(Prelims) IAS General Studies – 2000 (Part 3)

31. Consider the following provinces of former Yugoslavia
1. Bosnia
2. Croatia
3. Slovenia
4. Yugoslavia
The correct sequence of these provinces from the east to the west is:
(a) 4, 1, 3, 2
(b) 4, 1, 2, 3
(c) 1, 4, 3, 2
(d) 1, 4, 2, 3

Ans: a

32. Consider the following statements :
Hard water is not suitable for
1. drinking
2. washing clothes with soap
3. use in boilers
4. irrigating crops
Which of these statements are correct ?
(a) 1 and 3
(b) 2 and 3
(c) 1, 2 and 4
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Ans: d

• Hard water is salty and therefore not used for drinking. It doesnot produce lather with soaps or detergents .when boiled the salts of calcium and magnesium is deposited on the walls of the boilers which is harmful. It blocks the Xylem tissues of the plants and thus not suitable for irrigation.
  

33. Which one of the following Muslim rulers was hailed as the ‘Jagadguru’ by his Muslim subjects because of his belief in secularism ?
(a) Husain Shah
(b) Zain-ul-Abidin
(c) Ibrahim Adil Shah
(d) Mahmud II

Ans: c

• Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1556 – 12 September 1627) was king of the Sultanate of Bijapur and a member of the Adil Shahi dynasty. Under his reign the dynasty had its greatest period as he extended its frontier as far south as Mysore. He was a skilful administrator, artist, poet and a generous patron of the arts. He reverted to the Sunni sect of Islam, but remained tolerant of other religions, including Christianity. He is known in Indian history as Jagadguru Badshah. He tried to create cultural harmony between the Shias and the Sunnis and between Hindus and Muslims through music. He loved the art form, played musical instruments, sang and composed praises of Hindu deities Saraswati and Ganapati. He claimed that his father was the divine Ganapati and mother the Holy Saraswati.

34. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer
     List I (Local bodies)                 List II (States as in 1999)
A. Zilla Parishads at the                     1. Andhra Pradesh
sub-divisional level
B. Mandal Praja Parishad                   2. Assam
C. Tribal Councils                               3. Mizoram
D. Absence of Village Panchayats     4. Meghalaya
       A     B      C      D
(a)   2      1       4      3
(b)   1      2       4      3
(c)   3      2       1      4
(d)   2      1       3      4

Ans: a

• The Panchayat Samiti is the link between the Gram Panchayat (village council) and the zila parishad (district board). There are a number of variations in the name of this institution in the various states. For example, it is known as Mandal Praja Parishad in Andhra Pradesh, Taluka Panchayat in Gujarat, and Mandal Panchayat in Karnataka.
• The tribal dominated states under 5th and 6th schedules of the Constitution were, however, given option either to introduce Panchayati Raj institutions or to continue with their traditional self-government institutions. All the states of India including 5th and 6th schedule states except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram amended their Panchayati Raj Act to accommodate the provisions of the 73rd Amendment Act.

35. A small pouch containing silica gel is often found in bottles of medicine in tablet or powder form because silica gel
(a) kills bacteria
(b) kills germs and spores
(c) absorbs moisture
(d) absorbs all gases present inside the bottle

Ans: c

• Silica gel is a granular, vitreous, porous form of silicon dioxide made synthetically from sodium silicate. Silica gel is tough and hard; it is more solid than common household gels like gelatin or agar. It is a naturally occurring mineral that is purified and processed into either granular or beaded form.
• Silica gel is most commonly encountered in everyday life as beads in a small paper packet. In this form, it is used as a desiccant to control local humidity to avoid spoilage or degradation of some goods. Because silica gel can have added chemical indicators and adsorbs moisture very well, silica gel packets usually bear warnings for the user not to eat the contents.

36. Which one of the following statements is incorrect?
(a) Goa attained full statehood in 1987
(b) Diu is an island in the Gulf of Khambhat
(c) Daman and Diu were separated from Goa by the 56th Amendement of the Constitution of India
(d) Dadra and Nagar Haweli were under French colonial rule till 1954

Ans: d

• Goa, Daman, and Diu were incorporated into the Republic of India on 19 December 1961 by military conquest. Portugal did not recognise the Indian annexation of these territories until 1974.
• The territory of “Goa, Daman, and Diu” were administered as a single union territory until 1987, when Goa was granted statehood, leaving Daman and Diu as a separate union territory.
• Dadar and Nagar Haweli were under Portuguese colonial rule till 1954

37. Canola refers to special type of oil seed mustard varieties bred for human consumption. The main characteristic of these varieties is that the
(a) seeds have very high oil content
(b) oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids
(c) oil has long shelf-life
(d) oil has very low Erucic acid content

Ans: b

• Canola refers to both an edible oil (also known as canola oil) produced from the seed of any of several varieties of the rape plant, and to those plants, namely a cultivar of either rapeseed or field mustard/turnip rape. Consumption of the oil is common and, unlike rapeseed, does not cause harm in humans and livestock. It is also used as a source of biodiesel. It has much less erucic acid.
• It is rich in unsaturatd fatty acid . An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is at least one double bond within the fatty acid chain. A fatty acid chain is monounsaturated if it contains one double bond, and polyunsaturated if it contains more than one double bond. Although both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can replace saturated fat in the diet, trans unsaturated fats should be avoided. Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats helps to lower levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in the blood. Trans unsaturated fats are particularly risky because the double bond stereochemistry allows the fat molecules to assume a linear conformation, which leads to efficient packing (i.e., plaque formation).

