SSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, Polar Easterlies. The polar easterlies blow out of the high pressure belts over the poles towards the sub-polar low pressure belts, so they carry extremely cold and dry air. Cold air holds very little moisture, which is why these winds bring almost no rain and the polar regions are counted among the driest places on earth. They are one of the three planetary wind systems, along with the trade winds and the westerlies, and where they meet the warmer westerlies near sixty degrees latitude they form the polar front, the birthplace of temperate cyclones. Option A is wrong because monsoon winds reverse with the season and the summer monsoon is warm and heavy with moisture. Option B is wrong because the westerlies, blowing from the sub-tropical highs towards the sub-polar lows, bring rain to the western margins of continents. Option C is wrong because the trade winds blow towards the equator and are warm and moist over the oceans. Exam tip: trades from the east near the equator, westerlies in the middle latitudes, easterlies again at the poles.

The correct answer is B, 1999. The Foreign Exchange Management Act was passed in 1999 and came into force on 1 June 2000, replacing the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1973. The change of one word in the title tells the story: FERA regulated and restricted dealings in foreign exchange and treated a breach as a criminal offence, while FEMA manages them in an open economy and treats a breach as a civil matter with a monetary penalty. FEMA freed most current account transactions, kept capital account transactions under the control of the Reserve Bank, and is administered by the Directorate of Enforcement. Option A is wrong because 1988 has no link with this law. Option C is wrong because 2014 relates to later changes in foreign investment policy, not to FEMA's enactment. Option D is wrong because 1992 is the year of the SEBI Act and of the first big liberalisation of trade policy. Exam tip: FERA 1973 was criminal in approach, FEMA 1999 is civil, and it took effect in June 2000.

The correct answer is B, 2005. Value added tax replaced the old general sales tax from 1 April 2005, when most states adopted it on the recommendation of the empowered committee of state finance ministers. The point of VAT is that a trader pays tax only on the value added at that stage, taking credit for the tax already paid on purchases, so the cascading of tax upon tax is removed. Haryana had moved to VAT earlier, in 2003, and a few states joined later, with Uttar Pradesh the last in 2008. VAT on goods was itself absorbed into the Goods and Services Tax from 1 July 2017, though state VAT still applies to petroleum products and liquor. Option A is wrong because 2007 is when the last states were still joining. Option C is wrong because 2013 relates to the debate on the GST bill. Option D is wrong because 2011 is the year the constitutional amendment for GST was first introduced. Exam tip: link VAT 2005 with GST 2017.

The correct answer is D, 1977. IBM and Coca-Cola wound up their Indian operations in 1977 rather than dilute their holdings to 40 per cent. The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, passed in 1973, required foreign companies to cut their equity in Indian subsidiaries to that level and to obtain permission for most dealings in foreign exchange. This was the high point of a closed, licence based economy, and the exit of two well known American firms became its symbol. Coca-Cola returned only after the reforms of 1991, and FERA itself was replaced by the milder Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999. Option A is wrong because 1964 falls well before FERA was enacted. Option B is wrong because 1981 is after both companies had already left. Option C is wrong because 1956 is the year of the Industrial Policy Resolution, unrelated to this exit. Exam tip: remember FERA 1973, the IBM and Coca-Cola exit in 1977, liberalisation in 1991 and FEMA in 1999 as one chain.

The correct answer is D, Narasimhadeva 1. The Sun temple at Konark in Odisha was built in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. It is shaped as a colossal chariot for the sun god Surya, with twelve pairs of carved stone wheels and seven horses straining to pull it; the wheels work as sundials. Built in the Kalinga style of the Nagara order, it stood by the sea and European sailors called it the Black Pagoda. The main tower has collapsed, but the jagamohana and the carvings survive, and UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage List in 1984. Option A is wrong because Anantha Padmanabhan is not a ruler linked with this temple. Option B is wrong because Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty ruled a thousand years earlier and left no temple here. Option C is wrong because Anantavarman Chodaganga, of the same dynasty, began the Jagannath temple at Puri. Exam tip: Konark means Narasimhadeva I, Puri means Anantavarman Chodaganga, and both belong to the Eastern Ganga dynasty.

