SSC Stenographer 2026 11 September 2026 Shift 1 GK Questions – with answers & solutions

Answer: Option 3 — Andhra Pradesh
The Perupalem Beach Festival is held at Perupalem village near Mogaltur, in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh (headquarters Bhimavaram since 2022), on the Bay of Bengal coast.
It is run mainly to promote Perupalem as a coastal tourism destination.
Revision note — Perupalem Beach Festival and the Andhra coast
• Organised by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department with the district administration; the draw is folk music, folk dance, sand art, beach sports and local cuisine.
• Burrakatha, the Telugu oral storytelling form performed by a Kathakudu (main narrator) with two assistants and the budike tambura, is a regular item at the festival.
• Andhra Pradesh has the second longest coastline among Indian states, about 974 km, after Gujarat.
• The state capital is Amaravati; Andhra Pradesh was the first state created on a linguistic basis (as Andhra State, 1 October 1953) and was bifurcated to form Telangana on 2 June 2014.
• Other Andhra tourism festivals: Visakha Utsav at Visakhapatnam, Rayalaseema Food and Dance Festival, and the Tirumala Brahmotsavam at Tirupati.
• The main rivers reaching this coast are the Godavari and the Krishna; the Godavari is India's second longest river after the Ganga.
Do not mix these up
• Perupalem Beach Festival (Andhra Pradesh) vs Puri Beach Festival (Odisha) — both are east-coast beach festivals, but Puri's is held on the beach beside the Jagannath temple town.
• West Godavari vs Eluru — when the new Eluru district was carved out in 2022, Perupalem (Mogaltur mandal) stayed in West Godavari, whose headquarters moved to Bhimavaram.
Also asked from this topic: the purpose of the festival (to promote Perupalem as a tourism destination); the coast it is held near (Mogaltur coast); the oral art form showcased there (Burrakatha).

Answer: Option 4 — One day after Holi
Hola Mohalla begins on the day after Holi — Chet Vadi 1 of the Nanakshahi calendar — at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab.
Holi is the festival of colour; Hola Mohalla is the Sikh festival of martial valour that follows it.
Revision note — Hola Mohalla
• Begun by the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, in 1701, at Anandpur Sahib, Rupnagar district, Punjab.
• The name joins halla, a military charge or mock attack, and mohalla, an organised column or procession — so the term itself means a mock battle.
• It runs for three days, in which Nihang Sikhs display Gatka (the Sikh martial art of sticks, swords and shields), horsemanship, tent pegging and mock battles.
• The Guru Granth Sahib is recited and kirtan performed, and enormous langars (free community kitchens) feed the pilgrims.
• The main venue is Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib, the very place where Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa in 1699 on Baisakhi.
• Punjab treats Hola Mohalla as a state-level festival; a smaller Hola Mohalla is also held at Paonta Sahib, Himachal Pradesh.
Do not mix these up
• Holi vs Hola Mohalla — Holi falls on Phalguna Purnima and is about colour; Hola Mohalla starts the next day and is about arms and martial display.
• Hola Mohalla vs Baisakhi — both are linked to Anandpur Sahib, but Baisakhi (13/14 April) marks the founding of the Khalsa in 1699, not the post-Holi fair.
Also asked from this topic: the place it is held at (Anandpur Sahib); the scripture recited during it (Guru Granth Sahib); the literal meaning of the term (mock battle).

Answer: Option 2 — Angrakhi and lehenga
Kalbelia women dance in an angrakhi (a fitted embroidered upper garment) with an odhani, over a flared black lehenga (ghagra) worked with mirrors and silver ribbon.
The wide swirling skirt is what makes the snake-like spin visible.
Revision note — Kalbelia dance
• A folk dance of the Kalbelia (sapera, snake-charmer) community of Rajasthan; the sinuous, swirling movement imitates the movement of a snake.
• Inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.
• The costume is a stitched, mirror-embroidered black ghagra with angrakhi and odhani — black because it echoes the serpent.
• The men accompany on the been (pungi), khanjari, dholak and dufli; both the songs and the steps are handed down orally.
• Gulabo Sapera is the best known Kalbelia dancer and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016.
• Other Rajasthani folk dances: Ghoomar, Chari, Terah Taali, Bhavai, Kachhi Ghodi and Gair.
Do not mix these up
• Kalbelia vs Ghoomar — Ghoomar is danced by Rajput and Bhil women in a ghagra with the face veiled; Kalbelia is the snake-charmer community's dance in angrakhi and black lehenga.
• Lehenga vs chaniya-choli — the chaniya-choli is the costume of Garba and Dandiya in Gujarat, not of Kalbelia.
Also asked from this topic: the state Kalbelia belongs to (Rajasthan); the animal whose movement it represents (snake); the year it entered the UNESCO list (2010).

Answer: Option 2 — It is a devotional folk dance performed by both men and women with manjiras.
Chaupaia takes its name from the chaupai, the four-line devotional verse, and is sung and danced on religious occasions in Haryana.
Men and women perform it together to the beat of manjiras (small brass cymbals) and the dholak.
Revision note — Folk dances of Haryana
• Chaupaia (Chaupaiya) — devotional, verse-based, performed by both men and women with manjiras.
• Loor — performed by women in circles around the spring festival of Holi, in the Bangar belt.
• Khoria — a women-only wedding dance performed in the bridegroom's household by the women left behind after the marriage party (baraat) has left.
• Ghoomar — a circular women's dance of the Bagar and Bangar tracts, danced at Holi and Gangaur.
• Dhamal — among the oldest, danced by men on full-moon nights in the Mahendragarh and Gurugram belt to the dhol, sarangi and khartal.
• Phag (Phaag) — danced by men and women in the month of Phalgun, in the slack season between sowing and harvest.
• Gugga — a devotional procession dance for Gugga Pir, performed around Gugga Naumi in the month of Bhadrapada.
Do not mix these up
• Chaupaia vs Khoria — Chaupaia is devotional and mixed; Khoria is a wedding dance and women only.
• Loor vs Ghoomar — both are women's circle dances of Haryana, but Loor belongs specifically to the spring and Holi season.
Also asked from this topic: the state whose folk dance Loor is (Haryana).

Answer: Option 3 — Enhancing blue economy and maritime security
IORA is an economic and functional grouping of the Indian Ocean littoral states, not a military alliance.
India's engagement there rests on its two flagship concerns — the blue economy and maritime safety and security.
Revision note — Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)
• Founded on 6–7 March 1997 at Mauritius as the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), growing out of the 1995 Indian Ocean Rim Initiative; India is a founding member and the secretariat is at Ebene, Mauritius.
• It has 23 member states and 12 dialogue partners; membership is open to any state bordering the Indian Ocean.
• The Council of Ministers, made up of the Foreign Ministers of member states, is the apex decision-making body and meets annually.
• Its six priority areas: maritime safety and security, trade and investment facilitation, fisheries management, disaster risk management, academic and science cooperation, tourism and culture.
• Blue economy and women's economic empowerment are the two cross-cutting priorities that run through all six.
• Indian diplomat Sanjiv Ranjan took charge as Secretary-General on 1 January 2025 for a three-year term.
• India's own maritime doctrines in the same waters are SAGAR — Security and Growth for All in the Region (2015) and the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (2019).
Do not mix these up
• IORA vs IONS — IORA is an inter-governmental grouping for economic and functional cooperation; the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (2008) is a navy-to-navy forum.
• IORA vs BIMSTEC — IORA rings the whole Indian Ocean, from Africa to Australia; BIMSTEC is limited to the Bay of Bengal neighbourhood.
Also asked from this topic: the year IORA was established (1997); the country that hosts its secretariat (Mauritius); the organisation Sanjiv Ranjan took over on 1 January 2025 (IORA).

Answer: Option 2 — POLIX – to measure polarization in medium energy X-rays
POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) is XPoSat's primary payload; it measures the degree and angle of polarisation of X-rays in the 8–30 keV medium-energy band.
XSPECT is the mission's second payload and does spectroscopy and timing, not gravitational lensing.
Revision note — XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite)
• Launched on 1 January 2024 by PSLV-C58 from Sriharikota; India's first dedicated X-ray polarimetry mission and only the second in the world after NASA's IXPE (2021).
• POLIX was built by the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, and works in the 8–30 keV band.
• XSPECT was built by the U R Rao Satellite Centre and works in the soft 0.8–15 keV band.
• The satellite sits in a low Earth orbit of about 650 km at low inclination, with a planned life of about five years.
• Its targets are black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, magnetars and active galactic nuclei — polarisation reveals the geometry of the emitting region, which a spectrum alone cannot.
• The same flight turned the spent PSLV fourth stage into POEM-3, an orbital experiment platform carrying ten payloads.
Do not mix these up
• POLIX vs XSPECT — POLIX measures polarisation at 8–30 keV; XSPECT measures spectra and timing at 0.8–15 keV.
• XPoSat vs AstroSat — AstroSat (2015) is India's first multi-wavelength space observatory; XPoSat is dedicated to X-ray polarimetry alone.
Also asked from this topic: ISRO's January 2024 mission to study the polarisation of cosmic X-rays (XPoSat); the instrument that measures X-ray polarisation at 8–30 keV (POLIX).

