UPSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is C, minimum support price. The MSP is announced before sowing so that farmers know the lowest price at which the government will buy their crop. The Union Government fixes it on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), set up in 1965, and the final approval comes from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. It is announced separately for kharif and rabi crops, while sugarcane gets a fair and remunerative price instead. Wheat was the first crop brought under MSP, in 1966-67, at the start of the Green Revolution. Option A is wrong because a buffer stock is grain the government holds for food security, and no "buffer price" is announced for farmers. Option B is wrong because the issue price is the rate at which the Food Corporation of India sells grain to the States for the public distribution system. Option D is wrong because "fair sustenance price" is not an official price at all. Exam tip: MSP is recommended by the CACP and approved by the CCEA; sugarcane gets the FRP instead.

The correct answer is B, inflationary gap. When demand pushes the economy to produce more than it can at full employment, the extra demand only drives prices up. Full-employment GDP, also called potential GDP, is the output an economy can produce when all its resources are in use. If aggregate demand is so high that equilibrium real GDP sits above this level, the difference is the inflationary gap. Real output cannot keep rising beyond capacity, so the excess shows up as rising prices. The idea comes from J.M. Keynes, who used it in his 1940 pamphlet "How to Pay for the War", and the cure is to cut demand through higher taxes, lower government spending or tighter money. Option A is wrong because a recessionary gap is the opposite case, when equilibrium GDP falls short of full employment. Option C is wrong because the income multiplier measures how much income rises for each rupee of new spending. Option D is wrong because automatic stabilisers are tools, such as progressive taxes, that help narrow these gaps. Exam tip: output above potential is an inflationary gap; output below potential is a recessionary gap.

The correct answer is A, Personal income tax. A progressive income tax takes a bigger share when incomes rise and a smaller one when they fall, without any new decision by the government. Such tools are called automatic or built-in stabilisers, because they soften booms and slumps on their own. In a boom, rising incomes push people into higher tax slabs, so tax collections grow faster than income and cool down spending. In a recession, collections fall faster than income, which leaves more money in people's hands. Unemployment benefits work the same way on the spending side of the budget. Option B is wrong because the reverse repo rate is changed by the Reserve Bank of India through a deliberate policy decision, which makes it discretionary monetary policy. Option C is wrong because open market operations, the buying and selling of government securities by the RBI, are also a deliberate policy step. Option D is wrong because a bond price is a market outcome, not a policy tool. Exam tip: automatic stabilisers need no decision; progressive taxes and unemployment benefits are the classic pair.

The correct answer is A, whatever the change in price, there is absolutely no change in demand. Elasticity measures how strongly the quantity demanded reacts to price, and zero means no reaction at all. Price elasticity of demand is the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price. When it is zero, demand is perfectly inelastic and the demand curve is a vertical straight line. Life-saving medicines such as insulin come closest to this, since a patient buys the same dose whatever the price. At the other extreme, perfectly elastic demand, with infinite elasticity, gives a horizontal demand curve. Option B is wrong because any change in demand, however small, means the elasticity is above zero. Option C is wrong because a large response to a small price change means elastic demand, with elasticity greater than one. Option D is wrong because a small response to a large price change is relatively inelastic demand, between zero and one, but still not zero. Exam tip: elasticity zero gives a vertical curve; elasticity infinite gives a horizontal one.

The correct answer is C, Kolkata. Kolkata is the only major port of India built on a river, the Hooghly, about 200 km upstream from the sea. It became a Port Trust in 1870 and since 2020 has been named the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port. It works as a twin system: the Kolkata Dock System handles smaller ships, while the Haldia Dock Complex, nearer the sea, takes larger ones. Silt carried by the river keeps the channel shallow, so constant dredging is needed, and the Farakka Barrage was built partly to push more Ganga water into the Hooghly to flush it. Option A is wrong because Mormugao is a natural harbour at the mouth of the Zuari in Goa, known for iron ore exports. Option B is wrong because Deendayal, earlier called Kandla, is a tidal port on the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat. Option D is wrong because Paradip is a deep-water sea port on the Odisha coast. Exam tip: the only riverine major port is Kolkata on the Hooghly, with Haldia as its deep-water dock.

