UPSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, neither 1 nor 2. Statement 1 is wrong because the Constitution nowhere uses the expression basic structure or defines it. The doctrine is a creation of the Supreme Court in Kesavananda Bharati in 1973, and the courts have added features to it case by case, which is why no closed list exists. Statement 2 is wrong as it stands because the Constitution contains no provision that declares judicial review with such a purpose written into it; the power flows from provisions such as Articles 13, 32, 131 to 136, 226 and 246, and the language about safeguarding liberties and preserving ideals is the language of judgments and commentaries, not of the text.

Option A and Option B are therefore wrong, each accepting one of the two flawed statements, and Option C is wrong because it accepts both. The lesson for statement based questions is to be strict about the words defines and provision: a doctrine developed by the courts is not a definition given by the Constitution.

The correct answer is D, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The expression comes from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, which came into force on 2 October 2006 and gave the sector its first statutory definition, replacing the older language of small scale and ancillary industrial undertakings.

Option A is wrong because the first category is micro, not medium; the three categories in ascending order are micro, small and medium. Option B is wrong for the same reason in reverse: the third word is medium and not marginalized, and no Indian law uses the term marginalized enterprise. Option C is wrong because strategic is not a category of enterprise in the Act at all. Since this is the easiest question the sector can yield, read the options to the end: all four begin with words that look plausible, and only one gives the three categories in the correct order.

The correct answer is D, boric acid. Boric acid dissolves in water to give a true solution, in which the dispersed particles are individual molecules small enough to pass through a filter paper and even a parchment membrane, and the mixture shows no Tyndall effect. A true solution is therefore not a colloid.

Option A is wrong because milk is a colloid, an emulsion of liquid fat droplets dispersed in water. Option B is wrong because mud is a colloidal dispersion of fine soil particles in water, which is why it stays turbid for a long time before settling. Option C is wrong because butter is also a colloid, with water dispersed in fat, that is a gel-like emulsion. The rule to apply is that only a true solution is excluded from the colloidal state.

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 C, only two pairs. Dignaga and Nathamuni are matched rightly while Aryadeva is not, so exactly two pairs are correct. Aryadeva, who lived about the third century, was a Buddhist monk of the Madhyamaka school and the chief disciple of Nagarjuna; his Chatuhshataka defends the doctrine of emptiness, so calling him a Jaina scholar is wrong. Dignaga, of the fifth or sixth century, founded the Buddhist school of logic and wrote the Pramanasamuchchaya, which shaped debate on perception and inference for centuries. Nathamuni, of about the tenth century, was the first acharya of the Srivaishnava tradition at Srirangam; he gathered the Tamil hymns of the Alvars into the Nalayira Divya Prabandham and was the grandfather in the line that led to Ramanuja. A is wrong because two pairs do match. B understates the count and D overstates it. Exam tip: Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Buddhapalita and Chandrakirti all belong to the Madhyamaka line.

The correct answer is A, 1 and 2 only. The Act of 1813 broke the Company's trade monopoly and asserted the Crown's sovereignty, but left the revenues where they were, so the first two statements stand and the third does not. The Act came at the height of the free trade campaign in Britain: it threw the India trade open to all British merchants, keeping the monopoly only in tea and in the China trade, which was ended by the Charter Act of 1833. It also declared in plain words that the Crown held sovereignty over the Indian territories the Company governed, and it set aside one lakh rupees a year for education and allowed missionaries into India. Statement 3 is wrong because the Company continued to control and spend Indian revenues; Parliament supervised through the Board of Control rather than taking the purse. B and D are wrong because each includes statement 3. C is wrong for the same reason and also drops statement 2. Exam tip: 1813 opened trade except tea and China; 1833 ended the monopoly altogether.

The correct answer is A, 1 only. The National Green Tribunal Act rests on the right to a healthy environment read into the right to life, so only the first provision is in point. The Supreme Court has held in a line of cases, from Subhash Kumar onward, that Article 21 includes the right to a clean environment, and the Act of 2010 was passed to give that right a forum of its own. It set up a tribunal with judicial and expert members which decides civil cases on environmental laws within six months, and it drew on the Stockholm and Rio declarations, to which India was a party. Statement 2 is wrong because Article 275(1) provides grants in aid for the administration of Scheduled Areas and has nothing to do with the tribunal. Statement 3 is wrong because Article 243A concerns the powers of the Gram Sabha under the panchayat provisions. B, C and D are wrong because each of them takes in one of these two irrelevant articles. Exam tip: NGT Act 2010, Article 21, five benches with the principal bench at Delhi.

