When did Alexander the Great die?

The correct answer is B, 1945. The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded on 16 October 1945 at Quebec in Canada, and the day has been observed as World Food Day since 1981; its headquarters are at Rome. Option A is wrong because 1943 is the year of the conference at Hot Springs that proposed a permanent organisation for food and agriculture, a step before the founding. Option C is wrong because 1948 is the year the World Health Organization came into being and the year the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade took effect, neither of which is tied to 16 October. Option D is wrong because 1951 is the year the organisation moved its headquarters to Rome from Washington, which is a different fact from its founding.

The correct answer is A, Verghese Kurien, born on 26 November 1921, who built the Kaira district co-operative at Anand into the Amul model, led the National Dairy Development Board and designed Operation Flood, which made India a large milk producer. The observance began in 2014. Option B is wrong because Tribhuvandas Patel was the farmer leader who founded the Kaira union and brought Kurien into it, but the day marks Kurien. Option C is wrong because Amrita Patel chaired the National Dairy Development Board after Kurien and is a later figure in the same story. Option D is wrong because H. M. Dalaya was the technologist who worked with Kurien on making milk powder from buffalo milk, a contribution often remembered with him but not the reason for the date.

The correct answer is B, the first session of the Customs Co-operation Council was held. That inaugural session took place in Brussels on 26 January 1953; the Council took the working name World Customs Organization in 1994, and 26 January is kept as International Customs Day, a date Indian students remember easily because it is also Republic Day. Option A is wrong because the World Trade Organization came into being on 1 January 1995. Option C is wrong because the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed in 1947 and took effect in 1948, before the Council existed. Option D is wrong because the Customs Act of India was passed in 1962 and governs Indian customs law, which is a separate matter from the international observance.

The correct answer is B, Chaudhary Charan Singh, who was born on 23 December 1902, served as Prime Minister of India and is remembered for the laws and the politics that put the peasant at the centre of Indian public life. Option A is wrong because Verghese Kurien, born on 26 November 1921, is honoured on National Milk Day for building the dairy co-operative movement and Operation Flood. Option C is wrong because M. S. Swaminathan is associated with the green revolution in wheat and rice and with the commission on farmers, but Kisan Diwas is not his birth anniversary. Option D is wrong because Jagjivan Ram was a labour and agriculture minister of long standing, and his birth anniversary falls in April, not December.

The correct answer is A, 27 June. The United Nations General Assembly declared 27 June as Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day in 2017, in recognition of the share of such enterprises in employment and in world output. Option B is wrong because 30 August is National Small Industry Day, an Indian observance, and the two are the classic pair in this question: one is a United Nations day in June, the other an Indian day in August. Option C is wrong because 7 August is National Handloom Day, chosen because the Swadeshi movement was launched on that day in 1905. Option D is wrong because 12 February is National Productivity Day in India, which opens National Productivity Week and is observed by the National Productivity Council.