Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 37

The correct answer is B, 1, 2 and 3 only. The first three are written into Article I of the SAARC Charter; ending cross-border terrorism is not one of its listed objectives.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was set up by the Charter signed at Dhaka on 8 December 1985, and its secretariat is in Kathmandu. Its objectives include promoting the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and improving their quality of life, strengthening collective self-reliance, contributing to mutual trust and understanding of one another's problems, and promoting collaboration in economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields. Terrorism is handled through a separate SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism (1987), not as a Charter objective.

A is wrong: it leaves out objective 3, which is in the Charter.

C is wrong: it adds statement 4, which is not a Charter objective.

D is wrong: it drops the true objectives 1 and 2 and adds statement 4.

Exam tip: SAARC, Dhaka Charter 1985, secretariat Kathmandu, eight members with Afghanistan joining in 2007.

The correct answer is B, the First Anglo-Maratha War. The Treaty of Salbai of 1782 closed the First Anglo-Maratha War, which had begun with the Company's attempt to place Raghunath Rao in power at Pune. The treaty restored the position as it stood before the war, recognised Madhav Rao II as the Peshwa and gave the Company about twenty years of peace with the Marathas, which it used against Mysore. Option A is wrong because the Second Anglo-Mysore War was ended by the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, signed with Tipu Sultan. Option C is wrong because the Second Anglo-Maratha War followed the Treaty of Bassein of 1802 and ended with separate treaties at Deogaon and Surji-Arjungaon in 1803 and 1804. Option D is wrong because the First Anglo-Sikh War ended with the Treaty of Lahore in 1846.

The correct answer is B, Trombay in Mumbai. The centre began in 1954 as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay and was renamed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in memory of Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the architect of India's atomic programme; the research reactors Apsara, Cirus and Dhruva are all on this campus. Option A, Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, holds the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, which works on the fast breeder reactor line, and it is the commonest confusion with Trombay. Option C, Tarapur in Maharashtra, is the site of India's oldest nuclear power station, not of a research centre. Option D, Indore, is the home of the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, which works on lasers and accelerators. Keep the division clear: Trombay for BARC, Kalpakkam for IGCAR, Indore for accelerator research.

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 A, NH-44, which runs about 3,745 kilometres from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and is the longest National Highway in the country. It was created in the renumbering of 2010 by merging several older highways, including the old NH-1A, NH-1, NH-2, NH-3, NH-75, NH-26 and NH-7, and it passes through about a dozen states and union territories. Option B, NH-27, is the longest east-west highway, running from Porbandar in Gujarat to Silchar in Assam along the East-West Corridor, and it is the second longest overall, which makes it the strongest distractor. Option C, NH-48, is the busy Delhi-Mumbai-Chennai route that replaced the old NH-8. Option D, NH-16, runs along the eastern coast from Kolkata towards Chennai. Remember the numbering rule as well: NH-44 runs north to south and therefore carries an even number, and even numbers increase from the east coast towards the west.

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, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The spaceport lies on an island on the Bay of Bengal coast, chosen because launches to the east pass over the sea and because its nearness to the equator helps eastward launches; it is named after Satish Dhawan, a former chairman of ISRO. Option A, Thiruvananthapuram, houses the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, where launch vehicles are designed, and also the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station used for small sounding rockets, which makes it a strong distractor. Option C, Hassan in Karnataka, holds the Master Control Facility, from which satellites in geostationary orbit are commanded. Option D, Balasore in Odisha, is the missile test range at Chandipur, which belongs to the defence establishment and not to ISRO.

The correct answer is C, South Africa. The king protea is the largest flower of the protea family, which grows in the fynbos vegetation of the Cape, and South Africa's national cricket team takes its name from it. Option A, Australia, is wrong; its floral emblem is the golden wattle, and its animal and bird are the red kangaroo and the emu. Option B, New Zealand, is wrong, and its best-known symbols are the kiwi as national bird and the silver fern as a national emblem. Option D, Kenya, is wrong as well. South Africa is the country with the fullest set of official symbols in these papers, so learn them together: the springbok as animal, the blue crane as bird, the king protea as flower, the yellowwood as tree and the galjoen as national fish.

