UPPCS Prelims 2018 GS Paper I PYQs with explanations

Option (c) is right: as per the 2011 Census, Haryana had the lowest child sex ratio (girls per 1,000 boys aged 0-6) among the States, about 834 overall, and it was lowest in both rural and urban areas. Option (d), Jammu and Kashmir, was close behind, at about 862, and option (a), Uttar Pradesh, was about 902. Option (b), Kerala, has one of the best ratios, about 964. Concept: the child sex ratio is different from the overall sex ratio: Kerala has the best overall ratio (about 1,084 females per 1,000 males), while Haryana has the lowest. A low child sex ratio points to sex-selective abortion and neglect of girls. The PCPNDT Act, 1994, bans sex determination, and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was launched from Panipat, Haryana, in 2015.

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Option (d) is right: Uttar Pradesh has the largest rural population of any State, about 15.5 crore people as per the 2011 Census, roughly 78 per cent of its population. Option (a), Madhya Pradesh, and option (b), Maharashtra, have large populations but far fewer rural people; Maharashtra is one of the most urbanised large States. Option (c), Punjab, is much smaller. Concept: in 2011, India's rural share was about 69 per cent. Bihar comes second in rural population after Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh has the highest rural share of its own population (about 90 per cent). Goa is the most urbanised State in share terms. Uttar Pradesh is also the most populous State overall, and Maharashtra has the largest urban population in absolute numbers.

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Option (c) is right: meeting present needs while saving resources for the future is sustainable development. The classic definition comes from the Brundtland Commission's report Our Common Future (1987): development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Option (a), economic growth, means a rise in output or GDP, with no concern for the future. Option (b), economic development, adds better living standards and structural change, but not necessarily resource saving. Option (d), human development, focuses on people's choices in health, education and income, measured by the Human Development Index. Concept: the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015, aim at 2030. Sustainable development balances three pillars: economy, society and environment.

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Option (d) is right: poverty lines and poverty estimates in India were fixed by the Planning Commission, using expert groups such as Lakdawala (1993), Tendulkar (2009) and Rangarajan (2014). After 2015 its successor, NITI Aayog, took over this role. Option (a), the Union Council of Ministers, takes policy decisions but does not compute the poverty line. Options (b) and (c), the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, debate and legislate but play no technical role in measuring poverty. Concept: the poverty line is a statistical threshold of consumption expenditure, drawn from NSSO consumption surveys. Today NITI Aayog also publishes the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which looks at health, education and living standards rather than income alone.

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Option (a) is right: in the Basic Road Statistics of India from the period of this exam, Maharashtra had the largest total road length of any state, helped by its large area and dense network of district and rural roads. Option (b), Uttar Pradesh, came a close second and leads in some categories such as rural roads built under PMGSY. Option (c), Madhya Pradesh, and option (d), Rajasthan, are large states, but their total road length was lower. Concept: total road length includes national highways, state highways, district roads, rural roads and urban roads. India has the second-largest road network in the world after the USA. Rankings shift between surveys, so read such questions against the data of the exam year.

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Option (b) is right: the Direct Taxes Code was proposed (first Bill in 2010) to replace the Income-tax Act, 1961 with a simpler law covering income tax and other direct taxes. Option (a), sales tax, option (c), excise duty, and option (d), service tax, are indirect taxes, whose burden can be passed on to the consumer; most of them were subsumed into the Goods and Services Tax in July 2017. Concept: a direct tax is paid by the person on whom it is levied, such as income tax and corporation tax, while an indirect tax is collected through the price of goods and services. The DTC was never enacted, but the aim of a simpler income-tax law was carried forward in the Income-tax Act, 2025.

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Option (c) is right: the ABC (Achievements of Babies and Children) index measures child well-being through four indicators: survival to age five, full immunisation, nutrition (children not underweight) and school attendance. Three of these four are health measures, so the index is chiefly associated with health. Option (a), agriculture, is unrelated. Option (b), communication, is unrelated. Option (d), education, is only one part through school attendance, so it is not the main association. Concept: composite indices combine several indicators into one score to compare states or countries. Other child-related indices are the Human Capital Index of the World Bank and the SDG India Index of NITI Aayog. When options overlap, choose the field that covers most of the index.

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Option (d) is right: the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in World Urbanization Prospects 2018, said 55 per cent of the world's people lived in urban areas, and projected 68 per cent by 2050. Options (a) 25, (b) 35 and (c) 45 per cent are too low; the world crossed the halfway mark around 2007-08, when urban dwellers first outnumbered rural ones. Concept: nearly 90 per cent of the future urban increase is expected in Asia and Africa, with India, China and Nigeria leading. India is still less urbanised than the world average, at about 31 per cent in Census 2011. Tokyo was then the largest city, with Delhi second and expected to become the largest by around 2030.

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Option (c) is right: on 4 July 2018 the Union Cabinet raised the minimum support price for common paddy for 2018-19 by Rs 200, to Rs 1,750 per quintal, while Grade A paddy got Rs 1,770. Option (a), Rs 1,550, was the 2017-18 price for common paddy. Option (b), Rs 1,650, and option (d), Rs 1,950, did not apply that year. Concept: MSP is announced by the government on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices for 22 crops, and from 2018-19 it was fixed at least 1.5 times the A2+FL cost of production. Common paddy MSP has since risen year by year, to well above Rs 2,000 per quintal. MSP is effectively backed mainly by procurement of rice and wheat.

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Option (d) is right: natural growth of population is the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate, so it depends on A and B. Option (a), only the birth rate, ignores deaths. Option (b), only migration, is wrong because migration changes the actual population but is not part of natural increase. Option (c), death rate and marriages, is wrong because marriages affect births only indirectly and are not part of the formula. Concept: actual growth equals births minus deaths plus in-migration minus out-migration. The demographic transition model explains how both birth and death rates fall as countries develop. India's rates are measured by the Sample Registration System of the Registrar General, and its population growth has slowed sharply.

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Option (a) is right: the Human Development Index was first published by the United Nations Development Programme in its Human Development Report of 1990. It was designed by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq with Amartya Sen. Option (b), the IMF, deals with monetary stability and publishes the World Economic Outlook. Option (c), UNICEF, works for children. Option (d), UNCTAD, deals with trade and development and publishes the World Investment Report. Concept: HDI combines life expectancy, education (expected and mean years of schooling) and income (gross national income per capita in purchasing power terms), using a geometric mean since 2010. UNDP also publishes the Gender Inequality Index and, with Oxford, the Multidimensional Poverty Index. India ranks in the medium human development group.

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Option (a) is right: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 is India's largest rural employment programme. It legally guarantees 100 days of wage employment a year to every rural household whose adults volunteer for unskilled manual work. Option (b), TRYSEM (1979), trained rural youth for self-employment and was merged into the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana in 1999. Option (c), Food for Work, was a programme of 2004 that was folded into MGNREGA. Option (d), skill development programmes, train workers but do not guarantee jobs. Concept: MGNREGA is demand-driven, gives an unemployment allowance if work is not given within 15 days, needs one-third women workers and uses social audits. Wages are paid directly into bank accounts.

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Option (d) is right: the Lorenz curve measures inequality of income or wealth. It plots the cumulative share of income against the cumulative share of the population; the further it bows away from the 45-degree line of equality, the more unequal the distribution. Option (a), illiteracy, is measured by literacy rates. Option (b), unemployment, is measured by the unemployment rate, as in the Periodic Labour Force Survey. Option (c), population growth, is measured by birth, death and growth rates. Concept: the Gini coefficient comes from the Lorenz curve; it is the area between the curve and the line of equality divided by the total area under that line. It ranges from 0, perfect equality, to 1, complete inequality. Max Lorenz developed the curve in 1905.

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Option (d) is right: Haryana is among the states with the highest per capita income, yet it had the lowest sex ratio among states in Census 2011, 879 females per 1,000 males, with a child sex ratio of 834. Option (a), Madhya Pradesh, has a sex ratio of 931 but is not ranked at the top economically. Option (b), Maharashtra, is economically strong, with a sex ratio of 929. Option (c), West Bengal, has a sex ratio of 950. Concept: India's overall sex ratio in Census 2011 was 943, with Kerala highest at 1,084. Skewed ratios point to son preference and sex-selective abortion, which the PCPNDT Act of 1994 bans. The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was launched from Panipat in Haryana in 2015.

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Option (d) is right: the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) had the theme of faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth, so it is the plan launched with a focus on sustainable growth. Option (a), the 9th Plan (1997-2002), stressed growth with social justice and equity. Option (b), the 10th Plan (2002-07), set monitorable targets and aimed at 8 per cent growth. Option (c), the 11th Plan (2007-12), had the theme of faster and more inclusive growth, without the word sustainable. Concept: the 12th Plan was the last Five Year Plan; after the Planning Commission was replaced by NITI Aayog in 2015, plans gave way to a vision, strategy and action agenda. The 1st Plan (1951-56) focused on agriculture and the 2nd on heavy industry under the Mahalanobis model.

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Option (d) is right: the expert group headed by S.R. Hashim (2010-12) was set up to recommend how to identify below poverty line households in urban areas. Option (a), the Tendulkar Committee (2009), estimated poverty using a new poverty line based on consumption. Option (b), the N.C. Saxena Committee (2009), recommended the method for identifying BPL households in rural areas. Option (c), the Lakdawala Committee (1993), also dealt with estimating poverty, using state-specific poverty lines. Concept: estimation of poverty tells how many people are poor, while identification tells which households are poor for targeting schemes. The Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011 later became the base for targeting, with automatic inclusion and exclusion criteria.

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Option (a) is right: smog, especially photochemical smog, is a secondary pollutant. It forms in the air when nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons from vehicles react in sunlight, producing ozone and peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN). Option (b), carbon dioxide, is emitted directly by burning fuels, so it is primary. Option (c), carbon monoxide, comes straight from incomplete combustion and is primary. Option (d), fly ash, is released directly from coal-fired power plants and is a primary particulate. Concept: primary pollutants are emitted as such, while secondary pollutants are made in the atmosphere by chemical reactions. Other secondary pollutants include ground-level ozone, sulphuric acid in acid rain and secondary particulate matter. Classical London smog, by contrast, came from smoke and sulphur dioxide.

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Option (b) is right: tropical rainforests have the highest species diversity of any ecosystem, holding perhaps half of all species on less than a tenth of the land surface. Warm temperature, heavy rain all year and a long, stable evolutionary history allow many layers of habitat. Option (a), the deep sea, has some unique life but low density and diversity overall. Option (c), coral reefs, are the most diverse marine ecosystems, called the rainforests of the sea, but they still hold fewer species than rainforests. Option (d), deserts, have poor diversity because water is scarce. Concept: diversity generally falls from the equator towards the poles, a pattern called the latitudinal gradient. The Amazon is the largest rainforest, and India's rainforests lie in the Western Ghats and the North-East.

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Option (d) is right: pearls are formed by oysters and some other molluscs, which coat an irritant with layers of nacre; molluscs are not insects. Option (a), silk, is spun by the larva of the silkworm moth, such as Bombyx mori for mulberry silk, and India also produces tasar, eri and muga silk. Option (b), honey, is made by honey bees from flower nectar. Option (c), lac, is a resin secreted by the lac insect, Kerria lacca, on host trees such as kusum and palash; Jharkhand leads lac production. Concept: insect farming has names: sericulture for silk, apiculture for bees and lac culture for lac. Pearl farming is part of aquaculture. Insects belong to the phylum Arthropoda, while oysters belong to the phylum Mollusca.

