SSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, Epithelial tissue. Epithelium covers the body and lines its organs, so it is the protective tissue.

It forms the outer layer of the skin, the lining of the mouth, stomach, intestine, blood vessels and kidney tubules. Its cells sit tightly packed with almost no material between them, resting on a basement membrane, and they act as a barrier against germs, injury and water loss. Epithelium also takes part in absorption and secretion, which is why glands are made of it. Its types are squamous, cuboidal, columnar, ciliated and glandular.

Option A is wrong because muscular tissue contracts to produce movement. Option B is wrong as nervous tissue carries impulses and controls responses. Option D is wrong because connective tissue, such as bone, cartilage, blood and adipose tissue, joins and supports other tissues rather than covering the body.

Exam tip: the four animal tissues - epithelial protects, muscular moves, nervous conducts, connective supports.

The correct answer is A, Moth. Silk comes from the cocoon spun by the caterpillar of a moth.

The common silk moth is Bombyx mori, and rearing it is called sericulture. The female lays hundreds of eggs, the larva or silkworm feeds on mulberry leaves, and when it is ready to pupate it secretes a protein thread from its salivary glands and wraps itself in a cocoon. The cocoons are treated with steam or hot water and the single long fibre is reeled off. Karnataka leads India in silk output, and India is the second largest producer after China.

Option B is wrong because goats give mohair, pashmina and cashmere, which are types of wool. Option C is wrong as sheep give wool. Option D is wrong because butterflies do not spin commercial silk cocoons; both belong to the order Lepidoptera, but only moths are reared for silk.

Exam tip: silk from the moth Bombyx mori and mulberry leaves; wool from sheep and goat.

The correct answer is B, Banking. The Basel Norms are international standards for banking supervision.

They are issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which works under the Bank for International Settlements at Basel in Switzerland. Their purpose is to make sure a bank holds enough capital against the risks it takes, so that losses fall on its shareholders and not on depositors. Basel I of 1988 dealt with credit risk, Basel II of 2004 added market and operational risk along with supervision and disclosure, and Basel III, framed after the crisis of 2008, raised the quality of capital and brought in liquidity and leverage rules. In India the Reserve Bank applies them and asks for a capital to risk weighted assets ratio of nine per cent.

Options A, C and D are wrong because insurance is governed by IRDAI, and the share and commodity markets by SEBI.

Exam tip: Basel Committee, Basel, Switzerland; India's CRAR requirement is nine per cent.

The correct answer is A, Andhra Pradesh. Tholu Bommalata is the leather shadow puppet theatre of Andhra Pradesh.

The name means the dance of leather dolls. Puppets are cut from goat or deer hide, dyed on both sides so the colours glow when a lamp throws their shadow on a cloth screen, and worked from behind while singers and a harmonium and drums carry the story. The plays are drawn from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and often run through the night. India has four famous shadow puppet forms: Tholu Bommalata here, Togalu Gombeyaata in Karnataka, Ravanachhaya in Odisha and Tholpavakoothu in Kerala.

Option B is wrong because Karnataka's shadow form is Togalu Gombeyaata. Option C is wrong as Kerala has Tholpavakoothu, performed in Bhagavati temples. Option D is wrong because Maharashtra's puppet tradition is Kalasutri Bahulya, worked with strings.

Exam tip: leather shadow puppets - Andhra Pradesh; string puppets - Rajasthan's Kathputli.

The correct answer is D, gold. Calaverite is gold telluride, with the formula AuTe2.

It is one of the very few minerals in which gold occurs chemically combined rather than as the free metal, because gold is a noble metal that usually resists reaction. Calaverite was named after Calaveras County in California, where it was found in 1861, and it is an important gold ore in Kalgoorlie in Australia and in Cripple Creek in Colorado. It looks brassy yellow to silvery white and is brittle.

Option A is wrong because the common silver telluride is hessite, and silver's chief ore is argentite. Option B is wrong as zinc is mined mainly as zinc blende, a sulphide. Option C is wrong because copper comes largely from copper pyrites, malachite and cuprite.

