Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: The Extremists (Lal-Bal-Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh) rejected the 'prayer and petition' politics of the Moderates.

1. Their programme: Swadeshi, boycott of foreign goods, national education and passive resistance (non-cooperation with British administration).
2. Petitioning Parliament was the Moderates' method; armed rebellion belonged to revolutionaries, not the Extremists.

Yaad rakhein: Moderates = Prayer, Petition, Protest; Extremists = Swadeshi, Boycott, Passive resistance.

Answer: (A) Passive resistance

Concept: The Kyoto Protocol (adopted 1997, in force 2005) is a treaty under the UNFCCC.

1. It set binding targets for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O etc.).
2. Ozone layer protection = Montreal Protocol; desertification = UNCCD; wildlife trade = CITES.

Yaad rakhein: Kyoto = Climate (GHG); Montreal = Ozone.

Answer: (D) reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

Concept: Secondary memory is non-volatile storage that is not directly accessed by the CPU and keeps data permanently.

1. Hard disk, SSD, pen drive, CD/DVD are secondary memory.
2. RAM, ROM and cache are primary (main) memory directly accessible by the CPU.

Yaad rakhein: Primary = RAM, ROM, Cache; Secondary = HDD, SSD, optical disks.

Answer: (D) Hard Disk

Concept: INIOCHOS is a multinational air exercise hosted annually by the Hellenic Air Force, i.e. the air force of Greece.

1. INIOCHOS-25 was held at Andravida Air Base, Greece, in 2025.
2. The Indian Air Force has also taken part in INIOCHOS editions.

Yaad rakhein: Hellenic = Greek; so a 'Hellenic Air Force' exercise is held in Greece.

Answer: (D) Greece

Concept: The World Happiness Report is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre (Oxford) with Gallup and UN SDSN.

1. The 2025 report again ranked Finland No. 1, continuing its unbroken streak at the top, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden.
2. Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland are high but not first.

Yaad rakhein: Happiest country = Finland – top every year since the 2018 report.

Answer: (A) Finland

Concept: The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 is administered by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (through CDSCO).

1. In 2025 this ministry notified the Drugs and Cosmetics (Compounding of Offences) Rules, 2025, allowing minor offences to be settled by paying a compounding fee instead of long prosecution.
2. It follows the Jan Vishwas (decriminalisation) approach.

Yaad rakhein: Drug regulator CDSCO and DCGI sit under the Health Ministry.

Answer: (A) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Concept: Indian film industries are nicknamed by blending the city/language with 'Hollywood'.

1. Bollywood = Hindi films (Bombay/Mumbai).
2. Tollywood = Telugu (also Bengali), Kollywood = Tamil (Kodambakkam), Mollywood = Malayalam.

Yaad rakhein: B for Bombay → Bollywood; K for Kodambakkam → Kollywood.

Answer: (C) Bollywood

Concept: The Bagh Caves (Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh) are nine rock-cut monuments of about the 5th–6th century CE.

1. They are Buddhist viharas and chaityas, famous for mural paintings similar to Ajanta.
2. Ellora has Hindu/Jain caves too, but Bagh is purely Buddhist.

Yaad rakhein: Bagh and Ajanta – Buddhist painted caves; both on the Vindhya–Sahyadri belt.

Answer: (C) Buddhism

Concept: The Football Writers' Association (England) gives annual Footballer of the Year awards.

1. For 2024-25, the Women's Footballer of the Year went to Alessia Russo (Arsenal and England forward).
2. She helped Arsenal win the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2025.

Yaad rakhein: 2024-25 FWA: Russo (women); Arsenal's Champions League season.

Answer: (A) Alessia Russo

Concept: In 2025 the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution notified a new order replacing the Sugar (Control) Order, 1966.

1. The new order is named the Sugar (Control) Order, 2025.
2. It updates definitions (e.g. raw sugar, khandsari), registration and reporting to suit modern industry, including links with ethanol production.

Yaad rakhein: Old: Sugar (Control) Order 1966 → New: same name, year 2025.

