Current Affairs 24 September 2026: Today's GK & MCQs

The correct answer is C, Zinc. Galvanisation is the coating of iron or steel with a thin layer of zinc so that the iron underneath does not rust. Zinc sits above iron in the reactivity series, so even when the coating is scratched, zinc corrodes first and keeps protecting the iron; this is called sacrificial protection. The zinc layer is usually put on by dipping the article in molten zinc (hot-dip galvanising) or by electroplating. Galvanised sheets are used for roofs, water pipes, buckets and electricity poles. A, Gallium, is a rare, low-melting metal and is never used for rust protection. B, Aluminum, forms its own protective oxide layer, but coating iron with aluminium is not called galvanisation. D, Silver, is too costly and is less reactive than iron, so it would not protect it sacrificially. Exam tip: galvanisation means a zinc coating on iron; a tin coating on iron is called tinning.

The correct answer is D, Magnesium hydroxide. Milk of magnesia is a white suspension of magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)2, in water, and its milky look gives it the name. It is a mild base, so it is taken as an antacid to neutralise excess hydrochloric acid in the stomach and relieve acidity; in larger doses it works as a laxative. Being only slightly soluble, it does not make the stomach strongly alkaline, which is why it is safe as a medicine. A, Magnesium bicarbonate, exists only in solution and is not used as a medicine. B, Magnesium carbonate, is used in chalk and as a drying powder for the hands in sports, and is not called milk of magnesia. C, Magnesium sulphate, is Epsom salt, used in bath salts and as a purgative. Exam tip: pair the common names: milk of magnesia is Mg(OH)2, Epsom salt is MgSO4.7H2O, milk of lime is a Ca(OH)2 suspension.

The correct answer is D, General theory of relativity. LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in the USA, detected gravitational waves for the first time in September 2015 (announced in February 2016), and such waves were predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity in 1916. General relativity treats gravity as the curving of space-time and says that huge accelerating masses, like two black holes spiralling into each other, send ripples through space-time at the speed of light. LIGO's two detectors at Hanford and Livingston measured a change in arm length smaller than the width of a proton. India is building a third detector, LIGO-India, at Hingoli in Maharashtra. A, String theory, has made no prediction that any experiment has yet confirmed. B, Special relativity, deals with motion at constant speed and does not include gravity. C, Quantum mechanics, describes atoms and particles, not gravitational waves. Exam tip: LIGO means gravitational waves, which means general relativity; the 2017 Physics Nobel went to Weiss, Barish and Thorne for it.

The correct answer is C, Rickets. Vitamin D helps the intestine absorb calcium and phosphorus, so without it the bones of a growing child stay soft and bend, giving bow legs, a pigeon chest and a large forehead; this disease is rickets. In adults the same deficiency causes osteomalacia, a softening of already formed bones. Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin because the skin makes it when sunlight falls on it; fish liver oil, egg yolk and milk are food sources. Its chemical name is calciferol. A, Beriberi, is caused by lack of vitamin B1 (thiamine) and affects the nerves and the heart. B, Scurvy, comes from lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and causes bleeding gums. D, Pneumonia, is an infection of the lungs caused by bacteria or viruses, not a deficiency disease. Exam tip: remember the pairs, A night blindness, B1 beriberi, C scurvy, D rickets, K delayed clotting.

The correct answer is D, Bowman's capsule. Each human kidney has about one million nephrons, and every nephron begins with a cup-shaped Bowman's capsule that encloses a knot of capillaries called the glomerulus. Blood enters the glomerulus under pressure, and water, salts, glucose, urea and other small molecules are pushed out through its walls into the capsule; this is ultrafiltration, the first step of urine formation. Proteins and blood cells are too large to pass and stay in the blood. The filtrate then flows through the tubule, where useful substances such as glucose and most of the water are reabsorbed. A, the Collecting duct, only gathers urine from many nephrons and carries it to the pelvis of the kidney. B, the Renal vein, carries filtered blood away from the kidney and is not part of a nephron. C, the Ureter, is the tube that takes urine from the kidney to the bladder. Exam tip: Bowman's capsule plus glomerulus is the Malpighian body, the filter of the nephron.

The correct answer is B, A bottle opener. Levers are grouped by where the fulcrum, the load and the effort sit. In a second class lever the load lies between the fulcrum and the effort. In a bottle opener the rim of the cap is the fulcrum at the tip, the cap being lifted is the load in the middle, and your hand applies the effort at the far end. Such levers always multiply force because the effort arm is longer; a wheelbarrow and a nutcracker work the same way. A, A pair of scissors, is a first class lever, with the pivot between the effort and the load. C, A cricket bat, is a third class lever: the lower hand applies the effort between the top hand, which acts as the fulcrum, and the ball. D, A bow and arrow, works by storing energy in the bent bow like a spring, not by placing the load between the fulcrum and the effort. Exam tip: first class has the fulcrum in the middle, second class the load in the middle, third class the effort in the middle.

The correct answer is C, Newtonian telescope. Isaac Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope in 1668. In it, light from the star falls on a large concave mirror at the bottom of the tube, and a small flat mirror set at 45 degrees near the top turns the light sideways to the eyepiece. Because the objective is a mirror and not a lens, there is no chromatic aberration, the colour fringing that lenses produce, and a mirror can be made much larger and lighter than a lens. Most big observatory telescopes are therefore reflectors. A, the Galilean telescope, is a refractor using a convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece lens. B, the Keplerian telescope, is also a refractor, with two convex lenses, and gives an inverted image. D, the Schmidt telescope, is a catadioptric design that combines a spherical mirror with a glass corrector plate, so it is not mirrors only. Exam tip: refractor means lenses (Galileo, Kepler), reflector means mirrors (Newton), Schmidt means a mirror plus a corrector lens.

