Important Days & Dates Mixed Quiz: Set 12

The correct answer is A, 14 September. On that day in 1949 the Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language of the union, and the anniversary is kept as Hindi Diwas, after which offices run a fortnight of competitions and reviews of official language work. Option B is wrong because 14 November is Children's Day. Option C is wrong because 10 January is World Hindi Day, which marks the first World Hindi Conference held in 1975 and is a different observance with a similar name, the very confusion this question is built on. Option D is wrong because 21 February is International Mother Language Day, declared by UNESCO. Keep the pair straight: 14 September at home, 10 January for the world.

The correct answer is B, India. India moved the proposal, it was supported by more than seventy member states, the General Assembly adopted it in 2021 and the year was observed in 2023 with the Food and Agriculture Organization as the lead agency. India's interest is easy to explain in an examination: it is among the largest growers of millets such as jowar, bajra and ragi, which need little water and grow on poor soil. Option A is wrong because Brazil, though a large agricultural producer, did not move this proposal. Option C is wrong because Nigeria grows millets in quantity but was a supporter, not the proposer. Option D is wrong because China did not propose the year. India's other well known success of this kind is the International Day of Yoga on 21 June.

The correct answer is B, forests. The year 2011 was the International Year of Forests, observed to show how forests support water, soil, climate and the livelihood of people who live in and around them; the same year was also the International Year of Chemistry. Option A is wrong because biodiversity had its year in 2010, and the ten years that followed, 2011 to 2020, formed the Decade on Biodiversity. Option C is wrong because youth also had the year 2010, which therefore carried two designations. Option D is wrong because cooperatives had the year 2012, alongside sustainable energy for all. The years from 2010 to 2013 are the ones most often mixed up in papers, so revise them as a block: biodiversity, forests, cooperatives, water cooperation. Forests are also the subject of an international day, 21 March, which is worth remembering with this year.

The correct answer is A, 1 to 7 August. The week is coordinated worldwide by the World Health Organization and UNICEF and argues for feeding a baby only mother's milk for the first six months, and for beginning that feeding within an hour of birth. Option B is wrong because 4 to 10 March is National Safety Week in India, which opens on National Safety Day and deals with workplace and industrial safety. Option C is wrong because 14 to 20 April is Fire Service Week, beginning on the anniversary of the Bombay dock explosion of 1944. Option D is wrong because 18 to 24 November is the World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week, a health observance of a different kind, about the misuse of antibiotics. Both August weeks and September weeks concern nutrition, so anchor them by their month.

The correct answer is A, 15 January. On this day in 1949 Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa took over as the first Indian Commander in Chief of the Indian Army, and the day is marked with a parade and the presentation of gallantry awards. Option B is wrong because 26 January is Republic Day, the day the Constitution came into force in 1950, and although the armed forces take part in its parade it is not the day of the army. Option C is wrong because 8 October is Air Force Day, the day on which the Indian Air Force was raised in 1932. Option D is wrong because 4 December is Navy Day, kept for the attack on Karachi harbour in 1971. Papers place the three service days in one question, so read which force is named.

The correct answer is A, 16 September. The day marks the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer on 16 September 1987, an agreement to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone destroying chemicals, and it is often called the most successful environmental treaty. Option B is wrong because 5 June is World Environment Day, tied to the Stockholm Conference of 1972. Option C is wrong because 23 March is World Meteorological Day, which marks the day in 1950 on which the convention setting up the World Meteorological Organization came into force. Option D is wrong because 22 May is the International Day for Biological Diversity, tied to the adoption of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992.

The correct answer is A, 28 February. On this day in 1928 C. V. Raman announced the discovery of the Raman Effect, the scattering of light with a changed wavelength when it passes through a transparent medium, and the discovery brought him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. The day has been kept every year since 1987 on a fresh theme decided by the Government. Option B is wrong because 11 May is National Technology Day, kept for the Pokhran-II tests of 1998. Option C is wrong because 22 December is National Mathematics Day, the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan. Option D is wrong because 15 September is Engineers' Day, the birth anniversary of Sir M. Visvesvaraya. Papers put all four national days in one question, so read which field is named before choosing.

