SSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is B, Lala Lajpat Rai. The All India Trade Union Congress was formed in Bombay in October 1920 and Lala Lajpat Rai was elected its first President, with Dewan Chaman Lall as the first General Secretary. The body was set up partly so that India could send worker delegates to the International Labour Organisation, which had come up in 1919, and it became the first central trade union organisation in the country. Lajpat Rai, one of the Lal Bal Pal trio, linked the cause of labour with the national movement and died in 1928 after a lathi charge during the protest against the Simon Commission. A is wrong because C Rajagopalachari presided over the AITUC much later, not at its founding. C is wrong because Chandra Shekhar Azad was a revolutionary, not a trade union leader. D is wrong because Motilal Nehru led the Swaraj Party. Exam tip: AITUC 1920, Lala Lajpat Rai President, Dewan Chaman Lall Secretary.

The correct answer is A, Humayun Shah. Mahmud Gawan, a Persian trader and scholar who came to the Bahmani court in 1453, was given the title Malik ut Tujjar, meaning Chief of the Merchants, by Sultan Humayun Shah, who ruled from 1458 to 1461. Gawan later became the wazir and ran the kingdom for nearly twenty years, dividing it into eight provinces to curb the power of the governors, reforming the revenue survey and building the famous madrasa at Bidar. The nobles who lost by his reforms forged a letter against him and he was executed in 1481. B is wrong because Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah founded the kingdom in 1347, long before Gawan arrived. C is wrong because Muhammad Shah III was the ruler under whom Gawan served as wazir, not the one who gave him this title. D is wrong because Feroz Shah Bahmani ruled earlier, from 1397 to 1422. Exam tip: Gawan, Malik ut Tujjar, Bidar madrasa, executed 1481.

The correct answer is B, Rural Cooperatives. Rural cooperative credit societies were the microfinance structure already in place when India became independent. They began with the Cooperative Credit Societies Act of 1904, which was passed to free village borrowers from moneylenders, and by 1947 a three tier structure of primary societies, district central cooperative banks and state cooperative banks was working across the provinces. The later forms of microfinance came much later. A is wrong because Joint Liability Groups were introduced by NABARD only in 2004 05 for small tenant farmers who lack land papers. C is wrong because the Self Help Group movement grew from the 1980s, and the SHG Bank Linkage Programme started as a pilot in 1992. D is wrong because the Grameen model belongs to Bangladesh, where Muhammad Yunus began it in the 1970s, and it reached India afterwards. Exam tip: cooperatives 1904, SHG Bank Linkage 1992, Joint Liability Groups 2004.

The correct answer is A, Article 85. Article 85 of the Constitution deals with the sessions of Parliament, its prorogation and the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. It requires the President to summon each House so that not more than six months pass between the last sitting of one session and the first sitting of the next, which is why Parliament must meet at least twice a year, though in practice it holds three sessions, budget, monsoon and winter. B is wrong because Article 89 deals with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. C is wrong because Article 90 covers the vacation and resignation of the office of Deputy Chairman. D is wrong because Article 101 deals with the vacation of seats by members, including the rule about being absent for sixty days. Exam tip: Article 85 summons, prorogation and dissolution, with the six month gap rule between two sessions.

The correct answer is B, NR Narayana Murthy. A Better India: A Better World was written by N R Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys, and published in 2009. The book collects his lectures and talks to students and business audiences, and argues that India will improve only through honest institutions, respect for public money and what he calls compassionate capitalism, in which business creates jobs and pays its taxes rather than seeking favours. Narayana Murthy started Infosys in 1981 with six colleagues and a small sum borrowed from his wife Sudha Murty. A is wrong because Shashi Tharoor wrote An Era of Darkness and The Great Indian Novel. C is wrong because Ratan Tata has not written such a book, though several biographies of him exist. D is wrong because Gurcharan Das wrote India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good. Exam tip: Narayana Murthy, Infosys, A Better India A Better World, 2009.

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 D, Chandela Dynasty. The Khajuraho temples in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh were built between about 950 and 1050 CE by the Chandela rulers of Bundelkhand, among them Yashovarman, who built the Lakshmana temple, and Dhanga and Vidyadhara, under whom the large Kandariya Mahadeva temple came up. About twenty five of the original eighty five temples survive, built in the Nagara style on high platforms with rising spires and famous carved figures, and the group has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986. A is wrong because the Gurjara Pratiharas ruled from Kannauj and are linked with temples at Osian. B is wrong because the Rashtrakutas built the rock cut Kailasa temple at Ellora. C is wrong because the Palas of Bengal and Bihar built Buddhist monasteries such as Vikramshila. Exam tip: Khajuraho, Chandelas, Nagara style, Madhya Pradesh, World Heritage Site 1986.

