Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 39

The correct answer is B, Izatnagar in Uttar Pradesh. The institute, which lies at Izatnagar near Bareilly, is the country's premier centre for veterinary research and teaching, covering animal diseases, vaccines and livestock production, and it has a second campus at Mukteswar in the Nainital district. Option A, Hisar in Haryana, holds a well known agricultural university and the central buffalo research institute, which is why it is offered here. Option C, Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, has a veterinary university but not this national institute. Option D, Ludhiana in Punjab, has an agricultural university famous for its part in the Green Revolution. The chain worth memorising for animal sciences is Izatnagar for veterinary research, Karnal for dairy research and Avikanagar in Rajasthan for sheep and wool.

The correct answer is B, Thailand. The kingdom was called Siam until 1939, when it took the name Thailand, understood as the land of the free, a name that fits the fact that it is the one country of South-East Asia never ruled by a European power. Option A is wrong because Myanmar was called Burma until 1989, and its own earlier capital Rangoon became Yangon at the same time. Option C is wrong because Vietnam formed part of French Indochina, and it is its southern city Saigon that was renamed, becoming Ho Chi Minh City in 1976. Option D is wrong because Cambodia was known as Kampuchea for a period and in older history as Kambuja, the land of the Khmer kings who built Angkor Wat. Learning the four South-East Asian changes as one group, Siam, Burma, Kampuchea and Saigon, keeps them apart in the examination hall.

The correct answer is B, Uttar Pradesh. The Purvanchal Expressway runs about 340.8 kilometres from the Lucknow area to Ghazipur in the eastern part of the state and includes a runway stretch on which air force aircraft can land in an emergency, a feature that made it a favourite with question setters. Uttar Pradesh has the largest network of expressways among the states, including the Yamuna Expressway of 165 kilometres, the Agra-Lucknow Expressway of 302 kilometres, the Bundelkhand Expressway of 296 kilometres and the Ganga Expressway of 594 kilometres from Meerut to Prayagraj. Option A, Bihar, is crossed by National Highways but not by this expressway. Option C, Madhya Pradesh, carries a long stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Option D, Maharashtra, has the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and the 701-kilometre Samruddhi Mahamarg from Mumbai to Nagpur. Match each expressway to its state before the exam, since that is the usual form of the question.

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 A, Canara Bank. Canara Bank, founded at Mangaluru in 1906 by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, uses Together We Can, and the line is easy to fix in memory because the last word repeats the bank's own name. Option B is wrong because Corporation Bank, which was merged into Union Bank of India, had used Prosperity for All. Option C is wrong because Union Bank of India uses Good People to Bank With, a line often swapped with Indian Overseas Bank's Good People to Grow With. Option D is wrong because Central Bank of India uses Central to You Since 1911, the year it was founded in Mumbai by Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala as the first Indian commercial bank wholly owned and managed by Indians. Learn such lines in groups of look-alikes, since that is how distractors are built.

The correct answer is B, the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. The Indus Waters Treaty was signed at Karachi in 1960 by Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ayub Khan, with the World Bank as the third party to the agreement. It divided the six rivers of the Indus system: the three eastern rivers, the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej, were allotted to India, and the three western rivers, the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum, to Pakistan, with India allowed limited non-consumptive, domestic and run-of-the-river use of the western rivers. Options A, C and D are wrong because each mixes the two groups: A names exactly the three western rivers that went to Pakistan, while C and D each place one western river, the Chenab and the Jhelum respectively, in India's share.

The correct answer is B, Ghana. The British colony of the Gold Coast, named for the gold traded from its shore, became independent in 1957 under the name Ghana, which was taken from a medieval West African empire, and it was the first colony of sub-Saharan Africa to win its freedom. Option A is wrong because Nigeria kept its name, which comes from the river Niger, when it became independent in 1960. Option C is wrong because Ivory Coast, which prefers the French form Côte d'Ivoire, has carried that name throughout and is a different country altogether. Option D is wrong because Sierra Leone, the land of the lion mountains, also kept its older name. In this group the renamed countries are the Gold Coast to Ghana, Nyasaland to Malawi, Bechuanaland to Botswana and Basutoland to Lesotho.

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 B, Nagpur. The Samruddhi Mahamarg, formally named after Balasaheb Thackeray, is an access-controlled expressway of about 701 kilometres built entirely within Maharashtra, joining Mumbai with Nagpur across the state and passing near several district headquarters of Marathwada and Vidarbha, which is why it is presented as a corridor of economic development rather than only a road. Option A, Pune, is connected to Mumbai by the older and much shorter Mumbai-Pune Expressway of about 94.5 kilometres, opened in 2002 as India's first access-controlled expressway, and that is the pairing most often confused with this one. Option C, Surat, lies on the Mumbai-Delhi route served by NH-48 and the new Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, and it is in Gujarat, not Maharashtra. Option D, Hyderabad, is linked to Mumbai by National Highway and lies in Telangana. Note that this expressway lies wholly within one state.

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 B, Union Bank of India. Union Bank of India, which was inaugurated at Mumbai in 1919 by Mahatma Gandhi, uses Good People to Bank With. Option A is wrong, and it is the whole point of the question: Indian Overseas Bank uses the almost identical Good People to Grow With, so the two must be learnt as a pair, with bank for Union Bank and grow for Indian Overseas Bank. Option C is wrong because Bank of Maharashtra uses One Family One Bank. Option D is wrong because Indian Bank uses Your Own Bank. Questions of this kind reward candidates who revise by similarity rather than alphabetically, because a paper setter will never place four unrelated lines in one question when two near-identical ones are available.

