State Exams Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, A-iii, B-i, C-ii, D-iv. Each case tested an amendment against the basic structure of the Constitution. In Indira Gandhi vs Raj Narain (1975), the Supreme Court struck down the part of the 39th Amendment that put the Prime Minister's election beyond the courts, holding free and fair elections to be part of the basic structure. In Minerva Mills (1980), it struck down clauses of the 42nd Amendment that gave Parliament unlimited power to amend and let all Directive Principles override the rights in Articles 14 and 19. In Kihoto Hollohan (1992), it upheld the anti-defection law brought by the 52nd Amendment but kept the Speaker's decision open to judicial review. In P. Sambamurthy (1987), it struck down a clause of Article 371D, added by the 32nd Amendment, that let the state government overrule a tribunal. Option A is wrong because it links Raj Narain with the 42nd Amendment. Option B is wrong because it pairs Minerva Mills with the 52nd. Option C is wrong because it pairs Raj Narain with the 32nd. Exam tip: 39th–Raj Narain, 42nd–Minerva, 52nd–Kihoto, 32nd–Sambamurthy.

The correct answer is D, Articles 15, 16, 19 and 30. Only five Fundamental Rights are reserved for Indian citizens. Article 15 bars discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; Article 16 gives equality of opportunity in public employment; Article 19 gives the six freedoms of speech, assembly, association, movement, residence and profession; Article 29 protects the language, script and culture of minorities; and Article 30 gives minorities the right to set up and run educational institutions. All the other rights, such as equality before law, the right to life and freedom of religion, are available to every person, foreigners included. Option A is wrong because Articles 14, 20 and 23 protect every person, not just citizens. Option B is wrong because Articles 21, 25 and 28 also apply to all persons. Option C is wrong because Articles 20, 21 and 25 are rights of every person, citizen or not. Exam tip: citizens-only rights are 15, 16, 19, 29 and 30.

The correct answer is A, Vigraharaj IV. Vigraharaja IV, also known as Visaladeva or Bisaldev, ruled the Chauhan kingdom of Shakambhari and Ajmer in the middle of the 12th century. He took Delhi from the Tomaras, and his inscription of 1164 on the Delhi-Topra Ashokan pillar records his wide conquests. He was also a scholar-king: he wrote the Sanskrit play Harakeli Nataka and built a Sanskrit college at Ajmer, which was later turned into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque. The court poet Somadeva wrote the play Lalit Vigraharaj in his honour, and Bisalpur in Tonk is linked with his name. Option B is wrong because Arnoraja, his father, is remembered for building the Anasagar lake at Ajmer after defeating the Turks. Option C is wrong because Ajayaraja founded the city of Ajmer, then called Ajayameru. Option D is wrong because Prithviraj III, the famous Prithviraj Chauhan, came later and inherited Delhi rather than first conquering it. Exam tip: Ajayaraja founded Ajmer, Arnoraja built Anasagar, Vigraharaja IV won Delhi.

The correct answer is C, the statement about Madhvacharya. It is the wrong statement, because Madhvacharya worshipped a personal god, Vishnu, with form and qualities, so his path was saguna bhakti, not nirguna. Madhva, a 13th-century teacher from Udupi in Karnataka, taught Dvaita, or dualism: God and the soul are always separate, and the soul is freed only through devotion and God's grace. He set up the Krishna temple at Udupi, still the centre of his tradition. Nirguna bhakti, devotion to a formless god, is linked with saints such as Kabir, Nanak and Dadu. Option A is a correct statement because Vallabhacharya founded the Pushtimarga, the 'path of grace', centred on Krishna worshipped as Shrinathji. Option B is correct because Nimbarka taught Dvaitadvaita, dualism with non-dualism. Option D is correct because Ramananda spread Rama bhakti in north India and took disciples from all castes, Kabir and Raidas among them. Exam tip: Shankara Advaita, Ramanuja Vishishtadvaita, Madhva Dvaita, Nimbarka Dvaitadvaita, Vallabha Shuddhadvaita.

The correct answer is C, Panch Mahal. The Panch Mahal is a five-storeyed open pavilion in which each floor is smaller than the one below, ending in a single domed kiosk at the top. This stepped, pyramid-like plan recalls the Buddhist vihara, which is why it is described as following Buddhist architecture. It stands on 176 carved pillars and has no walls on its floors, so it catches the breeze, and it was used by the royal ladies for leisure and to watch the palace courtyards. The mix of Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic styles in Fatehpur Sikri reflects Akbar's open-minded taste. Option A is wrong because Shaikh Salim Chishti's tomb is a white marble Sufi shrine famous for its fine stone screens, or jalis. Option B is wrong because the Buland Darwaza is a huge gateway built to mark Akbar's conquest of Gujarat. Option D is wrong because the Turkish Sultana's palace is a small pavilion known for the rich carving on its walls, not for a Buddhist plan. Exam tip: Panch Mahal = five storeys, Buddhist vihara style; Buland Darwaza = Gujarat victory.

