Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in Current Affairs.

1. The atomic or ionic radii of 3-d series transition elements are smaller than those of representative elements, with the same oxidation states.

2. For the same oxidation state, there is an increase in nuclear charge and a gradual decrease in ionic radii of 3dseries elements is observed. Thus ionic radii of ions with oxidation state + 2 decreases with increase in atomic number.

3. There is slight increase is observed in Zn²⁺ ions. With the higher oxidation states, effective nuclear charge increases. Therefore ionic radii decrease with increase in oxidation state of the same element. 

For example, 

Fe²⁺ ion has ionic radius 77 pm whereas Fe³⁺ has 65 pm.

The inner shell electrons in an atom screen or shield the outermost electron from the nuclear attraction. This effect is called the shielding effect.

The magnitude of the shielding effect depends upon the number of inner electrons.

The 90^th element thorium has an electronic configuration, [Rn] 6d²7s². Since it has 2 unpaired electrons it is paramagnetic.

Correct answer is

d. All of the above

Lanthanoid complexes may show magnetism.

Paramagnetism and ferromagnetism is due to the presence of unpaired electrons in species.

Option : (b) [Ar] 3d¹ 4s² 

Option : (a) 3d-transition series elements

Option : (d) [Ar] 3d¹⁰ 4s¹

• The magnetic moment in the species arises due to the presence of unpaired electrons.
• The magnetic moment depends upon the sum of orbitals and spin contribution for each unpaired electron present in the species.
• In transition metal ions, the contribution of orbital magnetic moment is suppressed by the electrostatic field of other atoms, molecules or ions surrounding the metal ion in the compound.
• Hence the net or effective magnetic moment arises mainly due to spin of electrons. The effective magnetic moment μ_eff, of a paramagnetic substance is given by 1 spin only formula represented as,  μ = \(\sqrt{n(n+2)}\) B.M. where n is the number of unpaired electrons. 

Cast iron is iron that has been melted, poured into a mould, and allowed to cool. Typically cast iron contains 2-4% carbon, it is non-malleable, hard and brittle.

For more information see: Cast iron.

Wrought iron is iron that has been heated before being worked with tools to shape it. Wrought iron has a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%), and is characteristically fibrous in appearance, but compared to cast iron it is softer and more ductile. Wrought iron resists fatigue and has a higher tensile strength than cast iron.

An order had come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Loraine. M. Hamel used to teach French there. By order a new German teacher was supposed to come the next day to teach German in that school. It was the last lesson of French and the French teacher.

I never give any chance to my teachers to punish me. Being studious and serious in studies, I always do my work on time. I participate in all the activities in the class. So my teachers always praise me and my work. So even if I make a mistake they never punish me.

According to M. Hamel, the people of Alsace did not take education seriously. He gave the example of Franz’s parents who wanted Franz to work on a farm or at the mill instead of going to school and learn.

Pure iron can be obtained by electrolytic refining.

Commercial forms of iron are : 

• Cast iron 
• wrought iron 
• steel. H 

The choice of extraction technique is governed by the following factors.

• Nature of ore 
• Availability and cost of reducing agent. (Generally, cheap coke is used). 
• Availability of hydraulic power. 
• Purity of metal required. 
• Value of by-products. For example. SO₂ obtained during the roasting of sulphide ores is important for the manufacture of H₂SO₄.

We should be grateful to our teachers because whatever they do, they do it for the development of their students. They do it selflessly. They want every student to be successful. By telling us what is good and what is bad they always show us the right path. They always lead like a ‘torch bearer’ to us.

Gangue : The earthly and undesired impurities of various substances like sand (SiO₂), metal oxides, etc. present in the ore are called gangue or matrix.

M. Hamel said that French was the most beautiful language in the world – the clearest, the most logical and that they must guard it and never forget it.

Concentration : A process of removal of gangue or unwanted impurities from the ore is called concentration of an ore. It is also called benefaction or dressing of an ore.

Leaching : It is a (chemical) process used in the concentration of an ore by extracting soluble material from an insoluble solid by dissolving in a suitable solvent. This method is used in the concentration process of ores of Al, Ag, Au, etc.

The concentration of an ore involves different methods depending upon the differences in physical properties of compounds or the metal present and the nature of the gangue.

The common methods of concentration of ore are as follows :

1. Gravity separation or hydraulic washing : 

This can be carried out by two processes as follows : 

• Hydraulic washing by using Wilfley’s table method 
• Hydraulic classifier methods. 

2. Magnetic separation 

3. Froth flotation process. 

4. Leaching. 

The method depends upon the nature of ore.

Max foolishly, believing in the presence of a balcony, jumped from the 6th floor to his sure death.

