APPSC General Studies Mock Test - 8 - APPSC (Andhra Pradesh) MCQ

• The Historic City of Ahmadabad or Old Ahmedabad, the walled city of Ahmedabad in India, was founded by Ahmad Shah I of Gujarat Sultanate in 1411. It remained the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate and later important political and commercial centre of Gujarat.

• Today, despite having become extremely crowded and dilapidated, it still serves as metropolitan Ahmedabad's symbolic heart. It was inscribed as the World Heritage City by UNESCO in July 2017.

• In the foreign exchange market, if a free-floating domestic currency increases its value against the value of a foreign currency, it is appreciated.

• In the domestic economy, if a fixed asset has seen an increase in its value it is known as appreciation.

• Any government does not set appreciation rates for different assets as they depend upon many unseen factors.

Any question regarding disqualification arising out of defection is to be decided by the presiding officer of the House. Originally, the act provided that the decision of the presiding officer is final and cannot be questioned in any court.

Answer: d

Explanation:

The Government of India formally launched “Housing for All” in rural areas under which the Government proposes to provide an environmentally safe and secure pucca house to every rural household by 2022. Some of the features are as follows:

• Named the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin), in its first phase the target is to complete one crore houses by March 2019. 

• The unit cost for these houses has been significantly increased and now through convergence a minimum support of nearly Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 1.6 lakh to a household is available.

• The selection of beneficiaries has been through a completely transparent process using the Socio Economic Census 2011 data and validating it through the Gram Sabha.

• PMAY-G is a major step forward in bringing together Skill India, Digital India, Make In India, IT/DBT Aadhaar platform and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).

• The programme targets the poor households and uses ICT and space technology to further confirm correct selection of beneficiaries and progress of work.

• Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices and a guaranteed price to save farmers from distress sale.

• The MSPs are announced at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops based on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP, 1985).

• The major objectives are to support the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution.

• The southwest monsoon brings rains towards the end of summer as the high pressure built in the Indian Ocean pushes the wind masses towards the low pressure formed on land.

• It’s the temperature variation between the sea and the landmass – sea air being cooler and land being warmer – that causes the action. Also, we have to take an important factor called Temperature Gradient into consideration.

• It is the Temperature Variation Between The landmass and the surrounding sea.

Monsoon may be considered as large scale sea breezes, because of seasonal heating. The south west monsoon brings rain towards the end of summer It arrives in two branches - The way of Bengal branch and the Arabian sea branch.

India shares its border with seven countries

• Afghanistan and Pakistan to the North-West
• China, Bhutan, and Nepal to the North
• Myanmar to the far East and Bangladesh to the East.

• Vasco Da Gama was received at Calicut port. The Portuguese explorer was not greeted warmly by the Muslim merchants of Calicut, and in 1499 he had to fight his way out of the harbor on his return trip home.
• In 1502, he led a squadron of ships to Calicut to avenge the massacre of Portuguese explorers there and succeeded in subduing the inhabitants.
• The Company was not welcome, and in 1611 it asked King James to send an ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, to visit the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir. The Emperor ruled over a prosperous civilization that produced many goods and had many different religions (the Mughals were Muslim).

Additional Information

• The fleet arrived in Kappadu near Kozhikode (Calicut), in Malabar Coast (present day Kerala state of India), on 20 May 1498.
• The King of Calicut, the Samudiri (Zamorin), who was at that time staying in his second capital at Ponnani, returned to Calicut on hearing the news of the foreign fleet's arrival.

The navigator was received with traditional hospitality, including a grand procession of at least 3,000 armed Nairs, but an interview with the Zamorin failed to produce any concrete results.

Hydra reproduce by sexual and asexual mode. Budding is the process by which hydra reproduce through asexual mode. An outgrowth grows from the parent body due to the repeated cell division at a specific site. The cell which divide rapidly are known as regenerative cell. The outgrowth from the parent body is known as bud. This bud separates from the parent and develops into a genetically identical new organism.

During unfavourable conditions, hydra reproduce sexually. Swellings in the body wall develop into either a simple ovary or testes. The testes release sperms which fuses with the ovary.

• The collection rate is the ratio of total customs revenue and the total value of imports for a year. This is an indicator of overall incidence of customs including countervailing duties.(CVD) and special additional duties (SAD) on imports.

• The Gol offers several exemptions in customs duty on a variety of imports. This is the reason why India's customs collection does not increase as much as its imports increase.

The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana was launched in 2007-08.

• From the second half of the 19th century, many powerful newspapers appeared, edited/published by distinguished and fearless journalists. 

• Interestingly, nearly one-third of the founding fathers of the Indian National Congress in 1885 were journalists.

• Some of their publications were: The Hindu and Swadesamitran under the editorship of G. Subramaniya Iyer, Kesari and Mahratta under Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bengalee under Surendranath Banerjea, Amrita Bazar Patrika under Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh, Sudharak under Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian Mirror under N.N. Sen, Voice of India under Dadabhai Naoroji, Hindustan and Advocate under G.P. Varma. 

