Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 2

The correct answer is C, Vini Mahajan. Vini Mahajan, an IAS officer of the 1987 batch of the Punjab cadre, was appointed Chief Secretary of Punjab in June 2020, the first woman to hold the state's top civil service post since Punjab was formed in 1966. The Chief Secretary is the senior-most IAS officer of a state and heads its entire administration. She had earlier served in the Prime Minister's Office and as Punjab's Additional Chief Secretary for Investment Promotion, and after her state tenure she moved to the Centre as Secretary of the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. A is wrong because Akanksha Juneja is a television actress, not a civil servant. B is wrong because Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu is a doctor and politician who was a member of the Punjab assembly. D is wrong because Kiran Bedi was India's first woman IPS officer (1972) and later Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, but she was a police officer, never a Chief Secretary. Exam tip: first woman Chief Secretary of Punjab, Vini Mahajan, June 2020; first woman IPS officer, Kiran Bedi, 1972.

The correct answer is D, Beijing. China's capital hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008 and the Winter Olympics in 2022, which made it the first city ever to stage both. The 2008 Games are remembered for the Bird's Nest stadium and for Abhinav Bindra's gold in the 10 m air rifle, India's first individual Olympic gold. In 2022 the ice events were held in Beijing itself, with snow events in the nearby hill areas, and several 2008 venues were reused, such as the Water Cube, which became the curling venue. A is wrong because Tokyo has hosted only the Summer Games, in 1964 and 2020, while Japan's Winter Games went to Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998. B is wrong because Sydney hosted only the Summer Olympics of 2000. C is wrong because New York City has never hosted the Olympics; the Winter Games of 1932 and 1980 were at Lake Placid, a small town in New York State. Exam tip: Beijing 2008 summer plus 2022 winter; first city with both.

The correct answer is B, Yuri Gagarin. The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961 and completed a single orbit of the Earth, becoming the first human being in space. The day is now marked every year as the anniversary of human spaceflight.

Option A, Alexei Leonov, was also a Soviet cosmonaut, but his own first came four years later, in March 1965, when he stepped out of Voskhod 2 and made the first spacewalk. Option C, Neil Armstrong, was the first person to set foot on the Moon, in July 1969, which is a different first and the commonest confusion in this question. Option D, Rakesh Sharma, was the first Indian in space, in 1984 aboard a Soviet mission, and he is offered whenever the paper wants to see if the candidate has read the words in the world rather than in India.

The correct answer is A, Venezuela. Angel Falls, in the Canaima National Park of Venezuela, is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world, with a total height of about 979 metres and a single unbroken drop of about 807 metres. It pours off the edge of Auyan-tepui, a flat-topped table mountain, and the local Pemon people call it Kerepakupai Meru. It is named after Jimmie Angel, an American pilot who flew over it in 1933. The falls are so remote that most visitors reach them by small plane and then by boat along jungle rivers. B is wrong because Brazil shares the wide Iguazu Falls with Argentina, which are famous for their width, not height. C is wrong because the USA shares Niagara Falls with Canada, which are wide but only about 50 metres high. D is wrong because China is known for the Huangguoshu Falls, which are far lower. Exam tip: highest waterfall = Angel Falls (Venezuela); Iguazu = Brazil and Argentina; Victoria Falls = Zambia and Zimbabwe; Niagara = USA and Canada.

The correct answer is B, Minsk. Minsk is the capital and largest city of Belarus, a landlocked country of Eastern Europe that shares borders with Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Belarus became independent when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, its currency is the Belarusian rouble, and Minsk also houses the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The city gave its name to the Minsk agreements on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which is why it appears in the news. A is wrong because Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan, a port on the Caspian Sea. C is wrong because Moroni is the capital of Comoros, an island country off the eastern coast of Africa. D is wrong because Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the seat of the European Union and NATO. Exam tip: Belarus - Minsk; Belgium - Brussels; Azerbaijan - Baku; Comoros - Moroni. The similar-sounding country names are the trap here.