Answer: Option 3 — Aditya-L1
Aditya-L1 is India's first dedicated solar mission, parked at the Sun–Earth Lagrange point L1 to watch the Sun without interruption.
Tracking the flares, coronal mass ejections and solar wind that drive space weather at the Earth is exactly its job.
Revision note — Aditya-L1
• Launched on 2 September 2023 aboard PSLV-C57; inserted into a halo orbit around Lagrange point L1 on 6 January 2024.
• L1 lies about 1.5 million km from the Earth — roughly 1 per cent of the Earth–Sun distance — and gives a continuous view of the Sun with no eclipses.
• It carries seven payloads: VELC, SUIT, SoLEXS, HEL1OS, ASPEX, PAPA and a magnetometer.
• VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) is the primary payload, built by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics; ASPEX studies the solar wind; SUIT images the Sun in the ultraviolet.
• Its main scientific target is the corona, the Sun's outermost layer, along with the photosphere and chromosphere and the puzzle of coronal heating.
• The distractors: AstroSat (2015) is a multi-wavelength observatory and RISAT satellites are radar imaging Earth-observation craft.
• Bhaskar-1 (1979) and Bhaskar-2 (1981) were early experimental remote-sensing satellites — there is no Bhaskar-III.
Do not mix these up
• Aditya-L1 vs AstroSat — Aditya-L1 observes only the Sun, from L1; AstroSat observes many kinds of cosmic sources across wavebands from low Earth orbit.
• Lagrange point L1 vs geostationary orbit — L1 is 1.5 million km away where the two gravities balance; a geostationary orbit is only 35,786 km above the equator.
Also asked from this topic: the part of the Sun Aditya-L1 studies (the corona); the kind of point it orbits (a Lagrangian point, L1); the payload that monitors the solar wind (ASPEX).

Answer: Option 3 — Tappa
Tappa grew out of the folk songs of the camel drivers of Punjab and Sindh.
It is built on fast, rolling, knotty taans and very quick turns of melodic phrase, which is exactly what sets it apart from the other Hindustani forms.
Revision note — Hindustani vocal forms
• Tappa was shaped into a classical form in the late 18th century by Mian Ghulam Nabi Shori (Shori Miyan) of Lucknow; it is strongest today in the Gwalior and Banaras traditions and in Bengali tappa.
• Dhrupad is the oldest and most austere form — grave in mood, strong in rhythm, devotional in theme.
• Dhrupad has two parts, the alap and the dhrupad proper; the composition itself has four — sthayi, antara, sanchari and abhog.
• Dhrupad gharanas: Darbhanga and Bettiah in Bihar, and the Dagar tradition.
• Khayal, from a Persian-Arabic word meaning imagination, is the most popular form today; it is sung in slow vilambit (bada khayal) and fast drut (chhota khayal).
• Thumri is semi-classical and lyrical, usually a love song on Radha and Krishna; its gharanas are Banaras, Lucknow and Patiala, and it is the music of Kathak.
• Lighter forms alongside these: Tarana (sung on syllables, not words), Dadra, Ghazal, Kajri and Chaiti.
Do not mix these up
• Tappa vs Thumri — both are light and emotional, but tappa runs on fast, intricate taans from Punjabi folk song, while thumri is slow and lyrical and puts bhav above strict grammar.
• Dhrupad vs Khayal — dhrupad is austere and rhythm-bound with little room for improvisation; khayal is flexible and ornamented.
Also asked from this topic: the form that is NOT Hindustani but Carnatic (varnam); the three gharanas of thumri (Banaras, Patiala and Lucknow); the two tempos of khayal (vilambit and drut).

Answer: Option 1 — Khayal
Khayal takes its name from a Persian-Arabic word meaning imagination, and that is its defining quality — it leaves the singer free to improvise and ornament.
It rose to dominance in the 18th century and is the most widely sung Hindustani classical form today.
Revision note — Khayal
• Its origin is traced to Amir Khusrau (13th–14th century).
• It was brought to prominence in the 18th century at the court of Muhammad Shah 'Rangile' by Niyamat Khan (Sadarang) and Firoz Khan (Adarang).
• A khayal is sung in two tempos: bada khayal in slow vilambit laya and chhota khayal in fast drut laya.
• Its composition has two parts, sthayi and antara, elaborated through alap, behlava, taan, boltaan and sargam.
• Ornaments typical of khayal are murki, khatka and meend — the very devices dhrupad avoids.
• Main khayal gharanas: Gwalior (the oldest), Agra, Kirana, Jaipur-Atrauli, Patiala and Rampur-Sahaswan.
• A fixed composition in Hindustani music is a bandish; its Carnatic counterpart is the kriti.
• Khayal displaced dhrupad as the leading form precisely because of this freedom to improvise.
Do not mix these up
• Khayal vs Dhrupad — khayal is flexible and ornamented and dominates the concert stage today; dhrupad is older, austere and bound to a fixed rhythmic frame.
• Gwalior vs Jaipur-Atrauli gharana — Gwalior is the oldest khayal gharana; Jaipur-Atrauli, of Shruti Sadolikar, is known for rare ragas and intricate bandishes.
Also asked from this topic: the literal meaning of khayal (imagination or reflective thought); the style whose two varieties are vilambit and drut (khayal); the gharana of Shruti Sadolikar (Jaipur-Atrauli).

Answer: Option 3 — Only 3
Only the third statement holds: Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) speech in India is concentrated in the Himalaya and the North-East.
The Austric (Austro-Asiatic) family belongs to the eastern and central tribal belt and Meghalaya, not the Indo-Gangetic plains.
Dravidian is not confined to the south either — Kurukh, Malto, Gondi and Brahui lie north of the Vindhyas, so the word exclusively breaks statement 2.
Revision note — The language families of India
• Four families: Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) about 78 per cent of speakers, Dravidian about 20 per cent, and Austro-Asiatic (Nishada) and Sino-Tibetan (Kirata) about 1 per cent each.
• Austro-Asiatic has two branches — the Munda branch (Santali, Mundari, Ho, Korku) in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and the Mon-Khmer branch (Khasi in Meghalaya, Nicobarese).
• Santali is the only Austro-Asiatic language in the Eighth Schedule, added with Bodo, Dogri and Maithili by the 92nd Amendment, 2003.
• Sino-Tibetan in India is almost entirely its Tibeto-Burman branch — Bodo, Garo, Mizo, Meitei (Manipuri), Lepcha, Naga — and Bodo and Manipuri are in the Eighth Schedule.
• Dravidian outside the south: Kurukh (Oraon) and Malto in Jharkhand and Odisha, Gondi in central India, and Brahui in Balochistan, Pakistan.
• The Eighth Schedule today lists 22 languages, and Hindi is the mother tongue of the largest number of Indians.
Do not mix these up
• Austro-Asiatic vs Sino-Tibetan — Santali and Khasi are Austro-Asiatic; Bodo, Garo and Manipuri are Tibeto-Burman under Sino-Tibetan.
• Region vs family — Assamese is spoken in the North-East but is Indo-Aryan; Kurukh is spoken in Jharkhand but is Dravidian. Where a language is spoken does not decide its family.
Also asked from this topic: the largest language family in India (Indo-European); the family of the Munda languages (Austroasiatic); the Tibeto-Burman language in the Eighth Schedule (Bodo).

Answer: Option 3 — Himachal Pradesh
Bir Billing lies in Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh, and is called India's paragliding capital.
Billing, at about 2,400 m, is the take-off point and Bir, at about 1,400 m, the landing ground.
Revision note — Bir Billing and Himachal Pradesh
• Bir Billing hosted the Paragliding World Cup in October 2015, the first ever held in India, and is rated among the best paragliding sites in the world.
• Himachal Pradesh became a full state on 25 January 1971, the 18th state of the Union; capital Shimla, winter capital Dharamshala, 12 districts.
• Other adventure and tourism names of the state: Solang Valley and Rohtang Pass near Manali, the Atal Tunnel (9.02 km, opened 3 October 2020), and the cold deserts of Spiti and Kinnaur.
• Rivers of the state: Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Yamuna; the Bhakra Nangal Dam on the Sutlej is India's tallest gravity dam.
• National parks: the Great Himalayan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014, plus Pin Valley, Khirganga, Inderkilla and Simbalbara.
• The Kangra valley also gives its name to the delicate Kangra school of miniature painting and to Kangra Fort, one of India's oldest forts.
Do not mix these up
• Bir Billing vs Solang Valley — both are in Himachal, but Bir Billing (Kangra) is the cross-country and world-cup site, while Solang near Manali is known for skiing and short joy rides.
• Kangra district vs Kullu district — Bir Billing is in Kangra; Manali, Solang and Rohtang are in Kullu.
Also asked from this topic: the wind instrument of Himachal folk music (Narsingha); the Himachal fort of arches and domes (Kangra Fort); the state's Baisakhi martial art (Thoda).

Answer: Option 2 — Dhrupad : One of the oldest and most austere forms of Hindustani classical music
Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of Hindustani vocal music — grave, austere and devotional, opened by a long alap and carried by a strong rhythmic pulse.
Revision note — Forms and elements of Hindustani classical music
• Dhrupad has 2 main parts — the alap (nom-tom) and the dhrupad proper — and the composition itself falls into 4 sections: sthayi, antara, sanchari, abhog.
• Khayal, from a Persian-Arabic word meaning imagination or reflective thought, overtook dhrupad in the 18th century and is today the leading Hindustani vocal form, built on improvisation.
• Alap is the slow, unmetred opening that unfolds the raga note by note without any tala — it is neither fast nor a rhythmic cycle.
• Bandish is the fixed, composed piece set to a particular raga and tala; its Carnatic counterpart is the kriti.
• Tarana is a vocal form sung at a fast tempo on meaningless syllables such as tanana and dere na — vocal, not instrumental.
• Lighter, semi-classical forms are thumri, dadra and tappa; the great Dhrupad gharanas, Darbhanga and Bettiah, both belong to Bihar.
• Teentaal, the commonest tala, has 16 matras in four vibhags; the sam falls on matra 1 and the khali on matra 9.
Do not mix these up
• Alap vs bandish — the alap is free and unmetred; the bandish is the composed piece bound to a tala.
• Tarana vs tillana — tarana is the Hindustani form sung on syllables; tillana is its Carnatic counterpart.
• Dhrupad vs khayal — both are Hindustani vocal forms, but dhrupad is older and austere while khayal is built on improvisation.
Also asked from this topic: the vocal form with a sombre mood stressing rhythm (Dhrupad); its parts (2 and 4); the state of the Darbhanga gharana (Bihar).

