Day 48 (3rd January 2023) (Date : 03-01-2023)

Correct Answer : C

Explanation

• Izaredari system was introduced in 1773 by Warren Hastings in Bengal, whereby he assumed that all land belongs to the State. This was the first land tenure system implemented in India by British. Under this system, the right of collecting revenue of a particular area was auctioned to the highest bidder. 
  • In order to meet the war expenses against the Marathas and Mysore, he made a plan to earn money by involving English officers as izaradars (revenue farmers) in Awadh.
  • The peasants, shopkeepers and merchants had to pay their taxes to the Izaredar who eventually was also the highest bidder to the company.
  • It was a secret experiment by the Company to see for itself just how much surplus money was accessible in practice.
• Warren Hastings involved Major Alexander Hannay, who was well acquainted with the region, as an izaradar in 1778. Hannay secured the izara of Gorakhpur and Bahraich to the amount of 22 lakh rupees for one year.The zamindars and cultivators rose against the unbearable exactions in 1781. Hence, option C is correct.

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Correct Answer : A

Explanation

• Though the British did not have any fixed official policy towards the Princely States, to acquire and sustain the paramount political position in India, their policies and attitude towards Princely States can be broadly categorized as:
  • Policy of Ring Fence, 1765-1813: Maintaining equality based status quo with Indian Kings.
  • Policy of Subordinate Isolation, 1813-58: States were made to sign treaties accepting subordinate cooperation with the British by surrendering their external sovereignty. 
    • The Charter Act of 1833 ended the monopoly of the Company trade with India. Therefore, the Company focused on its political role. The company in 1834 devised the policy of Doctrine of Lapse.
  • Policy of Subordinate Union, 1858-1935: The policy of annexation was dropped though the head of the States could be punished or deposed in the interest of the affairs of the state.
  • Policy of Equal Federation, 1935-47: The Government of India Act, 1935, coined the idea of the development of a federation of States. It could never get realized.

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Correct Answer : C

Explanation

Dalhousie divided the Indian states into three Categories:

• The first Category consisted of those states in whose formation the company had played a direct or indirect role. The rulers of such states were completely prohibited from adopting heirs to their throne.
• The second category was of those states which were subsidiary to the Company and they were required to take its permission before appointing any adopted son as the legal heir. 
• The third category was of the Princely States who were free to adopt heirs to their throne.

Hence Statement 1 is correct.

• The Maharaja of Satara was restored as the ruler of his territory after the defeat of Marathas in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, as a ruler of a princely state. However, in 1848 this territory was annexed by the Bombay Presidency under the Doctrine of Lapse policy. Hence Statement 2 is also correct. 
• Following were the important states annexed under the pretext of this policy: 
  • Satara in (1848)
  • Udaipur in (1852)
  • Jaitpur in (1849)
  • Jhansi in (1854)
  • Sambhal in (1849)
  • Nagpur in (1854)

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Correct Answer : B

Explanation

• Defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 gave a serious blow to the Maratha ambitions of emerging as an all-India power. Though they managed to regain some of their strength during the reign of Madhav Rao, disunity prevailed among them after his death.
• Raghunath Rao, uncle of Narayan Rao hatched a conspiracy and got Narayan Rao murdered to claim the throne of Peshwa. But other Maratha Chiefs did not accept him as the Peshwa.
• Raghunath Rao appealed to the British and signed a treaty known as the Treaty of Surat in 1775. This led to a war between the Maratha Chiefs and the British. 
  • The war went on for seven years and both the sides received several setbacks. 
• Ultimately peace was restored by the Treaty of Salbai in 1782. Raghunath Rao was pensioned off and Madhav Narayan Rao was accepted as the Peshwa by the British. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• The East India Company under Wellesley tried to convince the Peshwa Baji Rao II to sign the Subsidiary Alliance with the British, it was initially rejected by him. However, when he was attacked by Jaswant Rao Holkar due to an internal dispute, the Peshwa was forced to sign a treaty and enter the Subsidiary Alliance with the English for his protection in 1802. The treaty came to be known as the Treaty of Bassein. Hence Statement 2 is correct. 
• The Third Anglo-Maratha war (1817-19) saw the decisive defeat of Marathas.
• The Peshwa was relocated to a small establishment of Bithur near Kanpur on a small pension and his territory was annexed. 
• The Maharaja of Satara was restored as the ruler of his territory after the defeat. However, in 1848 this territory was also annexed by the Bombay Presidency under the Doctrine of Lapse policy of Lord Dalhousie.
• Bhonsle and Holkar were also defeated and it resulted in the acquisition of the Maratha kingdoms of Nagpur and Indore by the British. Along with Gwalior from Shinde and Jhansi from the Peshwa, all of these territories became princely states acknowledging British control. Hence Statement 3 is incorrect.

