UPSC Civil Services 2021 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is A, environmentally responsible practices in electronics recycling industry. R2, short for Responsible Recycling, is a standard for environmentally responsible electronics recycling.

The R2 standard was developed with the support of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and is now managed by the non-profit SERI (Sustainable Electronics Recycling International). Recycling and refurbishing firms certified under R2 must handle used electronics safely, protect workers' health, secure the data on old devices, and track hazardous parts such as lead, mercury and cadmium so that they are not dumped or exported irresponsibly. It matters because e-waste is the world's fastest-growing waste stream. In India, e-waste is governed by the E-Waste (Management) Rules.

B is wrong: Ramsar wetlands are managed under the Ramsar Convention's own guidelines and the Montreux Record, not R2.

C is wrong: R2 has nothing to do with farming on degraded lands.

D is wrong: Environmental Impact Assessment follows national EIA rules, not the R2 code.

Exam tip: R2 = Responsible Recycling of electronics (SERI); e-Stewards is a similar e-waste standard.

The correct answer is B, 2 only. As lender of last resort, the RBI provides liquidity to banks facing a temporary crisis, so only statement 2 fits.

A bank in sound health can still run short of cash if many depositors withdraw at once. When it cannot raise funds in the market, the central bank lends to it, usually against good collateral, to stop a panic from spreading through the banking system. In India the RBI does this through tools such as the Marginal Standing Facility and special liquidity windows. The idea comes from Walter Bagehot's rule: lend freely to solvent banks in a crisis, against good security.

A is wrong: the RBI does not lend to trade and industry; that is the job of commercial banks.

C is wrong: lending to governments through ways and means advances is its role as banker to the government, not as lender of last resort.

D is wrong: it names only government lending, which is a different function.

Exam tip: lender of last resort = to banks in trouble; banker to government = ways and means advances.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. Statements 1 and 3 are correct; WaterCredit is not a WHO or World Bank initiative.

WaterCredit was created by Water.org, the non-profit co-founded by Gary White and Matt Damon. It works through local microfinance institutions, which give small loans to poor households to build a toilet or get a household water connection. Because families repay the loans, the money is recycled into new loans, so the poor can meet their water and sanitation needs without waiting for subsidies or charity. In India it works with many microfinance partners.

A is wrong: statement 2 is incorrect, since the initiative is run by Water.org, not WHO and the World Bank.

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

D is wrong: all three cannot be correct when statement 2 is false.

Exam tip: WaterCredit = Water.org + microfinance loans for water and toilets, no subsidy needed.

The correct answer is B, 1 and 2. Retail investors can bid for government securities in primary auctions, and NDS-OM is the RBI's trading platform for them, but CDSL was not promoted by the RBI.

Statement 1 is correct: under the non-competitive bidding scheme, retail investors can buy treasury bills and dated Government of India securities in primary auctions through stock exchanges and brokers, holding them in a demat account. The RBI Retail Direct scheme of 2021 also lets them open a gilt account with the RBI directly.

Statement 2 is correct: the Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching (NDS-OM) is an anonymous, screen-based electronic platform owned by the RBI for secondary-market trading in government securities, run with the Clearing Corporation of India.

Statement 3 is wrong: Central Depository Services (India) Ltd. was promoted by BSE together with banks such as State Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank. The RBI is not a promoter.

So A leaves out statement 2, while C and D include the false statement 3.

Exam tip: India's two depositories are NSDL (promoted by NSE, IDBI and UTI) and CDSL (promoted by BSE with banks).

The correct answer is A, 1, 2 and 4 only. Expansionary policies, fiscal stimulus and higher purchasing power all raise aggregate demand, which is what drives demand-pull inflation.

Demand-pull inflation happens when total demand for goods and services runs ahead of what the economy can supply, described as too much money chasing too few goods. Expansionary monetary policy (cheap, easy credit) and fiscal stimulus (tax cuts, higher government spending) put more money in people's hands. Higher purchasing power, from rising incomes or easy credit, has the same effect. Cost-push inflation, in contrast, starts on the supply side, when the costs of production such as wages, raw materials or fuel go up.

Inflation-indexing of wages (3) raises the cost of production and feeds a wage-price spiral, so it is treated as a cost-push factor. Rising interest rates (5) make borrowing costly and cut demand, so they reduce inflation.

