State Exams Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, Prakrit. The Gathasaptasati, also written as Gatha Saptasati, is an anthology of seven hundred short verses compiled by the Satavahana king Hala. It is written in Maharashtri Prakrit, the spoken language the Satavahanas favoured for their inscriptions and literature, and its verses describe village love and daily life in the Deccan rather than royal deeds. The work matters in an examination because it shows that the Satavahanas, unlike the later Guptas, promoted Prakrit as the language of the court.

Option A, Sanskrit, became the normal language of royal inscriptions later, with the Junagadh record of Rudradaman I as the first long example. Option B, Pali, is the language of the Buddhist Tripitaka and of the Milindapanho, not of Hala's anthology. Option D, Hindi, developed more than a thousand years after Hala and cannot belong to a first or second century text.

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, Mathura. The main Kushana capital was Purushapura, the modern Peshawar, which Kanishka I developed as his seat of power. As the empire spread into the Ganga-Yamuna plain, Mathura on the Yamuna became its second capital and the southern headquarters of the family. Mathura also grew into a great centre of sculpture, and a shrine of Kushana royal portrait statues, including a famous headless figure of Kanishka, was found at Mat near the city.

Option A, Pataliputra, was the Magadhan capital of the Nandas, the Mauryas and later the Guptas, not of the Kushanas. Option B, Delhi, did not exist as a capital in this period and rose only from the twelfth century under the Delhi Sultanate. Option C, Lahore, lay within Kushana territory but was never a Kushana capital and became important much later.

The correct answer is B, isohyet. An isohyet is a line drawn on a map through all the places that receive the same amount of rainfall in a given period. Rainfall maps of India are drawn with isohyets, and the crowding of these lines along the Western Ghats shows how sharply rainfall falls from the windward coast to the rain shadow of the plateau.

Option A, an isobar, joins places of equal atmospheric pressure and is used on weather charts to locate depressions and anticyclones. Option C, an isotherm, joins places of equal temperature and is used on temperature maps. Option D, an isohaline, joins places of equal salinity and belongs to the study of the oceans. All four terms carry the Greek prefix iso, meaning equal, and examiners rely on a candidate confusing them.

The correct answer is D, Karnataka. The pre-monsoon thundery showers of Karnataka are called cherry blossom showers or blossom showers because they help the coffee plants of the Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan belt to flower. The same family of pre-monsoon showers is called mango showers in Kerala and coastal Karnataka because it helps mangoes ripen, and the two names are often asked together.

Option A, Gujarat, has no such local shower in the standard list. Option B, Meghalaya, is known for the heaviest rainfall of the country at Mawsynram and Cherrapunji, but that rain comes from the Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon. Option C, Uttarakhand, receives winter precipitation from western disturbances and monsoon rain in summer, and neither is called a blossom shower.

The correct answer is A, the north-east monsoon. As the monsoon retreats in October and November the wind direction reverses and air moves from the land towards the sea. Crossing the Bay of Bengal it picks up moisture and strikes the Coromandel coast, giving Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh their main rainy season. This is why Tamil Nadu is the one large part of India whose farming calendar depends on winter rather than summer rain.

Option B, local air circulation, produces land and sea breezes that are too small to give a season of rain. Option C, temperate cyclones, are the western disturbances, and they bring winter rain to the north-west of India, not to the far south. Option D, the south-west monsoon, leaves Tamil Nadu dry because the state lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats during those months.

The correct answer is A, Ministry of Home Affairs. The National Human Rights Commission works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is the nodal ministry for human rights in India. The Commission is a statutory body, not a constitutional one, created by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and it began work on 12 October 1993. It is headed by a former Chief Justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court, appointed by the President on the advice of a committee led by the Prime Minister, and it inquires into complaints of violation of human rights or of negligence by a public servant, though its recommendations are advisory. Option B is wrong because the Defence Ministry deals with the armed forces. Option C is wrong because the Finance Ministry handles revenue and expenditure. Option D is wrong because option A is right. Exam tip: NHRC is statutory, from the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993, under the Home Ministry.

