UPHESC Assistant Professor Ancient History 2025 PYQs

Concept: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore flew to the ISS on Boeing Starliner's first crewed test flight (June 2024).

1. Starliner developed thruster problems and returned to Earth empty; their 8-day mission stretched to about 9 months.
2. Both came back on SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon (with Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov), splashing down off Florida on 18–19 March 2025.
3. Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen are Artemis II crew; John Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth (1962).

Short trick: Starliner duo = "Suni & Butch".

Concept: Madhav National Park is in Shivpuri district (Gwalior–Chambal region), Madhya Pradesh.

1. It was notified as India's 58th Tiger Reserve in March 2025.
2. It became Madhya Pradesh's 9th tiger reserve – MP is the "Tiger State" with the largest tiger population.
3. Ratapani (MP) was the 57th, notified in December 2024.

Short trick: 57th and 58th tiger reserves both in MP: Ratapani → Madhav (Shivpuri).

Concept: Five persons were named for Bharat Ratna in 2024 – the most in a single year.

1. Karpoori Thakur (posthumous), L. K. Advani, P. V. Narasimha Rao (posthumous), Chaudhary Charan Singh (posthumous) and M. S. Swaminathan (posthumous).
2. So a, b and c are correct.
3. Harmanpreet Singh is a hockey player (Khel Ratna 2024), not a Bharat Ratna awardee.

Short trick: 2024 Bharat Ratna "KALPS": Karpoori, Advani, (Narasimha) Rao, Charan Singh, Swaminathan.

Concept: Mhadei WLS lies in Sattari taluka, North Goa, in the Western Ghats.

1. It is named after the Mhadei (Mandovi) river; the Mhadei water dispute is between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
2. In 2023 the Bombay High Court (Goa bench) directed Goa to notify the Mhadei area as a tiger reserve.
3. None of the other states has a sanctuary of this name.

Short trick: Mhadei = Mandovi = Goa's lifeline river.

Concept: Enamel is the hardest substance in the human body; about 96% of it is mineral.

1. The mineral is hydroxyapatite, ${\mathrm{Ca}}_{10}({\mathrm{PO}}_4{)}_6(\mathrm{OH}{)}_2$ – a crystalline calcium phosphate.
2. Calcium carbonate forms shells/egg shells; calcium oxalate forms most kidney stones.
3. Fluoride converts hydroxyapatite to the more acid-resistant fluorapatite – hence fluoride toothpaste.

Short trick: Teeth & bones = calcium PHOSPHATE; kidney stone = calcium OXALATE.

Concept: NEP 2020 replaces 10+2 with a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure.

1. Foundational (5 yrs): 3 years pre-school/Anganwadi + Classes 1–2.
2. Preparatory (3 yrs): Classes 3–5.
3. Middle (3 yrs): Classes 6–8.
4. Secondary (4 yrs): Classes 9–12.

Short trick: 5-3-3-4 → ends at Class 2, 5, 8, 12.

Concept: Sri Aurobindo (with the Mother) gave "Integral Education" – development of the whole being.

1. Its five aspects: physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual education.
2. Swami Dayanand stressed Vedic/Gurukul education (DAV movement by his followers); Vivekananda defined education as "manifestation of the perfection already in man".

Short trick: Integral Yoga → Integral Education → Aurobindo (Puducherry ashram).

Concept: NEP 2020 Part II (Higher Education) runs from Chapter 9 to 19; Part III (Other Key Areas) from Chapter 20 to 23.

1. Ch 15 – Teacher Education → a-IV.
2. Ch 20 – Professional Education → c-II.
3. Ch 21 – Adult Education and Lifelong Learning → d-III.
4. Ch 23 – Technology Use and Integration → b-I (Ch 24 is Online & Digital Education).

Short trick: Part III order: 20 Professional, 21 Adult, 22 Languages/Arts, 23 Technology, 24 Online.

Concept: Chapter 1 of NEP 2020 is "Early Childhood Care and Education: The Foundation of Learning".

1. It covers ages 3–8 (the foundational stage), since over 85% of brain development occurs before age 6.
2. NCERT prepared the curricular framework for ECCE; universal access is targeted by 2030.

Short trick: ECCE = Early Childhood Care & Education – "Care" comes first.

Concept: NAAC (est. 1994, Bengaluru) is an autonomous body of the UGC that assesses and accredits higher education institutions.

