Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Gangaur is celebrated mainly in Rajasthan and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in honour of Gauri, i.e. Goddess Parvati, with Gan (Lord Shiva).

1. 'Gan' = Shiva, 'Gaur' = Gauri (Parvati).
2. It falls in Chaitra after Holi; married women pray for their husbands' welfare and unmarried girls for a good husband.

Yaad rakhein: Gan + Gaur = Shiva + Gauri (Parvati).

Answer: (C) Goddess Parvati

Concept: The Arabian Sea branch of the southwest monsoon first strikes the Kerala coast, normally around 1 June – the official 'monsoon onset' over India.

1. Kerala lies at the southern tip, directly in the path of the moist SW winds.
2. Tamil Nadu (Coromandel coast) lies in the rain-shadow and gets most rain from the northeast monsoon (October–December).

Yaad rakhein: Monsoon onset = Kerala, 1 June.

Answer: (C) Kerala

Concept: The 44th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1978 (Janata government) deleted the right to property from Part III.

1. Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31 were repealed.
2. Property became a legal (constitutional) right under the new Article 300A in Part XII.

Yaad rakhein: 44th (1978) – property 'out' of Fundamental Rights, 'in' Article 300A.

Answer: (B) 1978

Concept: SIDBI was set up on 2 April 1990 under an Act of Parliament as the principal financial institution for MSMEs.

1. Headquarters: Lucknow.
2. It was initially a wholly owned subsidiary of IDBI; ownership later passed to public sector banks and other institutions.

Yaad rakhein: SIDBI – 1990 – Lucknow – MSME.

Answer: (A) 1990

Concept: Philipp Lenard studied cathode rays produced in low-pressure gas discharge tubes in the 1890s and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905 for this work.

1. Applying a voltage across metal electrodes in a low-pressure gas tube produced rays (radiation) – Lenard even passed them out through a thin aluminium 'Lenard window'.
2. Hess – cosmic rays; Dirac – relativistic quantum theory of the electron; Yukawa – meson theory.

Yaad rakhein: Lenard = cathode rays (Nobel 1905).

Answer: (B) Philipp Lenard

Concept: Article 77 (Conduct of business of the Government of India): all executive action of the Government of India shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.

1. Article 77 also lets the President make rules for convenient transaction and allocation of business among ministers.
2. Article 81 – composition of Lok Sabha; Article 67 – term of the Vice-President; Article 48 – agriculture and animal husbandry (DPSP).

Yaad rakhein: Art. 77 → Union (in the name of the President); Art. 166 → State (in the name of the Governor).

Answer: (C) Article 77

Concept: Triploblastic animals (flatworms to chordates) develop three germ layers: outer ectoderm, inner endoderm and the third, middle layer – the mesoderm.

1. Diploblastic animals (e.g. cnidarians) have only ectoderm and endoderm with non-cellular mesoglea between them.
2. The extra (third) layer added in triploblasts is the mesoderm, which forms muscles, bones, blood, kidneys, etc.
3. Coelom is a body cavity lined by mesoderm – not a germ layer.

Yaad rakhein: Tri = three: Ecto (outer) – Meso (middle, the 'third') – Endo (inner).

Answer: (A) Mesoderm

Concept: The bar is a metric unit of pressure defined as $1\text{bar}={10}^5\text{Pa}$.

1. $1\text{atm}=101325\text{Pa}$.
2. So $1\text{bar}=\frac{100000}{101325}\text{atm}\approx 0.986923\text{atm}$.
3. Quart and gallon are units of volume; yard is a unit of length.

Yaad rakhein: 1 bar is just a little less than 1 atm.

Answer: (A) Bar

Concept: Talvin Singh is a British-Indian tabla player and composer, known for fusing tabla with electronic music ('Asian Underground').

1. His album 'OK' won the Mercury Music Prize in 1999.
2. Shehnai – Bismillah Khan; flute – Hariprasad Chaurasia; veena – S. Balachander.

Yaad rakhein: Talvin Singh = tabla + electronica.

Answer: (D) tabla

Concept: 1991–92 was the crisis year when the New Economic Policy began; industrial growth almost stalled.

1. Import compression, the foreign-exchange crisis and tight credit pulled industrial output down sharply.
2. The Index of Industrial Production showed only a marginal positive growth of about $0.6\%$ in 1991–92 (against over $8\%$ in 1990–91).

Yaad rakhein: 1991–92 industry: positive but tiny – $0.6\%$.

Answer: (B) positive; 0.6 Percent

Concept: Padma Subrahmanyam is a renowned Bharatanatyam dancer and researcher (creator of Bharata Nrithyam); she received the Padma Bhushan in 2003 and Padma Vibhushan in 2024.

1. Mallika Sarabhai – Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam, not Kathak.
2. Jhelum Paranjape – Odissi, not Kuchipudi.
3. K. Uma Rama Rao – Kuchipudi, not Odissi.

