UPSC CSE Complete Practice Test - 6 - UPSC MCQ

Statement 4 is incorrect: NAQUIM outputs are shared with States/UTs for suitable interventions.

National Aquifer Mapping and Management programme

• National Aquifer Mapping and Management programme (NAQUIM) is being implemented by CGWB as part of Ground Water Management and Regulation (GWM&R) Scheme, a Central Sector scheme.
• NAQUIM envisages mapping of aquifers (water bearing formations), their characterization and development of Aquifer Management Plans to facilitate sustainable management of groundwater resources in the country.
• NAQUIM outputs are shared with States/UTs for suitable interventions

• Statement-I is incorrect: Mauritius and Réunion are volcanic islands located in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius is situated to the east of the continent of Africa. It is formed by volcanic activity and is part of a submerged mountain range that extends beneath the Indian Ocean.
  Réunion, a French overseas territory and is located further to the southwest of Mauritius. Like Mauritius, Réunion is also a volcanic island, and its Piton de la Fournaise is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
• Statement-II is correct: Unlike the volcanic islands, the coral islands are very much lower and emerge just above the water’s surface. These islands, built up by coral animals of various species, are found both near the shores of the mainland and in the midst of oceans.
  Coral islands include the Marshall Islands, Gilbert and Ellice Islands of the Pacific; Bermuda in the Atlantic and the Laccadives and Maldives of the Indian Ocean.

• Indica is an account left by a Greek ambassador, Megasthenes. This book has not survived, but its fragments are preserved in later Greek and Latin works of Diodorus, Pliny (Roman scholar who cite Megasthenes ’s observations), and Arrian.
• Indica describes the sub-continent in terms of its size and shape (India is a quadrilateralshaped country, bound by the ocean on the southern and the eastern side), soil, climate, rivers, plants, animals (contains lengthy descriptions of elephants, horses, and monkeys as it appears that Greeks were specially captivated by Indian animals), produce, administration, society, legends, and folklore. Hence, Option 1 is correct.
• Megasthenes in his book Indica wrote all Indians are free and not even one of them is a slave.Hence, Option 2 is incorrect.
• Megasthenes, influenced by Herodotus’s classification of the Egyptian society into seven classes based on the professional criterion, mentioned the existence of seven castes in India too. Hence, Option 3 is correct.
• The Greek ambassador also refers to the administration of Pataliputra, the capital of the Mauryas. The city was administered by six committees, each of which consisted of five members. Hence, Option 4 is correct.

• Statement 1 is correct: The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies – ICTs. ITU is a unique platform for global public-private partnerships. By joining ITU, you can become part of a community of more than 20'000 professionals. At ITU, members from the public and private sectors are working together to help shape the future ICT policy and regulatory environment, global standards, and best practices to help spread access to ICT services.
• Statement 2 is correct: The Union was founded in 1865 to facilitate international connectivity in communications networks, we allocate global radio spectrum and satellite orbits, develop the technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect, and strive to improve access to ICTs to underserved communities worldwide. Every time you make a phone call via mobile, access the Internet or send an email, you are benefitting from the work of ITU.

Zoological Survey of India

• It was established on 1st July, 1916 to promote survey, exploration and research leading to the advancement in our knowledge of exceptionally rich faunal life. It acts as a custodian of the National Zoological Collections and the headquarters are at Kolkata. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• It prepares Red Data Book, Fauna of India and does chromosomal mapping and DNA finger printing of fauna. Hence statement 2 is correct.

Incoming Solar Radiation, or Insolation, is the energy received by the earth's surface mostly in the form of short waves. The amount and the intensity of insolation vary during the day, in a season and in a year. The factors that cause these variations in insolation are:
1. The rotation of the earth on its axis;
2. The angle of inclination of the sun’s rays;
3. The length of the day;
4. The transparency of the atmosphere;
5. The configuration of land in terms of its aspect.