The correct answer is C, refraction of starlight. Starlight has to cross many layers of air before it reaches the eye, and these layers keep changing in temperature and density, so their refractive index keeps changing too. The light is bent a little differently every moment, the apparent position of the star shifts slightly and the amount of light entering the eye rises and falls. This flickering is what we call twinkling. A star is so far away that it acts as a point source, so the small shifts are easily seen. Planets are nearer and appear as tiny discs; light from the many points of the disc averages out, so planets do not twinkle. A, Diffraction, is the bending of light around edges and is not the cause. B, Reflection, sends light back from a surface and cannot make a star flicker. D, Scattering, of sunlight by air makes the sky blue but does not cause twinkling. Exam tip: twinkling and the early sunrise both come from atmospheric refraction; the blue sky and the red sunset come from scattering.

The correct answer is C, Gandhar. Buddhist texts list sixteen mahajanapadas of the sixth century BCE, and Gandhara, in the north-west covering the Peshawar and Rawalpindi region, had its capital at Taxila (Takshashila), near present-day Islamabad in Pakistan. Taxila stood on the Uttarapatha trade route and grew into a famous centre of learning linked in tradition with Panini, Chanakya and the physician Jivaka. Its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gandhara later became famous for the Gandhara school of art under the Kushanas. A, Kuru, had its capital at Indraprastha, near Delhi, with Hastinapur as another centre. B, Kasi, had Varanasi as its capital. D, Avanti, in Malwa, had Ujjain as its capital, with Mahishmati in the south. Exam tip: learn them in pairs, Gandhara with Taxila, Avanti with Ujjain, Kosala with Shravasti, Vatsa with Kaushambi, and Magadha with Rajgir and later Pataliputra.

The correct answer is A, Harishena. The Prayag Prashasti, also called the Allahabad Pillar Inscription, is a Sanskrit eulogy of the Gupta emperor Samudragupta (about 335 to 375 CE) composed by his court poet and minister Harishena, who held the titles sandhivigrahika (minister of peace and war) and kumaramatya. It is engraved on the Ashokan pillar now at Allahabad Fort and lists the kings Samudragupta defeated in the north (uprooted) and in the south (defeated and released), which is why historians call him the Napoleon of India. Written in the champu style, it also describes him as a poet and musician. B, Chand Bardai, wrote the Prithviraj Raso in the twelfth century. C, Vishakhadatta, wrote the play Mudrarakshasa about Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya. D, Kalidasa, the poet of Abhijnanashakuntalam and Meghaduta, is linked to Chandragupta II, not to this inscription. Exam tip: Harishena, Prayag Prashasti, Samudragupta; Ravikirti, Aihole inscription, Pulakeshin II.

The correct answer is C, Warren Hastings. Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of Bengal under the Regulating Act of 1773 and held office from 1773 to 1785. After he returned to England, the House of Commons impeached him in 1787 on charges of corruption and misrule, including his treatment of Raja Chait Singh of Banaras and the Begums of Awadh. Edmund Burke led the prosecution, and the trial before the House of Lords ran from 1788 to 1795, ending in his acquittal on every charge. It remains the most famous impeachment in British history. A, Robert Clive, was Governor of Bengal, faced a parliamentary inquiry in 1773 but was never impeached, and died in 1774. B, Henry Vansittart, was Governor of Bengal from 1760 to 1764 and faced no impeachment. D, Lord Cornwallis, succeeded Hastings and is known for the Permanent Settlement of 1793. Exam tip: Hastings, first Governor-General of Bengal, impeached 1787, acquitted 1795.

The correct answer is D, Indo-Greeks. The Indo-Greek kings who ruled the north-west of India from about the second century BCE were the first in Indian history to issue coins that carried the name and portrait of the ruler, with Greek legends on one side and Prakrit in the Kharoshthi script on the other. The coins of Menander (Milinda), who appears in the Buddhist text Milindapanho, are the best known. This practice of putting the ruler's head and name on coins was later followed by the Kushanas and the Guptas. These coins are also the main source for the names of more than thirty Indo-Greek kings, most of whom are known from nothing else. A, the Mauryas, used punch-marked silver coins with symbols but no names or portraits. B, the Pushyabhutis of Thanesar and Kanauj, the dynasty of Harsha, came much later, in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. C, the Guptas, issued beautiful gold dinars with royal portraits, but they followed the Indo-Greek and Kushana example. Exam tip: first coins with rulers' names and images, Indo-Greeks; first large gold coinage, Kushanas; punch-marked coins, Mauryas.

The correct answer is B, Lahore, 1929. At its Lahore session in December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian National Congress passed the Purna Swaraj resolution declaring complete independence, not dominion status, as its goal. The tricolour was unfurled on the bank of the Ravi at midnight on 31 December 1929, and 26 January 1930 was celebrated as the first Independence Day; that date was later chosen for the Constitution to come into force in 1950, which is why Republic Day falls on 26 January. The session also authorised Gandhi to launch civil disobedience, which began with the Dandi March in March 1930. A, Bombay, 1885, was the first session of the Congress under W. C. Bonnerjee, which asked only for modest reforms. C, Kheda, 1917, is wrong: Kheda was the peasant satyagraha of 1918, and Champaran came in 1917. D, Bombay, 1942, was the session that passed the Quit India resolution on 8 August 1942. Exam tip: Lahore 1929, Nehru as president, Purna Swaraj, first Independence Day on 26 January 1930.

