SSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, Article 72. This Article gives the President the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment, and to suspend, remit or commute a sentence. It applies in three cases: punishment by a court martial, an offence against a law made by the Union, and every sentence of death. The President alone can pardon a death sentence; the Governor, whose similar power is in Article 161, cannot. The five words to remember are pardon (wipes out the conviction), commutation (lighter kind of punishment), remission (shorter period), respite (lesser sentence for a special reason such as pregnancy) and reprieve (temporary stay). A is wrong because Article 55 describes the manner of electing the President. B is wrong because Article 81 gives the composition of the Lok Sabha. C is wrong because Article 63 says there shall be a Vice-President of India. Exam tip: pardon power is 72 for the President and 161 for the Governor; only the President can pardon a death sentence or a court-martial sentence.

The correct answer is A, Articles 74 and 75. These two Articles create the Council of Ministers that actually runs the Union government. Article 74 says there shall be a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister to aid and advise the President, and the President acts on that advice. Article 75 says the Prime Minister is appointed by the President, the other ministers are appointed on the Prime Minister's advice, the Council is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, and its size cannot exceed 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha strength, a limit added by the 91st Amendment in 2003. The matching Articles for the states are 163 and 164. B is wrong because Article 71 is about disputes in presidential elections and Article 72 about the President's power of pardon. C is wrong because Articles 79 and 80 deal with the constitution of Parliament and the composition of the Rajya Sabha. D is wrong because Article 76 creates the Attorney-General and Article 77 covers the conduct of government business. Exam tip: Centre 74-75, states 163-164; collective responsibility is to the Lok Sabha.

The correct answer is C, Article 84. This is the Article that lists who is qualified to be a member of Parliament. Under Article 84 a person must be a citizen of India, must take an oath before a person authorised by the Election Commission, and must be at least 30 years old for the Rajya Sabha or 25 years old for the Lok Sabha. Parliament can add other qualifications by law, which it did through the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Remember the pair: qualifications are in Article 84, disqualifications are in Article 102. A is wrong because Article 105 deals with the powers and privileges of the Houses and their members. B is wrong because Article 85 covers the sessions of Parliament, prorogation and dissolution. D is wrong because Article 80 gives the composition of the Rajya Sabha. Exam tip: 84 for qualification, 102 for disqualification, 25 years for the Lok Sabha and 30 years for the Rajya Sabha.

The correct answer is B, England. The 2019 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, the 12th edition, was played in England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July 2019. In the final at Lord's, England and New Zealand both scored 241, the super over was also tied at 15 each, and England were declared champions on boundary count, 26 to 17, their first World Cup title, under captain Eoin Morgan; Ben Stokes made 84 not out and was Player of the Match. Kane Williamson of New Zealand was Player of the Tournament, Rohit Sharma scored the most runs (648, with five centuries) and Mitchell Starc took the most wickets (27). Option A is wrong because Pakistan finished fifth and missed the semi-finals on net run rate. Option C is wrong because India topped the league table but lost the semi-final to New Zealand at Manchester. Option D is wrong because Australia lost the other semi-final to England at Birmingham. Exam tip: 2019 = England beat New Zealand at Lord's on boundary count; 2023 = Australia beat India at Ahmedabad.

The correct answer is D, three. Raja Parba is Odisha's three-day festival of womanhood held in mid-June, when the sun enters Mithuna (Gemini). The three days are Pahili Raja, Raja Sankranti or Mithuna Sankranti, and Basi Raja, and a ritual bath of Mother Earth, Vasumati Snana, closes it on the fourth morning. The word Raja comes from 'rajaswala', a menstruating woman: Bhudevi, Mother Earth, is believed to menstruate during these days, so no ploughing or digging is done, and unmarried girls rest, wear new clothes, play on rope swings and eat poda pitha. It marks the onset of the monsoon and the coming farming season. Option A is wrong because five is not the count of Raja days; the festival is not a five-day affair. Option B is wrong because six days belong to no Raja tradition. Option C is wrong because the fourth day, Vasumati Snana, is only a closing bath and the festival itself is counted as three days. Exam tip: Raja Parba = Odisha, three days, Mithuna Sankranti in June, swings and poda pitha.