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Option (b) is right: COP21, the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was held in Paris in December 2015 and adopted the Paris Agreement. Option (a), Moscow, never hosted a COP. Option (c), Berlin, hosted COP1 in 1995, which launched the talks that led to the Kyoto Protocol. Option (d), Tokyo, did not host one, though the Kyoto Protocol was adopted at COP3 in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. Concept: the Paris Agreement aims to keep warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, with efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees, through nationally determined contributions. India and France also launched the International Solar Alliance at COP21. Recent COPs include COP28 in Dubai and COP30 in Belem, Brazil.

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Option (b) is right: India's National Action Plan on Climate Change was released by the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change on 30 June 2008. It set up eight national missions, including those on solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, the Himalayan ecosystem, Green India, sustainable agriculture and strategic knowledge. Option (a), 2000, is too early. Option (c), 2012, and option (d), 2015, are wrong; 2015 was the year India submitted its first NDC before COP21 in Paris. Concept: states were later asked to prepare their own State Action Plans on Climate Change. New missions have since been proposed, such as on wind, health, coastal areas and waste to energy. The plan is the main domestic framework for India's climate policy.

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Option (a) is right: the ocean is generally called the most stable ecosystem. Its huge volume of water buffers temperature and chemical changes, so conditions change very little over time and over large areas. Option (b), forests, are stable but face fire, clearing and seasonal change. Option (c), mountains, change sharply with altitude and face landslides and harsh weather. Option (d), deserts, have extreme temperatures and scarce water, so they are fragile. Concept: stability is the ability of an ecosystem to resist or recover from disturbance. Water has a very high specific heat, which keeps oceans steady. Even so, oceans now face warming, acidification and coral bleaching, which shows that stable does not mean unchangeable.

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Option (a) is right: an incinerator is a furnace that burns solid, medical or hazardous waste at high temperatures, reducing it to ash, flue gases and heat, which can be used for waste-to-energy. Option (b) is wrong because waste is put into an incinerator only to burn it; just holding waste describes a bin or landfill. Option (c), cutting green trees, has nothing to do with incinerators. Option (d), making fertiliser, is done by composting or vermicomposting, not by burning. Concept: incineration cuts waste volume by about 90 per cent and destroys germs, so it suits biomedical waste. But it can release dioxins, furans and heavy metals, so it needs pollution controls. India's Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016 regulate it.

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Option (a) is right: the greenhouse effect is the warming of the Earth's surface because gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour trap outgoing long-wave (infrared) radiation. Its enhancement by human emissions raises the global average temperature. Option (b), a fall in global temperature, is the opposite. Options (c) and (d), warming of sea water or of rivers and lakes, are only parts or effects of global warming, not the effect itself. Concept: the natural greenhouse effect keeps the Earth about 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would otherwise be, making life possible. Water vapour is the most abundant greenhouse gas, while CO2 is the main one added by humans. Methane is far more powerful per molecule over a short period.

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Option (d) is right: diclofenac, a pain killer given to cattle, caused the near extinction of Gyps vultures in India. Vultures that fed on carcasses of treated cattle died of kidney failure, and populations fell by more than 95 per cent from the 1990s. India banned veterinary diclofenac in 2006. Option (a), ibuprofen, option (b), acetaminophen (paracetamol), and option (c), aspirin, were not the cause of the vulture crash in India. Concept: meloxicam was promoted as a vulture-safe substitute. India has vulture breeding centres such as Pinjore in Haryana and a Vulture Action Plan 2020-25. Later, other drugs such as aceclofenac and ketoprofen were also banned for animal use because they harm vultures.

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Option (a) is right: China was the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2015, accounting for roughly 28 to 30 per cent of global emissions, a position it has held since about 2006. Option (b), the USA, was second and is the largest historical emitter. Option (c), India, was third, though its per capita emissions are far below the world average. Option (d), France, emits much less because most of its electricity comes from nuclear power. Concept: total, per capita and historical emissions give different rankings, which is the basis of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. India now aims for net zero by 2070, China by 2060 and the USA by 2050.

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Option (c) is right: statements 1, 2 and 4 are true and statement 3 is false. Statement 1 is true because weak buildings, poor warning systems and poverty make disasters more damaging in developing countries. Statement 2 is true: the Bhopal gas leak of methyl isocyanate from the Union Carbide plant in 1984 was a man-made industrial disaster. Statement 4 is true: mangroves break cyclone winds and absorb storm surges, as seen in Odisha and the Sundarbans. Statement 3 is false, since India is highly prone to floods, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes and landslides; that rules out options (a), (b) and (d), which include it. Concept: India's Disaster Management Act, 2005 set up the NDMA, chaired by the Prime Minister, and the NDRF for response.

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Option (d) is right: peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), formed in photochemical smog, is a powerful eye irritant, or lachrymator, and is the main cause of watering and burning eyes in smog. Option (a), ozone, is also a smog component; it mainly irritates the lungs and damages plants, but is less of an eye irritant than PAN. Option (b), sulphur dioxide, mainly irritates the respiratory tract and causes acid rain. Option (c), carbon dioxide, is not an irritant at normal levels; it is a greenhouse gas. Concept: photochemical smog forms when nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust react in sunlight, and it peaks on warm, sunny afternoons. PAN and ozone are secondary pollutants, made in the air rather than emitted directly.

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Option (c) is right: the India State of Forest Report 2017 put forest cover at 7,08,273 square kilometres, or 21.54 per cent of India's geographical area. Option (a), 20.34, option (b), 22.34, and option (d), 23.54, do not match; forest and tree cover together were 24.39 per cent in 2017. Concept: the report is published every two years by the Forest Survey of India, Dehradun, using satellite data. The National Forest Policy of 1988 sets a goal of one-third of the area under forest or tree cover. In later reports, forest and tree cover together crossed about 25 per cent. Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest area, while Mizoram has the highest share of its area under forest.

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Option (b) is right as per the key: Project Tiger was planned in 1972, after the first all-India tiger census that year showed fewer than 2,000 tigers, and it was formally launched on 1 April 1973 with nine reserves, starting with Jim Corbett. Since 1973 is not among the options, 1972 is the closest. Option (a), 1968, option (c), 1984, and option (d), 1993, have no link to the launch. Concept: the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 also came that year. The National Tiger Conservation Authority was set up in 2005-06 to run the project. India now has 58 tiger reserves and about 75 per cent of the world's wild tigers, estimated at 3,682 in 2022.

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Option (d) is right: cropland is an example of an anthropogenic biome, or anthrome, a large ecological unit shaped mainly by people rather than by nature. Option (a), freshwater, option (b), grassland, and option (c), rainforest, are natural biomes defined mainly by climate, soil and vegetation. Concept: the anthrome concept was proposed by Ellis and Ramankutty in 2008 to show that most of the Earth's land is now altered by human use. Examples include dense settlements, villages, croplands, rangelands and semi-natural lands. This idea links to the debate on the Anthropocene, a proposed name for the present period in which human activity is the main force changing the Earth's systems.

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Option (d) is right: the kangaroo rat of North American deserts can live its whole life without drinking water. It gets water from the metabolism of the dry seeds it eats, produces very concentrated urine through efficient kidneys, and stays in cool burrows by day. Option (a), the giraffe, can go long without drinking because it gets moisture from leaves, but it does drink. Option (b), the camel, can go without water for days or weeks, not for life. Option (c), the kangaroo, an Australian marsupial, also needs to drink. Concept: metabolic water is formed when fats and carbohydrates are oxidised in the body. Desert adaptations include being active at night, burrowing and producing dry droppings. The camel's hump stores fat, not water.

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Option (b) is right: India's first National Centre for Marine Biodiversity was set up at Jamnagar in Gujarat by the state's Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) Foundation. It focuses on the Gulf of Kutch, where India's first Marine National Park was declared in 1982. Option (a), Bhavnagar, has the Alang ship-breaking yard. Option (c), Mumbai, and option (d), Puducherry, have marine research institutes but not this centre. Concept: the Gulf of Kutch has coral reefs, mangroves, sea grasses, dugongs and sea turtles. Other marine protected areas are the Gulf of Mannar, a biosphere reserve, and the Malvan sanctuary in Maharashtra. Coral reefs in India are found in the Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep.

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Option (d) is right: Dachigam National Park near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir is the last stronghold of the hangul, or Kashmir stag, a critically endangered subspecies of red deer and the state animal of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir. Option (a), the musk deer, lives in high Himalayan forests and is hunted for its musk pod, but it is not the park's signature animal. Option (b), the golden oriole, is a common bird. Option (c), the yellow-throated marten, is found widely in Himalayan forests. Concept: the hangul population has fallen to a few hundred, threatened by habitat loss and grazing. Other species linked to parks include the Sangai deer in Keibul Lamjao, Manipur, and the one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga.

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Option (b) is right: World Biodiversity Day, officially the International Day for Biological Diversity, is observed on 22 May, the day the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in Nairobi in 1992. Option (a), 22 March, is World Water Day. Option (c), 23 June, is International Olympic Day and UN Public Service Day. Option (d), 16 April, has no link to biodiversity. Concept: the CBD was opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and has three aims: conservation, sustainable use and fair sharing of benefits from genetic resources. Its protocols are Cartagena on biosafety and Nagoya on access and benefit-sharing. The Kunming-Montreal framework of 2022 set the 30 by 30 target.

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Option (a) is right: edaphic factors are soil factors, such as soil texture, structure, moisture, pH, nutrients, organic matter and soil organisms. They affect which plants can grow in an area. Option (b), climatic factors, include temperature, rainfall, light, humidity and wind. Option (c), biotic factors, are living influences such as plants, animals, microbes and humans, including competition, predation and grazing. Option (d), topography, refers to physiographic factors such as altitude, slope and aspect. Concept: ecological factors are grouped as climatic, edaphic, physiographic and biotic. The word edaphic comes from the Greek edaphos, meaning ground. Edaphic factors explain plant patterns that climate alone cannot, such as specialised vegetation on saline or serpentine soils.

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Option (d) is right: global warming is linked to a rise in the intensity and severity of cyclones, storms and hurricanes alike. Warmer oceans give more heat and moisture to tropical systems, making them stronger and wetter. Options (a), (b) and (c) each name only one type of storm, and the words only make them wrong. Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are in fact the same kind of tropical storm with different regional names. Concept: IPCC assessments say the share of very intense cyclones is likely to rise with warming, although total numbers may not. A warmer Arabian Sea has seen more intense cyclones in recent years. Rising sea level also makes storm surges more dangerous along coasts.

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Option (b) is right: a botanical garden is not in-situ conservation; it is ex-situ, because plants are kept outside their natural habitat. Option (a), biosphere reserves, option (c), national parks, and option (d), sacred groves, protect species in their natural habitats, so they are in-situ strategies. Concept: ex-situ methods include botanical gardens, zoos, seed banks, gene banks, tissue culture and cryopreservation. The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in New Delhi runs India's main gene bank, and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is a backup for the world. Sacred groves, such as the kavus of Kerala and the forests of Meghalaya, are protected by local religious tradition. India has 18 biosphere reserves.

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Option (c) is right: ultraviolet radiation from sunlight splits oxygen molecules (O2) into single oxygen atoms, which combine with other O2 molecules to form ozone (O3) in the stratosphere. Near the ground, sunlight also drives the reactions of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons that form ozone in photochemical smog. Option (a), carbon monoxide, comes from incomplete burning of fuel. Option (b), sulphur dioxide, comes from burning coal and from volcanoes. Option (d), fluorides, come from industries such as aluminium smelting and fertiliser making. Concept: the Chapman cycle explains how ozone is formed and broken down by ultraviolet light in the stratosphere. Stratospheric ozone is protective, but ground-level ozone is a harmful pollutant.

