WBCS Preliminary Examination 2018 — General Studies

Answer: (B) birds

Ornithology (Greek 'ornis' = bird) is the branch of zoology that studies birds, so an ornithologist deals with birds; Dr Salim Ali is remembered as the 'Birdman of India'. The other options belong to other specialists: insects - entomologist, eyes - ophthalmologist, heart - cardiologist. Related one-word substitutions worth remembering: ichthyology (fishes), herpetology (reptiles and amphibians), oology (birds' eggs).

Answer: (A) untired

'Indefatigable' = in- (not) + fatigue (tiredness) + -able, i.e. one who cannot be tired out, so such a person remains untired; common synonyms are tireless, unflagging and untiring. 'Unhappy' and 'unsocial' have nothing to do with fatigue, and 'unrelentful' is not a standard word (the real word 'unrelenting' means not yielding or not becoming less severe). Do not confuse it with 'indomitable' (cannot be subdued).

Answer: (C) for, over

No official PSC key exists for 2018, so the book's answer (B) is kept. Standard usage (Oxford/Cambridge: 'a preference for A over B') supports (C) 'for, over'. Remember, however, that with the noun 'preference' standard dictionaries give the pattern 'a preference for X over Y', which is option (C); the other fixed phrase is 'in preference to'. Options (A) and (D) fail at the first blank, because 'preference' must be followed by 'for'.

Answer: (A) by

'By' is used for the instrument or standard by which something is measured or judged: 'by my watch', 'by the clock', 'sold by the dozen', 'paid by the hour'. 'At' goes with the point of time itself (at 9 o'clock), 'in' with longer periods (in the morning, in 2018), and 'into' shows movement towards the inside of something. Hence: 'It is 9 o'clock by my watch.'

Answer: (A) Alas!

'Alas!' is the interjection of sorrow, grief or regret. The others express different feelings: 'Hush!' asks for silence, 'Bravo!' shows approval or applause, and 'Hurrah!' shows joy or triumph. Other interjections asked in exams: 'Fie!' (disgust or contempt), 'Hark!' (calling attention), 'Oh!/What!' (surprise).

Answer: (B) Notwithstanding

'Notwithstanding' is a formal preposition meaning 'in spite of / despite', and it correctly governs the noun phrase 'his humiliation' (it can even follow its noun: 'his humiliation notwithstanding'). 'Nevertheless' is a linking adverb that joins two clauses and cannot take a noun phrase, and 'as of' means 'from a particular date'. 'In spite of' carries the same meaning as 'notwithstanding'; the single-word preposition is what the key selects.

Answer: (C) agitation

'Serenity' means calmness and peace of mind, so its opposite is 'agitation' (a state of anxiety or disturbance). 'Placidity' and 'equanimity' are synonyms of serenity (both mean calmness or evenness of temper) and are placed as traps for candidates who look for a similar word instead of the opposite. 'Holiness' (sacredness) is unrelated. Other antonyms of serene: turbulent, perturbed, restless.

Answer: (C) rocks

Marble is a metamorphic rock formed when limestone (calcite) is changed by heat and pressure, which is the link the book's key uses. Other parent-rock pairs asked in exams: sandstone to quartzite, shale to slate, granite to gneiss, coal to graphite. Marble is equally famous as a sculpting and building stone (Makrana marble of the Taj Mahal, Michelangelo's David), which is why 'sculpture' is also a defensible answer here.

Answer: (A) recollect

'Call up' has several meanings: to bring something back to mind (call up memories = recollect), to telephone someone, and to summon someone for military service or for a team. The sense that pairs with 'remember' is 'recollect'. Related phrasal verbs: call on (visit), call off (cancel), call for (demand), call in (send for someone, e.g. a doctor), call out (shout; summon for duty).

Answer: (C) may

In all probability' (= very probably) collocates naturally with 'will' in standard English ('In all probability it will rain'), so option (A) is the best. 'May' expresses possibility, 'Can' shows ability or general possibility, and 'ought' needs 'to' after it (ought to rain), so both are ruled out. 'Will' expresses a definite prediction; note that in everyday English 'in all probability it will rain' is also very common, so learn this as the answer chosen by the key.

Answer: (A) entered

'Had better' gives strong advice or a warning and is followed by the bare infinitive: 'She had better enter the room', negative 'had better not enter'. All four options here are past forms, so the item is flawed as set. The key takes 'entered' because 'enter' is the only verb of the four that takes 'the room' directly as its object (one requests or calls a person, and moves a thing).

Answer: (A) takes after

'Take after' means to resemble an older family member in looks or character, so 'The girl takes after her mother' is correct. 'Call in' means to send for someone (call in a doctor), 'put off' means to postpone, and 'put by' means to save money for later use. Other 'take' phrasal verbs: take off (remove; leave the ground), take up (begin), take over (assume control), take to (form a liking or habit).

Answer: (A) latter

'Latter' means the second of two things already mentioned (opposite: 'former'), so 'the latter plan' is the second of the two plans. 'Later' refers to time (later than, opposite: earlier) and would need a different construction. 'Fast' and 'early' do not fit the sense of choosing between plans. Remember: late - later - latest (time), late - latter - last (order).

Answer: (A) in trouble or disgrace

'In hot water' means in trouble or in disgrace, usually because of something one has done. It does not mean being angry (that would be 'to see red' or 'hot under the collar') and it has no literal meaning of boiling water or an accident. Similar idioms for trouble: 'in a soup', 'in a tight corner', 'in a pickle', 'in deep water' (in serious difficulty).

Answer: (A) of the first or highest quality

As an adjective 'classic' means of the first or highest quality and of lasting value; as a noun it means an outstanding work (a classic of Bengali literature). Do not confuse it with 'classical', which relates to ancient Greek and Roman culture or to a traditional, established form (classical music). The other options are definitions of other words: a long list (catalogue/litany), a loose flowing robe (gown/cassock), sanctified (holy).

Answer: (B) Excited

'Excited' is a past participle used as an adjective, and 'Excited about dinner' is a participial phrase describing John and giving the reason for his running. 'Having finished' is a perfect participle but does not go with 'about dinner'; 'Had been excited' is a finite verb (past perfect), not a participle; 'Hungry' is a plain adjective. Types to remember: present participle (running), past participle (excited, broken), perfect participle (having finished).

Answer: (B) take up

To 'take up' a subject or chapter means to begin dealing with it, so the teacher will take up a new chapter. 'Take over' means to assume control or charge, 'take down' means to write down or to dismantle, and 'take off' means to remove (clothes) or to leave the ground (aircraft). 'Take up' can also mean to start a hobby or job, or to occupy time or space.

Answer: (A) occasionally

'Occasionally' (now and then) is an adverb of frequency and is the only option that sensibly tells how often a rumble is heard in the sky. Note the grammar point: when a sentence opens with 'only + adverbial', the auxiliary comes before the subject ('Only occasionally is there...'). 'Swiftly' and 'merrily' are adverbs of manner that do not fit, and 'quite' is an adverb of degree that needs another word to modify.

Answer: (B) taking what is available or nothing at all

'Hobson's choice' is no real choice at all: take what is offered or get nothing. It comes from Thomas Hobson, a Cambridge stable-keeper who made customers take the horse nearest the door or none. It is not a 'dilemma', which is a difficult choice between two alternatives ('on the horns of a dilemma'). Compare 'Catch-22' (a no-win situation created by contradictory rules).

Answer: (B) altruist

An altruist puts the happiness and welfare of others before his own (altruism; opposite: egoist). An atheist does not believe in God, an alchemist practised medieval chemistry trying to turn base metals into gold, and an aesthete is a lover of beauty and the arts. Related words: philanthropist (lover of mankind), misanthrope (hater of mankind).

Answer: (B) of

'Short of' is the fixed expression: to run short of something means to have too little of it left (running short of time, money, fuel). The other prepositions do not combine with 'short' in this sense. Related expressions: 'run out of' (finish the supply completely), 'fall short of' (fail to reach a standard), 'short on' (informal: lacking in).

Answer: (A) multicoloured

A 'multicoloured bow' in the sky is a rainbow, formed by refraction, dispersion and total internal reflection of sunlight in raindrops (seven colours, VIBGYOR). 'Shooting' collocates with star (shooting star = meteor), not with bow; 'staring' and 'melodious' (sweet-sounding) cannot describe a bow. The question tests choosing the adjective that fits the noun and the context.

Answer: (A) sudden disaster

'A bolt from the blue' is a sudden, completely unexpected event, usually an unwelcome one or a disaster, like a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky. 'In trouble' is 'in hot water', 'a blessing from above' is closer to 'a godsend' or 'manna from heaven', and 'to remain neutral' is 'to sit on the fence'. A related idiom is 'out of the blue' (unexpectedly).

Answer: (B) To err

'To err is human; to forgive, divine' is a famous line from Alexander Pope's 'An Essay on Criticism' (1711); it means that making mistakes is natural to human beings. Grammatically, the infinitive 'To err' works as a noun and is the subject of the sentence. 'Err' means to make a mistake (noun: error; adjective: erroneous).

Answer: (B) eyes

An ophthalmologist is a doctor who specialises in diseases and surgery of the eye (an optometrist tests eyesight and an optician makes and sells spectacles). Specialists for the other options: heart - cardiologist, glands and hormones - endocrinologist, lungs - pulmonologist. Other common ones: skin - dermatologist, kidneys - nephrologist, nervous system - neurologist, bones - orthopaedist.

Answer: (D) Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan of Mysore (ruled 1782-99) sought French help against the British: he sent embassies to France, corresponded with Napoleon, allowed a Jacobin Club at Seringapatam, planted a 'Tree of Liberty' and was addressed as 'Citizen Tipu'. His father Haidar Ali also used French officers, but among the options the French alliance is identified with Tipu, who died defending Seringapatam in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799). Safdar Jang was Nawab of Awadh and Mir Qasim was Nawab of Bengal (Battle of Buxar).