The correct answer is B, Satluj. The Beas rises at Beas Kund near the Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh, flows past Manali, Kullu and Mandi, enters Punjab and meets the Satluj at Harike in Punjab, where the Harike barrage and wetland stand. It is the only one of the five rivers of Punjab that lies entirely within India. The Pong Dam on the Beas in Kangra district is one of the largest earth dams in the country, and the Beas-Satluj link carries its water to the Bhakra system. In ancient times the Beas was the Vipasa, the river beyond which Alexander's army refused to march in 326 BCE. A, the Indus, receives the combined waters of the Punjab rivers only through the Panjnad in Pakistan. C, the Chenab, receives the Jhelum and the Ravi, not the Beas. D, the Ravi, flows to the west of the Beas and joins the Chenab in Pakistan. Exam tip: Punjab rivers from east to west are Satluj, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum; the Beas and the Satluj meet at Harike.

The correct answer is A, precipitation. Precipitation is any form of water, liquid or solid, that falls from clouds to the ground. When the temperature is above freezing it falls as rain or drizzle; below freezing, water vapour turns directly into ice crystals that fall as snow. Sleet is rain that freezes into small ice pellets while falling through a cold layer of air, and hail is made of hard ice balls built up layer by layer inside towering cumulonimbus clouds during thunderstorms. All three are therefore solid forms of precipitation. B, Condensation, is the change of water vapour into tiny droplets or ice crystals, which forms clouds, dew, frost and fog, but these do not fall from clouds. C, Transpiration, is the loss of water vapour from the leaves of plants. D, Evaporation, is the change of liquid water into vapour, the first step of the water cycle. Exam tip: rain, drizzle, snow, sleet and hail fall, so they are precipitation; dew, frost, fog and mist form on or near the ground, so they are condensation.

The correct answer is B, Wheat. Western disturbances are low-pressure systems that originate over the Mediterranean Sea and travel eastward with the subtropical westerly jet stream in winter, bringing light rain to Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, and snow to the Himalaya, between December and February. Wheat is the main rabi crop, sown in October and November and harvested in March and April, and it needs cool weather and a little rain during its growing period; this winter rain, called mahawat in north India, is described as gold for wheat because it saves a round of irrigation and improves the grain. A, Rice, is a kharif crop that depends on the heavy rain of the south-west monsoon. C, Bajra, is a kharif millet of the dry areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat, grown on monsoon rain. D, Cotton, is also a kharif crop, sown at the start of the monsoon and picked in autumn. Exam tip: western disturbances bring the winter rain of north-west India, which is good for the rabi crops wheat, barley, gram and mustard.

The correct answer is C, At the North Pole. The Coriolis force is the apparent force caused by the rotation of the Earth that deflects moving air and water to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. Its size is proportional to the sine of the latitude, so it is zero at the equator, where the sine of 0 degrees is zero, and greatest at the poles, where the sine of 90 degrees is one. This is why tropical cyclones cannot form within about 5 degrees of the equator, and why winds around a low-pressure system circle anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern. It was described by the French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis in 1835. A, At the Equator, the effect is zero, not largest. B, At the tropics, at 23.5 degrees, the effect is small. D, At 45 degrees latitude, the effect is only about 71 percent of its value at the poles. Exam tip: the Coriolis force is zero at the equator and maximum at the poles, and it grows with the speed of the moving body.

The correct answer is B, 1 and 3, that is Bihar and Manipur. The Sun is overhead, with its rays vertical at noon, only at places between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees N) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees S). The Tropic of Cancer crosses India through eight states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Any state lying wholly north of this line never gets vertical rays. Bihar stretches roughly from 24.3 to 27.5 degrees N and Manipur from about 23.8 to 25.7 degrees N, so both lie entirely north of the tropic and the Sun is never directly overhead there. A and C are wrong because they include Chhattisgarh, and D is wrong because it includes Rajasthan; the Tropic of Cancer passes through both, so their southern parts do receive vertical rays around 21 June. Exam tip: memorise the eight tropic states, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram; states such as Bihar, UP, Punjab, Manipur and Assam lie north of the line.

The correct answer is A, The Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act. The 42nd Amendment of 1976, passed on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, added a new Part IV-A with a single Article 51A listing ten Fundamental Duties of citizens, such as respecting the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem, protecting the environment and developing the scientific temper. The idea was taken from the constitution of the former USSR. An eleventh duty, that a parent or guardian must provide education to a child between six and fourteen years, was added by the 86th Amendment of 2002. The duties are not enforceable by courts, but Parliament may make laws to enforce them. B, the 44th Amendment of 1978, undid many Emergency-era changes and made the right to property a legal right. C, the 85th Amendment of 2001, dealt with consequential seniority in promotion for SC and ST employees. D, the 92nd Amendment of 2003, added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali to the Eighth Schedule. Exam tip: the 42nd Amendment of 1976 added Part IV-A, Article 51A and ten duties; the 86th Amendment of 2002 made them eleven.