Exam tip: link ore to metal - calaverite gold, argentite silver, zinc blende zinc, bauxite aluminium, haematite iron, cinnabar mercury.

The correct answer is A, Sardar Sarovar. The Narmada Bachao Andolan grew up against the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada.

The movement began in 1985 under Medha Patkar, with Baba Amte and others joining later. It argued that raising the dam's height would submerge villages and forests in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and that the people displaced were not being resettled properly. The protest used fasts, rallies and the courts, and in 1993 it made the World Bank withdraw from the project. The Supreme Court allowed construction to continue in 2000 with conditions on rehabilitation.

Option B, Bhakra Nangal, is on the Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Option C, Rihand, is in Uttar Pradesh on a tributary of the Son. Option D, Tehri, on the Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand, had its own protest led by Sunderlal Bahuguna, not the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

Exam tip: Narmada Bachao - Medha Patkar, Sardar Sarovar; Chipko and Tehri - Sunderlal Bahuguna.

The correct answer is B, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He founded ISKCON in New York in 1966.

Born Abhay Charan De in Calcutta in 1896, he sailed to the United States at the age of sixty-nine with a few rupees and a trunk of books, and began chanting the Hare Krishna mantra in a park in Manhattan. ISKCON follows Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the devotional tradition of Bengal, and is often called the Hare Krishna movement. Prabhupada translated the Bhagavad Gita As It Is and much of the Bhagavata Purana, and the society now runs temples and food relief programmes across the world.

Option A, Sri Chaitanya, was the sixteenth century Bengal saint whose teachings ISKCON follows, but he founded no such society. Option C, Sri Ramakrishna, inspired the Ramakrishna Mission, started by Swami Vivekananda in 1897. Option D was Prabhupada's own guru.

Exam tip: ISKCON, 1966, New York, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition of Chaitanya.

The correct answer is B, Article 171. It lays down the composition of a state's Legislative Council.

Under Article 171 the Council cannot have more than one third of the strength of the Legislative Assembly and never fewer than forty members. Its seats are filled in a fixed way: one third elected by local bodies, one twelfth by graduates, one twelfth by teachers, one third by members of the Assembly, and the rest nominated by the Governor from people distinguished in literature, science, art, the cooperative movement or social service. The Council is a permanent house whose members serve six years, with one third retiring every two years.

Option A, Article 168, says what a state legislature consists of. Option D, Article 169, lets Parliament create or abolish a Council if the Assembly passes a special majority resolution. Option C, Article 181, concerns the Speaker or Chairman not presiding when a resolution for removal is being considered.

Exam tip: 168 constitution, 169 creation and abolition, 171 composition.

The correct answer is A, England. The 1983 Cricket World Cup was hosted by England, and the final was played at Lord's in London.

India, led by Kapil Dev, beat the West Indies by 43 runs in that final on 25 June 1983, scoring only 183 and then bowling the holders out for 140. Mohinder Amarnath was Man of the Match. It was India's first World Cup title and the turning point that made one-day cricket a mass game in the country. England also hosted the first three editions, in 1975, 1979 and 1983, all played in white clothing with a red ball over sixty overs a side.

Option B is wrong because Australia first co-hosted in 1992, with New Zealand. Option C is wrong as the West Indies hosted in 2007. Option D is wrong because India first co-hosted in 1987.

Exam tip: 1975, 1979, 1983 in England; India won 1983 and 2011.

The correct answer is B, Chlorofluorocarbons. CFCs release chlorine in the stratosphere, and that chlorine destroys ozone.

CFCs were used as refrigerants, in aerosol sprays and in foam. They are stable near the ground, so they drift up to the stratosphere, where ultraviolet light breaks them and frees chlorine atoms. One chlorine atom can destroy thousands of ozone molecules in a chain reaction, which is how the ozone hole over Antarctica formed. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased CFCs out, and 16 September is observed as World Ozone Day.

Option A, polyvinylchloride, is a plastic and a waste problem, but it does not reach the stratosphere. Option C, biopolymer, means a natural polymer such as cellulose or starch and is harmless to ozone. Option D, methanol, is an alcohol used as a fuel and solvent and has no role in ozone loss.

