Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 7

The correct answer is B, Indonesia. President Sukarno of Indonesia was the chief guest at India's first Republic Day on 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force. Inviting him fitted Nehru's outreach to newly free Asian nations; India had backed Indonesia's freedom struggle against the Dutch, and both countries later helped found the Non-Aligned Movement after the Bandung Conference of 1955. Option A is wrong because Bhutan's King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck was a Republic Day chief guest later, in 1954, and Bhutan is a monarchy, so it has a king and not a president. Option C is wrong because no Chinese head of state has ever been the chief guest at the parade. Option D is wrong because Japan has an emperor as head of state; its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was chief guest in 2014. Exam tip: first Republic Day 26 January 1950, first chief guest President Sukarno of Indonesia.

The correct answer is C, Anti-lock braking system. ABS stands for anti-lock braking system, a safety device that keeps the wheels from locking during hard braking. Sensors at the wheels watch how fast each one is turning, and when a wheel is about to stop turning the control unit releases and applies the brake pressure many times a second. Because the wheels keep rolling, the tyres hold their grip on the road, so the driver can still steer while braking hard and the vehicle usually stops in a shorter distance. A locked wheel simply skids and goes wherever it was already going. ABS is now required by law on cars and on larger two-wheelers in India. Option A is wrong because 'avoid brake system' is not a term used for any vehicle part. Option B is wrong because 'actual brake system' has no meaning in engineering. Option D is wrong because an automatic braking system is a different feature in which the vehicle applies the brakes by itself to avoid a crash. Exam tip: ABS prevents wheel lock and keeps steering control; it does not replace the brakes.

The correct answer is D, Nepal. After India, Nepal has both the largest number of Hindus and the largest Hindu share of any country, with roughly four out of five Nepalis following the faith. Nepal was the world's only officially Hindu kingdom until 2007-08, when the interim constitution and then the new republic declared it a secular federal state. Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu and Janakpur, linked in tradition with Sita, are among its best known Hindu centres. Option A is wrong because Bhutan is a small country whose state religion is Vajrayana Buddhism, with Hindus a minority of Nepali origin. Option B is wrong because Sri Lanka is Buddhist-majority and its Hindus, mostly Tamils, form a far smaller community than Nepal's. Option C is wrong because Myanmar is also Buddhist-majority, with only a small Hindu population of Indian descent. Exam tip: remember Nepal as the Hindu-majority neighbour and Bhutan as the Buddhist one.

The correct answer is B, Cambodia. Angkor Wat stands near Siem Reap in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world. It was built in the early twelfth century by King Suryavarman II of the Khmer empire as a temple of Vishnu, and it later became a Buddhist place of worship. The temple faces west, is ringed by a wide moat, and its towers are shaped like lotus buds; UNESCO put the whole Angkor complex on the World Heritage list in 1992. Angkor Wat also appears on the national flag of Cambodia, which is the only national flag in the world that carries a building. Option A is wrong because Vietnam is known for Ha Long Bay and the My Son Cham temples. Option C is wrong because Thailand's best known temple is Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok. Option D is wrong because the Philippines is known for its rice terraces and baroque churches. Exam tip: Angkor Wat, Cambodia, built by Suryavarman II and shown on that country's flag.

The correct answer is C, 26 January 1950. The State Emblem of India was adopted on the day the Constitution came into force and the country became a Republic. It is adapted from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, with three of the four lions visible, a Dharma Chakra on the abacus flanked by a bull and a horse, and the motto Satyameva Jayate from the Mundaka Upanishad below it in Devanagari script.

Option A, 15 August 1947, is Independence Day and is the date candidates most often pick by mistake. Option B, 26 January 1959, is the right day of the year but the wrong year and is placed there to punish careless reading. Option D, 15 August 1952, matches neither event. Keep the pair apart: the National Flag was adopted on 22 July 1947 by the Constituent Assembly, while the emblem and the National Anthem belong to January 1950.

The correct answer is A, The Hague. The International Court of Justice sits in the Peace Palace at The Hague in the Netherlands. The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, set up in 1945 by the UN Charter, and it settles legal disputes between countries and gives advisory opinions to UN bodies. It has 15 judges elected for nine-year terms by the General Assembly and the Security Council, and it is the only one of the six principal UN organs that is not based in New York. Justice Dalveer Bhandari of India is one of its judges. B is wrong because Paris hosts UNESCO, not the court. C is wrong because Washington D.C. is home to the IMF and the World Bank. D is wrong because New York houses the UN headquarters, the General Assembly and the Security Council. Exam tip: ICJ at The Hague, UNESCO in Paris, IMF and World Bank in Washington, UN headquarters in New York.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. The chinkara, also called the Indian gazelle, is the state animal of Rajasthan. It is a small antelope of dry scrub and desert that can survive long spells without drinking, which suits the Thar, and the Bishnoi community of western Rajasthan has protected it for centuries. Rajasthan later added the camel as its state animal in the domestic category, so the chinkara is the wild state animal.

