Karnataka (KAS) Prelims Paper-I Mock Test- 7 - KPSC KAS (Karnataka) MCQ

• Context: The Union Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval to the Inter-Governmental Framework Agreement (IGFA) signed on 13th February 2024 between India and the United Arab Emirates.
• This agreement aims to enhance bilateral relations and strengthen cooperation in the Ports, Maritime, and Logistics sectors, focusing on the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). It outlines areas of collaboration and sets principles, guidelines, and agreements for joint investment and development in the IMEC, in line with respective countries’ regulations.

• Context: CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) and UCOST have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under the “Adarsh Champawat” mission.
• Option B is correct because pine trees are gymnosperms, meaning they produce seeds that are not enclosed within a fruit. Instead, these seeds are typically found within cones. Option A is false because pine trees are gymnosperms, not angiosperms, which are flowering plants. Option C is false because most pine trees are evergreen, meaning they retain their leaves year-round, rather than being deciduous and shedding their leaves seasonally. Option D is false because pine trees have needle-like leaves, not broad leaves.

• Context: PM Modi will inaugurate India’s first green hydrogen fuel cell inland waterway vessel as part of the National Green Hydrogen Mission.
• What is the Harit Nauka initiative?
  • The Harit Nauka initiative is a program launched by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways aimed at promoting the adoption of greener technologies in inland waterway vessels. It focuses on shifting inland vessels towards sustainable alternatives, such as hydrogen fuel cells, to reduce environmental impact.
  • This initiative aims to establish the V.O.Chidambaranar Port as India’s first Green Hydrogen Hub Port, with projects including a desalination plant and hydrogen production facility.

Part IV (Articles 36-51) covers a wide range of principles, including (apart from the UCC), the securing of equal justice and free legal aid to citizens (Art 39A), participation of workers in the management of industries (Art 43A), organisation of agriculture and animal husbandry (Art 48), protection and improvement of the environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife (Art 48A), promotion of international peace and security (Art 51), etc. 

Only Statement 1 is correct.

• A payments bank is a new type of bank that can perform most banking operations but cannot issue credit cards or loans. Payments banks are registered as public limited companies and licensed under the Banking Regulation Act of 1949.
• Payments banks can accept deposits up to ₹200,000 per customer, but this limit may increase.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• Agriculture subsidies can be direct or indirect farm subsidies taking account the instruments used in providing them.
• Direct Farm subsidies involve giving cash to the farmers. India provides direct subsidies in a limited form which include giving food subsidy or MSP-based procurement, etc. These are the kinds of subsidies in which direct cash incentives are paid to the farmers in order to make their products more competitive in the global markets.
• Indirect farm subsidies: These are the farm subsidies which are provided in the form of cheaper credit facilities, farm loan waivers, reduction in irrigation and electricity bills, fertilizers, seeds and pesticides subsidy as well as the investments in agricultural research, environmental assistance, farmer training, etc.

Important Dimensions of India-Russia Relations:

International/Multilateral Organisations and Connectivity Projects —  BRICS, SCO, G20, International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Debt refers to an obligation or financial liability that one party owes to another. It is typically in the form of borrowed funds that need to be repaid over time, often with interest.
• Rising interest rates and unfavourable exchange rate movements could make servicing external debt burdensome.
• India’s debt service was 2% of the GNI in 2022.
• Impact: The debt servicing may crowd out spending on other development priorities.

Zero Trust Authentication (ZTA) is a security framework that requires users to be authenticated and authorized before being granted access to applications and data.

• In response to the increasing threat of cyberattacks, the Indian government has established a secure e-mail system for 10,000 users in critical ministries and departments.
• The e-mail system operates on Zero Trust Authentication (ZTA) and has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• The security measures include two-factor authentication with options like facial recognition or biometrics, and log-in and log-out times are recorded and monitored.

Only Statement 1 is correct.

