UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam Paper I (General Studies) 05 June 2022 (Answer Key)

Rice paddies are considered one of the most important sources of CH₄ and N₂O emissions, which have attracted considerable attention due to their contribution to global warming.

CH₄ and N₂O gases are simultaneously emitted from rice fields to the atmosphere due to their favorable production, consumption, and transport systems. The intensive rice farming system has been creating excessive pressure on rice fields.

Statement 1 is correct :- SRI is not a standardised, fixed technological method. It is rather a set of ideas, a methodology for comprehensively managing and conserving resources by changing the way that land, seeds, water, nutrients, and human labour are used to increase productivity from a small but welltended number of seeds. The opportunity for making savings in electricity, groundwater, seeds, etc. can justify more robust planning efforts for the promotion of SRI with appropriate investments and strategy to address the sources of resistance to its adoption.

Statement 2 is correct :- SRI relies mostly on organic fertilization, methane emissions are greatly reduced without offsetting increases in nitrous oxide.

Statement 3 is correct :-  Case Study: Each hectare of SRI under tubewell irrigation in the Andhra Pradesh study area saved about 845 pumping hours in one season compared to the conventional paddy. This amounts to 3,151 kWh of savings in electricity consumption (assuming 5 HP pumps). Even at a cost of Rs. 4 per unit (kWh), the state will save about Rs. 12,607 on every ha of paddy converted to SRI management following all of the principles.

Lake Faguibine sits in northern Mali, 80 kilometres from Timbuktu. In the 1970s, following increasingly disastrous periods of drought, the lake began to evaporate. Gradually, sand dunes replaced the vast expanses of water and farming land irrigated by flooding from the River Niger.

Gandikota is a small village in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. The village is majorly known for housing the spectacular gorge which is famously adjudged as the Grand Canyon of India. The stunning gorge has been created by the waters of the famous river Pennar that streams from the Erramala hills. It is also known as the Hidden Grand Canyon of India as it isn’t very well known around the country.

S1 is incorrect :- Namcha Barwa-Tibet.

S2 is correct :- Nanda Devi peak forms a part of Kumaon Himalayas. The Kumaon Himalayas comprise the west-central section of the Himalayas in northern India.

S3 is incorrect :- Nokrek: Garo hills.

The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean in southwestern Asia,i.e. the historical region of Syria.

Statement 3, 4, 5 are correct : –  Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, a mountainous landlocked country in southern Central Asia. It borders Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to the north, Iran to the west, Pakistan to the east and south. It has a small border section with China and India (disputed because it’s in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) to the northeast.

S1 is correct : – Monazite is a primarily reddishbrown phosphate mineral that contains rare-earth elements. Due to variability in composition, monazite is considered a group of minerals

S2 is correct : – Thorium content of monazite is variable and sometimes can be up to 20–30%. 

S3 is correct : –  The beach sands along the coasts of India contain large reserves of strategic minerals like ilmenite, monazite, zircon, etc.

S4 is correct : – Monazite is a prescribed substance under the Atomic Energy Act 1962. Since Monazite is a ‘prescribed substance’, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, as a policy, has restricted all activities in respect of this substance to Government entities only. Indian Rare Earths Ltd. (IREL), a Public Sector Undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy, is the only organisation that has been permitted till date to export monazite. The Department has not permitted any other individual or company or entity to export monazite.

The longest day of 2021 for those living north of the Equator is June 21. In technical terms, this day is referred to as the summer solstice, the longest day of the summer season. It occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, or more specifically right over 23.5 degree north latitude.

S1 is incorrect: Hokera Wetland – Jammu and Kashmir
S3 is incorrect: Sasthamkotta Lake – Kerala.

All are correct
Open source projects are publicly available and accessible, promoting collaborative participation, rapid prototyping, transparency, meritocracy, and community-oriented development. The philosophy behind the concept of an open-source ecosystem is the essential respect for a user’s freedom.

All are correct 
Web 3.0 is the latest Internet technology that leverages machine learning, artificial intelligence and blockchain to achieve real-world human communication. The icing on the cake is that web 3.0 not only allows individuals to own their data, but they will be compensated for their time spent on the web.

S1 is correct :- Today’s web-based software is flexible enough to be modified for specific business uses but also individual users. Buyers can customize the user interface (UI) to change the look and feel of the program, as well as modify specific areas, such as data fields, to alter what data appears.

S2 is correct :- SaaS is a method of software delivery that allows data to be accessed from any device with an internet connection and a web browser.

S3 is correct :- Outlook, Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail, are form of SaaS. With these services, one can log into your account over the Internet, often from a web browser. The email software is located on the service provider’s network and your messages are stored there as well. one can access their email and stored messages from a web browser on any computer or Internet-connected device.

A Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) is a warhead delivery system that uses a low earth orbit towards its target destination. Just before reaching the target, it deorbits through a retrograde engine burn.

In quantum computing, a qubit or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information — the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two level) quantum mechanical system, one of the simplest quantum systems displaying the peculiarity of quantum mechanics.
Examples include the spin of the electron in which the two levels can be taken as spin up and spin down; or the polarization of a single photon in which the two states can be taken to be the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization.

S1 and S2 are correct :-  Short Range Devices (SRD) are radio devices that offer a low risk of interference with other radio services, usually because their transmitted power, and hence their range, is low. Eg: CCTV, RFID, Medical implants, Metering devices Remote control.

WLAN :- Modern implementations of WLANs range from small in-home networks to large, campus-sized ones to completely mobile networks on airplanes and trains.

S1 and S2 are correct :- Biofilms may form on a wide variety of surfaces, including living tissues, indwelling medical devices, food, industrial or potable water system piping, or natural aquatic systems.

S3 is correct :- By forming a biofilm, bacteria protect themselves from host defense, disinfectants, and antibiotics. Bacteria inside biofilm are much more resistant to antimicrobial agents than planktonic forms since bacteria that are unresisting to antimicrobial agents in any way can turn resistant after forming a biofilm.

S1 is correct :- Probiotics are made of both bacteria and yeast. Common probiotic bacteria can include lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. The most common yeast found in probiotics is saccharomyces boulardii.

S2 is incorrect :- Probiotics are microorganisms naturally present in the digestive tract that aid in digestion and reduce inflammation. While a person can take probiotic supplements, there are also many probiotic foods available.

S3 is correct :-  There is evidence that probiotics can alleviate symptoms of lactose intolerance. This can occur by increased hydrolysis of lactose in the dairy product and in the small intestine. It can also be achieved by manipulation of the colonic metabolism. However, the precise mechanism how colonic metabolism influences lactose intolerance symptoms is not yet known. The reported studies are not consistent in their experimental set-up, results and conclusions.

All are correct
Covishield : mRNA
Sputnik V: Vector based
COVAXIN: Inactivated pathogen based

Solar flares are large explosions from the surface of the sun that emit intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation.

The radiation emitted from solar flares travels at the speed of light and can reach Earth from the sun in just over 8 minutes. As such, we don’t have long to respond to such outbursts.

The geomagnetic storm could have a technological impact on the man-made power grids and satellites.

S5 :- Keyterms “much over the planet”: Extreme statement.