SSC 2024 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, Kui. Kui is the language of the Kondh (Kandha) tribe of Odisha and is grouped with Telugu and Gondi in the south-central or south-eastern branch of the Dravidian family. It is spoken mainly in Kandhamal, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Koraput and Boudh districts, is written in the Odia script, and has a rich body of oral songs and folk tales. The Odisha cabinet cleared a proposal in July 2023 recommending that Kui be placed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, which began with fourteen languages in 1950 and now lists twenty-two, Odia among them. Option B is wrong because Malto is a North Dravidian language of the Rajmahal hills in Jharkhand and West Bengal. Option C is wrong because Tulu belongs to coastal Karnataka and Kasaragod in Kerala, and Karnataka has pressed its own case. Option D is wrong because Kodagu is spoken in the Kodagu district of Karnataka. Exam tip: Brahui, Kurukh and Malto are North Dravidian; Kui and Gondi sit with Telugu.

The correct answer is D, Dharmapala. Dharmapala, the second and greatest ruler of the Pala dynasty of Bengal and Bihar, founded Vikramshila Vishwavidyalaya in the late eighth century at a site in present-day Bhagalpur district of Bihar. He also founded the monastery at Odantapuri, and under the Palas these became the great Buddhist seats of learning after Nalanda. Vikramshila specialised in Tantric Buddhism, and its best-known head was Atisha Dipankara Srijnana, who carried Buddhism to Tibet. The university was destroyed around 1193 during Bakhtiyar Khalji's raids. Dharmapala also fought the tripartite struggle for Kannauj and placed Chakrayudha on its throne. Option C is wrong because Mahipala I only revived Pala power and repaired monasteries. Option A is wrong because Ramapala was a much later Pala king, the subject of Sandhyakar Nandi's Ramacharitam. Option B is wrong because Govindapala was the last ruler of the line. Exam tip: Nalanda goes to Kumaragupta I, Odantapuri and Vikramshila to Dharmapala.

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 conduct of business of the Government of India. Article 77 says all executive action of the Government of India shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President, and that the President shall make rules for the more convenient transaction of the government's business and for allocating it among ministers. These are the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules and the Transaction of Business Rules, under which each ministry knows its subjects.

The three other options all concern the Vice-President, and they come from a different set of Articles: the office of Vice-President is created by Article 63, the term of office is in Article 67, and the oath is in Article 69. Examiners mix them in because the Articles are close together. Remember the sequence of the executive Articles: 74 Council of Ministers, 75 appointment and rules, 76 Attorney General, 77 conduct of business, and 78 the Prime Minister's duties towards the President.

The correct answer is D, Nepal. After India, Nepal has both the largest number of Hindus and the largest Hindu share of any country, with roughly four out of five Nepalis following the faith. Nepal was the world's only officially Hindu kingdom until 2007-08, when the interim constitution and then the new republic declared it a secular federal state. Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu and Janakpur, linked in tradition with Sita, are among its best known Hindu centres. Option A is wrong because Bhutan is a small country whose state religion is Vajrayana Buddhism, with Hindus a minority of Nepali origin. Option B is wrong because Sri Lanka is Buddhist-majority and its Hindus, mostly Tamils, form a far smaller community than Nepal's. Option C is wrong because Myanmar is also Buddhist-majority, with only a small Hindu population of Indian descent. Exam tip: remember Nepal as the Hindu-majority neighbour and Bhutan as the Buddhist one.

The correct answer is C, M.S. Subbulakshmi. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi, the Carnatic vocalist, received the Bharat Ratna in 1998 and was the first singer and the first musician of any kind to be given the award. She was also the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, in 1974, and she sang at the United Nations General Assembly in 1966. Her rendering of the Venkateswara Suprabhatam and of Vaishnava Jana To is still heard every morning in temples and homes. The Bharat Ratna, instituted in 1954, is India's highest civilian honour and is given for exceptional service in any field. Option A is wrong because Zakir Hussain is a tabla player who was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, not the Bharat Ratna. Option B is wrong because A.R. Rahman, a composer, holds the Padma Bhushan. Option D is wrong because R.D. Burman, a music director, never received the Bharat Ratna. Exam tip: M.S. Subbulakshmi in 1998 was the first musician, and Lata Mangeshkar in 2001 the second singer to receive it.

