Awards & Honours Mixed Quiz: Set 2

The correct answer is C, 120. The rules provide that not more than 120 Padma awards may be conferred in a year, and awards made posthumously and those given to foreigners and non-resident Indians are counted outside that ceiling. The limit applies to the three Padma grades taken together, not to each grade separately.

Options A, B and D are round numbers chosen to look reasonable, and 100 in particular tempts candidates who remember only that there is a ceiling. The figure to hold beside this one is the convention for the Bharat Ratna, where not more than three are conferred in a year, and the fact that the Bharat Ratna need not be conferred every year at all. Both figures are rules rather than counts of recipients, which is why they are safe to memorise: unlike the running total of awardees, they do not change from year to year.

The correct answer is D, Dhyan Chand Award. The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games was instituted in 2002 to honour sportspersons who not only performed well in their playing days but kept serving the sport after retiring. It is named after Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey wizard who won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936; his birthday, 29 August, is celebrated as National Sports Day, when all the national sports awards are given. A is wrong because the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, started in 1991-92, is the highest award for the best performance over the previous four years, and in August 2021 it was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, which is a different award from the lifetime achievement one. B is wrong because the Arjuna Award, started in 1961, is for consistent outstanding performance by active players. C is wrong because the Dronacharya Award, started in 1985, is for coaches. Exam tip: Khel Ratna best performance, Arjuna players, Dronacharya coaches, Dhyan Chand Award lifetime achievement; all given on 29 August.

The correct answer is A, Neerja Bhanot. She was the flight purser on a hijacked aircraft at Karachi in 1986 and was killed while shielding passengers as she helped them escape. The Ashoka Chakra was conferred on her posthumously, and she remains the standard answer to this question.

Option B, Kamaljeet Sandhu, was an athlete, the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in an individual event at the Asian Games, so she belongs to the sports chapter. Option C, Punita Arora, was the first woman to reach the rank of Lieutenant General in the Indian Army and Vice Admiral in the Navy, a distinction of service rather than a gallantry award. Option D, Kiran Bedi, was the first woman officer of the Indian Police Service. Each name is a genuine first of some kind, which is exactly how this question is made difficult.

The correct answer is C, 1957. The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York, with the agreement of the Philippine government, in memory of Ramon Magsaysay, the third President of the Philippines, who had died in an air crash in March that year. The first awards were presented in 1958. The prize honours greatness of spirit and service to the peoples of Asia and is often called Asia's Nobel Prize; the foundation that gives it is based in Manila. Vinoba Bhave was the first Indian to receive it, in 1958. Option A is wrong because by 1965 the award had already been given for seven years. Option B is wrong because 1962 is the year Mother Teresa won it for peace and international understanding, not the year it began. Option D is wrong because 1982 is far later than the founding. Exam tip: Magsaysay Award — set up 1957, first given 1958, first Indian Vinoba Bhave, foundation at Manila.

The correct answer is B, the peepal leaf. The Bharat Ratna medallion is made in toned bronze in the shape of a peepal leaf, with a platinum sun and the words Bharat Ratna in Devanagari on the front, and the State Emblem of India with the motto Satyameva Jayate on the back.

Option A, the banyan leaf, is wrong although the banyan is the national tree of India, which is what makes the option tempting. Option C, the lotus leaf, is placed here because the lotus is the national flower and because the Padma awards take their name from the lotus; the Padma medallions carry a lotus pattern, not a leaf shape. Option D, the mango leaf, has ritual significance but no place in this design. One more detail is worth carrying: the original 1954 design was a circular gold medal, which was replaced within a year by the leaf now in use.

The correct answer is C, 1952. The Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's national academy of music, dance and drama, was created by a government resolution of 31 May 1952 and formally inaugurated on 28 January 1953 by President Rajendra Prasad. It was the first of the three national academies; the Sahitya Akademi for literature and the Lalit Kala Akademi for fine arts followed in 1954. Its annual awards, the Akademi Puraskar, have been given to performing artists since 1952, which makes it the oldest national honour for the performing arts in India. The higher honour, the Akademi Ratna or Fellowship, was started in 1954. A is wrong because 1961 is the year the Arjuna Award for sports began. B is wrong because 1950 is when the Constitution came into force, not when the Akademi was formed. D is wrong because 1959 is the year the National School of Drama was set up, not the start of the awards. Exam tip: Sangeet Natak Akademi 1952 (awards from 1952); Sahitya Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi 1954.

The correct answer is C, Kirti Chakra. It is a peacetime gallantry award, given for conspicuous gallantry away from the field of battle, and it may be conferred on civilians as well as on members of the armed forces. It is the counterpart of the Maha Vir Chakra rather than a member of the wartime family.

Options A, B and D, the Param Vir Chakra, the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra, are the three wartime decorations, all instituted on 26 January 1950 and all given for acts performed in the presence of the enemy. The simple test is the word vir in the name: the three wartime awards carry it, while the peacetime three are the Ashoka Chakra, the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra. That single clue answers most questions of this type at once.

The correct answer is B, Param Vir Chakra. It is given for the most conspicuous act of bravery or self-sacrifice in the presence of the enemy, on land, at sea or in the air, and its name means the wheel of the ultimate brave. It stands first in the order of precedence of all gallantry decorations.

Option A, the Ashoka Chakra, is the highest peacetime gallantry award and stands second in the order of precedence, so it is correct only when the question says peacetime. Option C, the Maha Vir Chakra, is the second wartime award, below the Param Vir Chakra. Option D, the Kirti Chakra, is the second peacetime award and the counterpart of the Maha Vir Chakra. The word wartime in the stem is what settles this question, so read it before marking.

The correct answer is C, Sachin Tendulkar, honoured in 2014. He became eligible because the scope of the award had been widened in December 2011 from art, literature, science and public service to any field of human endeavour, and he is also the youngest person to receive the Bharat Ratna.

Option A, Dhyan Chand, the hockey player whose birth anniversary is observed as National Sports Day, has been the subject of long-standing demands for the honour but is not the answer to this question. Option B, Milkha Singh, the athlete called the Flying Sikh, received the Padma Shri and not the Bharat Ratna. Option D, Vishwanathan Anand, the chess grandmaster, was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting award, which is a separate honour altogether. The point being tested is the link between the 2011 change in scope and the award of 2014.

The correct answer is D, Overcoming social exclusion through Bharatanatyam dance performances. Narthaki Nataraj is a Bharatanatyam dancer from Madurai in Tamil Nadu and, in 2019, became the first transgender person to receive the Padma Shri, which she got in the field of art. Thrown out of her home as a teenager, she trained for years under Guru K. P. Kittappa Pillai, a descendant of the Thanjavur Quartet, and mastered the Nayaki bhava style of the Thanjavur tradition; she also runs the Velliyambalam School of Dance in Chennai. She had earlier received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2011 and Tamil Nadu's Kalaimamani title. The Padma citation therefore links her name to dance, not to any other field. A, cuisine, C, agriculture, and B, Nyayashastra, describe fields of other Padma awardees and have nothing to do with her. Exam tip: Narthaki Nataraj = Bharatanatyam, Tamil Nadu, first transgender Padma Shri, 2019.

The correct answer is B, Param Vir Chakra. Captain Vikram Batra of the 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles received it posthumously for the recapture of heights during the Kargil conflict of 1999. Four Param Vir Chakras were awarded for that conflict, the others going to Lieutenant Manoj Kumar Pandey, also posthumously, and to Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav and Rifleman Sanjay Kumar, who survived.

Option A, the Ashoka Chakra, is a peacetime award and therefore cannot be given for an action against the enemy in an armed conflict. Option C, the Maha Vir Chakra, is a genuine wartime award but one grade below the Param Vir Chakra, and several officers received it in the same conflict, which makes it the closest distractor. Option D, the Shaurya Chakra, is again a peacetime decoration. The presence of the enemy rules out both peacetime options at once.

The correct answer is C, Ashoka Chakra. It is awarded for the most conspicuous bravery or an act of daring or self-sacrifice of the highest order away from the field of battle, and it may be given to civilians as well as to members of the armed forces.

Option A, the Shaurya Chakra, is the third peacetime award, the counterpart of the Vir Chakra. Option B, the Kirti Chakra, is the second peacetime award, the counterpart of the Maha Vir Chakra. Option D, the Vir Chakra, belongs to the wartime family altogether, which makes it wrong on two counts here. The three peacetime awards in descending order are Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, and remembering them as one line saves time when the options mix the families.

The correct answer is D. A recipient of the Bharat Ratna is given a Sanad, which is a certificate signed by the President, together with the medallion, and the award is conferred at Rashtrapati Bhavan, usually a few weeks after the names are announced on the eve of Republic Day.

Option A is wrong because no cash amount accompanies the award, and the government has stated that no special allowance, concession or privilege follows from it either. Option B is wrong because Article 18 of the Constitution abolishes titles, and the award may not be written as a prefix or suffix to a name; a recipient may only state that the honour has been conferred on them. Option C is wrong on both counts: the award is conferred by the President, not the Prime Minister, and at Rashtrapati Bhavan, not Parliament House. The Prime Minister's role is to recommend the name to the President.

The correct answer is C, 1954. Both honours were instituted on 2 January 1954 by President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and the first Bharat Ratna was conferred in the same year on C. Rajagopalachari, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman.

