Railway 2022 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, Tsunami. A tsunami is caused by an undersea earthquake, a volcanic eruption or a landslide on the ocean floor, and has nothing to do with the ozone layer.

The ozone layer lies in the stratosphere, roughly 15 to 35 km above the ground, and absorbs most of the harmful ultraviolet radiation of the Sun. Chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol sprays release chlorine that destroys ozone, which is why the Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased them out. World Ozone Day is observed on 16 September.

Option B is a real result, because extra ultraviolet radiation damages skin cells and raises the risk of skin cancer. Option C is a real result, since a thinner layer lets more ultraviolet rays reach the Earth. Option D is a real result, as ultraviolet exposure weakens the immune system, and it also causes cataract and harms crops and plankton.

Exam tip: ozone holes bring skin cancer, cataract and weak immunity; tsunamis come from the sea floor, not the sky.

The correct answer is D, money. Consumer theory studies how a household decides to spend its money among the goods and services available to it.

The idea rests on three things: the wants of the consumer, the prices of goods, and the income in hand, which is the budget constraint. Since income is limited, the consumer chooses the basket that gives the greatest satisfaction, or utility, from the money spent, and is said to be in equilibrium when no rearrangement of spending can raise that satisfaction. The law of diminishing marginal utility, indifference curves and the law of demand all belong to this branch of microeconomics.

Option A is wrong because the use of time is studied separately as the labour-leisure choice. Option B is wrong because relations are social, not economic, choices. Option C is wrong because energy here has no economic meaning as a thing the consumer allocates.

Exam tip: consumer theory joins three things - wants, prices and income - and explains the demand curve.

The correct answer is A, To consider cases of civil and criminal nature. Subordinate courts are the courts at the district level and below, and they hear civil and criminal cases as courts of first instance.

The Indian judiciary is a single pyramid. The Supreme Court stands at the top, a High Court in each state comes next, and below it are the subordinate courts, which work under the control of that High Court. On the civil side the District Judge is the highest, and below come the courts of the Civil Judge; on the criminal side the Sessions Judge is the highest, with Judicial Magistrates below. Articles 233 to 237 deal with these courts, and the Governor appoints district judges in consultation with the High Court.

Option B is wrong because writs are issued by the Supreme Court under Article 32 and by High Courts under Article 226. Option C is wrong because hearing appeals from lower courts is mainly the work of the High Court. Option D is wrong because transferring cases is a power of the higher courts.

Exam tip: District and Sessions Courts are subordinate courts; writs belong only to the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

The correct answer is A, 1969. On 19 July 1969 the Government of India issued an ordinance taking over the fourteen largest Indian scheduled commercial banks, those whose deposits stood at ₹50 crore or more. Indira Gandhi held the Finance portfolio along with the Prime Minister's office at the time, and the stated purpose was to direct credit to agriculture, small industry and the unbanked districts.

Option B, 1970, is the year the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act was passed to replace the ordinance after the Supreme Court struck it down, which is why the year is a favourite distractor. Option C, 1972, belongs to no step in the nationalisation story. Option D, 1950, is far too early; in that year the Reserve Bank had been in public ownership for barely a year and commercial banking was still entirely private. The second round of nationalisation, of six banks, came on 15 April 1980.

The correct answer is The Vice President. Article 64 makes the Vice-President the ex officio Chairman of the Council of States, that is, the Rajya Sabha. "Ex officio" means by virtue of the office: nobody elects the Chairman separately. The Vice-President is not a member of the Rajya Sabha and so cannot vote in the first instance, but has a casting vote to break a tie. The Rajya Sabha elects a Deputy Chairman from among its members to preside in the Chairman's absence.

The Governor heads a State and has no role in Parliament. The President is part of Parliament under Article 79 and addresses it, but does not preside over either House. The Prime Minister leads the government and, as a member of one House, is the Leader of that House, but never its presiding officer. Note that when the Vice-President acts as President, he or she does not perform the duties of Chairman of the Rajya Sabha during that period.

The correct answer is President. Article 123 lets the President promulgate an ordinance when either House of Parliament is not in session and the President is satisfied that circumstances make immediate action necessary. An ordinance has the same force as an Act of Parliament, but it must be laid before both Houses when they reassemble and lapses six weeks after that unless approved earlier. It can be withdrawn at any time, and it cannot amend the Constitution.

The Vice-President has no power to make laws; the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers advise the President to issue an ordinance but cannot issue one themselves; and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides over the House but has no ordinance-making power. The State counterpart is the Governor's power under Article 213. Remember too that the maximum life of an ordinance is six months and six weeks, because Parliament must meet at least once every six months.

The correct answer is A, During respiration. Plants respire day and night, breaking glucose down to release energy, and carbon dioxide is the waste product of that process. Photosynthesis does the opposite: the plant takes in carbon dioxide and water and, using sunlight trapped by chlorophyll, makes glucose while releasing oxygen as its waste product. During the day photosynthesis runs faster than respiration, so a green plant gives out oxygen on balance; at night only respiration continues, so carbon dioxide is released. These gases move in and out through the stomata of leaves and the lenticels of woody stems. B is wrong because photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide up instead of producing it. C is wrong for the same reason, as oxygen and not carbon dioxide is the waste of photosynthesis. D is wrong because transpiration is the loss of water vapour from the plant and involves no carbon dioxide. Exam tip: respiration takes oxygen and gives carbon dioxide; photosynthesis takes carbon dioxide and gives oxygen.

