Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Appointment news, January 2025.

1. IAS officer Azimul Haque was appointed CEO of the Delhi Waqf Board, with approval of Delhi LG V. K. Saxena.
2. The post had been vacant since November 2024.

Yaad rakhein: Waqf Boards are statutory bodies under the Waqf Act, 1995.

Answer: (B) Azimul Haque

Concept: PM-YUVA = Prime Minister's scheme for mentoring young authors (under 30).

1. Edition 3.0 was launched in March 2025 by the Ministry of Education (Department of Higher Education).
2. National Book Trust, India implements it.
3. Not the Youth Affairs ministry – the 'YUVA' name is the trap.

Yaad rakhein: Writing/books schemes → Ministry of Education + National Book Trust.

Answer: (B) Ministry of Education

Concept: Cabinet decision, May 2025, under the Centrally Sponsored National Scheme for ITI Upgradation.

1. Five National Centres of Excellence for skilling were approved (announced in Budget 2025-26).
2. They will come up by upgrading National Skill Training Institutes (e.g. Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Ludhiana).

Yaad rakhein: Same scheme covers upgrading 1,000 government ITIs in hub-and-spoke mode.

Answer: (B) 5

Concept: A game with both individual and pair formats is needed.

1. Badminton has singles (1 v 1) and doubles (2 v 2), including mixed doubles.
2. Football (11), volleyball (6) and kabaddi (7) are team-only games.

Trick: Singles + doubles games: badminton, tennis, table tennis – all racket sports.

Answer: (A) Badminton

Concept: India's first individual Olympic gold came in shooting.

1. Abhinav Bindra – men's 10 m air rifle, Beijing 2008.
2. Earlier golds were all in team hockey (first in 1928).
3. Second individual gold: Neeraj Chopra, javelin, Tokyo 2020.

Yaad rakhein: Only two individual golds so far: Bindra (2008, shooting) and Neeraj (2020, javelin).

Answer: (B) Shooting

Concept: MATSYA 6000 is India's crewed deep-sea submersible under the Samudrayaan project.

1. Samudrayaan is part of the Deep Ocean Mission (Ministry of Earth Sciences).
2. Built by NIOT, Chennai, to take 3 people to 6,000 m depth.
3. Chandrayaan, Shukrayaan, Gaganyaan are ISRO space missions.

Trick: 'Matsya' = fish → ocean; the name itself points to the sea mission.

Answer: (B) Deep Ocean Mission

Concept: Sant Singaji of Nimar (Madhya Pradesh) composed in the Nirguni tradition.

1. Nirguni bhakti worships a formless God and rejects ritual and idol worship.
2. His bhajans are compared with those of Kabir; his samadhi is in Khandwa district.
3. 'Bhakti-Kavya' is a broad label, not the specific stream; Dhrupad and Qawwali are music forms.

Yaad rakhein: Nirguna saints: Kabir, Ravidas, Dadu, Singaji; Saguna: Tulsidas, Surdas, Mirabai.

Answer: (B) Nirguni

Concept: Yuva Puraskar 2025 (English) went to a retelling of the Buddha's early life.

1. Siddhartha: The Boy Who Became the Buddha is by Advait Kottary.
2. The Yuva Puraskar is for writers aged 35 or below, in 24 languages.

Yaad rakhein: Yuva Puraskar = age ≤ 35; Bal Sahitya Puraskar = children's literature; both by the Sahitya Akademi.

Answer: (B) Advait Kottary

Concept: The original Meenakshi temple at Madurai is credited to the Pandya king Kulasekhara.

1. Dedicated to Meenakshi (Parvati) and Sundareswarar (Shiva), on the Vaigai river.
2. Its present grand gopurams were largely added by the Madurai Nayakas (16th–17th c.).
3. Rajaraja Chola built Brihadeeswara (Thanjavur); Mahendravarman I was a Pallava rock-cut patron.

Yaad rakhein: Madurai = Pandya capital → Pandya king; Thanjavur = Chola; Kanchi/Mahabalipuram = Pallava.

Answer: (B) Kulasekhara

Concept: The Dhamoni Urs is an annual fair at Dhamoni, Sagar district, Madhya Pradesh.

