SSC Stenographer 2026 9 September 2026 Shift 2 GK Questions – with answers & solutions

Answer: Option 2 — Anandpur Sahib
Hola Mohalla is the three-day Sikh festival held at Anandpur Sahib in Rupnagar district, Punjab, on the day after Holi.
Revision note — Hola Mohalla
• Begun by the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, in 1701 at Anandpur Sahib, to keep the community trained in arms.
• The name joins halla, a military charge or mock attack, with mohalla, an organised column or procession.
• Guru Gobind Singh coined the masculine Hola against the feminine Holi.
• It falls on the first day of the lunar month of Chet, the day after Holi — usually in March.
• Nihang Sikhs display Gatka, tent-pegging, bareback riding and mock battles; the Guru Granth Sahib is recited and kirtan sung.
• Free community kitchens, the langars, feed the pilgrims through all three days.
• Anandpur Sahib is also where the Khalsa Panth was founded on Baisakhi 1699 and the Panj Pyare were initiated.
Do not mix these up
• Hola Mohalla vs Holi — Holi is the festival of colours; Hola Mohalla is the Sikh martial gathering held the day after it.
• Anandpur Sahib vs Amritsar — Anandpur Sahib is the birthplace of the Khalsa; Amritsar has the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple).
Also asked from this topic: the scripture recited during Hola Mohalla (Guru Granth Sahib); the literal meaning of the name (mock battle); the state of origin of Gatka (Punjab).

Answer: Option 2 — Sword dances and horse-riding mock battles
The Nihangs, the armed order of the Khalsa, mark Hola Mohalla with Gatka sword play, bareback riding and mock battles at Anandpur Sahib.
Revision note — Nihangs and Gatka
• Nihang Sikhs form the armed order traced to Guru Gobind Singh; they wear blue robes (chola) and the tall conical turban called a dumalla.
• Their two historic bodies are the Budha Dal and the Taruna Dal; they also call themselves the Akali army.
• Gatka is the Sikh martial art of Punjab, practised with the soti (wooden stick) and farri (shield), and also with sword and spear.
• At Hola Mohalla they perform tent-pegging (neza bazi), bareback horse riding and mock battles, closing with a grand procession.
• Langar, the free community kitchen begun by Guru Nanak, runs throughout the festival.
Do not mix these up
• Gatka vs Thang-Ta — Gatka is the Sikh stick-and-sword art of Punjab; Thang-Ta is the sword-and-spear art of Manipur.
• Nihang vs Namdhari — the Nihangs wear blue; the Namdharis (Kuka Sikhs) of Guru Ram Singh wear white and led the Kuka movement.
Also asked from this topic: what Hola Mohalla showcases (martial arts, langars and Nihang mock battles at Anandpur Sahib); the state of Gatka (Punjab).

Answer: Option 2 — Tangmuri
The tangmuri is the reed wind instrument of the Khasi people, played with the ksing drums at the Nongkrem dance of Meghalaya.
Revision note — Nongkrem dance of Meghalaya
• Ka Pomblang Nongkrem is a five-day harvest thanksgiving dance of the Khasi tribe, held at Smit, seat of the Syiem of Khyrim, near Shillong.
• It honours the goddess Ka Blei Synshar; the goat sacrifice, pomblang, gives the festival its name.
• Unmarried girls dance in the centre in gold and silver ornaments, while men circle them with a sword in the right hand and a white yak-hair whisk in the left.
• Instruments used — the tangmuri (wind), the ksing padiah and ksing shynrang drums, and the duitara (string).
• Other dances of Meghalaya — Shad Suk Mynsiem, the spring Dance of the Joyful Heart of the Khasis, and Shad Pliang, the plate dance.
• Wangala, the hundred-drums harvest festival, and Behdienkhlam belong to the Garos and the Jaintias respectively.
Do not mix these up
• Tangmuri vs pungi (been) — the tangmuri is the Khasi reed pipe of Meghalaya; the pungi, also called been, is the snake charmer's gourd pipe of north India.
• Nongkrem vs Wangala — Nongkrem belongs to the Khasis, Wangala to the Garos.
Also asked from this topic: the state of the Nongkrem dance (Meghalaya); the community of Ka Shad Suk Mynsiem (Khasi); the state of Shad Pliang (Meghalaya).

