State Exams 2019 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, Tons. The Tons is a tributary of the Yamuna in the Ganga system, rising in the Garhwal Himalaya, and has nothing to do with the Brahmaputra basin. Option A is wrong as an answer because the Teesta, which drains Sikkim and north Bengal, does join the Brahmaputra, doing so in Bangladesh. Option B is wrong because the Siang, also called the Dihang, is the name the Brahmaputra itself carries in Arunachal Pradesh and is treated as its head stream, so it belongs to the system. Option D is wrong because the Manas, which comes down from Bhutan through the Manas national park, is one of the major north-bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra in Assam. The other tributaries worth remembering are the Subansiri, the Kameng, the Dibang and the Lohit, the last two giving the river its Assam name at Sadiya.

The correct answer is D, 1984. Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma flew in April 1984 aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11 as part of a joint programme between the Soviet Union and India, and spent about eight days aboard the Salyut 7 space station. He thus became the first Indian to travel into space. He is remembered for his reply when the Prime Minister asked how India looked from up there, and he was awarded the Ashoka Chakra.

Options A, B and C give 1981, 1982 and 1983, all near years placed there to see whether the date is firmly held. Fix the year by tying it to two other facts of the same decade: India launched its own satellite Aryabhata in 1975 and put Rohini in orbit with an Indian rocket in 1980, and Rakesh Sharma flew four years after that. The second Indian origin astronauts, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams, flew with the American programme much later.

The correct answer is C, Real Time Gross Settlement. RTGS is the system in which a transfer instruction is settled singly and immediately, rather than being held and netted off with others. Real time means the instruction is processed the moment it is received, and gross means every instruction is settled on its own without being set against any other. It is used for large value transfers, with a minimum of two lakh rupees and no upper limit fixed by the Reserve Bank of India, and it is available round the clock on all days.

Options A, B and D mix the words in ways that sound familiar but are wrong. The word scheme in A and D is the giveaway, because RTGS is a settlement system run by the Reserve Bank and not a scheme. Option B keeps the correct last word but replaces real time with rapid transfer. The contrast to remember is NEFT, which settles in half hourly batches, against RTGS, which settles instruction by instruction.

The correct answer is D, Jahangir. The Shalimar Bagh on the bank of the Dal lake in Srinagar was laid out by Jahangir in 1619 for his queen Nur Jahan. It is a Mughal garden in the charbagh plan, built in rising terraces fed by a central water channel, with pavilions and cascades, and it shows how far the Mughals carried the Persian idea of a garden as a picture of paradise. Jahangir loved Kashmir and the Nishat Bagh nearby belongs to the same period.

Option A, Azam Shah, was a son of Aurangzeb and is linked with the Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad, not with Kashmir. Option B, Akbar, annexed Kashmir in 1586 and built the Hari Parbat fort wall there, but not this garden. Option C, Humayun, spent his reign in war and exile and left no garden of this kind. The Shalimar Bagh belongs to Jahangir.

The correct answer is A, only (i) is false. Statement (i) is wrong because Ctrl + N opens a brand new, empty presentation; the key that inserts a new slide into the open presentation is Ctrl + M. Statement (ii) is true: PowerPoint 2016 can save or export a presentation as a PDF through Save As or Export, a facility Office has carried since the 2007 version.

Option B says only (ii) is false, which reverses the position of the two statements. Option C claims both are false, but the PDF facility plainly exists in PowerPoint 2016. Option D says neither is false, which would make Ctrl + N a slide-inserting key and is exactly the confusion the paper setter is testing. Remember the pair: Ctrl + N for a new file, Ctrl + M for one more slide.

The correct answer is B, Gift tax. A gift tax is charged on the transfer of money or property from one person to another without consideration; it is a tax on a transfer between persons, not on any sale of goods or supply of services. India abolished the gift tax in 1998, and gifts above the prescribed limit are now taxed in the hands of the receiver as income from other sources.

Option A, sales tax, was the tax states levied on the sale of goods before value added tax and then GST took its place. Option C, luxury tax, was levied by states on hotel accommodation and similar services and has been subsumed into GST. Option D, sin tax, is the general name for a heavy levy on goods considered harmful, such as tobacco and liquor, and in the GST era it appears as the compensation cess on demerit goods. All three of these are levied with reference to goods or services, so only the gift tax stands apart.

The correct answer is C, Guava. Guava is the classic jam fruit because it is rich in both pectin and acid, the two things a jam needs to set into a firm gel. Jam is made by boiling fruit pulp with sugar until the mixture reaches about 68 per cent soluble solids; without enough pectin it stays syrupy and never sets. Ripe guava carries close to one per cent pectin, so guava jam sets without any added gelling agent, and its strong aroma survives the boiling. Option A, banana, has very little pectin, and its pulp darkens and turns pasty on cooking, so it goes into chips, powder and puree. Option B, pineapple, is low in pectin and high in water, which is why it is preferred for squash, juice and slices in syrup. Option D, sweet orange, is low in acid and its segments break down, so oranges are used for squash and marmalade. Exam tip: jam needs pectin plus acid — guava, apple and aonla are the standard pectin-rich fruits.