India’s engagement with the Arctic began when it signed the Svalbard Treaty in February 1920 in Paris between Norway, the US, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Ireland, and the British overseas Dominions and Sweden concerning Spitsbergen. Ever since then, India has been closely monitoring all the developments in the Arctic region.

India has launched its first winter expedition to Himadri, its Arctic Research Station at Ny-Ålesund in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.  The station, which was previously operational for about 180 days annually, will now remain operational throughout the year. This move makes India one of the few countries to operate its Arctic research bases during winter.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

The combination of high temperature and high humidity, referred to as the wet bulb temperature, is what makes heatwaves deadly. High moisture content in the atmosphere makes it difficult for the sweat to evaporate and bodies to cool down, as a result of which the internal body temperature increases sharply, and is often fatal.

Access to drinking water or oral rehydration solutions (ORS). These can be lifesavers in such situations.

Only Statement 3 is correct.

• NASA has launched a spacecraft called ‘Psyche’ on a six-year mission to study a unique metal-rich asteroid also named ‘Psyche.’
• This asteroid orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
• The primary goal of the Psyche mission is to explore the iron core, a previously unexplored aspect of planet formation.
• For the first time, the mission will examine a celestial body primarily composed of metal rather than rock and ice.
• Additionally, it aims to gain insights into the internal structure of terrestrial planets, including Earth, by directly studying the interior of a differentiated body, which would otherwise remain hidden.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• Along with Harappa, Mohenjo Daro is the best known site of the bronze age urban civilization that flourished in the valley of the Indus between roughly 3,300 BC and 1,300 BC, with its ‘mature’ phase spanning the period 2,600 BC to 1,900 BC.
• The indus valley civilization was first identified in 1921 at Harappa in the Punjab region and then in 1922 at Mohenjo-daro, near the Indus River in the Sindh region.
• Mohenjo Daro is famous for its elaborate town planning with street grids with brick pavements, developed water supply, drainage, and covered sewerage systems, homes with toilets, and monumental buildings such as the Great Granary and the Great Bath. 

Japan’s $75 billion plan for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), to work with countries in the region on avoiding debt traps, building infrastructure, and enhancing maritime and air security.

1. "Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that flourished in the basins of the Indus River." This statement is correct. The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), also known as the Harappan Civilization, was indeed a Bronze Age civilization that developed along the Indus River and its tributaries.

2. "Complete burial of dead bodies was absent in the Indus Valley Civilization." This statement is incorrect. Archaeological evidence from various IVC sites indicates that the people of the Indus Valley did practice burial of the dead, including complete burials. There have been discoveries of both full burials and partial burials (such as post-cremation burials), suggesting that they had a set of burial practices.

3. "They had a strong disbelief in life after death, which was similar to the belief system of other contemporary civilizations." This statement is speculative and not necessarily correct. The belief system of the IVC, including their beliefs regarding life after death, is not well understood due to the lack of decipherable written records. Therefore, we cannot accurately claim that they had a strong disbelief in life after death, nor can we compare it confidently with other contemporary civilizations whose belief systems are better understood through textual evidence.

Based on the analysis, only one of the above statements is correct.

The correct answer is:

1. Only one

• Foreign Trade Policy (2023) is a policy document which is based on continuity of time-tested schemes facilitating exports as well as a document which is nimble and responsive to the requirements of trade. It is based on principles of ‘trust’ and ‘partnership’ with exporters.
• Foreign Trade Policy 2023 is dynamic and has been kept open ended to accommodate the emerging needs of the time.
• The FTP 2023 aims at process re-engineering and automation to facilitate ease of doing business for exporters. It also focuses on emerging areas like dual use high end technology items under SCOMET, facilitating e-commerce export, collaborating with States and Districts for export promotion.
• The new FTP is introducing a one-time Amnesty Scheme for exporters to close the old pending authorizations and start afresh. 

