Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Garud Shakti is the joint special forces exercise between India and Indonesia.

1. The 9th edition of Exercise Garud Shakti was held in Jakarta (Cijantung), Indonesia, in November 2024.
2. India was represented by the Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) and Indonesia by Kopassus (Komando Pasukan Khusus), its Army Special Forces Command.
3. Kostrad is the Army Strategic Reserve, Marinir are marines, TNI-AU is the Air Force.

Yaad rakhein: Garud Shakti = Para SF (India) + Kopassus (Indonesia).

Answer: (D) Kopassus

Concept: Articles 315–323 provide for Public Service Commissions.

1. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to All India Services (IAS, IPS, IFoS) and central services.
2. The Election Commission conducts elections, the CAG audits accounts and the Finance Commission recommends tax sharing – none recruits.

Yaad rakhein: Recruitment for Centre/AIS → UPSC (Art. 315).

Answer: (D) Union Public Service Commission

Concept: The Paris Agreement was adopted at COP21 of the UNFCCC in December 2015.

1. Its central aim is to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, pursuing efforts to keep it to 1.5 °C.
2. Countries submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Desertification is handled by UNCCD, not the Paris Agreement.

Yaad rakhein: Paris 2015 → "below 2 °C, aim 1.5 °C".

Answer: (A) limit global temperature rise

Concept: The three Tamil kingdoms (Muvendar) of the Sangam age were the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas.

1. Cholas – Kaveri delta (Uraiyur, later Thanjavur); Pandyas – Madurai; Cheras – Karur/Vanji (Kerala and western Tamil Nadu).
2. The Rashtrakutas ruled the Deccan from Manyakheta (Karnataka) – they were not a Tamil kingdom.

Yaad rakhein: Sangam trio: Chera–Chola–Pandya; Rashtrakuta = Deccan.

Answer: (A) Rashtrakutas

Concept: Mass movement is the downslope movement of rock and soil under gravity; landslides are rapid mass movements.

1. A slump is a type of landslide in which a block of rock/soil slips down along a curved (concave) surface with backward rotation.
2. Other landslides: debris slide, rock slide and rock fall. Weathering is in-situ breakdown, not movement.

Yaad rakhein: Slump = rotational slide (landslide).

Answer: (D) landslide

Concept: Satyagraha is the method of resisting injustice through truth and non-violence.

1. Gandhi held that means and ends are inseparable – "as the means, so the end"; he compared the means to a seed and the end to a tree.
2. Hence pure ends require pure means; he rejected "the end justifies the means" and any use of violence.

Yaad rakhein: Gandhi: Means = seed, End = tree.

Answer: (D) Pure ends require pure means.

Concept: A semicryogenic engine burns refined kerosene with liquid oxygen; ISRO is developing a 2000 kN engine for its LVM3 upgrade.

1. On 24 April 2025, ISRO conducted the hot test of the semicryogenic engine (power head test article) at the ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.
2. IPRC is ISRO’s centre for assembly, integration and testing of liquid and cryogenic engines. Sriharikota is the launch port.

Yaad rakhein: Engine testing → Mahendragiri; Launch → Sriharikota.

Answer: (A) ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendra Giri

Concept: The Mines Act regulates working conditions, safety, hours and welfare of mine workers.

1. The Mines Act was enacted in 1952 (replacing the Indian Mines Act, 1923).
2. It is administered by the Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), Dhanbad. Its provisions are now being subsumed in the OSH Code, 2020.

Yaad rakhein: Mines Act 1952 – DGMS, Dhanbad.

Answer: (D) 1952

Concept: Indian cinema has mainstream (commercial) and alternative (parallel/indie) streams.

1. Bollywood – the Mumbai (Bombay)-based Hindi film industry – makes commercial films known for songs, dance, melodrama and spectacle.
2. Parallel cinema (Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal) is realistic and art-oriented; indie films are low-budget independent films; regional cinema is in other languages.

Yaad rakhein: Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood.

Answer: (C) Bollywood

Concept: The Rowlatt Act (March 1919) allowed detention without trial and was called the "Black Act".

1. Gandhi called for a nationwide hartal on 6 April 1919 against the Rowlatt Act – his first all-India satyagraha.
2. Protests in Amritsar after the arrest of Dr Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew led to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on 13 April 1919 under General Dyer.
3. Partition of Bengal was 1905, Minto-Morley 1909, Simon Commission 1927–28.

Yaad rakhein: 1919: Rowlatt Act → 6 April hartal → 13 April Jallianwala Bagh.

Answer: (B) Rowlatt Act

Concept: Article 324 says the ECI shall consist of the CEC and "such number of other Election Commissioners, if any, as the President may fix".

1. So the Constitution does not fix its size – it may be single-member or multi-member.
2. From 1950 it functioned with only the CEC; two ECs were first appointed in October 1989 (removed in 1990), and since 1993 it has been a three-member body.

