Daily Questions Challenge for IAS PRE (CSAT) Exam (12 May 2015)

Daily Questions Challenge for IAS PRE (CSAT) Exam (12 May 2015)

Write and Discuss Your Answer with Q.No in Comment Box at the Bottom of Post.

:: General Studies (Paper - 1) ::

1. In India, other than ensuring that public funds are used efficiently and for intended purpose, what is the importance of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)?

1. CAG exercises exchequer control on behalf of the Parliament when the President of India declares national emergency /financial emergency.
2. CAG reports on the execution of projects or programmes by the ministries are discussed by the Public Accounts Committee.
3. Information from CAG reports can be used by investigating agencies to press charges against those who have violated the law while managing public finances.
4. While dealing with the audit and accounting of government companies, CAG has certain judicial powers for prosecuting those who violate the law.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1, 3 and 4 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

2. The endeavour of ‘Janani Suraksha Yojana’ Programme is

1. to promote institutional deliveries
2. to provide monetary assistance to the mother to meet the cost of delivery
3. to provide for wage loss due to pregnancy and confinement. Which of the statements given above is /are correct?

(a) 1 and 2
(b) 2 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

3. The Prime Minister of India, at the time of his/her appointment

(a) need not necessarily be a member of one of the Houses of the Parliament but must become a member of one of the” Houses within six months
(b) need not necessarily be a member of one of the Houses of the Parliament but must become a member of the Lok Sabha within six months
(c) must be a member of one of the Houses of the Parliament
(d) must be a member of the Lok Sabha

4. With reference to the Delimitation Commission, consider the following statements :

1. The orders of the Delimitation Commission cannot be challenged in a Court of Law.
2. When the orders of the Delimitation Commission are laid before the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assembly, they cannot effect any modifications in the orders.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

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:: CSAT (Paper -2) ::

The subject of democracy has become severely muddled because of the way the rhetoric surrounding it has been used in recent years. There is, increasingly, an oddly confused dichotomy between those who want to ‘impose’ democracy on countries in the non-Western world (in these countries’ ‘own interest’, of course) and those who are opposed to such ‘imposition’ (because of the respect for the countries’ ‘own ways’). But the entire language of ‘imposition’, used by both sides, is extraordinarily inappropriate since it makes the implicit assumption that democracy belongs exclusively to the West, taking it to be a quintessentially ‘Western’ idea which has originated and flourished only in the West.

But the thesis and the pessimism it generates about the possibility of democratic practice in the world would be extremely hard to justify. There were several experiments in local democracy in ancient India. Indeed, in understanding the roots of democracy in the world, we have to take an interest in the history of people participation and public reasoning in different parts of the world. We have to look beyond thinking of democracy only in terms of European and American evolution. We would fail to understand the pervasive demands for participatory living, on which Aristotle spoke with far-reaching insight, if we take democracy to be a kind of a specialized cultural product of the West.

It cannot, of course, be doubted that the institutional structure of the contemporary practice of democracy is largely the product of European and American experience over the last few centuries. This is extremely important to recognize since these developments in institutional formats were immensely innovative and ultimately effective. There can be little doubt that there is a major ‘Western’ achievement here.

1. Which of the following is closest to the view of democracy a mentioned in the above passage?

(a) The subject of democracy is a muddle due to a desire to portray it as a Western concept, ‘alien’ to non-Western countries
(b) The language of imposition of democracy is inappropriate. There is, however, a need to consider this concept in the backdrop of culture of ‘own ways’ of non-Western society
(c) While democracy is not essentially a Western idea belonging exclusively to the West, the institutional structure of current democratic practices has been their contribution
(d) None of the statements (a), B) and (c) given above is correct

2. With reference of the passage, the following assumptions have been made-

1. Many of the non-Western countries are unable to have democracy because they take democracy to be a specialized cultural product of the West.
2. Western countries are always trying to impose democracy on non-Western countries.

Which of the above is/ are valid assumption/ assumptions?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

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