Static GK Mixed Quiz: Set 9

The correct answer is A, Gangetic dolphin. Platanista gangetica, the South Asian river dolphin of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna systems, was notified as the National Aquatic Animal in 2009. It is nearly blind and hunts by echolocation, it surfaces to breathe, and it is treated as an indicator of the health of the river, which is why the declaration came alongside the work on the Ganga.

Option B, the olive ridley turtle, nests in huge numbers at Gahirmatha in Odisha and is protected, but it holds no such title. Option C, the mahseer, is a large freshwater game fish of Himalayan rivers and is threatened, not a national symbol. Option D, the dugong, is a marine mammal of the Gulf of Mannar and the Andaman waters, and is sometimes confused with the dolphin because both are protected aquatic mammals.

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, Coimbatore. Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, on the Noyyal river near the Palakkad gap, grew into a centre of cotton spinning and textile machinery, and the concentration of mills earned it the name Manchester of South India. Its engineering workshops and pump industry grew out of the same mill economy.

Option A, Chennai, is the Detroit of India for the vehicle plants around it. Option B, Madurai, is the temple city of the Meenakshi temple and is called the city that never sleeps and the Athens of the East. Option D, Kochi, is the Queen of the Arabian Sea, a port name. Ahmedabad in Gujarat, not any of these, is the Manchester of India, and telling the two Manchesters apart is the point of this question.

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 B, Chaitra. The Saka calendar was adopted as the National Calendar with effect from 22 March 1957, which was the first of Chaitra in the Saka year 1879. It is used along with the Gregorian calendar for the Gazette of India, for news broadcasts of All India Radio and for government communications addressed to the public. Chaitra normally begins on 22 March and on 21 March in a leap year.

Option A, Vaisakha, is the second month of the Saka calendar and the month of Buddha Purnima and Baisakhi, so it is a natural wrong choice. Option C, Magha, falls in the winter and carries Magha Purnima and Vasant Panchami. Option D, Kartika, falls around Diwali and is the eighth month. Only Chaitra opens the year.

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, Kochi. Kochi in Kerala has been the leading natural harbour of the Malabar coast since the fifteenth century, when a flood opened the Kochi inlet, and Portuguese, Dutch and English traders each made it their base. The trade in pepper, ginger and other spices through this port gave it the title Queen of the Arabian Sea.

Option A, Mumbai, is the Gateway of India and the City of Seven Islands. Option C, Mangaluru in Karnataka, is a busy port on the same coast but carries no such title. Option D, Panaji in Goa, is on the Mandovi and is known with the rest of Goa as the Pearl of the Orient. Nearby Alappuzha, also in Kerala, is the Venice of the East for its canals, and these two Kerala nicknames are frequently interchanged in question papers.

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 C, D. Udaya Kumar. His design won a public competition and the Union Cabinet approved it on 15 July 2010. The sign joins the Devanagari letter ra to the Latin capital R without its vertical stroke, and the two parallel horizontal lines at the top stand both for the bands of the tricolour and for the equals sign, suggesting a balanced economy. He was then a doctoral student of design at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Option A, Pingali Venkayya, proposed the flag design from which the National Flag developed. Option B, Nandalal Bose, of the Bengal School, decorated the pages of the Constitution of India. Option D, Deenanath Bhargava, was the artist who drew the State Emblem for the Constitution under Nandalal Bose's guidance. All three belong to national symbols, which is why they are grouped here.

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 C, Rajasthan. The khejri, Prosopis cineraria, is the state tree of Rajasthan and the lifeline of the desert: it fixes nitrogen, its pods called sangri are eaten, its leaves feed livestock and it gives shade without drawing much water. The Khejarli massacre of 1730, when Bishnoi villagers led by Amrita Devi died protecting these trees from the Maharaja's men, is the episode every paper connects with it.

Option A, Gujarat, has the banyan as its state tree. Option B, Punjab, has the shisham, prized for furniture timber. Option D, Haryana, has the peepal. The khejri also grows across Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana, and is called jhand or jandi there, so the examiner is testing the official declaration rather than the range of the species.

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 A, Pingali Venkayya. He was a freedom fighter from the Machilipatnam region of present day Andhra Pradesh who studied flags for years and presented a design to Mahatma Gandhi at Vijayawada in 1921. The Congress flag that grew out of it carried a spinning wheel; when the Constituent Assembly adopted the National Flag on 22 July 1947, the spinning wheel was replaced by the Ashoka Chakra of twenty four spokes.