The correct answer is B, the same, opposite. The same magnet moves at the same speed in both cases, so the rate of change of magnetic flux through the coil is equal and the induced potential difference has the same magnitude. But turning the other pole towards the coil reverses the direction of the field through it, so the induced voltage takes the opposite sign. This follows from Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction, which says the induced emf equals the rate of change of flux, and from Lenz's law, which fixes the direction so that the induced current opposes the change causing it. A is wrong because the sign must flip once the pole facing the coil is reversed. C is wrong because the speed, and therefore the rate of flux change, is unchanged, so the two magnitudes match. D is wrong on both counts. Exam tip: speed decides how big the induced emf is, the field direction decides its sign - Faraday for magnitude, Lenz for direction.

The correct answer is B, West Bengal and Assam. Nor'westers are violent pre-monsoon thunderstorms that strike eastern India, especially West Bengal and Assam, in the afternoons and evenings of April and May. They form when hot dry air from the Chotanagpur plateau meets moist air drawn in from the Bay of Bengal; the towering clouds bring squally winds, lightning and short but heavy showers. In West Bengal they are called Kalbaisakhi, the calamity of the month of Baisakh, and in Assam they are known as Bardoli Chheerha, where they help the tea crop. A is wrong because Kerala and Karnataka get the pre-monsoon mango showers, which ripen mangoes and help coffee. C is wrong because Gujarat and Maharashtra lie in the west and get no Nor'westers. D is wrong because Rajasthan and Punjab instead feel the hot dry summer wind called loo. Exam tip: Kalbaisakhi - Bengal; Bardoli Chheerha - Assam; mango showers - Kerala and Karnataka; loo - north-west India.

The correct answer is C, Gross National Product. Net National Product is simply Gross National Product minus depreciation, that is NNP = GNP − Depreciation. Depreciation, also called consumption of fixed capital, is the wear and tear of machines, buildings and other capital goods during the year; taking it out shows how much output is really left with the nation. GNP itself is GDP plus the net factor income from abroad, so it counts what the residents of a country earn wherever they work. When NNP is measured at factor cost, it is the same as national income. A is wrong because direct taxes are a form of government revenue and are not an output aggregate. B is wrong because GDP minus depreciation gives Net Domestic Product, not NNP. D is wrong because national income is the result of the calculation, not its starting point. Exam tip: GDP + net factor income from abroad = GNP; GNP − depreciation = NNP; NNP at factor cost = national income.

The correct answer is C, 42nd Amendment Act. The Fundamental Duties were written into the Constitution in 1976 by the 42nd Amendment, on the advice of the Swaran Singh Committee, and the idea was borrowed from the Constitution of the erstwhile Soviet Union. They were placed in a new Part IVA with a single article, Article 51A, which first listed ten duties, such as respecting the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem, protecting the environment and safeguarding public property. An eleventh duty, that a parent or guardian provide education to a child between six and fourteen years, was added by the 86th Amendment of 2002. The duties are not enforceable by a court. A is wrong because the 51st Amendment reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes in some north-eastern states. B is wrong because the 23rd Amendment extended reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. D is wrong because the 1st Amendment of 1951 added the Ninth Schedule. Exam tip: 42nd Amendment is called the Mini Constitution.

The correct answer is C, HTTP. HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and it is the set of rules by which a browser asks a web server for a page and the server sends it back, which is how data on the World Wide Web is reached. It was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, who also created the World Wide Web in 1989, and it works on port 80, while its secure form HTTPS uses encryption and port 443. A is wrong because DNS, the Domain Name System, only turns a name such as gk24.in into the numeric IP address of the server. B is wrong because SNMP, the Simple Network Management Protocol, is used by administrators to watch and manage routers, switches and other network devices. D is wrong because FTP, the File Transfer Protocol, moves whole files between a computer and a server rather than serving web pages. Exam tip: HTTP for web pages, FTP for file transfer, SMTP to send mail, POP3 and IMAP to receive it.

The correct answer is A, Peacock. The peacock is a bird, and all birds, like mammals, have a heart of four chambers: two atria and two ventricles. Four chambers keep oxygen-rich blood and oxygen-poor blood completely apart, so the body gets fully oxygenated blood. Birds and mammals need this because they are warm-blooded and burn a great deal of energy to hold a steady body temperature; flight makes the demand greater still. Crocodiles are the only reptiles with a four-chambered heart. B is wrong because a sea horse is a fish and has a two-chambered heart, one atrium and one ventricle. C is wrong because a frog, being an amphibian, has three chambers, two atria and a single ventricle in which the two kinds of blood mix. D is wrong for the same reason as the sea horse. Exam tip: fish 2 chambers, amphibians and most reptiles 3, birds and mammals 4; the peacock is India's national bird.

