Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: After the Guptas, the political centre of North India shifted from Pataliputra (Magadha) to Kannauj.

1. The Maukharis ruled from Kannauj (Kanyakubja) in the 6th century; later Harshavardhana made it his capital and it became the prize of the Tripartite Struggle (Palas, Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas).
2. Thanesar was the Pushyabhuti (Vardhana) seat, not Maukhari.

Yaad rakhein: Maukhari = Kannauj; Pushyabhuti = Thanesar; Later Guptas = Magadha.

Answer: (B) Kannauj

Concept: General-purpose (packaged) software is off-the-shelf and serves many users for many tasks; customised/tailor-made software is built for one organisation.

1. LibreOffice Calc is a ready-made spreadsheet package usable by anyone – general-purpose application software.
2. School management software, a company's bespoke accounting software and a customised website are specific-purpose / custom software.

Yaad rakhein: MS Office / LibreOffice / browsers = general-purpose; "made for a company" = customised.

Answer: (D) LibreOffice Calc

Concept: Heat produced in a resistor is directly proportional to $I^2$, $R$ and $t$.

1. Joule's law: $H=I^{2}Rt$ (joule), equivalently $H=VIt=\frac{V^2}{R}t$.
2. $V=IR$ is Ohm's law, not a heat relation; $Vt$ and $\frac{V}{I}$ are not energy expressions.

Yaad rakhein: Doubling current ⇒ 4 times the heat ($I^2$).

Answer: (A) $H=I^{2}Rt$

Concept: India's four main families: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman.

1. Kurukh (Oraon) is a Dravidian language spoken by the Oraon tribe of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
2. Hindi, Urdu and Bengali are Indo-Aryan languages (descended from Sanskrit/Prakrit).

Yaad rakhein: Tribal Dravidian languages in central India: Kurukh, Gondi, Malto.

Answer: (A) Kurukh

Concept: Indian-origin women novelists and their popular works.

1. The Mango Season (2003) is by Amulya Malladi – an NRI woman returns to India in mango season and must tell her family about her American fiancé.
2. Sara Desai (The Marriage Game), Sandhya Menon (When Dimple Met Rishi) and Alka Joshi (The Henna Artist) are other authors.

Yaad rakhein: Amulya Malladi – The Mango Season, A Breath of Fresh Air.

Answer: (A) Amulya Malladi

Concept: The Krishna rises at Mahabaleshwar (Maharashtra) and flows east to the Bay of Bengal.

1. Its basin lies mainly in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (Telangana was part of AP earlier).
2. Gujarat, MP, Odisha and Chhattisgarh are not in the Krishna basin (they belong to Narmada/Mahanadi/Godavari systems).

Yaad rakhein: Krishna tributaries – Bhima, Tungabhadra, Musi; delta near Vijayawada (AP).

Answer: (B) Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh

Concept: Physical (mechanical) weathering by repeated heating and cooling.

1. In deserts the rock surface expands by day and contracts at night; the outer layers peel off in sheets – exfoliation (onion-peel weathering).
2. Solution, oxidation and carbonation are chemical weathering processes needing water/air, not temperature swings.

Yaad rakhein: Exfoliation = "onion peeling" of rocks in hot deserts.

Answer: (C) Exfoliation

Concept: Goa Carnival is a legacy of over 450 years of Portuguese rule.

1. It is a Christian (Catholic) pre-Lenten festival held in February/March, three days before Ash Wednesday, led by "King Momo".
2. Floats, music and feasting mark the last indulgence before the 40-day Lent fast.

Yaad rakhein: Carnival → Lent → Easter: a Christian calendar sequence.

Answer: (D) Christian tradition

Concept: Generations of early computers.

1. Harvard Mark I (1944), built by Howard Aiken with IBM, was the first large-scale electro-mechanical computer (relays and switches).
2. ENIAC (1946) was the first general-purpose electronic computer; EDVAC (stored program) and UNIVAC (first commercial, 1951) came later.

Yaad rakhein: Mark I = electro-mechanical; ENIAC = electronic; UNIVAC = commercial.

Answer: (A) Mark I

Concept: Power $P=\frac{1}{f(\text{m})}$; negative power ⇒ concave (diverging) lens, used to correct myopia (near-sightedness).

1. $P=-2.5\text{D}\Rightarrow f=-\frac{1}{2.5}=-0.4\text{m}=-40\text{cm}$ – a concave lens.
2. Myopia (distant objects blurred, image before retina) is corrected by a concave lens; hypermetropia (far-sightedness) by a convex (+) lens.

Yaad rakhein: Minus power → concave → myopia; plus power → convex → hypermetropia.

Answer: (D) a concave lens used to correct near-sightedness (myopia)

Concept: Eutrophication = nutrient enrichment of a water body.

1. Excess nitrates and phosphates (fertiliser run-off, sewage, detergents) cause an algal bloom; decaying algae use up dissolved oxygen and aquatic life dies.
2. Accumulation of non-degradable chemicals at higher trophic levels is biomagnification, not eutrophication.