The correct answer is A, Roman. The rupee sign blends the Devanagari letter "र" (Ra) with the Roman capital "R" with its vertical stem removed, so that it reads as an Indian letter and an international one at the same time. It was designed by D. Udaya Kumar, then a student at IIT Bombay and later a professor at IIT Guwahati, who won a nationwide open competition; the Union Cabinet approved it on 15 July 2010. The two parallel horizontal lines across the top stand for the tricolour and for the equality sign, a nod to a balanced economy. With this sign the rupee joined the dollar, pound, euro and yen as currencies with their own symbol. B, Ol Chiki, is the script created for the Santali language and has no part in the design. C, Brahmi, is the ancient script of Ashoka's edicts, not used here. D, Cyrillic, is the script of Russian and other Slavic languages. Exam tip: rupee symbol = Devanagari Ra + Roman R, designed by Udaya Kumar, adopted 15 July 2010.

The correct answer is C, Philippines. The Asian Development Bank has its headquarters in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. ADB was set up in 1966 to reduce poverty and fund development in Asia and the Pacific, and it lends mainly for roads, railways, power, water and urban projects. Japan and the United States hold the largest shares in it, and by convention its president has always been Japanese, which is what makes Japan a tempting wrong choice. India was a founding member and is today one of the bank's biggest borrowers. A is wrong because Japan supplies the bank's largest shareholding and its presidents but not its head office. B is wrong because Beijing hosts the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a different institution set up in 2016. D is wrong because India hosts no such multilateral development bank; the BRICS New Development Bank sits in Shanghai. Exam tip: ADB - Manila, 1966; AIIB - Beijing, 2016; New Development Bank - Shanghai, 2015.

The correct answer is A, Black Francolin. The black francolin, known locally as kala teetar, is the state bird of Haryana. It belongs to the pheasant family, and the male is easy to recognise by its black face and breast, white cheek patch and chestnut collar, while the female is mostly brown. It lives in grassland, scrub and farmland with tall crops such as sugarcane, and its loud, repeated call is heard mostly at dawn and dusk. Haryana's other state symbols are the blackbuck as the state animal, the peepal as the state tree and the lotus as the state flower. Option B is wrong because the house sparrow is the state bird of Delhi and Bihar, not Haryana. Option C is wrong because the great egret is a large white wading bird of wetlands and is not Haryana's symbol. Option D is wrong because hummingbirds are found only in the Americas and do not live in India at all. Exam tip: Haryana's symbols are black francolin (bird), blackbuck (animal), peepal (tree) and lotus (flower).

The correct answer is A, 1927. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was formed in 1927 and was recognised by the International Olympic Committee the same year. Sir Dorabji Tata, who had helped fund India's team at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, was its first president, and Dr A. G. Noehren was its first secretary. The IOA is India's National Olympic Committee: it sends Indian teams to the Olympics, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, and its headquarters is in New Delhi. A year after it was formed, India won its first Olympic hockey gold at Amsterdam in 1928. B is wrong because by 1934 the IOA had already existed for seven years. C is wrong because 1928 is the year of India's first Olympic hockey gold, not the year the IOA was formed. D is wrong because 1943 is sixteen years too late. Exam tip: IOA 1927 with Dorabji Tata as first president; first hockey gold 1928; SAI 1984.

The correct answer is B, Insat-1B. It was the first working satellite of the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system, carried to orbit by the US Space Shuttle Challenger in August 1983. INSAT-1B was a multipurpose satellite: its transponders gave national television coverage, telephone links and weather pictures from one spot in geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the equator. It made nationwide Doordarshan broadcasts possible and began the INSAT series that still serves communication and meteorology. Its predecessor INSAT-1A, launched in 1982, failed early, which is why 1B is remembered as the real start. A is wrong because Bhaskara-I, launched in 1979 on a Soviet rocket, was an experimental earth-observation satellite, not a geostationary broadcaster. C is wrong because GSAT-7, launched in 2013, is the Indian Navy's dedicated communication satellite, often called Rukmini. D is wrong because RISAT-1, launched in 2012 on a PSLV, is a radar imaging satellite for earth observation. Exam tip: INSAT = communication and weather in geostationary orbit; Bhaskara and RISAT = observing the earth.

