Madhya Pradesh 2020 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, 1945. The last election to the Central Legislative Assembly set up under the Government of India Act of 1919 was held in the winter of 1945, after the Second World War ended and the Labour government in Britain moved towards a settlement with Indian leaders. The Congress won almost all the general seats and the Muslim League almost all the seats reserved for Muslims, and that verdict shaped the negotiations of 1946, the Cabinet Mission plan and the Constituent Assembly chosen by the provincial legislatures. The Act of 1935 reorganised the provinces, but the central legislature kept working under the 1919 Act until independence. A is wrong because no central election was held in 1930, the year of the Civil Disobedience Movement. B is wrong because the election of 1934 was the previous one, not the last. D is wrong because 1947 brought independence with no fresh central election. Exam tip: link the 1945-46 elections with the sharp communal division before Partition.

The correct answer is A, Always upright. A pyramid of energy is always upright because energy is lost as heat at every step of a food chain, so each higher trophic level holds less energy than the one below it. Only about ten per cent of the energy at one level passes on to the next, which is Lindeman's ten per cent law, and this flow of energy is one way and can never be reversed. That is why an energy pyramid can never be inverted, while a pyramid of numbers or of biomass sometimes can be: in a pond the biomass of the tiny phytoplankton is smaller than that of the fish feeding on them, and a single large tree supports far more insects than itself. B is wrong because inversion is impossible for energy. C is wrong for the same reason, being the exact opposite. D is wrong because A states the rule correctly. Exam tip: energy pyramid always upright; number and biomass pyramids may invert.

The correct answer is A, Marble. Marble is a non-metallic mineral: no metal can be drawn out of it, and it is used as a building and sculpting stone, the Makrana marble of Rajasthan being the stone of the Taj Mahal. Minerals are first divided into metallic and non-metallic. A metallic mineral yields a metal when smelted and is either ferrous, containing iron, or non-ferrous. A non-metallic mineral has no metal content of that kind, and limestone, mica, gypsum, dolomite, marble and rock salt are the common examples; marble itself is limestone changed by heat and pressure. B is wrong because manganese is a ferrous metallic mineral, used to harden steel and to make dry cells and paints. C is wrong because silver is a non-ferrous metallic mineral, used in jewellery, coins and electrical contacts. D is wrong because lead too is a non-ferrous metal, used in batteries and sheeting. Exam tip: metallic – ferrous such as iron and manganese, non-ferrous such as copper, lead, zinc and silver; non-metallic – limestone, mica, gypsum, marble.

The correct answer is D, Ninety days. Section 22 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 allows a person aggrieved by an award, order or decision of the Tribunal to appeal to the Supreme Court within ninety days of the day it is communicated, and the Court may admit a later appeal if it is satisfied that there was sufficient cause for the delay. The Tribunal itself was created in 2010 to hear environmental cases quickly, with its principal bench at New Delhi, and it is expected to decide a case within six months. A is wrong because thirty days is the period within which a person may go to the Tribunal against an order of a body such as a State Pollution Control Board, not the period for an appeal to the Supreme Court. B and C are wrong because the Act fixes no limit of forty-five or sixty days for such an appeal. Exam tip: NGT Act 2010 – thirty days to appeal to the Tribunal, ninety days to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The correct answer is B, ISRO. Vyommitra is a half-humanoid robot built by the Indian Space Research Organisation and shown to the public in January 2020. Its name joins the Sanskrit words vyoma, meaning sky or space, and mitra, meaning friend. The robot is meant to ride on an uncrewed test flight of the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, where it will sit in the crew seat, work the panels, monitor the cabin and speak with the ground station, so that engineers learn how a crew module behaves before astronauts fly in it. Option A is wrong because C-DAC in Pune builds the PARAM series of supercomputers. Option C is wrong because the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai does basic research in physics and mathematics. Option D is wrong because the DRDO develops missiles, radars and other defence systems. Exam tip: Gaganyaan and Vyommitra belong to ISRO, PARAM to C-DAC.

The correct answer is B, Geitonogamy. Geitonogamy is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower on the same plant. In the way it happens it is like cross-pollination, because an outside agent such as an insect or the wind carries the pollen; but genetically it is like self-pollination, because the pollen comes from the same plant and brings no new genes. The word comes from the Greek geiton, meaning neighbour, which is an easy way to remember it: pollen goes to the neighbouring flower. Option A is wrong because autogamy is pollination within the same flower, where pollen reaches the stigma of the very flower that produced it, as in closed cleistogamous flowers. Option C is wrong because xenogamy is the transfer of pollen to a flower of a different plant, the only type that brings genetically different pollen to the stigma. Option D is wrong because geitonogamy is the exact name for this process. Exam tip: autogamy same flower, geitonogamy same plant, xenogamy different plant.

The correct answer is C, iii iv i ii. Kalahandi in Odisha is known for the large bauxite deposits of the Eastern Ghats; Zawar near Udaipur in Rajasthan is India’s best-known zinc and lead mine, worked since ancient times; Kolar in Karnataka is famous for the Kolar Gold Fields, among the deepest gold mines in the world until they closed in 2001; and Mosabani in the Singhbhum copper belt of Jharkhand is a major copper mining centre. Paper setters like to pair each mineral with one famous place, so learning one landmark site per mineral pays off quickly. Option A is wrong because it gives gold to Kalahandi and bauxite to Kolar. Option B is wrong because it also gives Kalahandi gold instead of bauxite and Kolar bauxite instead of gold. Option D is wrong because it pairs Zawar with copper and Kolar with zinc and lead. Exam tip: Kalahandi bauxite, Zawar zinc and lead, Kolar gold, Mosabani copper.

The correct answer is B, Minto-Morley Reforms, 1909. The Indian Councils Act of 1909, known as the Morley-Minto Reforms, first gave Muslims separate electorates, in which only Muslim voters could elect Muslim members. It followed the Simla Deputation of 1906, when the Aga Khan led Muslim leaders to Lord Minto to ask for separate representation, and the Muslim League was founded the same year. That is why Lord Minto is called the Father of Communal Electorate. The Act also enlarged the legislative councils, and Satyendra Prasanna Sinha became the first Indian on the Viceroy’s Executive Council. Option A is wrong because the 1892 Act only brought indirect elections and let members discuss the budget. Option C is wrong because the 1919 Act widened communal representation to Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans; it did not start it. Option D is wrong because the 1935 Act extended it further to the depressed classes, women and labour. Exam tip: separate electorates began in 1909 under Minto and grew in 1919 and 1935.