Exam tip: ozone killers are CFCs, halons and carbon tetrachloride; the Montreal Protocol, 1987, controls them.

The correct answer is D, SEBI. The Securities and Exchange Board of India regulates the securities market and protects investors.

SEBI was set up as a non-statutory body in 1988 and was given statutory powers by the SEBI Act of 1992, passed after the Harshad Mehta scam exposed how weak market supervision was. Its headquarters is in Mumbai, it is run by a chairman appointed by the central government, and appeals against its orders go to the Securities Appellate Tribunal. It registers brokers and mutual funds, checks insider trading and clears public issues.

Option A, RERA, regulates real estate projects and builders. Option B, NABARD, is the apex bank for agriculture and rural credit. Option C, IRDA, now IRDAI, supervises insurance companies.

Exam tip: match the regulator to its market - SEBI securities, RBI banking and currency, IRDAI insurance, PFRDA pensions, RERA real estate.

The correct answer is D, Assam. Muga silk is produced only in Assam and is the state's best known textile.

It comes from the semi-domesticated silkworm Antheraea assamensis, which feeds on som and soalu leaves in the Brahmaputra valley. The thread has a natural golden yellow shine that grows brighter with every wash, and a Muga mekhela chador can outlast its owner. Muga silk received a Geographical Indication tag in 2007, the first such tag given to a product from Assam. India makes four kinds of silk: mulberry, tasar, eri and muga.

Option A is wrong because Arunachal Pradesh is known for its Apatani and Adi weaves, not muga. Option B is wrong as Bihar is linked with tasar silk from Bhagalpur. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra is known for Paithani sarees, made from mulberry silk.

Exam tip: Muga and eri silk - Assam; tasar - Jharkhand and Bihar; mulberry - Karnataka.

The correct answer is A, Hicky's Bengal Gazette. It was started in Calcutta in 1780 and was the first printed newspaper in India.

James Augustus Hicky brought it out as a weekly and called it the Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser. It carried sharp attacks on Warren Hastings and the officials of the East India Company, so the government stopped its postal circulation and shut the paper down in 1782, jailing Hicky. It remains the starting point of press history in India and of the long fight over press freedom.

Option B, The Madras Courier, appeared in 1785, five years later, as the first paper in Madras. Option C, The Bombay Herald, began in 1789. Option D, Maratha, was an English weekly founded by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1881, a century later.

Exam tip: 1780 Bengal Gazette, 1785 Madras Courier, 1789 Bombay Herald; Tilak ran Kesari in Marathi and Maratha in English.

The correct answer is D, green. Barium compounds such as barium nitrate give fireworks and signal flares a bright green flame.

The colour comes from a flame test. Heat excites the electrons of the metal ion, and as they fall back they release light of a fixed wavelength that is typical of that metal. Barium gives apple green, so barium nitrate is the standard green agent in pyrotechnics, where it also supplies oxygen to the burning mixture.

Option A is wrong because orange comes from calcium salts such as calcium chloride. Option B is wrong because blue is produced by copper compounds, notably copper chloride. Option C is wrong because yellow is the signature of sodium, which is why a sodium vapour lamp glows yellow.

Exam tip: remember the flame colours - sodium yellow, potassium lilac, calcium brick red, copper blue-green, barium apple green, strontium crimson.

The correct answer is C, Ahsanabad. Gulbarga was renamed Ahsanabad and made the first capital of the Bahmani kingdom.

The Bahmani sultanate was founded in 1347 by Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah, also called Hasan Gangu, after Deccan nobles revolted against Muhammad bin Tughlaq. He took Gulbarga in present-day Karnataka as his seat and gave it the name Ahsanabad. In 1425 Ahmad Shah Wali shifted the capital to Bidar, which was renamed Muhammadabad. The kingdom's long rivalry was with the Vijayanagara empire across the Tungabhadra, and it broke into five Deccan sultanates by the early sixteenth century.

Option A, Devagiri, was the Yadava capital. Option B, Daulatabad, is the name Muhammad bin Tughlaq gave Devagiri when he moved his own capital there. Option D, Berar, was a province and later one of the five successor sultanates, not the first capital.

