Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 22

The correct answer is D, Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad in Gujarat is called the Manchester of India because of the cotton textile mills that grew there, just as Manchester in England was the centre of the cotton industry. The first mill was set up in 1861 by Ranchhodlal Chhotalal, and the city had the advantages a cotton industry needs, black soil growing cotton nearby, a humid climate for spinning, cheap labour and the port of Kandla and Mumbai within reach. Ahmedabad is also called the Mancunian of the East. A is wrong because Ludhiana is called the Manchester of India for hosiery in some lists but is better known as the woollen and hosiery capital of India. B is wrong because Visakhapatnam is the City of Destiny and a steel and port town. C is wrong because Hyderabad is the City of Pearls and Cyberabad. Exam tip: fix the pair - Ahmedabad is the Manchester of India, Mumbai the Cottonopolis and Coimbatore the Manchester of South India.

The correct answer is C, France and Germany. The Maginot Line was the chain of concrete forts that France built along its border with Germany.

It is named after Andre Maginot, the French war minister who pushed the project through, and it was built in the 1930s after the First World War to stop another German invasion. The line was deep, heavily armed and widely thought to be impregnable, but it covered only the German frontier. In 1940 the German army simply went around its northern end through the Ardennes in Belgium and France fell in six weeks, which is why a Maginot Line is now a byword for a defence that is strong in the wrong place.

A is wrong: no such line divides Namibia and Angola. B is wrong: the United States and Canada are separated by the 49th Parallel. D is wrong: the Germany and Poland boundary is the Oder Neisse Line, fixed after the Second World War.

Exam tip: Maginot Line is France and Germany, while the Siegfried Line was Germany's own answering line of defences.

The correct answer is A, it was the first airport in the world to be fully powered by solar energy. Cochin International Airport commissioned a solar plant large enough to meet its own consumption, and for that it received the Champion of the Earth award of the United Nations Environment Programme in 2018. It was also the first airport in India built under a public private partnership. Option B is wrong because the busiest airport in India by passenger traffic is Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Option C is wrong because the Airports Authority of India was formed only in 1995, by merging two earlier authorities, and Cochin was built outside that model as a company. Option D is wrong because no Indian airport holds the record for the longest runway in Asia. Fix the pair Kochi and solar power.

The correct answer is B, Kolkata. The first stretch of the Kolkata Metro, between Esplanade and Bhowanipore, was opened on 24 October 1984, almost two decades before any other Indian city had a metro. The system is also unusual because it is operated as a zone of Indian Railways rather than by a separate metro corporation. Option A is wrong because the Delhi Metro, though it grew into the largest network in the country, opened its first section from Shahdara to Tis Hazari only on 24 December 2002. Option C is wrong because the Mumbai Metro began commercial service in 2014. Option D is wrong because the Chennai Metro is later still. The order to remember for the earliest systems is Kolkata in 1984, Delhi in 2002 and Bengaluru in 2011.

The correct answer is C, the United States. Malabar started in 1992 as a bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the United States Navy. Japan took part in some editions and became a permanent participant in 2015, and Australia joined in 2020, so Malabar is now held among the four Quad navies. Option A is wrong because Japan, although a permanent participant since 2015, was not a founding partner; the bilateral naval exercise with Japan is JIMEX. Option B is wrong because Australia was the last of the four to join, in 2020, and its bilateral naval exercise with India is AUSINDEX, which began in 2015. Option D is wrong because the naval exercise with the United Kingdom is Konkan, and the United Kingdom is not a Malabar participant.

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 A, Madurai. Madurai in Tamil Nadu is called the Athens of the East because, like ancient Athens, it was a seat of learning, poetry and debate for centuries. It was the capital of the Pandya kingdom and the home of the Tamil Sangams, the assemblies of poets whose work makes up Sangam literature. The city grew around the Meenakshi Amman temple in concentric streets, which is why it is also called the lotus city, and its other names are Thoonga Nagaram, the city that never sleeps, and the temple city. B is wrong because Allahabad, now Prayagraj, is known as the city of the Sangam and was earlier Prayag. C is wrong because Kochi is called the Queen of the Arabian Sea. D is wrong because Patna, the old Pataliputra, is known for being the Mauryan capital and is not given this title. Exam tip: fix the pair - Madurai is the Athens of the East and the city of Sangam literature.

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 C, Bengaluru. The airport is named after Kempegowda, the sixteenth century chieftain regarded as the founder of the city. Option A is wrong because Hyderabad is served by the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, which replaced the older Begumpet airport. Option B is wrong because Chennai is served by the Chennai International Airport at Meenambakkam. Option D is wrong because Pune has its own airport at Lohegaon and is not connected with the Kempegowda name. Airport naming is a steady source of matching questions, so group the big ones together: Indira Gandhi for Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj for Mumbai, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose for Kolkata, Kempegowda for Bengaluru, Rajiv Gandhi for Hyderabad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for Ahmedabad. Guwahati, the gateway to the North East, carries the name of Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi, and Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is named after Veer Savarkar.

