UPSC Civil Services 2017 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, a system of tribunals and a ban on strikes.. The Trade Disputes Act, 1929 set up machinery of courts of inquiry and boards of conciliation and banned certain strikes.

The colonial government passed the Act in response to the wave of strikes of 1928 led by communist-led unions such as the Girni Kamgar Union in Bombay. It created courts of inquiry and boards of conciliation to settle industrial disputes, and it made strikes in public utility services illegal without prior notice, while also banning strikes and lock-outs meant to coerce the government. Along with the Public Safety Ordinance and the Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929), it was part of the British attack on the rising labour movement.

A is wrong: the Act did not give workers any share in managing industries.

B is wrong: it did not hand arbitrary powers to employers; disputes went to official tribunals.

C is wrong: disputes were not referred to any British court.

Exam tip: 1929 = Trade Disputes Act, Public Safety Ordinance and Meerut Conspiracy Case, all aimed at the labour and communist movement.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. Statements 1 and 3 are correct; heavy metals cannot be readily and completely removed by microbes.

Bioremediation uses living organisms, mostly bacteria and fungi, to break down pollutants. It speeds up the natural biodegradation process by adding nutrients, oxygen or suitable microbes, and is used for oil spills and sewage. Scientists can also engineer microbes for the job: Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty's genetically modified Pseudomonas 'superbug' that digests oil is the classic example. Heavy metals such as cadmium and lead are elements, so microbes cannot destroy them; at best they change their form or help concentrate them, and the process is slow and incomplete.

A is wrong: statement 3 is also a real advantage.

B is wrong: statement 2 overstates what bioremediation can do with heavy metals.

D is wrong: statement 2 is false.

Exam tip: bioremediation works well on organic pollutants such as oil, not on heavy metals; oil-eating superbug = Pseudomonas.

The correct answer is C, 2 and 3 only. Alexander Read and Thomas Munro introduced the Ryotwari Settlement; Lord Cornwallis is linked to the Permanent Settlement.

The Ryotwari system was first tried by Captain Alexander Read in the Baramahal district in 1792, with Thomas Munro working under him. Munro later extended it as Governor of Madras (from 1820), and it spread to most of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. Under it, the ryot (cultivator) was recognised as the owner of the land and paid revenue directly to the State, with the assessment revised periodically. Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal in 1793, which fixed revenue forever with the zamindars.

A is wrong: Cornwallis is tied to the zamindari (Permanent) Settlement, not Ryotwari.

B is wrong: it includes Cornwallis and leaves out Alexander Read.

D is wrong: Cornwallis had no role in the Ryotwari system.

Exam tip: Permanent Settlement = Cornwallis, 1793; Ryotwari = Read and Munro; Mahalwari = Holt Mackenzie, 1822.

The correct answer is B, 1 and 3 only. Sankirtana combines singing, drumming and dance to tell the life and deeds of Krishna, but cymbals are not its only instruments.

Sankirtana is the ritual singing, drumming and dancing practised by the Vaishnava people of the Manipur valley in temples and at life-cycle ceremonies. Performers narrate the life and deeds of Krishna through song and graceful movement, often in a circle, while devotees watch in reverence. Two instruments lead the performance: the pung, a barrel-shaped drum played while dancing, and the kartal, or hand cymbals. UNESCO inscribed Sankirtana on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.

A is wrong: it includes statement 2, which is false because the pung drum is also central.

C is wrong: it includes the false statement 2 and leaves out statement 1.

D is wrong: it leaves out statement 3, which is also correct.

Exam tip: Manipuri Sankirtana = pung (drum) and kartal (cymbals); UNESCO intangible heritage list in 2013.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. The MPC fixes the policy repo rate, the RBI's benchmark rate, but it has six members and is chaired by the RBI Governor.

The Monetary Policy Committee was set up under Section 45ZB of the RBI Act, 1934, added by the Finance Act, 2016. It decides the policy repo rate needed to keep inflation within the target the government sets, currently 4% CPI inflation with a band of 2% to 6%. It has six members: the RBI Governor as chairperson, a Deputy Governor, one other RBI officer nominated by the central board, and three external members appointed by the Central Government for four years. Each member has one vote, and the Governor has a casting vote in case of a tie.

B is wrong: the MPC has six members, not twelve, and external members serve four-year terms; it is not reconstituted every year.

C is wrong: the RBI Governor, not the Finance Minister, chairs the MPC.

D is wrong: both statements 2 and 3 are false.

Exam tip: MPC = 6 members, 3 from RBI and 3 external, Governor in the chair with a casting vote; it sets the repo rate.

The correct answer is A, World Economic Forum. The Global Gender Gap Index is published every year by the World Economic Forum in its Global Gender Gap Report.

The World Economic Forum, a non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, and known for its annual meeting at Davos, first released the index in 2006. It measures the gap between women and men in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Scores run from 0 to 1, where 1 means full parity, so the index measures the size of gaps rather than overall levels of development. The WEF also publishes the Global Competitiveness Report and the Global Risks Report.

B is wrong: the UN Human Rights Council reviews human rights records through the Universal Periodic Review and does not publish this index.

C is wrong: UN Women works for gender equality but is not the publisher of this ranking.

D is wrong: the WHO deals with health and does not rank gender gaps.

Exam tip: Gender Gap Index = WEF (four pillars, since 2006); Gender Inequality Index = UNDP, in the Human Development Report.

The correct answer is C, Rights are claims of the citizens against the State. A right is a claim that the individual makes and that the State recognises and is bound to respect.