The correct answer is A, Unity and Discipline. The motto of the National Cadet Corps is Unity and Discipline, in Hindi Ekta aur Anushasan. The NCC was set up in 1948 under the National Cadet Corps Act, 1948, and works under the Ministry of Defence with its headquarters in New Delhi. It trains school and college students through its Army, Navy and Air wings, and cadets holding the C certificate can become Army officers through the NCC Special Entry without writing the CDS paper. NCC Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of November every year. An easy way to remember the motto: a cadet's two first lessons are to stand together and to follow orders. B is wrong, because Unity and Integrity is not the NCC motto. C is wrong, because Unity and Command is a made-up pairing. D is wrong, because the word service belongs to the Indian Army's motto, Service Before Self, not to the NCC's. Exam tip: NCC, 1948, Ministry of Defence, motto Unity and Discipline, NCC Day on the fourth Sunday of November.

The correct answer is B, Hirakud dam – Odisha. The Hirakud dam stands on the Mahanadi near Sambalpur in Odisha. Completed in 1957, it was among the first big multipurpose river valley projects after Independence, built to control the Mahanadi's floods and to give irrigation and hydroelectric power. With its long earthen dykes it is one of the longest earthen dams in the world, about 26 km in total length. A is wrong because the Tehri dam, India's tallest, is on the Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand; it was in Uttar Pradesh only until Uttarakhand was formed in 2000, which is the trap here. C is wrong because Bhakra Nangal is on the Sutlej, with the Bhakra dam in Himachal Pradesh and the Nangal dam in Punjab, and its reservoir is the Gobind Sagar. D is wrong because Nagarjuna Sagar is on the Krishna, on the border of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, far from Rajasthan. Exam tip: match dams with rivers too, Hirakud–Mahanadi, Tehri–Bhagirathi, Bhakra–Sutlej, Nagarjuna Sagar–Krishna.

The correct answer is C, China. SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, has eight members — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. China is not one of them; it holds only observer status, as do Japan, the United States, the European Union, South Korea, Iran, Mauritius, Myanmar and Australia. SAARC was set up by the Dhaka Declaration of 8 December 1985 with seven members, and its secretariat is at Kathmandu in Nepal. Option A is wrong because Nepal is a founding member and hosts the secretariat. Option B is wrong because the Maldives is also one of the seven founders. Option D is wrong because Afghanistan is a full member, admitted as the eighth at the Delhi summit of 2007. Exam tip: the seven founders are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives; Afghanistan is the eighth member and China is only an observer.

The correct answer is A, Kolkata. Kolkata earned the name City of Palaces in the colonial era for the grand mansions built by British officials and rich Bengali families along its main streets. It was the capital of British India until 1911, when the capital moved to Delhi, and many of those buildings still stand, from the Victoria Memorial to the Marble Palace and the Writers Building. The city also carries the names City of Joy and the cultural capital of India, and it was the first city in India to get a metro railway, in 1984. B is wrong because Hyderabad is the City of Pearls and the City of Nizams. C is wrong because Mumbai is known as the Gateway of India, the City of Seven Islands and the financial capital of India. D is wrong because Chennai is called the Gateway of South India and the Detroit of India for its car industry. Exam tip: Kolkata = City of Palaces and City of Joy; Hyderabad = City of Pearls; Jaipur = Pink City; Udaipur = City of Lakes.

The correct answer is B, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. He had presided over the Constituent Assembly that framed the Constitution and became the first President when the Constitution came into force in 1950. He remains the only person to have served two full terms in the office.

