SSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, Ajatashatru. The First Buddhist Council was held under the patronage of Ajatashatru, the Haryanka ruler of Magadha. It met at Rajgir, in the Sattapanni cave, soon after the Buddha's death, and was presided over by Mahakassapa. Its task was to settle the Buddha's teachings in fixed words: Ananda recited the Sutta Pitaka and Upali the Vinaya Pitaka. Ajatashatru was the son of Bimbisara and a contemporary of both the Buddha and Mahavira, and he built the fort of Rajagriha. Option A is wrong because Porus fought Alexander on the Jhelum in 326 BC, far in time and place from this council. Option B is wrong because Ashoka patronised the Third Council, at Pataliputra, presided over by Moggaliputta Tissa. Option D is wrong because Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan empire, leaned towards Jainism and called no Buddhist council. Exam tip: the four councils run Rajgir under Ajatashatru, Vaishali under Kalasoka, Pataliputra under Ashoka and Kashmir under Kanishka.

The correct answer is C, Australia. Of the four countries listed, Australia gave women the vote first, in 1902. Its Commonwealth Franchise Act of that year let women vote in and stand for the federal Parliament, following the colony of South Australia, which had already granted it in 1894. New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world to allow women to vote, in 1893, but it is not among the options here. Option A is wrong because France let women vote only in 1944, at the end of the Second World War. Option B is wrong because the United States granted it in 1920 through the Nineteenth Amendment. Option D is wrong because the United Kingdom gave the vote to women above 30 in 1918 and to all adult women only in 1928. India, by contrast, gave women the vote on equal terms from its very first general election under the Constitution. Exam tip: fix the order as New Zealand 1893, Australia 1902, UK 1918, USA 1920 and France 1944.

The correct answer is A, Wildlife protection. The Amrita Devi Bishnoi National Award is given for outstanding courage and devotion in protecting wildlife. It was instituted by the Union environment ministry in 1994 and carries a cash prize with a citation. It is named after Amrita Devi Bishnoi, who in 1730 at Khejarli near Jodhpur clung to a khejri tree to stop the Maharaja's men from felling it; she and more than 360 other Bishnois died in that protest. The Bishnoi community, which follows the 29 rules laid down by Guru Jambheshwar, still guards the blackbuck, the chinkara and the khejri tree of the Thar desert, and the Khejarli sacrifice is remembered as an inspiration for the later Chipko movement. Option B is wrong because energy saving is rewarded by the National Energy Conservation Awards. Option C is wrong because broader environmental work is honoured by the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar. Option D is wrong because biodiversity effort is recognised by the India Biodiversity Awards. Exam tip: tie Amrita Devi to Khejarli 1730, the khejri tree and the blackbuck of Rajasthan.

The correct answer is B, Primary sector. Dairying takes its produce directly from nature, so it belongs to the primary sector. Economic activity is usually grouped in three sectors. The primary sector draws on natural resources and covers farming, dairy, poultry, fishing, forestry and mining. The secondary sector turns those raw materials into goods, so a plant that converts milk into butter, cheese or milk powder is doing manufacturing. The tertiary sector provides services that support the other two, such as transport, banking, insurance and trade. Milk drawn from cattle is a natural product, which is why dairying, like beekeeping and sericulture, is counted with agriculture and allied activities. In India the primary sector still employs the largest share of workers while the tertiary sector contributes the largest share of GDP. Option A is wrong because the tertiary sector covers services. Option C is wrong because the secondary sector begins only when milk is processed into another product. Option D is wrong because the quaternary sector means knowledge services such as research and IT. Exam tip: dairy, fishing and mining are primary; processing them is secondary.

