SSC 2023 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, Kolkata. Bandhan began in 2001 at Kolkata as a microfinance body serving poor women in eastern India, and its head office has stayed in that city. In April 2014 the Reserve Bank gave in-principle approval for a universal bank to just two applicants - Bandhan Financial Services and IDFC Limited - out of twenty-five who applied, and Bandhan Bank opened for business in August 2015. It was the first bank of its kind to be set up in eastern India after independence, and the first microfinance lender in the country to turn into a full-service bank. Option B is wrong because Mumbai houses the Reserve Bank and many private banks, but not Bandhan. Option C is wrong because Pune is the home of Bank of Maharashtra. Option D is wrong because Lucknow has no connection with Bandhan. Exam tip: 2014 universal bank licences - Bandhan of Kolkata and IDFC; both began operations in 2015.

The correct answer is B, interest rates were increased. A hawkish stand means the central bank is more worried about inflation than about slow growth, so it leans towards raising the policy rate and tightening money. Costlier loans cool down borrowing and spending, and prices rise more slowly. In India the Monetary Policy Committee, set up in 2016 under the amended RBI Act, has six members - three from the RBI and three named by the Centre - and it decides the repo rate by majority, with the Governor holding a casting vote. It has to keep retail inflation at 4 per cent, within a band of 2 to 6 per cent. Option A is wrong because cutting rates to support growth is the opposite, a dovish stand. Option C is wrong because leaving rates untouched is a neutral or wait-and-watch stance. Option D is wrong because increasing money supply is expansionary and again dovish. Exam tip: hawk fights inflation and raises rates, dove protects growth and cuts them.

The correct answer is D, Intrusive igneous rocks. Granite forms when magma cools slowly deep inside the crust, so it is an intrusive, or plutonic, igneous rock. The slow cooling lets large crystals of quartz, feldspar and mica grow, which is why granite has a coarse, grainy look you can see with the naked eye. It is hard, weather-resistant and takes a fine polish, so it is used for temple floors, kitchen counters and monuments; India is one of the world's largest exporters of granite. Rocks such as gabbro and dolerite belong to the same intrusive family. Option A is wrong because extrusive rocks form when lava cools quickly at the surface, giving fine-grained rocks like basalt, the rock of the Deccan Traps. Option B is wrong because sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone are built from deposited layers. Option C is wrong because metamorphic rocks are older rocks changed by heat and pressure; granite itself turns into gneiss. Exam tip: granite intrusive, basalt extrusive, granite to gneiss, limestone to marble.

The correct answer is C, 1961. The Dowry Prohibition Act was passed by Parliament in 1961 and came into force on 1 July 1961. It makes both the giving and the taking of dowry an offence, and it also punishes anyone who demands dowry or advertises an offer of money or property in return for a marriage. The Act defines dowry as property or valuable security given in connection with a marriage, and it keeps gifts freely given to the bride outside that definition. It was tightened by amendments in 1984 and 1986, which brought in Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code on dowry death and Section 498A on cruelty by a husband or his relatives. Option A is wrong because 1973 is the year of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Option B is wrong because no dowry law was enacted in 1982. Option D is wrong because 1954 is the year of the Special Marriage Act. Exam tip: Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Hindu Marriage Act 1955, Special Marriage Act 1954.

The correct answer is A, Two. Because of the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun, together with the centrifugal effect of the earth's rotation, most coasts see the sea rise and fall twice in a day. The moon's pull raises a bulge of water on the side of the earth facing it and another on the opposite side, and as the earth turns a place passes through both bulges in about twenty-four hours. These are called semi-diurnal tides, and successive high tides come about twelve hours and twenty-five minutes apart. Option B is wrong because no shore gets three tidal cycles in a day. Option C is wrong because four counts the individual tides — two high and two low — while the rise-and-fall cycle itself happens twice. Option D is wrong because a single daily high and low, called a diurnal tide, occurs only on a few coasts such as parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Exam tip: spring tides come at full moon and new moon when sun and moon pull in line, and neap tides at the quarters.

