Current Affairs 28 September 2026: Today's GK & MCQs

The correct answer is D, 86th amendment. The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 made free and compulsory education a fundamental right. It inserted Article 21A, under which the State shall provide free and compulsory education to every child between the ages of six and fourteen years. The same amendment rewrote Article 45 in the Directive Principles, asking the State to care for children below six years, and added Article 51A(k), which makes it a fundamental duty of a parent or guardian to send a child to school. Parliament gave the right its working shape through the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, in force from 1 April 2010. Option A is wrong because the 88th Amendment dealt with service tax. Option B is wrong because the 89th Amendment split the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission into two separate bodies. Option C is wrong because the 87th Amendment shifted the basis of delimitation to the 2001 census. Exam tip: remember the trio 86th Amendment, Article 21A and the RTE Act, 2009.

The correct answer is A, Kerala. Ottamthullal is a solo dance-and-recitation art form of Kerala. It was created in the eighteenth century by the poet Kunchan Nambiar, who used it to make fun of the powerful in simple Malayalam that ordinary people could follow. A single performer in a green face paint, tall headgear and pleated costume dances and recites verse, while a mridangam or maddalam and an idakka keep the beat and a singer repeats the lines. Because it needs no stage, no curtain and almost no troupe, it is often called the poor man's Kathakali. Option B is wrong because Tamil Nadu is the home of Bharatanatyam, Karagattam and Kummi. Option C is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kuchipudi and the folk form Veedhi Natakam. Option D is wrong because Manipur gives us Manipuri, Lai Haraoba and the Thang-Ta martial dance. Exam tip: Kerala — Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, Ottamthullal, Koodiyattam, Theyyam and Chakyar Koothu.

The correct answer is C, Literature. The Jnanpith Award is India's highest literary honour, given to an author for an outstanding contribution to literature. It was instituted in 1961 by the Bharatiya Jnanpith trust and first awarded in 1965 to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup for his collection Odakkuzhal. It is open to writing in any of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and in English since 2013, and the winner receives a citation, a cash prize and a bronze replica of Vagdevi, the goddess of learning. Option A is wrong because medicine in India is recognised by the Dr B. C. Roy National Award. Option B is wrong because social work is honoured by the Jamnalal Bajaj Award and the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Option D is wrong because cinema is honoured by the National Film Awards and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Exam tip: Jnanpith is for literature; the first winner was G. Sankara Kurup in 1965.

The correct answer is B, 1787. The Constitution of the United States was drafted by the Philadelphia Convention and signed on 17 September 1787, which is why it is counted as the world's first written democratic constitution. It was ratified by the required number of states in 1788 and the new government began work in 1789. It is a short document of a preamble and seven articles, sets up a federal republic with a President elected separately from the legislature, and gained a Bill of Rights in 1791 through its first ten amendments. The makers of the Indian Constitution borrowed Fundamental Rights, judicial review, an independent judiciary, the office of Vice-President and the impeachment procedure from it. Option A is wrong because 1932 belongs to the Great Depression years. Option C is wrong because 1877 marks the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Option D is wrong because 2000 is more than two centuries too late. Exam tip: US Constitution signed 1787, in force 1789 — the oldest written constitution still in use.

The correct answer is C, Article 23 - 24. The Right against Exploitation is given by Articles 23 and 24 in Part III of the Constitution. Article 23 forbids traffic in human beings, begar and other forms of forced labour, and lets the State impose compulsory service for a public purpose without discrimination. Article 24 forbids the employment of a child below fourteen years in any factory, mine or other hazardous work. Article 23 led to the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and Article 24 to the child labour laws. Option A is wrong because Article 33 lets Parliament restrict the rights of the armed forces and Article 34 covers martial law. Option B is wrong because Articles 37 and 38 are in Part IV, the Directive Principles, and are not enforceable in court. Option D is wrong because Articles 27 and 28 belong to the Right to Freedom of Religion. Exam tip: 14-18 equality, 19-22 freedom, 23-24 exploitation, 25-28 religion, 29-30 cultural and educational rights.

The correct answer is A, Granite. Granite is an igneous rock, not a sedimentary one. It forms when magma cools slowly deep inside the crust, so its crystals of quartz, feldspar and mica are large enough to see; because it cooled below the surface it is called an intrusive or plutonic rock. Sedimentary rocks are different: they are built up in layers from sediment that water, wind or ice deposits and then compacts and cements. Option B is wrong because sandstone is sedimentary, made of cemented sand grains. Option C is wrong because loess is sedimentary too, a fine silt carried and dropped by wind, and it makes the fertile soil of northern China. Option D is wrong because shale is sedimentary, formed from compressed clay and mud. Granite turns into the metamorphic rock gneiss under heat and pressure. Exam tip: granite and basalt igneous; sandstone, shale, limestone and loess sedimentary; marble, gneiss, slate and quartzite metamorphic.