The correct answer is B, The receipts of the government which create liability or reduce financial assets. In the Union Budget, money coming to the government is split into revenue receipts and capital receipts, and the test is exactly this one. Borrowings from the market, loans from the Reserve Bank or from abroad, and small savings and provident fund collections all create a liability, because the money has to be returned. Recovery of loans given earlier and disinvestment of shares in public sector units reduce the government's financial assets. Both kinds are capital receipts and are shown in the capital account. A is wrong because a receipt that creates no claim on the government is the definition of a revenue receipt, such as tax, fee, fine or dividend. C is wrong because grants to state governments are expenditure for the Centre, not a receipt. D is wrong because it reverses the rule; capital receipts add to liabilities rather than reduce them. Exam tip: capital receipts = borrowings + recovery of loans + disinvestment.

The correct answer is B, Black Pagoda. European sailors called the Konark Sun temple the Black Pagoda because its dark stone tower stood out on the Odisha coast and served them as a landmark, in contrast to the whitewashed Jagannath temple at Puri, which they called the White Pagoda. The temple was built in the thirteenth century by King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty in the Kalinga style. It is shaped as the chariot of Surya, the sun god, with twelve pairs of carved wheels and seven horses drawing it, and the wheels work as sundials. UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage list in 1984. A is wrong because the White Pagoda was the sailors' name for the Puri temple. C and D are wrong because no such names were used for Konark; they are only distractors. Exam tip: Konark = Black Pagoda, Narasimhadeva I, Kalinga style, UNESCO site since 1984.

The correct answer is C, Zn. Zinc has atomic number 30, which means each of its atoms carries 30 protons in the nucleus. In the modern periodic table the elements are arranged in increasing order of atomic number, as Moseley showed, and zinc sits in group 12 of the fourth period at the end of the first transition series. It is a bluish-white metal that is used to galvanise iron against rust, in dry cells and in brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. A is wrong because nickel (Ni) has atomic number 28. B is wrong because iron (Fe) has atomic number 26 and is the most used metal in the world. D is wrong because cobalt (Co) has atomic number 27 and is the metal at the centre of vitamin B12. Exam tip: learn the run 24 to 30 in order — Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn.

The correct answer is B, Change Case. In MS-Word 2016 the button marked 'Aa' in the Font group of the Home tab opens the Change Case menu, which rewrites the selected text without retyping it. Its five choices are Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word and tOGGLE cASE, and the keyboard shortcut Shift + F3 moves the selection through the main cases one after another. A is wrong because Text Effects and Typography is the blue glowing 'A' that adds shadow, reflection and outline to text. C is wrong because Clear All Formatting is the 'A' with a small eraser, which strips the text back to plain formatting. D is wrong because Strikethrough is shown as 'abc' with a line drawn through it and simply crosses out the text. Exam tip: in the Font group remember Shift + F3 for change case, Ctrl + B for bold, Ctrl + I for italic and Ctrl + U for underline.

The correct answer is A, Archimedes' Principle. It states that the upthrust on a body dipped fully or partly in a fluid equals the weight of the fluid the body pushes aside. This is why a bucket of water feels lighter while it is still in the well, and why a ship of steel floats: its hollow shape displaces enough water to balance its own weight. The principle also gives the law of flotation and is used to find the purity of metals and the density of liquids with a hydrometer. B is wrong because Bernoulli's principle links the speed of a flowing fluid with its pressure, and explains lift on an aeroplane wing. C is wrong because the Beer–Lambert law deals with how much light a solution absorbs as it passes through. D is wrong because Pascal's law says pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is passed on equally in every direction, which is the basis of hydraulic brakes and lifts. Exam tip: Archimedes for buoyancy, Pascal for hydraulic press, Bernoulli for aerofoil lift.

The correct answer is C, 1948. India's first Industrial Policy Resolution was announced on 6 April 1948 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the first Industry Minister. It accepted a mixed economy for the new nation and sorted industries into four groups: those kept solely with the State, such as arms and ammunition, atomic energy and railways; those in which the State would start all new units; those under State regulation; and the rest left to private enterprise. A is wrong because 1952 is remembered for India's first general election, not for an industrial policy. B is wrong because the second Industrial Policy Resolution came in 1956, not 1955. D is wrong because no resolution was issued in 1960; the next important statements came in 1977, 1980 and 1991. Exam tip: IPR 1948 was the first, IPR 1956 is called the economic constitution of India and built on the Mahalanobis model, and the 1991 policy opened the economy up.

The correct answer is B, 2019. Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat, so his 150th birth anniversary fell on 2 October 2019. The Government of India marked it with two years of celebrations from 2018 to 2020, and the Swachh Bharat Mission set its target of an open-defecation-free India for that date. The United Nations observes 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence, adopted in 2007. Gandhi Jayanti is one of India's three national holidays, along with Republic Day on 26 January and Independence Day on 15 August. A is wrong because 2018 was the 149th anniversary and only the start of the celebrations. C is wrong because 2020 was the 151st anniversary. D is wrong because 2021 was the 152nd. Exam tip: Gandhi born 2 October 1869; 150th anniversary in 2019; 2 October = International Day of Non-Violence.