SSC CPO 2024 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, Assam. The Ambubachi Mela is held every year at the Kamakhya temple, which stands on Nilachal Hill in Guwahati, the largest city of Assam. It falls in the Assamese month of Ahaar, which corresponds to June, and marks the belief that the goddess passes through her annual cycle of rest. The temple doors are closed for three days and are opened on the fourth, when prasad is distributed, so the fair is also known as the Ambubachi or Ameti festival.

Option A, Manipur, holds the Lai Haraoba and Yaoshang festivals, not Ambubachi. Option B, Nagaland, is the state of the Hornbill Festival at Kisama and of Moatsu and Sekrenyi. Option C, Mizoram, is the state of Chapchar Kut, its spring festival. All three are North Eastern states, which is exactly why the paper setter offers them together, but the Kamakhya temple is in Assam alone.

The correct answer is C, Article 164(2). Article 164(2) says that the Council of Ministers in a state shall be collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of that state, which is the rule that keeps a state government in office only while it holds the confidence of the Assembly and is the ground on which a no confidence motion works. The rest of Article 164 covers the other parts of the state executive. A is wrong because Article 164(3) deals with the oath of office and secrecy administered to a minister by the Governor. B is wrong because Article 164(4) says a minister who is not a member of the legislature for six consecutive months ceases to be a minister. D is wrong because Article 164(1) provides that the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor and other ministers are appointed on the Chief Minister's advice. Exam tip: Article 75 is the Union mirror of Article 164 for the states.

The correct answer is 75(3). Article 75(3) says the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People, the Lok Sabha. Collective responsibility means ministers stand or fall together: a Cabinet decision binds every minister, even one who disagreed in private, and if the Lok Sabha passes a no-confidence motion the entire Council of Ministers, including ministers who are members of the Rajya Sabha, must resign.

The other options are real clauses with different content. Article 74(1) provides the Council of Ministers to aid and advise the President. Article 72(1) is the President's power to grant pardons. Article 73 deals with the extent of the executive power of the Union, the subjects on which the Union government can act. Notice that the responsibility runs to the Lok Sabha alone, not to the Rajya Sabha or to Parliament as a whole, because only the directly elected House can make or unmake a government.

The correct answer is To vote in public elections. Voting is not among the eleven Fundamental Duties in Article 51A. The right to vote comes from Article 326, which provides for elections on the basis of adult suffrage, and from the Representation of the People Act, 1951. It is not a Fundamental Right, and voting is not a Fundamental Duty. Critics often point to its absence, along with paying taxes, as a gap in the list.

The other three options are genuine Fundamental Duties: valuing and preserving the rich heritage of our composite culture is clause (f); safeguarding public property and abjuring violence is clause (i); and upholding and protecting the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India is clause (c). Whenever a "NOT a Fundamental Duty" question appears, look first for voting, paying taxes, family planning or respecting the National Song: none of these is on the list.

The correct answer is B, A = 1C/s. One ampere is the current that flows when one coulomb of charge passes a point in a circuit in one second. It comes straight from the formula I = Q/t, where I is current in amperes, Q is charge in coulombs and t is time in seconds. The ampere is one of the seven SI base units and is named after the French physicist André-Marie Ampère. One coulomb is the charge of roughly 6.25 × 10¹⁸ electrons, so a current of 1 ampere means that many electrons flowing past a point every second. Turned around, the same formula gives Q = I × t, which is why a coulomb is also called an ampere-second. A is wrong because 2 coulombs per second is a current of 2 amperes, not 1. C is wrong because charge is current multiplied by time, not current divided by time. D is wrong because an ampere multiplied by 2 seconds gives 2 coulombs, not the definition of 1 ampere. Exam tip: I = Q/t, so 1 A = 1 C/s and 1 C = 1 A × 1 s.

