General Studies Mains Expected Questions For Civil Service Exam

General Studies Mains Expected Questions For Civil Service Exam
1. Role of Judiciary under Indian Constitution
2. Programmes and Activities of early Nationalists
3. Short Answer Questions
4. Office of Profit
5. Full Convertibility of Rupee
6. Moderates and Indian masses
7. People’s Movement and Princely States
8. How is President of India Elected
9. Trial of INA

Role of Judiciary under Indian Constitution
Describe the role of Judiciary under the Indian Constitution. Is the Judiciary competent to examine the decision of the Parliament to expel its members from the House on charges of corruption?
While the power of the Parliament to legislate is supreme, at the same time the Judiciary has been made the watchdog of Indian democracy. As per the working of the Constitution for the past more than 60 years, a new role for the Judiciary has emerged. In view of various judgements of the apex court on amendments to the Constitution, the position today is that any amendment which aims at changing the basic structure of the Constitution would be unconstitutional. Hence, every proposed amendment is subject to judicial scrutiny if it is aimed at tinkering with the basic structure of the Constitution, which includes the federal system, parliamentary system, independence of judiciary, Fundamental Rights, etc. In addition, the Judiciary also has the right of judicial review. It implies that every piece of legislation passed by the Parliament is subject to judicial scrutiny by the Supreme Court. No specific provisions exist for this arrangement, but it is as per the law which has emerged through various judgements of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, thus, has the power to strike down any piece of legislation aimed at amending the Indian Constitution on two grounds. Firstly, if the procedure prescribed under Article 368 is not followed and, secondly, if the amending Act seeks to violate one or more basic features of the Constitution.
In addition to the above, the apex court of the country has also assumed additional duties under a new concept called ‘Public Interest Litigation’ (PIL), under which any citizen can bring any matter of general importance to the general public for consideration of the Supreme Court. In case the apex court finds that the executive has been wanting in due discharge of its duties, it passes the required directions to the concerned authorities in government.
But there is still some conflict about the supremacy of the Parliament vis-à-vis authority of the Judiciary in general and the Supreme Court in particular. This conflict emerged in 2006 when the Parliament took a decision to unseat ten Members of Parliament who were exposed by the electronic media accepting bribe. The Parliament, under the directions of the Speaker, considered the report of a Parliamentary Committee appointed by the Speaker to inquire in to the episode and decided to unseat the members involved in this bribery incident.
It was a bold step by the Parliament to salvage its reputation and to show to the country that all the Members of Parliament were not corrupt and all the guilty were punished by an exemplary expulsion, though no specific provision exists in the parliamentary procedures to support this action. Some sort of constitutional crisis surfaced when the Judiciary decided to take cognizance of this action of the Speaker and issued notice to the Speaker to file his reply on the writ petition filed by the expelled MPs.
View of the Speaker was that it is an internal matter of the Parliament and there can be no interference of the Judiciary in its proceedings in any manner. The Parliament feels that cognizance by the Judiciary is not warranted in this case as the Speaker has final power to interpret the rules and procedures of the Parliament, and under Article 122, Speaker’s conduct in regulating the procedure or maintaining order in the House is not subject to jurisdiction of any court. The Parliament also feels that this act of the Judiciary is an interference with the supremacy of Parliament.
Programmes and Activities of early Nationalists
What were the programmes and activities of early nationalists? Did they succeed in their goals?
The period after the revolt of 1857 witnessed the emergence of early nationalism in the country. Broadly, it was the policies of the British, their racialism, economic exploitation of the country by them and imperialism which became main factors responsible for the growth of early nationalism in India. Western thought and education, emergence of the print media and setting up of the communication systems were some of the environmental factor that fuelled the rise of early nationalism in India.
Till 1885, the feeling of nationalism was like a rudderless boat. After the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885, the vacuum for a political organisation, felt by many, was filled up to a great extent. The early objectives and programmes of the Congress were declared to be the promotion of friendly relations between the nationalist political workers, consolidation of the feeling of national unity irrespective of caste, relation or province, formulation of popular demands and their presentation before the British and generation of nationalist public opinion in the country. All these objectives and programmes later resulted in growth of a strong feeling of nationalism among the masses.
