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INSIGHTS MISSION 2018

STATIC TEST 2 - SYNOPSIS

Q1) The geographical phenomena, both the physical and human, are
not static but highly dynamic. What kind of change is seen in their
interactive process?

Answer:
Human Geography deals with the study of people and their commodities, cultures,
economies and interactions with the environment by studying their relations with and
across space and place. Physical Geography deals with the study of processes and
patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and
geosphere. It includes geomorphology, hydrology, climatology, etc.
Both these parts of geography have evolved and changed over time. Man has
evolved from nomadic stage to present age modern-man and has settled over various
locations, and utilized various natural resources over time. Physical features like
mountains, plateau, and river have also undergone constant changes due to various
internal and external forces on Earth and have evolved starting from the supercontinent
Gondwanaland.
Interaction occurs when two or more objects have effect upon one another.
Environment geography explains the spatial aspects (study of topographic or
geographic properties using technique like radar imaging) of interactions between
human individuals or societies and their natural environment.
Man used its surroundings to sustain himself. Primitive man used edible plants and
animals (hunter-gatherers). He was afraid of natural forces and worshipped them. With
passage of time, man started exploiting the resources available around him and this is
how the interaction between them changed:
• Natural base resource - use of different minerals & fossil fuels like coal,
petroleum led to industrialization
• Food habits -use of agriculture to grow rice and wheat in fertile soil which made
humans food producers from gatherers and hunters.
• Technology -reaching up to atmosphere using satellites. By remote sensing
and GIS tools, and computer cartography human activity on natural landforms
and cycles is studied and maps are prepared.
• Adaptation with and modification of physical environment like clearing of forests
to make towns and villages, social organizations which led to cultural
development.
• Different phenomena over the earth’s surface create cause-effect relationship.
For example- cropping patterns differ from region to region ands related to
variations in soils, climates, demands in markets, capacity of farmer and
technological inputs available.
In today's world this interaction can be seen more as an exploitation of earth's
resources in the form of overuse and degradation of land, pollution of land, water and
air, biodiversity loss etc.
Physical environment (mountains, plateaus, rivers) has provided the stage on which
human societies enacted the drama of their creative skills with tools (from stone to
copper, bronze, and iron) and techniques which they invented and created roads,
railways, ports, markets for their overall development.

Q2) 'Our earth is playfield for two opposite group of geomorphic


processes.' Explain this statement about the endogenic and exogenic
forces with suitable examples.

Answer:

The earth’s crust is constantly undergoing changes due to movement of lithospheric


plates. Endogenic (internal forces) create new mountain ranges, (faulting or folding),
volcanic disturbances and earthquakes. Exogenic forces (external) work vigorously
to wear away the surface and the interaction of these constructive and destructive
forces give rise to great-diversity of present-day landforms.

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A) ENDOGENIC FORCES: Sudden movements like earthquakes and volcanoes cause
mass destruction.
A volcano is a vent in the earth's crust through which molten material erupt suddenly
(Example: Pacific ring of Fire and mid-oceanic ridge).
An earthquake is a shaking of the Earth's surface that creates seismic waves. It
leads to landslides, tsunami, floods, etc.
There are certain slow movements or diastrophic movements categorized as
orogenetic movements (mountain building movements) which occur because of
tangential forces of compression and tension (folding and faulting)and epeirogenetic
movement which leads to slow deformation of a very large area (as large as continent)
due to radial forces.
Folding: It refers to buckling of earth's crust and results into fold mountains like
Himalayas.
Faulting is the movement of rocks along a weak zone. The plain along which the
movement takes place is called fault and is primarily because of tension. It results in
formation of block mountains or horsts. It also takes place in extreme cases of
compression.
B) EXOGENIC FORCES:
The process of wearing away occurs as:
Weathering: It is the breaking down of rocks (solid aggregate of mineral), soil
(mineral + organic matter) and minerals (a chemical compound) by physical, chemical
or biological process and, occurs in-situ.
a. Physical weathering disintegrates rocks by abrasion (frictional force) due to
temperature, pressure, frost (deposits of ice) etc. Example, breaking of rocks in
deserts due to day-night temperature changes.
b. Biological: Attachment of organisms like Lichens (Algae and Fungi) and
mosses (small flowerless plants) to bare rock surfaces and penetration of roots
of plants enhance rock weathering.
c. Chemical weathering changes the composition of rocks due to exposure to air
and water containing chemical elements. Example- hydrolysis of silicates, rusting
of iron, etc.
Erosion: It is the active wearing of the Earth's surface by moving agents like running
water (fluvial), wind, ice and waves.
Transportation: It is the removal of eroded debris to new positions.
Deposition: It is the dumping of the debris.
Various landforms created by exogenic forces:

