Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Fertile alluvial plains with water, flat land and a mild climate support dense populations.

1. The Ganga basin has rich alluvial soil, perennial rivers, monsoon rain and flat land for farming — among the most densely populated regions on earth.
2. Tundra (extreme cold), Sahara (extreme aridity) and the Amazon (dense forest, poor soils) are all sparsely populated.

Yaad rakhein: River plains = people; deserts, ice and thick forests = empty.

Answer: (A) Ganga River basin in India

Concept: Windows 11 Task Manager tabs: Processes, Performance, App history, Startup apps, Users, Details, Services.

1. In the Details tab, right-click a process → Set priority (Realtime, High, Above normal, Normal, Below normal, Low).
2. Performance shows CPU/RAM graphs, Startup controls boot-time apps, Users lists logged-in users — none of them change priority.

Yaad rakhein: Priority and affinity are per-process "details" → Details tab.

Answer: (A) Details

Concept: Article 51 (Directive Principle) deals with promotion of international peace and security.

1. Article 51 directs the State to (a) promote international peace and security, (b) maintain just and honourable relations between nations, (c) foster respect for international law and treaty obligations, (d) encourage settlement of disputes by arbitration.
2. Protection of forests and wildlife is Article 48A (added by the 42nd Amendment), not Article 51.

Yaad rakhein: 51 = world peace; 48A = forests & wildlife; 51A = Fundamental Duties.

Answer: (C) Protection of forests and wildlife of India

Concept: Gandhi withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22) after violence broke out.

1. On 5 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura (Gorakhpur, UP), a mob set fire to a police station, killing 22 policemen.
2. Gandhi, committed to non-violence, called off the movement on 12 February 1922 (Bardoli resolution).
3. The Alipore bomb case (1908) and the Rowlatt Act (1919) are unrelated to the withdrawal.

Yaad rakhein: Chauri Chaura 1922 → NCM stopped; Gandhi then jailed for 6 years.

Answer: (C) Chauri-Chaura incident

Concept: Submergence-tolerant rice carries the Sub1 gene.

1. Swarna-Sub1 is the popular Swarna rice with the Sub1A gene, letting the plant survive 2 weeks of complete flooding — ideal for flash-flood-prone eastern India.
2. IR8 was the Green Revolution "miracle rice"; Pusa DST Rice 1 and DRR Dhan 100 (Kamla) are the 2025 genome-edited varieties for salinity/drought and higher yield, not flood tolerance.

Yaad rakhein: Sub1 = Submergence; Swarna-Sub1 = "scuba rice".

Answer: (B) Swarna-Sub1 rice

Concept: Article 39A (DPSP, 42nd Amendment) provides for equal justice and free legal aid.

1. Free legal aid ensures that no citizen is denied justice because of poverty or disability — it directly serves the Preamble's promise of Justice (social, economic, political).
2. Sovereignty, Republic and Secularism describe the nature of the State, not access to courts.

Yaad rakhein: 39A → Legal aid → Justice; implemented through the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 (NALSA).

Answer: (A) Justice

Concept: The 2030 Agenda with 17 SDGs was adopted by all UN members, including India, at the UN Summit in September 2015.

1. SDGs came into effect on 1 January 2016, replacing the Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015).
2. 1992 was the Rio Earth Summit (Agenda 21); 2012 was Rio+20 where the idea of SDGs was proposed.

Yaad rakhein: 17 goals, 169 targets, adopted 2015, deadline 2030.

Answer: (A) 2015

Concept: Padma Awards 2026 were announced on the eve of Republic Day (25 January 2026).

1. Budhri Tati of Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh, was named for the Padma Shri in the field of Social Work for women's empowerment and tribal upliftment in a Naxal-affected area.
2. Her citation falls under social service, not literature, science or industry.

Yaad rakhein: Padma Shri 2026 honoured many grassroots "unsung heroes" — Budhri Tati (Bastar) is one such social worker.

Answer: (A) Social Work

Concept: Agricultural marketing in India is governed by State APMC Acts; reform has been slow and uneven.

1. Even after 1991, farmers were tied to regulated mandis, middlemen and fragmented markets because most States implemented the Model APMC Act (2003) and later reforms only partially — a structural weakness.
2. Exports were never fully deregulated, e-NAM (2016) adoption is still patchy, and corporatisation of produce is not the problem described.

Yaad rakhein: Mandi inefficiency = weak APMC reform; e-NAM is the attempted fix, not the cause.

Answer: (D) Weak APMC reform implementation

Concept: The National Games began in 1924 at Lahore as the "Indian Olympic Games".

1. The first edition after Independence was held in 1948 at Lucknow (the 13th edition).
2. Kolkata hosted in 1938 and 1951; Delhi in 1946 and 1985; Chennai (Madras) in 1932 and 1934.

Yaad rakhein: 1924 Lahore (first) → 1948 Lucknow (first after Independence) → 1985 Delhi (first in modern format).