So B, C and D are wrong because each includes statement 3 or 5 or both.

Exam tip: demand-pull = more spending power; cost-push = higher input costs; raising interest rates is the RBI's tool to curb demand.

The correct answer is D, creation of new money to finance a budget deficit. Printing new money adds fresh purchasing power to the economy without any matching rise in goods, so it pushes prices up the most.

When the government covers its deficit by borrowing from the central bank, which creates new money, the money supply grows directly. This method is called deficit financing or monetisation of the deficit. In India, the practice of automatic monetisation through ad hoc treasury bills was ended by an agreement between the government and the RBI in 1997, and the FRBM Act later barred the RBI from buying government securities in the primary market except in special cases.

A is wrong: repaying public debt returns money already in the system and tends to be neutral or even disinflationary.

B is wrong: borrowing from the public only moves existing savings to the government, so total money supply does not rise.

C is wrong: borrowing from commercial banks can expand credit somewhat, but far less than printing new money.

Exam tip: inflationary effect of deficit financing, from most to least: new money creation, bank borrowing, borrowing from the public.

The correct answer is D, Loss of revenue to the State Exchequer due to tax evasion. Black money is, by definition, income hidden from the tax authorities, so its most direct and serious effect is the tax the government never receives.

Black money is income on which tax due has not been paid, whether it is earned legally and concealed or earned through illegal activity. Every rupee kept outside the books is a rupee of tax lost, which reduces what the government can spend on infrastructure, health and welfare, widens the fiscal deficit and pushes up the tax burden on honest taxpayers. This is why measures such as the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, and the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, focus on taxing and penalising hidden income.

A is wrong: investment in real estate is one way black money is used, but it is a consequence, not the main worry.

B is wrong: buying gold and jewellery is another use of black money, again secondary to the revenue loss.

C is wrong: political funding is a concern, but regionalism is not a recognised effect of black money.

Exam tip: black money = untaxed income; the core harm is revenue loss to the exchequer.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. Devaluation makes domestic goods cheaper abroad, so export competitiveness improves, but it lowers the external value of the currency and does not necessarily improve the trade balance.

Devaluation is a deliberate cut in the official exchange value of a currency under a fixed or managed exchange rate; India devalued the rupee in 1966 and in 1991. After it, each unit of foreign currency buys more domestic currency, so the foreign-currency price of exports falls and the domestic price of imports rises. Whether the trade balance improves depends on how strongly export and import volumes respond (the Marshall-Lerner condition), and in the short run it often worsens first, a pattern known as the J-curve.

B is wrong: statement 2 is the opposite of what happens, as devaluation reduces the foreign value of the domestic currency.

C is wrong: improvement in the trade balance is not guaranteed.

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

Exam tip: devaluation = cheaper exports, dearer imports; trade balance improves only if demand is elastic (Marshall-Lerner), J-curve in the short run.

The correct answer is D, 1, 2 and 3. Indian bond yields respond to the RBI's policy, to domestic inflation and short-term rates, and also to the US Federal Reserve through global capital flows.

A bond's yield is the return an investor earns on it, and it moves opposite to the bond's price. When the RBI cuts the repo rate or buys government securities through open market operations, yields tend to fall; tightening pushes them up. Higher inflation makes investors demand a higher return, and short-term rates set the base from which longer yields are priced. When the US Federal Reserve raises rates, foreign investors may pull money out of Indian bonds for safer US assets, which lowers bond prices in India and lifts yields.

A is wrong because inflation and short-term rates also matter.

B is wrong because the RBI is only one of several influences.

C is wrong because both central banks also move yields.

Exam tip: bond price and yield move in opposite directions; inflation up, yields up.

The correct answer is B, 2 and 3 only. Urban Cooperative Banks are regulated by the RBI, not by local boards, and they may raise capital through equity and preference shares.

Statement 1 is wrong: UCBs are registered under State or Multi-State Cooperative Societies Acts, but their banking functions are regulated and supervised by the Reserve Bank of India; no local boards of State Governments do this. Statement 2 is correct: the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2020 lets cooperative banks, with RBI approval, issue equity shares, preference shares and other securities to raise capital. Statement 3 is correct: cooperative banks were brought under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 from 1 March 1966, through an amendment applying the Act to cooperative societies.

A is wrong because statement 1 is false.