The correct answer is D, Andhra Pradesh. The Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve lies in the Seshachalam hill ranges of the Eastern Ghats in southern Andhra Pradesh, across the old Chittoor and Kadapa districts, and was notified in 2010 as India's 17th biosphere reserve. The Tirumala temple of Lord Venkateswara stands on these very hills, and the reserve includes the Sri Venkateswara National Park. It is famous for red sanders, the valuable red-wood tree found almost nowhere else in the world, and shelters the slender loris, the golden gecko and the Indian giant squirrel. Option A is wrong because Tamil Nadu's biosphere reserves are the Gulf of Mannar and its shares of the Nilgiri and Agasthyamalai reserves. Option B is wrong because Karnataka's only biosphere reserve is its part of the Nilgiri. Option C is wrong because Kerala shares the Nilgiri and Agasthyamalai reserves but has no Seshachalam. Exam tip: Seshachalam = Andhra Pradesh, red sanders, Tirumala hills, notified 2010 as the 17th reserve.

The correct answer is A, Cold Desert. The Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve in the Lahaul and Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh was notified in 2009 as India's 16th biosphere reserve. It covers the Pin Valley National Park, the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary and the high-altitude wetlands of Chandratal and Sarchu, a trans-Himalayan landscape above 3,000 metres that gets very little rain. Its wildlife includes the snow leopard, Himalayan ibex, red fox, blue rock pigeon and the lammergeier or bearded vulture, the bird that drops bones from a height to eat the marrow. Option B is wrong because Seshachalam, in Andhra Pradesh and famous for red sanders, followed in 2010 as the 17th reserve. Option C is wrong because Agasthyamalai, on the Kerala and Tamil Nadu border, was notified in 2001. Option D is wrong because Dehang-Debang in Arunachal Pradesh dates from 1998. Exam tip: the sequence at the end of the list is Cold Desert 2009 (16th), Seshachalam 2010 (17th), Panna 2011 (18th); the first was Nilgiri in 1986.

The correct answer is D, Chennai. The All India Chess Federation, the national body for chess, was founded in 1951 and has its headquarters at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai. It is affiliated to FIDE, the world chess federation founded in Paris in 1924 and now based in Lausanne, and to the Indian Olympic Association. Chennai is called the chess capital of India: Viswanathan Anand, the first Indian Grandmaster (1988) and five-time world champion, is from the city, D Gukesh, who became world champion in December 2024, grew up there, and the 44th Chess Olympiad of 2022 was held at nearby Mamallapuram. Option A is wrong because Bengaluru houses no national chess body; it is known for the National Cricket Academy. Option B is wrong because Hyderabad is linked with badminton through the Gopichand academy, not with the AICF. Option C is wrong because Mumbai is the home of the BCCI, the cricket board. Exam tip: AICF = Chennai (1951), BCCI = Mumbai, Hockey India and AIFF = New Delhi, FIDE = Lausanne.

The correct answer is D, Uttar Pradesh. Prathama Bank, the first Regional Rural Bank of India, opened on 2 October 1975 with its head office at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, sponsored by Syndicate Bank. It was one of the first five RRBs set up that day under an ordinance that became the Regional Rural Banks Act 1976, following the recommendation of the Narasimham working group of 1975. Their capital is shared 50 per cent by the Central Government, 15 per cent by the State Government and 35 per cent by the sponsor bank; they are regulated by the RBI and supervised by NABARD. Option A is wrong because Prathama Bank never sat in Rajasthan; that state's first RRB was the Jaipur-Nagaur Anchalik Gramin Bank, another of the first five. Option B is wrong because none of the first five RRBs was in Madhya Pradesh. Option C is wrong because Punjab was not in the first batch either; the other first-day banks were in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal and Rajasthan. Exam tip: first RRB = Prathama Bank, Moradabad (UP), 2 October 1975, sponsor Syndicate Bank; shareholding 50:15:35.

The correct answer is D, Ministry of Finance. Under the Coinage Act 2011 the Government of India alone has the right to mint coins, and the work is handled by the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. Coins are struck at the four India Government Mints at Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Noida, run by the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), and the Reserve Bank only puts them into circulation as the Government's agent under Section 38 of the RBI Act 1934. The same split explains why the one-rupee note carries the signature of the Finance Secretary, while notes of two rupees and above are issued by the RBI and signed by its Governor. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of External Affairs handles foreign relations. Option B is wrong because the Ministry of Home Affairs handles internal security and police. Option C is wrong because the Ministry of Mines deals with mining and minerals, not coinage. Exam tip: coins and the one-rupee note = Government of India (Finance Ministry); notes of two rupees and above = RBI.