The correct answer is A, 243ZD. Article 243ZD was inserted by the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992, which added Part IX-A on Municipalities. It requires every state to set up a District Planning Committee in each district to consolidate the plans prepared by the panchayats and the municipalities of the district and to prepare a draft development plan for the district as a whole. At least four-fifths of its members must be elected by and from among the elected members of the district panchayat and the municipalities in the district, in proportion to the rural and urban population, and the chairperson forwards the plan to the state government. B, Article 243ZB, applies the provisions of Part IX-A to Union Territories. C, Article 243ZE, provides for a Metropolitan Planning Committee in every metropolitan area with a population of ten lakh or more. D, Article 243ZC, says that Part IX-A does not apply to the Scheduled Areas and tribal areas under Article 244. Exam tip: remember the run 243ZD district planning, 243ZE metropolitan planning, and that both came with the 74th Amendment of 1992.

The correct answer is B, Tenth Schedule. The Tenth Schedule, popularly called the anti-defection law, was added by the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1985. It disqualifies a member of Parliament or a state legislature who voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or who votes, or abstains from voting, against the direction of the party whip without permission; an independent member is disqualified if he joins a party. The presiding officer, the Speaker or the Chairman, decides the question, subject to judicial review after the Kihoto Hollohan case of 1992. The 91st Amendment of 2003 removed the protection for a one-third split, and now only a merger backed by two-thirds of a legislature party is allowed. A, the Ninth Schedule, added by the First Amendment of 1951, protects listed laws, mainly on land reform, from court challenge. C, the Eleventh Schedule, lists the 29 subjects of the panchayats under the 73rd Amendment. D, the Sixth Schedule, deals with the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Exam tip: Tenth Schedule means anti-defection, 52nd Amendment of 1985, tightened by the 91st Amendment of 2003.

The correct answer is C, 14 days. Under Article 109 a Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, and after it is passed there it is sent to the Rajya Sabha, which cannot reject or amend it. The Rajya Sabha must return the Bill within fourteen days, with or without recommendations; the Lok Sabha may accept or reject those recommendations, and if the Bill is not returned within fourteen days it is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form the Lok Sabha passed it. Whether a Bill is a Money Bill is decided by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha under Article 110, and the Speaker's certificate is final. The President cannot return a Money Bill for reconsideration. A, 12 days, B, 21 days, and D, 30 days, are not periods laid down anywhere in the Constitution for Money Bills; the 14-day limit is the only one, and the same 14 days applies to a state Legislative Council under Article 198. Exam tip: Money Bill, Article 110 defines it, Article 109 gives the Rajya Sabha 14 days, and the Speaker's decision is final.

The correct answer is A, the Bombay Plan. The Bombay Plan of 1944 was drawn up by a group of eight, mostly leading industrialists such as J. R. D. Tata, G. D. Birla, Purushottamdas Thakurdas, Lala Shri Ram and Kasturbhai Lalbhai, with John Mathai among them. It proposed a fifteen-year plan to double per-capita income and treble national income, with the state taking the lead in heavy industry and infrastructure and the private sector working under its guidance. It showed that even big business wanted the state to plan the economy and to run a large public sector, and this consensus shaped the Planning Commission of 1950 and the mixed-economy model. B, the demand of peasants, and C, the demand of workers' unions, were not the origin of the planning idea; they were groups the plans tried to serve. D, the Gandhian vision, favoured village industries and decentralisation and was set out separately in the Gandhian Plan of 1944 by S. N. Agarwal. Exam tip: Bombay Plan 1944 by eight industrialists; People's Plan 1945 by M. N. Roy; Gandhian Plan 1944 by S. N. Agarwal.

The correct answer is B, Second Five Year Plan. The Second Plan (1956 to 1961) was built on the model of the statistician P. C. Mahalanobis and aimed at rapid industrialisation with a stress on heavy and basic industries such as steel, machinery and chemicals, on the belief that machines to make machines would speed up growth. The three public sector steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur, set up with Soviet, German and British help, belong to this plan, and the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 gave the public sector the commanding heights of the economy. The plan ran into a foreign exchange crisis and its target growth of 4.5 percent was not fully met. A, the First Plan (1951 to 1956), followed the Harrod-Domar model and gave priority to agriculture, irrigation and power. C, the Fifth Plan (1974 to 1979), focused on poverty removal and self-reliance under the slogan Garibi Hatao. D, the Seventh Plan (1985 to 1990), stressed food, work and productivity. Exam tip: Second Plan means the Mahalanobis model, heavy industry, and Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur.

The correct answer is D, 1, 2, 3 and 4. All four plans came before the First Five Year Plan started on 1 April 1951. The Bombay Plan of 1944 was prepared by eight industrialists led by J. R. D. Tata and G. D. Birla and favoured state-led heavy industry. The Gandhian Plan of 1944 by Shriman Narayan Agarwal stressed village self-sufficiency, cottage industries and agriculture. The People's Plan of 1945 was drawn up by M. N. Roy for the Indian Federation of Labour and put agriculture and nationalisation first over a ten-year period. The Sarvodaya Plan of January 1950 by Jayaprakash Narayan, inspired by Vinoba Bhave, combined Gandhian ideas with land reform and decentralised planning. Even earlier, M. Visvesvaraya's book Planned Economy for India (1934) and the Congress National Planning Committee of 1938 under Nehru had raised the idea. Options A, B and C are wrong only because each leaves out plans that also existed before 1951. Exam tip: sequence them as Visvesvaraya 1934, Bombay and Gandhian 1944, People's 1945, Sarvodaya 1950, Planning Commission March 1950, First Plan 1951.

