Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 36

The correct answer is A, Justice Fazl Ali. After the death of Potti Sriramulu and the creation of Andhra State in 1953, the government appointed the States Reorganisation Commission under Justice Saiyid Fazl Ali, with the historian K. M. Panikkar and the educationist Hriday Nath Kunzru as its other two members. It reported in 1955, accepted language as a basis for reorganisation while rejecting the principle of one language one state, and its work led to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, which created fourteen states and six union territories. Option B is wrong because Panikkar was a member, not the chairman. Option C is wrong because Kunzru was likewise a member. Option D is wrong because Justice S. K. Dhar chaired the earlier Linguistic Provinces Commission of 1948, which advised that administrative convenience rather than language should guide reorganisation.

The correct answer is A, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. The Treaty of Allahabad was signed in 1765 by Robert Clive with the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II and Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh after the Company's victory at the Battle of Buxar in 1764. By it the emperor granted the Company the diwani, that is the right to collect the revenue, of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, which made the Company the real ruler of eastern India while the Nawab kept only the nizamat or police and judicial duties. Option B is wrong because Awadh and Rohilkhand were not ceded; Awadh was restored to Shuja-ud-Daula on payment of an indemnity and was kept as a buffer state. Option C is wrong because Awadh again does not belong in the list. Option D is wrong for the same reason, and because Odisha is the third province that completes the grant.

The correct answer is C, the Maastricht Treaty. Signed in 1992 in the Dutch city of Maastricht and in force from 1993, it created the European Union, introduced the idea of European citizenship and set out the path to the single currency. Option A is wrong because the Treaty of Rome of 1957 created the earlier European Economic Community, the common market of six states that grew into the Union. Option B is wrong because the Treaty of Lisbon, signed in 2007, only amended the existing treaties and reformed the Union's institutions; it did not create it. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was the peace settlement that ended the First World War with Germany and has nothing to do with European integration.

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 B, banking. The Committee on the Financial System of 1991 and the Committee on Banking Sector Reforms of 1998, both chaired by M. Narasimham, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, set the agenda for liberalising Indian banking. Their recommendations included reducing the statutory liquidity ratio and the cash reserve ratio, introducing prudential norms for capital adequacy and income recognition, allowing new private banks, giving public sector banks operational autonomy, setting up debt recovery tribunals and asset reconstruction, and moving towards stronger and fewer banks through mergers. Option A is wrong because insurance reform was recommended by the Malhotra Committee of 1993, which led to the insurance regulator and private entry. Option C is wrong because railway restructuring was examined by the Bibek Debroy Committee. Option D is wrong because farming was the subject of the Swaminathan Commission of 2004.

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, Spain and Portugal. The Treaty of Tordesillas was signed in 1494, two years after Columbus reached the Americas, and drew an imaginary line down the Atlantic: lands found to the west of it were to belong to Spain and those to the east to Portugal. The line is the reason Brazil became Portuguese while the rest of South America became Spanish, and the reason Portugal held the sea route to India that Vasco da Gama opened in 1498. Option A is wrong because Britain and France were not yet maritime powers in 1494 and settled their colonial contest much later, by the Treaty of Paris of 1763. Option C is wrong because Dutch sea power belongs to the seventeenth century. Option D is wrong because France had no part in this papal arbitration.

The correct answer is B, Pakistan. The markhor lives in the mountain ranges of the north and west of the country, and its spiralled horns make it easy to recognise in a picture-based question. Option A, Afghanistan, is the closest distractor, because the snow leopard is its national animal and the markhor is also found there. Option C, Iran, is wrong; the Asiatic lion and the Persian leopard are associated with its history rather than a current designation of this kind. Option D, Tajikistan, is wrong as well, though the Marco Polo sheep of the Pamirs belongs to the same family of wild mountain animals. Pakistan's other symbols are the chukar partridge as national bird, jasmine as national flower, the deodar as national tree and the snow leopard as a protected species rather than a symbol.

The correct answer is A, M. S. Swaminathan. The National Commission on Farmers was set up in 2004 and from its second term was chaired by the agricultural scientist Professor M. S. Swaminathan, the geneticist associated with the Green Revolution in India. The commission submitted five reports between 2004 and 2006 and is remembered for recommending that the minimum support price be fixed at least fifty per cent above the weighted average cost of production, along with land reform, better irrigation, cheaper credit and a national food security system. Option B is wrong because Verghese Kurien led the dairy cooperative movement and Operation Flood. Option C is wrong because Norman Borlaug was the American scientist who bred the high-yielding wheat varieties used in the Green Revolution, not the head of an Indian commission. Option D is wrong because Ashok Gulati is an agricultural economist who chaired the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, a different body.

The correct answer is B, Bhagirathi. The Tehri dam stands on the Bhagirathi in the Tehri Garhwal region of Uttarakhand and rises to about 260 metres, which makes it the highest dam in India. It is a rock and earth fill dam and supplies power, irrigation and drinking water. Its reservoir submerged the old town of Tehri, which had to be rebuilt as New Tehri.

Option A, the Alaknanda, is the other headstream of the Ganga and joins the Bhagirathi at Devprayag, but the Tehri dam is not on it. Option C, the Yamuna, carries the Lakhwar and Hathnikund works, not Tehri. Option D, the Sutlej, is the river of the Bhakra dam in Himachal Pradesh, which is the second highest dam in India and was called a temple of modern India by Jawaharlal Nehru. Remember the pair for the paper: Tehri is the highest dam and Hirakud on the Mahanadi is the longest.

