Important Days & Dates Mixed Quiz: Set 20

The correct answer is A, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Born on 25 December 1924, he served three terms as Prime Minister, and the day is observed as Good Governance Day; his memorial in Delhi is named Sadaiv Atal. B is wrong because Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on 2 October 1904, the same day as Mahatma Gandhi, so two jayantis fall on 2 October. C is wrong because Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya was born on 25 September 1916, observed as Antyodaya Diwas, and the closeness of the two September and December dates is the trap. D is wrong because Madan Mohan Malaviya, the founder of Banaras Hindu University, was indeed also born on 25 December, in 1861, but the observance of Good Governance Day is tied specifically to Vajpayee's birth anniversary and was begun in 2014.

The correct answer is B, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 and was affectionately called Chacha Nehru by children, so his birth anniversary is observed as Children's Day in India, with programmes in schools across the country. A is wrong because Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869, which is observed as Gandhi Jayanti and as the International Day of Non-Violence. C is wrong because Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, was born on 3 December 1884. D is wrong because Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the first Vice President and second President, was born on 5 September 1888, observed as Teachers' Day; mixing up Children's Day and Teachers' Day is the usual error in this question. For revision, keep the three November and September dates apart: 14 November for Children's Day, 11 November for National Education Day and 5 September for Teachers' Day, since all three belong to leaders of the same generation.

The correct answer is A, Verghese Kurien, born on 26 November 1921, who built the Kaira district co-operative at Anand into the Amul model, led the National Dairy Development Board and designed Operation Flood, which made India a large milk producer. The observance began in 2014. Option B is wrong because Tribhuvandas Patel was the farmer leader who founded the Kaira union and brought Kurien into it, but the day marks Kurien. Option C is wrong because Amrita Patel chaired the National Dairy Development Board after Kurien and is a later figure in the same story. Option D is wrong because H. M. Dalaya was the technologist who worked with Kurien on making milk powder from buffalo milk, a contribution often remembered with him but not the reason for the date.

The correct answer is A, the Consumer Protection Act received the assent of the President. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was given assent on 24 December 1986, and the Department of Consumer Affairs observes that date every year as National Consumer Rights Day with a theme. Option B is wrong because the observance marks the law, not the opening of any particular district forum, and consumer courts were set up after the Act came into operation. Option C is wrong because the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which replaced the 1986 Act and created the Central Consumer Protection Authority, came into force in 2020; the date of the observance did not move with it. Option D is wrong because the Bureau of Indian Standards came from a separate Act and is a standards body, not a consumer grievance law.

The correct answer is B, the Saka era. The national calendar counts its years in the Saka reckoning, which began in 78 CE, so a Saka year is found roughly by subtracting 78 from the Christian year; it is printed in the Gazette of India and read out in the news bulletins of All India Radio. Option A, Vikram Samvat, began in 57 BCE and is the era of most traditional almanacs of northern India and the official calendar of Nepal, but it was not chosen for the national calendar. Option C, the Hijri era, began in 622 CE and is purely lunar, which makes it unsuitable for civil use in which dates must keep step with the seasons. Option D, the Gupta era, began about 319 CE and is of interest only to historians dating inscriptions.

The correct answer is B, 1975, by the Thirty-sixth Amendment. Sikkim's entry into the Union came in two steps. The Thirty-fifth Amendment of 1974 first made it an associate state, a status created for it alone. The Thirty-sixth Amendment then made it a full state of the Union, and the sixteenth of May 1975 is kept as the day of that accession; the amendment also inserted Article 371F, which carries special provisions for Sikkim. Option A is wrong because the Thirty-first Amendment of 1972 dealt with the strength of the Lok Sabha, not with Sikkim. Option C is wrong because 1963 is the year Nagaland became a state, by an ordinary Act of Parliament and Article 371A. Option D is wrong because the Fifty-third Amendment relates to Mizoram, whose statehood came in 1987 along with that of Arunachal Pradesh. Remember Article 371A for Nagaland and Article 371F for Sikkim.