In pursuance of this objective, the early nationalists tried to formulate the popular demands of the Indians on country-wide basis. Such an attempt also resulted in national integration and unity in a nation, which was still on the road to become one after centuries of political fragmentation.The policy of the British to export the cheaper raw material from India for their industries back home in England, without any restrictions/duties, and import of the finished goods from there to India, was well known to the educated but the masses in the country were required to be made aware of it. The nationalists of the day brought out the economic policies of the British which resulted in ruin of the traditional handicraft industries. Failure of the growth of modern industries to help the cause of the common man was also highlighted.
The idea of swadeshi, which gained currency later, was also popularised to a considerable extent during the later part of nineteenth century.
In addition to the above, the early nationalists felt that the country should move towards democratic self- governance and raised this demand in various forums from time to time. Demand for giving the required freedom and liberties was also highlighted.
It is felt by many that the early nationalist could not achieve much, as very few demands raised by them were accepted by the British. But considering from the view that the level of illiteracy was low, nationalist feeling was dormant and it was for the first time that the concepts like nationalism, unification and swadeshi were being used and introduced, it was wrong to expect immediate discernible results. The contribution of the early nationalists in creating awareness about some of the issues of national importance, which later were caught the fancy of common man in India, cannot be overlooked.
Short Answer Questions
Answer the following in about 50 words each.
(a) What are the applications of nanotechnology?(b) What is ‘Dog Whistle Politics’?(c) When and where was ‘Al Qaeda’ born?(d) Who is known as ‘Deep Throat’ and why?(e) Write a short note on ‘Deep Impact Mission’.(f) Write a short note on ‘Bharat Nirman’.(g) Describe Twenty20—the New Mode of Cricket.
(a) Nanotechnology Applications: Nano-technology is still in the stage of infancy and it was during the past five years that this new field has emerged as an important area. Nanotubes and nanofibres are two applications of nanotechnology which are used in manufacturing of batteries and production of anti-scratch plastics. It also has wide applications in biotechnology.
(b) Dog Whistle Politics: An Australian concept, Dog Whistle Politics refers to describe high-pitched political message that incites a receptive audience but is unintelligible to rest of the people. Coined in the year 1997 in Australia, the concept is also being used in the U.K. Such political message would be understood by the desired audience, but would not be understood by the rest, as in case of an ultrasonic whistle heard by a dog while being inaudible to the humans around him. It, thus, refers to an election campaign message that will not cause general offence but contains a coded message to which sympathetic voters would respond.
(c) Al Qaeda: Al Qaeda is a multi-national terrorist organisation with a worldwide presence. The outfit was set up by Osama bin Laden in the Middle East in late eighties to bring together the Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. Its announced goal is to encourage all the Muslims to overthrow non-Islamic regimes and to kill US citizens—civilian or military—and their allies everywhere in the world. The USA and Israel have been targeting Al Qaeda and its activists under their anti-terrorist operations.
(d) Deep Throat: ‘Deep Throat’ is the pseudonym that was given to a secret source who leaked the information about the involvement of the then U.S. President Richard Nixon’s administration in the happenings that came to be known as Watergate Scandal in the year 1974. “Deep Throat” was an important source for two reporters of the Washington Post, named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who together wrote a series of articles exposing the misdeeds of Nixon administration. It was recently, after more than three decades of the mystery about the identity of Deep Throat that William Mark Felt, a former Associate Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed his identity in a Vanity Fair Article that he was ‘Deep Throat’. Woodward and Bernstein also confirmed that Felt was the mysterious Watergate source known as ‘Deep Throat’.
(e) Deep Impact Mission: Deep Impact Mission was a space mission planned and executed by NASA (USA) which has resulted in finding water ice on the comet Tempel 1. This was the first time that ice was detected on the nucleus or solid body of a comet. The flyby spacecraft impacted the comet in July 2005 and excavated the material from its nucleus.