The correct answer is C, El Nino. El Nino is the warming of the surface water of the central and eastern Pacific, and it weakens the trade winds that normally blow from east to west across that ocean. In normal years those winds push warm water towards Australia and Indonesia, letting cold water rise along the coast of Peru. When the pressure pattern flips, the winds slacken or even reverse, warm water spreads east, and the upwelling off South America stops, which hurts the anchovy catch. El Nino usually means a weaker monsoon and drier conditions over India. Option A is wrong because the Coriolis force, caused by the earth's rotation, only deflects winds and does not weaken them. Option B is wrong because a Mango Shower is a local pre-monsoon rain of Kerala and Karnataka. Option D is wrong because La Nina is the opposite phase, with cooler Pacific water and stronger trade winds. Exam tip: El Nino means warm Pacific, weak trade winds and a weak Indian monsoon; La Nina is the reverse on all three.

The correct answer is C, Hiralal Chaudhuri. Hiralal Chaudhuri is called the father of the Blue Revolution, the sharp rise in India's fish production. Working as a fishery scientist, he achieved induced breeding of carp by hormone injection in 1957, a method that freed fish farmers from depending on wild seed collected from rivers and allowed hatcheries to supply fingerlings in large numbers. Aquaculture grew from there, and India is today among the largest fish producers in the world. Option A is wrong because Verghese Kurien led the White Revolution in milk, building the Amul model and Operation Flood. Option B is wrong because Sam Pitroda is linked with the telecom revolution and the spread of public call offices. Option D is wrong because M.S. Swaminathan is the father of the Green Revolution in wheat and rice. Exam tip: learn the colour revolutions together, Green for food grains, White for milk, Blue for fish, Yellow for oilseeds, Pink for prawns and Golden for horticulture.

The correct answer is A, 15. The language panel on the reverse of an Indian banknote carries the value of the note in 15 languages. Hindi and English are not part of that panel: they appear on the front of the note, so the total number of languages printed on a note comes to 17. The 15 in the panel are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Notes are issued by the Reserve Bank of India under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, except the one rupee note, which is issued by the Government of India. Option B is wrong because 17 is the count of all languages on the note, including Hindi and English on the front. Option C is wrong because 10 is far fewer than the panel holds. Option D is wrong because 12 is also short of the actual number. Exam tip: remember 15 in the panel on the back and 17 on the whole note.

The correct answer is C, Shehnai. Ustad Bismillah Khan was the shehnai player who lifted that instrument from wedding processions to the concert stage. Born in 1916 at Dumraon in Bihar, he settled in Varanasi and played at the Vishwanath temple, and he performed from the Red Fort on the eve of independence in 1947 and again on the first Republic Day. He was given the Bharat Ratna in 2001, becoming the third musician after M.S. Subbulakshmi and Ravi Shankar to receive it, and he had earlier received the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. Option A is wrong because the santoor, a struck box zither of Kashmir, is linked with Shivkumar Sharma. Option B is wrong because the sitar is associated with Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan. Option D is wrong because the tabla brings to mind Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain. Exam tip: match instrument to artist, shehnai with Bismillah Khan, sarod with Amjad Ali Khan, flute with Hariprasad Chaurasia and santoor with Shivkumar Sharma.

The correct answer is B, Pavapuri. Mahavira attained nirvana, or salvation, at Pavapuri in the Nalanda district of Bihar, at the age of 72. He was the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara of Jainism, born at Kundagrama near Vaishali to Siddhartha and Trishala. He left home at 30, gained enlightenment at Jrimbhikagrama on the bank of the Rijupalika river after twelve years of penance, and preached in Prakrit for three decades. Pavapuri today has the Jal Mandir, a marble temple standing in a tank at the place of his cremation, and Diwali is observed by Jains as the day of his nirvana. Option A is wrong because Sonagiri in Madhya Pradesh is a Jain pilgrimage hill, but not the site of his nirvana. Option C is wrong because Shravanabelagola in Karnataka is famous for the statue of Bahubali. Option D is wrong because Mount Abu holds the Dilwara temples, built much later. Exam tip: fix Mahavira's four places as Kundagrama for birth, Jrimbhikagrama for enlightenment, Pavapuri for nirvana, and Vaishali as his home region.