• Recent context: Recently, the UN General Assembly voted by a large margin against the US' economic and trade embargo against Cuba. A total of 187 states voted for the resolution put forward against the embargo with only the US and Israel voting against and Ukraine abstaining.
• Established in 1945 under the Charter of the United Nations, the General Assembly occupies a central position as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations. Comprised of all 193 Members of the United Nations, it provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter. Each of the 193 Member States of the United Nations has an equal vote. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• The UNGA also makes key decisions for the UN, including:
  • appointing the Secretary-General on the recommendation of the Security Council o electing the non-permanent members of the Security Council o approving the UN budget. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• The Assembly meets in regular sessions from September to December each year, and thereafter as required. It discusses specific issues through dedicated agenda items or sub-items, which lead to the adoption of resolutions. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• A Credentials Committee is appointed at the beginning of each regular session of the General Assembly. It consists of nine members, who are appointed by the General Assembly on the proposal of the President. The Committee reports to the Assembly on the credentials of representatives. Hence statement 4 is correct.

• Context: India has successfully conducted the first human clinical trial for gene therapy targeting ‘haemophilia A’.
• The trials utilized a novel technology involving a lentiviral vector to express an FVIII transgene in the patient’s own haematopoietic stem cell, leading to the expression of FVIII from specific differentiated blood cells.
• Hemophilia A, also known as classical haemophilia or factor VIII deficiency, is a hereditary bleeding disorder. It’s caused by a mutation on the X-chromosome’s Factor VIII gene, which means that only boys are affected. In most cases, the mutation is passed down from parent to child.

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Poverty estimation in India is now carried out by NITI Aayog’s task force 
• Statement 2 is correct: Poverty line estimation in India is based on the consumption expenditure and not on the income levels.
• Statement 3 is correct: The report said that poverty was much higher in 2011-2012 at 29.5% of the population, which means that three out of 10 people in India were poor.

Poverty estimation

• Poverty estimation in India is now carried out by NITI Aayog’s task force through the calculation of poverty and based on the data captured by the National Sample Survey Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI).
• Poverty line estimation in India is based on the consumption expenditure and not on the income levels because of the following reasons:
• Variation in Income: Income of self- employed people, daily wage laborers etc. is highly variable both temporally and spatially, while consumption pattern are comparatively much stable.
• Additional Income: Even in the case of regular wage earners, there are additional side incomes in many cases, which is difficult to take into account.
• Data Collection: In case of consumption based poverty line, sample based surveys use a reference period (say 30 days) in which households are asked about their consumption of last 30 days and is taken as the representative of general consumption. Whereas tracing the general pattern of income is not possible.
• The Planning commission created a new panel headed by C Rangarajan Committee (2012) on poverty estimation that would provide an alternate method to identify poverty levels and examine divergences between the consumption data provided by the NSSO and the National Accounts aggregates
• The committee submitted its final report on 2014. The report dismissed the Tendulkar Committee's estimation of the poverty level in Incha. The report said that poverty was much higher in 2011-2012 at 29.5% of the population, which means that three out of 10 people in India were poor.

Different Types of Forests under India Forest Act, 1927:

• Reserved Forests: They are the most restricted forests and are constituted by the State Government on any forest land or wasteland which is the property of the Government. Local people are prohibited, unless specifically allowed by a Forest Officer in the course of the settlement.
• Protected Forests: The State Government is empowered to constitute any land other than reserved forests as protected forests over which the Government has proprietary rights and the power to issue rules regarding the use of such forests. This power has been used to establish State control over trees, whose timber, fruit or other non-wood products have revenue-raising potential.
• Village forest: Village forests are the one in which the State Government may assign to ‘any village community the rights of Government to or over any land which has been constituted a reserved forest’. Undemarcated Protected Forest
• Undemarcated Protected Forests are also called the Orange areas, are the result of an administrative logjam that remained a bone of contention between the Revenue and the Forest departments since the abolition of the zamindari system in 1951.
• Undemarcated protected forests cannot be used for non-forest purposes without clearance under the Forest Conservation (FC) Act, 1980. Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

The military character of the Satavahanas is evident with the use of terms like kataka and skandhavaras in their inscriptions, which denote military camps and settlements attached to a particular king and also served as administrative centres.