(f) Bharat Nirman: Bharat Nirman is a rural infrastructure development project launched by the UPA government in 2004-05. One of the most ambitious programmes of its type, Rs 1,74,000 crore would be spent under this project to improve rural irrigation, rural roads, rural housing, rural drinking water, rural electrification and telephone connectivity in the rural areas, between the period from 2005-06 to 2009. Targets under this programme include plans to bring one crore hectare land under assured irrigation, road connectivity to all villages with a population of 1000, construction of additional 60 lakh houses for the rural houseless poor, providing potable drinking water to the remaining 74,000 villages, electrification of 1,25,000 villages and providing telephone connectivity to the remaining 66,822 villages in the country.
(g) Twenty20—the New Mode of Cricket: After the introduction of One Day Internationals (ODIs) to make the game of cricket more interesting about four decades ago, a new mode of cricket, called Twenty20 cricket, has been introduced in the recent years. This is even shorter version of the game in which both the teams bowl and bat only for twenty overs each. The aim is to bring more crowds into the cricket grounds, particularly the women and children.
Office of Profit
What is the ‘office of profit’ under the Indian Constitution?
The Constitution of India, under Article 102, clearly stipulates that a person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being a member of either House of Parliament if he holds any office of profit under the government of India or the government of any State (other than an office exempted by the Parliament by law), but not a Minister for the Union or for a State.
If a question arises as to whether a Member of Parliament has become subject to disqualification by virtue of holding the office of profit, the President of India shall take a decision on the matter on the basis of the opinion of the Election Commission of India, under Article 103 of the Constitution. The decision of the President in this regard shall be final and cannot be questioned in any court of law. Similar and analogous provisions exist for the Members of Legislative Assemblies of the States, under Article 191
Full Convertibility of Rupee
What is full convertibility of rupee on capital account? Is the Indian economy ready to switch over to such full convertibility?
Convertibility of the domestic currency is one of the prerequisite for complete globalisation of any economy. Along with de-controls, freer movement of goods and services, removal of tariff and non-tariff restrictions and easier mobility of the workforce, convertibility is one of the important cornerstones of the process of globalisation and economic reforms.
Current account convertibility is already there and the stringent controls of pre-nineties over the foreign exchange have also been relaxed to a great extent. The stringent Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was replaced by a relaxed Act called Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), making the movement of foreign exchange easier. Resident Indians and companies now have access to foreign exchange for various purposes, including education and travel. They can also receive and make payments in foreign currencies on trade account.
Full convertibility implies that the existing restrictions on the capital account would also be withdrawn. Corollary of this step would be that the domestic assets, including the real estate and stocks, could be sold to the foreigners and the payments in foreign currency could be received in the country without prior regulatory clearances.
Some steps have already been taken to facilitate the full capital account convertibility in the country. Foreign exchange has been allowed to flow into Indian stock markets through registered institutional investors. In addition, many categories of the resident Indians have been allowed to open foreign currency accounts abroad. Indian companies have also been making overseas acquisitions for which they have been given access to foreign currency resources.
It would, however, be wrong to presume that full convertibility on the capital account would result in lifting of all the restrictions. Even the developed countries like the USA block foreign investment in some of the sectors. Despite the government decision in this regard, it has not been easy for the non-resident Indians to acquire property and real estate in the country. The government of India, though has allowed Direct Foreign Investment (FDI) in most of the fields, yet certain caps have been put by the government on the FDI in some of the sectors. Most of these restrictions may continue even after the capital account convertibility is introduced. Benefits would be in terms of more flow of foreign capital into the economy, resulting in higher investment and the resultant growth rate. Further, the financial and capital markets would bring more profits to the domestic investors.
There are certain prerequisites for introduction of capital account full convertibility. The economy must be nearer to the global standards in the matter of fiscal deficit, inflation rate, interest rates, foreign exchange reserves, etc. It is said that the economy can be said to be ripe for capital account convertibility only if interest rates are low and de-regulated and the inflation rate in the three consecutive years had been around three per cent.
