Awards & Honours Mixed Quiz: Set 26

The correct answer is B, 8 March. The Nari Shakti Puraskar, the highest civilian honour for women in India, is presented at Rashtrapati Bhavan on International Women's Day, which is observed on 8 March every year. Option A, 24 January, is National Girl Child Day, around which the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar is given to children. Option C, 5 September, is Teachers' Day, the day of the National Award to Teachers. Option D, 1 October, is the International Day of Older Persons, the day of the Vayoshreshtha Samman for work relating to senior citizens. Each of these honours is deliberately tied to a day that matches its subject, so the quickest way to answer a whole set of such questions is to learn the award together with the observance it belongs to.

The correct answer is A, Devika Rani. Devika Rani, an actress and producer often described as the first lady of Indian cinema, received the first Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1969, so the very first recipient of the honour was a woman. Option B is wrong because Kanan Devi, the singer and actress of the Bengali screen, received the award in 1976. Option C is wrong because Durga Khote received it in 1983. Option D is wrong because Ruby Myers, who acted under the name Sulochana and was among the biggest stars of the silent era, received it in 1973. All four are women from the early decades of Indian cinema, which is why the question turns entirely on the year 1969 and the name attached to it.

The correct answer is A, Kuvempu. The Karnataka Ratna was instituted by the Government of Karnataka in 1992 as the highest civilian honour of the state, and the first person to receive it was Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa, the Kannada poet known by his pen name Kuvempu, who had also written the state song of Karnataka. Option B, Shivaram Karanth, was a Kannada novelist and a Jnanpith awardee, but he was not the first Karnataka Ratna. Option C, Girish Karnad, was a playwright and film maker honoured with the Jnanpith in 1998, again not the first recipient of this state honour. Option D, U. R. Ananthamurthy, was also a Jnanpith awardee from Karnataka. All four are major Kannada writers, which is exactly why the question is set this way; the memory hook is that the state began its highest honour with the poet of its own state song.

The correct answer is B, Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi received the Bharat Ratna in 1971, while she was Prime Minister, and she is the first woman in the list. Option A is wrong because Mother Teresa was honoured in 1980; she is remembered as the first naturalised Indian citizen to receive the award, not the first woman. Option C is wrong because Aruna Asaf Ali, known for her role in the Quit India movement of 1942, was honoured posthumously in 1997. Option D is wrong because M. S. Subbulakshmi received the award in 1998 and is remembered as the first musician to be honoured, a separate first that this question deliberately places among the options. Keep the three firsts apart: first woman in 1971, first naturalised citizen in 1980 and first musician in 1998.

The correct answer is C, the Ministry of Women and Child Development. This ministry frames the scheme, invites and screens the nominations and arranges the ceremony at which the President confers the award on 8 March; the same ministry also administers the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for children. Option A, the Ministry of Home Affairs, handles the Padma awards and the gallantry decorations, so it is the commonest wrong choice in award questions generally. Option B, the Ministry of Culture, administers the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony. Option D, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, administers the Vayoshreshtha Samman for senior citizens and the national awards for the empowerment of persons with disabilities. Matching each award to its ministry answers a whole family of questions.

The correct answer is B, 15 August 1947. The decoration was instituted on 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force, but it was given effect from 15 August 1947 so that acts of gallantry performed from the day of independence onwards could be recognised. That is why the very first award, to Major Somnath Sharma for the action at Badgam on 3 November 1947, is for a deed that preceded the creation of the medal. Option A, 26 November 1949, is the date on which the Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly, now marked as Constitution Day, and has nothing to do with this award. Option C, 26 January 1947, mixes the day and month of Republic Day with the wrong year; Republic Day itself falls in 1950. Option D, 1 January 1950, is an invented date offered because it looks administratively plausible. The pair to remember is institution in 1950 and effect from 1947.