Yaad rakhein: "Eu" = well, "trophic" = nourished ⇒ over-fed water ⇒ algal bloom.

Answer: (A) Excessive algal growth caused by nutrient enrichment in water bodies

Concept: The UN Ocean Conference supports SDG 14 (Life Below Water).

1. The 3rd UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) was held in Nice, France, 9–13 June 2025, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica.
2. Earlier editions: New York 2017 (Fiji–Sweden) and Lisbon, Portugal 2022 (Portugal–Kenya).

Yaad rakhein: UNOC: 2017 New York → 2022 Lisbon → 2025 Nice (France).

Answer: (A) France

Concept: India–Iran–Armenia trilateral consultations focus on connectivity (Chabahar, INSTC) and regional cooperation.

1. The 3rd round was held in Tehran, Iran, in September 2025.
2. Earlier rounds: 1st in Yerevan (April 2023), 2nd in New Delhi (December 2024) – so the rotation reached Tehran.

Yaad rakhein: Rotation: Yerevan → New Delhi → Tehran.

Answer: (C) Tehran

Concept: Agri-fintech platforms digitising the farm-to-market supply chain.

1. In December 2025 Ayekart, an Indian agri-food supply-chain fintech company, launched "Aantriva", an AI-enabled platform giving end-to-end visibility of the agri-food supply chain.
2. Syngenta is an agrochemical/seed MNC and Tech Mahindra an IT firm – neither launched Aantriva.

Yaad rakhein: Aantriva ↔ Ayekart (both begin with "A", agri supply chain).

Answer: (D) Ayekart

Concept: 16 September marks the signing of the Montreal Protocol (1987).

1. World Ozone Day 2025 theme: "From Science to Global Action" – 2025 also marked 40 years of the Vienna Convention (1985).
2. "Ozone for Life" was the 2020 theme (35 years of ozone-layer protection); "Montreal Protocol: fixing the ozone layer and reducing climate change" was 2023.

Yaad rakhein: 1985 Vienna Convention → 1987 Montreal Protocol → 2016 Kigali Amendment (HFCs).

Answer: (A) From Science to Global Action

Concept: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 was awarded to the Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai.

1. The Swedish Academy honoured him 'for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art'.
2. He was born in Gyula, Hungary (1954); famous works: Satantango, The Melancholy of Resistance.
3. He is the second Hungarian to win the Literature Nobel after Imre Kertész (2002).

Remember: Krasznahorkai → 'Satantango' → Hungary (films by Hungarian director Béla Tarr).

Answer: (D) Hungary

Concept: Harappan religion was centred on fertility worship; the chief female deity was the Mother Goddess.

1. Numerous terracotta figurines of a female figure (Matri Devi) have been found at Harappan sites, showing worship of the Mother Goddess as a fertility deity.
2. Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are Puranic/Vedic-later deities – not known from Harappan evidence.
3. The chief male deity was the Pashupati (proto-Shiva) figure on a seal.

Remember: Harappa: female → Mother Goddess (terracotta); male → Pashupati (seal).

Answer: (A) Mother Goddess

Concept: The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 inserted Part XIV-A (Articles 323A and 323B) on Tribunals.

1. Article 323A empowers Parliament to set up Administrative Tribunals for disputes about recruitment and service conditions of public servants (Central/State services).
2. Article 323B allows tribunals for other matters (tax, land reforms, elections, etc.) by the appropriate legislature.
3. Under 323A, Parliament enacted the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 (CAT).

Remember: 42nd Amendment = 'Mini Constitution' → Part XIV-A tribunals; 323A → service matters (CAT).

Answer: (B) Service conditions of public servants

Concept: Aurobindo Ghosh gave the extremist movement a spiritual-nationalist ideology and a programme of passive resistance.

1. In his articles in Bande Mataram and 'The Doctrine of Passive Resistance' (1907) he advocated boycott, swadeshi, national education and non-cooperation with the colonial state.
2. He saw nationalism as a religion – the nation as the Mother (Bhavani Bharati) – linking politics with spiritual ideals.
3. Petitions (B) was the Moderate method; socialist-labour ideology (D) belongs to later revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh.

Remember: Aurobindo → 'Bande Mataram' paper + passive resistance + spiritual nationalism (later Pondicherry ashram).

Answer: (C) Promoting passive resistance and boycott by linking nationalism with spiritual ideals

Concept: The 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention was held at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 8–10 January 2025.

1. Its theme was 'Diaspora's Contribution to a Viksit Bharat'; PM Modi inaugurated it, and Trinidad & Tobago President Christine Carla Kangaloo was the chief guest.
2. PBD is celebrated on 9 January – the day Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1915.
3. 17th PBD (2023, Indore) theme: 'Diaspora: Reliable partners for India's progress in Amrit Kaal'.

Remember: PBD 2025 → Bhubaneswar → 'Viksit Bharat' (Vision 2047 keyword).

Answer: (B) Diaspora's contribution to a Viksit Bharat