Yaad rakhein: Padma Subrahmanyam = Bharatanatyam.

Answer: (A) Padma Subrahmanyam – Bharatnatyam

Concept: In a progressive tax the rate rises as income rises, so the marginal tax rate (on the next rupee) is higher than the average tax rate (total tax ÷ income).

1. Proportional tax – same rate at all incomes, so marginal = average.
2. Regressive tax – burden falls as income rises, so marginal < average.
3. Indian income-tax slabs are a common example of progressive taxation.

Yaad rakhein: Marginal > Average → Progressive; equal → Proportional; less → Regressive.

Answer: (D) Progressive

Concept: Lord Cornwallis (1786–93) created a professional civil service – the 'Father of Civil Services in India'.

1. He raised salaries and banned private trade and gifts, making officials full-time professionals (professionalisation).
2. He codified rules – the Cornwallis Code (1793) – and built a hierarchy of officials (bureaucratisation).
3. He kept higher posts reserved for Europeans, excluding Indians (Europeanisation).

Yaad rakhein: Cornwallis – Civil Services, Cornwallis Code, Permanent Settlement (1793).

Answer: (B) Lord Cornwallis

Concept: Actinoids are the 15 elements from actinium (Ac, 89) to lawrencium (Lr, 103); thorium (Th, 90) is one of them.

1. Lanthanum (57) and lutetium (71) belong to the lanthanoid series.
2. Magnesium (12) is an alkaline earth metal (group 2).
3. Thorium is a radioactive actinoid used as a nuclear fuel source (India has large thorium reserves in monazite sand).

Yaad rakhein: Actinoids: Ac 89 → Lr 103 (Th, Pa, U, Pu …).

Answer: (D) Thorium

Concept: 'The Great Indian Novel' (1989) by Shashi Tharoor retells the Indian freedom struggle and early post-independence politics through the framework of the Mahabharata.

1. Characters are satirical versions of real leaders – e.g. Gandhi appears as Ganga Datta (Bhishma).
2. Khushwant Singh – Train to Pakistan; Kuldip Nayar – journalist (Beyond the Lines); Sarojini Naidu – poet (The Golden Threshold).

Yaad rakhein: Tharoor = Great Indian Novel (Mahabharata satire).

Answer: (A) Shashi Tharoor

Concept: Alarmel Valli is a leading exponent of the Pandanallur style (bani) of Bharatanatyam.

1. She trained under Guru Pandanallur Chokkalingam Pillai and his son Subbaraya Pillai.
2. Pandanallur style is known for geometric precision and sculpturesque poses; Vazhuvoor and Melattur are other banis.
3. Awards: Padma Shri (1991), Padma Bhushan (2004).

Yaad rakhein: Alarmel Valli → Pandanallur bani.

Answer: (B) Pandanallur style

Concept: Leaching is the removal of soluble nutrients or contaminants by water percolating down, carrying them away or into the lower layers of the soil.

1. Heavy rainfall leaches bases (Ca, Mg, K) from the top soil – e.g. laterite soils in high-rainfall areas.
2. Ploughing and sowing are farming operations; bleaching is removing colour – none moves nutrients downward with water.

Yaad rakhein: Leaching = washing down by water (like tea leaching from a tea bag).

Answer: (B) Leaching

Concept: NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the ISS produced the first Bose-Einstein Condensate in orbit in 2018 using rubidium atoms.

1. Rubidium atoms were cooled to about one ten-millionth of a kelvin above absolute zero.
2. BEC was first made on Earth in 1995 (Cornell and Wieman) also with rubidium-87.
3. Plutonium, radium and thorium are radioactive heavy elements unsuitable for such laser cooling.

Yaad rakhein: BEC in space (2018) = Rubidium, Cold Atom Lab.

Answer: (A) Rubidium

Concept: Malavikagnimitram is a Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa – the love story of Shunga king Agnimitra and the maid Malavika.

1. Kalidasa's three plays: Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvashiyam, Abhijnanashakuntalam.
2. Bhavabhuti – Uttararamacharita, Malatimadhava; Harisena – Prayag Prashasti of Samudragupta; Pingala – Chhandashastra (prosody).

Yaad rakhein: Kalidasa plays = M-V-A (Malavika, Vikram-Urvashi, Abhijnana-Shakuntala).

Answer: (B) Kalidasa

Concept: Kabaddi's first Arjuna Award went to Sadanand Mahadev Shetty (spelt 'Sahanand' in the option) of Maharashtra in 1972.

1. He captained India and later became a noted coach.
2. Manjeet Chhillar (2015) and B.C. Ramesh (2002) received the award much later.

Yaad rakhein: First kabaddi Arjuna – Shetty, 1972.

Answer: (A) Sahanand Mahadev Shetty