SSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is 1950. The Estimates Committee of independent India was first constituted in 1950, on the recommendation of John Mathai, the Finance Minister. It examines the estimates included in the budget and suggests economies in public expenditure, improvements in organisation and alternative policies, which is why it is often called a "continuous economy committee". It has 30 members, all elected from the Lok Sabha each year, and ministers cannot be members.

The other years are close enough to tempt. 1947 is the year of independence, 1949 is when the Constitution was adopted, and 1948 has no link to the committee. For comparison, the Public Accounts Committee is older, having first been set up in 1921, and the Committee on Public Undertakings was set up in 1964, on the recommendation of the Krishna Menon Committee. Remember the three financial committees with their numbers: Public Accounts 22, Estimates 30 (all Lok Sabha), Public Undertakings 22.

The correct answer is Article 108. When the two Houses disagree on an ordinary bill, because one House rejects it, the Houses disagree on amendments, or more than six months pass without the other House passing it, the President can summon a joint sitting to resolve the deadlock. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides, and the bill is passed by a majority of the members of both Houses present and voting, which gives the larger Lok Sabha the advantage. Joint sittings have been held only three times: in 1961, 1978 and 2002.

The other options are real Articles with different content. Article 85 deals with the summoning, prorogation and dissolution of the Houses. Article 105 covers the powers, privileges and immunities of the Houses and their members. Article 331 allowed the President to nominate Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha, a provision that has now lapsed. Remember that a joint sitting cannot be used for a money bill or a constitutional amendment bill.

The correct answer is 14 days. Under Article 109, a money bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha. After the Lok Sabha passes it, the bill goes to the Rajya Sabha, which must return it within 14 days from the date of receipt, with or without recommendations. The Lok Sabha may accept or reject any of those recommendations. If the Rajya Sabha does not return the bill within 14 days, it is deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form in which the Lok Sabha passed it.

So the Rajya Sabha cannot reject or amend a money bill; it can only delay it by two weeks at most. Seven days, one month and twenty days are all wrong figures. Keep the related rules together: whether a bill is a money bill is decided by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, whose certificate is final (Article 110(3)); a money bill needs the President's recommendation to be introduced; and the President cannot return it for reconsideration. A joint sitting is never needed for a money bill.

The correct answer is Time immediately after Question Hour. In the Lok Sabha, Question Hour runs from 11 am to noon, and the period that begins at noon, when members raise urgent matters of public importance without the usual advance notice, is popularly called Zero Hour. It is an Indian innovation, in use since the early 1960s, and it is not mentioned in the Constitution or in the Rules of Procedure. Its name is usually traced to its starting time of 12 o'clock.

The other options place it wrongly. It is not a period in the last or first half of the day's proceedings as such, and in the Lok Sabha it does not come before Question Hour. One refinement is worth knowing for tougher papers: since 2014 the Rajya Sabha has taken up Zero Hour at 11 am and moved Question Hour to noon, so in the Rajya Sabha Zero Hour now comes first. The standard answer in exams, as here, describes the Lok Sabha.

The correct answer is President. After a general election, the Speaker of the outgoing Lok Sabha vacates office just before the new House first meets. To bridge the gap, the President appoints a member of the new Lok Sabha, usually the senior-most, as Speaker pro tem. The President administers the oath to the pro tem Speaker, who then presides over the first sitting, administers the oath to the newly elected members and conducts the election of the new Speaker. The office ends as soon as the Speaker is elected.

The Prime Minister does not appoint the pro tem Speaker; in practice the government suggests a name, but the appointment is the President's. The Chief Justice of India administers the oath to the President, not to members of the Lok Sabha, and has no role here. The Chief Election Commissioner conducts the general election but has nothing to do with the House once it is constituted. "Pro tem" is Latin for "for the time being", which describes the office exactly.

The correct answer is twelve. Under Article 80, the Rajya Sabha consists of 12 members nominated by the President and not more than 238 representatives of the States and Union Territories, a maximum of 250. The nominated members are chosen for their special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service; Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar and the composer Ilaiyaraaja are among those nominated over the years.