• Bioaccumulation: It refers to how pollutants enter a food chain. In bioaccumulation there is an increase in concentration of a pollutant from the environment to the first organism in a food chain.
• Biomagnification: It refers to the tendency of pollutants to concentrate as they move from one trophic level to the next. Thus in biomagnification there is an increase in concentration of a pollutant from one link in a food chain to another.
• We are concerned about these phenomena because together they enable even small concentrations of chemicals in the environment to find their way into organisms in high enough dosages to cause problems. In order for biomagnification to occur, the pollutant must be
  • long-lived;
  • mobile;
  • soluble in fats;
  • biologically active. Hence option (d) is the correct answer.
• If a pollutant is short-lived, it will be broken down before it can become dangerous. If it is not mobile, it will stay in one place and is unlikely to be taken up by organisms. If the pollutant is soluble in water, it will be excreted by the organism. Pollutants that dissolve in fats, however, may be retained for a long time.
• It is traditional or customary to measure the amount of pollutants in fatty tissues of organisms such as fish. In mammals, we often test the milk produced by females, since the milk has a lot of fat in it and because the very young are often more susceptible to damage from toxins (poisons). If a pollutant is not active biologically, it may biomagnify, but we really do not worry about it much, since it probably, will not cause any problems.

• Radiocarbon dating, also known as carbon-14 dating, is a widely used method for determining the age of organic materials by measuring the radioactive decay of Carbon-14 (A14C). Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Radiocarbon dating relies on the radioactive isotope Carbon-14 (C-14), a naturally occurring isotope of carbon. Carbon-14 is produced in the atmosphere through the interaction of cosmic rays with nitrogen-14.
  • Living organisms take in carbon, including the radioactive C-14, through processes such as photosynthesis or consumption of other organisms.
  • When an organism dies, it stops taking in carbon, and the C-14 in its tissues undergoes radioactive decay.
  • By measuring the remaining C-14 in a sample, scientists can estimate the time that has elapsed since the death of the organism.
• Radiocarbon dating has limitations on its effective dating range. The half-life of Carbon-14 is approximately 5,730 years. As a result, radiocarbon dating is most effective for dating materials up to around 50,000 years. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
• Beyond this timeframe, the amount of remaining Carbon-14 becomes too small to provide accurate measurements.
• For dating fossils or materials that are millions of years old, other dating methods based on different isotopes, such as uranium-series dating or potassium-argon dating, are more appropriate

There are a total 33 inscriptions and are primarily classified into Major Rock Edicts, Minor Rock Edicts, Separate Rock Edicts, Major Pillar Edicts, and Minor Pillar Edicts.

• Pair 1 is correctly matched: First Edict: Declared prohibition of animal sacrifice Pair 2 is incorrectly matched: Four Edict: Bheri Ghosha (war drum) replaced by Dhamma Ghosha and King Ashoka attached greatest value to this duty Fifth Edict: Appointment of Dhamma Mahamattas, a special cadre of officials entrusted to spread dhamma within the kingdom Pair 3 is correctly matched: Seventh Edict: Religious tolerance amongst all sects and welfare measures for public not only in his own kingdom but also in the neighbouring kingdoms of Cholas, Pandyas, and that of Antiochus in the north-west.
• Pair 4 is correctly matched: Thirteenth Edict: The Kalinga war (261 BCE, occurred in the ninth year after Ashoka’s consecration) changed his attitude and Ashoka, who was the worshipper of Shiva, turned towards Buddhism.

The basic form of the Hindu temple comprises the following:

• Sanctum (Garbhagriha, literally the ‘womb-house’), which was a small cubicle with a single entrance and grew into a larger chamber in time. The Garbhagriha is made to house the main icon, which is itself the focus of much ritual attention.
• The entrance to the temple, which may be a portico or a colonnaded hall, that incorporates space for a large number of worshippers, is known as the Mandapa.
• The freestanding temples tend to have a mountain-like spire, which can take the shape of a curving Shikhara in North India and a pyramidal tower, called a Vimana, in South India.
• The Vahan, i.e., the mount or the vehicle of the temple’s main deity, along with a standard pillar or Dhvaj, is placed axially before the sanctum. Two broad orders of temples in the country are known— Nagara in the north and Dravida in the south. At times, the Vesar style of temples, as an independent style created through the selective mixing of the Nagara and the Dravida orders.