Answer: Option 2 — Ghagra, kurti, chundri and chunda
Women dancing Loor wear the ghagra and kurti with a chundri, the tie-dyed odhni, and the chunda, the traditional Haryanvi hair-bun ornament.
Revision note — Loor and the folk dances of Haryana
• Loor is a women's spring and Holi dance of the Bagar belt of Haryana, danced in a circle as a question-and-answer song.
• In the local dialect loor means "girl"; it is also linked to lur, the sowing of seed, so the dance greets the coming harvest.
• Ornaments worn with it include the hansli, kanthi, bajuband and pajeb.
• Other Haryana folk forms — Saang (Swang), the all-night folk theatre in which men take female roles, and Ghoomar, Khoria, Dhamal and Phag.
• Ragani is the narrative folk song of Haryana and has no link with the classical raga–ragini system.
Do not mix these up
• Loor vs Giddha — Loor is Haryanvi and tied to the spring and Holi season; Giddha is the Punjabi women's dance of weddings and harvest.
• Phulkari vs chundri — phulkari is the flower embroidery of Punjab; the chundri is the tie-dyed odhni of Haryana and Rajasthan.
Also asked from this topic: the state of the Loor dance (Haryana); the state of the Saang dance-drama (Haryana); the Haryanvi narrative folk song (Ragani).

Answer: Option 1 — Jerry Pinto
Em and the Big Hoom (2012) is Jerry Pinto's semi-autobiographical debut novel, set in a Goan Catholic family in Mahim, Bombay, and centred on a mother living with bipolar illness.
Revision note — Jerry Pinto and the semi-autobiographical Indian novel
• Em and the Big Hoom won the Sahitya Akademi Award for English (2016), The Hindu Literary Prize and the Crossword Book Award for fiction.
• Pinto's Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb won the National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema (2007); his later novel is Murder in Mahim.
• Other well-known semi-autobiographical Indian novels — The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond, The Serpent and the Rope by Raja Rao, and The Private Life of an Indian Prince by Mulk Raj Anand.
• Manu Joseph wrote Serious Men, which took The Hindu Literary Prize in 2010, and The Illicit Happiness of Other People.
• Shashi Tharoor wrote The Great Indian Novel, An Era of Darkness and Why I Am a Hindu; Chetan Bhagat wrote Five Point Someone and 2 States.
Do not mix these up
• Jerry Pinto vs Manu Joseph — both write of Bombay, but Em and the Big Hoom is Pinto's and Serious Men is Joseph's.
Also asked from this topic: the author of The Room on the Roof (Ruskin Bond); of The Serpent and the Rope (Raja Rao); of Low (Jeet Thayil).

Answer: Option 2 — Black, white, and red ochre
Prehistoric painters used the mineral pigments that lay to hand and that survive — red ochre (geru, haematite), white from limestone or kaolin, and black from charcoal or manganese.
Revision note — Prehistoric rock paintings in India
• The best-known site is Bhimbetka, in the Vindhyan foothills of Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, near the Narmada valley — a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003.
• V. S. Wakankar brought Bhimbetka to notice in 1957; of its 700-odd shelters about 400 carry paintings, running from the Upper Palaeolithic to the historic period.
• Pigments were ground from haematite, limestone or kaolin and charcoal or manganese, and bound with animal fat and plant gum; blue and green are rare.
• The oldest layers show bison, tigers, rhinoceros and hunters in dark red and green; later layers show dancing, horse riders and battle scenes.
• Other rock-art sites — Lakhudiyar in Uttarakhand, Jogimara caves in Chhattisgarh, Kupgallu and Piklihal in Karnataka, and Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh.
Do not mix these up
• Bhimbetka vs Ajanta — Bhimbetka is prehistoric rock-shelter art; Ajanta in Maharashtra holds Buddhist murals of the 2nd century BCE to the 6th century CE.
• Red ochre (geru) vs vermilion (sindoor) — geru is a natural iron oxide earth, used in rock art and in the lipane step of Warli painting; vermilion is mercuric sulphide, a manufactured pigment.
Also asked from this topic: the state of the Bhimbetka rock shelters (Madhya Pradesh); the river valley they lie near (Narmada); the age of the earliest paintings there (about 30,000 years).

Answer: Option 2 — Unresolved border disputes with a key transit country.
The only country lying between India and Afghanistan is Pakistan, and it does not grant Indian goods overland transit.
That refusal rests on the unresolved Jammu and Kashmir dispute, so the block is political, not economic.
Revision note — India's land connectivity to Central Asia
• India's only possible land bridge to Afghanistan runs through Pakistan.
• The Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (2010) lets Afghan goods reach India, but not Indian goods travel the other way.
• India therefore developed Chabahar Port in Sistan-Baluchestan, Iran, on the Gulf of Oman, to reach Afghanistan and Central Asia by sea and road while bypassing Pakistan.
• The Zaranj-Delaram highway, built by India's Border Roads Organisation, links the Chabahar route to Afghanistan's Garland Highway.
• The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), begun in 2000 by India, Iran and Russia, connects India to Central Asia, Russia and Europe through Iran.
• India's first consignment to Afghanistan through Chabahar, sent in October 2017, was wheat.
• India's only stretch of border facing Afghanistan lies across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which India claims but does not control.
Do not mix these up
• Chabahar vs Gwadar — Chabahar is in Iran and developed with Indian help; Gwadar is in Pakistan's Balochistan and developed with China.
• INSTC vs CPEC — the INSTC is the India-Iran-Russia corridor through Iran; the CPEC is the China-Pakistan corridor from Kashgar to Gwadar.
Also asked from this topic: the strategic value of Chabahar Port (bypassing Pakistan to trade with Afghanistan, SSC CGL 2025); the corridor reaching Central Asia through it (INSTC, SSC CGL 2025); India's first cargo to Afghanistan through it in 2017 (wheat, SSC GD 2026).