Answer: Option 2 — Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
⚠️ Note: the paper labels this edition 2024, but the 8th Elite Men's National Boxing Championship was actually held in January 2025 at Bareilly; the year is a slip in the stem and does not affect the venue, so the key stands.
The 8th Elite Men's National Boxing Championship was staged at Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, organised by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).
The Elite Nationals are the senior domestic championship from which the India squad is picked.
Revision note — Boxing in India
• The Boxing Federation of India (BFI), headquartered in New Delhi, is the national governing body and runs the Elite Men's and Women's National Championships.
• M. C. Mary Kom of Manipur became the first Indian woman world boxing champion in 2002 and went on to take six world titles, a record.
• India's Olympic boxing medals are all bronze — Vijender Singh (Beijing 2008), India's first, Mary Kom (London 2012) and Lovlina Borgohain (Tokyo 2020).
• The IBA Women's World Boxing Championships 2023 were held in New Delhi, where India took four golds — Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora.
• Nikhat Zareen is a two-time world champion (Istanbul 2022 and New Delhi 2023).
• An Olympic bout is of three rounds of three minutes; boxing has been an Olympic sport since 1904.
Do not mix these up
• Elite Nationals vs Youth and Junior Nationals — the Elite championship is the senior event that feeds the national squad; the others are age-group tournaments.
• IBA vs World Boxing — the IBA lost IOC recognition in 2023, and World Boxing now governs Olympic boxing; the BFI joined World Boxing in 2024.
Also asked from this topic: the first Indian woman world boxing champion (Mary Kom, 2002); the body governing boxing in India (BFI); the host of the 2023 IBA Women's Worlds (New Delhi).

Answer: Option 2 — Only 2 and 3 are correct
Statement 1 describes the Dronacharya Award, which honours coaches.
The Arjuna Award goes to a player for consistently outstanding performance over the previous four years, so statement 1 is false while 2 and 3 are correct.
Revision note — India's sports awards and sports bodies
• Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna — the highest sporting honour, instituted in 1991–92; the first winner was Viswanathan Anand; renamed from Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in August 2021.
• Arjuna Award (since 1961) — for a player's outstanding performance over four years; a bronze statue of Arjuna, a scroll and a cash prize.
• Dronacharya Award (since 1985) — for coaches; O. M. Nambiar, coach of P. T. Usha, was among the first awardees.
• Dhyan Chand Award (since 2002) — for lifetime achievement in sport.
• The Sports Authority of India (SAI), set up in 1984 under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, runs the National Centres of Excellence and SAI Training Centres.
• The National Sports University is in Manipur and the Army Sports Institute at Pune.
• Khelo India (launched 2018) builds sport among the young through the Youth Games, University Games, Winter Games and Para Games (first Para Games, New Delhi, December 2023).
Do not mix these up
• Arjuna vs Dronacharya vs Dhyan Chand Award — Arjuna for a player's four-year record, Dronacharya for a coach, Dhyan Chand for lifetime achievement.
• Khelo India vs Fit India — Khelo India builds competitive sport among the young; the Fit India Movement (29 August 2019) is a general fitness campaign.
Also asked from this topic: which award goes to a player and which to a coach (Arjuna, Dronacharya); the first Khel Ratna winner (Viswanathan Anand); who it was renamed after (Dhyan Chand).

Answer: Option 2 — The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things (1997), set in Ayemenem, Kerala, was Arundhati Roy's debut novel and won the Booker Prize in 1997.
She was the first Indian woman to win the prize.
Revision note — The Booker Prize and Indian winners
• Indian and Indian-origin Booker winners: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971); Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (1981); Arundhati Roy (1997).
• Kiran Desai won in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss.
• Aravind Adiga won in 2008 for The White Tiger, the first option here; Midnight's Children was also voted the Booker of Bookers.
• Sea of Poppies (2008), the first book of the Ibis trilogy, is by Amitav Ghosh, and A Suitable Boy (1993) is by Vikram Seth — neither won the Booker.
• The International Booker Prize is for fiction translated into English: Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand (translator Daisy Rockwell) won in 2022, the first Hindi work.
• Banu Mushtaq's Heart Lamp (translator Deepa Bhasthi) won the International Booker in 2025, the first Kannada work and the first short-story collection to win it.
• Roy's other books: the novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) and the essays The End of Imagination, War Talk (2003) and Capitalism: A Ghost Story (2014).
Do not mix these up
• Booker Prize vs International Booker Prize — the Booker is for a novel written in English; the International Booker is for a translated work, its £50,000 split equally between author and translator.
• The White Tiger vs The God of Small Things — Adiga's The White Tiger won in 2008; Roy's novel won in 1997.
Also asked from this topic: the author of The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy); the author of The White Tiger, Booker 2008 (Aravind Adiga); the War Talk author (Arundhati Roy).

Answer: Option 2 — Mumbai
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) stands at Trombay in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
It began in 1954 as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay and was renamed after Homi Jehangir Bhabha in 1967.
Revision note — India's nuclear establishment
• BARC, Trombay, Mumbai — set up 3 January 1954 as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay; renamed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1967 after Bhabha's death in an air crash in 1966.
• Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear programme, was first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (1948).
• The Department of Atomic Energy, created in 1954, reports directly to the Prime Minister.
• Research reactors at Trombay: Apsara (1956), Asia's first research reactor; Cirus (1960); Dhruva (1985); Apsara-U went critical in September 2018 on indigenous low-enriched uranium fuel.
• India's first nuclear test, Pokhran-I, "Smiling Buddha", 18 May 1974, used plutonium from Cirus; Pokhran-II followed on 11 and 13 May 1998.
• Homi Bhabha's three-stage nuclear programme: stage 1 pressurised heavy water reactors on natural uranium, stage 2 fast breeder reactors on plutonium, stage 3 thorium reactors.
• Stage 3 rests on India's large reserves of thorium in the monazite sands of Kerala.
• Other centres: Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam; Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata; Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad.
• Tarapur, Maharashtra (1969) was India's first nuclear power plant; Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu is the largest, built with Russian help.
Do not mix these up
• BARC (Mumbai) vs IGCAR (Kalpakkam) — BARC is the general nuclear research centre; IGCAR leads the fast breeder reactor programme, stage 2 of the three-stage plan.
• Atomic Energy Commission vs Department of Atomic Energy — the AEC (1948) is the policy body; the DAE (1954) is the executive department that runs the establishments.
Also asked from this topic: the new name of the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 1967); the BARC reactor that first went critical on LEU fuel (Apsara-U).

Answer: Option 3 — Dussehra
Dussehra, also called Vijayadashami, falls on the tenth day of the bright fortnight of Ashvin and marks Rama's victory over Ravana.
The Ramlila enactment runs through the preceding nine nights and ends with the burning of the effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhakarna.
Revision note — Dussehra and the festivals around it
• Dussehra = Vijayadashami, the tenth day after Navratri; the story comes from the Ramayana of Valmiki.
• In eastern India the same day closes Durga Puja and celebrates Durga's victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura.
• Ramlila was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008; the Ramnagar Ramlila of Varanasi is the most famous.
• Mysuru Dasara of Karnataka is the state festival, with the Jamboo Savari elephant procession.
• Kullu Dussehra of Himachal Pradesh begins on the day others end; Bastar Dussehra of Chhattisgarh is the longest, about 75 days.
• Diwali comes 20 days after Dussehra, on the new moon of Kartika, marking Rama's return to Ayodhya.
• Related folk forms: Pandav Nritya of Uttarakhand and Saila of Chhattisgarh are performed at Dussehra; Kwak Jatra of Manipur falls on Vijayadashami day.
Do not mix these up
• Dussehra vs Diwali — Dussehra marks the killing of Ravana on the tenth day of Ashvin; Diwali marks Rama's return to Ayodhya, on the new moon twenty days later.
• Vijayadashami vs Ganga Dussehra — Vijayadashami falls in September–October; Ganga Dussehra falls in Jyeshtha (May–June) and marks the descent of the Ganga.
• Dussehra vs Durga Puja — the same days, but the north remembers Rama and Ravana and the east Durga and Mahishasura.
Also asked from this topic: the epic in which the Dussehra story is told (the Ramayana); the goddess of Navratri, which ends in Vijayadashami (Durga); the home state of the Saila dance (Chhattisgarh).

