{"id":16553,"date":"2018-03-03T13:01:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T07:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=16553"},"modified":"2018-03-01T19:02:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T13:32:27","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-march-2-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-march-2-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 March 2, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.1) Government says that it is firmly on course to achieve high growth of 8% plus as manufacturing; services and exports are back on good growth path. What are the reasons for which India is affirmative about the fact that it has potential to achieve 7-8% GDP growth? As mentioned in Economic Survey, 2018, discuss the hurdles for India in achieving its goal of 7-8% GDP growth? (GS \u20133)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Government says that it is firmly on course to achieve high growth of 8% plus as manufacturing, services and exports are back on good growth path.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the reasons for which India is affirmative about the fact it has potential to achieve 7-8% GDP growth?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reasons for which India is affirmative about the fact it has potential to achieve 7-8% GDP growth are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Global integration:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian economy in the last few years has become very open, it is integrated globally.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Investment made simple:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government invites investments in most sectors and has made its procedures for investment extremely simple.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Government\u2019s decision-making:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government\u2019s decision-making has made doing business in India much easier.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever challenges and difficulties do arise, there is an extensive debate in the country as to why procedures must be further simplified and a combined national effort to move in that direction.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Encouragement of manufacturing sector:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government is consciously encouraging the manufacturing sector because it is where India still has to achieve its best.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Simpler tax structure:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government was able to unify taxes and bring about a relatively simpler tax structure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Investor friendly tax structure:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For international investors, indirect tax structures had become extremely investor friendly.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>More predictability and stability in tax structure:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doubts about India\u2019s direct tax structures in the past including some erroneous decisions have been completely eliminated.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead more predictability and stability have been added as far as taxation is concerned.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Consolidation of tax slabs:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currently, there are four broad tax slabs under GST \u2014 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent \u2014 which can be converged in the future.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the thinning of 28 percent bracket, the second stage of reforms will be consolidation of other rates (12 and 28).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Programmes to uplift the under-developed regions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Government has taken up programmes to direct the benefits of structural changes and good growth to reach farmers, poor and other vulnerable sections of our society and to uplift the under-developed regions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Government has ensured that benefits reach eligible beneficiaries and are delivered to them directly and said that Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism of India is the biggest such exercise in the world and is a global success story.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>As mentioned in Economic Survey, 2018, what are the hurdles for India in achieving its goal of 7-8% GDP growth?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hurdles for India in achieving its goal of 7-8 % GDP growth are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ease of doing business:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While India saw an improvement in six out of ten indicators of ease of doing business, the country still didn\u2019t see improvement in trading across borders, something that the government has been gunning for at various international forums like World Economic Forum.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Rising Oil Prices:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the biggest challenges evident from the survey is the rise in oil prices. The higher oil prices in Saudi Arabia could have a drastic effect on the prices in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>India\u2019s Agrarian Crisis:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that the productivity growth in the agricultural sector has been stagnant reflects poorly on the Indian economy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\"><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to unstable climatic conditions, the growth may necessarily be not on the positive route.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Banking:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past few years, Indian banks have been struggling with the growing NPA issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the Economic Survey, the share of bank lending to real estate sector has fallen sharply to 17 per cent in 2016 from over 68 per cent in 2013.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason for the fall is that banks are not ready to provide credit to the real estate sector because of the rising NPAs and lower profit.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Micro, Small &amp; Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MSMEs which contribute to a large part of the Indian economy, still face a lack of credit from the banking sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Information and Communication Technology (ICT):<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the Economic Survey, ICT (Information and Communication Technology) accounted for 67 per cent of India\u2019s services exports in 2016.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same has declined rapidly from 2006 to 2016, whereas during the said period countries like China, Brazil, Russia and Philippines have been marching ahead.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2) What do you mean by an earthquake? What are its types and the three different types of faults associated with it? Describe the method through which large earthquakes are measured. (GS\u20133)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the Earth\u2019s lithosphere that creates seismic waves.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Types of earthquakes:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The different types of earthquakes are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most common ones are the t<\/span><b>ectonic earthquakes. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are generated due to sliding of rocks along a fault plane.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A special class of tectonic earthquake is sometimes recognised as <\/span><b>volcanic earthquake<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. However, these are confined to areas of active volcanoes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the areas of intense mining activity, sometimes the roofs of underground mines collapse causing minor tremors. These are called <\/span><b>collapse earthquakes.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ground shaking may also occur due to the explosion of chemical or nuclear devices. Such tremors are called <\/span><b>explosion<\/b> <b>earthquakes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The earthquakes that occur in the areas of large reservoirs are referred to as <\/span><b>reservoir induced earthquakes.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Types of faults assosciated with earthquakes:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The three different types of faults associated with earthquakes are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are three main types of fault, all of which may cause an interplate earthquake: <\/span><b>normal, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">r<\/span><b>everse (thrust) and strike-slip.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normal and reverse faulting are examples of dip-slip, where the displacement along the fault is in the direction of dip <\/span><b>and<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> movement on them involves a vertical component.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Normal fault<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s occur mainly in areas where the crust is being extended such as a divergent boundary.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Reverse faults <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">occur in areas where the crust is being shortened such as at a convergent boundary. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Strike-slip<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> faults are steep structures where the two sides of the fault slip horizontally past each other; transform boundaries are a particular type of strike-slip fault.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reverse faults, particularly those along convergent plate boundaries are associated with the most powerful earthquakes, megathrust earthquakes, including almost all of those of magnitude 8 or more.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Measuring earthquakes:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The methods through which large earthquakes are measured are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The earthquake events are scaled either <\/span><b>according to the magnitude or intensity of the shock.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The magnitude scale is known as the <\/span><b>Richter scale. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The magnitude relates to the energy released during the quake. The magnitude is expressed in <\/span><b>absolute numbers, 0-10.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The intensity scale is named after <\/span><b>Mercalli, an Italian seismologist.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The intensity scale takes into account the visible damage caused by the event. The range of <\/span><b>intensity scale is from 1-12.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s important not to confuse an earthquake\u2019s magnitude with its intensity. They are different measures. And <\/span><b>while the Richter scale is widely quoted, the modern magnitude measurement uses a different scale. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Magnitude is a quantitative measure of the size of an earthquake, it says, while intensity is a qualitative measure of the shaking at a given location.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two scales are commonly used for intensity, the <\/span><b>Modified Mercalli Intensity scale and the MSK scale, both of which classify earthquakes from I (least perceptible) to XII (most severe). <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These readings are based on factors such as how people perceive the shaking. The same earthquake will have different intensity readings at different places; the farther one moves away from the epicentre, the less intense the shaking.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.3) Species are classified by the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature into nine groups according to their level of vulnerability. Explain this nine-fold species classification. What are the criterions for an animal to be categorised \u2018endangered\u2019? (GS\u20133)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Species are classified by the IUCN Red List into nine groups, set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Nine-fold species classification:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extinct (EX) \u2013 No known individuals remaining.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extinct in the wild (EW) \u2013 Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Critically endangered (CR) \u2013 Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Endangered (EN) \u2013 High risk of extinction in the wild.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vulnerable (VU) \u2013 High risk of endangerment in the wild.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Near threatened (NT) \u2013 Likely to become endangered in the near future.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Least concern (LC) \u2013 Lowest risk. Does not qualify for a more at-risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data deficient (DD) \u2013 Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not evaluated (NE) \u2013 Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the criterion for an animal to be categorised \u2018endangered\u2019?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The criterion for an animal to be categorised \u2018endangered\u2019 are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduction in population size based on any of the following.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Geographic range in the form of either \u00a0extent of occurrence OR area of occupancy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Population estimated to number fewer than 2,500 mature individuals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Population size estimated to number fewer than 250 mature individuals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quantitative analysis showing the probability of extinction in the wild is at least 20% within 20 years or five generations, whichever is the longer.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives Q.1) Government says that it is firmly on course to achieve high growth of 8% plus as manufacturing; services and exports are back on good growth path. What are the reasons for which India is affirmative about the fact that it has potential to achieve 7-8% GDP growth? As mentioned in Economic Survey, 2018,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-march-2-2018\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 March 2, 2018<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":2292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mains-marathon-answers","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/pen-paper-laptop.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704766951},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}