Option B, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, wrote Vande Mataram, the National Song. Option C, Rabindranath Tagore, wrote Jana Gana Mana, the National Anthem, and is the commonest wrong answer because both men are linked to national symbols. Option D, Sarojini Naidu, was a poet and Congress president and the first woman Governor of an Indian state, but she had no part in the flag's design.

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 B, Sikkim. The red panda, a small russet mammal of temperate bamboo forest in the eastern Himalaya, is the state animal of Sikkim, and the Singalila and Neora Valley belt is its Indian habitat. The state bird of Sikkim is the blood pheasant, its state tree the rhododendron and its state flower the noble dendrobium orchid.

Option A, Arunachal Pradesh, has the mithun as its state animal and the great hornbill as its state bird. Option C, Meghalaya, has the clouded leopard as its state animal and the hill myna as its state bird. Option D, West Bengal, has the fishing cat as its state animal and the white-throated kingfisher as its state bird, although the red panda does live in the Darjeeling hills, which is why option D attracts answers.

The correct answer is B, 10. The UN Security Council has 15 members: 5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members. The permanent five are the USA, the UK, France, Russia and China, and only they hold the veto. The 10 non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, five seats falling vacant every year, and a retiring member cannot be re-elected immediately. Seats are shared by region: five for Africa and Asia-Pacific, one for Eastern Europe, two for Latin America and the Caribbean, and two for Western Europe and others. India has served eight terms, the latest in 2021–22. A is wrong because 15 is the total strength of the Council, not the non-permanent count. C is wrong because 12 has never been the number of elected seats. D is wrong because 14 is also incorrect; before the 1965 enlargement there were only 6 non-permanent members. Exam tip: Security Council means 5 permanent plus 10 non-permanent equals 15, with two-year elected terms.

The correct answer is B, the inverted bell shaped lotus. The original capital at Sarnath rests on an inverted lotus shaped like a bell, and that part was deliberately omitted from the State Emblem, which begins at the abacus. This is the detail that separates a candidate who has looked at the emblem from one who has only read about it.

Option A is wrong because the Dharma Chakra is retained at the centre of the abacus and is in fact the wheel taken into the National Flag. Option C is wrong because the bull to the right and the horse to the left are both kept on the abacus, with the outlines of the other wheels at the edges. Option D is wrong because the lions are kept, though only three of the four are seen in the two dimensional emblem while the fourth is hidden behind them.

The correct answer is D, New Delhi. The National Dope Testing Laboratory, NDTL, is in New Delhi and works under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. It analyses the urine and blood samples of athletes for banned substances and is accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA, which allows its results to be used in international sport. The other arm of the system, the National Anti-Doping Agency, NADA, which collects the samples and decides the cases, is also in New Delhi, so both national anti-doping bodies share the capital. NDTL is an autonomous body; NADA was set up in 2005 under the Societies Registration Act. A, Mumbai, has no national anti-doping facility. B, Bangalore, hosts a Sports Authority of India centre but not the laboratory. C, Punjab, has the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports at Patiala, India's main coaching institute, which is a different body. Exam tip: NDTL tests, NADA polices, both in New Delhi; WADA, the world body, is in Montreal.

The correct answer is A, Shillong. Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, sits on rolling grassy uplands with pine woods, waterfalls and a cool damp climate, and British officers thought the landscape resembled the Scottish highlands, so the name Scotland of the East stuck. Meghalaya itself is called the Abode of Clouds, and Mawsynram and Cherrapunji nearby are among the wettest places on earth.

Option B, Gangtok, is the capital of Sikkim and is known for its views of Kanchenjunga, not by this name. Option C, Darjeeling in West Bengal, is the Queen of the Hills and is famous for its tea. Option D, Munnar in Kerala, is a Western Ghats tea town. Khajjiar in Himachal Pradesh is separately called the Mini Switzerland of India, and that is the nickname most often swapped with this one.

The correct answer is D, Ashoka Pillar, Sarnath. The State Emblem of India is adapted from the Lion Capital that crowned Ashoka’s pillar at Sarnath, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The original capital has four lions standing back to back on an abacus that carries a bull, a horse, an elephant and a lion, separated by wheels, with an inverted lotus below. In the emblem only three lions are seen, the fourth being hidden from view, and the lotus is left out; the wheel appears in the centre of the abacus. The words Satyameva Jayate, taken from the Mundaka Upanishad, are written below in Devanagari. It was adopted on 26 January 1950. Option A is wrong because Bodh Gaya is the place of enlightenment. Option B and Option C are wrong because the emblem comes from a site, not a museum, though the original capital is kept in the Sarnath Museum. Exam tip: Lion Capital of Sarnath, adopted 26 January 1950, motto from the Mundaka Upanishad.