SSC 2020 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, Ropar. Ropar, now Rupnagar in Punjab, stands on the Sutlej, not on the Indus. It was excavated by Y.D. Sharma in 1953 and was the first Harappan site dug up in independent India; a dog buried along with a human being is its best remembered find. The other three sites named here all lie in Sindh, in present-day Pakistan, along the Indus. Option A is wrong because Chanhudaro sits on the Indus and is known for its bead-making and shell-working workshops; it is the only Harappan city without a citadel. Option B is wrong because Mohenjodaro, the site of the Great Bath and the Great Granary, is on the right bank of the Indus. Option D is wrong because Kot Diji, opposite Mohenjodaro on the left bank of the Indus, gave its name to a pre-Harappan culture. Exam tip: pair the site with its river - Ropar on the Sutlej, Kalibangan on the Ghaggar, Lothal on the Bhogava, Harappa on the Ravi.

The correct answer is B, Kanhaiyalal Maniklal Munshi. K.M. Munshi called the Preamble the 'political horoscope of the Indian Constitution' because it foretells the kind of state India set out to build. Munshi sat in the Constituent Assembly and on its seven-member Drafting Committee, and he was one of the finest phrase-makers in that House. The Preamble itself declares India a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and promises justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to every citizen. In the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) the Supreme Court held that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution and can guide how its provisions are read. Option A is wrong because Thakurdas Bhargava praised the Preamble in different words, calling it the soul and the jewel of the Constitution. Option C is wrong because N.A. Palkhivala described the Preamble as the 'identity card of the Constitution'. Option D is wrong because Dr B.R. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee, but this particular phrase is not his. Exam tip: Munshi - political horoscope; Palkhivala - identity card; Thakurdas Bhargava - soul of the Constitution.

The correct answer is B, Namdapha National Park. Namdapha lies in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, covers about 1,985 square kilometres and is the largest protected area in the Eastern Himalayan sub-region. It was declared a national park in 1983 and is also a tiger reserve. Its land climbs from about 200 metres on the Noa-Dihing river to more than 4,500 metres, so tropical rainforest, temperate forest and alpine meadow all lie inside one park; it is the only protected area known to hold four large cats — tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard. Option A is wrong because Jim Corbett, in Uttarakhand, belongs to the Western Himalayan foothills. Option C is wrong because Keibul Lamjao in Manipur is the world's only floating national park and is very small. Option D is wrong because Bandipur is in Karnataka, in the Western Ghats, far from the Himalayas. Exam tip: Namdapha — Arunachal Pradesh, four big cats, the Noa-Dihing river and the hoolock gibbon.

The correct answer is USSR. The idea of writing citizens' duties into the Constitution was taken from the Constitution of the former Soviet Union, which listed duties alongside rights. Most democratic constitutions, such as those of the USA, Canada and Australia, contain no such list, which is why the Soviet source is the one to remember. The USSR is also the source of the ideal of social, economic and political justice in the Preamble.

The other countries gave India other features. The USA gave the Fundamental Rights (inspired by its Bill of Rights), judicial review, the impeachment of the President and the removal of Supreme Court judges. Germany's Weimar Constitution gave the suspension of Fundamental Rights during an emergency. Australia gave the Concurrent List, freedom of trade and commerce, and the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. A simple memory pair: rights from the USA, duties from the USSR.

The correct answer is B, England. The 2019 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, the 12th edition, was played in England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July 2019. In the final at Lord's, England and New Zealand both scored 241, the super over was also tied at 15 each, and England were declared champions on boundary count, 26 to 17, their first World Cup title, under captain Eoin Morgan; Ben Stokes made 84 not out and was Player of the Match. Kane Williamson of New Zealand was Player of the Tournament, Rohit Sharma scored the most runs (648, with five centuries) and Mitchell Starc took the most wickets (27). Option A is wrong because Pakistan finished fifth and missed the semi-finals on net run rate. Option C is wrong because India topped the league table but lost the semi-final to New Zealand at Manchester. Option D is wrong because Australia lost the other semi-final to England at Birmingham. Exam tip: 2019 = England beat New Zealand at Lord's on boundary count; 2023 = Australia beat India at Ahmedabad.

The correct answer is A, Candela. Luminous intensity is the amount of visible light a source sends out in a given direction per unit solid angle, and its SI base unit is the candela (cd), roughly the light of one ordinary candle. It is one of the seven SI base units: metre for length, kilogram for mass, second for time, ampere for electric current, kelvin for temperature, mole for amount of substance and candela for luminous intensity. Do not mix it up with the lumen, the unit of luminous flux (total light output), or the lux, the unit of illuminance (lumens per square metre falling on a surface). Option B is wrong because the mole measures amount of substance, 6.022 × 10²³ particles. Option C is wrong because the kelvin measures thermodynamic temperature. Option D is wrong because the ampere measures electric current. Exam tip: the seven base units in one line: m, kg, s, A, K, mol, cd; candela = intensity, lumen = flux, lux = illuminance.

The correct answer is D, Reserve Bank of India. Monetary policy, the control of money supply and interest rates to keep prices stable, is the job of the central bank, the RBI, set up on 1 April 1935 under the RBI Act 1934 and nationalised on 1 January 1949. Since 2016 the policy repo rate is decided by the six-member Monetary Policy Committee, three from the RBI including the Governor, who chairs it, and three appointed by the Union Government, working to an inflation target set in 2016 at 4 per cent with a band of 2 per cent on either side. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation compiles data such as GDP and the CPI, it does not set policy. Option B is wrong because the Finance Commission, under Article 280, recommends how taxes are shared between the Centre and the States. Option C is wrong because NITI Aayog, formed on 1 January 2015, is a policy think tank that replaced the Planning Commission. Exam tip: monetary policy = RBI and its MPC, fiscal policy = Finance Ministry through the Budget.

The correct answer is B, Pressure. The torr is a unit of pressure named after Evangelista Torricelli, the Italian scientist who invented the mercury barometer in 1643. One torr is the pressure of a one-millimetre column of mercury, so 1 torr = 1 mm Hg, and it equals about 133.3 pascal. Normal atmospheric pressure at sea level is 760 torr, which is the same as 760 mm Hg, 1 atmosphere or 101,325 pascal. The pascal is the SI unit of pressure, one newton per square metre, but the torr and mm Hg are still used for blood pressure and vacuum work. A, Power, is measured in watt, with horsepower as the older unit. C, Energy, is measured in joule, with calorie and electron-volt as other units. D, Force, is measured in newton, or dyne in the CGS system. Exam tip: pressure units are pascal, bar, atmosphere, torr and mm Hg; 760 torr = 1 atm.

The correct answer is B.R. Ambedkar. The Drafting Committee was set up on 29 August 1947 with seven members, and Dr B.R. Ambedkar was its chairman. The committee published the Draft Constitution in February 1948, and Ambedkar piloted it through the Assembly's clause-by-clause debate, which is why he is remembered as the chief architect of the Constitution.

K.M. Munshi and Mohammad Saadullah were members of the same committee, not its chairman, which makes them the most tempting wrong answers. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was not on the Drafting Committee; he chaired the Provincial Constitution Committee and the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas. Learn the full list of seven members too, because a common variant asks which name was not a member: Ambedkar, N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar, K.M. Munshi, Syed Mohammad Saadullah, N. Madhava Rau and T.T. Krishnamachari.