The correct answer is C, fifteen percent. Article 164(1A) lays down that the total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in a State's Council of Ministers shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of that State's Legislative Assembly, and the same clause fixes a floor of twelve Ministers so that small States are not left with a skeleton cabinet. The clause was inserted by the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act of 2003, which put the same fifteen per cent ceiling on the Union Council of Ministers through Article 75(1A), counted on the strength of the Lok Sabha; the amendment also tightened the anti-defection law. Option A is wrong because twenty per cent appears in none of these clauses. Option B is wrong because ten per cent is lower than the limit Article 164 sets. Option D is wrong because twenty-five per cent has never been the ceiling. Exam tip: 91st Amendment, 2003 — a fifteen per cent cap on both the Union and State Councils of Ministers, with a floor of twelve in a State.

The correct answer is C, Hemant. In the traditional Indian reckoning the year is divided into six seasons of two months each, and Hemant, the pre-winter, falls in the months of Agrahayana and Pausha — that is, November and December. Taken in order from spring the six are Vasant (March-April), Grishma (May-June), Varsha (July-August), Sharad (September-October), Hemant (November-December) and Shishir (January-February). Each is tied to the Hindu lunar months rather than to fixed dates. Option A is wrong because Sharad, the autumn, comes in September and October, when the monsoon withdraws. Option B is wrong because Shishir, the winter proper, falls in January and February and is the coldest stretch of the year. Option D is wrong because Vasant is the spring of March and April, the season of Holi and of the rabi harvest. Exam tip: learn the six in order from Vasant — Vasant, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemant, Shishir — and note that Hemant sits between Sharad and Shishir.

The correct answer is B, justiciable. Part III holds the fundamental rights, and those rights are justiciable: a citizen may go straight to the Supreme Court under Article 32 or to a High Court under Article 226 and have them enforced. The fundamental duties are moral obligations that no court enforces of its own motion, so putting them in Part III would have sat oddly beside enforceable rights; they were given a new Part IVA instead, as Article 51A. They came in through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976 on the advice of the Swaran Singh Committee — ten duties then, and an eleventh on a parent's duty to educate a child added by the 86th Amendment of 2002. Option A is wrong because it is Part IV, the Directive Principles, that is non-justiciable. Option C is wrong for the same reason, since Part III rights are enforceable. Option D is wrong because fundamental rights are not absolute; the State may place reasonable restrictions on them. Exam tip: Part III justiciable, Part IV not, Part IVA duties in Article 51A.

The correct answer is D, Sarangi. Pandit Ram Narayan was the musician who lifted the sarangi from an accompanying instrument to a solo concert instrument in Hindustani music. Born at Udaipur in Rajasthan in 1927, he played for All India Radio, accompanied singers for years, and from the mid-1950s began giving solo recitals in India and abroad. He was honoured with the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and, in 2005, the Padma Vibhushan. The sarangi is a short-necked bowed instrument carved from a single block of wood, with three main gut strings and about thirty-five sympathetic strings, and its tone is said to come closest to the human voice. Option A is wrong because the ghatam, a clay pot, is a Carnatic percussion instrument played by Vikku Vinayakram. Option B is wrong because the tabla is linked with Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain. Option C is wrong because the bansuri, the bamboo flute, belongs to Pannalal Ghosh and Hariprasad Chaurasia. Exam tip: sarangi — Ram Narayan; sarod — Amjad Ali Khan; santoor — Shivkumar Sharma.

The correct answer is C, Memory Card. A memory card keeps data in flash memory, a semiconductor chip with no moving parts, so it is solid-state storage and not magnetic. The data sits as trapped charge in floating-gate transistors, which is why SD cards, pen drives and solid-state drives are fast, silent and able to take a knock. Magnetic storage works quite differently: it records data as patterns of magnetised spots on a coated surface that a read-write head passes over. Option A is wrong because the Winchester disk is the early IBM name for the sealed hard disk drive, which is magnetic. Option B is wrong because a floppy drive writes on a thin magnetic plastic disc. Option D is wrong because magnetic tape, still used for archives and backups, is a plastic ribbon with a magnetic coating. Exam tip: sort storage by how it records — magnetic (hard disk, floppy, tape), optical (CD, DVD, Blu-ray) and solid-state or flash (memory card, pen drive, SSD).

