Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 24

The correct answer is B, the National People’s Congress of China. It is a single house body with close to three thousand members, chosen indirectly by the provincial congresses and the armed forces, and no other legislature comes near that size. Option A is wrong because the Indian Parliament, with 543 elected members in the Lok Sabha and a Rajya Sabha whose maximum strength under Article 80 is 250, is far smaller, though it is among the largest democratic legislatures. Option C is wrong because the United States Congress has 100 Senators and 435 Representatives. Option D is wrong because the European Parliament, which represents the member states of the European Union, has a few hundred members and is not a national legislature at all.

The correct answer is B, Unity, Faith, Sacrifice. The Indian National Army took 'Ittehad, Etmad, Qurbani' as its motto, and those three words mean unity, faith and sacrifice.

Subhas Chandra Bose reorganised the INA at Singapore in 1943 and gave it the war cry 'Jai Hind' and the marching song 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja'. The army had a women's regiment named after Rani Lakshmibai, which was led by Captain Lakshmi Sahgal.

Option A, Unity and Discipline, is the motto of the National Cadet Corps. Option C, Do or Die, was Gandhi's call to the people in the Quit India Movement of 1942. Option D, Service before self, is a general service slogan and was not the motto of the INA.

Exam tip: INA — motto Ittehad, Etmad, Qurbani; slogan Jai Hind; founded 1942 and reorganised by Bose in 1943.

The correct answer is C, Indian Financial System Code. The IFSC is an eleven-character alphanumeric code that identifies a particular bank branch in the electronic payment systems operated by the Reserve Bank of India, and it is required for NEFT and RTGS transfers. The first four characters are the bank, the fifth is zero, and the last six identify the branch. Option A is wrong because the word Settlement belongs to RTGS, Real Time Gross Settlement, not to the IFSC. Option B is wrong because the code is national, not international; it covers branches in India alone. Option D is wrong because there is no body called a fund settlement centre in the payment system. The companion abbreviation on a cheque leaf is MICR, Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

The correct answer is D, Foreign Policy of India. Panchsheel is the name given to the five principles that guide India's conduct towards other countries.

The five are mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. They were written into the preamble of the agreement on trade and intercourse with the Tibet region of China, signed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954. The word itself comes from Buddhist usage, where the five rules of conduct are called panchsheel, and these principles later fed into the non-aligned movement.

A is wrong: the Fundamental Duties were added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976 and now number eleven. B is wrong: NITI Aayog is a policy think tank set up in 2015 and has nothing to do with this term. C is wrong: inter-state relations are dealt with in Articles 261 to 263 of the Constitution.

Exam tip: Panchsheel means the five principles signed by Nehru and Zhou Enlai on 29 April 1954, the base of India's non-alignment.

The correct answer is B, Milan. Milan is the multinational naval exercise hosted by the Indian Navy. It began in 1995 at Port Blair with a few navies of the Bay of Bengal and South East Asia and later moved to Visakhapatnam, growing into a large gathering with a harbour phase of seminars and a sea phase of exercises. Option A is wrong because RIMPAC, the Rim of the Pacific exercise, is hosted by the United States Navy off Hawaii and is the largest naval exercise in the world. Option C is wrong because Cobra Gold is the multinational exercise hosted in Thailand, which India has attended. Option D is wrong because Pitch Black is the multinational air exercise hosted by Australia, in which the Indian Air Force has flown. India also hosts the coastal defence exercise Sea Vigil and the naval war game TROPEX.

The correct answer is A, Israel. The Knesset is the single house legislature of Israel and has a fixed strength of 120 members elected by proportional representation; it sits at Jerusalem and its name comes from the assembly of the same size in ancient Jewish tradition. Option B is wrong because the legislature of Iran is the Islamic Consultative Assembly, commonly called the Majlis. Option C is wrong because Turkey has the Grand National Assembly, which first met in 1920 during the national struggle. Option D is wrong because Egypt has the House of Representatives. The group of names from western Asia is a favourite in matching questions, so keep Knesset, Majlis and Grand National Assembly together and attach each to its country. The Knesset is also asked for its strength, so remember the figure 120, fixed by the basic law of Israel.

The correct answer is B, Russia. The Russian legislature is the Federal Assembly, and it has two houses: the State Duma, the lower house, whose members are elected, and the Federation Council, the upper house, which represents the regions of the federation. The name Duma goes back to the assembly created after the revolution of 1905. Option A is wrong because the Polish parliament is made of the Sejm and the Senate. Option C is wrong because the Ukrainian legislature is the Verkhovna Rada, a single house. Option D is wrong because Hungary has the National Assembly, which also works with one house. Keep Duma with Russia and Sejm with Poland; the two are often exchanged in options. Note also that the Federation Council is the upper house, so a question asking for the lower house of Russia is answered by the State Duma.

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 B, United Nations Children's Fund. The agency was created by the General Assembly in 1946 as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, for children in countries ruined by the Second World War, and in 1953 it was made a permanent part of the United Nations and renamed the United Nations Children's Fund, keeping the familiar acronym. Its headquarters is in New York, and it received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965. Option A is the original name, which is why it is the hardest distractor; examiners who want it say "originally". Option C is wrong because education is the work of UNESCO, which is a separate agency based in Paris. Option D is wrong because no United Nations body is called a universal nations forum.