The correct answer is D, 1905. Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society in Pune on 12 June 1905. Its members took a vow to serve the country for life on a modest allowance, and they worked in education, famine relief, the uplift of backward classes and public life. Gokhale was a leading Moderate in the Congress; he presided over its Benares session in 1905, and Gandhi regarded him as his political guru. After Gokhale's death in 1915, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri led the society. The year is easy to fix because 1905 was also the year of the Partition of Bengal. Option A is wrong because 1907 was the year of the Surat split, when the Congress divided into Moderates and Extremists. Option B is wrong because 1906 saw the founding of the Muslim League at Dhaka. Option C is wrong because 1904 was the year of the Indian Universities Act passed under Lord Curzon. Exam tip: Servants of India Society, Pune, 1905, founded by Gokhale, Gandhi's political guru.

The correct answer is C, Vakataka Dynasty. Chandragupta II married his daughter Prabhavatigupta to the Vakataka king Rudrasena II, whose kingdom lay in the Deccan, south of the Gupta lands. When Rudrasena died young, Prabhavati ruled as regent for her minor sons, so the Guptas had a friendly power guarding their southern flank. This alliance helped Chandragupta II in his campaign against the Shaka Kshatrapas of western India, whom he defeated to win Gujarat and Malwa. Her copper-plate grants, such as the Poona plates, are an important source for this period. Option A is wrong because the Lichchhavi link belongs to Chandragupta I, who married the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi. Option B is wrong because the Kadambas of Karnataka claimed marriage ties with the Guptas, but Prabhavati was not married into that family. Option D is wrong because the Naga link is Chandragupta II's own marriage to the Naga princess Kuberanaga, who was Prabhavati's mother. Exam tip: Kumaradevi (Lichchhavi) with Chandragupta I; Prabhavati to the Vakatakas under Chandragupta II.

The correct answer is C, Jagatpati Joshi. Surkotada, a Harappan site in the Kutch district of Gujarat, was discovered by the archaeologist Jagatpati Joshi in 1964, and he later excavated it in 1971-72. The site is best known for bones identified as those of the horse, a rare claim for a Harappan settlement, and for its fortified citadel and residential area built with stone and mud-brick. Joshi also discovered Dholavira in Kutch in 1967-68, the great Harappan city that was later excavated by R. S. Bisht. Option A is wrong because S. R. Rao is known for excavating Lothal, the Harappan dockyard town in Gujarat. Option B is wrong because B. B. Lal is linked with the excavation of Kalibangan in Rajasthan, along with B. K. Thapar. Option D is wrong because Y. D. Sharma is associated with the excavation of Ropar (Rupnagar) in Punjab. Exam tip: Kutch sites Surkotada and Dholavira were both found by Jagatpati Joshi; Lothal belongs to S. R. Rao; Kalibangan to Lal and Thapar.

The correct answer is D, A and D. Vitamins A, D, E and K dissolve in fat, while the B group and vitamin C dissolve in water. Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed along with the fat in our food and are stored in the liver and fatty tissue, so the body can build up a reserve; for the same reason, too much of them, especially A and D taken as supplements, can be harmful. Most water-soluble vitamins are not stored in large amounts, the extra is passed out in urine, and so they must be eaten regularly. Vitamin A keeps the eyes healthy and its lack causes night blindness, while vitamin D is made in the skin in sunlight and its lack causes rickets in children. Option A is wrong because vitamin B12 is water-soluble, even though D is fat-soluble. Option B is wrong because vitamin C is water-soluble. Option C is wrong because it pairs fat-soluble A with water-soluble C. Exam tip: remember the fat-soluble group as 'ADEK'; the B group and C are water-soluble.

