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Q1 - Which of the following is not a missile under integrated guided missile development programme? A. Agni B. Dhanush C. Prithvi D. Nag Q2 - Polavaram does not run through which of the following state? A. Odisha B. Chhattisgarh C. Telangana D. Andhra Pradesh Q3 - FC-31 stealth fighter is manufactured by which of the following countries? A. China B. USA C. France D. Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Answer 1-B, 2- C, 3 - A

Q.1- Which of the following is correct regarding inland waterways of India? 1. The total cargo moved by the inland waterway is just 10% of the total inland traffic in India 2. National Waterway 1 is the longest of all waterways in India A. 1 only B. 2 only C. Both D. None Q.2- Sabarimala temple is situated in which of the following states? (a) Tamil Nadu (b) Andhra Pradesh (c) Kerala (d) Karnataka Q.3- Who among the following is eligible to be a registered voter in India? A. Any citizen of India attaining 18 years at the time of election B. Any citizen of India attaining 18 years at the time of last electoral rolls preparation C. Any citizen of India attaining 18 yearsFirst Jan of the year of revision of electoral rolls D. None of the above . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Answer   1-B,  2- C,  3-D

Q- Which of the following is world's largest Tin producing country? A. China B. Indonesia C. Malaysia D. Japan Ques- Which of the following is not part of World Bank? A. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), B. International Development Association (IDA) C. International Finance Corporation (IFC) D. All are part of world bank Ques- consider the following statements about Participatory notes or P notes 1.P notes are issued by registered foreign institutional investors to overseas investors 2.P notes are not used within the country Which of the above statements is/are true A. only 1 B. only 2 C. neither 1 nor 2 D. both 1 & 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Answer  1-C, 2-C, 3-D

Q- Which of the following country is not part of G-20? A. Argentina B. Mexico C. Saudi Arabia D. Iran Ques- 1. Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mark-III) is the heaviest next generation rocket launched by ISRO. 2. The launch is from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota (AP). Which of the following statements is/are true-? a. Only 1 b. Only 2 c. Both 1 & 2 d. Neither 1 nor 2 Ques- India's first underwater metro tunnel is started in which of the following rivers? A. Narmada B. Krishna C. Hoogly D. Godavari Answer  D  C  C

Ques- Arrange these countries from west to east: 1. Kuwait 2. Bahrain 3. Qatar 4. UAE A. 1-3-4-2 B. 1-2-3-4 C. 3-1-2-4 D. 3-2-1-4 Ques- Which of the following correctly describes a comet? A. It is an icy small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to evolve gasses, a process called outgassing. B. It is planet sized bodies which are present outside solar system C. It is bodies revolving around sun in between mars and jupiter. D. None of the above Ques- With reference to 3D Printing, consider the following statements 1. It is also called additive manufacturing 2. To perform a print, the machine reads the design from 3D printable file Which of the statements given above is/are correct? A. 1 only B. 2 Only C. Both D. None . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Answer    1-B, 2-A ,3-C

Editor's Note: Currently, India faces green fodder shortage of 63.5 per cent. The cost of green fodder increased by three times between 2011 and 2016. In drought-hit states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka, the inability to feed livestock is forcing farmers to resort to distress sale of cattle. In the beginning of 2016, Down To Earth travelled to several districts in Marathwada region to find out the causes of this chronic fodder shortage and how farmers are dealing with it. "Even bottled water is more expensive than milk.” This is the reply 39-year-old Kishore Nirmal gives when asked why he wants to sell off his healthy cow. Waiting for buyers under a peepal tree at a weekly animal fair, the farmer from Neknoor village in Maharashtra’s Beed district says he gets only Rs 12 by selling a litre of milk, whereas a litre of bottled drinking water costs Rs 20. The highest price Nirmal has been offered for his cow so far is Rs 20,000, which is not eve...

Cyclone Mora lashed coastal areas of Bangladesh today, forcing at least 350,000 people to evacuate to safer place. Cyclone caused havoc in refugee camps set up for Rohingya muslims who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar. In the coastal district of Cox's Bazar, about 200,000 people were evacuated. In Chittagong district, about 150,000 people were evacuated. The Cox Bazar district is few miles from the Myanmar border. According to media reports, damage in different camps was severe with almost all the 10,000 thatched huts in the Balukhali and Kutupalong camps destroyed. However, according to a weather official, the severity of the cyclone was less than what was apprehended. Officials in Chittagong reported wind speed up to 135 km per hour (85 mph). They also revealed that low-lying coastal areas were flooded by a storm surge with waves two metres (seven feet) high. The cyclone was expected to weaken in Bangladesh before the afternoon of May 31, as it is moving i...

