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S.S.C. COMBINED GRADUATE LEVEL (Mains) EXAM., 2006
PARTA
General Awareness
Q. 1. The salient features of the
Right to Information Act, 2005 and
the impact of that on governance
and society. (about 300 words)
OR
The convergence of Information,
Communication and Entertainment
(ICE). (about 300 words)
Ans. Salient features of the
Right to Information Act, 2005 and
the impact of that on governance
and SocietyActually Right of
Information Act, 2005, is a major
improvement on the Freedom of
Information Act, which was passed
by the Parliament in December 2002
but never came into force.
The RTI bill was tabled in the
Parliament on 23 December, 2004 and
was passed on 12 May, 2005.
Mahamahim Rastrapati gave his
assent on this bill on 15 June, 2005.
Through this Act any Indian citizen
whether he/she is related to the
information he/she wants to get, has
a right to obtain information
regarding any material kept in any
form such as record, document,
memo, e-mail, opinion, advice, press-
release, circular, order, logbook, con-
tract, report papers, samples, model,
data-materials in any electronic form
which have been kept by a public
authority. In addition to this if the
above mentioned things are related to
a private body which is accessible to
public authority by any rule, they
come under the information.
The Act is functional in whole of
the Indian territory except in Jammu
& Kashmir. The Act is also not
applicable to intelligence and security
organisations like the IB, RAW, BSF,
CISF etc. Such things on publication
of which there is a threat to the
national integrity, national economic
profit or if such publication plays a
negative role in building the relations
PD/August/2007/279
(Held on 23-6-2006)
General Studies
with any other country, do not come
under this Act. All documents of the
Cabinet and the Council of Ministers
have also been exempted from this
Act.
Following are the chief merits of
this Act. The Act seeks to ensure (i)
maximum disclosure and minimum
exemptions consistent with Constitu-
tional provisions; (ii) an effective
mechanism for access to information
and disclosure by authorities; (iii) an
independent appeal meahanism and
(iv) penalties for failure to provide
information as per the law. Above all,
the most important thing is that the
Act provides rights to the general
public.
So far as its impact on gover-
nance and society is concerned, it is
expected that the governance will
become neat and clean and the law
and order situation will be improved.
With the help of this Act, the
concious people, instead of begging
to the public authority for some
information, will rather demand for
the same with full right.
OR
Imagine a yuppie executive
travelling in a Mumbai local train to
reach his place of work. First he
listens to a pocket radio to keep
abreast of the latest news. Then from
other pocket he pulls a mobile phone
to talk to one of his colleagues.
Thereafter from yet another pocket he
pulls out a walkman to listen to his
choicest songs and music. Now he
may often be facing a difficulty of
keeping his walet and holding his
brief-case. He wonders how could he
get down the train in a hurry. A small
gadget which could be used to listen
to music, radio news and making
phone calls would be a boom for him.
Now technicians world over are
developing such multipurpose equip-
ments converging information, com-
munications and entertainment tech-
nologies. Such mobile phones are
already there in the market which can
be used to snap photographs and
videos, downloading songs and MMS
video chips and viewing them surfing
the internet and checking e-mail
besides making phone calls. Yet
another category of mobile phones
boast of blue tooth & wifi con-
nectivity, QWERTY keyboard for
preparing spreadsheets and word
documents.
People today prefer to have a
laptop instead of a music system plus
television plus DVD player plus a
computer. A laptop does the work of
all these gadgets alone. Such versatile
equipments are available today due
to convergence of information, com-
munication and entertainment tech-
nologies.
Today telephone lines carry not
only telephonic signals but also data
signals (broadband internet data). For
this telephony has gone digital way.
There are such fridges available in the
market which have a internet con-
nected TV mounted on the doors.
And efforts of further convergence of
these three technologies, and may be
several other techniques shall go on.
This has become necessary because
man has become too busy today,
always on the run for his livelihood
and his abode has got limited to a
two bedroom flat where there is
insufficient space and hence he cant
afford several stand alone gadgets.
Q. 2. Water resource and its
management. (about 300 words)
OR
Indo-US co-operation in the
field or nuclear energy.
(about 300 words)
Ans. It is being said that the third
world war will be fought for water
and not for oil or territory.
In India Punjab, Haryana and
Delhi, Delhi and U.P., Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu,
Karnataka and Maharashtra are
having a tussle for water. In our