(a) Internal users of accounting : Management, share holders. 

(b) External users of accounting : Investors, govt etc.

Yes. This statement is agreeable. 

It implies that the accounts must be prepared honestly and all material information should be disclosed in the accounting statement. This is important because the management is different from the owners in most of the organisations.

According to this concept, every transaction or event has two aspects, i.e., dual effect. This is the concept which recognises the fact that for every debit, there is a corresponding and equal credit. This is the basis of the entire system of double-entry book – keeping.

(d) Objective evidence concept

This concept implies that a business unit is separate and distinct from the owner or owners, that is, the persons who supply capital to it. Based on this concept, accounts are prepared from the point of view of the business and not from the owner’s point of view. Hence, the business is liable to the owner for the capital contributed by him/her.

According to this concept, only business transactions are recorded in the books of accounts. Personal transactions of the owners are not recorded. But, their transactions with the business such as capital contributed to the business or cash withdrawn from the business for the personal use will be recorded in the books of accounts. It implies that the business itself owns assets and owes liabilities.

(a) Dual aspect concept

Any valuable thing that has monetary value, which is owned by a business, is its asset. In other words, assets are the monetary values of the properties or the legal rights that are owned by the business organisations. 

The different types of assets are ;

a. Fixed Assets: These are those assets that are hold for the long term and increase the profit earning capacity and productive capacity of the business. These assets are not meant for sale, for example, land, building machinery etc. 

b. Current Assets : Assets that can be easily converted into cash or cash equivalents are termed as current assets. These are required to run day to day’ business activities; for example, cash, debtors, stock, etc. 

c. Tangible Assets : Assets that have physical existence, i.e., which can be seen and touched, are tangible assets; for example, car, furniture, buildings, etc.

d. Intangible Assets : Assets that cannot be seen or touched, i.e. those assets that do not have physical existence, are intangible assets; for example, goodwill, patents, trade mark, etc. 

e. Liquid Assets : Assets that are kept either in cash or cash equivalents are regarded as liquid assets. These can be converted into cash in a very short period of time; for example, cash, bank, bills receivable, etc. 

f. Fictitious Assets : These are the heavy revenue expenditures, the benefit of whose can be derived in more than one year. They represent loss or expense that are written off over a period of time.

In 1970, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants changed the definition and stated, “The function of accounting is to provide quantitative information, primarily financial in nature, about economic entities, that is intended to be useful in making economic decisions.”

Objectives of Accounting:

a. Recording business transactions systematically: It is necessary to maintain systematic records of every business transaction, as it is beyond human capacities to remember such large number of transactions. Skipping the record of any one of the transactions may lead to erroneous and faulty results. 

b. Determining profit earned or loss incurred: In order to determine the net result at the end of an accounting period, we need to calculate profit or loss. For this purpose trading and profit and loss account are prepared. It gives information regarding how much of goods have, been purchased and sold, expenses incurred and amount earned during a year.

c. Ascertaining financial position of the firm: Ascertaining profit earned or loss incurred is not enough proprietor also interested in knowing the financial position of his/her firm, i.e. the value of the assets, amount of liabilities owed, net increase or decrease in his/her capital. This purpose is served by preparing the balance sheet that facilitates in ascertaining the true financial position of the business.

d. Assisting management: Systematic accounting helps the management in effective decision making, efficient control on cash management policies, preparing budget and forecasting, etc.

e. Assessing the progress of the business: Accounting helps in assessing the progress of business from year to year, as accounting facilitates the comparison both inter-firm as well as intra-firm.

f. Detecting and preventing frauds and errors: It is necessary to detect and prevent fraud and errors, mismanagement and wastage of the finance. Systematic recording helps in the easy detection and rectification of frauds, errors and inefficiencies, if any. 

g. Communicating accounting information to various users: The important step in the accounting process is to communicate financial and accounting information to various users including both internal and external users like owners, management, government, labour, tax authorities, etc. This assists the users to understand and interpret the accounting data in a meaningful.

Balance sheet is the end product of financial accounting. It show the true financial positions of a business concern, that provides required informations like assets & liabilities of a business firm.

The reason for why business students & others should familiarize themselves with the accounting discipline are given below:- 

• It helps in learning the various aspects of accounting. 

• It helps in learning how to maintain books of accounts. 

• It helps in learning how to summarise accounting information.

The different types of fixed assets are: 

1. Tangible fixed assets 

2. Intangible fixed assets.

(b) Rs 8,000 and Rs 4,000

Fixed assets examples are: Land and building, plants and machinery furniture, vesicles etc.

