Uttar Pradesh 2020 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, India and the United Kingdom. Ajeya Warrior is the bilateral army exercise between India and the United Kingdom, held alternately in the two countries, in which the two armies train together in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in a built-up and semi-urban setting. India holds three exercises with the United Kingdom, one for each service: Ajeya Warrior with the army, Konkan with the navy and Indradhanush with the air force. Option B is wrong because India has no army exercise of this name with Israel; India takes part in the multinational air exercise Blue Flag hosted by Israel. Option C is wrong because the army exercise with France is Shakti, while Varuna is naval and Garuda is with the air force. Option D is wrong because the army exercises with the United States are Yudh Abhyas and the special forces exercise Vajra Prahar.

The correct answer is C, Article 5 to 11. Part II of the Constitution runs from Article 5 to Article 11. Article 5 states who was a citizen at the commencement of the Constitution, Articles 6 and 7 deal with migrants from and to Pakistan, Article 8 with persons of Indian origin living abroad, Article 9 with the loss of citizenship on voluntarily acquiring a foreign citizenship, Article 10 with the continuance of citizenship rights and Article 11 with the power of Parliament to regulate citizenship by law. Option A is wrong because Articles 3 and 4 belong to Part I and deal with the formation of new states and consequential changes to the First and Fourth Schedules. Option B is wrong for the same reason: Article 4 is not part of the citizenship chapter. Option D is wrong because it leaves out Article 5, which is the opening and most important provision of the chapter.

The correct answer is B, 1938. Subhash Chandra Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress at the Haripura session in Gujarat in 1938, where he set up a National Planning Committee under Jawaharlal Nehru. He was elected a second time at Tripuri in 1939, defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, but resigned in April of that year after losing the confidence of the working committee, and went on to found the Forward Bloc. Option A, 1932, is the year of the Communal Award and the Poona Pact and has no connection with his presidency. Option C, 1941, is the year Bose escaped from house arrest in Calcutta and made his way to Germany. Option D, 1943, is the year he took charge of the Indian National Army at Singapore and proclaimed the Azad Hind government, which is the fact most often confused with the presidency.

The correct answer is B, A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2. Nyaya is the school of logic and holds that liberation follows from correct reasoning, so it pairs with logical thinking. Mimamsa treats the ritual portion of the Vedas as binding and holds that salvation comes from performing Vedic rituals. Samkhya teaches that bondage ends with the acquisition of real knowledge, namely the discrimination of purusha from prakriti. Vedanta rests on the Upanishads and holds that liberation comes from knowledge of the self as identical with Brahman. Option A is wrong because it assigns knowledge of the self to Nyaya and logical thinking to Mimamsa, reversing both. Option C is wrong because it gives Nyaya the acquisition of real knowledge, which belongs to Samkhya. Option D is wrong because it makes Nyaya the school of Vedic ritual, a pairing that belongs to Mimamsa alone.

The correct answer is D, only 3. The chairman of the Union Public Service Commission is removed by the President under Article 317, and for misbehaviour only after the Supreme Court has held an inquiry on the President's reference and reported against him. No resolution of either House is needed at any stage, so Parliament has no role at all. Judges of the High Courts and of the Supreme Court, listed at 1 and 2, are removed by the President only after an address supported by a special majority of each House, so Parliament is central there. The Comptroller and Auditor General at 4 is removed in the same manner as a judge of the Supreme Court, which again requires an address by both Houses. Options A, B and C are wrong because each of them leaves out the UPSC chairman or wrongly brings in the judges or the CAG.

The correct answer is D, the assertion is false but the reason is true. Ahmedabad is a very large cotton textile centre and is called the Manchester of India, but it is not the largest in the country; that place belongs to Mumbai, the old Cottonopolis, which grew first because of its port, its mills and its capital, and Maharashtra remains ahead of Gujarat in the industry. The reason, however, is a correct statement in itself: Ahmedabad lies in the black soil tract of Gujarat where cotton is grown in quantity, so raw material has never been a constraint there. Options A and B both treat the assertion as true, which it is not. Option C reverses the position by calling the reason false, although Gujarat is indeed a leading cotton-growing state.

