Who designed the Indian rupee sign that was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2010?

The correct answer is C, 26 January 1950. The State Emblem of India was adopted on the day the Constitution came into force and the country became a Republic. It is adapted from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, with three of the four lions visible, a Dharma Chakra on the abacus flanked by a bull and a horse, and the motto Satyameva Jayate from the Mundaka Upanishad below it in Devanagari script.

Option A, 15 August 1947, is Independence Day and is the date candidates most often pick by mistake. Option B, 26 January 1959, is the right day of the year but the wrong year and is placed there to punish careless reading. Option D, 15 August 1952, matches neither event. Keep the pair apart: the National Flag was adopted on 22 July 1947 by the Constituent Assembly, while the emblem and the National Anthem belong to January 1950.

The correct answer is D, Elephant. The Indian elephant, Elephas maximus indicus, was declared the National Heritage Animal in 2010 on the recommendation of the Elephant Task Force, so that its protection could be given the same weight as that of the tiger. The step went with Project Elephant, which works on elephant corridors and on reducing conflict between elephants and people.

Option A, the lion, was the National Animal of India until 1972 and survives in the wild only in the Gir forest of Gujarat, but it holds no heritage animal status. Option B, the horse, is not a national symbol at all, although a horse appears on the abacus of the State Emblem. Option C, the tiger, is the National Animal of India, adopted in 1972, and the distinction between National Animal and National Heritage Animal is exactly what this question tests.

The correct answer is A, 22 July 1947. The Constituent Assembly adopted the tricolour on that day, a few weeks before independence, after a committee under Dr Rajendra Prasad settled the design. The Congress flag was taken as the base, the spinning wheel at the centre was replaced by the navy blue Ashoka Chakra of twenty four spokes, and the ratio was fixed at two to three.

Option B, 15 August 1947, is the day the flag was first hoisted over an independent India, not the day it was adopted. Option C, 26 November 1949, is the day the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution, which is observed as Constitution Day. Option D, 26 January 1950, is the day the Constitution came into force and the day the State Emblem and the National Anthem were adopted, which is why it is the commonest wrong choice here.

The correct answer is B, two to three. The Flag Code of India fixes the shape of the National Flag as a rectangle whose width stands to its length as two to three, so a flag six hundred millimetres in length is four hundred millimetres in height. The three bands of deep saffron, white and dark green are of equal depth, and the navy blue Ashoka Chakra of twenty four spokes is placed at the centre of the white band with its diameter roughly equal to the depth of that band.

Options A, C and D are the ratios of other national flags and of ordinary printed sizes, and they are offered because candidates remember that the flag is a rectangle but not the fixed proportion. Note also that the flag is traditionally woven from hand spun khadi and is made to a Bureau of Indian Standards specification.

The correct answer is C, Mundaka Upanishad. Satyameva Jayate, meaning truth alone triumphs, comes from a verse of the Mundaka Upanishad, which belongs to the Atharva Veda. It is written in Devanagari script below the abacus of the State Emblem, and it was Madan Mohan Malaviya who is credited with bringing the phrase into national use.

Option A, the Rigveda, is the oldest of the Vedas and the source of the Gayatri Mantra, but not of this motto. Option B, the Bhagavad Gita, is part of the Mahabharata and is the source of many quoted verses, which makes it a plausible guess. Option D, the Arthashastra of Kautilya, is a treatise on statecraft and economy, and is associated with the Mauryas, whose Lion Capital the emblem is drawn from, so it is placed here as a trap of association.