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River action: It creates waterfall (at steep valley), meanders, ox-bow lakes and
levees in flood-plains, and delta at sea-mouth. Example, Angel falls (979 metres)
and recent flood in Assam caused by river Brahmputra.
Sea-waves: It develops coastal landforms like sea caves, sea arches, stacks by
continued erosion. Such features are tourist attractions in South East Asian
countries.
Work of Ice: Glaciers (large body of ice) create glacier moraine (glacial debris
deposition). Glaciers are found in Antarctica, Greenland, Himalayas etc.
Work of wind: It creates mushroom rock (erosional), sand dunes (deposition of
sand) and loess if deposition of sand occurs over a large area. Example- Loess in
China.
Thus, both internal forces caused by motion of tectonic plates and external forces
caused surface forces are doing their job continuously in shaping various landforms on
earth.

Q3) “Tropical regions which occupy only about one fourth of the total
area of the world, contains about three-fourth of the world human
population”

Answer

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The tropics are the most diverse regions on Earth, hosting about 80% of the planet’s
terrestrial species and over 95% of its corals and mangroves. Tropics surround the
equator, lying between Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. Sun directly lies overhead,
at least once during the solar year in tropics. The other regions are mid-latitudes and
polar.
Tropical climate is a non-arid climate mostly in which all 12 months have mean
temperature of at least 18 degrees Celsius. Aridity hinders animal and plant growth like
the Sahara Desert. It is also frost free and remains relatively hot. The tropical rainforest
climate receives a rainfall of minimum 60 mm. Tropical monsoon climate like in South
East Asia receive rainfall by monsoon winds.
Reasons for tropical regions sustaining majority of earth's population are as follows:
1. Diverse natural ecosystems and biodiversity provides plenty of natural
resources for humans to sustain their well-being and prosperity.
2. The climate has given way to grow different types of food crops, livestock and
medicinal resources in these areas.
3. Major river basins like Amazon, Ganga, Indus and Nile lie in this region and
have supported agriculture over the fertile land since a long time. Thus,
availability of water in plains was suitable for civilizations to grow for ages. .
4. Trade and investment has also grown rapidly in tropics with world major
shipping and trading routes passing via it, which grew by creation of Suez
Canal and Panama Canal due to close proximity of these regions with oceans.
5. Availability of almost all types of minerals like coal, oil, natural gas etc.
However, this is also the region which has been under extreme poverty, influenced by
tropical diseases (zika virus), unstable governments, environment destruction,
and uncontrolled population growth leading to increased demand of food and water,
clashes over land use, malnourishment among children and many others.
Overall, the future of the tropics is one of rising influence and wealth but with
challenges to eliminate poverty and hunger, improves health standards,
preserve biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and safeguard resources for
future generations.

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Q4) Explain Plate Tectonics Theory.

Answer
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory describing the large-scale motion of seven large
plates (Indian, Australian, etc.) and other smaller plates of the earth’s lithosphere. It is
built on the concept of continental drift i.e., movement of earth’s continents relative to
each other. This had resulted in break up the supercontinent Gondwanaland into the
present continents of Earth which is evident by presence of similar fossils found
around different continents (like Mesosaurus, Glossopteris,etc.)
Cause: Greater mechanical strength of lithosphere (crust + upper mantle) and
underlying asthenosphere (hotter and flowing) leads to movement of plates. Results:
The plates are made up of thinner oceanic crust (made of sima) and thicker continental
(made of sial) crust. Where the major and minor plates meet, their resulting motion
determines the type of boundaries:
1. Convergent: There are mainly three ways in which convergence can occur-
between an oceanic and continental plate, between two oceanic plates and
between two continental plates. It is a destructive plate boundary and results
in melting of mantle (layer between crust and outer core), earthquakes
(shaking of earth’s crust; Wadati- Benioff zone) and volcanoes (rupture in crust
that allows hot lava to escape). Example, Himalayas was formed by subduction
of Indian tectonic plate into Eurasian plate.
2. Divergent: Here, plates move away from each other. It results in rift valleys
(linear shaped lowland) within continents and mid-oceanic ridge (underwater
mountain system) and sea-floor spreading between oceanic plates. Examples-
East African rift valley and Mid-Atlantic ridge.
3. Transform: Its motion is predominantly horizontal (left or right dextral)
direction and is commonly found linking centres of mid-oceanic ridges. Example,
Sand Andreas fault.