Option A, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first Prime Minister and never held the presidency, and the two offices are the commonest pair to be swapped in this question. Option C, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, was the first Vice-President and became the second President only after Rajendra Prasad. Option D, Dr. Zakir Husain, was the third President, and he carries two firsts of his own that papers like to ask: he was the first Muslim President of India and the first President to die while in office. Keep the sequence of the first three Presidents in mind and none of these can confuse you.

The correct answer is C, 24 January. On 24 January 1950, two days before the Constitution came into force, the United Provinces was officially renamed Uttar Pradesh. The state government began celebrating this date as Uttar Pradesh Diwas, or UP Foundation Day, in 2018, with events across the state showing its culture, crafts and achievements. The One District One Product (ODOP) scheme, which promotes a special product from each district, was launched on the first UP Diwas in 2018. Conveniently, the short form ‘U.P.’ stayed the same, since both names begin with the same letters. Option A is wrong because 26 January is Republic Day, when the Constitution came into force in 1950. Option B is wrong because 25 January is National Voters’ Day, marking the founding of the Election Commission in 1950, and also Himachal Pradesh’s statehood day. Option D is wrong because 23 January is the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, observed as Parakram Diwas. Exam tip: on 24 January 1950 the United Provinces became Uttar Pradesh; the day has been celebrated as UP Diwas since 2018.

The correct answer is C, Valentina Tereshkova. The Soviet cosmonaut flew alone aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963 and spent nearly three days in orbit, becoming the first woman in space, two years after Yuri Gagarin's flight.

Option A, Svetlana Savitskaya, was the second woman in space and, in 1984, the first woman to walk in space, so she answers a neighbouring question rather than this one. Option B, Sally Ride, was the first American woman in space, in 1983, and the trap works only if the candidate reads American for world. Option D, Kalpana Chawla, was the first woman of Indian origin to go into space, flying with NASA in 1997 and dying in the Columbia accident of 2003. Fix the pair as Gagarin for the first man and Tereshkova for the first woman, both of the Soviet Union.

The correct answer is C, Euro. The euro is the official currency of the European Union. It came into being as an accounting currency in 1999 and reached people's hands as notes and coins on 1 January 2002. It is managed by the European Central Bank at Frankfurt, its symbol is a crossed E and its code is EUR. Not every member state uses it: the group that does is called the eurozone, while members such as Sweden, Poland and Denmark keep their own currencies. A is wrong because the yen is the currency of Japan. B is wrong because the dollar belongs to the United States and several other countries, none of them the European Union. D is wrong because the pound sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom, which never adopted the euro and left the Union in 2020. Exam tip: euro - European Central Bank at Frankfurt, notes and coins from 1 January 2002, and its users form the eurozone.

The correct answer is B, New Delhi. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is a Union ministry, and like every ministry of the Government of India it works from the national capital, New Delhi. It was set up as a separate ministry in May 2004 to look after the three-tier system of village, block and district panchayats. That system got constitutional status through the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, which came into force on 24 April 1993; this is why 24 April is observed as National Panchayati Raj Day. Part IX of the Constitution and the Eleventh Schedule, with 29 subjects, deal with panchayats. A is wrong because Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan; Rajasthan was the first state to start Panchayati Raj, at Nagaur on 2 October 1959, but the ministry is not there. C is wrong because Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu. D is wrong because Pune is a city of Maharashtra, not a seat of Union ministries. Exam tip: Union ministries = New Delhi; 73rd Amendment = panchayats; first Panchayati Raj = Nagaur, Rajasthan, 2 October 1959.

The correct answer is C, Rabindranath Tagore. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali and was the first Asian of any nationality to win a Nobel Prize, which is a second fact worth carrying.

Option A, C. V. Raman, is the answer to a closely related question: he was the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize in a science, taking the Physics prize in 1930 for the scattering of light now named the Raman effect. Option B, Mother Teresa, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 as an Indian citizen, and is therefore the first answer to the question about the Peace Prize, not the first overall. Option D, Amartya Sen, won the prize in Economic Sciences in 1998, decades after Tagore. Read the stem carefully, because the examiner separates first Indian, first in a science and first in peace.