In which year was the Lalit Kala Akademi, India's national academy of art, founded?

The correct answer is B, the Sahitya Akademi. Founded on 12 March 1954 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its first President, it is the national academy of letters, recognises twenty-four languages, the twenty-two of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution together with English and Rajasthani, and gives the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Bhasha Samman and translation prizes. Option A is wrong because the Sangeet Natak Akademi is the academy of the performing arts, that is music, dance and drama. Option C is wrong because the Lalit Kala Akademi is the academy of the visual arts, covering painting, sculpture and graphic art. Option D is wrong because the Indian Council for Cultural Relations is not an academy at all; it carries Indian culture abroad through cultural centres, scholarships and chairs of Indian studies, and it works under the Ministry of External Affairs.

The correct answer is A, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The Council was founded on 9 April 1950 by Azad, independent India's first Education Minister, who also became its first President; its headquarters in New Delhi is named Azad Bhavan after him. Its work is cultural diplomacy: Indian cultural centres abroad, scholarships for foreign students, chairs of Indian studies, the Distinguished Indologist Award and journals in several languages. Option B is wrong because Jawaharlal Nehru was the first President of the Sahitya Akademi, a different body of the same decade. Option C is wrong because Dr S. Radhakrishnan, as Vice-President, inaugurated the Sangeet Natak Akademi in January 1953 but did not found the Council. Option D is wrong because C. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India and later a political leader in Madras, with no founding role here.

The correct answer is B, Rabindra Bhavan. The three national academies share the building on Ferozeshah Road in New Delhi named after Rabindranath Tagore, which is why a single question can cover all three at once. Option A is wrong because Azad Bhavan is the headquarters of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, named after its founder Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Option C is wrong because Shastri Bhavan houses offices of several Union ministries and is not the home of the academies. Option D is wrong because Dharohar Bhavan is the office of the Archaeological Survey of India in New Delhi. A useful way to keep them apart is that Rabindra Bhavan holds the academies that give awards in the arts and letters, Azad Bhavan the body that works abroad, and Dharohar Bhavan the body that protects monuments.

The correct answer is A, the Sangeet Natak Akademi. The Akademi created the National School of Drama in New Delhi in 1959 as one of its own training units, and the school became an independent autonomous body in 1975; it trains students in acting, direction, stage design and allied crafts, and it runs a repertory company. Option B is wrong because the Lalit Kala Akademi works in the visual arts and set up regional art centres with studios, not a drama school. Option C is wrong because the Indian Council for Cultural Relations sends Indian artists and teachers abroad and funds foreign students in India, but it founded no such school. Option D is wrong because the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting deals with film and broadcasting, including the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune, which is the plausible but different institution in this family.

The correct answer is B, Alexander Cunningham. The Archaeological Survey of India was created in 1861 and Cunningham, an army engineer turned archaeologist who had surveyed Buddhist sites following the accounts of Chinese travellers, became its first Director-General; he is often called the father of Indian archaeology. Option A is wrong because James Prinsep was the scholar who deciphered the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts in the 1830s, which made Ashoka's edicts readable, but he died long before the Survey was founded. Option C is wrong because John Marshall was a later Director-General, under whom the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were announced in the 1920s. Option D is wrong because Mortimer Wheeler headed the Survey in the 1940s and is remembered for his work at Harappa and Arikamedu and for training Indian archaeologists.