The correct answer is B, Stalagmite. A stalagmite is a column of calcium carbonate that rises from the floor of a limestone cave. Rainwater with dissolved carbon dioxide slowly dissolves limestone and carries it as calcium bicarbonate. When this water drips inside a cave, carbon dioxide escapes and a thin layer of calcium carbonate is left behind, drop after drop, for thousands of years. The drop that hangs from the roof builds a stalactite, and the water that falls on the floor builds a stalagmite below it; when the two meet they form a pillar. Such cave landforms are part of karst topography, seen in India in the Borra Caves of Andhra Pradesh and the caves of Meghalaya. A is wrong because hatectite is not a standard cave term. C is wrong because a stalactite hangs down from the roof, the opposite of what the question describes. D is wrong because dripstone is the general name for all such drip deposits, stalactites and stalagmites alike, not the upward form alone. Exam tip: stalaCtite hangs from the Ceiling, stalaGmite rises from the Ground.

The correct answer is D, 74.04%. This is the overall literacy rate the Census of 2011 reported for India, the figure used in textbooks and exam papers. The Census counts a person aged seven or above who can read and write with understanding in any language as literate, so small children are left out. The same Census gave 82.14 percent for males and 65.46 percent for females, and the paper has cleverly put both of those numbers in the options. Kerala was the most literate state and Bihar the least. A is wrong because 16.68 is the gap between the male and female rates (82.14 minus 65.46), not a literacy rate at all. B is wrong because 65.46 percent is the female literacy rate of 2011, not the overall rate. C is wrong because 82.14 percent is the male literacy rate of 2011. Exam tip: Census 2011 literacy is 74.04 overall, 82.14 male and 65.46 female; the overall figure always lies between the two.

The correct answer is C, 1856. Lord Dalhousie annexed Awadh in February 1856, in the last weeks of his term as Governor-General from 1848 to 1856. The ground given was misgovernment, not the Doctrine of Lapse: Nawab Wajid Ali Shah had heirs, so the British simply declared his rule corrupt and removed him, sending him to Calcutta. The move angered the many sepoys of the Bengal Army who came from Awadh, and it became one of the causes of the Revolt of 1857, in which Begum Hazrat Mahal led the fight at Lucknow. A is wrong because 1857 is the year of the Revolt itself, which broke out a year after the annexation. B is wrong because in 1850 Dalhousie was taking smaller states under the Doctrine of Lapse, such as Satara in 1848 and Jhansi in 1853, but Awadh was not yet touched. D is wrong because 1858 is the year the Government of India Act ended Company rule and the Crown took over. Exam tip: Awadh 1856 on the charge of misgovernment; Satara, Jhansi and Nagpur under the Doctrine of Lapse.

The correct answer is B, Lord Metcalfe. As acting Governor-General, Sir Charles Metcalfe repealed the licensing regulations of 1823 through the Press Act of 1835, so he is called the 'Liberator of the Indian Press'. The 1823 regulations had been imposed by acting Governor-General John Adam, and they made every printing press take a government licence, which could be withdrawn at will. Metcalfe replaced this with a simple rule: a printer or publisher only had to declare where the press was. Papers like to set the trap of Ripon here, because he too freed the press, but decades later. A is wrong because Lord Lytton did the opposite; he passed the Vernacular Press Act of 1878, called the 'gagging Act'. C is wrong because Lord Ripon repealed Lytton's Vernacular Press Act in 1882, not the 1823 regulations. D is wrong because Lord Ellenborough, Governor-General from 1842 to 1844, is known for the annexation of Sindh, not for press freedom. Exam tip: Adam 1823 gagged the press, Metcalfe 1835 freed it, Lytton 1878 gagged it again, Ripon 1882 freed it.

The correct answer is separation of judiciary from executive. Article 50 says the State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State. Before independence, district magistrates, who were executive officers, also tried criminal cases. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 gave effect to Article 50 by creating separate judicial magistrates, so that the officers who run the administration no longer sit in judgment over the cases it brings.

The other options come from elsewhere in the Constitution. Reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies is in Articles 330 and 332. The right to elementary education is a Fundamental Right under Article 21A. The appointment of a Governor by the President is under Article 155. Article 50 sits among the liberal-intellectual Directive Principles, and it is often asked alongside Article 51 on international peace, the last Article of Part IV.