Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 8

The correct answer is D, Elephant. The Indian elephant, Elephas maximus indicus, was declared the National Heritage Animal in 2010 on the recommendation of the Elephant Task Force, so that its protection could be given the same weight as that of the tiger. The step went with Project Elephant, which works on elephant corridors and on reducing conflict between elephants and people.

Option A, the lion, was the National Animal of India until 1972 and survives in the wild only in the Gir forest of Gujarat, but it holds no heritage animal status. Option B, the horse, is not a national symbol at all, although a horse appears on the abacus of the State Emblem. Option C, the tiger, is the National Animal of India, adopted in 1972, and the distinction between National Animal and National Heritage Animal is exactly what this question tests.

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 C, Jammu and Kashmir. The hangul or Kashmir stag is the only Asiatic subspecies of the red deer found in India, and it survives mainly in the Dachigam National Park near Srinagar. Its small and shrinking population is the reason it was chosen as the state animal, and it is listed in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act.

Option A, Himachal Pradesh, has the snow leopard as its state animal and the western tragopan, called jujurana, as its state bird. Option B, Uttarakhand, has the alpine musk deer as its state animal and the Himalayan monal as its state bird. Option D, Sikkim, has the red panda as its state animal and the blood pheasant as its state bird. All four are Himalayan states, so the examiner relies on the candidate knowing the exact pair rather than the region.

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 C, New Delhi and Varanasi Junction. The first Vande Bharat Express was flagged off on 15 February 2019 on the New Delhi to Varanasi route. It was built at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai and was known as Train 18 while under development. The train is India's first indigenous semi high-speed train set: it has no separate engine, as motors are spread under the coaches, which lets it pick up speed quickly, and it is designed for 160 kilometres an hour. The second Vande Bharat, started later in 2019, runs from New Delhi to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra. Option A is wrong because the Howrah to Puri service is one of the many later Vande Bharat trains. Option B is wrong because Mumbai Central to Ahmedabad is the bullet train corridor under construction and got its Vande Bharat only in 2022. Option D is wrong because Hazrat Nizamuddin to Jhansi is the route of the Gatimaan Express. Exam tip: Train 18, ICF Chennai, 15 February 2019.

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, 22 July 1947. The Constituent Assembly adopted the tricolour on that day, a few weeks before independence, after a committee under Dr Rajendra Prasad settled the design. The Congress flag was taken as the base, the spinning wheel at the centre was replaced by the navy blue Ashoka Chakra of twenty four spokes, and the ratio was fixed at two to three.

Option B, 15 August 1947, is the day the flag was first hoisted over an independent India, not the day it was adopted. Option C, 26 November 1949, is the day the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution, which is observed as Constitution Day. Option D, 26 January 1950, is the day the Constitution came into force and the day the State Emblem and the National Anthem were adopted, which is why it is the commonest wrong choice here.

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 B, Manipur. The sangai or Manipur brow-antlered deer is found only on the floating phumdi vegetation of Keibul Lamjao National Park in the southern part of Loktak Lake, the only floating national park in the world. It is called the dancing deer from the way it steps on the spongy phumdi, and it is the state animal of Manipur.

Option A, Assam, has the one-horned rhinoceros of Kaziranga as its state animal. Option C, Mizoram, has the serow, a goat antelope of steep hill forests. Option D, Nagaland, has the mithun, a semi-domesticated bovine that is also central to Naga social custom and is the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh as well. Linking the sangai to Loktak and Keibul Lamjao makes this pair hard to forget.

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, two to three. The Flag Code of India fixes the shape of the National Flag as a rectangle whose width stands to its length as two to three, so a flag six hundred millimetres in length is four hundred millimetres in height. The three bands of deep saffron, white and dark green are of equal depth, and the navy blue Ashoka Chakra of twenty four spokes is placed at the centre of the white band with its diameter roughly equal to the depth of that band.

Options A, C and D are the ratios of other national flags and of ordinary printed sizes, and they are offered because candidates remember that the flag is a rectangle but not the fixed proportion. Note also that the flag is traditionally woven from hand spun khadi and is made to a Bureau of Indian Standards specification.

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 C, Rajasthan. The Great Indian Bustard, known in Rajasthan as the godawan, is one of the heaviest flying birds in the world and one of the most threatened. Its stronghold is the Desert National Park near Jaisalmer, and the state runs a captive breeding programme for it, which is why it was adopted as the state bird.