Answer: Option 2 — Dree Festival
Dree is the agricultural festival of the Apatani tribe of the Ziro valley, Lower Subansiri district, Arunachal Pradesh.
It is observed every year on 5 July with prayers and animal sacrifice for a good paddy harvest.
Revision note — Tribal festivals of Arunachal Pradesh
• Dree — Apatani tribe, Ziro valley, celebrated on 5 July; the deities Tamu, Harniang, Metii and Danyi are propitiated against pests, famine and disease.
• The Apatani wet-rice-cum-fish cultivation landscape of Ziro is on UNESCO's tentative list of World Heritage Sites.
• Nyokum — Nyishi tribe; Nyok means land or earth and Kum means collectiveness.
• Solung — Adi tribe, a harvest festival at which the rice beer apong is shared; Mopin — Galo tribe, marked by the Popir dance.
• Losar is the new-year festival of the Buddhist Monpa people of Tawang, not a harvest rite.
• Wangala, the hundred-drums harvest festival, belongs to the Garo tribe of Meghalaya.
• The Hornbill Festival (1–10 December, Kisama, near Kohima) is the "Festival of Festivals" of the Naga tribes of Nagaland.
Do not mix these up
• Dree vs Hornbill — Dree is an Apatani harvest festival of Arunachal Pradesh; Hornbill is a Naga cultural festival of Nagaland.
• Wangala vs Dree — Wangala is the Garo festival of Meghalaya, even though both are harvest festivals of the North-East.
• Losar vs Dree — Losar marks the new year of Buddhist communities; Dree is tied to the sowing and harvest cycle.
Also asked from this topic: the state of the Hornbill Festival (Nagaland); the meaning of Kum in Nyokum (collectiveness); the dance of the Mopin festival (Popir).

Answer: Option 1 — Arunachal Pradesh
Bardo Chham is a masked folk dance of the Sherdukpen tribe of West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh.
Dancers in animal masks enact the victory of good over evil, so the dance is also called a dance of good and evil.
Revision note — Folk dances of the North-East
• Bardo Chham — Arunachal Pradesh, Sherdukpen tribe; the twelve animal masks stand for the twelve evil forces believed to appear through the year.
• Other Arunachal dances: Popir and Ponung (Adi and Galo), Rikhampada (Nyishi) and the Buddhist masked Aji Lhamu of the Monpas.
• Manipur: Thang-Ta (also Huyen Langlon, thang = sword, ta = spear), Lai Haraoba, and the classical Manipuri Raas Leela.
• Nagaland: Chang Lo (Sua Lua); Mizoram: Cheraw, the bamboo dance; Meghalaya: Nongkrem and Shad Suk Mynsiem.
• Assam: Bihu and the Bodo Bagurumba; Tripura: Hojagiri; Sikkim: Singhi Chham, the snow-lion dance.
• Odisha: Ghumura and Mayurbhanj Chhau, besides the classical Odissi; Andhra Pradesh: Dhimsa and the classical Kuchipudi.
Do not mix these up
• Bardo Chham vs Singhi Chham — both are masked chham dances, but Bardo Chham is of Arunachal Pradesh and the snow-lion Singhi Chham is of Sikkim.
• Cheraw vs Bardo Chham — Cheraw is the bamboo dance of Mizoram; Bardo Chham uses masks, not bamboo staves.
Also asked from this topic: the state of Thang-Ta (Manipur); the state of the bamboo dance Cheraw (Mizoram); the movement imitated by Kalbelia (snakes).

Answer: Option 3 — Painting
Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) was a pioneer of modern Indian painting.
She is remembered for canvases such as Three Girls, Bride's Toilet and Brahmacharis.
Revision note — Amrita Sher-Gil and modern Indian painting
• Born on 30 January 1913 in Budapest, Hungary, to a Sikh father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, and a Hungarian mother; she died at Lahore in 1941, aged only 28.
• She trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris; her Young Girls (1932) won a gold medal and made her the youngest and the only Asian Associate of the Grand Salon, Paris.
• After returning to India in 1934 she turned to Indian subjects, and Three Girls (1935) won the gold medal of the Bombay Art Society.
• The Ajanta murals and the Basohli and Pahari miniatures shaped her mature style; other known works are South Indian Villagers Going to a Market and Self-Portrait as a Tahitian.
• She is one of the nine masters whose work the Archaeological Survey of India declared a National Art Treasure in 1976.
• Most of her surviving paintings are held by the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; she is often called India's Frida Kahlo.
Do not mix these up
• Amrita Sher-Gil vs Amrita Pritam — Sher-Gil was a painter; Amrita Pritam was a Punjabi writer, the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award (1956).
• Bengal School vs Sher-Gil — the Bengal School of Abanindranath Tagore revived a wash and miniature idiom; Sher-Gil used Western modernist oils on Indian subjects.
Also asked from this topic: the painter of Mahishasura (Tyeb Mehta); the painter who took Warli art to the world (Jivya Soma Mashe); the community that paints Pithora works (Lakhara).

Answer: Option 3 — The number of white rhinos has increased, while Indian rhino population remained stable
The International Rhino Foundation's State of the Rhino 2024 report put the white rhino at about 17,464, up from about 16,803 the year before — its first clear rise in a decade.
The greater one-horned (Indian) rhino held steady at roughly 4,014.
Revision note — The five rhino species and the 2024 report
• African poaching rose, not fell: about 586 rhinos were poached in Africa in 2023 against about 551 in 2022, most of them in South Africa.
• White rhino — about 17,464; IUCN status Near Threatened. Black rhino — about 6,400; Critically Endangered.
• Greater one-horned rhino — about 4,014; IUCN status Vulnerable. It is found only in India and Nepal.
• Javan rhino — about 76, and Sumatran rhino — fewer than 50; both Critically Endangered. So not all rhino species are critically endangered.
• In India the species is concentrated in Assam: Kaziranga National Park holds the largest population, followed by Jaldapara in West Bengal; others are Orang, Pobitora and Manas.
• World Rhino Day is observed on 22 September; India's recovery programme is Indian Rhino Vision 2020, run with the IRF, WWF-India and the Assam Forest Department.
Do not mix these up
• White rhino vs black rhino — both are grey; the white rhino has a wide, square lip for grazing, the black rhino a hooked, pointed lip for browsing.
• Greater one-horned vs Javan rhino — both carry a single horn, but the Javan rhino is smaller, confined to Ujung Kulon, Indonesia, and Critically Endangered.
Also asked from this topic: the animal Kaziranga National Park is famous for (one-horned rhinoceros); the second largest habitat of the one-horned rhino in India (Jaldapara National Park).

Answer: Option 4 — Relative planetary motion
No planet actually reverses. The Earth, on a faster inner orbit, overtakes an outer planet, and for a few weeks that planet appears to slide backwards (east to west) against the fixed stars.
It is a line-of-sight effect of relative motion, exactly like a slower car seeming to drift backwards as you pass it.
Revision note — Retrograde motion and the solar system
• Mars, Jupiter and Saturn show apparent retrograde loops around opposition; Mars does so about once every 26 months.
• The heliocentric model of Nicolaus Copernicus (De revolutionibus, 1543) explained retrograde motion naturally; Ptolemy's geocentric model had needed epicycles.
• All eight planets revolve around the Sun in the same direction, west to east, anticlockwise as seen from above the Earth's north pole.
• Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite sense — a real retrograde rotation, not an apparent one. On Venus the Sun rises in the west.
• Precession is the slow wobble of the Earth's axis, one full cone in about 25,800 years, first noted by Hipparchus.
• Gravitational lensing is the bending of light by mass, predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (1915) and confirmed by Eddington in 1919.
• Orbital resonance is a periodic tug between bodies whose periods form a simple ratio — Neptune and Pluto at 3:2, and Io, Europa and Ganymede at 1:2:4.
Do not mix these up
• Apparent retrograde motion vs retrograde rotation — the first is an illusion of relative motion; the second is the genuine backward spin of Venus and Uranus.
• Precession vs retrograde motion — precession moves the Earth's axis over millennia; retrograde motion is a planet's apparent path over weeks.
Also asked from this topic: the planet whose rotation axis lies nearly in its orbital plane (Uranus, tilted about 98 degrees); the two small irregular moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos).

Answer: Option 1 — Periodic warming of sea surface in central and eastern Pacific
El Niño is the abnormal warming of the sea surface in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, off the coast of Peru and Ecuador.
It recurs every 2 to 7 years and usually lasts 9 to 12 months.
Revision note — El Niño, La Niña and ENSO
• The name is Spanish for "the little boy" (the Christ Child), given by Peruvian fishermen because the warming appears around Christmas.
• The ocean warming and the atmospheric Southern Oscillation are two halves of one system, together called ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation).
• The Southern Oscillation, identified by Sir Gilbert Walker, is the see-saw of air pressure between Tahiti in the eastern Pacific and Darwin, Australia in the west.
• During El Niño the trade winds weaken, warm water piles up in the east, and the cold nutrient-rich upwelling off Peru is suppressed, wrecking the anchovy fishery.
• For India, El Niño usually means a weak southwest monsoon and deficient rainfall; La Niña, the opposite cooling phase, usually means a good monsoon.
• Intensity is tracked by the Niño 3.4 index and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI).
• The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), identified in 1999, is the Indian Ocean counterpart; a positive IOD strengthens the Indian monsoon.
Do not mix these up
• El Niño vs La Niña — El Niño is the warm phase, La Niña ("the little girl") the cool phase of the same eastern Pacific.
• El Niño vs Southern Oscillation — El Niño is the oceanic part, the Southern Oscillation the atmospheric pressure part, of ENSO.
• El Niño vs IOD — El Niño belongs to the Pacific, the Dipole to the Indian Ocean, and a positive IOD can offset an El Niño year.
Also asked from this topic: the phenomenon of Pacific warming with deficient Indian rainfall (El Niño); the meaning of the Southern Oscillation (periodic pressure changes over the two oceans).

