Civil Service Exam: വാർത്തകളിൽ കാണുന്ന 'ഷാഡോ പാഡ്' എന്ന പദം എന്തുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട് നില്‍ക്കുന്നു ?

Answer(a)

Statement 1 is correct. There is no provision of SCS in the Constitution; the Central government extends financial assistance to states that are at a comparative disadvantage against others. The concept of SCS emerged in 1969 when the Gadgil formula (that determined Central assistance to states) was approved.

Statement 2 is correct. Some prominent guidelines for getting SCS status:
o    Must be economically backward with poor infrastructure.
o    The states must be located in hilly and challenging terrain.
o    They should have a low population density and a significant tribal population.
o    Should be strategically situated along the borders of neighboring countries.
   
Statement 3 is not correct. The central government bears 90 percent of the state expenditure on all centrally-sponsored schemes and external aid while the rest 10 percent is given as a loan to the state at a zero percent rate of interest.

Other benefits available for Special category states are
o    Preferential treatment in getting central funds.
o    Concession on excise duty to attract industries to the state.
o    30 percent of the Centre’s gross budget also goes to special category states.
o    There are no tax-free benefits availed by the businesses in the SCS states.

Following are Special category states:

1.    Manipur
2.    Meghalaya
3.    Mizoram
4.    Arunachal Pradesh
5.    Tripura
6.    Sikkim
7.    Uttarakhand
8.    Himachal Pradesh
9.    Assam
10.    Nagaland
 

Answer (b)

•    Totalitarianism is a form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority of the state. In the broadest sense, totalitarianism is characterized by the strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. 
•    Totalitarianism is often distinguished from dictatorship, despotism, or tyranny by its supplanting of all political institutions with new ones and its sweeping away of all legal, social, and political traditions. 
•    The totalitarian state pursues some special goal, such as industrialization or conquest, to the exclusion of all others. Any dissent is branded evil, and internal political differences are not permitted. Because the pursuit of the goal is the only ideological foundation for the totalitarian state, the achievement of the goal can never be acknowledged.

Answer (b)

Statement 1 is not correct. Education under the dyarchy refers to the development of education after the Montagu Chelmsford reforms. In 1919, the Government of India Act 1919, or Montagu Chelmsford reforms were passed by the government. It introduced a system of dyarchy or double government in the provinces. 

Statements 2 and 3 are correct. Though there was a deficiency of funds there was “some significant development in the field of Mass education by of philanthropic efforts in provinces.
o    The provincial governments passed compulsory Education Acts in most of the provinces. However, its real objectives were not realized due to a deficiency of funds.
o    The transfer of control of education to the provincial governments isolated them from the central government and also from other provinces.
o    It deprived the central government of the power of guiding and formulating the educational policies for the whole of India. The Central Government could no longer act as an advisory and coordinating agency on problems on the matters of education.

Answer (c)

•    Bal Shastri Jambhekar (1812-1846) was a pioneer of social reform through journalism in Bombay; he attacked Brahminical orthodoxy and tried to reform popular Hinduism.
•    He started the newspaper Darpan in 1832. He is known as the father of Marathi journalism. In 1840, he started Digdarshan which published articles on scientific subjects as well as history.
•    Jambhekar founded the Bombay Native General Library and started the Native Improvement Society of which an offshoot was the Students Literary and Scientific Library.
•    He was the first professor of Hindi at the Elphinston College, besides being a director of the Colaba Observatory.
 

Answer (d)

Statement 1 is not correct. Historians of religion have divided the bhakti movement into two broad categories - Saguna (with attributes) and Nirguna (without attributes). The formerly included traditions that focused on the worship of specific deities such as Shiva, Vishnu, and his avatars (incarnations) and forms of the goddess or Devi, all often conceptualized in anthropomorphic forms. Nirguna bhakti on the other hand was the worship of an abstract form of God. 

Nirguna is the concept of a formless God, which has no attributes or quality. Saguna has form, attributes, and quality. While Nirguni is knowledge-focused, Saguna is love-focused. Thus, the Nirguna poetry is Gyanshrayi (has roots in knowledge) while Saguna poetry is premashrayi (has roots in love).

Statement 2 is not correct. The most common examples of Saguna bhakti include Ramanand and Chaitanya who espoused the doctrine of the incarnation and worshipped the Saguna Ram and Krishna respectively. On the other hand, the most common examples of Nirguna bhakti include Kabir, Guru Nanak, and Dadu who created a religious school that rejected the scriptural authority and every form of idol worship. They fought against social discrimination and strove for Hindu-Muslim reconciliation. 

Answer (c)

•    A Chinese Group named “Red Echo” was behind a malware attack known as ‘Shadow pad’ on India’s critical information infrastructure such as Ports, power systems etc.
•    Cyber intelligence firm, Recorded Future in the latest report said, China-linked Group RedEcho targeted the Indian power sector amid heightened border tensions.
•    The union ministry of power in a statement said, an alarm was raised on the threat to RLDCs and National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), operated by Power Systems Operations Company (POSOCO), but it was resolved.
•    The power ministry further said, National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre informed through a mail about the threat by Red Echo through a malware called Shadow Pad. 
•    It stated that: “Chinese state-sponsored threat Actor group known as Red Echo is targeting Indian Power sector's Regional Load Dispatch Centres (RLDCs) along with State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDCs).

Answer (d)

Both Statements given are not correct.

•    Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) have undertaken High-Resolution Aquifer Mapping and Management in Arid Regions of North-Western India to augment the groundwater resources.
•    Heli-borne geophysical mapping technique of CSIR-NGRI provides a high-resolution 3D image of the sub-surface up to a depth of 500 meters below the ground. This technique is cost-effective, precise, and is useful to map large areas within a short time to map the vast extent of groundwater resources in arid regions of our country.
•    Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will help to utilize groundwater for drinking purposes and supplement Har Ghar Nal Se Jal Mission.

Answer (b)

Statement 1 is not correct. Carbon dioxide levels today are higher than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years. The current CO2 level in the atmosphere is at 416 ppm (parts per million). The annual rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 60 years is about 100 times faster than previous natural increases, such as those that occurred at the end of the last ice age 11,000-17,000 years ago. 

Global warming potential (GWP) is the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide(CO2). Therefore, the reference gas is CO2 for GWP. GWP of CO2 is one.
The oceans play a critical role in capturing CO2 from the atmosphere. Around 25% of all CO2 emissions are absorbed by the ocean, making it one of the world's largest carbon sinks.

Statement 2 is correct. It is estimated that the oceans contain about 50 times more CO2 than the atmosphere and 19 times more than the land biosphere. CO2 moves between the atmosphere and the ocean by molecular diffusion when there is a difference between CO2 gas pressure between the atmosphere and oceans. For example, when the atmospheric pressure of CO2 is higher than the surface ocean, CO2 diffuses across the air-sea boundary into the seawater. 

Answer (b)

•    FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles) scheme is designed to support the electrification of public and shared transport and help create charging infrastructure.
•    The marquee scheme signals the government's intent to reduce vehicular emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

Answer (b)

•    e-NAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal that networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. 
•    Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the lead agency for implementing e-NAM under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India.