The Dronacharya Award was first handed out in 1985, and the first Dronacharya Award winner was _______.

The correct answer is B, Fencing. Chadalavada Anandha Sundhararaman Bhavani Devi is an Indian fencer from Chennai who competes in the sabre event. She became the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympic Games, at Tokyo in 2021, and won her opening bout there. She has taken gold at the Commonwealth Fencing Championship and a medal at the Asian Fencing Championship, and she trains with support from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme. Fencing is a sword-fighting sport with three weapons - foil, epee and sabre - fought on a strip called a piste, where hits are recorded electronically. Option A is wrong because rowing is a water sport, in which India has been represented by athletes such as Bajrang Lal Takhar. Option C is wrong because Bhavani Devi has never been a boxer. Option D is wrong because she is not a wrestler. Exam tip: Bhavani Devi is a fencer in the sabre event and the first Indian fencer at the Olympics.

The correct answer is C, Manipur. M. C. Mary Kom was born in Kangathei village of Churachandpur district in Manipur.

Mary Kom is the only woman boxer to have won six world championship titles, and she is nicknamed Magnificent Mary. She took the bronze medal in the flyweight class at the London Olympics of 2012, the first Indian woman boxer to win an Olympic medal, and she has also won gold at the Asian Games of 2014 and the Commonwealth Games of 2018. She received the Arjuna Award, the Padma Shri, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, and served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha.

Option A is wrong because Mizoram is best known in Indian sport for footballers. Option B is wrong because Assam is the home state of the boxer Shiva Thapa and the sprinter Hima Das. Option D is wrong because Meghalaya has produced no boxer of this record.

Exam tip: Mary Kom of Manipur, six world titles, bronze at London 2012, called Magnificent Mary.

The correct answer is C, Brazil. The Jules Rimet Trophy, named after the FIFA president who conceived the World Cup, was to be kept permanently by the first nation to win the competition three times. Brazil achieved that in 1970 in Mexico, having already won in 1958 and 1962, and the trophy was handed over to it for good. FIFA then commissioned a new prize, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, awarded from 1974 onwards.

Option A, Italy, had also won three titles by 1982, but the rule applied only to the old trophy, which had already gone to Brazil. Option B, Uruguay, won the first World Cup in 1930 and won again in 1950, so it never reached three wins. Option D, West Germany, won in 1954 and 1974; its 1974 victory came with the new trophy, not the Jules Rimet.

The correct answer is C, Uruguay. The first FIFA World Cup was staged in Uruguay in 1930, the country having been chosen partly because it was celebrating the centenary of its independence and partly because it was the reigning Olympic football champion. Uruguay also won the tournament, beating Argentina in the final at Montevideo, so the host became the first world champion.

Option A, Brazil, hosted the World Cup for the first time in 1950 and again in 2014, and although it has won the trophy more often than anyone else, it did not host the first edition. Option B, Italy, hosted the second World Cup in 1934 and won it, and hosted again in 1990. Option D, France, hosted the third edition in 1938 and hosted again in 1998, when it won the title at home; the Frenchman Jules Rimet was FIFA president when the tournament began, which is the source of the confusion.

The correct answer is B, Durand Cup. The Durand Cup was first played at Shimla in 1888 and is the oldest football tournament in India and in Asia, and the third oldest in the world. It is named after Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of British India at that time, and it later moved to Delhi and then to Kolkata.

Option A, the Santosh Trophy, began much later, in 1941, and is the national championship played between the states and units rather than between clubs. Option C, the Subroto Cup, started in 1960 and is the best known school level football tournament in the country, named after Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee. Option D, the Rovers Cup, was founded in Bombay in 1891, which makes it older than the other two but still three years younger than the Durand Cup.