Answer: Option 2 — Tamil Nadu – Anamalai Hills
The Anamalai (Anaimalai) Hills around Valparai lie in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts of Tamil Nadu and form one of South India's main tea belts.
The other three pairs are crossed over — Dooars is in West Bengal, Munnar is in Kerala, and the Nilgiris are in Tamil Nadu, not Uttarakhand.
Revision note — Tea growing in India
• Tea is a plantation crop needing 20–30 degree C, over 150 cm of well-distributed rainfall and deep, well-drained loamy soil on hill slopes; waterlogging kills the bush.
• Assam is the largest producer, giving over half of India's tea, mainly from the Brahmaputra valley.
• West Bengal is second, with the Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars belts; Tamil Nadu is third.
• In the south the tea districts are the Nilgiris and the Anamalais (Valparai) in Tamil Nadu and Munnar, Idukki and Wayanad in Kerala.
• The Tea Board of India was set up in 1954 with its headquarters at Kolkata.
• India is the world's second largest tea producer after China; Darjeeling tea received India's first GI tag, in 2004.
Do not mix these up
• Dooars vs Munnar — the Dooars is the Himalayan foothill tea belt of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in West Bengal; Munnar is a tea town of Idukki district, Kerala.
• Nilgiri vs Anamalai — both are Tamil Nadu tea hills; the Nilgiris centre on Ooty and Coonoor, the Anamalais on Valparai. The same range runs west into Kerala as the Anaimalai Hills.
Also asked from this topic: where tea cultivation is concentrated (the North-Eastern hills); the region best suited to tea (Assam and North Bengal); the hill station of the Nilgiris (Ooty).

Answer: Option 3 — Hydropower generation and irrigation
Gobind Sagar is the reservoir created by the Bhakra Dam on the Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh.
It is a multipurpose river valley project built to generate hydroelectricity and to carry irrigation water to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan; the fishery and the wildlife sanctuary came later as by-products.
Revision note — Bhakra-Nangal and Gobind Sagar
• The Bhakra Dam stands at Bhakra village, Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh, on the Sutlej; the smaller Nangal Dam downstream is in Rupnagar district, Punjab.
• The reservoir is named Gobind Sagar after the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.
• Bhakra is a concrete gravity dam about 226 m high, among the highest in India; the highest is Tehri (260.5 m) on the Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand.
• Jawaharlal Nehru dedicated the project to the nation in 1963 and called such dams the "temples of modern India".
• Its water and power are shared by Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh through the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB).
• The canal network it feeds was central to the success of the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana.
• Gobind Sagar is also a notified wildlife sanctuary and one of India's largest inland fisheries.
Do not mix these up
• Gobind Sagar vs Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar — Gobind Sagar is behind the Bhakra Dam on the Sutlej; Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar is behind the Rihand Dam in Uttar Pradesh.
• Bhakra vs Nangal — Bhakra is the tall storage and power dam in Himachal Pradesh; Nangal is the low regulating dam in Punjab that feeds the canals.
Also asked from this topic: the river on which the Bhakra Dam is built (the Sutlej); the states the Bhakra-Nangal project lies in (Himachal Pradesh and Punjab); the reservoir it forms (Gobind Sagar).

Answer: Option 2 — Red Soil – Igneous origin
Red soil develops on the crystalline igneous and metamorphic rocks — granite, gneiss and schist — of the peninsular plateau, in areas of low rainfall.
The iron oxide released as those rocks weather is what gives the soil its red colour.
Revision note — Indian soils and the rock each comes from
• Alluvial soil — laid down by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra, so its origin is river deposition, not volcanic.
• Alluvium covers about 40 per cent of India, is rich in potash and lime and poor in nitrogen; the older type is bhangar, the newer khadar.
• Black (regur) soil — weathered from the Deccan trap basalt lava, so its origin is volcanic and igneous, not sedimentary. Rich in iron, lime, magnesia and alumina, poor in nitrogen and phosphorus.
• Black soil swells when wet and cracks when dry, holds moisture well, and is India's cotton soil — Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Telangana.
• Red soil — from crystalline igneous and metamorphic rock in the eastern and southern Deccan; porous, poor in nitrogen, phosphorus and humus.
• Laterite soil — made by intense leaching under heavy rain and high heat; rich in iron and aluminium, deficient in nitrogen, phosphate and lime, acidic; used for tea, coffee and cashew.
• Desert (arid) soil — sandy and saline, built up by wind deposition in Rajasthan; rich in phosphate, very poor in nitrogen and humus.
• The Soil Health Card Scheme was launched in 2015; soils are surveyed by the NBSS&LUP, Nagpur, under ICAR.
Do not mix these up
• Black soil vs red soil — both come from igneous rock, but black soil comes from basaltic lava flows and retains moisture, while red soil comes from granite and gneiss and is porous and dry.
• Laterite vs red soil — both are iron-rich and reddish, but laterite forms by leaching in heavy-rainfall areas and is acidic, while red soil forms in low-rainfall areas.
Also asked from this topic: the soil that makes up the northern plains (alluvial); the soil of the Deccan plateau (black soil); the soil rich in iron and aluminium but deficient in nitrogen (laterite).

Answer: Option 2 — Moon
A natural satellite is a body that orbits a planet without having been made by people, and the Earth has exactly one — the Moon.
It lies about 3,84,400 km away and circles the Earth once in about 27.3 days.
Revision note — The Moon and the satellites of the solar system
• Mean Earth–Moon distance 3,84,400 km; moonlight reaches us in about 1.3 seconds.
• Sidereal month = 27.3 days (one orbit measured against the stars); synodic month = 29.5 days (new moon to new moon), which is what the lunar calendar counts.
• The Moon rotates in the same time it revolves — synchronous rotation — so the same face always points at us; about 59 per cent of the surface becomes visible over time because of libration.
• Diameter about 3,474 km, roughly a quarter of the Earth's; surface gravity about one-sixth of the Earth's; no atmosphere, hence no sound, no weather and extreme day-night temperatures.
• Other satellites worth knowing: Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and belongs to Jupiter; Titan is Saturn's largest; Mars has two — Phobos and Deimos; Mercury and Venus have none.
• Chandrayaan-1 (2008) first confirmed water molecules on the Moon; Chandrayaan-3 soft-landed near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023, making India the first country to do so.
Do not mix these up
• Natural vs artificial satellite — the Moon orbits the Earth on its own; Aryabhata (1975), INSAT and GSAT were launched by people.
• Planet vs satellite — a planet goes round the Sun (Mars, Venus); a satellite goes round a planet (the Moon, Ganymede).
Also asked from this topic: natural versus artificial satellite (the Moon is natural); the Moon's daily motion (about 13.3 degrees); the mission that first found lunar water (Chandrayaan-1).

Answer: Option 3 — Padmapāṇi Bodhisattva
The Padmapani ("lotus-bearer") Bodhisattva mural, with its downcast eyes and blue lotus, stands beside the shrine doorway of Cave 1 at Ajanta and is the single most reproduced Indian painting.
Its companion on the other side of the doorway is Vajrapani, the thunderbolt-bearer.
Revision note — The Ajanta Caves
• 30 rock-cut Buddhist caves in a horseshoe gorge of the Waghora river, in Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) district, Maharashtra.
• A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.
• Rediscovered in 1819 by John Smith, a British cavalry officer, while on a tiger hunt.
• Two phases — an early Hinayana phase under the Satavahanas (2nd century BCE) and a later Mahayana phase under the Vakataka king Harishena (5th century CE).
• The paintings are tempera on a lime-plaster ground (fresco-secco), not true fresco; their subjects are the Jataka tales and scenes from the Buddha's life.
• Other famous Ajanta works: the Mahajanaka Jataka in Cave 1, The Dying Princess in Cave 16, and the Simhala Avadana in Cave 17.
• Caves 9, 10, 19 and 26 are chaitya (prayer) halls; the rest are viharas (monasteries). Ajanta is the only site preserving paintings of both the 1st century BCE and the 5th century CE.
Do not mix these up
• Ajanta vs Ellora — Ajanta is purely Buddhist and famous for paintings; Ellora has Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves and is famous for sculpture, above all the Kailasa temple (Cave 16).
• Padmapani vs Vajrapani — both flank the Cave 1 shrine; Padmapani holds a lotus, Vajrapani a vajra (thunderbolt).
• Descent of the Ganges is not an Ajanta painting but a rock relief at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, also called Arjuna's Penance.
Also asked from this topic: the site famous for masterpieces of Buddhist art (Ajanta Caves); its architectural style (rock-cut chaityas and viharas).

Answer: Option 2 — Punjab and North-West India
The Rigveda calls its homeland Sapta Sindhu, the land of seven rivers — present-day Punjab, Haryana and the adjoining North-West.
Its rivers, battles and tribes all belong to that region, not to Gujarat, the far south or the east.
Revision note — The Rigveda and the Early Vedic period
• The seven rivers of Sapta Sindhu: Sindhu (Indus), Vitasta (Jhelum), Asikni (Chenab), Parushni (Ravi), Vipasha (Beas), Shutudri (Sutlej) and the Saraswati.
• The Rigveda has 10 mandalas and 1,028 hymns (suktas); rik means a verse or hymn of praise, so Rigveda is the knowledge of hymns.
• Mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest family books; 1, 8, 9 and 10 are later. Mandala 9 is devoted wholly to Soma.
• Mandala 10 contains the Purusha Sukta, the earliest mention of the four varnas, and the Nasadiya Sukta on creation.
• The most-invoked gods are Indra (about 250 hymns), Agni (about 200) and Varuna; the Gayatri Mantra, addressed to Savitri, is in Mandala 3 and is ascribed to Vishvamitra.
• The Rigveda was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2007; the Battle of Ten Kings (Dasarajna) on the Parushni (Ravi) is described in Mandala 7.
Do not mix these up
• The four Vedas — Rigveda hymns of praise, Samaveda melodies, Yajurveda sacrificial formulae, Atharvaveda spells and charms.
• Sapta Sindhu vs Aryavarta — Sapta Sindhu is the Early Vedic (Rigvedic) home in the North-West; Brahmavarta, Aryavarta and Madhyadesha are Later Vedic names for the Ganga–Yamuna region.
Also asked from this topic: the region the Rigveda calls its homeland (Sapta-Sindhu); the number of mandalas and hymns (10 and 1,028); the meaning of Rik (a sacred hymn).