The correct answer is B, 2004. The committee on civil services reforms under P. C. Hota, a former Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission, was set up in 2004 and gave its report the same year. It looked at how officers are recruited, trained, posted and promoted, and suggested a fixed minimum tenure in a post, a sounder system of performance appraisal, mid-career training with examinations, and lateral entry of specialists for jobs needing domain knowledge. Many of its ideas later fed into the work of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission set up in 2005 under Veerappa Moily. Option A is wrong because 2003 saw no such committee. Option C is wrong because 2005 is the year of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission and of the Right to Information Act. Option D is wrong because by 2006 the Hota report was already being examined. Exam tip: Hota Committee 2004 on civil services reform; Second ARC 2005 under Veerappa Moily.

The correct answer is A, The Calcutta High Court. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands come under the Calcutta High Court, which has a permanent circuit bench at Port Blair. The Constitution allows Parliament to extend a high court’s jurisdiction to a union territory, so several union territories are attached to the high court of a neighbouring state rather than having one of their own. Calcutta, set up in 1862, is the oldest high court in India, along with Bombay and Madras of the same year. Option B is wrong because the Delhi High Court covers only the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Option C is wrong because the Madras High Court covers Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, though the islands lie nearer to it. Option D is wrong because the Andhra Pradesh High Court, created in 2019 when the Telangana High Court was separated, covers only that state. Exam tip: Andaman and Nicobar under Calcutta, Lakshadweep under Kerala, Puducherry under Madras.

The correct answer is D, Virtualization. Virtualization creates a software layer over the physical processor, memory and storage of a machine, so that one server can be divided into several virtual machines, each running its own operating system as though it had hardware of its own. The program that makes this possible is the hypervisor. Because a single strong server then does the work of many lightly used ones, organisations buy less hardware and spend less on power, cooling and floor space, which is why it is called the most effective way to cut IT costs. It is also the base on which cloud computing is built. Option A is wrong because artificial intelligence is about machines doing tasks that need human-like reasoning. Option B is wrong because clustering joins several computers to work as one for speed and reliability, not to abstract resources. Option C is wrong because a storage area network is a dedicated network for storage alone. Exam tip: hypervisor runs virtual machines, and virtualization underlies cloud computing.

The correct answer is B, Lungs. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs in which the alveoli, the tiny air sacs where oxygen passes into the blood, fill with fluid or pus. That is why the patient has cough with phlegm, fever with chills, chest pain and difficulty in breathing, and the oxygen level in the blood can fall. It is caused most often by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae, and also by other bacteria, viruses and fungi; it spreads through droplets, and children and the elderly are the worst affected. Vaccines against pneumococcus and influenza give protection. Option A is wrong because the kidney is affected by nephritis and kidney stones. Option C is wrong because the liver is affected by hepatitis, jaundice and cirrhosis. Option D is wrong because the heart is affected by conditions such as rheumatic heart disease and myocarditis. Exam tip: pneumonia and tuberculosis attack the lungs, hepatitis the liver, nephritis the kidney.

The correct answer is B, 6. Six wetlands of Uttar Pradesh were designated as Ramsar sites in January 2020: Nawabganj, Parvati Arga, Saman, Samaspur, Sandi and Sarsai Nawar. They are all bird sanctuaries in the Ganga plain, shallow lakes and marshes that fill in the monsoon and draw large numbers of migratory waterbirds in winter. A Ramsar site is a wetland of international importance listed under the Ramsar Convention, which was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975; India joined in 1982, and World Wetlands Day is observed on 2 February. Option A is wrong because three is too few; that many were added in the same month across other states. Option C and Option D are wrong because no such number of sites in a single state was notified then. Exam tip: Ramsar Convention 1971 at Ramsar in Iran, India a party since 1982, Wetlands Day 2 February.

The correct answer is A, Ant. Among the four, the ant has the largest brain in proportion to its body. An ant’s brain is tiny in absolute terms, with about two hundred and fifty thousand neurons, yet it makes up roughly a sixth of the insect’s body weight, a share no vertebrate comes close to. This is a general rule of body size: as animals get smaller, the brain shrinks more slowly than the body, so small creatures carry proportionately bigger brains. Option B is wrong because an elephant has the largest brain in absolute weight on land, about five kilograms, but that is a very small fraction of a body of several tonnes. Option C is wrong because a dolphin, though highly intelligent, has a brain near one per cent of its body weight. Option D is wrong because a human brain is about 1.4 kilograms, roughly two per cent of body weight, high for a vertebrate but far below an ant’s share. Exam tip: elephant biggest brain by weight, ant biggest in proportion.

