State Exams Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, Horizontal equal halves. The equator is the latitude of 0 degrees and it runs east to west round the middle of the earth, cutting the globe into two equal halves. These halves are the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere, and each stretches through 90 degrees of latitude up to its pole. The equator is the longest parallel, about 40,075 km round the earth, and every other parallel is shorter than it. Day and night stay nearly equal through the year on the equator, and the sun is overhead there on the two equinoxes, 21 March and 23 September. B is wrong because the equator is not drawn at a slant; it lies at right angles to the earth's axis. C is wrong because the two parts it makes are equal, not unequal. D is wrong because the vertical division is made by the Prime Meridian, which marks off the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Exam tip: the equator divides north from south, the Prime Meridian divides east from west.

The correct answer is B, Swadeshi Movement. The Swadeshi Movement began as the answer to Lord Curzon's partition of Bengal, which came into effect on 16 October 1905. Curzon called the partition an administrative measure, but the real aim was to divide Hindus and Muslims and break the strength of the nationalists in Bengal. The protest took the form of boycotting British cloth and goods and of promoting Indian-made cloth, salt, schools and banks; the day of the partition was observed as a day of mourning, and the annulment of the partition came in 1911. A is wrong because the Civil Disobedience Movement began in 1930 with the Dandi March. C is wrong because the Quit India Movement was launched in August 1942 after the failure of the Cripps Mission. D is wrong because the Non-Cooperation Movement started in 1920, growing out of Jallianwala Bagh and the Khilafat question. Exam tip: Partition of Bengal 1905 goes with Swadeshi and Boycott, and the partition was annulled in 1911.

The correct answer is B, Advocate General. The Advocate General is the highest law officer of a state and advises the state government on legal matters. Article 165 provides for the office: the Governor appoints a person qualified to be a judge of a High Court, the Advocate General holds office during the pleasure of the Governor, and the Governor fixes the remuneration. The duties are to advise the state government on the legal questions referred to the office, to discharge the legal duties assigned by the Governor and to appear for the state in the High Court. A is wrong because the Attorney General, under Article 76, is the first law officer of the Union and not of a state. C is wrong because the Solicitor General assists the Attorney General at the Union level and is not a constitutional post. D is wrong because the Chief Justice of a High Court decides cases and does not advise the government. Exam tip: Article 76 for the Attorney General of India, Article 165 for the Advocate General of a state.

The correct answer is A, Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh grows more wheat than any other state, because the fertile alluvial soil of the Ganga plain, canal and tubewell irrigation and a cool winter together suit the crop. Wheat is India's chief rabi crop: it is sown between October and December and harvested in March and April, and it needs a cool growing season with a warm, dry spell for ripening. Uttar Pradesh is followed by Madhya Pradesh and Punjab in total output, while Punjab and Haryana lead in yield per hectare because their irrigation is assured. B is wrong because Punjab, though the backbone of the central grain pool, has a far smaller cropped area than Uttar Pradesh. C is wrong because Haryana is a small state and its total output stays well below both. D is wrong because Madhya Pradesh has climbed to second place but still trails Uttar Pradesh. Exam tip: Uttar Pradesh leads in total wheat production, Punjab in productivity per hectare.

The correct answer is B, Sayyid dynasty. Timur invaded India in 1398 and sacked Delhi, the Tughlaq hold on the city collapsed after that blow, and the Sayyid dynasty was the next to rule from Delhi. Khizr Khan, whom Timur had left as governor of Multan, took Delhi in 1414 and founded the dynasty, the third of the five houses of the Delhi Sultanate. The Sayyids ruled till 1451, and their last ruler Alam Shah handed Delhi over to Bahlol Lodi. A is wrong because the Lodi dynasty came after the Sayyids, ruling from 1451 to 1526 and ending with Ibrahim Lodi's defeat at Panipat. C is wrong because the Tughlaq dynasty was in power when Timur invaded and was pushed aside by the invasion. D is wrong because the Khilji dynasty had ruled much earlier, from 1290 to 1320. Exam tip: the five dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate in order - Slave, Khilji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi.

The correct answer is D, None of the above. None of the three substances listed slows a reaction down; the substance that does that is called a negative catalyst or an inhibitor. A catalyst changes the rate of a reaction without being used up in it, and it works by lowering the activation energy the reactants must cross. A positive catalyst speeds the reaction up, while a negative catalyst holds it back, the way glycerol slows the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. A is wrong because a catalytic promoter is added to make the catalyst more active, so it raises the rate instead of lowering it. B is wrong because a homogeneous catalyst is one present in the same phase as the reactants, and it speeds the reaction up. C is wrong because a heterogeneous catalyst sits in a different phase, like iron in the Haber process, and it also speeds the reaction up. Exam tip: remember the pair - a promoter increases a catalyst's activity, a poison or inhibitor decreases it.

