Democracy & Freedom: GS Test - NCERT Key Concepts

• This is a GS Test - 01 - NCERT (Polity, Geography, Economics, History) Test Booklet.
• The test duration is two hours.
• The test has a maximum mark of 200.
• The test booklet contains 100 questions, and all items carry equal marks.
• There is a penalty for wrong answers, one-third of the marks will be deducted for every wrong answer.
• If more than one answer is provided, it is considered a wrong answer and is penalised.
• There is no penalty for unanswered questions.

Features of a Democracy

• A democracy has final decision-making power which resides in elected individuals.
• A democracy is based on free and fair elections.
• Each adult citizen in a democracy must have one vote.
• A democratic government must operate within constitutional limits.

Definition of Freedom in Polity

• The most appropriate definition of freedom in a political context is the protection of individual rights.
• Freedom includes the opportunity to develop individual capabilities.
• Freedom requires the absence of arbitrary government authority.

Functions of a Constitution

• A constitution ensures legal enforceability of basic societal rules.
• A constitution limits governmental powers.
• A constitution creates conditions for a just society.

Constituent Assembly of India

• The Assembly was formed following the 1946 Cabinet Mission Plan.
• Provincial Legislative Assemblies elected representatives through proportional representation using the single transferable vote method.
• British Administered Provinces and Princely States did not have an equal allocation of seats.

Abolition of Right to Property

• The "Right to Property" was removed as a Fundamental Right through the 44th Amendment Act.

Constitution of India

• The Parliamentary form of government was borrowed from the British Constitution.
• Directive Principles of State Policy were borrowed from the Irish Constitution.
• Fundamental Rights were borrowed from the United States Constitution.

Article 32 of the Constitution of India

• Dr. B. R. Ambedkar considered Article 32 the 'heart and soul' of the Constitution of India.
• Article 32 provides the Right to constitutional remedies.

Right to Equality in the Indian Constitution

• The Right to Equality includes equal access to shops.
• It prohibits discrimination based on religion.
• It ensures the abolition of untouchability.

Directives related to the standard of living in the Indian Constitution

• "Raising the standard of living and equitable distribution of resources" in the Constitution forms part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.

Proportional Representation (PR) system of election

• The election process involves more than one representative elected from one constituency.
• In the election, a party may receive more seats than votes in the legislature.

Advisory Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India

• The President of India can seek the Supreme Court's opinion on legal questions.
• The President is not bound to accept advice from the Supreme Court.

Amendment Procedure of the Constitution of India

• A bill can be introduced in either House of Parliament, not in State Legislatures, for amendment purposes.
• A joint sitting cannot be held for an amendment bill if there's disagreement between the Houses.

Features of Federalism

• There are two or more levels of government.
• Courts can interpret the Constitution.
• Each level of government has clearly specified revenue sources.

Historical Events

• The Passing of the States Reorganisation Act occurred earliest among the listed events.

Majority Required to Amend Constitutional Provisions between States and the Central Government

• A special majority of Parliament and consent of half of the States is necessary.

State and Government

• The Government administers and enforces laws.
• The State represents a sovereign people occupying a definite territory.

Laws regarding Religious Reforms

• In India, Parliament can legislate to initiate or support religious reforms.

73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992

• A new Part X was not added to the Constitution of India.
• It included the creation of the Gram Sabha as a mandatory provision.
• It provides for direct elections to all three levels of Panchayati Raj institutions.
• It reserved one-third of the positions in all panchayat institutions for women.

International Peace and Security

• Article 51 of the Constitution of India promotes international peace and security.

Criminal and Civil Law

• Criminal law addresses acts defined as offences, while civil law concerns harm or injury to individual rights.
• In criminal law, a guilty accused can be jailed. In civil law, the court orders specific relief for the affected party.

First Information Report (FIR)

• An officer in charge must register an FIR when information about a cognizable offence is given.
• The complainant has a legal right to get a free copy of the FIR.

Judgements of the Supreme Court of India related to the doctrine of 'basic structure'

• Golaknath v. State of Punjab (1968), Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) and Minerva Mills v. Union of India (1980) contributed to the doctrine of 'basic structure'.

