Uttar Pradesh 2019 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, the tropical savanna region. The savanna is a tropical grassland with tall coarse grass and scattered flat topped trees, and its wet season produces an enormous crop of grass. That grass supports the largest herds of grazing animals on earth, the zebra, the wildebeest, the giraffe and the antelope, and those herds in turn support the lion, the leopard and the cheetah. Because so many large mammals live there together, the savanna, especially in East Africa, is called the land of big game. Option A is wrong because the temperate grassland has short grass and has been ploughed for wheat so widely that it is called the granary of the world, and its large wild herds are long gone. Option B is wrong because the tropical monsoon region is known for deciduous forest and for rice cultivation under a seasonal rainfall regime. Option C is wrong because the hot desert has too little vegetation to feed large herds, and its animals are small and mostly nocturnal.

The correct answer is B, 22. The Government of India announces a Minimum Support Price for twenty-two mandated crops on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. These cover cereals, pulses, oilseeds and commercial crops such as copra, raw cotton and raw jute. Sugarcane is kept outside this list and is dealt with separately through a Fair and Remunerative Price.

Option A is wrong because twenty is short of the mandated list and matches no official grouping. Option C is wrong because twenty-four is often chosen by candidates who count sugarcane and one or two minor crops along with the mandated list. Option D is wrong because eighteen is far too small; the pulses and oilseeds alone account for more than ten of the twenty-two. The figure to remember is twenty-two mandated crops plus a separate FRP for sugarcane.

The correct answer is A, Urdu. Under Article 345 a State may adopt any language in use within it as its official language, and Uttar Pradesh has adopted Hindi as its official language and Urdu as its second official language. Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language written in the Perso-Arabic script and is in the Eighth Schedule. Option B is wrong because Awadhi, the speech of the Awadh region and the language of Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, is counted as a dialect of Hindi in the census returns and has no official status. Option C is wrong because Bundeli, spoken in the Bundelkhand region, is likewise treated as a Hindi dialect. Option D is wrong because Bagheli, spoken in the Baghelkhand tract on the Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh border, is also a dialect and not an official language. The examiner is testing the difference between an official language and a regional dialect.

The correct answer is D, anthracite. Anthracite is the oldest and hardest grade of coal, with the highest proportion of carbon, so it gives the most heat for its weight and burns with a clean, almost smokeless flame. Option A is wrong because bituminous coal, though the grade most widely used in industry and in power stations, stands below anthracite in carbon content and produces more smoke. Option B is wrong because lignite, also called brown coal, is a low grade with high moisture, used mainly in power stations built at the mine itself. Option C is wrong because peat is the first stage of the process, little more than partly decayed plant matter, with the least carbon and the most moisture of the four. The rising order to remember is peat, lignite, bituminous, anthracite.

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 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 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.

The correct answer is A, Total internal reflection. When light travels from a denser medium to a rarer one and strikes the boundary at an angle greater than the critical angle, it does not pass out at all but is reflected completely back. An optical fibre uses exactly this. It has a thin glass or plastic core of higher refractive index, covered by a cladding of lower refractive index, so light entering one end keeps bouncing off the walls and travels long distances, even around bends, with very little loss. That is why fibres carry internet and telephone signals and are used in endoscopes to see inside the body. The Indian-born physicist Narinder Singh Kapany is called the father of fibre optics. Option B is wrong because diffraction is the bending of light around small obstacles or through narrow slits. Option C is wrong because scattering spreads light in many directions, which makes the sky look blue. Option D is wrong because refraction is only the bending of light as it enters a new medium, while a fibre works by stopping light from escaping. Exam tip: optical fibre, mirage and a sparkling diamond all work by total internal reflection.

The correct answer is A, Morris D. Morris. The American economic historian Morris David Morris built the Physical Quality of Life Index in the 1970s for the Overseas Development Council, and set it out in his 1979 book on measuring the condition of the world’s poor. He wanted a simple measure of well-being that did not depend on income alone. The PQLI uses three indicators, each scored from 0 to 100 and given equal weight: basic literacy, infant mortality and life expectancy at age one. Their average gives a country a score out of 100. Kerala was often cited as a place where a high PQLI came with a low income. Option B is wrong because the UNDP publishes the Human Development Index, which came later, in 1990. Option C is wrong because Mahbub-ul-Haq designed the HDI, not the PQLI. Option D is wrong because the index has a known author, Morris D. Morris. Exam tip: PQLI, Morris D. Morris, 1979, three indicators; HDI, Mahbub-ul-Haq and the UNDP, 1990.

The correct answer is B, Article 110. Article 110 says a Bill is a Money Bill if it deals only with matters such as imposing or changing a tax, government borrowing, the custody of the Consolidated Fund or Contingency Fund of India and payments into or out of them, and spending charged on the Consolidated Fund. Under Article 110(3), if a question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill, the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is final, and the Speaker certifies it before it goes to the Rajya Sabha. A Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, and only on the President’s recommendation. Option A is wrong because Article 109 lays down the special procedure for Money Bills: the Rajya Sabha must return the Bill within 14 days and can only make recommendations. Option C is wrong because Article 111 deals with the President’s assent to Bills. Option D is wrong because Article 112 deals with the Annual Financial Statement, the budget. Exam tip: 109 procedure, 110 definition, 111 assent, 112 budget; the Speaker certifies a Money Bill.

The correct answer is B, Rajagopalachari. C. Rajagopalachari, known as C.R. or Rajaji, drew up the formula in 1944 to end the Congress–League deadlock over Pakistan. Under the plan, the Muslim League would back the demand for independence and join the Congress in a provisional government. After the war, a commission would mark out the Muslim-majority districts of the north-west and east, and a plebiscite of all adults there would decide on separation. Gandhi used it as the basis of his talks with Jinnah in Bombay in September 1944, but Jinnah rejected it because he wanted the whole of Punjab and Bengal and a vote of Muslims alone. Option A is wrong because Jawaharlal Nehru did not draft this plan. Option C is wrong because Chittaranjan Das founded the Swaraj Party in 1923 and died in 1925, long before 1944. Option D is wrong because V. P. Menon drafted the June 1947 partition plan and later helped integrate the princely states. Exam tip: C.R. Formula 1944, Gandhi–Jinnah talks September 1944, Wavell Plan 1945.