The correct answer is C, fluorescent blue. The Reserve Bank of India issued the fifty-rupee note of the Mahatma Gandhi (New) series in August 2017 with fluorescent blue as its base colour. Its reverse carries the stone chariot of the Vittala temple at Hampi in Karnataka, a World Heritage site, and the note measures 66 mm by 135 mm. Every note of this series pairs one colour with one monument, which is the way paper setters like to test it. Option A is wrong because chocolate brown is the base colour of the ten-rupee note, whose reverse shows the Konark Sun Temple. Option B is wrong because stone grey belongs to the five-hundred-rupee note, which carries the Red Fort. Option D is wrong because lavender is the colour of the hundred-rupee note, whose reverse shows Rani ki Vav in Gujarat. Exam tip: 10 chocolate brown with Konark, 20 greenish yellow with Ellora, 50 fluorescent blue with Hampi, 100 lavender with Rani ki Vav, 200 bright yellow with Sanchi, 500 stone grey with the Red Fort.

The correct answer is A, Pataliputra. Pataliputra, today's Patna, stood where the Son joins the Ganga, and it was the capital of the Mauryan empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya in about 322 BCE with the help of Chanakya. Megasthenes, the envoy sent by Seleucus to Chandragupta's court, described it in his account Indica as a long city guarded by a wooden palisade with sixty-four gates and five hundred and seventy towers. Ashoka held the third Buddhist council there in about 250 BCE. Option B is wrong because Vaishali was the capital of the Lichchhavi republic and the seat of the second Buddhist council. Option C is wrong because Indraprastha is the ancient name of the Delhi region in the Mahabharata, not a Mauryan capital. Option D is wrong because Kushinagar is the place where the Buddha attained mahaparinirvana. Exam tip: Pataliputra served as capital of the Haryankas, the Nandas, the Mauryas and later the Guptas.

The correct answer is C, Council of Ministers to aid and advise Governor. Article 163 says there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at its head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except in the few matters where the Constitution requires him to act in his own discretion. Whether a matter falls in that discretion is decided by the Governor himself, and Article 163(3) bars any court from asking what advice the ministers gave. It is the state counterpart of Article 74, which makes the President's Council of Ministers binding at the Union level. Option A is wrong because the conduct of business of a state government is Article 166. Option B is wrong because the constitution of legislatures in states is Article 168. Option D is wrong because the Advocate-General for the State is appointed under Article 165. Exam tip: 163 aid and advise, 164 appointment of the Chief Minister and ministers, 165 Advocate-General, 166 conduct of business.

The correct answer is D, Shah Jahan. The Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, inside the Agra Fort was built by Shah Jahan in white marble between 1648 and 1654, and it takes its name from the pearl-like glow of the stone. Shah Jahan rebuilt much of the red sandstone Agra Fort in marble, adding the Diwan-i-Khas, the Khas Mahal and the Sheesh Mahal; his reign from 1628 to 1658 is called the golden age of Mughal architecture and gave us the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid of Delhi. Option A is wrong because Aurangzeb built the small Moti Masjid inside the Red Fort at Delhi and the Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad. Option B is wrong because Akbar raised the original Agra Fort in red sandstone and built Fatehpur Sikri. Option C is wrong because Humayun built Dinpanah at Delhi, and his own tomb was raised after his death. Exam tip: Moti Masjid at Agra Fort is Shah Jahan's, the one in Delhi's Red Fort is Aurangzeb's.

The correct answer is C, water bodies. Red algae, the division Rhodophyta, live in water, mostly in warm and shallow sea water, with a few species in fresh water. Their colour comes from the pigment phycoerythrin, which masks the green of chlorophyll and lets them use the blue light that reaches greater depths, so some grow deeper than other algae. Porphyra, Gracilaria and Polysiphonia are common examples, and the agar used in laboratories and the carrageenan used in food both come from this group. Coralline red algae deposit calcium carbonate and help build coral reefs. Option A is wrong because bare mountain slopes lack the standing water algae need. Option B is wrong because a city is a settlement, not a water body or habitat for marine algae. Option D is wrong because deserts are dry and an alga cannot complete its life cycle without water. Exam tip: Rhodophyta are red from phycoerythrin, Chlorophyta green from chlorophyll, Phaeophyta brown from fucoxanthin.

The correct answer is D, Space Research. Space research is not one of the Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations General Assembly adopted seventeen such goals in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 169 targets to be met by 2030; they replaced the Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000 to 2015. The seventeen cover poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality, clean water, energy, decent work, industry, inequality, cities, responsible consumption, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace and justice, and partnerships. Option A is wrong because Gender Equality is Goal 5. Option B is wrong because Zero Hunger is Goal 2. Option C is wrong because Good Health and Well-being is Goal 3. In India NITI Aayog tracks state progress on the goals through its SDG India Index. Exam tip: 17 goals, 169 targets, adopted 2015, target year 2030; Goal 1 is No Poverty and Goal 17 is Partnerships for the Goals.

The correct answer is C, Bile juice, Pancreatic juice. Fat is digested in the small intestine by these two secretions working together. Bile is made by the liver and stored in the gall bladder; it carries no enzyme, but its bile salts break large fat globules into tiny droplets, a process called emulsification, and they also make the acidic food from the stomach alkaline so that pancreatic enzymes can act. Pancreatic juice is poured into the duodenum and carries lipase, which splits the emulsified fat into fatty acids and glycerol, along with trypsin for protein and pancreatic amylase for starch. Option A is wrong because saliva has only salivary amylase, which acts on starch in the mouth. Option B is wrong because hydrochloric acid only makes the stomach acidic and activates pepsin, while mucus protects the stomach lining. Option D is wrong for both those reasons; neither saliva nor acid digests fat. Exam tip: bile emulsifies and lipase digests; the liver is the largest gland in the human body.

