IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - July 26, 2016

ANSWER: West Bengal

Explanation:

• Sagar Island is an island in the Ganges delta, lying on the continental shelf of Bay of Bengal about 100 km (54 nautical miles) south of Kolkata.
• A new port is being developed on Sagar Island which will take the load off the Kolkata and Haldia Port.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Kolkata Port has been facing the challenges in terms of draft limitations, limited headroom for expansion and efficiency. The constraint has necessitated the need to have an alternative port near to sea, having sufficient draft and no river navigation, as it has been there in Kolkata Port.
• Sagar Island has been selected after a detailed study for locating the port. A new port in Sagar will share the hinterland of the Haldia and Kolkata ports, particularly the power and steel plants in the eastern region, and containers from the eastern parts of India (Western UP, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh etc.) and neighbouring landlocked countries- Nepal and Bhutan.
• The port will be a viable alternative to serve as for spill-over cargo, specifically non-POL bulk from the Haldia dock complex.
• Containers will be another major variant to be handled at the Sagar port. This is primarily due the limitation of capacity and the inability to expand the Haldia and Kolkata ports, which can result in an overflow of containers that can be handled at the Sagar port.

ANSWER: It is a mix of different modes of transport

Explanation:

• Multimodal Mix is using two or more different modes of transport for carrying cargo.
• One of the key objectives of the Sagarmala programme is to reduce the cost of transporting cargo by optimizing the modal mix.
• It has been estimated that the cost per tonne kilometre of moving cargo by sea or inland waterway routes can be 60 to 80 percent lower than road or rail.
• However, the modal share of coastal shipping and inland waterways remains low. Several production and demand centres in India lie close to the coastline and rivers, yet the waterways are under-utilized.
• The National Perspective Plan of Sagarmala envisions projects which have potential for moving raw materials and finished products between these centres using coastal shipping and inland waterways instead of rail or road. The change in modal mix could lead to large amount of savings in logistic costs.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) is a national mission to sustain the Himalayan ecosystem, continuously assess its health status, and formulate policies for sustainable development in the mountainous states.
• The Mission covers 12 Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam and West Bengal.
• The Department of Science and Technology would coordinate the implementation of NMSHE and a mission cell would be set up at its Climate Change Programme Division for the project.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:

• Its primary objective is to develop a sustainable national capacity in a time-bound manner to continuously assess the health status of the Himalayan ecosystem and enable policy formulation to assist Himalayan states to implement sustainable development programmes.
• The NMSHE would attempt to address a variety of important issues, including studying the Himalayan glaciers and associated hydrological consequences and prediction and management of natural hazards.
• It would also assist in the on-going restoration and rehabilitation process of Uttarakhand, which was devastated in last year’s ravaging floods. The NMSHE would focus on biodiversity conservation and protection of wildlife, traditional knowledge of societies and their livelihoods.
• Marginalised communities of the Himalayan region would be the major beneficiaries of the mission.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• Out of the total disabled population of 2.68 crores in Census 2011, 1.46 crores (54.5%) are literates and the remaining 1.22 crores (45.5%) are illiterates.
• Percentage of literates has increased for both males and females during the decade 2001-2011 and also their attainment in higher educational levels has improved.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:

• All states and UTs, if they so desire, may provide education in schools, up to Class V, in mother tongue, local or regional language as the medium of instruction.
• Indian culture, local and traditional knowledge will be given adequate space in the school education.
• Keeping in view special importance of Sanskrit to the growth and development of Indian languages and its unique contribution to the cultural unity of the country, facilities for teaching Sanskrit at the school and university stages will be offered on a more liberal scale.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• Physical education, yoga, games and sports, NCC, NSS, art education, Bal Sansad, covering local art, craft, literature and skills, and other co- scholastic activities will be made an integral part of the curriculum and daily routine in schools for the holistic development of children. Facilities for the above will be a pre-requisite to the recognition of schools.
• Funds will be earmarked by the government/ school management for all co-scholastic activities in schools.
• For Science, Mathematics and English subjects, a common national curriculum will be designed.
• High failure rate in class-X examination is attributed to a large extent to poor performance in three subjects: Mathematics, Science and English. In order to reduce the failure rates, class X examination in Mathematics, Science and English will be at two levels: Part-A at a higher level and Part-B at a lower level.