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Plate boundaries are commonly associated with geological events such as
earthquakes and the creation of topographic features like mountains, mid-oceanic
ridges, and oceanic ridge. The majority of the world’s active volcanoes occur along the
plate boundaries, like the highly active Pacific ring of fire. In this way, motion of pates
has resulted in formation of various geographical features starting from supercontinent
Gondwanaland to present continental system over millions of years.

Q5) The unabated expansion of Anthroposphere (Human Sphere) is


threatening its very supporting bases (lithosphere, atmosphere,
hydrosphere and biosphere). Comment.

Answer:
Since the origin of the Earth, about 4.6 billion years ago, agents of change have
been natural forces like plate tectonics, earthquake, climatic change, wind, ice, etc.
and have produced a dynamic and interactive ecosystem. About 4 million years ago,
however, hominids (now modern-man) evolved as the most powerful agent of
environmental change right from the stone-age to present industrial world.

Four open systems interact on earth's surface which includes three biotic spheres and
one biotic sphere.
1. Atmosphere: It is the layer of gases surrounding the earth, and protects life on
earth by absorbing UV rays (wavelength <450nm; can damage cells) from the
sun and also, makes our days cooler and nights warmer.

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2. Hydrosphere: It occupies about 71% of Earth's surface and contains glaciers,
rivers, groundwater, etc. The hydrological cycle transfers water from one
reservoir to another which also maintains proper rainfall required for agriculture,
etc.
3. Lithosphere: It is the sum of crust and uppermost mantle subdivided into
tectonic plates (whose relative motions can cause earthquake, volcano, etc and
has also caused the continental drift). Soil (minerals + organic matter) required
for plant growth, water storage, etc occurs here.
4. Biosphere: Extending from bottom of ocean trenches to 8 km above mean sea
level, life occurs here, and ecosystems linking all organisms with their physical
environment are formed.
But, man in the way of its development and satisfying his needs has also influenced
these realms of earth due to which various environmental concerns have arisen:
• Global warming and climate change: According to IPCC, human influence has
been the dominant cause of global warming (rise in temperature of earth’s
climate) owing to emissions of various greenhouse gases. Likely changes
hence may include retreat of glaciers, extreme weather events, floods, species
extinction, threat to food security, etc.
• Ozone layer depletion: O3’s depletion in the stratosphere (approx 10-50 kms)
allows more of UV radiations (UVB) to reach the earth’s surface (creating ozone
hole), mainly due to man-made refrigerants, CFC, freons, etc.
• Air pollution: Harmful substances like particulates (microscopic solid/liquid
matter), gases like CO, SO2released from factories and motor vehicles, ground
level ozone, etc. damage the natural and built environment.
• Deforestation: Removal of trees without sufficient restoration has resulted in
damage to habitat, biodiversity loss, aridity and bio sequestration (capture of
CO2).
• Biodiversity loss: Extinction of species disturbs the food web.
• Water pollution: Contamination of water bodies (rivers, groundwater) affects the
organisms living in water bodies.
Environmental degradation through pollution of resources like air, water and soil,
destruction of ecosystems, extinction of wildlife and pollution has become a major
threat. Therefore, various legislations like Earth summit, Montreal protocol (for
ozone), Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Antarctica Treaty, etc have come up
worldwide. Man needs to conserve the environment to save it from destruction .

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Q6) With the advent of automation, human capital is slated to lose its
relevance in the coming times. Do you think the same would apply to
India?

