UPHESC Assistant Professor Geography 2025 PYQs

Concept: Aditya-L1 is ISRO's first space-based observatory to study the Sun.

1. Launched on 2 September 2023 by PSLV-C57 from Sriharikota.
2. It was inserted into a halo orbit around Lagrange point L1 (about 1.5 million km from Earth) on 6 January 2024.
3. October 2024 / June 2023 / November 2023 do not match the launch date.

Short trick: Chandrayaan-3 landed 23 Aug 2023 → Aditya-L1 left ten days later, 2 Sept 2023.

Concept: The 4th Asian Para Games were held in Hangzhou, China (22–28 October 2023).

1. Hangzhou also hosted the 19th Asian Games (Sept–Oct 2023).
2. India won a record 111 medals (29 gold) at these Para Games.
3. Guangzhou hosted the 1st Asian Para Games (2010); Beijing and Shanghai did not host the 2023 edition.

Short trick: 2023: Asian Games + Para Games – both in Hangzhou; India's Para medal tally = 111.

Concept: No SEBI Chairperson was appointed in 2024. Madhabi Puri Buch was appointed in 2022 (took charge 2 March 2022) and headed SEBI throughout 2024 until 28 Feb 2025; Tuhin Kanta Pandey was appointed in 2025.

1. D. R. Mehta (1995–2002), U. K. Sinha (2011–2017) and Ajay Tyagi (2017–2022) are earlier chairpersons – clearly wrong.
2. Madhabi Puri Buch held the post in 2024 but was not appointed in 2024, so option (B) fits only if 'appointed in 2024' is read as 'serving in 2024'.
3. As printed, no option was appointed in 2024 → the question is treated as a bonus. Remember: Buch – first woman SEBI chief (2022–2025).

Short trick: SEBI chiefs: Mehta → … → Sinha → Tyagi → Buch (2022) → Pandey (2025).

Concept: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) was launched in February 2024 by Tamil film actor Vijay (full name Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar).

1. Kamal Haasan founded Makkal Needhi Maiam (2018).
2. Rajinikanth announced a party but withdrew in 2020.
3. Ajith Kumar has not launched a party.

Short trick: TVK = 'Thalapathy' Vijay; MNM = Kamal Haasan.

Concept: The 19th G20 Summit was held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 18–19 November 2024.

1. 17th summit: Bali, Indonesia (2022); 18th: New Delhi, India (Sept 2023).
2. 20th summit: Johannesburg, South Africa (2025).
3. Jakarta and Moscow have never hosted a G20 leaders' summit (Russia hosted at St Petersburg, 2013).

Short trick: Troika order: Indonesia (17) → India (18) → Brazil (19) → South Africa (20).

Concept: Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on 2 October 2014, Gandhi Jayanti.

1. 28 August 2014 = Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
2. 22 January 2015 = Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Panipat).
3. Target: an Open-Defecation-Free India by 2 Oct 2019 (Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary).

Short trick: Cleanliness → Gandhi → 2 October.

Concept: Sociometry (measuring attraction/rejection in a group) was developed by Jacob L. Moreno.

1. Moreno introduced the sociometric test and the sociogram in 'Who Shall Survive?' (1934).
2. Reiss and Edwards are known for occupational-status scales; J. A. Davis for survey research – not sociometry.
3. Moreno is also the founder of psychodrama.

Short trick: Moreno = Sociogram + Psychodrama.

Concept: A statistical investigation runs: collection → organisation/processing → presentation → analysis → interpretation.

1. Raw (primary) data are collected first (I).
2. They are processed – edited, coded, classified, tabulated (II).
3. The organised data are presented in tables, diagrams and graphs (IV).
4. Only then are they analysed with averages, dispersion, correlation, etc. (III) – giving I, II, IV, III.

Short trick: C-O-P-A-I: Collect, Organise, Present, Analyse, Interpret.

Concept: Research ethics with human subjects rests on informed consent, voluntary participation, no harm, and anonymity/confidentiality.

1. Protecting participants' identity (anonymity) is a core ethical duty.
2. Statistical significance, large samples and advanced methods are matters of research quality/design, not ethics.

Short trick: Ethics = protect the person (consent, no harm, privacy); design = protect the result.

Concept: Discovery learning was proposed by Jerome Bruner (1961, 'The Act of Discovery').