• Recent Context: As per fourth advanced estimate from Directorate of Economics and Statistics Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India, In 2022 Uttar Pradesh is the leading lentil producing state in India (0.47 million tonnes from 0.49 ha. acreage, 36.43 % of national production), followed by Madhya Pradesh (0.44 million tonnes from 0.49 million ha. acreage. 34.55% of national production), West Bengal (10.53%), Bihar (8.84%) and Jharkhand (4.50%). Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• India is the second largest producer of Lentils after Canada. India is set to become the world’s largest producer of lentil (masoor) during the 2023-24 crop year on account of higher acreage. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
• India, despite being among the world’s top five lentil growers, second only to Canada, depends on imports to meet its domestic demands. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe.
• Originating in Germany, the Danube River drains into the Black Sea.
• Among the many cities on the river are four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade.

• The major effect of national awakening in the 19th century was seen in the field of social reforms. The newly educated persons increasingly revolted against the rigid social conventions and outdated customs. They could no longer tolerate irrational and dehumanising social practices. In their revolt they were inspired by the humanistic ideals of social equality and the equal worth of all individuals. Nearly all the religious reformers contributed to the social reforms movement.
• This was because the backward features of the Indian society, such as the caste system or inequality of the sexes, had religious sanctions in the past. In addition, certain other organizations, like the Social Conference; the Servants of India Society; and the Christian Missionaries worked actively for social reforms. Many prominent persons, like Jotiba Govind Phule, Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Justice Ranade, K.T. Telang, B.M. Malabari, D.K. Karve, Sasipada Banerjee, B.C. Pal, Viresalingam, Sri Narayan Guru, E.V Ramaswami Naicker and B.R. Ambedkar, and many others, also played an important role. In the 20th century, and especially after 1919, the National Movement became the main propagator of social reforms. Increasingly, the reformers took recourse to propaganda in the Indian languages to reach the masses.
• They also used novels, dramas, poetry, short stories, the Press and, in the thirties, the cinema to spread their views. While social reforms were linked with religious reforms in some cases during the 19th century, in the later years they were increasingly secular in approach. Moreover, many people, who were orthodox in their religious approach, participated in them.
• Similarly, in the beginning, social reforms had largely been the effort of the newly educated Indians, belonging to the higher castes to adjust their social behaviour to the requirements of the modern western culture and values. But gradually it penetrated down to the lower strata of the society, and began to revolutionize and reconstruct the social sphere. In time, the ideas and ideals of the reformers won almost universal acceptance and are today enshrined in the Indian Constitution. The social reform movements tried in the main to achieve two objectives : the emancipation of women and extension of equal rights to them; and the removal of caste rigidities and in particular the abolition of untouchability.

• Statement 1 is correct: The India Justice Report (IJR) 2022 is a collaborative effort undertaken by Tata Trusts in partnership with DAKSH, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and TISS-Prayas. It tracks improvements and persisting deficits in each state’s structural and financial capacity to deliver justice based on quantitative measurements of budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload, and diversity across police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid for all 36 states and UTs.
• Statement 2 is correct: According to the report, No court works with a full capacity of judges in the country except the High Court of Sikkim and the district courts in Chandigarh. At the district court level no state/UT could fully meet all its SC, ST and OBC quotas. Data on SC/ST/ OBC judges is not available for High Courts.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: According to the report, Not a single state/UT meets their reserved quotas for women in police. Only Karnataka fulfilled the mandated quotas for SC, ST and OBCs in the police force. In 19 states/UTs urban police stations serve greater populations than their rural counterparts.

Option (d) is correct: The producers in an aquatic ecosystem are various species like phytoplankton, algae and higher plants.

Just as there are many sub-divisions of the main types of the Nagara temples, there are sub-divisions also of the Dravida temples. These are basically of five different shapes:

• Square, usually called Kuta, and also Caturasra
• Rectangle or Shala or Ayatasra;
• Elliptical, called Gaja-Prishta or elephant backed, or also called Vrittayata, deriving from wagon vaulted shapes of apsidal Chaityas with a horse-shoe shaped entrance façade, usually called a Nasi;
• Circular or Vritta; and
• Octagonal or Ashtasra.