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, China. Hand-in-Hand is the counter-terrorism army exercise between India and China, in which small contingents of the two armies train together in cordon and search operations and in joint tactical drills. It is the only named bilateral exercise between the two countries. Option B is wrong because the exercises with Myanmar are the India-Myanmar bilateral army exercise IMBEX and the coordinated naval patrol IMCOR. Option C is wrong because the army exercise with Vietnam is VINBAX, which has a United Nations peacekeeping and engineering theme. Option D is wrong because the exercise with Mongolia is Nomadic Elephant, a long-running army exercise focused on counter-insurgency under a United Nations mandate. Remembering the name in the partner's idiom or language helps; here the plain English name belongs to China.

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 B, Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik. The scheme was announced under the National Civil Aviation Policy of 2016 so that unserved and underserved airstrips could be linked to the main network at capped fares, with the gap met through a viability gap funding mechanism. Its first flight connected Shimla with Delhi in April 2017. Option A is wrong because air navigation services are provided by the Airports Authority of India and have no scheme of this name. Option C is wrong because the scheme is aimed at small towns and regional airstrips rather than at urban airport networks. Option D is wrong because it simply rearranges the words into an expansion that was never used. Remember the scheme, the policy year 2016 and the first route Shimla to Delhi together.

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 B, Russia. Indra is the joint exercise between India and Russia; it began as separate army and naval exercises and has also been held as a tri-service exercise, while Aviaindra is the exercise between the two air forces. Option A is wrong, and is the trap in this question, because the exercises with Indonesia are Garuda Shakti for the special forces and Samudra Shakti for the navies, along with a coordinated patrol in the Andaman Sea; the similarity of the words Indra and Indonesia is deliberate. Option C is wrong because with Israel India has no named bilateral field exercise of this kind, taking part instead in the multinational Blue Flag air exercise. Option D is wrong because India holds no such named exercise with Iran, though Indian ships make port calls at Chabahar.

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 A, Visakhapatnam. The port in Andhra Pradesh lies in a natural inlet sheltered by the Dolphin's Nose headland, which gives it great depth while keeping it protected, and it is the one Indian major port that works with a separate inner harbour and outer harbour. Option B is wrong because Paradip in Odisha is an open coast natural harbour without that two part layout. Option C is wrong because the V. O. Chidambaranar Port at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu is an artificial deep sea harbour created by building breakwaters, not a landlocked one. Option D is wrong because New Mangalore in Karnataka is an all weather port handling iron ore and petroleum but is not known for exceptional depth. Keep the descriptive labels apart: Visakhapatnam deepest, Kandla tidal, Kolkata riverine.

The correct answer is C, Maldives. Ekuverin means friends in Dhivehi, the language of the Maldives, and the exercise is held alternately in India and the Maldives between the Indian Army and the Maldives National Defence Force. The naval exercise with the Maldives is Ekatha, and Dosti is the coast guard exercise of India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Option A is wrong because the army exercise with Seychelles is Lamitiye, which means friendship in Seychellois Creole. Option B is wrong because India has no exercise of this name with Mauritius, where cooperation is largely through the coast guard and hydrographic surveys. Option D is wrong because the exercises with Sri Lanka are Mitra Shakti for the armies and SLINEX for the navies. Reading the meaning of the name is the fastest route to the answer.

The correct answer is C, 1995. The Airports Authority of India came into being in that year through the merger of the International Airports Authority of India, which ran the international gateways, with the National Airports Authority, which ran the domestic airfields and the air navigation services. The merged statutory body manages most civil airports in the country and provides air traffic services over Indian airspace. Option A is wrong because 1972 is the year the International Airports Authority alone was set up. Option B is wrong because 1986 is when the National Airports Authority was constituted, the second of the two bodies that later merged. Option D is wrong because 2004 has no bearing on the Authority's formation. The chain to remember is 1972, then 1986, then the merger in 1995.

The correct answer is A, France. Garuda is the bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force and the French Air and Space Force, held alternately at Indian and French bases, with fighter, transport and refuelling aircraft taking part. It completes the French trio of Varuna for the navy, Shakti for the army and Garuda for the air force. Option B is the standard trap, because Garuda Shakti is the special forces exercise with Indonesia and the Garuda is also an Indonesian national symbol; the plain name Garuda, however, belongs to the exercise with France. Option C is wrong because the air exercise with the United States is Cope India, and Indian pilots also fly in the United States hosted Red Flag. Option D is wrong because the air exercise with Oman is Eastern Bridge, Al Nagah being the army exercise with Oman.