1. 'Urs' = yearly remembrance of a Sufi saint's passing; here devotees gather at a dargah within Dhamoni's old fort.
2. People of all faiths attend – a sign of Bundelkhand's shared culture.

Yaad rakhein: Other MP fairs: Simhastha (Ujjain), Singaji fair (Khandwa), Bhagoria (Jhabua/Alirajpur region).

Answer: (B) Madhya Pradesh

Concept: Shikaar Nritya is a tribal folk dance of Gujarat.

1. Tribal groups of the Dharampur–Valsad belt in south Gujarat perform it.
2. Dancers act out a hunt with bows, arrows and spears.

Yaad rakhein: Gujarat dances: Garba, Dandiya Raas, Bhavai, Tippani, Padhar, Shikaar.

Answer: (B) Gujarat

Concept: Continuous weather watching needs a satellite that stays over the same spot – a geostationary satellite.

1. It orbits ~36,000 km above the equator with a 24-hour period, so it appears fixed.
2. This gives frequent images of clouds and cyclones (e.g. INSAT-3D series).

Yaad rakhein: Geostationary → weather & communication; polar/sun-synchronous → detailed earth mapping.

Answer: (B) Geo-stationary satellite

Concept: Mechanical energy = kinetic energy + potential energy → 2 types.

1. Kinetic energy (motion): KE = ½mv².
2. Potential energy (position/shape): PE = mgh for height.

Yaad rakhein: With only conservative forces, KE + PE stays constant (conservation of mechanical energy).

Answer: (B) 2

Concept: NFRA teamed up with IIT Kanpur for a hackathon on LLMs and Generative AI (2025).

1. Goal: build AI tools to analyse financial and audit documents.
2. NFRA, created in 2018 (Companies Act 2013, Sec. 132), regulates auditors.

Yaad rakhein: NFRA = National Financial Reporting Authority – oversees auditors and accounting standards.

Answer: (B) IIT Kanpur

Concept: Baji Rao I was the son of Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath.

1. He became Peshwa in 1720 under Chhatrapati Shahu and served till 1740.
2. Won at Palkhed (1728) against the Nizam; his son Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb) succeeded him.
3. Raghunath Rao was his son; Moropant Pingle was Shivaji's Peshwa.

Yaad rakhein: Peshwa line: Balaji Vishwanath → Baji Rao I → Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb) → Madhav Rao I.

Answer: (B) Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath

Concept: Capital expenditure creates an asset or reduces a liability; otherwise it is revenue expenditure.

1. Machinery, roads → physical assets; investment in PSUs → financial asset. All capital.
2. Subsidies create no asset and cut no liability → revenue expenditure.

Trick: Ask: 'Does the government own something new or owe less after spending?' If no → revenue.

Answer: (B) Subsidies

Concept: The 1858 Act ended Company rule and placed India directly under the British Crown.

1. Statement I: the Governor-General also became Viceroy – Lord Canning was the first. Correct.
2. Statement II: the Crown's policy (Queen's Proclamation, 1858) promised not to interfere in Indian religious and social customs. Correct.
3. So both I and II.

Yaad rakhein: 1858 Act also created the Secretary of State for India with a 15-member Council of India.

Answer: (D) Both I and II

Concept: A Rajya Sabha member's term is 6 years.

1. Rajya Sabha is a permanent house – never dissolved.
2. One-third of members retire every 2 years.

Yaad rakhein: Rajya Sabha: 6-year member, 1/3 every 2 years; Lok Sabha: 5 years, can be dissolved.

Answer: (C) 6 years

Concept: The Census is conducted under the Census Act, 1948.

1. It makes answering compulsory and keeps individual data confidential.
2. Run by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Yaad rakhein: First census 1872 (Lord Mayo); first synchronous census 1881 (Lord Ripon).

Answer: (A) 1948

Concept: HCl makes the stomach strongly acidic (pH ~1.5–3.5), the medium pepsin needs.

1. HCl converts inactive pepsinogen into active pepsin, which digests proteins.
2. It also kills germs in food.
3. It does not neutralise food or make the stomach alkaline; it helps, not prevents, protein digestion.

Yaad rakhein: HCl comes from parietal (oxyntic) cells; mucus protects the stomach lining from it.

Answer: (C) To create an acidic medium for enzyme action