IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Feb 10, 2016

ANSWER: Gujarat

Explanation:

• To strengthen the aviation sector in Gujarat, the state government has planned to set up the country’s first-ever aviation park here, with facilities including an airstrip, training school, helipad and space for setting up small manufacturing units, among others.
• This will be a first ever Aviation Park in India. There are barely four such parks in the world.
• The government-owned Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Ltd (GUJSAIL) is tasked by the government to carry out the project.
• In the initial phase, this park will provide platform for educating people about the aviation activities. Apart from a theatre and an info—tech area, the park will also have space for conducting air shows and other aviation-related adventure sports. For professionals, the park will have a training complex with a flight simulator, aviation and aerospace management school, an aircrew training school, a helipad and a landing strip for smaller aircrafts.

ANSWER: Maharashtra

Explanation:

• Maharashtra has emerged as the top ranking state in terms of the overall Internet readiness index, followed by Karnataka, Gujarat, Telengana and Tamil Nadu.
• The Internet readiness index is a composite index on components like e-infrastructure index, e-participation index, IT services and e-governance index.
• Among the Union Territories, Chandigarh is ranked at the top in terms of Internet readiness index, northeast is way behind.
• Among the smaller states, Delhi has emerged as the topmost state in terms of Internet readiness index, followed by Puducherry and Goa.
• The report, ‘Index of Internet Readiness of Indian States, was published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indicus Analytics.
• Internet readiness in this study is not limited to how industry-friendly each state is for investment in IT, but aims to give a more holistic picture of the digital ecosphere that presently exists in the states.

ANSWER: Chennai

Explanation:

• In a bid to optimally utilise the ‘platinum ten’ (the final countdown in the moments following a serious motor vehicle accident) and save human lives just after road accidents, ‘two-wheeler ambulances’ would be positioned at important road junctions to administer first-aid to the injured.
• Immobilisation, resuscitation, oxygen supply and bleeding control procedures performed during these crucial ‘Platinum 10’ minutes have the potential to save the lives of the injured by increasing the chances of their survival.
• These vehicles, which would have sirens, would also have portable oxygen cylinders, pulsoxymeters, BP apparatus, glucometers, and digital thermometers.
• The increased pressure, called intraocular pressure, can damage the optic nerve, which transmits images to the brain. If damage to the optic nerve from high eye pressure continues, glaucoma will cause permanent loss of vision. Without treatment, glaucoma can cause total permanent blindness within a few years.
• A 'smart' contact lens with a built-in sensor could help determine which glaucoma patients are at a higher risk of progression.
• Certain patterns of electrical signals emitted from the contact lenses correlate with a faster rate of glaucoma progression. Similar to how an electrocardiogram shows a heartbeat, the profile of signals from the smart lens indirectly shows eye pressure changes over time.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• Aditya is the nation’s third big extra-terrestrial outing after Moon and Mars, all conceived and designed by ADCOS, the multi-faculty body of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
• Aditya-L1, the Indian Sun mission due after three years, may turn out to be a unique formation of not one but two spacecraft looking at the Sun from two stable orbital points.
• ISRO has started activities to send a 400-kg spacecraft to look at the Sun from a special stable orbital slot called L1 around 2019-20. L1 or ‘Lagrangian’ point # 1 is about 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun.
• There are four more Lagrangian points L2 to L5 for Sun and Earth where space objects can resist the pulls of both the celestial bodies and stay relatively stable in that orbit.
• A second spacecraft can be sent to Point L5, about 1.3 million km away and at a 30-degree angle to L1, for a fuller picture of Sun. It could follow L1 a few months or a year apart

ANSWER: First

Explanation:

• At current production levels, India continues to top the list of the major milk-producing countries in the world followed by the USA, China, Pakistan and Brazil.
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, India currently accounts for nearly 16% of total world milk production. However, India is not among the highest milk surplus countries due to huge domestic demand and less productivity.
• A new initiative, National Gokul Mission, has been launched for the preservation of indigenous cow breeds.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• The governor has no business to call the assembly session on his whims to test the majority of a chief minister and his government.
• The right of the governor under Article 175 (right of the governor to address and send messages to the House and Houses) of the Constitution was limited.
• Messaging, he can do independently but the nature of messages is important. He needs to take the aid and advise of the chief minister and his council of ministers

ANSWER: Only 1 and 3

Explanation:

• In India, there are six AQI categories, namely Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe.
• The AQI considers eight pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb)
• Cities in North India have air 2-3 times worse than those in South.
• Bengaluru had the cleanest air among those studied.