Answer: Option 3 — Radio Telescope
The cosmic microwave background peaks in the microwave band, at a wavelength of about 1.9 mm, and the microwave band lies inside the radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Only a radio (microwave) telescope, with its large parabolic dish, can collect it.
Revision note — Cosmic microwave background and telescopes
• The CMB is the relic radiation left from about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when the universe first became transparent; its temperature today is 2.725 K.
• It was found by accident in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at Bell Laboratories; they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.
• Satellites that mapped it: COBE (1989), WMAP (2001) and the ESA's Planck (2009).
• A radio telescope collects radio waves with a large dish-shaped parabolic antenna.
• India's biggest is the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at Khodad near Pune, with 30 dishes of 45 m; India is also a member of the Square Kilometre Array.
• The Event Horizon Telescope, a worldwide network of radio telescopes, produced the first direct image of a black hole (M87*) on 10 April 2019.
• X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes must be in space — Chandra, India's AstroSat (2015) and XPoSat (2024) — because the atmosphere absorbs those rays.
• Radio waves and visible light pass through atmospheric windows, which is why radio and optical telescopes work from the ground.
Do not mix these up
• Radio vs infrared telescope — infrared instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope see dust-shrouded stars by their heat; the CMB is far longer in wavelength and needs a microwave dish.
• Microwave vs radio — microwaves are not a separate spectrum; they are the short-wavelength end of the radio band.
Also asked from this topic: the telescope used to observe radio waves from space (radio telescope); the telescope that gave the first image of a black hole (Event Horizon Telescope).

Answer: Option 3 — Foodgrains, capital goods, and machinery
India in the 1950s and 1960s could neither grow enough food nor build its own heavy machinery, so imports were dominated by foodgrains, capital goods and machinery.
Consumer goods were kept out deliberately by the import-substitution policy.
Revision note — India's trade in the planning era
• From the 1950s to the 1980s India followed an inward-looking, import-substituting and protectionist trade policy.
• High tariffs, import licensing and quantitative restrictions were used to shield infant domestic industries.
• Wheat came largely from the United States under PL-480 ("Food for Peace"); imports peaked at about 10 million tonnes in 1966 after the drought, a period described as a "ship-to-mouth" existence.
• The Second Five-Year Plan (1956–61), built on the Mahalanobis model and the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956, pushed heavy industry — which meant importing plant and machinery.
• War in 1962 and 1965, successive droughts and the devaluation of the rupee in June 1966 forced a plan holiday from 1966 to 1969, run through three Annual Plans.
• The Green Revolution of the late 1960s, based on high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, ended the dependence on food imports.
• Its figures are Norman Borlaug worldwide, and in India M. S. Swaminathan with Agriculture Minister C. Subramaniam.
• Petroleum became the dominant import only after the 1973 oil shock, and gold imports were curbed by the Gold Control Act, so neither fits the 1950s–60s picture.
Do not mix these up
• Import substitution vs export promotion — substitution replaces imports with domestic production behind protection; export promotion, adopted after 1991, competes in world markets.
• First Plan vs Second Plan — the First Plan (1951–56) followed the Harrod-Domar model and stressed agriculture and irrigation; the Second stressed heavy industry.
Also asked from this topic: the name of India's inward-looking trade strategy in the early plans (import substitution); its rationale (to protect infant domestic industries).

Answer: Option 2 — Extensive state control over key industries and infrastructure.
The socialist pattern was put into practice through the "commanding heights" doctrine.
The state would own and run the basic and strategic industries and the infrastructure, while a mixed economy left the rest to private hands.
Agricultural land was never nationalised, and the Second Plan chose heavy industry over consumer goods, so the other three descriptions are the reverse of what happened.
Revision note — The socialist pattern and the Second Five Year Plan
• The Avadi session of the Congress (1955) adopted the socialistic pattern of society as the national goal; the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 gave it legal shape.
• IPR 1956 put industry into three schedules — Schedule A: 17 industries reserved for the state, Schedule B: 12 to be progressively state-owned, Schedule C: the rest left to private enterprise.
• The Second Five Year Plan (1956–61) rested on the Mahalanobis model and gave priority to heavy and capital-goods industries — steel, coal and heavy machinery.
• Three public-sector steel plants were built under it: Rourkela (West German help), Bhilai (Soviet help) and Durgapur (British help); Bokaro came later, in 1964, with Soviet help.
• Its target growth rate was 4.5 per cent, and it was drafted under the Planning Commission, chaired by the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Trade policy in the same years was import substitution — high tariffs, quotas and industrial licensing to shelter infant domestic industries.
• The stated aim of IPR 1956 was growth with equity: reducing income disparities and preventing the concentration of economic power.
Do not mix these up
• Socialist pattern vs communism — the socialist pattern kept private property and a mixed economy, with the state controlling only the key sectors; it did not abolish private ownership.
• First Plan vs Second Plan — the First (1951–56) used the Harrod-Domar model and stressed agriculture and irrigation; the Second (1956–61) used Mahalanobis and stressed industry.
Also asked from this topic: the plan that focused on heavy industry (the Second Five Year Plan, 1956–61); the model it was based on (Mahalanobis); the steel plant set up under it (Rourkela).

Answer: Option 3 — Selective export promotion and partial liberalization.
Through the 1980s India kept import substitution as its main line, but quietly began easing import licensing, widening the Open General Licence list and offering export incentives.
That is a partial, selective opening — not full convertibility and not the end of tariffs and quotas, both of which came later or never.
Revision note — India's trade policy before and after 1991
• From 1947 to 1990 trade policy rested on import substitution: high protective tariffs, quantitative restrictions, import licensing, and Export Promotion Councils to push a small export effort.
• The 1980s brought a cautious loosening under Rajiv Gandhi — more items moved to the Open General Licence (OGL) list and exporters got duty concessions and replenishment licences.
• The Abid Hussain Committee (1984) recommended a shift to export-led growth, and the Narasimham Committee (1985) recommended moving from physical controls to financial controls.
• The New Economic Policy of 1991 formally replaced import substitution with export promotion, cut tariffs, removed quantitative restrictions and devalued the rupee twice in July 1991.
• The rupee became fully convertible on the current account in August 1994, when India accepted Article VIII of the IMF; the capital account is still only partly convertible.
• The Tarapore Committees (1997 and 2006) laid down the road map for fuller capital account convertibility.
Do not mix these up
• Import substitution vs export promotion — the first makes at home what was bought abroad; the second earns foreign exchange by selling abroad. India switched in 1991.
• Current account vs capital account convertibility — free conversion for trade and remittances (India, 1994) is not free conversion for investment flows, which is still restricted.
Also asked from this topic: the 1991 measure that replaced import substitution by export promotion; the tools of trade policy in 1947–1990 (quantitative restrictions, protective tariffs).

Answer: Option 1 — FDI reforms
Under the New Industrial Policy of 24 July 1991, foreign direct investment up to 51 per cent was given automatic approval in 34 high-priority industries.
Opening up foreign equity in this way is precisely the FDI reform of the LPG package.
Revision note — The LPG reforms of 1991
• Announced by Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh under Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao; the New Industrial Policy was placed before Parliament on 24 July 1991.
• LPG = Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation. Liberalisation loosened internal controls, privatisation cut the state's stake, globalisation opened the economy outward.
• Industrial licensing was abolished for all but a short list of industries, ending the Licence Raj.
• Licensing stayed only for a few — alcoholic drinks, cigarettes, industrial explosives, hazardous chemicals and defence equipment.
• Industries reserved for the public sector fell from 17 to 8; today only atomic energy and railway operations remain reserved.
• The asset limits of the MRTP Act on large business houses were scrapped, and FERA was later replaced by FEMA, 1999.
• FDI brings a lasting interest and a say in management; FPI is portfolio money in shares and bonds with no control.
• Caps have risen since — 100 per cent FDI on the automatic route is now allowed in many sectors, including coal mining.
Do not mix these up
• Liberalisation vs globalisation — liberalisation eases internal controls on Indian producers; globalisation opens the economy outward to world trade, capital and technology.
• FDI vs FPI — FDI carries management control and a long horizon; FPI is hot money that can leave quickly.
• Privatisation vs disinvestment — privatisation transfers management control to private hands; disinvestment may sell only a minority stake and leave control with the government.
Also asked from this topic: the year FDI was liberalised (1991, up to 51 per cent automatic); the aims of the 1991 Industrial Policy (liberalisation, freer foreign investment).

