Important Days & Dates Mixed Quiz: Set 11

The correct answer is B, 4 to 10 October. The two dates were chosen for two events: on 4 October 1957 the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was placed in orbit, and on 10 October 1967 the Outer Space Treaty came into force. Option A is wrong because 2 to 8 October is Wildlife Week in India, and mixing the two October weeks is the commonest error here. Option C is wrong because August holds no space week; National Space Day in India marks a lunar landing and is a separate single day. Option D is wrong because the first week of November has no such observance either. The easy hold is the anniversary of Sputnik: space week opens on the day the space age began.

The correct answer is B, millets. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets on a proposal moved by India and supported by more than seventy countries, and the Food and Agriculture Organization led the observance; India promoted the crops at home under the name Shree Anna. Option A is wrong because pulses had their own year in 2016, which is the pairing most often swapped with this one. Option C is wrong because camelids, the family that includes camels, llamas and alpacas, were the subject of the year 2024. Option D is wrong because plant health was the theme of 2020. Notice that every option is a real international year placed against the wrong number, which is how these questions are always built, so learn the year together with the name.

The correct answer is A, camelids. The year 2024 was the International Year of Camelids, the family of animals that includes camels, llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos, which carry loads, give milk, meat and wool, and support families in deserts and high mountains where little else can live. Option B is wrong because glass had its international year in 2022, marked for its role in optics, medicine and communication. Option C is wrong because quinoa, the grain of the Andes, had its year in 2013, the same year as water cooperation. Option D is wrong because natural fibres such as jute, cotton and wool had their year in 2009, along with astronomy. Since all four are genuine designations, the mark depends entirely on holding the number and the name together.

The correct answer is B, 1 to 7 September. National Nutrition Week is observed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development through anganwadis, schools and health centres to spread the message of balanced diet, and the whole of September is separately kept as a nutrition month. Option A is wrong because 1 to 7 August is World Breastfeeding Week, coordinated by the World Health Organization and UNICEF; the two are close in theme and in shape, which is why they are placed together as options. Option C is wrong because 2 to 8 October is Wildlife Week in India. Option D is wrong because 19 to 25 November is Qaumi Ekta Week, the national integration week. Notice how many of these weeks run from the first to the seventh of a month, and separate them by month rather than by date.

The correct answer is B, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was born on 31 October 1875. The Central Vigilance Commission arranges the week around that date, and it opens with an integrity pledge taken in government offices and public sector undertakings; the same day is also observed as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, the national unity day. Option A is wrong because the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, 2 October, is Gandhi Jayanti and the International Day of Non-Violence. Option C is wrong because the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, 14 November, is Children's Day. Option D is wrong because the birth anniversary of Dr B. R. Ambedkar, 14 April, is Ambedkar Jayanti, which is also the day Fire Service Week begins. A useful cue is that the vigilance week is the only one of these tied to a birth anniversary that is itself a national observance, Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, so the two facts reinforce each other.

The correct answer is B, Ramsar Convention. The Convention on Wetlands was signed on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shore of the Caspian Sea, and the wetlands listed under it are still called Ramsar sites; the day has been observed on this date since 1997. Option A is wrong because the Basel Convention deals with the movement of hazardous wastes across borders and was adopted in 1989. Option C is wrong because CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, was adopted on 3 March 1973 and gives World Wildlife Day its date. Option D is wrong because the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted on 22 May 1992, which is why the International Day for Biological Diversity falls on that date.

The correct answer is B, plant health. The General Assembly declared 2020 the International Year of Plant Health to show how protecting plants from pests and diseases protects food supply, trade and the environment, and the Food and Agriculture Organization led the year. Option A is wrong because soils had their year in 2015, when 5 December was also observed as World Soil Day. Option C is wrong because family farming was the theme of 2014, and a full decade of family farming was later declared for the years 2019 to 2028. Option D is wrong because fruits and vegetables were the subject of the very next year, 2021, which is the commonest confusion in this question. Learning the two farm years in order, plant health then fruits and vegetables, removes the trap.

