UPSC CSE Prelims Paper 1 (GS) Mock Test - 14 - UPSC MCQ

Bioasphalt is an asphalt alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources. These sources include sugar, molasses and rice, corn and potato starches, natural tree and gum resins, natural latex rubber and vegetable oils, lignin, cellulose, palm oil waste, coconut waste, peanut oil waste, canola oil waste, potato starch, dried sewerage effluent and so on. Bitumen can also be made from waste vacuum tower bottoms produced in the process of cleaning used motor oils, which are normally burned or dumped into land fills. 

Fossil fueled power stations are major emitters of CO₂, a greenhouse gas (GHG) which according to a consensus of scientific organisations is a contributor to global warming observed over the last 100 years. Brown coal emits 3 times as much CO₂ as natural gas, black coal emits twice as much CO₂ per unit of electric energy. 

A circular geosynchronous orbit in the plane of the Earth's equator has a radius of approximately 42,164 km (26,199 mi) from the center of the Earth. A satellite in such an orbit is at an altitude of approximately 35,786 km (22,236 mi) above mean sea level. It maintains the same position relative to the Earth's surface. If one could see a satellite in geostationary orbit, it would appear to hover at the same point in the sky, i.e., not exhibit diurnal motion, while the Sun, Moon, and stars would traverse the heavens behind it. This is sometimes called a Clarke orbit. Such orbits are useful for telecommunications satellites. 
A perfect stable geostationary orbit is an ideal that can only be approximated. In practice the satellite drifts out of this orbit (because of perturbations such as the solar wind, radiation pressure, variations in the Earth's gravitational field, and the gravitational effect of the Moon and Sun), and thrusters are used to maintain the orbit in a process known as station-keeping.  

Sri Harsha wrote Priyadarshika. His other important works were Ratanvali. Both of them are plays. 
In Priyadarshika, it is about the love story of Vatsaraja Udayana with princess Priyadarshika. It is written under the influence of the Kalidasa Malavikagnimitram.  

Trisomy 21 is the most common chromosomal anomaly in humans, affecting about 5,000 babies born each year and more than 350,000 people in the United States.

Also known as Down syndrome, trisomy 21 is a genetic condition caused by an extra chromosome. Most babies inherit 23 chromosomes from each parent, for a total of 46 chromosomes. Babies with Down syndrome however, end up with three chromosomes at position 21, instead of the usual pair.

Other examples of trisomies occur at position 13 and 18. Trisomy 21 is the most common of the three, occurring in 1 out of every 691 births. The disorder was first identified in 1866 by John Langdon Down, a British physician, and later named after him.

Trade balance, i.e. the difference between export and import, is clearly the first variable influenced by export dynamics. Export is a source of foreign currency, easing import expenditure and increasing central bank reserves of foreign currency. If for exporting a country needs raw materials and semi-manufactured goods from abroad, then export growth will increase imports as well. Provided export does not simply replace production previously directed to domestic demand, the increase of export will increase production, GDP, employment. Through Keynesian multiplier, this will engender a higher consumption and higher production again, giving rise to a positive feedback loop. Probably, imports will rise as a consequence. On the supply side, firms may compensate slower domestic dynamics with export, stabilizing their production and eventually profitability. Growing exports usually mean a firm strategy of market diversification. 

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) or biological fuel cell is a bio-electrochemical system that drives a current by mimicking bacterial interactions found in nature. Mediator-less MFCs are a more recent development; due to this, factors that affect optimum efficiency, such as the strain of bacteria used in the system, type of ion-exchange membrane, and system conditions (temperature, pH, etc.) are not particularly well understood. Bacteria in mediator-less MFCs typically have electrochemically active redox proteins such as cytochromes on their outer membrane that can transfer electrons to external materials 

In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government expenditure and revenue collection (taxation) to influence the economy. Fiscal policy can be contrasted with the other main type of macroeconomic policy, monetary policy, which attempts to stabilize the economy by controlling interest rates and spending. The two main instruments of fiscal policy are government expenditure and taxation. Changes in the level and composition of taxation and government spending can impact the following variables in the economy: 
Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity; 
The pattern of resource allocation;
The distribution of income. 
Fiscal policy refers to the use of the government budget to influence the first of these: economic activity. 

Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer), and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. In addition to these well-known stratospheric phenomena, there are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events. The details of polar ozone hole formation differ from that of mid-latitude thinning, but the most  important process in both is catalytic destruction of ozone by atomic halogens. The main source of these halogen atoms in the stratosphere is photodissociation of man-made halocarbon refrigerants (CFCs, freons, halons). These compounds are transported into the stratosphere after being emitted at the surface. Both types of ozone depletion were observed to increase as emissions of halo-carbons increased.

What are three strategies to reduce the current account deficit? 
This for any country in general, what are three strategies a government can do to reduce their current account deficit? 
1. Devalue the currency (either actively if fixed exchange rate, or by lowering interest rates if on a floating exchange rate). This makes your exports cheaper to foreigners and makes their goods more expensive, lowering imports.
2. Decrease demand for imports - you can do this by raising taxes or cutting spending (lower aggregate demand generally) or directly by raising tariffs, quotas, etc. to keep foreign goods out.
3. Sell more of your own exports. One way to do this is with policies that channel resources to exporting sectors - for example, setting up tax free export processing zones, subsidizing capital to those sectors (exhibit A - see Korea after WWII), creating infrastructure that makes it easier to export, etc. 

Chandipur also known as Chandipur-on-sea is a small sea resort in Baleswar District, Orissa, India. The resort is on the Bay of Bengal and is approximately 16 kilometers from the Baleswar Railway Station. The beach is unique in that the water recedes anywhere from 1 kilometer to 4 kilometers during the ebb and returns at the time of high-tide. The beach, due to this uniqueness, supports a lot of bio-diversity. Horseshoe crab is also found here on the beach towards Mirzapur, the nearby fishing market and community at the confluence of the Budhabalanga River. Described often as 'the land of hidden treasures', Chandipur-on-Sea is one of the finest beaches on the eastern coastline of India. Also referred to as Chandipur, this unique beach is located 16 kilometers from Balasore in Orissa.
This place is also the location of the Indian Army's Integrated Test Range (ITR) and a number of successful missiles like - Akash, Agni and Prithvi - have been launched from here. 

By definition, hyperinflation is a rapid increase in Price Index (the Money Supply multiplied by the velocity of money) without a corresponding increase in real output (see Equation of exchange). This is often caused by decisions on the part of the central bank to increase the money supply much more than markets had previously expected, often when money is printed to finance government spending. This results in a fall in the demand for money relative to its supply, which in an extreme case can grow into a complete loss of confidence in the money, similar to a bank run. This loss of confidence causes a rapid increase in velocity of spending which causes a corresponding rapid increase in prices. For example, once inflation has become established, sellers try to hedge against it by increasing prices. This leads to further waves of price increases. 
Hyperinflation will continue as long as the entity responsible for increasing bank credit and/or printing currency continues to promote excessive money creation. In severe cases, legal tender laws and price controls to prevent discounting the value of paper money relative to hard currency or commodities can fail to force acceptance of the rapidly increasing money supply which lacks intrinsic value, in which case hyperinflation usually continues until the currency is abandoned entirely. 

The demographic dividend is a rise in the rate of economic growth due to a rising share of working-age people in a population. This usually occurs late in the demographic transition when the fertility rate falls and the youth dependency rate declines. During this demographic window of opportunity, output per capita rises. It has been argued that the demographic dividend played a role in the "economic miracles" of the East Asian Tigers and that the economic boom in Ireland in the 1990s (the Celtic tiger) was in part due to the legalization of contraception in 1979 and subsequent decline in the fertility rate. In Ireland, the ratio of workers to dependents improved due to lower fertility but was raised further by increased female labor market participation and a reversal from outward migration of working-age population to a net inflow. Africa, on the other hand, continues to have high fertility and youth dependency rates.

The concept of carbon credits came into existence as a result of increasing awareness of the need for pollution control. Carbon credits were one of the outcomes of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement between 169 countries. The Kyoto Protocol created legally binding emission targets for developing nations. To meet these targets, nations must limit C02 emissions. It was enforced from Feb’05. The very phase “Kyoto Protocol” has become synonymous with the idea of saving the planet from the global meltdown. This can be accomplished by either reducing emissions or by absorbing emissions through processes such as tree-planting and sequestration., which contribute to its economic stagnation. The magnitude of the demographic dividend appears to be dependent on the ability of the economy to absorb and productively employ the extra workers, rather than be a pure demographic gift. 

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic chemical compound used in a wide range of consumer products and is classed by the Government of Canada as a hormone disruptor. Bisphenol A is found in many everyday products including food cans, plastic water containers and baby bottles. A study in the US found that 95% of people tested had been exposed to BPA.

