Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: The National Waterways Act, 2016 declared 111 National Waterways across Indian rivers.

1. NW-57 is on the Kopili River in Assam (a tributary of the Brahmaputra).
2. Gandak = NW-37, Zuari = NW-111, Kali (Karnataka) = NW-52.

Yaad rakhein: Assam's small NWs: Kopili (57), Dhansiri (31), Barak (16), Brahmaputra (2).

Answer: (C) Kopili River

Concept: The Bhakti movement travelled from South to North India through the Sri Vaishnava lineage of Ramanuja.

1. Ramananda (14th–15th century), a follower of the Ramanuja tradition, preached Rama-bhakti in Hindi at Varanasi and opened it to all castes – disciples included Kabir, Ravidas, Dhanna, Sena and Pipa.
2. Ramanujacharya is the founder himself, Madhvacharya founded the Dvaita school, Namdev belonged to the Varkari tradition of Maharashtra.

Yaad rakhein: "Bhakti dravid upaji, laye Ramanand" – Ramananda carried Bhakti to the North.

Answer: (D) Ramananda

Concept: The Union Council of Ministers (Art. 74–75) has three categories of ministers.

1. Tiers: Cabinet Ministers (head key ministries, members of Cabinet) → Ministers of State (independent charge or attached) → Deputy Ministers (assist, never in Cabinet).
2. Chief Ministers and Governors are state functionaries, not part of the Council of Ministers.

Yaad rakhein: C-S-D: Cabinet → State → Deputy; Parliamentary Secretaries are a 4th informal rung.

Answer: (B) Cabinet Ministers – Ministers of State – Deputy Ministers

Concept: MGNREGA (2005) guarantees 100 days of wage employment per rural household and is the backbone of rural development policy.

1. MGNREGA is a legal right-based scheme; works under it (ponds, roads, plantations) are converged with most rural programmes like PMAY-G, watershed and Jal Shakti schemes.
2. "MGNRES" is a fabricated name; Swachh Bharat and PDS are sanitation and food-security programmes, not the employment cornerstone.

Yaad rakhein: NREGA 2005 → renamed MGNREGA on 2 Oct 2009; world's largest public works programme.

Answer: (B) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

Concept: Articles 85–88 deal with sessions of Parliament and the President's rights.

1. Article 87 – Special address by the President to both Houses assembled together at the first session after each general election and at the first session of each year.
2. Art. 85 = summoning/prorogation/dissolution; Art. 86 = President's right to address and send messages; Art. 88 = Ministers' and AG's rights in Houses.

Yaad rakhein: 86 = ordinary address (any time); 87 = Special address (Motion of Thanks follows).

Answer: (D) Article 87

Concept: Part II (Articles 5–11) of the Constitution deals with citizenship at commencement.

1. Article 6 – rights of citizenship of persons who migrated to India from Pakistan before 26 January 1950.
2. Art. 5 = citizenship by domicile; Art. 7 = migrants to Pakistan; Art. 8 = persons of Indian origin residing abroad; Art. 10 = continuance of citizenship rights.

Yaad rakhein: 5 domicile, 6 from Pakistan, 7 to Pakistan, 8 abroad, 9 foreign citizenship loses Indian, 11 Parliament's power.

Answer: (D) Article 6

Concept: Nrityagram (1990) near Bengaluru is India's first residential dance village, dedicated mainly to Odissi.

1. It was founded by Odissi dancer Protima Gauri (Protima Bedi).
2. Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy are its famous Odissi dancers/graduates; Pavithra Reddy is also a Nrityagram-trained dancer – none founded it.

Yaad rakhein: Nrityagram = "dance village" = Protima Bedi (student of Kelucharan Mohapatra).

Answer: (A) Protima Gauri

Concept: Daulatabad (Devagiri) Fort near Aurangabad was the Yadava capital and briefly Muhammad bin Tughlaq's capital (1327).

1. Monuments inside: Chand Minar (1435, Bahmani), Jami Masjid (Qutbuddin Mubarak Khalji, 1318 – later used as Bharatmata Mandir), Chini Mahal, Baradari and the Hathi Haud.
2. Sikandra is Akbar's tomb complex near Agra – nothing to do with Daulatabad.

Yaad rakhein: Daulatabad = Chand Minar + Chini Mahal + Bharatmata Mandir; Sikandra = Agra.

Answer: (D) Sikandra Fort

Concept: Structural change in India showed a mismatch: GDP shares moved away from agriculture but employment did not.

1. By 1990–91 agriculture's share in GDP had fallen to about 30%, yet it still employed roughly 60–65% of the workforce – the "declining GDP share, majority employment" contradiction.
2. Manufacturing never became the main employer; services grew in GDP but absorbed relatively few workers.

Yaad rakhein: India jumped from agriculture to services in GDP, skipping the manufacturing-led employment shift.

Answer: (B) Agriculture contributed declining GDP share but absorbed majority employment

Concept: The Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme (Cabinet approval 1 July 2025, outlay ₹99,446 crore) aims to create 3.5 crore jobs.

1. Part A: first-time employees registered with EPFO get one month's EPF wage up to ₹15,000, paid in two instalments (6 and 12 months).
2. Part B: employers get up to ₹3,000 per month per additional employee for two years.