The correct answer is A, Rig Veda. The Rig Veda is the oldest of the four Vedas, so it describes the earliest Vedic culture. It is a collection of 1,028 hymns arranged in ten books called mandalas, composed in the land of the seven rivers in the north-west. Books II to VII form the oldest core, while the first and tenth were added later; the tenth holds the Purusha Sukta, the first mention of the four varnas. The Gayatri Mantra also comes from the Rig Veda. The society it shows is pastoral and tribal, with cattle as wealth and Indra, Agni and Varuna as the chief gods. Option B is wrong because the Yajurveda gives the formulas and rituals for sacrifices and belongs to the later Vedic period. Option C is wrong because the Atharvaveda, the last of the four, deals with charms, spells and cures. Option D is wrong because the Samaveda sets Rigvedic verses to music and is the root of Indian classical music. Exam tip: the order is Rig, Sama, Yajur, Atharva.

The correct answer is A, Dang. Dang is not a South Indian tribe. The name belongs to the Dangs district of southern Gujarat, whose tribal people are mainly Bhil, Warli and Konkana, all of western India. The other three are communities of the Nilgiri hills, where Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka meet. The Toda are pastoralists known for their barrel-shaped huts and their buffalo-centred rituals. The Badaga are farmers of the Nilgiri plateau who speak a tongue close to Kannada. The Irula, a Scheduled Tribe of Tamil Nadu, are known for snake catching and for collecting forest produce. Option B is wrong because the Toda are the best known tribe of the Nilgiris. Option C is wrong because the Badaga live on the same plateau, around Udhagamandalam. Option D is wrong because the Irula are spread across Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Exam tip: remember Toda, Kota, Kurumba, Badaga and Irula as the five main Nilgiri tribes, and place Bhil, Warli and the Dangs in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The correct answer is B, Literature. The Saraswati Samman is a literary award given for an outstanding work of prose or poetry. It was started in 1991 by the K.K. Birla Foundation and is open to writing in any language listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, so a book published in the previous ten years in any of those languages may win. The first award went to Harivansh Rai Bachchan for his autobiography, and the prize is counted among the most valuable literary honours in India. The same foundation runs the Vyas Samman for Hindi writing and the Bihari Puraskar for writers of Rajasthan. Option A is wrong because music is honoured by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Tansen Samman. Option C is wrong because journalism has the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. Option D is wrong because dance is recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Kalidas Samman. Exam tip: link the three K.K. Birla Foundation prizes, Saraswati Samman for all Eighth Schedule languages, Vyas Samman for Hindi and Bihari Puraskar for Rajasthan.

The correct answer is D, 22. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution lists 22 languages. It began with 14 languages in 1950. Sindhi was added by the 21st Amendment in 1967; Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali by the 71st Amendment in 1992; and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali by the 92nd Amendment in 2003, which took the list to 22. These are the languages the Union must draw upon to enrich Hindi, and candidates may write many central examinations in them. Note that the Schedule does not by itself make all 22 languages official languages of the Union: Article 343 makes Hindi in Devanagari script the official language, with English continuing alongside. Option A is wrong because 42 is the number of the amendment that changed the Preamble, not a language count. Option B is wrong because 12 is fewer even than the 14 the Schedule started with. Option C is wrong because 32 is more than the list holds. Exam tip: remember 14 in 1950 and 22 in 2003, the last four added by the 92nd Amendment.

The correct answer is D, GDP - Depreciation. Net Domestic Product is what is left of the domestic product after setting aside the wear and tear of capital. Gross Domestic Product measures the value of all final goods and services produced inside a country in a year. Part of that output merely replaces machines, buildings and vehicles that have worn out during the year, and this loss is called depreciation or consumption of fixed capital. Taking it out gives NDP, a truer measure of what the economy has really added. In India these aggregates are estimated by the National Statistical Office. Option A is wrong because net factor income from abroad is added to a domestic aggregate, never subtracted. Option B is wrong because GDP plus net factor income from abroad gives Gross National Product. Option C is wrong because GNP minus depreciation gives Net National Product, the national counterpart of NDP. Exam tip: net always means depreciation removed, and national always means net factor income from abroad included.