Answer: (D) Banwali

Banawali is in Fatehabad district of Haryana, on the dry bed of the Saraswati/Ghaggar; it is known for good-quality barley and a terracotta model of a plough. The other three are in Gujarat: Surkotada (Kutch, remains of horse bones), Lothal (near Ahmedabad on the Bhogava river, dockyard) and Dholavira (Khadir Bet in Kutch, water reservoirs and a signboard; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021). Other Haryana sites: Rakhigarhi, Bhirrana, Mitathal.

Answer: (B) Ashvaghosha

Buddhacharita, a Sanskrit epic poem (mahakavya) on the life of the Buddha, was written by Ashvaghosha, the court poet of the Kushana king Kanishka; he also wrote Saundarananda and Sariputra-prakarana. Buddhaghosha wrote the Visuddhimagga in Pali (5th century), Nagarjuna founded the Madhyamika (Shunyavada) school of Mahayana Buddhism, and Panini wrote the Sanskrit grammar Ashtadhyayi.

Answer: (C) Megasthenes

Megasthenes was sent as ambassador by Seleucus Nicator to the court of Chandragupta Maurya at Pataliputra, and wrote the 'Indica'. Fa Hien (Faxian) came in the reign of Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty, and Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) came in the time of Harshavardhana. Strabo was a Greek geographer who never visited India but quoted Megasthenes. Deimachus came as ambassador to Bindusara's court.

Answer: (C) Magadha

Magadha covered the modern Patna and Gaya districts of south Bihar; its early capital was Rajagriha (Girivraja) and later Pataliputra. Anga lay to its east (Bhagalpur-Munger, capital Champa), Kosala covered the Awadh region of eastern Uttar Pradesh (capital Shravasti), and Avanti was in Malwa (capitals Ujjain and Mahishmati). Magadha rose to supremacy among the sixteen Mahajanapadas under the Haryanka, Shishunaga and Nanda dynasties.

Answer: (C) Sarnath

The Buddha gave his first sermon at the Deer Park (Mrigadava/Rishipatana) at Sarnath near Varanasi; the event is called Dharmachakra-pravartana (turning the wheel of law). Bodh Gaya is where he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Shravasti is where he spent the largest number of rainy seasons and gave most of his sermons, and Vaishali hosted the Second Buddhist Council. Birth - Lumbini; Mahaparinirvana - Kushinagar.

Answer: (C) Chandragupta Maurya

Greek and Roman writers such as Justin, Strabo and Plutarch called Chandragupta Maurya 'Sandrocottus' (Sandrokottos); Sir William Jones first made this identification in 1793, which gave Indian chronology a fixed starting point. Bindusara was called 'Amitrochates' (from Amitraghata, slayer of foes) by the Greeks, and the last Nanda king Dhana Nanda appears as 'Agrammes' or 'Xandrames'.

Answer: (B) Al-Biruni

Al-Biruni, a scholar from Khwarizm who came to India in the train of Mahmud of Ghazni, wrote Kitab-ul-Hind (Tahqiq-i-Hind) in Arabic, describing Indian religion, philosophy, science and social customs. Al-Masudi was an Arab traveller of the 10th century (Muruj-ul-Zahab), Sulaiman was a 9th-century Arab merchant who wrote about the Pala and Pratihara kingdoms, and Firdausi wrote the Persian epic Shahnama at Mahmud's court.

Answer: (B) Varahamihira

Varahamihira, the astronomer-astrologer of the Gupta age (6th century, Ujjain), wrote the Brihat Samhita, an encyclopaedic work, as well as the Pancha Siddhantika and Brihat Jataka. Aryabhata wrote the Aryabhatiya, Amarasimha wrote the Sanskrit lexicon Amarakosha, and Brahmagupta wrote the Brahmasphuta Siddhanta and Khandakhadyaka. Varahamihira and Amarasimha are counted among the 'nine gems' of Vikramaditya's court.

Answer: (C) Skandagupta

Skandagupta (c. 455-467 CE) repulsed the first Huna invasion, a victory recorded in his Bhitari pillar inscription; his Junagadh inscription records the repair of the Sudarshana lake. Samudragupta is known from the Allahabad pillar inscription (by Harisena), Chandragupta II 'Vikramaditya' defeated the Shakas, and Kumaragupta I founded Nalanda. Later Huna rulers Toramana and Mihirakula were checked by Yashodharman of Malwa and Narasimhagupta Baladitya.

Answer: (C) Ram Sharan Sharma

Ram Sharan Sharma was the leading historian of ancient India; his works include 'Indian Feudalism', 'Sudras in Ancient India', 'Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India' and 'India's Ancient Past', and he was the founding chairman of the ICHR. Satish Chandra is known for medieval India (he died in October 2017, a current-affairs link for this paper), Bipan Chandra for modern India and the freedom struggle, and Amalesh Tripathi for modern India ('The Extremist Challenge').

Answer: (A) Rajendra I

Rajendra Chola I (1014-1044) sent an army up to the Ganga, defeated the Pala king Mahipala I, took the title 'Gangaikondachola' and built a new capital, Gangaikondacholapuram; his naval expedition against Srivijaya earned him the title 'Kadaram Kondan'. Rajaraja I built the Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur, Rajadhiraja I died fighting the Chalukyas at Koppam, and Kulottunga I was known as 'Sungam Tavirtta' (abolisher of tolls).

Answer: (A) Ghiyasuddin Balban

The 'Chahalgani' or Turkan-i-Chahalgani (Corps of Forty Turkish nobles) was created by Iltutmish; Balban, himself once a member, destroyed its power after becoming Sultan (1266-87) to raise the prestige of the crown. He followed a policy of 'blood and iron', introduced the Persian court customs of sijda and paibos, and set up the Diwan-i-Arz (military department). Alauddin Khalji is known for market control and Muhammad bin Tughlaq for token currency.

Answer: (C) Alauddin Khalji

Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316) fixed the prices of grain, cloth, horses, cattle and slaves so that a large standing army could be maintained on low pay; the markets were supervised by the Diwan-i-Riyasat and the Shahna-i-Mandi, and he also introduced dagh (branding of horses) and chehra (descriptive rolls). Firoz Shah Tughlaq is known for canals and the Diwan-i-Khairat, Muhammad bin Tughlaq for token currency and the Diwan-i-Kohi, and Sikandar Lodi for founding Agra and the Gaz-i-Sikandari.

Answer: (D) Jaswant Singh

Akbar reigned from 1556 to 1605. Jaswant Singh Rathor of Marwar was born in 1626 and ruled from 1638 to 1678; he served Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb (Battle of Dharmat, 1658) and died at Jamrud. The other three were Akbar's contemporaries: Man Singh of Amber was his general (Haldighati, 1576), Udai Singh of Mewar lost Chittor to Akbar in 1568, and Amar Singh of Mewar succeeded Rana Pratap in 1597 (he made peace with Jahangir in 1615).

Answer: (C) Iltutmish

Qutbuddin Aibak began the Qutub Minar at Delhi around 1199 and completed only the first storey; his son-in-law and successor Iltutmish added three more storeys and completed it. Firoz Shah Tughlaq later repaired it after lightning damage and added the fifth storey. The tower is associated with the Sufi saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, who was not its builder; Nasiruddin Qabacha was Iltutmish's rival in Multan and Sindh.

Answer: (B) Mir Jafar

The Battle of Buxar (22 October 1764) was fought by Hector Munro against the combined forces of the deposed Nawab Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. Mir Qasim had already been removed in 1763 and the Company had restored Mir Jafar, who was the Nawab of Bengal until his death in February 1765 (succeeded by Najm-ud-Daulah). The battle led to the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) and the grant of Diwani.

Answer: (B) Shivaji

At his coronation at Raigad in 1674 Shivaji took the titles Chhatrapati, Haindava Dharmoddharak (protector of the Hindu faith), Gobrahmana Pratipalak and Kshatriya Kulavatamsa. His administration rested on the Ashtapradhan (council of eight ministers). Samarth Ramdas was Shivaji's spiritual guide; Peshwa Baji Rao I expanded Maratha power in the north (Palkhed, 1728), and Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb) was Peshwa at the Third Battle of Panipat (1761).

Answer: (D) Birbal

Akbar announced the Din-i-Ilahi (Tauhid-i-Ilahi) in 1582; it had only a handful of members, and Raja Birbal (Mahesh Das) was the only Hindu among them. Raja Man Singh declined, and Bhagwant Das and Todar Mal did not join. Related facts: Ibadat Khana at Fatehpur Sikri (1575), Mahzar or 'Infallibility Decree' (1579); Birbal died in 1586 fighting the Yusufzai Afghans.

Answer: (C) Akbar

Akbar is credited with the first Mughal action against sati: he forbade the burning of a widow against her will and ordered kotwals to prevent forced sati; he also legalised widow remarriage and raised the age of marriage. Later, Aurangzeb issued an order in 1663 forbidding sati in his dominions. The practice was finally abolished by Lord William Bentinck through Regulation XVII of 1829, with the support of Raja Rammohan Roy.

Answer: (C) Guru Govind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru, founded the Khalsa on Baisakhi day of 1699 at Anandpur Sahib by baptising the Panj Pyare and prescribing the five K's. Guru Nanak (born 1469 at Talwandi) founded Sikhism; Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, built the Akal Takht and adopted the idea of miri and piri; Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru, was executed by Aurangzeb in 1675. Guru Arjan Dev compiled the Adi Granth and completed the Harmandir Sahib.

Answer: (B) V. D. Savarkar

V. D. Savarkar founded the Abhinav Bharat Society at Nasik in 1904; it grew out of his earlier Mitra Mela (1899) and was modelled on Mazzini's 'Young Italy'. Savarkar also founded the Free India Society in London and wrote 'The Indian War of Independence, 1857'. Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki are linked with the Muzaffarpur bomb attempt on Kingsford (1908), and Bhagat Singh with the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (1926) and the HSRA.

Answer: (B) Lala Hardayal

The Ghadar Party was formed in 1913 at San Francisco (headquarters: Yugantar Ashram) by Indian immigrants on the Pacific coast; Lala Hardayal was its moving spirit and general secretary, while Sohan Singh Bhakna was its first president. Its weekly paper 'Ghadar' began on 1 November 1913, and the Komagata Maru incident (1914) is linked with it. Bhagat Singh belonged to the HSRA, Tilak to the Home Rule League, and Savarkar to Abhinav Bharat.

