Railway Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is B, Producers. Producers, the green plants and algae, are the most numerous living part of an ecosystem because every other organism depends on them for food. They make their own food by photosynthesis using sunlight, so they form the first trophic level of every food chain. Only about 10 per cent of the energy passes from one level to the next (Lindeman's ten per cent law), so each higher level can support fewer organisms. This gives the upright pyramid of numbers in a grassland: many grass plants, fewer grasshoppers, fewer frogs, and very few snakes and hawks. A is wrong because primary consumers, the herbivores, feed on producers and are fewer than them. C is wrong because secondary consumers, the small carnivores, are fewer still. D is wrong because tertiary consumers, the top carnivores such as the tiger or eagle, are the fewest of all. Exam tip: Producer → primary consumer → secondary consumer → tertiary consumer; about 90 per cent of energy is lost at each step; in a single-tree ecosystem the pyramid of numbers is inverted.

The correct answer is D, Blue Flag. In 2018 the Union Environment Ministry started a pilot project to clean up and develop selected beaches so that they could win the Blue Flag. The Blue Flag is an international eco-label given by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), based in Copenhagen, Denmark; it began in France in 1985. A beach must meet strict standards on water quality, environmental education, safety and services, and environmental management. India's programme for this is called BEAMS (Beach Environment and Aesthetics Management Services), and in 2020 Shivrajpur in Gujarat was among the first Indian beaches to receive the Blue Flag. A is wrong because Swachh Bharat is the national sanitation mission started in 2014, not a beach label. B is wrong because the Green Flag is a different award, used in the UK for well-kept parks and green spaces. C is wrong because Clean India is only the English name of the Swachh Bharat campaign. Exam tip: Blue Flag = beach eco-label by FEE, Denmark; India's scheme = BEAMS; the first eight Indian Blue Flag beaches were certified in 2020.

The correct answer is B, France. France was the first country to introduce GST, in 1954. The idea came from Maurice Lauré, a French tax official, who designed a tax charged at every stage of production and sale but only on the value added at that stage. This avoids "tax on tax", the cascading effect of older sales taxes. This value added tax (VAT) model later spread across Europe and the world. India adopted GST on 1 July 2017 through the 101st Constitutional Amendment, with a dual model: CGST and SGST on sales within a state and IGST on sales between states. A is wrong because Canada brought in its GST only in 1991. C is wrong because Australia introduced GST in 2000. D is wrong because Germany adopted its VAT system in 1968, long after France. Exam tip: First GST = France, 1954 (Maurice Lauré); India's GST from 1 July 2017 under the 101st Amendment; 1 July is observed as GST Day.

The correct answer is A, Assam. Assam became the first state to ratify the GST Constitution Amendment Bill, on 12 August 2016, soon after Parliament passed it. Because GST changes the taxing powers of both the Centre and the states, the bill needed approval from at least half of the state legislatures under Article 368. Bihar was the second state and Jharkhand the third. After enough states ratified it, the President gave assent on 8 September 2016 and it became the Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016. It added Article 246A and created the GST Council under Article 279A, and GST came into force on 1 July 2017. B is wrong because West Bengal ratified the bill only after Assam. C is wrong because Meghalaya was not the first state to ratify it. D is wrong because Arunachal Pradesh was not the first state either. Exam tip: GST = 101st Amendment, 2016; first state to ratify = Assam; GST Council = Article 279A, chaired by the Union Finance Minister; GST in force from 1 July 2017.

The correct answer is A, 2nd Oct 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2 October 2014, Mahatma Gandhi's 145th birth anniversary, at Rajpath in New Delhi. Its target was a clean and open defecation free (ODF) India by 2 October 2019, Gandhiji's 150th birth anniversary, mainly by building household and community toilets and improving waste management. The mission has two parts, Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) for villages and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) for towns and cities. Its logo is Gandhiji's round spectacles with the words "Swachh Bharat". B is wrong because 14 November is Children's Day, Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday, and 2015 is also the wrong year. C is wrong because 14 November 2014 was Children's Day, not the launch date. D is wrong because by 2 October 2015 the mission had already completed its first year. Exam tip: Swachh Bharat = 2 October 2014, target ODF India by 2 October 2019, logo = Gandhiji's spectacles; the Swachh Survekshan ranks cities on cleanliness.

