UPHESC Assistant Professor Music Vocal 2025, 2026 PYQs

Concept: In governance, big data analytics is used for public-service delivery and policy: health surveillance, security and revenue administration.

1. a – disease surveillance (e.g., IDSP, CoWIN/Arogya Setu data) is a key governance use.
2. c – analysing large log/traffic data to detect threats strengthens cyber security (CERT-In).
3. d – tax departments use analytics (e.g., Project Insight, GST network) to detect evasion and raise revenue.
4. b – forecasting election results is done by media/pollsters, not a function of governance.

Short trick: Governance = Health + Security + Revenue; elections forecasting is politics/media.

Concept: Bloom's (1956) cognitive domain has six levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation.

1. Comprehension, Application and Analysis are all cognitive levels.
2. "Organization" belongs to the affective domain (Krathwohl): Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organization, Characterization.

Short trick: Cognitive: K-C-A-A-S-E; Affective: R-R-V-O-C – "Organization" is affective.

Concept: The standard components of an ICT system are hardware, software, data/information, communication (network), procedures and people.

1. Hardware, software and information are core components of every ICT system.
2. A biometric sensor is only a particular input device – optional, not a basic component of an ICT system.

Short trick: ICT components: H-S-D-P-P-N (Hardware, Software, Data, People, Procedures, Network).

Concept: ROM (Read Only Memory; mask ROM) has its contents written by the manufacturer during fabrication and cannot be changed by the user.

1. RAM is volatile read–write memory, empty until used.
2. PROM is blank when made and is programmed once later by the user (PROM programmer).
3. EPROM can be erased by UV light and reprogrammed.

Short trick: Factory-written = ROM; user-written once = PROM; erasable = EPROM/EEPROM.

Concept: Gemini (Google), Claude (Anthropic) and ChatGPT (OpenAI) are generative-AI chatbots based on large language models.

1. Google Play Store is an app distribution marketplace for Android – a digital store, not an AI tool.

Short trick: Chatbots that talk back = AI; a store that sells apps = not AI.

Concept: Acid rain (pH below 5.6, from SO₂ and NOₓ) falls on land and acidifies the soil, leaching nutrients (Ca, Mg) and releasing toxic aluminium/heavy metals.

1. Ozone, aerosols and smog are air pollutants acting in the atmosphere.
2. Only acid rain directly deposits pollutants into soil and water bodies.

Short trick: Acid rain = air pollution that ends as soil + water pollution.

Concept: The limbic system is a group of brain structures (hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, cingulate gyrus, thalamic nuclei) of the forebrain.

1. It controls emotions, motivation, memory formation and behaviour like hunger, thirst and sexual drive.
2. Being part of the brain, it belongs to the (central) nervous system.

Short trick: Limbic = "emotional brain" → nervous system.

Concept: Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention (1971); India had 85 sites by December 2024.

1. a. Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary (Sant Kabir Nagar, UP) – Ramsar site since 2021.
2. b. Ramgarh Lake (Gorakhpur) – not a Ramsar site.
3. c. Sundarban Wetland (West Bengal) – Ramsar site since 2019, India's largest.
4. d. Sultanpur National Park (Gurugram, Haryana) – Ramsar site since 2021.
5. So the correct set is a, c and d. Option (D) "a and c only" leaves out d, and the other options include b, so no option is correct as printed.

Short trick: Haryana's two Ramsar sites: Sultanpur and Bhindawas (both 2021).

Concept: Barren Island, India's (and South Asia's) only active volcano, lies in the Andaman Sea about 135 km north-east of Port Blair, in the Andaman group.

1. Narcondam, a dormant volcano, is also in the Andaman group.
2. Nicobar is south of the 10° Channel; Lakshadweep and Minicoy are coral islands in the Arabian Sea with no volcano.

Short trick: Barren = active volcano; Narcondam = dormant – both Andaman.

Concept: The Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) was set up on 3 January 1954 under Dr. Homi J. Bhabha.

1. 1948 – Atomic Energy Commission formed; 1954 – AEET and Department of Atomic Energy (August).
2. In 1967 AEET was renamed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) after Bhabha's death (1966).

Short trick: AEC 1948 → AEET/DAE 1954 → BARC 1967.

Concept: Match each wetland to its actual state.

