UPSC EPFO SOLVED PAPER 2015

Gana-Sangha or Gana-Rajya, refers to a type of republic or oligarchy in ancient India. The compound term gana-sangha has a connotation of gana-those claiming equal status and sangha-an assembly. These were the systems, where the heads of families of a clan governed the territory of the clan through an assembly. In some cases, a few clans formed a confederacy, where the chiefs of all the clans constituted an assembly to govern the territory of the confederate clans.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865, fought between the Northern United States and the Southern United States. In 1820 the total textile import cost only ₹ 350,000 and there was decline in the export of Indian cotton. However, these costs escalated tremendously until in 1860 textile imports stood at ₹ 19.3 million.
When the American Civil War broke out and cotton supplies from the US were cut off, Britain turned to India. As raw cotton exports from India increased, the price of raw cotton shot up. Weavers in India were starved of supplies and forced to buy raw cotton at exorbitant prices.
The growth of the cotton industry was spurred, and for a small time eclipsed, by the cotton boom. Before the American Civil War, the mills of England imported only 20% of their cotton from India.
The correct sequence are 1, 3 and 2.

Private insurance programmes are generally designed with greater emphasis on equity between individual purchasers of coverage, and social insurance programmes generally place a greater emphasis on the social adequacy of benefits for all participants. Major differences are

Unbalanced growth is a natural path of economic development. Unbalanced growth is hypothesised when supply of labour is fixed. The balanced growth aims at the development of all sectors simultaneously but unbalanced growth recommends that the investment should be made only in leading sectors of the economy.

Salient features of National Telecom Policy, 2012 are
• Increase rural tele-density from the current level of around 39 to 70% by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020.
• Roaming charges shall be scrapped.
• To recognise telecom, including broadband connectivity as a basic necessity like education and health and work towards ‘Right to Broadband’.
• Provide affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand by the year 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
• Provide high speed and high quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies by the year 2014 and progressively to all villages and habitations by 2020.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all 191 UN member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000 commits world leaders to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. The MDGs are derived from this Declaration, and all have specific targets and indicators. The Eight Millennium Development Goals are:
(i) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
(ii) to achieve universal primary education;
(iii) to promote gender equality and empower women;
(iv) to reduce child mortality;
(v) to improve maternal health;
(vi) to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
(vii) to ensure environmental sustainability; and
(viii) to develop a global partnership for development.

A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total Green House Gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent. Green-House Gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbon dioxide and methane, can be emitted through the burning of fossil fuels, land clearance and the production and consumption of food, manufactured goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings, transportation and other services. The amount of GreenHouse Gases produced by our day -to-day activities.

The Bharat Ratna is the highest Civilian Award of the Republic of India. Instituted in 2nd January, 1954. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was conferred India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee in 2015. List of Awardee are

‘Green Revolution’ in India was expeditiously feasible in zones of assured irrigation. Assured irrigation for Increasing Cropping Intensity in India. The Green Revolution in India refers to a period when Indian agriculture was converted into an industrial system due to the adoption of modern methods and technology such as the use of High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, tractors, irrigation facilities, pesticides, and fertiliser.

Apartheid was a political and social system in South Africa during the era of White minority rule.
It enforced racial discrimination against non-Whites, mainly focused on skin colour and facial features. It is a policy of racial segregation.