The correct answer is D, 2 October. The General Assembly declared the day in 2007 and set it on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, so that the date honours the leader whose method of non-violent resistance the resolution names. Option A, 30 January, is the day Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 and is observed in India as Martyrs’ Day, or Shaheed Diwas, but it is not the United Nations observance. Option B, 2 April, is World Autism Awareness Day, declared in 2007 as well, and it is placed here to catch a candidate who remembers only the year. Option C, 15 August, is India’s Independence Day and no United Nations day falls on it. Along with the yoga day of 21 June, this is the second observance in the UN calendar that comes directly from India.

The correct answer is B, April. The World Health Organization keeps the last week of April for this campaign, which presses the case for vaccination at every age and reminds governments of the children still missed by routine immunisation. Because it is tied to the position of the week rather than to fixed dates, its exact days shift a little each year. Option A is wrong because February carries World Cancer Day on 4 February and National Science Day on 28 February, both single days. Option C is wrong because the first week of July belongs to Van Mahotsav in India. Option D is wrong because October already holds Wildlife Week from 2 to 8 October and World Space Week from 4 to 10 October. Floating weeks like this one are best learned by their month.

The correct answer is B, Major Dhyan Chand. The hockey player was born on 29 August 1905 and won Olympic gold with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936. National Sports Day is observed on his birthday, and the national sports awards are usually presented on that date.

Option A, Milkha Singh, was the athlete known as the Flying Sikh, who finished fourth in the 400 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics, but no national day carries his name. Option C, Sachin Tendulkar, is a cricketer and a Bharat Ratna, and although his birthday is widely noted, it is not a national day. Option D, K. D. Jadhav, won India's first individual Olympic medal, a wrestling bronze in 1952, a fact worth knowing separately. The sports day belongs to hockey and to Dhyan Chand.

The correct answer is A, glaciers' preservation. The General Assembly declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation, to draw attention to the melting of glaciers that feed rivers such as the Ganga, the Indus and the Brahmaputra and to the risk this carries for water supply and for floods. The same year also carried the designations of quantum science and technology and of cooperatives. Option B is wrong because plant health was the theme of 2020. Option C is wrong because artisanal fisheries and aquaculture belonged to 2022, along with glass and basic sciences. Option D is wrong for the same reason, since basic sciences for sustainable development was one of the three designations of 2022. Glaciers matter to Indian papers because of the Himalayan rivers. The year also brought in a new observance, the World Day for Glaciers, marked on 21 March.

The correct answer is A, P. C. Mahalanobis. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis founded the Indian Statistical Institute, gave statistics the measure known as the Mahalanobis distance and shaped the model used in the Second Five Year Plan, and the Government of India keeps his birthday as Statistics Day.

Option B, C. R. Rao, was a statistician of the same institute and of great distinction, which makes him the strongest distractor in this question, but the day is not his. Option C, Srinivasa Ramanujan, is honoured on 22 December, which is observed as National Mathematics Day, a pairing examiners like to set against this one. Option D, Satyendra Nath Bose, was a physicist known for Bose-Einstein statistics, a name that sounds close enough to mislead. Learn the two Indian science days together: 29 June for statistics and 22 December for mathematics.

The correct answer is B, Operation Trident. During the war of 1971 Indian missile boats struck Karachi harbour in an action that sank enemy vessels and set the oil installations on fire, and 4 December is kept as Navy Day in memory of it. Option A is wrong because the raising of the force belongs to a different date and the day is not an anniversary of its establishment, unlike Air Force Day. Option C is wrong because the commissioning of a carrier is a separate event in naval history and no day of remembrance is attached to it. Option D is wrong because the naval uprising of 1946 is an important episode of the freedom struggle but is not what this day marks. Tie 4 December to Karachi and the pair is fixed.