Answer: Option 2 — Skyroot Aerospace
Vikram-S, India's first privately built rocket, was developed by Skyroot Aerospace of Hyderabad.
It flew a suborbital mission named Prarambh from Sriharikota on 18 November 2022.
Revision note — India's private space sector
• Skyroot Aerospace, founded at Hyderabad in 2018, built Vikram-S; the Prarambh mission of 18 November 2022 reached a height of about 89.5 km.
• The Vikram series is named after Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme, who founded ISRO in 1969.
• Agnikul Cosmos, an IIT Madras start-up at Chennai, flew Agnibaan SOrTeD in May 2024.
• Its engine was the world's first single-piece 3D-printed rocket engine, flown from India's first private launchpad at Sriharikota.
• IN-SPACe, set up in 2020 with headquarters at Ahmedabad, is the single-window body that authorises and regulates private space activity.
• NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), formed in 2019, is ISRO's commercial arm; the earlier one was Antrix Corporation (1992).
• Other Indian space start-ups: Bellatrix Aerospace (in-space propulsion), Pixxel (hyperspectral imaging satellites), Dhruva Space and Astrome Technologies (communications).
Do not mix these up
• Skyroot vs Agnikul — Skyroot flew the first Indian private rocket, Vikram-S (2022); Agnikul flew Agnibaan (2024) with a 3D-printed engine.
• IN-SPACe vs NSIL — IN-SPACe authorises and regulates private players; NSIL sells ISRO's launches and products commercially.
Also asked from this topic: the developer of Vikram-S, India's first private launch vehicle (Skyroot Aerospace, SSC MTS 2026); the first private Indian company to launch a rocket into space (Skyroot Aerospace, SSC Selection Post 2025).

Answer: Option 2 — Dhrupad
Dhrupad is the oldest and most austere Hindustani vocal form.
A long, unhurried alap in nom-tom syllables develops one raga in full, and only then comes the composition, set to weighty talas such as Chautal (12 beats) and Dhamar (14 beats).
Thumri and tappa are light, romantic forms that move freely between ragas, so neither fits.
Revision note — Hindustani vocal forms
• Dhrupad: the oldest surviving form, grave and devotional, sung in Sanskrit and Braj Bhasha, accompanied by the pakhawaj and the tanpura.
• Its patron was Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior and Tansen its greatest exponent.
• In structure dhrupad has 2 parts — alap and dhrupad proper — and the composition has 4 parts: sthayi, antara, sanchari, abhog.
• Khayal (Persian-Arabic for imagination) later replaced dhrupad as the dominant form and allows free improvisation.
• Khayal is sung as bada khayal in vilambit (slow) laya and chhota khayal in drut (fast) laya.
• Amir Khusrau is traditionally credited with the origin of khayal and Sultan Hussain Sharqi of Jaunpur with its development.
• Thumri: a light romantic form of Lucknow and Banaras, usually on Radha-Krishna themes, valuing bhav over strict grammar — Rasoolan Bai, Begum Akhtar, Girija Devi.
• Tappa: a fast form of quick, knotty phrases, grown from the songs of the camel drivers of Punjab and refined by Shori Miyan.
• Dhamar is sung in Dhamar tala on Holi themes; Tarana uses meaningless syllables; a Bandish is the fixed composition of a khayal, the Carnatic equivalent being the kriti.
• Living dhrupad gharanas: Darbhanga and Bettiah in Bihar, and the Dagar tradition.
Do not mix these up
• Dhrupad vs khayal — both develop a raga in depth, but dhrupad is austere, devotional and pakhawaj-accompanied, while khayal is ornamental, improvisatory and tabla-accompanied.
• Thumri vs tappa — both are light forms, but thumri is slow and expressive while tappa is fast with rapid rolling phrases.
Also asked from this topic: the form with a 'sombre atmosphere' stressing rhythm (Dhrupad, SSC CGL 2025); the style of which vilambit and drut are varieties (Khayal, RRB NTPC GL 2025).