In political theory, rights mark out an area of freedom that the State must not enter and conditions it must secure. In the Indian Constitution this idea is clearest in Part III: Article 12 defines the "State" against which Fundamental Rights are available, Article 13 declares void any law that takes them away, and Article 32, which Dr. B.R. Ambedkar called the "heart and soul" of the Constitution, lets a citizen go straight to the Supreme Court when the State violates them. Rights therefore limit the power of the government over the individual.

A is wrong: claims the State makes on citizens are duties or obligations, not rights.

B is wrong: rights are not privileges granted as a favour; many rights exist even beyond those written in a constitution.

D is wrong: privileges of a few against the many are the opposite of rights, which belong equally to all.

Exam tip: right = claim of the individual against the State; duty = claim of the State on the individual.

The correct answer is B, 2 only. TRAFFIC is a non-governmental wildlife trade monitoring network, not a UNEP bureau, and its mission is the one given in statement 2.

TRAFFIC was set up in 1976 by WWF and IUCN, initially as a specialist group to help put the CITES convention into practice, and it later became an independent NGO with its headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It monitors legal and illegal trade in wild animals and plants, supports governments with data and training, and works to ensure such trade is not a threat to the conservation of nature. In India, TRAFFIC India works from the WWF-India office in New Delhi and assists the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.

A is wrong: statement 1 is false, as TRAFFIC was never a UNEP body.

C is wrong: only statement 2 is correct.

D is wrong: statement 2 correctly states the mission of TRAFFIC.

Exam tip: TRAFFIC = WWF + IUCN, 1976, wildlife trade monitoring that supports CITES; not a UN agency.

The correct answer is A, Privileges. Equality means that no person or group enjoys special rights denied to others, so it implies the absence of privileges.

In political theory, equality rests on the idea that all people deserve equal concern and respect. Harold Laski described equality first of all as the absence of special privilege, along with adequate opportunities for all. The Indian Constitution reflects this: Article 14 gives equality before the law, Article 15 bars discrimination, Article 17 abolishes untouchability and Article 18 abolishes titles, all of which remove privileges based on birth, caste or status.

B is wrong because a society of equals still has laws and restraints that apply to everyone alike.

C is wrong because equality of opportunity actually allows fair competition rather than removing it.

D is wrong because equality is itself an ideal and does not require the absence of ideology.

Exam tip: Laski: equality means the absence of special privilege and adequate opportunities for all; Articles 14 to 18 are the Right to Equality.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. The Rigveda describes armour and the horse as central to Aryan life, while the Harappan remains show neither armour nor clear use of the horse; but the Harappans did not know iron.

Statement 1 is correct: the Rigveda mentions the varman (coat of mail) and helmet, and the Aryans fought from horse-drawn chariots, whereas no defensive armour has been found at Harappan sites. Statement 3 is correct in the sense the question intends: the horse was vital to the Rigvedic people, but it does not appear on Harappan seals and there is no firm evidence that the Harappans used it. Statement 2 is wrong: the Indus people worked gold, silver, copper, bronze and lead, but not iron, which came into use in India only around 1000 BCE.

A is wrong because statement 3 is also correct.

B is wrong because statement 2 is false.

D is wrong because the Harappans knew no iron.

Exam tip: Harappans = Bronze Age, no iron, horse not on seals; Rigvedic Aryans = horse, chariot and armour.

The correct answer is D, Neither 1 nor 2. A private member's bill is one introduced by any MP who is not a minister, whether elected or nominated, and such bills have become law in the past.

Statement 1 is wrong: the test is not election or nomination but whether the member is a minister. A bill moved by a minister is a government bill; a bill moved by any other member is a private member's bill, and it needs a month's notice before introduction. Statement 2 is wrong: fourteen private members' bills have been passed by both Houses and received assent, the last of them in 1970. The Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014, passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2015, was notable only as the first such bill passed by that House in decades; it never became law in that form.

A is wrong because nominated status has nothing to do with it.

B is wrong because private members' bills had become law long before.

C is wrong because both statements are false.

Exam tip: private member = any MP who is not a minister; 14 such bills have become law, the last in 1970.

The correct answer is A, Ajanta. The Bodhisattva Padmapani, holding a blue lotus, is painted on the left wall of the antechamber of Cave 1 at Ajanta in Maharashtra, with the Bodhisattva Vajrapani facing him. The figure belongs to the Vakataka period of the fifth century, and its downcast eyes and relaxed body are held up as the finest example of Indian mural painting. Ajanta was painted in tempera on a ground of mud, cow dung and rice husk, and the caves stand above the Waghora river.

Option B, Badami in Karnataka, has Chalukyan royal portraits in Cave 3. Option C, Bagh in Madhya Pradesh, has Buddhist murals very close to Ajanta in style, which makes it the strongest distractor, but not this painting. Option D, Ellora, is chiefly a site of rock cut sculpture and architecture, with surviving painting mainly in the Kailasa temple.

The correct answer is Participation of workers in the management of industries. The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 inserted Article 43A, which asks the State to take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings and industrial establishments. The same amendment added Article 39A (free legal aid) and Article 48A (environment) and rewrote Article 39(f) on the healthy development of children.

The three other options are Directive Principles that were in the Constitution from the start, in 1950, which is exactly what makes the question hard. Equal pay for equal work for men and women is Article 39(d). The right to work, to education and to public assistance in unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement is Article 41. A living wage and humane conditions of work are Articles 43 and 42. The quickest check is the letter: the Directive Principles added later carry a letter after the number (39A, 43A, 43B, 48A), while the original ones do not.