Nishan-e-Pakistan is the highest civilian award of which country?

The correct answer is D, Padma Bhushan. The Indian civilian honours run in a fixed order of precedence: the Bharat Ratna first, then Padma Vibhushan, then Padma Bhushan and then Padma Shri. Counting from the top, Padma Bhushan is therefore the third highest, and it is given for distinguished service of a high order in any field. Option A, Padma Vibhushan, is the second highest, awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, and is the option most often chosen by candidates who forget to count the Bharat Ratna. Option B, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, is the highest honour in Indian cinema and is given by the government for lifetime contribution to film; it is outside the civilian order of precedence altogether. Option C, the Arjuna Award, belongs to sport and recognises consistently outstanding performance over several years, so it too is a field award rather than a general civilian honour.

The correct answer is B, 1954. Both the Bharat Ratna and the Padma series were instituted on the second of January 1954, during the presidency of Dr Rajendra Prasad, and the first Bharat Ratna awards went that year to C. Rajagopalachari, C. V. Raman and S. Radhakrishnan. Option A, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force and is offered because candidates assume the honours began with the Republic; they came four years later. Option C, 1955, is a near miss that is deliberately placed here, because in January 1955 the Padma award, which had first been created as one decoration with three classes, was reorganised into the three separate awards of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. Option D, 1947, is the year of independence and predates the awards entirely. Read whether a question asks for the institution of the awards or for the renaming of the Padma classes.

The correct answer is B, France. The Legion of Honour was instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to reward civil and military merit, and it remains the highest decoration of France, awarded in five classes of which the Grand Cross is the highest. It is also the oldest of the major national honours that papers ask about, which is why the same fact is sometimes asked as which is the oldest civilian honour. Option A, Germany, confers the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, instituted in 1951 and popularly called the Bundesverdienstkreuz. Option C, Italy, has the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, also created in 1951 after the monarchy ended. Option D, Spain, has the Order of the Golden Fleece as its senior order and the Order of Charles the third as a leading civil order, so none of these three can be the answer.

The correct answer is D, the United States of America. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, replacing an earlier Medal of Freedom of 1945, and it is awarded for especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural and other significant public or private endeavours. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest honour conferred by the Congress itself, and the two are often confused. Option A, Canada, has the Order of Canada, created in 1967 in its centennial year. Option B, the United Kingdom, has the Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, as its senior order of chivalry, and the George Cross of 1940 as its highest civilian gallantry decoration. Option C, Australia, has the Order of Australia, established in 1975 to replace the British honours system there.

The correct answer is B, three. The rules of the Bharat Ratna provide that not more than three awards may be made in a particular year, and there is no obligation to make any award at all in a given year, which is why several years have passed with none. The award may also be conferred posthumously, a provision used for the first time for Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. Option A, two, is a plausible sounding but wrong figure and is the commonest distractor. Option C, five, is confused with the annual ceiling on some other decorations and has no basis in the Bharat Ratna rules. Option D is wrong because a ceiling does exist, and it exists precisely to keep the honour rare; the Padma awards, by contrast, are announced in larger numbers every year on the eve of Republic Day, and that difference in scale is what the question is really testing.