The correct answer is B, Article 200. When a bill passed by a state legislature is presented to the Governor, Article 200 gives four courses: give assent, withhold assent, return the bill for reconsideration if it is not a money bill, or reserve it for the consideration of the President. Reservation is compulsory in one case, where the bill would take away the powers of the High Court, and is otherwise left to the Governor, for example when a bill clashes with a central law or touches a subject in which the Union has an interest. Option C, Article 201, is the next step and not the answer: it says what the President does with a bill so reserved, and the state legislature cannot overrule that decision. Option A, Article 169, deals with the creation or abolition of a legislative council in a state. Option D, Article 257, is about the control of the Union over states in certain matters. Exam tip: 200 reserves the bill, 201 decides it.

The correct answer is C, Microsoft Excel. An electronic spreadsheet stores data in a grid of rows and columns and recalculates its formulas whenever a value changes, and Excel is the spreadsheet program of the Microsoft Office suite. Its files carry the .xlsx extension from Excel 2007 onwards.

Option A, Microsoft Word, is a word processor, used to type, edit and format text documents that are saved with the .docx extension. Option B, Microsoft PowerPoint, is presentation software, used to build slides for a talk and saved with the .pptx extension. Option D, Microsoft Access, is the database management program of the suite; it also shows tables in a grid, which makes it the strongest distractor, but a database stores records in related tables and is queried, while a spreadsheet calculates cell by cell. Remember the pairing of the four programs with their jobs and this whole family of questions becomes easy.

The correct answer is B, 11. A new blank document in Microsoft Word 2016 opens in the Calibri font at a size of 11 points, and the same pair of defaults is used from Word 2007 through Word 2019. The setting can be seen in the Font group of the Home tab the moment a new document is created, and it can be altered for every future document through the Font dialog box by choosing the font and the size and then clicking Set As Default.

Option A, 10 points, is not the default of any Word version in common use. Option C, 12 points, is the size many offices and universities insist on for a printed report, and it was the default size of the older Times New Roman default in Word 2003, which is why it is the favourite distractor here. Option D, 14 points, is a heading size a user applies by hand and is never the default body size.

The correct answer is C, Kanishka. Ashvaghosha was a Buddhist monk and Sanskrit poet at the court of the Kushana ruler Kanishka I. He wrote the Buddhacharita, a life of the Buddha in Sanskrit verse, and the Saundarananda, and he acted as deputy to Vasumitra at the Fourth Buddhist Council held in Kashmir. Kanishka's court also held the physician Charaka and the philosopher Nagarjuna, and the group is a favourite one-line question.

Option A, Ashoka, ruled in the third century BCE, about three hundred years earlier, and is linked with Moggaliputta Tissa and the Third Buddhist Council. Option B, Bindusara, was Ashoka's father and received the Greek ambassador Deimachus, not Ashvaghosha. Option D, Gautamiputra Satakarni, was the Satavahana king praised in the Nasik prashasti and had no connection with the Buddhacharita.

The correct answer is D, Ganga. Kashi, also called Varanasi or Banaras, stands on the left bank of the Ganga in eastern Uttar Pradesh and is among the oldest living cities in the world. Its name comes from the two small streams, the Varuna and the Assi, between which the old city lies. The riverfront has some eighty-four ghats, among them Dashashwamedh and Manikarnika, and the Kashi Vishwanath temple here is one of the twelve jyotirlingas. Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, is only a few kilometres away. Option A is wrong because the Gomti flows past Lucknow and joins the Ganga near Ghazipur. Option B is wrong because the Saryu or Ghaghara flows past Ayodhya. Option C is wrong because the Yamuna passes Delhi, Mathura and Agra and meets the Ganga at Prayagraj. Exam tip: Varanasi on the Ganga, Lucknow on the Gomti, Ayodhya on the Saryu, Agra on the Yamuna.

The correct answer is D, Galvanometer. A galvanometer detects whether a current is flowing in a circuit and shows its direction, because its needle moves to one side or the other about a central zero. It works on the turning effect of a magnetic field on a current carrying coil, and it is so sensitive that it responds to very small currents, which is why it is used to detect rather than to measure. The same instrument becomes an ammeter when a low resistance shunt is joined in parallel with it, and a voltmeter when a high resistance is joined in series. Option A is wrong because an ohmmeter measures resistance. Option B is wrong because a voltmeter measures potential difference and is connected in parallel across a component. Option C is wrong because a rheostat is a variable resistor used to change current, not to detect it. Exam tip: galvanometer detects, ammeter measures current in series, voltmeter measures voltage in parallel.

The correct answer is D, Sarnath. After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha walked to Sarnath near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and gave his first sermon there to the five ascetics who had once been his companions. That sermon is the Dhammachakkappavattana Sutta, the turning of the wheel of law, and the event is remembered as Dharmachakra Pravartana. In it he laid out the middle path, the four noble truths and the eightfold path, and the sangha was born with those first five disciples. The deer park at Sarnath, Rishipatana or Isipatana, later held Ashoka’s pillar whose lion capital is our national emblem. Option A is wrong because Kapilvastu is where the prince grew up and left home. Option B is wrong because Lumbini in Nepal is his birthplace. Option C is wrong because Bodh Gaya on the Niranjana is where he gained enlightenment under the peepal tree. Exam tip: born Lumbini, enlightened Bodh Gaya, first sermon Sarnath, died Kushinagar.