Answer: Option 2 — International Monetary Fund (IMF)
In the 1991 balance of payments crisis India took an emergency standby arrangement from the IMF, and it was the IMF's structural adjustment conditions that forced the reform package.
The World Bank lent alongside it, but the balance of payments rescue itself is the IMF's function.
Revision note — The 1991 crisis and the Bretton Woods institutions
• By mid-1991 India's foreign exchange reserves could pay for barely two weeks of imports.
• India pledged about 67 tonnes of gold — 20 tonnes to the Union Bank of Switzerland and 47 tonnes to the Bank of England.
• The IMF and the World Bank together extended roughly US$ 7 billion; their conditions produced the liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation package of 1991.
• The IMF was created at the Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944 and began operations in 1945; headquarters Washington D.C.; India is a founder member.
• The IMF handles short-term balance of payments support and exchange rate stability.
• Its unit of account is the Special Drawing Right (SDR), a basket of the US dollar, euro, Chinese yuan, Japanese yen and pound sterling.
• The World Bank (IBRD), born at the same conference, lends for long-term development projects — the two are called the Bretton Woods twins.
• The rupee was devalued in two steps, on 1 and 3 July 1991, a fall of about 18–19 per cent against the dollar, and partial convertibility followed in 1992.
Do not mix these up
• IMF vs World Bank — the IMF meets a short-term balance of payments gap; the World Bank funds long-term development. Both came out of Bretton Woods, 1944.
• Devaluation vs depreciation — devaluation is a deliberate official cut in a fixed rate, as in July 1991; depreciation is a market-driven fall in a floating rate.
Also asked from this topic: whom India approached for an emergency loan in 1991 (the IMF, with the World Bank); the reserves then (two weeks of imports); the devaluation (18–20 per cent).

Answer: Option 1 — Stand-Up India
Stand-Up India, launched on 5 April 2016, makes every bank branch lend ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore to at least one woman borrower and at least one SC or ST borrower for a new enterprise.
Women's entrepreneurship is written into the scheme's own design, which is why it is the answer.
Revision note — Stand-Up India and the credit schemes for women
• Launched 5 April 2016 by the Ministry of Finance (Department of Financial Services); loan size ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore, composite (term loan plus working capital).
• The borrower must be SC, ST or a woman, aged 18 or above, and the unit must be a greenfield — that is, first-time — venture in manufacturing, services, trading or allied agriculture.
• For a non-individual enterprise, at least 51 per cent of the shareholding must be held by an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur.
• Repayment up to 7 years with a moratorium of up to 18 months; margin money up to 15 per cent, with the borrower bringing at least 10 per cent of the project cost.
• Security is backed by the Credit Guarantee Fund for Stand-Up India (CGFSI); the scheme has been extended to 2025.
• Union Budget 2025-26 announced a new scheme built on the Stand-Up India experience — term loans of up to ₹2 crore for 5 lakh first-time women, SC and ST entrepreneurs over five years.
• Related credit lines: PM MUDRA Yojana (2015) — Shishu up to ₹50,000, Kishor ₹50,000 to ₹5 lakh, Tarun ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh, with most accounts held by women.
Do not mix these up
• Stand-Up India vs Start-up India — the first is a bank credit scheme for SC/ST and women; Start-up India (16 January 2016) gives tax and regulatory benefits to recognised startups.
• Stand-Up India vs MUDRA Yojana — MUDRA funds small, non-farm units up to ₹10 lakh for anyone; Stand-Up India starts where MUDRA stops, at ₹10 lakh, and is reserved for SC, ST and women.
• PM-KUSUM is a solar pump scheme for farmers under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy — nothing to do with women's enterprise.
Also asked from this topic: the year Stand-Up India was launched (2016); who benefits from it (women and SC/ST entrepreneurs); its loan range (₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore).

Answer: Option 1 — GDP
Gross Domestic Product is the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country's domestic territory in a year.
The words "within India's borders" are the giveaway — GDP is a territory measure, whoever the producer is.
Revision note — GDP and the national income aggregates
• GDP counts output inside the domestic territory; GNP counts output by the country's normal residents, wherever they are.
• GNP = GDP + Net Factor Income from Abroad (NFIA). For India NFIA is usually negative, so GNP is slightly less than GDP.
• NDP = GDP − depreciation and NNP = GNP − depreciation; NNP at factor cost is National Income.
• Only final goods are counted; intermediate goods are excluded to avoid double counting.
• Nominal GDP uses current prices, real GDP uses constant (base-year) prices, and Nominal ÷ Real × 100 is the GDP deflator.
• Estimates are prepared by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under MoSPI; the current base year is 2011-12.
• GDP is a flow variable measured over a period; money supply and foreign exchange reserves are stock variables.
Do not mix these up
• GDP vs GNP — territory versus residents; the gap between them is exactly net factor income from abroad.
• GDP vs NSDP — NSDP is the Net State Domestic Product, a state-level net figure, not a national gross one.
• GDP vs CPI — the Consumer Price Index measures retail price change, that is inflation, not output.
Also asked from this topic: what is excluded when measuring GDP (intermediate goods); national income at constant prices (real income); the prices used for nominal GDP (current prices).

Answer: Option 2 — Excessive urination and thirst
ADH (vasopressin) makes the kidney tubules reabsorb water back into the blood.
Without it the kidneys pass out large volumes of dilute urine, so the patient urinates constantly and is intensely thirsty — the condition called diabetes insipidus.
Revision note — ADH and the pituitary gland
• ADH, also called vasopressin, is made in the hypothalamus and stored and released by the posterior pituitary.
• It acts on the distal convoluted tubule and the collecting duct of the nephron, raising water reabsorption and concentrating the urine — hence anti-diuretic.
• Its deficiency causes diabetes insipidus: up to 10–20 litres of dilute urine a day with severe thirst, but normal blood sugar.
• The posterior pituitary releases only two hormones — ADH and oxytocin; oxytocin drives uterine contraction and milk ejection.
• The anterior pituitary makes GH, TSH, ACTH, FSH, LH and prolactin; the pituitary as a whole is the master gland, at the base of the brain.
• Alcohol and caffeine suppress ADH, which is why they increase urination.
• For contrast: insulin deficiency gives diabetes mellitus (high blood sugar) and parathormone deficiency gives low blood calcium and tetany.
Do not mix these up
• Diabetes insipidus vs diabetes mellitus — insipidus is a failure of ADH with normal blood sugar; mellitus is a failure of insulin, with high blood sugar and sugar in the urine.
• Anterior vs posterior pituitary — the anterior lobe makes its own hormones; the posterior lobe only stores and releases ADH and oxytocin made in the hypothalamus.
Also asked from this topic: the gland that secretes growth hormone (the pituitary); the condition its deficiency causes in childhood (dwarfism); the source of GH-releasing factor (hypothalamus).

Answer: Option 4 — 1, 2 and 3 are correct
All three forces built medieval towns together.
A capital or administrative headquarters gathered court, army and revenue; trade routes and ports gave the town its market; and the demand for fine crafts drew artisans into it.
Revision note — Towns of the Sultanate and Mughal periods
• Capitals founded or shifted: Muhammad bin Tughluq to Daulatabad (Devagiri) about 1327; Sikandar Lodi founded Agra about 1504; Akbar built Fatehpur Sikri from 1571.
• Shah Jahan began the Red Fort of Shahjahanabad in 1639 and completed it in 1648, moving the capital from Agra to Delhi.
• Medieval writers graded towns as qasba (small market town), shahr (city) and bandar (port town).
• Sher Shah Suri rebuilt the Grand Trunk Road and lined it with sarais (rest houses) and a dak relay, and the sarai settlements themselves grew into towns.
• Royal workshops, the karkhanas under the Mir Saman, concentrated skilled artisans in the capitals and made the court the biggest single buyer of crafts.
• Port towns grew on external trade — Surat, the Mughal gateway for the Mecca pilgrimage, Cambay (Khambhat), Masulipatnam and Hugli.
• Mansabdars spent their revenue where they lived, so soldiers, servants, shopkeepers and entertainers settled around them; this is why medieval Indian cities were called camp towns by European travellers.
Do not mix these up
• Qasba vs bandar — a qasba is a small inland market town serving the countryside; a bandar is a port town living on sea trade.
• Agra vs Shahjahanabad — Agra was founded by Sikandar Lodi and became Akbar's capital; Shahjahanabad was Shah Jahan's new Delhi, occupied from 1648.
Also asked from this topic: the Lodi ruler who shifted the capital to Agra (Sikandar Lodi); the Sultan who moved it to Daulatabad (Muhammad bin Tughluq); the builder of Fatehpur Sikri (Akbar).

Answer: Option 1 — Ajay Kumar
Dr Ajay Kumar, a former Defence Secretary, was appointed by President Droupadi Murmu and took charge as Chairman of the UPSC in May 2025, succeeding Preeti Sudan.
He was therefore in office in July 2025.
Revision note — Union Public Service Commission
• Article 315 provides for a UPSC for the Union and a Public Service Commission for each State; Parliament may create a Joint State Public Service Commission on a request from two or more states.
• Article 316 — the President appoints the Chairman and members. Tenure is 6 years or until the age of 65, whichever comes first (a State PSC member goes at 62).
• Article 317 — a member can be removed only by the President on a report of the Supreme Court; this is the safeguard that keeps the Commission independent.
• Article 320 lists its functions — examinations, recruitment and disciplinary matters.
• Article 322 charges its expenses to the Consolidated Fund of India; Article 323 requires an annual report to the President.
• The Commission's advice is advisory, not binding, on the government.
• The first Public Service Commission was set up on 1 October 1926 under the Government of India Act, 1919.
• It became the Federal Public Service Commission under the Act of 1935 and the UPSC on 26 January 1950; headquarters Dholpur House, New Delhi.
• Recent chairpersons for revision: Arvind Saxena (2018–20), Pradeep Kumar Joshi (2020–22), Manoj Soni (2022–24), Preeti Sudan (2024–25), Ajay Kumar (from May 2025).
Do not mix these up
• UPSC vs SSC — the UPSC is a constitutional body (Article 315) for the All India Services and Group A; the SSC, set up in 1975, fills Group B and C posts.
• Sanjay Malhotra is the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (from December 2024), not a UPSC office holder — a name-swap trap.
• Removal of a UPSC member vs a Chief Election Commissioner — the first goes on a Supreme Court report (Article 317); the CEC goes only by the process used to remove a Supreme Court judge.
Also asked from this topic: who became UPSC Chairman in May 2025 (Dr Ajay Kumar, after Preeti Sudan); the Article constituting the UPSC (Article 315); its annual report (Article 323).