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Option (d) is the incorrect pair, so it is the answer: Similipal National Park is in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, not Madhya Pradesh. It is a tiger reserve and biosphere reserve, known for melanistic, or black, tigers. Option (a) is correct: Bandipur National Park is in Karnataka, part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Option (b) is correct: Manas is in Assam, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for the pygmy hog and golden langur. Option (c) is correct: Periyar is in Kerala, around the Periyar lake, known for elephants. Concept: Madhya Pradesh is called the tiger state and has parks such as Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Panna and Satpura. Matching parks to states is a frequent exam theme.

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Option (c) is right: methane is emitted from both paddy fields and termite mounds. In flooded paddy fields, bacteria called methanogens break down organic matter without oxygen and release methane. In termites, microbes in the gut that digest cellulose also produce methane. Option (a), paddy fields only, and option (b), termitaria only, are incomplete. Option (d) is wrong because both are sources. Concept: other major sources of methane are wetlands, livestock through enteric fermentation, landfills, coal mines and oil and gas leaks. Methane is about 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over 20 years. The Global Methane Pledge of 2021 aims at a 30 per cent cut by 2030, which India has not joined.

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Option (c) is right: SAFAR, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, is run by the Ministry of Earth Sciences through the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who then held Earth Sciences and Environment, launched its upgraded high-resolution system for Delhi in 2018. Option (a), Ravi Shankar Prasad, was Law and IT Minister. Option (b), Piyush Goyal, held Railways and Coal. Option (d) is wrong because (c) is correct. Concept: SAFAR was first set up for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010 and now covers cities such as Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. It gives location-specific air quality forecasts. The national Air Quality Index, launched in 2015, is run by the Central Pollution Control Board.

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Option (d) is right: Gujarat has the longest coastline of any Indian State. Under the revised measurement promulgated in April 2025, Gujarat's coast is about 2,340 km, out of India's total of about 11,099 km; the older figure was about 1,600 km out of 7,516.6 km. Option (b), Andhra Pradesh, was long called second, but after the remeasurement it is third, behind Tamil Nadu. Option (a), Maharashtra, has about 878 km under the new figures, and option (c), Kerala, about 600 km. Concept: the coastline grew on paper, not on the ground: finer-scale charts now capture bays, creeks and estuaries. Among all States and UTs, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have the longest coast, over 3,000 km. Gujarat's coast includes the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat.

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Option (d) is taken as right, though the question has a flaw. The Venkateswara temple at Tirumala stands on the Seshachalam hills in Andhra Pradesh, which are part of the larger Eastern Ghats system often grouped with the Nallamala ranges. 'Mallmalla' is read as a misprint for Nallamala, so it is the closest option. Option (a), the Shevaroy hills, lie near Salem in Tamil Nadu and hold the hill station of Yercaud. Option (b), the Biligirirangana hills, are in Karnataka and form a tiger reserve linking the Eastern and Western Ghats. Option (c), the Javadi hills, are in Tamil Nadu's Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts. Concept: the Seshachalam hills are also home to red sanders, an endangered tree found almost only here, and to the Sri Venkateswara National Park.

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Option (c) is right: the Thar or Great Indian Desert is mostly made of Pleistocene and recent (Holocene) deposits, wind-blown sand laid over older rocks. These sands piled up during the dry phases of the last ice age and are still shifting today as dunes. Option (a), the Pliocene, and option (d), the Oligocene, are older Tertiary epochs; option (b), the Paleocene, is older still. Concept: beneath the sand lie ancient rocks, including Precambrian Aravalli rocks and Jurassic marine sediments near Jaisalmer, which shows the area was once under a sea. Dune types include barchans (crescent-shaped) and longitudinal dunes. The Thar lies west of the Aravallis, which do not block the monsoon winds because they run parallel to them. The Indira Gandhi Canal has turned parts of the desert into farmland.

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Option (b) is right: the Tapi (Tapti) does not rise in the Western Ghats. It rises near Multai in the Satpura range in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district and flows west through a rift valley into the Arabian Sea near Surat. Option (a), the Godavari, rises at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik in the Western Ghats, even though it flows east into the Bay of Bengal. Option (c), the Kaveri, rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri hills of Kodagu in the Western Ghats. Option (d), the Kabini (Kabani), rises in the Wayanad hills of Kerala in the Western Ghats and joins the Kaveri. Concept: most peninsular rivers rise in the Western Ghats and flow east, forming deltas. The Narmada and Tapi are the main west-flowing rivers that run through rift valleys and form estuaries, not deltas.

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Option (c) is right: the idea of the global village rests on advances in transport and communication. The term was made popular by the Canadian thinker Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s, who argued that electronic media shrink distances so that the whole world behaves like one village. Fast travel, telephones, television and now the internet let people share news and culture instantly. Option (a), social development, and option (b), political development, are results of this connectedness, not its basis. Option (d), international organisations like the UN, help cooperation but did not create the idea. Concept: the global village is closely linked to globalisation and to time-space compression, the feeling that the world is getting smaller. Today, mobile phones and social media are the clearest examples of this shrinking world.

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Option (c) is right as per the key: Denmark has among the highest milk yields per cow in the world. Its dairy herds are of high-yielding breeds such as Holstein and Danish Jersey, with scientific feeding, breeding and strong cooperatives. Option (a), the Netherlands, and option (b), Great Britain, also have high yields but rank below Denmark in the comparison the question relies on. Option (d), India, has the largest total milk production in the world but a low yield per animal, because most of its cattle and buffaloes are low-yielding and many are kept by smallholders. Concept: total output and output per animal are different measures. India has been the top milk producer since 1998 and produces about a quarter of the world's milk. Schemes like the Rashtriya Gokul Mission aim to raise per-animal productivity.

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Option (d) is right: Sultana, Gulabi and Kali Champa are varieties of grapes grown in different parts of India. Thompson Seedless and Sonaka are other well-known grape varieties, and Thompson Seedless is the leading table and raisin grape. Option (a), custard apple, has varieties like Balanagar and Arka Sahan. Option (b), orange, has varieties such as Nagpur santra and Kinnow (a mandarin hybrid grown in Punjab). Option (c), guava, has varieties like Allahabad Safeda and Lalit, both linked to Uttar Pradesh. Concept: Maharashtra, especially Nashik, produces most of India's grapes and leads in grape exports, and Nashik is called the grape capital of India. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also grow grapes. The National Research Centre for Grapes is in Pune. Grape cultivation is called viticulture.

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Option (c) is right as per the key: Kerala has traditionally been called the leading producer of both small cardamom and black pepper. The Western Ghats, especially Idukki and Wayanad, offer the warm, wet, shaded conditions both spices need. A recent caution: in pepper, Karnataka has overtaken Kerala, producing about 86,000 tonnes against Kerala's about 31,000 tonnes in 2023-24, while Kerala still leads in small cardamom. Option (a), Tamil Nadu, grows some of both but much less. Options (b), Goa, and (d), Maharashtra, are minor producers. Concept: pepper is called the king of spices and cardamom the queen of spices. The Spices Board is headquartered in Kochi, and the Malabar coast was the hub of ancient spice trade with Rome and Arabia.

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Option (c) is right: A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1. Kerala's highest peak is Anamudi (about 2,695 m) in the Anaimalai hills, also the highest peak of peninsular India. Nagaland's highest peak is Saramati (about 3,826 m) on the Myanmar border. Uttarakhand's highest peak is Nanda Devi (about 7,816 m), the second-highest mountain wholly in India after Kangchenjunga. Tamil Nadu's highest peak is Doddabetta (about 2,637 m) in the Nilgiris near Ooty. Options (a), (b) and (d) mix up these pairs. Concept: a good trap is that Anamudi is in Kerala but Doddabetta in Tamil Nadu, both in the south. Other State peaks: Guru Shikhar in Rajasthan (Aravallis), Dhupgarh in Madhya Pradesh (Satpura), and Kangchenjunga in Sikkim. The Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Option (c) is right: Chile is the world's leading producer of iodine, supplying well over half of global output. Its iodine is a by-product of mining caliche, a nitrate-rich deposit found in the very dry Atacama Desert. Option (a), Japan, is the second-largest producer, extracting iodine from underground natural gas brines. Option (b), the USA, produces small amounts from brines in Oklahoma. Option (d), China, produces little and imports much. Concept: iodine is essential for making thyroid hormones; its lack causes goitre and, in pregnancy, mental impairment in children. India fights this through universal salt iodisation under the National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme. Seaweeds are a natural source of iodine. Chile is also a top producer of copper and lithium, so mining dominates its economy.

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Option (c) is right: the order is shelled animals, first insects, first reptiles, first mammals. Shelled animals such as trilobites and molluscs spread in the Cambrian, about 540 million years ago. Insects appeared in the Devonian, around 400 million years ago. Reptiles arose in the Carboniferous, about 310 to 320 million years ago. The first mammals appeared in the Triassic, around 200 to 225 million years ago, alongside early dinosaurs. Options (a), (b) and (d) put insects or reptiles out of order. Concept: the Cambrian explosion is the sudden rise of many animal groups with hard parts that fossilise easily. The geological eras run Palaeozoic (old life), Mesozoic (age of reptiles) and Cenozoic (age of mammals). Mammals spread widely only after the dinosaurs died out about 66 million years ago.

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Option (b) is right: Kunchikal Falls in Shimoga district of Karnataka, about 455 metres high in tiers, is usually listed as India's highest waterfall. Option (a), Jog Falls on the Sharavathi river, about 253 metres, is the best-known plunge waterfall and is often wrongly given as the answer. Option (c), Rakim Kund, and option (d), Keoti Falls in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, are lower. Concept: waterfalls are measured by total height, which can be in several tiers, or by a single drop. Other notable falls include Nohkalikai in Meghalaya, the tallest plunge waterfall in India, Dudhsagar on the Goa-Karnataka border, and Chitrakote on the Indravati in Chhattisgarh, called the Niagara of India.

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Option (b) is right: Wladimir Koppen held that natural vegetation is the best expression, or true index, of climate, and drew the temperature and rainfall limits of his climate classes from the boundaries of vegetation types. Option (a), C.W. Thornthwaite, based his classification on precipitation effectiveness and potential evapotranspiration. Option (c), Glenn Trewartha, modified Koppen's scheme but did not coin this idea. Option (d), L. Dudley Stamp, was a British geographer known for land use surveys. Concept: Koppen used letter codes, such as A for tropical, B for dry, C for warm temperate, D for cold and E for polar, with further letters like Af, Aw and BWh. India includes several Koppen types, from Amw on the west coast to BWhw in the Thar.

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Option (a) is right: the Pampas are the temperate grasslands of Argentina, extending into Uruguay and southern Brazil. They are famous for wheat, maize and cattle ranching, and the cowboys there are called gauchos. Option (b), Brazil, has the Campos and the tropical Cerrado savanna. Option (c), Chile, has the Atacama Desert and a Mediterranean central valley. Option (d), Ecuador, lies on the equator and has rainforests and the Andes. Concept: temperate grasslands have regional names: the Prairies of North America, the Steppes of Eurasia, the Pampas of South America, the Veld of South Africa and the Downs of Australia. Tropical grasslands include the Llanos of Venezuela, the Campos of Brazil and African savannas.

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Option (d) is the incorrect pair, so it is the answer: the Gibson Desert is in Western Australia, not Brazil. Option (a) is correct: the Sonoran Desert is in the south-western USA and north-western Mexico. Option (b) is correct: the Taklamakan Desert is in Xinjiang in China, within the Tarim Basin. Option (c) is correct: the Karakum Desert covers most of Turkmenistan. Concept: Australia's deserts include the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Gibson and Simpson. Brazil has no large desert, though its north-east has a semi-arid region called the Sertao. Tropical deserts such as the Sahara, Kalahari and Thar lie on western sides of continents near the tropics, while cold deserts such as the Taklamakan and Gobi lie in continental interiors.