The correct answer is A, MS Subbulakshmi. M S Subbulakshmi, the Carnatic vocalist from Madurai, received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1974 in the category of public service, the first Indian musician to be honoured by that award. She was also the first musician to be given the Bharat Ratna, in 1998, and she is remembered for singing at the United Nations General Assembly in 1966 and for the Suprabhatam and Bhaja Govindam recordings heard in homes every morning. The Magsaysay Award, named after a President of the Philippines, is often called Asia's Nobel Prize. B is wrong because Zakir Hussain, the tabla player, has not been given this award. C is wrong because Bhimsen Joshi received the Bharat Ratna in 2008 but not the Magsaysay. D is wrong because Bismillah Khan, the shehnai player, received the Bharat Ratna in 2001. Exam tip: Subbulakshmi, Magsaysay 1974, Bharat Ratna 1998, first musician for both.

The correct answer is D, Section 7. Section 7 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 lets the Central Government, after consulting the Governor, give the Reserve Bank such directions as it thinks necessary in the public interest, and it also allows the Governor and the Central Board to be superseded in that sense. The power has never been used formally, but it was discussed publicly in 2018 when the government and the Reserve Bank differed over lending rules and liquidity, which is why the section became an exam favourite. A is wrong because Section 5 deals with the offices and branches of the Bank. B is wrong because Section 1 only gives the short title and extent of the Act. C is wrong because Section 3 provides for the establishment and incorporation of the Reserve Bank itself. Exam tip: RBI Act 1934, Section 7 for government directions, Section 3 for the Bank's establishment, and the Bank began work on 1 April 1935.

The correct answer is A, Punjab National Bank. The slogan The Name you can Bank Upon belongs to Punjab National Bank. PNB was set up in 1894 at Lahore and was the first Indian bank started wholly with Indian capital, with Lala Lajpat Rai among those behind it; its head office is now in New Delhi. Taglines like this are asked often because each large bank keeps one for years, and PNB has used this line through its branding. B is wrong because the State Bank of India uses The Banker to Every Indian, and earlier With you all the way. C is wrong because HDFC Bank uses We understand your world. D is wrong because Canara Bank uses Together We Can. Exam tip: pair the bank with its line and its founding year, PNB 1894 Lahore and The Name you can Bank Upon, SBI 1955 and The Banker to Every Indian.

The correct answer is B, Sarangi. Ustad Sultan Khan was one of the best known sarangi players of recent times. He belonged to the Sikar gharana of Rajasthan, learnt from his father Ustad Gulab Khan, and played the instrument both in classical concerts and in film music, where his voice and bow were heard in songs such as Albela Sajan and Piya Basanti. He was a founder member of the group Tabla Beat Science with Zakir Hussain and was given the Padma Bhushan. The sarangi is a short necked bowed instrument whose sound is said to come closest to the human voice, which is why it long accompanied vocalists. A is wrong because drums are struck, not bowed, and no drum tradition names him. C is wrong because the tabla is linked with players such as Zakir Hussain and Alla Rakha. D is wrong because the flute is linked with Hariprasad Chaurasia. Exam tip: sarangi, Sultan Khan, closest to the human voice.

The correct answer is C, Giani Zail Singh. Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister on 31 October 1984, the day his mother Indira Gandhi was assassinated, and Giani Zail Singh, who was President from 1982 to 1987, administered the oath. Zail Singh was the first Sikh to hold the office and had earlier been Chief Minister of Punjab and Union Home Minister. The swearing in shows the President's power under Article 75, by which the Prime Minister is appointed by the President and the other ministers are appointed on the Prime Minister's advice. A is wrong because R Venkataraman became President only in 1987. B is wrong because Shankar Dayal Sharma became President in 1992, after serving as Vice President. D is wrong because N Sanjiva Reddy's term ended in 1982. Exam tip: Zail Singh 1982 to 1987, Venkataraman 1987 to 1992, Sharma 1992 to 1997.

The correct answer is A, Lysosome. The lysosome is a small sac bound by a single membrane that is filled with digestive enzymes, so it breaks down food particles taken into the cell and clears out worn out parts of the cell itself. Because it can digest the whole cell when the membrane bursts, for example when the cell is injured or starving, it is often called the suicide bag of the cell, a name given by Christian de Duve, who discovered it. Its enzymes work best in an acidic setting, which the lysosome keeps inside itself. B is wrong because peroxisomes handle oxidation reactions and break down hydrogen peroxide rather than acting as the digestive system. C is wrong because glyoxysomes are found in fatty plant seeds and convert stored fat into sugar. D is wrong because a polysome is only a group of ribosomes reading one mRNA strand. Exam tip: lysosome, single membrane, suicide bag, de Duve.

The correct answer is B, Raigad. Raigad is the hill fort in Maharashtra that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj made his capital, and it has nothing to do with the Buddha. The Ashta Mahasthana are the eight places tied to the main events of the Buddha's life: Lumbini where he was born, Bodh Gaya where he gained enlightenment, Sarnath where he gave his first sermon, Kushinagar where he died, and Sravasti, Rajgir, Sankasya and Vaishali, each linked to a miracle or an important episode of his teaching years. A is wrong because Sarnath, near Varanasi, is where the wheel of law was first turned. C is wrong because Lumbini in Nepal is the birthplace. D is wrong because Bodh Gaya in Bihar is where he sat under the Bodhi tree. Exam tip: remember the core four first, Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar, then add the other four.