Financial Emergency

• The satisfaction of the President when declaring a Financial Emergency cannot be challenged in court.
• A Financial Emergency continues indefinitely until revoked, once approved by both Houses of Parliament.

Vote of No Confidence

• No confidence against even a single Minister leads to resignation of the entire Council.
• The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

Countries with Parliamentary Form of Government

• Canada
• Italy
• Japan
• France

Big Bang Theory

• The Big Bang Theory demonstrated continuous expansion of the universe.

Nebular Hypothesis

• Planets formed from a cloud of material associated with a rotating Sun according to the Nebular Hypothesis.

Theories regarding radioactive elements in Earth’s Mantle

• Currents are generated because of radioactive elements in Earth's mantle according to Convectional Current Theory.

Peninsular Block of India

• It is formed by gneisses and granites.
• Karbi Anglong and Meghalaya Plateau in northeast India are an extension of it.

Rivers and their Origins

• Ravi originates in the Kullu Hills and passes through Chamba Valley.
• Sutlej originates at Raksas Tal and passes through Shipki La.
• Jhelum originates at Chashma Verinag and flows through Wular Lake.

Northern Indian Plains

• Northern Indian plains experience a high daily and annual range of temperature.

El Nino

• The El Nino phenomenon involves the extension of the warm equatorial current, leading to increased temperatures off the Peruvian coast.
• Consequences of El Nino include distortion of equatorial atmospheric circulation.
• Irregularities occur in seawater evaporation and a reduction in plankton.

Continental Drift Theory

• Matching of continents (Jig-Saw fit)
• Thin sediments exist on the ocean floor
• Rocks of same age are across the ocean

Tropical Deciduous Forest

• Tropical Deciduous Forests are found in the foothills of Himalayas, and contain Shisham trees.

Essential Conditions for Tropical Cyclones

• Consistency in the supply of warm and moist air.
• The influence of a Strong Coriolis force.
• Presence of unstable conditions through the troposphere.

Black Soil Property

• The presence of clay makes it deep and impermeable.

Description of a tropical and subtropical crop

• Grows well in hot and humid climates.
• Requires annual rainfall between 75cm and 100cm.
• The crop described is maize.

Rock Debris

• Transfers rock debris down slopes through gravity's direct influence.
• It is often very active over weathered slopes and not on unweathered materials.

Chemical Addition of Water

• The addition of water results in minerals expanding and increasing rock volume.
• This expansion causes fatigue, leading to disintegration.
• The given description refers to hydration.

Depositional Landforms of Running Water

• Alluvial Fans
• Natural Levees
• River Terraces
• Plunge Pools
• Deltas

Statement on Earth's Gravitational Forces

• The gravitational force on Earth's surface is greater near the poles than at the equator.
• The distance from the Earth's centre to the surface is greater at the equator than at the poles.

Caldera Feature

• Cooler and more viscous lavas are erupted from the caldera
• Deccan Traps is an example of a flood basalt province.

Wave Types and Motions

• P waves' velocity is greater than S waves' velocity when moving through different mineral types.
• P waves can travel through liquids, solids, and gases, but S waves travel only through solids.
• Motion of S waves is perpendicular to the wave's travel direction.

Magmatic Material

• Batholiths are large bodies of magmatic material cooling deep in the crust as large domes.
• Dykes are formed when lava solidifies nearly perpendicular to the ground.

Factors Influencing Insolation Variability

• Rotation of the Earth on its axis.
• The angle of inclination of the Sun's rays.
• Transparency of the atmosphere.
• Aspect of land configuration.

Indian Ports

• Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva is the largest container port.
• Mormugao Port is at the entrance of the Zuari estuary.
• Kochchi Port has an advantageous location being close to the Suez-Colombo route.

Approaches to Human Development

• Income approach
• Welfare approach
• Basic Needs approach
• Capabilities approach

'Gold Collar' Professions

• Quaternary activities include roles focusing on the creation, or reorganization of existing ideas, new data interpretation, the use, and evaluation of new technologies.