The correct answer is B, its unprofitability in the world market because of new inventions. Indigo lost its market when chemists learned to make the dye in a factory, so the Indian crop became unprofitable and cultivation shrank. Adolf von Baeyer worked out the structure of indigo in the eighteen eighties and the German firm BASF began selling synthetic indigo in 1897; within a few years it had taken most of the world trade, because the manufactured dye was cheaper and of a steadier quality than the plant extract. Bengal and Bihar, which had lived on indigo exports, saw acreage collapse in the first decade of the twentieth century. A is wrong because the Indigo Revolt of 1859 in Bengal and the Champaran satyagraha of 1917 checked the planters in particular districts but did not end the industry. C is wrong because national leaders raised the cultivators' grievances, not a case against the crop. D is wrong because the Government protected the planters rather than curbing them. Exam tip: synthetic indigo from Germany, 1897, killed the natural dye trade.

The correct answer is D, neither 1 nor 2. Both statements describe the two offices wrongly, so neither can be accepted. A jagir was an assignment of the land revenue of a tract, given to a mansabdar in place of a cash salary for military and administrative service, not for judicial and police duty; the holder collected the revenue due and kept troops from it. Jagirs were transferable and were shifted every three or four years so that no noble struck roots in one district, and they lapsed to the emperor on the holder's death, so statement 1 is wrong. A zamindar, by contrast, held a hereditary right in the soil of his locality, collected revenue from the peasants and passed on the state's share while keeping a commission called nankar, so the hereditary part of statement 2 is exactly reversed. A, B and C are wrong because each accepts at least one of these two flawed statements. Exam tip: jagir was transferable and not hereditary, zamindari was hereditary and rooted in the locality.

The correct answer is A, an investor who feels that the price of a particular security is going to fall. A bear expects prices to slide and therefore sells, hoping to buy the same security back cheaper, which is why a falling market is called a bear market. The name is said to come from the bear striking downward with its paws, against the bull that tosses its horns upward. On Indian exchanges a bear typically sells short, and a spell of heavy selling that drags prices down is called a bear hug or a bear raid. B is wrong because an investor who expects prices to rise is a bull. C is wrong because a person holding a share or a bond and so having an interest in the company is a stakeholder. D is wrong because one who lends money or buys a bond is a creditor. Exam tip: bear sells expecting a fall, bull buys expecting a rise; Dalal Street carries statues of both.

The correct answer is D, the level of mutual trust and harmony in the society. Social capital means the networks, shared norms and trust that let people in a society work together, so it is measured by relationships rather than by things or numbers of people. The idea was popularised by Robert Putnam, who argued that a community rich in trust and civic association gets better government and faster growth because agreements are kept without costly enforcement. Self-help groups, cooperatives and village committees are the everyday form it takes in India. A is wrong because literacy is part of human capital, the skill and knowledge embodied in people. B is wrong because buildings, infrastructure and machines are physical or produced capital. C is wrong because the size of the working age group is the demographic dividend, a matter of population structure. Exam tip: physical capital is what you build, human capital is what you learn, social capital is whom you trust.

The correct answer is B, 1 and 2 only. Ajanta and Lepakshi both carry painting on their walls and ceilings, while Sanchi does not, so the first two alone fit. The Ajanta caves in Maharashtra hold the finest surviving Buddhist murals in India, painted in the tempera technique between the second century BCE and the fifth century CE, with the Bodhisattva Padmapani and the Jataka scenes among the best known. The Veerabhadra temple at Lepakshi in Andhra Pradesh is covered with Vijayanagara murals of the sixteenth century, including the large ceiling panels of Shiva and the vividly painted Nataraja. A is wrong because Lepakshi is left out of it. C is wrong because Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh is famed for its stupas and for the carved gateways of its toranas, which is sculpture, not painting. D is wrong because two of the three places do have murals. Exam tip: Ajanta stands for painting, Sanchi for sculpture on stupa railings and gateways.