The correct answer is C, 1949. The Reserve Bank opened in 1935 as a shareholders' bank with privately held share capital. Parliament passed the Reserve Bank of India (Transfer to Public Ownership) Act in 1948, and the transfer took effect from 1 January 1949, since when the Bank has been wholly owned by the Government of India.

Option A, 1947, is the year of independence, when the Reserve Bank was still privately owned and was in fact acting as the common central bank for both India and Pakistan until mid-1948. Option B, 1948, is the year the enabling Act was passed and is the trap in this question: the Act is of 1948, the nationalisation of 1949. Option D, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force and the Planning Commission was set up, neither of which touches the ownership of the Bank. The Banking Regulation Act also dates from 1949.

The correct answer is C, Gol Gumbaz. Gol Gumbaz, the tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah, carries the dome long described as the second largest in the world after St Peter's Basilica in Rome. It stands at Vijayapura, the old Bijapur, in Karnataka and was completed in 1656 for the seventh ruler of the Adil Shahi dynasty of the Deccan. The dome is about 44 metres across and rests on intersecting arches, so the hall below it needs no pillars and is one of the largest single chambers under one roof anywhere. A gallery running inside the drum, the Whispering Gallery, carries even a soft sound around the ring, and the building is as famous for that echo as for its size. Option A is wrong because GlampEco is not a monument. Option B is wrong because Teela names no such dome. Option D is wrong because the Calico Dome was a modern structure in Ahmedabad, not a historic tomb. Exam tip: Gol Gumbaz means Vijayapura, the Adil Shahi dynasty and the Whispering Gallery.

The correct answer is C, Ctrl + M. In Microsoft PowerPoint, pressing Ctrl + M adds a new slide right after the one you are on, using the layout of the current slide. Think of M for 'more slides', which makes it easy to recall. Other shortcuts worth knowing in PowerPoint are F5 to start the show from the first slide, Shift + F5 to start from the current slide, Esc to end the show, and Ctrl + S to save. Option A is wrong because Ctrl + N opens a brand new blank presentation, not a slide. Option B is wrong because Ctrl + D duplicates the slide that is selected, copying its content as well. Option D is wrong because Ctrl + I turns the selected text italic, just as it does in Word and Excel. Exam tip: Ctrl + M new slide, Ctrl + D duplicate slide, Ctrl + N new file, F5 to run the slide show.

The correct answer is A, Chahamana. The Bijolia rock inscription, at Bijolia in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, is dated to 1170 CE, in the reign of Someshvara, and it sets out the family line of the Chahamanas, the Chauhans of Shakambhari. Written in Sanskrit, it was engraved near a Parshvanatha temple by the Jain merchant Lolaka, and it names the rulers from Samantaraja down to Someshvara, the father of Prithviraj Chauhan. Historians value it because it calls the Chahamanas Brahmins of the Vatsa gotra and gives the old names of places such as Ajayameru for Ajmer. Option B is wrong because the Chandelas of Bundelkhand, builders of Khajuraho, are known from the Khajuraho and Mau inscriptions. Option C is wrong because the Paramaras of Malwa appear in the Udaipur Prashasti. Option D is wrong because the Gahadavalas of Kannauj are known from the Chandrawati and other copper plates. Exam tip: Bijolia - Chahamanas; Khajuraho - Chandelas; Udaipur Prashasti - Paramaras.