The correct answer is D, India, Australia, Japan and the US. Malabar 2020 was held in two phases in November 2020, the first in the Bay of Bengal off Visakhapatnam and the second in the Arabian Sea, and Australia joined India, Japan and the United States in it. Malabar began in 1992 as a bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the US Navy. Japan became a permanent participant in 2015. Australia had taken part once in 2007 and then returned in 2020, which brought the navies of all four Quad countries together in the same exercise. The drills cover anti-submarine warfare, air defence, cross-deck flying and live firing. Option A is wrong because that was the three-nation line-up from 2015 to 2019, before Australia rejoined. Option B is wrong because Israel has never been part of Malabar. Option C is wrong for the same reason, and it also leaves out Japan, a permanent member. Exam tip: Malabar started 1992 as India-US, Japan permanent from 2015, Australia from 2020 — the four Quad navies.

The correct answer is D. The Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757 on the bank of the Bhagirathi near Palashi in Bengal, and Robert Clive's small Company force defeated Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah there. The victory owed less to fighting than to treachery: the Nawab's commander Mir Jafar kept his troops out of the battle after a secret bargain, and the bankers of Murshidabad backed the plot. Mir Jafar was made Nawab, and the Company won a hold over the trade and revenue of Bengal, which is why 1757 is treated as the start of British political power in India. Option A is wrong because the Nizam of Hyderabad was not a party to Plassey. Option B is wrong because Madras was already a Company settlement and Plassey was fought in Bengal. Option C is wrong because there was no Battle of Berar, and Oudh came under Company influence later. Exam tip: Plassey 1757 against Siraj-ud-daulah, Buxar 1764 against Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-daula and Shah Alam II.

The correct answer is B, 1950. The Planning Commission was set up in March 1950 by a resolution of the Union Cabinet, not by the Constitution or by an Act of Parliament, so it was an extra-constitutional and non-statutory body. The Prime Minister was always its chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru being the first, and a full-time Deputy Chairman ran its work. Its task was to assess the country's material, capital and human resources and to draw up Five Year Plans for their balanced use. The First Five Year Plan ran from 1951 to 1956, was based on the Harrod-Domar model and put agriculture and irrigation first. The Commission was replaced on 1 January 2015 by NITI Aayog, a policy think tank that advises but does not allot funds to states. Options A, C and D are wrong because 1948, 1949 and 1951 are each a year off; 1951 is when the First Plan began, not when the body was created. Exam tip: Planning Commission 1950, First Plan 1951-56, NITI Aayog 2015.

The correct answer is A, Odisha. The International Sand Art Festival is held every year on Chandrabhaga beach at Konark in Odisha, and its ninth edition took place in December 2020. The state tourism department organises it alongside the Konark Festival of classical dance, staged at the open-air theatre near the Sun Temple, so that visitors get sculpture on the sand by day and dance in the evening. Artists from India and abroad carve large figures in wet sand along the shore. Odisha has a long association with the art form: Sudarsan Pattnaik of Puri, honoured with the Padma Shri, has won many international sand sculpture titles. Option B is wrong because Tamil Nadu's well known coastal festival is the Mamallapuram dance festival. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra holds the Ellora-Ajanta festival. Option D is wrong because Andhra Pradesh hosts the Visakha Utsav. Exam tip: link Konark in Odisha with three things — the Sun Temple, the Konark dance festival and the International Sand Art Festival at Chandrabhaga beach.

The correct answer is D, Tripura. The Manikya dynasty ruled Tripura for centuries, and its kings all took the title Manikya. Their history is recorded in the Rajmala, a chronicle in Bengali verse first compiled in the fifteenth century under Dharma Manikya. The Ujjayanta Palace at Agartala, built by Radha Kishore Manikya at the beginning of the twentieth century, was their seat and now houses a state museum, and the lake palace Neermahal was raised by Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, the last ruling king, after whom Agartala's airport is named. The princely state signed the merger agreement and joined the Indian Union in October 1949. Option A is wrong because Gujarat was ruled by the Solanki or Chaulukya line. Option B is wrong because Rajasthan had the Sisodia, Kachwaha and Rathore houses. Option C is wrong because Manipur was ruled by the Ningthouja or Meitei dynasty. Exam tip: Manikya means Tripura, its chronicle is the Rajmala, and it merged with India in 1949.

The correct answer is D, Vinesh Phogat. The wrestler Vinesh Phogat was nominated in 2019 for the Laureus World Sports Award in the Breakthrough of the Year category, the first Indian athlete to be shortlisted in that category. The nomination followed a remarkable 2018, in which she won gold at the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast and then gold at the Asian Games in Jakarta, becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games title. She had already received the Arjuna Award in 2016. The Laureus World Sports Awards, begun in 2000 by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, are often called the Oscars of sport. Option A is wrong because Anirban Chatterji is not a Laureus nominee. Option B is wrong because Pankaj Advani, a world champion in billiards and snooker, was not on the list. Option C is wrong because the sprinter Dutee Chand, known for her legal fight over hyperandrogenism rules, was not nominated that year. Exam tip: Vinesh Phogat - Laureus nomination 2019, Asian Games gold 2018, Arjuna Award 2016.