The correct answer is D, Article 40. Article 40 directs the State to organise village panchayats and give them the powers they need to work as units of self-government. It is a Directive Principle of State Policy in Part IV, based on Gandhiji's idea of gram swaraj, so it guides the government but cannot be enforced in a court. The 73rd Amendment Act of 1992 gave panchayats constitutional status by adding Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule; it came into force on 24 April 1993, now observed as National Panchayati Raj Day. Jawaharlal Nehru started the first Panchayati Raj at Nagaur, Rajasthan, on 2 October 1959. A is wrong because Article 50 asks the State to separate the judiciary from the executive. B is wrong because Article 60 contains the oath of the President. C is wrong because Article 30 gives minorities the right to set up and run educational institutions. Exam tip: Gandhian Directive Principles: Art 40 (village panchayats), Art 43 (cottage industries), Art 46 (weaker sections), Art 47 (prohibition of intoxicants), Art 48 (cow protection).

The correct answer is B, Third Schedule. The Third Schedule of the Constitution gives the forms of oaths or affirmations for important constitutional posts. It covers Union ministers, candidates for election to Parliament, Members of Parliament, judges of the Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and at the state level ministers, candidates for the legislature, MLAs and High Court judges. The oaths of the President and the Vice-President are not in this Schedule; they are given in Articles 60 and 69. A is wrong because the Eleventh Schedule, added by the 73rd Amendment in 1992, lists the subjects given to Panchayats. C is wrong because the Ninth Schedule, added by the First Amendment in 1951, protects certain land reform and other laws from challenge in court. D is wrong because the First Schedule lists the names of the states and union territories and their territories. Exam tip: 1st = states and UTs, 3rd = oaths, 7th = Union, State and Concurrent Lists, 10th = anti-defection, 11th = Panchayats, 12th = Municipalities.

The correct answer is C, Article 74. Article 74 says there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President, who shall act according to that advice. The words making the advice binding were added by the 42nd Amendment of 1976. The 44th Amendment of 1978 let the President send the advice back once for reconsideration, but the President must accept the advice given after that. Courts cannot inquire into what advice the ministers gave. Article 75 deals with the appointment of the Prime Minister and other ministers, and Article 78 with the Prime Minister's duty to keep the President informed. A is wrong because Article 70 covers the President's functions in other contingencies. B is wrong because Article 50 is a Directive Principle on separating the judiciary from the executive. D is wrong because Article 84 lays down the qualifications for membership of Parliament. Exam tip: Art 52 = President, Art 63 = Vice-President, Art 74 = Council of Ministers to advise the President, Art 75 = appointment of PM and ministers, Art 78 = PM's duties.

The correct answer is D, 14 years. Article 24 says that no child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment. It is part of the Right against Exploitation (Articles 23 and 24) among the Fundamental Rights in Part III. Article 23 bans trafficking in human beings and forced labour (begar). Article 24 goes with Article 21A, added by the 86th Amendment in 2002, which gives free and compulsory education to children aged 6 to 14. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 bans employing children below 14 in any work and adolescents aged 14 to 18 in hazardous work. A is wrong because 18 is the voting age and the age of adulthood, not the limit in Article 24. B is wrong because the Constitution does not use 16 as the limit. C is wrong because 12 is lower than the age fixed by Article 24. Exam tip: Article 23 = no trafficking or forced labour; Article 24 = no child below 14 in factories, mines or hazardous work; Article 21A = education for ages 6 to 14.

The correct answer is A, Orange River. The Orange River is the longest river of South Africa, about 2,200 km long. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains of Lesotho, flows west across South Africa and falls into the Atlantic Ocean at Alexander Bay. For part of its course it forms the border between South Africa and Namibia. Its main tributary is the Vaal, and the Augrabies Falls lie on the Orange. The Limpopo is the other big river of South Africa, flowing east into the Indian Ocean. B is wrong because the Nile, the longest river in the world, flows north through countries such as Uganda, Sudan and Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea. C is wrong because the Congo flows through Central Africa, crosses the Equator twice and enters the Atlantic. D is wrong because the Niger flows through West Africa (Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria) into the Gulf of Guinea. Exam tip: South Africa = Orange and Limpopo; Nile = north-east Africa; Congo = crosses the Equator twice; Niger = West Africa; Zambezi = Victoria Falls.