Exam tip: Bahmani capitals - Gulbarga (Ahsanabad) 1347, then Bidar 1425.

The correct answer is C, Honours Your Trust. UCO Bank uses this line in its logo and advertising.

UCO Bank was founded in Kolkata in 1943 as the United Commercial Bank, and the industrialist G. D. Birla was behind its creation. It was one of the fourteen banks nationalised in July 1969, took its present name in 1985, and still has its head office in Kolkata. Taglines are a favourite one-mark question because each public sector bank keeps the same line for years.

Option A, 'Good People to bank with', belongs to Union Bank of India. Option B, 'Where every individual is committed', is the line of Bank of India. Option D, 'Faithful And Friendly', is used by Bank of Maharashtra.

Exam tip: UCO Bank - Kolkata, 1943, 'Honours Your Trust'; Union Bank - 'Good People to bank with'.

The correct answer is C, Janata Party. The Janata Party government led by Morarji Desai set up the Second Backward Classes Commission in 1978.

It is better known as the Mandal Commission, after its chairman B. P. Mandal, and it was appointed under Article 340, which lets the President name a commission to study the condition of socially and educationally backward classes. The commission reported in 1980 and recommended 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central government jobs. V. P. Singh's government announced its implementation in 1990, and the Supreme Court upheld it in the Indra Sawhney case of 1992.

Option A is wrong because the Congress set up the first such commission, under Kaka Kalelkar, in 1953. Option B is wrong as the BJP was founded only in 1980. Option D names a regional party that never formed a union government.

Exam tip: first commission - Kaka Kalelkar, 1953; second - B. P. Mandal, 1978.

The correct answer is D, Abanindranath Tagore. He painted 'My Mother', a portrait done in the soft wash technique he made famous.

Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) was a nephew of Rabindranath Tagore and the founder of the Bengal School of Art. That movement turned Indian painters away from European academic realism and back to Mughal, Rajput and Ajanta traditions. His best known canvas is 'Bharat Mata', painted in 1905 during the Swadeshi movement, and he also wrote children's classics such as 'Kshirer Putul'.

Option A, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, was a novelist who wrote 'Anandamath', not a painter. Option B, Debendranath Tagore, was a Brahmo Samaj leader and Rabindranath's father. Option C, Nandalal Bose, was Abanindranath's pupil, and he is remembered for illustrating the original manuscript of the Constitution and for the Haripura posters.

Exam tip: Abanindranath Tagore - Bengal School, 'Bharat Mata' and 'My Mother'; Nandalal Bose - Constitution illustrations.

The correct answer is A, 1951. The Constitution (First Amendment) Act was passed in 1951, a little over a year after the Constitution came into force.

It was enacted by the Provisional Parliament when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister, before the first general election. The amendment added the Ninth Schedule to protect land reform laws from judicial review, inserted Articles 31A and 31B, allowed the state to make special provision for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes, and added public order, friendly relations with foreign states and incitement to an offence as grounds for restricting the freedom of speech under Article 19.

B is wrong: 1952 is the year of the first general election, not of the first amendment. C is wrong: 1950 is when the Constitution came into force, on 26 January. D is wrong: the Second and Third Amendments belong to 1952 and 1954.

Exam tip: First Amendment, 1951 - Ninth Schedule, Articles 31A and 31B, new limits on free speech.

The correct answer is C, Net National Product. Gross National Product minus depreciation gives Net National Product.

Depreciation is the wear and tear of machinery, buildings and other capital goods during the year. The word 'gross' means depreciation has not been taken out and 'net' means it has, so GDP minus depreciation gives Net Domestic Product and GNP minus depreciation gives Net National Product. The word 'national' brings in net factor income from abroad, that is income earned by Indians outside the country minus income earned by foreigners inside it. NNP at factor cost is what is usually called national income, and dividing it by the population gives per capita income.

A and B are wrong: both are gross domestic measures and take no account of depreciation. D is wrong: personal income is the income actually received by households, reached after further adjustments.

Exam tip: Gross minus depreciation equals net; domestic plus net factor income from abroad equals national.