The correct answer is B, Oxygen. A greenhouse gas is one whose molecules absorb the long-wave infrared radiation given off by the warm surface of the Earth and send part of it back, keeping the planet about 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would otherwise be. Such absorption needs molecules made of three or more atoms, or of two different atoms, that can vibrate in the right way. Oxygen (O2) and nitrogen (N2), which together make up 99 percent of the air, are made of two identical atoms, do not absorb infrared radiation and therefore are not greenhouse gases, even though they are the most abundant gases. A, Water vapour, is the largest natural contributor to the greenhouse effect. C, Carbon dioxide, is the main greenhouse gas added by humans through burning coal, oil and gas, and it is the reference gas for global warming potential. D, Methane, traps about 28 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a century and comes from paddy fields, cattle and landfills. Exam tip: the main greenhouse gases are water vapour, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFCs; N2 and O2 are not.

The correct answer is A, 1%. Green plants are the producers of a terrestrial ecosystem, and NCERT's Class 10 chapter Our Environment states that they capture about 1 percent of the energy of the sunlight that falls on their leaves and convert it into food energy through photosynthesis. The rest of the sunlight is reflected, passes through the leaf or is lost as heat. This tiny fraction is the base of every food chain, and only about 10 percent of it passes from one trophic level to the next, which is Lindeman's ten percent law; that is why food chains rarely have more than three or four steps and why energy flow in an ecosystem is unidirectional. B, 5%, C, 8%, and D, 10%, are all too high: 10 percent is the share of energy transferred between trophic levels, not the share of sunlight captured by plants, and students often mix up these two numbers. Exam tip: plants capture about 1 percent of sunlight; about 10 percent of energy moves up at each trophic level.

The correct answer is C, 1962. The Battle of Rezang La was fought on 18 November 1962 during the India-China war, at a pass about 16,000 feet high near Chushul in Ladakh. The Charlie Company of 13 Kumaon, 120 men mostly Ahirs from Haryana under Major Shaitan Singh, held the post against repeated Chinese attacks in freezing cold and without artillery support; 114 of them died fighting almost to the last man and the last round. Major Shaitan Singh was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously, and the battle is remembered as one of the greatest last stands in military history. A rebuilt memorial at Rezang La was inaugurated in 2021. A, 1948, falls in the first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir (1947 to 1948), remembered for the tank assault on Zoji La. B, 1956, saw no war fought by India. D, 1972, is the year of the Shimla Agreement, after the 1971 Bangladesh war. Exam tip: Rezang La, 18 November 1962, 13 Kumaon, Major Shaitan Singh, Param Vir Chakra.

The correct answer is B, Vairengte. The Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, known as CIJWS, is at Vairengte in the Kolasib district of Mizoram, close to the Assam border. It trains Indian soldiers in fighting insurgents and in surviving and operating in dense jungle, and its motto is Fight a Guerrilla like a Guerrilla. Soldiers from many friendly foreign armies, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have also trained here, and every army unit going for counter-insurgency duty passes through its courses. A, Dehradun, has the Indian Military Academy, which trains officers before commissioning. C, Gulmarg, in Jammu and Kashmir, has the High Altitude Warfare School, which trains for mountain and snow warfare. D, Mhow, in Madhya Pradesh, has the Infantry School, the Army War College and the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering. Exam tip: jungle warfare at Vairengte in Mizoram, high altitude warfare at Gulmarg, infantry at Mhow, officers at IMA Dehradun and NDA Khadakwasla.

The correct answer is D, Shudraka. Mrichchhakatika, The Little Clay Cart, is a ten-act Sanskrit play written by Shudraka, a king-poet of the classical age. Unlike most classical plays about kings and gods, it tells the story of an ordinary poor Brahmin merchant, Charudatta, and his love for the courtesan Vasantasena in the city of Ujjain, with the wicked prince Shakara as villain and a political revolt in the background; the title comes from the toy clay cart of Charudatta's son. It is prized for its realistic picture of city life, thieves, gamblers and courts, and Girish Karnad's film Utsav (1984) is based on it. A, Kalidasa, wrote Abhijnanashakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvashiyam, Meghaduta and Raghuvamsha. B, Bhasa, wrote Svapnavasavadattam and Charudattam, the shorter play on which Shudraka built his story. C, Valmiki, is the author of the Ramayana, an epic and not a play. Exam tip: Mrichchhakatika by Shudraka, Mudrarakshasa by Vishakhadatta, Ratnavali by Harsha, Svapnavasavadattam by Bhasa.

The correct answer is C, The post of the SGI is a constitutional post. It is the one false statement, because the Constitution creates only the Attorney General, not the Solicitor General. Article 76 provides for the Attorney General for India, the chief legal advisor to the Government and the highest law officer. The Solicitor General is the second law officer who assists the Attorney General; the post rests on the Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987, so it is a non-constitutional post. The detail that sticks: only the Attorney General gets an Article number and, under Article 88, the right to speak in both Houses of Parliament. A is a true statement, since the chief legal advisor is the Attorney General, not the SGI. B is true, because the SGI ranks just below the Attorney General as the second law officer. D is true, as the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appoints the SGI and the Additional Solicitors General. Exam tip: Attorney General, Article 76, constitutional; Solicitor General, no Article, non-constitutional.

