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Passage: The role of India’s judiciary in securing the enforcement of rights outside statute law but within the Constitutional mandate promoted public interest litigation (PIL) in the 1980s. PIL is a broad-based, people-orientated approach, which promotes access to justice through judge-made processes and remedies. PIL revolutionized the judicial procedure by introducing three procedural innovations: (i) expanded standing; (ii) non-adversarial procedure; and (iii) wider remedial action as a result of expanded frontiers of fundamental rights, particularly the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Environmental PIL is a product of the Courts’ response to inaction by the state or the wrongful action of state agencies in performing their statutory duties, which has resulted in endangering or impairing the quality of life of people as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The state is under a duty to enforce this Constitutional right by devising and implementing a coherent and coordinated programme for the well-being of the population. Failure on the part of the state prompted judges to issue brief interim directions entitled ‘continuing mandamus’. In this context, PIL is considered a ‘wheel of transformation’ providing access to justice, inter alia, to victims of environmental degradation. In the past two decades Courts have locked together human rights and the environment and entertained PIL petitions from various quarters seeking remedies, including the issuing of guidelines and directions in the absence of legislation. The proactive judiciary, acting as ‘amicus environment’, has produced a major shift in the environmental landscape of India and has also declared and promoted the principles of sustainable development and the precautionary and the polluter pays principles as elements of fundamental law.
The active engagement of the Indian judiciary in imparting environmental justice nonetheless raised concerns about the effectiveness of PIL. This was in relation to the rapidly increasing number of petitions, complex technical and scientific issues, unrealistic Court directions, and individual judicial preferences – often personality driven rather than reflecting collective institutionalized adjudication – as well as the issue of creeping jurisdiction. Although the Supreme Court created a procedure that allowed indigents and concerned citizens to access the Courts via PIL, it did not prove to be the much heralded ‘magic bullet’.
Q. Which of the following is true?
A) For the past couple of decades, Courts have seen human rights along with the environment
B) The proactive role of judiciary in safeguarding the environment has failed to yield desired results
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Ashwani Sharma answered  •  3 hours ago
Refer to “In the past two decades Courts have locked together human rights and the environment” and “The proactive judiciary, acting as ‘amicus environment’, has produced a major shift in the environmental landscape of India” Although the last paragraph discusses difficulties regarding PIL, the results of environmental PIL are still positive]

Babli Devi asked   •  11 minutes ago

Read the following passage and answer the question.
All of Francoise Duparc’s surviving paintings blend portraiture and genre. Her subjects appear to be acquaintances whom she has asked to pose. She has captured both their self-consciousness and the spontaneity of their everyday activities, the depiction of which characterizes genre paintings. But, genre painting, especially when it portrayed members of the humblest classes, was never popular in eighteenth century France. The Le Nain brothers and Georges de La Tour, who also chose such themes, were largely ignored. Their present high standing is due to a different, more democratic political climate and to different aesthetic values. We no longer require artists to provide images of humanity for our moral edification but rather regard idealization as a falsification of truth. Duparc gives no improving message and discretely refrains from judging her subjects. In brief, her works neither elevate not instruct. This restraint largely explains her lack of popular success during her lifetime, even if her talent did not go completely unrecognized by her eighteenth century French contemporaries.
Q. It can be inferred from the passage that the term genre painting would most likely apply to which of the following?
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Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.
All empires involve one set of people dominating another set of people; all empires are violent; all empires tend to be extractive. The story of the East India Company shows that when the British first came to India, it didn't come as a conquering state. They came in this very unexpected form of a trading company, which then militarizes. But the Company, from the point it begins to conquer Indian territory, has no motive other than profit. The idea that the British came here to bestow railways, the English language, cricket and tea is a later Victorian spin, that bears no historical reality at all.
The Company made good profit trading Mughal textiles, and it found that it could make even more by conquering Indian territory, taxing Indians and not having to spend any money to buy the goods it was then selling. Which is not to say that there were not, obviously, benefits [for the colonised]. Roman rule was just as extractive of Britain in the early centuries BCE, but we gained ideas of law, the Latin language and so on. At the same time, the Roman Empire in Britain was incredibly brutal, involved massacres of the native people and existed for the benefit of the empire. So you can gain things, in a sense, accidentally, from being conquered by an empire, but that's never the motive of the conqueror.
The East India Company was in many ways a disaster for Bengal, which moved from being the premier economy in the world to being asset-stripped, plundered and looted. That said, by 1947, India did have the best communications, education and health care in Asia. When the British first came to India, they controlled three per cent of the world GDP, while India controlled 37 per cent—that figure was more or less reversed by the time the British left. So, there's no question about who gained more. Whatever India gained, we gained much more.
The East India Company, while being extractive and plundering, was also collaborative. From the very beginning it was in business with Indian businessmen; it almost never operated on its own. It gained an enormous amount from its business with Indian partners. And almost every stage, from the moment it arrives as a trading party to the moment that it begins to militarize and is used by the Jagat Seths to topple Siraj-ud-Daula, through to the 1803 war—the final war when they defeat the Marathas, when the banking dynasties of Benares are competing to fund the East India Company's armies—at every stage, the East India Company is working in collaboration with various Indian bankers and financiers, who support the Company as the least worst option in this time of anarchy.
Q. What does the author suggest as the initial reason for the British conquest of India?
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Dhoop Singh answered  •  3 hours ago
The correct answer is option 3. This is apparent in the first paragraph which states; 'But the Company, from the point it begins to conquer Indian territory, has no motive other than profit.' and the beginning of the second paragraph '... it found that it could make even more by conquering Indian territory, taxing Indians and not having to spend any money to buy the goods it was then selling.'

Read the passage and answer the following question.
The key reason for the disagreement between India and China was that contrary to India's perception of matters, the Chinese saw themselves as leaders of the new world order. They therefore expected— indeed demanded—the prestige, respect and servitude that went along with it.
When China overran Tibet, partly as a way of securing its western flank, India did not react. Instead, elephant-like Delhi sat and waited patiently for the aggression to abate.
It did not. Instead, it grew in intensity.
During the 1950s, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai had been on two 'goodwill' visits to India. But Zhou Enlai's polite gestures at diplomatic meetings had not stopped him from laying claim to India's vulnerable northern flanks outside of these discussions: Ladakh and territories in the NEFA, now known as Arunachal Pradesh. Moreover, China was eyeing Barahoti in Uttar Pradesh, just south of Tibet. Indian troops were based there, and when Chinese soldiers tried to cross the southern border into India, the elephant finally protested. But the dragon did not blink.
In the late 1950s, China denounced the McMahon Line, challenging its international validity. At the end of that year, Zhou Enlai visited Nehru in India with soothing words, assuring him that the border issue with Tibet would be resolved peacefully. In that same meeting, China also recognized the Indian boundary with Burma.
By that time, Chinese soldiers were actually in Barahoti and had marched ten miles into Indian territory. The latter had taken too passive a role and now sat helpless as the dragon advanced, fired up. The following year, talks took place between the two countries. China was persuaded to withdraw its military but left its civilians in the territory.
In January 1959, Zhou Enlai formally claimed Ladakh and NEFA for his country, giving orders for his command to be reflected in Chinese maps.
Just four years earlier, India had formally handed over control of communication services in Tibet to China. When the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, asked Nehru for refuge in India because of increasing Chinese pressure on him and the Tibetan people, Nehru who was balanced precariously on a political tightrope, chose to side with Peking and refused the request.
By March 1959, the eyes of the world were on the highly charged power plays. Following a crackdown on the Tibetan capital of Lhasa by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Dalai Lama managed to escape possible capture and containment. He again sought refuge in India.
Q. Which of the following can be correctly inferred from the given passage?
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Ajit Singh answered  •  3 hours ago
The correct answer is option 2. This is apparent in the description of the passage in which China claimed Ladakah and Arunachal Pradesh as well as Barahoti. This is further supported with the Chinese invasion of Barahoti and the Chinese denouncement of the McMahon Line. Options 1, 3 and 4 are not supported in the passage and cannot be correct.