Option B, Madhya Pradesh, has the barasingha or swamp deer as its state animal. Option C, Haryana, has the blackbuck, an antelope often confused with the chinkara but larger, with spiral horns and a dark coat in the male. Option D, Gujarat, has the Asiatic lion of the Gir forest, the only wild lion population in Asia. Pairing the animal with the landscape is the quickest way to get such questions right.

The correct answer is B, Vairengte. The Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, known as CIJWS, is at Vairengte in the Kolasib district of Mizoram, close to the Assam border. It trains Indian soldiers in fighting insurgents and in surviving and operating in dense jungle, and its motto is Fight a Guerrilla like a Guerrilla. Soldiers from many friendly foreign armies, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have also trained here, and every army unit going for counter-insurgency duty passes through its courses. A, Dehradun, has the Indian Military Academy, which trains officers before commissioning. C, Gulmarg, in Jammu and Kashmir, has the High Altitude Warfare School, which trains for mountain and snow warfare. D, Mhow, in Madhya Pradesh, has the Infantry School, the Army War College and the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering. Exam tip: jungle warfare at Vairengte in Mizoram, high altitude warfare at Gulmarg, infantry at Mhow, officers at IMA Dehradun and NDA Khadakwasla.

The correct answer is B, Shri Krishna Sinha. Shri Krishna Sinha, affectionately called Shri Babu, is remembered as Bihar Kesari, the lion of Bihar. He was the first Premier of Bihar under the 1937 provincial elections and then the first Chief Minister of the state after independence, holding office until 1961. He led the Barahiya Tal satyagraha against illegal levies, joined the salt satyagraha, and made Bihar the first state in India to abolish the zamindari system in 1950. He also worked with Dr Rajendra Prasad to have the Deoghar temple opened to Dalits. Option A is wrong because Rajendra Prasad, independent India's first President, is called Desh Ratna and Bihar Vibhuti. Option C is wrong because Karpoori Thakur is remembered as Jannayak, the people's leader. Option D is wrong because Lala Lajpat Rai was Punjab Kesari and Sher-e-Punjab. Exam tip: Punjab Kesari is Lajpat Rai, Bihar Kesari is Shri Krishna Sinha, Andhra Kesari is T. Prakasam.

The correct answer is B, Insat-1B. It was the first working satellite of the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system, carried to orbit by the US Space Shuttle Challenger in August 1983. INSAT-1B was a multipurpose satellite: its transponders gave national television coverage, telephone links and weather pictures from one spot in geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the equator. It made nationwide Doordarshan broadcasts possible and began the INSAT series that still serves communication and meteorology. Its predecessor INSAT-1A, launched in 1982, failed early, which is why 1B is remembered as the real start. A is wrong because Bhaskara-I, launched in 1979 on a Soviet rocket, was an experimental earth-observation satellite, not a geostationary broadcaster. C is wrong because GSAT-7, launched in 2013, is the Indian Navy's dedicated communication satellite, often called Rukmini. D is wrong because RISAT-1, launched in 2012 on a PSLV, is a radar imaging satellite for earth observation. Exam tip: INSAT = communication and weather in geostationary orbit; Bhaskara and RISAT = observing the earth.

The correct answer is D, Hubli. The South Western Railway zone has its headquarters at Hubballi, still widely written as Hubli, in Karnataka. The zone was carved out of the Southern and South Central Railways and began work on 1 April 2003; it runs the Hubballi, Bengaluru and Mysuru divisions and covers most of Karnataka with a little of Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Option A is wrong because Chennai is the headquarters of Southern Railway, the first zone of independent India, formed in 1951. Option B is wrong because Secunderabad is the headquarters of South Central Railway. Option C is wrong because Kolkata is the headquarters of Eastern Railway and of Metro Railway, while South Eastern Railway sits at Garden Reach in the same city. Indian Railways is managed by the Railway Board, and the first train in India ran from Bori Bunder to Thane on 16 April 1853. Exam tip: Hubballi South Western, Jabalpur West Central, Bilaspur South East Central, Hajipur East Central, Bhubaneswar East Coast.

The correct answer is B, Bogibeel. The Bogibeel bridge crosses the Brahmaputra near Dibrugarh in Assam and links the south bank to the north bank on the way to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. It was opened on 25 December 2018 and is India's longest rail and road bridge, about 4.94 km long, with a double line railway track below and a three-lane road above. Built to withstand earthquakes, it cuts the journey between Dibrugarh and the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh by several hours and also serves the armed forces near the border. Option A is wrong because the Naini or New Yamuna bridge is a cable-stayed bridge at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. Option C is wrong because the Coronation bridge spans the Teesta near Siliguri in West Bengal. Option D is wrong because the Pamban bridge joins Rameswaram island to the Tamil Nadu mainland. Exam tip: Bogibeel is the longest rail and road bridge, while Dhola-Sadiya, also called Bhupen Hazarika Setu, is the longest road bridge.