The correct answer is C, the number of holes equals the number of electrons. In an intrinsic, that is a chemically pure, semiconductor every free electron is produced by breaking a covalent bond, and breaking a bond leaves behind exactly one hole, so electrons and holes are created strictly in pairs and their concentrations must be equal. Option A is wrong because a product of two concentrations cannot equal a bare number one; the product is fixed by temperature and the band gap, not by unity. Option B is wrong because holes can outnumber electrons only in a p-type crystal, which needs a trivalent dopant. Option D is wrong because electrons outnumber holes only in an n-type crystal, which needs a pentavalent dopant. Equal numbers are therefore the signature of the pure crystal, and any inequality means doping has taken place.

The correct answer is B, the Mahabodhi Temple Complex. It stands at Bodh Gaya in Bihar beside the Bodhi tree under which Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment, and the teaching he then carried to the world is tied to this spot; a shrine was first raised here in Ashoka's time and the tall brick temple that survives belongs to the Gupta period, with the site inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2002. Option A is wrong because Humayun's Tomb in Delhi is a Mughal garden tomb of the sixteenth century. Option C is wrong because the Qutub Minar was begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak in the Delhi Sultanate period. Option D is wrong because the Red Fort was built by Shah Jahan. Only one option in the set is Buddhist at all, which is the shortcut in such questions.

The correct answer is B, 1938. Subhash Chandra Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress at the Haripura session in Gujarat in 1938, where he set up a National Planning Committee under Jawaharlal Nehru. He was elected a second time at Tripuri in 1939, defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, but resigned in April of that year after losing the confidence of the working committee, and went on to found the Forward Bloc. Option A, 1932, is the year of the Communal Award and the Poona Pact and has no connection with his presidency. Option C, 1941, is the year Bose escaped from house arrest in Calcutta and made his way to Germany. Option D, 1943, is the year he took charge of the Indian National Army at Singapore and proclaimed the Azad Hind government, which is the fact most often confused with the presidency.

The correct answer is D, C A B D. Taking the four in the order they appear in history: Wood's Despatch came first, in 1854, and is called the Magna Carta of English education in India because it laid down a graded system of schools and universities. The Hunter Commission, also known as the Indian Education Commission, followed in 1882 under W. W. Hunter and reported mainly on primary and secondary education. The Saddler Commission, or Calcutta University Commission, sat in 1917 and 1919 and reviewed university education. The Sargent Plan, prepared by the Central Advisory Board of Education in 1944, was the last of the four and proposed universal free elementary education within forty years. Options A and C both place the Hunter Commission first, which is wrong because Wood's Despatch of 1854 precedes it, and option B puts the Saddler Commission before the Hunter Commission, reversing 1882 and 1917.

The correct answer is D, Padma Bhushan. The Indian civilian honours run in a fixed order of precedence: the Bharat Ratna first, then Padma Vibhushan, then Padma Bhushan and then Padma Shri. Counting from the top, Padma Bhushan is therefore the third highest, and it is given for distinguished service of a high order in any field. Option A, Padma Vibhushan, is the second highest, awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, and is the option most often chosen by candidates who forget to count the Bharat Ratna. Option B, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, is the highest honour in Indian cinema and is given by the government for lifetime contribution to film; it is outside the civilian order of precedence altogether. Option C, the Arjuna Award, belongs to sport and recognises consistently outstanding performance over several years, so it too is a field award rather than a general civilian honour.

The correct answer is B, A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2. Nyaya is the school of logic and holds that liberation follows from correct reasoning, so it pairs with logical thinking. Mimamsa treats the ritual portion of the Vedas as binding and holds that salvation comes from performing Vedic rituals. Samkhya teaches that bondage ends with the acquisition of real knowledge, namely the discrimination of purusha from prakriti. Vedanta rests on the Upanishads and holds that liberation comes from knowledge of the self as identical with Brahman. Option A is wrong because it assigns knowledge of the self to Nyaya and logical thinking to Mimamsa, reversing both. Option C is wrong because it gives Nyaya the acquisition of real knowledge, which belongs to Samkhya. Option D is wrong because it makes Nyaya the school of Vedic ritual, a pairing that belongs to Mimamsa alone.

The correct answer is D, Gautam Buddha. The eightfold path or ashtangika marga is the fourth of the noble truths preached by the Buddha in his first sermon at Sarnath, and it names the middle way between indulgence and mortification: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Option A, Shankaracharya, taught Advaita Vedanta, in which liberation comes from the knowledge that Brahman alone is real; he set out no eightfold path. Option B, Mahavir Swami, taught the triratna of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct and five great vows, so his scheme is threefold and fivefold, not eightfold. Option C, Ramanuja, taught Vishishtadvaita and the path of devotion or prapatti. Candidates also confuse this path with the eight limbs of Patanjali's yoga, which are yama to samadhi and belong to a different tradition.

