General Comprehension (UPSC) (Part-V)

It is no longer enough for us to talk about providing for universal access to education. Making available schooling facilities is an essential prerequisite, but is insufficient to ensure that all children attend school and participate in the learning process. The school may be there, but children may not attend or they may drop out after a few months.

Through school and social mapping, we must address the entire gamut of social, economic, cultural and indeed linguistic and pedagogic issues, factors that prevent children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, as also girls, from regularly attending and complementing elementary education. The focus must be on the poorest and most vulnerable since these groups are the most disempowered and at the greatest risk of violation or denial of their right to education.

The right to education goes beyond free and compulsory education to include quality education for all. Quality is an integral part of the right to education. If the education process lacks quality, children are being denied their right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act lays down that the curriculum should provide for learning through activities, exploration and discovery.

This places an obligation on us to change our perception of children as passive receivers of knowledge, and to move beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis of examinations. The teaching-learning process must become stress-free; and a massive programme for curricular reform should be initiated to provide for a child-friendly learning system, that is more relevant and empowering.

Teacher accountability systems and processes must ensure that children are learning, and that their right to learn in a child-friendly environment is not violated. Testing and assessment systems must be reexamined and redesigned to ensure that these do not force children to struggle between school and tuition centres, and bypass childhood.

Global population was around 1.6 billion in 1990-today it is around 7.2 billion and growing. Recent estimates on population growth predict a global population of 9.6 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion in 2100. Unlike Europe and North America, where only three to four percent of population is engaged in agriculture, around 47 percent of India's population is dependent upon agriculture.

Even if India continues to do well in the service sector and the manufacturing sector picks up, it is expected that around 2030 when India overtakes China as the world 's most populous country, nearly 42 per cent of India's population will still be predominantly dependent on agriculture.

Though I have discarded much of past tradition and custom, and am anxious that India should rid herself of all shackles that bind and contain her and divide her people, and suppress vast numbers of them, and prevent the free development of the body and the spirit; though I seek all this, yet I do not wish to cut myself off from that past completely.

I am proud of that great inheritance that has been and is, ours and I am conscious that I too, like all of us, am a link in that unbroken chain which goes back to the dawn of history in the immemorial past of India.

1. Loss of topsoil

2. Loss of smaller rivers

3. Adverse effect on agricultural production

4. Declining of groundwater

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

'Desertification' is a term used to explain a process of decline in the biological productivity of an ecosystem, leading to total loss of productivity. While this phenomenon is often linked to the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid ecosystems, even in the humid tropics, the impact could be most dramatic.

Impoverishment of human-impacted terrestrial ecosystems may exhibit itself in a variety of ways: accelerated erosion as in the mountain regions of the country, salinization of land as in the semi-arid and arid 'green revolution' areas of the country, e.g., Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and site quality decline-a common phenomenon due to general decline in tree cover and monotonous monoculture of rice/wheat across the Indian plains.

A major consequence of deforestation is that it relates to adverse alterations in the hydrology and related soil and nutrient losses. The consequences of deforestation invariably arise out of site degradation through erosive losses. Tropical Asia, Africa and South America have the highest levels of erosion.

The already high rates for the tropics are increasing at an alarming rate (e.g.. through the major river systems-Ganga and Brahmaputra, in the Indian context), due to deforestation and ill-suited land management practices subsequent to forest clearing. In the mountain context, the declining moisture retention of the mountain soils, drying up of the underground springs and smaller rivers in the Himalayan region could be attributed to drastic changes in the forest cover.

An indirect consequence is drastic alteration in the upland-lowland interaction, mediated through water. The current concern the tea planter of Assam has is about the damage to tea plantations due to frequent inundation along the flood-plains of Brahmaputra, and the damage to tea plantation and the consequent loss in tea productivity is due to rising level of the river bottom because of siltation and the changing course of the river system.

The ultimate consequences of site desertification are soil degradation, alteration in available water and its quality, and the consequent decline in food, fodder and fuelwood yields essential for the economic well-being of rural communities.

1. Deforestation can cause changes in the course of rivers.

2. Salinization of land takes place due to human activities only.

3. Intense monoculture practice in plains is a major reason for desertification in Tropical Asia, Africa and South America.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

'Desertification' is a term used to explain a process of decline in the biological productivity of an ecosystem, leading to total loss of productivity. While this phenomenon is often linked to the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid ecosystems, even in the humid tropics, the impact could be most dramatic.

Impoverishment of human-impacted terrestrial ecosystems may exhibit itself in a variety of ways: accelerated erosion as in the mountain regions of the country, salinization of land as in the semi-arid and arid 'green revolution' areas of the country, e.g., Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and site quality decline-a common phenomenon due to general decline in tree cover and monotonous monoculture of rice/wheat across the Indian plains.