The correct answer is B, It is not enforceable. The Preamble states the aims and the source of authority of the Constitution, but it gives no right and imposes no duty that a court can enforce, so no one can go to court merely on the strength of the Preamble. In the Berubari Union case of 1960 the Supreme Court called it a key to the makers’ minds and held it was not part of the Constitution; in Kesavananda Bharati in 1973 the Court corrected that and held the Preamble is part of the Constitution and can be amended without touching the basic structure, yet it remains non-justiciable. Option A is wrong because courts do not grant relief on the Preamble alone. Option C is wrong because there is no special situation in which it becomes enforceable. Option D is wrong because option B is right. Exam tip: Preamble is part of the Constitution but non-justiciable; amended once, by the 42nd Amendment in 1976.

The correct answer is C, Avanti. Chanda Pradyota ruled Avanti, the mahajanapada of western and central India whose capital was Ujjayini, the modern Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. He founded the Pradyota dynasty and was a contemporary of the Buddha, of Bimbisara of Magadha and of Udayana of Vatsa, and his fiery temper earned him the name Chanda, the cruel. Avanti was one of the four strong powers, with Magadha, Kosala and Vatsa, that swallowed the smaller states in the sixth century BCE, and it was finally absorbed by Magadha under the Shishunaga dynasty. Option A is wrong because Kashi, with its capital at Varanasi, was ruled by kings such as Brahmadatta. Option B is wrong because Anga had its capital at Champa and was annexed by Bimbisara. Option D is wrong because Vajji was a confederacy of clans led by the Lichchhavis with its centre at Vaishali, not a monarchy. Exam tip: Avanti, Ujjayini, Chanda Pradyota.

The correct answer is D, All of the above. A high-level language is written in words close to English and has to be turned into machine code by a compiler or an interpreter, so the programmer need not know the processor at all. All three named languages are of this kind. COBOL, from 1959, was built for business data processing and Grace Hopper was central to its design. PASCAL, designed by Niklaus Wirth around 1970 and named after Blaise Pascal, was made for teaching structured programming. BASIC, written by Kemeny and Kurtz in 1964, was the beginners language of early home computers. Options A, B and C are each individually correct but incomplete, and the question asks for the choice that covers every high-level language listed, so the fuller option D is the right one. Exam tip: machine and assembly language are low level, C, COBOL, BASIC, PASCAL, FORTRAN and Java are high level.

The correct answer is B, September 2014. Make in India was launched on 25 September 2014 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, on the birth anniversary of Deendayal Upadhyaya. Its aim is to turn India into a global manufacturing hub by making it easier to do business, drawing in investment, building skills and protecting intellectual property, and it began with twenty-five sectors from automobiles and textiles to electronics and defence production. Its logo is a striding lion made of gears, standing for strength and manufacture. Option A is wrong because November 2012 is before this government took office and no such programme existed then. Option C is wrong because January 2014 is also earlier than the launch; it is often confused with Startup India, which came on 16 January 2016. Option D is wrong because September 2016 is two years after the launch. Exam tip: Make in India 25 September 2014, Digital India 1 July 2015, Startup India 16 January 2016.

The correct answer is D, Article 149. Article 149 says the Comptroller and Auditor General shall perform such duties and exercise such powers as Parliament may by law prescribe. Under that law the CAG audits the accounts of the Union and of every state, and of bodies substantially financed from public funds, and his reports go to the President or the Governor, who lays them before the legislature. Dr B. R. Ambedkar called the CAG the most important officer under the Constitution, because no rupee of public money can be spent without this audit. Option A is wrong because Article 146 deals with the officers, servants and expenses of the Supreme Court. Option B is wrong because Article 147 is the interpretation clause for constitutional questions. Option C is wrong because Article 148 covers the appointment, oath, tenure and service conditions of the CAG, not his duties. Exam tip: Article 148 appointment, 149 duties, 150 form of accounts, 151 audit reports.

The correct answer is A, Lichens. A bioindicator is a living organism whose presence, absence or health tells us about the quality of the environment. Lichens are a partnership between a fungus and an alga or cyanobacterium; they have no roots and take water and nutrients straight from the air and rain. This makes them very sensitive to air pollution, especially sulphur dioxide. They vanish from the bark of trees in polluted cities and grow richly where the air is clean, so scientists map lichens to judge air quality. Mosses are used in a similar way. Option B is wrong because methyl mercury is a toxic pollutant, not a living indicator; it caused Minamata disease in Japan in the 1950s. Option C is wrong because the rose plant is not used as a standard indicator of air quality. Option D is wrong because the sunflower is not a recognised air pollution indicator either. Exam tip: lichens indicate sulphur dioxide in the air; E. coli in water indicates faecal pollution.