The correct answer is A, Srinagar and Kanyakumari. NH-44 begins at Srinagar in the Kashmir valley and ends at Kanyakumari at the southern tip of the peninsula, covering about 3,745 kilometres and passing through Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It therefore follows the alignment of the old North-South Corridor of the National Highways Development Project. Option B, Porbandar to Silchar, is the East-West Corridor, carried largely by NH-27, which is the longest east-west highway. Option C, Delhi to Mumbai, is covered by NH-48 on the road and by the new Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Option D, Kolkata to Chennai, is the eastern coastal leg of the Golden Quadrilateral, carried mainly by NH-16. Learn the four corridors and their end points as a set, because the question is usually made by exchanging one pair for another.

The correct answer is C, Kanpur. The Indian Institute of Pulses Research works at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and is one of the institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. It began in 1984 as the Project Directorate on Pulses and was raised to an institute in 1993. Its work is on chickpea, pigeonpea, lentil, mungbean, urdbean and field pea: breeding better varieties, protecting the crop from disease and pests, and advising farmers, which matters because India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world. Option A is wrong because Bhopal has the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering. Option B is wrong because Patna has the ICAR Research Complex for the Eastern Region. Option D is wrong because Hyderabad has the Indian Institute of Rice Research and the Institute of Millets Research. Exam tip: Kanpur pulses, Hyderabad rice and millets, Shimla potato, Lucknow sugarcane.

The correct answer is A, Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. The centre was set up in 1971 and is the country's main laboratory for the second stage of the nuclear programme, in which plutonium from spent fuel is used in fast breeder reactors; the Fast Breeder Test Reactor and the prototype fast breeder project are both at Kalpakkam. Options B, C and D are all nuclear power station sites rather than research centres, which is what makes them plausible: Kaiga in Karnataka and Kakrapar in Gujarat run pressurised heavy water reactors of Indian design, and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu runs light water reactors built with Russian collaboration. The point to carry away is that power stations and research centres are different things, and that Kalpakkam holds both a research centre and the Madras Atomic Power Station.

The correct answer is C, Honours Your Trust. UCO Bank uses this line in its logo and advertising.

UCO Bank was founded in Kolkata in 1943 as the United Commercial Bank, and the industrialist G. D. Birla was behind its creation. It was one of the fourteen banks nationalised in July 1969, took its present name in 1985, and still has its head office in Kolkata. Taglines are a favourite one-mark question because each public sector bank keeps the same line for years.

Option A, 'Good People to bank with', belongs to Union Bank of India. Option B, 'Where every individual is committed', is the line of Bank of India. Option D, 'Faithful And Friendly', is used by Bank of Maharashtra.

Exam tip: UCO Bank - Kolkata, 1943, 'Honours Your Trust'; Union Bank - 'Good People to bank with'.

The correct answer is B, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. The Golden Quadrilateral, the first and best known phase of the National Highways Development Project, is a four-lane and six-lane ring of about 5,846 kilometres joining the four metropolitan cities, and it is the single most asked fact in this chapter. Option A names cities that lie on the western leg of the quadrilateral and on the Delhi-Mumbai route, but they are not the four corners. Option C gives the end points and intermediate cities of the North-South Corridor from Srinagar to Kanyakumari, which is a different project of about 4,076 kilometres. Option D lists cities of the Mumbai-Chennai leg and of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Keep the three NHDP figures in one line of memory: Golden Quadrilateral about 5,846 kilometres, North-South Corridor about 4,076 kilometres and East-West Corridor about 3,640 kilometres from Silchar to Porbandar.