The wrong numbers have no basis in the Constitution. Remember too the contrast with the Lok Sabha: the President could once nominate two Anglo-Indian members to it under Article 331, but that provision lapsed in January 2020 after the 104th Amendment did not extend it. So today the President nominates members only to the Rajya Sabha. Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha can vote in the election of the Vice-President but not in the election of the President, a point examiners often combine with this one.

The correct answer is 79. Article 79 says: "There shall be a Parliament for the Union which shall consist of the President and two Houses to be known respectively as the Council of States and the House of the People." The President is therefore part of Parliament even though he or she sits in neither House, because no bill passed by the two Houses can become law without the President's assent, and it is the President who summons and prorogues the Houses.

The other options are nearby Articles on other subjects. Article 70 deals with the discharge of the President's functions in other contingencies. Article 73 sets out the extent of the executive power of the Union. Article 82 provides for the readjustment of seats after each census. The chapter on Parliament runs from Article 79 to Article 122, so remember 79 as its opening Article, followed by 80 (Rajya Sabha) and 81 (Lok Sabha).

The correct answer is C, Nyaya. Maharishi Gautama, also called Akshapada Gautama, founded the Nyaya school of Indian philosophy and wrote its basic text, the Nyaya Sutra. Nyaya is the school of logic: it holds that right knowledge is the way out of suffering, and it lays down four means of valid knowledge, namely perception, inference, comparison and reliable testimony. Its careful rules of debate and proof were used by every other school, which is why Nyaya is called the doorway to Indian philosophy. It is counted among the six orthodox or astika systems along with Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta. A is wrong because Samkhya was founded by Maharishi Kapila, who explained the world through Purusha and Prakriti. B is wrong because Yoga is credited to Patanjali and his Yoga Sutra. D is wrong because Vaisheshika was founded by Kanada, who built an early atomic theory. Exam tip: Kapila Samkhya, Patanjali Yoga, Gautama Nyaya, Kanada Vaisheshika, Jaimini Mimamsa, Badarayana Vedanta.

The correct answer is B, Sasaram. The tomb of Sher Shah Suri stands at Sasaram in the Rohtas district of Bihar, the town where he grew up. It is an octagonal tomb of grey sandstone, about 37 metres high, raised on a square platform in the middle of a large artificial lake so that it seems to float on the water, and it is reached by a causeway from the north. The architect was Mir Muhammad Aliwal Khan, and the work was finished in 1545 soon after Sher Shah died at Kalinjar. The design grew out of the tombs of the Lodis and is counted the high point of the Indo-Islamic style before the Mughals. A is wrong because Chausa is where Sher Shah defeated Humayun in 1539. C is wrong because Delhi holds his Purana Qila and the Qila-i-Kuhna mosque, not his grave. D is wrong because Rohtasgarh is the hill fort he captured, not his burial place. Exam tip: born in Sasaram, died at Kalinjar in 1545, buried in the lake tomb at Sasaram.

The correct answer is A, 1780-1784. The Second Anglo-Mysore War ran from 1780 to 1784. It began when the English took Mahe, a French port inside Haidar Ali's territory, and he answered by attacking the Carnatic. In 1780 he crushed Colonel Baillie's force at Pollilur, one of the worst English defeats in India, and Warren Hastings had to send Sir Eyre Coote south, who beat Haidar Ali at Porto Novo in 1781. Haidar Ali died of cancer in December 1782 and his son Tipu Sultan carried the war on. It closed with the Treaty of Mangalore in March 1784, under which both sides returned their conquests; it is remembered as the last treaty whose terms an Indian ruler set for the English. B is wrong because no Anglo-Mysore war was fought in 1769-1775. C is wrong because 1785-1789 was a break between wars. D is wrong because the first war was fought in 1767-1769 and ended with the Treaty of Madras. Exam tip: First 1767-69 Madras, Second 1780-84 Mangalore, Third 1790-92 Seringapatam, Fourth 1799.