The correct answer is B, Marine. In the sea the producers are tiny phytoplankton. At any given moment their total mass is smaller than the mass of the zooplankton and fish that feed on them, so the pyramid of biomass stands upside down. This happens because phytoplankton grow and divide very fast and are eaten almost as quickly as they are produced, so a small standing crop can support a larger mass of consumers. The pyramid of energy, however, is always upright in every ecosystem, because energy is lost as heat at each step and only about 10 percent passes to the next level. Option A is wrong because in a grassland the grasses far outweigh the grazing animals, giving an upright pyramid. Option C is wrong because the tundra also has more plant mass than animal mass. Option D is wrong because in a forest the huge trees give a large biomass base, so the pyramid of biomass is upright, even though the pyramid of numbers there can be inverted. Exam tip: numbers can be inverted in a tree ecosystem, biomass in the sea, but energy never.

The correct answer is D, Gas and water supply. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) covers only three sectors: mining, manufacturing and electricity. It is a monthly index released by the National Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, and it shows how fast the volume of industrial output is rising or falling compared with a base year. Manufacturing carries by far the largest weight in the index, so a slowdown in factories pulls the IIP down quickly. Gas and water supply are counted in the wider industry sector of national income, together with electricity, but they are not part of the IIP basket, and that is the trap in this question. Option A is wrong because mining is one of the three sectors of the IIP. Option B is wrong because electricity is also a sector of the IIP. Option C is wrong because manufacturing is the biggest part of the index. Exam tip: IIP = mining + manufacturing + electricity; the index of eight core industries is a separate, smaller index.

The correct answer is C, Nilgiri Hills. Doddabetta, about 2,637 metres high, is the highest peak of the Nilgiri Hills and stands close to Ooty (Udhagamandalam) in Tamil Nadu. The Nilgiris are the place where the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats meet, which is why they are often described as a knot of the two ranges. In Kannada, 'dodda betta' simply means 'big mountain', an easy way to remember that it is the top of the Nilgiris. The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India's first biosphere reserve, is spread around these hills. Option A is wrong because the Vindhyas are a low range of central India whose peaks stay well below 1,000 metres. Option B is wrong because the highest point of the Satpura Range is Dhupgarh near Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh, about 1,350 metres. Option D is wrong because the Anamalai Hills of Kerala hold a different peak, Anamudi, about 2,695 metres, the highest point of South India. Exam tip: Anamudi (Anamalai, Kerala) is the highest in South India; Doddabetta (Nilgiri, Tamil Nadu) is the highest of the Nilgiris.

The correct answer is B, Election Commission. Article 103 says the President shall obtain the opinion of the Election Commission and shall act according to that opinion. Article 102 lists the grounds on which a member of either House can be disqualified, such as holding an office of profit, being of unsound mind, being an undischarged insolvent or not being a citizen of India. When a question arises on these grounds, Article 103 makes the President's decision final, but the President is bound by the Commission's opinion, so the advice is not a formality. Disqualification for defection is a different route: under the Tenth Schedule it is decided by the Speaker or the Chairman. For state legislators, Article 192 gives the same role to the Governor. Option A is wrong because the Attorney General advises the government on law but has no role under Article 103. Option C is wrong because the Supreme Court is not consulted in this process. Option D is wrong because the Speaker decides only defection cases. Exam tip: Article 102 gives the grounds; Article 103 gives the decision to the President on the Election Commission's opinion.

The correct answer is A, (i) and (iv). Anekantavada and Syadvada are the two central Jain ideas about knowledge and truth. Anekantavada means 'many-sidedness': reality has many aspects, and no single point of view can capture all of it. Syadvada, the doctrine of 'may be', puts this into language; every statement should carry the word 'syat', meaning 'in some respect', and Jain thinkers built on it a sevenfold way of stating a thing, called saptabhangi. The story often used to explain it is that of the blind men and the elephant, each touching one part and describing a different animal. Option B is wrong because Sarvastivada ('everything exists') was an early Buddhist school, and Shunyavada ('emptiness') is the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism founded by Nagarjuna. Option C is wrong because it pairs a Buddhist school with a Jain doctrine. Option D is wrong because it adds two Buddhist schools and leaves out Syadvada. Exam tip: Anekanta and Syad are Jain; Sarvasti and Shunya are Buddhist.

The correct answer is B, Cadmium pollution. Itai-itai disease is long-term cadmium poisoning, first noticed around 1912 in the Toyama region of Japan, where mines upstream released cadmium into the Jinzu river and it built up in the rice and water used by villagers. Cadmium damages the kidneys and makes bones soft and brittle, so patients suffered repeated fractures and severe pain in the spine and joints; the name means it hurts, it hurts in Japanese. It became one of the four big pollution diseases of Japan. Option A is wrong because mercury pollution causes Minamata disease, also from Japan, which spread through eating fish from a bay polluted with methylmercury. Option C is wrong because arsenic in groundwater causes arsenicosis, with skin lesions and cancers, as seen in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Option D is wrong because too much nitrate in drinking water causes blue baby syndrome, or methaemoglobinaemia, in infants. Exam tip: cadmium–itai-itai, mercury–Minamata, nitrate–blue baby, fluoride–fluorosis.

