Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: The 7th session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) was held at Nairobi, Kenya, on 8–12 December 2025.

1. India delivered its National Statement at UNEA-7, highlighting its clean-energy progress (non-fossil capacity, solar, green hydrogen) and Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment).
2. G20 Summit 2025 was in November (Johannesburg); World Environment Day is 5 June; COP26 was in 2021 – none matches December 2025.

Yaad rakhein: UNEA = world's highest environmental decision-making body, meets at UNEP HQ Nairobi; UNEA-7 → December 2025.

Answer: (D) 7th Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA)

Concept: Warli painting of Maharashtra is a tribal art done in white on earthen walls.

1. Warli artists use white rice paste on a red-ochre or cow-dung mud wall, drawing circles, triangles and lines showing daily life and the Tarpa dance – a monochromatic style.
2. Madhubani (Bihar) and Gond (MP) are bright, multi-coloured; Pahari is a miniature school of the Himalayan hills.

Yaad rakhein: White on mud wall, geometric figures → Warli (Maharashtra).

Answer: (B) Warli

Concept: The 44th Amendment Act, 1978 added safeguards against misuse of Emergency after the 1975–77 experience.

1. It reduced the period within which Parliament must approve a National Emergency proclamation from two months to one month, required a special majority, and replaced "internal disturbance" with "armed rebellion" in Article 352.
2. The 42nd Amendment (1976) had strengthened the Emergency provisions; 38th (1975) made the proclamation non-justiciable; 52nd (1985) is the Anti-Defection law.

Yaad rakhein: 42nd = power to Centre (1976); 44th = correction/safeguards (1978, Janata govt).

Answer: (D) 44th Amendment Act, 1978

Concept: Article 254 deals with inconsistency between Central and State laws on Concurrent List subjects.

1. Art. 254(1): if a state law is repugnant to a Parliamentary law on a Concurrent subject, the Central law prevails and the state law is void to the extent of repugnancy.
2. Art. 254(2): if the state law was reserved for and received the President's assent, it prevails in that state (though Parliament may later override it).

Yaad rakhein: Concurrent clash → Centre wins, except state law with Presidential assent.

Answer: (C) The central law overrides the state law unless the state law has Presidential assent

Concept: India and Israel signed the Terms of Reference for a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement on 20 November 2025.

1. The ToR was signed in New Delhi by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Israel's Economy Minister Nir Barkat, formally launching FTA negotiations.
2. The UAE pact (CEPA) was already signed in 2022; with Canada talks resumed in 2025 but the ToR event on this date was with Israel.

Yaad rakhein: Nov 2025: India–Israel FTA ToR; also Nov 2025: India–EFTA TEPA in force (1 Oct 2025).

Answer: (A) Israel

Concept: Nicknames of Indian sportspersons.

1. P. T. Usha, the sprinter from Payyoli village in Kozhikode (Kerala), is called the "Payyoli Express" and "Queen of Indian track and field"; she narrowly missed a bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics 400 m hurdles.
2. Shoaib Akhtar is the "Rawalpindi Express" (Pakistani pacer) – the tempting distractor.

Yaad rakhein: Payyoli Express – P. T. Usha; Flying Sikh – Milkha Singh; Dhing Express – Hima Das.

Answer: (D) PT Usha

Concept: Alluvial soil is deposited by rivers in the Northern Plains and coastal deltas.

1. It covers about 40% of India – the Indo-Gangetic–Brahmaputra plains and eastern coastal deltas – and is very fertile, made of sand, silt and clay, rich in potash and lime but poor in nitrogen and phosphorus.
2. The Deccan Plateau has black (regur) soil formed from basalt lava, not alluvial soil; so option (D) is the incorrect feature.

Yaad rakhein: Alluvial → plains and deltas; Black → Deccan (cotton); Red → peninsular granite; Laterite → heavy-rain hills.

Answer: (D) Primarily found in the Deccan Plateau

Concept: Globalisation integrates the Indian economy with the world through trade, investment and services.

1. Outsourcing – foreign companies getting services like BPO, IT support, call centres done in India – is a direct outcome of globalisation and cheaper communication.
2. Liberalisation and privatisation are the other two components of the 1991 LPG reforms (policies, not outcomes); nationalisation is the opposite trend (1969 bank nationalisation).

Yaad rakhein: LPG = Liberalisation (rules eased) + Privatisation (ownership) + Globalisation (world link) → outsourcing, MNCs, FDI.

Answer: (A) Outsourcing

Concept: The Paika Rebellion (1817, Khurda, Odisha) was led by Bakshi Jagabandhu against the East India Company.

1. The Paiks were the hereditary militia of the Gajapati kings of Odisha; they held rent-free land in return for military service and performed local policing and administrative duties in peacetime.
2. Loss of these lands, new revenue settlements and salt taxes under the Company provoked the revolt – hence its distinct social base compared with peasant or tribal uprisings.

Yaad rakhein: Paika = "foot soldier" (Odia); 1817; leader Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar; Khurda.

Answer: (D) It was led by hereditary militia with local administrative roles

Concept: The Bhumij Revolt (1832–33), also called the Jungle Mahal uprising or Ganga Narain's Hangama, took place in the Jungle Mahal area.

1. It was led by Ganga Narain Singh of Barabhum in Manbhum district – the region around present-day Purulia, West Bengal – against the Company's revenue system and new courts.
2. Though the Jungle Mahals later spread into the Chota Nagpur fringe, the uprising's centre (Barabhum/Manbhum) lies in today's West Bengal.

Yaad rakhein: Bhumij 1832 – Ganga Narain – Jungle Mahal (Purulia, WB); Kol 1831 – Chota Nagpur (Jharkhand); Santhal 1855 – Rajmahal hills.