The correct answer is B, 1855. The Santhal rebellion, known as the Hul, broke out on 30 June 1855 in the Rajmahal hills of the Santhal Parganas, in what is now Jharkhand. It was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, along with Chand and Bhairav, who gathered thousands of Santhals against the moneylenders, traders, zamindars and Company officials who had taken over their land and pushed them into bonded labour. The rising was put down with heavy force by 1856, but it forced the British to carve out a separate Santhal Parganas district with special rules barring outsiders from buying tribal land. Option A is wrong because no Santhal rising took place in 1876. Option C is wrong because 1896 is close to but not the year of the Munda ulgulan of Birsa Munda, which began in 1899. Option D is wrong because by 1860 the rebellion had already been crushed. Exam tip: Santhal Hul 1855 under Sidhu and Kanhu; Munda Ulgulan 1899 to 1900 under Birsa Munda.

The correct answer is B, Meghalaya. Bamboo drip irrigation is a two-hundred-year-old practice of the Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya. Water from a hill spring or stream is led through split bamboo pipes, channels and diversion sections down the slope, and the flow is cut down stage by stage until the last narrow pipe drips water right at the root of the plant. Around eighteen to twenty litres a minute entering the system come out as twenty to eighty drops a minute at the plant. It is used mainly for betel leaf and black pepper grown along with areca nut, needs no pump or electricity, and is studied as a model of water harvesting on steep ground where channels cannot be dug. Option A is wrong because Chhattisgarh relies on tank and canal irrigation. Option C is wrong because Telangana depends on tanks, borewells and lift irrigation. Option D is wrong because Maharashtra is known for modern plastic drip irrigation, not the bamboo system. Exam tip: bamboo drip - Meghalaya, zabo - Nagaland, apatani - Arunachal Pradesh, kuhl - Himachal Pradesh, ahar-pyne - Bihar.

The correct answer is B, Article 161. Article 161 lets the Governor grant pardons, reprieves, respites and remissions of punishment, and suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of an offence against a law on a matter to which the executive power of the state extends. His power is narrower than the President's under Article 72 in two ways: the Governor cannot pardon a death sentence and has no say in a sentence passed by a court martial, while the President can act in both cases. Like the President, the Governor exercises this power on the advice of the state Council of Ministers. Option A is wrong because Article 163 provides for the Council of Ministers to aid and advise the Governor. Option C is wrong because Article 55 lays down the manner of election of the President. Option D is wrong because Article 145 lets the Supreme Court frame rules of procedure. Exam tip: Article 72 for the President's pardon and Article 161 for the Governor's; only the President can pardon a death sentence or a court-martial sentence.

The correct answer is D, Stratosphere. The ozone layer lies in the stratosphere, roughly 15 to 35 km above the ground, with the thickest concentration near 20 to 25 km, and that belt is sometimes called the ozonosphere. Ozone is a molecule of three oxygen atoms, and it forms there when ultraviolet light splits oxygen molecules and the free atoms join other oxygen molecules. It absorbs harmful ultraviolet-B radiation and so shields life from skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage, and because it takes in this energy the temperature in the stratosphere rises with height, which makes the layer stable and good for jet flight. Chlorofluorocarbons from refrigerators and aerosols destroy it, so the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 to phase them out, and 16 September is marked as World Ozone Day. Option A is wrong because the troposphere is the lowest layer, where all weather happens. Option B is wrong because the mesosphere lies above the stratosphere and is where meteors burn up. Option C is wrong because the exosphere is the outermost, almost airless layer. Exam tip: troposphere, stratosphere with ozone, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere, in that order going up.

The correct answer is D, Karnataka. Karnataka won the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare Trophy, beating Saurashtra in the final played in Delhi. The tournament is India's premier domestic limited-overs competition for state teams, run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India since 2002-03, and it is named after Vijay Hazare, the batsman who led India to its first Test victory, against England at Madras in 1952. Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal was the story of that season, scoring 723 runs, the highest total by any batsman in a single edition of the trophy. Option A is wrong because Uttar Pradesh did not reach the 2017-18 final. Option B is wrong because Kerala was knocked out before the final that season. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra also failed to reach the final; Karnataka's opponent was Saurashtra. Exam tip: Vijay Hazare Trophy is the one-day tournament, the Ranji Trophy the first-class one and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy the Twenty20 one.

The correct answer is A, Part IX-A. The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 inserted a new Part IX-A titled The Municipalities into the Constitution, and it came into force on 1 June 1993. This Part runs from Article 243P to Article 243ZG and gave urban local bodies a constitutional footing for the first time. It fixed three kinds of municipality: a Nagar Panchayat for an area moving from rural to urban, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area. The same Act added the Twelfth Schedule, which lists 18 subjects such as urban planning, water supply, slum improvement and public health that a state may hand over to these bodies. Elections every five years, seats reserved for women and Scheduled Castes, and a State Finance Commission also came with it. B is wrong because Part X covers Scheduled and Tribal Areas. C is wrong because Part XI deals with Centre-State relations. D is wrong because Part XIV covers services under the Union and the States. Exam tip: 73rd Amendment gives Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule for panchayats, 74th gives Part IX-A and the Twelfth Schedule for municipalities.