In addition, fiscal deficit should be low at around 3 per cent and foreign exchange reserves should be reasonably high. Further, the economy has to be in good shape, as full convertibility would result in bringing in the instabilities and fluctuations of the outside world into the economy, as it gets more connected to the outside world. Further, imperfections in the economy, like the urban-rural dichotomy and difference in the growth rates in various sectors like agriculture and industries, as well as services, must be removed.
Considering the above prerequisites it appears that the Indian economy is not yet prepared for switching over to the capital account convertibility. The only requisites which have been met are reasonably high level of foreign exchange reserves, mostly deregulated interest rates and relatively good condition of the economy as a whole. In most of the other areas there is lot more to be done. Interest rates as well as the inflation rate are higher than the required levels. Further, the imperfections of the economy are glaring as the services and industrial sectors are booming, but the agricultural sector which employs over 65 per cent of the total work force, is growing at a much lower rate of 2 to 3 per cent per annum.
People’s Movement and Princely States
What was the contribution of the People’s Movement in Princely States under the British rule?
During the British Rule, along with the Nationalist Movement against the British by the Indian masses, there was a parallel movement by the people of the Princely States. While most of the territory of India had passed into the hands of the British by the beginning of the 20th century, some parts of the country were still under the princely rulers/Nawabs. Though most of the rulers had accepted the suzerainty of the British, yet most of them were despotic and callous towards the welfare of their people. Economic condition of people was poor with extremely high demands of land revenue and other taxes. Modern education and other social services were neglected by most of the rulers.
The people of these States were greatly influenced by the Nationalist Movement. The movements like the “Prajamandal Movement” and “All India States’ and People’s Conference” came to the fore. The Civil Disobedience Movement also spread to the States like Rajkot, Jaipur, Kashmir, Hyderabad and Travancore. The Princes suppressed these Movements with a heavy hand. They also used the communal cards to crush the movements. By 1935, the Indian National Congress came forward openly to espouse the cause of the States’ people. In the year 1935, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru became the President of All India States’ People’s Conference, which gave the required impetus to the Movement in these States.
The Nationalist Movement in the Princely States not only brought the nationalist consciousness among the States’ people, but it also brought them in the national mainstream. It also put the added pressure on the British to leave India and forced the Princely States to merge with the Indian Union as per the provisions of the Indian Independence Act. The new consciousness among these people also resulted in a united India after independence.
Moderates and Indian masses
Why did the moderates lose appeal with Indian masses and failed to get the desired response from the people?
Between the period from 1885 to 1905, the Indian National Congress was dominated by moderate leaders, prominent among them being Dada Bhai Nauroji, Badrudin Tayabji, Surendra Nath Banerjee, M.G. Ranade, Madan Mohan Malaviya and G. Subramanya Iyer. As the expression ‘moderate’ suggests, most of these leaders believed in constitutional methods of agitation and pursuing limited objectives. Their basic objective was to arouse the political consciousness and national spirit among the Indians. Most of them had complete faith in British administration and justice. Their methods included passing of resolutions, holding meetings and sending petitions. Though their methods did not fetch them immediate gains, yet their contribution towards political and national awakening was of paramount value to the country.
But gradually, this group of early nationalists began to lose appeal with the Indian masses. There were several reasons and the foremost was the Boycott and Swadeshi Movement during the Bengal Partition. Many moderate leaders did not associate themselves with this movement and younger people within Congress started realising the futility of the ideology and techniques of moderate leaders. As a result, during the agitation against Bengal Partition, a large section of Indians lost faith in the sense of justice of the British. This resulted in loss of goodwill of the moderates and emergence of a new group of nationalists, popularly known as the extremists.
Emergence of new generation leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, B.C. Pal and Arbinda Ghosh caught the fancy and following of the masses. Economic exploitation, resulting in impoverishment during the British rule, was also a major factor responsible for growing disillusionment against the British as well as the moderates. It was realised by all that the primary cause of poverty in India was the anti-Indians economic policies followed by the British.