Yaad rakhein: Art. 324: "if any" → size decided by the President.

Answer: (D) It may be single or multi-member; initially, there was only a Chief Election Commissioner until 1989.

Concept: ASCII is the most widely used character-encoding standard for text in computers.

1. ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange; it is a 7-bit code representing 128 characters (extended ASCII uses 8 bits, 256 characters).
2. Example: "A" = 65, "a" = 97.

Yaad rakhein: ASCII and EBCDIC both end in "Interchange Code".

Answer: (B) American Standard Code for Information Interchange

Concept: India has 18 biosphere reserves; MP has three – Pachmarhi, Panna and Amarkantak (shared with Chhattisgarh).

1. Panna Biosphere Reserve (Madhya Pradesh) was notified in 2011 and added to UNESCO’s MAB network in 2020; it includes Panna Tiger Reserve on the Ken river.
2. Manas – Assam; Nanda Devi – Uttarakhand; Similipal – Odisha.

Yaad rakhein: MP biosphere reserves: Panna, Pachmarhi, Amarkantak.

Answer: (D) Panna Biosphere Reserve

Concept: The Drain of Wealth theory explains how India’s wealth was transferred to Britain without equivalent return.

1. Dadabhai Naoroji propounded it in his book "Poverty and Un-British Rule in India" (1901).
2. Home charges, salaries and pensions of British officials and profits of British firms were the main channels of drain. R C Dutt and M G Ranade supported the critique, but the theory is Naoroji’s.

Yaad rakhein: Drain theory – Naoroji, "Grand Old Man of India".

Answer: (C) Dadabhai Naoroji

Concept: Container ports handle standardised cargo boxes measured in TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).

1. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) is India’s largest container port, handling about half of the country’s container traffic.
2. Kandla (Deendayal) is the largest by total cargo; Paradip leads in dry bulk on the east coast.

Yaad rakhein: Largest container port – Nhava Sheva (JNPA); largest cargo – Deendayal (Kandla).

Answer: (A) Nhava Sheva

Concept: If the whole group and one part have the same percentage, the remaining part must also have that percentage.

1. Females $=376000-230000=146000$.
2. Literate total $=11\%\times 376000=41360$; literate males $=11\%\times 230000=25300$.
3. Literate females $=41360-25300=16060$, so $\frac{16060}{146000}\times 100=11\%$.

Trick: Total 11% and males 11% ⇒ females also 11% – no calculation needed.

Answer: (D) $11\%$

Concept: Profit is shared in the ratio of $\text{capital}\times \text{time}$.

1. Shares: $P+H=7049$, $P-H=1007$ ⇒ $P=4028$, $H=3021$; ratio $=4028:3021=4:3$.
2. Let Hemant’s capital $=x$; Praveen’s $=x+16000$. Then $\frac{7(x+16000)}{6x}=\frac{4}{3}$.
3. $21(x+16000)=24x$ ⇒ $3x=336000$ ⇒ $x=112000$.
4. Praveen’s capital $=112000+16000=128000$.

Trick: Check options: ₹1,28,000 − 16,000 = ₹1,12,000; $\frac{7\times 128}{6\times 112}=\frac{4}{3}$ ✓.

Answer: (D) ₹1,28,000

Concept: In a right triangle, $\tan \theta =\frac{\text{opposite}}{\text{adjacent}}$; here the height is opposite to the angle at the point.

1. Let the building be AB with height $h$ and the point P at distance $x$ from the foot B.
2. $\tan {30}^{\circ }=\frac{h}{x}$ and $\tan {30}^{\circ }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$.
3. So $h=\frac{x}{\sqrt{3}}$.

Trick: Angle ${30}^{\circ }$ ⇒ height is the smaller side: $h=\frac{x}{\sqrt{3}}$; at ${60}^{\circ }$ it would be $x\sqrt{3}$.

Answer: (D) $\frac{x}{\sqrt{3}}$

Concept: Equal SI for the same time ⇒ $\text{principal}\times \text{rate}$ is equal, so principals are in the inverse ratio of rates.

1. $x\times 6\times 3=(21100-x)\times 14\times 3$.
2. $6x=14(21100-x)$ ⇒ $20x=295400$ ⇒ $x=14770$.
3. Check: ratio $=14:6=7:3$; $\frac{7}{10}\times 21100=14770$.

Trick: Sums ∝ $\frac{1}{\text{rate}}$: $6\%:14\%$ ⇒ $7:3$; amount at 6% $=\frac{7}{10}$ of total.

Answer: (C) 14,770

Concept: An isosceles triangle has two equal sides; perimeter $=2a+b$.

1. $2a+44=184$.
2. $2a=140$ ⇒ $a=70\text{cm}$.

Trick: Equal side $=\frac{\text{perimeter}-\text{base}}{2}=\frac{184-44}{2}$.

Answer: (D) 70