Which of the following statements is/are correct with respect to the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu? 1. The merger of the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu was given effect to by an Act of the Parliament of India 2. After the merger of the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, three seats have been allocated in the House of People 3. The jurisdiction of the High Court of Bombay continues to extend to this Union Territory Select the answer using the code given below:

The correct answer is A. The three language formula, recommended by the Kothari Commission and adopted in the National Policy on Education, places the mother tongue or the regional language first, Hindi second and English third in Hindi-speaking states, while non-Hindi states teach the regional language, Hindi and English; in practice some states substitute another modern Indian language for Hindi. Options B and D are wrong because they put English first, which no version of the formula does: the first language in every version is the child own language, since early learning is best in the mother tongue. Option C reverses the second and third places by putting English before Hindi, and although that is how many schools actually work, the formula as framed names Hindi as the second language. The purpose of the scheme is to protect the mother tongue, give a link language for the country and keep a window to the world.

The correct answer is A, Andhra, carved out of the Telugu-speaking districts of the Madras state in 1953 after the death of Potti Sriramulu, who fasted for the demand. The movement forced the government to appoint the States Reorganisation Commission under Fazl Ali, whose report of 1955 led to the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 and to a map drawn largely along language lines. Option B, Gujarat, and option C, Maharashtra, came later, in 1960, when the bilingual Bombay state was divided between Gujarati and Marathi speakers. Option D, Haryana, was separated from Punjab in 1966 on the recommendation of the Shah Commission, a division in which language again played the main part. Note the order of the three dates, 1953, 1956 and 1960, because questions often ask which came first.

The correct answer is B, Article 350B. Inserted by the Seventh Amendment Act of 1956, it provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards given to linguistic minorities and to report to the President, who causes the report to be laid before Parliament; the officer is known as the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities. Option A, Article 350A, which came in by the same amendment, directs states and local authorities to provide instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage to children of linguistic minorities. Option C, Article 351, is the directive on the development of Hindi. Option D, Article 348, keeps the proceedings of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and the authoritative texts of laws in English. The 350A and 350B pair is the one most often reversed in the examination hall.

The correct answer is B, Malayalam. The islands lie off the Kerala coast, their people speak a dialect close to Malayalam except on Minicoy, where Mahl is spoken, and the administration works in Malayalam along with English. Option A, Tamil, is the official language of Tamil Nadu and of the union territory of Puducherry, not of Lakshadweep. Option C, Kannada, belongs to Karnataka, the state nearest to the islands on the mainland map, which makes it a tempting but wrong choice. Option D, Hindi, is the official language of Delhi and, with English, of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but not of Lakshadweep. For the union territories learn the short list: Hindi in Delhi, Tamil in Puducherry, Malayalam in Lakshadweep, Hindi and English in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, English in Chandigarh.

The correct answer is A, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Uttarakhand made Sanskrit its second official language in 2010 and Himachal Pradesh followed in 2019, both keeping Hindi as the first official language; the step is largely symbolic but is asked very often. Option B, Bihar and Jharkhand, have Hindi as the official language with Urdu as the additional official language, and Jharkhand recognises several tribal and regional languages besides. Option C, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, use Hindi, and Chhattisgarh also recognises Chhattisgarhi. Option D, Haryana and Punjab, have Hindi and Punjabi respectively, with Punjabi as the second official language of Haryana. Sanskrit is in the Eighth Schedule and is one of the classical languages, so it appears in three different lists, which is why candidates confuse them.