Answer: Option 3 — 6th
In IQAir's World Air Quality Report 2025 (released March 2026), India ranked 6th among the most polluted countries by annual PM2.5, with a national average of about 48.9 micrograms per cubic metre.
India had stood 3rd in the 2023 edition and 5th in the 2024 edition.
Revision note — IQAir World Air Quality Report
• Released every March by the Swiss air-quality technology firm IQAir, ranking countries, regions and cities by annual average PM2.5 in micrograms per cubic metre.
• In the 2025 edition (released March 2026) the most polluted countries were Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Chad, DR Congo and India (6th); Loni in Uttar Pradesh was the most polluted city.
• In the 2024 edition (released March 2025) the five most polluted countries were Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan, DR Congo and India (5th).
• Byrnihat in Meghalaya was named the world's most polluted metropolitan area in that edition.
• In the 2023 edition India ranked 3rd, Bangladesh was the most polluted country, Begusarai the most polluted city and New Delhi the most polluted capital city.
• The WHO guideline for annual PM2.5 is 5 micrograms per cubic metre; India's own NAAQS limit is 40.
• Only about seven countries in the world met the WHO PM2.5 guideline in the 2024 edition.
Do not mix these up
• Most polluted country vs most polluted city — India's country rank and the city rank (Byrnihat, 2024 edition) are two different lists.
• IQAir report vs National AQI — IQAir is a private global PM2.5 ranking; the National AQI is the CPCB's daily index for Indian cities.
Also asked from this topic: India's rank in the World Air Quality Report 2024 (5th); Pakistan's rank in the same report (3rd); the most polluted city named in March 2025 (Byrnihat).

Answer: Option 1 — Rohit Sharma
Cricketer Rohit Sharma of Maharashtra, who captained India to the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy, received the Padma Shri 2026 in the Sports category.
The other three names were honoured years earlier, so none of them could be a 2026 awardee.
Revision note — The Padma awards
• Instituted in 1954, the Padma awards come in three grades: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, in that order of precedence.
• They are announced on the eve of Republic Day and conferred by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan around March or April.
• Not more than 120 Padma awards are normally given in a year, leaving out posthumous awards and awards to foreigners, NRIs and OCIs.
• Virat Kohli received the Padma Shri in 2017, Rani Rampal in 2020 and Neeraj Chopra in 2022.
• Neeraj Chopra also holds the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna (2021) and an honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army.
• The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award; Sachin Tendulkar (2014) is the only sportsperson to have received it.
Do not mix these up
• Padma Shri vs Khel Ratna vs Arjuna Award — the Padma Shri is a civilian award of the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award come from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
• Padma awards vs Bharat Ratna — the Padma awards have three grades; the Bharat Ratna stands alone and goes to at most three persons a year.
Also asked from this topic: the Maharashtra cricketer given the Padma Shri 2026 (Rohit Sharma); the first para archer to receive the Padma Shri (Harvinder Singh, 2025).

Answer: Option 2 — Bengal Sati Regulation 1829
The Bengal Sati Regulation, Regulation XVII of 4 December 1829, declared sati illegal and punishable as culpable homicide in the Bengal Presidency.
It was issued by Governor-General Lord William Bentinck after the long campaign of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and was extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830.
Revision note — Social reform laws of British India
• Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829 — Lord William Bentinck; sati banned first in Bengal, then in Madras and Bombay in 1830.
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy campaigned against sati through his papers Sambad Kaumudi and Mirat-ul-Akhbar and through public debate; he founded the Atmiya Sabha (1815) and the Brahmo Samaj (1828).
• Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 — passed under Lord Canning on the campaign of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, legalising the remarriage of Hindu widows.
• Caste Disabilities Removal Act, 1850 — protected the property rights of a person who changed religion or lost caste.
• Age of Consent Act, 1891 — raised the age of consent for girls from 10 to 12 years, after the Phulmoni Dasi case and Behramji Malabari's campaign.
• Sharda Act (Child Marriage Restraint Act), 1929 — minimum marriage age 14 for girls, 18 for boys.
• Also remember the Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870 and the abolition of slavery by Act V of 1843.
• Bentinck's other measures: the suppression of thuggee with William Sleeman, and the English Education Act, 1835 after Macaulay's Minute.
Do not mix these up
• Bengal Sati Regulation 1829 vs Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856 — the first banned burning a widow, the second let her remarry; Bentinck and Ram Mohan Roy against Canning and Vidyasagar.
• Regulation vs Act — before 1833 the Governor-General in Council issued Regulations for a Presidency, which is why 1829 is a "Regulation" and 1856 an "Act".
Also asked from this topic: who introduced the 1829 law abolishing sati (Lord William Bentinck); the reformer behind it (Raja Ram Mohan Roy); the year widow remarriage was legalised (1856).

Answer: Option 3 — 8
India's National Air Quality Index, launched on 17 September 2014, is computed from eight pollutants.
They are PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3 and lead (Pb).
Revision note — National Air Quality Index (AQI)
• Launched at Delhi on 17 September 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the theme "One Number, One Colour, One Description".
• Published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; live data is on the Sameer app.
• Eight pollutants: PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, Pb. At least three must be monitored, and one of them must be PM10 or PM2.5.
• Six categories: Good 0-50, Satisfactory 51-100, Moderate 101-200, Poor 201-300, Very Poor 301-400, Severe 401-500.
• The AQI reported is the worst (highest) sub-index among the pollutants measured, never their average.
• Methane and carbon dioxide are not in the AQI — they are greenhouse gases, not criteria pollutants.
Do not mix these up
• AQI vs NAAQS — the AQI is a public communication index; the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, 2009 set legal limits for 12 pollutants.
• PM10 vs PM2.5 — PM10 is up to 10 micrometres across, PM2.5 up to 2.5 micrometres, which reaches deeper into the lungs.
Also asked from this topic: how many pollutants the AQI measures (8); the band for "Good" air (0-50); the body that releases the AQI (CPCB); the pollutant NOT covered by it (methane).

Answer: Option 2 — Parliament cannot alter the core identity of the Constitution
The basic structure doctrine was laid down in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973).
Parliament may amend any part of the Constitution under Article 368, but it cannot destroy or alter the basic structure.
Revision note — The basic structure doctrine
• Delivered on 24 April 1973 by the largest bench ever assembled in India — 13 judges — by a majority of 7:6, headed by Chief Justice S. M. Sikri.
• It overruled Golaknath (1967), which had held that Parliament could not abridge Fundamental Rights at all.
• The doctrine is nowhere written in the Constitution; the Court evolved it, and there is no closed list of basic features.
• The same judgment held for the first time that the Preamble is a part of the Constitution, reversing Berubari Union (1960).
• Features recognised as basic include supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law, judicial review, secularism, federalism, free and fair elections and separation of powers.
• In Minerva Mills (1980) the Court struck down Article 368(4) and (5) inserted by the 42nd Amendment (1976), holding that limited amending power is itself a basic feature.
• Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain (1975) was the first case in which a constitutional amendment (the 39th) was struck down using the doctrine.
Do not mix these up
• Kesavananda Bharati (1973) vs Golaknath (1967) — Golaknath barred any amendment of Fundamental Rights; Kesavananda allowed amendment but only outside the basic structure.
• Article 368 vs Article 13 — Article 368 grants the amending power; Article 13 voids ordinary laws that violate Fundamental Rights.
Also asked from this topic: the case that laid down the doctrine (Kesavananda Bharati, 1973); the case that first held the Preamble to be part of the Constitution (the same); the amending article (368).

Answer: Option 2 — Section 2(8)
All the definitions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 sit in Section 2, listed in alphabetical order.
“Document” is defined in Section 2(8) — matter expressed or described on any substance by letters, figures or marks, and it expressly includes electronic and digital records.
Revision note — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
• The BNS replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860; it received Presidential assent on 25 December 2023 and came into force on 1 July 2024.
• It has 358 sections in 20 chapters, against 511 sections in the IPC.
• Companion laws: the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 replaced the CrPC, 1973, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
• The alphabetical run in Section 2 gives 2(6) death, 2(8) document, 2(10) gender and 2(12) Government.
• Section 111 defines organised crime, Section 112 petty organised crime, Section 113 a terrorist act, and Section 103(2) covers mob lynching.
• Community service appears as a punishment for the first time in Indian criminal law, under Section 4.
• The three Bills were examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs chaired by Brij Lal.
Do not mix these up
• BNS vs BNSS vs BSA — the BNS is the substantive law of offences and punishments, the BNSS the procedural law, and the BSA the law of evidence.
• BNS 2(8) vs IPC Section 29 — the definition of “document” is substantially the same; only the numbering changed, with electronic records now written in.
Also asked from this topic: the law that replaced the IPC, 1860 (BNS); the number of sections in the BNS (358); the section on petty organised crime (112).