Read the following passage and answer the question as directed.
Scottish team signed {X} from Manipur Police on an 18-month-deal after a successful spell on trial in November 2019.
She became the first Indian woman to become a professional footballer anywhere in the world.
{Y} confirmed the news in a statement, adding that the move is subject to 'international clearance'.
The 29-year-old is currently (as in 2020) the leading goal scorer for the Indian national women's team, netting 52 in 58 outings since 2010, which also makes her the top international goal scorer in the South Asian region.
She had finished the top-scorer in the last edition of the Indian Women's League, scoring 25 in 7 games, and was also the top-scorer in the women's nationals last year with 21 goals. She has also served as her national team captain in a distinguished international career, which began when she was called up aged just 15.
{X} has a prolific scoring record with over 100 goals in 120 games in domestic football. She has been the top scorer in the Indian Women's League for the past two seasons and has also been named as All India Football Federation (AIFF) Women's Player of the Year twice, in 2015 and 2016.
"{X} is already a role model for girls across India and they will now be able to see her travel across the world to become a professional footballer."
"Her move can be inspirational for players everywhere to show them where football can take them and what it can help them achieve."
"I would like to warmly welcome {X} to both {Y} and to Glasgow. We believe this is a huge step for the women's game both in Scotland and in general," said Craig Mulholland, {Y} Head of Academy.
"{Y} are committed to building a successful women's team for years to come and the acquisition of a talent like {X} is another step towards our goal of domestic and European success."
"{X}'s signing with {Y} sets a very encouraging precedent for women footballers from India and we are glad that Bengaluru FC's partnership with {Y} is creating the right kind of impact in such a short period of time."
Q. In the passage, name the football club that has been redacted with {Y}.
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Sumer Singh answered  •  3 hours ago
Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow. It has played in the Scottish Premiership, the first tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Rangers is the second most successful club in world football in terms of trophies won, behind only Egyptian club Al Ahly.

Study the following Graph & table given below and answer the question that follows.
The table gives some information about the marks scored by Rahul in MAT exam, in five different sections –

It is also known that,
(i) for every correct question  Rahul gets one mark and for every unattempted question he loses 1/6th of a mark and for every incorrect question he loses 1/3rd of a mark.
(ii) Rahul scored a total of  67 marks and attempted 125 problems.
(iii) The number of incorrect questions  of Rahul in LR is 1/6th of his total incorrect and is double of that in Verbal.
(iv) Rahul’s net score in Verbal  is double that in DI.
Q. What is the net score of Rahul in GK?
  • a)
    21
  • b)
    22
  • c)
    24
  • d)
    26
Correct answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer?

Jeet Singh answered  •  3 hours ago
Given. Rahul attempted 125 problems and got 67 marks i.e.. he already lost 60 x 1/6 = 10 marks for unattempted questions and for every incorrect questions he loses another 4/3 (1 mark of the question and 1 /3rd negative marks) marks of this 115 marks.
125 - 10 - (4/3) (IN) = 67
F = 36
Total correct questions = 125 - 36 = 89
In DI, number of correct questions = 17 - 6 = 11
Net score =
Net score in Verbal = 12
Number of incorrect in LR = 6
Now, Sum of number of unattempted problems and correct questions in LR is 34 and as the total score in LR is an integer, the number of unattempted problems must be a multiple of 6.
By trial and error.
Number of unattempted problems =18
Number of attempted problems = 22
Number of correct questions =16
Net Score = 11
Number of incorrect in Verbal = 3
Net score = 12 By trial and error.
Number of unattemtped problems, which must be a multiple of 6 = 12
Number of correct questions =15
Now total correct questions = 89
∴ Number of correct questions in Quant =17
∴ Number of Incorrect = 12
∴Net score = 12
Number of incorrect in GK = 9
Number of unattempted problems in GK =6

T.P = Total Problems:
P.A = Problems Attempted:
S.A = Correct Questions
IN = Incorrect:
NS = Net Score
Therefore, the net score of Rahul in  GK  is  26.

Read the text and answer the following question.
Once a batch of a drug is detected to be hazardous to the health and lives of potential patients, it becomes absolutely essential to trace — on a priority — every pill or potion out on the market. Ever since the death of 12 infants last month in the Ramnagar area of Udhampur district in Jammu and Kashmir has been traced to an impurity detected in the September 2019 batch of 5,500 bottles of Coldbest-PC Syrup, the drug regulatory authorities have pulled out all stops to reach out to its buyers and to recall the unsold stock. Given that the spurious product has found its way into not only J&K but also across Haryana, Tripura, UP and Himachal Pradesh, the hurdles that the drug inspectors are facing in withdrawing the dangerous medicine once again exposes the loopholes in our system of regulatory checks. Even as stringent action against the erring firms has been rightly initiated, protection of the potential consumer from a harmful syrup is compromised in the absence of an integrated regulatory framework for product recalls.
India is the largest provider of generic drugs worldwide and the expanding industry is bound to throw up safety concerns. Stringent quality standard regulations and consumer protection laws are in place to deal with them. The remedy lies in strong enforcement of rules aided by hi-tech mapping of data. The offenders must be administered the bitter pill.
Q. What is the role played by the second paragraph in the passage?
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Hind Raj Bhagat answered  •  3 hours ago
The second passage states "Stringent quality standard regulations and consumer protection laws are in place to deal with them." The remedy lies in strong enforcement of rules aided by hi-tech mapping of data. The offenders must be administered the bitter pill as steps which must be taken. So the correct answer is option 2.

Urja Sharma asked   •  35 minutes ago

This passage focuses on the rule of Rylands vs. Fletcher, a case that was heard in the early 1860s (specifically 1860-1868). In this case the plaintiff (Fletcher) sued Rylands for the damage that the plaintiff believed was caused by the defendant. The defendant (Rylands) had a water reservoir in his land. It was the water from the reservoir that overflowed to the plaintiff’s land and caused damage on his mines. The court then decided that if any individual used his land for a non-natural purpose on his land, then he could be liable for the damage caused to the property of others. From the proceedings of this case, there developed what is called “the strict liability” aimed at avoiding “misrepresentation of facts in a court of law”. The big question on this case was whether the victims of the Oleum gas leakage by Shriram Fertilizers would be compensated and if so, how the liability of such establishment engaged in manufacturing hazardous products would be measured. Although the principle of strict liability under the rule of Ryland and Fletcher was applicable in many cases in India, judges failed to apply this law under basis that “it was only applicable to non-natural users of land”. According to judges, the rule of strict liability evolved during the 19th century before industrialization had taken place and hence the principle could not be used as guide in determining any standard of liability constituent with the needs of modern-day economy and social structures. Laws must grow at par with the needs of changing community and be at par with economic development taking place in the nation.
Q. What value does the case of Rylands v Fletcher hold in the world of law according to the passage?
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Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.
The Scottish Parliament has passed a law criminalizing physical punishment to children. The bill, titled as Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill, intends to abolish the defence of reasonable chastisement, i.e. a common law rule that the physical punishment of a child in the exercise of a parental right or a right derived from having charge or care of the child is justifiable and is therefore not an assault.
Section 51 (physical punishment of children) of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 will also be repealed when the law comes into force. The main provision of the Act will come into force on the expiry of the period of 12 months beginning with the day of Royal Assent.
The Minister for Children and Young People Maree Todd, during the debate in the parliament said, “The removal of the defence of reasonable chastisement will help to ensure that that goal can be achieved. The bill places Scotland in the vanguard in the UK in providing children with the same legal protection from assault as adults. That is the kind of country that I want my children to grow up in. The Scottish Government supports the removal of the defence. It’s very name—reasonable chastisement—is outdated and unconscionable. It suggests that it is sometimes acceptable to hit a child, which is at odds with the Scottish Government's aim of helping children to grow up feeling safe. It is also at odds with the international evidence that shows that the physical punishment of children is harmful and ineffective. In line with that international evidence, many countries have already changed their laws in that area, in ways that are appropriate to their legal systems. By removing the reasonable chastisement defence, we will provide children with the same legal protection from assault as adults. Why would we not want that for our children?”
The minister also clarified that removal of the defence does not impact the ability of a parent to use restraint to prevent their child from coming to harm. "At its heart, restraint is an act of protection. Physical punishment is an act of discipline. They are fundamentally different.” she said.
Section 51 of the 2003 Act limited the common law rule by prohibiting hitting a child with an implement, hitting them on the head, or shaking them. It also put into statute common law principles about the factors a court must have regard to when considering whether an assault on a child, in exercise of a parental right or a right derived from having charge or care of a child, was justifiable.
Q. If such a law is to be brought in India, then which of the following arguments will not be in support of the law?
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Subhash answered  •  3 hours ago
Paragraph 4 of the passage states – “restraint is an act of protection. Physical punishment is an act of discipline”. So to say only a child who has been disciplined by physical punishment may be successful. This argument is not in favour of bringing in this law in India.