• CRISPR is short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, which is a reference to the clustered and repetitive sequences of DNA found in bacteria, whose natural mechanism to fight some viral diseases is replicated in this gene-editing tool.
• It is simple, and still far more accurate — and it does not involve the introduction of any new gene from the outside. A bad stretch in the DNA sequence, which is the cause of disease or disorder, is located, cut, and removed — and then replaced with a ‘correct’ sequence. And the tools used to achieve this are not mechanical, but biochemical — specific protein and RNA molecules.
• The technology replicates a natural defence mechanism in some bacteria that uses a similar method to protect itself from virus attacks.
• The first task is to identify the particular sequence of genes that is the cause of the trouble. Once that is done, an RNA molecule is programmed to locate this sequence on the DNA strand, just like the ‘find’ or ‘search’ function on a computer. After this, a special protein called Cas9, which is often described as ‘genetic scissors’, is used to break the DNA strand at specific points, and remove the bad sequence.
• A DNA strand, when broken, has a natural tendency to re-attach and heal itself. But if the auto-repair mechanism is allowed to continue, the bad sequence can regrow. So, scientists intervene during the auto-repair process by supplying the correct sequence of genetic codes, which attaches to the broken DNA strand.

Only Statement 3 is correct.

• The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has announced that Indian standards on biofuels will significantly support the objectives of the Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA).
• BIS has developed nine Indian standards on biofuels, including specifications for anhydrous ethanol, biodiesel, biogas, biodiesel-diesel fuel blends, hydrous ethanol, E85 fuel, E20 fuel, aviation turbine fuel containing synthesized hydrocarbons, and ethanol as a fuel for spark-ignition engine-powered vehicles.
• Additionally, BIS is working on a standard for paraffinic (green) diesel derived from 2G feedstock.
• The G20 leaders launched the GBA during the 18th G20 Summit in New Delhi, and it aims to facilitate the adoption of biofuels worldwide. India, the USA, and Brazil are major producers and consumers of biofuels, contributing significantly to the global ethanol market.

Only Statement 1 is correct.

• Basel-III norms were adopted by financial regulators to improve the banking sector’s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress.
• It was developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-08. It mandates banks to maintain a CAR or Capital to Risk-weighted Assets (CRAR) of at least 8%.

CRAR is a ratio that compares the value of a bank’s capital (or net worth) against the value of its various assets weighted according to risk.

• National Health Authority (NHA) is the apex body responsible for implementing India’s flagship public health insurance/assurance scheme called “Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana” & has been entrusted with the role of designing strategy, building technological infrastructure and implementation of “National Digital Health Mission” to create a National Digital Health Eco-system.
• National Health Authority is the successor of the National Health Agency, which was functioning as a registered society since 23rd May, 2018. Pursuant to Cabinet decision for full functional autonomy, National Health Agency was reconstituted as the National Health Authority on 2nd January 2019, under Gazette Notification Registered No. DL –(N) 04/0007/2003-18.
• NHA has been set-up to implement PM-JAY, as it is popularly known, at the national level. An attached office of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with full functional autonomy, NHA is governed by a Governing Board chaired by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare. It is headed by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), an officer of the rank of Secretary to the Government of India, who manages its affairs. The CEO is the Ex-Office Member Secretary of the Governing Board.
• To implement the scheme at the State level, State Health Agencies (SHAs) in the form of a society/trust have been set up by respective States. SHAs have full operational autonomy over the implementation of the scheme in the State including extending the coverage to non SECC beneficiaries.
• NHA is leading the implementation for Ayushman Bharat Digital MissionABDM in coordination with different ministries/departments of the Government of India, State Governments, and private sector/civil society organizations.

• Context: The International Commission on Stratigraphy rejected the proposal of the Anthropocene epoch after a committee of 18 scientists recently voted against it.
• S1 is incorrect. The Anthropocene epoch is characterized by a significant increase, rather than a decrease, in human impact on the environment. This includes factors such as climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, and species extinction driven by human activities.
• S2 is correct. The term “Anthropocene” was indeed coined to emphasize the profound influence of human activities on Earth’s geological and ecological processes. It signifies the recognition that human actions have become a dominant force shaping the planet’s systems and landscapes.
• S3 is incorrect. The Anthropocene epoch is associated with increased biodiversity loss and heightened rates of species extinction, largely due to human-induced factors such as habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change.

