Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Aditya-L1 (launched September 2023) is India’s first solar mission, placed at Lagrange point L1.

1. In February 2025 ISRO reported that its SUIT (Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope) captured the first image of a solar flare “kernel” in the near-ultraviolet band.
2. AstroSat is a multi-wavelength observatory; Chandrayaan-3 studied the Moon; Mangalyaan-2 has not been launched.

Yaad rakhein: Sun-related → Aditya (Aditya = Sun).

Answer: (A) Aditya-L1

Concept: At independence India was an agrarian, backward economy.

1. About 70–75% of the workforce depended on agriculture, which also gave the largest share of national income.
2. Industry was weak (de-industrialisation under British rule) and services were small.

Yaad rakhein: 1947 India = agrarian economy with low productivity.

Answer: (A) Agricultural sector

Concept: India launched the LPG reforms (Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation) in 1991.

1. They were introduced by PM P.V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh during a balance-of-payments crisis.
2. The New Industrial Policy of July 1991 ended most industrial licensing.

Yaad rakhein: 1991 = BoP crisis → LPG → New Economic Policy.

Answer: (D) 1991

Concept: Looking downstream, tributaries joining from the right (west) are right-bank tributaries.

1. Right-bank tributaries of the Indus: Kabul (with Swat), Kurram, Tochi, Gomal, Shyok, Gilgit.
2. Left-bank: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Sutlej (Panjnad) and Zaskar.

Yaad rakhein: All five Punjab rivers are left-bank; Kabul comes from Afghanistan on the right.

Answer: (C) Kabul River

Concept: Carbohydrates are the body’s main and quickest source of energy.

1. They are broken down to glucose, which is oxidised in cells to give ATP; 1 g gives about 4 kcal.
2. Growth/repair → proteins; hormone regulation → proteins and some lipids; insulation → fats.

Yaad rakhein: Carbs = fuel, proteins = body-builders, fats = stored energy + insulation.

Answer: (C) It provides energy.

Concept: The Palaeolithic in India is divided into Lower, Middle and Upper phases (BP = Before Present).

1. Lower Palaeolithic (Acheulian hand-axes and cleavers): about 6,00,000 – 1,50,000 years BP.
2. Middle Palaeolithic (flake tools): about 1,65,000 – 31,000 BP; Upper Palaeolithic (blades): about 40,000 – 12,000 BP.

Yaad rakhein: Oldest phase → biggest numbers: 6 lakh to 1.5 lakh years.

Answer: (A) 6,00,000–1,50,000 years BP

Concept: Lok Adalats get statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.

1. They are organised by NALSA, State Legal Services Authorities, and District/Taluk legal services bodies.
2. Their award is final and binding like a civil-court decree; no appeal lies against it.
3. Article 39A (equal justice and free legal aid) is the constitutional basis.

Yaad rakhein: Lok Adalat → Legal Services Authorities (NALSA → SLSA → DLSA).

Answer: (B) National and State Legal Services Authorities

Concept: The 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Percival Everett for James.

1. James retells Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the viewpoint of the enslaved man Jim.
2. Erasure, The Trees and Glyph are earlier Everett novels (Erasure was adapted as the film American Fiction).

Yaad rakhein: Huck Finn’s Jim gets his own voice → James.

Answer: (C) James

Concept: In March 2025, IIT Madras launched the “Shri S. Ramakrishnan Centre of Excellence in Fluid and Thermal Science Research”.

1. It was set up with support from IIT Madras alumnus S. Ramakrishnan, to boost research in fluid mechanics and thermal sciences.
2. It is housed in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Yaad rakhein: Chennai-based S. Ramakrishnan centre → IIT Madras.

Answer: (A) Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Concept: Konkani is the official language of Goa and is listed in the Eighth Schedule (71st Amendment, 1992).

1. It is also spoken along the Konkan coast of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.
2. Assam → Assamese, Tripura → Bengali/Kokborok, Arunachal Pradesh → English and many tribal languages.

Yaad rakhein: Goa ↔ Konkani (Konkan coast).

Answer: (C) Goa

Concept: Natural vegetation grows on its own without human help; planted vegetation is grown and cared for by people.

1. Crops, orchards and gardens need human supervision (sowing, watering, protection).
2. Natural (virgin) vegetation is left undisturbed by humans for a long time.
3. Fruits, number of leaves or place of origin are not the defining difference.

Yaad rakhein: Human help? Yes → planted; No → natural.