The correct answer is B, 14 August. Partition Horrors Remembrance Day is observed on 14 August, the day before Independence Day, in memory of the millions who were displaced and of those who lost their lives during the partition of 1947. The observance is meant to remind later generations of the human cost of that division.

Option A, 9 August, is August Kranti Diwas for the Quit India Movement, and is also Nagasaki Day. Option C, 15 August, is Independence Day itself, on which the Prime Minister addresses the nation from the Red Fort, so it marks the freedom rather than the suffering that accompanied it. Option D, 26 August, is Women's Equality Day, an observance of a completely different kind that belongs to the same month.

The correct answer is B, the announcement of the Raman Effect. C. V. Raman made the announcement on 28 February 1928 and won the Nobel Prize in Physics for it in 1930, the first Nobel in the sciences for an Indian. Option A is wrong because Aryabhata, India's first satellite, was launched on 19 April 1975 with Soviet help, and that date carries no national day. Option C is wrong because the founding of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research is not the reason for this observance, although the Council takes part in the celebrations. Option D is wrong because the first test flight of the Hansa-3 trainer aircraft belongs to 11 May 1998 and is one of the three achievements behind National Technology Day.

The correct answer is C, 27 September. World Tourism Day has been observed on this date since 1980 by the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations body for tourism, and each year a member country hosts the main celebration with a chosen theme.

Option A, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace and also World Alzheimer's Day. Option B, 25 September, is observed in India as Antyodaya Diwas, the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Option D, 29 September, is World Heart Day, kept by the World Heart Federation to spread awareness about heart disease. All four dates fall in the same fortnight, so they are often placed together in the options. The safest way to hold this date is to remember that the World Tourism Organization chose the anniversary of the adoption of its own statutes for the observance.

The correct answer is B, India. India proposed the observance at the United Nations, the General Assembly adopted the resolution in 2014 with the support of a very large number of member states, and the first International Day of Yoga was observed on 21 June 2015. The date was chosen because 21 June is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice. Option A is wrong because Nepal, though a co-sponsor like many other states, did not move the proposal. Option C is wrong because Sri Lanka also only supported it. Option D is wrong because Indonesia, the country with the largest number of islands taking part in such events, was likewise a supporter. This question is set beside the millets question, since both show India proposing an observance.

The correct answer is B, officially raised. The Indian Air Force was constituted on 8 October 1932 and its first flight took to the air in the following year, which is why the day is kept as the anniversary of the force itself and is marked by a display at an air force station. Option A is wrong because the raising of the first squadron followed the creation of the force and is not the reason for the date. Option C is wrong because the change of name relates to a later period, when the prefix Royal was dropped after independence, and no day is kept for it. Option D is wrong because the appointment of the first Indian chief came in 1954 and is remembered as a separate landmark. Hold 8 October with the year 1932.

The correct answer is B, the nuclear tests carried out at Pokhran. On 11 May 1998 India tested nuclear devices at Pokhran in Rajasthan under Operation Shakti; the same day the indigenous Hansa-3 trainer aircraft made its first test flight and the Trishul missile was successfully test-fired, and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee named the date National Technology Day. It was observed for the first time in 1999. Option A is wrong because the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas made its maiden flight in January 2001. Option C is wrong because the first Indian remote sensing satellite, IRS-1A, was launched in 1988 and is not connected with this day. Option D is wrong because the PARAM series of supercomputers was developed by C-DAC through the 1990s, again with no link to this date.

The correct answer is A, 26 July. The Kargil conflict of 1999 ended on this day with the recapture of the heights held in the Dras, Batalik and Kargil sectors, and the day is observed in memory of the soldiers who died in that campaign. Option B is wrong because 16 December is Vijay Diwas, the anniversary of the victory of 1971 and of the surrender at Dhaka, and the two victory days are the commonest pair of distractors in this topic. Option C is wrong because 27 October is Infantry Day, for the airlift of troops to Srinagar in 1947. Option D is wrong because 21 October is Police Commemoration Day. Attach each date to its war and the confusion between 1971 and 1999 disappears.