The correct answer is C, 14°N. In the summer months the tropical easterly jet stream blows over peninsular India at about 14°N, some 15 km above the ground, and it moves from east to west. It appears only after the subtropical westerly jet has withdrawn north of the Himalayas and the upper air circulation over India has reversed, and it helps the south-west monsoon burst and keep going; it is strongest over the southern peninsula and the Arabian Sea. Option A is wrong because 24°N crosses central India, well north of the jet's summer core. Option B is wrong because 30°N is roughly where the subtropical westerly jet sits over the northern plains in winter, not where the easterly jet blows. Option D is wrong because 28°N is near the latitude of Delhi, again a winter westerly position. Exam tip: in winter the subtropical westerly jet lies at about 25°N to 30°N south of the Himalayas, and in summer the tropical easterly jet lies at about 14°N over the peninsula.

The correct answer is D, Bharat Ratna. Lata Mangeshkar received the Bharat Ratna in 2001, becoming the second singer after M.S. Subbulakshmi to be given the country's highest civilian honour. She had recorded songs for more than a thousand Hindi films and sung in over thirty languages, and was widely called the Nightingale of India. The Bharat Ratna is awarded for exceptional service in any field of human endeavour and carries no title and no cash grant, only a sanad signed by the President and a peepal-leaf medallion. Option A is wrong because her Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award came in 1993. Option B is wrong because she had already received the Padma Vibhushan in 1999. Option C is wrong because the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest honour in cinema, was given to her in 1989. Exam tip: fix her order of honours — Padma Shri 1969, Dadasaheb Phalke 1989, Padma Vibhushan 1999, Bharat Ratna 2001.

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 Verma Committee. In 1999 the Committee on the Fundamental Duties of Citizens, headed by Justice J.S. Verma, a former Chief Justice of India, looked at how the duties could be made operational. It identified the laws already in force that give effect to some of them, such as the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and laws on wildlife and forests, and suggested ways to teach the duties.

The other committees dealt with other subjects. The L.M. Singhvi Committee (1986) recommended constitutional status for local self-government institutions, which led towards the 73rd and 74th Amendments. The Vasantrao Naik Committee was set up by Maharashtra on democratic decentralisation and panchayati raj. The Rajamannar Committee (1969) was appointed by the Tamil Nadu government to study Centre-State relations. For the Fundamental Duties remember two committees: Swaran Singh (1976) recommended them, and Verma (1999) looked at how to make them work.

The correct answer is To protect and improve the natural environment. Teaching people to turn kitchen waste into compost for a park reduces waste and enriches the soil, which is exactly what Article 51A(g) asks for: to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures. It matches the Directive Principle in Article 48A, which asks the State to protect the environment.

The other duties do not fit the activity as closely. Striving towards excellence, clause (j), is about raising the nation's achievements in every field. Safeguarding public property and abjuring violence, clause (i), is about not damaging what belongs to the public. Developing the scientific temper, clause (h), is about questioning and reasoning, and although making compost involves some science, the purpose of the session is environmental. This kind of situation-based question is becoming common in SSC papers, so practise linking everyday actions to the clause they fulfil.

The correct answer is To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity. The tenth Fundamental Duty is clause (j) of Article 51A, which continues: "so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement". It was also the last of the ten duties added in 1976, which is why it is sometimes described as the concluding duty of the original list.

The other options sit at different positions in the list. Developing the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform is clause (h), the eighth duty. Cherishing and following the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom is clause (b), the second. Providing opportunities for education to a child or ward between six and fourteen is clause (k), the eleventh, added in 2002. Counting is easy once you know the letters: (a) is the first duty, so (j), the tenth letter, is the tenth duty and (k) the eleventh.

The correct answer is To safeguard public property and to abjure violence. That is the duty in Article 51A(i). It asks citizens not to damage buses, trains, roads, government buildings and other public property, and to reject violence, for example during protests. Parliament has also made damage to public property a criminal offence through the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.

The other options are duties from different clauses. To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture is clause (f). To defend the country and render national service when called upon is clause (d). To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India is clause (c). Clause-matching questions are common, so it helps to link each letter with a keyword: (a) Constitution, Flag and Anthem; (c) sovereignty; (d) defence; (e) harmony and women's dignity; (f) composite culture; (g) environment; (h) scientific temper; (i) public property; (j) excellence; (k) education.

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.