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 A, Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara. The Malaysian Parliament has the Dewan Rakyat, the house of the people, as its elected lower house, and the Dewan Negara, the house of the nation, as its upper house, which represents the states and holds appointed members. Option B is wrong because Majlis-e-Shoora is the Parliament of Pakistan, made of the National Assembly and the Senate. Option C is wrong because the Sejm and the Senat are the houses of the Polish parliament. Option D is wrong because Tshogdu is the name associated with the National Assembly of Bhutan, whose Parliament is the National Assembly with the National Council. Indonesia, close by, has the People’s Consultative Assembly, which is often offered as a distractor here.

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, Radio Detection and Ranging. Radar sends out radio waves and measures the echo that returns from an object, so the time taken gives the distance, or range, and the shift in frequency gives the speed by the Doppler effect. The underwater equivalent is SONAR, Sound Navigation and Ranging, which uses sound waves because radio waves are absorbed quickly in water. Option B is wrong because no standard expansion uses Radial Direction. Option C is tempting since radar does depend on reflection, but the final word of the acronym is Ranging, which is the measurement of distance. Option D is wrong because Rapid and Reporting belong to no expansion of the term. Doppler weather radars are used by the India Meteorological Department to track rain and cyclones.

The correct answer is D, India Gate. The All India War Memorial in New Delhi is the monument known today as India Gate.

It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in memory of the Indian soldiers who died in the First World War and in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The Duke of Connaught laid its foundation stone in 1921 and the arch was completed in 1931, the year New Delhi was formally inaugurated as the capital. The names of more than thirteen thousand servicemen are carved on its walls. The Amar Jawan Jyoti, the flame added in 1972 after the war of 1971, burned under the arch for fifty years before it was merged with the flame at the National War Memorial close by.

A is wrong: the Charminar is a gateway of 1591 in Hyderabad, built by Quli Qutb Shah. B is wrong: the Lal Qila, or Red Fort, was Shah Jahan's palace fort in Delhi. C is wrong: the Jama Masjid of Delhi is a mosque, also built by Shah Jahan.

Exam tip: India Gate is the All India War Memorial, designed by Lutyens, built between 1921 and 1931.

The correct answer is C, Australia. The joint sitting of the two houses, provided for in Article 108 and summoned by the President to resolve a deadlock on an ordinary Bill, was taken from the Australian Constitution, along with the concurrent list and the freedom of trade and commerce between the units. Option A is wrong because from Canada the makers took a federation with a strong centre, residuary powers with the union, the appointment of state governors and the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Option B is wrong because the United States gave fundamental rights, judicial review, the independence of the judiciary and the office of the Vice-President. Option D is wrong because from France came the republic and the words liberty, equality and fraternity in the Preamble.

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, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The Act was passed in 2005 as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and renamed after Mahatma Gandhi in 2009. It guarantees at least a hundred days of unskilled manual work in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for it, with a legal right to an unemployment allowance if work is not provided in time. Option A is the standard trap, putting Generation in place of Guarantee: the guarantee is the whole point of the law, since it makes employment an enforceable right. Option C is wrong because the official name uses Employment and not Rozgar. Option D is wrong because the scheme is rural and is an Act, not an agency, and no word Nagar appears in it.

The correct answer is A, Ireland. The Oireachtas is the Parliament of Ireland and consists of the President with two houses, Dail Eireann, the lower and elected house, and Seanad Eireann, the upper house. Ireland matters to Indian students for another reason: the directive principles of state policy, the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha and the method of electing the President were all drawn from the Irish Constitution. Option B is wrong because Iceland has the Althing, the oldest surviving parliament. Option C is wrong because Finland has the Eduskunta. Option D is wrong because Estonia has the Riigikogu. The four northern names are easy to confuse, so learn them as one group and separate Ireland from Iceland carefully. The Irish houses are worth a second look, since Dail Eireann is the elected chamber and Seanad Eireann the smaller upper one.

The correct answer is B, Navigation with Indian Constellation. NavIC is the name given to the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, or IRNSS, built by ISRO to give position fixes over India and a region around it, independent of the American GPS. The word also means sailor or navigator in Indian languages, which is why it was chosen. Option A is wrong because no vehicle information centre carries this name; vehicle records are kept in the VAHAN database. Option C is wrong because the expansion is not about coordinates, and the second letter stands for the preposition with. Option D is wrong because NavIC provides position and timing signals, not internet access. The system's satellites sit in geostationary and inclined geosynchronous orbits rather than the medium earth orbits used by GPS.

The correct answer is B, the United Kingdom. The phrase comes from the nineteenth century reformer John Bright, who said that England is the mother of parliaments, and it stuck to the Parliament at Westminster because so many countries, India among them, took their form of government from it; that form is called the Westminster model. Option A is wrong because Greece is called the cradle of democracy for the assembly of ancient Athens, which is a different claim and a common trap in this question. Option C is wrong because the French Parliament, with its National Assembly and Senate, grew out of the revolution of 1789. Option D is wrong because the United States Congress is a presidential legislature, not the parent of the parliamentary system.