Correct answer is (a) 1 : 2

Correct answer is (b) 2 : 3

The accounting software does form an integral part of the Computerised Accounting Systems. The accounting software should be selected after considering the level of skill and proficiency of the accounting professionals. This is one of the important aspects that should be taken care of before introducing Computerised Accounting Systems, as the accounting professionals are responsible for accounting and the not computers.

The following are some of the important points that should be taken into consideration before introducing accounting software in an organisation. 

1. Flexibility: This is the most important factor that should be considered before sourcing accounting software. The accounting software should be flexible in form of data entry, retrieval of data and generating design of reports. The software should be able to run on different computers having different operating systems and having different configurations. It should provide some flexibility among its users.

2. Cost of Installation and Maintenance: The selection of accounting software largely depends upon its cost to the organisation. The cost of accounting software includes cost of installing the related components and hardware, maintenance and alteration costs, cost of training the staff and cost involved in recovering data in case of data failure. An organisation needs to evaluate the benefits of the software against its costs.

3. Size of Organisation: The size of an organisation also determines the selection of accounting software. The small-sized organisations, where the volume of business transactions is not so large, usually opt for simple and single user oriented software. On the other hand, large scale organisations, where the volume of business transactions is very large choose the latest and sophisticated software for meeting the multi-user requirements.

4. Training Needs: Another factor that affects the choice of software is the training needs.There is some accounting software that requires comparatively lesser training and is more user-friendly. While, there are some other complicated software that requires continuous and thorough training.

5. Level of Secrecy: The level of expected security is one of the important factors that an organisation bears in mind before sourcing accounting software. Software should be able to prevent the unauthorised access and manipulation of data. It should have in built features of security. 

6. Utilities/MIS Reports: Another factor which helps in determining the software selection isthe MIS reports and the extent to which they are used in the organisation.

7. Vendor Reputation and Capability: The selection of software is also affected by the capability and competence of the vendor. It depends upon the reputation of the vendor in the market, the user-reviews of the similar software, the extent of post-sales support services from the vendors, etc.

‘Computerised Accounting Systems are best form of accounting system’. Do you agree? Comment. Yes, we agree with this statement that ‘Computerised Accounting Systems are best form of accounting system’. It becomes very easier to work with Computerised

Accounting Systems leading to reduction in the accounting errors. Moreover, the computerised accounting reports are highly reliable, thereby enhances the overall efficiency.

Due to the following positive aspects, the Computerised Accounting Systems certainly enjoy an edge over the Manual Accounting Systems. 

a. Speed: The speed of a computer is very high and takes very less time in performing various difficult operations. The accounting data is processed Comparatively faster through the Computerised Accounting Systems than it can be done through the manual efforts.

b. Accuracy: In Computerised Accounting Systems, the possibility of errors is minimised or reduced as the primary accounting data is entered only once for preparing various accounting reports and for subsequent usage and processes.

c. Reliability: As the Computerised Accounting Systems is well-equipped in performing repetitive operations, so it is comparatively more reliable to perform the operations than the manual system. Also, the Computerised Accounting Systems overcome the limitation of Manual Accounting Systems such as tiredness, boredom or fatigue, etc., thereby enhances the degree of reliability.

d. Up-to-Date Information: In the Computerised Accounting Systems, whenever the new accounting data is entered and stored, the existing accounting records automatically gets updated.

 e. Real-Time User Interface: Most of the automated accounting systems are interlinked through a network of computers. The availability of information to various users at the same time on the real-time basis is facilitated under computerised system of accounting.

f. Automated Document Production: Under Computerised Accounting Systems, the accounting reports such as, Cash Book, Trial balance, Statement of Accounts, etc. is very easy to obtain. This is because most of the computerised systems have standardised and user-defined format of accounting reports that are generated automatically.

g. Scalability: The computerised systems of accounting are highly scalable as the requirement of additional manpower is mainly confined to data entry for recording and storing the additional vouchers in the computers. Thus, the additional cost of processing additional transactions is meagre as compared to the cost associated with hiring new accountants to handle additional transactions.

h. Legibility: In Computerised Accounting Systems, the accounting records are typed and presented in standard fonts. The various characters especially numbers, alphabets, graphics, etc. are more clear and can be read without any difficulty and ambiguity. 

Pay-in-slip is the slip that is filled when the bank account holder deposits a cheque or cash into his bank account.

The amount withdrawn by the account holder from his current account in excess of the balance standing in that account up to, specified limit is known as bank overdraft.

It is a document/form, which is used by the savings account holder for withdrawing cash from his bank account.

(c) The balance sheet on the assets side

If a life insurance policy is taken in lives of all partners called joint life insurance policy.

(b) Credited to capital account