C is wrong because it keeps the false statement 1 and drops the true statement 2.

D is wrong because statement 1 is incorrect.

Exam tip: cooperative banks came under the BR Act in 1966; the 2020 amendment strengthened RBI control over them.

The correct answer is A, 1 and 4 only. A dearer substitute pushes buyers towards this good, and a fall in its own price leads them to buy more of it.

Statement 1 is correct: if tea becomes costlier, people buy more coffee, so demand for coffee rises. Statement 4 is correct: by the law of demand, a lower price raises the quantity buyers want. Statement 2 is wrong: if the price of a complement rises (petrol for cars), demand for the good falls. Statement 3 is wrong: for an inferior good, demand falls when income rises, because consumers shift to better goods.

B is wrong because it includes statements 2 and 3, both of which reduce demand.

C is wrong because statement 3 describes a fall, not a rise, in demand for an inferior good.

D is wrong because it includes 2 and 3 and leaves out 4, the plainest case of the law of demand.

Exam tip: substitute price up, demand up; complement price up, demand down; inferior good, income up, demand down.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. Only the first statement holds, so the other combinations fall away. India follows single citizenship and a single domicile, which means a person is a citizen of India alone and not separately of a state, unlike the United States where a citizen also belongs to a state. Citizenship is dealt with in Articles 5 to 11 and in the Citizenship Act of 1955, which allows it to be acquired by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation or the incorporation of territory. Statement 2 is wrong because Article 58 asks only that a candidate for President be a citizen of India; a citizen by naturalisation is equally eligible. Statement 3 is wrong because the Act provides for loss of citizenship by renunciation, termination and deprivation, and a naturalised citizen can be deprived of it for fraud or disloyalty. B, C and D are wrong because each of them includes one of these two mistaken statements. Exam tip: single citizenship, single domicile - and Articles 5 to 11 are the citizenship articles.

The correct answer is C, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Vidyasagar served as the secretary of the Hindu Female School, and the school was renamed after John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, who had founded it in Calcutta in 1849. Vidyasagar was the strongest voice for the schooling of girls in nineteenth century Bengal; as an inspector of schools he opened dozens of girls' schools in the districts, and his campaign against the misery of widows led to the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856. He also pressed for an end to child marriage and to polygamy. A is wrong because Annie Besant worked in India half a century later and is tied to the Central Hindu College at Banaras and to the Home Rule League. B is wrong because Debendranath Tagore led the Brahmo Samaj and founded the Tattvabodhini Sabha. D is wrong because Sarojini Naidu belongs to the freedom struggle of the twentieth century. Exam tip: pair Bethune School, 1849, with Vidyasagar as its secretary.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. The cooking temperature is set by the pressure inside the cooker, and that pressure is fixed by the weight sitting on the vent and the area of the hole under it. The boiling point of water rises with pressure. In an open pan water boils at 100°C, but when steam is trapped, pressure builds up until it can lift the weight, the whistle, off the vent. Pressure is force divided by area, so a heavier weight or a smaller hole means a higher pressure before steam escapes, and water then boils at about 120°C, which is why food cooks faster. Statement 2 is wrong because a bigger flame only makes the water boil and the whistle blow sooner; once steam escapes, the temperature stays at the boiling point for that pressure, and extra heat just makes more steam. Statements 1 and 3 are right for the reason above. So options A, B and D, which include statement 2, are wrong. Exam tip: higher pressure means a higher boiling point; the flame changes the speed, not the temperature.

The correct answer is A, it is dipolar in nature. Water is called the universal solvent because its molecule is polar: the oxygen end carries a partial negative charge and the two hydrogen ends carry partial positive charges. The molecule is bent at an angle of about 104.5°, so these charges do not cancel out. When a salt such as sodium chloride is put in water, the negative oxygen ends surround the sodium ions and the positive hydrogen ends surround the chloride ions, pulling the crystal apart; this is called hydration. Water also forms hydrogen bonds with polar substances such as sugar and alcohol, which is why they dissolve easily, while non-polar oil does not. Option B is wrong because water is in fact a poor conductor of heat, and heat conduction has nothing to do with dissolving. Option C is wrong because high specific heat explains why water warms up slowly, not why it dissolves things. Option D is wrong because being an oxide of hydrogen does not by itself make a liquid a good solvent. Exam tip: polar water dissolves polar and ionic substances, because like dissolves like.

