UPHESC Assistant Professor Botany 2025 PYQs

Concept: Check each statement.

1. a – correct: the Ganga basin is India's largest (about a quarter of the country's area).
2. b – correct: the Bhagirathi rises at Gaumukh (Gangotri glacier) in Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand.
3. c – wrong: Satluj and Jhelum belong to the Indus system.
4. d – correct: the Son is the main right-bank tributary (others: Yamuna, Tons… ).

Short trick: Punjab rivers (Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Satluj) → Indus; drop c.

Concept: The Khyber Pass, in the Spin Ghar (Safed Koh) range, is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

1. It links Peshawar (Pakistan) with Jalalabad/Kabul (Afghanistan) via Torkham border.
2. It was the historic invasion and trade route into the Indian subcontinent.

Short trick: Khyber → Khyber Pakhtunkhwa → Pakistan.

Concept: The Coriolis effect is the apparent deflection of moving objects caused by the Earth's rotation.

1. Deflection is to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern; it is zero at the equator and maximum at the poles.
2. Pressure differences drive winds, and the Coriolis effect deflects them; ocean currents are deflected by it, not its cause; the Moon causes tides.

Short trick: Rotation → Coriolis; Moon → tides.

Concept: Kirsty Coventry, a Zimbabwean former swimmer, was elected IOC President on 20 March 2025 (Costa Navarino, Greece).

1. She is the 10th IOC President, the first woman and the first African; she succeeded Thomas Bach (Germany) in June 2025.
2. She won 7 Olympic medals, including 200 m backstroke gold in 2004 and 2008, and was Zimbabwe's sports minister.

Short trick: First woman + first African IOC chief = Coventry of Zimbabwe.

Concept: NPP 2000 has immediate (unmet contraception needs), medium-term (TFR to replacement level 2.1 by 2010) and long-term objectives.

1. Long-term objective: a stable population by 2045, consistent with economic growth and environment protection → 1 correct.
2. National socio-demographic goals include reducing MMR to below 100 per 100,000 live births (and IMR below 30 per 1000) → 2 correct.

Short trick: NPP 2000: TFR 2.1 by 2010, stable population by 2045, MMR < 100, IMR < 30.

Concept: The capital market deals in long-term funds – equity and debt; the best-known capital markets are the stock market and the bond markets.

1. Stock (share) market → equity capital; bond market → long-term debt capital.
2. A depository account (with NSDL/CDSL) only holds securities in electronic (demat) form – it is a facility, not a market.

Short trick: Capital market = shares + bonds; demat = locker, not market.

Concept: FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) was founded in 1927 on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by G. D. Birla and Purshottamdas Thakurdas.

1. It is India's oldest and largest apex business organisation, headquartered in New Delhi.
2. Gandhi only advised; J. R. D. Tata was a co-author of the 1944 Bombay Plan with them, not a FICCI founder.

Short trick: FICCI 1927 = Birla + Thakurdas (Gandhi's advice).

Concept: Right to Equality = Articles 14–18 of the Constitution (the English List-II gives Articles; the Hindi version prints 'अनुसूची' (Schedule), but the numbers 14–17 can only be Articles – the Constitution has just 12 Schedules).

1. Art 14 – equality before law and equal protection of laws → a-I.
2. Art 15 – no discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth → b-II.
3. Art 16 – equality of opportunity in public employment → c-III.
4. Art 17 – abolition of untouchability → d-IV (Art 18 – abolition of titles).

Short trick: The rights follow the article order 14-15-16-17 → straight I-II-III-IV.

Concept: Article 81 caps the Lok Sabha at 530 members from the States + 20 from the Union Territories = 550.

1. Earlier, Article 331 allowed the President to nominate 2 Anglo-Indians, which made the maximum 552.
2. The 104th Amendment (2019, effective 25 Jan 2020) ended Anglo-Indian nomination, so the maximum now fixed by the Constitution is 550.
3. 545 was the actual strength (543 elected + 2 nominated) up to the 16th Lok Sabha; 543 elected seats today.

Short trick: Max now 530 + 20 = 550 (552 only before 2020).

Concept: Recall each Article.

1. Art 50 (DPSP) – separation of judiciary from executive → a-II.
2. Art 143 – President may seek the Supreme Court's advisory opinion → b-IV.
3. Art 61 – procedure for impeachment of the President → c-I.
4. Art 320 – functions of Public Service Commissions → d-III.

Short trick: Only option A has a-II and b-IV.

Concept: A tissue-culture run goes: clean the explant → place it on the medium → grow it → acclimatise the plantlets.