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Option (b) is right: in 2016 the descending order of coffee production was Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia, which is C, B, A, D. Option (a) puts Indonesia first, which is wrong. Option (c) puts Colombia ahead of Brazil, and option (d) puts Colombia second, ahead of Vietnam; both are wrong. Concept: Brazil has been the world's largest coffee producer for over 150 years, mainly of arabica, while Vietnam is the largest producer of robusta. Coffee needs warm, humid conditions, well-drained slopes and shade. India ranks around sixth or seventh, and Karnataka produces about 70 per cent of India's coffee, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Chikmagalur is where coffee was first grown in India.

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Option (b) is right as per the key: the Suez Canal, opened in 1869, let ships avoid the voyage round the Cape of Good Hope, and geography textbooks commonly say it cut the sea distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 km. Option (a), 5,000 km, is too low. Options (c), 8,000 km, and (d), 10,000 km, are commonly seen figures but are not the textbook answer here. Exact figures vary with the ports used. Concept: the Suez Canal links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea through Egypt and has no locks, because both seas are at almost the same level. Egypt nationalised it in 1956, causing the Suez Crisis. The Panama Canal, opened in 1914, uses locks.

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Option (d) is right: the order is B, C, D, A. The India Meteorological Department was set up in 1875 with its headquarters in Calcutta (Kolkata). The headquarters moved to Shimla in 1905, then to Pune in 1928, and finally to New Delhi in 1944. Options (a), (b) and (c) put these cities in the wrong order. Concept: H.F. Blanford was the first Meteorological Reporter, and IMD celebrated its 150th year in 2025. IMD works under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, issues monsoon and cyclone forecasts, and is the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for tropical cyclones over the north Indian Ocean. Pune still hosts major units, such as the climate research and forecasting offices.

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Option (d) is the incorrect statement, so it is the answer: black soil is not found in the Himalayan region. It developed from the weathering of basalt lava on the Deccan Plateau, mainly in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, western Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Option (a) is correct: black soil is locally called regur. Option (b) is correct: the soil scientist Krebs regarded regur as a mature soil. Option (c) is correct: black soils are clayey, hold moisture very well, swell when wet and crack deeply when dry, so they plough themselves. Concept: black soil suits cotton, so it is also called black cotton soil. It is rich in lime, iron, magnesia and potash but poor in nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter. Its colour comes from titaniferous magnetite and humus.

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Option (a) is right: the McMahon Line forms the boundary between India and China in the eastern sector, along Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet. It was drawn by Sir Henry McMahon at the Simla Convention of 1914 between British India, Tibet and China; China never accepted it. Option (b), the India-Pakistan border, includes the Radcliffe Line and the Line of Control in Kashmir. Option (c), India and Myanmar, have a boundary settled by a 1967 agreement. Option (d), the India-Nepal border, follows the Sugauli treaty of 1816. Concept: the India-China boundary is divided into western (Ladakh, Aksai Chin), middle (Himachal, Uttarakhand) and eastern sectors. The de facto line is the Line of Actual Control, and the 1962 war was fought over these claims.

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Option (d) is right: the Mississippi has the classic bird's-foot delta, with long, narrow distributary channels like fingers built out into the calm Gulf of Mexico. It forms where the river carries a lot of fine silt and waves and tides are weak. Option (a), the Huang He, has a fan-like delta that shifts often. Option (b), the Nile, has the classic arcuate, or fan-shaped, delta; the word delta came from its shape like the Greek letter. Option (c), the Danube, has a lobate, wetland-rich delta on the Black Sea. Concept: deltas are classified as arcuate (Nile, Ganga), bird's-foot (Mississippi), cuspate (Tiber) and estuarine (Narmada, Tapi). The Ganga-Brahmaputra delta, the Sundarbans, is the world's largest delta.

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Option (c) is right: about 90 per cent of the atmosphere's ozone is in the stratosphere, mostly between about 15 and 35 km above the surface, where it forms the ozone layer that absorbs harmful ultraviolet-B radiation. Option (a), the troposphere, has only a small amount of ozone, mostly ground-level ozone formed in smog, which is a pollutant. Option (b), the mesosphere, and option (d), the exosphere, have very little ozone. Concept: ozone is depleted by chlorofluorocarbons and halons, which release chlorine and bromine; this caused the Antarctic ozone hole. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased out such substances, and the Kigali Amendment of 2016 added hydrofluorocarbons. 16 September is World Ozone Day. Ozone is measured in Dobson units.

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Option (b) is right: both statements are true, but R does not explain A. A is true: many Sanskrit music texts were rendered into Persian, such as Ghunyat-ul-Munya under the Tughlaqs and Lahjat-i-Sikandar Shahi under Sikandar Lodi. R is also true: early Chishti saints such as Nizamuddin Auliya held sama, gatherings of devotional music. But the translations grew out of royal patronage and scholarly curiosity about Indian music, not out of the Chishti love of sama, so (a) is wrong. Options (c) and (d) are wrong because both statements are true. Concept: the medieval period saw a rich Indo-Persian blending in music; Amir Khusrau is credited with forms like qawwali and with shaping Hindustani music. In assertion-reason questions, first test each statement on its own, then ask whether R truly causes A.

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Option (c) is right: the Ayodhya inscription of Dhanadeva, a later Shunga ruler of Kosala, calls Pushyamitra Shunga the performer of two Ashvamedha sacrifices. Option (a), the Sarnath inscription, is linked to Ashoka's pillar and Buddhist records, not to Pushyamitra. Option (b), the Besnagar inscription near Vidisha, is the Garuda pillar set up by Heliodorus, a Greek envoy who called himself a Bhagavata, a devotee of Vasudeva. Option (d), the Hathigumpha inscription near Bhubaneswar, records the deeds of Kharavela of Kalinga. Concept: Pushyamitra founded the Shunga dynasty around 185 BCE by killing the last Mauryan king, Brihadratha. His Ashvamedhas mark a revival of Vedic sacrifice. Patanjali, the grammarian, is believed to have been his priest. Linking each inscription to its king is a frequent exam theme.

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Option (c) is right: the chakla was a territorial unit between the subah and the pargana, but it was not the same as the sarkar. It was used mainly in Bengal under the later Mughals, especially in Murshid Quli Khan's revenue settlement, where several parganas were grouped into a chakla. Option (a) is wrong because the pargana was smaller; a chakla contained many parganas. Option (b) is wrong because the chakla replaced the older sarkar division in Bengal rather than being identical to it. Option (d) is wrong because (c) is correct. Concept: the standard Mughal hierarchy was subah (province), sarkar (district), pargana (group of villages) and village. Officials included the subahdar and diwan at the subah level, the faujdar at the sarkar level, and the amil and qanungo at the pargana level.

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Option (b) is right: chauth was the levy the Marathas demanded in return for protection. It was one-fourth (25 per cent) of the land revenue of non-Maratha areas, paid to avoid Maratha raids. Option (a), sardeshmukhi, was an extra 10 per cent that the Maratha king claimed as the hereditary sardeshmukh or chief headman; it was claimed alongside chauth, which is why some keys also accept it. Option (c), abwab, were extra cesses charged over and above the regular revenue, common in Mughal Bengal. Option (d), jamadani, is a kind of fine figured muslin from Dhaka, not a tax. Concept: Shivaji built his finances on chauth and sardeshmukhi. In 1719 the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar formally granted the Marathas the right to collect both in the Deccan, a major step in Maratha expansion.

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Option (d) is right: Maham Anga, Akbar's chief wet-nurse and a powerful figure in his early reign, built the Khairul Manazil mosque in 1561-62, opposite the Purana Qila in Delhi. It also served as a madrasa. Option (a), Hamida Banu Begum, was Akbar's mother; Humayun's Tomb is usually credited to Bega Begum (Haji Begum), Humayun's senior widow, not to this mosque's builder. Option (b), Salima Sultan Begum, was Akbar's wife and a poet. Option (c), Jiji Anga, was another wet-nurse of Akbar and the mother of Aziz Koka; she did not build this mosque. Concept: Maham Anga's son Adham Khan was thrown from a terrace on Akbar's orders in 1562, and she died soon after. The period of her influence (1560-62) is sometimes called petticoat government. Women patrons of architecture are a recurring UPPCS theme.

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Option (d) is the wrongly matched pair, so it is the answer. Liyaqat Ali led the revolt of 1857 at Allahabad, not Lucknow; Lucknow's revolt was led by Begum Hazrat Mahal, who declared her son Birjis Qadr the ruler. The listed pair (c), Kashmir with Gulab Singh, is also odd because Gulab Singh of Jammu and Kashmir supported the British, but UPPSC's key treats the Lucknow pair as the error. Option (a) is correct: Surendra Sai led a long resistance at Sambalpur in Odisha. Option (b) is correct: Radhakrishna Dandasena led the revolt in Ganjam, also in Odisha. Concept: other 1857 leaders include Nana Saheb and Tatya Tope at Kanpur, Rani Lakshmibai at Jhansi, Kunwar Singh in Bihar, Khan Bahadur Khan at Bareilly and Bakht Khan at Delhi.

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Option (b) is the wrongly matched pair. Ramachandra Deva was the Yadava ruler of Devagiri, who submitted to Alauddin Khalji's forces in 1296 and again later. Warangal was the Kakatiya capital, ruled at the time of the Khalji raids by Prataparudra Deva. Option (a) is correct: Shankara Deva, Ramachandra's son, ruled Devagiri after him and was defeated by Malik Kafur. Option (c) is correct: Vira Ballala III was the Hoysala king of Dwarasamudra. Option (d) is correct: Vira Pandya was a Pandya prince of Madurai, whose quarrel with his brother Sundara Pandya gave Malik Kafur a chance to invade. Concept: Malik Kafur's southern campaigns (1307-1311) reached Devagiri, Warangal, Dwarasamudra and Madurai, bringing great wealth to Delhi. Prataparudra of Warangal is said to have given the Koh-i-Noor to Alauddin.

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Option (b) is right: the correct order is Jahandar Shah, Muhammad Shah, Ahmad Shah and Alamgir II. Jahandar Shah ruled briefly in 1712-13 after Bahadur Shah I. Muhammad Shah, known as Rangeela, ruled 1719-1748; Nadir Shah's invasion of Delhi happened in his reign in 1739. Ahmad Shah Bahadur ruled 1748-1754 and was deposed and blinded. Alamgir II ruled 1754-1759 and was murdered by his minister Imad-ul-Mulk. Options (a), (c) and (d) put these names in the wrong sequence. Concept: after Aurangzeb (died 1707), the later Mughals were weak, and nobles such as the Sayyid brothers acted as kingmakers. Remember the anchors: Nadir Shah's raid in 1739 (Muhammad Shah) and the Battle of Plassey in 1757 (Alamgir II). The Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 came under Shah Alam II.

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Option (a) is right: the Shukla (White) Yajurveda has the Vajasaneyi Samhita, which comes in two recensions, Madhyandina and Kanva. It is named after Yajnavalkya Vajasaneya. Option (b), the Maitrayani, option (c), the Taittiriya, and option (d), the Kathaka Samhitas belong to the Krishna (Black) Yajurveda, along with the Kapishthala. Concept: the Yajurveda is the Veda of sacrificial formulas. In the Krishna branch prose explanations are mixed with the verses, while the Shukla branch keeps them separate, in the Shatapatha Brahmana. The Ishopanishad is the last chapter of the Vajasaneyi Samhita. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad also belongs to the Shukla Yajurveda.