The correct answer is B, 10 December. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris on 10 December 1948, and the day has been observed on that anniversary ever since. Option A is wrong because 2 December is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which recalls the convention against the traffic in persons adopted in 1949. Option C is wrong because 18 December carries two other observances, Minority Rights Day in India and International Migrants Day. Option D is wrong because 24 October is United Nations Day, the anniversary of the Charter coming into force in 1945. Note also that the sixteen days of activism against gender-based violence run from 25 November to Human Rights Day, which is why the two dates are often set together in a single question.

The correct answer is B, the adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly, which happened on 26 November 1949. The day was declared Constitution Day in 2015, during the 125th birth anniversary year of Dr B. R. Ambedkar; the same date had earlier been observed as National Law Day. Option A is wrong and is the commonest error on this question, because the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, which is Republic Day. Option C is wrong because the Constituent Assembly first met on 9 December 1946, under Dr Sachchidananda Sinha as temporary chairman, with Dr Rajendra Prasad elected president two days later. Option D is wrong because India had no President in November 1949; Dr Rajendra Prasad took that office only in January 1950. Hold the three dates together: 9 December 1946, 26 November 1949 and 26 January 1950.

The correct answer is A, Swami Vivekananda. Born on 12 January 1863 at Kolkata, he represented Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893 and founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897; his birthday has been observed as National Youth Day since 1985. B is wrong because Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the founder of the Brahmo Sabha and a leader of social reform, was born on 22 May 1772. C is wrong because Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23 January 1897, a date observed as Parakram Diwas. D is wrong because Sri Aurobindo was born on 15 August 1872, a day that coincides with Independence Day. Vivekananda died at Belur Math near Kolkata on 4 July 1902. For revision, remember that the Ramakrishna Mission has its headquarters at Belur Math, and that Vivekananda's Chicago address of 1893 is asked as often as the date of National Youth Day itself.

The correct answer is B, 1938. Subhash Chandra Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress at the Haripura session in Gujarat in 1938, where he set up a National Planning Committee under Jawaharlal Nehru. He was elected a second time at Tripuri in 1939, defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, but resigned in April of that year after losing the confidence of the working committee, and went on to found the Forward Bloc. Option A, 1932, is the year of the Communal Award and the Poona Pact and has no connection with his presidency. Option C, 1941, is the year Bose escaped from house arrest in Calcutta and made his way to Germany. Option D, 1943, is the year he took charge of the Indian National Army at Singapore and proclaimed the Azad Hind government, which is the fact most often confused with the presidency.

The correct answer is B, 1945. The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded on 16 October 1945 at Quebec in Canada, and the day has been observed as World Food Day since 1981; its headquarters are at Rome. Option A is wrong because 1943 is the year of the conference at Hot Springs that proposed a permanent organisation for food and agriculture, a step before the founding. Option C is wrong because 1948 is the year the World Health Organization came into being and the year the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade took effect, neither of which is tied to 16 October. Option D is wrong because 1951 is the year the organisation moved its headquarters to Rome from Washington, which is a different fact from its founding.

The correct answer is A, Sir M. Visvesvaraya. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15 September 1861, built the Krishna Raja Sagara dam across the Kaveri, designed the automatic flood gates used at Khadakwasla, served as Diwan of Mysore and received the Bharat Ratna in 1955. Option B is wrong because Homi J. Bhabha, the architect of India's nuclear programme, was born on 30 October and has no national day. Option C is wrong because Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme, was born on 12 August. Option D is wrong because A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October, which is observed as World Students' Day. The trap lies in the two October dates being offered against a September one. A further point worth remembering is that Visvesvaraya served as Diwan of Mysore and died in 1962 at the age of a hundred and one.

The correct answer is C, 22 March 1957. That day was 1 Chaitra 1879 of the Saka era, and the calendar came into use on the recommendation of the Calendar Reform Committee, which had reported in 1955. Option A, 15 August 1947, is the date of independence and has nothing to do with the calendar question, though candidates reach for it whenever a national decision is asked about. Option B, 26 January 1950, is the day the Constitution came into force and the State Emblem was adopted, which makes it the most tempting wrong answer here. Option D, 1 April 1960, is simply a plausible looking date; note that 1 April is the start of the Indian financial year, which is a separate fact and a separate question. Remember the pairing: Saka era, 22 March 1957.