The correct answer is C, The Estimates Committee. All its 30 members are elected by the Lok Sabha alone, so the Rajya Sabha has no seat on it. The Estimates Committee examines the budget estimates and suggests economies in expenditure, which is why it is called a continuous economy committee. It is the largest financial committee of Parliament; its members are elected every year by proportional representation through the single transferable vote, and a minister cannot be a member. The point that sticks: money matters belong to the Lok Sabha, so the Rajya Sabha is kept out of this one. A is wrong, because the Public Accounts Committee has 22 members, 15 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha. B is wrong, because the Committee on Public Undertakings also has 15 Lok Sabha and 7 Rajya Sabha members. D is wrong, because the committee on SC and ST welfare has 20 Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha members. Exam tip: Estimates 30, all Lok Sabha; PAC and Public Undertakings, 15 plus 7.

The correct answer is C, Article 243 D. This Article deals with reservation of seats in Panchayats, including the seats for women. Article 243 D, added by the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population, and reserves not less than one-third of the total seats for women, counting women's seats inside the SC and ST quota too. The same one-third rule applies to the offices of chairpersons at every level. Many states, Bihar being the first, have raised the women's share to 50 per cent through their own laws. A is wrong, because Article 243 B deals with the constitution of Panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels. B is wrong, because Article 243 C covers the composition of Panchayats. D is wrong, because Article 243 E fixes the duration of Panchayats at five years. Exam tip: 243 B set up, 243 C composition, 243 D reservation, 243 E five-year term.

The correct answer is C, Right to Property. The 44th Amendment Act, 1978 removed it from the list of Fundamental Rights. Before 1978, property was protected by Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31. The Janata government repealed both and placed a new Article 300A in Part XII, which says no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law. So property is now only a constitutional and legal right: a person can go to a High Court under Article 226, but not straight to the Supreme Court under Article 32. A is wrong, because the Right against Exploitation under Articles 23 and 24 still stands as a Fundamental Right. B is wrong, because the Right to Constitutional Remedies under Article 32 remains; Ambedkar called it the heart and soul of the Constitution. D is wrong, because the Right to Education was added, not removed, as Article 21A by the 86th Amendment of 2002. Exam tip: 44th Amendment, 1978, property moved from Articles 19(1)(f) and 31 to Article 300A.

The correct answer is B, The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. Article 338A sets up this Commission as a constitutional body. It was inserted by the 89th Amendment Act, 2003, which split the old combined National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes into two; the separate ST Commission began work in 2004. It has a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson and three members appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal, and it reports to the President, who has the report laid before Parliament. An easy hook: the letter A was added when the tribes got a Commission of their own. A is wrong, because the National Commission for Scheduled Castes comes under Article 338. C is wrong, because the National Commission for Backward Classes got constitutional status under Article 338B through the 102nd Amendment, 2018. D is wrong, because the National Commission for Women is a statutory body set up under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990. Exam tip: 338 SC, 338A ST, 338B backward classes; the Women's Commission is only statutory.

The correct answer is D, 86th Amendment Act. The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 inserted Article 21A and made elementary education a Fundamental Right. Article 21A says the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years in the manner the State may by law determine. That law is the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which came into force on 1 April 2010. The same amendment rewrote Article 45 to cover early childhood care up to 6 years and added Fundamental Duty 51A(k), under which parents or guardians must provide opportunities for education to their child aged 6 to 14. A is wrong, because the 83rd Amendment, 2000 exempted Arunachal Pradesh from SC reservation in Panchayats. B is wrong, because the 84th Amendment, 2001 extended the freeze on readjusting constituencies. C is wrong, because the 85th Amendment, 2001 gave consequential seniority in promotions to SC and ST employees. Exam tip: 86th Amendment 2002 made three changes, 21A, 45 and 51A(k); the RTE Act 2009 came into force on 1 April 2010.

The correct answer is A, Amuktamalyada. Krishnadevaraya wrote this Telugu poem, and a part of it sets out his ideas on how a king should rule. Krishnadevaraya of the Tuluva dynasty ruled Vijayanagara from 1509 to 1529 and was himself a poet, which earned him the title Andhra Bhoja. Amuktamalyada tells the story of Andal, the Tamil woman saint, and her marriage to Lord Vishnu, but history books quote it for its advice on statecraft: a king should rule with an eye to dharma, improve the harbours of his country, encourage trade and look after his subjects. His court had eight Telugu poets known as the Ashtadiggajas. B is wrong, because Jambavati Kalyanam is a Sanskrit drama by him, not a Telugu work on statecraft. C is wrong, because Rayavachakamu is a later Telugu prose account of his reign, written by others. D is wrong, because Satyavadu Parinaya is a Sanskrit work credited to him, not a Telugu text on polity. Exam tip: Krishnadevaraya in Telugu, Amuktamalyada; in Sanskrit, Jambavati Kalyanam.

The correct answer is B, The Battle of Colachel. At Colachel in August 1741, Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeated the Dutch East India Company. It was one of the rare times an Indian ruler decisively beat a European power in open battle, and it ended Dutch hopes of expanding on the Malabar coast. The Dutch commander Eustachius De Lannoy was captured, joined Travancore's service, trained its army on European lines and rose to be its chief commander. Colachel lies on the coast of today's Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. A is wrong, because at Porto Novo in 1781 the British under Eyre Coote defeated Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. C is wrong, because the battles of Pollilore were fought in 1780 and 1781 between Hyder Ali and the British in that same war. D is wrong, because Changanacherry is a town in central Kerala, not the scene of the 1741 fight with the Dutch. Exam tip: Colachel 1741, Marthanda Varma beat the Dutch; Porto Novo 1781, Eyre Coote beat Hyder Ali.