• Context: The Union Cabinet has approved the amendment of the Second Schedule to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
• The Government of India July 12, 2023 amended the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act of 1957, allowing private players to mine lithium and other five critical minerals including titanium, beryllium, zirconium, niobium and tantalum. These six minerals have been removed from the country’s atomic minerals lists, paving way for private players to mine and empowering the government to auction their reserves going ahead.
• Recently, the Union Ministry of Mines, has released a list of thirty critical minerals that are strategic to the country’s economic development and national security.

The Constitution (First Amendment) Bill sought to make several consequential changes — from exempting land reforms from scrutiny to providing protections for backward classes in the Constitution. Notably, it also expanded on the scope of the restrictions on the right to free speech. 

Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity. The process is called electrolysis. 

A bot is a software application that is programmed to do certain tasks. Bots are automated, which means they run according to their instructions without a human user needing to manually start them up every time. Bots often imitate or replace a human user’s behaviour. Typically, they do repetitive tasks, and they can do them much faster than human users could.

Bots usually operate over a network; more than half of Internet traffic is bots scanning content, interacting with webpages, chatting with users, or looking for attack targets. Some bots are useful, such as search engine bots that index content for search or customer service bots that help users. Other bots are “bad” and are programmed to break into user accounts, scan the web for contact information for sending spam, or perform other malicious activities. If it’s connected to the Internet, a bot will have an associated IP address.

Bots can be:

• Chatbots: Bots that simulate human conversation by responding to certain phrases with programmed responses
• Web crawlers (Googlebots): Bots that scan content on webpages all over the Internet
• Social bots: Bots that operate on social media platforms
• Malicious bots: Bots that scrape content, spread spam content, or carry out credential stuffing attacks

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• The Beas River is a river in north India. The river rises in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh and flows for some 470 kilometres (290 mi) to the Sutlej River in the state of Punjab.
• The water of the Beas river is allocated to India under the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

Indian companies’ fundraising via dollar bonds hit a 14-year low in 2023, as elevated global yields discouraged borrowers who moved to securing foreign currency loans instead.

Throughout 2023 global interest rate environment was not favourable and the cost of raising dollars hedged into rupees was comparatively higher than (accessing) domestic liquidity, so Indian issuers chose to borrow locally.

Multiple rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve and anticipation of prolonged higher rates drove an increase in bond yields worldwide.

Instead, Indian companies leaned on foreign currency loans, which are benchmarked to floating interest rates.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

Rules regarding borrowing by States:

• States in India have a normal net borrowing ceiling set at 3% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP)for the fiscal year 2024, as per the Fifteenth Finance Commission’s recommendation. Additionally, states receive an extra 0.5% of GSDP in borrowing capacity as a performance-based incentive for power sector reforms, enabling them to borrow ₹1.43 lakh crore for FY24 based on the Ministry of Power’s recommendation.
• Constitutionally, Article 293(3)stipulates that a state cannot raise a loan without the consent of the Government of India if any part of a previous loan from the central government remains outstanding.

Only Statement 3 is correct.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• The Governments of France and Morocco, together with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), launched the Buildings Breakthrough today at COP28, which will see countries joining forces to accelerate the transformation of the sector – which accounts for 21 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – with a view to making near-zero emissions and climate resilient buildings the new normal by 2030. 
• The Buildings Breakthrough is part of the Breakthrough Agenda, which provides a framework for countries, businesses and civil society to join up and strengthen their actions every year in key emitting sectors, through a coalition of leading public, private and public-private global initiatives.
• It is coordinated under the auspices of the UNEP-hosted Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC).