Awards & Honours Mixed Quiz: Set 3

The correct answer is C, M.S. Subbulakshmi. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi, the Carnatic vocalist, received the Bharat Ratna in 1998 and was the first singer and the first musician of any kind to be given the award. She was also the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, in 1974, and she sang at the United Nations General Assembly in 1966. Her rendering of the Venkateswara Suprabhatam and of Vaishnava Jana To is still heard every morning in temples and homes. The Bharat Ratna, instituted in 1954, is India's highest civilian honour and is given for exceptional service in any field. Option A is wrong because Zakir Hussain is a tabla player who was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, not the Bharat Ratna. Option B is wrong because A.R. Rahman, a composer, holds the Padma Bhushan. Option D is wrong because R.D. Burman, a music director, never received the Bharat Ratna. Exam tip: M.S. Subbulakshmi in 1998 was the first musician, and Lata Mangeshkar in 2001 the second singer to receive it.

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, Alfred Nobel. The Swedish chemist who invented dynamite signed his last will in 1895 and left most of his fortune to endow prizes for those who had conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. He died on 10 December 1896 and the first prizes were awarded in 1901.

Option B, Andrew Carnegie, endowed libraries and a peace foundation but no prize of this name. Option C, Joseph Pulitzer, left money for the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, letters and music, awarded in the United States, and his name is the one most often substituted here. Option D, Cecil Rhodes, endowed the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford, not a prize. Keep the founder with the two dates that always follow him in a paper: the will of 1895 and the first awards in 1901.

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 C, 1969. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted in 1969, which was the birth centenary year of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, the father of Indian cinema. It is the highest recognition in Indian cinema for a lifetime of outstanding contribution and is given to one person each year.

Option A, 1954, is the year in which the National Film Awards themselves were instituted, and mixing the two years is the commonest error on this topic. Option B, 1961, is not connected with either award. Option D, 1913, is the year in which Phalke released Raja Harishchandra, the first full length Indian feature film, so it is an important date but belongs to the history of the film and not to the founding of the award.

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, Literature. The Saraswati Samman is a literary award given for an outstanding work of prose or poetry. It was started in 1991 by the K.K. Birla Foundation and is open to writing in any language listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, so a book published in the previous ten years in any of those languages may win. The first award went to Harivansh Rai Bachchan for his autobiography, and the prize is counted among the most valuable literary honours in India. The same foundation runs the Vyas Samman for Hindi writing and the Bihari Puraskar for writers of Rajasthan. Option A is wrong because music is honoured by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Tansen Samman. Option C is wrong because journalism has the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. Option D is wrong because dance is recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Kalidas Samman. Exam tip: link the three K.K. Birla Foundation prizes, Saraswati Samman for all Eighth Schedule languages, Vyas Samman for Hindi and Bihari Puraskar for Rajasthan.

The correct answer is C, 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force and the Republic came into being. The three wartime awards were instituted on that date but were given effect from 15 August 1947, so that acts of bravery in the fighting in Kashmir could be recognised.

Option A, 15 August 1947, is the date from which the awards take effect, not the date of institution, and this fine distinction is the whole point of the question. Option B, 26 November 1949, is the date on which the Constitution was adopted, which belongs to the polity paper. Option D, January 1952, is when the peacetime awards, the Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, were instituted. Hold the pair together: 1950 for the wartime family and 1952 for the peacetime one.

The correct answer is D, Afghanistan. The Amir Amanullah Khan Award is Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi received it in June 2016 at Herat, on the day he and President Ashraf Ghani opened the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier called the Salma Dam, which India built on the Hari Rud. The honour is named after Amir Amanullah Khan, the ruler who won Afghanistan full control of its foreign affairs from the British in 1919. Option A is wrong, although Saudi Arabia did honour the Prime Minister in April 2016; its top award is the Order of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, a different decoration with a different name. Options B and C are wrong because neither Uzbekistan nor Iran gives an award of this name, and neither conferred its highest civilian honour on him in that year. Exam tip: Amir Amanullah Khan Award means Afghanistan, 2016, Herat and the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

The correct answer is B, C. Rajagopalachari, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman. All three were honoured in 1954, the first year of the award. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, Radhakrishnan was a philosopher who later became President, and Raman was the physicist who discovered the effect that carries his name.

Option A groups three of the best known leaders of the period, which makes it attractive, but they were not the first set. Option C names people who were honoured in later years and is built to look plausible. Option D mixes Rajagopalachari, who was correct, with Shastri and Indira Gandhi, who belong to 1966 and 1971 respectively, the first posthumous award and the first woman recipient. A three-name question of this kind is safest answered by checking that all three names fit, not just the one you recognise.

The correct answer is A, Wildlife protection. The Amrita Devi Bishnoi National Award is given for outstanding courage and devotion in protecting wildlife. It was instituted by the Union environment ministry in 1994 and carries a cash prize with a citation. It is named after Amrita Devi Bishnoi, who in 1730 at Khejarli near Jodhpur clung to a khejri tree to stop the Maharaja's men from felling it; she and more than 360 other Bishnois died in that protest. The Bishnoi community, which follows the 29 rules laid down by Guru Jambheshwar, still guards the blackbuck, the chinkara and the khejri tree of the Thar desert, and the Khejarli sacrifice is remembered as an inspiration for the later Chipko movement. Option B is wrong because energy saving is rewarded by the National Energy Conservation Awards. Option C is wrong because broader environmental work is honoured by the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar. Option D is wrong because biodiversity effort is recognised by the India Biodiversity Awards. Exam tip: tie Amrita Devi to Khejarli 1730, the khejri tree and the blackbuck of Rajasthan.