An economy that does not interact with the economy of any other country. A closed economy prohibits imports and exports and prohibits any other country from participating in their stock market. There have been many examples of closed economies throughout history, but very few closed economies exist today, also called autarky.

Bark is a tree's natural armor and protects from external threats. Bark also has several physical functions, one is ridding the tree of wastes by absorbing and locking them into its dead cells and resins. Also, the bark's phloem transports large quantities of nutrients throughout the tree. Trees, like knights of old, wear armor to protect themselves from injury. However, a tree's armor, called bark, is not made of heavy metal. Its outer layer, which we see, is composed of dead cells that become filled with a corklike substance and air. The inner bark, called Phloem, contains living cells and transports food from the leaves to other parts of the tree, including the roots. When these short-lived inner bark cells die, they become a part of the outer bark. Bark serves as a waterproof overcoat for the tree, helps prevent loss of water from the tree by evaporation, acts as a barrier against attacks by insects and diseases, insulates the tree from drastic temperature changes, and in some instances, protects the tree from fire damage. It also serves as a shield to protect a very important part of the tree - the cambium layer. This layer of cells, which can be seen only with the aid of a microscope, manufactures both the inner bark cells and the sapwood cells. It produces a completely new layer of sapwood and bar tissue every growing season. 

A stone inscription of about the first quarter of the 8th century A.D. refers to itself as a kraya-cirika, i.e. 'a deed of purchase written on a piece of cloth'. The original document must have been later engraved on the stone.
According to Yajnavalkya (I, 319), the royal charters were written on cloth (pata explained as karpasika-pata by the commentator Vijnanesvara) or copper plate (tamra-patta). Some of the Satavahana charters later engraved on 
1. Al-Biruni says, "They (i.e. the Hindus) use black tablets for the children in the schools and write upon them along the long side, not the broad side, writing with a white material from the left to the right" (Sachau, Alberuni's India, Part I, p. 182).
cave walls refer to themselves aspatika. It is however difficult to determine whether this word is derived from pata (cloth) or is an inscriptional Prakrit from standing for pattika derived form patta (plate).

The Indian Rhinoceros is one of the 45 species of globally threatened mammals found in the Eastern Himalayas. The Eastern Himalayas is the region encompassing Bhutan, northeastern India, and southern, central, and eastern Nepal. The region is geologically young and shows high altitudinal variation. It has nearly 163 globally threatened species including the One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), the Wild Asian Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis (Arnee)) and in all 45 mammals, 50 birds, 17 reptiles, 12 amphibians, 3 invertebrate and 36 plant species. The Relict Dragonfly (Epiophlebia laidlawi) is an endangered species found here with the only other species in the genus being found in Japan. The region is also home to the Himalayan Newt (Tylototriton verrucosus), the only salamander species found within Indian limits. 

Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water. The increased availability in upwelling regions results in high levels of primary productivity and thus fishery production. Approximately 25% of the total global marine fish catches come from five upwellings that occupy only 5% of the total ocean area. Upwellings that are driven by coastal currents or diverging open ocean have the greatest impact on nutrient-enriched waters and global fishery yields. 

A tropical rainforest is a place roughly within 28 degrees north or south of the equator. They are found in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico and on many of the Pacific Islands. Within the World Wildlife Fund's biome classification, tropical rainforests are thought to be a type of tropical wet forest (or tropical moist broadleaf forest) and may also be referred to as lowland equatorial evergreen rainforest. Minimum normal annual rainfall between 175 cm (69 in) and 200 cm (79 in) occurs in this climate region. Mean monthly temperatures exceed 18°C (64°F) during all months of the year. Rainforests are home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet. 

Of the estimated 10,000 species of plants in the Himalaya hotspot, about 3,160 are endemic, as are 71 genera. Furthermore, five plant families are endemic to the region, the Tetracentraceae, Hamamelidaceae, Circaesteraceae, Butomaceae and Stachyuraceae. The largest family of flowering plants in the hotspot is the Orchidacea, with 750 species, and a large number of orchids, many representing rather young endemic species, have recently been reported from the hotspot, indicating that further exploration will probably reveal a much higher degree of plant endemism. The Eastern Himalaya is also a center of diversity for several widely distributed plant taxa, such as Rhododendron, Primula, and Pedicularis. 