The correct answer is C, 1996. The Government of Maharashtra instituted the Maharashtra Bhushan in 1996 as the highest civilian award of the state, open to work in literature, art, sport, science, social service, medicine and public administration, and the first award went to the Marathi writer and humorist Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, remembered as Pu La Deshpande. Option A, 1986, and option B, 1991, are earlier years in which the award did not yet exist. Option D, 2001, is after the institution of the award and after its first conferment. A useful way to hold the date is to pair the state honours by decade: Karnataka Ratna came in 1992 and Maharashtra Bhushan four years later in 1996, while the Assam and Kerala sets are far newer, dating from 2021.

The correct answer is B, Indira Gandhi. She received the Bharat Ratna in 1971, while she was Prime Minister, and she remains the first woman on the list. Option A, Mother Teresa, received it in 1980 and holds a different first: she was the first naturalised Indian, that is a person born abroad who had taken Indian citizenship, to be honoured, and she had received the Nobel Peace Prize the previous year. Option C, M. S. Subbulakshmi, the Carnatic vocalist, received it in 1998 and was the first musician to be given the award. Option D, Aruna Asaf Ali, the heroine of the Quit India Movement who hoisted the flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan in 1942, received the Bharat Ratna in 1997, and hers was a posthumous award.

The correct answer is A, the Stree Shakti Puraskar. The honour was instituted in 1999 as the Stree Shakti Puraskar and given in six categories named after women of Indian history, among them Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar, Kannagi, Mata Jijabai, Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang, Rani Lakshmibai and Rani Rudramma Devi; in 2016 those categories were merged and the award was renamed the Nari Shakti Puraskar. Options B and C name two of those old categories rather than the award itself, which is exactly the confusion the question is built on, since the names Rani Lakshmibai and Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar really do belong to the scheme's history. Option D is an invented title. Remember the two dates: 1999 for the institution and 2016 for the renaming.

The correct answer is A, below the age of forty. The Fields Medal was instituted in 1936 and is awarded every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians, with the condition that the recipient be under forty on the first of January of that year, the purpose being to encourage further achievement rather than to crown a career. B is wrong because the medal has no nationality requirement and has gone to mathematicians from many countries; Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh, both of Indian origin, won in 2014 and 2018. C is wrong because the rule is the reverse of an upper age bar of forty. D is wrong because no condition of employment applies. Maryam Mirzakhani of Iran became the first woman to win the medal, in 2014.

The correct answer is C, 2021. The Government of Assam created a three-step set of state honours in 2021: Assam Baibhav at the top for exceptional service to the state, Assam Saurav next, and Assam Gaurav for distinguished work in specific fields. The first Assam Baibhav was conferred on the industrialist Ratan Tata for the Tata group's work on cancer care in the state. Option A, 2016, and option B, 2019, come before the awards existed. Option D, 2022, is the year in which a later round of these honours was given, not the year of institution, and this is the distractor most students fall for. Note the internal order carefully, because a question very often asks which of the three stands highest; the answer is Assam Baibhav, with Gaurav at the bottom of the three.

The correct answer is B, 20 August. The Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award, instituted in 1992 by the Indian National Congress, is presented on 20 August, the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, which is observed as Sadbhavana Diwas, and it recognises outstanding contribution to communal harmony, peace and goodwill. Option A is wrong because 19 November is the birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi and is observed as National Integration Day in some listings, not as Sadbhavana Diwas. Option C is wrong because 31 October is Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, on which the Sardar Patel National Unity Award is announced. Option D is wrong; 14 November is the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru and is observed as Children Day in India. Link each award to the leader whose anniversary it falls on and this group becomes easy marks.

The correct answer is B, 5 September. The President confers the National Award to Teachers on Teachers' Day, which falls on 5 September, the birthday of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Option A, 14 November, is Children's Day in India, the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru, and it carries no teachers' award. Option C, 11 November, is National Education Day, observed on the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India's first education minister, which makes it a very close distractor in this topic. Option D, 28 February, is National Science Day, marking the announcement of the Raman effect. Keeping the four education and science related days apart, 5 September, 11 November, 14 November and 28 February, settles a cluster of questions that recur every year. Note also that separate national awards exist for teachers in higher education and for teachers of children with disabilities.