Answer: Option 3 — Membranophone
The pakhawaj is a barrel-shaped two-headed drum whose sound comes from a stretched skin (membrane), so it is a membranophone.
In the classical Indian scheme this is the Avanaddha Vadya group.
Revision note — Classification of Indian musical instruments
• The ancient classification, given in Bharata's Natyashastra, has four groups: Tata, Sushira, Avanaddha and Ghana.
• Tata Vadya — chordophones (string): sitar, sarod, veena, santoor, sarangi, violin, tanpura.
• Sushira Vadya — aerophones (wind): flute (bansuri), shehnai, nadaswaram, harmonium, conch, pungi.
• Avanaddha Vadya — membranophones (skin percussion): tabla, pakhawaj, mridangam, dholak, dhol, nagara, khol.
• Ghana Vadya — idiophones (solid, self-sounding): manjira, jhanjh, ghatam, morsing, jaltarang, ghungroo.
• The pakhawaj is regarded as the predecessor of the tabla, said to have been made by splitting it into two drums.
• It accompanies dhrupad and the Jaipur gharana of Kathak, and is played with flat, full-palm strokes for a deep resonant tone.
Do not mix these up
• Membranophone vs idiophone — in a membranophone a stretched skin vibrates (tabla, pakhawaj); in an idiophone the solid body itself vibrates (manjira, ghatam), with no skin at all.
• Pakhawaj vs mridangam — both are barrel drums, but the pakhawaj belongs to Hindustani music and the mridangam to Carnatic music.
Also asked from this topic: the group of Indian instruments known as membranophones (Avanaddha Vadya, SSC MTS 2026); the instrument regarded as the tabla's predecessor (Pakhawaj, RRB NTPC UG 2026).

Answer: Option 3 — Only 1 and 3
Statement 1 is true: the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family is spoken by about three-quarters of Indians over the largest area.
Statement 3 is true: Tamil and Malayalam are Dravidian.
Statement 2 is false: besides Odia, the state of Odisha also has Austroasiatic (Munda) languages such as Santali and Ho and Dravidian languages such as Kui and Kuvi.
Revision note — Language families of India
• Indo-Aryan (Indo-European): the largest family, about 78 per cent of speakers — Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Gujarati, Assamese, Urdu, Konkani, Maithili, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Nepali, Sanskrit.
• Dravidian: about 19 per cent — Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and tribal languages such as Gondi, Kurukh (Oraon), Brahui (spoken far away in Pakistan).
• Austroasiatic (Austric): the Munda group — Santali, Ho, Mundari, Khasi, spoken in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Meghalaya.
• Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman): Bodo, Manipuri (Meitei), Garo, Lepcha, Mizo, Naga languages of the north-east and the Himalayas.
• The Eighth Schedule now lists 22 languages; Sindhi was added by the 21st Amendment (1967) and Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali by the 71st Amendment (1992).
• Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment (2003).
• Classical language status: Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada and Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), Odia (2014), and five more in 2024.
Do not mix these up
• Indo-Aryan vs Dravidian — Odia, Bengali and Marathi are Indo-Aryan; Kurukh, Gondi and Brahui look tribal or distant but are Dravidian.
• Santhali vs Bodo — both are Eighth Schedule languages of the east, but Santhali is Austroasiatic (Munda) and Bodo is Tibeto-Burman.
Also asked from this topic: the most spoken language family in India (Indo-European / Indo-Aryan, SSC MTS 2026); the Tibeto-Burman language in the Eighth Schedule (Bodo, RRB NTPC GL 2026).

Answer: Option 2 — 2 points
A super tackle is a tackle made when the defending side is down to three or fewer players on the mat.
Because the defenders are outnumbered, the successful tackle earns them 2 points instead of the usual 1, and the extra point does not revive an out player.
Revision note — Kabaddi scoring and rules
• A raid point goes to the raider for each defender touched; a tackle point goes to the defenders for stopping him. A super tackle is worth 2 points.
• A bonus point is earned when the raider crosses the bonus line with one foot beyond it and the other in the air, and only while the defending side has at least 6 players on the mat.
• A super raid is a raid that earns 3 or more points in one go; all out — putting the whole opposing team out — gives 2 extra points.
• A raid must be completed within 30 seconds, and the raider must keep up the continuous chant of “kabaddi” called the cant.
• Court size: 13 m × 10 m for senior men and 12 m × 8 m for women and junior boys; a team has 7 players on the mat with 5 substitutes.
• A standard match is 40 minutes — two halves of 20 minutes with a 5-minute interval. A tie goes to Golden Raids, five each, then a fresh toss.
• Cards: green is a warning, yellow a two-minute suspension and red a dismissal. The Pro Kabaddi League began in 2014, won by the Jaipur Pink Panthers.
Do not mix these up
• Super tackle vs super raid — a super tackle is by the defenders (2 points, three or fewer men left); a super raid is by the raider (3 or more points in one raid).
• Bonus point vs touch point — the bonus point is for crossing the bonus line; a touch point is for actually touching a defender.
Also asked from this topic: the minimum number of defenders on the mat for a bonus point (6, SSC GD 2026); the year the Pro Kabaddi League started (2014, SSC GD 2026).