The correct answer is B, 2004. The committee on civil services reforms under P. C. Hota, a former Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission, was set up in 2004 and gave its report the same year. It looked at how officers are recruited, trained, posted and promoted, and suggested a fixed minimum tenure in a post, a sounder system of performance appraisal, mid-career training with examinations, and lateral entry of specialists for jobs needing domain knowledge. Many of its ideas later fed into the work of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission set up in 2005 under Veerappa Moily. Option A is wrong because 2003 saw no such committee. Option C is wrong because 2005 is the year of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission and of the Right to Information Act. Option D is wrong because by 2006 the Hota report was already being examined. Exam tip: Hota Committee 2004 on civil services reform; Second ARC 2005 under Veerappa Moily.

The correct answer is A, Kolkata. Kolkata earned the name City of Palaces in the colonial era for the grand mansions built by British officials and rich Bengali families along its main streets. It was the capital of British India until 1911, when the capital moved to Delhi, and many of those buildings still stand, from the Victoria Memorial to the Marble Palace and the Writers Building. The city also carries the names City of Joy and the cultural capital of India, and it was the first city in India to get a metro railway, in 1984. B is wrong because Hyderabad is the City of Pearls and the City of Nizams. C is wrong because Mumbai is known as the Gateway of India, the City of Seven Islands and the financial capital of India. D is wrong because Chennai is called the Gateway of South India and the Detroit of India for its car industry. Exam tip: Kolkata = City of Palaces and City of Joy; Hyderabad = City of Pearls; Jaipur = Pink City; Udaipur = City of Lakes.

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 C, China. SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, has eight members — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. China is not one of them; it holds only observer status, as do Japan, the United States, the European Union, South Korea, Iran, Mauritius, Myanmar and Australia. SAARC was set up by the Dhaka Declaration of 8 December 1985 with seven members, and its secretariat is at Kathmandu in Nepal. Option A is wrong because Nepal is a founding member and hosts the secretariat. Option B is wrong because the Maldives is also one of the seven founders. Option D is wrong because Afghanistan is a full member, admitted as the eighth at the Delhi summit of 2007. Exam tip: the seven founders are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives; Afghanistan is the eighth member and China is only an observer.

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, 1961. The Dowry Prohibition Act was passed in 1961 and came into force on 1 July that year.

The Act makes the giving, taking or demanding of dowry a punishable offence, and defines dowry as property or valuable security given in connection with a marriage. It was strengthened by amendments in 1984 and 1986, which fixed a minimum punishment and provided for Dowry Prohibition Officers. Around the same years criminal law added cruelty to a wife as an offence and made a death within seven years of marriage in suspicious circumstances a dowry death, with the burden of explanation on the husband's family.

A is wrong: no dowry law was passed in 1967. C is wrong: 1952 saw no such legislation. D is wrong: 1959 is when the bill was under discussion, but the Act carries the year 1961.

Exam tip: Dowry Prohibition Act - 1961, in force 1 July 1961, amended in 1984 and 1986.

The correct answer is C, Mrs. Sucheta Kripalani. Sucheta Kripalani became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 2 October 1963 and held the office till 1967, which made her the first woman to head any state government in India. She had taken part in the Quit India Movement, sang Vande Mataram in the Constituent Assembly on the eve of independence, and was a member of the sub-committee that worked on the Constitution. She was married to the Congress leader Acharya J. B. Kripalani. Option A is wrong because Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first woman judge of the Supreme Court, in 1989. Option B is wrong because Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the first woman President of the United Nations General Assembly and a governor, not a chief minister. Option D is wrong because Durba Banerjee was India’s first woman commercial pilot. Exam tip: Sucheta Kripalani first woman CM, Uttar Pradesh, 1963; Pratibha Patil first woman President, 2007.

The correct answer is B, Majuli Island. Majuli, lying in the Brahmaputra in Assam, is the largest river island in the world. It was made India's first island district in 2016 and is the heart of Assamese Vaishnavite culture: Srimanta Sankardeva and his disciple Madhavdeva set up satras, or monastic centres, there, and the Raas Mahotsav is its best known festival. The island has been shrinking for decades as the Brahmaputra eats into its banks, which is why it is often in the news for erosion control. Option A is wrong because Srirangam, a river island on the Kaveri in Tamil Nadu famous for the Ranganathaswamy temple, is much smaller. Option C is wrong because Bhavani Island lies in the Krishna near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. Option D is wrong because Agatti is a coral island of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea and not a river island at all. Exam tip: Majuli, on the Brahmaputra in Assam, is the largest river island and India's first island district.