The correct answer is B, 16 November. National Press Day marks the day in 1966 on which the Press Council of India began its work as a moral watchdog of the press, and the Council itself organises the observance and presents its National Awards for Excellence in Journalism around it. Option A is wrong because 3 May is World Press Freedom Day, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 after the Windhoek Declaration of 1991. Option C is wrong because 2 October is Gandhi Jayanti and the International Day of Non-Violence. Option D is wrong because 21 June is International Yoga Day. The pair to remember is National Press Day on 16 November and World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. A second detail worth carrying into the hall is that the Press Council of India functions today under the Press Council Act, 1978, and that the highest of its journalism awards is named after Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the pioneer of the Indian press.

The correct answer is C, Kerala Jyothi. Kerala instituted three civilian honours in 2021, modelled on the idea of a graded set: Kerala Jyothi at the top, Kerala Prabha next and Kerala Sree third. The first Kerala Jyothi went to the Malayalam writer and film maker M. T. Vasudevan Nair. Option A, Kerala Sree, is the third of the three, and option B, Kerala Prabha, is the second, so both are real awards but neither is the highest. Option D is wrong because the whole point of the scheme is that the three are graded, exactly as the Padma awards are graded into Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. A simple memory rule is that light gets weaker down the list: Jyothi is a flame, Prabha is a glow and Sree is an honorific.

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 B, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Born on 5 September 1888, Radhakrishnan was a philosopher and teacher who became the first Vice President and the second President of India, and the day is observed in his honour at his own suggestion that his birthday be marked as Teachers' Day. Option A, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was the first President of India and his birth anniversary, 3 December, is not a teachers' day. Option C, Dr Zakir Husain, was the third President and an educationist associated with Jamia Millia Islamia, which makes him a plausible wrong answer. Option D, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was the eleventh President and a teacher by inclination; his birthday, 15 October, is observed as World Students' Day, so candidates must not swap the two days.

The correct answer is C, West Bengal. The Government of West Bengal instituted Banga Bibhushan and Banga Bhushan in 2011 to honour people from the state in fields such as literature, music, cinema, sport, science and social service, with Banga Bibhushan ranked above Banga Bhushan. The word Banga itself is the Bengali name of the region, which is the quickest clue in the question. Option A, Odisha, runs its own set of state honours and does not use these names. Option B, Bihar, and option D, Assam, are also wrong; Assam's honours are the Assam Baibhav, Assam Saurav and Assam Gaurav set of 2021, which is a common mix-up because Baibhav and Bibhushan sound alike. West Bengal's older literary honour is a separate award, the Rabindra Puraskar, instituted in 1950.

The correct answer is B, 1958. The award has been given since 1958 to school teachers of outstanding merit, with a certificate of merit, a silver medal and a cash prize, and since 2018 teachers have been able to nominate themselves through a three-tier online process. Option A, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force and the year the Param Vir Chakra and the other wartime gallantry awards were instituted. Option C, 1961, is the year of the Arjuna Award in sport and of the Jnanpith Award in literature. Option D, 1969, is the year of the first Dadasaheb Phalke Award in cinema. All four are real award years, which is why the question is harder than it looks; note also that 1958 is shared with the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for science and technology.

The correct answer is A, Madhya Pradesh. The Kalidas Samman was instituted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1980 and is given by rotation in four fields of the classical arts: classical music, classical dance, theatre and the plastic arts. It is named after the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa, whose association with Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh is the clue the question depends on. Option B, Maharashtra, gives the Maharashtra Bhushan and the cinema awards named after Raj Kapoor and V. Shantaram. Option C, Uttar Pradesh, gives the Yash Bharti Samman and the Bharat Bharati Samman for Hindi literature. Option D, Rajasthan, gives the Rajasthan Ratna. Madhya Pradesh runs the largest family of artist-named awards in the country, including the Tansen Samman for Hindustani classical music, the Lata Mangeshkar Award for light music and the Kishore Kumar Samman for cinema.