The correct answer is A, Candela. Luminous intensity is the amount of visible light a source sends out in a given direction per unit solid angle, and its SI base unit is the candela (cd), roughly the light of one ordinary candle. It is one of the seven SI base units: metre for length, kilogram for mass, second for time, ampere for electric current, kelvin for temperature, mole for amount of substance and candela for luminous intensity. Do not mix it up with the lumen, the unit of luminous flux (total light output), or the lux, the unit of illuminance (lumens per square metre falling on a surface). Option B is wrong because the mole measures amount of substance, 6.022 × 10²³ particles. Option C is wrong because the kelvin measures thermodynamic temperature. Option D is wrong because the ampere measures electric current. Exam tip: the seven base units in one line: m, kg, s, A, K, mol, cd; candela = intensity, lumen = flux, lux = illuminance.

The correct answer is C, Pascal. Pressure is force acting per unit area, so its SI unit is the newton per square metre, which is given the special name pascal (Pa) after the French scientist Blaise Pascal, who stated the law of transmission of pressure in liquids used in hydraulic brakes and lifts. One pascal is a very small pressure, so larger units are common: 1 bar = 10⁵ Pa, 1 atmosphere = 101,325 Pa = 760 mm of mercury, and weather reports use the hectopascal (1 hPa = 100 Pa), while blood pressure is still read in mm Hg. Option A is wrong because the volt is the SI unit of electric potential difference (1 V = 1 J/C). Option B is wrong because the ampere is the SI base unit of electric current. Option D is wrong because the ohm is the SI unit of electrical resistance (1 Ω = 1 V/A). Exam tip: pressure = force ÷ area, N/m² = pascal; and the electrical trio: volt for voltage, ampere for current, ohm for resistance.

The correct answer is D, [M L T⁻²]. Newton's second law gives force = mass × acceleration. Mass has the dimension [M], and acceleration is velocity divided by time, that is [L T⁻¹] ÷ [T] = [L T⁻²]. Multiplying, force = [M L T⁻²]. Its SI unit is the newton, 1 N = 1 kg m s⁻², and its CGS unit is the dyne, with 1 N = 10⁵ dyne. Weight, tension, thrust and friction are all forces, so they share the same dimensional formula, which is a favourite exam trick. Option A is wrong because [M⁰ L³ T⁰] is simply [L³], the dimension of volume. Option B is wrong because [M L⁻³ T⁰] is mass per unit volume, that is density. Option C is wrong because [M⁰ L T⁻¹] is length per unit time, the dimension of speed or velocity. Exam tip: build from the definition: velocity [L T⁻¹], acceleration [L T⁻²], force [M L T⁻²], work and energy [M L² T⁻²], power [M L² T⁻³], pressure [M L⁻¹ T⁻²].

The correct answer is B, Pellagra. Pellagra is caused by a lack of vitamin B3, niacin, also called nicotinic acid, and is remembered by the three Ds: dermatitis, a rough dark rash on skin exposed to sunlight, diarrhoea from the gut, and dementia from the nervous system; untreated, a fourth D, death, follows. It was common where maize was the staple food, because the niacin in maize is bound and hard to absorb and maize is poor in tryptophan, the amino acid from which the body makes niacin. Niacin is found in meat, fish, groundnuts, whole grains and pulses. Option A is wrong because anaemia comes from a shortage of iron, vitamin B12 or folic acid, not B3. Option C is wrong because beriberi is the deficiency disease of vitamin B1, thiamine, affecting nerves and the heart. Option D is wrong because scurvy, with bleeding gums, is caused by a lack of vitamin C, ascorbic acid. Exam tip: B1 = beriberi, B2 = cheilosis, B3 = pellagra, B12 = pernicious anaemia, C = scurvy, D = rickets.

The correct answer is D, inflation. Inflation is a sustained rise in the general price level, measured in India by the CPI and the WPI. It is fought in three ways: monetary measures by the RBI such as raising the repo rate or CRR, fiscal measures such as higher taxes and lower government spending, and direct or administrative measures. Price control, rationing through the Public Distribution System and stock limits under the Essential Commodities Act 1955 are the direct measures: they cap what sellers may charge and how much each family may buy, so that scarce goods are shared and hoarding is checked. Option A is wrong because reflation is the deliberate effort to push prices and demand up after a slump, the opposite aim. Option B is wrong because disinflation is only a slowing of the inflation rate, not a problem that needs rationing. Option C is wrong because deflation is a fall in the general price level, when governments spend more rather than control prices. Exam tip: inflation = prices rise, deflation = prices fall, disinflation = prices rise more slowly, reflation = pushing prices up again.