1. Sakhya Sagar (Shivpuri) – Madhya Pradesh (2022) ✔.
2. Sirpur Wetland (Indore) – Madhya Pradesh, not Tripura ✘.
3. Pala Wetland (Saiha) – Mizoram, not Meghalaya ✘.
4. Sur Sarovar / Keetham Lake (Agra) – Uttar Pradesh (2020) ✔ → 1 and 4.

Short trick: Indore has two Ramsar sites – Sirpur and Yashwant Sagar; Mizoram's only one is Pala.

Concept: The Aihole inscription (634 CE) of Chalukya king Pulakeshin II was composed by the Jain poet Ravikirti.

1. In it Ravikirti claims to have attained the fame of Kalidasa and Bharavi – the earliest dated mention of both poets.
2. Prayag Prashasti (Harishena) praises Samudragupta; Bhitari pillar is of Skandagupta; Ayodhya inscription is of Dhanadeva (Shunga).

Short trick: Aihole → Ravikirti → "Kalidasa-Bharavi"; also records Pulakeshin II defeating Harsha.

Concept: During the Zulu (Bambatha) Rebellion of 1906 in Natal, Gandhi raised an Indian Stretcher-Bearer Corps.

1. For the duration of service he was given the temporary rank of Sergeant Major (his autobiography, Part IV).
2. He and his men mostly nursed wounded Zulus, an experience that pushed him towards brahmacharya and Satyagraha.
3. In the Boer War (1899) he had led the Indian Ambulance Corps.

Short trick: Boer War 1899 – Ambulance Corps; Zulu Revolt 1906 – Sergeant Major.

Concept: Babur wrote his memoirs, Tuzuk-i-Baburi (Baburnama), in his mother tongue Chagatai Turkish.

1. It was translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan in 1589 at Akbar's order.
2. English translations: Leyden & Erskine (1826), A. S. Beveridge (1922).

Short trick: Babur – Turki original; Rahim – Persian translation.

Concept: Public Interest Litigation originated in the USA in the 1960s (civil-rights and legal-aid movements), where it was used to represent unrepresented interests.

1. In India it was developed in the late 1970s–80s by Justices P. N. Bhagwati and V. R. Krishna Iyer by relaxing locus standi.
2. Landmark Indian cases: Hussainara Khatoon (1979), S. P. Gupta (1981).

Short trick: PIL – born in the USA, popularised in India by Bhagwati & Krishna Iyer.

Concept: The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on 9 December 1946 in the Constitution Hall (Central Hall), New Delhi.

1. Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha was the temporary (oldest) President; Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected President on 11 December 1946.
2. Objectives Resolution moved by Nehru on 13 December 1946; Constitution adopted on 26 November 1949.

Short trick: 9-12-1946 first sitting → 26-11-1949 adoption → 26-1-1950 commencement.

Concept: Article 326: elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies shall be on the basis of adult suffrage.

1. Voting age reduced from 21 to 18 years by the 61st Amendment Act, 1988.
2. Art. 324 – Election Commission; Art. 325 – single general electoral roll, no exclusion on religion, race, caste or sex; Art. 327 – Parliament's power to make election laws.

Short trick: 324 Commission, 325 one roll, 326 adult vote, 327 Parliament's law.

Concept: As per FAO world production statistics available when the paper was set, China was the largest producer of rice (paddy) and India the second.

1. India is, however, the largest exporter of rice (about 40% of world trade).
2. Note for later readers: USDA estimates for 2024-25 placed India's milled-rice output (~150 Mt) above China's (~145 Mt), so later sources call India No. 1.

Short trick: Rice: China 1st producer (FAO), India 2nd producer but No. 1 exporter.

Concept: The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme (2020–21) gives incentives on incremental sales of goods made in India in 14 key sectors.

1. Sectors include large-scale electronics/mobile manufacturing, automobiles & auto components, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, telecom, food processing, textiles, solar modules, ACC batteries, specialty steel, drones, white goods, IT hardware.
2. All three given sectors are covered, so "None of the above".

Short trick: PLI started with mobiles, medical devices and pharma (2020), then expanded to 14 sectors.

Concept: Post-1947 land reforms aimed at social justice and higher productivity by giving land to the tiller.

1. Measures: abolition of zamindari/intermediaries, tenancy reforms, land ceiling and redistribution of surplus land to the landless, consolidation of holdings.
2. Real estate, agro-industries or privatisation were never the primary aim.

Short trick: "Land to the tiller" – abolish zamindari, fix ceiling, redistribute surplus.