Answer: Option 3 — Hindustani Music : Developed under significant Turko-Persian cultural influence
Hindustani music took shape in the north under the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal courts, absorbing Turko-Persian forms, instruments and patronage.
Carnatic music in the south stayed closer to the older tradition.
Revision note — Indian classical music
• Raga is the melodic framework — a chosen set of swaras with fixed rules of ascent (aroha) and descent (avaroha); tala is the rhythmic cycle of beats (matras).
• Teentaal has 16 matras in four vibhags of four; the sam falls on matra 1 and the khali on matra 9.
• Ragas are classified by the number of notes used — Audav (5), Shadav (6) and Sampoorna (7).
• Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860–1936) devised the modern Hindustani notation, wrote Kramik Pustak Maalika and grouped ragas into 10 thaats.
• Venkatamakhi gave the 72-melakarta scheme of Carnatic music in the 17th-century Chaturdandi Prakashika.
• The fixed composition is called a bandish in Hindustani music and a kriti in Carnatic music; a Carnatic concert opens with a varnam and closes with a tillana.
• Amir Khusrau of the Delhi Sultanate is traditionally credited with the khayal and qawwali — the clearest mark of the Turko-Persian layer.
Do not mix these up
• Raga vs tala — raga is melody, tala is rhythm. Options 1 and 2 of this question simply swap the two.
• Bandish vs kriti — the same idea of a fixed composition, Hindustani and Carnatic respectively.
• Hindustani vs Carnatic — Hindustani leans on improvisation within the raga; Carnatic is built around pre-composed kritis, so calling it purely improvised is wrong.
Also asked from this topic: the term for a fixed Hindustani composition (bandish); the matra on which khali falls in Teentaal (9th); the jaati of a six-note raga (Shadav); the 10 thaats (Bhatkhande).

Answer: Option 3 — Udupi, Karnataka
The All India Inter-University Men's Kabaddi Championship 2023–24 was hosted in Udupi, Karnataka.
Inter-university nationals are conducted by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and awarded to a host university each season, so the venue moves every year.
Revision note — Kabaddi essentials
• The court is rectangular, never circular — 13 m × 10 m for senior men and 12 m × 8 m for women and junior boys.
• A team has 12 players, of whom 7 are on the mat; a men's match is two halves of 20 minutes, a women's match two halves of 15 minutes.
• A raider crossing the bonus line earns a bonus point only when the defending side has at least 6 players on the mat.
• Cards: green is a warning, yellow a two-minute suspension, red a dismissal; a tied match goes to Golden Raids, and a fresh toss follows if the scores are still level after five raids each.
• Kabaddi's rules were framed in 1918, printed in 1923 and first applied at a Baroda tournament.
• Regional names: Hu-Tu-Tu in western India, Hadudu in Bengal, Chedugudu in Andhra Pradesh.
• The Pro Kabaddi League began on 26 July 2014, won in its first season by the Jaipur Pink Panthers; India's women won their first Asian Games gold at Guangzhou in 2010.
Do not mix these up
• Men's vs women's kabaddi court — 13 m × 10 m against 12 m × 8 m; neither court is ever circular.
• MAKA Trophy vs Khel Ratna — the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy goes to the best university in inter-university sport; the Khel Ratna goes to an individual athlete.
Also asked from this topic: the standard women's kabaddi court (12 m × 8 m); the defenders needed on the mat for a bonus point (6); the year the Pro Kabaddi League started (2014).

Answer: Option 2 — Only 2 and 3 are correct
⚠️ Note: statement 2 says "touch play"; the Kho-Kho term is simply touch. Read it as that term — the key does not depend on it, since statement 1 is plainly false and there is no "only 3" option.
Statement 1 is false: an international kabaddi court is rectangular, 13 m × 10 m for men, not circular.
Touch is the Kho-Kho term for a chaser putting a palm on a runner, and En Passant is a genuine chess move, so statements 2 and 3 stand.
Revision note — Kabaddi, Kho-Kho and chess terms
• Kabaddi court: rectangular, 13 m × 10 m (men) and 12 m × 8 m (women); 7 of the 12 players are on the mat.
• Kho-Kho pitch: also rectangular, 29 m × 16 m including the free zones; 9 of the 12 players take the field and 3 defenders enter at a time.
• Kho-Kho terms: kho, touch, pole dive, biped (running upright on two legs), late kho, free zone; a chaser may change direction only in the free zone beyond the poles.
• Kabaddi terms: raid, toe touch, bonus line, lobby, do-or-die raid.
• En passant is a pawn capture available only on the very next move after an enemy pawn advances two squares from its starting rank; the right lapses if it is not used at once.
• Other chess terms: zugzwang (any move worsens the position), castling, stalemate, gambit.
• Wilhelm Steinitz was the first official World Chess Champion (1886) and Viswanathan Anand India's first Grandmaster (1988).
• The first official All India Kho-Kho Championship was held at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
Do not mix these up
• Kabaddi court vs Kho-Kho pitch — both rectangular, but 13 m × 10 m against 29 m × 16 m.
• En passant vs castling — en passant is a pawn capture; castling is a combined king-and-rook move.
Also asked from this topic: the sport in which "en passant" is played (chess); the sport "zugzwang" belongs to (chess); the shape of a Kho-Kho pitch (rectangular).