The correct answer is C, Sales of final goods. Gross Domestic Product counts the value of final goods and services produced inside a country during a year. Only final output is added, because the value of intermediate goods is already inside the price of the finished product, and counting both would be double counting. The exclusions follow from the same rule. A used good was counted in the year it was made, so selling it again adds nothing to this year's production, although the dealer's commission is a fresh service and does count. A transfer payment such as a pension, a scholarship or unemployment relief is income handed over with no good or service in return, so it is not production. Option A is wrong because the sale of used goods is not new output. Option B is wrong because barter is not recorded in money and cannot be valued, so it stays outside measured GDP. Option D is wrong because transfer payments create no output at all. Exam tip: GDP counts final goods only, and leaves out second-hand sales and transfer payments.

The correct answer is A, Cognizable offences. In a cognizable offence the police may register a case, start an investigation and arrest a person without any order from a magistrate. These are the graver offences, such as murder, rape, dacoity, kidnapping and theft, and a First Information Report must be recorded for them. In a non-cognizable offence, such as simple hurt, defamation or public nuisance, the police need the permission of a magistrate before they investigate or arrest. Whether an offence is cognizable, and whether it is bailable, is listed offence by offence in the criminal procedure law, which since 2024 is the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita in place of the old Code of Criminal Procedure. Option B is wrong because there is no class of offences called detention offences. Option C is wrong because a non-cognizable offence is precisely the case where the magistrate's order is needed. Option D is wrong because cross offences is not a category of this kind. Exam tip: cognizable means FIR and arrest without a warrant, non-cognizable means the police must first get a magistrate's nod.

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 D, Lord Shiva. The Ramappa temple is dedicated to Shiva, worshipped there as Ramalingeswara. It stands at Palampet in the Mulugu district of Telangana and was built in the thirteenth century under the Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva by his general Recharla Rudra. The temple is unusual in being named after its sculptor, Ramappa. It is raised on a star shaped platform of sandstone, its tower uses bricks so light and porous that they are said to float on water, and its polished black basalt pillars and bracket figures of dancers are finely carved. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 2021 as the Kakatiya Rudreshwara temple. Option A is wrong because Rama is worshipped at temples such as Bhadrachalam, not here. Option B is wrong because the great Vishnu temples of the region are Tirupati and Simhachalam. Option C is wrong because temples dedicated to Indra are almost unknown in India. Exam tip: link Ramappa temple with Palampet, the Kakatiya dynasty, floating bricks and the 2021 UNESCO listing.

The correct answer is C, Bimbisara. Bimbisara belonged to the Haryanka dynasty of Magadha, not to the Mauryas. He ruled from Rajagriha in the sixth century BC, was a contemporary of the Buddha and Mahavira, and enlarged Magadha through marriage alliances and by annexing Anga. The Mauryan line came much later: Chandragupta Maurya founded it around 321 BC with the help of Chanakya after overthrowing the Nandas, his son Bindusara followed, and Ashoka, the greatest of the family, ruled from about 268 BC and spread Buddhism through his rock and pillar edicts. Option A is wrong because Ashoka was the Mauryan ruler who fought the Kalinga war and then turned to dhamma. Option B is wrong because Bindusara was Chandragupta's son and Ashoka's father. Option D is wrong because Chandragupta founded the dynasty itself. Exam tip: the Magadha dynasties run Haryanka, Shishunaga, Nanda and then Maurya, so Bimbisara and Ajatashatru come long before Chandragupta.