Answer: (B) Neel Darpan

'Neel Darpan' (1860), a Bengali play by Dinabandhu Mitra, exposed the oppression of indigo cultivators by European planters; its English translation is attributed to Michael Madhusudan Dutt and was published by Rev. James Long, who was fined and jailed for it. Background: the Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 in Nadia (Digambar and Bishnu Biswas) and the Indigo Commission of 1860. 'Dinabandhu' is the author's name, not a book, and 'Anandamath' (Bankim Chandra, 1882) deals with the Sannyasi rebellion and contains 'Vande Mataram'.

Answer: (A) Fazlul Huq

A. K. Fazlul Huq, 'Sher-e-Bangla', turned the Nikhil Banga Praja Samiti (1929) into the Krishak Praja Party in 1936 with a programme of abolishing zamindari and relieving peasant debt. After the 1937 elections he became the first Premier of Bengal in coalition with the Muslim League, and he moved the Lahore Resolution in 1940. Allah Bux Soomro was a nationalist Premier of Sindh, and Zafar Ali Khan edited the Urdu paper 'Zamindar' from Lahore.

Answer: (C) Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (original name Mul Shankar) founded the Arya Samaj at Bombay in 1875, wrote 'Satyarth Prakash' and gave the call 'Back to the Vedas'; he is also associated with the Shuddhi movement and the slogan 'India for the Indians'. After his death the Samaj split: Lala Hansraj led the 'College' group (DAV College, Lahore, 1886), while Pandit Guru Dutt and Swami Shraddhanand led the 'Gurukul' group (Gurukul Kangri, 1902). Lala Lajpat Rai was also an Arya Samajist.

Answer: (C) Jyotirao Phule

Jyotirao (Jyotiba) Phule wrote 'Gulamgiri' (Slavery) in 1873 and dedicated it to the Americans who fought to free the slaves; in the same year he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj. Other authors in the options: Sir Syed Ahmed Khan wrote 'Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind' (Causes of the Indian Revolt), Rammohan Roy wrote 'Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin' and 'Precepts of Jesus', and B. R. Ambedkar wrote 'Annihilation of Caste' and 'Who Were the Shudras?'.

Answer: (C) Badruddin Tyabji

Badruddin Tyabji presided over the third session of the Congress at Madras in 1887 and was its first Muslim president. Sequence of early presidents: W. C. Bonnerjee (Bombay, 1885), Dadabhai Naoroji (Calcutta, 1886), Tyabji (1887), George Yule (Allahabad, 1888, first Englishman). Abul Kalam Azad was the youngest president (1923) and held the post from 1940 to 1946; Sir Syed Ahmed Khan opposed the Congress, and Fazlul Huq was never Congress president.

Answer: (D) Forward Bloc

After resigning as Congress President following the Tripuri crisis, Subhas Chandra Bose founded the Forward Bloc in May 1939 as a left-wing group within the Congress. The Azad Hind Fauj (INA) was an army, not a party; it was first organised by Captain Mohan Singh in 1942 and reorganised by Bose in 1943, when he also set up the Provisional Government of Azad Hind at Singapore (21 October 1943). The other two options are imaginary names.

Answer: (D) Pakistan resolution was taken

At its Lahore session (23 March 1940), presided over by Jinnah, the Muslim League passed a resolution moved by A. K. Fazlul Huq demanding 'independent states' in the Muslim-majority areas of the north-west and east of India; it came to be called the Pakistan Resolution, although the word 'Pakistan' does not occur in it. The name was coined by Chaudhary Rahmat Ali in 1933, and the idea goes back to Iqbal's Allahabad address of 1930.

Answer: (C) it had the provision for creation of Pakistan

The Mountbatten Plan (3 June Plan, 1947) provided for the partition of India, including the division of Bengal and Punjab, referendums in the NWFP and Sylhet, and transfer of power to two dominions; the League accepted it because it conceded Pakistan. Separate electorates had been given long before, by the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909, and the Congress also accepted the Plan. It was given effect by the Indian Independence Act, 1947, with boundaries drawn by the Radcliffe Commission.

Answer: (B) Pulin Das

The Dhaka Anushilan Samiti was founded in 1906 by Pulin Behari Das and became the strongest revolutionary organisation of East Bengal (Barrah dacoity, 1908). The parent Anushilan Samiti of Calcutta was started in 1902 by Pramathanath Mitra with Satish Chandra Basu. Prafulla Chaki took part in the Muzaffarpur attempt (1908), Sachindranath Sanyal founded the Hindustan Republican Association (1924) and wrote 'Bandi Jiwan', and Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) died after the Balasore fight (1915).

Answer: (D) Begum Hazrat Mahal

At Lucknow the revolt was led by Begum Hazrat Mahal, who proclaimed her minor son Birjis Qadr as Nawab of Awadh. Other centres and leaders: Delhi - Bahadur Shah II with General Bakht Khan; Kanpur - Nana Sahib with Tantia Tope and Azimullah; Allahabad - Maulvi Liaquat Ali; Jhansi - Rani Lakshmibai; Jagdishpur (Bihar) - Kunwar Singh; Bareilly - Khan Bahadur Khan; Faizabad - Maulvi Ahmadullah.

Answer: (D) Rash Behari Bose

Rash Behari Bose, who had escaped to Japan after the Delhi conspiracy (bomb attack on Lord Hardinge, 1912), organised the Indian Independence League through the Tokyo and Bangkok conferences of 1942. In July 1943 at Singapore he handed over the leadership of the League and the INA to Subhas Chandra Bose, so Subhas was its later leader, not its founder. Tilak founded the Home Rule League and C. R. Das the Swaraj Party.

Answer: (B) J. B. Kripalani

Acharya J. B. Kripalani was Congress President (Meerut session, November 1946) when India became independent on 15 August 1947; he resigned in November 1947 and was followed by Rajendra Prasad. Maulana Azad had been president from 1940 to 1946, and Nehru held the post briefly in 1946 before heading the Interim Government. C. Rajagopalachari was never Congress president; he became the first and only Indian Governor-General in 1948.

Answer: (D) Harish Chandra Mukherjee

The 'Hindoo Patriot' (started in 1853) was edited by Harish Chandra Mukherjee, who used it to defend the indigo ryots during the revolt of 1859-60 and to criticise the government's policy in 1857; Kristo Das Pal edited it after him. Surendranath Banerjee edited 'The Bengalee', and the brothers Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh ran the 'Amrita Bazar Patrika' (1868), which turned into an English paper overnight in 1878 to escape the Vernacular Press Act.

Answer: (B) Viceroy Lord Wavell

Lord Wavell (Viceroy 1943-47) prepared the 'Breakdown Plan' in 1946: if no agreement was reached, the British would withdraw in phases, first from the Congress-ruled provinces and concentrate in the Muslim-majority provinces of the north-west and north-east. The Attlee government rejected it and replaced Wavell with Mountbatten. Wavell is also linked with the Wavell Plan and Simla Conference (1945); Attlee made the statement of 20 February 1947, and Churchill was a strong opponent of Indian independence.

Answer: (A) Viceroy Lord Linlithgow

Viceroy Lord Linlithgow (1936-43, the longest-serving Viceroy) wrote to Prime Minister Churchill on 31 August 1942 that he was facing 'by far the most serious rebellion since that of 1857'. Linlithgow is also linked with the August Offer (1940) and with declaring India at war in 1939 without consulting Indian leaders. Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek, by contrast, pressed Britain to come to terms with Indian nationalists.

Answer: (B) Lord Dalhousie

Lord Dalhousie (1848-56) set out the plan of trunk railway lines in his Railway Minute of 1853; the first train ran from Bombay to Thane on 16 April 1853. He also introduced the electric telegraph, the Post Office Act of 1854 and the Public Works Department, and applied the Doctrine of Lapse. Cornwallis is known for the Permanent Settlement (1793), Lord Hastings for the Third Anglo-Maratha War, and Lord Hardinge II for the transfer of the capital to Delhi (1911).

Answer: (C) Lala Lajpat Rai

The All India Trade Union Congress was founded at Bombay on 31 October 1920 with Lala Lajpat Rai as its first president and Dewan Chaman Lall as general secretary; N. M. Joshi was another key figure. C. R. Das presided over its sessions of 1923 and 1924, V. V. Giri was president in 1926, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1929 (Nagpur) and Subhas Chandra Bose in 1931, so the other names are all later presidents and act as traps.

Answer: (A) Aurobindo Ghosh

Aurobindo Ghosh wrote the series 'New Lamps for Old' in the Bombay paper 'Indu Prakash' in 1893-94; it was the first systematic criticism of the Moderates' politics of prayer and petition. Later he edited 'Bande Mataram' and was tried in the Alipore Bomb Case (1908-09). R. C. Dutt wrote 'The Economic History of India', and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan opposed the Congress from outside through the United Indian Patriotic Association (1888).

Answer: (D) Jyotirao Phule

Jyotirao Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Truth-Seekers) at Pune in 1873 to free the lower castes from Brahmanical domination; he was given the title 'Mahatma' in 1888. B. R. Ambedkar founded the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha (1924), Gopal Hari Deshmukh was the reformer known as 'Lokahitawadi', and Sri Narayana Guru of Kerala inspired the SNDP Yogam (1903) with the message 'one caste, one religion, one God for mankind'.

Answer: (D) Karachi Session (1931)

The Karachi session of March 1931, presided over by Vallabhbhai Patel, endorsed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and passed the resolutions on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme (drafted mainly by Jawaharlal Nehru). The other sessions: Guwahati 1926 (S. Srinivasa Iyengar), Madras 1927 (M. A. Ansari; decision to boycott the Simon Commission), Lahore 1929 (Jawaharlal Nehru; Purna Swaraj resolution).