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Option (a) is right: both statements are true and R explains A. The Turkish invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad Ghori succeeded, and they led to the Delhi Sultanate in 1206. North India was then divided among rival Rajput kingdoms such as the Chauhans, Gahadavalas, Chandelas and Paramaras, who did not unite against the invaders; historians name this lack of political unity as a main reason for the Turkish success. Option (b) is wrong because R does explain A. Options (c) and (d) are wrong because both statements are true. Concept: other reasons include the superior mounted archers and mobility of the Turks, better generalship and the Indian rulers' reliance on elephants. Prithviraj Chauhan won the first battle of Tarain in 1191 but lost the second in 1192.

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Option (d) is right: the order is IV, III, I, II. The Seven Pagodas of Mahabalipuram, the name early travellers gave to its monuments such as the rathas, date from the mid-7th century under the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I Mamalla. The Shore Temple came next, built in the early 8th century under Rajasimha (Narasimhavarman II). The Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur was completed around 1010 by the Chola king Rajaraja I. The Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple was built around 1035 by his son Rajendra I. Options (a), (b) and (c) place the Chola temples before the Pallava ones or mix up the two Chola temples, so they are wrong. Concept: Pallava art moved from rock-cut to structural temples, and the Cholas brought the Dravida style to its peak with tall vimanas. Both Chola temples are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

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Option (a) is right: the Hathigumpha inscription at Udayagiri, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, records the reign and year-by-year deeds of Kharavela, the Chedi or Mahameghavahana king of Kalinga, around the 1st century BCE. Option (b), Ashoka, is known from his rock and pillar edicts, and his conquest of Kalinga is in Rock Edict XIII. Option (c), Harshavardhana, is known from Banabhatta's Harshacharita, Hiuen Tsang's account and the Banskhera and Madhuban plates. Option (d), Kanishka, is known from Kushana coins and the Rabatak inscription. Concept: Kharavela was a Jain patron, and the inscription mentions bringing back a Jina image taken by a Nanda king. It is in Prakrit, in Brahmi script. The nearby Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves were made for Jain monks.

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Option (b) is right: both statements are true, but R does not explain A. A is true: in July 1946, after Nehru's remarks that the Congress was not bound by the Cabinet Mission Plan, the Muslim League withdrew its acceptance and called for Direct Action on 16 August 1946. R is true: the League later joined the interim government in October 1946, with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance Member. But joining the interim government came after the withdrawal and does not explain it, so (a) is wrong. Options (c) and (d) are wrong because both are true. Concept: the Cabinet Mission (Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and A.V. Alexander) proposed a loose federation with groups of provinces. The interim government led by Nehru took office on 2 September 1946.

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Option (c) is right: Bagor, in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, gives some of the earliest evidence of animal domestication in India in the Mesolithic period, with bones of domesticated sheep and goat; Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh is the other well-known site. Option (a), Odai, option (b), Bori, and option (d), Lakhnia, are not the standard answers; Bori, in Maharashtra, is known for very early Palaeolithic tools, and Lakhnia in Uttar Pradesh for rock paintings. Concept: the Mesolithic, the Middle Stone Age, is marked by microliths, small stone tools. Bagor is on the river Kothari and is one of the largest Mesolithic sites. Other sites to remember are Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama in the Pratapgarh region of Uttar Pradesh, which show human burials.

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Option (a) is the incorrect pair, so it is the answer: the Adina Masjid was built by Sikandar Shah of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty of Bengal in 1373-75 and stands at Pandua in Malda, West Bengal, not at Mandu. Option (b) is correct: the Lal Darwaza Masjid is at Jaunpur, built under the Sharqi rulers. Option (c) is correct: the Dakhil Darwaza, a grand gateway, is at Gaur in Bengal. Option (d) is correct: the Teen Darwaza, a triple gateway, is at Ahmedabad, built under Ahmad Shah I. Concept: regional sultanates developed their own styles. Jaunpur's Sharqi style is seen in the Atala Masjid, Mandu's Malwa style in the Jahaz Mahal and Hindola Mahal, and Bengal's brick style in the Adina mosque, once one of the largest in the subcontinent.

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Option (c) is the incorrect pair, so it is the answer: Rasikpriya was written by Keshavdas, the court poet of Orchha, not by Raskhan. Raskhan, a Muslim devotee of Krishna, wrote Sujan Raskhan and Prem Vatika. Option (a) is correct: Dhruvadas of the Radhavallabh sect wrote the Bhakta Namavali. Option (b) is correct: Nabhadas wrote the Bhaktamal, a collection of lives of devotees. Option (d) is correct: the Sufi poet Usman wrote Chitravali, a premakhyan, or love allegory, of the Jahangir period. Concept: Keshavdas is a major poet of the Riti tradition and also wrote Kavipriya and Ramchandrika. Sufi love poems in Awadhi include Jayasi's Padmavat, Qutban's Mrigavati and Manjhan's Madhumalati.

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Option (d) is right: the order is C, A, B, D. Wood's Despatch came in 1854 and is called the Magna Carta of English education in India. The Hunter Commission of 1882 reviewed the despatch and stressed primary education. The Sadler Commission, or Calcutta University Commission, of 1917-19 studied university education. The Sargent Plan of 1944 proposed a national system of education with free compulsory schooling. Options (a), (b) and (c) put these out of sequence, so they are wrong. Concept: other milestones are Macaulay's Minute of 1835, the Raleigh Commission of 1902, which led to the Indian Universities Act of 1904, the Hartog Committee of 1929 and Gandhi's Wardha scheme of basic education in 1937.

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Option (b) is right: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, with his brother Ganesh, founded the Mitra Mela in Nasik in 1899, which became the Abhinav Bharat Society in 1904. Option (a), Bhagat Singh, was linked to the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (1926) and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Option (c), Barindra Kumar Ghosh, led the Jugantar group in Bengal and was tried in the Alipore Conspiracy Case. Option (d), Pulin Behari Das, founded the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti. Concept: Abhinav Bharat was linked to the killing of Nasik collector A.M.T. Jackson in 1909. Savarkar wrote The Indian War of Independence 1857 and was sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andamans. Revolutionary groups grew strong after the Partition of Bengal in 1905.

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Option (d) is the incorrect pair, so it is the answer: the Ahom revolt against the British took place in 1828, led by Gomdhar Konwar, not in 1815. Option (a) is correct: the Santhal Hul under Sidhu and Kanhu began in 1855. Option (b) is correct: the Kol uprising in Chotanagpur took place in 1831-32. Option (c) is correct: the Khasi uprising under Tirot Singh against the British began in 1829 and lasted to 1833. Concept: tribal revolts were often against loss of land to outsiders, moneylenders and British laws. Later the Munda Ulgulan under Birsa Munda in 1899-1900 led to the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908. The Ahom kingdom came under British control after the Treaty of Yandabo of 1826.

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Option (a) is right: in 1888 Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy, ridiculed the Indian National Congress as representing only a microscopic minority of the people. Option (b), Lord Curzon, later said the Congress was tottering to its fall and that he wished to assist it to a peaceful demise. Option (c), Lord Minto, worked with the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909 and met the Muslim deputation at Simla in 1906. Option (d), Lord Lansdowne, was Viceroy in 1888-94. Concept: Dufferin was Viceroy when the Congress was founded in 1885 by A.O. Hume, with W.C. Bonnerjee as its first president, and at first he was thought to favour it as a safety valve. The British attitude soon turned hostile as the Congress grew.

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Option (c) is right: A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2. The Prayag (Allahabad) prashasti of Harishena, Samudragupta's court poet, names the southern kings he defeated: Dhananjaya of Kusthalapura, Nilaraja of Avamukta, Ugrasena of Palakka and Vishnugopa of Kanchi. Options (a), (b) and (d) mismatch these kings and kingdoms. Concept: Samudragupta followed a policy in the south of grahana-moksha-anugraha, capturing the kings, freeing them and restoring their kingdoms in return for submission, rather than annexing them. In the north he uprooted kings. The inscription is on an Ashokan pillar now in the Allahabad fort. Vincent Smith called Samudragupta the Napoleon of India.

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Option (d) is right: the Manigramam was a merchant guild of early medieval South India engaged in overseas trade, and its inscriptions are found as far as Takuapa in Thailand. Option (a), a shreni, was a general guild of craftsmen or traders, common since the Mauryan period, not specially for foreign trade. Option (b), a nagaram, was a local body of merchants in a town. Option (c), the Nanadesis, or Ayyavole Five Hundred, also traded widely, but the Manigramam is the clearest example in the key. Concept: South Indian guilds flourished under the Cholas, with trade links to Southeast Asia and China. The Anjuvannam was a guild of foreign merchants such as Jews and Arabs, and the Ur and Sabha were village assemblies.

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Option (a) is right: World Population Day is observed on 11 July every year. It was started by the UNDP in 1989, inspired by the Day of Five Billion, 11 July 1987, when the world's population was estimated to have reached five billion. Option (b), 8 May, is World Red Cross Day. Option (c), 5 June, is World Environment Day. Option (d), 16 October, is World Food Day, marking the founding of the FAO in 1945. Concept: the world passed 8 billion people in November 2022, and India became the most populous country in 2023, overtaking China as per UN estimates. India was the first country to launch a national family planning programme, in 1952. The UN agency for population is the UNFPA.

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Option (a) is right: Greenpeace International, the global environmental campaigning organisation, has its headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Option (b), Canberra, is the capital of Australia and is not linked to its headquarters. Option (c), Ottawa, is wrong, although Canada matters in its history: Greenpeace began in Vancouver in 1971 with a protest voyage against US nuclear testing at Amchitka. Option (d), Nagasaki, in Japan, is known for the 1945 atomic bombing. Concept: Greenpeace is a non-governmental organisation that works through direct action and campaigns on climate, oceans, forests and nuclear issues. Other environment bodies to remember: WWF is based in Gland, Switzerland, IUCN also in Gland, and UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya.

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Option (d) is right: The Accidental Prime Minister (2014) was written by Sanjaya Baru, who was media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2008. It describes the working of the UPA government and the power balance between the Prime Minister and the Congress party, and was made into a film in 2019. Option (a), Rajdeep Sardesai, is a journalist who wrote 2014: The Election That Changed India. Option (b), Karan Thapar, wrote the memoir Devil's Advocate. Option (c), Kuldip Nayar, wrote Beyond the Lines and books on Partition and the Emergency. Concept: memoirs of advisers often give exam questions, such as P.C. Parakh's Crusader or Conspirator and Natwar Singh's One Life Is Not Enough.

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Option (a) is right: 32 teams took part in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, held in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018. France won, beating Croatia 4-2 in the final in Moscow, and Croatia's Luka Modric won the Golden Ball. Option (b), 34, option (c), 36, and option (d), 30, are wrong; the tournament used the 32-team format from 1998 to 2022. Concept: the 2026 World Cup, hosted jointly by the USA, Canada and Mexico, was the first with 48 teams. Argentina won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Women's World Cup is a separate tournament, and Spain won it in 2023.

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Option (c) is right: on 11 May 2018, Prime Minister Modi and Nepal's Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli flagged off the Janakpur-Ayodhya bus service at Janakpur, Nepal, which is traditionally Sita's birthplace, as part of the Ramayana Circuit. Option (a), Sri Lanka, has Ramayana-linked sites such as Ashok Vatika, but this launch was not there. Option (b), Myanmar, and option (d), Indonesia, have Ramayana traditions in their culture, but they were not where the circuit was started on that date. Concept: the Ramayana Circuit is one of the theme circuits under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of the Ministry of Tourism. In 2018 Indian Railways also began the Shri Ramayana Express train linking Ramayana sites.