Umesh Malewar asked   •  42 minutes ago

Directions (Q. 1 - 5): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases have been given in bold to help locate them while answering some of the questions.
Students of the factors governing reading development in young children have achieved remarkable degree of consensus over the past two decades. This consensus concerns the casual role of phonological skills in young children’s reading progress. Children, who have good phonological skills, or good “phonological awareness”, become good readers and good spellers. Children with poor phonological skills progress more poorly. In particular, those who have a specific phonological deficit are likely to be classified as dyslexic by the time that they are 9 or 10 years old.
            Phonological skills in young children can be measured at a number of different levels. The term phonological awareness is a global one, and refers to a deficit in recognising smaller units of should within spoken words. Development work has shown that this deficit can be at the level of syllables, of onsets and rimes, or of phonemes. For example, a 4-year old child might have difficulty in recognizing that a word like valentine has three syllables, suggesting a lack of syllabic awareness. A 5-year old might have difficulty in recognizing that the odd word out in the set of words fan, cat, hat, mat is fan, this task requires an awareness of the sub-syllabic units of the onset and the rime. The onset corresponds to any initial consonants in a syllable, and the rime corresponds to the vowel and to any following consonants. Rimes correspond to rhyms in single-syllable words, and so the rime in fan differs from the rime in cat, hat and mat. In longer words, rime and rhyme may differ. The onsets in val: en: tine are /v/and/t/, and the rimes correspond to the spelling patterns ‘al’, ‘en’, and ‘ine’.
            A 6-year old might have difficulty in recognizing that plea and pray being with the same initial sound. This is a phonemic judgement. Although the initial phoneme /P/ is shared between the two words, in plea it is part of ht onset ‘pl’, and in pray it is part of the onset ‘pr’. Until children can segment the onset (or the time), such phonemic judgements are difficult for them to make. In fact, a recent survey of different developmental studies has shown that the different levels of phonological awareness appear to emerge sequentially. The awareness of syllables, onsets, and rimes appears to emerge at around the ages of 3 and 4, long before most children go to school. The awareness of phonemes, on the other hand, usually emerges at around the age of 5 or 6, when children have been taught to read for about a year. An awareness of onsets and rimes thus appears to be a precursor of reading, whereas an awareness of phonemes at every serial position in a word, only appears to develop as reading is taught. The onset-rime and phonemic levels of phonological structure, however, are not distinct. Many onsets in English are single phonemes, and so are some rimes (e.g. sea, go, zoo).
            The early availability of onsets and rimes is supported by studies that have compared the development of phonological awareness of onsets, rimes and phonemes in the same subjects using the same phonological awareness tasks. For example, a study by Treiman and Zudowski used a same different judgement task based on the beginning or the end sound of words. In the beginning sound task, the words either began with the same onset, as in plea and plank, or shred only the initial phoneme, as in plea and pray. In the end sound task, the words either shared the entire rime, as in spit and wit, or shred only the final phoneme, s in rat and wit Treiman and Zudowski showed that 4 and 5 year old children found the onset-rime version of the same different task significantly easier than the version based on phonemes. Only the 6-year olds, who had been learning to read for a year, were able to perform both versions of the tasks with equal levels of success.
Q.
From the following statements, pick out the true statement according to the passage
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Laxmi asked   •  43 minutes ago

Read the following passage and answer the question.
In an ideal country in which the government provides safe and secure drinking water to all its citizens, there will be no need for the inefficient reverse osmosis (RO) water purification technology. Unfortunately, we are living in a country which is far from ideal as far as quality and quantity of drinking water supply are concerned. Consequently, concerned citizens install RO-based water purifiers, in spite of the high capital and maintenance costs, perhaps erring on the side of health and safety. But realising the wastage involved, ecosensitive citizens have started using waste water from RO for cleaning, washing and gardening, among other purposes. The government can educate people about the productive uses of waste water from RO. Besides, it can fund research and development of other affordable and efficient water-purifying technologies so that RO technology is not required. Above all, the government can ensure safe drinking water for every citizen. Under the prevailing situation, any proposal to bar domestic users from installing and utilising RO systems cannot be considered an ingredient in good water management policy.
Q. On which of the following assumptions is the author's argument based?
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Dhanno Devi asked   •  47 minutes ago

Read the following passage and answer the question as directed.
BRICS is currently a group of five major developing economies. Initially, it included only four nations and was termed as BRIC, as South Africa became a member of the bloc only in 2010. BRICS nations make up almost 42 percent of the world's population, 23 percent of the global GDP and about 17 percent of the world trade. The group also accounts for almost 50 percent of the world's economic growth and 26.6 percent of the world area. All BRICS nations are members of the G20 group. The BRICS summit has been hosted alternatively every year since 2009. The 10th BRICS summit was hosted by South Africa in January 2018.
The BRICS summit, 2019 was the 11th edition of the annual summit. Brazil's capital city, {Y} was the host of the 11th BRICS summit. It was focused on strengthening cooperation in the fields of science, technology, innovation and the digital economy. The annual summit aimed to advance cooperation in the fight against transnational crime, especially organised crime, money laundering and drug trafficking.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited Brazil to attend the 11th BRICS summit, met Russian President, Chinese and Brazilian Presidents in the capital {Y} and discussed on various issues.
The theme of the BRICS summit, 2019 was {Z}. The five BRICS nations account for almost 50 percent of the world's economic growth. The BRICS bloc comprises five major developing economies including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
While addressing the BRICS Business Forum, PM Narendra Modi stated that the BRICS nations have accelerated economic growth despite global recession and have enabled millions to come out poverty and achieved breakthroughs in technology and innovation.
PM Modi suggested the identification of at least five areas for joint venture between the BRICS nations before the next BRICS summit. PM Modi also invited suggestions from the BRICS leaders to further reduce the trading cost between the BRICS nations.
Q. Five banks of the BRICS Bank Cooperation agreed to establish credit lines in which currency?
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Anushka Gupta asked   •  1 hour ago

Directions : The questions in this section are based on a single passage. The questions are to be answered on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. Kindly note that more than one of the choices may conceivably answer some of the questions. However, you are to choose the most appropriate answer; that is, the response that most accurately and completely answers the question.
The spread of education in society is at the foundation of success in countries that are latecomers to development. In the quest for development, primary education is absolutely essential because it creates the base. But higher education is just as important, for it provides the cutting edge. And universities are the life-blood of higher education. Islands of excellence in professional education, such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), are valuable complements but-cannot be substitutes for universities which provide educational opportunities for people at large.
There can be no doubt that higher education has made a significant contribution to economic development, social progress and political democracy in independent India. It is a source of dynamism for the economy. It has created social opportunities for people. It has fostered the vibrant democracy in our polity. It has provided a beginning for the creation of a knowledge society. But it would be a mistake to focus on its strengths alone. It has weaknesses that are a cause for serious concern.
There is, in fact, a quiet crisis in higher education in India that runs deep. It is not yet discernible simply because there are pockets of excellence, an enormous reservoir of talented young people and an intense competition in the admissions process. And, in some important spheres, we continue to reap the benefits of what was sown in higher education 50 years ago by the founding fathers of the Republic. The reality is that we have miles to go. The proportion of our population, in the age group 18-24, that enters the world of higher education is around 7 per cent, which is only one-half the average for Asia. The opportunities for higher education, in terms of the number of places in universities, are simply not enough in relation to our needs. What is more, the quality of higher education in most of our universities requires substantial improvement.
It is clear that the system of higher education in India faces serious challenges. It needs a systematic overhaul, so that we can educate much larger numbers without diluting academic standards. This is imperative because the transformation of economy and society in the 21st century would depend, in significant part, on the spread and the quality of education among our people, particularly in the sphere of higher education. It is only an inclusive society that can provide the foundations for a knowledge society.
The challenges that confront higher education in India are clear. It needs a massive expansion of opportunities for higher education, to 1500 universities nationwide, that would enable India to attain a gross enrolment ratio of at least 15 per cent by 2015. It is just as important to raise the average quality of higher education in every sphere. At the same time, it is essential to create institutions that are exemplars of excellence at par with the best in the world. In the pursuit of these objectives, providing people with access to higher education in a socially inclusive manner is imperative. The realisation of these objectives, combined with access, would not only develop the skills and capabilities we need for the economy but would also help transform India into a knowledge economy and society.
Q.
What is the antonym of the expression "cutting edge" ?
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Rajni Verma asked   •  1 hour ago