Yaad rakhein: ELI = ₹15,000 to the new employee; ₹3,000/month to the employer; eligibility salary up to ₹1 lakh.

Answer: (A) ₹15,000

Concept: Touchscreens are classified by how they sense a touch.

1. Resistive touchscreen: two flexible conductive layers separated by a gap; pressing them together completes a circuit – works with a fingernail, glove or plastic stylus.
2. Capacitive screens need a conductive object (finger), infrared grids detect beam interruption, SAW uses ultrasonic waves.

Yaad rakhein: Resistive = pressure (old ATMs, feature phones); Capacitive = conductivity (smartphones).

Answer: (D) Resistive touch

Concept: In July 2023 record monsoon rain caused flash floods and landslides in the Beas and Sutlej basins.

1. Himachal Pradesh suffered the worst damage; the Government reported that hydro power stations such as Larji, Malana-II and Parbati-III were flooded or shut down, besides heavy damage to roads and bridges.
2. Sikkim's major disaster (South Lhonak lake GLOF, Teesta-III dam) occurred in October 2023, not July.

Yaad rakhein: July 2023 → Himachal (Beas floods, Larji HEP flooded); Oct 2023 → Sikkim (Teesta GLOF).

Answer: (C) Himachal Pradesh

Concept: Post-1991 financial-sector reforms (Narasimham Committee) moved from administered to market-based monetary management.

1. Lending and deposit interest rates were deregulated, SLR/CRR cut, and RBI shifted to indirect tools (OMO, repo) with reduced direct intervention.
2. Deficit financing through ad hoc Treasury Bills was phased out (1997), open market operations were strengthened – not eliminated – and controlled lending rates were relaxed, not introduced.

Yaad rakhein: 1991 reforms = liberalise: rates market-determined, RBI as regulator not controller.

Answer: (A) Market-determined interest rates with reduced RBI intervention

Concept: White light is a mixture of colours with different wavelengths; a prism bends each colour by a different amount.

1. Splitting of white light into its seven colours (VIBGYOR) by a prism is called dispersion.
2. Refraction is the bending itself; dispersion is the differential refraction (violet bends most, red least). Scattering explains the blue sky; reflection has no colour separation.

Yaad rakhein: Prism/rainbow → Dispersion; blue sky/red sunset → Scattering; mirror → Reflection.

Answer: (C) Dispersion

Concept: Each class of nutrient has a primary role in the body.

1. Proteins (amino acids) are the body-building nutrients – they build muscles, enzymes, and repair worn-out tissues.
2. Carbohydrates and fats mainly supply energy; vitamins are protective/regulatory and needed in tiny amounts.

Yaad rakhein: Carbs = fuel, Fats = reserve fuel, Proteins = bricks, Vitamins/minerals = protection.

Answer: (C) Proteins

Concept: Barren Island is the only confirmed active volcano in India (and South Asia).

1. It lies in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, about 140 km north-east of Port Blair; it erupted in 1991, 2005 and 2017.
2. Lakshadweep and Minicoy are coral atolls; Rameswaram (Pamban) is a sandstone/coral island – no volcano.

Yaad rakhein: Barren = active, Narcondam = dormant – both in the Andaman Sea.

Answer: (A) Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Concept: Iraiyanar Akapporul (Kalaviyal) is a treatise on akam (love) poetics in Tamil.

1. The work and its celebrated commentary by Nakkirar are dated to about the 8th century CE; the commentary is our main source for the legend of the three Sangams.
2. It belongs to the post-Sangam, Pallava-era corpus – not to the 5th century (early post-Sangam) or the 11th century (Chola period).

Yaad rakhein: Iraiyanar Akapporul = 8th century CE = Nakkirar's commentary = legend of the Sangams.

Answer: (C) 8th century CE

Concept: Chlorophyll is the green pigment of plants that traps light energy for photosynthesis; its molecule has a porphyrin ring with a metal ion at the centre.

1. The central metal ion of chlorophyll is magnesium (Mg²⁺) – it holds the ring together and makes light absorption possible.
2. Ca is needed for cell walls, Na is not an essential plant nutrient and C is a structural element, not an ion in chlorophyll.

Yaad rakhein: Haemoglobin → Fe at centre; Chlorophyll → Mg at centre.

Answer: (B) Mg

Concept: The Earth's rotation produces an apparent force on moving air and water, called the Coriolis force (Ferrel's law).

1. It deflects winds to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere; it is zero at the Equator and maximum at the poles.
2. Pressure-gradient force drives winds from high to low pressure, friction slows them, gravity acts vertically – none of these deflect sideways.

Yaad rakhein: Coriolis = "Rotation ka deflection" – that is why cyclones spin anticlockwise in the north.

Answer: (D) Coriolis force

Concept: The Government of India Act, 1919 (Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms) introduced dyarchy (dual government) in the provinces.

1. Provincial subjects were split into Reserved (police, finance, land revenue – under the Governor and his executive council) and Transferred (education, health, local self-government – under Indian ministers responsible to the legislature).
2. 1909 (Morley–Minto) brought separate electorates; 1935 abolished provincial dyarchy and proposed it at the Centre instead.

Yaad rakhein: 1919 → Dyarchy in provinces; 1935 → Provincial autonomy + dyarchy at Centre.

Answer: (D) Government of India Act, 1919