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Option (c) is right: in the UN E-Government Survey 2018, India ranked 96th on the E-Government Development Index, up from 107th in 2016. Denmark was first, followed by Australia and South Korea. Option (a), 90th, option (b), 95th, and option (d), 99th, are wrong. Concept: the survey is prepared every two years by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and combines three parts: online services, telecommunication infrastructure and human capital. India has improved through schemes such as Digital India, Aadhaar, UPI and DigiLocker. In recent surveys India has moved up further, but its score is still held back by infrastructure and human capital. Know who publishes each index.

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Option (c) is right: Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar dedicated the National Digital Library of India to the nation in New Delhi on 19 June 2018. Option (a), Bengaluru, option (b), Hyderabad, and option (d), Chennai, were not the venue. Concept: the National Digital Library was developed by IIT Kharagpur under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology. It gives a single window to millions of books, articles, videos and other learning resources, in many Indian languages and for learners at every level. It sits beside other digital education platforms such as SWAYAM for online courses and DIKSHA for school teachers and students. Note that the official name is the National Digital Library of India.

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Option (a) is right: in the Global Peace Index 2018, India ranked 136th of 163 countries. Iceland was the most peaceful country, and Syria the least. Option (b), 137th, option (c), 138th, and option (d), 134th, are wrong for 2018. Concept: the Global Peace Index is published every year by the Institute for Economics and Peace, based in Sydney. It uses 23 indicators under three domains: societal safety and security, ongoing domestic and international conflict, and militarisation. India's ranking suffers from internal conflict, terrorism and high military spending. Iceland has topped the index every year since 2008. Remember also which body publishes other indices, such as the Global Terrorism Index from the same institute.

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Option (a) is right: the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was held at Varanasi from 21 to 23 January 2019, with the theme of the role of the Indian diaspora in building a new India. Mauritius's Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth was the chief guest. Option (b), Vadodara, option (c), Jaipur, and option (d), Pune, were not the venue. Concept: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is celebrated on 9 January because Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to India on 9 January 1915. It began in 2003 and has been biennial since 2015. Later editions were held virtually in 2021, in Indore in 2023 and in Bhubaneswar in January 2025. The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman is given at the event.

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Option (b) is right: Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won the most seats in Pakistan's July 2018 general election, and he became Prime Minister in August 2018. Option (a), Nawaz Sharif, had been disqualified by the Supreme Court in 2017 in the Panama Papers case and was in jail at the time. Option (c), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leads the Pakistan Peoples Party, which came third. Option (d), Reham Khan, is Imran Khan's former wife and a journalist, not a candidate for Prime Minister. Concept: Imran Khan, former cricket captain who won the 1992 World Cup, was removed by a no-confidence vote in April 2022, the first Pakistan Prime Minister ousted that way, and Shehbaz Sharif succeeded him.

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Option (c) is right: both Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2018. Bharat Vatwani, a Mumbai psychiatrist, was honoured for rescuing and treating mentally ill destitute people through the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation. Sonam Wangchuk was honoured for reforming education and for innovations such as ice stupas in Ladakh. So option (a) and option (b) alone are incomplete, and option (d) is wrong. Concept: the Magsaysay Award, set up in 1957 and named after a President of the Philippines, is often called Asia's Nobel Prize. Earlier Indian winners include Vinoba Bhave, the first in 1958, Mother Teresa, Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and Ravish Kumar.

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Option (b) is right: the 10th BRICS summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 25 to 27 July 2018, with the theme of collaboration for inclusive growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Option (a), Brazil, hosted in 2010 and 2014 and again in 2019 and 2025. Option (c), Russia, hosted in 2009, 2015, 2020 and 2024 (Kazan). Option (d), China, hosted in 2011 and 2017 (Xiamen). Concept: BRIC began in 2009, South Africa joined in 2010, and the group expanded from 2024 with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE, and Indonesia in 2025. BRICS set up the New Development Bank in Shanghai. India holds the chair in 2026.

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Option (d) is right: Norman Borlaug, the American agronomist called the father of the Green Revolution, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for developing high-yielding, disease-resistant dwarf wheat that helped prevent famine. Option (a) is wrong because there is no Nobel Prize for agriculture; the World Food Prize, which Borlaug founded in 1986, is often called its equivalent. Option (b), economics, and option (c), medicine, are not his fields. Concept: Borlaug's wheat varieties, developed in Mexico, were brought to India in the 1960s with M.S. Swaminathan, the father of the Green Revolution in India. They raised wheat output sharply in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Swaminathan was given the Bharat Ratna in 2024.

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Option (b) is right: Dhing Express is the nickname of the Indian sprinter Hima Das, who comes from Dhing village in Nagaon district of Assam. In July 2018 she won the 400 metres at the World U-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, the first Indian to win a world track gold. Option (a), a train between Dhing and Kolkata, does not exist. Option (c), the expressway between Palwal and Kundli, is the Western Peripheral Expressway, also called the KMP Expressway. Option (d), a magazine, is wrong. Concept: sporting nicknames are common in exams: Flying Sikh for Milkha Singh, Payyoli Express for P.T. Usha and Magnificent Mary for Mary Kom. Hima Das also won gold in the 2018 Asian Games women's 4x400 m relay.

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Option (b) is right: on 4 September 2018 the state-owned telecom company BSNL signed boxer M.C. Mary Kom as its brand ambassador for two years. Option (a), Swachh Bharat, option (c), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and option (d), Project Khel, were not this appointment. Later in September 2018 she also became the ambassador of TRIFED's Tribes India brand. Concept: Mary Kom, from Manipur, is a six-time world amateur boxing champion and won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, India's first Olympic medal in women's boxing. She received the Padma Vibhushan in 2020 and was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. Her life was the subject of the 2014 film Mary Kom.

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Option (c) is right: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, won Mexico's presidential election on 1 July 2018 and took office in December 2018 for a six-year term. Option (a), Venezuela, was led by Nicolas Maduro. Option (b), Argentina, was led by Mauricio Macri in 2018. Option (d), Nicaragua, was led by Daniel Ortega. Concept: Mexico's president serves a single six-year term and cannot be re-elected. Lopez Obrador led the Morena party, founded in 2014. He was succeeded in October 2024 by Claudia Sheinbaum, also of Morena, the first woman to become President of Mexico. Mexico co-hosted the 2026 FIFA World Cup with the USA and Canada.

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Option (c) is right: in July 2018, after a case that followed the Panama Papers disclosures, an accountability court in Pakistan sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in jail in the Avenfield, or London flats, corruption case. Option (a), the Maldives, and option (b), Trinidad, are wrong. Option (d) is wrong because (c) is correct. Concept: the Panama Papers were 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca in 2016 and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. They revealed offshore companies of many politicians and celebrities. Sharif had already been disqualified by Pakistan's Supreme Court in 2017. Iceland's Prime Minister resigned over the leak in 2016.

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Option (c) is right: the complete draft National Register of Citizens for Assam, published on 30 July 2018, left out about 40.07 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants. Being left out did not by itself prove that a person was an illegal migrant, as claims and objections were allowed. Option (a), Nagaland, option (b), Mizoram, and option (d), Tripura, are wrong; the NRC exercise was only in Assam. Concept: the NRC was first prepared in 1951. Its update in Assam, monitored by the Supreme Court, used 24 March 1971 as the cut-off date under the Assam Accord of 1985. The final NRC of August 2019 left out about 19.06 lakh people, whose cases go to Foreigners Tribunals.

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Option (c) is right: the first summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was held on Sentosa Island in Singapore on 12 June 2018, the first-ever meeting of a sitting US president with a North Korean leader. Option (a), Malaysia, option (b), Indonesia, and option (d), Thailand, are wrong. Concept: the leaders signed a joint statement on working towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Their second summit, in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019, ended without a deal, and Trump briefly stepped into North Korea at the Panmunjom demilitarised zone in June 2019. North Korea left the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and continues its missile tests.

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Option (d) is right: for convenient study, the Directive Principles of State Policy are grouped into three classes: socialist, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual. Option (a), socialist principles, aim at social and economic justice, as in Articles 38, 39, 41, 42 and 43. Option (b), liberal-intellectual principles, reflect liberalism, as in Article 44 (uniform civil code), 45 (early childhood care), 48 (agriculture and animal husbandry), 49 (monuments) and 50 (separating judiciary from executive). Option (c), Gandhian principles, include Article 40 (village panchayats), 43 (cottage industries), 46 (weaker sections) and 47 (prohibition). Since all three are correct, (d) is the answer. Concept: DPSPs are in Part IV, Articles 36 to 51; they are not enforceable by courts, but are fundamental in governance.

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Option (a) is right: the administrator and scholar Ashok Chanda described the Planning Commission as the economic cabinet of India, because its influence on economic policy went far beyond its advisory role. Option (b), the Finance Commission, is a constitutional body under Article 280 that recommends sharing of taxes between the Centre and states; it was never called the economic cabinet. Option (c), the Central Cabinet, is the actual political executive. Option (d), the Administrative Reforms Commission, studied the machinery of government. Concept: the Planning Commission was set up in March 1950 by a Cabinet resolution, not by the Constitution, and was chaired by the Prime Minister. Critics called it a super cabinet or parallel cabinet. NITI Aayog replaced it on 1 January 2015.

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Option (c) is right: Justice P.N. Bhagwati is regarded as the father of Public Interest Litigation in India. With Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, he relaxed the rule of locus standi from the late 1970s, in cases such as Hussainara Khatoon (1979) and S.P. Gupta (1981), and later served as Chief Justice in 1985-86. Option (a), M. Hidayatullah, was Chief Justice in 1968-70, well before PIL. Option (b), A.M. Ahmadi, and option (d), A.S. Anand, were Chief Justices in the 1990s, after PIL was established. Concept: PIL lets any public-spirited person approach the court for those who cannot, even through a letter, which is called epistolary jurisdiction. Y.V. Chandrachud was Chief Justice when the first PILs came, but he is not an option.

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Option (c) is right: the Constituent Assembly met for the last time on 24 January 1950. Members signed the Constitution, Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected the first President, and Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram were adopted as the national anthem and national song. Option (a), 26 November 1949, is when the Constitution was adopted; that day is now Constitution Day. Option (b), 5 December 1949, has no special significance. Option (d), 25 January 1950, is a day before the Constitution came into force; 25 January is now National Voters' Day, from the founding of the Election Commission in 1950. Concept: the Constitution came fully into force on 26 January 1950, chosen to honour the Purna Swaraj declaration of 1930.

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Option (d) is right: a State Legislative Council is a permanent house that is never dissolved, as one-third of its members retire every second year. But under Article 169, Parliament can abolish or create it by ordinary law if the State Legislative Assembly passes a resolution by a special majority. Option (a), the House of the People (Lok Sabha), and option (c), the Legislative Assembly, are dissolved at the end of their term or earlier. Option (b), the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), is also never dissolved, but it cannot be abolished this way; that would need a constitutional amendment. Concept: only six states now have Legislative Councils: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Jammu and Kashmir's council was abolished in 2019.

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Option (a) is right per the key: the Department of Women and Child Development was set up in 1985 as part of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, giving the subject an independent administrative unit. It became a full separate Ministry only on 30 January 2006, a year not among the options, so 1985 is the best available answer. Options (b) 1986, (c) 1987 and (d) 1988 do not match any such step. Concept: the Ministry now runs schemes such as Mission Poshan 2.0 (Anganwadi and nutrition), Mission Shakti (women's safety and empowerment) and Mission Vatsalya (child protection). The National Commission for Women, a statutory body set up in 1992, works alongside it.