The correct answer is B, Portuguese. The Battle of Swally was fought in November 1612 off Suvali, a village near Surat on the Gujarat coast. A small English squadron under Captain Thomas Best defeated a larger Portuguese fleet, and the victory ended the belief that the Portuguese could not be beaten at sea in Indian waters. Jahangir's officers watched the fight from the shore, and soon after the English were allowed to open a factory at Surat, their first real foothold on the western coast, confirmed by an imperial farman. Sir Thomas Roe's embassy of 1615 built on this opening. A is wrong because the Danes came later, setting up at Tranquebar in 1620, and took no part in this battle. C is wrong because the Dutch fought the English elsewhere, most bitterly over the spice trade at Amboyna in 1623. D is wrong because the French East India Company was founded only in 1664. Exam tip: Swally 1612, Thomas Best beat the Portuguese, and the Surat factory followed.

The correct answer is A, Zoroastrianism. The Avesta, also called the Zend-Avesta, is the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, the followers of the prophet Zarathustra or Zoroaster of ancient Iran. It is written in Avestan, an old Iranian language close to the Sanskrit of the Rigveda, which is why the two texts share many words and gods. Its oldest and most respected part is the Gathas, the hymns held to be Zarathustra's own words. Zoroastrians worship Ahura Mazda, the lord of wisdom, keep a sacred fire burning in their temples and follow the rule of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Their descendants in India are the Parsis, who reached Gujarat around the eighth century. B is wrong because the Buddhist canon is the Tripitaka, written in Pali. C is wrong because the Jain scriptures are the Agamas or Angas, in Prakrit. D is wrong because the sacred book of Judaism is the Torah, part of the Hebrew Bible. Exam tip: Avesta Zoroastrian, Tripitaka Buddhist, Agama Jain, Torah Jewish, Guru Granth Sahib Sikh.

The correct answer is D, Buccal cavity. In humans the digestion of starch begins in the buccal cavity, that is the mouth. The salivary glands pour out about 1.5 litres of saliva a day, and the enzyme in it, salivary amylase or ptyalin, breaks starch into the simpler sugar maltose. This is why a piece of chapati or rice starts tasting slightly sweet if it is chewed for a while. The saliva also wets the food so the tongue can roll it into a bolus for swallowing. A is wrong because the rectum only stores the waste left after digestion and absorption. B is wrong because in the small intestine pancreatic amylase carries this work forward and maltase finishes it into glucose, but it does not begin there. C is wrong because the oesophagus is only a food pipe that pushes the bolus down by peristalsis and has no digestive enzyme. Exam tip: starch begins in the mouth with salivary amylase, protein in the stomach with pepsin, fat in the small intestine with lipase and bile.

The correct answer is C, Ctrl + Y. In MS Excel 365, Ctrl + Y repeats the last command or action wherever repeating it is possible, so if you have just made a cell bold or inserted a row, pressing Ctrl + Y does the same thing again at the new position. It also works as Redo, undoing an undo, because Excel treats the two as one key. The function key F4 does the same repeat job in Excel, which is why it is popular for copying formatting down a sheet. A is wrong because Ctrl + Z is Undo, which cancels the last action instead of repeating it. B is wrong because Shift + Z is not a command shortcut in Excel; it simply types a capital Z. D is wrong because Shift + Y likewise only types a capital Y. Exam tip: Ctrl + Z undo, Ctrl + Y redo or repeat, Ctrl + C copy, Ctrl + V paste, and F4 also repeats in Excel.

The correct answer is A, Brazil. Brazil is called the Coffee Bowl of the World because it grows and sends out more coffee than any other country and has done so for more than a century. Its coffee belt lies in the south-east, in the states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Parana, where the deep red soil called terra rossa, the warm climate and the rolling plateau suit the plant. The large estates there are known as fazendas, and the port of Santos handles much of the export. Coffee needs a hot, wet climate with well drained slopes, which is why it is a plantation crop of the tropics. B is wrong because Mexico is a smaller coffee grower and is better known for maize and silver. C is wrong because India grows coffee mainly in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu but is far behind Brazil. D is wrong because Serbia has a cool climate that cannot support coffee at all. Exam tip: Brazil Coffee Bowl of the World, Sri Lanka Pearl of the Indian Ocean, Cuba Sugar Bowl of the World.

The correct answer is B, Fundamental rights. Fundamental rights are the one set of provisions here that a court can enforce directly. They are placed in Part III of the Constitution, Articles 12 to 35, and Article 32 lets a person move the Supreme Court itself when such a right is broken, while Article 226 lets them move a High Court. The courts issue five writs for this purpose: habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari and quo warranto. Dr B. R. Ambedkar called Article 32 the heart and soul of the Constitution because the right to a remedy is itself a fundamental right. A is wrong because the Preamble only states the aims of the Constitution; it cannot be enforced in a court, though judges use it to read an unclear provision. C is wrong because the Directive Principles in Part IV are expressly non-justiciable under Article 37 and work as goals for the government. D is wrong because the Fundamental Duties in Article 51A carry no direct court remedy. Exam tip: Part III is justiciable, Part IV is not, and Article 32 is the remedy.