The correct answer is C, Samudragupta. The Prayaga Prashasti, better known as the Allahabad Pillar Inscription, is a long Sanskrit poem in his praise. It was composed by Harishena, his court poet and minister, and engraved on an old Ashokan pillar now kept in the Allahabad (Prayagraj) Fort. It lists the kings Samudragupta defeated in the north and the south, the frontier states and forest kingdoms that paid him tribute, and praises him as a poet and a player of the veena, which his coins also show. His wide conquests led the historian V. A. Smith to call him the Napoleon of India. A is wrong, because the same pillar carries Ashoka's own edicts, not a prashasti praising him. B is wrong, because Harshavardhana is praised in Banabhatta's Harshacharita, not in this inscription. D is wrong, because no prashasti at Prayaga praises Bindusara, the Mauryan king who was Ashoka's father. Exam tip: Prayaga Prashasti, Harishena, Samudragupta; Aihole inscription, Ravikirti, Pulakeshin II.

The correct answer is C, Lahore. The Lahore session of the Indian National Congress, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted the Purna Swaraj or complete independence resolution. At midnight on 31 December 1929, Nehru hoisted the tricolour on the banks of the river Ravi. The Congress then fixed 26 January 1930 as Purna Swaraj Day for the whole country, and the session also authorised the Working Committee to launch civil disobedience, which began with the Dandi March in March 1930. That is why the Constitution was brought into force on 26 January 1950. A is wrong, because the Ahmedabad session of 1921 met during the Non-Cooperation Movement, with Hakim Ajmal Khan as acting president. B is wrong, because the Calcutta session of 1928 under Motilal Nehru only gave the British one year to accept dominion status. D is wrong, because the Lucknow session of 1916 is known for the Congress-League pact and the reunion of moderates and extremists. Exam tip: Lahore 1929, Nehru, Purna Swaraj; 26 January 1930, the first Independence Day.

The correct answer is D, The Treaty of Salbai. Signed in May 1782 between the East India Company and the Marathas, it ended the First Anglo-Maratha War that had begun in 1775. The war started when the Bombay government backed Raghunathrao's claim to the Peshwa's seat. Mahadji Scindia helped broker the peace at Salbai: the British kept Salsette, recognised the young Madhavrao II as Peshwa, and Raghunathrao was pensioned off. The treaty brought about twenty years of peace between the two powers. A is wrong, because the Treaty of Surat of 1775 between the British and Raghunathrao started the war rather than ending it. B is wrong, because the Treaty of Purandar of 1776, made by the Calcutta council with the Poona ministers, set Surat aside but did not end the fighting. C is wrong, because the Convention of Wadgaon of 1779 was a humiliating surrender by a British force, later rejected by Warren Hastings. Exam tip: Surat 1775 began it, then Purandar 1776 and Wadgaon 1779, and Salbai 1782 ended it.

The correct answer is A, Basavanna. Basavanna led the Virashaiva or Lingayat movement in Karnataka in the twelfth century. He served as a minister at the court of King Bijjala at Kalyana. His followers worship Shiva in the form of a linga, usually worn in a small case on the body, and they questioned caste, rituals and the theory of rebirth, and supported the remarriage of widows. Basavanna and fellow saints such as Allama Prabhu and Akka Mahadevi taught through vachanas, short sayings in simple Kannada, and met in the Anubhava Mantapa to discuss spiritual questions. The other three names all belong to the Tamil country. B is wrong, because Appar was a Tamil Nayanar saint devoted to Shiva, not a leader in Karnataka. C is wrong, because Sambandar was also a Tamil Nayanar, whose hymns are collected in the Tevaram. D is wrong, because Sundarar was another Tamil Nayanar saint. Exam tip: Virashaiva, Basavanna, Kannada vachanas; Nayanars Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar, Tamil Tevaram.

The correct answer is B, 2 and 6. The Tropic of Cancer crosses eight Indian states, and only two of them touch the sea. Running at about 23.5 degrees north, it passes from west to east through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Gujarat and West Bengal have coastlines, while the other six are landlocked. The line divides India into two nearly equal halves, with the northern part in the temperate zone and the southern part in the tropical zone. A is wrong, because two coastal states, not one, lie on the line, and the total is eight. C is wrong, because 2 and 5 makes only seven states and misses one of the six landlocked ones. D is wrong, because no third coastal state such as Odisha lies on the Tropic; Odisha lies south of it. Exam tip: Tropic of Cancer, eight states from Gujarat to Mizoram; the coastal pair is Gujarat and West Bengal.

The correct answer is D, 1, 2 and 3. All three statements are true. Statement 1: the size of an eruption is rated on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, a scale from 0 to 8 based on the volume of material thrown out and the height of the eruption column; each step up means roughly ten times more material. Statement 2: Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where two plates move apart, and the Philippines lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, so both were built by volcanic activity. Statement 3: volcanic ash and lava weather into deep, mineral-rich soils, which is why Java in Indonesia supports dense farming and the Deccan's black soil, formed from basalt lava, grows cotton so well. A is wrong, because it leaves out statement 3, which is true. B is wrong, because it drops statement 1, and the index is the standard measure. C is wrong, because it drops statement 2, though both Iceland and the Philippines are volcanic. Exam tip: VEI runs from 0 to 8; Iceland sits on a ridge, the Philippines on the Ring of Fire; basalt gives black soil.

