UPSC PRELIMINARY MOCK TEST 259

Statement 1 is incorrect. A write-off is an accounting action that reduces the value of an asset, a non-performing asset may be written off after all options of recovery are exhausted and chances of recovery seem very low. Although bad loans may be written off, borrowers of such loans remain liable for repayment.

Statement 2 is incorrect. A loan waiver is the cancellation of recovery or refraining from claiming the dues, it is used to help farmers or in some cases of natural calamities to help people rebuild their lives.

Statement 1 is incorrect. National Human Rights Commission is a statutory (and not a constitutional) body. It was established in 1993 under a legislation enacted by the Parliament, namely, the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. This Act was amended in 2006.

Statement 2 is correct. The commission is not empowered to inquire into any matter after the expiry of one year from the date on which the act constituting violation of human rights is alleged to have been committed.

The distant past when there was no paper or language or the written word, and hence no books or written document, is called as the Prehistoric period. It was difficult to understand how Prehistoric people lived until scholars began excavations in Prehistoric sites. Piecing together of information deduced from old tools, habitat, bones of both animals and human beings and drawings on the cave walls scholars have constructed fairly accurate knowledge about what happened and how people lived in prehistoric times. Paintings and drawings were the oldest art forms practiced by human beings to express themselves using the cave wall as their canvas.
Some of the examples of sites early rock paintings are Lakhudiyar in Uttarakhand, Kupgallu in Telangana, Piklihal and Tekkalkotta in Karnataka, Bhimbetka and Jogimara in Madhya Pradesh etc. Paintings found here can be divided into three categories: Man, Animal, and Geometric symbols. The richest paintings are reported from Vindhya range of Madhya Pradesh and their Kaimurean extension into U.P. There are two major sites of excellent prehistoric paintings in India:
(1) Bhimbetka Caves, Foothills of Vindhya, Madhya Pradesh.
(2) Jogimara caves, Amarnath, Madhya Pradesh.
The main value of Bhimbetka rock shelters (Madhya Pradesh) most certainly are not medieval and ancient paintings. More than 500 caves contain a lot more ancient artwork: up to 15,000 years old paintings and even more than 290,000 years old petroglyphs.
Caves though contain paintings from historical times up to the 14th century AD. Most paintings of this time show hunting scenes, Buddhist monks have added some drawings of deities as well. Ironically here medieval art has lower quality than the prehistoric art.

• BBC : Cirrus ice clouds extend their thin and wispy tendrils in the upper troposphere, at altitudes of about 5-15 kilometres. Researchers say that these thin clouds are known with confidence to have a net warming effect on our planet, since their ice crystals re-emit infrared radiation absorbed from the sun-warmed surface back down towards ground. So if we can make cirrus thinner still, we'll let out more heat and cool the globe.
• BBC: One of the largest Geo engineering experiments, known as Lohafex, was an Indian-German experiment in 2009 which involved dumping six tonnes of an iron solution into the South Atlantic to encourage plankton to bloom - trapping carbon which would then be sent to the seabed when the organisms died. Results showed limited success.
• Large volcano eruptions inject ash particles and sulphur-rich gases into the troposphere and stratosphere and these clouds can circle the globe within weeks of the volcanic activity. The small ash particles decrease the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth and lower average global temperatures. The sulphurous gases combine with water in the atmosphere to form acidic aerosols that also absorb incoming solar radiation and scatter it back out into space.

TH: Beating back climate change ; "

NITI Aayog will launch the Mentor India Campaign, a strategic nation building initiative to engage leaders who can guide and mentor students at more than 900 Atal Tinkering Labs, established across the country as a part of the Atal Innovation Mission. CEO NITI Aayog,

Mentor India is aimed at maximizing the impact of Atal Tinkering Labs, possibly the biggest disruption in formal education globally. The idea is to engage leaders who will nurture and guide students in the Atal Tinkering Labs. These labs are non-prescriptive by nature, and mentors are expected to be enablers rather than instructors.

NITI Aayog is looking for leaders who can spend anywhere between one to two hours every week in one or more such labs to enable students experience, learn and practice future skills such as design and computational thinking.

WHAT IS ATAL TINKERING LAB?

Atal Tinkering Labs are dedicated works spaces where students from Class 6th to Class 12th learn innovation skills and develop ideas that will go on to transform India. The labs are powered to acquaint students with state-of-the-art equipment such as 3D printers, robotics & electronics development tools, Internet of things & sensors etc.

NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission is among one of the flagship programs of the Government of India to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the country to set up the Atal Tinkering Labs across the country.

The Mission has / is in the process of setting up 900+ such labs across India and aims to have 2,000 such labs by end of 2017.