Answer: (B) Lord Dufferin

Lord Dufferin, Viceroy (1884-88) when the Congress was born, described it in 1888 as representing only a 'microscopic minority' of the people. Compare Lord Curzon's remark in 1900 that the Congress was 'tottering to its fall'. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Theodore Beck (Principal of the MAO College, Aligarh) also opposed the Congress, but this particular phrase belongs to Dufferin.

Answer: (B) Jawahar Lal Nehru

The National Planning Committee was set up in 1938 on the initiative of Subhas Chandra Bose, then Congress President (Haripura), with Jawaharlal Nehru as chairman and K. T. Shah as secretary. Other landmarks of planning before independence: Visvesvaraya's 'Planned Economy for India' (1934), the Bombay Plan of industrialists (1944), the Gandhian Plan of S. N. Agarwal (1944) and the People's Plan of M. N. Roy (1945).

Answer: (C) The Portuguese

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to come to India by sea for trade: Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, and they were also the last to leave (Goa, 1961). The order usually taught is Portuguese, Dutch, English, Danes, French. Company dates: English East India Company 1600, Dutch VOC 1602, Danish company 1616, French company 1664 (first French factory at Surat, 1668).

Answer: (A) E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker

E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker (1879-1973) was called 'Periyar' (the great one); he took part in the Vaikom Satyagraha (1924), started the Self-Respect Movement (1925) and turned the Justice Party into the Dravidar Kazhagam (1944). C. V. Raman Pillai was a Malayalam novelist ('Marthandavarma'), Ambedkar is called 'Babasaheb', and Jyotirao Phule is called 'Mahatma'.

Answer: (C) Shyama Prasad Mukherjee

The book's key links this slogan with Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, President of the Hindu Mahasabha in the 1940s and founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951), a party that campaigned for Hindi and Hindu nationalism. The slogan 'Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan' itself goes back to Hindi writers of the late 19th century and was later popularised by Hindu Mahasabha leaders. Of the other options, Madan Mohan Malaviya championed Hindi in the Nagari script and founded the Banaras Hindu University, and Lala Lajpat Rai was also a Hindu Mahasabha leader.

Answer: (B) C. R. Das

When the government began mass arrests at the end of 1921, after the boycott of the Prince of Wales's visit, C. R. Das was among the first front-rank leaders to be arrested (December 1921), followed by his wife Basanti Devi - this is how Bipan Chandra's standard account puts it, and the key follows it. Gandhi was arrested only in March 1922 after Chauri Chaura and the withdrawal of the movement. The Ali brothers had been arrested earlier, in September 1921, but are not among the options. By strict dates Motilal Nehru (arrested 6 December 1921) was taken a few days before C. R. Das (10 December 1921), so option (A) can be argued.

Answer: (C) Belgaum

Tilak launched his Home Rule League in April 1916 at the Bombay Provincial Conference held at Belgaum; Joseph Baptista was its president and N. C. Kelkar its secretary. Its headquarters were at Poona (the trap option), and it worked in Maharashtra (except Bombay city), Karnataka, the Central Provinces and Berar. Annie Besant started her All-India Home Rule League in September 1916 at Madras, with George Arundale as secretary.

Answer: (A) Swaraj Party

The idea of a Constituent Assembly was first put forward by M. N. Roy in 1934, and in May of the same year the revived Swaraj Party became the first political body to adopt it as a demand; the Congress made it an official demand in 1935. The British accepted it in principle in the August Offer (1940), the Cripps Mission (1942) gave a concrete proposal, and the Assembly was finally set up under the Cabinet Mission Plan (1946). The other options are later dates or bodies that never mooted it first.

Answer: (A) there was no Indian member in the commission

The Indian Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon was appointed in November 1927 with seven members, all British (Clement Attlee was one of them), to report on the working of the 1919 reforms; the exclusion of Indians was seen as an insult and led to the boycott. It landed at Bombay on 3 February 1928 to the cry 'Simon Go Back'; Lala Lajpat Rai was fatally injured in the lathi charge at Lahore. The Indian answer was the Nehru Report (1928).

Answer: (C) Archaean rocks of granite and gneiss etc.

The Chotanagpur plateau is a part of the Peninsular shield made mainly of Archaean granite and gneiss, with Gondwana coal-bearing rocks in the Damodar valley and lava-capped 'pat' lands in the west. It is called the 'Ruhr of India' for its mineral wealth, and its highest point is Parasnath. Option (D) describes only the Gondwana basins, and sandstone-limestone-shale is typical of the Vindhyan system.

Answer: (A) NH-35

Answer as of 2018 — this may have changed since.

Under the old numbering, NH-35 ran from Barasat (near Kolkata) to Bongaon and the Petrapole border with Bangladesh; in the new system it is NH 112. The other options under the old system: NH-2 Delhi-Kolkata (now NH 19), NH-6 Hazira-Kolkata (the Kolkata-Mumbai road), and NH-32 in the Dhanbad-Jamshedpur area of Jharkhand. Old NH-34 (now NH 12) linked Kolkata with North Bengal.

Answer: (D) Kolkata

Eastern Railway has its headquarters at Fairlie Place, Kolkata; its divisions are Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol and Malda. Kolkata also houses the headquarters of South Eastern Railway (Garden Reach) and Metro Railway. Ranchi and Kharagpur are divisional headquarters of South Eastern Railway, while Dispur (Guwahati) is linked with Northeast Frontier Railway, whose headquarters are at Maligaon.

Answer: (A) salt water lake

Chilika in Odisha is the largest brackish-water (salt-water) lagoon of India, connected with the Bay of Bengal; its salinity falls in the monsoon when rivers like the Daya and Bhargavi bring fresh water, but it remains a saline lagoon. It was India's first Ramsar site (1981) and is known for Irrawaddy dolphins and the Nalabana bird sanctuary. Compare: Wular (largest freshwater lake), Sambhar (largest inland salt lake), Vembanad (longest lake).

Answer: (B) Odisha

Odisha has the largest reserves of manganese ore in India (Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Koraput) and was traditionally shown as the leading producer, which is what the key follows. In recent years Madhya Pradesh (Balaghat) and Maharashtra (Nagpur-Bhandara) have often been ahead in annual production, with Odisha and Karnataka close behind. Manganese is used mainly in making steel and ferro-manganese alloy.

Answer: (C) Godwin Austin

K2 (8,611 m) in the Karakoram range is also called Mount Godwin-Austen, after Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen who surveyed the area; the name 'K2' was given by T. G. Montgomerie (K for Karakoram). It is the second highest peak in the world, located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, so it is counted as India's highest peak; the highest peak in undisputed Indian territory is Kangchenjunga (8,586 m). Karakoram is the range, not the name of the peak.

Answer: (A) Liluah, Kanchrapara and Dum Dum

Liluah (Howrah) and Kanchrapara have Eastern Railway's carriage and wagon workshops, and Dum Dum had the wagon works of Jessop and Co.; other wagon builders of the state are Braithwaite, Burn Standard, Texmaco and Titagarh. The distractors mix in other industries: Hindmotor (Uttarpara) made Ambassador cars, Chittaranjan makes locomotives (CLW), and Durgapur is a steel centre.

Answer: (B) Sundarbans

The Ganga delta in West Bengal is divided into three parts: the moribund delta in the north (Nadia, Murshidabad), the mature delta in the middle (North 24 Parganas, Kolkata, Howrah) and the active delta in the south, i.e. the Sundarbans, where tidal rivers are still building land. The Sundarbans is the world's largest mangrove forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Ramsar site.

Answer: (A) from Southern Pir Panjal region to the Punjab plains

The Dogras live mainly in the Jammu region, from the southern slopes of the Pir Panjal to the plains bordering Punjab; their language is Dogri, added to the Eighth Schedule in 2003. The Dogra ruler Gulab Singh became Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir by the Treaty of Amritsar (1846). The Kashmir valley is inhabited mainly by Kashmiris, and the Poonch area by Paharis and Gujjars.

Answer: (B) North 24 Parganas

In Census 2011, Thane (Maharashtra) was the most populated district with about 1.1 crore people, and North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) was second with just over 1 crore. Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai Suburban followed. The least populated district was Dibang Valley (Arunachal Pradesh). Within West Bengal the order was North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Barddhaman.

Answer: (A) Lushai

The eastern hills (Purvanchal) along the India-Myanmar border consist of the Patkai Bum, the Naga hills, the Manipur hills and the Lushai (Mizo) hills. Namcha Barwa is a Himalayan peak in Tibet where the Brahmaputra takes its great bend, and the Khasi and Tura (Garo) hills belong to the Meghalaya plateau, away from the Myanmar border. Blue Mountain (Phawngpui) is the highest peak of the Lushai hills.

Answer: (C) Northern Uttar Pradesh

Rohilkhand is the north-western part of Uttar Pradesh around Bareilly, Moradabad, Rampur, Badaun, Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur, named after the Rohilla Afghans who settled there in the 18th century (the First Rohilla War of 1774 belongs to Warren Hastings' time). Other regions of Uttar Pradesh: Awadh (centre), Purvanchal (east), Bundelkhand (south), Doab (between Ganga and Yamuna).

Answer: (A) Saddle Peak

Saddle Peak (732 m) in North Andaman is the highest point of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Mount Diavolo is in Middle Andaman, Mount Harriet in South Andaman, and Mount Thullier (642 m) on Great Nicobar is the highest in the Nicobar group. Car Nicobar is an island, not a peak. The Ten Degree Channel separates the Andaman group from the Nicobar group.

Answer: (A) Jalpaiguri district, hills of Buxar and Jayanti

Karst landforms develop in limestone and dolomite; in West Bengal they are found in the Buxa-Jayanti hills of the Dooars, where the Mahakal caves show stalactites and stalagmites. The area was in Jalpaiguri district when the paper was set and now falls in Alipurduar district (formed 2014). Other karst areas of India: Meghalaya (Cherrapunji-Mawsmai caves), Borra caves (Andhra Pradesh), Dehradun and Bastar.