The correct answer is A, Maulvi Liaquat Ali. Maulvi Liaquat Ali of Mahgaon village led the revolt of 1857 at Allahabad, now Prayagraj. He was declared governor of the city by the rebels, set up his headquarters at Khusro Bagh and held the town for about a fortnight in June 1857 before Colonel Neill retook it with troops moving up from Calcutta. He escaped, stayed underground for fourteen years and was caught at Bombay in 1871, then transported for life to the Andaman Islands. C is wrong because Khan Bahadur Khan, a grandson of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, led the revolt at Bareilly. B is wrong because Tatya Tope fought at Kanpur beside Nana Saheb and later at Gwalior with the Rani. D is wrong because Rani Lakshmibai led the fighting at Jhansi and died near Gwalior in June 1858. Exam tip: Allahabad Maulvi Liaquat Ali, Kanpur Nana Saheb, Lucknow Begum Hazrat Mahal, Bareilly Khan Bahadur Khan, Jhansi Rani Lakshmibai, Faizabad Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah.

The correct answer is A, Odisha. The Lingaraja Temple stands in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, and is the largest temple in that city. It was built in the eleventh century, mainly under the Somavamshi ruler Jajati Keshari and completed by the Ganga rulers, and is dedicated to Shiva as Tribhuvaneshwara, the lord of three worlds. The temple is the finest example of the Kalinga or Nagara style of eastern India, with a tall curved tower about 55 metres high and four parts in a line: the vimana for the deity, the jagamohana or assembly hall, the natamandira for dance and the bhogamandapa for offerings. The deity here is worshipped as both Shiva and Vishnu, called Harihara. B is wrong because Karnataka is known for the Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu. C is wrong because Maharashtra has the rock-cut Kailasa temple at Ellora. D is wrong because Tamil Nadu has the Dravidian temples of Thanjavur and Madurai. Exam tip: Lingaraja Bhubaneswar, Kalinga style, with Mukteshwara and Rajarani temples in the same city.

The correct answer is D, 40. Power is the rate of doing work, so power equals work divided by time. Here the work is 120 J and the time is 3 seconds, which gives 120 divided by 3, that is 40 watts. The watt is the SI unit of power and one watt means one joule of work done in one second; 746 watts make one horsepower, the older unit still used for engines. Remember that power tells you how fast the work is done, not how much: an engine that does the same 120 J in 6 seconds has only 20 W of power. A is wrong because 360 comes from multiplying 120 by 3 instead of dividing. B is wrong because 80 does not follow from any correct step with these figures. C is wrong because 180 comes from mistakenly taking three halves of the work. Exam tip: power equals work divided by time, its unit is the watt, and 1 horsepower equals 746 watts.

The correct answer is A, Joystick. A joystick is an input device with a stick fixed in a base that can be tilted in several directions, and the movement of the stick moves an image or a pointer on the screen in the same direction. It was first built for aircraft controls, and today it is used for computer games, flight simulators, wheelchairs and cranes. Most joysticks also carry buttons and a trigger, and the base sends the direction and the amount of tilt to the computer, so it is an analog pointing device like the mouse, the trackball and the light pen. B is wrong because an Optical Mark Reader only reads pencil marks on answer sheets and forms. C is wrong because a Visual Display Unit is the monitor, which is an output device and controls nothing. D is wrong because MIDI devices such as electronic keyboards carry music data between instruments and a computer. Exam tip: joystick, mouse, trackball, light pen and touch screen are pointing input devices; the monitor and printer are output devices.

The correct answer is D, Article 168. Article 168 provides for the constitution of Legislatures in the states. It says every state shall have a Legislature made up of the Governor and either one House or two Houses. Where there are two, they are the Legislative Assembly or Vidhan Sabha and the Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad; the other states have an Assembly alone. The Governor is counted as part of the Legislature even though he does not sit in either House, because a bill becomes law only after his assent. Article 169 allows Parliament to create or abolish a Council when the Assembly of that state passes a resolution by a special majority, which is how the number of states with a Council keeps changing. A is wrong because Article 167 lists the Chief Minister's duty to furnish information to the Governor. B is wrong because Article 165 provides for the Advocate General of a state. C is wrong because Article 163 deals with the Council of Ministers that aids and advises the Governor. Exam tip: 163 aid and advice, 165 Advocate General, 167 Chief Minister's duties, 168 constitution of the state Legislature.

The correct answer is D, 1765. Robert Clive signed the two Treaties of Allahabad in August 1765, the year after the English won the Battle of Buxar. By the first, Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh got his territory back except Kara and Allahabad, paid fifty lakh rupees as war costs and became a dependent ally who would help pay for English troops in his state. By the second, the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II was given Kara and Allahabad and an annual pension of twenty-six lakh rupees, and in return he granted the Company the Diwani, the right to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. That grant began the dual government in Bengal, where the Company held the purse and the Nawab held the duties of administration. A is wrong because 1764 is the year of the Battle of Buxar. B and C are wrong because no such treaty was signed in 1767 or 1766. Exam tip: Plassey 1757, Buxar 1764, Treaties of Allahabad and Diwani rights 1765.