The national income accounting

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of final goods and services produced within a country during a year.
• Unlike GDP, the Gross National Product (GNP) includes net income from abroad.

Non-Excludable Public Goods

• Public products can be used by everyone, even if they haven't paid for them.

Capital Receipts

• Capital receipts can be debt-creating or non-debt-creating.

Money Multiplier

• In an economy, it compares changes in the money supply to changes in the monetary base.
• In an economy, it measures the amplified change in the money supply caused by the injection of additional reserves into the banking system.

Impact of Progressive Tax

• Progressive income tax acts as an automatic stabilizer in an economy.
• Progressive income tax makes consumer spending less sensitive to fluctuations in the Gross Domestic product (GDP).

Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC)

• In an economy, it indicates the proportion of income spent on consumption.

Factors that encourage investment in an economy

• Provision of credit
• High capital intensity ratio

Factors concerning the workforce:

• High percentage of workforce in India is self employed.
• A good amount of workers are under casual wage labourers.
• The majority of the workers are self employed.

The overall employment level

• The overall level of employment in an economy is independent of the aggregate demand.

How the government affects personal disposable income

• The government impacts people's income by making payments in the form of transfers.

Intervention by a nation's Monetary Authority

• This is a way to keep the money supply in country stable against changes, like more money coming in from other countries.
• This is called sterilisation.

Paradox of Thrift

• An increase in how much individuals save can lead to a decrease in the country's overall economic output.
• An increase in how much individuals save may result in a decrease in total demand for goods and services.

Type of Goods

• Capital goods are used for producing other goods.
• Investment goods are used for building other products in the future.
• The end-user consumes final goods.

Autonomous consumption

• Refers to the degree of consumption that happens when income is zero

Impact of Bank Rate

• When a bank rate goes down, a banks' stock goes down.
• When the bank rate increases, there's less money supply in the economy.

Consideration regarding certain forms of money

• Cash
• State Development Loans
• Treasury Bills

Organisation for foodgrain procurement and storage

• Food Corporation of India (FCI) manages the buffer stock.

Metals known to the peoples in the Indus Valley Civilization

• The civilization was aware of Copper, Gold, Iron and Silver

Phase that has Microliths

• Mesolithic period have microliths.

Historic Terms

• Kadaisiyar were policemen
• Uzhavar were ploughmen
• Landless agricultural labourers were Kammakaras
• People of religion were Adimai

Indo-European languages

• Sanskrit
• Odia
• Assamese
• Tamil

Key points from the Kushana Empire

• It was among the first to uses Gold coins across the Indian subcontinent.
• It had control over transport and major centres, such as Peshawar and Matura on the Silk Route.

Activities of the Organization

• They Trained the craft persons.
• The organization functioned as banks.
• They also organised trade.

Terms relating to Calligraphic art

• 'Nastaliq' and ‘Shikaste' are ways of producing and visualising calligraphy.

Indian ancient history settlements

• 'Ur' was established by peasant that grew as irrigation became more common and prosperous.
• The Nadu were larger units, who dispensed justice and collected taxes.

Match the Philosophy with its origin

• Nyaya - Gotama is the correct match

Fact related to the Wood’s Despatch of 1854

• One of the objectives of the Act was to develop administration skill for the population.

Key point from the Act

• The salt Act was related to the colonisation of India and control over the trading post.

Statements on the INC

• INC's first session was founded by Allan Octavian Hume.
• Womesh Chandra Banerjee headed the first session of Congress.

Mahalwari Settlement

• Devised by Thomas Munro

Social Reform

• Started ‘Atmiya Sabha' to teach the monotheistic ideas of the Vedanta.
• Penned 'Precepts of Jesus for to teach everyone.

Fact from the the factory act

• The Act that prohibited children from 7 to 12 to not work more than 9 hours a day
• 1911, adult males could not do more than 12 hours of work per day.

Statement about the Cripp mission

• The Cripps mission proposed forming a constituent assembly consisting of Indian people.
• Council also mentioned while rejecting the demand for Pakistan.