Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Moving cheetahs from Africa to India is the first inter-continental relocation of a large wild carnivore.

1. Project Cheetah: cheetahs from Namibia (Sept 2022) and South Africa (Feb 2023) released in Kuno National Park, MP.
2. India lost its native cheetah population by the mid-20th century; it was officially declared extinct in 1952.
3. Tiger, crocodile projects work within India – no continental shift.

Trick: 'Inter-continental' = animals brought from another continent – only the cheetahs came from Africa.

Answer: (B) Project Cheetah

Concept: Match each novel with its author.

1. The Illicit Happiness of Other People – Manu Joseph (his first novel was Serious Men).
2. The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai; Clear Light of Day – Anita Desai; The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy.

Trick: Mother–daughter pair: Anita Desai (Clear Light of Day) and Kiran Desai (The Inheritance of Loss, Booker 2006).

Answer: (C) The Illicit Happiness of Other People

Concept: Abhangas are Marathi devotional songs of the Varkari Bhakti tradition.

1. They are devoted to Vithoba, the deity worshipped at Pandharpur in Maharashtra.
2. Composed by saints like Tukaram, Namdev and Dnyaneshwar.

Trick: Link 'Abhang' → Tukaram → Pandharpur → Maharashtra.

Answer: (C) Maharashtra

Concept: Jhoda is a Kumaoni group dance of Uttarakhand.

1. Men and women dance in a circle, arms linked; it is performed on festive occasions including the full-moon night of Holi.
2. Dandiya – Gujarat; Yakshagana and Dollu Kunitha – Karnataka.

Trick: Eliminate by state: two Karnataka forms and one Gujarat form leave only Jhoda.

Answer: (C) Jhoda

Concept: A satellite over the equator at ~35,786 km with 0° inclination has a 24-hour period and looks fixed from Earth.

1. Equatorial plane + zero inclination + ~36,000 km = geostationary orbit.
2. LEO is below ~2,000 km; MEO lies between LEO and GEO; HEO is a stretched elliptical orbit.

Trick: '36,000 km' in a question almost always means GEO (communication satellites like GSAT/INSAT).

Answer: (C) Geostationary Orbit

Concept: Evaporation depends on surface area, temperature, wind speed and humidity.

1. Higher temperature, more air flow and drier air all increase evaporation.
2. Buoyant force (upthrust on immersed bodies) decides floating/sinking – it has no role in evaporation.

Trick: Three options are standard textbook factors; the odd physics term (buoyancy) is the answer.

Answer: (C) Buoyant force

Concept: Energy due to height above the ground = gravitational potential energy, PE = mgh.

1. PE depends on mass, g and height.
2. Kinetic energy (½mv²) needs motion; chemical energy is stored in bonds; thermal energy is heat.

Trick: Position → Potential; Motion → Kinetic.

Answer: (B) Gravitational potential energy

Concept: Pavana Chitra is India's first self-powered indoor air-quality monitor set up at an airport.

1. Inaugurated in October 2024 at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, Kerala.
2. Its power comes from indoor photovoltaic cells made by the CSIR lab NIIST.

Trick: CSIR-NIIST is in Thiruvananthapuram – the facility was installed in its home city.

Answer: (B) Thiruvananthapuram International Airport

Concept: Northeast Frontier Railway (HQ Maligaon, Guwahati) was the first zone to adopt compostable bioplastics.

1. In August 2025, NFR replaced single-use plastic (e.g. linen packaging) on trains with compostable bioplastic bags.
2. The bags were developed with IIT Guwahati.

Trick: IIT Guwahati partner → zone headquartered in Guwahati → NFR.

Answer: (B) Northeast Frontier Railway

Concept: Later Mughal emperors were often puppets of powerful nobles.

1. Farrukh Siyar was deposed and killed (1719) by the Sayyid Brothers.
2. Alamgir II was murdered (1759) at the instance of his wazir Imad-ul-Mulk.
3. Pushyamitra Shunga was the killer (of the last Mauryan, Brihadratha), not the victim.