The correct answer is B, Kirti Chakra. The three wartime awards have three peacetime counterparts in the same order: Param Vir Chakra with Ashoka Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra with Kirti Chakra and Vir Chakra with Shaurya Chakra. Since the Maha Vir Chakra is second in its family, its counterpart is the second peacetime award.

Option A, the Ashoka Chakra, is the counterpart of the Param Vir Chakra and stands one step higher. Option C, the Shaurya Chakra, is the counterpart of the Vir Chakra and stands one step lower. Option D, the Sena Medal, is a gallantry medal of the Army alone, with the Nao Sena Medal and the Vayu Sena Medal as its counterparts in the Navy and the Air Force, and it does not belong to the chakra series. Learn the three pairs in order and this family of questions is settled.

The correct answer is C, 1901. Alfred Nobel's estate had to be settled and the Nobel Foundation established before any prize could be given, so the first awards came five years after his death. The first Peace Prize went jointly to Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, and Frederic Passy.

Option A, 1895, is the year Nobel signed his will, and the date candidates confuse most often with the first award. Option B, 1896, is the year of his death, on 10 December, which is why the ceremony is held on that date every year. Option D, 1913, is the year Rabindranath Tagore won the Literature Prize, an Indian landmark rather than a founding date. Hold the sequence in one line: will 1895, death 1896, first prizes 1901.

The correct answer is B, Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was honoured in 1966, the year of his death at Tashkent, and who thus became the first person to receive the Bharat Ratna after his lifetime. Until then the honour had been given only to living persons.

Option A, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was also honoured posthumously, but much later, in 1991, so he is not the first. Option C, B. R. Ambedkar, received the award posthumously in 1990, again after Shastri. Option D, Subhas Chandra Bose, is associated with a conferment that was later withdrawn following objections about the manner of his death being treated as certain, so he is not counted in this list at all. When a question asks for the first of a category rather than merely an example, check the year attached to each name before answering.

The correct answer is A, Devika Rani. Devika Rani received the first Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1969. She worked at Bombay Talkies and is often described as the first lady of Indian cinema, and the fact that the first award went to an actress is exactly what examiners like to test.

Option B, Prithviraj Kapoor, was a towering figure of the early stage and screen and did receive the honour, but in a later year and posthumously. Option C, Sohrab Modi, the maker of historical films, also received the award later in its history. Option D, Nargis Dutt, is associated with the award for a film on national integration that carries her name, which is a different honour altogether and is placed here as a distractor.

The correct answer is C, Vir Chakra. The Shaurya Chakra is the third of the peacetime gallantry awards and therefore corresponds to the third of the wartime awards, the Vir Chakra, both being given for acts of gallantry that rank below the first two grades.

Option A, the Param Vir Chakra, has the Ashoka Chakra as its counterpart. Option B, the Maha Vir Chakra, has the Kirti Chakra as its counterpart. Option D, the Yudh Seva Medal, is not a gallantry award at all; it belongs to the distinguished service group awarded during operations, along with the Uttam Yudh Seva Medal and the Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal. Separating gallantry from distinguished service is worth one clear line in your notes, because papers sometimes mix the two lists in the options.

The correct answer is D, Mamta Kalia. The Vyas Samman for 2017 went to the Hindi writer Mamta Kalia for her novel 'Dukham Sukham'. The Vyas Samman is given every year by the K.K. Birla Foundation for an outstanding Hindi work published in the previous ten years, and it carries a citation and a cash prize. The same foundation gives two other literary awards: the Saraswati Samman, open to a work in any language listed in the Eighth Schedule, and the Bihari Puraskar for writing from Rajasthan. Mamta Kalia is known for her Hindi stories and novels and has headed the Mahadevi Verma Srijan Peeth in Allahabad. Option A is wrong because Namita Gokhale writes in English and co-founded the Jaipur Literature Festival. Option B is wrong because Meena Kandasamy is an English-language poet and translator. Option C is wrong because Jhumpa Lahiri writes in English and won the Pulitzer Prize for 'Interpreter of Maladies'. Exam tip: Vyas Samman is for Hindi alone, while Saraswati Samman covers all Eighth Schedule languages.

The correct answer is B, the central bank of Sweden. Sveriges Riksbank founded the prize in 1968 to mark its three hundredth anniversary, and it was awarded for the first time in 1969. Its formal name is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects the laureates.

Option A, the Nobel Foundation, administers the funds left by Nobel and organises the ceremony, but it did not create this prize. Option C, the Swedish Academy, is the body that chooses the Literature laureate. Option D, the Norwegian parliament, appoints the committee that awards the Peace Prize. The point examiners test is that Economics is not one of the five prizes named in Nobel's will, which is why it is described as being in memory of him.

The correct answer is B, 1954. The National Film Awards were instituted in 1954, and the first set of awards was given for films released in the previous year. They were created to encourage films of aesthetic and technical excellence and of social relevance in every Indian language, which is why regional cinema has always been prominent in the list of winners.

Option A, 1947, is the year of independence and has no connection with the founding of these awards. Option C, 1969, is the year the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was instituted, on the birth centenary of Phalke, and is the most attractive wrong answer here. Option D, 1973, is not associated with the founding of either award and is placed only to complete the set of plausible years.

The correct answer is B, Oslo. Alfred Nobel's will directed that the Peace Prize be decided by a committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament, while the other prizes were left to Swedish institutions, and the Peace Prize is therefore announced and presented in the Norwegian capital.

Option A, Stockholm, is where every other prize is presented, including Economic Sciences, so it is the answer for five of the six categories and the natural wrong choice here. Option C, Geneva, is the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of many United Nations bodies, which makes it sound plausible in a question about peace. Option D, Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, has no connection with the prize at all. Remember the split in one sentence: Peace in Oslo, everything else in Stockholm.