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Option (b) is right: under Article 81, the Lok Sabha can have up to 530 members from the states and up to 20 from the Union Territories, the UT limit set by the 31st Amendment of 1973. Option (a), 15, is too low. Option (c), 25, is too high. Option (d) is wrong because 20 is correct. Concept: the maximum strength of the Lok Sabha is 550 elected members; the old provision for two nominated Anglo-Indian members under Article 331 ended in 2020 through the 104th Amendment. Today the Lok Sabha has 543 elected seats, of which 13 come from the Union Territories. Seats are allocated on the 1971 Census until after the first census after 2026, when delimitation is due.

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Option (c) is right: gram panchayats can levy taxes on local fairs, along with taxes, tolls and fees on markets, houses, water and lighting, as the state Panchayati Raj Acts allow under Article 243H. Option (a), sales tax, was levied by state governments and is now largely replaced by GST. Option (b), land revenue, is collected by the state government through its revenue department, though some states share it with panchayats. Option (d) is wrong because (c) is correct. Concept: the 73rd Amendment of 1992 gave panchayats constitutional status in Part IX. Article 243H lets the state legislature authorise panchayats to levy taxes, and Article 243I provides for a State Finance Commission every five years to review their finances. Panchayats depend heavily on grants.

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Option (a) is right: the order is 3, 5, 2, 1. The Preamble mentions three kinds of justice (social, economic and political), five liberties (of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship), two kinds of equality (of status and of opportunity), and one fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. Options (b), (c) and (d) jumble these numbers. Concept: the ideals of justice were taken from the Russian Revolution, and liberty, equality and fraternity from the French Revolution. The words socialist, secular and integrity were added by the 42nd Amendment of 1976. In the Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973, the Supreme Court held that the Preamble is part of the Constitution.

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Option (a) is right: the UPA-led opposition put up Meira Kumar, former Lok Sabha Speaker and the first woman to hold that post, in the 2017 presidential election. She lost to the NDA's Ram Nath Kovind, who became the 14th President. Option (b), Gopalkrishna Gandhi, was the opposition candidate for Vice-President in 2017 and lost to M. Venkaiah Naidu. Option (c), Karan Singh, was not a candidate. Option (d) is wrong because (a) is correct. Concept: the President is elected by an electoral college of elected MPs and elected MLAs of states and of Delhi and Puducherry, by proportional representation through the single transferable vote. Droupadi Murmu became the 15th President in 2022, the first tribal person in the post.

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Option (a) is right: the economist Arvind Panagariya was the first Vice-Chairperson of NITI Aayog, from January 2015 to August 2017. Option (b), Raghuram Rajan, was RBI Governor from 2013 to 2016. Option (c), C. Subrahmanyam, is not linked to this post. Option (d), Rajiv Kumar, was the second Vice-Chairperson, from 2017 to 2022, followed by Suman Bery; in May 2026 economist Ashok Kumar Lahiri took charge. Concept: NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015 through a Cabinet resolution. The Prime Minister is its Chairperson, and its Governing Council includes all Chief Ministers. Panagariya later headed the 16th Finance Commission. NITI works as a think tank promoting cooperative federalism, not as a fund-allocating body.

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Option (c) is right: Andhra State was the first state formed on a linguistic basis, created on 1 October 1953 for Telugu speakers, after Potti Sriramulu died during a fast unto death in December 1952. It became Andhra Pradesh in 1956 when Telugu areas of Hyderabad state were added. Option (a), Kerala, was formed in 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act. Option (b), Madhya Pradesh, was also reorganised in 1956, but not on a single language basis. Option (d), Uttar Pradesh, existed as the United Provinces and got its name in 1950. Concept: the Fazl Ali Commission (1953-55) led to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, creating 14 states and 6 Union Territories. Earlier, the Dar Commission and JVP Committee had opposed linguistic states.

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Option (d) is right: NITI Aayog is an extra-constitutional body, created in 2015 by a Cabinet resolution, with no basis in the Constitution or in any law passed by Parliament. Option (a), the Union Public Service Commission, is constitutional under Article 315. Option (b), the Finance Commission, is constitutional under Article 280. Option (c), the Election Commission, is constitutional under Article 324. Concept: bodies set up by an executive order are called non-constitutional and non-statutory, while statutory bodies are made by Acts of Parliament, such as the National Human Rights Commission and the Central Vigilance Commission. The old Planning Commission and the National Development Council were also extra-constitutional. Other constitutional bodies include the CAG, the Attorney General and the GST Council.

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Option (d) is right: the Sarkaria Commission (1983-88), headed by Justice R.S. Sarkaria, reviewed Centre-State relations. It covered governors, the use of Article 356 for President's Rule, legislative and administrative relations, and financial matters, making 247 recommendations. Option (a), distribution of revenue, was only one part of its work and is mainly the job of the Finance Commission. Option (b), the powers of the President, and option (c), membership of Parliament, were not its subject. Concept: it led to the setting up of the Inter-State Council under Article 263 in 1990. Other bodies on Centre-State relations are the Rajamannar Committee of Tamil Nadu (1969) and the Punchhi Commission (2007-10). The S.R. Bommai case of 1994 limited misuse of Article 356.

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Option (a) is right: the parliamentary form of government first developed in Great Britain, where the cabinet system grew over centuries and the Westminster parliament is often called the mother of parliaments. Option (b), Belgium, and option (c), France, adopted parliamentary or mixed systems later; France now has a semi-presidential system. Option (d), Switzerland, has a unique collegial executive, the Federal Council of seven members. Concept: in a parliamentary system the executive is drawn from and responsible to the legislature, and there is a nominal head of state and a real head of government. India adopted it because of its long experience under British rule. The USA has a presidential system, with separation of powers.

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Option (c) is right: under Article 312, only the Rajya Sabha, the Council of States, can pass a resolution, by two-thirds of members present and voting, allowing Parliament to create a new All India Service in the national interest. Option (a) is wrong because impeachment of the President can begin in either House. Option (b) is wrong because a motion to remove a Supreme Court judge can also begin in either House. Option (d) is wrong because (c) is correct. Concept: the Rajya Sabha has another special power under Article 249, to let Parliament make laws on a State List subject in the national interest. Its special position comes from representing the states. Money Bills, by contrast, start only in the Lok Sabha.

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Option (b) is right: citizenship is covered in Part II of the Constitution, Articles 5 to 11. Articles 5 to 10 deal with who became a citizen at the start, and Article 11 lets Parliament regulate citizenship by law. Option (a), Part I, covers the Union and its territory, Articles 1 to 4. Option (c), Part VII, dealt with Part B states and was repealed by the 7th Amendment of 1956. Option (d), Part IX, covers panchayats. Concept: the Citizenship Act of 1955 gives five ways to get citizenship: birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and incorporation of territory. India has single citizenship. The Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, with rules notified in March 2024, speeds up citizenship for certain migrants.

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Option (a) is right per the key: standard polity texts list the use of official languages among provisions that Parliament can change by simple majority. Article 343(3) lets Parliament decide by ordinary law how long English continues to be used for official purposes, and the Official Languages Act, 1963 is such a law. Option (b), two-thirds majority, and option (c), three-fourths majority, are not needed. Option (d), the support of one-third of members, is not a majority at all. Concept: amendments are of three kinds: by simple majority outside Article 368, by special majority under Article 368, and by special majority plus ratification by half the states. Hindi in Devanagari is the official language under Article 343. Scheduled languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule.

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Option (b) is right: under Article 101(4), a House of Parliament can declare the seat of a member vacant if the member is absent from all its meetings for 60 days without its permission. Option (a), 30 days, option (c), 90 days, and option (d), 120 days, are wrong. Concept: in counting the 60 days, any period when the House is prorogued or adjourned for more than four days in a row is not counted. A similar rule applies to state legislators under Article 190(4). Other grounds for vacating a seat include double membership, disqualification under the anti-defection law in the Tenth Schedule, and resignation. A seat can also be lost on conviction under the Representation of the People Act.

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Option (a) is right: the Supreme Court's judgement on homosexuality concerned Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which punished carnal intercourse against the order of nature. In Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India on 6 September 2018, a five-judge bench decriminalised consensual same-sex relations between adults by reading down the section. Option (b), Article 377, and option (c), Article 277, are distractors; the Constitution's article numbers are not involved. Option (d) is wrong because (a) is correct. Concept: the ruling relied on Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 and the right to privacy from Puttaswamy (2017). It overturned Suresh Kumar Koushal (2013). Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced the IPC in July 2024, there is no equivalent of Section 377.

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Option (b) is right: the rustling of leaves is a very soft sound, close to the threshold of hearing, and standard charts put it at about 20 decibels. Option (a), 10 dB, is roughly normal breathing, just above the hearing threshold of 0 dB. Option (c), 60 dB, is normal conversation. Option (d), 100 dB, is like a loud motorcycle or a rock concert and can damage hearing over time. Concept: the decibel is a logarithmic scale, so every increase of 10 dB means ten times more sound intensity. Prolonged exposure above about 85 dB is harmful. Under India's Noise Pollution Rules, 2000, the daytime limit in silence zones is 50 dB and in residential areas 55 dB.

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Option (d) is right: natural gas is mostly methane (CH4), usually 70 to 90 per cent or more. Option (a), ethane, and option (b), butane, are present only in smaller amounts; butane and propane are the main parts of LPG, which is quite different. Option (c), carbon monoxide, is not a component of natural gas; it was a major part of old coal gas and is poisonous. Concept: CNG is natural gas compressed for vehicles, and LNG is natural gas cooled to about minus 162 degrees Celsius for transport by ship. Methane burns cleaner than coal or oil, giving less CO2 and almost no soot. But leaked methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, so leaks matter for climate.

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Option (b) is right: light has the highest velocity, about 3 x 10^8 metres per second in a vacuum, and nothing with mass can travel faster. Option (a), cosmic rays, are high-energy particles from space; they can move very close to the speed of light but never reach it. Option (c), electrons, can be accelerated close to light speed in particle accelerators, but they too stay below it. Option (d), a supersonic wave or object, moves only faster than sound, about 343 metres per second in air, which is nearly a million times slower than light. Concept: Einstein's special relativity treats the speed of light as a universal limit. Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes 20 seconds to reach the Earth.

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Option (b) is right: graphene is a nanostructure of carbon, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice, just one atom thick. Option (a), an alloy, is wrong because an alloy is a mixture of metals, or a metal with other elements, such as steel. Option (c), an isotope, is wrong because isotopes differ in neutron number, such as carbon-12 and carbon-14; graphene is a form of ordinary carbon. Option (d) is wrong because (b) is correct. Concept: graphene is an allotrope of carbon, like diamond, graphite, fullerene and carbon nanotubes. It is very strong, light and an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for isolating it.

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Option (d) is right: sound travels fastest in steel, at about 5,000 to 6,000 metres per second, because solids are stiff and their particles pass vibrations quickly. Option (a), vacuum, is wrong because sound is a mechanical wave and needs a medium; it cannot travel in a vacuum at all. Option (b), air, is the slowest of the media given, at about 343 metres per second at 20 degrees Celsius. Option (c), water, carries sound at about 1,500 metres per second, faster than air but slower than steel. Concept: the speed of sound depends on the elasticity and density of the medium, and in gases it rises with temperature. Light, an electromagnetic wave, does the opposite: it is fastest in a vacuum.

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Option (a) is right: A Brief History of Time (1988) was written by the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. It explained the Big Bang, black holes and the nature of time for ordinary readers and became a worldwide bestseller. Option (b), Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, is an Indian astrophysicist known for the Hoyle-Narlikar theory of gravity and for popular science writing, but not this book. Option (c), C.V. Raman, won the 1930 Nobel Prize for the Raman effect. Option (d), S.N. Bose, worked with Einstein on Bose-Einstein statistics; particles called bosons are named after him. Concept: Hawking is known for predicting Hawking radiation from black holes. He had motor neurone disease for most of his life and died in March 2018.