The correct answer is C, 1, 3 and 5 only. Earthworms, millipedes and woodlice feed on dead plant and animal matter, called detritus, so they are detritivores. Detritivores break dead leaves and bodies into small pieces, which speeds up the work of decomposers such as bacteria and fungi that finish the breakdown and return nutrients to the soil. Earthworms eat decaying leaves and soil, millipedes chew leaf litter on the forest floor, and woodlice are small land crustaceans that live under logs and eat rotting wood. The key difference is that detritivores swallow detritus, while decomposers digest it outside their bodies. Jellyfish (2) are wrong because they are carnivores that sting and eat plankton and small fish. Seahorses (4) are wrong because they suck in tiny live crustaceans. So options A, B and D, which include jellyfish or seahorses, are wrong. Exam tip: earthworms, millipedes, woodlice and dung beetles are detritivores; bacteria and fungi are decomposers.

The correct answer is A, Carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems. Blue carbon is the carbon stored by marine and coastal ecosystems, especially mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows. These plants take in carbon dioxide, and because their waterlogged soils have little oxygen, dead matter decays slowly and the carbon stays locked in the sediment for hundreds or even thousands of years. Area for area, they can store several times more carbon than tropical forests, which is why protecting the Sundarbans and India's seagrass beds counts as climate action. When these habitats are cleared, the stored carbon goes back into the air. Option B is wrong because carbon held in forest biomass and farm soils is called green carbon. Option C is wrong because carbon in petroleum and natural gas is fossil carbon, which is released as carbon dioxide when burnt. Option D is wrong because carbon dioxide in the air is simply atmospheric carbon, not stored carbon. Exam tip: blue carbon means coasts and oceans, green carbon means forests and soils.

The correct answer is C, Increase in the banking habit of the people. When people keep more of their money in banks instead of as cash, banks can lend more, so each rupee of reserve money creates more money in the economy. The money multiplier is the ratio of broad money (M3) to reserve money (M0). It depends on two leakages: the cash people hold, measured by the currency–deposit ratio, and the reserves banks must keep, measured by the reserve ratios. The smaller the leakage, the bigger the multiplier. A stronger banking habit lowers the currency–deposit ratio, so more of each rupee returns to banks and is lent again. Option A is wrong because a higher Cash Reserve Ratio makes banks park more money with the RBI, which lowers the multiplier. Option B is wrong because a higher Statutory Liquidity Ratio also locks up more of banks' funds and cuts lending. Option D is wrong because population by itself does not change how much of each deposit banks can lend. Exam tip: more money in banks means a bigger multiplier; a higher CRR or SLR means a smaller one.

The correct answer is B, fissure volcanic rock. Black cotton soil, or regur, formed from the weathering of the Deccan Trap basalt, lava that poured out through long cracks in the crust about 65 million years ago. This fissure eruption spread layer after layer of basalt over Maharashtra, western Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and parts of Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and the soil is found mainly on this plateau. It is rich in iron, lime, magnesium and potash but poor in nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter, and its dark colour comes from titaniferous magnetite and humus. It holds moisture well, swells when wet and cracks deeply when dry, so it is said to 'plough itself', and it suits cotton. Option A is wrong because brown forest soil is itself a soil type, not the parent rock of regur. Option C is wrong because granite and schist weather mainly into red soils. Option D is wrong because shale and limestone are sedimentary rocks, not the source of the Deccan soils. Exam tip: regur means Deccan basalt, cotton and self-ploughing cracks.

The correct answer is A, Dholavira. This Harappan city in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, is famous for its dams, channels and chain of stone reservoirs. Dholavira stands on Khadir Bet island between two seasonal streams, the Manhar and the Mansar. Its people built check dams across the streams, led the water through channels and stored it in large rock-cut reservoirs around the city, a clever answer to a very dry climate. The site, excavated by R.S. Bisht, also has a signboard of ten large Harappan letters, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. Option B is wrong because Kalibangan in Rajasthan is known for its ploughed field and fire altars. Option C is wrong because Rakhigarhi in Haryana is known as one of the largest Harappan sites, not for water works. Option D is wrong because Ropar in Punjab is known for a burial of a dog with its master. Exam tip: Dholavira means reservoirs and a signboard; Lothal means a dockyard.