The correct answer is D, Deogarh. The Dashavatara Temple stands at Deogarh in the Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Betwa, and was built of stone around the sixth century in the late Gupta period. It is dedicated to Vishnu and is named after the ten incarnations shown on its walls, where the panels of Sheshashayi Vishnu, Nara-Narayana and Gajendramoksha are the best known. The temple is the earliest surviving example in north India of the Panchayatana plan, in which the main shrine stands on a raised platform with four smaller shrines at the corners, and it also carries an early curved shikhara that leads on to the Nagara style. A is wrong because Nachna-Kuthara in Madhya Pradesh has the Parvati temple, not this one. B is wrong because Bhitargaon near Kanpur is the well-known Gupta temple built of brick. C is wrong because Tigawa in Madhya Pradesh has the small flat-roofed Kankali Devi temple. Exam tip: Deogarh Dashavatara, stone, Panchayatana; Bhitargaon, brick; both Gupta work.

The correct answer is C, 100. Use the third equation of motion, which links velocity and distance without needing time: v squared equals u squared plus 2as. Here u is 10 m/s, v is 30 m/s and a is 4 m/s2, so 900 equals 100 plus 8s, giving 8s equal to 800 and s equal to 100 metres. The same answer comes the long way round: the time taken is (30 minus 10) divided by 4, that is 5 seconds, and the average velocity of uniformly accelerated motion is (10 plus 30) divided by 2, that is 20 m/s, so the displacement is 20 times 5, again 100 metres. A is wrong because 200 comes from leaving out the initial velocity and taking v squared as 2as with u equal to zero. B is wrong because 250 follows no correct step here. D is wrong because 125 comes from using the wrong time of 5 seconds with a mistaken average of 25 m/s. Exam tip: the three equations are v = u + at, s = ut + half at squared, and v squared = u squared + 2as.

The correct answer is B, Ctrl + Alt + I. In MS Word 365 the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + I switches the document to print preview and, pressed again, brings you back to the normal view. Print preview shows the page exactly as it will come out of the printer, with the margins, headers, page breaks and page numbers in place, so it is used for a last check before printing. The same screen is reached from the File menu by choosing Print, where Ctrl + P also takes you. A is wrong because Ctrl + Alt + P switches Word to the reading or outline area, not to print preview. C is wrong because Alt + P only opens the Layout tab of the ribbon through the key tips. D is wrong because Alt + I is an old menu key for Insert and does not open a preview. Exam tip: Ctrl + P print, Ctrl + Alt + I print preview toggle, Ctrl + F2 also opens print preview in Word.

The correct answer is A, 1780-1784. The Second Anglo-Mysore War ran from 1780 to 1784. It began when the English took Mahe, a French port inside Haidar Ali's territory, and he answered by attacking the Carnatic. In 1780 he crushed Colonel Baillie's force at Pollilur, one of the worst English defeats in India, and Warren Hastings had to send Sir Eyre Coote south, who beat Haidar Ali at Porto Novo in 1781. Haidar Ali died of cancer in December 1782 and his son Tipu Sultan carried the war on. It closed with the Treaty of Mangalore in March 1784, under which both sides returned their conquests; it is remembered as the last treaty whose terms an Indian ruler set for the English. B is wrong because no Anglo-Mysore war was fought in 1769-1775. C is wrong because 1785-1789 was a break between wars. D is wrong because the first war was fought in 1767-1769 and ended with the Treaty of Madras. Exam tip: First 1767-69 Madras, Second 1780-84 Mangalore, Third 1790-92 Seringapatam, Fourth 1799.

The correct answer is B, Sasaram. The tomb of Sher Shah Suri stands at Sasaram in the Rohtas district of Bihar, the town where he grew up. It is an octagonal tomb of grey sandstone, about 37 metres high, raised on a square platform in the middle of a large artificial lake so that it seems to float on the water, and it is reached by a causeway from the north. The architect was Mir Muhammad Aliwal Khan, and the work was finished in 1545 soon after Sher Shah died at Kalinjar. The design grew out of the tombs of the Lodis and is counted the high point of the Indo-Islamic style before the Mughals. A is wrong because Chausa is where Sher Shah defeated Humayun in 1539. C is wrong because Delhi holds his Purana Qila and the Qila-i-Kuhna mosque, not his grave. D is wrong because Rohtasgarh is the hill fort he captured, not his burial place. Exam tip: born in Sasaram, died at Kalinjar in 1545, buried in the lake tomb at Sasaram.

The correct answer is C, Nyaya. Maharishi Gautama, also called Akshapada Gautama, founded the Nyaya school of Indian philosophy and wrote its basic text, the Nyaya Sutra. Nyaya is the school of logic: it holds that right knowledge is the way out of suffering, and it lays down four means of valid knowledge, namely perception, inference, comparison and reliable testimony. Its careful rules of debate and proof were used by every other school, which is why Nyaya is called the doorway to Indian philosophy. It is counted among the six orthodox or astika systems along with Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta. A is wrong because Samkhya was founded by Maharishi Kapila, who explained the world through Purusha and Prakriti. B is wrong because Yoga is credited to Patanjali and his Yoga Sutra. D is wrong because Vaisheshika was founded by Kanada, who built an early atomic theory. Exam tip: Kapila Samkhya, Patanjali Yoga, Gautama Nyaya, Kanada Vaisheshika, Jaimini Mimamsa, Badarayana Vedanta.