The correct answer is A, the constitution of the World Health Organization came into force. WHO became a specialised agency of the United Nations on 7 April 1948, and the first World Health Day was observed in 1950; the organisation announces a theme for the day each year and its headquarters are at Geneva. Option B is wrong because the United Nations came into being on 24 October 1945, when its Charter took effect. Option C is wrong because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948, an event marked by Human Rights Day. Option D is wrong on the year as well: the Stockholm Conference met in June 1972 and led to World Environment Day on 5 June. WHO also leads World No Tobacco Day on 31 May and World AIDS Day on 1 December.

The correct answer is A, 19 to 25 November. The week is observed to strengthen national integration and communal harmony, with each day given a theme such as minorities welfare, linguistic harmony and women's day, and it closes on 25 November with Communal Harmony Flag Day. Option B is wrong because the first week of December carries Armed Forces Flag Day on 7 December, a separate observance for the welfare of ex-servicemen. Option C is wrong because 26 January is Republic Day, a single national day that begins no week of this kind. Option D is wrong because 15 August is Independence Day, again a single day. A flag day at the end of a week is a good clue to remember the November observance by.

The correct answer is B, Sir M. Visvesvaraya. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15 September 1861, served as the Diwan of Mysore, and built the Krishnarajasagara dam and the system of automatic sluice gates that made his name. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1955, and Engineers' Day honours him.

Option A, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, was the architect of India's atomic energy programme and is remembered as a physicist rather than an engineer. Option C, Vikram Sarabhai, founded India's space programme, and Indian space landmarks are tied to him instead. Option D, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was an aerospace scientist and the eleventh President of India; his birthday, 15 October, is observed as World Students' Day. A candidate who notices the day names the engineer, not the scientist, gets this right at once.

The correct answer is C, 2016. The year 2016 was the International Year of Pulses, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization, and it drew attention to crops such as gram, arhar, moong, urad and masoor, which give protein cheaply and fix nitrogen in the soil. The year matters to India, the largest producer as well as the largest consumer of pulses in the world. Option A is wrong because 2014 was the International Year of Family Farming and of Crystallography. Option B is wrong because 2015 was the International Year of Soils and of Light and Light-based Technologies. Option D is wrong because no international year of a crop was declared for 2018, which is remembered instead for the beginning of the water decade running to 2028. Pair pulses in 2016 with millets in 2023.

The correct answer is B, Srinivasa Ramanujan. The largely self taught mathematician was born at Erode in Tamil Nadu on 22 December 1887, worked with G. H. Hardy at Cambridge, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of thirty-one. The Government of India declared his birthday National Mathematics Day in 2012, on the hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of his birth.

Option A, Aryabhata, was the fifth century mathematician and astronomer who gave the value of pi and the rules of the place value system, and India's first satellite of 1975 was named after him, but he has no national day. Option C, C. V. Raman, was a physicist and not a mathematician; his discovery of the Raman effect on 28 February gives National Science Day. Option D, Brahmagupta, the seventh century mathematician who set out rules for working with zero, also has no day. Only Ramanujan explains 22 December.

The correct answer is A, 4 March, the foundation day of the National Safety Council of India. The week that follows, from 4 to 10 March, is used in factories, mines, ports and construction sites for safety pledges, drills, inspections and competitions, with a different theme each year. Option B is wrong because 8 March is International Women's Day. Option C is wrong because 23 March is Shaheed Diwas, the day Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged in 1931. Option D is wrong because 1 May is International Workers' Day, also called May Day and Labour Day, which is about the rights of workers rather than their physical safety at work, and is therefore the option most likely to mislead. Remember the chain in order: 4 March National Safety Day, then the week to 10 March, with a fresh theme announced by the National Safety Council every year.

The correct answer is D, Sarojini Naidu, who was born on 13 February 1879. She was called the Nightingale of India for her poetry, presided over the Indian National Congress and became the first woman to hold the office of Governor of an Indian province after independence, so her birthday is observed as National Women's Day.