The correct answer is A, Mercury. Mercury is a terrestrial planet, not a Jovian one. The eight planets fall into two groups. The four inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, are called terrestrial or rocky planets: they are small, dense, have solid crusts and few or no moons. The four outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, are the Jovian or giant planets, named after Jupiter, whose Roman name is Jove. They are far larger, made mostly of hydrogen and helium, have low density, ring systems and many moons. Saturn is so light that it would float on water. Mercury is also the smallest planet and the one closest to the Sun. Option B is wrong because Neptune is the outermost Jovian planet. Option C is wrong because Jupiter is the largest Jovian planet and the group is named after it. Option D is wrong because Saturn, with its bright rings, is a Jovian planet too. Exam tip: four rocky inner planets, four gas giants outside, with the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The correct answer is D, United States of America. The very idea of opening a constitution with a preamble came from the American Constitution of 1787, which begins 'We the People of the United States'. India's Preamble likewise begins 'We, the people of India', showing that the Constitution draws its authority from the people. From the same source India also took the Fundamental Rights, an independent judiciary and judicial review, impeachment of the President, and the removal of Supreme Court and High Court judges. The Objectives Resolution moved by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13 December 1946 later grew into our Preamble, which was adopted on 26 November 1949. Option A is wrong because the USSR gave us the Fundamental Duties, the ideal of justice and the five-year plans. Option B is wrong because Canada gave us a federation with a strong Centre, residuary powers and the appointment of Governors. Option C is wrong because Britain gave us the parliamentary system, rule of law, single citizenship and the office of Speaker. Exam tip: preamble and fundamental rights from the US, duties from the USSR.

The correct answer is C, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was approved in 1983 and run by the DRDO under Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, which is why he is called the Missile Man of India. The programme built five missiles, easy to remember as P-A-T-N-A: Prithvi, a surface-to-surface missile; Agni, a ballistic missile; Trishul, a short-range surface-to-air missile; Nag, an anti-tank missile; and Akash, a medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was formally closed in 2008 once its main goals were met. Kalam also guided the Pokhran-II tests of 1998 and served as President of India from 2002 to 2007. Option A is wrong because Har Gobind Khorana shared the Nobel Prize in 1968 for work on the genetic code. Option B is wrong because Vikram Sarabhai is called the father of India's space programme. Option D is wrong because Homi J. Bhabha founded India's nuclear programme. Exam tip: Kalam - missiles; Sarabhai - space; Bhabha - atomic energy.

The correct answer is B, Immediate Payment Service. IMPS is an interbank money transfer service run by the National Payments Corporation of India, launched in November 2010. Its great advantage is that it works round the clock, on holidays and at night, and the money reaches the beneficiary within seconds. A transfer can be made using the account number with the IFSC code, or using the mobile number with the MMID, and it can be started from mobile banking, internet banking, an ATM or a branch. NPCI, set up in 2008 as an umbrella body for retail payments, also runs UPI, RuPay, NACH, AePS and FASTag. Option A is wrong because the letter S stands for service, not sector. Option C is wrong for the same reason. Option D is wrong because the first word is immediate, not instant. Exam tip: NEFT and RTGS are run by the RBI, while IMPS and UPI are run by NPCI; RTGS is meant for amounts of two lakh rupees and above.

The correct answer is B, Third. The Third Anglo-Maratha War, fought in 1817-18 under Lord Hastings, ended Maratha power. Peshwa Baji Rao II was beaten at Khadki, Koregaon and Ashti, the office of Peshwa was abolished, and his lands around Poona were taken over and joined to the Bombay Presidency. Baji Rao II was pensioned off to Bithur near Kanpur, and a small kingdom was carved out at Satara for a descendant of Shivaji. With this the East India Company became the paramount power in India. Option A is wrong because there was no fourth Anglo-Maratha war; the Marathas fought three. Option C is wrong because the Second War of 1803-05 followed the Treaty of Bassein and cost the Marathas Orissa, Delhi and Agra, but the Peshwa stayed on his seat. Option D is wrong because the First War of 1775-82 ended in the Treaty of Salbai, which restored the position as it was before the war. Exam tip: Salbai 1782, Bassein 1802, Peshwaship abolished 1818.