Read the following passage and answer the question as directed.
M. Prashanthi, District Collector of Nirmal, inaugurated National Level India's Biggest Rural Technical Festival titled {X} at Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies-Basar (RGUKT-Basar).
Speaking at the inaugural, M. Prashanthi said that when we talk of globalisation, we talk about smart cities but not smart villages. India lives in villages. Rural areas cannot afford to miss the development bus.
M. Prashanthi urged engineering students to develop things with humanitarian aspects. Most of the developments in the two lakh years have taken place in the last century. We cannot even imagine the future, she said.
In the coming decade, we may have nano robots conducting operations. In the near future, shops may not even exist. Perhaps, we will order everything on the mobile and it will be home delivered.
I consider RGUKT as my prized possession. I am very proud to have this kind of prestigious institution in my district.
Adding further, M. Prashanthi described RGUKT students as a bunch of brainy and talented youth. Any innovations you develop, the district will be ready to adapt and use those technologies.
She also announced that the Nirmal district would soon ban plastics.
On knowing that Transcend Adventure was conducting a recce in Nirmal and Adilabad districts, to set up an Adventure Training Centre, M. Prashanthi, District Collector, assured Shekhar Babu of Transcend Adventure full support from the District Administration.
But she urged him after setting up the centre here and if they take up any expedition, first they must include RGUKT students including expeditions to Mount Everest, for which Shekhar Babu readily agreed.
The three-day technical fest from January 31 to February 2 with the theme {Y} had over 200 events viz. Campus Farming Competition, Robo Racing, Robo Soccer, Development of Ideal Villages, National Science Fair and others attracting nearly 50,000 people from nearby places and colleges. {X} showcased 300 plus prototype working models created by 4000 rural ignited minds from the RGUKT varsity.
The inaugural ceremony was graced by Dr. A. Ashok, IAS, Vice-Chancellor, RGUKT-Basar; M. Prashanthi, Nirmal District Collector; Dr. Y. Rajeshwar Rao, Administrative Officer, RGUKT-Basar; Akella Raghavendra, IAS Trainer, motivational speaker and author; Shekhar Babu Bachinepally, mountaineer and motivational speaker; Raghuram Ananthoj, Senior Manager, Dell; Swapnil Jangale, convener; Hari Babu, co-convener; Dr. Vijay Kumar, convener Trinayana; and others.
Q. Which theme has been redacted with {Y}?
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Raj Bala asked   •  1 hour ago

Read the following passage and answer the question as directed.
India inked a direct deal with _____(i)______ to purchase 36 new Rafale fighter jets for 7.87 billion euro. Deal includes over 3 billion euros of work for the Indian industry over the next 7-8 years. India to get 28 single seater jets and 8 twin seaters for training. The Indian Rafales carry the RB series of tail numbers, named after current Air Force Chief RKS Bhadauria. The Rafale weapons package outguns all other weapons systems in the region and will give India the ability to engage Pakistan jets from a distance without being tracked.
Supreme Court dismissed a review petition seeking a court-monitored criminal probe into the Rafale fighter jet deal between the Indian government and _____(i)______.
The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, _____(ii)______ and _____(iii)______ dismissed the review pleas in a unanimous judgment.
''We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are dealing with a contract for aircraft, which was pending before different governments for quite some time and the necessity for those aircraft has never been in dispute'', held the bench reiterating what it had held in its original judgment that it did not consider it appropriate to conduct a roving inquiry in an Article 32 (remedies for enforcement of rights) petition.
The Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the Narendra Modi government in the Rafale fighter jets deal case, saying review petitions against the deal lacked merit. The court struck down pleas that had sought re-examination of the December 14, 2018, verdict which said there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets.
The bench also rejected a plea by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan to hold defence ministry officials liable for perjury.
The Indian Air Force is set to get the 'game changer' SCALP and Meteor missiles for its Rafale fighter jets next year which will outrange all known weapon systems in the region and will give India a definitive combat edge.
Q. Who was the first chairman of the Indian Negotiating Team (INT) in the 36 Rafale fighter jets deal?
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Ritu Julka asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.
I like to think of the human body as an especially intelligent and utopian nationhood. Like Wakanda in Black Panther. An empathetic system that has evolved from the ground up – one that nourishes and enriches its citizens, learns from and adapts to new environments, accounts for exigencies, is fortified with defences, and isn't afraid to deploy its ammunition against hostile invaders to protect its people.
The human body is capable of all of the above. Take, for instance, the nose. It's more than just an entryway for air; it also acts as a round-the-clock vacuuming system. The nose is lined with fine hair called cilia that trap and stop any foreign and unwanted particles from going down the windpipe. It is one of the many examples of how our bodies have prepared and developed a fortifying mechanism against unwanted elements.
But what happens when the foreign particles in the air are smaller than the ultra-fine cilia in your nose? How can the cilia stop something when it is not equipped to do so? PM 2.5 are such small particles that they pass through our noses easily. And so, one of the first and most dangerous breaches in our physiological defences begins. This is where the Trojan horse is being wheeled in, and little do we know of the devastation that will soon occur.
Our bodies are incredibly complex organisms that have evolved over 1,00,000 years to survive and adapt to the environment and excel at it. Yet, today, air pollution is destroying these amazing mechanisms like never before. The very air which is our life support has become toxic. So, when we breathe we are also taking in hazardous toxins that pass from the air into our nose, then to our lungs and finally into our bloodstream, where they inevitably end up clogging our arteries, waiting to be cleared by stents! And heart disease is just one of the many disorders that air pollution causes.
Perhaps, in many decades to come, our bodies will evolve to combat pollution too. But right now, this is wishful thinking. Till then, we have no other choice but to clean our air and protect ourselves and our families from the devastating effects of pollution.
Q. Which of the following is most similar to the way we should deal with the problem of air pollution that the author discusses in the given passage?
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Karamveer Singh asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the following passage and answer the question as directed.
{X} became the first state to challenge the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) before the Supreme Court. However, the legal route adopted by the state is different from the 60 petitions already pending before the court. The {X} government has moved the apex court under {Y} of the Constitution, the provision under which the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction to deal with any dispute between the Centre and a state; the Centre and a state on the one side and another state on the other side; and two or more states.
The Chhattisgarh government filed a suit in the Supreme Court under {Y}, challenging the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act on the ground that it encroaches upon the state's powers to maintain law and order.
For a dispute to qualify as a dispute under {Y}, it has to be necessarily between states and the Centre, and must involve a question of law or fact on which the existence of a legal right of the state or the Centre depends.
{Y} cannot be used to settle political differences between state and central governments headed by different parties.
The Centre has other powers to ensure that its laws are implemented. The Centre can issue directions to a state to implement the laws made by Parliament. If states do not comply with the directions, the Centre can move the court seeking a permanent injunction against the states to force them to comply with the law. Non-compliance of court orders can result in contempt of court, and the court usually hauls up the chief secretaries of the states responsible for implementing laws.
The other petitions challenging the CAA have been filed under Article 32 of the Constitution. A state government cannot move the court under this provision because only people and citizens can claim fundamental rights.
Under {Y}, the challenge is made when the rights and power of a state or the Centre are in question.
However, the relief that the state (under {Y}) and petitioners under Article 32 have sought in the challenge to the CAA is the same — declaration of the law as being unconstitutional.
Q. In the above passage, what has been redacted with {X}?
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Gurdeep Singh asked   •  2 hours ago