Answer: (C) natural protection for harbour and development of ship building industry

Dolphin's Nose is a rocky headland south of Visakhapatnam that protects the harbour from waves and cyclonic winds, making it a natural land-locked harbour. Visakhapatnam is the deepest land-locked port of India and has Hindustan Shipyard, the country's oldest ship-building yard, and the Eastern Naval Command. A lighthouse also stands on the headland.

Answer: (C) Barren Island

Barren Island in the Andaman Sea, north-east of Port Blair, is the only active volcano of India; it has erupted several times since 1991. Narcondam, also in the Andamans, is a dormant volcano. Pamban (Rameswaram) Island lies between India and Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, and 'Andaman Island' and 'Nicobar Island' are island groups, not volcanoes.

Answer: (C) Both (A) and (B)

A ring road is a circular road around a city: through traffic can go round instead of passing the central crossings, and heavy goods vehicles can be kept out of the city centre, so both statements are true. Delhi has the Inner Ring Road and Outer Ring Road, and the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways now divert traffic not bound for the city.

Answer: (A) Kolkata

A 'dry port' is an inland container depot (ICD) connected by rail or road to a seaport, where cargo is cleared by customs away from the coast. The book's key gives Kolkata, where container depots and freight stations serve the hinterland and the landlocked neighbours Nepal and Bhutan. Remember that Kolkata and Haldia are both riverine ports on the Hugli, and that Digha is a seaside resort, not a port.

Answer: (A) Ganga river flowing mainly through the Padma in Bangladesh

The Ganga once sent most of its water down the Bhagirathi-Hugli; over the last few centuries the main flow shifted east into the Padma. Some geomorphologists link this to changes in the course of the Kosi, which has migrated westward by over 100 km and changed its point of meeting with the Ganga. The decline of Kolkata port was a later result of the Bhagirathi losing its water, which the Farakka Barrage (1975) was built to correct.

Answer: (C) Bhagirathi river

The Bhagirathi flows from north to south through Murshidabad and divides it into two nearly equal parts: Rarh on the west (older, higher, lateritic land) and Bagri on the east (low, fertile new alluvium between the Bhagirathi, Padma and Jalangi). The Jalangi flows along the eastern side into Nadia, and the Mahananda and Mathabhanga belong to Malda and Nadia respectively.

Answer: (D) Farakka

Most closed answer is Farakka (Murshidabad district). Arsenic contamination of groundwater affects the Bhagirathi-Hugli belt of West Bengal, chiefly Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas, and the state's main answer has been large treatment plants supplying surface water. The permissible limit of arsenic in drinking water is 0.01 mg per litre (WHO/BIS); long exposure causes arsenicosis ('black foot disease').

Answer: (C) NH-3

Answer as of 2018 — this may have changed since.

Under the old numbering a traveller from Kolkata to Mumbai via Agra took NH-2 (Delhi-Agra-Kolkata) up to Agra and then NH-3, the Agra-Bombay Road, through Gwalior, Indore and Nashik. The direct Kolkata-Mumbai highway was NH-6 (via Nagpur). NH-5 ran along the east coast towards Chennai and NH-8 was Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai.

Answer: (C) Pandurang Hegde of Sirsi

The Appiko movement began in September 1983 in the Salkani forest near Sirsi (Uttara Kannada, Karnataka) under Pandurang Hegde; 'appiko' means 'to hug' in Kannada, and it was inspired by the Chipko movement of Uttarakhand (1973; Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Gaura Devi, Sundarlal Bahuguna). Sarala Behn and Mira Behn were Gandhi's disciples who worked in the Kumaon-Garhwal hills, and Bahuguna is linked with Tehri, not with Appiko.

Answer: (D) speed in vacuum

All electromagnetic waves (radio, microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays) travel in vacuum with the same speed, $c \approx 3\times10^8$ m/s. They differ in frequency and wavelength, which are related by $c = \nu\lambda$, so a higher frequency means a shorter wavelength; amplitude depends on the intensity of the source. They are transverse waves and need no material medium.

Answer: (A) solids

Sound is a mechanical wave and travels fastest in solids, slower in liquids and slowest in gases, because particles in solids are closely packed and strongly bound (roughly 340 m/s in air, 1,500 m/s in water, 5,000 m/s in steel). It cannot travel through vacuum at all. In air the speed of sound rises with temperature and humidity but does not depend on pressure.

Answer: (A) 1

Water vapour is a variable gas of the atmosphere: it ranges from almost nil in cold dry air to about 4 per cent in warm humid tropics, and the average near the surface is taken as about 1 per cent. Fixed composition of dry air for comparison: nitrogen 78 per cent, oxygen 21 per cent, argon 0.93 per cent, carbon dioxide about 0.04 per cent. Water vapour is also an important greenhouse gas.

Answer: (A) increase

Adding a non-volatile solute such as salt lowers the vapour pressure of water, so the solution must be heated above 100°C to boil - this is elevation of boiling point. The same solute lowers the freezing point (depression of freezing point), which is why salt is spread on icy roads and used in freezing mixtures. Both are colligative properties, which depend on the number of dissolved particles.

Answer: (A) White

Red, green and blue are the primary colours of light; when the three are added in equal intensity they give white light (additive mixing, used in TV and mobile screens). Pairs give the secondary colours: red + green = yellow, green + blue = cyan, red + blue = magenta. Do not confuse this with pigments, where mixing the primary pigments gives black (subtractive mixing).

Answer: (A) will continue to float as before

For a floating body, weight of the body = weight of liquid displaced, i.e. $V\rho_{body}\,g = V_{in}\rho_{liquid}\,g$, so the immersed fraction $V_{in}/V = \rho_{body}/\rho_{liquid}$ and $g$ cancels out. On the moon both the weight and the upthrust become one-sixth, so the body floats exactly as before. A body would sink only if its density were greater than that of the liquid.

Answer: (A) the stone flies off tangentially

A stone whirled in a circle is kept on its path by the tension of the string, which supplies the centripetal force towards the centre. When the string snaps this force vanishes, and by Newton's first law (inertia of direction) the stone moves in a straight line along the tangent at that point. It does not fly radially outward; the 'centrifugal force' is only a pseudo-force felt in the rotating frame.

Answer: (D) oxidation

Chlorine bleaches only in the presence of moisture: $Cl_2 + H_2O \rightarrow HCl + HOCl$, and the hypochlorous acid gives nascent oxygen, which oxidises the coloured matter to a colourless product. Bleaching by oxidation is permanent. Sulphur dioxide, by contrast, bleaches by reduction and its effect is temporary (the colour returns on exposure to air).

Answer: (B) Gypsum

Plaster of Paris is calcium sulphate hemihydrate, $CaSO_4\cdot\tfrac{1}{2}H_2O$, made by heating gypsum, $CaSO_4\cdot 2H_2O$, to about 100-120°C (373-393 K) so that it loses three-fourths of its water of crystallisation. On adding water it sets again into hard gypsum, so it is used for plastering fractured bones, casts, statues and false ceilings. Heating gypsum too strongly gives 'dead burnt plaster', which does not set.

Answer: (A) polyvinyl chloride

PVC is polyvinyl chloride, a polymer of vinyl chloride ($CH_2{=}CHCl$); it is used for pipes, cable insulation, flooring, raincoats and bottles. Other polymers asked in exams: polythene (ethylene), Teflon or PTFE (tetrafluoroethylene, non-stick coating), Bakelite (phenol and formaldehyde, electrical switches), nylon and terylene (synthetic fibres).

Answer: (B) dilute acetic acid

Vinegar is a 5-8 per cent solution of acetic acid (ethanoic acid, $CH_3COOH$) in water; pure acetic acid is called glacial acetic acid because it freezes into ice-like crystals. The other options: sodium nitrate is Chile saltpetre (a fertiliser), chloride of lime is bleaching powder, and calcium is a metal. Acids in foods: citric (lemon), lactic (curd), tartaric (tamarind), oxalic (spinach, tomato).

Answer: (B) rickets

Vitamin D (calciferol, the 'sunshine vitamin') is needed for absorbing calcium and phosphorus; its deficiency causes rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. The distractors: night blindness - Vitamin A, scurvy - Vitamin C, hair fall - biotin (Vitamin B7). Others: beriberi - B1, pellagra - B3, pernicious anaemia - B12, delayed blood clotting - Vitamin K. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble.

Answer: (B) 120

Human red blood cells (erythrocytes) live for about 120 days; they are formed in the red bone marrow, have no nucleus when mature, and are destroyed in the spleen, the 'graveyard of RBCs'. White blood cells live from a few hours to a few days and platelets about 8-10 days. Haemoglobin in RBCs carries oxygen; a low RBC count or low haemoglobin is called anaemia.

Answer: (C) 20

The milk (deciduous) teeth of a child number 20: in each half-jaw 2 incisors, 1 canine and 2 molars, with no premolars. They are replaced by 32 permanent teeth (2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars and 3 molars in each half-jaw; the last molar is the wisdom tooth). Enamel, the covering of the tooth, is the hardest substance of the body.

Answer: (B) concave lens

In short-sightedness (myopia) the eye can see near objects but distant objects are focused in front of the retina; it is corrected by a concave (diverging) lens. A convex lens is the same thing as a converging lens, so options (A) and (C) both describe the correction for long-sightedness (hypermetropia). Presbyopia of old age needs bifocal lenses and astigmatism needs cylindrical lenses.

Answer: (C) lactic acid

During hard exercise the muscles do not get enough oxygen and break down glucose anaerobically into lactic acid; its accumulation causes fatigue and cramps, and the extra oxygen needed afterwards to clear it is called the 'oxygen debt'. Ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide are the products of anaerobic respiration in yeast (fermentation), and creatinine is a waste product removed by the kidneys.

Answer: (C) 20 ml

Arterial blood carries about 20 ml of oxygen per 100 ml: there is about 15 g of haemoglobin in 100 ml of blood and each gram binds about 1.34 ml of oxygen; about 97 per cent of the oxygen travels as oxyhaemoglobin and the rest dissolved in plasma. Under normal resting conditions every 100 ml of blood delivers about 5 ml of oxygen to the tissues.