Answer: (C) Human supervision involved

Concept: Justice B.R. Gavai took oath as the 52nd Chief Justice of India on 14 May 2025.

1. He succeeded Justice Sanjiv Khanna (51st CJI).
2. He is the first Buddhist and the second Dalit CJI (after Justice K.G. Balakrishnan). D.Y. Chandrachud was the 50th and N.V. Ramana the 48th CJI.

Yaad rakhein: 48 Ramana → 49 Lalit → 50 Chandrachud → 51 Khanna → 52 Gavai.

Answer: (C) Justice BR Gavai

Concept: Net sown area is the total area sown with crops in a year, counted only once.

1. If the same land is sown more than once in a year, the extra sowings are added only in gross cropped area.
2. Land left uncultivated for over five years = culturable waste land; land under forests and irrigated area are separate categories.

Yaad rakhein: Gross cropped area = NSA + area sown more than once.

Answer: (A) Total area cultivated with crops during the year

Concept: Globalisation means integrating a country’s economy with the world economy.

1. It works through free flow of trade, investment (FDI), technology and people across borders.
2. In India it was part of the 1991 LPG reforms; it aims to increase, not limit, foreign trade.

Yaad rakhein: Globalisation = local → global integration.

Answer: (D) Integrate the Indian economy with the world

Concept: The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22) under Gandhi was based on non-violence.

1. Programme: surrender of titles, boycott of courts, schools, councils and foreign cloth; refusal to pay taxes was planned as a later stage.
2. When a mob burnt a police station at Chauri Chaura (Feb 1922), Gandhi withdrew the movement – violence was never part of it.

Yaad rakhein: Gandhian movements → anything “violent” is the EXCEPT option.

Answer: (A) violent attacks on officials

Concept: Angle sum of a triangle is ${180}^{\circ }$; an exterior angle equals the sum of the two interior opposite angles.

1. In $△BDC$: $\angle BDC={90}^{\circ }$, $\angle DBC={60}^{\circ }$ ⇒ $\angle C={180}^{\circ }-{90}^{\circ }-{60}^{\circ }={30}^{\circ }$.
2. In $△AEC$: $\angle EAC={49}^{\circ }$, $\angle ECA={30}^{\circ }$.
3. $\angle AEB$ is the exterior angle of $△AEC$ at E: $\angle AEB={49}^{\circ }+{30}^{\circ }={79}^{\circ }$.

Trick: Exterior angle = sum of the two far interior angles – no need to find $\angle AEC$.

Answer: (D) ${79}^{\circ }$

Concept: Total = average × number of items.

1. $R+M+K=3\times 45=135$
2. $R+M=2\times 43=86$, $M+K=2\times 49=98$
3. Adding the two pair-sums counts M twice: $M=86+98-135=49\text{kg}$.

Trick: (sum of the two pairs) − (total of all three) = the common person.

Answer: (B) 49

Concept: Open the brackets carefully (distribute the outside number, watch the minus sign) and combine like terms.

1. $2(\frac{5}{2}{x}^2-28x+17)=5x^2-56x+34$
2. $-5(x^2+6x-18)=-5x^2-30x+90$
3. Add: $(5x^2-5x^2)+(-56x-30x)+(34+90)=-86x+124$

Trick: The $x^2$ terms cancel; only the sign of the constant decides between the options: $34+90=+124$.

Answer: (A) $-86x+124$

Concept: Take tank capacity = LCM of the times; each pipe’s rate = capacity ÷ its time.

1. $\text{LCM}(17,24,18)=1224$ units.
2. Rates: A $=\frac{1224}{17}=72$, B $=\frac{1224}{24}=51$, C $=\frac{1224}{18}=68$ units/h; together $191$ units/h.
3. Time $=\frac{1224}{191}=6\frac{78}{191}$ hours (since $191\times 6=1146$, remainder $78$).

Trick: Together time must be less than the fastest pipe (17 h) and about one-third of it – only $6\frac{78}{191}$ fits.

Answer: (B) $6\frac{78}{191}$ hours

Concept: When the time is the same, profit is shared in the ratio of investments.

1. Ratio $1430:1680:1340=143:168:134$; total $=445$ parts.
2. $445$ parts $=$ ₹$1780$ ⇒ $1$ part $=$ ₹$4$.
3. Avinash $=134\times 4=$ ₹$536$.

Trick: Check: $\frac{1780}{445}=4$ exactly – a clean number confirms the ratio.

Answer: (B) ₹$536$