{"id":18923,"date":"2018-04-21T13:12:54","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T07:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=18923"},"modified":"2018-04-20T16:47:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T11:17:29","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-april-20-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-april-20-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 April 20, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.1) Even after a decade negotiations on BTIA, India and EU have failed to reach a common ground.In this context what are the points of contentions between India and EU? What are the reasons for which India does not want to give in to EU\u2019s demands? Suggest a way forward. (GS \u2013 2)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement is a Free Trade Agreement between India and EU, which was <\/span><b>initiated in 2007<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Even after a <\/span><b>decade of negotiations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, India and EU have<\/span><b> failed to resolve certain issues<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which have led to a <\/span><b>deadlock.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Points of contention between India and EU:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has not been granted \u201c<\/span><b>data secure\u201d status<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by EU.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>U.K. visa rules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> discriminate against Indian technical professionals including because they have hiked visa fees and have numerical caps on visas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EU imposed a <\/span><b>ban on sale of 700 pharmaceutical products<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> even though they were clinically tested by GVK Biosciences.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>India cancelled most bilateral investment agreements<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with EU member states in 2016 on grounds that they were outdated.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Presence of <\/span><b>non-tariff barriers on Indian agricultural products<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the form of sanitary and phytosanitary measures which are too stringent and enable the EU to bar many Indian agricultural products from entering its markets.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What EU wants?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduce taxes on <\/span><b>liquor<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (which would benefit France).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduce taxes on <\/span><b>automobiles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (which would benefit Germany).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More market access with<\/span><b> less duty interference.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Multilateral pact on investments at the World Trade Organisations will have an I<\/span><b>nvestor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mechanism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To negotiate the<\/span><b> Bilateral Investment Treaty<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before it starts negotiating the EU-India BTIA<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Liberalize <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accountancy and legal services.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why India does not want to give in to EU\u2019s demands?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is presently trying to <\/span><b>set up its own automobile industry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which would not be able to match the<\/span><b>competition from EU automobiles.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India <\/span><b>does not provide similar privileges to any other country<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Subsequently, demands for the same would be raised by others.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Tax reduction on wines and spirits<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is not acceptable as these are regarded as<\/span><b> \u2018sin goods\u2019 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the states which derive huge revenue from liquor sales would be reluctant to cut taxes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indians do not want foreign lawyers and accountants to practice in India. There is already a <\/span><b>shortage of jobs.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2) What do you mean by \u2018neutrinos\u2019. How are they produced and detected? Discuss their possible applications in near future. \u00a0(GS &#8211; 3) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proton, neutron, and electron are tiny particles that make up atoms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The neutrino is also a tiny elementary particle, but it is not part of the atom.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Salient features:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neutrino has a very tiny mass, no charge and spins half.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It interacts very weakly with other matter particles.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So weakly that every second trillions of neutrinos fall on us and pass through our bodies unnoticed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neutrinos come from the sun (solar neutrinos) and other stars, cosmic rays that come from beyond the solar system, and from the Big Bang from which our Universe originated. They can also be produced in the lab.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neutrinos come in three types or \u201cflavours\u201d:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">electron neutrino,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tau neutrino and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">muon neutrino.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How are atmospheric neutrinos produced in nature?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atmospheric neutrinos are produced from cosmic rays which consist of protons and heavy nuclei.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These collide with atmospheric molecules such as Nitrogen to give off pions and muons which further decay to produce neutrinos.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How will the Iron calorimeter detect the neutrinos?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ICAl consists of 150 layers of alternating iron slabs and glass detectors called Resistive plate chambers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The muon neutrino interacts with the iron to produce a muon which is electrically charged.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This charge is picked up by sensors in the glass RPCs which set off an electrical pulse, to be measured by the electronics.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By piecing together the pulses set off in successive glass plates, the path followed by the muon is tracked.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is used to infer the properties of the neutrino which caused the pulses.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some immediately possible future applications of neutrino science:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Properties of the sun<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The neutrinos which also take close to this time to reach us from the sun, known as solar neutrinos, were produced in the core of the sun.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore they give us information about the interior of the sun.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Studying these neutrinos can help us understand what goes on in the interior of the sun.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The universe:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the properties of neutrinos are understood better, they can be used in astronomy to discover what the universe is made up of.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Probing Early Universe:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The extragalactic neutrinos can give a clue about the origin of the universe and the early stages of the infant universe, soon after the Big Bang.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Medical Imaging<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apart from direct future uses of neutrinos, there are technological applications of the detectors that will be used to study them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, X-ray machines, PET scans, MRI scans, etc., all came out of research into particle detectors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hence the INO detectors may have applications in medical imaging.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.3) Write short notes on:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>a) Sagan effect in Science and Technology (GS &#8211; 3) \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sagan effect is a hypothesis which states that the popularity of a scientist among the general public is inversely proportional to his scientific accomplishment. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is, a scientist who spends too much effort making science popular among the masses is believed to be one whose scientific work is not the best. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sagan effect is named after American astronomer Carl Sagan who popularised science among Americans through the famous 1980 science television series Cosmos.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sagan, a prolific scientist with several scientific papers to his name, suffered various professional setbacks because fellow scientists thought a science populariser cannot be a serious scientist.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>b)&#8217;Animal spirits&#8217; in Economics (GS &#8211; 3) <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8216;Animal spirits&#8217; is a term that refers to the emotions and instincts that guide the behaviour of investors and consumers in a market economy. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was coined by British economist John Maynard Keynes in his 1936 book<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to explain the persistence of economic fluctuations under capitalism. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keynes argued that investment and consumption are often based on how people feel about the overall economy rather than on unbiased, rational analysis of facts. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Critics have argued that while people are not perfectly rational, they are not completely guided by emotions either; hence, animal spirits cannot sufficiently explain economic cycles.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives Q.1) Even after a decade negotiations on BTIA, India and EU have failed to reach a common ground.In this context what are the points of contentions between India and EU? What are the reasons for which India does not want to give in to EU\u2019s demands? Suggest a way forward. (GS \u2013 2) Introduction:&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-april-20-2018\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 April 20, 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-18923","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":1704875472},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18923","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=18923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18923\/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=18923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}