UPSC Civil Services 2018 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, World Justice Project. The Rule of Law Index is published by the World Justice Project, an independent organisation based in Washington, D.C.

The World Justice Project ranks countries on how far the rule of law is followed in practice, based on surveys of households and legal experts. The index uses eight factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice and criminal justice. It has been published since 2009 and is widely cited in discussions on governance and judicial reform.

A is wrong: Amnesty International publishes reports on human-rights abuses and the death penalty, not this index.

B is wrong: the International Court of Justice at The Hague settles disputes between states and gives advisory opinions; it does not rank countries.

C is wrong: the UN human rights office (OHCHR) monitors rights but does not publish the Rule of Law Index.

Exam tip: Rule of Law Index = World Justice Project; Press Freedom Index = Reporters Without Borders; Corruption Perceptions Index = Transparency International.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. Only the Aral Sea has shrunk drastically because of human activity.

The Aral Sea, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once the world's fourth-largest lake. From the 1960s, Soviet planners diverted its two feeder rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, to irrigate cotton fields, and the lake lost most of its area, splitting into smaller bodies and leaving a salty desert, the Aralkum. The Black Sea is a large inland sea joined to the Mediterranean through the Bosporus and has not dried up. Lake Baikal in Siberia, the world's deepest and oldest freshwater lake, faces pollution but has not shrunk away.

B is wrong: neither the Black Sea nor Lake Baikal has dried up.

C is wrong: the Black Sea has not shrunk.

D is wrong: Lake Baikal has not shrunk immensely.

Exam tip: Aral Sea = Amu Darya and Syr Darya diverted for cotton; Baikal = deepest lake in the world.

The correct answer is D, Neither 1 nor 2. Both statements are wrong: Aadhaar proves identity, not citizenship, and it can be deactivated.

The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 says in Section 9 that an Aadhaar number, or its authentication, does not by itself confer any right of, or proof of, citizenship or domicile. Any resident who has lived in India for 182 days or more in the past year can enrol, including foreigners. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) can omit or deactivate an Aadhaar number under regulations made under the Act, for example when it was obtained with false documents or is a duplicate.

A is wrong: statement 1 is false, since the Act itself denies that Aadhaar proves citizenship.

B is wrong: statement 2 is false, since UIDAI can deactivate or omit a number.

C is wrong: neither statement is correct.

Exam tip: Aadhaar = proof of identity and residence for 182 days, not of citizenship; issued by UIDAI under the 2016 Act.

The correct answer is C, Lala Lajpat Rai. The Punjab leader wrote these biographies, lived in the United States during the First World War and was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly in 1926.

Lajpat Rai, the 'Punjab Kesari', was one of the Lal-Bal-Pal trio of extremist leaders. He wrote short lives of the Italian nationalists Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi and of Shivaji and Shrikrishna to inspire national pride. From 1914 to 1919 he stayed in the United States, where he founded the Indian Home Rule League of America and wrote Young India. He presided over the Calcutta special session of the Congress in 1920, founded the Servants of the People Society, and died in 1928 after the police lathi charge during the protest against the Simon Commission in Lahore.

A is wrong: Aurobindo Ghosh turned to spiritual life in Pondicherry and never sat in the Central Assembly.

B is wrong: Bipin Chandra Pal, another of the Lal-Bal-Pal trio, did not write these biographies or found a league in America.

D is wrong: Motilal Nehru led the Swarajists in the Assembly but did not write these works or live in America.

Exam tip: Lajpat Rai = Punjab Kesari, Young India (book), Home Rule League of America, died after Simon Commission protest (1928).

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. Statement 1 states the FRBM Review Committee's target correctly and statement 3 is Article 293(3), while statement 2 swaps the figures.

The FRBM Review Committee, chaired by N. K. Singh, reported in 2017. It made public debt the main anchor of fiscal policy and recommended a general government debt of 60% of GDP by 2023, split as 40% for the Centre and 20% for the States. Article 293(3) of the Constitution says that a State which still owes any part of a loan made by the Government of India cannot raise a new loan without the Centre's consent.

Statement 2 is wrong: it reverses the shares. The Centre's liabilities were close to half of GDP, much larger than those of the States taken together.

So A leaves out the correct statement 3, B includes the wrong statement 2 and drops statement 1, and D also includes statement 2.

Exam tip: FRBM Act 2003; N. K. Singh Review Committee 2017 suggested a 60:40:20 debt target; Article 293 governs borrowing by States.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. Membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) eases access to advanced nuclear technology and trade, but it does not make a country a party to the NPT.

The NSG is a group of nuclear supplier countries set up in 1974, after India's first nuclear test at Pokhran, to control the export of nuclear material, equipment and technology through common guidelines. Members trade nuclear items among themselves under these rules and take part in deciding them, which gives them easier access to the latest technology. The NPT is a separate treaty that came into force in 1970; joining it requires a country to sign and ratify it, and NSG membership does not do this automatically. India is not a member of the NSG, but received a special waiver from the group in 2008 for civil nuclear trade.

B is wrong: statement 2 is false, as NPT membership is never automatic.