How is President of India Elected
How is the President of India elected? What are the provisions in the Constitution relating to a vacancy in the office of the President of India? Is there any such provision for a vacancy in the office of the Vice President of India also?
India is a democratic republic and the Constitution provides for an elected Head of State i.e. the President. As Head of the Union Executive, the President is elected by an indirect election for a term of five years. Articles 54 and 55 of the Constitution deal with the election of the President. Article 54 provides that the President of India shall be elected by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both the Houses of the Parliament and such members of the State Legislative Assemblies. As per subsequent amendments to the Constitution, the Assemblies of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Puducherry were also included in the electoral college, while other Union Territories are not its part. Nominated members of the Parliament, as well as those from the State Legislative Assemblies are not authorised to vote.Article 55 provides for uniformity of representation of different States in terms of their population and total number of elected members of the State Assembly. As per this provision, every elected member of Legislative Assembly of a State shall have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of that State by the number of elected members in the Assembly. It is also provided that the election to the office of the President shall be held by means of single transferable vote. Every voting member of electoral college has as many preferences as there are number of candidates in the fray. If there are more than two candidates in the race, the successful candidate must obtain 50 per cent plus one votes.
If in the first round of counting (in which only first preferences are considered) no candidate gets clear majority of the total votes, second preferences of the candidate getting the minimum number of first preferences in the first round of counting are considered as the first preferences for the remaining candidates. This process goes on till a candidate gets clear majority and is declared elected.
As per the Constitution, a vacancy may be caused in the office of the President of India due to completion of tenure, by death of the President, by his resignation or on removal by impeachment. In case of a vacancy due to expiry of term, the process of election of the new President is required to be completed before such an expiry and the newly elected President assumes the office on expiry of term of the outgoing President. In case of vacancy due to any other cause, election to fill up the office must be held in not later than six months from the date of vacancy. During the period of vacancy, and also during the temporary vacancy caused by illness of the President or due to any other reason, Article 65(2) provides that the Vice- President shall discharge the functions of the President till new President is elected or the President resumes his duties.
In case of a vacancy in the office of the Vice-President due to any reason, the process of election has to be completed within six months. But the Constitution is silent about the person who is to discharge the duties of Vice-President during the period of such vacancy. As per practice during the past, the duties of the Vice-President as Chairperson of Rajya Sabha were discharged by the Vice-Chairperson of Rajya Sabha as and when such a vacancy in the office of the Vice-President had arisen.
Trial of INA
The trial of the prisoners of Indian National Army was the hallmark of Nationalist Movement during the post-Second World War period. Discuss
Indian National Army (INA) under the leadership of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose fought valiantly against the British forces during the Second World War. But with the collapse of Japan in the year 1945, the INA too met with defeat. As the war ended, the Quit India Movement in India was also on the wane and that is the time when the British began the trial of the officers and soldiers of the INA. The British treated these prisoners as traitors, but people of India regarded them as national heroes. Trial of three officers of the INA, namely Shah Nawaz Khan, Gurdial Singh Dhillon and Prem Sehgal, at the Red Fort was opposed by the entire country. The masses did not want these heroes to be punished. So great was the pressure from the public that even after the court martial held them guilty, the British had to set them free.
The Britishers could judge the determined mood of Indian masses. Moreover, the Second World War had shattered the economic and military might of the British Empire. There was also a mutiny in the Navy against the said trial. In addition, there were numerous strikes, hartals and demonstrations in various parts of the country, including several Princely States. Although there was no major movement after the Second World War, the people’s struggle against the trial of the INA prisoners filled the void. Most dangerous signals to the British came from mutiny in Navy and the strikes in the Indian Air Force and the Corps of Signals in the Army. The police and the bureaucracy were also showing the signs of nationalist leanings. The writing on the wall was clear. The centuries old British rule in India was about to end. Other important events like Cabinet Mission in 1946 and Indian Independence Act of 1947 only worked out the detailed formula for independence