to have the world's largest shale gas reserves followed by the USA, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, and Canada. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

• The United States and Canada are the major producers of commercially viable natural gas from shale formations in the world, even though about a dozen other countries have conducted exploratory test wells. China is the only nation outside of North America that has registered commercially viable production of shale gas.