The correct answer is B, Ctrl + Alt + I. In MS Word 365 the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + I switches the document to print preview and, pressed again, brings you back to the normal view. Print preview shows the page exactly as it will come out of the printer, with the margins, headers, page breaks and page numbers in place, so it is used for a last check before printing. The same screen is reached from the File menu by choosing Print, where Ctrl + P also takes you. A is wrong because Ctrl + Alt + P switches Word to the reading or outline area, not to print preview. C is wrong because Alt + P only opens the Layout tab of the ribbon through the key tips. D is wrong because Alt + I is an old menu key for Insert and does not open a preview. Exam tip: Ctrl + P print, Ctrl + Alt + I print preview toggle, Ctrl + F2 also opens print preview in Word.

The correct answer is C, 100. Use the third equation of motion, which links velocity and distance without needing time: v squared equals u squared plus 2as. Here u is 10 m/s, v is 30 m/s and a is 4 m/s2, so 900 equals 100 plus 8s, giving 8s equal to 800 and s equal to 100 metres. The same answer comes the long way round: the time taken is (30 minus 10) divided by 4, that is 5 seconds, and the average velocity of uniformly accelerated motion is (10 plus 30) divided by 2, that is 20 m/s, so the displacement is 20 times 5, again 100 metres. A is wrong because 200 comes from leaving out the initial velocity and taking v squared as 2as with u equal to zero. B is wrong because 250 follows no correct step here. D is wrong because 125 comes from using the wrong time of 5 seconds with a mistaken average of 25 m/s. Exam tip: the three equations are v = u + at, s = ut + half at squared, and v squared = u squared + 2as.

The correct answer is D, Deogarh. The Dashavatara Temple stands at Deogarh in the Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Betwa, and was built of stone around the sixth century in the late Gupta period. It is dedicated to Vishnu and is named after the ten incarnations shown on its walls, where the panels of Sheshashayi Vishnu, Nara-Narayana and Gajendramoksha are the best known. The temple is the earliest surviving example in north India of the Panchayatana plan, in which the main shrine stands on a raised platform with four smaller shrines at the corners, and it also carries an early curved shikhara that leads on to the Nagara style. A is wrong because Nachna-Kuthara in Madhya Pradesh has the Parvati temple, not this one. B is wrong because Bhitargaon near Kanpur is the well-known Gupta temple built of brick. C is wrong because Tigawa in Madhya Pradesh has the small flat-roofed Kankali Devi temple. Exam tip: Deogarh Dashavatara, stone, Panchayatana; Bhitargaon, brick; both Gupta work.

The correct answer is D, 1765. Robert Clive signed the two Treaties of Allahabad in August 1765, the year after the English won the Battle of Buxar. By the first, Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh got his territory back except Kara and Allahabad, paid fifty lakh rupees as war costs and became a dependent ally who would help pay for English troops in his state. By the second, the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II was given Kara and Allahabad and an annual pension of twenty-six lakh rupees, and in return he granted the Company the Diwani, the right to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. That grant began the dual government in Bengal, where the Company held the purse and the Nawab held the duties of administration. A is wrong because 1764 is the year of the Battle of Buxar. B and C are wrong because no such treaty was signed in 1767 or 1766. Exam tip: Plassey 1757, Buxar 1764, Treaties of Allahabad and Diwani rights 1765.

The correct answer is D, Article 168. Article 168 provides for the constitution of Legislatures in the states. It says every state shall have a Legislature made up of the Governor and either one House or two Houses. Where there are two, they are the Legislative Assembly or Vidhan Sabha and the Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad; the other states have an Assembly alone. The Governor is counted as part of the Legislature even though he does not sit in either House, because a bill becomes law only after his assent. Article 169 allows Parliament to create or abolish a Council when the Assembly of that state passes a resolution by a special majority, which is how the number of states with a Council keeps changing. A is wrong because Article 167 lists the Chief Minister's duty to furnish information to the Governor. B is wrong because Article 165 provides for the Advocate General of a state. C is wrong because Article 163 deals with the Council of Ministers that aids and advises the Governor. Exam tip: 163 aid and advice, 165 Advocate General, 167 Chief Minister's duties, 168 constitution of the state Legislature.