Answer:
Emerging technologies like industrial robots, artificial intelligence, and machine
learning have advanced at a rapid pace, but there has been little attention to their
impact on employment and public policy. Though they can improve the speed,
quality, and cost of available goods and services, they are likely to displace large
numbers of workers. In an economy that employs lesser number of workers, there is
an urgent need to think about how to deliver benefits to displaced workers.
Impact on India:
1. India has an impressive growth since liberalization but it has not been
accompanied by the expected growth in employment. Although, this may not
be due to automation alone, a combination of capital investment in technology
and the casualization of labour are stunting the growth of labour in the organized
sector.
2. Software can carry out routine IT support work and repetitive back office
tasks which global companies originally outsourced to India. Due to market
volatility and rising protectionism in countries like the USA, where much of
India’s IT outsourcing work comes from, it expected that there will be more job
cuts.
3. As technology streamlines routine tasks, middle-skill jobs like clerical workers
and machine operators decline while both high-skill and low-skill jobs will
increase. This can be a huge problem in developing nations like India as these
jobs traditionally pulled out India from poverty.
4. In a developing country like India, automation can fill gaps rather than
replacing people. For example- smart machines combined with the internet
could allow doctors and teachers to provide personalized services to many more
people than they can today.
5. India has the luxury of time compared to developed countries because labour will
remain cheaper than automation for some more time to come and huge unmet
demand for infrastructure and services can produce lots of jobs. This is an ever-
accelerating race between skills and technology and India needs to act now to
future-proof its populations’ capabilities.
6. India’s education system has a reputation for rote learning and therefore,
people will have to find new roles and train themselves to become relevant in the
new age technology.
Technological progress is a mixed blessing. New machines and technologies are about
helping cut costs, improve efficiencies, and increase sophistication in building and
delivering services. Though they are not about altogether replacing the human efforts,
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but about elevating the role people play and the value they bring to their roles. This shift
will go hand-in-hand with new opportunities in emerging areas of data science, artificial
intelligence and big data with new skills.

Q7) Urban Poor, as a concept, emerged significantly post the


economic reforms leading to privatization. Comment.

Answer:
Rapid urban growth, marked by the number of million-plus cities came up when a large
population migrated to cities for new job opportunities but all of them could not cope up
with high living costs and standards. This led to the problems of:
1. Urban sprawl,
2. Unregulated development without planning,
3. Increasing problems of inadequate urban infrastructure
4. Deteriorating quality of urban livability.
5. Higher transportation costs
6. Inconvenience for suburban residents due to undesirable land use patterns
and inadequate supply of open spaces, recreational facilities and other
amenities.
Urbanization in India and Privatization:
1. India’s globalization and consequently urbanization have shown remarkable
selective growth by city sizes, regions and sectors. Higher growth and larger
concentration of urban population in metropolitan areas is an important feature of
India’s urbanization in post-globalization period.
2. Unlike most developing countries where a single city commands a
disproportionately large portion of population and economic activities in relation
to the second largest city, India’s urban system is spatially dispersed, and
not characterized by primacy.
3. The opening up of 100% FDI in real estate has brought in big boom to the
industry and was able to attract international private players to invest in Indian
cities in joint venture with local partners.
4. These private and government agencies approved townships are coming up
on the fringe areas and along the transport corridors of the large cities
mainly Delhi including NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad
and Chandigarh. The development of these townships mainly includes a mix of
residential, commercial, corporate and institutional complexes, besides
provision of roads, power, water supply, waste management, storm water
drainage as also a mix of social infrastructure like medical, community and
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education facilities. A variety of residential accommodation is made available
from private developers operating at large, medium and small scale.
Conclusion:
Emergence of urban corridors linking several important urban centers and absorbing
new investments is an extremely important feature of urban growth which has led to
privatization. The vested interests in urban development have increased through the
route of private sector participation in urban services sector and have pushed the
governments (national, state and local) to withdraw from certain development sectors.

Q8) Food Security for a nation hinges on impeccable logistics. Identify


the existing problems in the food grain distribution system in India
and innovative means to resolve the same.

Answer:
According to FAO, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs
and food preferences for an active and healthy life. It has identified four pillars of
food security as availability, access, utilization and stability.
Attaining food security is important for India where approximately 20% of population
lives below poverty line and more than 1/3rd of the world’s malnourished children live
in India despite India’s 50% increase in GDP since 1990. Food insecurity had led to
various famines during British rule in India. Therefore, post-independence, policy
changes aimed to make people self-reliant anon providing food through Public
Distribution System at subsidized rates (wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene) and air
price shops. Various institutes and schemes like NABARD, FCI,Green Revolution
and others came up subsequently.
The crux of the food problem does not lie much on increasing food availability but on
improving distribution among people. The heart of the matter is procurement versus
consumption access. While Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh are the surplus
states in terms of wheat procurement; Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha
along with Punjab and Haryana are surplus rice procuring states. Surplus stocks of
wheat and rice are moved to deficit states to meet the requirements under targeted PDS
and other schemes as well as to create buffer stocks. About 40-50 million tons of food
grains are transported across the country by FCI in a year. Out of this 90% of the stocks