The question is based on the reasoning and arguments, or facts and principles set out in the passage. Some of these principles may not be true in the real or legal sense, yet you must conclusively assume that they are true for the purpose. Please answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. Do not rely on any principle of law other than the ones supplied to you, and do not assume any facts other than those supplied to you when answering the question. Please choose the option that most accurately and comprehensively answers the question.
Criminal trespass basically refers to an unlawful entry by a person into a private property of another person. Any person who enters the property of another, without the owner's permission, is said to have committed the offence of criminal trespass. All around the globe, trespass against the property has been recognised as a civil wrong. However, a lot of countries, including India, have made it a criminal offence too. In India, criminal trespass is ordinarily a civil wrong and usually compensation damages are granted. However, trespass with a criminal intention is treated as a criminal offence and is punishable under the IPC. The reason for making it a criminal offence is to keep the trespasser away and so that the owners enjoy their property without any interruptions.
Traditionally, the most specific requirement of trespass, whether civil or criminal, is 'intent'. Just the unlawful presence of a person on someone else's property is not enough. It has to be shown that the person knew that he wasn't allowed to be on the property and that he still chose to stay on other's land, with ill intent. Knowledge may be inferred when there's a fencing done, or when there is a 'no trespass' sign on the property. A person can be held liable for trespass in public places too, if he or she enters after the closing time or if he or she fails to leave even when asked to. It needs to be demonstrated that the unlawful entry was with an intention to commit an offence, or to intimidate or to annoy the person who owns the property. The intent to intimidate, insult or annoy is a must for trespass of a criminal nature.
There isn't a clear difference between civil and criminal trespass but Civil trespass does not require ill intent and just the unlawful presence of a person on someone else's property is enough to hold them liable. However, when the act of trespass is accompanied by the intent to commit an offence or to intimidate, insult or annoy any person in possession of property, it is said to be criminal trespass and it is punishable under the IPC.
Section 441 of the IPC defines 'criminal trespass', while Section 447 provides the punishment for it. They read as under:
Criminal trespass: Whoever enters into or upon property in the possession of another with intent to commit an offence or to intimidate, insult or annoy any person in possession of such property, or having lawfully entered into or upon such property, unlawfully remains there with intent thereby to intimidate, insult or annoy any such person, or with intent to commit an offence, is said to commit criminal trespass.
Q. Mr. Lovejeet lives in a rented house. The house is owned by Mr. Swamy. One day Mr. Swamy visits his house. Mr. Lovejeet is annoyed by the frequent visits of Mr. Swamy and asks him to leave. Mr. Swamy does not leave and tells him to get out as it is his house. Mr. Lovejeet wants to pursue legal action in the form of criminal trespass. Decide?
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Ved Parkash asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.
In the second week of August 1998, just a few days after the incidents of bombing the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, a high-powered, brain-storming session was held near Washington D.C. to discuss various aspects of terrorism. The meeting was attended by ten of America’s leading experts in various fields such as germ and chemical warfare, public health, disease control and also by the doctors and the law-enforcing officers. Being asked to describe the horror of possible bio-attack, one of the experts narrated the following gloomy scenario.
A culprit in a crowded business centre or in a busy shopping mall of a town empties a test tube containing some fluid, which in turn creates an unseen cloud of germ of a dreaded disease like anthrax capable of inflicting a horrible death within 5 days on any one who inhales it. At first 500 or so victims feel that they have mild influenza which may recede after a day or two. Then the symptoms return again and their lungs start filling with fluid. They rush to local hospitals for treatment, but the panic-stricken people may find that the medicare services run quickly out of drugs due to excessive demand. But no one would be able to realise that a terrorist attack has occurred. One cannot deny the possibility that the germ involved would be of contagious variety capable of causing an epidemic. The meeting concluded that such attacks, apart from causing immediate human tragedy, would have dire long-term effects on the political and social fabric of a country by way of ending people’s trust on the competence of the government.
The experts also said that the bombs used in Kenya and Tanzania were of the old-fashioned variety and involved quantities of high explosives, but new terrorism will prove to be more deadly and probably more elusive than hijacking an aeroplane or a gelignite of previous decades. According to Bruce Hoffman, an American specialist on political violence, old terrorism generally had a specific manifesto - to overthrow a colonial power or the capitalist system and so on. These terrorists were not shy about planting a bomb or hijacking an aircraft and they set some limit to their brutality. Killing so many innocent people might turn their natural supporters off. Political terrorists want a lot of people watching but not a lot of people dead. “Old terrorism sought to change the world while the new sort is often practised by those who believe that the world has gone beyond redemption”, he added.
Hoffman says, “New terrorism has no long-term agenda but is ruthless sin its short-term intentions. It is often just a cacophonous cry of protest or an outburst of religious intolerance or a protest against the West in general and the US in particular. Its perpetrators may be religious fanatics or diehard opponents of a government and see no reason to show restraint. They are simply intent on inflicting the maximum amount of pain on the victim.”
Q.  According to the author of the passage, the root cause of terrorism is
(A) Religious fanaticism
(B) Socio-political changes in countries
(C) The enormous population growth
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Mahender Singh asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.
Let us consider for a moment the discovery of the cause of malaria. This discovery, due to the Englishman, Ross consists in having found out that the plasmodium of malariae is inoculated in man by a special kind of mosquito. Let us inquire what was the state of science prior to this discovery. In 1880 Laveran had described an animal micro-organism, which preyed upon the red corpuscles of the blood, producing an attack of fever with the cycle of its existence. Subsequent studies confirmed and elucidated this fact, and the plasmodium malaria became a matter of common knowledge. It was known that animal micro-organisms, unlike vegetable micro-organisms, after a cycle of life in which reproduction takes place by scission; that is, by subdivision of a single body into several other bodies equal to the first, give place to sexual forms, masculine and feminine, which are separate, and incapable of scission, but are designed for fusion into one another, after which the organism recommences its cycle of scissions until it again reaches the sexual forms.
Laveran had found that in the blood of sufferers who recover spontaneously from malarial fever there are a great number of corpuscles which have no longer the rounded forms of the plasmodia, but are crescent-shaped and rayed. He took these to be transformations of the plasmodia, "modified in form" and "incapable of producing disease," and pronounced them to be "degenerate" organisms, almost as if they had been deformed and exhausted by the "excess of work" they had previously performed. After the discovery of the transmission of malaria in 1900, Laveran's "degenerative forms" were recognized as the sexual individuals of the reproductive cycle: individuals which were incapable of conjugation in the blood of man, and could only produce new organisms in the body of the mosquito. We may well wonder: Why did not Laveran simply recognize those sexual forms, and why did he not seek for the period of conjugation in the plasmodia, which were animal micro-organisms?
Another biological acquisition was the assurance that the circulatory system of the blood is a closed system of vessels, and that the enclosing epithelium is not permeable by non-incisive solid bodies such as vegetable microbes, and still less by rounded protozoa, which are much larger than microbes and soft in substance. This well-known and clearly demonstrated fact ought to have suggested a problem to the minds of students: How do the protozoa of malaria enter the circulatory current of the blood? But ever since the days of Hippocrates, Pliny, Celsius and Galen it had been held that this fever was caused by the "poisonous atmosphere" of marsh lands, the bad air of the morning and the evening, so much so that even a few years before the discovery of the real cause of malaria, eucalyptus trees were planted in the belief that they would filter and disinfect the air.
Until Ross discovered that birds are inoculated with malaria by a particular kind of mosquito.
Q. Why did Laveran call the sexual form of the plasmodium malariae a ‘degenerative’ form?
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Mahender Singh asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the passage below and answer the question.
The Supreme Court has taken a timely decision by agreeing to hear a plea from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to direct political parties to not field candidates with criminal antecedents. The immediate provocation is the finding that 46% of Members of Parliament have criminal records. While the number might be inflated as many politicians tend to be charged with relatively minor offences — "unlawful assembly" and "defamation" — the real worry is that the current cohort of Lok Sabha MPs has the highest (29%) proportion of those with serious declared criminal cases compared to its recent predecessors. Researchers have found that such candidates with serious records seem to do well despite their public image, largely due to their ability to finance their own elections and bring substantive resources to their respective parties. Some voters tend to view such candidates through a narrow prism: of being able to represent their interests by hook or by crook. Others do not seek to punish these candidates in instances where they are in contest with other candidates with similar records. Either way, these unhealthy tendencies in the democratic system reflect a poor image of the nature of India's state institutions and the quality of its elected representatives.
Q.  Which of the following situations is similar in nature to fielding of 'criminal' politicians that the author describes in the passage?
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Ganga Ram asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows.
It was the biggest decision of her life, the one for which she is most remembered, but Freda Bedi didn't tell her children that she was being ordained as a Buddhist nun. There was no family council, no private conversation, not even, it seems, a letter to announce her intention.
"There was this terrible feeling of betrayal," Kabir Bedi recalls. It was 1966 and the height of the Delhi summer. Kabir was 20, a student at one of India's most prestigious university colleges, St Stephen's, and still recovering from a broken back. He understood that Buddhism loomed increasingly large in his mother's life, but hadn't been prepared for her ordination as a nun.
He was angry and said so. Why? he demanded of his mother; why now? He still remembers her response. "It is something I felt I had to do and I knew if I started discussing it with everybody, God knows what might have happened." Kabir was seven when his mother found Buddhism while on a United Nations mission to Burma (now Myanmar). He had accompanied her back there when she studied meditation, and had himself enrolled briefly as a novitiate. He had worn the robes and shaved off his hair—in much the same manner as his mother had now done. He had spent time with his mother at the camps in Assam set up for the Tibetans who fled across the mountains to escape Chinese rule—that's where she first became immersed in Tibetan belief and culture. He had taught at the Young Lamas' Home School she established. It had felt like a shared journey. Now Freda, Sister Palmo as she became known, had decided to press on alone. "I raised all the silly arguments I could think of: Your daughter's still in college, she's not married, how's she going to manage? All silly things. But basically, I was angry because I felt betrayed. There was a terrible sense of loss. It's like, you've lost your mother."
A few days after the ceremony, still at Rumtek, Freda received what was clearly an anguished letter from Kabir. Manorma Dewan was part of the extended family—her husband's flat was the venue of Kabir's meeting with his newly-robed mother—and remembers the central message of that letter: "You have become very selfish." Manorma agreed with that view. Freda replied immediately by telegram, and followed that up with a three-page handwritten missive to her 'darling son'. Kabir still has that letter. "I have been in a maze of pain, feeling your and Guli's," she wrote. "You all knew one day this step would be taken; we even joked about my losing my hair! Somehow, now had to be the time."
Q. What can be inferred from Freda Bedi's response to Kabir's letter?
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Shakuntala Devi asked   •  2 hours ago

