Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 19

The correct answer is C, the Sun. Aditya-L1 was launched in 2023 and was placed in a halo orbit around the first Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun, a position from which the Sun can be watched without eclipses, and it carries instruments to study the corona, the solar wind and solar flares. Option A is wrong because the lunar missions are the Chandrayaan series. Option B is wrong because the mission to Mars was the Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan. Option D is wrong because a mission to Venus has been discussed but is not this one. The name is the clue, since Aditya is a name of the Sun, and the L1 in the title gives the position of the spacecraft.

The correct answer is A, New Delhi. Humayun's library stood in the Sher Mandal, the small octagonal tower inside the Purana Qila in Delhi, which he used as a library and an observatory after he won back the throne in 1555. It was from its steep steps that he fell in January 1556, and the fall killed him. The Purana Qila itself rose on the site of Dinpanah, the city Humayun began in 1533, and was completed by Sher Shah Suri, who held Delhi from 1540 to 1555. His tomb, the first great garden tomb of the Mughals and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is also in Delhi and was raised by his widow Bega Begum. B is wrong because Aligarh is known for its university, founded as a college in 1875. C is wrong because Aurangabad is linked with Aurangzeb and the Bibi ka Maqbara. D is wrong because Agra holds the buildings of Akbar and Shah Jahan, not Humayun's library. Exam tip: Sher Mandal in the Purana Qila was Humayun's library, and he died falling from it in 1556.

The correct answer is B, electric locomotives. Chittaranjan Locomotive Works in West Bengal is the locomotive plant of Indian Railways and builds electric locomotives; it began with steam locomotives and turned to electric traction. Option A is wrong because coaches are built at the Integral Coach Factory at Perambur in Chennai, the Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala in Punjab and the Modern Coach Factory at Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh. Option C is wrong; wheels and axles come from the Rail Wheel Factory at Yelahanka near Bengaluru. Option D is wrong because signalling gear is not made at a dedicated production unit of this kind. A related fact often asked alongside is that the diesel locomotive plant at Varanasi, now the Banaras Locomotive Works, was set up as the Diesel Locomotive Works, and that the oldest railway workshop and training institute is at Jamalpur in Bihar, from 1888.

The correct answer is C, San Francisco Conference. The Charter of the United Nations was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945, at the close of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, by the delegates of fifty nations; Poland signed a little later and so the organisation began with fifty-one original members. The Charter came into force on 24 October 1945, once the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of the others had ratified it, and that day is kept as United Nations Day. The name United Nations was coined by President Franklin Roosevelt. Option A is wrong because The Hague is the seat of the International Court of Justice, not the place of signing. Option B is wrong because London is where the General Assembly held its first session, in January 1946. Option D is wrong because no United Nations conference was held at Berlin. Exam tip: signed 26 June 1945 at San Francisco and in force from 24 October 1945.

The correct answer is B, Bhagirathi. The Tehri Dam stands on the Bhagirathi in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, close to the confluence of the Bhagirathi and the Bhilangana, and it is an earth and rock fill dam, the tallest in India at about two hundred and sixty metres. Option A, the Alaknanda, is the other headstream of the Ganga and meets the Bhagirathi at Devprayag to form the Ganga; it carries the Vishnuprayag and Srinagar projects but not Tehri, and it is the strongest distractor because the two streams are always learnt together. Option C, the Sutlej, carries the Bhakra Dam in Himachal Pradesh and the Nathpa Jhakri power project, and Bhakra is the dam most often confused with Tehri in height questions. Option D, the Yamuna, carries barrages at Tajewala and Hathnikund and the Lakhwar project, and is not the river of the Tehri Dam.

The correct answer is A, 1962. The Sino-Indian War was fought between 20 October and 21 November 1962, when China attacked across the Himalayan frontier. The fighting ran in two separate theatres, Aksai Chin in Ladakh in the west and the North East Frontier Agency, today Arunachal Pradesh, in the east. China declared a unilateral ceasefire on 21 November 1962 and kept Aksai Chin. Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister and the reverses cost Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon his post; the war pushed India to enlarge its army and raise mountain divisions trained for high altitude. Option B is wrong because no India-China war took place in 1969. Option C is wrong because 1973 is remembered for the Kesavananda Bharati judgment and the launch of Project Tiger, not a war. Option D is wrong because 1964 is the year Nehru died. Exam tip: 1962 with China, 1965 and 1971 with Pakistan, 1999 Kargil.

The correct answer is A, Jodhpur. The houses crowded below the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur are washed in indigo blue, a colour traditionally associated with Brahmin households and also believed to keep interiors cool and repel insects, and the view of that blue sprawl from the fort gives the city its name; Jodhpur is also called the Sun City for its unbroken sunshine and stands at the edge of the Thar desert. Option B is wrong because Bhopal is the City of Lakes of Madhya Pradesh. Option C is wrong because Thrissur in Kerala is called the cultural capital of that state and is famous for the Thrissur Pooram. Option D is wrong because Indore is the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh and carries no colour nickname. In a paper, Jodhpur usually appears opposite Jaipur, so hold both pairs together.