India is one of the 12 mega biodiversity countries in the world. The country is divided into 10 biogeographic regions. The diverse physical features and climatic situations have formed ecological habitats like forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal and marine ecosystems and desert ecosystems, which harbour and sustain immense biodiversity. Biogeographically, India is situated at the tri-junction of three realms - Afro-tropical, Indo-Malayan and Paleo-Arctic realms, and therefore, has characteristic elements from each of them. This assemblage of three distinct realms makes the country rich and unique in biological diversity. 

Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle". 
Marx's notion of class has nothing to do with social class in the sociological sense of upper, middle and lower classes (which are often defined in terms of quantitative income or wealth). Instead, in an age of capitalism, Marx describes an economic class. Membership in a class is defined by one's relationship to the means of production, i.e., one's position in the social structure that characterizes capitalism. Marx talks mainly about two classes that include the vast majority of the population, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Other classes such as the petty bourgeoisie share characteristics of both of these main classes Karl Marx believed that social change is what was needed for a better society, and to get social change there must be class conflict. Marx's major concern of social change was economic change. Marx's most well-known work dealt with class conflict, the opposition between the capitalists and the working class. The capitalists are also known as the bourgeoisie. They are the ones that are responsible for controlling the land, factories, etc. The working class, which is also known as the proletariat, are the workers that are being exploited by the bourgeoisie. 

Animals which Breathe through their Skin 

Some animals which live on land have a skin which is so thin that gases can easily pass through it. We say that they have a permeable skin. Earthworms and amphibians have a skin which is permeable to gases. Amphibians also have a pair of simple lungs but they are not sufficient on their own for breathing.
Large animals which breathe through their skin also use blood to transport oxygen to their tissues and to bring carbon dioxide to the surface of the body. This means that the blood vessels must come very close to the skin. With a microscope it is possible to see the tiny blood vessels called capillaries. 


The main disadvantage of breathing through the skin is that the animal loses a lot of water in this way. The skin of these animals is always wet. To stop their bodies from drying out they must always live where the air is humid. 

Foreign investment refers to investments made by the residents of a country in the financial assets and production processes of another country. The effect of foreign investment, however, varies from country to country. It can affect the factor productivity of the recipient country and can also affect the balance of payments. Foreign investment provides a channel through which countries can gain access to foreign capital. It can come in two forms: foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign institutional investment (FII).  
Foreign direct investment involves in direct production activities and is also of a medium- to long-term nature. But foreign institutional investment is a short-term investment, mostly in the financial markets.  
FII, given its short-term nature, can have bidirectional causation with the returns of other domestic financial markets such as money markets, stock markets, and foreign exchange markets. Hence, understanding the determinants of FII is very important for any emerging economy as FII exerts a larger impact on the domestic financial markets in the short run and a real impact in the long run. India, being a capital scarce country, has taken many measures to attract foreign investment since the beginning of reforms in 1991. 

Bacillus Thuringiensis Brinjal, popularly known as Bt brinjal, is at the centre of a major controversy in India. Bt brinjal, a genetically modified strain created by India's number one seeds company Mahyco in collaboration with American multinational Monsanto, claims to improve yields and help the agriculture sector. However, the debate over the safety of Bt brinjal continues with mixed views from scientists working for the government, farmers and environment activists. Environment activists says the effect of GM (genetically modified) crops on rats have shown to be fatal for lungs and kidneys. It is dangerous to introduce these experimental foods into the market without proper research, they say. A study by French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini says the tests conducted by Mahyco, the company producing Bt brinjal, were simply not valid and raised serious health concerns. 

AAM ADMI BIMA YOJANA, a prestigious scheme of the Central and State / Union Territory Governments and administered by LIC brings a ray of hope and smile to these households. 
ELIGIBILITY 
-The member should be aged between 18 and 59 years 
-The member should be the head of the family or one earning member in the family of rural landless household. 
-It is a scheme for the rural landless households, wherein the head of rural landless families or one earning member in each such family will be insured. The premium under the scheme is Rs. 200/- for natural death, accident death, disability due to accident, and permanent total disability due to accident. 
-The eligibility condition for the plan is that the individual should be aged between 18 and 59 years. Further, the member should be the head of the family or one earning member in the family of rural landless households. 
-The premium under the scheme shall be Rs.200/- out of which 50% shall be subsidized from the fund created for this purpose by the Central Government and the remaining 50% shall be contributed by the State Government. 
-In the event of death of a member prior to the terminal date, the Sum Assured of Rs.30,000/- will become payable to the nominee. In the event of death by accident or Total Permanent Disability due to accident, Rs.75,000/- is payable.