A major consequence of deforestation is that it relates to adverse alterations in the hydrology and related soil and nutrient losses. The consequences of deforestation invariably arise out of site degradation through erosive losses. Tropical Asia, Africa and South America have the highest levels of erosion.

The already high rates for the tropics are increasing at an alarming rate (e.g.. through the major river systems-Ganga and Brahmaputra, in the Indian context), due to deforestation and ill-suited land management practices subsequent to forest clearing. In the mountain context, the declining moisture retention of the mountain soils, drying up of the underground springs and smaller rivers in the Himalayan region could be attributed to drastic changes in the forest cover.

An indirect consequence is drastic alteration in the upland-lowland interaction, mediated through water. The current concern the tea planter of Assam has is about the damage to tea plantations due to frequent inundation along the flood-plains of Brahmaputra, and the damage to tea plantation and the consequent loss in tea productivity is due to rising level of the river bottom because of siltation and the changing course of the river system.

The ultimate consequences of site desertification are soil degradation, alteration in available water and its quality, and the consequent decline in food, fodder and fuelwood yields essential for the economic well-being of rural communities.

1. Desertification is a phenomenon in tropical areas only.

2. Deforestation invariably leads to floods and desertification.

Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

'Desertification' is a term used to explain a process of decline in the biological productivity of an ecosystem, leading to total loss of productivity. While this phenomenon is often linked to the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid ecosystems, even in the humid tropics, the impact could be most dramatic.

Impoverishment of human-impacted terrestrial ecosystems may exhibit itself in a variety of ways: accelerated erosion as in the mountain regions of the country, salinization of land as in the semi-arid and arid 'green revolution' areas of the country, e.g., Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and site quality decline-a common phenomenon due to general decline in tree cover and monotonous monoculture of rice/wheat across the Indian plains.

A major consequence of deforestation is that it relates to adverse alterations in the hydrology and related soil and nutrient losses. The consequences of deforestation invariably arise out of site degradation through erosive losses. Tropical Asia, Africa and South America have the highest levels of erosion.

The already high rates for the tropics are increasing at an alarming rate (e.g.. through the major river systems-Ganga and Brahmaputra, in the Indian context), due to deforestation and ill-suited land management practices subsequent to forest clearing. In the mountain context, the declining moisture retention of the mountain soils, drying up of the underground springs and smaller rivers in the Himalayan region could be attributed to drastic changes in the forest cover.

An indirect consequence is drastic alteration in the upland-lowland interaction, mediated through water. The current concern the tea planter of Assam has is about the damage to tea plantations due to frequent inundation along the flood-plains of Brahmaputra, and the damage to tea plantation and the consequent loss in tea productivity is due to rising level of the river bottom because of siltation and the changing course of the river system.

The ultimate consequences of site desertification are soil degradation, alteration in available water and its quality, and the consequent decline in food, fodder and fuelwood yields essential for the economic well-being of rural communities.

A diversity of natural assets will be needed to cope with climate change and ensure productive agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. For example, crop varieties are needed that perform well under drought, heat, and enhanced CO₂, But the private-sector and farmer-led process of choosing crops favours homogeneity adapted to past or current conditions, not varieties capable of producing consistently high yields in warmer, wetter, or drier conditions.

Accelerated breeding programmes are needed to conserve a wider pool of genetic resources of existing crops, breeds and their wild relatives. Relatively intact ecosystems, such as forested catchments, mangroves, wetlands, can buffer the Impacts of climate change.

Under a changing climate, these ecosystems are themselves at risk, and management approaches will need to be more proactive and adaptive. Connections between natural areas, such as migration corridors, may be needed to facilitate species movements to keep up with the change in climate.

1. Diversification of livelihoods acts as a Coping strategy for climate change.

2. Adoption of monocropping practice leads to the extinction of plant varieties and their wild relatives.

Which of the above assumptions is/ are valid?

A diversity of natural assets will be needed to cope with climate change and ensure productive agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. For example, crop varieties are needed that perform well under drought, heat, and enhanced CO₂, But the private-sector and farmer-led process of choosing crops favours homogeneity adapted to past or current conditions, not varieties capable of producing consistently high yields in warmer, wetter, or drier conditions.

Accelerated breeding programmes are needed to conserve a wider pool of genetic resources of existing crops, breeds and their wild relatives. Relatively intact ecosystems, such as forested catchments, mangroves, wetlands, can buffer the Impacts of climate change.

Under a changing climate, these ecosystems are themselves at risk, and management approaches will need to be more proactive and adaptive. Connections between natural areas, such as migration corridors, may be needed to facilitate species movements to keep up with the change in climate.