The correct answer is A, wetlands. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in 1971 at Ramsar, a city on the Caspian coast of Iran, and is the oldest of the modern global environmental treaties. States that join it list their important wetlands as Ramsar sites and undertake to use them wisely; India is a party and has designated many such sites. Option B is wrong because no single global treaty is devoted to tropical forests; forests are dealt with under the climate and biodiversity conventions. Option C is wrong because coral reefs are covered as part of marine ecosystems under the Law of the Sea and the biodiversity convention. Option D is wrong because mangroves are only one kind of wetland, and the convention covers lakes, rivers, marshes, estuaries and man-made wetlands as well.

The correct answer is B, Alexander Fleming. Fleming noticed in 1928 that a mould of the genus Penicillium had killed the bacteria growing around it on a culture plate, and the substance he named penicillin became the first antibiotic; Florey and Chain later turned it into a usable drug and shared the Nobel Prize with him. Option A is wrong because Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery using carbolic acid, which prevents infection during an operation rather than curing one. Option C is wrong because Jonas Salk developed the injectable polio vaccine in the 1950s, a vaccine and not an antibiotic. Option D is wrong because Robert Koch identified disease causing bacteria but did not find a drug against them. A vaccine prevents a disease and an antibiotic kills bacteria already in the body, and papers test that distinction.

The correct answer is A, the Santhanam Committee. The Committee on Prevention of Corruption, appointed in 1962 under K. Santhanam, reported in 1964 and recommended a central body to oversee vigilance work in the government. The Central Vigilance Commission was created that year by an executive resolution and was given statutory status by the Central Vigilance Commission Act of 2003, after the Supreme Court judgment in the Vineet Narain case. Option B is wrong because A. D. Gorwala reported in 1951 on public administration generally and on the need for an honest and efficient civil service. Option C is wrong because Paul Appleby, an American expert, reported in 1953 and 1956 on Indian public administration and proposed an institute of public administration. Option D is wrong because the Kelkar committees dealt with tax reform and the fiscal responsibility roadmap, not vigilance.

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, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. India has not signed the test-ban treaty of 1996, just as it is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, holding that both divide the world permanently into nuclear and non-nuclear states. India has instead declared a voluntary moratorium on further nuclear testing. Option A is wrong because India acceded to the Antarctic Treaty and runs research stations on the continent. Option B is wrong because India is an original party to the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 and a member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons set up under it. Option D is wrong because India is also a party to the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, which bans the development and stockpiling of biological agents as weapons.

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, the Finance Commission. It is created by Article 280 of the Constitution, which requires the President to constitute it every fifth year or earlier to recommend the distribution of the net proceeds of taxes between the Union and the states, the principles governing grants-in-aid and other matters referred to it. Because it is named in the Constitution, it can be changed only by amendment. Option A is wrong because the National Human Rights Commission is a statutory body under the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993. Option C is wrong because NITI Aayog was created in 2015 by a resolution of the Union Cabinet, which makes it an executive or non-statutory body, exactly as the Planning Commission of 1950 was. Option D is wrong because the National Commission for Women is statutory, created by the National Commission for Women Act of 1990.

The correct answer is B, Lord Lytton. The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878 under Lord Lytton and applied only to newspapers printed in Indian languages, not to English papers, which is why it was called the Gagging Act. The Amrita Bazar Patrika escaped it by turning itself into an English paper overnight. Option A is wrong because Lord Ripon is remembered for repealing the Act in 1882, along with the Local Self Government Resolution and the Hunter Commission on education. Option C is wrong because Lord Curzon's name goes with the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the Indian Universities Act of 1904. Option D is wrong because Lord Dufferin was Viceroy when the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885. Lytton is also associated with the Delhi Durbar of 1877 and the Arms Act of 1878.

The correct answer is B, the Vienna Convention. The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted in 1985 as a framework agreement, and the Montreal Protocol of 1987 gave it teeth by fixing timetables for phasing out ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons and halons. The Kigali Amendment of 2016 brought hydrofluorocarbons, which harm the climate rather than the ozone layer, under the same protocol. Option A is wrong because the Basel Convention of 1989 deals with the transboundary movement of hazardous waste. Option C is wrong because the Stockholm Convention of 2001 deals with persistent organic pollutants such as DDT. Option D is wrong because the biodiversity convention of 1992 produced the Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols, not Montreal. A simple way to keep the pair in mind is that Vienna is the framework and Montreal the schedule, and that the protocol is the one global environmental agreement every member state of the United Nations has joined.

The correct answer is A, the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. Under this Act the central or a state government may appoint a commission to inquire into any definite matter of public importance, and must do so if Parliament or the state legislature passes a resolution to that effect. Such a commission has the powers of a civil court to summon witnesses, examine them on oath and require the production of documents, but its report is recommendatory and the government must place it before the legislature with a memorandum of action taken. The Shah Commission of 1977 on the Emergency and the Liberhan Commission of 1992, which reported in 2009, were both appointed under it. Option B is wrong because the Code of Criminal Procedure governs criminal investigation and trial, not public inquiries. Option C is wrong because that Act protects judicial officers from suits for acts done in good faith. Option D is wrong because the Public Servants Inquiries Act of 1850 provides for inquiry into charges of misconduct against individual public servants.