The correct answer is D, Krishna and Tungabhadra. Going south from Gulbarga you first cross the Krishna and then reach the Tungabhadra, on whose south bank Hampi stands. The land between these two rivers is the Raichur Doab, a fertile tract that the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagara Empire fought over for nearly two centuries. Gulbarga, now Kalaburagi, was the first Bahmani capital from 1347, while Hampi was the capital of Vijayanagara, founded in 1336. The Tungabhadra is itself a tributary of the Krishna and joins it further east, near Kurnool. A is wrong, because the Narmada flows far to the north through central India, and the Godavari also lies north of Gulbarga. B is wrong, because the Mahanadi drains Chhattisgarh and Odisha, far from this region. C is wrong, because the Kaveri flows well south of Hampi and the Periyar is a river of Kerala. Exam tip: the Raichur Doab lies between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra; Hampi is on the Tungabhadra.

The correct answer is C, Bhabar. When rivers leave the Himalayas and reach the plains, their speed drops suddenly and they drop the heaviest load first, pebbles and boulders, in the Bhabar belt. The Bhabar is a narrow strip about 8 to 16 km wide that runs along the foot of the Shiwaliks from the Indus to the Tista. The ground is so porous that most streams sink underground and seem to disappear here. South of it, the water comes up again and creates the wet, marshy Terai, once covered by thick forests full of wildlife. A is wrong, because Khadar is the newer, fine alluvium of the flood plains, renewed almost every year by floods. B is wrong, because Bhangar is the older alluvium on higher ground above flood level, with lime nodules called kankar. D is wrong, because the Terai lies below the Bhabar and has fine, damp soil where the lost streams re-emerge, not boulders. Exam tip: from the hills down, Bhabar (boulders, streams vanish), Terai (streams return, marshy), then Bhangar old and Khadar new alluvium.

The correct answer is C, Sikkim. Tsomgo Lake, also called Changu Lake, lies in East Sikkim, about 40 km from Gangtok on the road to Nathu La. It is a glacial lake at a height of roughly 3,750 metres; it freezes in winter and is fed by melting snow in summer, which makes it one of Sikkim's best-known tourist spots. In the local language tso means lake, the same word you see in the names of Ladakh's lakes. Nathu La, the pass just beyond it, is a point for border trade with the Tibet region of China. A is wrong, because Ladakh's famous high lakes are Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri, not Tsomgo. B is wrong, because Himachal Pradesh is known for lakes such as Chandratal and Suraj Tal. D is wrong, because Uttarakhand's lakes include Nainital, Bhimtal and the mysterious Roopkund. Exam tip: Tsomgo (Changu) and Gurudongmar are Sikkim lakes; Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri are in Ladakh.

The correct answer is A, crowding out. When the government runs a deficit, it borrows heavily from the same pool of savings that private firms use, so interest rates rise and private investment falls. This squeezing out of private spending by public borrowing is called the crowding out effect. It is the main argument against high fiscal deficits: if the state absorbs most of the savings, businesses find loans costlier and invest less, and the boost from government spending is partly cancelled. It is also why India's fiscal rules, such as the FRBM Act, 2003, aim to keep the deficit in check. B is wrong, because crowding in is the opposite, when public spending on roads, ports and the like encourages more private investment. C is wrong, because pump priming means government spending during a slump to restart demand, not the fall in private investment. D is wrong, because dumping is selling exports abroad below their home price or cost, a trade issue met with anti-dumping duty. Exam tip: deficit borrowing, higher interest rates, less private investment; that is crowding out.

The correct answer is B, Tendulkar Committee. The expert group headed by Suresh Tendulkar, which reported in 2009, recommended measuring poverty through MPCE on the Mixed Reference Period. Under this method, spending on five rarely bought items, namely clothing, footwear, durable goods, education and institutional medical care, is recorded over the last 365 days, and all other items over the last 30 days. Tendulkar also moved away from the old calorie norm and used one poverty line basket for rural and urban India, covering spending on health and education. By this method, India's poverty ratio came to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12. A is wrong, because the Lakdawala group of 1993 used the Uniform Reference Period and state-wise poverty lines. C is wrong, because the Dandekar and Rath study of 1971 based poverty on an intake of 2,250 calories a day. D is wrong, because the Alagh task force of 1979 fixed calorie norms of 2,400 rural and 2,100 urban. Exam tip: Alagh 1979 calories, Lakdawala 1993 URP, Tendulkar 2009 MRP, Rangarajan 2014.

The correct answer is A, Any privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion. A unicorn is a startup that is not listed on the stock market and is valued at more than one billion US dollars. The term was coined in 2013 by the American venture capitalist Aileen Lee, who picked the mythical animal because such startups were then very rare. Related words follow the same pattern: a decacorn is valued at over 10 billion dollars and a hectocorn at over 100 billion dollars. Once a unicorn lists its shares through an IPO, it becomes a listed company and, strictly speaking, is no longer called a unicorn. B is wrong, because merging one public sector company with another, as done with several public sector banks, is consolidation. C is wrong, because selling a loss-making state-owned company is privatisation or disinvestment. D is wrong, because a foreign firm working with an Indian partner forms a joint venture. Exam tip: unicorn, private startup, over 1 billion dollars; decacorn, over 10 billion.