The correct answer is A, nitrogen oxide. Nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, together written as nitrogen oxides, are air pollutants that come mainly from combustion in vehicles and power stations; they help form smog and acid rain but are not counted among the greenhouse gases of the natural atmosphere. The gas of this family that is a greenhouse gas is nitrous oxide, a different compound, so read the name carefully. Option B is wrong as the answer because carbon dioxide occurs naturally from respiration, decay and volcanoes and is the principal greenhouse gas. Option C is wrong because methane is released naturally from wetlands and the digestion of animals and is a strong greenhouse gas. Option D is wrong because ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere, is listed as a greenhouse gas, and also forms near the ground as a pollutant. The trap here is the similarity between nitrogen oxide and nitrous oxide.

The correct answer is D, 2019. The National Clean Air Programme was launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in January 2019 as a national framework to cut particulate pollution in cities that do not meet the national ambient air quality standards. It works city by city, through action plans prepared with the State Pollution Control Boards and monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board.

Option A, 2018, is the year the draft of the programme was put out for comments, which is why it is the most tempting wrong answer. Option B, 2017, predates the proposal altogether. Option C, 2020, is later than the launch and is sometimes confused with the creation of the Commission for Air Quality Management for the national capital region, which came afterwards. Remember 2019 for the programme, and remember that its legal backing comes from the Air Act of 1981 and the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986.

The correct answer is C, the Agulhas current. It is a warm current of the Indian Ocean that flows southward along the eastern coast of southern Africa, carrying tropical water towards the Cape before most of it turns back into the Indian Ocean. Along with the Mozambique and West Australian currents it makes up the southern Indian Ocean gyre.

Option A, the Florida current, belongs to the Atlantic; it carries water out of the Gulf of Mexico past Florida and feeds the Gulf Stream. Option B, the Canary current, is also Atlantic, a cold current flowing south along the north-western coast of Africa past the Canary Islands. Option D, the Kurile or Oyashio current, is a cold current of the northern Pacific that flows south past the Kurile Islands towards Japan, where it meets the warm Kuroshio.

The correct answer is D, wetland conservation. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar and came into force in 1975. It is the only global environmental treaty devoted to a single type of ecosystem, and parties designate wetlands of international importance for the Ramsar List and undertake to maintain their ecological character. The second of February is observed as World Wetlands Day.

Option A, climate change, is the subject of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992 and the protocols under it. Option B, pesticide pollution, comes closest to the Rotterdam Convention of 1998 on prior informed consent and the Stockholm Convention of 2001 on persistent organic pollutants. Option C, ozone layer depletion, belongs to the Vienna Convention of 1985 and the Montreal Protocol of 1987.

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, 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 C, c. The Attorney General of India is dealt with in Article 76, which falls in Part V of the Constitution, the part on the Union, and not in Part XIII. Part XIII carries Articles 301 to 307 on trade, commerce and intercourse within the territory of India, so the pairing in c is the mismatched one. The Attorney General is appointed by the President, must be qualified to be a Supreme Court judge, is the first law officer of the country and has the right to speak in both Houses without a vote. Option A is wrong because the Fundamental Duties in Article 51A really are in Part IV A, added by the 42nd Amendment. Option B is wrong because Part VI, Articles 152 to 237, does cover the States. Option D is wrong because Part XIV, Articles 308 to 323, does cover services under the Union and the States. Exam tip: Attorney General Article 76, Part V; Advocate General Article 165, Part VI.

The correct answer is D, 2010. The National Green Tribunal was set up on 18 October 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010. It is a special court for cases about environmental protection, forests and other natural resources, and it is required to dispose of an application within six months. India was the third country in the world, after Australia and New Zealand, to create such a body. Its principal bench sits in New Delhi, with zonal benches at Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai, and it is headed by a retired Supreme Court judge. Option A is wrong because 2007 is the year the Tribunal was first proposed, not created. Option B is wrong because 2008 saw no such law. Option C is wrong because 2009 is the year the Ministry of Environment moved the bill, which became law only in 2010. Exam tip: NGT Act 2010, tribunal from 18 October 2010, principal bench New Delhi.

The correct answer is C, Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson, an American marine biologist and writer, published Silent Spring in 1962. She showed how synthetic pesticides, above all DDT, were killing birds, fish and insects far beyond the fields where they were sprayed, and how these chemicals build up in food chains, becoming more concentrated at each level, a process now called biomagnification. The title imagines a spring with no birdsong because the birds have been poisoned. The book stirred public opinion and helped lead to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and a ban on most uses of DDT in the USA in 1972. Option A is wrong because Carolyn Merchant is an environmental historian known for The Death of Nature (1980). Option B is wrong because Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto, works on economics and politics. Option D is wrong because no writer of that name is linked to this book. Exam tip: Silent Spring 1962 (Rachel Carson, DDT), The Limits to Growth 1972 (Club of Rome), Our Common Future 1987 (Brundtland Report).