• The Tribune and Akhbar-i-Am in Punjab, Indu Prakash, Dnyan Prakash, Kal and Gujarati in Bombay, and Som Prakash Banganivasi and Sadharani in Bengal were other noted newspapers of the time. Indian nationalists and revolutionaries living abroad published newspapers and journals—Indian Sociologist (London, Shyamji Krishnavarma), Bande Matram (Paris, Madam Cama), Talwar (Berlin, Virendranath Chattopadhyay), and Ghadar (San Francisco, Lala Hardayal)— to infuse a feeling of nationalism among Indians living abroad.

Mahajanapadas

• As the rulers of the Mahajanapadas were building huge forts, maintaining big armies, they needed more resources. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• And they needed officials to collect these. So, instead of depending on occasional gifts brought by people, as in the case of the Raja of the Janapadas, they started collecting regular taxes.
• Taxes on crops were the most important.
• This was because agriculture was the main occupation at that time.
• Usually, the tax was fixed at 1/6th of what was produced. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• This was known as bhaga or a share.
• There were taxes on craftspersons as well.  Hence, statement 4 is correct.
• These could have been in the form of labor.
• For example, a weaver or a smith may have had to work for a day every month for the king.
• Herders were also expected to pay taxes in the form of animals and animal products. Hence, statement 3 is Not correct.
• There were also taxes on goods that were bought and sold, through trade.
• And hunters and gatherers also had to provide forest produce to the raja.

• The Thanjavur or Tanjore School is famous for the special style of decorative paintings, The Maratha rulers patronized them during the 18th century. 

• These paintings are unique as they are mostly created on glass and board instead of cloth and vellum preferred in north India. 

• They are unique because of the use of brilliant colour patterns and the liberal use of the gold leaf.

C is the correct option. Abu Rayhan al-Biruni was an Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been variously called as the "founder of Indology", "Father of Comparative Religion", "Father of modern geodesy", and the first anthropologist. The above sentence was quoted by im.

The first major issue that the Indian Association took up for agitation was the reform of the Civil Service regulations and the raising of the age limit for its examination. Surendranath Banerjea toured different parts of the country during 1877-78 in an effort to create an all-India public opinion on this question.

• The early Vedic period was therefore characterized by women's glorious role in education.
• In early Vedic family affairs, women who enjoyed both their autonomy and their role as wives were considered to be ardhangini (better half) and sahadharmini (equal partner). There was no sati system or early marriage.
• But from enjoying free and esteemed positions in the Rig-Vedic society, women started being discriminated against since the Later-Vedic period in education and other rights and facilities. 
• Self-immolation refers to the ascetic practice in Buddhism of voluntarily terminating one's own life or offering parts of one's own body usually by setting oneself ablaze.

Barren Island is located in the Andaman Sea. It is the only confirmed active volcano in South Asia. The island along with the rest of the Andamans is the the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and lies some 135 kms northeast of the territory's capital, Port Blair.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq took a number of significant steps during his reign. He set up employment bureau, marriage bureau, built public hospitals. He also set up a department of public works which repaired old monuments and build new ones. Many new cities like Firozpur, Hissar-i-Firoza among others were built during his reign. He also established a charity department called Diwan-i-Khairat. A water clock and a sun clock were also constructed during his reigon.

To explain the correct answer concisely:

- Statement 1 is correct because the President cannot send back a constitutional amendment bill for reconsideration to Parliament.
- Statement 2 is correct as elected representatives alone have the power to amend the Constitution.
- Statement 3 is incorrect because the judiciary can interpret the Constitution but cannot initiate the process of Constitutional Amendment.
- Statement 4 is correct as Parliament can amend any section of the Constitution.

Therefore, the correct answer is C: 1, 2, and 4 only.

Though the profusion of epigraphic references to srenis appears to have been less in the
Gupta times in comparison to the period ranging from BC 175 to AD 300, yet the
limited number of inscriptions are enough to show that they were still quite an important
feature of the economic life of the period concerned. The importance of guild like
occupational groups can be understood from the clay seals discovered at Basarh (ancient
Vaishali in north Bihar). The seals referring to sreshthi-sarthavaha-kulika-nigama,
kulika-nigama, sreshthi-kulika-nigama and so on suggest that these guilds had their
official seals.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

NBFC cannot accept demand deposits. NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself;

RBI does not guarantee deposit repayment from NBFC’s. That is guaranteed for public sector banks by the RBI.

• This Gharana is named after the town named Kirana in Uttar Pradesh. Nayak Gopal founded it but making this popular lies with Abdul Karim Khan and Abdul Wahid Khan in the early 20th century.

• The Kirana Gharana is famous for their concern towards precise tuning and expression of notes.

• The Kirana Gharana is better known for their mastery over the slow tempo ragas. They emphasize much more on the melody of the composition and the Clarity of the pronunciation of the text in the song.

• They also prefer the use of traditional ragas or Sargam. They have had a long line of great singers, but the most famous are Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal. The Carnatic exponents from the border regions of Maharashtra and Karnataka are well associated with Kirana Gharana.

Inselberg:

• This is a German word meaning 'island-mountain'.

• They have isolated residual hills rising abruptly from the level ground. They are characterised by their very steep slopes and rather rounded tops.

• They are often composed of granite or gneiss and are probably the relics of an original plateau which has been almost entirely eroded.

• Inselbergs are typical of many desert and semi-arid landscapes in old age, e.g. those of northern Nigeria, Western Australia and the Kalahari Desert.