The correct answer is D, Hawkish. A hawkish stance means the central bank treats inflation as its first enemy and is ready to raise interest rates and tighten money supply, even at some cost to growth. Higher rates make loans dearer, so people and firms borrow and spend less, demand cools and prices stop rising so fast. India saw this when the RBI raised the repo rate from 4 per cent to 6.5 per cent between May 2022 and February 2023 to fight inflation. The opposite, a dovish stance, cuts rates to support growth and jobs, as in 2020 during the Covid slowdown. Option A is wrong because 'owlish' is only an informal label some writers use for a wait-and-watch, neutral position, not the usual anti-inflation stance. Option B is wrong because a dovish stance eases money and fuels inflation rather than fighting it. Option C is wrong because 'Hicksian' refers to the economist John Hicks and his IS-LM model, not to a policy stance. Exam tip: hawk = fight inflation, raise rates; dove = support growth, cut rates.

The correct answer is C, Economy budget. By the balance between estimated receipts and expenditure, a budget is of only three types. A balanced budget has receipts equal to expenditure. A surplus budget has receipts higher than expenditure, and a government may use it to cool an overheated, inflationary economy. A deficit budget has expenditure higher than receipts; it is the normal case in India and is used to push demand and growth, the gap being met by borrowing. 'Economy budget' is not a recognised type at all; it is a distractor. In India the budget is called the Annual Financial Statement under Article 112, is presented on 1 February since 2017, and the first budget of independent India was presented by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty on 26 November 1947. Option A is wrong because a deficit budget is a real type. Option B is wrong because a balanced budget is a real type. Option D is wrong because a surplus budget is a real type. Exam tip: three types by balance, balanced, surplus and deficit; India normally runs a deficit budget.

The correct answer is D, Reserve Bank of India. Monetary policy, the control of money supply and interest rates to keep prices stable, is the job of the central bank, the RBI, set up on 1 April 1935 under the RBI Act 1934 and nationalised on 1 January 1949. Since 2016 the policy repo rate is decided by the six-member Monetary Policy Committee, three from the RBI including the Governor, who chairs it, and three appointed by the Union Government, working to an inflation target set in 2016 at 4 per cent with a band of 2 per cent on either side. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation compiles data such as GDP and the CPI, it does not set policy. Option B is wrong because the Finance Commission, under Article 280, recommends how taxes are shared between the Centre and the States. Option C is wrong because NITI Aayog, formed on 1 January 2015, is a policy think tank that replaced the Planning Commission. Exam tip: monetary policy = RBI and its MPC, fiscal policy = Finance Ministry through the Budget.

The correct answer is C, Deccan Plateau. The Deccan plateau is the large triangular block of the Peninsular plateau south of the Narmada, bounded by the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in the north, the Western Ghats in the west and the Eastern Ghats in the east, with an average height of about 600 metres. It is higher in the west, up to 900 to 1,200 metres along the Western Ghats, and tilts east, so the Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri flow east into the Bay of Bengal. Its north-western part is the Deccan Trap of basalt lava, which weathers into black cotton soil. Option A is wrong because the Marwar plateau is a low upland of eastern Rajasthan, drained by the Banas. Option B is wrong because the Meghalaya plateau is a detached block in the north-east, made of the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills. Option D is wrong because the Chota Nagpur plateau lies in Jharkhand, drained by the Damodar and rich in coal and iron. Exam tip: Deccan = between Satpura, Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats, high in the west, sloping east.

The correct answer is B, Sahyadri Range. The Krishna rises near Mahabaleshwar in the Satara district of Maharashtra, at about 1,337 metres in the Sahyadri, which is the local name of the Western Ghats. It is the second longest peninsular river after the Godavari, about 1,400 km long, and flows east through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to the Bay of Bengal near Vijayawada. Its main tributaries are the Bhima, Tungabhadra, Koyna, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and Musi, and the Almatti, Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar dams stand on it. Option A is wrong because the Satpura range is the source of the Tapi, which rises at Multai. Option C is wrong because the Vindhya range feeds northward rivers like the Betwa and Ken, not the Krishna. Option D is wrong because the Eastern Ghats are where the Krishna ends its journey, not where it begins. Exam tip: three great east-flowing rivers rise in the Western Ghats, Godavari at Trimbakeshwar, Krishna at Mahabaleshwar, Kaveri at Talakaveri.