Answer: Option 2 — Raksha Bandhan
On Raksha Bandhan a sister ties a rakhi, a sacred thread, on her brother's wrist and he promises her protection in return.
The name itself says it — raksha means protection and bandhan means bond.
Revision note — Raksha Bandhan and the festivals around it
• Raksha Bandhan falls on the full moon (Purnima) of the month of Shravan, usually in July or August.
• The same full moon is Narali Purnima in coastal Maharashtra, when coconuts are offered to the sea, and Avani Avittam (Upakarma) in the south, when the sacred thread is changed.
• It is also Kajari Purnima in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, Pavitropana in Gujarat and Janai Purnima in Nepal and the hills.
• The other brother-and-sister festival is Bhai Dooj, two days after Diwali, when the sister puts a tilak on her brother's forehead; in Nepal and Sikkim it is Bhai Tika, part of Tihar.
• Rabindranath Tagore turned Raksha Bandhan into a protest of unity during the Partition of Bengal in 1905, asking Hindus and Muslims to tie threads on one another's wrists.
• In tradition the thread is linked to Indra and Sachi, and to Draupadi tying a strip of cloth on Krishna's wrist in the Mahabharata.
Do not mix these up
• Raksha Bandhan vs Bhai Dooj — Raksha Bandhan is on Shravan Purnima and turns on the rakhi thread; Bhai Dooj comes just after Diwali and turns on the tilak.
• Raksha Bandhan vs Guru Purnima — Guru Purnima, on the full moon of Ashadha, honours the teacher, not a sibling.
Also asked from this topic: the number of days for which Pongal is celebrated (four); the Tamil Nadu bull-taming sport held on Mattu Pongal (Jallikattu); the festival celebrated as Tihar in Sikkim (Diwali).

Answer: Option 1 — Diwali
Diwali marks the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile and his victory over Ravana, and the city welcomed him with rows of lamps.
That is also where the name comes from — deepavali = a row (avali) of lamps (deepa).
Revision note — Diwali
• Diwali falls on the new moon (Amavasya) of the month of Kartika, usually in October or November.
• It runs over five days — Dhanteras, Naraka Chaturdashi (Chhoti Diwali), Lakshmi Puja, Govardhan Puja (Annakut) and Bhai Dooj.
• For Jains the day marks the nirvana of Mahavira (527 BCE); for Sikhs it is Bandi Chhor Divas, the release of Guru Hargobind with 52 kings from Gwalior Fort in 1619.
• In Sikkim and Nepal Diwali is Tihar, a five-day festival that includes the worship of crows, dogs, cows and oxen and ends with Bhai Tika.
• In the eighteenth century the Sikh misls assembled at Amritsar on Baisakhi and Diwali to take collective decisions called gurmatas.
• The Bateshwar fair of Uttar Pradesh, on the Yamuna in Agra district, starts a few days before Diwali and runs about three weeks.
• The Suwa (parrot) dance of Chhattisgarh is performed by women around Diwali.
Do not mix these up
• Diwali vs Dussehra — Dussehra (Vijayadashami) marks the killing of Ravana; Diwali, twenty days later, marks Rama's return to Ayodhya.
• Diwali vs Bhai Dooj — Bhai Dooj is the fifth and last day of the Diwali cluster, not a separate festival of lights.
Also asked from this topic: the festival celebrated as Tihar in Sikkim (Diwali); what Bandi Chhor Divas commemorates (Guru Hargobind's release with 52 kings); where the Sikh misls met at Baisakhi and Diwali (Amritsar); the state of the Bateshwar fair held just before Diwali (Uttar Pradesh).

Answer: Option 3 — 7.26 kg
The shot used by senior men in international athletics weighs 7.26 kg, which is exactly 16 pounds.
The women's shot weighs 4 kg.
Revision note — Shot put
• Weights: men 7.26 kg, women 4 kg; the under-20 men use 6 kg and under-18 boys 5 kg.
• The throwing circle is 2.135 m (7 feet) across, with a curved stop board in front, and the landing sector opens out at 34.92 degrees.
• The shot must be put — pushed out from the shoulder with one hand — never thrown; a throw is a foul if the athlete touches the top of the stop board or leaves from the front half of the circle.
• The two standard techniques are the glide (O'Brien) and the spin (rotational) style.
• Shot put is one of the events of the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon; it has been an Olympic event since 1896 for men and 1948 for women.
• Tajinderpal Singh Toor won the Asian Games shot put gold twice — 2018 (Jakarta) and 2022 (Hangzhou).
• Deepa Malik took silver in the F53 shot put at Rio 2016, the first Paralympic medal won by an Indian woman.
Do not mix these up
• Weights of the throwing implements (men) — shot 7.26 kg, hammer 7.26 kg, discus 2 kg, javelin 800 g.
• Put vs throw — the shot is put from the shoulder, while the javelin is thrown and the discus and hammer are swung and released.
Also asked from this topic: the official weight of a men's shot (7.26 kg); the sport in which Tajinderpal Singh Toor won two Asian Games golds (shot put); the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal (Deepa Malik).