Option A, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force, and candidates often attach every early institution to that date. Option B, 1952, is the year of the first general election, a landmark of a different kind. Option D, 1955, is a genuine trap rather than a random year: it is when the three Padma classes, first set up under a single name in 1954, were renamed Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. Keep the two years apart: instituted in 1954, renamed in 1955.

The correct answer is A, four replicas of the vajra, the thunderbolt of Indra. Savitri Khanolkar chose the motif from the old story in which the sage Dadhichi gave up his body so that his bones could be made into the weapon with which Indra defeated his enemy, a symbol of sacrifice that suits the highest award for valour.

Option B, lotus flowers, appear on other Indian decorations, notably the Padma awards, whose very names are drawn from the lotus. Option C, the chakra with twenty-four spokes, is on the national flag and on the emblem, and it lends its name to the Ashoka Chakra award but is not the motif of the Param Vir Chakra. Option D, crossed swords and a shield, is a common military emblem but not the design of this medal. The vajra is the detail worth remembering, along with the name of its designer.

The correct answer is A, Major Somnath Sharma, of the 4th Battalion of the Kumaon Regiment, who received the award posthumously for the action at Badgam near Srinagar in November 1947. His company held off a much larger body of raiders and kept them from reaching the airfield, which allowed reinforcements to continue arriving in Kashmir.

Option B, Captain Vikram Batra, and option C, Lieutenant Manoj Kumar Pandey, both received the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for the Kargil conflict of 1999, more than fifty years later. Option D, Subedar Joginder Singh, was awarded it for an action of the 1962 conflict. All four are genuine recipients, so the question turns purely on the word first, and the answer is fixed by the year 1947. Note also that the award was instituted only in 1950 but takes effect from 15 August 1947, which is precisely why an action of November 1947 could be honoured with it at all.

The correct answer is A, Sudarshan Sahoo. Sudarshan Sahoo, the stone and wood sculptor from Puri in Odisha, was given the Padma Vibhushan in 2021 in the field of art. He had already received the Padma Shri in 1988, and his work carries the Odishan temple-sculpture tradition of Konark and Puri into modern studios. The Padma Vibhushan is the second-highest civilian award of India, after the Bharat Ratna, and the Padma list is announced every year on the eve of Republic Day. Option B is wrong because Tarlochan Singh, a former chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, was given the Padma Bhushan in 2021. Option C is wrong because the table tennis player Mouma Das received the Padma Shri that year. Option D is wrong because Sumitra Mahajan, a former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, was also a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2021. Exam tip: the civilian honours in order are Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

The correct answer is B, the Padma Vibhushan. The order of precedence of the civilian honours runs Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, and the Padma Vibhushan is given for exceptional and distinguished service.

Option C, the Padma Bhushan, is one step lower and is awarded for distinguished service of a high order, and it is the commonest wrong answer because the two names sound alike. Option A, the Padma Shri, is the lowest of the three grades and is given for distinguished service in any field. Option D, the Ashoka Chakra, is not a civilian award at all but the highest peacetime gallantry award, ranking alongside the Param Vir Chakra in the gallantry list. Mixing the civilian and gallantry lists is exactly the error this option is designed to catch.

The correct answer is D, Bharat Ratna. Lata Mangeshkar received the Bharat Ratna in 2001, becoming the second singer after M.S. Subbulakshmi to be given the country's highest civilian honour. She had recorded songs for more than a thousand Hindi films and sung in over thirty languages, and was widely called the Nightingale of India. The Bharat Ratna is awarded for exceptional service in any field of human endeavour and carries no title and no cash grant, only a sanad signed by the President and a peepal-leaf medallion. Option A is wrong because her Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award came in 1993. Option B is wrong because she had already received the Padma Vibhushan in 1999. Option C is wrong because the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest honour in cinema, was given to her in 1989. Exam tip: fix her order of honours — Padma Shri 1969, Dadasaheb Phalke 1989, Padma Vibhushan 1999, Bharat Ratna 2001.

The correct answer is B, Savitri Khanolkar. Born in Switzerland to a Swiss father and a Hungarian mother, she married an officer of the Indian Army, took Indian citizenship and made a deep study of Indian languages and tradition, which she drew on for the design of the medal and its vajra motif.

Option A, Nandalal Bose, was the artist who illustrated the manuscript of the Constitution of India, a related but different piece of work. Option C, Pingali Venkayya, designed the flag on which the national flag of India was based. Option D, Deenanath Bhargava, drew the state emblem for the illustrated Constitution. All four names belong to the making of India's national symbols, which is why they are placed together, and the medal belongs to Savitri Khanolkar.