UPHESC Assistant Professor Zoology 2025 PYQs

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.

Concept: The Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase is a P-type primary active transporter that uses one ATP per cycle.

1. It pumps 3 Na⁺ OUT of the cell and 2 K⁺ IN.
2. This keeps Na⁺ high outside and K⁺ high inside and makes the pump electrogenic (net one + charge out).
3. Options A–C reverse the direction or the numbers (and K is a cation, not K^–).

Short trick: "3 Out, 2 In" – Sodium leaves, Potassium enters (SO-PI).

Concept: The nucleosome core particle is a histone octamer – two copies each of H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 – wrapped by ~146–147 bp DNA (1.65 turns).

1. H3–H4 form a tetramer; two H2A–H2B dimers join it.
2. H1 is the linker histone, outside the core (seals DNA entry/exit), so B and D are wrong.
3. There is no separate "H2" histone in the core, so A is wrong.

Short trick: Core = "2A-2B-3-4, two of each = 8"; H1 sits outside.

Concept: India's first biosphere reserve was the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (1986), spread over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

1. Nanda Devi – 1988.
2. Nokrek – 1988.
3. Gulf of Mannar – 1989.

Short trick: "N-N-N-G": Nilgiri (86) → Nanda Devi, Nokrek (88) → Gulf of Mannar (89).

Concept: Among animals, bats (order Chiroptera) are the classic producers of ultrasonic sound; Pteropus (flying fox) is the only bat in the list.

1. Ultrasonic echolocation is best developed in insect-eating microbats; fruit bats such as Pteropus rely mostly on vision and smell, but textbooks list 'bats (Pteropus)' as the ultrasound producer.
2. Gorilla, bear and emu make only audible sounds (the emu's booming is low-frequency).
3. So (D) is the only option that fits.

Short trick: Ultrasound in animals → think "bats & dolphins"; Pteropus = flying fox (bat).

Concept: Positive interactions: at least one partner gains and none is harmed (+,+ or +,0).

1. Mutualism (+,+, obligatory), protocooperation (+,+, non-obligatory), commensalism (+,0) – all positive.
2. Amensalism (–,0): one species is inhibited, the other unaffected (e.g. Penicillium antibiotic on bacteria) – a negative interaction.

Short trick: "A-mensalism = A-gainst" – the only one with a minus sign.

Concept: The pygmy hog (Porcula salvania), the world's smallest wild pig, survives only in a few grasslands of Assam (Manas). It was assessed Critically Endangered by IUCN for many years; after captive breeding and reintroduction its latest IUCN assessment is Endangered, but it is still the most threatened of the four and the standard textbook answer.

1. Red panda – Endangered.
2. Blackbuck – Least Concern (IUCN), though Schedule I in India.
3. Leopard – Vulnerable.

Short trick: "Pygmy = tiny numbers" – smallest pig, highest threat category among these.

Concept: Parametric tests assume a distribution (usually normal) and use parameters such as mean and variance.

1. ANOVA (F-test) compares means of 3+ groups – parametric.
2. Kruskal-Wallis (non-parametric ANOVA), Mann-Whitney U (non-parametric t-test) and Spearman's rank correlation work on ranks – non-parametric.

Short trick: If the test uses "ranks" or a person's name pair (Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, Spearman) → non-parametric; t, F (ANOVA), Pearson r → parametric.

Concept: X-rays are ionizing radiation; they break the sugar-phosphate backbone (single- and double-strand breaks).

1. Mis-repair of breaks gives deletions and chromosomal aberrations (deletions, translocations, inversions) – the typical X-ray lesion.
2. Transitions/transversions (base substitutions) are typical of chemical mutagens (base analogues, alkylating agents, nitrous acid).
3. UV, by contrast, causes thymine dimers.

Short trick: "X-ray = X out (break & delete)"; UV = dimers; chemicals = substitutions.

Concept: Under ICZN/ICN, scientific names must be in Latin or Latinised form – not in any language.

1. First word = genus (capital initial), second = specific epithet (small letter) – a rule.
2. Printed names are italicised; handwritten names are underlined (separately for genus and species) – rules.
3. So "names can be written in any language" is contrary to the rules.

Short trick: Scientific names are "Latin-only" – one universal language for one universal name.

Concept: Blind-sac plan = gut with a single opening (mouth also acts as anus) – seen in Cnidaria, Ctenophora and Platyhelminthes.

1. A – false: flatworms are at organ-system level but have a blind-sac (not tube-within-tube) plan.
2. B – false: flatworms are blind-sac yet triploblastic.
3. C – true: radially symmetrical cnidarians and ctenophores have a blind-sac gastrovascular cavity.
4. D – reversed: all vertebrates are chordates, not all chordates are vertebrates.

Short trick: Radial (Cnidaria, Ctenophora) → one opening → blind sac.