Option A, Indira Gandhi, was born on 19 November 1917, a date observed in India as National Integration Day. Option B, Kasturba Gandhi, was born in April 1869 and is not linked with this observance. Option C, Annie Besant, was a leader of the Home Rule movement and the first woman president of the Indian National Congress, which makes her a plausible option here. Note also that International Women's Day is 8 March, a different day from the national one asked about in this question.

The correct answer is B, the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. The year 2019 marked one hundred and fifty years since Dmitri Mendeleev arranged the elements in his table in 1869, and the United Nations declared it the International Year of the Periodic Table alongside the International Year of Indigenous Languages. Option A is wrong because the International Year of Chemistry was 2011, chosen for the centenary of Marie Curie's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Option C is wrong because the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies was 2015. Option D is wrong because crystallography had its year in 2014, a century after the award of the Nobel Prize for X-ray diffraction. Note that indigenous languages were later given a full decade, from 2022 to 2032, and a year should not be confused with that decade.

The correct answer is C, 22 April. Earth Day began in the United States in 1970 as a demonstration in support of environmental protection and is now observed in many countries as a day for action on pollution, climate and conservation.

Option A, 22 March, is World Water Day, and the shared day of the month makes it the strongest distractor in this set. Option B, 18 April, is World Heritage Day, which is about monuments and sites rather than the natural environment. Option D, 5 June, is World Environment Day, the observance led by the United Nations environment programme, and candidates often choose it because it sounds closest in meaning. Fix the three separately: water on 22 March, the earth on 22 April and the environment on 5 June.

The correct answer is A, the Bombay dock explosion of 1944. A ship carrying cotton bales and explosives caught fire in the Bombay docks on 14 April 1944; the firefighters who went aboard to douse the blaze were killed when the cargo detonated, and Fire Service Day and the week that follows commemorate them. Option B is wrong because the Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984 was a leak of methyl isocyanate and is remembered on its own anniversary. Option C is wrong because the Chennai floods of 2015 were a natural disaster with no connection to this observance. Option D is wrong because the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919 in Amritsar; its date falls a day earlier, which makes it a deliberate trap in this question.

The correct answer is C, 2021 to 2030. The Decade on Ecosystem Restoration runs from 2021 to 2030, the same ten years as the Sustainable Development Goals, and it is led jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization; its aim is to revive damaged forests, wetlands, grasslands and coasts. Option A is wrong because 2011 to 2020 was the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, and also the first Decade of Action for Road Safety. Option B is wrong because 2015 to 2024 was the International Decade for People of African Descent. Option D is wrong because 2022 to 2032 is the International Decade of Indigenous Languages. Three other decades share the years 2021 to 2030: ocean science, healthy ageing and the second decade of road safety.

The correct answer is C, about fifteen days. A pakhwada is a fortnight, half of a lunar month, and government departments use it when a theme needs actual work rather than a ceremony; Swachhata Pakhwada, the cleanliness fortnight taken up by each ministry in turn, and Hindi Pakhwada, which begins on Hindi Diwas, are the standard examples. Option A is wrong because three days has no such name in official usage. Option B is wrong because seven days is a saptah, a week, the unit used for National Nutrition Week and Wildlife Week. Option D is wrong because a month long observance is called a maah, as in Poshan Maah in September. Learn the three words together: saptah for a week, pakhwada for a fortnight, maah for a month.

The correct answer is A, indigenous languages. After the International Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019 showed how many languages are close to disappearing, the General Assembly set aside the ten years from 2022 to 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, with UNESCO as the lead agency. Option B is wrong because the Decade of Healthy Ageing runs from 2021 to 2030 and is led by the World Health Organization. Option C is wrong because the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development also runs from 2021 to 2030. Option D is wrong because the International Decade for Action on water for sustainable development began earlier, in 2018, and runs to 2028. The safest way to answer is to remember that only the languages decade starts in 2022.