UPSC 2017 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, Statement I is true but Statement II is false. Plantations do lie mostly in the humid tropics, but the soils there are generally poor, not highly fertile.

Plantation farming grows a single cash crop such as tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, cocoa, banana or oil palm on large estates with heavy capital and hired labour. It spread in the humid tropics of Asia, Africa and Latin America, largely under colonial rule, because these crops need high temperatures and heavy rain throughout the year. The same heavy rain leaches nutrients out of the soil, leaving laterite and other weathered red soils that are low in humus and plant food; the lush forest survives by quickly recycling nutrients from fallen leaves.

A is wrong: Statement II is false, so it cannot explain Statement I.

B is wrong: it treats the false Statement II as true.

D is wrong: Statement I is true and Statement II is false, the reverse of this option.

Exam tip: humid tropics have lush forest but leached, infertile laterite soil; plantations need the climate, not rich soil.

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 B, Separate Electorate. The Nehru Report of August 1928 was the draft constitution prepared by a committee of the All Parties Conference under Motilal Nehru, with Tej Bahadur Sapru, Subhas Chandra Bose and others, as Indians’ answer to Lord Birkenhead’s taunt that they could not agree on a constitution of their own. The report firmly rejected separate electorates, the device introduced by the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909, and asked instead for joint electorates with seats reserved for minorities where they were in a minority. Option A is wrong because dominion status was its central demand, which is exactly why the younger leaders who wanted complete independence objected. Option C is wrong because the report did favour a unitary and democratic centre with responsible government. Option D is wrong because adult suffrage, along with a list of fundamental rights, was one of its clear recommendations. Jinnah replied to it with his Fourteen Points in 1929. Exam tip: Nehru Report 1928 — dominion status, joint electorates, adult suffrage, fundamental rights.

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.