The correct answer is A, a simple majority of its members. Article 343 says Hindi in Devanagari script is the official language of the Union and that English was to continue for fifteen years from 1950, but it also lets Parliament provide by law for the continued use of English after that period, and such a law needs only a simple majority of the members present and voting. The Official Languages Act of 1963 was passed in exactly this way and allowed English to go on alongside Hindi. So this change is made outside the special procedure of Article 368. Option B is wrong because a two-thirds majority of members present and voting, with a majority of the total membership, is the requirement for a constitutional amendment under Article 368. Option C is wrong because no amendment needs a three-fourths majority; half the state legislatures are what a federal amendment adds. Option D is wrong because one-third support is only a quorum-like number and passes nothing. Exam tip: Article 343, Official Languages Act 1963, simple majority.

The correct answer is D, Ashoka Pillar, Sarnath. The State Emblem of India is adapted from the Lion Capital that crowned Ashoka’s pillar at Sarnath, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The original capital has four lions standing back to back on an abacus that carries a bull, a horse, an elephant and a lion, separated by wheels, with an inverted lotus below. In the emblem only three lions are seen, the fourth being hidden from view, and the lotus is left out; the wheel appears in the centre of the abacus. The words Satyameva Jayate, taken from the Mundaka Upanishad, are written below in Devanagari. It was adopted on 26 January 1950. Option A is wrong because Bodh Gaya is the place of enlightenment. Option B and Option C are wrong because the emblem comes from a site, not a museum, though the original capital is kept in the Sarnath Museum. Exam tip: Lion Capital of Sarnath, adopted 26 January 1950, motto from the Mundaka Upanishad.

The correct answer is A, Distillation. Distillation separates a liquid from a solution or from another liquid by boiling it and condensing the vapour, so it is used when the components differ in boiling point, as in getting pure water from salt water or separating acetone from water. It is not the method for purifying a solid mixed with solid impurities. Option B is useful because sublimation purifies a solid that turns straight into vapour on heating, such as camphor, naphthalene, iodine or ammonium chloride, leaving the non-volatile impurity behind. Option C is useful because crystallization dissolves the solid in a hot solvent and lets pure crystals form on cooling, the standard way to purify alum, copper sulphate and sugar. Option D is wrong because two of the three processes do purify solids, so they cannot all be useless. Exam tip: solids are purified by sublimation, crystallization and chromatography; distillation is for liquids.

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 C, Graphite. Among the allotropes of carbon, graphite has the lowest standard enthalpy of formation, which is taken as zero, so it is the reference state and the most stable form under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. In graphite each carbon atom is sp2 hybridised and bonded to three others in flat hexagonal sheets, and the loose sheets slide over one another, which makes it soft and a good lubricant; the spare electron in each atom makes graphite a conductor of electricity. Option A is wrong because coal is not a pure allotrope but an impure mixture of carbon with hydrogen, sulphur and mineral matter. Option B is wrong because fullerenes such as C60 are strained cage molecules and are less stable than graphite. Option D is wrong because diamond, though the hardest natural substance, is slightly higher in energy and turns to graphite very slowly. Exam tip: graphite most stable and conducts electricity, diamond hardest and does not.

The correct answer is C, Article 66. Article 66 lays down the manner of electing the Vice-President of India. He is chosen by an electoral college made up of the members of both Houses of Parliament, elected and nominated alike, by proportional representation through the single transferable vote and by secret ballot. A candidate must be a citizen of India, at least thirty-five years old, qualified for election as a member of the Rajya Sabha, and must hold no office of profit. Note that state legislatures take no part, unlike in the presidential election. Option A is wrong because Article 54 is about the electoral college for the President. Option B is wrong because Article 63 merely says there shall be a Vice-President of India. Option D is wrong because Article 74 is about the Council of Ministers that aids and advises the President. Exam tip: Article 63 the office, Article 64 ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Article 66 the election.

The correct answer is A. Protecting monuments and places of national importance is not a fundamental duty; it is a directive principle under Article 49, which asks the State to protect monuments and objects of artistic or historic interest declared to be of national importance. The fundamental duties sit in Article 51A in Part IV A, added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. They were ten in number and became eleven when the 86th Amendment of 2002 added the duty of a parent to give education to a child between six and fourteen. Option B is a duty under Article 51A(g), on the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife. Option C is a duty under Article 51A(i), which also asks citizens to abjure violence. Option D is a duty under Article 51A(a), respecting the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem. Exam tip: fundamental duties Article 51A, Part IV A, 42nd Amendment 1976, now eleven.