Question No : 1

(A)   Parliament is set to pass a law to regulate the use of DNA technology. Since the DNA of        a person is unique, it can be used to accurately identify a person’s identity.

(B) Globally, DNA technology is used to help enforcement agencies identify both perpetrators and victims in criminal cases.

(C)    In civilian life, DNA can be used to establish parentage of children or sibling relationships.

(D)    In medicine, DNA is used to identify the susceptibility of a person to diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.

(E)    Hence, countries the world over have felt the need to strictly regulate the use of DNA. One hopes that the new law would fill a major gap, as the use of DNA technology in India has been left unregulated.

(F)  However, the use of DNA technology also raises major concerns relating to consent (i.e. the right to refuse to provide a bodily substance), privacy and data security.

(1) FEDCB      

(2) DEBCF      

(3) CFEBD      

(4) EFDBC      

(5) BDCFE

Question No : 2

(A)   In a nation of billion-plus people with woefully inadequate access to healthcare and an acute shortage of qualified doctors,                       getting a seat at a medical college is often seen as a sure-fire way to prosperity.

(B) All this would change, or so the government hopes, once the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, introduced on Monday in the          Lok Sabha, replaces the 63- year-old MCI with a new oversight body.

(C)  The bill seeks to establish uniform standards for medical education by proposing that the final year of MBBS exam be treated as an                  entrance test for post-graduate courses and a screening test for those who obtained a degree in medicine from abroad.

(D)  Owners of private medical colleges have for years sought to exploit this heavy demand by charging exorbitant fees, often with the                   blessings of the Medical Council of India (MCI).

(E) The Council, the country’s regulator for medical education and practice, has been accused of corruption in granting recognition to                  medical colleges.

(F) This exam will be called the National Exit Test (NEXT). While some medical professionals have raised concerns over a possible dilution        of standards this way, students at large appear to have welcomed the shift.

(1) FEDCB      

(2) DEBCF      

(3) CFEBD      

(4) EFDBC      

(5) BDCFE

Question No : 3

(A)  Perhaps the stand-out provision of the bill is its intent to cap fees on 50% of seats in   MBBS and PG courses at private medical                  colleges.

(B) Simultaneously, it must allow private players, as many as possible, to set up colleges with permits granted in an open and                                 transparent manner.

(C)  An increase in the number of seats, along with scrupulous regulation, would do a better job of solving the sector’s problems than price          caps, which are inherently arbitrary and   could distort the dynamics of medical education in the long term.

(D)  What the government needs to do is set up a large number of new medical colleges.

(E) This seems to be a good interim measure, given the state-created squeeze on seat supply.

(F) However, price caps should not get institutionalized as a matter of policy.

(1) FEDCB      

(2) DEBCF      

(3) CFEBD      

(4) EFDBC      

(5) BDCFE

Question No : 4

(A)   2015 was a landmark year for climate action.

(B) In May 2014, when Prime Minister Modi took office, he stated unambiguously that India’s     development trajectory will be green.

(C)   In fact, India’s global leadership on climate action predates the adoption of the 2030 development agenda.

(D)  Even as the fault-lines of international politics played out during the negotiations of these two historic summits, one thing remained              clear—the government of India led by Prime Minister Modi is a global leader in the fight against climate change.

(E) In December, 197 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change.

 (F) In September of that year, the international community adopted the comprehensive  Sustainable Development Goals at UNGA.

(1) FEDCB      

(2) DEBCF      

(3) CFEBD      

(4) EFDBC      

(5) BDCFE

Question No : 5

(A)  Prime Minister Imran Khan was accompanied by Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, when he went to the United States on July 20 to meet President            Donald Trump at his invitation.

(B) It was clear that Washington believed that Pakistan could get the Afghan Taliban to settle with the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul while controlling half of Afghanistan. Its unblocking of $1.2 billion aid to Pakistan clearly signalled this optimism.

(C)  The Pakistan-US thaw was coming, mainly because Pakistan, driven into a corner, was willing to change its policy.

(D) The general had to accompany him and take part in the discussions to “legitimise” them.      (The widely held view is that the army really rules Pakistan.)

(E) The meeting went unexpectedly well as both leaders abandoned their well-known loose-tongued aggression and agreed on getting together on Afghanistan to help the United States get out of that country.

(F) Clearly, Trump softened after Pakistan submitted to the fiat of the Forward Action Task Force (FATF) to clean up its act of proxy war and arrested its non-state actors bothering India across the Line of Control in Kashmir.

(1) FEDCB      

(2) DEBCF      

(3) CFEBD      

(4) EFDBC      

(5) BDCFE