Which city hosted the third edition of the Indian Lighthouse Festival?

The correct answer is 205. India maintains 205 lighthouses along a coastline that stretches beyond 11,000 km, and these towers are looked after by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. Their first duty remains the safe passage of vessels, and every one of them now runs on solar power. Option A, 155, is lower than the real count and does not match the figure placed on record. Option C, 255, and option D, 305, are both higher than the actual number and would wrongly suggest a far larger network than the one India operates. Candidates should pair this count with two other numbers from the same account: 75 lighthouses have already been developed as tourism destinations and 25 more have been proposed for such development, so the tourism network is a subset of the 205 and not a separate set of towers.

The correct answer is Lothal, Gujarat. The Lighthouse Museum of 77 metres forms part of the National Maritime Heritage Complex at Lothal, an archaeological site tied to ancient seaborne trade, and it is estimated at ₹266.11 crore. The complex will also hold a 5D dome theatre, a Coastal States Pavilion, a Museotel, an eco resort and a Maritime Research Institute developed with the Indian Maritime University. Option A is wrong, though it is the closest distractor: Mahabalipuram supplies the design inspiration for the Lothal museum and has its own lighthouse museum, but the 77-metre tower is not there. Option C is wrong because Visakhapatnam is getting a separate new lighthouse museum, with 3,156 square metres of land earmarked at its old lighthouse area. Option D is wrong because Fort Aguada in Goa is known for the light-and-sound projection show and for hosting the first Indian Lighthouse Festival in 2023.

The correct answer is the Brahmaputra. Four lighthouses are being established along this river at Pandu, Bogibeel, Silghat and Biswanath Ghat, and together they will be the first lighthouse infrastructure India places on an inland waterway rather than on the sea coast. Each tower will rise to 20 metres, the combined outlay is about ₹84 crore, and each will carry solar power along with weather-observation sensors. Every one of the four sites is also designed for visitors, with a museum, an amphitheatre, a cafeteria, a children’s play area, a souvenir shop and landscaped public space. Options A, B and D name the Ganga, the Godavari and the Mahanadi, all important Indian rivers, but no lighthouse project of this kind has been announced on them in this account. Remembering the four place names on the Brahmaputra is the safest way to answer a question set from this item.

The correct answer is option A. The Vice-President recalled the legacy of Birsa Munda, Sidho-Kanhu and Tilka Manjhi, all of them figures of tribal resistance closely associated with the region around Deoghar, and used their memory to ask the graduates to carry their knowledge into villages, tribal communities and the remotest parts of the country. Option B names Rani Gaidinliu of the north-east along with Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who are remembered chiefly in the Telugu-speaking regions, so the grouping does not fit this ceremony. Option C names tribal leaders connected with central and western India, and although Budhu Bhagat belongs to the Chhotanagpur area the set as a whole was not the one cited. Option D lists further tribal leaders of the eastern belt who were likewise not named in the address. The Santhal Pargana link is the clue: Sidho and Kanhu led the Santhal uprising and Tilka Manjhi is remembered in the same region.

The correct answer is 846. Speaking about the expansion of medical education and health infrastructure, the Vice-President said the country had 387 medical colleges before 2014 and now has 846, and he presented institutions such as AIIMS Deoghar as proof of development that is balanced and inclusive. Options A, B and D — 648, 706 and 912 — are all plausible-looking figures of the same order but none of them is the one cited. The safest way to remember the fact is as a pair with its base year: 387 before 2014, and 846 now. Candidates should also link the figure to the wider claim the Vice-President made with it, namely that quality health care and higher education must reach every state, district and village if the goal of a Viksit Bharat by 2047 is to be achieved.