The correct answer is C, Arthropoda. The name itself says so: in Greek arthros means jointed and podos means foot, so arthropods are the animals with jointed legs. They also have a hard outer skeleton of chitin, a segmented body and an open circulatory system, and they shed the skeleton as they grow, a process called moulting. Arthropoda is the largest phylum in the animal kingdom, holding insects, spiders, scorpions, crabs, prawns, centipedes and millipedes - about eighty out of every hundred known animal species. Option A is wrong because molluscs such as snails, octopus and mussels have a soft body with a muscular foot and usually a shell. Option B is wrong because nematodes are unsegmented roundworms like Ascaris, with no legs at all. Option D is wrong because echinoderms such as starfish and sea urchins are spiny-skinned marine animals that move on tube feet. Exam tip: Arthropoda - jointed legs, chitin skeleton, largest phylum; Mollusca is the second largest.

The correct answer is C, 80. Uttar Pradesh sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, more than any other state, because seats are allotted in proportion to population and UP is the most populous state. The present strength of the Lok Sabha is 543 elected members, and the allotment rests on the 1971 census; the freeze on readjusting seats was extended by the 84th Amendment and again by the 87th Amendment, so the numbers have not changed since. Uttar Pradesh also has the largest share in the Rajya Sabha, with 31 seats. Option A is wrong because 48 is the number of Lok Sabha seats for Maharashtra, the second largest. Option B is wrong because 39 is the number for Tamil Nadu; West Bengal has 42 and Bihar 40. Option D is wrong because no state has 62 seats. Exam tip: Lok Sabha seats in order - Uttar Pradesh 80, Maharashtra 48, West Bengal 42, Bihar 40, Tamil Nadu 39.

The correct answer is A, Shashi Tharoor. Kerala: God's Own Country is an illustrated book on the land, people and culture of Kerala, written by Shashi Tharoor with photographs by M.F. Husain and brought out in 2009. Tharoor, a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and later a Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, has written many other books, among them The Great Indian Novel, India: From Midnight to the Millennium, An Era of Darkness and Why I Am a Hindu. 'God's Own Country' is also the tourism tagline of Kerala. Option B is wrong because Jeet Thayil is a poet and novelist known for Narcopolis, which reached the Booker shortlist in 2012. Option C is wrong because Sudha Murthy writes fiction and essays such as Wise and Otherwise, Dollar Bahu and Three Thousand Stitches. Option D is wrong because Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai was a Malayalam novelist who wrote Chemmeen and won the Jnanpith Award in 1984. Exam tip: Tharoor - The Great Indian Novel; Thakazhi - Chemmeen; Thayil - Narcopolis.

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 C, The US. Zero-based budgeting was first put to use in the United States. Peter Pyhrr developed it at Texas Instruments around 1970, and Jimmy Carter, then Governor of Georgia, applied it to a state budget in 1973 and later carried it to the federal government as President. Under this method every expense has to be justified afresh for each new period, starting from a zero base, instead of simply adding a percentage to last year's figure. Each activity is treated as a decision package, examined for its cost and benefit, and ranked; schemes that no longer serve a purpose are dropped. India began using zero-based budgeting in 1986-87 in some departments, and the Department of Science and Technology was the first to try it. Option A is wrong because India adopted the idea more than a decade after it began. Option B is wrong because Germany is not linked with its origin. Option D is wrong because the UK did not introduce it either. Exam tip: zero-based budgeting - Peter Pyhrr, the US, 1970; India from 1986-87.

The correct answer is D, Tide. A tide is the regular rise and fall of sea level caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and, to a smaller extent, the Sun, together with the centrifugal force of the spinning earth. Most coasts get two high tides and two low tides in about 24 hours and 52 minutes. When the Sun, Moon and Earth line up at new moon and full moon, the pulls add up and give the high spring tides; when the Sun and Moon are at right angles in the first and third quarters, the pulls work against each other and give the low neap tides. Tides help ships enter ports and are used for tidal power. Option A is wrong because waves are made by wind blowing over the surface. Option B is wrong because a tsunami is a single train of huge waves set off by an undersea earthquake or landslide. Option C is wrong because currents are steady horizontal flows of water such as the Gulf Stream. Exam tip: spring tides at full and new moon, neap tides in the quarters.