Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: The Extremists (Garam Dal) demanded Swaraj through Swadeshi, boycott and mass agitation.

1. Lal-Bal-Pal – Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal – led the extremists.
2. Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a leading Moderate (Naram Dal) who believed in constitutional methods.
3. He was the political guru of Mahatma Gandhi.

Yaad rakhein: Lal-Bal-Pal = Extremists; Gokhale, Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta = Moderates.

Answer: (D) Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Concept: Transmission-line metals need low resistivity, low cost and low weight.

1. Copper is an excellent conductor and is used widely in wiring.
2. Aluminium is light and cheap; ACSR (aluminium conductor steel reinforced) is used for overhead lines.
3. Silver and gold conduct well but are far too costly.

Yaad rakhein: Best conductor is silver, but for lines we use copper and aluminium (cheap + good).

Answer: (D) Copper and aluminium

Concept: Ashoka adopted Buddhism after the Kalinga War (c. 261 BCE) and spread it widely.

1. Buddhist tradition credits Ashoka with building 84,000 stupas over the relics of the Buddha.
2. The original Sanchi Stupa was commissioned by him.
3. Pushyamitra Sunga is, in contrast, linked with a Brahmanical revival.

Yaad rakhein: Ashoka – 84,000 stupas; Sanchi stupa – Ashoka.

Answer: (C) Ashoka

Concept: MSMEs are classified as Micro, Small and Medium on the basis of investment and turnover.

1. Udyam Registration Portal data show that micro enterprises make up the overwhelming majority (about 95%+) of registrations.
2. Small and medium units form only a small share.
3. “Large” enterprises are not MSMEs at all.

Yaad rakhein: In India most MSMEs are Micro – tiny units dominate.

Answer: (A) Micro

Concept: Pipelining splits instruction execution into stages (fetch, decode, execute, write-back).

1. While one instruction executes, the next is decoded and another is fetched.
2. These overlapping stages let many instructions be in progress at once, increasing throughput.
3. Using multiple cores is multiprocessing, not pipelining.

Yaad rakhein: Pipelining = assembly line inside the CPU.

Answer: (D) Executes multiple instructions simultaneously by overlapping stages

Concept: DEW = Directed Energy Weapon; Mk-II(A) is a vehicle-mounted 30 kW laser system.

1. In April 2025 DRDO demonstrated it at the National Open Air Range (NOAR), Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.
2. It shot down fixed-wing drones and swarm drones, placing India among a few nations with such laser capability.
3. Pokhran is known for nuclear and missile tests, not this demonstration.

Yaad rakhein: Laser DEW Mk-II(A) → Kurnool (NOAR), Andhra Pradesh.

Answer: (C) Kurnool

Concept: The original Constitution had seven Fundamental Rights, including the Right to Property (Art. 19(1)(f) and 31).

1. The 44th Amendment Act, 1978 deleted the Right to Property from Part III.
2. It became a legal right under Article 300A, leaving six Fundamental Rights.
3. The 42nd Amendment (1976) added Fundamental Duties, not this change.

Yaad rakhein: 44th – Property out (Art. 300A); 42nd – Duties in.

Answer: (C) 44th Constitutional Amendment Act

Concept: Suzanne Collins is the American author of “The Hunger Games” series.

1. “Sunrise on the Reaping” (March 2025) is the fifth Hunger Games book, a prequel set during the 50th Hunger Games.
2. It tells the story of young Haymitch Abernathy.
3. The other options are films/novels by others (e.g. “Léon: The Professional”, “Le Grand Bleu” are Luc Besson films).

Yaad rakhein: Collins – Hunger Games; 2025 prequel – Sunrise on the Reaping.

Answer: (B) Sunrise on the Reaping

Concept: COP16 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) began in Cali, Colombia (Oct–Nov 2024).

1. Its theme was “Peace with Nature”; it set up the “Cali Fund” for benefit-sharing from digital sequence information.
2. The session was suspended and resumed in Rome in February 2025 – hence “initially” Cali.
3. Montreal hosted COP15 (2022).

Yaad rakhein: CBD COP15 – Montreal; COP16 – Cali (resumed in Rome).

Answer: (A) Cali, Colombia

Concept: Urban local bodies differ: Municipal Corporation (big cities), Municipality/Municipal Council (smaller towns).

1. The elected political head of a municipality is the Chairman (President/Chairperson).
2. The Mayor heads a Municipal Corporation, not a municipality.
3. The Chief Municipal Officer and Municipal Commissioner are executive (administrative) officers.

Yaad rakhein: Corporation → Mayor; Municipality → Chairman.

Answer: (B) Chairman

Concept: The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 aims at “ease of living and ease of doing business”.