Trick: Pushyamitra = assassin, not assassinated – remove III and only 'I and II' remains.

Answer: (C) Both I and II

Concept: The graph of price against quantity demanded is the demand curve.

1. Price on Y-axis, quantity demanded on X-axis.
2. It slopes downward (law of demand: price ↑ → demand ↓).
3. A supply schedule is a table for supply, not demand.

Trick: 'Quantity demanded' in the question → 'Demand' in the answer.

Answer: (B) Demand Curve

Concept: NIP was unveiled on 31 December 2019.

1. Launched by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with about ₹102 lakh crore of projects for FY 2020–25 (later ~₹111 lakh crore).
2. Energy, roads, railways and urban infrastructure form the largest share.

Trick: Remember '31-12-2019' – the pipeline was announced on the last day of 2019.

Answer: (B) 2019

Concept: The Abhijit Sen working group on WPI revision gave its report in 2008.

1. Key suggestion: shift the index to a 2004-05 base (earlier 1993-94) and include more commodities.
2. The 2004-05 series was released in 2010.

Trick: WPI base-year chain: 1993-94 → 2004-05 (Abhijit Sen) → 2011-12 (current).

Answer: (B) 2008

Concept: List III (Concurrent) of the Seventh Schedule: both Parliament and states can legislate.

1. Criminal law and criminal procedure are Concurrent List subjects.
2. Defence, foreign affairs and broadcasting are in the Union List.

Trick: Matters of national security and external relations are always Union subjects – eliminate them first.

Answer: (B) Criminal Matters

Concept: India has three recognised cropping seasons: Kharif, Rabi and Zaid.

1. Kharif – monsoon sowing (rice, maize); Rabi – winter sowing (wheat, mustard); Zaid – short summer season (watermelon, cucumber).
2. 'Summer-sown' is just a description, not a named season – summer crops already fall under Zaid.

Trick: Three seasons, three names – anything that is not Kharif, Rabi or Zaid is the odd one.

Answer: (A) Summer-sown

Concept: K.C. Pant headed the Planning Commission as its Deputy Chairman from 1999 to 2004 (Vajpayee era).

1. The Tenth Plan (2002–07) was prepared and launched in his tenure.
2. The Ninth Plan began in 1997, before him; the Eleventh (2007–12) came under Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Trick: Match years: tenure 1999–2004 overlaps the start of the 2002–07 plan only.

Answer: (C) Tenth Five-Year Plan

Concept: Non-tariff measures restrict imports through means other than ordinary customs duty.

1. Anti-dumping measures counter below-normal-price imports – a trade-remedy NTM.
2. Technical barriers (standards, testing, labelling) limit imports without duty.
3. Export subsidies support a country's own exports; they do not regulate imports.

Trick: The question says 'regulate imports' – an export-side tool (III) is out at once.

Answer: (C) Both I and II

Concept: 1921 is called the 'year of the great divide' – after it, death rates fell steadily.

1. Control of epidemics (plague, cholera, smallpox), vaccination and better sanitation/health care lowered mortality.
2. War raises deaths, AI did not exist then, and fertility does not reduce mortality.

Trick: Eliminate the anachronism (AI) and the opposite effect (war) – health care is left.

Answer: (D) Better healthcare and sanitation

Concept: Amoeba moves and feeds using temporary cytoplasmic projections called pseudopodia ('false feet').

1. The same projections help it crawl and also wrap around food, which is then digested inside a vacuole.
2. Microvilli, by contrast, are fixed, tiny projections on gut-lining cells for absorption.

Trick: Pseudo = false, podia = feet – temporary 'feet' that appear and disappear.

Answer: (C) Pseudopodia

Concept: The four Purusharthas: Dharma (duty), Artha (wealth), Kama (desire), Moksha (liberation).

1. Moksha = freedom from the cycle of birth and death – spiritual liberation.
2. Worldly desires = Kama; material prosperity = Artha.

Trick: Order to remember: D-A-K-M – Moksha is the final goal, beyond the three worldly aims.

Answer: (C) Spiritual freedom