1. It grades colleges/universities on criteria such as curriculum, teaching-learning, research, infrastructure and governance.
2. Entrance exams are conducted by NTA; scholarships by ministries/UGC; fees by state regulators.

Short trick: NAAC = the "quality grade" giver (A++, A+, A…).

Concept: PURA = Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas, proposed by Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

1. It rests on four connectivities: physical, electronic, knowledge and economic.
2. It was outlined in his book "Target 3 Billion"; the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (2016) carries the idea forward.

Short trick: PURA = Kalam's "cities in villages".

Concept: Locate each park.

1. Keoladeo (Bharatpur) – Rajasthan → a-IV.
2. Indravati (Bijapur) – Chhattisgarh → b-III.
3. Manas – Assam (on the Bhutan border) → c-I.
4. Pin Valley (Spiti, cold desert) – Himachal Pradesh → d-II.

Short trick: Only option B has c-I and d-II together.

Concept: Rio+20 = UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), Rio de Janeiro, June 2012 – 20 years after the 1992 Earth Summit.

1. Its outcome document "The Future We Want" launched the process that produced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
2. Its themes were the green economy and an institutional framework for sustainable development.

Short trick: Rio 1992 (Earth Summit) + 20 = 2012 → SDGs.

Concept: ANPR = Automatic Number Plate Recognition.

1. Cameras capture vehicle images and optical character recognition (OCR) reads the registration plate.
2. Used for traffic e-challans, toll collection (FASTag-free tolling trials), parking and security.

Short trick: ANPR reads the NUMBER plate automatically.

Concept: In the standard textbook view, the idea of 'sustainable development' was first put forward internationally in the World Conservation Strategy (1980) of IUCN, UNEP and WWF.

1. 1972 (Stockholm Conference) put the environment on the global agenda but did not frame sustainable development as a concept.
2. 1987 – the Brundtland Report 'Our Common Future' popularised it with the classic definition: development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. This defined an existing idea; it did not originate it.
3. So among the options the year of origin is 1980; 2007 is irrelevant.

Short trick: 1972 Stockholm (environment) → 1980 WCS (idea put forward) → 1987 Brundtland (definition) → 1992 Rio.

Concept: Greenhouse gases absorb and re-emit infrared radiation; the Kyoto basket is ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$, ${\mathrm{CH}}_4$, ${\mathrm{N}}_2\mathrm{O}$, HFCs, PFCs and ${\mathrm{SF}}_6$.

1. Methane is a direct GHG, about 28 times as potent as ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ over 100 years.
2. Helium and hydrogen do not absorb infrared appreciably; carbon monoxide is only an indirect influence, not a recognised GHG.

Short trick: Kyoto six: CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, HFC, PFC, SF₆.

Concept: The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize went to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organisation of atomic-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1. Cited for efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
2. Mother Teresa won in 1979, Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991, Malala Yousafzai in 2014 (with Kailash Satyarthi).

Short trick: 2024 Peace = Hibakusha = Nihon Hidankyo.

Concept: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Congress President in 1946, led the Congress talks with the Cabinet Mission and wholeheartedly backed its plan for a united India with a weak Centre and provincial groupings.

1. In "India Wins Freedom" he called the plan the best solution and blamed Nehru's press statement of July 1946 (Congress "not bound" by the groupings) for its collapse.
2. Gandhi, Nehru and Patel accepted it only with reservations, especially on grouping of provinces.

Short trick: Azad = negotiator + full supporter of the Cabinet Mission.

Concept: The Kyoto Protocol (adopted 1997 under UNFCCC, in force 16 Feb 2005) set binding greenhouse-gas reduction targets for developed (Annex I) countries.

1. First commitment period 2008–12: about 5% average cut below 1990 levels.
2. Carbon trading, CDM and Joint Implementation were only mechanisms to achieve this goal, not the purpose itself.

Short trick: Kyoto = binding GHG cuts; Montreal = ozone.

Concept: Mir Nisar Ali is Titu Mir, leader of the Barasat (Wahabi-influenced peasant) uprising in Bengal, killed in 1831 at his bamboo fort (Narkelberia).

1. Rani Laxmibai led at Jhansi/Gwalior, Mangal Pandey fired the first shots at Barrackpore (29 March 1857), Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed leader at Delhi.
2. So only a, b, c are leaders of 1857; every option with d is wrong.

Short trick: Titu Mir (Mir Nisar Ali) = 1831, not 1857.