Answer: (A) West Bengal

Concept: Speed of sound in air at room temperature is about $343\text{m/s}$ (about $1235\text{km/h}$).

1. Closest option is $340\text{m/s}$; it increases with temperature (about $0.6\text{m/s}$ per ${}^{\circ }\text{C}$) and humidity.
2. $3\times {10}^8\text{m/s}$ is the speed of light; sound travels faster in liquids (water ≈ 1480 m/s) and solids (steel ≈ 5000 m/s), not 3400 km/s.

Yaad rakhein: Sound in air ≈ 340 m/s → lightning seen first, thunder heard about 3 s later per km.

Answer: (C) 340 m/s

Concept: India's minerals are concentrated in three belts; the richest is the North-Eastern Plateau region.

1. The North-Eastern Plateau (Chhota Nagpur, Odisha plateau, West Bengal, parts of Chhattisgarh) has iron ore (Singhbhum, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj), coal (Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro), manganese, bauxite and mica.
2. The South-Western belt (Karnataka–Goa) has iron ore but little coal; the North-Western belt (Rajasthan–Gujarat) has non-ferrous metals and petroleum.

Yaad rakhein: NE plateau = "Ruhr of India" (Chhota Nagpur) – both iron and coal → steel plants Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur.

Answer: (C) North-Eastern Plateau Region

Concept: In scientific research, computers are used for modelling, simulation and analysis of large data.

1. Simulation of experiments – e.g. weather models, molecular dynamics, nuclear or crash simulations – lets scientists test hypotheses that are costly or impossible to perform physically.
2. Online shopping (e-commerce), ticket reservation (transport) and word processing (office) are general/business applications, not research-specific.

Yaad rakhein: Research → simulation, CAD, data analysis; Business → e-commerce, reservation, banking; Office → word processing.

Answer: (C) Simulation of experiments

Concept: International Migrants Day is observed every year on 18 December, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 2000.

1. The date marks the adoption (18 Dec 1990) of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; the 2025 theme was "My Great Story: Cultures and Development".
2. 20 December is International Human Solidarity Day – a common confusion.

Yaad rakhein: December: 18 Migrants Day, 20 Human Solidarity Day, 10 Human Rights Day, 11 Mountain Day.

Answer: (A) December 18

Concept: Seasons are recurring periods of the year defined by the long-term average atmospheric conditions of a region.

1. Weather is the short-term (daily) state; climate is the long-term average (usually 30 years). Seasonal conditions – e.g. India's hot, monsoon, winter seasons – are described by these averaged patterns of temperature, rainfall and wind.
2. Latitude is only one controlling factor (altitude, distance from sea, winds also matter), and a "permanent classification" (Köppen type) labels the climate, it does not describe how seasons are experienced.

Yaad rakhein: Weather = today; Season = recurring part of the year; Climate = long-term average that defines the seasons.

Answer: (C) Long-term average atmospheric patterns of the region

Concept: High-speed document scanners capture a digital image of the page and typically run OCR to make the text searchable.

1. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts scanned images of printed or typed text into machine-readable, editable text – the technology used in libraries and archives for digitisation.
2. MICR reads magnetic ink on cheques; electrostatic plotting and thermal printing are output (printing) technologies, not capture.

Yaad rakhein: OCR – documents/books; OMR – answer sheets (bubbles); MICR – bank cheques; BCR – barcodes.

Answer: (A) Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Concept: Economic infrastructure (power, transport, communication, banking, irrigation) supports production directly and indirectly.

1. Its direct contribution is the output of the infrastructure sectors themselves – electricity generated, freight carried, calls connected – which counts in GDP and is used as input by other sectors.
2. Indirectly it raises productivity of all inputs and builds physical and human capital; options (A), (B), (C) state the opposite (limits, restricts, decreases) and are wrong.

Yaad rakhein: Economic infrastructure → direct output + higher productivity; Social infrastructure (health, education) → human capital.

Answer: (D) The output or the final products of different segments of infrastructure

Concept: Express the cost price in terms of the actual selling price, then compare.

1. Let the actual selling price be $S$. Selling at $\frac{3}{10}S$ gives $25\%$ loss: $\frac{3}{10}S=\frac{3}{4}CP\Rightarrow CP=\frac{3}{10}S\times \frac{4}{3}=\frac{2}{5}S=0.4S$.
2. New selling price $=0.77S$. Profit $=0.77S-0.40S=0.37S$.
3. Profit$\%=\frac{0.37S}{0.40S}\times 100=92.5\%$.

Trick: Take $S=100$: CP $=30÷0.75=40$; selling at 77 → profit $37$ on $40$ $=92.5\%$.

Answer: (C) 92.5%

Concept: The average of consecutive (evenly spaced) numbers is the middle term.

1. Five consecutive even integers from 28: 28, 30, 32, 34, 36.
2. Average $=\frac{28+30+32+34+36}{5}=\frac{160}{5}=32$ – the middle (third) term.

Trick: For an odd count of equally spaced numbers, average = middle number; here the 3rd of 5 = $28+2\times 2=32$.

Answer: (B) 32

Concept: Average speed $=\frac{\text{total distance}}{\text{total time}}$ – never the average of the speeds.

1. First half: $180\text{km}$ at $60\text{km/h}$ → $3\text{h}$.
2. Next $120\text{km}$ at $40\text{km/h}$ → $3\text{h}$. Remaining $360-180-120=60\text{km}$ at $60\text{km/h}$ → $1\text{h}$.
3. Total time $=3+3+1=7\text{h}$. Average speed $=\frac{360}{7}=51.43\text{km/h}$.

Trick: Find the time of each leg separately; 360 km in 7 h – $\frac{360}{7}$ is the only option near 51.4.

Answer: (C) 51.43 km/h