Answer: (A) The Sugar (Control) Order, 2025

Concept: The Seventh Schedule (Article 246) divides subjects into Union, State and Concurrent Lists.

1. On Concurrent List subjects (education, forests, marriage, criminal law etc.) both Parliament and State Legislatures can make laws.
2. If the two laws conflict, the Union law prevails (Article 254).

Yaad rakhein: Concurrent = 'con-current' = running together → both Centre and States.

Answer: (C) Both the Centre and the States can legislate

Concept: In 1991 India faced a balance-of-payments crisis: foreign exchange reserves could cover only about two weeks of imports, and inflation and fiscal deficit were high.

1. The New Economic Policy (LPG – Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation) aimed first to stabilise the economy, then to make it efficient.
2. It reduced, not increased, government control and moved away from nationalisation.

Yaad rakhein: 1991 = Crisis → Stabilisation + Structural reforms (LPG).

Answer: (B) To stabilise India’s economy

Concept: UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik), launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, is the Regional Connectivity Scheme.

1. It offers viability gap funding so that flights to unserved and under-served airports stay affordable.
2. UDAY = power discoms; Sagarmala = ports; PM Gati Shakti = multimodal infrastructure master plan.

Yaad rakhein: UDAN = 'udaan' (flight) → aviation.

Answer: (D) UDAN

Concept: Article 243Q (74th Amendment, 1992) provides three types of municipalities.

1. Nagar Panchayat – for a transitional area (changing from rural to urban).
2. Municipal Council – for a smaller urban area; Municipal Corporation – for a larger urban area.

Yaad rakhein: Transitional → Nagar Panchayat; Smaller → Council; Larger → Corporation.

Answer: (A) Nagar Panchayat

Concept: Continentality = distance from the sea. The sea moderates temperature because water heats and cools slowly.

1. Coastal places (Mumbai, Chennai) have a small annual and daily temperature range – equable climate.
2. Interior places (Delhi, Nagpur) have very hot summers and cold winters – extreme (continental) climate.

Yaad rakhein: Near sea = moderate; far from sea = extreme → continentality.

Answer: (B) Continentality

Concept: Rules: all non-zero digits count; leading zeros never count; trailing zeros after a decimal point count.

1. $0.0056$ → 2 significant figures (5, 6).
2. $23.0$ → 3 (2, 3 and the trailing 0).
3. $1.620$ → 4; $287.50$ → 5.

Yaad rakhein: Trailing zero after the decimal point is significant; leading zeros are only place-holders.

Answer: (B) $23.0$

Concept: Cache is a small, very fast memory placed between the CPU and RAM.

1. It keeps copies of frequently used instructions/data so the CPU can fetch them quickly – it increases the speed of data retrieval.
2. It is volatile, so it does not store data permanently.

Yaad rakhein: Cache = speed booster between CPU and RAM.

Answer: (A) increase the speed of data retrieval

Concept: Economic activities are grouped into three sectors.

1. Primary – agriculture, mining (natural resources); Secondary – manufacturing/industry.
2. Tertiary – services: transport, banking, trade, communication, health, education. So it is called the service sector.

Yaad rakhein: 1-Nature, 2-Factory, 3-Service.

Answer: (A) service sector

Concept: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is celebrated on 9 January – the day Gandhiji returned from South Africa in 1915.

1. The 18th PBD Convention was held in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on 8–10 January 2025, theme 'Diaspora's Contribution to a Viksit Bharat'.
2. It was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi.

Yaad rakhein: PBD = always January (9 Jan).

Answer: (D) January

Concept: Rural distress means falling farm incomes, debt and lack of jobs in villages.

1. Small fragmented holdings, low productivity of rain-fed farming and poor storage/cold-chain (post-harvest losses) all cause distress.
2. High literacy improves skills and options, so it is the factor that has least contributed to distress.

Yaad rakhein: Ask: which option is a positive factor? That one is the answer.

Answer: (C) High rural literacy levels