Answer: (C) Lungs

Whales, dolphins and porpoises are mammals (order Cetacea), so they breathe air with lungs through a blowhole on the top of the head and must come to the surface to breathe. Gills are the respiratory organs of fishes, the moist skin (integument) is used by earthworms and frogs, and tracheae by insects. The blue whale is the largest animal; whales are warm-blooded and suckle their young.

Answer: (D) Bugs

An error or fault in a computer program is called a 'bug', and finding and removing it is 'debugging'; the term became popular after Grace Hopper's team found a moth stuck in the Harvard Mark II computer in 1947. Spam is unwanted bulk e-mail, and a virus is a malicious program that copies itself and damages data. Errors may be syntax errors, logical errors or run-time errors.

Answer: (B) Secondary

Primary memory is the main memory used directly by the CPU (RAM, which is volatile, and ROM). Secondary storage holds data permanently outside the main memory: hard disk, SSD, CD/DVD, memory card and USB pen drive, so a USB drive is a secondary storage device (it uses flash memory). Tertiary storage refers to removable mass storage such as magnetic tape libraries used for archives and backup.

Answer: (D) byte

The printed key gives 'byte', but by standard definition 1 byte = 8 bits and 1 nibble = 4 bits, so 16 bits make 2 bytes. A group of 16 bits is conventionally called a 'word' (the word length depends on the processor: 16 bits on a 16-bit machine, 32 or 64 bits on later ones). Units to remember: 1 KB = 1024 bytes, 1 MB = 1024 KB, 1 GB = 1024 MB, 1 TB = 1024 GB.

Answer: (B) Wink

LinkedIn (professional networking, launched 2003, now owned by Microsoft), Facebook (2004) and Google Plus (Google's social network, launched 2011 and closed for consumers in 2019) are social networking sites. 'Wink' is not a social networking site, so it is the odd one out. Other social media names for exams: Twitter (now X), Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram.

Answer: (A) Java

Android, the mobile operating system developed by Google on the Linux kernel, has traditionally used Java for app development; Google made Kotlin an official language in 2017 and its preferred language in 2019. C and C++ can be used only for special native parts of an app, and PHP is a server-side scripting language for websites. Apple's iOS apps are written in Swift or Objective-C.

Answer: (C) 26 November 1949

The Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949 (observed as Constitution Day or Samvidhan Divas since 2015); it came fully into force on 26 January 1950, the date chosen to mark the Purna Swaraj Day of 1930. A few provisions, such as those on citizenship, elections and the provisional Parliament, came into force on 26 November 1949 itself. The Assembly took 2 years, 11 months and 18 days.

Answer: (D) Deputy Prime Minister

The Constitution nowhere mentions a Deputy Prime Minister (or Deputy Chief Minister) — the post is a political convention and its holder is constitutionally just a Cabinet Minister. The other three are constitutional offices: Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Article 89), Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha (Article 93) and Deputy Speaker of a Legislative Assembly (Article 178).

Answer: (A) Article 40

Article 40, a Gandhian Directive Principle in Part IV, asks the State to organise village panchayats and give them the powers needed to work as units of self-government; it was given effect by the 73rd Amendment (1992). The neighbouring articles: Article 41 - right to work, education and public assistance; Article 42 - just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief; Article 43 - living wage and cottage industries.

Answer: (C) Article 21 and Article 20 (3)

In Selvi v. State of Karnataka (2010) the Supreme Court held that narco-analysis, polygraph and brain-mapping tests cannot be forced on a person: they violate the right against self-incrimination under Article 20(3) and personal liberty and privacy under Article 21. Article 20 as a whole also covers ex post facto laws and double jeopardy, so option (C) is the complete answer. Article 25 deals with freedom of religion and Article 360 with financial emergency.

Answer: (B) 73rd Amendment

The 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 (in force from 24 April 1993, now National Panchayati Raj Day) added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects) and gave constitutional status to the three-tier Panchayati Raj. The 74th Amendment did the same for municipalities (Part IXA, Twelfth Schedule, 18 subjects). The 56th Amendment made Goa a state, and the 76th placed Tamil Nadu's 69 per cent reservation law in the Ninth Schedule.

Answer: (C) Concurrent list

Education was a State subject until the 42nd Amendment (1976) moved it to the Concurrent List, so both Parliament and the State Legislatures can make laws on it. The same amendment shifted four other subjects to the Concurrent List: forests, weights and measures, protection of wild animals and birds, and administration of justice. The Seventh Schedule contains the three lists (Article 246).

Answer: (B) 1975

Sikkim, a protectorate of India under the Chogyal, was made an 'associate state' by the 35th Amendment (1974) and a full-fledged state, the 22nd of the Union, by the 36th Amendment with effect from 16 May 1975, after a referendum abolished the monarchy. Kazi Lhendup Dorji was its first Chief Minister. Special provisions for Sikkim are in Article 371F.

Answer: (C) Sweden

The institution of Ombudsman, an independent officer who looks into citizens' complaints against the administration, began in Sweden in 1809. It was later adopted by Finland (1919), Denmark (1955), Norway (1962), New Zealand (1962, first in the Commonwealth) and the United Kingdom (1967). In India the corresponding institutions are the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Act of 2013), first recommended by the Administrative Reforms Commission in 1966; Maharashtra was the first state to set up a Lokayukta (1971).

Answer: (A) 4

Under Article 280 the President constitutes a Finance Commission every five years, or earlier, consisting of a Chairman and four other members; their qualifications are laid down by Parliament in the Finance Commission (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1951. It recommends how central taxes are shared between the Union and the States and the principles of grants-in-aid. The first Commission was headed by K. C. Neogy, and the Fifteenth (N. K. Singh) was constituted in November 2017, shortly before this exam.

Answer: (C) Per capita income of citizens

By the expenditure method, GNP = private consumption + private investment + government purchases of goods and services + net exports + net factor income from abroad, so options (A), (B) and (D) are components. Per capita income is not a component: it is obtained afterwards by dividing national income by population. Remember: GNP = GDP + net factor income from abroad, and NNP = GNP - depreciation.

Answer: (A) a resolution by Union Cabinet

NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) was set up on 1 January 2015 by a resolution of the Union Cabinet to replace the Planning Commission, which had itself been created by a Cabinet resolution in March 1950. It is therefore neither a constitutional nor a statutory body. The Prime Minister is its Chairperson, and Arvind Panagariya was its first Vice-Chairperson; its Governing Council includes all Chief Ministers.

Answer: (C) IADA and IAAP

The Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP or 'package programme') was started in 1960-61 in selected districts with assured irrigation, and the Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP) extended the approach to more areas in 1964-65. Together with the High Yielding Varieties Programme of 1966-67 they formed the base of the Green Revolution, so both (A) and (B) are correct. M. S. Swaminathan is called the father of the Green Revolution in India and Norman Borlaug in the world.

Answer: (D) All of the above

Financial inclusion means ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services (bank account, credit, insurance, pension, payments) for the weaker sections at an affordable cost. In the RBI's view it also needs consumer protection for the newly included customers, a quick and easy grievance redressal system and wider financial literacy, so all three statements apply. Related steps: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (2014), Business Correspondents, Payments Banks and Small Finance Banks.

Answer: (D) Both (A) and (B)

The second meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog was held in July 2015 under the Prime Minister's chairmanship; its message was that the Centre and the States must work together to end poverty and that the State units should be the focus of all development efforts. The Governing Council consists of the Prime Minister, the Chief Ministers of all States and Union Territories with legislatures, and the Lieutenant Governors of the other Union Territories; its first meeting was in February 2015.

Answer: (A) defence expenditure

Development expenditure is spending that directly promotes economic and social development: economic services (agriculture, industry, transport), social and community services (education, health) and grants to states for development purposes. Non-development expenditure covers defence, interest payments, administrative services, tax collection and pensions. Hence defence expenditure is the one not included.

Answer: (D) All of the above

Fiscal deficit = total expenditure - (revenue receipts + non-debt capital receipts such as recoveries of loans and disinvestment); it equals the government's total borrowing requirement for the year. The other two statements say the same thing: budget deficit plus market borrowings and other liabilities, and primary deficit plus interest payments (since primary deficit = fiscal deficit - interest payments). Revenue deficit = revenue expenditure - revenue receipts.

Answer: (B) Non-plan expenditure

Under the old classification, plan expenditure was spending on schemes of the Five Year Plans, while non-plan expenditure covered routine items such as public administration, defence, interest payments, subsidies and pensions. The plan/non-plan distinction was removed from the Union Budget of 2017-18, after the end of the Twelfth Plan, and expenditure is now shown only as revenue and capital expenditure.

Answer: (C) 5:9

In the first mixture liquid 1 is $\tfrac{2}{5}$ and in the second it is $\tfrac{5}{9}$; in the final mixture it must be $\tfrac{1}{2}$. By alligation, first : second $= \left(\tfrac{5}{9}-\tfrac{1}{2}\right) : \left(\tfrac{1}{2}-\tfrac{2}{5}\right) = \tfrac{1}{18} : \tfrac{1}{10} = 5:9$. Check: taking 5 litres and 9 litres gives liquid 1 $= 2+5 = 7$ and liquid 2 $= 3+4 = 7$, which are equal.

Answer: (C) 7 : 35

A plane mirror reverses the dial left-to-right, so the mirror time is obtained by subtracting the actual time from 12 hours (written as $11:60$): $11:60 - 4:25 = 7:35$. Check: the two times add up to 12 hours ($4:25 + 7:35 = 12:00$). (A) and (D) wrongly subtract the hour from 12 without borrowing; (B) reverses only the hour hand and leaves the minutes unchanged.

Answer: (D) Kiln

Coins are made in a mint, and in the same way bricks are baked in a kiln, so the relation is 'product : place of manufacture'. A foundry is where metal is melted and cast, a furnace is used for smelting or heating metals, and a cemetery is a burial ground. India's government mints are at Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Noida.

Answer: (C) 312

In 12 hours the clock strikes $1+2+\dots+12 = \tfrac{12\times13}{2} = 78$ times. One day has two such rounds, so $78\times2 = 156$ strikes, and two days give $156\times2 = 312$. The options 78 (only 12 hours) and 264 are traps; the question assumes the clock strikes only on the hour.