The correct answer is C, Mohammad Ali Jauhar. Mohammad Ali Jauhar founded the English weekly Comrade at Calcutta in 1911 and shifted it to Delhi, and he started the Urdu daily Hamdard in 1913; he was later a leader of the Khilafat movement and president of the Congress at its Coconada session in 1923. Option A is wrong because Motilal Nehru founded The Independent at Allahabad in 1919. Option B is wrong because Pherozeshah Mehta founded the Bombay Chronicle in 1913, which B. G. Horniman edited and for whose reporting of Jallianwala Bagh Horniman was deported. Option D is wrong because Aurobindo Ghosh edited Bande Mataram, the English daily founded by Bipin Chandra Pal in 1906, and also wrote for Karmayogin. Comrade is also remembered for the article Choice of the Turks, which led to the paper being penalised and its editor interned.

The correct answer is B, Burkina Faso, which was called Upper Volta after the branches of the river Volta that cross it and took its present name in 1984; the new name is drawn from two of its own languages and is read as the land of upright people. Option A is wrong, and it is the usual trap, because Benin is the new name of Dahomey, which was renamed in 1975, so the two West African pairs are offered against each other. Option C is wrong because Mali was French Sudan before independence, which is a different old name worth remembering separately. Option D is wrong because Niger has kept its name, which it shares with the river and with Nigeria. The safe way to hold this group is as three lines: Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, Dahomey to Benin and French Sudan to Mali.

The correct answer is B, Canada. The beaver was given official standing as a symbol of Canada because the fur trade in beaver pelts drove the early European exploration and settlement of the country, and the animal appears on the five-cent coin. Option A, Norway, is wrong, and the dipper is its national bird. Option C, Switzerland, is wrong; it has no national animal of this kind, but it is worth remembering that Switzerland and Vatican City are the only two states with square national flags. Option D, Sweden, is wrong as well. Canada's other symbols are the maple leaf, which the flag carries at its centre, and the maple as the national tree, while the Canadian horse also holds statutory recognition as a national symbol.

The correct answer is A, Bank of India. Bank of India, founded at Mumbai in 1906 by a group of businessmen and nationalised in 1969, uses Relationships Beyond Banking. Option B is wrong because Bank of Baroda uses India's International Bank, and the pair Bank of India against Bank of Baroda is one of the most frequently set confusions in this chapter. Option C is wrong because HDFC Bank uses We Understand Your World. Option D is wrong because Federal Bank, a private bank based at Aluva in Kerala, uses Your Perfect Banking Partner. A useful memory hook is that the word relationship carries the sense of a bank that does more than take deposits, which is how Bank of India has positioned itself since the line was adopted.

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, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Northern Rhodesia became Zambia on independence in 1964 and Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980, the new name being taken from the stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe. Option A is wrong because it reverses the pair, which is exactly the error the question is built to catch; the way to keep it straight is that the northern country took the shorter name. Option C is wrong because Malawi was Nyasaland, the third territory of the old federation, and not a Rhodesia at all. Option D is wrong because Namibia was South West Africa until 1990 and Botswana was Bechuanaland until 1966, which belong to a different group of changes. The three territories of the Central African Federation, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, are best learnt as one line.

The correct answer is B, Tata Steel. Tata Steel, set up at Jamshedpur in 1907 as Tata Iron and Steel Company, used the line We Also Make Steel to say that besides steel it had built a town, schools, hospitals and institutions, so the product was only part of the story. The campaign is a standard example of corporate advertising in Indian general knowledge. Option A is wrong because the Steel Authority of India Limited, the public sector producer formed in 1973, uses There's a Little Bit of SAIL in Everybody's Life. Option C is wrong because JSW Steel belongs to the JSW group and uses different lines for its businesses. Option D is wrong because Jindal Steel and Power is a separate company of the Jindal family. The reversed boast is what makes the Tata line memorable.

The correct answer is A, Eswatini. The small southern African monarchy announced the change in 2018 on the fiftieth anniversary of its independence, the new name meaning the land of the Swazi in the Swati language, and it is now listed at the United Nations as the Kingdom of Eswatini. Option B is wrong because Lesotho, the other landlocked kingdom of the region, was formerly Basutoland and was renamed on independence in 1966. Option C is wrong because Eritrea separated from Ethiopia in 1993 and did not change its own name. Option D is wrong because Botswana was Bechuanaland until 1966. The two recent changes most often asked together are Swaziland to Eswatini in 2018 and Macedonia to North Macedonia in 2019, the second made under an agreement with Greece over the use of the name. Eswatini is also one of the few absolute monarchies left in the world, which is a separate fact papers like to attach to it.

The correct answer is B, Amul. Amul, the brand of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation born out of the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union at Anand, uses The Taste of India. Amul is also the brand behind Operation Flood and the White Revolution led by Verghese Kurien, which is why it appears in general knowledge papers in more than one chapter. Option A is wrong because Britannia uses Eat Healthy, Think Better. Option C is wrong because Mother Dairy, set up under the National Dairy Development Board, is a separate brand with its own lines. Option D is wrong because Haldiram's is a snack and sweets company with no such tagline. The Amul girl hoardings, running since 1966, make this the best known advertising line in India.