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Option (d) is right: amla, the Indian gooseberry, is the richest source of vitamin C among the options, with roughly 450 to 600 mg per 100 g of fresh fruit. Option (a), orange, is a well-known source but has only about 50 mg per 100 g, around a tenth of amla. Option (b), apple, has very little vitamin C, a few milligrams. Option (c), carrot, is known for beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A, not for vitamin C. Concept: vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is water-soluble and is destroyed by heat and storage. Its deficiency causes scurvy, with bleeding gums and poor wound healing. Guava is another very rich Indian source.

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Option (a) is right: Mars is the planet most often studied as possibly suitable for life. It has water ice at its poles and below the surface, signs of ancient rivers and lakes, a thin atmosphere, and a day of about 24.6 hours, close to Earth's. Option (b), Mercury, is wrong: it has almost no atmosphere and swings between extreme heat and cold. Option (c), Venus, is wrong: its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere causes a runaway greenhouse effect, with surface temperatures near 465 degrees Celsius. Option (d), Jupiter, is a gas giant with no solid surface. Concept: the habitable or Goldilocks zone is the range of distance from a star where liquid water can exist. India's Mangalyaan reached Mars orbit in 2014 on its first attempt.

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Option (b) is right: Albert Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, which showed that light comes in packets of energy called photons. Option (a), the theory of relativity, is his most famous work, but the Nobel committee did not cite it, as it was still debated. Option (c), specific heats, and option (d), Brownian motion, were also topics of his research, but neither was the reason for the prize. Concept: the photoelectric effect, the emission of electrons when light falls on a metal, laid a foundation of quantum theory. It is used in solar cells, light sensors and automatic doors. Einstein's 1905 papers made that year his miracle year.

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Option (b) is right: solar energy produces no atmospheric pollution while generating electricity, since photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly into power without burning anything. Option (a), nuclear energy, also gives no smoke or carbon dioxide during operation, but it produces radioactive waste and carries the risk of radiation leaks, so it is not treated as pollution-free. Option (c), petroleum, and option (d), coal, release carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates when burnt. Concept: renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydro are clean during use, though making panels has some footprint. India aims for 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030, and it co-founded the International Solar Alliance with France in 2015.

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Option (b) is right: Kerala was in the news for a Nipah virus outbreak in May-June 2018, in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, which killed 17 people. Option (a), Bihar, is known for acute encephalitis outbreaks in Muzaffarpur, linked to litchi, not Nipah. Option (c), Haryana, and option (d), Gujarat, did not have that outbreak. Concept: Nipah is a zoonotic virus, and fruit bats of the genus Pteropus are its natural host. It spreads through contaminated fruit, infected animals such as pigs, or close human contact, and can cause severe encephalitis with a high death rate. It was first identified in Malaysia in 1998-99. Kerala has seen repeated outbreaks since, and India's first case was in Siliguri, West Bengal, in 2001.

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Option (a) is right: according to NFHS-4 (2015-16), India's total fertility rate was 2.2 children per woman, down from 2.7 in NFHS-3 (2005-06). Option (b), 2.4, option (c), 3.2, and option (d), 3.4, are higher figures from earlier periods or from high-fertility states such as Bihar. Concept: the total fertility rate is the average number of children a woman would have over her reproductive life at current rates. A TFR of 2.1 is the replacement level, at which the population stays stable in the long run. NFHS-5 (2019-21) later reported 2.0, below replacement, with Bihar the highest at about 3.0. The surveys are run by the Ministry of Health with IIPS Mumbai as the nodal agency.

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Option (d) is the incorrect pair, so it is the answer: the ozone layer lies in the stratosphere, about 15 to 35 km up, not in the troposphere. Option (a) is correct: rennet, containing the enzyme rennin or chymosin, curdles milk to make cheese. Option (b) is correct: plasmids, small circular DNA molecules in bacteria, are used as vectors in genetic engineering to carry genes into cells. Option (c) is correct: golden rice is genetically engineered to make beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A, to fight vitamin A deficiency. Concept: the troposphere is the lowest layer, where weather occurs, and its height is greatest at the equator, about 16 to 18 km. Golden rice was approved for planting in the Philippines in 2021.

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Option (a) is right: the astrophysicist Jayant Vishnu Narlikar has long argued that astrology is not a science, because its claims are not testable. In 2008 he ran a statistical test with students of Pune University, and astrologers could not judge from horoscopes, better than chance, whether children were intellectually bright or mentally challenged. Option (b), astronomy, the study of celestial bodies, is a science. Option (c), cosmology, the study of the origin and structure of the universe, is a science, and Narlikar himself works in it. Option (d), nanotechnology, the science of materials at the scale of billionths of a metre, is also a science. Concept: Narlikar founded IUCAA in Pune and co-developed the Hoyle-Narlikar theory of gravity. Science needs falsifiable, testable claims.

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Option (b) is right: Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays in 1895 while experimenting with cathode ray tubes, and he won the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. His discovery led directly to the X-ray machine for medical imaging, though he did not patent it. Option (a), radio, is credited to Guglielmo Marconi, with key work by J.C. Bose. Option (c), the electric bulb, is credited to Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan. Option (d) is wrong because (b) is correct. Concept: X-rays are high-energy electromagnetic waves with very short wavelengths; they pass through soft tissue but are stopped by bone. They are also used in CT scans and in airport baggage screening. Long exposure is harmful, as X-rays are ionising radiation.

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Option (b) is right: James Watson and Francis Crick proposed the double-helix model of DNA in 1953, using X-ray diffraction data from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. They shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Wilkins. Option (a), Jacob and Monod, proposed the lac operon model of gene regulation in bacteria. Option (c), Har Gobind Khorana, helped decode the genetic code and made the first artificial gene, winning the 1968 Nobel Prize. Option (d) is wrong because (b) is correct. Concept: in the double helix, two strands run in opposite directions, with adenine pairing with thymine and guanine with cytosine. Chargaff's rules on base ratios supported this. Replication is semi-conservative, as Meselson and Stahl showed in 1958.

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Option (d) is right: X-rays have the maximum energy among the options, because the energy of a photon rises with frequency, E = hf, and X-rays have the highest frequency and shortest wavelength here. Option (c), ultraviolet rays, come next. Option (a), visible light, has less energy than ultraviolet. Option (b), infrared rays, have the least energy of the four and are felt as heat. Concept: the electromagnetic spectrum, from lowest to highest energy, is radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. Gamma rays, from nuclear reactions, carry the most energy of all. High-energy radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays is ionising and can damage DNA.

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Option (b) is right: silicon is a semiconductor, a material whose electrical conductivity lies between that of conductors and insulators and can be controlled by adding impurities, a process called doping. It is the basis of computer chips, transistors and solar cells. Option (a), aluminium, option (c), silver, and option (d), lead, are metals and good conductors; silver is the best conductor of electricity of all metals. Concept: adding phosphorus to silicon gives an n-type semiconductor, and adding boron gives a p-type semiconductor; joining them makes a p-n junction diode. Germanium is another elemental semiconductor, and gallium arsenide is a compound one. India's Semicon India programme supports chip making.

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Option (a) is right: BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture of India's DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya, set up in 1998. The name joins the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers. Option (b), China, option (c), Israel, and option (d) are wrong; Israel works with India on other systems, such as the Barak-8 surface-to-air missile. Concept: BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile, flying at about Mach 2.8 to 3, and can be launched from land, ships, submarines and aircraft. After India joined the Missile Technology Control Regime in 2016, its range was raised beyond 290 km. The Philippines became the first export customer, with a deal in 2022. A new BrahMos production unit opened in Lucknow in 2025.

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Option (d) is right: in July 2018 a team using the MARSIS radar on the European Space Agency's Mars Express reported in the journal Science a lake of liquid water about 20 km wide, under about 1.5 km of ice at the south pole of Mars. Option (a), Jupiter, has moons such as Europa with oceans under ice, but the report was not about Jupiter. Option (b), Saturn, has the moon Enceladus with water plumes. Option (c), Venus, is far too hot for liquid water. Concept: the water is thought to stay liquid because of high pressure and dissolved salts, such as perchlorates. Some later studies suggest the radar signal may come from other materials, so the finding is still debated. Liquid water is a key condition for life.

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Option (b) is right: the Gomti has been described as a biological disaster because heavy pollution has nearly killed its aquatic life. Untreated sewage from cities like Lucknow, industrial waste and weeds such as water hyacinth drive dissolved oxygen very low in many stretches, and mass fish deaths have been reported. Option (a), the Yamuna, is badly polluted in Delhi, but the question's label is tied to the Gomti. Options (c), the Sai, and (d), the Tamsa, are smaller rivers of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Concept: the Gomti rises at Gomat Tal near Pilibhit and joins the Ganga near Ghazipur, and the Sai is its tributary. Fish usually need a dissolved oxygen level of about 4 to 5 mg per litre to survive. Projects under Namami Gange aim to treat sewage before it enters such rivers.

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Option (c) is right: as per the 2011 Census, Shravasti had the lowest female literacy rate in Uttar Pradesh, about 38 per cent. Option (b), Balrampur, and option (d), Bahraich, are its neighbours in the Terai belt of the Devipatan division and also have very low female literacy, just above Shravasti. Option (a), Rampur, in western Uttar Pradesh, is low too but higher than these three. Concept: the Shravasti-Balrampur-Bahraich belt along the Nepal border is among the least developed parts of the State, with high poverty and poor schooling. In 2011, Uttar Pradesh's overall literacy was about 68 per cent and female literacy about 57 per cent. Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad had among the highest literacy rates. Schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas target this gap.

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Option (b) is right: Basti does not lie on the Purvanchal Expressway. The expressway runs about 341 km from Chandsarai near Lucknow through Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya (Faizabad), Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh and Mau to Ghazipur. Option (a), Faizabad, now Ayodhya district, is on the route. Option (c), Azamgarh, and option (d), Mau, also lie on it. Concept: the Purvanchal Expressway was inaugurated in November 2021, and an airstrip near Sultanpur lets fighter jets land on it. Other Uttar Pradesh expressways include Agra-Lucknow, Bundelkhand, Gorakhpur Link and the Ganga Expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj. Basti lies further north, closer to the Gorakhpur Link Expressway region.

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Option (c) is right: Ghaziabad was not selected under the Smart Cities Mission. The ten Uttar Pradesh cities chosen were Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Varanasi, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Aligarh, Jhansi, Bareilly, Moradabad and Saharanpur. Option (a), Lucknow, option (b), Allahabad, and option (d), Kanpur, were all selected, so they are wrong. Concept: the Smart Cities Mission was launched in June 2015 for 100 cities chosen through a competition in rounds. It funded area-based development, such as retrofitting old areas, and pan-city solutions such as integrated command and control centres. Uttar Pradesh had the joint highest number of cities with Tamil Nadu. Ghaziabad is part of the National Capital Region and has other urban schemes.

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Option (d) is right: Alamgirpur in Meerut district and Hulas in Saharanpur district are Harappan sites in Uttar Pradesh, so III and IV. Kalibangan is in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan, on the Ghaggar, so I is wrong. Lothal is in Gujarat, near the Gulf of Khambhat, so II is wrong. That rules out options (a), (b) and (c). Concept: Alamgirpur, on the Hindon river, is the easternmost site of the mature Harappan culture. Sanauli in Baghpat, also in Uttar Pradesh, has burials with chariots of the late Harappan period. Kalibangan is known for ploughed fields and fire altars, and Lothal for its dockyard. Other Indian sites include Dholavira, Rakhigarhi and Banawali.

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