The correct answer is C, 24 Joule. Work done in moving a charge through a potential difference is W = Q × V, so W = 2 × 12 = 24 joule. Potential difference between two points is defined as the work done per unit charge in carrying that charge from one point to the other, that is V = W/Q. Its unit, the volt, is therefore one joule per coulomb, and this work does not depend on the path taken between the two points. Moving 2 coulombs across 12 volts thus needs 24 joules of energy. A is wrong because 6 joule would be the work for only 0.5 coulomb at 12 V. B is wrong because 18 joule does not follow from any pairing of the given values. D is wrong because 12 joule is the work for 1 coulomb, not for 2 coulombs. Exam tip: remember V = W/Q, so W = QV, and 1 volt = 1 joule per coulomb.

The correct answer is C, 1024 megabytes. Computer storage is counted in powers of two, so each step up the ladder multiplies by 1024, and one gigabyte equals 1024 megabytes. The full ladder that papers test is: 8 bits make 1 byte, 1024 bytes make 1 kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes make 1 megabyte, 1024 megabytes make 1 gigabyte, 1024 gigabytes make 1 terabyte, and 1024 terabytes make 1 petabyte. The figure 1024 appears because it is 2 raised to the power 10, the natural unit for binary addressing. A is wrong because 1391 megabytes is not a power-of-two figure at all. B is wrong because 1024 kilobytes make one megabyte, not one gigabyte. D is wrong because 1150 megabytes is simply a made-up number. Exam tip: learn the chain bit, byte, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB with 1024 at every step, and 8 bits in one byte.

The correct answer is A, Golf. The Ryder Cup is a team golf tournament, played between teams representing the United States and Europe. It began in 1927 and is named after Samuel Ryder, the English seed merchant who donated the trophy. The event is held every two years, the venue alternating between American and European courses, and unlike most professional golf it is a match-play team contest in which no prize money is paid to the players. The women's equivalent is the Solheim Cup. B is wrong because table tennis has the Swaythling Cup and the Corbillon Cup. C is wrong because cricket's main trophies are the World Cup, the Ashes and the Ranji Trophy. D is wrong because hockey has the Azlan Shah Cup and, in India, the Dhyan Chand Trophy and the Rangaswamy Cup. Exam tip: link golf with the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup, the Walker Cup and the Presidents Cup.

The correct answer is D, Pressure. Thrust is the force acting perpendicular to a surface, and the thrust acting on unit area of that surface is called pressure, so pressure = thrust ÷ area. Its SI unit is the pascal, where one pascal is one newton per square metre. Because area sits in the denominator, the same force gives a larger pressure on a smaller area, which is why a sharp knife cuts easily and why a camel's broad feet keep it from sinking into sand. A is wrong because volume is the space an object occupies, measured in cubic metres. B is wrong because surface area is only the area itself, not a force spread over it. C is wrong because density is mass per unit volume, measured in kilograms per cubic metre. Exam tip: pressure = thrust/area in pascal; density = mass/volume in kg per cubic metre; do not mix the two formulas.

The correct answer is C, Vijayalakshmi Pandit. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly for its eighth session in 1953, becoming the first Indian and the first woman in the world to hold that office. She was the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, led India's delegation to the United Nations, and later served as ambassador to the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom, and as Governor of Maharashtra. A is wrong because Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman President of the Congress and the first woman Governor of an Indian province, not a United Nations office holder. B is wrong because Indira Gandhi was India's first woman Prime Minister. D is wrong because Annie Besant, an Irish-born theosophist, was Congress President in 1917. Exam tip: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 1953, first woman President of the UN General Assembly; Sarojini Naidu, first woman Governor in India.

The correct answer is C, Odisha. Patachitra is the traditional cloth-scroll painting of Odisha, closely tied to the Jagannath temple at Puri. The word comes from pata, meaning cloth, and chitra, meaning picture. Artists prepare the canvas by pasting layers of cloth with tamarind seed paste, use natural colours from conch shell, lamp black and mineral stones, and paint themes from the lives of Jagannath, Krishna and Radha with bold outlines and decorative floral borders. The village of Raghurajpur in Puri district is its best known centre and Odisha Patachitra carries a Geographical Indication tag. A is wrong because Gujarat is known for Pithora painting and Patola weaving. B is wrong because Tamil Nadu is known for Tanjore painting. D is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kalamkari and Cherial scrolls. Exam tip: Patachitra with Odisha and Raghurajpur; Madhubani with Bihar; Warli with Maharashtra; Kalamkari with Andhra Pradesh.

The correct answer is B, Rod-shaped. Bacteria are grouped by shape, and bacilli are the rod-shaped ones; the Latin word bacillus itself means a small rod or stick. Tuberculosis, tetanus, typhoid and anthrax are all caused by rod-shaped bacteria, and Lactobacillus, the bacterium that curdles milk into curd, belongs to the same group. The other shapes in this classification are cocci, which are spherical, spirilla, which are long and spiral, and vibrio, which are curved like a comma. A is wrong because comma-shaped bacteria are called vibrio, the best known being Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera. C is wrong because spiral bacteria are spirilla and spirochaetes. D is wrong because spherical bacteria are cocci, such as Streptococcus. Exam tip: cocci are round, bacilli are rods, spirilla are spirals and vibrio are comma-shaped.