The question is based on the reasoning and arguments, or facts and principles set out in the passage. Some of these principles may not be true in the real or legal sense, yet you must conclusively assume that they are true for the purpose. Please answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. Do not rely on any principle of law other than the ones supplied to you, and do not assume any facts other than those supplied to you when answering the question. Please choose the option that most accurately and comprehensively answers the question.
Criminal trespass basically refers to an unlawful entry by a person into a private property of another person. Any person who enters the property of another, without the owner's permission, is said to have committed the offence of criminal trespass. All around the globe, trespass against the property has been recognised as a civil wrong. However, a lot of countries, including India, have made it a criminal offence too. In India, criminal trespass is ordinarily a civil wrong and usually compensation damages are granted. However, trespass with a criminal intention is treated as a criminal offence and is punishable under the IPC. The reason for making it a criminal offence is to keep the trespasser away and so that the owners enjoy their property without any interruptions.
Traditionally, the most specific requirement of trespass, whether civil or criminal, is 'intent'. Just the unlawful presence of a person on someone else's property is not enough. It has to be shown that the person knew that he wasn't allowed to be on the property and that he still chose to stay on other's land, with ill intent. Knowledge may be inferred when there's a fencing done, or when there is a 'no trespass' sign on the property. A person can be held liable for trespass in public places too, if he or she enters after the closing time or if he or she fails to leave even when asked to. It needs to be demonstrated that the unlawful entry was with an intention to commit an offence, or to intimidate or to annoy the person who owns the property. The intent to intimidate, insult or annoy is a must for trespass of a criminal nature.
There isn't a clear difference between civil and criminal trespass but Civil trespass does not require ill intent and just the unlawful presence of a person on someone else's property is enough to hold them liable. However, when the act of trespass is accompanied by the intent to commit an offence or to intimidate, insult or annoy any person in possession of property, it is said to be criminal trespass and it is punishable under the IPC.
Section 441 of the IPC defines 'criminal trespass', while Section 447 provides the punishment for it. They read as under:
Criminal trespass: Whoever enters into or upon property in the possession of another with intent to commit an offence or to intimidate, insult or annoy any person in possession of such property, or having lawfully entered into or upon such property, unlawfully remains there with intent thereby to intimidate, insult or annoy any such person, or with intent to commit an offence, is said to commit criminal trespass.
Q. Mr. Mohan Lal was invited as a guest to the house of Mr. Saveem. They had a good dinner and after that, they started talking about politics. Things went from one to another and the debate on politics got intense. It got so intense that they were arguing on the top of their voice. Mr. Saveem got angry and asked Mr. Mohan Lal to leave, but Mohan Lal was adamant and he did not leave, just to annoy Mr. Saveem. Now Mr. Saveem wants to take a legal action. Decide.
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Harnam Singh asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the passage below and answer the question.
"Fake News" is a real phenomenon. There are sleazy predators who cook up completely apocryphal news stories and try to get them circulated on social media and on the internet. But it's a terrible pollution of the language for the president to call any article that criticizes him "fake news." If you compare the credibility of the president's statement with those of the mainstream media, there's just no comparison. The president's been called out on lie after lie after lie. And as someone who's often written for the so-called "mainstream media," for all their flaws, they got fact-checkers. They won't let me just write anything that comes into my head, I've got to prove it. So that's the kind of standard that has established the credibility of many of the news media.
And the basis of democracy is that everyone can be criticized, particularly the leaders. We don't have a monarch, a Supreme Leader, or a dictator for life. We've got a person who is temporarily in charge of the government and when he makes an error, it is mandatory for the free press to call it out. To try to delegitimize the press whenever it criticizes the president, it's really the reflex of an autocrat, of a tin-pot dictator in some banana republic and not worthy of a democracy like the United States where the president serves in our pleasure and can be criticized just like anyone else.
Q. What role does the author's claim that the even president can be criticised play in the argument in the passage?
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Mahender Singh asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on it.
A sanctuary may be defined as a place where Man is passive and the rest of Nature active. Till quite recently Nature had her own sanctuaries, where man either did not go at all or only as a tool-using animal in comparatively small numbers. But now, in this machinery age, there is no place left where man cannot go with overwhelming forces at his command. He can strangle to death all the nobler wild life in the world to-day. Tomorrow he certainly will have done so, unless he exercises due foresight and self-control in the mean time.
There is not the slightest doubt that birds and mammals are now being killed off much faster than they can breed. And it is always the largest and noblest forms of life that suffer most. The whales and elephants, lions and eagles, go. The rats and flies, and all mean parasites, remain. This is inevitable in certain cases. But it is wanton killing off that I am speaking of tonight. Civilized man begins by destroying the very forms of wild life he learns to appreciate most when he becomes still more civilized. The obvious remedy is to begin conservation at an earlier stage, when it is easier and better in every way, by enforcing laws for close seasons, game preserves, the selective protection of certain species, and sanctuaries.
I have just defined a sanctuary as a place where man is passive and the rest of Nature active. But this general definition is too absolute for any special case. The mere fact that man has to protect a sanctuary does away with his purely passive attitude. Then, he can be beneficially active by destroying pests and parasites, like bot-flies or mosquitoes, and by finding antidotes for diseases like the epidemic which periodically kills off the rabbits and thus starves many of the carnivora to death. But, except in cases where experiment has proved his intervention to be beneficial, the less he upsets the balance of Nature the better, even when he tries to be an earthly Providence.
Q. What should be the most appropriate central idea of this passage
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Krishan Kumar asked   •  2 hours ago

Passage: By February of last year, Victoria Reiter, 63, figured she had only a few months to live. A writer and translator living in Manhattan, she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia, an especially deadly form of blood cancer. The only treatment available was interferon, an immune system booster that wasn‘t really working and that made her violently ill. Reiter had spent most of 1999 in bed, too sick to read, to walk, to do much of anything-although she had managed to put together lists dividing her possessions between her two daughters. Then she went on an experimental drug called Gleevec, and within weeks everything changed. ―All my energy started coming back, ‖she says. ―Suddenly I could read. I could take a walk.-By August, tests showed her bone marrow was clear of leukemia cells; in December, she took up the Argentine tango. She still has the lists of what her daughters will get, but, she exults, ―They‘re not going to get it yet! -For Bob Ferber, a Los Angeles prosecutor specializing in animal-abuse cases, the Gleevec experience was very much the same. Less than two years ago, he was lying in a hospital room considering suicide to escape the pain radiating from his bones. ―From crawling across the floor on my knees to go to the bathroom, I‘m now back at work, -says Ferber, 48. ―I go to the gym. I‘m volunteering for an animal-rescue group. It‘s the dream of any cancer patient in the world to be able to take a pill that works like this. It‘s truly a miracle.-That‘s a tempting way to look at it, anyhow. Gleevec is so effective that the US Food and Drug Administration approved it in record time two weeks ago-even as researchers announced that it also works against a rare form of stomach cancer. The drug doesn‘t help everyone, and it can have side-effects, including nausea, muscle cramps and skin rash. Moreover, nobody is claiming that it actually cures cancer. Patients may have to continue taking the drug, probably for the rest of their lives, and unless Gleevec likely their cancer will come back. Despite all these caveats, Gleevec is still a breakthrough-not only for what it does but, more important, for the revolutionary strategy it represents. A full 50 years have passed since the leaders of developed countries declared war on cancer and called for a national commitment comparable to the effort to land on the moon or split the atom. But over decades, researchers have come up with one potential miracle cure after another-only to suffer one disappointment after another. Aside from surgery, which almost invariably leaves behind some malignant cells, the standard treatment for most cancers continues to be radiation and chemotherapy-relatively crude disease-fighting weapons that have limited effectiveness and leave patients weak and nauseated. Along the way, though, scientists have amassed wealth of information about how cancer works at the molecular level, from its first awakening in the aberrant DNA of a single cell‘s nucleus to it rapacious, all-out assault on the body. Armed with that information, they have been developing a broad array of weapons to attack the disease every step along the way. Many of these therapies are just beginning to reach clinical trials and won‘t be available to save lives for years to come. If you have cancer today, these treatments are likely to come too late to help you. But, says Dr Larry Norton, a medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City: ―I think there is no question that the war on cancer is winnable.-That sentiment was pounded home last week at the animal meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, where a record 26,000 cancer specialists from around the world briefed each other on the good news starting to pour out of their laboratories. Unlike chemo and radiation, which use carpet-bombing tactics that destroy cancer cells and troop of snipers, firing on cancer cells alone and targeting their weakest links.
Q. Dr Larry Norton‘s statement is 
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Sarthak Nigam asked   •  2 hours ago