C is wrong: only statement 1 is correct.

D is wrong: statement 1 is a real benefit of NSG membership.

Exam tip: NSG 1974 (after Pokhran-I), consensus-based export control group; NPT 1970 is a separate treaty; India got an NSG waiver in 2008.

The correct answer is C. The Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) is the fee a bank charges a merchant for processing payments the merchant receives from customers by card.

When a customer pays with a debit or credit card, the merchant does not receive the full bill amount: a small percentage is deducted as MDR. It is usually shared among the merchant's bank (the acquirer), the card-issuing bank and the card network that routes the transaction. It is expressed as a percentage of the transaction value. The RBI regulates MDR on debit cards, and the government has at times waived or absorbed it, for example for RuPay debit cards and UPI, to push digital payments.

A is wrong: MDR is a charge paid by the merchant, not an incentive paid to the merchant.

B is wrong: money returned to customers for card use is cashback or a reward, not MDR.

D is wrong: a government incentive to merchants is a subsidy, while MDR is a bank fee.

Exam tip: MDR = paid by the merchant to the acquiring bank per card transaction, as a percentage of the bill.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. Parliament can add a law to the Ninth Schedule by a constitutional amendment, but such a law is not beyond judicial review.

The Ninth Schedule and Article 31B were added by the First Amendment Act of 1951 to protect land reform laws from challenge on the ground that they violated Fundamental Rights. Laws are added to it only by amending the Constitution, which Parliament does under Article 368. In I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu (2007), a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that laws placed in the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973, the date of the Kesavananda Bharati judgment, can be examined by courts and struck down if they damage the basic structure of the Constitution.

B is wrong: statement 2 is false after the Coelho judgment.

C is wrong: only statement 1 is correct.

D is wrong: statement 1 is correct, since Parliament does place laws in the Schedule.

Exam tip: Ninth Schedule = 1st Amendment 1951, Article 31B; I.R. Coelho 2007 opened post-24 April 1973 entries to basic-structure review.

The correct answer is D, 1, 2 and 3. All three are adaptations of desert plants (xerophytes) that cut down water loss through transpiration.

Plants lose most of their water through the leaves, so desert plants change their leaves to save it. A thick waxy cuticle makes the leaf surface hard and waterproof, as in the oleander and many succulents. Small leaves expose less surface to the hot, dry air, as in acacia and tamarisk. In cacti and some euphorbias the leaves are reduced to spines or thorns, and the green fleshy stem takes over photosynthesis and stores water. Sunken stomata and fewer stomata are other such features.

A is wrong because it leaves out hard, waxy leaves.

B is wrong because tiny leaves are only one of the three adaptations.

C is wrong because thorns are not the only change seen in desert plants.

Exam tip: cactus = leaves turned into spines, stem does photosynthesis; xerophytes = waxy cuticle, small leaves, sunken stomata.

The correct answer is B, 2 only. The first Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was recognised in 1969, when Ram Subhag Singh of the Congress (O) was given the post.

Statement 1 is wrong: the Swatantra Party was founded only in 1959, years after the first Lok Sabha (1952–57); the largest opposition party then was the Communist Party of India. Statement 3 is wrong: the practice, based on the Speaker's direction, is that a party needs at least one-tenth of the House's strength, that is 55 members, not 75. The Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977 later gave the post statutory recognition.

A is wrong because both statements 1 and 3 are false.

C is wrong because the minimum is one-tenth of the House (55), not 75.

D is wrong because only statement 2 is true.

Exam tip: first LoP recognised in 1969; the one-tenth rule means 55 seats in a 543-member Lok Sabha.

The correct answer is B, 2 only. The second statement describes the two bodies correctly while the first gets the origin of the Board wrong, so only statement 2 can be accepted. The National Green Tribunal is a specialised court set up by the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010 to decide disputes under the environmental laws quickly, and it does take such cases away from the ordinary courts. The Central Pollution Control Board works on the quality of air and water, promoting the cleanliness of streams and wells, laying down standards and running the national monitoring network. Statement 1 is wrong because the Board was also created by a statute, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974, and not by an executive order; the Air Act of 1981 later added to its work. A and C are wrong because each accepts statement 1. D is wrong because statement 2 is sound. Exam tip: CPCB 1974 under the Water Act, NGT 2010 under its own Act.

The correct answer is D, Kishangarh school. Bani Thani was painted by Nihal Chand in the eighteenth century at Kishangarh in Rajasthan, under Raja Savant Singh, who wrote devotional poetry under the name Nagari Das. The figure has an elongated face, a long neck, a sharply arched eyebrow and a curving eye, and this stylised female type became the mark of the school. The painting is often called the Mona Lisa of India, and Kishangarh work usually sets its lovers beside lotus filled lakes.

Option A, the Bundi school, is recognised by dense blue green vegetation, water and animal life, not by this female type. Option B, the Jaipur or Amber school, worked under strong Mughal influence on large portraits. Option C, the Kangra school, is a Pahari style from the hills, delicate and lyrical, famous for the Gita Govinda series, and geographically far from Rajasthan.