The correct answer is B, Monthly channel. India Post moves its mail through six named channels, and there is no 'Monthly channel' among them. Under the Mail Network Optimisation Project the department separated its traffic so that each kind of article travels on a route with its own time norms. The six are the Metro channel, for mail between the big metro cities; the Rajdhani channel, linking the state capitals; the Green channel, for local mail inside a city; the Business channel, for corporate and bulk business mail; the Periodical channel, for newspapers and magazines; and the Bulk mail channel, for very large mailings. Because of this split, a letter addressed to a metro city does not travel with local city mail. A is wrong because the Metro channel is one of the six. C is wrong because the Rajdhani channel, which joins the capitals, is also one of them. D is wrong because the Business channel handles corporate and bulk mail and is on the list. Exam tip: the six mail channels are Metro, Rajdhani, Green, Business, Periodical and Bulk.

The correct answer is D, Afghanistan. SAARC was founded at Dhaka on 8 December 1985 by seven countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan was admitted as the eighth member at the fourteenth summit, held in New Delhi in 2007, and no country has joined since, so it remains the newest member of the grouping. The secretariat works from Kathmandu and the chair rotates among the members in alphabetical order. A is wrong because Mauritius is not a member of SAARC at all; it has only observer status, as do China, Japan, the United States and the European Union among others. B is wrong because Sri Lanka was present at the founding in 1985. C is wrong because Nepal too was a founding member, and it hosts the secretariat. Exam tip: remember 1985 Dhaka with seven founders, the 2007 New Delhi summit for Afghanistan and Kathmandu for the secretariat.

The correct answer is C, Iran. The Lotus Temple, the Bahai House of Worship at Kalkaji in New Delhi, was designed by Fariborz Sahba, an architect born in Iran who later settled in Canada, and it was completed and opened for worship in December 1986. Twenty-seven marble petals set in clusters of three give the building its nine sides and nine doors and the shape of a half-open lotus, and the marble was quarried at Penteli in Greece. Like every Bahai house of worship it is open to people of all faiths and holds no idol, no altar and no sermon, only readings from scripture. A is wrong because no architect from the UAE was involved in the work. B is wrong because Japan has no connection with the building. D is wrong because the German link belongs to other projects in Delhi, not to this one. Exam tip: Lotus Temple, Bahai faith, architect Fariborz Sahba of Iran, opened 1986, nine sides and twenty-seven petals.

The correct answer is A, Rakesh Sharma. He flew in 1984 aboard a Soviet mission under the Interkosmos programme and spent about a week in orbit, and his reply that India looked the best in the world from up there is often quoted. Option B is wrong because Kalpana Chawla, born in Haryana, flew as an astronaut of the American space agency and was of Indian origin but an American citizen at the time of her flights. Option C is wrong because Sunita Williams, also of Indian origin, flew for the same agency. Option D is wrong because Ravish Malhotra was the backup for the 1984 flight and did not go into space. The question turns on the difference between an Indian and a person of Indian origin.

The correct answer is A, Brazil. Brazil is called the Coffee Bowl of the World because it grows and sends out more coffee than any other country and has done so for more than a century. Its coffee belt lies in the south-east, in the states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Parana, where the deep red soil called terra rossa, the warm climate and the rolling plateau suit the plant. The large estates there are known as fazendas, and the port of Santos handles much of the export. Coffee needs a hot, wet climate with well drained slopes, which is why it is a plantation crop of the tropics. B is wrong because Mexico is a smaller coffee grower and is better known for maize and silver. C is wrong because India grows coffee mainly in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu but is far behind Brazil. D is wrong because Serbia has a cool climate that cannot support coffee at all. Exam tip: Brazil Coffee Bowl of the World, Sri Lanka Pearl of the Indian Ocean, Cuba Sugar Bowl of the World.

The correct answer is B, 1905. The Railway Board was constituted in 1905 to supervise the many private railway companies then operating in India, and it continues as the apex body of the Ministry of Railways. Option A is wrong because 1853 is the year of the first passenger train from Bori Bunder to Thane, not of any administrative body. Option C is wrong, though the year matters for a different reason: the Acworth Committee recommended the separation of railway finances from general finances, and from 1924 the Railway Budget began to be presented separately, an arrangement that lasted until 2016 before the merger with the Union Budget from 2017 to 2018. Option D is wrong because 1951 is the year the zones were created, beginning with the Southern Railway in April. Keep 1905 for the Board, 1924 for the separate budget and 1951 for the zones.

