State Exams 2002 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, Indian Nation. The Indian Nation was an English daily brought out from Patna, and it is the only Patna paper in this list.

The paper was started in the 1930s and was run by the Darbhanga Raj, the princely house of north Bihar, which also published the Hindi daily Aryavarta from Patna. For several decades these two were the best known newspapers of Bihar, and questions on the press of the state almost always turn on this pair. Patna has long been a centre of Hindi and English journalism in eastern India.

B is wrong: Punjab Kesari is a Hindi daily of the Hind Samachar group, published from Jalandhar and Delhi. C is wrong: Prabhakar was a nineteenth century Hindi journal of north India, not a Patna daily. D is wrong: Don is not an Indian newspaper at all.

Exam tip: remember the Darbhanga Raj pair published from Patna, The Indian Nation in English and Aryavarta in Hindi.

The correct answer is A, Aluminium manufacturing. Muri, a town in the Ranchi district of Jharkhand, has a large alumina refinery, so it is remembered as an aluminium centre. The works began in 1948 and are now run by Hindalco; they treat bauxite mined on the Lohardaga, Gumla and Palamu plateaus and turn it into alumina, the powder from which aluminium metal is smelted. Bauxite close by, coal-based power from the Damodar valley and a rail link are what put the industry there. B is wrong because copper in this region is smelted at Ghatsila in the Singhbhum copper belt. C is wrong because the steel plants of the area are at Jamshedpur and Bokaro, not Muri. D is wrong because the fertiliser unit of this belt stands at Sindri near Dhanbad. Exam tip: pair the Jharkhand towns - Muri with aluminium, Ghatsila with copper, Jamshedpur and Bokaro with steel, Sindri with fertiliser.

The correct answer is B, Young folded mountains. Young fold mountains were raised in the Tertiary period, only a few tens of millions of years ago in geological time, so erosion has had little time to wear them down and many of them are still rising as the plates behind them keep pushing. The Himalayas, the Alps, the Andes and the Rockies belong to this class, and the tallest summits on earth, Mount Everest and K2 among them, stand in the Himalaya and the Karakoram. A is wrong because old fold mountains such as the Aravallis, the Appalachians and the Urals were formed far earlier, and long erosion has reduced them to low rounded hills. C is wrong because residual mountains are only the harder remnants left behind after the surrounding rock was stripped away, so they stay low. D is wrong because block mountains, like the Vosges and the Black Forest, are raised by faulting between rift valleys and never reach such heights. Exam tip: the Himalaya is a young fold range and the highest, while the Aravalli is the oldest fold range in India.

The correct answer is A, rice, wheat and maize. These three cereals take up most of Bihar's cropped area and give the state the bulk of its foodgrain output. Rice is the main kharif crop of both the north Bihar plain and the south Bihar plain, where the monsoon and the alluvial soil of the Ganga basin suit it; wheat follows as the leading rabi crop; and maize is grown heavily in the Kosi and Seemanchal belt, with the state well known for its rabi maize. B is wrong because sugarcane is a cash crop and not a foodgrain, tea is grown on only a small area in Kishanganj, and barley is a minor crop. C is wrong because groundnut is an oilseed and coffee is not grown in Bihar at all, since it needs the well-drained hill slopes of peninsular India. D is wrong because option A is correct. Exam tip: Bihar's foodgrain trio is rice, wheat and maize, while sugarcane and jute are its chief cash crops.

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.