The correct answer is C, Panama Canal. The Panama Canal cuts across the narrow Isthmus of Panama in Central America and joins the Atlantic Ocean, through the Caribbean Sea, with the Pacific Ocean. It was opened in 1914 by the United States and is about 82 km long. Because the land in between is higher than the sea, ships are raised and lowered by locks that use water from the man-made Gatun Lake. The canal saves ships the long voyage around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. The USA handed the canal over to Panama on 31 December 1999. A is wrong because the Kiel Canal in Germany joins the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. B is wrong because the Suez Canal in Egypt, opened in 1869, joins the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. D is wrong because the White Sea Canal in Russia links the White Sea with the Baltic Sea. Exam tip: Suez 1869 (Mediterranean to Red Sea, no locks), Panama 1914 (Atlantic to Pacific, with locks), Kiel (North Sea to Baltic Sea).

The correct answer is C, southern. Indira Point, the southernmost point of India, lies at the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is at about 6°45' North latitude. Its old name was Pygmalion Point, and it was renamed in 1985 in memory of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The southernmost point of mainland India is Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, at about 8°4' N. The Six Degree Channel, south of Great Nicobar, separates India from Sumatra in Indonesia. A is wrong because the northern tip of Great Nicobar faces Little Nicobar, the next island in the chain. B is wrong because the eastern coast runs along the side of the island and does not reach its southern end. D is wrong because the western coast also runs along the side of the island, not at its southern end. Exam tip: India's extreme points: south = Indira Point, mainland south = Kanyakumari, east = Kibithu (Arunachal Pradesh), west = Guhar Moti (Kutch, Gujarat).

The correct answer is D, Aravalli Range. Guru Shikhar, about 1,722 m high on Mount Abu in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan, is the highest peak of the Aravalli Range. The Aravallis are among the oldest fold mountains in the world and have been worn down into low hills. They run about 700 km from Gujarat through Rajasthan and Haryana to Delhi, where the Delhi Ridge is their last part. The range acts as a barrier to the spread of the Thar Desert towards the east, and Mount Abu is the only hill station of Rajasthan. A is wrong because the Vindhyas are a lower range in central India and Guru Shikhar is not part of them. B is wrong because the highest peak of the Western Ghats is Anamudi (2,695 m) in Kerala. C is wrong because the highest peak of the Satpura Range is Dhupgarh, near Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh. Exam tip: Aravalli = Guru Shikhar, Satpura = Dhupgarh, Western Ghats = Anamudi, Nilgiris = Doddabetta.

The correct answer is D, 1911. King George V announced at the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911 that the capital of British India would move from Calcutta to Delhi. Lord Hardinge II was the Viceroy at the time, and the same Durbar also cancelled the Partition of Bengal of 1905. Delhi was chosen because it was more central, had long been the seat of the Sultans and the Mughals, and was away from the strong nationalist movement in Bengal. The new city of New Delhi was planned by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and was formally inaugurated in 1931. A is wrong because 1912 is when the move was carried out; the decision was declared in 1911. B is wrong because 1905 is the year of the Partition of Bengal under Lord Curzon. C is wrong because 1910 is the year George V became king. Exam tip: 1905 Partition of Bengal (Curzon); 1911 partition annulled and capital shift announced (Hardinge II, Delhi Durbar); 1931 New Delhi inaugurated.

The correct answer is D, Shah Jahan. The Jama Masjid of Delhi was built by Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656 as the main mosque of his new capital, Shahjahanabad. It is one of the largest mosques in India, made of red sandstone and white marble, with three great gateways, four towers and two tall minarets. Its courtyard can hold about 25,000 worshippers. Its original name was Masjid-i-Jahan Numa, and it stands facing the Red Fort, which Shah Jahan also built. A is wrong because Humayun died in 1556, almost a century before the mosque was built. B is wrong because Babur founded the Mughal Empire in 1526 and died in 1530. C is wrong because Aurangzeb built the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore and the Moti Masjid inside the Red Fort, not the Jama Masjid. Exam tip: Shah Jahan = Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Jama Masjid (Delhi), Moti Masjid (Agra); Aurangzeb = Badshahi Mosque (Lahore), Bibi ka Maqbara (Aurangabad).

