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UPSC (PYQ)

UPSC 2010 Prelim 

1. A cuboid has six sides of different colours. The red side is opposite to black. The blue side is adjacent to white. The brown side is adjacent to blue. The red side is face down. Which one of the following would be the opposite of brown?

A.      Red

B.       Black

C.      White

D.      Blue

ANSWER: C

2. By a regulation in 1793, the District Collector was deprived of his judicial powers and made the collecting agent only. What was the reason for such regulation?

A.      Lord Cornwallis felt that the District Collector's efficiency of revenue collection would enormously increase without the burden of other work

B.       Lord Cornwallis felt that judicial power should compulsorily be in the hands of Europeans while Indians can be given the job of revenue collection in the districts

C.      Lord Cornwallis was alarmed at the extent of power concentrated in the District Collector and felt that such absolute power was undesirable in one person.

D.      The judicial work demanded a deep knowledge of India and a good training in law and' Lord Cornwallis felt that District Collector should be only a revenue collector

ANSWER: C

The judicial reforms undertaken by Lord Cornwallis laid a strong foundation in the British Indian administrative system in the year 1793. The judicial reforms of Cornwallis were documented in the famous Cornwallis Code.

However the new judicial reforms of Lord Cornwallis were based on the principle of Separation of Powers. Cornwallis at first sought to separate the revenue administration from the administration of justice. The collector used to be the head of the Revenue Department in a district and also enjoyed extensive judicial and magisterial powers.

However Cornwallis wanted Separation of Power and the Cornwallis Code divested the collector of all the judicial and the magisterial powers. Thus the Collectors were given only the power of the revenue administration according to the Cornwallis Code. A new class of officer called the District Judge was created to preside over the district Civil Court. The district judge was also given the magisterial and the police function. 

3. What is the principle by which a cooling system (Radiator) in a motor car works?

A.      Conduction only

B.       Convection

C.      Radiation only

D.      Both conduction & radiation

ANSWER: B

4. In a group of five persons A, B, C, D and E, there is a professor, a doctor and lawyer. A and D are unmarried ladies, and do not work. Of the married couple in the Group, E is the husband. B is the brother of A and is neither a doctor nor a lawyer. Who is the professor?

A.      B

B.       C

C.      A

      D. None of these

ANSWER: A

5. Half of the villagers of a certain village have their own houses. One - fifth of the villagers cultivate paddy. One-third of the villagers are literate. Four- fifth of the villagers are below twenty five. Then, which one of the following is certainly true?

A.      All the villagers who have their own houses are literate

B.       Some villagers under twenty five are literate

C.      A quarter of the villagers who have their own houses cultivate paddy

D.      Half of the villagers who cultivate paddy are literate

ANSWER: B

The Decline of the Mughal Empire

The Decline of the Mughal Empire

The great Mughal Empire, the envy of its contemporaries, for almost two centuries, declined and disintegrated during the first half of the 18th century. The Mughal Emperors lost their power and glory and their empire shrank to a few square miles around Delhi. In the end, in 1803, Delhi itself was occupied by the British array and the proud Mughal Emperor was reduced to the status of a mere pensioner of a foreign power. A study of the process of decline of this great Empire is most instructive. It reveals some of the defects and weaknesses of India’s medieval social, economic and political structure which were responsible for the eventual subjugation of the country by the English East India Company.

SESSIONS OF PARLIAMENT

SESSIONS OF PARLIAMENT

Summoning

The president from time to time sumons each House of Parliament to meet. But, the maximum gap between two sessions of Parliament cannot be more than six months. Parliament should meet at least twice a year.

Maurya Court Art

Mauryan Sculpture

The Maurya period is marked by an impressive progress in the Indian sculpture. Dr. Ananda Coomarswamy differentiates the Mauryan sculptures into Court art and the Popular Art. The Court art includes the pillars and their capitals while the popular art includes the works of sculptors such as the Yakshas and Yakshinis. The Yaksha image from Parkam and Yakshini Image from Besnagar are examples of popular art.

CLASSICAL LANGUAGE

According to Article 343, the official language of the India should be Hindi in Devanagari script. As per Eight schedules of the Indian constitution, we have 22 languages. In 2004 it was decided by the Indian Government to proclaim Indian Languages meeting certain requirements as “Classical Language”. 

Criteria 

ü  Extraordinary antiquity of its early transcripts or verified history over a period of 1500-2000 years.

ü  A body of ancient literature or texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.

ü  The literary tradition should be unique and not hired from another language community.

The classical language and literature being diverse from modern, there may also be a discontinuity among the classical language and its later forms or its sprouts

Classical Languages

ü  In 2004, Government of India declared Tamil as the Classical Language of India.

ü  In 2005, right after Tamil, the government declared Sanskrit as Classical Language of India. These two languages are undeniably parental sources for several languages belonging to the Indo-European family and the Dravidian family of language groups.

ü  The government gave the classical language status to Kannada and Telugu in 2008.

ü  Malayalam was declared as a classical language in 2013 and in 2014, Odiya was also given the status of the Classical language.

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

• Established in 1945 with the objective of eliminating hunger and improving nutrition and standards of living by increasing agricultural productivity.
• Secretariat is located in Rome, Italy.
• Key programmes==> Food Security Programmes, Codex Alimentarius, & International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) etc.

Codex Alimentarius – International Food Standards==> established by FAO and WHO develops harmonized international food standards, guidelines and codes of practice to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair trade practices in the food trade. CAC has recently adopted three Codex standards for black, white and green pepper, cumin and thyme owing to India‘s efforts to benchmark global spices trade.
International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) ==>it aims to protect cultivated and wild plants by preventing the introduction and spread of pests.
Globefish

• Globefish is an unit within the FAO, responsible for information and analysis on international fish trade and markets.

Flagship Publications Every year, FAO publishes a number of major ‘State of the World’ reports related to food, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and natural resources. 1.      State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2.      State of Food and Agriculture 3.      State of Food Insecurity in the World 4.      State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture 5.      State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources 6.      State of the World’s Forests 7.      State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 8.      State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture 9.      State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 10.    Status of the World’s Soil Resources

Globefish‘s flagship reports cover over 14 of the most major traded seafood commodities, including shrimp, tuna, salmon, small pelagics and other species with detailed statistics