The correct answer is D, Elaioplasts. Leucoplasts are the colourless plastids of plant cells, and each kind is named after what it stores. Elaioplasts are the leucoplasts that make and store oils and fats, and they are plentiful in the tapetum, the nourishing layer of cells in the anther that feeds developing pollen grains and leaves an oily coat on them. The other leucoplasts are amyloplasts, which store starch in potato tubers and cereal grains, and proteinoplasts, which store protein. Option A is wrong because gerontoplasts are chloroplasts that have aged, as in a leaf turning yellow in autumn. Option B is wrong because proteinoplasts, also called aleuroplasts, hold protein and not oil. Option C is wrong because chloroplasts are green, pigment-bearing plastids that carry out photosynthesis, so they are not leucoplasts at all. Exam tip: name the leucoplast by its store — amyloplast for starch, elaioplast for oil (elaion is Greek for oil), proteinoplast for protein.

The correct answer is D, Bihar. The Rajgir Zoo Safari stands at Rajgir in Nalanda district of Bihar, in the hills around the old Magadhan capital of Rajgriha. It was opened to visitors in 2022 and is laid out as a safari: people move through the enclosures in vehicles while tigers, lions, leopards, bears and herbivores range in open spaces. A glass bridge and a nature safari were built beside it, and the whole site sits within the wooded country of the Pant Wildlife Sanctuary. Option A is wrong because Tamil Nadu's best-known zoo is the Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur near Chennai. Option B is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has the Van Vihar National Park at Bhopal. Option C is wrong because Gujarat's Sakkarbaug Zoo at Junagadh is the one known for breeding Asiatic lions. Exam tip: remember Rajgir in Bihar for the zoo safari and the glass bridge, and Rajgriha as the first capital of Magadha.

The correct answer is Fundamental Duty. Article 51A(h) asks every citizen "to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform". It means questioning superstition, looking for evidence before believing a claim, and being open to change. India is one of the few countries whose Constitution asks its citizens to develop a scientific outlook.

The other options are the other parts of the Constitution that people confuse with the duties. A constitutional remedy is the right to move the Supreme Court or a High Court for the enforcement of a right, under Articles 32 and 226. The Fundamental Rights in Part III are guarantees that the State must respect, not duties that citizens must perform. The Directive Principles in Part IV are instructions to the State, not to citizens. Remember the difference in one line: rights are what the State owes you, directives are what the State should aim for, and duties are what you owe the nation.

The correct answer is Eighty - sixth amendment Act. The 86th Amendment Act, 2002 inserted clause (k) in Article 51A: "who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years." The same amendment made free and compulsory education for children of six to fourteen a Fundamental Right under Article 21A, and rewrote Article 45 so that it now covers early childhood care and education below six. It is the only amendment to the Fundamental Duties since they were introduced in 1976.

The other options are amendments from the same period on different subjects. The 81st (2000) and 82nd (2000) dealt with reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs, covering backlog vacancies and relaxed qualifying marks in promotions, and the 84th (2001) extended the freeze on the delimitation of constituencies. When you see "51A(k)", "21A" or "six to fourteen years" in a question, think of the 86th Amendment.

The correct answer is Forty - Second Amendment Act, 1976. Passed during the Emergency on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee, the 42nd Amendment inserted Part IVA and Article 51A with ten Fundamental Duties. It made so many changes to the Constitution, including adding "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" to the Preamble, that it is often called the "mini-Constitution".

The other amendments did different things. The 44th Amendment (1978) reversed many of the 42nd's changes, removed the right to property from the Fundamental Rights, and protected Articles 20 and 21 during an emergency. The 47th Amendment (1984) added more land reform laws to the Ninth Schedule. The 52nd Amendment (1985) brought in the anti-defection law through the Tenth Schedule. Remember that the Fundamental Duties have been amended only once since 1976: the 86th Amendment of 2002 added the eleventh duty, on the education of children.