The correct answer is D, Guler Paintings – Karnataka, because this pair is the wrong one. Guler painting belongs to Himachal Pradesh, not Karnataka. Guler, a small hill state in the Kangra valley, is where the Pahari school took its gentle new form in the eighteenth century under artists of the Seu family, and from there it grew into the famous Kangra style of soft lines and green hill landscapes. A is a correct pair, since Phad is the long cloth scroll painting of Rajasthan that tells the story of folk gods such as Pabuji and Devnarayan. B is a correct pair, as Saura painting is the wall art of the Saura tribe of Odisha, close in look to Warli. C is a correct pair, because the Bagh paintings are the cave murals near the Bagh caves in Madhya Pradesh. Exam tip: Guler and Kangra are both Pahari schools of Himachal Pradesh.

The correct answer is B, 1999. Pandit Ravi Shankar received the Bharat Ratna in 1999, along with Amartya Sen and Gopinath Bordoloi. He was the sitar player who carried Hindustani classical music to concert halls abroad, worked with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and taught George Harrison of the Beatles, and he played at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. He had already been given the Padma Bhushan in 1967 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1981, so the Bharat Ratna was the last of the three. A is wrong because 1998 was the year of the awards to M S Subbulakshmi and C Subramaniam. C is wrong because no Bharat Ratna was conferred in 1996. D is wrong because the 1995 conferment does not include him. Exam tip: Ravi Shankar, sitar, Bharat Ratna 1999, in the same year as economist Amartya Sen.

The correct answer is C, Odissi. Laxmipriya Mohapatra was an Odissi dancer from Odisha and one of the first women to perform the form on stage in its modern revival. She trained under the Gotipua tradition and later worked with her husband Kelucharan Mohapatra, the guru who shaped much of today's Odissi repertoire, helping to build the style's stage grammar in the 1950s and 1960s. She was honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for her work. Odissi grew out of the temple dance of the Jagannath shrine at Puri and is known for the tribhanga stance and soft, sculpture-like poses. A is wrong because Sattriya is the dance of the Vaishnava monasteries of Assam. B is wrong because Kathakali is the masked dance-drama of Kerala. D is wrong because Kuchipudi belongs to Andhra Pradesh and began as a village dance-drama. Exam tip: Odissi, Odisha, tribhanga, and the Mohapatra family of dancers.

The correct answer is A, ₹2,000. Section 141 of the Electricity Act, 2003 deals with the extinguishing of public lamps and says that whoever maliciously puts out a public lamp shall be punished with a fine which may extend to two thousand rupees. The Act replaced the earlier laws of 1910, 1948 and 1998 and brought the generation, transmission, distribution and trading of electricity under one statute; its neighbouring sections cover offences such as theft of electricity under Section 135 and damage to electrical works. The amount here is a ceiling, so a court may impose less. B is wrong because three thousand rupees is not the limit fixed by this section. C is wrong because the section makes no mention of two thousand five hundred rupees. D is wrong because five thousand rupees is higher than the maximum the section allows. Exam tip: Electricity Act, 2003 - Section 135 theft of electricity, Section 141 extinguishing public lamps with a fine up to ₹2,000.

The correct answer is D, Field hockey. A 16-yard hit is the free hit given to the defending team in field hockey when an attacker sends the ball over the back line without a goal being scored. The ball is placed in line with the point where it crossed the line, 16 yards or about 14.63 metres out from the inner edge of the back line, and a defender takes the hit while opponents stand at least five metres away. The same hit is awarded when an attacking player commits an offence inside the shooting circle. A is wrong because golf is measured in holes, pars and the yardage of fairways and has no such hit. B is wrong because lawn tennis uses terms such as deuce, ace, let and smash. C is wrong because cricket's restarts are the no-ball, the wide and a free hit of an entirely different kind. Exam tip: hockey terms - 16-yard hit, penalty corner, and the penalty stroke taken from 6.4 metres.

The correct answer is B, Silver. The Bombay Stock Exchange became the first stock exchange in India to enter commodity derivatives when it launched futures contracts in gold and silver on 1 October 2018. This followed the decision of the Securities and Exchange Board of India to allow a single exchange to deal in both securities and commodities from that date, ending the wall that had kept stock exchanges and commodity exchanges apart. BSE, set up in 1875, is Asia's oldest stock exchange, its benchmark index is the Sensex and it works under SEBI. A is wrong because diamond is not traded as a commodity derivative on the exchange. C is wrong because platinum was not part of that launch. D is wrong because equity is a security, not a commodity, and equity derivatives had been traded long before 2018. Exam tip: BSE founded in 1875, Asia's oldest exchange; gold and silver commodity derivatives from 1 October 2018; the regulator is SEBI.