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are moved by rail and the rest are moved by the road. Inadequate and improper storage
facilities cause a lot of wastage every year.
Other shortcomings in distribution system
1. Inferior quality of food grains in ration shops.
2. Selling of FCI stocks in black market.
3. Creation of bogus cards.
4. Regional allocation and coverage of FPS is unsatisfactory.
5. No set criteria to identify BPL families and middlemen create corruption.
Some means to resolve it are:
1. Strengthened vigilance to detect corruption eliminate bogus ration cards.
2. FCI should provide quality food grains.
3. Steps like creation of Aadhar Cards for identification along with Direct Cash
transfers.
4. Display of rate chart and quantity available by fair price dealers.
5. Opening more fair price shops in rural areas.
6. Issue of food stamps by use of vouchers, electronic card transfer, etc.
7. Cold chains, pre- cooling facilities near farms, area specific agro food parks to
reduce wastage of food grains.
The global food system is entering a period of intense volatility driven by a combination
of climate change and population growth. A combination of these steps might help in
ensuring the population of India the availability of a minimum nutrition basket at a
reasonable price.

Q9) Entertainment and recreation are regarded as essential


ingredients to determine poverty estimates. How would you
enumerate criteria to estimate poverty? Is poverty beyond sustaining
minimum needs? Elucidate.

Answer:

Poverty is generally measured in terms of income and unemployment. In reality, a poor


person lives a life deprived of most of the essential needs of life at the same time.
Therefore, no single dimensional or parameter can ever satisfactorily describe the

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state of poverty. Furthermore, human well-being also has non-material dimensions,
which could be psychological, social, cultural, political and environmental.
Poverty can be seen as a state of “low human development” or of lack of capabilities.
Thus, poverty removal and criteria to estimate it should include:
1. Enlargement of choices for poor people.
2. Opportunities to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent
standard of living, freedom, dignity and self-respect.
3. Subsistence along with empowerment.
4. Separate poverty line baskets for rural and urban areas.
5. Some normative level of consumption expenditure for essential non-food
item groups (education, clothing, conveyance, entertainment and house
rent) besides a residual set of behaviorally determined non-food expenditure.
Poverty reduction should not become a game of targets. It must also empower the poor
and provide them opportunities to choose their valued lifestyles.

Q10) Identification, targeting, inclusion of the appropriate beneficiary


is crucial to a poverty alleviation program. Comment.

Answer:
Poverty is multi-dimensional i.e. people can be poor with respect to some or all of a
range of criteria such as income, hunger, health, schooling and education, housing,
access to the means of sanitary living, and so on.
Poverty alleviation programmers in India can be categorized into:
1. Universal programs (or programs whose beneficiaries are self-selected).
Example- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
for participation in which any “rural household whose adult members volunteer to
do unskilled marginal work” qualifies
2. Targeted programs (or programs that are exclusively for predetermined target
groups). Most anti-poverty programs, however, are targeted programs. For
example- The Public Distribution System (PDS) for the provision of fair-priced
food, PMJDY etc.
Targeting, identification and inclusion is important to poverty alleviation programs in
these ways:
1. It allows for programs to be put in place specifically designed to meet the
needs of the poor while being cost effective.

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2. By concentrating resources among poor, targeting offers more efficient use of
resources than a universal policy.
3. In India today, BPL and APL (above poverty line) are not used merely as
analytical categories, but as categories that determine inclusion in and
exclusion from anti-poverty programs.
4. The basic welfare of households and their access to facilities that should be
basic rights food, education, health, and sanitation, for example is made or
broken by the system targeting and identification. Some effective tools can be
SECC census, NSS or BPL census for allocation of funds and capping
beneficiaries under government programs.
For example, it is true that landless households deriving a major part of their income
from manual labour constitute the largest number of under-deprivation households. It is
not clear whether landlessness (or manual labour) can be sufficient to conclude they are
suffering from poverty. Over time, landlessness will increase and people will diversify
their income with a rise in non-agricultural activities and migration. In the same way,
some of the other criteria are not clear indicators of poverty.
There are different types of interventions suited for this:
1. Direct cash transfers
2. Transfers in kind
3. Targeted subsidies
4. Public works
5. Social funds
The natural beneficiaries of a scheme that provides housing should be the population
without adequate, safe and clean housing, just as the natural target group for a scheme
to provide sanitary toilets is those who have no access to such facilities.
Targeting can be particularly very appealing where resources are scarce in a country
like India because it not only includes and identifies the actual beneficiaries from large
population but also helps in effective and efficient allocation of resources.

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