UPHESC Assistant Professor Agronomy PYQs

Concept: C.R. Das, defeated on council-entry at the Gaya Congress (1922), resigned the presidency and, with Motilal Nehru, formed the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party (1923).

1. Standard history texts attribute to him, in defence of breaking with the Congress majority, the line that the freedom of Indians is something more sacred than the Congress itself.
2. Tilak had died in 1920; Hakim Ajmal Khan and V. Patel were not the leaders of that split.

Short trick: Gaya 1922 → C.R. Das: 'freedom above Congress' → Swaraj Party.

Concept: Standard history texts attribute to Lord Birkenhead, Secretary of State for India (1924–28), the assessment that the Swaraj Party was the most highly organised political party in India.

1. The Swarajists won heavily in the 1923 elections and defeated Government measures in the Central Assembly.
2. C.R. Das was its founder, so his praise would not be an outside assessment; Irwin came as Viceroy only in 1926.

Short trick: Birkenhead – the British minister who admitted the Swarajists' organisation (and later set up the Simon Commission).

Concept: Basalt is an extrusive igneous rock formed from cooled lava.

1. Marble – from limestone; Graphite – from coal; Schist – from shale/mudstone: all metamorphic.
2. Deccan Traps are made of basalt.

Short trick: Basalt = lava = igneous.

Concept: Heavy rainfall adds fresh water and dilutes sea water, lowering salinity (e.g. equatorial belt lower than tropics).

1. High evaporation and strong winds increase salinity.
2. Average ocean salinity ≈ 35‰.

Short trick: Rain/rivers/ice-melt ↓ salinity; evaporation ↑ salinity.

Concept: The Aravallis are among the oldest fold mountains of the world, formed in the Pre-Cambrian era (Proterozoic).

1. Alpine orogeny – Himalaya, Alps (youngest).
2. Caledonian and Hercynian – Palaeozoic (e.g. Appalachians, Urals).

Short trick: Aravalli = oldest; Himalaya = youngest (Alpine).

Concept: Art. 12 defines 'State' for Part III: Government and Parliament of India, Government and Legislature of each State, and all local or other authorities within India or under its control.

1. All three listed items are expressly included.
2. Hence 'All of the above'.

Short trick: Art. 12 = who is bound by Fundamental Rights.

Concept: Art. 48A (added by 42nd Amendment, 1976): State shall protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wildlife.

1. Free education – Art. 45 / 21A; Public health – Art. 47.
2. International peace – Art. 51.

Short trick: 48A = environment (DPSP); 51A(g) = environment (citizen's duty).

Concept: Art. 112 – Annual Financial Statement (Budget) laid before both Houses.

1. Art. 110 – definition of Money Bill.
2. Art. 115 – supplementary grants; Art. 118 – rules of procedure.

Short trick: 112 = Budget; 202 = State budget.

Concept: Art. 20(1): no person shall be convicted except for violation of a law in force at the time of the act, nor given a greater penalty than then prescribed.

1. 20(2) – double jeopardy; 20(3) – self-incrimination.
2. 19(1)(a) – speech; 21A – education; 16(4A) – reservation in promotion.

Short trick: Art. 20 = 3 protections: ex-post facto, double jeopardy, self-incrimination.

Concept: Bombay Plan (1944) – by eight industrialists including J.R.D. Tata, G.D. Birla, Purushottamdas Thakurdas.

1. People's Plan (1945) – M.N. Roy.
2. Gandhian Plan (1944) – S.N. Agarwal; Sarvodaya Plan (1950) – J.P. Narayan.

Short trick: Industrialists of Bombay → Bombay Plan.