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, Lokayata and Kapalika. Neither of these belongs to the six orthodox systems, so this is the pair that stands outside. The six systems, called the Shad Darshanas, are Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta, and all six accept the authority of the Vedas. They are usually learnt in three pairs: Samkhya with Yoga, Nyaya with Vaisheshika, and Mimamsa with Vedanta. Lokayata is the materialist school also called Charvaka, which rejects the Vedas, the soul and life after death, and is therefore counted as heterodox along with Buddhism and Jainism. Kapalika was a Shaiva tantric sect, a religious order rather than a school of philosophy. A is wrong because Mimamsa and Vedanta are the two schools built on the Vedas themselves. B is wrong because Nyaya supplies Indian logic and Vaisheshika its atomism. D is wrong because Samkhya and Yoga form the oldest pair among the six. Exam tip: orthodox means Veda-accepting; Charvaka, Buddhism and Jainism are the three heterodox schools.

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. Statements 1 and 3 hold while statement 2 does not, so this pairing is the right one. The Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures is one of the World Trade Organization agreements that came out of the Uruguay Round in 1995. It bars a member from placing conditions on a foreign investor that distort trade in goods, and the two named prohibitions are the local content requirement and the trade balancing requirement, which is why a quantitative limit on what an investor may import is not allowed. The agreement covers investment measures only insofar as they affect trade in goods, so statement 2 is wrong; services are handled separately under GATS. Statement 3 stands because the agreement does not tell a country whom to admit as an investor or on what terms, and so does not regulate foreign investment itself. A and D are wrong because each includes statement 2. B is wrong because it rests on statement 2 alone. Exam tip: TRIMS is about goods, GATS about services, TRIPS about intellectual property.

The correct answer is B, the Government is responsible to the Parliament and can be removed by it. A parliamentary system rests on the executive answering to the legislature, so the council of ministers stays in office only while it keeps the confidence of the House. India took this form from Britain: the ministers are drawn from the legislature, they are collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha under Article 75, and a no-confidence motion carried against them brings the whole ministry down. The President is the nominal head while the Prime Minister is the real head of the executive. A is wrong because a government of all parties is a national or coalition arrangement, not a feature of the system itself. C is wrong because the people elect the legislature, and it is the legislature that makes and unmakes the government; direct removal by voters belongs to no Indian office. D is wrong because a fixed term the House cannot cut short describes the presidential system. Exam tip: parliamentary means responsible government, presidential means fixed tenure.

The correct answer is D, none of the statements given above is correct. Every one of the three descriptions gets a detail wrong, so the fourth option is the only one left. Lok Adalats are organised under the Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987 to settle disputes by compromise, and their award is treated as a decree of a civil court against which no appeal lies. A is wrong because a Lok Adalat takes up both a case already pending before a court and a dispute at the pre-litigation stage. B is wrong because it can settle a compoundable criminal offence as well as a civil dispute; only a non-compoundable offence is kept out. C is wrong because a Lok Adalat is made up of a serving or retired judicial officer together with other persons, usually a social worker and a member of the legal profession. Exam tip: remember the Act of 1987 and the rule that a Lok Adalat award is final, with no appeal.

The correct answer is C, 2 - 4 - 1 - 3. Mahendravarman I came first, Gopala next, then Bhoja and finally Parantaka I, which is exactly this order. Mahendravarman I ruled the Pallavas of Kanchi in the early seventh century and is remembered for the rock-cut temples at Mandagapattu and for his play Mattavilasa Prahasana. Gopala was raised to the throne of Bengal around the middle of the eighth century and founded the Pala dynasty. Mihira Bhoja led the Gurjara-Pratiharas of Kannauj in the second half of the ninth century, at the height of the tripartite struggle. Parantaka I of the Cholas ruled in the early tenth century and defeated the Pandyas at Vellur. A is wrong because it places Bhoja before Gopala. B and D are wrong because both begin with Parantaka I, the latest of the four rulers. Exam tip: the sequence runs Pallava, then Pala, then Pratihara, then Chola.

The correct answer is D, Fundamental Duties. Upholding and protecting the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India is listed as a duty of every citizen, so the provision sits among the Fundamental Duties and not in any other part. The Fundamental Duties were added as Part IVA, Article 51A, by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee; ten were added then and an eleventh, on the education of children, came with the 86th Amendment of 2002. They are moral obligations and cannot be enforced by a court on their own. A is wrong because the Preamble speaks of the unity and integrity of the nation as an ideal but lays no duty on a citizen. B is wrong because the Directive Principles address the State, not the citizen. C is wrong because Fundamental Rights are claims a citizen holds against the State. Exam tip: Article 51A came with the 42nd Amendment, 1976.