1. Bruner: learners construct knowledge by exploring; also gave the spiral curriculum and enactive–iconic–symbolic modes.
2. Dewey stressed 'learning by doing' (pragmatism); Piaget gave cognitive-development stages; William James – functionalism in psychology.

Short trick: Bruner = Discovery + Spiral curriculum.

Concept: Among the options, only NDLI is a digital-learning resource for higher education promoted through UGC/the Ministry of Education.

1. NDLI (developed by IIT Kharagpur under NMEICT) is a single-window portal of e-books, theses and lectures for learners.
2. Swachh Bharat is a sanitation campaign; Digital India is a whole-of-government programme, not a UGC initiative.
3. IGNOU is a university, not an initiative.

Short trick: Digital library for learners → NDLI (with SWAYAM, e-PG Pathshala, Shodhganga).

Concept: Convert by repeated division by 2, reading remainders bottom-up.

1. 10 ÷ 2 = 5 r 0; 5 ÷ 2 = 2 r 1; 2 ÷ 2 = 1 r 0; 1 ÷ 2 = 0 r 1.
2. Reading upward: 1010.
3. Check: 8 + 2 = 10. (0110 = 6, 1001 = 9, 1100 = 12.)

Short trick: Place values 8-4-2-1: 10 = 8 + 2 → 1 0 1 0.

Concept: Memory units go up in steps of 1024 (2¹⁰).

1. 1 KB = 1024 bytes; 1 MB = 1024 KB.
2. 1 GB = 1024 MB; 1 TB = 1024 GB.
3. So 1024 kilobytes = 1 MB and 1024 gigabytes = 1 TB.

Short trick: B → KB → MB → GB → TB, each ×1024.

Concept: Calculations on data (formulas, functions, charts) are done in spreadsheet software – MS Excel.

1. MS Access = database management.
2. Google Docs = word processing.
3. MS PowerPoint = presentations.

Short trick: Excel = cells + formulas → calculation.

Concept: An input device sends data into the computer; an output device presents data from it.

1. Bar code reader scans the code and feeds it to the computer – input.
2. Monitor and projector display output.
3. A Braille reader/display shows computer text as raised dots for the visually impaired – output.

Short trick: Reader that SCANS into the PC = input; screen/projector/Braille display = output.

Concept: Phenology studies the timing of periodic life-cycle events (flowering, leaf fall, migration) in relation to climate.

1. Flowering, leaf flush and fruiting dates track temperature and day length – this is phenology.
2. Ecology = organism–environment interactions in general; climatology = study of climate; forestry = managing forests.

Short trick: Pheno = 'appear' – WHEN things appear each season.

Concept: The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2000, in force 2003) under the CBD regulates the safe transboundary movement of living modified organisms (LMOs).

1. Wetlands → Ramsar Convention (1971).
2. Ozone layer → Vienna Convention (1985) and Montreal Protocol (1987).
3. Heritage sites → UNESCO World Heritage Convention (1972).

Short trick: Cartagena = GMO biosafety; Nagoya = access & benefit sharing (both under CBD).

Concept: Carbon trading (cap-and-trade) lets firms buy and sell permits/credits to emit CO₂.

1. A cap is set; firms emitting less can sell surplus permits to those emitting more (Kyoto Protocol mechanism; India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023).
2. Carbon sequestration = capturing and storing CO₂; carbon sink = forest/ocean that absorbs CO₂.
3. Carbon space = the share of the remaining carbon budget – not a market.

Short trick: Trading = buying & selling → market.

Concept: Dry air by volume: N₂ ≈ 78.08%, O₂ ≈ 20.95%, Ar ≈ 0.93%, CO₂ ≈ 0.04%.

1. Nitrogen (II) > Oxygen (III) > Argon (IV) > Carbon dioxide (I).
2. So the order is II, III, IV, I.

Short trick: 78 – 21 – 0.93 – 0.04: N, O, Ar, CO₂.

Concept: The farther a planet is from the Sun, the longer its orbital period (Kepler's third law, T² ∝ a³).

1. Uranus ≈ 84 years, Saturn ≈ 29.5 years, Jupiter ≈ 11.9 years, Mars ≈ 1.88 years.
2. Descending: Uranus (4), Saturn (1), Jupiter (3), Mars (2) → 4, 1, 3, 2.

Short trick: Distance order outward = Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus; reverse it for 'descending period'.