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 B, Pusa in New Delhi. The institute began in 1905 at Pusa in Bihar, and after the Bihar earthquake of 1934 damaged its buildings it was shifted to Delhi, where the campus is still called Pusa; it is the country's leading agricultural research and teaching institute and was central to the Green Revolution. Option A, Karnal in Haryana, is the home of the National Dairy Research Institute and the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute. Option C, Izatnagar near Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, holds the Indian Veterinary Research Institute. Option D, Cuttack in Odisha, holds the national rice research institute. All four belong to the agricultural council, which is why the question is set this way; the Pusa name travelling from Bihar to Delhi is the detail that fixes the answer.

The correct answer is A, ₹2,000. Section 141 of the Electricity Act, 2003 deals with the extinguishing of public lamps and says that whoever maliciously puts out a public lamp shall be punished with a fine which may extend to two thousand rupees. The Act replaced the earlier laws of 1910, 1948 and 1998 and brought the generation, transmission, distribution and trading of electricity under one statute; its neighbouring sections cover offences such as theft of electricity under Section 135 and damage to electrical works. The amount here is a ceiling, so a court may impose less. B is wrong because three thousand rupees is not the limit fixed by this section. C is wrong because the section makes no mention of two thousand five hundred rupees. D is wrong because five thousand rupees is higher than the maximum the section allows. Exam tip: Electricity Act, 2003 - Section 135 theft of electricity, Section 141 extinguishing public lamps with a fine up to ₹2,000.

The correct answer is B, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, about 94.5 kilometres long, opened fully in 2002 and formally named the Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway. It was the first road in India built as a six-lane concrete expressway with fully controlled access, no crossings at grade and no entry for slow-moving traffic, and it crosses the Sahyadri through a series of tunnels and viaducts. Option A, the Yamuna Expressway, is 165 kilometres from Greater Noida to Agra and was opened in 2012, a decade later. Option C, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, is about 96 kilometres and belongs to the last decade. Option D, the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, is 302 kilometres and was opened in 2016. All three are genuine expressways, so the question turns purely on which came first, and the date 2002 settles it. The longest expressway project in the country is the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at 1,386 kilometres.

The correct answer is B, Karnal, in Haryana. The institute is the country's main centre for research and training in dairy science, covering animal breeding, milk production and dairy technology, and it works under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research; Karnal also holds the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute. Option A, Anand in Gujarat, is the strongest distractor, because it is the home of Amul and of the cooperative movement that produced Operation Flood, and it holds the Institute of Rural Management; it is a dairy centre, but not this institute. Option C, Hisar in Haryana, has an agricultural university and a buffalo research centre. Option D, Mysuru in Karnataka, holds the Central Food Technological Research Institute and the Defence Food Research Laboratory, both concerned with food rather than with dairying alone.

The correct answer is B, the Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh. The Atal Tunnel is 9.02 kilometres long, was built by the Border Roads Organisation and was inaugurated on 3 October 2020; it connects Manali with the Lahaul valley on the way to Leh, shortens the journey considerably and keeps the route open through the winter months when the pass above is buried in snow. It is described as the world's longest highway tunnel above an altitude of three thousand metres. Option A, Zoji La, on the Srinagar-Leh road, is where a longer tunnel is being driven that will be among the longest in Asia when complete. Option C, Nathu La, is a pass on the Sikkim border with Tibet and is a trade route, not a tunnel site. Option D, the Banihal Pass, is associated with the Jawahar Tunnel and with the Pir Panjal railway tunnel on the Banihal-Qazigund section.

The correct answer is B, Jodhpur, in Rajasthan. The institute works on dryland farming, sand dune stabilisation, agroforestry and the management of grazing land in the arid west of the country, and it comes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Options A, C and D are all cities of the same desert region, which is what makes the question a test of memory rather than reasoning. Bikaner has an agricultural university and the Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute is at Avikanagar in the Tonk district of the same state, Jaisalmer lies deeper in the Thar but holds no such national institute, and Ajmer sits on the eastern edge of the arid zone. For the exam, pair Jodhpur with arid zone research and Avikanagar with sheep and wool research, both in Rajasthan.