The Durand Cup, Santosh Trophy and Rovers Cup are related to which sport?

The correct answer is C, Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat. The Dronacharya Award, India's honour for coaches who produce outstanding sportspersons, was given for the first time in 1985, and Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat, a wrestling coach, was among the first three to receive it, along with O.M. Nambiar in athletics and Om Prakash Bhardwaj in boxing. The award is named after Dronacharya, the teacher of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Mahabharata, and it carries a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a certificate and a cash prize. It is given in two categories, regular and lifetime. Option A is wrong because Hansa Sharma was not among the first recipients. Option B is wrong because Karan Singh did not receive the award in 1985. Option D is wrong because Hawa Singh, the boxer, was honoured as a coach much later, not in the first list. Exam tip: the Dronacharya Award began in 1985, the Arjuna Award in 1961 and the Khel Ratna in 1991-92.

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, eleven. A football side takes the field with eleven players, one of whom is the goalkeeper, the only member of the team permitted to handle the ball, and that only within his own penalty area. If a team is reduced to fewer than seven players through dismissals or injuries, the match cannot continue.

Option A, nine, is the size of a baseball side and of a softball team, not of a football team. Option B, ten, is the number of outfield players in football once the goalkeeper is set aside, which makes it the most attractive wrong answer in the set. Option D, twelve, is the number of players in a kabaddi squad on paper and in some other games, but in football a twelfth player on the field is an offence that brings a penalty against the side.

The correct answer is B, 1942 and 1946. The World Cup is played every four years, so after the 1938 tournament in France the next editions would have fallen in 1942 and 1946. Both were cancelled because of the Second World War and its aftermath, and the competition resumed only in 1950 in Brazil, twelve years after the previous one.

Option A is wrong because the 1938 World Cup was in fact held, in France, and won by Italy. Option C is wrong because the 1950 tournament did take place in Brazil, where Uruguay won the decisive match at the Maracana. Option D names 1940 and 1944, which were never World Cup years at all; the four year cycle from 1930 falls on 1934, 1938, 1942 and 1946, so those two years are outside the schedule entirely.