राज्यसेवा पूर्व परीक्षा २०१५ - Paper 2

Read the following passages and respond to the questions that follow each passage. Your responses should be based on the passages. 

Questions number 1 to 5 :
                  Between the thirteenth and the sixteenth century, European feudal lords accumulated large amounts of money by exploiting the serfs. The accumulated capital was put to newer uses. They gave financial support to explorers who discovered new lands and routes. Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the New World. Vasco da Gama circumnavigated the African continent and discovered a safe trade route to India and the East. One of the ships in Magellan's fleet returned to Europe and proved that it was possible to circumnavigate the Earth. Another use of the accumulated capital was the  patronization of great artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. These artists revolutionized the arts of painting and sculpture and represented the human body in great detail. Artists like da Vinci also studied anatomy as it would help them represent the human body accurately in their art.
             Anatomy was not the only science that evolved in this period. Alchemists who wanted to find the Philosophers' Stone and the Elixir of Life ended up discovering various new elements like Phosphorus and Chemistry evolved as a Science. Copernicus proposed that Sun and not Earth, was the centre of our solar system. Scientists like Kepler and Galileo used the experimental method to prove him right. They believed that the book of Nature was written in the language of Mathematics. Apart from the various discoveries, Scientific Method itself evolved in this period. Scientists proposed an idea, conducted experiments to prove it, recorded the proceedings of the experiment and kept the records open for scrutiny by others working in the field. They believed that man had an almost unlimited potential of changing the world for the better. Though the Church was immensely rich and powerful, people began to discard a life of blind belief in destiny and a Spirit of Inquiry evolved. The new ideology of Humanism emphasized the capacities and efforts of individual humans. European scholars revived the classical Greek and Roman texts and popularised them with the new technique of printing developed by Gutenberg. The word renaissance means revival. All these interrelated phenomena are collectively called the Renaissance. 

Questions number 6 to 10:
     Human possesses some rights given by nature itself. The concept of "Human Rights" is developed in modern era with the object to provide them to the citizens of all countries around the world. Human Rights include right to life, livelihood alongwith speech, association and religious belief. During 1215 the law known as "Magna Carta" was passed in England. Since then the concept of control over the rights of the State took birth. It was more explained due to the Petition of Rights of 1628 and Bill of Rights of 1689. The object behind the American freedom and American declaration on fundamental freedom was also to protect the human rights.
     In 1948 the Universal Declaration on Human Rights was made by the United Nations and at the same time framing of the Constitution of India was going on due to Indian Independence. The framers of the Constitution were influenced by the provisions of this declaration and hence some of the provisions of the said declaration are made in the third part of the Constitution of India. As per Article 32 of the Constitution, if the human rights which are given as fundamental rights to the citizens get violated, it can be challenged in the Supreme Court. Due to international pressure and developments the Protection of Human Rights Act was passed in India in the year 1993. The National and State Human Rights Commissions were established by this Act. If human rights are violated, recourse can be made to filing a complaint to the National or State Human Rights Commission
     The rampant violation of human rights of women can be seen in India. Though the Constitutional provisions regarding human rights of women are made alongwith special laws made by Government, due to social mentality of male dominance, women are given secondary status. Well known economist Mr. Amartya Sen had written an article “Missing Women in a British Journal in the year 1992, where he mentioned that ten crore women are lost. Lost means they were killed before taking birth as female foeticide. Education is a big tool for change. Economic and social empowerment of women can be done through that means. The decision given by Supreme Court in Vishakha case has not been yet implemented at the major places of employment, hence the awareness of women laws is essential in the society and especially among women.

Questions number 11 to 15:
     It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning-time is always a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, is: solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent ?), it is a high  inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person, it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves (“to hearken and to hammer day and night”), may young people use the love that is given to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them (who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves); it is the ultimate, is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.

Questions number 16 to 20 :
     Innovation is going to be critical for India not only for growth and competitive advantage, but also to ensure that our future development is sustainable and inclusive. Our country faces a range of unmet needs related to critical areas such as health, education, agriculture, energy and skills. It also faces immense challenges related to demography, with 55 crore below the age of 25 for whom opportunities must be provided, disparity, driven by the multiple deprivations of class, caste, gender, and region, and the challenge of development, with the urgent need to lift crores of citizens out of dire poverty.
     Innovation is going to central to providing an answer to these most pressing challenges and for creating opportunity structures for sharing the benefits of the emerging knowledge economy. Affordable solutions, innovative business models, or processes which ease delivery of services to citizens will allow more people to join the development process and also enable looking beyond the conventional way of doing things.
     However, our unique needs call for a new model of innovation that focuses on affordability and inclusive growth and lifts people at the bottom of the pyramid out of poverty and deprivation. For decades, the trajectory of innovation has reflected the priorities of the developed world focusing more on the desires of the rich, and directing ecosystem of talent and capital to satisfy them. India cannot follow that path. Our innovation must instead focus on the poor, and their most essential wants. The old consumption-intensive approaches cannot work, given the sheer scale of our needs and our vast population. Instead our innovation needs to be frugal with scarce resources, affordable for our poorest citizens and environmentally sustainable. The work of India's National Innovation Council reflects this thinking. Their effort has been aimed at creating an Indian model of Innovation, of the people, by the people and for the people. Only through this inclusive approach where people are beneficiaries in knowledge creation and generation can we hope to create more sustainable models of development.