The correct answer is B, indigo. Under the tinkathiya system, European planters forced the peasants of Champaran in Bihar to grow indigo on 3 out of every 20 katthas (one bigha) of their land. Indigo was a blue dye in demand abroad, and the planters paid the farmers very little for it. When cheap German synthetic dye made indigo less profitable, the planters demanded higher rents and illegal dues instead. A local farmer, Raj Kumar Shukla, persuaded Gandhiji to visit Champaran in 1917. This became Gandhi's first satyagraha in India, and the Champaran Agrarian Act of 1918 ended the tinkathiya system. A is wrong because sugarcane was not the crop forced on the peasants under this system. C is wrong because the Champaran planters were indigo planters, and cotton was not imposed there. D is wrong because jute is a crop of Bengal and was not linked with the Champaran struggle. Exam tip: Gandhi's first three struggles in India: Champaran 1917 (indigo), Ahmedabad mill strike 1918 (wages), Kheda 1918 (land revenue).

The correct answer is D, Volt. Potential difference is the work done to move a unit charge between two points, and its SI unit is the volt. V = W/Q, so 1 volt = 1 joule per coulomb. It is measured with a voltmeter, which is always connected in parallel across the part of the circuit being tested. The unit is named after Alessandro Volta, the Italian scientist who made the first electric battery, the voltaic pile. Household supply in India is 230 V, while a pencil cell gives 1.5 V. A is wrong because the ampere is the unit of electric current, measured with an ammeter joined in series. B is wrong because the tesla is the unit of magnetic field strength (magnetic flux density). C is wrong because the coulomb is the unit of electric charge; one coulomb is the charge of about 6.25 × 10¹⁸ electrons. Exam tip: Current = ampere, Charge = coulomb, Potential difference = volt, Resistance = ohm, Power = watt, Energy = joule.

The correct answer is D, Heating effect. An iron, toaster, oven, kettle and heater all turn electrical energy into heat when current flows through a coil of high resistance. This is explained by Joule's law of heating: heat produced H = I²Rt, so the heat grows with the square of the current, with the resistance and with the time. The heating coils are made of nichrome, an alloy of nickel and chromium, because it has high resistance and does not melt or oxidise easily when red hot. The electric fuse and the filament bulb also work on this effect. A is wrong because the chemical effect of current is used in electroplating and in charging batteries. B is wrong because the magnetic effect runs electric bells, fans, motors and electromagnets. C is wrong because the physiological effect is the shock or muscle twitch that current causes in a living body. Exam tip: H = I²Rt; heater coil = nichrome, bulb filament = tungsten, fuse wire = tin-lead alloy with a low melting point.

The correct answer is C, a concave lens of suitable power. A concave lens spreads the light rays slightly before they enter the eye, so the image moves back onto the retina. In myopia, or short-sightedness, a person sees nearby objects clearly but distant objects look blurred. It happens when the eyeball is too long or the eye lens is too curved, so light from far objects meets in front of the retina. Concave lenses have negative power, so spectacles for myopia carry a minus number such as -2.0 D (dioptre). A is wrong because a biconvex lens brings rays together and would make the blur worse. B is wrong because a plain glass plate has no power and does not change where the rays meet. D is wrong because a convex lens corrects hypermetropia, or long-sightedness, in which the image forms behind the retina. Exam tip: Myopia = concave (minus) lens; Hypermetropia = convex (plus) lens; Presbyopia in old age = bifocal lens; Astigmatism = cylindrical lens.

The correct answer is B, Adrenal gland. Adrenaline is made by the adrenal glands, which sit like caps on top of the two kidneys. It is released in fear, anger or sudden danger, so it is called the "fight or flight" hormone. It raises the heartbeat and breathing rate, increases blood sugar and sends more blood to the muscles so that the body can react fast. Adrenaline comes from the inner part of the gland, the adrenal medulla; the outer part, the cortex, makes cortisol and aldosterone. A is wrong because the thyroid gland in the neck makes thyroxine, which controls metabolism and needs iodine. C is wrong because the pineal gland in the brain makes melatonin, which controls the sleep-wake cycle. D is wrong because the pituitary gland makes growth hormone and controls several other glands, so it is called the master gland. Exam tip: Adrenal = adrenaline (emergency hormone), Thyroid = thyroxine (metabolism), Pancreas = insulin (blood sugar), Pituitary = master gland.