State Exams 2023 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is B, Al₂O₃ and ZnO. Aluminium oxide and zinc oxide behave like a base with acids and like an acid with bases, so both are amphoteric. With hydrochloric acid, aluminium oxide gives aluminium chloride and water. With sodium hydroxide, zinc oxide gives sodium zincate and water. The word amphoteric comes from the Greek for 'both', which is the easiest way to remember it. Most metal oxides are basic, while oxides of non-metals such as carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide are acidic. Other common amphoteric oxides are those of lead and tin. Option A is wrong because copper(II) oxide is a basic oxide; it reacts with acids but not with bases. Option C is wrong for the same reason, as it also pairs aluminium oxide with basic copper oxide. Option D is wrong because only one pair, B, has both oxides amphoteric. Exam tip: remember the amphoteric four as Al, Zn, Pb and Sn, that is aluminium, zinc, lead and tin.

The correct answer is A, Mohana and Lilajan rivers. The Lilajan and the Mohana meet a few kilometres below Bodh Gaya, and from there the combined stream is called the Phalgu. The Lilajan is the old Niranjana, on whose bank the Buddha attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. The Phalgu then flows past the city of Gaya, where the Vishnupad temple stands on its bank and Hindus offer pind-daan to their ancestors. For much of the year its bed looks like dry sand, with water flowing beneath it, so it is often called an underground river. Option B is wrong because the Son is a large separate tributary of the Ganga that rises at Amarkantak and joins the Ganga near Patna. Option C is wrong for the same reason, as the Son plays no part in forming the Phalgu. Option D is wrong because only one pair, the Lilajan and the Mohana, forms it. Exam tip: Lilajan plus Mohana make the Phalgu, flowing from Bodh Gaya to Gaya.

The correct answer is D, More than one of the above. The Rajya Sabha has both members nominated by the President and members elected indirectly, so statements A and C are both true. Under Article 80, the House can have at most 250 members. Twelve are nominated by the President from people with special knowledge of literature, science, art and social service. The rest, up to 238, represent the States and Union Territories and are chosen by the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies, using proportional representation by the single transferable vote. No member of the Rajya Sabha is elected directly by the people, and the House is never dissolved; one-third of its members retire every second year. Option A is incomplete because nominated members are only twelve of the House. Option B is wrong because there is no direct election to the Rajya Sabha at all. Option C is incomplete because it leaves out the twelve nominated members. Exam tip: Rajya Sabha means 250 at most, 12 nominated, the rest elected by MLAs, none by the people directly.

The correct answer is A, Block-level body. The Panchayat Samiti is the middle tier of Panchayati Raj and works at the block level. The 73rd Amendment of 1992 made a three-tier system part of the Constitution: the Gram Panchayat at the village level, the Panchayat Samiti at the intermediate or block level, and the Zila Parishad at the district level. Article 243B lets a State skip the middle tier only if its population is below 20 lakh. The three-tier idea came from the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957, and Rajasthan was the first State to adopt it, at Nagaur on 2 October 1959. Option B is wrong because the district-level body is the Zila Parishad. Option C is wrong because the Gram Panchayat is the lowest tier, formed for a village or a group of villages. Option D is wrong because the Panchayat Samiti works at only one level, the block. Exam tip: village is Gram Panchayat, block is Panchayat Samiti, district is Zila Parishad.

The correct answer is C, Article 120 (1). Article 120 fixes the language of Parliament, and its proviso lets the presiding officer allow a member to speak in the mother tongue. Article 120 (1) says that business in Parliament shall be transacted in Hindi or in English. Its proviso adds that the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha may permit any member who cannot express himself properly in Hindi or English to address the House in his mother tongue. Article 210 gives the same power to the presiding officers of State Legislatures, so an MLA in Patna can also be allowed to speak in Maithili or Bhojpuri. Option A is wrong because Article 110 defines a Money Bill. Option B is wrong because Article 122 (2) protects presiding officers from the courts when they regulate the business of the House. Option D is wrong because neither Article 110 nor Article 122 deals with the language of the House. Exam tip: Article 120 is the language of Parliament, Article 210 the language of State Legislatures, and Article 343 the official language of the Union.

The correct answer is C, Pavnar, Maharashtra. Vinoba Bhave lived in his ashram at Pavnar near Wardha and began the individual Satyagraha from there on 17 October 1940. Gandhiji launched this limited protest after rejecting the August Offer of 1940, to show that India had not agreed to be dragged into the Second World War. Only chosen individuals would make an anti-war speech and court arrest, so that the war effort was not disturbed by a mass movement. Gandhiji picked Vinoba Bhave as the first satyagrahi and Jawaharlal Nehru as the second. Option A is wrong because Punnapra-Vayalar in Travancore saw a communist-led uprising in 1946. Option B is wrong because Nadiad in Kheda is linked with the Kheda Satyagraha of 1918. Option D is wrong because the individual Satyagraha began from one place, Pavnar. Exam tip: August Offer 1940, then individual Satyagraha from Pavnar; Vinoba first, Nehru second.

The correct answer is C, Holt Mackenzie. Holt Mackenzie, a Company official, devised the Mahalwari system in 1822 for the North-Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency. Under it, the whole village or estate, called a mahal, was treated as one unit, and the revenue was fixed with the village community or its headmen, who were jointly responsible for paying it. Unlike the Permanent Settlement, the demand was revised from time to time. Under Lord William Bentinck the system was improved and spread to Agra and Awadh, and later to Punjab and parts of Central India. Option A is wrong because Lord Hastings was the Governor-General of the time, known for the Anglo-Nepal and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars, not for designing this system. Option B is wrong because Lord Cornwallis brought the Permanent Settlement of 1793 in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Option D is wrong because only Holt Mackenzie devised the Mahalwari system. Exam tip: Permanent Settlement is Cornwallis 1793, Ryotwari is Munro and Read, Mahalwari is Holt Mackenzie 1822.

The correct answer is A, village headman. Under the Delhi Sultans, the Muqaddam or Chaudhari was the headman of the village and helped collect land revenue from the peasants. The village was the smallest unit of the Sultanate. Above it came the pargana under an Amil, the shiq under a Shiqdar, and the province, or iqta, under a Muqti or Wali. Along with the Khut, the headmen enjoyed many privileges, and Alauddin Khalji is remembered for cutting them down so that they paid taxes like ordinary peasants. Option B is wrong because revenue officials such as the Amil worked at the pargana level, above the village. Option C is wrong because the village accountant was the Patwari, who kept the land and revenue records. Option D is wrong because the term meant only one post, the headman. Exam tip: Muqaddam or Chaudhari is the headman, Patwari is the accountant, and Alauddin Khalji curbed the Khut, Muqaddam and Chaudhari.

The correct answer is A, Cyril Radcliffe. The British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe chaired both the Punjab and the Bengal Boundary Commissions in 1947. Each commission had four judges, two named by the Congress and two by the Muslim League, and when they could not agree the final decision fell to Radcliffe. He had never been to India before and was given only about five weeks for the job. His award was made public on 17 August 1947, two days after independence, and the line he drew is still called the Radcliffe Line on India's borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Option B is wrong because Moon was a British civil servant in Punjab who later wrote about Partition; he did not head the commissions. Option C is wrong because A. V. Alexander came to India in 1946 as a member of the Cabinet Mission. Option D is wrong because one person, Radcliffe, headed both commissions. Exam tip: Cabinet Mission 1946 was Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and Alexander; the 1947 border was Radcliffe's.