1. It amended 183 provisions in 42 Central Acts to decriminalise minor offences.
2. Imprisonment for small, technical lapses was replaced by monetary penalties decided by adjudicating officers.
3. In October 2024 the government notified rules to operationalise these civil penalties.

Yaad rakhein: Jan Vishwas = trust-based governance: jail → fine for minor offences.

Answer: (C) To convert minor offenses under various laws from criminal to civil penalties

Concept: The International Summit on the Future of Energy Security was co-hosted by the UK Government and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

1. It was held on 24–25 April 2025 at Lancaster House, London.
2. Ministers and industry leaders from about 60 countries discussed secure and affordable energy supply.
3. Paris is the IEA headquarters – a tempting but wrong option.

Yaad rakhein: Energy Security Summit 2025 – London (UK + IEA).

Answer: (D) London, United Kingdom

Concept: Gupta-period inscriptions use Sanskrit terms for irrigation works.

1. “Tadaga” denotes a tank or pond (reservoir) for storing water.
2. “Prapa” means a water shed/drinking-water place, “Nadi” a river and “Kshetra” a cultivated field.
3. The Junagadh inscription of Skandagupta records repairs of the Sudarshana lake.

Yaad rakhein: Tadaga = Talab (tank).

Answer: (D) Tadaga

Concept: Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) means a company contracts out its service functions to an external provider.

1. After 1991, foreign firms began outsourcing call centres, data entry, accounting and IT-enabled services to India.
2. India gained due to low cost, skilled English-speaking workforce and good IT connectivity.
3. BPO is a service activity, not manufacturing or government-owned.

Yaad rakhein: BPO = IT-enabled services exported from India.

Answer: (C) Providing services to foreign companies from India

Concept: INDRA is the bilateral naval exercise between India and Russia.

1. The 2025 edition was held from 28 March to 2 April 2025 with Russian ships Pechanga, Rezkiy and Aldar Tsydenzhapov and Indian ships INS Rana, INS Kuthar and the P8I aircraft – statement 1 is correct.
2. The Harbour phase was at Chennai, but the Sea phase was in the Bay of Bengal, not the Arabian Sea – statement 2 is wrong.
3. It was the 14th edition, not the 13th – statement 3 is wrong.

Yaad rakhein: INDRA 2025 = Chennai + Bay of Bengal, 14th edition.

Answer: (D) Only 1

Concept: The Social Stock Exchange (SSE) lets non-profit organisations raise funds through Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments.

1. To widen retail participation, SEBI cut the minimum application size for ZCZP instruments from ₹10,000 to ₹1,000.
2. The minimum issue size was also reduced (from ₹1 crore to ₹50 lakh) to help small NPOs.

Yaad rakhein: ZCZP – no interest, no principal returned; investment is a donation-like contribution. Minimum now ₹1,000.

Answer: (C) ₹1,000

Concept: Le Chatelier's principle – if the concentration of a product is increased, the equilibrium shifts to use it up.

1. ${\text{H}}^{+}$ is a product of ${\text{CH}}_3\text{COOH}\rightleftharpoons {\text{CH}}_3{\text{COO}}^{-}+{\text{H}}^{+}$.
2. Adding ${\text{H}}^{+}$ (common ion effect) pushes the reaction backward, i.e. to the left, forming more undissociated ${\text{CH}}_3\text{COOH}$.
3. The reaction does not stop – equilibrium is dynamic.

Trick: Add product → shifts left; add reactant → shifts right.

Answer: (D) Shift the equilibrium left

Concept: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) by MoSPI/NSO gives state-wise unemployment rates.

1. In PLFS 2022-23 (usual status, age 15+), Tripura was among the lowest, with an unemployment rate of about 1.4%.
2. Among the given options, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka all had higher rates than Tripura.

Yaad rakhein: PLFS 2022-23: national unemployment rate 3.2%; Goa had one of the highest rates.

Answer: (A) Tripura

Concept: Padma awards are given in fields such as Art, Medicine, Sports, Literature & Education, etc.

1. Sharda Sinha, the renowned folk singer of Bihar known as the "Nightingale of Bihar" for her Chhath and Maithili/Bhojpuri songs, died in November 2024.
2. She was conferred the Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 2025 in the field of Art (music).

Yaad rakhein: Singers, dancers, painters → Padma under "Art".

Answer: (C) Art

Concept: Volatile memory loses data when power is off; main memory (RAM) of a PC is volatile.

1. DRAM (Dynamic RAM) stores each bit in a capacitor and is cheap and dense – it is used as the main working memory.
2. SRAM is also volatile but is costly and used for cache, not main memory.
3. NVMe is an interface for SSD storage; CMOS is a chip technology (BIOS settings).

Yaad rakhein: DRAM = main memory, SRAM = cache.

Answer: (A) DRAM