-
Countries having a border with India are
Afghanistan and Pakistan to the north-west, China, Bhutan
and Nepal to the north, Myanmar to the far east and
Bangladesh to the east.
- Sri Lanka is separated from India by
a narrow channel of sea formed by the Palk Strait and the
Gulf of Mannar.
- The country can be divided into six zones
mainly north, south, east, west, central and north-east zone.
- The high
altitudes of Himalayas allow travel only through a few passes like
Jelep La and Nathu La on the main Indo-Tibet trade route
through the Chumbi valley, north-east of Darjeeling and
Shipki La.
- Eastern ghats have a lower elevation than the western ghats but the western coastal strip is narrower than eastern coastal strip.
- Satluj rises in Tibet is the only Indus tributary not originating in India.
- Rivers Chambal and Betwa are the important sub tributaries,
which join the Yamuna before it meets the
Ganga.
- The Yamuna, the
Ramganga, the Ghaghra, the Gandak, the Kosi, the
Mahananda and the Sone are the important tributaries of the
Ganga.
- The principal tributaries of Brahmaputra in India are the
Subansiri, Jia Bhareli, Dhansiri, Puthimari, Pagladiya and
the Manas.
- Godavari river basin covers 10% of India.
- The 12 major river basins
are :
- Indus
- Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna
-
Godavari
- Krishna
- Cauvery
- Mahanadi
-
Pennar
- Brahmani-Baitarani
- Sabarmati
- Mahi
- Narmada and
- Tapti.
- Each of these basins has a
drainage area exceeding 20,000 sq. km. Medium drainage area is 20000 - 2000 sq km and small drainage area is less than 2000 sq, km.
- South India receives more rainfall than North. Due to high pressure zone, the North western India is cloudless in October and November.
- The western Himalayan region extends from Kashmir to
Kumaon. It has two important types of vegetation cover:
- Temperate zone: Consists of forests of chir, pine,
other conifers and broad-leaved temperate trees. Higher up,
forests of deodar, blue pine, spruce and silver fir occur.
- Alpine zone: The
characteristic trees of this zone are high-level silver fir,
silver birch and junipers.
- 'Red Data Book' is compiled by Botanical survey of India with lists of endangered plants.
- Tropical Humid Forests
- Tropical Dry/Deciduous Forests
- The ratio of the length to the height
(width) of the Flag shall be 3:2.
- The 84
th
amendment to the
Constitution in 2001 said the total number of existing seats as
allocated to various states in the Lok Sabha on the basis of
the 1971 census shall remain unaltered till the first census to
be taken after the year 2026.
- Committee on
Private Members’ Bills and Resolutions is not created in the Rajya Sabha.
- Committee on Absence of Members from the Sittings of the
House is not created in the Rajya Sabha.
- The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs is the
Government Chief Whips and is entrusted with the
responsibility of coordinating, planning and arranging
Government business in both Houses of Parliament.
- The ministries/departments of the
Government are created by the President on the advice of
the Prime Minister under Allocation of business Rules.
Project Monitoring Group
- Set up and now currently functioning under the Prime minister's office to speed up approvals to Public, private and PPP projects.
- Majority of the projects involve clearances at the state government levels and so such projects are resolved by discussions with the state government officials, project proponents and Central government officials.
- Centralized Public Grievance Redress
and Monitoring System’ ( CPGRAMS) is the application of ICT for Grievance Redressal.
- Government of India has instituted ‘Prime Minister ’s Award
for Excellence in Public Administration’ to acknowledge
and recognize the work of
Individuals, Groups, Districts and Organisations of the Central and State
Governments.
Official Languages
-
The Kendriya Hindi Samiti was constituted in the year
1967. Chaired by Prime Minister it is the apex policy
making body which lays the guidelines for the propagation
and progressive use of Hindi as official language of the
Union.
- Governor has special
responsibility under Article 371 A of the Constitution with
respect to law and order which means though it is necessary for
him to consult Council of Ministers in matters relating to
law and order, he can exercise his individual judgement as
to the action to be taken.
- Arunachal Pradesh, the Governor
has special responsibility under Article 371 H of the
Constitution with respect to law and order. Governor shall,
after consulting Council of Ministers, exercise his
individual judgement as to the actions to be taken.
- These
are temporary provisions. If the President, on
receipt of a report from Governor or otherwise is satisfied
that it is no longer necessary for Governor to have special
responsibility with respect to law and order, he may direct this by an order.
- Under the Sixth schedule the Governors of Assam, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya are given special discretionary powers in deciding the sharing of royalties between states and district councils.
- Governor of Sikkim has special responsibility of maintaining peace and socio economic development of all communities.
- Governors of Mizoram and Tripura have special provisions of having discretionary power in all their functions.
Q. Consider the following in respect of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS):
1. Inaugural IONS was held in India in 2015 under the chairmanship of the Indian Navy.
2. IONS is a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region.
Which of the above statements is/are correct? (UPSC CSAT 2017)
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Ans . B
2016: hosted by Bangladesh; 2015: by S.Africa and co-chair Tanzania
IONS was initiated taking all the littoral countries of the Indian Ocean (IO) onboard to promote friendly relationship and…bear upon issues of regional maritime security and cooperation in the maritime domain.
Q. What is the importance of developing Chabahar Port by India?
India’s trade with African countries will enormously increase.
India’s relations with oil-producing Arab countries will be strengthened.
India will not depend on Pakistan for access to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Pakistan will facilitate and protect the installation of a gas pipeline between Iraq and India.
Ans . C
India and Iran signed the “historic” Chabahar port agreement, which has the potential of becoming India’s gateway to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe
Q. Consider the following statements:
1. The Nuclear Security Summits are periodically held under the aegis of the United Nations.
2. The International Panel on Fissile Materials is an organ of International Atomic Energy Agency.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Ans . D
President Obama had initiated NSS in 2010
The International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), an independent group of arms-control and non-proliferation experts from 17 countries, has been keeping track of HEU and plutonium around the world. So second statement also wrong.
Q.A recent movie titled The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of (UPSC CSAT 2016)
S. Ramanujan
S. Chandrasekhar
S. N. Bose
C. V. Raman
Ans . A
‘The Man who knew infinite’ is a biographical movie of Indian Mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan (played by Dev Patel) and his association with British mathematician GH Hardy. Ramanujan was a self-taught (autodidatic) Mathematician- born and died in Madras Presidency.
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