Option A, Gujarat, has the greater flamingo as its state bird, associated with the Rann of Kutch and Flamingo City. Option B, Maharashtra, has the hariyal or green imperial pigeon. Option D, Karnataka, has the Indian roller, which is also the state bird of Odisha and of Telangana, where it is called palapitta. Bustards do occur in small numbers in Gujarat and Maharashtra, which is what makes option A and option B tempting.

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, Mundaka Upanishad. Satyameva Jayate, meaning truth alone triumphs, comes from a verse of the Mundaka Upanishad, which belongs to the Atharva Veda. It is written in Devanagari script below the abacus of the State Emblem, and it was Madan Mohan Malaviya who is credited with bringing the phrase into national use.

Option A, the Rigveda, is the oldest of the Vedas and the source of the Gayatri Mantra, but not of this motto. Option B, the Bhagavad Gita, is part of the Mahabharata and is the source of many quoted verses, which makes it a plausible guess. Option D, the Arthashastra of Kautilya, is a treatise on statecraft and economy, and is associated with the Mauryas, whose Lion Capital the emblem is drawn from, so it is placed here as a trap of association.

The correct answer is B, Minsk. Minsk is the capital and largest city of Belarus, a landlocked country of Eastern Europe that shares borders with Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Belarus became independent when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, its currency is the Belarusian rouble, and Minsk also houses the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The city gave its name to the Minsk agreements on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which is why it appears in the news. A is wrong because Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan, a port on the Caspian Sea. C is wrong because Moroni is the capital of Comoros, an island country off the eastern coast of Africa. D is wrong because Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the seat of the European Union and NATO. Exam tip: Belarus - Minsk; Belgium - Brussels; Azerbaijan - Baku; Comoros - Moroni. The similar-sounding country names are the trap here.

The correct answer is B, Tamil Nadu. The Nilgiri tahr, a stocky wild goat of the high grasslands and cliffs of the Western Ghats, is the state animal of Tamil Nadu. Its largest population is in the Eravikulam and Mukurthi areas of the Nilgiri and Anamalai hills, and the adult male, dark with a pale saddle, is called the saddleback.

Option A, Kerala, has the Indian elephant as its state animal and the great hornbill as its state bird, although the tahr is found in Kerala as well, which makes this the strongest distractor. Option C, Karnataka, has the Indian elephant as its state animal and sandalwood as its state tree. Option D, Andhra Pradesh, has the blackbuck as its state animal. Remember that a species found in several states can be the official symbol of only the state that declared it.

The correct answer is A, Calcutta. Rabindranath Tagore's Bengali song was sung for the first time at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress on 27 December 1911. Its first stanza was adopted as the National Anthem by the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950, the full version takes about fifty two seconds to play, and Tagore himself translated it into English as The Morning Song of India.

Option B, Bombay, hosted the first session of the Congress in 1885 and the Quit India resolution of 1942, but not this event. Option C, Lahore, hosted the 1929 session where Purna Swaraj was declared and the tricolour was unfurled on the bank of the Ravi. Option D, Nagpur, hosted the 1920 session that adopted the non cooperation programme. Vande Mataram, by contrast, was first sung at the 1896 Calcutta session.

The correct answer is B, Jodhpur. Jodhpur in Rajasthan is called the Blue City because the old town below the Mehrangarh fort is painted in indigo washed blue, a habit that began with the houses of Brahmin families and spread through the lanes. Jodhpur is also called the Sun City for its long, bright, dry days.

Option A, Jaipur, is the Pink City, named from the terracotta pink wash given to the walled city in 1876 for the visit of the Prince of Wales. Option C, Jaisalmer, is the Golden City, after the yellow sandstone of its fort and havelis rising out of the desert. Option D, Udaipur, is the City of Lakes, built around Lake Pichola and Fateh Sagar. All four are Rajasthan cities, so the question is settled only by knowing the colour attached to each.

The correct answer is B, Anandamath. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee composed Vande Mataram in Sanskritised Bengali and later placed it in his novel Anandamath, published in 1882, where the ascetic rebels sing it. The song was first sung at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress, and in January 1950 it was given a status equal to that of the National Anthem.

Option A, Gora, is a novel by Rabindranath Tagore and is offered because Tagore wrote the anthem. Option C, Durgeshnandini, is indeed by Bankim Chandra and is his first Bengali novel, which makes it the strongest distractor, but it does not carry the song. Option D, Godan, is a Hindi novel by Munshi Premchand about a peasant and is unrelated to this topic.