38. Which one of the following lakes forms an international boundary between Tanzania and Uganda ?
(a) Chad
(b) Malawi
(c) Victoria
(d) Zambezi

Ans: c

39. A rectangular piece of iron sheet measuring 50 cm by 100 cm is rolled into a cylinder of height 50 cm. If the cost of painting the cylinder is Rs. 50/- per square meter, then what will be the cost of painting the outer surface of the cylinder ?
(a) Rs.25.00
(b) Rs.37.50
(c) Rs.75.00
(d) Rs.87.50

Ans: a

Total area = 2*pi*r*h = (1) (0.50) => Total Cost = Area*50 = (1) (0.50) (50) = 25

40. The growth rate of per capita income at current prices is higher than that of per capita income at constant prices, because the latter takes into account the rate of
(a) growth of population
(b) increase in price level
(c) growth of money supply
(d) increase in the wage rate

Ans: b

41. “In this instance we could not play off the Mohammedans against the Hindus.”
To which one of the following events did this remark of Aitchison relate ?
(a) Revolt of 1857
(b) Champaran Satyagraha (1917)
(c) Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement (1919-22)
(d) August Movement of 1942

Ans: c

42. A noise level of 100 decibels would correspond to
(a) just audible sound
(b) ordinary conversation
(c) sound from a noisy street
(d) noise from a machine-shop

Ans: d

43. The following news item appeared in a National daily dated 1 – 12 – 1999 :
“………. Parliament today rejected a Bill to grant women the right to vote and stand for office in parliamentary elections, by a margin of 32 to 30.
The National Assembly was split between liberal, pro-government and Shiite Muslim depties who were in favour of women’s rights, while the opposition camp grouped Sunni Muslim fundamentalists and tribal MPs.
A total of 64 MPs and Ministers were present, of whom two abstained.”
The Parliament referred to in this quotation is that of
(a) Kuwait                (b) Iran
(c) Bahrain               (d) Saudi Arabia

• Old news. Useless

44. The upper part of the given graph is a hypothetical movement in the BSE Sensex over a few months and the lower part is the fluctuation in the average value of automobile shares in the same period (actual values not given).

Which one of the following inferences can be drawn from the graphs ?
(a) The automobile-share market has been as unstable as BSE Sensex in that period
(b) There has been a major political change in June/July
(c) Automobile shares have shows a steady improvement in price, unaffected by large fluctuations in BSE Sensex
(d) None of the above

45. Which one of the following statements is not true ?
(a) Ghaggar’s water is utilised in the Indira Gandhi Canal
(b) Narmada rises from Amarkantak region
(c) Nizam Sagar is situated on the Manjra river
(d) Penganga is a tributary of the Godavari

Ans: a

• Nizam Sagar Dam is a reservoir constructed across the Manjira River, a tributary of the Godavari River, in Nizamabad district in Telangana, India. It is located at about 144 km north-west of Hyderabad.
• The Penganga River is the chief river of the Yavatmal district, Chandrapur and Washim district in the Maharashtra state in India and flows along the south east boundaries of the district. It is deeply entrenched and not able to be navigated. It rises in the Ajantha range and is a major tributary of the Wardha River, the other major river in the district. It is tributary of Godawari.
• The Indira Gandhi Canal is one of the biggest canal projects in India. It starts from the Harike Barrage at Sultanpur, a few kilometers below the confluence of the Sutlej and Beas rivers in Punjab state. It does not use Ghaggar water. It consists of the Rajasthan feeder canal (with the first 167 km in Punjab and Haryana and the remaining 37 km in Rajasthan) and 445 km of the Rajasthan main canal which is entirely within Rajasthan.This canal enters into Haryana from Punjab near Lohgarh village of Haryana,then running in western part of district Sirsa it enters into Rajasthan.
• The Narmada also called the Rewa, is a river in central India and the fifth longest river in the Indian subcontinent. Its source is Amarkantak Plateu, Shahdol district, Central India, Madhya Pradesh. It is the third longest river that flows entirely within India, after the Godavari and the Krishna. It is also known as “Life Line of Madhya Pradesh” for its huge contribution to the state of Madhya Pradesh in many ways. It forms the traditional boundary between North India and South India and flows westwards over a length of 1,312 km before draining through the Gulf of Khambhat into the Arabian Sea. It is one of only three major rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west (longest west flowing river), along with the Tapti River and the Mahi River. It is one of the rivers in India that flows in a rift valley, flowing west between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges. The other rivers which flow through rift valley include Damodar River in Chota Nagpur Plateau and Tapti. The Tapti River and Mahi River also flow through rift valleys, but between different ranges. It flows through the states of Madhya Pradesh (1,077 km), and Maharashtra, (74 km)– (35 km) then along the border between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (39 km) and the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and in Gujarat (161 km)

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