The correct answer is B, 1919. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles and formally ended the First World War between Germany and the Allied powers. It placed the guilt for the war on Germany, imposed heavy reparations, cut its territory and limited its army, and the resentment it created is treated by historians as one cause of the Second World War. A is wrong because 1921 saw separate agreements between the United States and Germany, as the American Senate had refused to ratify Versailles. C is wrong because 1933 is the year Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, a consequence of the post-war settlement rather than part of it. D is wrong because 1940 falls in the middle of the Second World War, twenty-one years after the treaty.

The correct answer is B, Jawaharlal Nehru. Children's Day in India falls on 14 November, the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who was fond of children and was called Chacha Nehru. Option A is wrong because Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October, which is observed as Gandhi Jayanti and also as the International Day of Non-Violence declared by the United Nations. Option C is wrong because Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, was born on 3 December, a date that now carries the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Option D is wrong because Dr B. R. Ambedkar was born on 14 April, observed as Ambedkar Jayanti. Candidates should also keep 14 November apart from 20 November, which is World Children's Day, the United Nations observance.

The correct answer is A, Dr B. C. Roy. The physician and Chief Minister of West Bengal was born on 1 July and died on the same date, and the day was fixed in his memory to honour the work of doctors. He was also a recipient of the Bharat Ratna. Option B is wrong because the birth anniversary of Dr B. R. Ambedkar falls on 14 April and is kept as Ambedkar Jayanti. Option C is wrong because the birth anniversary of Dr S. Radhakrishnan, on 5 September, is observed as Teachers' Day, and candidates often pick him because of the title of doctor before his name. Option D is wrong because Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the engineer whose birthday is 15 September, gives the country its Engineers' Day.

The correct answer is A, Chaitra. The national calendar begins on 1 Chaitra, which corresponds to 22 March in an ordinary year and to 21 March in a leap year, so that the year opens near the spring equinox. Chaitra has 30 days, or 31 in a leap year. Option B, Vaishakha, is the second month and has 31 days, like the four months that follow it up to Bhadra. Option C, Magha, is the eleventh month and is familiar to students because of Magha Purnima and the Magh Mela, which is why it is placed here. Option D, Kartika, is the eighth month of the national calendar, but in Gujarat the Vikram Samvat year begins in Kartika, the day after Diwali, and that genuine exception is what makes this option a trap.

The correct answer is C, 20 November. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child on 20 November 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the same date in 1989, so World Children's Day, earlier called Universal Children's Day, is observed on 20 November. Option A is wrong because 1 June is International Children's Day, widely observed in many countries but not the United Nations date. Option B is wrong because 14 November is Children's Day in India alone, tied to Jawaharlal Nehru's birth anniversary. Option D is wrong because 12 June is the World Day Against Child Labour, begun by the International Labour Organization in 2002. India ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, a fact that often appears alongside this date.

The correct answer is B, 78 CE. The Saka reckoning is most often linked with the Kushana ruler Kanishka, and it is the era on which the Indian National Calendar is built, so the Saka year is about 78 less than the Christian year. Option A, 57 BCE, is the starting point of Vikram Samvat, traditionally connected with King Vikramaditya of Ujjain, and because 57 and 78 are the two numbers every candidate half remembers, they are placed together in almost every question of this kind. Option C, 319 CE, is the start of the Gupta era, founded by Chandragupta I and used to date Gupta inscriptions. Option D, 622 CE, is the start of the Hijri era, counted from the migration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina.

The correct answer is A, 24 January. National Girl Child Day was instituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and is observed on 24 January to draw attention to the sex ratio, to girls' education and to schemes such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, which was launched at Panipat on 22 January 2015. Option B is wrong because 11 October is the International Day of the Girl Child, a United Nations observance held since 2012; the Indian and international days are the pair most often swapped in this chapter. Option C is wrong because 8 March is International Women's Day. Option D is wrong because 13 February is National Women's Day in India, observed on the birth anniversary of Sarojini Naidu. Note that 24 January also carries the International Day of Education.