Answer: (D) 9

This is an alternating (two-in-one) series. Terms in odd places: 3, 6, ? - each increases by 3, so the missing term is 9. Terms in even places: 8, 14, 20 - each increases by 6. Whenever a series rises and falls irregularly, check the alternate terms separately.

Answer: (D) 30 years

Let the ages be $3x$ and $5x$. The difference is $5x-3x = 2x = 12$, so $x = 6$ and the ages are 18 and 30 years. The key takes Axar as the elder (30 years); the question does not actually say who is older, but 18 is not among the options, so 30 is the only possible answer.

Answer: (B) E

For people facing the centre, 'left' means clockwise and 'right' means anticlockwise. Fix F at seat 0 and number the seats clockwise: D is second to the left of F (seat 2) and third to the right of H, so H is at seat 5; A is second to the right of F (seat 6) and is next to H. F is third to the right of B, so B is at seat 3, and C, second to the right of B, is at seat 1. G cannot sit next to F, so G takes seat 4 and E takes seat 7. Clockwise order: F, C, D, B, G, H, A, E - so E is to the immediate left of A.

Answer: (D) d

From 'Tanushree is a dancer' and 'Dancers are young ladies' it follows that Tanushree is a young lady who is a dancer, i.e. conclusion (d), the answer the key takes. Conclusion (a) is the invalid converse (all dancers are young ladies does not mean all young ladies are dancers), and (c) contradicts the statements. Conclusion (b) only repeats the second statement; the key prefers (d) because it combines both statements.

Answer: (B) South

Before sunset the sun is in the west, so shadows fall towards the east. Amal's shadow is to his right, so his right hand points east, which means he is facing north. Ajoy stands face to face with him and therefore faces south. Remember the morning case too: the sun is in the east and shadows fall to the west.

Answer: (A) 8 minutes

The second pipe works throughout, and after the first is closed it needs 10 more minutes, in which it fills $\tfrac{10}{30} = \tfrac{1}{3}$ of the cistern. So the two pipes together must fill $\tfrac{2}{3}$ before that; their joint rate is $\tfrac{1}{20}+\tfrac{1}{30} = \tfrac{1}{12}$ per minute, which takes $\tfrac{2}{3}\times12 = 8$ minutes. So the first pipe is turned off after 8 minutes (total time 18 minutes).

Answer: (D) Hand

To squint is an action of the eye (to look with the eyes partly closed), and to squeeze is an action done with the hand (to press firmly), so the relation is 'action : organ that performs it'. Cloth or the throat may be the thing that is squeezed, but they are objects of the action, not the organ doing it.

Answer: (C) 13:16

$P = 1.6Q$ and $P = 1.3R$, so $1.6Q = 1.3R$ and $Q:R = 1.3:1.6 = 13:16$. With numbers: if $P = 208$, then $Q = 130$ and $R = 160$. The trap option 16:13 comes from inverting the ratio; remember that P exceeds Q by more, so Q must be the smaller of the two.

Answer: (D) Niece and Uncle

A is the father of B, and F is B's sister, so F is A's daughter. C is A's brother, so C is the brother of F's father, i.e. F's paternal uncle. Hence F and C are niece and uncle. The information about M (father of A and C) is extra and is not needed to answer.

Answer: (C) 44%

Standard rule: a dealer who cheats to the extent of $x$ per cent both while buying and while selling makes two successive gains of $x$ per cent, so gain $= x+x+\tfrac{x^2}{100}$. With $x = 20$: $20+20+\tfrac{400}{100} = 44$ per cent. In figures: for a payment of 100 he receives goods worth 120, and he then sells these 120 as if they were $120\times1.2 = 144$. The same formula, $\tfrac{(100+x)^2}{100}-100$, gives 21 per cent when the cheating is 10 per cent.

Answer: (D) D

Red covers: A, D, F (since B, C, E are blue). New books: D, F. Law reports: A, C, D. The only book common to all three lists is D. Similarly, the red new physics book would be F and the blue old law report would be C - a small table of the six books against the three properties answers any such question.

Answer: (B) 2.002 < 2.02 < 2.2 < 2.222

Write all the numbers to three decimal places: 2.002, 2.020, 2.200, 2.222. Now the order is clear: $2.002 < 2.02 < 2.2 < 2.222$. Option (A) wrongly starts with 2.2 and option (C) places 2.002 after 2.22.

Answer: (D) $36-6+3\times5\div3=74$

Replace the signs as given: '+' is division, '×' is addition, '-' is multiplication and '÷' is subtraction. Option (D) becomes $36\times6\div3+5-3 = 72+5-3 = 74$, which is true. Option (A) gives $36\div6\times3+5-3 = 20$, not 24; option (C) gives $36-6\div3+5\times3 = 49$, not 24; and option (B) does not give a whole number.

Answer: (A) b

The required region must lie inside the circle for Indians and the circle for historians but outside the circle for politicians. In the figure of the question paper that region is marked 'b'. The region common to all three circles would represent Indian historians who are also politicians, and so is excluded.

Answer: (C) Friday

Netaji's birthday is 23 January and Independence Day is 15 August. In the leap year 2000 the days between them are 8 (January) + 29 (February) + 31 + 30 + 31 + 30 + 31 (March to July) + 15 (August) = 205. Since $205 = 29\times7+2$, there are 2 odd days, and Wednesday + 2 = Friday. In an ordinary year the answer would have been Thursday.

Answer: (C) 16

Such questions are solved by counting each straight line of the figure only once, however many smaller segments it is cut into: count the horizontal lines, then the vertical lines, then the slanting lines, and add them. For the figure in the question paper the key gives a total of 16.

Answer: (C) Harry

Hard-working: Tom, Brown, Jack. Ambitious: Tom, Dick, Jack. Harry is in neither list (he is only intelligent and honest), so he is neither hard-working nor ambitious. Brown is hard-working but not ambitious, and Dick is ambitious but not hard-working; Brown is not among the options anyway.

Answer: (B) REBAZ

It is a direct letter-substitution code. From DEVICE = BAREXA: D-B, E-A, V-R, I-E, C-X. From ORNATE = ZVMESA: O-Z, R-V, N-M, A-E, T-S. So VIDEO is written as R (V), E (I), B (D), A (E), Z (O) = REBAZ. Option (A) wrongly keeps I unchanged and option (D) is REBAZ written backwards.

Answer: (D) PROCESS

Each letter has a fixed digit. From PURCHASE = 73429186: P7, U3, R4, C2, H9, A1, S8, E6; from ORDER = 54064: O5, D0. So 7452688 reads P, R, O, C, E, S, S = PROCESS. PROCEED would end in 660, and PROGRES and PROGRAM need G and M, which have no code.

Answer: (B) Circle

Square, rectangle and parallelogram are quadrilaterals - closed figures bounded by four straight sides with four angles - while a circle is a curved figure with no sides or corners. In fact every square is a rectangle and every rectangle is a parallelogram, which makes the three a family and the circle the odd one out.

Answer: (C) Chirag and Ela

Number the six seats 1 to 6 round the table; seats facing each other are 1-4, 2-5 and 3-6. Put Belal at 1 and Arup opposite at 4. Chirag and Derek are on either side of Belal (seats 2 and 6), and Ela and Farook on either side of Arup (seats 3 and 5). Ela is next to Derek, so Ela and Derek are on the same side, which leaves Chirag facing Ela and Derek facing Farook.

Answer: (A) 1500%

An increase of 300 per cent makes the radius 4 times the original. Volume of a cylinder is $\pi r^2 h$; with the height unchanged the volume becomes $4^2 = 16$ times, an increase of $(16-1)\times100 = 1500$ per cent. Shortcut for a quantity depending on $r^2$: $300+300+\tfrac{300\times300}{100} = 1500$. Option (B) 600 per cent is the trap of simply doubling the percentage.

Answer: (B) $\dfrac{4+\pi}{4\pi}$

The key treats the shaded region as a quadrant (quarter) of the circle. Its perimeter is two radii plus a quarter of the circumference: $2r+\tfrac{\pi r}{2} = \tfrac{r(4+\pi)}{2}$. Dividing by the circumference $2\pi r$ gives $\dfrac{4+\pi}{4\pi}$. Remember that the perimeter of a sector always includes the two radii, not only the arc. Figure-based question: the diagram is not part of this file.

Answer: (A) 'Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All'

The International Day of Peace is observed every year on 21 September; the UN General Assembly established it in 1981. The 2017 theme was 'Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All', linked with the UN's TOGETHER campaign in support of refugees and migrants. The other options only reshuffle the three words or replace 'Together' with 'United', so remember the exact order: Respect, Safety, Dignity.

Answer: (C) Both (A) and (B)

India hosted the Global Wildlife Programme conference at New Delhi in October 2017, jointly with the World Bank and the UNDP. On the occasion the government released the third National Wildlife Action Plan (2017-2031) and launched 'SECURE Himalaya', a project for conserving the high-altitude Himalayan ecosystem and the snow leopard's habitat. Hence both documents are correct.

Answer: (C) Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was declared a saint (St Teresa of Calcutta) by Pope Francis at the Vatican on 4 September 2016. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata (1950) and received the Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and the Bharat Ratna (1980). Sister Nirmala succeeded her as head of the order; the Dalai Lama (Nobel 1989) and Desmond Tutu (Nobel 1984) are not Roman Catholics.

Answer: (B) North Korea

North Korea announced on 6 January 2016 that it had successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb (its fourth nuclear test), at the Punggye-ri site; it claimed a much bigger hydrogen bomb test on 3 September 2017. A hydrogen bomb works on nuclear fusion, whereas an atom bomb works on fission. North Korea's capital is Pyongyang and its leader is Kim Jong-un.

