Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated every year on 2nd October as a national festival. In which year was Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary?

The correct answer is B, 14 August. Partition Horrors Remembrance Day is observed on 14 August, the day before Independence Day, in memory of the millions who were displaced and of those who lost their lives during the partition of 1947. The observance is meant to remind later generations of the human cost of that division.

Option A, 9 August, is August Kranti Diwas for the Quit India Movement, and is also Nagasaki Day. Option C, 15 August, is Independence Day itself, on which the Prime Minister addresses the nation from the Red Fort, so it marks the freedom rather than the suffering that accompanied it. Option D, 26 August, is Women's Equality Day, an observance of a completely different kind that belongs to the same month.

The correct answer is B, Chartered Accountants Day. The first of July is observed as Chartered Accountants Day because the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was established on 1 July 1949 by an Act of Parliament. The same date is also observed as GST Day, since the goods and services tax came into force on 1 July 2017, and as National Doctors Day.

Option A, National Statistics Day, falls on 29 June, the birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. Option C, National Technology Day, is observed on 11 May, marking the Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998 and the first flight of the Hansa aircraft. Option D, National Science Day, is observed on 28 February, the date on which C. V. Raman announced the discovery of the effect named after him.

The correct answer is C, the soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 near the lunar south pole. The Vikram lander of Chandrayaan 3 touched down near the south pole of the Moon on 23 August 2023, making India the first country to land in that region, and the date was declared National Space Day in memory of the achievement.

Option A, the launch of Aryabhata, India's first satellite, took place in April 1975 and is remembered but has no day of observance. Option B, the Mars Orbiter Mission, entered Martian orbit in September 2014 at the first attempt, a major achievement on a different date. Option D, the first flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, took place in 1993, and the vehicle became the workhorse of the Indian space programme thereafter.

The correct answer is A, 6 August. Hiroshima Day is observed on 6 August, the date in 1945 on which the first atomic bomb used in war was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The day is marked worldwide with appeals for nuclear disarmament and for peace.

Option B, 9 August, is Nagasaki Day, when the second bomb was dropped three days later, and swapping these two dates is the mistake the question is built to catch. Option C, 15 August, is the Independence Day of India and also the date on which Japan announced its surrender in 1945, which adds to the confusion. Option D, 2 September, is the date on which the formal instrument of Japanese surrender was signed, ending the Second World War.

The correct answer is B, Quit India Movement Day. The ninth of August is observed as Quit India Movement Day, or August Kranti Diwas, because the movement launched at the Bombay session of the Congress led to mass action from that date in 1942. The same date is also Nagasaki Day and the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

Option A, Hiroshima Day, falls three days earlier, on 6 August, marking the first atomic bombing of 1945, and the two bombing dates are the commonest pair to be mixed up. Option C, National Handloom Day, is observed on 7 August after the Swadeshi Movement of 1905. Option D, Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, is observed on 14 August, the day before Independence Day, in memory of those displaced and killed during the partition of 1947.