Answer: (C) Lucknow

Concept: Distance is the path length (scalar); displacement is the straight-line change in position (vector).

1. A body moving in a closed path (e.g. one lap of a track) returns to its start: distance $>0$ but displacement $=0$.
2. Distance and speed can never be zero while a body is moving; velocity is zero only at an instant, but average velocity over a round trip is zero because displacement is zero — displacement is the basic quantity that is zero.

Yaad rakhein: Round trip → displacement $0$, distance $\ne 0$.

Answer: (C) Displacement

Concept: T-shaped pillars are the signature of the Neolithic "Taş Tepeler" sites of south-east Türkiye (Göbekli Tepe, Karahantepe).

1. In October 2025 archaeologists at Karahantepe unveiled a roughly 12,000-year-old T-shaped pillar carved with a human face — the first of its kind.
2. These monuments date to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (c. 9500–8000 BCE), long before the Bronze Age (c. 3300 BCE) or Iron Age.

Yaad rakhein: Göbekli Tepe / Karahantepe = world's oldest temples = Neolithic.

Answer: (B) Neolithic

Concept: The 74th Amendment (Part IXA) extends the State Finance Commission to Municipalities.

1. Article 243Y: the State Finance Commission (constituted under Art. 243-I) reviews the finances of Municipalities and makes recommendations to the Governor.
2. The Governor lays the report with an action-taken memorandum before the State Legislature. The President receives the Union Finance Commission's report (Art. 281), not this one.

Yaad rakhein: 243-I (Panchayats) and 243Y (Municipalities) → State Finance Commission → Governor.

Answer: (D) Governor of the State

Concept: Photosynthesis needs a light-absorbing pigment in the chloroplasts.

1. Chlorophyll (mainly a and b) absorbs red and blue light and reflects green — hence leaves look green.
2. Glucose is the product of photosynthesis, insulin is an animal hormone and haemoglobin is the red oxygen-carrier in blood.

Yaad rakhein: Chlorophyll has a magnesium (Mg) atom at its centre; haemoglobin has iron (Fe).

Answer: (D) Chlorophyll

Concept: Standard Windows editing shortcuts.

1. Ctrl + Z = Undo; Ctrl + Y = Redo (re-apply the action you just undid).
2. Ctrl + C = Copy, Ctrl + V = Paste, Ctrl + X = Cut.

Yaad rakhein: Z and Y sit as a pair: Z undoes, Y does it again.

Answer: (C) Redo the last undone action

Concept: An emulsion is a colloid of one liquid dispersed in another immiscible liquid.

1. Mayonnaise is oil dispersed in water (vinegar/lemon) with egg-yolk lecithin acting as the emulsifier — a classic oil-in-water emulsion.
2. Maillard reaction and caramelisation are browning reactions on heating; oxidation would spoil the oil.

Yaad rakhein: Milk, mayonnaise, butter, cold cream = emulsions.

Answer: (B) Emulsification

Concept: Article 51A lists 11 Fundamental Duties; some relate to culture and scientific temper, others to the nation and public order.

1. 51A(f) preserve composite culture, 51A(h) develop scientific temper and humanism, 51A(j) strive for excellence — these three concern cultural and scientific values.
2. 51A(i) "safeguard public property and abjure violence" is about public order and property, not scientific or cultural values — so it is the incorrect match.

Yaad rakhein: f = culture, g = environment, h = scientific temper, i = public property, j = excellence.

Answer: (A) To safe guard the public property and to abjure violence

Concept: CAT was set up in 1985 under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 (Article 323A).

1. Statement 1 is correct: CAT has original jurisdiction over recruitment and service matters of Central Government employees.
2. Statement 2 is wrong: members of the defence forces, officers and servants of the Supreme Court and the secretarial staff of Parliament are excluded from CAT's jurisdiction.
3. Statement 3 is wrong: members are appointed on the recommendation of a selection committee headed by a sitting Supreme Court judge nominated by the CJI, not by the Prime Minister.

Yaad rakhein: CAT excludes Army, Supreme Court staff and Parliament staff; appeal lies to the High Court (Chandra Kumar case, 1997).

Answer: (B) 1 only

Concept: The 1991 reforms (LPG) opened Indian industry to private and foreign players.

1. Abolition of licensing, easing of FDI limits and removal of MRTP restrictions allowed multinational corporations to enter, forcing domestic firms to compete on price and quality.
2. Price controls, industrial protection and public monopolies were features of the pre-1991 era that reduced competition.

Yaad rakhein: Liberalisation = licence raj out, MNCs in.

Answer: (B) Entry of MNCs

Concept: Economic activities are grouped as primary (extraction from nature), secondary (manufacturing) and tertiary (services).

1. Tourism sells services – transport, hotels, guides – not goods, so it is a tertiary activity.
2. Quaternary refers to knowledge-based work such as research and IT, which tourism is not.

Yaad rakhein: Farm/mine = primary, factory = secondary, service (trade, transport, tourism, banking) = tertiary.

Answer: (A) Tertiary