The correct answer is D, India, Australia, Japan and the US. Malabar 2020 was held in two phases in November 2020, the first in the Bay of Bengal off Visakhapatnam and the second in the Arabian Sea, and Australia joined India, Japan and the United States in it. Malabar began in 1992 as a bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the US Navy. Japan became a permanent participant in 2015. Australia had taken part once in 2007 and then returned in 2020, which brought the navies of all four Quad countries together in the same exercise. The drills cover anti-submarine warfare, air defence, cross-deck flying and live firing. Option A is wrong because that was the three-nation line-up from 2015 to 2019, before Australia rejoined. Option B is wrong because Israel has never been part of Malabar. Option C is wrong for the same reason, and it also leaves out Japan, a permanent member. Exam tip: Malabar started 1992 as India-US, Japan permanent from 2015, Australia from 2020 — the four Quad navies.

The correct answer is B, Mahanadi. The Hirakud Dam lies across the Mahanadi above Sambalpur in Odisha, and counting the main dam together with its earthen dykes it is among the longest dams in the world; it was built chiefly to control the floods that used to devastate coastal Odisha, and it also serves irrigation and power. Option A, the Godavari, is the second longest river of India and carries the Sriram Sagar project and the Polavaram project, not Hirakud. Option C, the Brahmani, also flows through Odisha and carries the Rengali dam, which makes it the sharpest distractor here because the state is the same. Option D, the Subarnarekha, flows through Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha and carries the Chandil and Icha projects. Remember the pair Hirakud with Mahanadi as one unit, and the fact that it is a flood control dam first.

The correct answer is C, Kothari commission 1966. The Kothari Commission, which worked from 1964 to 1966, recommended the three language formula for schools, and the policy of 1968 later adopted it. The commission was headed by Daulat Singh Kothari, then chairman of the University Grants Commission, and its report was titled Education and National Development. Under the formula a pupil learns the regional language or mother tongue, Hindi and English, so that the country keeps a link language while regional languages are respected. The same commission is remembered for asking that six per cent of national income be spent on education. A is wrong because the National Policy on Education of 1968 only accepted and announced what the commission had proposed. B is wrong because the policy of 1986 restated the formula and added the idea of a national system of education. D is wrong because the Chattopadhyaya Commission, which sat from 1983 to 1985, examined teachers and their status. Exam tip: the Kothari Commission of 1964 to 1966 proposed it and the 1968 policy adopted it.

The correct answer is B, Jaisalmer. The city in western Rajasthan is built of a honey-coloured yellow sandstone that turns golden in desert light, and its living fort, the Sonar Qila, rises out of the Thar desert; the nickname belongs to the stone, not to any metal trade. Option A is wrong because Amritsar is known as the city of the Golden Temple, which is a separate idea and not the Golden City. Option C is wrong because Surat in Gujarat is called the Diamond City of India for its diamond cutting and polishing industry, and also the textile city. Option D is wrong because Madurai is called the Athens of the East and the City of Festivals, for its temple and its long history. Candidates lose this mark by picking Amritsar, so separate the Golden City from the Golden Temple city.

The correct answer is B, arch bridge. The Chenab Bridge, built on the Udhampur to Srinagar to Baramulla rail link, rises about 359 metres above the bed of the Chenab and is the highest railway arch bridge in the world, its single steel arch spanning the gorge. Option A is wrong, although the same rail link carries the Anji Khad bridge, which is India first cable stayed rail bridge, and candidates often swap the two. Option C is wrong because no suspension bridge on the Indian railway network holds such a record; suspension design is used for road bridges of long span. Option D is wrong; cantilever construction is associated with older river bridges of the network and not with the Chenab crossing. Learn the pair of Chenab with the arch and Anji Khad with cable stays, since both appear in the same set of options.

The correct answer is B, the Bhakra Dam. Gobind Sagar is the reservoir formed by the Bhakra Dam on the Sutlej in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, and it is named after Guru Gobind Singh; the dam is part of the Bhakra Nangal project that serves Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. Option A, the Rihand Dam in Uttar Pradesh, creates Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar, the largest artificial lake in India by volume, and the resemblance between the two names is exactly the trap in this question. Option C, the Pong Dam, stands on the Beas in Himachal Pradesh and creates the Maharana Pratap Sagar reservoir, which is also a Ramsar wetland. Option D, the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam on the Krishna, creates a reservoir of its own name between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Learn the reservoir along with each dam and this pair stops being confusing.

The correct answer is B, the Manchester of India. Ahmedabad in Gujarat built up a large cotton textile industry on the model of the English mill town, and the comparison with Manchester, the cotton capital of Britain, stuck; the city is also called the Boston of India and, more recently, the Textile City. Option A is wrong because Chennai is the Detroit of India for its concentration of automobile manufacturing. Option C is wrong because Bengaluru is the Silicon Valley of India, as well as the Garden City and the Electronic City. Option D is wrong because Jamshedpur is the Pittsburgh of India and the Steel City, for the Tata works founded there. Papers also use the regional variants of the same name, Kanpur as the Manchester of North India and Coimbatore as the Manchester of South India.