The correct answer is A, 1998. Amartya Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his contributions to welfare economics. His work spans social choice theory and the measurement of poverty and inequality, and his book 'Poverty and Famines' argued that famines come not only from a fall in food output but from a collapse in people's ability to buy food. With Mahbub ul Haq he helped shape the Human Development Index, and his other books include 'Development as Freedom' and 'The Argumentative Indian'. Option B is wrong because 2004 has no link with his prize. Option C is wrong because the economics prize of 1997 went to Robert Merton and Myron Scholes for their work on valuing options. Option D is wrong because 1999 is the year Amartya Sen was given the Bharat Ratna, which students often mix up with the Nobel. Exam tip: remember Nobel 1998 and Bharat Ratna 1999 for Amartya Sen, and note that Abhijit Banerjee won the economics Nobel in 2019.

The correct answer is A, West Bengal. Kaal Baisakhi is the name used in West Bengal for the violent evening thunderstorms of the pre-monsoon months. They strike in April and May, the Bengali month of Baishakh, with squalls, thunder, lightning and sometimes hail, which is why the name means the calamity of Baishakh. They form when strong heating over the plains meets moist air drawn in from the Bay of Bengal, building tall thunderclouds, and they are also called Nor'westers because the squalls sweep in from the north-west. They damage crops and huts, but their rain helps tea, jute and rice seedlings in Bengal and Assam, where the same storms are called Bardoli Chheerha. Option B is wrong because the pre-monsoon showers of Karnataka are called Cherry Blossom or coffee showers. Option C is wrong because Punjab gets its winter rain from western disturbances. Option D is wrong because Kerala's pre-monsoon showers are the Mango Showers. Exam tip: Kaal Baisakhi in Bengal, Mango Showers in Kerala, Cherry Blossom showers in Karnataka and Loo in the northern plains.

The correct answer is B, Sania Mirza. 'Ace against Odds' is the autobiography of the tennis player Sania Mirza, brought out in 2016 and written with her father Imran Mirza and the journalist Shivani Gupta. The title plays on the tennis ace and on the obstacles she met on the way. Sania Mirza was the first Indian woman to win a WTA singles title and the first to reach the world number one ranking in women's doubles, and she has won Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles. She has been honoured with the Arjuna Award, the Padma Shri and the Khel Ratna. Option A is wrong because the sprinter Hima Das, known as the Dhing Express, has written no such book. Option C is wrong because Dutee Chand is a sprinter known for the 100 metres and for her legal fight against hyperandrogenism rules. Option D is wrong because Mary Kom's autobiography is titled 'Unbreakable'. Exam tip: pair 'Ace against Odds' with Sania Mirza, 'Unbreakable' with Mary Kom and 'Playing It My Way' with Sachin Tendulkar.

The correct answer is B, Rate at which RBI borrows money from commercial banks. The reverse repo rate is what the Reserve Bank pays banks when it takes their surplus cash for a short period. It is the mirror image of the repo rate, at which banks borrow from the RBI against government securities. When the RBI wants to pull extra money out of the system, it makes parking funds with the central bank more attractive; when it wants credit to flow, it does the opposite. The reverse repo rate is always kept below the repo rate, and both are decided by the six member Monetary Policy Committee headed by the RBI Governor. Since 2022 most of this absorption of cash is done through the Standing Deposit Facility. Option A is wrong because the RBI does not borrow from foreign banks through this window. Option C is wrong because the rate at which commercial banks borrow from the RBI is the repo rate. Option D is wrong because lending between commercial banks and foreign banks is not set by the RBI. Exam tip: repo means the RBI lends, reverse repo means the RBI borrows.

The correct answer is B, Sitar. Ustad Ilyas Khan was a sitar player. He was born in Lucknow in 1924 into a family of musicians and belonged to the Etawah or Imdadkhani gharana, the school built up by Imdad Khan and carried forward by Enayat Khan and Vilayat Khan. He played for decades on All India Radio, performed across the country and trained many students of the instrument. The sitar itself is a long-necked plucked instrument with movable frets and extra sympathetic strings that give it its ringing tone, and Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan carried it to audiences around the world. Option A is wrong because the tabla is a pair of drums, its famous names being Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain. Option C is wrong because the veena is the plucked instrument of Carnatic music, linked with the goddess Saraswati. Option D is wrong because the mridangam is the barrel drum that keeps time in Carnatic concerts. Exam tip: the Etawah gharana means sitar, while Lucknow also has well known gharanas of kathak and tabla.