Science, Technology and Society Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Introducing novel traits by inserting alternative genetic material is genetic modification.

Genetic modification (genetic engineering) changes an organism's DNA directly, for example by inserting a gene from another species. Bt cotton, which carries a bacterial gene that produces an insecticidal protein, is the Indian example most discussed by sociologists.

Eugenics is the discredited movement to 'improve' human populations by controlling who reproduces. Euthenics seeks to improve human well-being by improving living conditions, and 'sociobotany' is not a recognised term for altering genes.

Answer: A

On the key's reading, both A and R are correct and R is the correct explanation of A.

Studies of disability in the media note a shift away from portraying disabled people only as objects of pity, villains or burdens, towards more varied and ordinary portrayals in recent literature and film. The key links that shift to the changing nature of social care, the welfare state and social protection, which have reduced the stigma attached to disability and so changed how it is represented.

Options C and D are excluded because they do not separate truth from explanation correctly: C denies both statements, and D says only that both are true without deciding the link the question asks about. Option B accepts both but denies the link the key affirms.

Answer: A

The socio-economic difference in access to ICT is the digital divide.

The term describes the gap between those who have access to computers, the internet and other information and communication technologies, and the skills to use them, and those who do not. In India it runs along lines of income, region (urban and rural), gender, age and education.

'Digital gap' is used loosely in the same sense but is not the established name. A class divide is about economic position in general, not specifically ICT, and 'digital struggle' is not a recognised term.

Answer: D

The key treats the intergenerational gap as not being a reason for the digital divide.

The question looks at the divide in terms of access. The non-availability of reliable infrastructure, the lack of resources to invest in information infrastructure, and difficulty in accessing the internet regularly are all direct causes of unequal access to ICT.

The intergenerational gap describes a difference between older and younger users in their familiarity with technology. It is a pattern within the use of technology rather than a cause of unequal access, which is why the key treats it as the odd one out.

Answer: A

The project is BharatNet.

BharatNet, begun as the National Optical Fibre Network in 2011 and renamed in 2015, aims to connect all of India's roughly 2.5 lakh gram panchayats with optical fibre broadband, so that rural areas can receive e-governance, e-health, e-education and other services.

'E-Bharath', 'GramNet' and 'Gramsanchar' are not the names of the Government of India's optical fibre project for gram panchayats, and are offered as plausible-sounding distractors.

Answer: B

The initiative is the National Digital Literacy Mission.

Launched in 2014 under the Digital India programme, the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) aimed to make one person in every household digitally literate. It was followed by the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) for rural households.

'Indian Digital Saksharta Mission' borrows the Hindi word for literacy from PMGDISHA but is not the name of a scheme. 'National Digital Education Mission' and 'Indian Digital Learning Mission' are not the names of the Government's digital literacy initiative.

Answer: B

The right was read into Article 21.

In Faheema Shirin R.K. v. State of Kerala (2019), the Kerala High Court held that a college hostel rule barring students from using mobile phones violated their rights, and declared the right to internet access part of the right to privacy and the right to education under Article 21, the right to life and personal liberty.

Article 45 is a Directive Principle on early childhood care and education. Article 51 is a Directive Principle on international peace, and Article 11 empowers Parliament to regulate citizenship.

Answer: C

The term is media bubble.

A media bubble (closely related to Eli Pariser's 'filter bubble' and to the 'echo chamber') is an environment in which a person's news and social media show only one ideological or cultural perspective. Algorithms that recommend content like what users already engage with, and people's own choices of sources, keep other views out.

Media hype is intense, exaggerated coverage of an event. 'Media puzzle' and 'media idiom' are not established terms for this condition.

Answer: A

The three Bs are biology, bytes and bandwidth.

The phrase comes from an interview with Sangita Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, who says health care is being transformed by the three Bs. Biology stands for advances such as genome sequencing and personalised medicine; bytes for cheap computing power that processes health data; and bandwidth for the connectivity that carries services to remote areas, as in telemedicine.

The other sets are not that phrase. Biography, biostat, bitcare and 'body' are not terms in it, so options B, C and D are wrong whatever else they contain.

Answer: A

The section is Section 46 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Section 46 gives the power to adjudicate: it empowers the government to appoint adjudicating officers to hold inquiries and decide whether a person has contravened the Act, and to award compensation or impose penalties in such cases.

The other numbers do not provide for adjudication of compensation claims under the Act; the trap is to pick a familiar number such as 21, which is the Article of the Constitution on the right to life rather than a section of the IT Act.