The correct answer is A, Vitamin K. The liver needs vitamin K to make several clotting factors, including prothrombin, which help blood form a clot and seal a wound. Its letter comes from the German word ‘Koagulation’. When it is lacking, even small cuts bleed for a long time and bruises form easily. Newborn babies have very little of it, so hospitals give them a vitamin K injection at birth to prevent dangerous bleeding. Good sources are green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cabbage and fenugreek, and bacteria in our gut also make some of it. It is a fat-soluble vitamin, like A, D and E. Option B is wrong because vitamin E (tocopherol) works mainly as an antioxidant that protects cells. Option C is wrong because vitamin A (retinol) is needed for vision, and its lack causes night blindness. Option D is wrong because vitamin C (ascorbic acid) keeps gums and skin healthy; its lack causes scurvy, with bleeding gums, but it is not a clotting vitamin. Exam tip: K for Koagulation; A for night blindness, C for scurvy, D for rickets.

The correct answer is C, 2.1. The Total Fertility Rate is the average number of children a woman would have in her lifetime if she followed the current birth rates at each age from 15 to 49. Replacement level is the TFR at which each generation exactly replaces itself, so that over time, leaving migration aside, the population stops growing or shrinking. Two children are needed to replace the two parents, and the extra 0.1 covers children who die before reaching adulthood and the fact that slightly more boys than girls are born. India’s National Population Policy, 2000 set the goal of bringing TFR down to replacement level. Option A is wrong because a TFR of 1.0 would halve the population in each generation. Option B is wrong because 1.6 is below replacement, a level seen in ageing societies. Option D is wrong because 2.3 is above replacement, so the population would keep rising. Exam tip: replacement level fertility means a TFR of about 2.1 children per woman.

The correct answer is C, 1971 and 1981 respectively. A ‘million city’ is a city or urban agglomeration with a population of ten lakh or more. Kanpur, the leather and textile centre on the Ganga once called the ‘Manchester of the East’, crossed this mark in the 1971 Census and became the first million city of Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow, the state capital, followed ten years later in the 1981 Census. The order is worth noting: in those decades the mills and factories drew workers from the countryside, so the industrial city grew faster than the capital. In later censuses more cities of the state, such as Agra, Varanasi, Meerut and Ghaziabad, crossed the mark too. Option A is wrong because in 1951 and 1961 neither city had yet reached ten lakh. Option B is wrong because Kanpur reached the mark in 1971, not 1961, and Lucknow only in 1981. Option D is wrong because both years are ten years too late. Exam tip: Kanpur first (1971), Lucknow next (1981): the mill town crossed ten lakh before the capital.

The correct answer is B, Sutlej. Trans-Himalayan rivers rise beyond the Great Himalaya, on the Tibetan side, and are older than the mountains themselves. As the Himalaya rose, they kept cutting down through it, which is why they flow through deep gorges; geographers call them antecedent rivers. There are three: the Indus, the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra, all rising near Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. The Sutlej begins at Rakas Tal in Tibet, enters India through the Shipki La pass in Himachal Pradesh, and is dammed at Bhakra. Option A is wrong because the Jhelum rises at the Verinag spring in the Kashmir valley, south of the Great Himalaya. Option C is wrong because the Ganga begins as the Bhagirathi at the Gangotri glacier inside the Indian Himalaya. Option D is wrong because the Ravi rises near the Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh. Exam tip: the three trans-Himalayan rivers are the Indus, the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra; remember them as the rivers that come from Tibet.

The correct answer is A, Himadri Range. The Himadri, or Greater Himalaya, is part of the Himalayan system, the youngest fold mountains in India, formed as the Indian plate pushed into the Eurasian plate and folded up the sediments of the old Tethys Sea. The uplift began only about 50 million years ago and is still going on, which is why the region has frequent earthquakes. The Himadri is the highest and most continuous range, with an average height of about 6,000 metres and peaks such as Kanchenjunga and Nanda Devi. Within the Himalaya itself, the outer Shiwalik range is the youngest, but it is not among the options. Option B is wrong because the Aravalli is the oldest fold mountain range of India, worn down over hundreds of millions of years. Option C is wrong because the Western Ghats are the raised western edge of the ancient Deccan plateau. Option D is wrong because the Vindhyas are an old range of Peninsular India made of ancient sedimentary rocks. Exam tip: oldest range, Aravalli; youngest, the Himalaya, and within it the Shiwaliks.