Answer: Option 1 — Only Statement 1 is correct
The Rigveda's hymns are indeed addressed to Indra, Agni and Soma, so Statement 1 holds.
Statement 2 fails twice over: Rigvedic society was rural and pastoral, and iron was not yet known to it.
Revision note — Rigvedic (Early Vedic) society
• Period roughly 1500–1000 BCE; the homeland was Sapta Sindhu, the land of seven rivers, covering present-day Punjab and the neighbouring region.
• The Rigveda has 10 mandalas and 1,028 hymns; Mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest family books, and 1, 8, 9 and 10 are later.
• Indra receives the most hymns, about 250, and Agni about 200; Mandala 9 is given wholly to Soma.
• The economy was pastoral — cattle were wealth, which is why gomat means rich, gavishti (a search for cows) means war, and duhitri (daughter) means one who milks.
• The metal known was copper or bronze, called ayas; iron — krishna ayas — appears only in Later Vedic texts, and towns belong to that later phase too.
• The Rigveda separates arya varna from dasa varna; the rigid birth-based fourfold order is Later Vedic, and the Purusha Sukta of Mandala 10 is the single hymn naming all four varnas.
Do not mix these up
• Early Vedic vs Later Vedic — Early Vedic is pastoral, copper-using and townless; Later Vedic (1000–600 BCE) is agricultural, iron-using and organised into janapadas.
• Rigveda vs Samaveda — the Samaveda mostly reuses Rigvedic verses set to melody, which is why it is called the Veda of music.
Also asked from this topic: the number of mandalas in the Rigveda (10); the Rigvedic homeland (Sapta Sindhu); the meaning of Rik (a sacred hymn).

Answer: Option 3 — Umling La, Ladakh
The Border Roads Organisation, through Project Himank, built the tarred road over Umling La in eastern Ladakh at about 19,024 feet (5,799 m) — the world's highest motorable road.
Revision note — Umling La and the BRO
• Umling La lies in the Chumar sector of eastern Ladakh; the 52 km road was completed in 2021 and holds a Guinness World Record.
• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was raised in 1960 under the Ministry of Defence; its motto is "Shramena Sarvam Sadhyam" — everything is achievable through hard work.
• Project Himank, raised in 1985, maintains the roads of the Leh region of Ladakh, including Khardung La, Chang La and the Leh–Manali highway.
• The Atal Tunnel beneath Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh, 9.02 km long at about 10,000 feet, was built by the BRO and opened in October 2020.
• Nathu La in Sikkim is a trade pass on the old Silk Route, reopened in 2006; Zoji La links the Kashmir valley with Ladakh.
• Ladakh is called the Land of High Passes, from the Tibetan La-dags.
Do not mix these up
• Umling La vs Khardung La — Khardung La, about 17,582 ft, was for years advertised as the highest motorable road, but Umling La at 19,024 ft now holds the record.
• Rohtang Pass vs the Atal Tunnel — the tunnel was bored beneath the pass so that Lahaul–Spiti stays connected in winter; it is not a road over the pass.
Also asked from this topic: the Union Territory known as the Land of High Passes (Ladakh); the pass joining Ladakh to the Kashmir valley (Zoji La); the builder of the Zaranj–Delaram highway in Afghanistan (BRO).

Answer: Option 3 — They are active galactic nuclei powered by supermassive black holes.
A quasar, short for quasi-stellar radio source, is the blazing nucleus of a distant galaxy, lit by matter spiralling into a supermassive black hole.
Revision note — Quasars and active galaxies
• Quasars were identified in 1963 by Maarten Schmidt, who measured the large redshift of 3C 273 and showed it was billions of light years away, not a nearby star.
• The power comes from the accretion disc around a black hole of millions to billions of solar masses; a quasar can outshine every star of its host galaxy together.
• Quasars, blazars, Seyfert galaxies and radio galaxies are all active galactic nuclei; what mainly differs is the angle from which we see the disc and its jets.
• Being so far off, quasars are seen as they were in the early universe, which makes them useful cosmological beacons.
• A pulsar, by contrast, is a rapidly rotating, highly magnetised neutron star sending out regular radio pulses — found by Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967.
• Above the Chandrasekhar limit of about 1.4 solar masses a white dwarf cannot survive; the star ends as a neutron star or a black hole.
Do not mix these up
• Quasar vs pulsar — a quasar is a galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole; a pulsar is a single spinning neutron star.
• Black hole vs event horizon — the event horizon is only the boundary beyond which light cannot escape, so the X-rays we detect come from the hot accretion disc outside it.
Also asked from this topic: the telescope that first imaged a black hole (Event Horizon Telescope, 2019); the Chandrasekhar limit (about 1.4 solar masses); what pulsars are (rapidly rotating neutron stars).

