UPHESC Assistant Professor Agricultural Botany PYQs

Concept: Dharmashastras (Manusmriti) list eight forms of marriage.

1. Approved: Brahma, Daiva, Arsha, Prajapatya.
2. Disapproved: Asura, Gandharva, Rakshasa, Paishacha.

Short trick: 4 good + 4 bad = 8.

Concept: Subhas Chandra Bose likened Gandhi's Dandi March (1930) to Napoleon's march to Paris on his return from Elba.

1. Lala Lajpat Rai had died in 1928, before the march.
2. Bose's comparison appears in 'The Indian Struggle'.

Short trick: Netaji – the soldier – used a military (Napoleon) comparison.

Concept: Monazite is a phosphate of rare-earths and thorium, found in Kerala beach sands.

1. It is India's main source of thorium (India has large thorium reserves).
2. Uranium mainly from Jaduguda (Jharkhand).

Short trick: Monazite of Kerala → Thorium.

Concept: The Enfield rifle (P-1853) replaced the old 'Brown Bess' musket.

1. Its cartridges, said to be greased with cow and pig fat, had to be bitten open – the immediate cause of the 1857 revolt.
2. 'Brown Bess' was the old musket.

Short trick: Enfield cartridge → 1857.

Concept: In the standard textbook account of the Delhi Sultanate, Firoz Shah Tughlaq is the ruler under whom Sanskrit works (many taken from the Jwalamukhi temple library at Nagarkot) were translated into Persian, and the music work 'Ragdarpan' is listed among them.

1. The astronomy work 'Dalail-i-Firozshahi' was prepared in the same way in his reign.
2. Alauddin Khilji, Akbar and Jahangir are not linked with this translation in that account, so among the options Firoz Shah Tughlaq fits.
3. (A later Persian treatise also called 'Rag Darpan' was written by Faqirullah in Aurangzeb's time — Aurangzeb is not among the options.)

Short trick: Firoz Tughlaq = Persian translations of Nagarkot Sanskrit texts (Dalail-i-Firozshahi, Ragdarpan).

Concept: R. C. Dutt wrote 'The Economic History of India' (2 vols, 1902–04): 'Under Early British Rule' and 'In the Victorian Age'.

1. Dadabhai Naoroji wrote 'Poverty and Un-British Rule in India' (drain theory).
2. Tilak – 'Gita Rahasya'; Gokhale – economist-politician, no such book.

Short trick: Dutt – Two volumes; Naoroji – Drain.

Concept: Part XV (Articles 324–329A) deals with Elections; Article 324 creates the Election Commission.

1. Part IV – Directive Principles.
2. Part VIII – Union Territories.
3. Part IX – Panchayats.

Short trick: Elections = Part 15 = Art 324.

Concept: The first RRB, Prathama Grameen Bank (Moradabad, UP, sponsored by Syndicate Bank), was set up on 2 October 1975.

1. RRBs came under an Ordinance of 1975, replaced by the RRB Act, 1976.
2. Do not confuse the Act year (1976) with the first bank (1975).

Short trick: Prathama – first – 2 Oct 1975 – Moradabad.

Concept: A 'zombie' firm is one whose operating profit cannot even cover its interest, i.e. interest coverage ratio (ICR = EBIT ÷ interest) < 1; fresh lending to such firms is called zombie lending.

1. The ICR < 1 test is the usual working definition used in Indian policy discussion (RBI and Economic Survey analyses of stressed corporate loans).
2. 'Verge of default' (A) and 'evergreening' (C) are related ideas but not the defining test; (D) describes a group, not the lending.

Short trick: Zombie = alive on paper, dead in earnings → ICR < 1.

Concept: Article 21-A (86th Amendment, 2002) – free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14 years.

1. Article 21 – life and personal liberty.
2. Articles 23–24 – right against exploitation.
3. Articles 29–30 – minority rights.

Short trick: 21 = life, 21-A = education (RTE Act 2009).