Answer: (A) Manoj Kumar

Manoj Kumar, the actor-director known as 'Bharat Kumar' for patriotic films such as 'Upkar' and 'Purab Aur Paschim', received the 47th Dadasaheb Phalke Award (for 2015). The award was instituted in 1969 and Devika Rani was its first recipient. For comparison: Dilip Kumar won it for 1994, Shashi Kapoor for 2014, K. Viswanath for 2016, Vinod Khanna (posthumously) for 2017 and Amitabh Bachchan for 2018.

Answer: (C) Hausla, 2017

The Ministry of Women and Child Development observed Child Rights Week from 16 to 20 November 2017 under the name 'Hausala 2017', an inter-Child Care Institution festival to showcase the talents of children living in such homes. The week falls between Children's Day (14 November) and Universal Children's Day (20 November). 'Hausala' means courage or morale; the other three names are only fillers.

Answer: (A) First

In the 2017 Global Retail Development Index of the consulting firm A. T. Kearney, India ranked first among 30 developing countries, overtaking China, which came second. The index ranks developing countries on their attractiveness for retail investment. The ranking was credited to India's fast-growing economy, relaxed FDI rules and consumption boom.

Answer: (C) Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro, the Japan-born British novelist, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017; his best-known novels are 'The Remains of the Day' (Booker Prize, 1989) and 'Never Let Me Go'. The 2016 prize had gone to Bob Dylan. Among the distractors, Salman Rushdie won the Booker for 'Midnight's Children' and Amitav Ghosh later received the Jnanpith Award (2018); neither has won the Nobel.

Answer: (C) Amartya Sen

'The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity' (2005) is by Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics (1998) and the Bharat Ratna (1999); his other books include 'Development as Freedom', 'The Idea of Justice' and 'Poverty and Famines'. Nirad C. Chaudhuri wrote 'The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian', and Arundhati Roy wrote 'The God of Small Things' (Booker Prize, 1997).

Answer: (D) Tamil Nadu

According to the Ministry of Tourism's statistics for 2016, Tamil Nadu ranked first in both domestic tourist visits and foreign tourist visits. Uttar Pradesh was second in domestic visits and Maharashtra second in foreign visits. Tamil Nadu's attractions include the temple towns of Madurai, Thanjavur and Rameswaram, Mahabalipuram, Kanyakumari and the hill station of Ooty.

Answer: (C) Sanjay Kothari

Answer as of 2018 — this may have changed since.

Sanjay Kothari, a retired IAS officer of the Haryana cadre and former chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board, was appointed Secretary to the President in July 2017, when Ram Nath Kovind took office as the 14th President (25 July 2017). Kothari later became the Central Vigilance Commissioner in 2020. The post changes with each President, so treat this as a period fact.

Answer: (C) Halimah Yacob

Halimah Yacob became the eighth and first woman President of Singapore in September 2017. The election was reserved for the Malay community and she was the only candidate declared eligible, so she won without a vote; she had earlier been Speaker of Parliament. Singapore's President is largely a ceremonial head of state, and executive power lies with the Prime Minister.

Answer: (A) Switzerland

Answer as of 2018 — this may have changed since.

Switzerland is the largest source of India's gold imports, because it is the world's biggest gold refining and transit centre; the UAE is usually second, with South Africa and other countries following. India is among the world's largest consumers of gold along with China, and gold is one of its biggest import items after crude oil, which adds to the current account deficit.

Answer: (B) New Delhi

The tenth meeting of the India-Jordan Trade and Economic Joint Committee was held at New Delhi in July 2017. Jordan is an important supplier of rock phosphate and potash for India's fertiliser industry. Capital and currency for revision: Jordan - Amman, Jordanian dinar; Morocco - Rabat, Moroccan dirham.

Answer: (D) Bina Agarwal

Bina Agarwal, the development economist, won the 2017 Balzan Prize for Gender Studies for her work on women's contribution to agriculture and their rights in land; her best-known book is 'A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia'. The Balzan Prizes are awarded by the International Balzan Foundation (Italy and Switzerland). Devaki Jain and Rohini Pande are also economists working on gender and development.

Answer: (A) Tajikistan

In 2017 Tajikistan amended its law on traditions and ceremonies to require citizens to 'stick to traditional national clothes and culture', a step widely seen as aimed at discouraging Islamic dress such as the hijab. Tajikistan is a Central Asian republic; its capital is Dushanbe, its currency the somoni and its President Emomali Rahmon.

Answer: (D) Rajasthan

In 2017 the Rajasthan cabinet approved a policy to run selected government schools under the Public Private Partnership model, allowing private parties to take over their management; the decision drew protests from teachers' organisations. Rajasthan's capital is Jaipur. The question is a typical 'state in news' item, where the other three states are only fillers.

Answer: (A) Germany

Germany won the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, beating Chile 1-0 in the final at St Petersburg with a goal by Lars Stindl; Portugal finished third. It was Germany's first Confederations Cup title and the last edition of the tournament, which used to be held a year before the World Cup in the host country. Russia then hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup, won by France.

Answer: (B) Mongolia

Mongolia got its first satellite, named 'Mongol Sat-1', in 2017 in partnership with the satellite operator Asia Broadcast Satellite, to provide television and telecom services. Mongolia is a landlocked country between Russia and China; its capital is Ulaanbaatar and its currency the tugrik. Tibet, given as an option, is not a country but an autonomous region of China.

Answer: (A) funds development in cities for transport only

Answer as of 2018 — this may have changed since.

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was launched in December 2005 for cities only, with sub-missions for urban infrastructure and governance and for basic services to the urban poor. In its original form it covered water supply, sanitation, roads, urban transport and housing, and from 2015 it was replaced by AMRUT and the Smart Cities Mission. what is certain is that the mission never covered villages or rural areas, so (B), (C) and (D) are wrong.

Answer: (A) 100th

Answer as of 2018 — this may have changed since.

India entered the top 100 of the FIFA men's rankings in 2017 after a gap of two decades, reaching 100th place in May 2017, which is the answer the question expects. India's best-ever rank is 94th (February 1996). The rankings are revised regularly, so this is a period fact; the governing body of football in India is the AIFF.

Answer: (C) Both of the above

The second meeting of the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Council was held at New Delhi in September 2017 and was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, so both names are correct. The Council was set up under the Strategic Partnership Agreement of 2011, and at this meeting the 'New Development Partnership' with Afghanistan was announced.

Answer: (B) Australia

In mid-2017 Australia announced a new Information Warfare Division within its defence forces, the country's first military cyber unit, with the stated aim of launching cyber attacks on foreign adversaries, including the Islamic State. Australia's capital is Canberra. The item is a typical 'first in news' question and the other three countries are fillers.

Answer: (A) J. K. Rowling

J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, was made a Companion of Honour for services to literature and philanthropy in the 2017 Birthday Honours, and received the honour from Prince William at Buckingham Palace on 12 December 2017. The Order of the Companions of Honour was founded by King George V in 1917. Elimination also works: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen and Roald Dahl had all died long before 2017.

Answer: (A) Hiroshi Marui

The third ICCR Distinguished Indologist Award (2017) was given to Professor Hiroshi Marui of Japan, a scholar of Indian philosophy and Buddhist studies. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations was founded in 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and gives this award every year to a foreign scholar of Indology. The other options are made up by attaching the city names Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the surname.

Answer: (B) Raghuram G Rajan

'I Do What I Do' (2017) is a collection of speeches and essays by Raghuram G. Rajan, the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (2013-16); the title comes from his remark 'My name is Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do'. His other books are 'Fault Lines' and 'The Third Pillar'. Urjit Patel succeeded him as Governor, and Pranab Mukherjee's 2017 book was 'The Coalition Years'.

Answer: (A) Canara Bank

Canara Bank opened its first digital banking branch, named 'CANDI', at Bengaluru in 2017; it offers paperless, self-service banking with tablets and a humanoid robot. Canara Bank has its headquarters at Bengaluru and was founded in 1906 at Mangaluru by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai. Of the other options, Andhra Bank and Dena Bank have since been merged into Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda respectively.

Answer: (C) Nozomi Okuhara

At the 2017 BWF World Championships in Glasgow, Nozomi Okuhara of Japan beat P. V. Sindhu in a 110-minute final, so Sindhu took the silver and Saina Nehwal the bronze. Viktor Axelsen of Denmark won the men's singles. Sindhu went on to win the world title in 2019 at Basel, beating Okuhara, and became the first Indian world champion in badminton.

Answer: (A) Kolkata

Kolkata was announced as the host of an International Puppet Festival beginning on 26 October 2017, with troupes from India and abroad taking part. West Bengal has its own puppet traditions: 'Putul Nach' in the form of rod puppets (Dang Putul), glove puppets (Beni Putul) and string puppets (Tarer Putul). Other Indian forms: Kathputli (Rajasthan, string) and Tholu Bommalata (Andhra Pradesh, shadow).

Answer: (B) Golden Girls of India – Pride of the Nation

The Department of Posts released a special cover titled 'Golden Girls of India - Pride of the Nation' to honour three sportswomen of the Rio Olympics 2016: P. V. Sindhu (silver in badminton), Sakshi Malik (bronze in wrestling) and Dipa Karmakar (fourth place in the vault in gymnastics). The other options change only the last phrase, so remember 'Pride of the Nation'.

Answer: (A) Germany

Germany's law allowing same-sex marriage, passed by the Bundestag on 30 June 2017, came into force on 1 October 2017, and the first such marriages were solemnised that day in Berlin. For comparison: the Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalise it (2001), Spain did so in 2005, Austria from 2019, and Italy allows only civil unions (2016).

Answer: (A) World Soil Day

World Soil Day is observed on 5 December under the Food and Agriculture Organisation; the UN General Assembly endorsed it in 2013 and the first official observance was in 2014. The date marks the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, who championed the idea. World Health Day is 7 April (WHO), World Food Day is 16 October (FAO's foundation day), and the other two options are not UN days.

Answer: (A) Kerala

The 77th session of the Indian History Congress was held at the University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, in December 2016 and was inaugurated by the then President Pranab Mukherjee; the question says '(Ex.)' because he had left office by the time of the exam. The Indian History Congress, the largest body of professional historians in India, was founded in 1935 and held its first session at Pune.