The correct answer is C, A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1. The Sutlej feeds the Indus, the Kosi the Ganga, the Teesta the Brahmaputra and the Chambal the Yamuna. The Sutlej rises near Rakas Tal close to Mansarovar in Tibet, enters India at Shipki La and is the easternmost of the five Punjab rivers of the Indus system; the Bhakra dam stands on it. The Kosi, called the "Sorrow of Bihar" for its floods and shifting course, joins the Ganga near Kursela in Bihar. The Teesta, the lifeline of Sikkim, crosses north Bengal into Bangladesh and meets the Brahmaputra there. The Chambal rises near Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, carves the famous ravines and joins the Yamuna in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh. Option A is wrong because it links the Sutlej with the Yamuna and the Chambal with the Indus. Option B is wrong because it also pairs the Kosi with the Brahmaputra and the Teesta with the Ganga. Option D is wrong because it swaps the Kosi and the Teesta. Exam tip: Sutlej-Indus, Kosi-Ganga, Teesta-Brahmaputra, Chambal-Yamuna.

The correct answer is C, Oxbow lake. When a river cuts across the narrow neck of a loop and silt seals both ends, the old loop is left behind as a curved lake. Meanders form in the middle and lower course, where a river flows slowly over flat land, cutting its outer bank and building up its inner bank. Over time the neck of a loop grows thinner until a flood breaks through it and the river takes the shorter path. The abandoned bend is shaped like the U-shaped collar of an ox's yoke, which gives the lake its name; Kanwar Lake (Kabar Tal) in Bihar was left behind in this way by the Burhi Gandak. Option A is wrong because potholes are round holes drilled into a rocky bed by pebbles swirling in a fast upper-course stream. Option B is wrong because levees are raised banks of silt dropped along the river during floods. Option D is wrong because a flood plain is the wide flat land built by repeated floods, not a cut-off loop. Exam tip: meander plus cut-off gives an oxbow lake, a mark of the river's old stage.

The correct answer is A, Karakoram, Ladakh, Zaskar, Pir Panjal, Siwalik. Across Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, the ranges step down from the lofty north to the low foothills in the south. The Karakoram is the northernmost and carries K2 (8,611 m), the highest peak in India, and the Siachen Glacier. South of it runs the Ladakh Range, and the Indus flows through the valley between the Ladakh and Zaskar ranges. Further south, the Pir Panjal of the Lesser Himalaya holds the Banihal and Rohtang passes, with the Atal Tunnel cut beneath Rohtang. The Siwalik forms the lowest and youngest outer range. Option B is wrong because it puts the Karakoram fourth, when it is the northernmost. Option C is wrong because it starts with the Pir Panjal, one of the southern ranges. Option D is wrong because it gives the whole order in reverse, from south to north. Exam tip: from the north, "K-L-Z-P-S": Karakoram, Ladakh, Zaskar, Pir Panjal, Siwalik.

The correct answer is C, Palk Strait – Palk Bay – Gulf of Mannar. Moving south between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, you pass the strait first, then the bay, then the gulf. The Palk Strait is the northern channel that links the Bay of Bengal with Palk Bay, between Point Calimere in Tamil Nadu and the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. Palk Bay is the shallow water body just south of it. It is closed on the south by the chain of Pamban (Rameswaram) Island, Adam's Bridge (Ram Setu) and Mannar Island, and beyond that chain lies the Gulf of Mannar, which opens into the Indian Ocean and is a marine biosphere reserve known for coral reefs and dugongs. Option A is wrong because it starts with the Gulf of Mannar, the southernmost of the three. Option B is wrong because it puts the Gulf of Mannar above Palk Bay. Option D is wrong because Palk Bay lies south of Palk Strait, not north of it. Exam tip: from north to south, strait, bay, Adam's Bridge, then the Gulf of Mannar.

The correct answer is A, Nizam Shahis : Bijapur. The Nizam Shahis ruled from Ahmadnagar; Bijapur belonged to the Adil Shahis. The Bahmani Sultanate, founded in 1347 by Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah, broke up in the late 15th and early 16th centuries into five Deccan Sultanates: Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda, Bidar and Berar. Four of them joined hands to defeat Vijayanagara at the Battle of Talikota in 1565, while Berar stayed away. Each dynasty is named after the title of its founder, which makes the pairs easy to link. Option B is correctly matched because the Barid Shahis ruled Bidar, the last Bahmani capital. Option C is correctly matched because the Qutb Shahis ruled Golconda, famous for its fort and its diamond trade. Option D is correctly matched because the Imad Shahis ruled Berar, which Ahmadnagar annexed in 1574. Exam tip: Nizam Shahi Ahmadnagar, Adil Shahi Bijapur, Qutb Shahi Golconda, Barid Shahi Bidar, Imad Shahi Berar.