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Correct Answer : A

Explanation

• Hari Singh Nalwa was a legendary Sikh commander who tamed the turbulent forces at play in Afghanistan and earned the reputation of the most feared Sikh warrior there.
• He was a commander in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s force.
  • He remained Governor of Kashmir, Hazara and Peshawar.
• Hari Singh Nalwa defeated various Afghans and established control over various regions along the boundary of Afghanistan.
  • He prevented Afghans from ravaging the North-West Frontier for the first time by taking control over several regions along the Afghanistan border and Khyber pass.
    • He, thus, prevented Afghans from entering Punjab through Khyber Pass, which was the main route to enter India by the foreign invaders from 1000 AD till early 19^th century.
• In the 1807 Battle of Kasur (now in Pakistan, he defeated Afghani ruler Kutab-ud-din Khan.
• In the 1818 Battle of Peshawar, Nalwa took control over Jamrud in 1837, a fort at the entryway to Afghanistan through Khyber Pass.
  • Historians maintain that if Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his commander Hari Singh Nalwa would have not won Peshawar and the North West Frontier, which is part of Pakistan now, then this area could have been part of Afghanistan and the invasions of Afghans into Punjab and Delhi would have never stopped.
• Hence, option A is correct.

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Correct Answer : C

Explanation

• The Ministry of Education has published the seventh edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), 2022. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Participation in NIRF was made compulsory for all government-run educational institutions since 2018.
• NIRF is the government's first attempt to rate Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the Country only. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The best institutions are listed in 11 categories: overall national rating of universities, engineering, college, medical, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, dental, and research.

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Correct Answer : A

Explanation

Kill Switch:

• The recent ‘Uber Files’ reveal that the company had deployed kill switches, purportedly to destroy sensitive data that could have been legitimately accessed by police and officials.
• A kill switch is a mechanism used to shut down or disable a device or program.
  • In the manufacturing sector, they are deployed to terminate operations to arrest damage in assembly lines or save a worker’s life.
  • They serve a similar purpose in the digital world but instead of hardware, they are mostly software-based.
  • The purpose of a kill switch is usually to prevent theft of a machine or data or shut down machinery in an emergency. 
• Hence, option A is correct.

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Correct Answer : D

Explanation

• The Immunisation Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Programme of Immunisation’ (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In 1985, the programme was modified as ‘Universal Immunisation Programme’ (UIP).
  • Through UIP, Government of India is providing vaccination free of cost against vaccine preventable diseases include diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, severe form of childhood tuberculosis, hepatitis B, meningitis and pneumonia (Hemophilus influenzae type B infections), Japanese encephalitis (JE) in JE endemic districts with introduction of newer vaccines such as rotavirus vaccine, IPV, adult JE vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and measles-rubella (MR) vaccine in UIP/national immunisation programme. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• Immunisation program was launched as “Mission Indradhanush” in December 2014. Hence statement 1 is correct.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI)

To further intensify the immunisation programme, the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) was launched on October 8, 2017 to reach each and every child up to two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme/UIP.

• Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0, India has the opportunity to achieve further reductions in deaths among children under five years of age, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending preventable child deaths by 2030.
• India prevented further backslide by introducing catchup programs like Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0, which helped in reducing the number of children who had left the first dose from 3 million to 2.7 million in 2021, as compared to 2019 when 1.4 million children didn't receive the first dose.
• India effectively avoided a drop in coverage by the early restoration of routine immunisation services, along with evidence-based catch-up programmes, which enabled it to avoid a drop in routine immunisation coverage.
• India also launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush 4.0 in February 2022 with the aim to immunise every pregnant woman and child who had missed their vaccination. Hence statement 3 is correct.

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Correct Answer : A

Explanation

• The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was created following the explosion in 1974 of a nuclear device by a non-nuclear-weapon State (India). Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• India is not a member of the NSG.
• India is keen to become a member of NSG as it seeks to significantly expand its nuclear power generation and also wants to expand its export market.
• NSG is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seeks to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of two sets of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

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Correct Answer : C

Explanation

• It's an initiative of the Union Ministry of Health and is not launched by NITI Aayog. Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• Intensified Mission Indradhanush is the largest immunisation programme globally where it annually covers more than three crore pregnant women and 2.6 crore children through the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). Hence statement 2 is correct.
• As a part of Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), it prevents mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women by providing vaccination against 12 preventable diseases but doesn't include Covid-19 vaccine yet. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

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