At a time when the World Health Organisation has been seeking at least $675 million additional funding for critical response efforts in countries most in need during the pandemic, U.S.
President Trump has done the unthinkable — halting funding to WHO while a review is conducted to assess its ”role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of corona virus” and for ”failing to adequately obtain, vet, and share information in a timely and transparent fashion”. The decision comes a week after he first threatened to put funding on hold for the global health body. At over $500 million .........(1)........ is WHO‘s biggest contributor. But halting funding at a crucial time will not only impact the functioning of the global body but also hurt humanity. Many low and middle-income countries that look up to WHO for guidance and advice, and even for essentials such as testing kits and masks, will be badly hit for no fault of theirs. With a little over two million cases and over 1,27,000 deaths globally, the pandemic has been unprecedented in scale. When solidarity and unmitigated support from every member-state is necessary to win the war against the virus, withholding funding will not be in the best interest of any country, the U.S. included. Failures due to oversight or other reasons, by WHO or member-states can always be looked into but not in the midst of a pandemic.
Q. Who is present Director General of WHO?
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Gurdev Kaur asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the passage and answer the following question.
The flip side of the agricultural bounty in Punjab — of foodgrain stock going waste — has again been flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which has said in its report that the Punjab AgroFoodgrains Corporation Limited and Punjab State Warehousing Corporation allowed wheat worth Rs 607 crore to rot in four years owing to inadequate storage arrangements. The foodgrain was sufficient to feed all 1.36 crore beneficiaries under the atta-dal scheme for three months.
Arrangement is made to store foodgrains in different ways, like in covered godowns, silos and on elevated plinths. There are rules stipulated for the storage. Fumigation and treatment of crops with pesticides have to be undertaken in the godowns whereas in the covered-at-plinth (CAP) storage system, wooden crates are used for dunnage and the stacks are covered with specially fabricated waterproof polythene covers and tied with ropes. Despite this, the vagaries of weather like unseasonal rain create problems. This arrangement is meant to be temporary. What compounds the problem is the slow movement of grains from the godowns — where they are mostly stored for the Central pool — to the designated destinations. With the other states also witnessing an increase in the production of crops, grain disposal takes time, exacerbated by the shortage of labour, transportation and packaging material like gunny bags. With the stock of previous years still not disposed of, the procurement of fresh grain stock and their storage becomes a tough task.
Q. All of the following can be the steps taken by the government in order to deal with the issue mentioned in the text EXCEPT:
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Sumitra asked   •  2 hours ago

Read the following passage and answer the question as directed.
As a forum, the G-20 is often watched more closely for the meetings that the event affords on its sidelines, than for substantive outcomes. The countries that make up the G-20 (19 nations and the European Union) each have pressing issues that they wish to discuss with other members on bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral levels. Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the occasion of the G-20 Summit at ____(i)____ for as many as 20 such meetings, including nine bilaterals, eight pull-aside engagements, and of the Russia-India-China, Japan-U.S.-India and Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa groupings. The most anticipated were President Donald Trump's meetings with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and Mr. Modi, given the escalation in trade tensions. Mr. Modi raised several Indian concerns at the G-20 deliberations, including the need for cooperation on dealing with serious economic offenders and fugitives, as well as climate change funding. This found its way into the final declaration. India sent a tough message by refusing to attend the digital economy summit pushed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as his plan for ''data free flow with trust'', included in the G-20 declaration, runs counter to the Reserve Bank of India's proposed data localisation guidelines. The U.S. wrote in a counter to the paragraph praising the Paris accord, while trade protectionism was not mentioned in the document. On issues such as ocean pollution management, gender equality and concerted efforts to fight corruption, the G-20 found consensus more easily.
With ____(ii)____ hosting the next G-20 in 2020. Many global challenges, such as climate change and its impact, the balance between the needs for speed and national security with 5G networks being introduced, as well as technology-driven terrorism, will become even more critical for the grouping, and the government must articulate its line. India should lead the exercise in making the G-20 more effective in dealing with some of the inequities in its system. The G-20 is an important platform to discuss pressing issues, and it must not be detracted from its original purpose of promoting sustainable growth and financial stability by grandstanding by one or two members.
Q. When will India host its first G-20 Summit?
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Kavita Devi asked   •  3 hours ago

Read the following passage and answer the question as directed.
The Union Cabinet on 26th February, 2020 approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020, which allows any 'willing' woman to be a surrogate mother and proposes that widows and divorced women can also benefit from its provisions, besides infertile Indian couples.
The bill incorporates all recommendations made by a Rajya Sabha select committee, which studied an earlier version of the draft legislation, and is aimed at banning commercial surrogacy and allowing altruistic surrogacy, Union minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change {Y} told the reporters.
His Cabinet colleague Smriti Irani said the bill proposes that only Indian couples, with both partners being of Indian origins, can opt for surrogacy in the country.
She asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led from the front with a liberal view on the issues of reproductive rights of women, be it medical termination of pregnancy, the {X} or the surrogacy bill.
The amended bill is reformed version of the draft legislation which was passed by Lok Sabha in 2019 but its provisions, including that only a close relative of a couple can be a surrogate mother, had invited criticism.
The government then agreed to send the bill to the Rajya Sabha select committee, which is headed by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav, for holding wide consultations with various stakeholders and making recommendations.
The bill also proposes to regulate surrogacy by establishing National Surrogacy Board at the central level and, State Surrogacy Board and appropriate authorities in states and Union Territories, respectively.
The proposed insurance cover for surrogate mother has now been increased to 36 months from 16 months provided in the earlier version.
While commercial surrogacy will be prohibited including sale and purchase of human embryo and gametes, ethical surrogacy to Indian married couples, Indian-origin married couples and Indian single woman (only widow or divorcee between the age of 35 and 45 years) will be allowed on fulfillment of certain conditions, official sources said.
Q. Who hold the post of the Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) along with the post of Secretary of Department of Health Research (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare), Government of India as in 2020?
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Jagan Nath asked   •  3 hours ago

Read the passage and answer the following question.
Success in an infant industry is the story of Flipkart. A start up launched in 2007 with an investment of just Rs 4 Lakhs has come to grow into the first billion dollar company in Indian e-commerce. Flipkart exploited vast consumers segment waiting to enjoy the comfort of shopping online. The company's core value lies in the operating mantra: "Don't count your customers before they smile"! Flipkart succeeded in adding the 'surprise and delight' factor for customers. They are treated to offers that are most suited and relevant to their preferences. The company's Big Billion Sale was an aggressive step towards the same direction. Many criticized the retailer for jumping way too ahead without much preparation for the challenge. Though Flipkart fumbled in managing site traffic and product demand-supply gap, it maintained its goodwill by sending an apology with explanation letter to all its customers. It made adequate amends and managed to win back its loyalists.
Q. Which of the following demonstrates 'for jumping way too ahead without much preparation for the challenge' as indicated by the author in Flipkart's case?
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Indira Devi asked   •  3 hours ago

Read the passage and answer the following question.
Success in an infant industry is the story of Flipkart. A start up launched in 2007 with an investment of just Rs 4 Lakhs has come to grow into the first billion dollar company in Indian e-commerce. Flipkart exploited vast consumers segment waiting to enjoy the comfort of shopping online. The company's core value lies in the operating mantra: "Don't count your customers before they smile"! Flipkart succeeded in adding the 'surprise and delight' factor for customers. They are treated to offers that are most suited and relevant to their preferences. The company's Big Billion Sale was an aggressive step towards the same direction. Many criticized the retailer for jumping way too ahead without much preparation for the challenge. Though Flipkart fumbled in managing site traffic and product demand-supply gap, it maintained its goodwill by sending an apology with explanation letter to all its customers. It made adequate amends and managed to win back its loyalists.
Q. Which of the following depicts an accurate response to a customer, who got a different item from what he ordered, by Flipkart according to its core values?
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Arun Kumar Garg asked   •  4 hours ago

Passage: The role of India’s judiciary in securing the enforcement of rights outside statute law but within the Constitutional mandate promoted public interest litigation (PIL) in the 1980s. PIL is a broad-based, people-orientated approach, which promotes access to justice through judge-made processes and remedies. PIL revolutionized the judicial procedure by introducing three procedural innovations: (i) expanded standing; (ii) non-adversarial procedure; and (iii) wider remedial action as a result of expanded frontiers of fundamental rights, particularly the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Environmental PIL is a product of the Courts’ response to inaction by the state or the wrongful action of state agencies in performing their statutory duties, which has resulted in endangering or impairing the quality of life of people as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The state is under a duty to enforce this Constitutional right by devising and implementing a coherent and coordinated programme for the well-being of the population. Failure on the part of the state prompted judges to issue brief interim directions entitled ‘continuing mandamus’. In this context, PIL is considered a ‘wheel of transformation’ providing access to justice, inter alia, to victims of environmental degradation. In the past two decades Courts have locked together human rights and the environment and entertained PIL petitions from various quarters seeking remedies, including the issuing of guidelines and directions in the absence of legislation. The proactive judiciary, acting as ‘amicus environment’, has produced a major shift in the environmental landscape of India and has also declared and promoted the principles of sustainable development and the precautionary and the polluter pays principles as elements of fundamental law.
The active engagement of the Indian judiciary in imparting environmental justice nonetheless raised concerns about the effectiveness of PIL. This was in relation to the rapidly increasing number of petitions, complex technical and scientific issues, unrealistic Court directions, and individual judicial preferences – often personality driven rather than reflecting collective institutionalized adjudication – as well as the issue of creeping jurisdiction. Although the Supreme Court created a procedure that allowed indigents and concerned citizens to access the Courts via PIL, it did not prove to be the much heralded ‘magic bullet’.
Q. The government subsequently starts another project at the outskirts of the city. Environmental activists approached the Court through PIL, questioning this act as being responsible for emission of air pollutants. They also produced stats from government sources which show that the air quality has degraded in the main city. The government, however, has been taking measures to filter the emitted gases and also that the plant is necessary for supplying power in the city. Decide.
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Umed Singh asked   •  4 hours ago