The correct answer is A, Joystick. A joystick is an input device with a stick fixed in a base that can be tilted in several directions, and the movement of the stick moves an image or a pointer on the screen in the same direction. It was first built for aircraft controls, and today it is used for computer games, flight simulators, wheelchairs and cranes. Most joysticks also carry buttons and a trigger, and the base sends the direction and the amount of tilt to the computer, so it is an analog pointing device like the mouse, the trackball and the light pen. B is wrong because an Optical Mark Reader only reads pencil marks on answer sheets and forms. C is wrong because a Visual Display Unit is the monitor, which is an output device and controls nothing. D is wrong because MIDI devices such as electronic keyboards carry music data between instruments and a computer. Exam tip: joystick, mouse, trackball, light pen and touch screen are pointing input devices; the monitor and printer are output devices.

The correct answer is D, 40. Power is the rate of doing work, so power equals work divided by time. Here the work is 120 J and the time is 3 seconds, which gives 120 divided by 3, that is 40 watts. The watt is the SI unit of power and one watt means one joule of work done in one second; 746 watts make one horsepower, the older unit still used for engines. Remember that power tells you how fast the work is done, not how much: an engine that does the same 120 J in 6 seconds has only 20 W of power. A is wrong because 360 comes from multiplying 120 by 3 instead of dividing. B is wrong because 80 does not follow from any correct step with these figures. C is wrong because 180 comes from mistakenly taking three halves of the work. Exam tip: power equals work divided by time, its unit is the watt, and 1 horsepower equals 746 watts.

The correct answer is A, Odisha. The Lingaraja Temple stands in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, and is the largest temple in that city. It was built in the eleventh century, mainly under the Somavamshi ruler Jajati Keshari and completed by the Ganga rulers, and is dedicated to Shiva as Tribhuvaneshwara, the lord of three worlds. The temple is the finest example of the Kalinga or Nagara style of eastern India, with a tall curved tower about 55 metres high and four parts in a line: the vimana for the deity, the jagamohana or assembly hall, the natamandira for dance and the bhogamandapa for offerings. The deity here is worshipped as both Shiva and Vishnu, called Harihara. B is wrong because Karnataka is known for the Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu. C is wrong because Maharashtra has the rock-cut Kailasa temple at Ellora. D is wrong because Tamil Nadu has the Dravidian temples of Thanjavur and Madurai. Exam tip: Lingaraja Bhubaneswar, Kalinga style, with Mukteshwara and Rajarani temples in the same city.

The correct answer is A, Maulvi Liaquat Ali. Maulvi Liaquat Ali of Mahgaon village led the revolt of 1857 at Allahabad, now Prayagraj. He was declared governor of the city by the rebels, set up his headquarters at Khusro Bagh and held the town for about a fortnight in June 1857 before Colonel Neill retook it with troops moving up from Calcutta. He escaped, stayed underground for fourteen years and was caught at Bombay in 1871, then transported for life to the Andaman Islands. C is wrong because Khan Bahadur Khan, a grandson of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, led the revolt at Bareilly. B is wrong because Tatya Tope fought at Kanpur beside Nana Saheb and later at Gwalior with the Rani. D is wrong because Rani Lakshmibai led the fighting at Jhansi and died near Gwalior in June 1858. Exam tip: Allahabad Maulvi Liaquat Ali, Kanpur Nana Saheb, Lucknow Begum Hazrat Mahal, Bareilly Khan Bahadur Khan, Jhansi Rani Lakshmibai, Faizabad Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah.

The correct answer is B, Fundamental rights. Fundamental rights are the one set of provisions here that a court can enforce directly. They are placed in Part III of the Constitution, Articles 12 to 35, and Article 32 lets a person move the Supreme Court itself when such a right is broken, while Article 226 lets them move a High Court. The courts issue five writs for this purpose: habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari and quo warranto. Dr B. R. Ambedkar called Article 32 the heart and soul of the Constitution because the right to a remedy is itself a fundamental right. A is wrong because the Preamble only states the aims of the Constitution; it cannot be enforced in a court, though judges use it to read an unclear provision. C is wrong because the Directive Principles in Part IV are expressly non-justiciable under Article 37 and work as goals for the government. D is wrong because the Fundamental Duties in Article 51A carry no direct court remedy. Exam tip: Part III is justiciable, Part IV is not, and Article 32 is the remedy.