Kala-azar or visceral leishmaniasis is a public health problem in parts of India and of late, it is posing a new challenge due to the rise of drug resistance. Now a group of Indian scientists have figured out underlying reasons for the disease-causing parasite, Leishmania donovani, to become resistant to drugs.  This development could pave the way for addressing the problem of drug resistant kala-azar. Researchers at the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi recently figured out that nine proteins present in the invading parasite play an important role in its response to antimony agents currently in use. The presence of these proteins, scientists say, can differentiate between the drug resistant and sensitive types of the parasite and can predict treatment outcomes. Pentavalent antimony therapeutic agents against leishmaniasis which have had a great success in treatment of kala-azar are now resulting in high treatment failure rates d...

The powerful earthquake that shook Nepal on April 25, 2015 may not have been the end of seismic events in the Himalayan nation, according to a study by Indian researchers who have identified areas of Nepal that are likely to face tremors in the future. The Gorkha Earthquake classified as “violent” on the Mercalli Intensity Scale had given rise to 256 strong and mild aftershocks. An extensive quantitative study on the event carried out by researchers at Raman Centre of Applied and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Kolkata, has identified areas likely to face tremors in the future. The earthquake occurred in the region of the Main Himalayan Thrust Fault. This is one of the regions where the Indian tectonic plate is pushed under the Eurasian tectonic plate. By computing a factor known as the ‘Coulomb Stresschanges’ along the fault, the researchers have obtained important correlations between the location of the main earthquake and its aftershocks. When adjacent tectonic plates are consta...

In what could be yet another addition to the list of climate change impacts, the researchers from several universities have claimed that there could be a “startling drop” in the amount of carbon stored in the Sierra Nevada mountain range due to the changing climate and wildfire events. The study, which focussed on “potential decline in carbon carrying capacity” of forests, was published in Scientific Reports. According to Matthew Hurteau, Assistant Professor at University of New Mexico, and a co-author of the paper, the objective of the study has been to understand how rise in temperatures and decline in precipitation will alter carbon uptake in forests. The study also looked into the events like large-scale wildfires that leave forests with fewer trees for carbon sequestration. About 50 per cent of all human-emitted carbon is absorbed by vegetation and the ocean, and is stored through natural processes. However, as forests undergo transformation due to global warming and large-...

Even the net benefit of taxing agriculture isn’t worth the cost of monitoring and rolling out such a system For peasants, the Mughal Empire was fundamentally an extractive state; a protection racket run riot. Typically, the land revenue share of a crop varied between 33% and 50%, depending on fertility, with a further 10-25% paid to the zamindar for his efforts. Its replacement by the East India Company and later the British government provided little respite. Zamindars were now granted hereditary and proprietary rights, with the rate of assessment fixed in perpetuity. The Company’s share was often fixed at 2/3rd of the gross produce received by the zamindars from the ryots. The consequences of such land revenue systems were stark — agricultural output grew at just 0.37% per annum between 1891 and 1947, with foodgrains at just 0.11% per annum, while commercial crop output rose by 1.31% annually; meanwhile the population rose at 0.67% annually. The colonial government pushed farmers ...

Muslim women are not without remedy if they want to end their marital ties The marathon arguments on the subject of triple talaq before the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court have ended. While most Muslim women petitioners wanted nothing more than just implementation of the Koranic procedure of divorce and an end to arbitrary and instant divorce, the Attorney General said that the government could bring in a comprehensive law should the court strike down triple talaq. Should the court or the government compel Muslim women to mandatorily use the expensive, slow and formal judicial system to get a divorce? Should the wider and more liberal right of divorce of Muslim women be taken away for the sake of judicial oversight of divorces? It is wrong to say that Muslim women can get a divorce only through courts under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939. The Act in no way takes away a Muslim woman’s right to divorce outside the formal judicial system. Since the Act was to...

Awareness is key to containing Zika. Why did the Health Ministry keep three cases secret? The surveillance system put in place by the Health Ministry succeeded in identifying three adults infected with the Zika virus between November 2016 and February 2017 in Gujarat. But the Ministry acted less than responsibly by withholding the information from everyone. Even the World Health Organisation was informed about the three cases as recently as May 15, more than five months after the first case was laboratory-confirmed. Information regarding the cases came to light when the WHO posted the information on its website on May 26. By not disclosing the information in real time, India behaved as China did in the case of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. China was then widely criticised by the global community for trying to cover up the outbreak — by doing so, the Chinese government was arguably partly responsible for SARS spreading to other countries. That none of...