The correct answer is A, 1927. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was formed in 1927 and was recognised by the International Olympic Committee the same year. Sir Dorabji Tata, who had helped fund India's team at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, was its first president, and Dr A. G. Noehren was its first secretary. The IOA is India's National Olympic Committee: it sends Indian teams to the Olympics, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, and its headquarters is in New Delhi. A year after it was formed, India won its first Olympic hockey gold at Amsterdam in 1928. B is wrong because by 1934 the IOA had already existed for seven years. C is wrong because 1928 is the year of India's first Olympic hockey gold, not the year the IOA was formed. D is wrong because 1943 is sixteen years too late. Exam tip: IOA 1927 with Dorabji Tata as first president; first hockey gold 1928; SAI 1984.

The correct answer is D, 1984. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) was set up by the Government of India in January 1984 as a registered society under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. It was created to make good use of the stadiums and facilities built for the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi and to train athletes for international events. Its headquarters is at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, and it runs training centres across the country, including the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports at Patiala. A is wrong because 1982 is the year India hosted the Asian Games in Delhi, which led to SAI's creation two years later. B is wrong because 1983 is remembered for India winning the Cricket World Cup under Kapil Dev. C is wrong because by 1987 SAI had already been working for three years. Exam tip: Asian Games in Delhi 1982, SAI formed 1984, headquarters at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi.

The correct answer is C, Vitamin B1. Thiamin (thiamine) is vitamin B1, a water-soluble vitamin that helps the body turn carbohydrates into energy and keeps the nerves and heart working well. Its deficiency causes beriberi, a disease that weakens the muscles and nerves. It was once common among people who ate mostly polished rice, because polishing removes the thiamin-rich outer layer of the grain. Good sources are whole grains, pulses, nuts and yeast. Being water-soluble, it is not stored in the body for long and must come from the daily diet. A is wrong because vitamin B2 is riboflavin, whose deficiency causes cracks at the corners of the mouth. B is wrong because vitamin B3 is niacin, whose deficiency causes pellagra. D is wrong because vitamin B12 is cobalamin, which contains cobalt, and its deficiency causes pernicious anaemia. Exam tip: B1 thiamin and beriberi; B2 riboflavin; B3 niacin and pellagra; B12 cobalamin and pernicious anaemia.

The correct answer is B, By increasing the efficiency of the combustion process. When coal, petrol or diesel burn with too little oxygen, the burning is incomplete and gives out carbon monoxide, soot and unburnt hydrocarbons, the worst pollutants from vehicles and power plants. Efficient, complete combustion turns more of the fuel into carbon dioxide and water and also gets more energy from each litre or kilogram, so less fuel has to be burnt. Catalytic converters in vehicles, which change carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides into less harmful gases, and cleaner fuels such as CNG work on the same idea. A is wrong because lowering the burning temperature leads to incomplete combustion and more smoke and carbon monoxide. C is wrong because adding more carbon only means more carbon dioxide and more soot. D is wrong because latent heat is the heat needed to change the state of a substance, such as ice to water, and has nothing to do with pollution from burning. Exam tip: complete combustion gives CO2 and water; incomplete combustion gives carbon monoxide and soot.

The correct answer is D, Reserve Bank of India. Under Section 22 of the RBI Act, 1934, the Reserve Bank has the sole right to issue banknotes in India. The RBI was set up on 1 April 1935 and nationalised in 1949, and its head office is in Mumbai. It issues notes under the Minimum Reserve System, keeping at least ₹200 crore in gold and foreign assets, of which ₹115 crore must be gold. One small exception is worth remembering: the one-rupee note and all coins are issued by the Government of India through the Ministry of Finance, while the RBI only puts them into circulation. A is wrong because the State Bank of India is the largest commercial bank but cannot print currency. B is wrong because no body called a 'Securities bank' has any power to issue currency in India. C is wrong because the World Bank is an international lender in Washington, D.C., and issues no country's currency. Exam tip: the RBI issues all notes except the one-rupee note, which, like coins, is issued by the Government of India.