Canopy of Nature
Dad decided last Sunday that we should all go on a camping trip.
He read an article in the Sunday paper about camping and how it “brings families together under the canopy of nature.”
“Overrated,” I joked. “What about the canopy of television or the canopy of restaurant food?”
“This will be good for us,” Dad said, sliding the magazine across the coffee table. “Let’s go next weekend.”
I shot a quick look over at my little brother, Paul. He gave me a slow eyebrow raise which meant, “This will probably not go off completely as planned.”
My smile back said, "But it will surely be fun."
I started to think back. Once Dad decided we should all learn how to canoe. We borrowed two canoes from our friends, hoisted them on the van and drove for three hours to a secluded lake in Virginia. Alone in the middle of nowhere, we discovered that we had forgotten the paddles.
Paul and I got in a canoe with Dad and our two younger sisters got in a canoe with Mom. We floated aimlessly around the lake for hours. Then we all jumped in with our life jackets on. We pushed the canoes back to shore. It was a fantastic trip.
Another time, Dad decided we should all learn how to ski. All of us hate the cold so we spent the weekend huddled by the fire, drinking hot cocoa in the ski lodge and playing board games. It was great. We had a blast.
When I stopped daydreaming, Mom was saying, “Sweetheart, we don’t have a tent.”
“We don’t need one!” Dad said happily. “We’ll take all the seats out the van when we get to the campsite and put in an air mattress.”
I don't know what the punch line will be on this excursion, but I am sure with Mom, Dad and the four of us kids scrunched in a van at some national park, we are bound to have a good time.
Q. The narrator probably says the camping trip will have a punch line because he or she feels it will
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Ashna Abbobaker asked   •  6 hours ago

Paragraph: Fundamental rights, we have been repeatedly been told, do not exist in isolation. But, despite the theoretical affirmation of this idea, judicial practice is permeated by cases where some laws are seen as special, as untouched by the rigours of due process. Prime among them, as a recent judgment of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in Mian Abdul Qayoom v. State of J&K shows us, are laws providing for preventive detention — in this case, the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (‘PSA’).
The High Court, in its judgment, opened with the now customary panegyric on freedom. The right to personal liberty, wrote Justice TashiRabstan, is a “most precious right”. It has been held, he added, to be “transcendental, inalienable and available to a person independent of the Constitution”. And the right is not to be denied “except in accordance with procedures established under law” and that procedure, as held in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, had to be “just and fair”.
Effectively, therefore, the judgment places liberty at the pleasure of government. It reduces the Constitution’s core guarantees to a trifle. Yet, extraordinary as the verdict appears, a study of the history of the law of preventive detention in India, especially as applied in the State of J&K, would show us that we ought to have little to be surprised about. The ruling, in recognising boundless executive pre-eminence, only gives effect to a long-standing jurisprudence.
In the litany of precedents that the judgment has cited, pride of place is occupied by A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras. There, the Supreme Court of India found that Article 21, which guarantees a right to life and personal liberty, does not require the state to follow due process. It was therefore, in the court’s belief, that Article 22 had been incorporated, stipulating a set of procedural parameters for preventive detention laws. And such laws, according to the court, were immunised from the limitations placed on the legislature by other fundamental rights.
The verdict in Gopalan has since been overruled. Not only has the Supreme Court held that the fundamental rights chapter comprises a network of mutually dependant promises but it has also ruled that Article 21 implicitly includes within it a guarantee of substantive due process. In other words, the clause demands that any action or law that limits liberty ought to fair, just, and reasonable, untouched by the caprices of the state.
In overruling Gopalan, the court’s rationale was simple: the absence of a substantive promise of due process would mean that the political executive is free to use the most whimsical of motives to restrict freedom. But ever since its enactment, the PSA has served precisely this purpose. It has been used by successive governments to quell even the slightest hint of dissent. And when review of the orders is sought, courts have invariably followed the model that has now been adopted in Mr. Qayoom’s case: an assumption that the executive knows best and that any decision made by it is beyond the scope of judicial enquiry.
The only thing transcendental about this approach is the omnipotent supremacy of the executive. In reducing judicial review to an irrelevance, the judgment, therefore, stands as an antithesis of the Constitution’s basic function. To understand the dangers inherent in vesting unbridled power of this kind, we do not need to see J&K as exemplifying a state of exception. Nor do we need to apprehend that the model employed will likely be adopted in other States.
Q. If the judgment in A. K. Gopalan case had not been overruled, will the verdict be different in the case of Mian Abdul Qayoom v. State of J&K, given in the passage?
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Paramjit Kaur asked   •  7 hours ago

Directions: The question is based on the reasoning and arguments, or facts and principles set out in the passage. Some of these principles may not be true in the real or legal sense, yet you must conclusively assume that they are true for the purpose. Please answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. Do not rely on any principle of law other than the ones supplied to you, and do not assume any facts other than those supplied to you when answering the question. Please choose the option that most accurately and comprehensively answers the question.
A study by Dr. Jeanne Funk, published in the Journal of India Pediatrics, found that among 7th and 8th grade students who played games involving violence, 29% preferred sports games and only 2% preferred educational games. For the past several years, video game manufacturers have chosen to amplify graphic and sadistic violence, while extraordinary technological advances have made the carnage ever more realistic. BMX XXX, for instance, a game, released in Fall 2002, features footage of real women performing in a New York strip club.
In June 2003, the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) hailed a unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Court finding that video games are a constitutionally protected form of expression and that government cannot enact laws regulating sale of violent video games to minors. This decision is a total and unambiguous assertion of the fact that video games have the same constitutional status as a painting, film, and book. The decision sends a powerful signal to government at all levels that efforts to regulate consumers' access to the creative and expressive content found in video games will not be tolerated.
Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India restricts the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression granted under Article 19(1)(a), in the interest of decency and morality.
Under Section 292 of the IPC, a book, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, painting, representation, figure or any other object, shall be deemed to be obscene if it is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt a person who is likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it. This section does not extend to any work, the publication of which can be proved to be justified as being for the public good such as education on the ground that such book, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, etc. or objects of general concern or which is kept, or used bonafide for religious purpose. Whoever sells, distributes, imports or advertises such obscene matter in India will be criminally penalised.
The offensive nature of such a material 'depraves and corrupts' its viewers and readers to such an extent that their criminal tendencies are aroused. The impression it leaves on the mind of a person is instrumental enough in shaking his emotional make up. At this stage, its impact on the 'psyche' becomes so pervasive that libidinous thoughts are aroused even in the mind of an ordinary decent minded person leading to an expression of 'overt misbehaviour'. This may take forms like rape, adultery, unnatural offence, rioting, murder, etc. However, the 'obscene' is not punished simply because some other offences under the penal law have ensued from it; it is punished because by its very nature it prepares a ground for the mens rea requisite in other offences.
Q. Katrina conducted sex related awareness classes for her students in school and distributed books on the same. Prior to this class, the students were not aware of such but after a certain number of classes, their interest in adult activities increased. A concerned parent wished to sue Katrina under Section 292 IPC. Will the suit succeed?
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Dinesh Kumar asked   •  8 hours ago

Read the passage below and answer the question.
The Supreme Court has taken a timely decision by agreeing to hear a plea from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to direct political parties to not field candidates with criminal antecedents. The immediate provocation is the finding that 46% of Members of Parliament have criminal records. While the number might be inflated as many politicians tend to be charged with relatively minor offences — "unlawful assembly" and "defamation" — the real worry is that the current cohort of Lok Sabha MPs has the highest (29%) proportion of those with serious declared criminal cases compared to its recent predecessors. Researchers have found that such candidates with serious records seem to do well despite their public image, largely due to their ability to finance their own elections and bring substantive resources to their respective parties. Some voters tend to view such candidates through a narrow prism: of being able to represent their interests by hook or by crook. Others do not seek to punish these candidates in instances where they are in contest with other candidates with similar records. Either way, these unhealthy tendencies in the democratic system reflect a poor image of the nature of India's state institutions and the quality of its elected representatives.
Q.  Which of the following, if true, most weakens the author's conclusion?
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