The correct answer is D, A - 4, B - 3, C - 2, D - 1. Ramanuja taught Vishishtadvaita or qualified non dualism, in which souls and matter are real but exist as attributes of Brahman. Madhvacharya taught Dvaita, a thoroughgoing dualism in which god and the individual soul remain eternally distinct. Nimbarka taught Dvaitadvaita or bhedabheda, holding that difference and non difference are both real. Vallabhacharya taught Shuddhadvaita, pure non dualism, in which Brahman is real and untouched by maya. Option A is wrong because it gives Ramanuja Dvaitadvaita, which belongs to Nimbarka. Option B is wrong because it gives Ramanuja Dvaita and Madhvacharya Shuddhadvaita, reversing the two positions that are most often confused. Option C is wrong because it pairs the four teachers with the philosophies in the order in which the lists happen to be printed, which is the trap in every match the list question of this kind.

The correct answer is B, nephrons. The nephron is the structural and functional unit of the kidney, and each human kidney holds about one million of them. Blood is pushed into the cup shaped Bowman's capsule through a knot of capillaries called the glomerulus, and there the actual filtration happens: water, salts, glucose, amino acids and urea pass out while blood cells and large plasma proteins are held back. Option A is wrong because the ureter is only the tube that carries formed urine from the kidney down to the urinary bladder; it filters nothing. Option C is wrong because neurons are nerve cells that conduct impulses and belong to the nervous system, not the excretory system; the similar sound of nephron and neuron is exactly the trap in this question. Option D is wrong because the urethra is the last passage through which urine leaves the body. Remember the order: nephron filters, ureter carries, bladder stores, urethra releases.

The correct answer is D, the tropical savanna region. The savanna is a tropical grassland with tall coarse grass and scattered flat topped trees, and its wet season produces an enormous crop of grass. That grass supports the largest herds of grazing animals on earth, the zebra, the wildebeest, the giraffe and the antelope, and those herds in turn support the lion, the leopard and the cheetah. Because so many large mammals live there together, the savanna, especially in East Africa, is called the land of big game. Option A is wrong because the temperate grassland has short grass and has been ploughed for wheat so widely that it is called the granary of the world, and its large wild herds are long gone. Option B is wrong because the tropical monsoon region is known for deciduous forest and for rice cultivation under a seasonal rainfall regime. Option C is wrong because the hot desert has too little vegetation to feed large herds, and its animals are small and mostly nocturnal.

The correct answer is A, inhalation. Inhalation, also called inspiration, is the phase of breathing in which the diaphragm flattens and the intercostal muscles pull the ribs up and out, so the chest cavity enlarges, the pressure inside the lungs falls below the pressure of the atmosphere and oxygen rich air rushes in through the nostrils and the windpipe. Option B is wrong because exhalation is the opposite phase, in which the muscles relax, the chest cavity shrinks and carbon dioxide rich air is pushed out; it is normally a passive process. Option C is wrong because flotation is a physical property of bodies in a fluid, described by the law of Archimedes, and has nothing to do with breathing. Option D is wrong because exploration simply means searching or investigating and is not a term of biology at all. Remember the pair as inhalation for taking air in and exhalation for sending it out.

The correct answer is B, the Information Technology Act, 2000. It is India’s first cyberlaw, and it is the statute that gave legal recognition to electronic records and to digital and electronic signatures, so that a contract concluded online is as enforceable as one written on paper and a department may accept a filing or issue a licence electronically. That recognition is exactly what electronic commerce needs, which is why the Act is described as providing its legal infrastructure; it also created the Controller of Certifying Authorities and was amended in 2008 to cover data protection, cyber terrorism and interception. Options A, C and D are wrong because no Information Technology Act was passed in 1996, 1998 or 1990; they are near years offered to test whether the candidate remembers the exact one. Note that 2000 is also the year in which the United Nations model law on electronic commerce was being adopted widely.

The correct answer is C, the President, after an enquiry conducted by the Supreme Court. Article 317(1) provides that the chairman or any other member of a Public Service Commission, whether of the Union or of a state, shall be removed from office only by order of the President on the ground of misbehaviour, and only after the Supreme Court has held an inquiry on a reference made by the President and reported that he ought to be removed. Options A, B and D all put the power in the Governor's hands, which is the standard trap: the Governor appoints a member of a State Commission and may suspend him while the inquiry is pending, but he cannot remove him. There is no impeachment by the Vidhan Sabha for this office, so A is doubly wrong, and D wrongly substitutes the High Court for the Supreme Court.

The correct answer is D, the Uttar Pradesh State Legislature. Article 321 allows additional functions to be conferred on a Public Service Commission, and it names two different authorities for the two kinds of Commission: Parliament may extend the functions of the Union Public Service Commission, while the legislature of a state may extend the functions of that state's Public Service Commission. The functions of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission are therefore extended by an Act of the Uttar Pradesh legislature. Option A is wrong because the Prime Minister has no such power under the Constitution. Option B is wrong because a Union ministry cannot legislate for a state Commission. Option C is wrong because the President appoints, removes and frames conditions of service, but extending functions is a legislative act under Article 321.