The correct answer is A, b d a c. Nokrek Biosphere Reserve is in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya; Manas is in Assam along the Bhutan border; Similipal is in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha; and Seshachalam lies in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. Nokrek is valued as a gene pool of wild citrus, Manas is also a tiger reserve and a World Heritage Site, Similipal is known for its tigers and waterfalls, and the Seshachalam hills are home to the red sanders tree. India began creating biosphere reserves under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme, and the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, set up in 1986, was the first. Option B is wrong because it places Manas in Odisha and Similipal in Assam. Option C is wrong because it puts Similipal in Andhra Pradesh and Seshachalam in Odisha. Option D is wrong because it swaps the states of Nokrek and Manas. Exam tip: Nokrek–Meghalaya, Manas–Assam, Similipal–Odisha, Seshachalam–Andhra Pradesh, and Nilgiri (1986) the first.

The correct answer is C, Stapedius. The stapedius, only about 1 millimetre long, is the smallest skeletal muscle in the human body. It lies in the middle ear and is attached to the stapes, which is itself the smallest bone of the body. When a very loud sound reaches the ear, the stapedius contracts and damps the vibration of the stapes, protecting the delicate inner ear; this is called the acoustic reflex. It is supplied by the facial nerve, so damage to that nerve can make ordinary sounds seem painfully loud. Option A is wrong because the biceps is a large muscle at the front of the upper arm that bends the elbow. Option B is wrong because the sartorius, which runs across the thigh, is the longest muscle of the body, not the smallest. Option D is wrong because the triceps at the back of the upper arm straightens the elbow and is a large muscle. Exam tip: smallest muscle stapedius, smallest bone stapes, longest muscle sartorius, largest muscle gluteus maximus.

The correct answer is B, Flavour enhancer. Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, an amino acid, and it is added to soups, sauces, noodles and snacks to strengthen their savoury taste. This taste, called umami, is the fifth basic taste after sweet, sour, salty and bitter; it was identified in 1908 by the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who first made MSG from a seaweed broth. In India MSG is widely sold as Ajinomoto, the name of the Japanese company that makes it. Option A is wrong because colour enhancers are food colours such as caramel or permitted dyes, which change how food looks, not how it tastes. Option C is wrong because preservatives such as sodium benzoate, or salt and vinegar, stop food from spoiling. Option D is wrong because emulsifiers such as lecithin help oil and water stay mixed in foods like mayonnaise and ice cream. Exam tip: MSG gives the umami flavour, sodium benzoate preserves, lecithin emulsifies.

The correct answer is B, Geitonogamy. Geitonogamy is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower on the same plant. In the way it happens it is like cross-pollination, because an outside agent such as an insect or the wind carries the pollen; but genetically it is like self-pollination, because the pollen comes from the same plant and brings no new genes. The word comes from the Greek geiton, meaning neighbour, which is an easy way to remember it: pollen goes to the neighbouring flower. Option A is wrong because autogamy is pollination within the same flower, where pollen reaches the stigma of the very flower that produced it, as in closed cleistogamous flowers. Option C is wrong because xenogamy is the transfer of pollen to a flower of a different plant, the only type that brings genetically different pollen to the stigma. Option D is wrong because geitonogamy is the exact name for this process. Exam tip: autogamy same flower, geitonogamy same plant, xenogamy different plant.

The correct answer is A, 20 Hz – 20000 Hz. A healthy human ear can hear sound waves with frequencies from about 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz (20 kHz); this band is called the audible range. Sounds below 20 Hz are called infrasonic, and animals such as elephants and whales use them to communicate over long distances. Sounds above 20 kHz are called ultrasonic; bats, dogs and dolphins can hear them, and ultrasound is used in medical scans, in cleaning delicate parts and in SONAR. Children under five and some animals can hear up to about 25 kHz, and the upper limit falls as people grow older. Option B is wrong because 80 to 100 Hz is only a tiny slice of the audible range. Option C is wrong because 2 lakh to 4 lakh Hz, that is 200 to 400 kHz, lies far inside the ultrasonic range. Option D is wrong because 0 to 20 Hz is the infrasonic range, which humans cannot hear. Exam tip: infrasonic below 20 Hz, audible from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, ultrasonic above 20 kHz.