1. Sterilization of the explant (e.g. 0.1% HgCl₂/NaOCl, 70% ethanol) removes surface microbes.
2. Inoculation = transferring the sterile explant onto the nutrient medium in a laminar air-flow hood.
3. Incubation in the culture room (≈25 °C, 16 h light) for callus/shoot growth.
4. Hardening (acclimatisation) of plantlets before transfer to the field – always the last step.

Short trick: S-I-I-H: Sterilize → Inoculate → Incubate → Harden.

Concept: In a xerarch (lithosere) succession on bare rock, the seral stages follow increasing soil depth and plant size.

1. Crustose → foliose lichens are pioneers; they secrete acids and start soil formation.
2. Mosses colonise the thin soil left by lichens.
3. Herbs, then shrubs, appear as soil deepens.
4. Trees form the climax forest community.

Short trick: Lichen → Moss → Herb/Shrub → Tree: small to big.

Concept: Cotton (Gossypium, Malvaceae) is a surface fibre crop – the lint is made of seed hairs.

1. Each cotton fibre is a single, very long epidermal cell of the seed coat (testa).
2. So cotton is a fibre-yielding plant precisely because these seed hairs form the fibre (lint) – (R) explains (A).
3. Contrast: jute/flax are bast (phloem) fibres; coir is a fruit (mesocarp) fibre.

Short trick: Cotton = seed hair; Jute = bast; Coir = fruit.

Concept: The internationally accepted herbarium sheet is about 11½ × 16½ inches, i.e. roughly 29 × 41–42 cm.

1. 11.5 in ≈ 29 cm and 16.5 in ≈ 42 cm.
2. Option (A) 28.75 × 41.25 cm is the size quoted in Indian texts as the standard.
3. Other options have a wrong width (25, 18.75 cm) or a wrong length (35 cm).

Short trick: Herbarium sheet ≈ 29 × 41 cm (11½ × 16½ inch).

Concept: Phytochrome controls germination of light-sensitive (photoblastic) seeds such as lettuce.

1. Red light (≈660 nm) converts P_r into active P_fr → germination is promoted.
2. Far-red/infra-red (≈730 nm) converts P_fr back to P_r → germination inhibited.
3. In R/FR alternations the last flash decides the response (Borthwick & Hendricks).

Short trick: Red = Ready to germinate; Far-red = Forbid.

Concept: Seres are named after the substratum on which succession begins.

1. Psammosere – on sand (Gk. psammos = sand), e.g. coastal sand dunes.
2. Lithosere – on bare rock; Halosere – in saline soil/water; Hydrosere – in water.
3. Xerosere is the general term for any succession in a dry habitat (lithosere and psammosere are its kinds), so the specific name for sand dunes is psammosere.

Short trick: Psammo = sand, Litho = rock, Halo = salt, Hydro = water.

Concept: Invasive alien species are introduced plants that spread aggressively and harm native biodiversity.

1. Prosopis juliflora (vilayati babool, from Mexico) – invasive in arid zones.
2. Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth, 'terror of Bengal', from S. America) – chokes water bodies.
3. Lantana camara (from tropical America) – invades forests.
4. Cynodon dactylon (doob grass) is a common, culturally used grass, not listed among India's invasive aliens.

Short trick: Doob is 'desi' – used in puja, not an invader.

Concept: Water potential (Ψ_w) = Ψ_s + Ψ_p, measured relative to pure water at atmospheric pressure.

1. By definition pure water at standard conditions has Ψ_w = 0 (the maximum value).
2. Adding solutes lowers it, so every solution has a negative Ψ_w.
3. Water always moves from higher (less negative) to lower (more negative) Ψ_w.

Short trick: Pure water = zero; everything else is below zero.

Concept: Coefficient of variation (CV) = (SD ÷ mean) × 100 – a relative measure of dispersion.

1. Because it is unit-free, CV compares the relative variability of data sets with different units or means (e.g. plant height vs leaf number).
2. Mean deviation is an absolute measure of dispersion.
3. Mode/median and 'most frequent occurrence' are measures of central tendency, not variability.

Short trick: CV = SD/Mean × 100 → relative spread.

Concept: Ethylene (C₂H₄) is the gaseous 'ripening hormone'.

1. In climacteric fruits (banana, mango, tomato) an ethylene burst triggers the respiratory climacteric, softening, colour and aroma changes.
2. Ethephon releases ethylene and is used commercially to ripen fruits.
3. ABA – dormancy/stomatal closure; GA – stem elongation, seed germination; cytokinins – cell division, delay senescence.

Short trick: Ethylene = Eats up (ripens) fruit; one bad apple spoils the basket.