Which of the following days is observed on 9 August?

The correct answer is A, 1 July. National Doctors Day is observed in India on 1 July because that date is both the birth anniversary and the death anniversary of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, the physician who became Chief Minister of West Bengal and received the Bharat Ratna.

Option B, 7 April, is World Health Day, which marks the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948, and it is an international observance rather than an Indian one. Option C, 12 May, is International Nurses Day, held on the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, so it honours a different profession. Option D, 11 July, is World Population Day, fixed by the United Nations, and it appears in the options only because it is the other well known July date in this list.

The correct answer is B, 11 July. World Population Day is observed on 11 July, a date chosen by the United Nations because the population of the world was estimated to have crossed five billion on that day in 1987. The observance draws attention to family welfare, reproductive health and the pressure of numbers on resources.

Option A, 5 June, is World Environment Day, first held in 1974 and associated with the Stockholm Conference of 1972. Option C, 12 August, is International Youth Day and also World Elephant Day, both of which fall in the following month. Option D, 15 July, is World Youth Skills Day, another United Nations observance in the same month, which makes it the closest distractor in the set and the one candidates most often pick by mistake.

The correct answer is B, Operation Vijay. Kargil Vijay Diwas is observed on 26 July because the Indian armed forces completed the recapture of the heights in the Kargil sector under Operation Vijay on that date in 1999. The day honours the soldiers who fought at extreme altitude in that conflict.

Option A, Operation Meghdoot, was the 1984 operation by which India secured the Siachen glacier, a different place and a different year. Option C, Operation Parakram, was the mobilisation of forces along the border after the attack on Parliament in December 2001, and it did not involve the Kargil heights. Option D, Operation Cactus, was the 1988 Indian intervention in the Maldives to reverse an attempted coup, so it belongs to an entirely different theatre.

The correct answer is C, Swadeshi Movement. National Handloom Day falls on 7 August because the Swadeshi Movement was formally launched on that date in 1905 at a meeting in Calcutta, in response to the partition of Bengal. The movement urged the boycott of foreign cloth and the use of Indian made goods, which makes the date a natural one for honouring handloom weavers.

Option A, the Quit India Movement, was launched on 8 August 1942 and its anniversary is observed on 9 August as August Kranti Diwas. Option B, the Non-Cooperation Movement, was begun by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920 and was withdrawn after the Chauri Chaura incident of 1922. Option D, the Civil Disobedience Movement, began with the Dandi March of March 1930, so none of these three matches the August date.

The correct answer is B, Major Dhyan Chand. National Sports Day is observed on 29 August, the birth anniversary of the hockey player Major Dhyan Chand, who was born in 1905 and was part of the Indian teams that won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936. The national sports awards are traditionally presented on this day.

Option A, Milkha Singh, was the sprinter who finished fourth in the four hundred metres at the Rome Olympics of 1960, but no national day is named for him. Option C, K. D. Jadhav, was the wrestler who won India's first individual Olympic medal, a bronze at Helsinki in 1952, again without a day of observance. Option D, Balbir Singh Senior, was a hockey centre forward of the same golden era, and his presence among the options is meant to test whether the candidate knows which hockey player is meant.