The Kerala painters (during the period from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century) evolved a pictorial language and technique of their own, while discriminately adopting certain stylistic elements from the Nayaka and the Vijayanagara schools.
More than sixty sites have been found with mural paintings which include three palaces: The Dutch palace in Kochi; the Krishnapuram palace in Kayamkulam; and the Padmanabhapuram palace. Among the sites where one can see the mature phase of Kerala’s mural painting tradition are Pundareekapuram Krishna Temple, Panayanarkavu, Thirukodithanam, Triprayar Sri Rama temple.
Most of the narrations are based on those episodes from the Hindu mythology which were popular in Kerala. The artist seems to have derived sources from oral traditions and local versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for painted narration

• X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) is India’s maiden mission dedicated to analysing the polarisation of X-rays emanating from bright celestial sources in the medium frequency band.
• X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) is India’s first and world’s second mission dedicated to analyzing the polarization of X-rays emanating from bright celestial sources in the medium frequency band (8 to 30keV). In 2021, NASA launched Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). It has been designed to operate and perform X-ray polarisation measurements within the soft X-ray band (2 to 8 keV energy band).Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• XPoSat comprises primarily two payloads, including Indian X-ray Polarimeter (POLIX) and X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing (XSPECT).
• POLIX: It is the world’s first instrument designed to operate in the medium X-ray of 8 to 30 kilo electron Volt (keV) energy band. It comprises a collimator, which is the key component to filter light originating from bright sources in the field of view. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• XSPECT: It is designed to conduct fast timing and high spectroscopic resolution in a soft X-ray energy band (0.8-15 keV).
• It has an estimated mission life of about five years during which XPoSat will observe sources that emit polarized X-rays. The observations will be done when the magnetars or neutron stars are in transit through the Earth’s shadow, for instance, during the eclipse period.
• The spacecraft is designated for observation from low earth orbit (~ 650 km, low inclination of ~ 6 degree). Hence statement 3 is not correct.

• Statement 1 is incorrect:The Satavahana rulers were brahmanas, and they represented the march of triumphant Brahmanism. From the very outset, kings and queens performed such Vedic sacrifices as ashvamedha, and vajapeya paying liberal sacrificial fees to the brahmanas. They also worshipped a large number of Vaishnava gods such as Krishna and Vasudeva.
• Statement 2 is correct: The official language of the Satavahanas was Prakrit. All their inscriptions were composed in this language and written in the Brahmi script, as was the case in Ashokan times. Some Satavahana kings may have composed Prakrit books. One Prakrit text called Gathasattasai, or the Gathasaptasati, is attributed to a Satavahana king called Hala.

• The United Nations has adopted the High Seas Treaty, the first-ever international treaty to govern the high seas. It is aimed at protecting and governing activities such as fishing, mining, and oil extraction in international waters. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• The treaty, officially known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty (BBNJ), has been signed by nearly 200 nations after 15 years of discussions. However, the treaty still needs to be ratified by at least 60 member nations to take effect. The next ocean conference in June 2025 in Nice, France, is expected to witness the completion of ratifications.
• The high seas are the parts of the ocean that are not included in the exclusive economic zones, territorial sea or internal waters of a State. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • Water beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast of a country is known as high sea.
  • High seas are the areas of the ocean for which no one nation has sole responsibility for management.
• This treaty will be legally binding in nature. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Important features: 
  • It establishes Marine protected areas (MPAs) and puts more money into marine conservation and new rules for mining at sea. o Arrangements for sharing marine genetic resources, such as biological material from plants and animals in the ocean.
  • Richer nations have pledged money for the delivery of the treaty.
  • It also includes guidelines to measure the environmental impacts of high sea activities like fishing and mining and requires countries to present an assessment of those impacts to the UN about any activities that the country is doing in international waters.

Administrative relations between Centre and states

• The executive power of the union also extends to giving of direction to the state under Article 256 for their compliance.
• This power of the Union extends to the limit of directing a state in a manner it feels essential for the purpose.
• For instance, the union can give directives to the state pertaining to the construction and maintenance of means of communication declared to be of national or military importance or protection of railways within the state.
• This is essential to ensure the implementation of parliamentary laws throughout the country.
• Non-compliance of the directives might lead to a situation where the union can invoke Article 356, for imposition of President’s rule in the state and take over the administration of state.
• Under the constitutional provision of Article 254 the President may, with the consent of the state government entrust either conditionally or unconditionally to the government, functions relating to any matter falling within the ambit of union executive power.
• Under clause (2), Parliament is also entitled to use the state machinery for the enforcement of the union laws, and confer powers and entrust duties to the state.
• A state can also, with the consent of union government confer administrative functions on the union.

Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the “size,” or amplitude, of the seismic waves generated by an earthquake source and recorded by seismographs.
The Modified Mercalli scale is designed to describe the effects of an earthquake, at a given place, on natural features, on industrial installations and on human beings. The intensity differs from the magnitude which is related to the energy released by an earthquake. There are multiple versions of the MM scale.

• Statement 1 is incorrect: The earthquake events are scaled either according to the magnitude or intensity of the shock. The magnitude scale is known as the Richter scale. The magnitude relates to the energy released during the quake. The magnitude is expressed in numbers, 0-10.
• Statement 2 is correct: The intensity scale is named after Mercalli, an Italian seismologist. The intensity scale takes into account the visible damage caused by the event. The range of intensity scale is from 1 - 12.

• The Department of Atomic Energy is getting ready to commission its ultra-modem indigenously designed fast breeder reactor. The world’s only commercially operating fast breeder reactor is situated in the Ural Mountains of Russia at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant.
• A ‘Fast Breeder Reactor’, these are a special kind of nuclear reactor that generate more atomic fuel than they consume as they work. A fast breeder reactor can help extract up to 70 per cent more energy than traditional reactors and are safer than traditional reactors while reducing long lived radioactive waste by several fold. Hence Statement-I is correct. Electricity generated by FBR would be a source of green energy as the waste from the first stage nuclear programme is reprocessed and used as fuel in FBR.
• The spent fuel from this reactor can be fed back into the reactor core several times, till the spent fuel contains only short lived fission products. This is the concept of FBR with closed fuel cycle. Hence, there is no need of large quantity of fuel materials for the annual external feed and thus eliminates the need for large capacity waste storage spaces with complex construction features. Hence Statement-II is not correct.
• Hence option (c) is the correct answer.

About Indian Tiger or Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera Tigris)

• Tiger is a species native to India and is flagship species of India, also declared as the National Animal of India. It is both an Umbrella species and a Keystone species (has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance). Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Habitat: Largest population is in India, smaller groups in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar.
• Distribution of Tiger population in India: Habitats ranging from the high mountains, mangrove swamps, tall grasslands, to dry and moist deciduous forests, as well as evergreen and shola forest systems.
• Madhya Pradesh has the maximum number of tigers followed by Karnataka and Uttarakhand.

About Project tiger

• A Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, launched in 1973 which provides central assistance to tiger range States for in-situ conservation of tigers in designated tiger reserves. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• Implementing Agency: Statutory body National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), established through Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2006.

Alteration and de-notification of tiger reserves

• The boundaries of tiger reserves cannot be altered without the recommendation of National Tiger Conservation Authority and the approval of the National Board for Wildlife. Hence statement 3 is correct.

Statement 3 is incorrect: Anti-dumping measures are not considered protectionism, as predatory dumping is not a fair trade practice.

Predatory Dumping

• Predatory dumping refers to foreign companies anti-conrpetitively prieing their products below market value to chive out domestic competition.
• Those who practice predatory dumping are forced to sell at a loss untd the competition is wiped out and monopoly status is achieved.
• Predatory dumping can be financed hy selling products at higher prices in other countries or, if possible, by tapping into a company's resources.
• Globahzation and World Trade Organization (WTO) rules banning predatory dumping make it increasingly difficult to pull off.
• Moreover, predatory dumping is illegal under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules—if it is deemed to harm producers in the targeted market. Countries that can prove this to be the case are given permission by the WTO to implement; antidumping measures, enabling governments to impose stiff duties on products being shipped in from overseas.
• Anti-clumping measures are not considered protectionism, as predatory dumping is not a fair trade practice. The WTO rules are designed to help ensure that any antidumping measures that countries take are justifiable and are not simply used as a guise to protecting local businesses and jobs from foreign competition.