The correct answer is D, 3, 4, 2, 1. The four dates run 1828, 1849, 1875 and 1897. Raja Rammohan Roy founded the Brahmo Sabha in Calcutta in 1828, which later came to be called the Brahmo Samaj. The Paramhans Mandali was set up in Bombay in 1849 as a secret society that opposed caste rules and idol worship. Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj in Bombay in 1875, with the call "Go back to the Vedas". Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, after his return from the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago in 1893. Option A is wrong because it puts the Ramakrishna Mission, the latest of the four, first. Option B is wrong because it places the Arya Samaj of 1875 before the Brahmo Samaj of 1828. Option C is wrong because it puts the Ramakrishna Mission of 1897 before the Arya Samaj of 1875. Exam tip: Brahmo Samaj 1828, Paramhans Mandali 1849, Arya Samaj 1875, Ramakrishna Mission 1897.

The correct answer is D, Surya Sen. Surya Sen led the Chittagong Armoury Raid of 1930 in Bengal and had no part in the Kakori case. The Kakori train action took place on 9 August 1925, when members of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) stopped a train at Kakori near Lucknow and took the government cash it was carrying to fund their struggle. In the trial that followed, four revolutionaries were sentenced to death, and all four were hanged in December 1927. Option A is wrong because Ramprasad Bismil planned the action and was hanged at Gorakhpur. Option B is wrong because Rajendra Lahiri took part and was hanged at Gonda, two days before the others. Option C is wrong because Ashfaqulla Khan, Bismil's close friend, was hanged at Faizabad; the fourth martyr was Roshan Singh. Chandrashekhar Azad also took part but escaped arrest. Exam tip: Kakori 1925 with the HRA; Chittagong 1930 with Surya Sen.

The correct answer is A, Abu'l Hasan al Hujwiri. He wrote Kashf-ul-Mahjub in Lahore in the 11th century, and it is the oldest Persian treatise on Sufism. Al Hujwiri came from Ghazni in Afghanistan and settled in Lahore. The title means "Unveiling of the Veiled", and the book explains Sufi ideas, practices and the lives of earlier saints for ordinary readers. His shrine in Lahore, Data Darbar, is still one of the busiest in South Asia, and people call him Data Ganj Bakhsh, "the giver of treasures". Option B is wrong because Moinuddin Chishti set up the Chishti order in India at Ajmer in the late 12th century and did not write this book. Option C is wrong because the sayings of Nizamuddin Auliya were recorded by Amir Hasan Sijzi in Fawaid-ul-Fuad. Option D is wrong because Amir Khusrau was a poet and musician, known for works such as Khazain-ul-Futuh and Tughluq Nama. Exam tip: Kashf-ul-Mahjub by Hujwiri of Lahore; Fawaid-ul-Fuad records Nizamuddin Auliya.

The correct answer is C, A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1. Taken in order, each Act adds one step in the Crown's control over the Company. Pitt's India Act, 1784 created the Board of Control to oversee the Company's civil, military and revenue affairs. The Charter Act, 1813 ended the Company's monopoly of Indian trade, leaving it only the trade in tea and with China. The Charter Act, 1833 made the Governor-General of Bengal the Governor-General of India and declared that no Indian would be barred from any office because of religion, birth or colour. The Charter Act, 1853 separated law-making from executive work and enlarged the Governor-General's council for legislation, a small legislature in the making. Option A is wrong because 1784 is the Board of Control, not the enlarged council. Option B is wrong because it gives 1813 the employment clause and 1833 the end of the trade monopoly. Option D is wrong because it repeats that same swap of 1813 and 1833. Exam tip: 1784 Board of Control, 1813 monopoly ends, 1833 no bar on Indians, 1853 bigger legislative council.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. The Act split subjects between the Centre and the provinces, but the reserved and transferred split applied only to provincial subjects. The Government of India Act, 1919 put the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms into law. Through the Devolution Rules it separated central and provincial subjects, and for the first time it separated provincial budgets from the central budget, giving provinces their own sources of revenue and the right to pass their own budgets. In the provinces it brought in dyarchy: transferred subjects such as education and local self-government went to ministers answerable to the legislature, while reserved subjects such as police and land revenue stayed with the Governor and his executive council. Statement 2 is wrong because the central subjects were never divided this way; dyarchy at the Centre was proposed only by the 1935 Act and was never brought into force. That rules out options A, B and D, which all contain statement 2. Exam tip: 1919 Act, dyarchy in the provinces; 1935 Act, dyarchy proposed at the Centre.

The correct answer is C, 3 only. Members of the State Legislative Councils have no vote in the presidential election. Under Article 54, the President is chosen by an electoral college of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States. The 70th Amendment Act, 1992 added the elected members of the Assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry. Voting follows proportional representation by the single transferable vote, and the ballot is secret. Nominated members of any House and all members of Legislative Councils stay out, though nominated members of Parliament do vote for the Vice-President. Options A and D are wrong because the elected members of the Rajya Sabha and of the State Assemblies are both part of the electoral college. Option B is wrong because it leaves out the elected Assembly members too, when they cast about half of the total vote value. Exam tip: only elected members of Parliament and the Assemblies vote for the President; Council members and nominated members never do.

The correct answer is D, He is a whole-time counsel for the Government. The Attorney-General is not a full-time government servant and may keep a private practice. He is appointed by the President under Article 76 and holds office during the pleasure of the President, with no term fixed by the Constitution. He is the highest law officer of the country, yet he is not a member of the Union Cabinet. Because he is not a whole-time counsel, the only bar on him is that he must not advise or hold briefs against the Government of India. Option A is a correct statement because Article 88 lets him speak and take part in either House of Parliament, though he cannot vote. Option B is a correct statement because Article 76(3) gives him a right of audience in all courts in India. Option C is a correct statement because Article 76(1) requires the qualifications of a Supreme Court judge. Exam tip: Article 76 creates the office, Article 88 lets him speak in Parliament, and he never gets a vote there.

The correct answer is B, Fundamental duties. These words form clause (b) of Article 51A, the list of duties every citizen owes the nation. The Fundamental Duties were added as Part IVA by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 on the advice of the Swaran Singh Committee, and the idea was borrowed from the Constitution of the former USSR. There were ten duties at first; the 86th Amendment Act, 2002 added the eleventh, asking parents to give their children aged 6 to 14 a chance of education. Clause (a) asks citizens to respect the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem, and clause (b) is the line in this question. Option A is wrong because the Directive Principles in Part IV are instructions to the State, not duties of citizens. Option C is wrong because the Fundamental Rights in Part III are claims a citizen can enforce in court. Option D is wrong because the Preamble states the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity but lists no duties. Exam tip: Article 51A, Part IVA, 42nd Amendment 1976, eleven duties today.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 3 only. The CAG of India is an auditor who checks spending after it happens; he has no say over money leaving the treasury. He is appointed by the President under Article 148, and his duties are laid down in the CAG (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971. He audits all spending from the Consolidated Fund of India and of each State, and also the accounts of bodies substantially financed from Union or State revenues. His reports on Union accounts go to the President under Article 151, who has them laid before Parliament, where the Public Accounts Committee examines them. Statement 2 is wrong because money is drawn from the Consolidated Fund by the executive under an Appropriation Act, and unlike his British counterpart, India's CAG does not control its issue. That rules out options A, B and D, since each of them includes statement 2. Exam tip: India's CAG is an auditor-general rather than a comptroller; he audits, he does not release money.

The correct answer is C, The President shall exercise his/her functions on the advice of the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. The 42nd Amendment made that advice binding on the President. Before 1976, Article 74(1) only said there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at its head to aid and advise the President. The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 added that the President "shall act in accordance with such advice". The 44th Amendment Act, 1978 then let the President send the advice back once for reconsideration, but the advice given after that must be followed. Option A is wrong because vesting executive power in the President is Article 53, which the 42nd Amendment did not touch. Option B is wrong because the Prime Minister's duty to keep the President informed is Article 78. Option D is wrong because summoning and proroguing the Houses is Article 85. Exam tip: the 42nd Amendment made the advice binding, and the 44th Amendment allowed one return for reconsideration.