Answer: Option 2 — Solar Eclipse
A solar eclipse happens at new moon, when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth and its shadow falls on the Earth's surface.
Revision note — Eclipses
• Solar eclipse: the order is Sun — Moon — Earth; it can occur only on a new moon day, and the Moon's shadow falls on the Earth.
• Lunar eclipse: the order is Sun — Earth — Moon; it can occur only on a full moon day, and the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon.
• The Moon's shadow has a dark inner cone, the umbra, which gives a total eclipse, and a lighter outer cone, the penumbra, which gives a partial one.
• An annular solar eclipse leaves a bright ring of fire because the Moon is near apogee and looks too small to cover the Sun's disc.
• An eclipse does not happen every month because the Moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees to the plane of the Earth's orbit; eclipses occur only when the Moon is near a node.
• A solar eclipse is seen only along a narrow track and lasts a few minutes; a lunar eclipse is seen from the whole night side of the Earth and lasts for hours.
Do not mix these up
• Solar vs lunar eclipse — in a solar eclipse the Moon is in the middle and it is a new moon; in a lunar eclipse the Earth is in the middle and it is a full moon.
• Umbra vs penumbra — the umbra produces the total phase, the penumbra only a partial dimming.
Also asked from this topic: the eclipse in which the Moon casts its shadow on the Earth (solar eclipse, at new moon, SSC Stenographer 2025); the alignment of Sun, Earth and Moon in which one casts a shadow on another (an eclipse, SSC Selection Post 2025).

Answer: Option 4 — Summer Solstice
On the summer solstice, about 21 June, the Sun's rays fall vertically on the Tropic of Cancer, so the Northern Hemisphere gets its longest day and shortest night.
Revision note — Solstices and equinoxes
• Summer solstice, 21 June: the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer (23½° N) — longest day in the Northern Hemisphere, shortest in the Southern.
• Winter solstice, 22 December: the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn (23½° S) — shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Vernal equinox, 21 March and autumnal equinox, 23 September: the Sun is overhead at the Equator and day and night are equal everywhere.
• At the June solstice every place at and north of the Arctic Circle (66½° N) has 24 hours of daylight — the midnight Sun.
• Seasons occur because the Earth's axis is tilted 23½° from the perpendicular to its orbital plane and keeps pointing the same way through the year.
• The Earth is actually farthest from the Sun (aphelion, about 4 July) during the northern summer, so distance is not the cause of the seasons.
Do not mix these up
• Solstice vs equinox — a solstice is the extreme position of the overhead Sun, giving the longest or shortest day; an equinox is its crossing of the Equator, when day and night are equal.
• Summer solstice vs aphelion — the solstice depends on the tilt, the aphelion on distance; the two are unrelated.
Also asked from this topic: the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere (summer solstice, 21 June, SSC GD 2026); the overhead-Sun latitude at that solstice (Tropic of Cancer, RRB NTPC 2026); the latitude with the longest June daylight (66½° N, RRB NTPC 2026).

Answer: Option 3 — Gutenberg Discontinuity
The Gutenberg discontinuity, at a depth of about 2,900 km, is the boundary between the mantle and the outer core.
P-wave velocity drops sharply there and S-waves stop altogether, because the outer core is liquid.
Revision note — Interior of the Earth and its discontinuities
• Conrad discontinuity — inside the crust, between the upper sialic layer and the lower simatic layer.
• Mohorovicic (Moho) discontinuity — between the crust and the mantle; identified by Andrija Mohorovicic in 1909.
• The Moho lies about 35 km down under the continents but only about 5 km under the ocean floor.
• Repetti discontinuity — between the upper and the lower mantle.
• Gutenberg discontinuity — between the mantle and the outer core, at about 2,900 km.
• Lehmann discontinuity — between the outer core and the inner core, at about 5,150 km; named after Inge Lehmann, who showed in 1936 that the inner core is solid.
• The Earth's radius is about 6,371 km. Because S-waves cannot travel through the liquid outer core, no direct S-waves are recorded anywhere beyond 105° from the epicentre; the band between 105° and 145° is the shadow zone of P-waves (NCERT figures; seismology texts give about 103°–142°).
• The core is also called NIFE, from nickel and iron, the metals that make it up.
Do not mix these up
• Moho vs Gutenberg — Moho is the crust-mantle boundary; Gutenberg is the mantle-core boundary.
• Gutenberg vs Lehmann — Gutenberg separates mantle from outer core; Lehmann separates outer core from inner core.
Also asked from this topic: the discontinuity that separates the crust from the mantle (Moho, SSC GD 2026); the depth of the boundary between the mantle and the core (about 2,900 km, RRB NTPC 2026).

Answer: Option 4 — A shift from conventional to solar energy
Bhadla Solar Park, in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, has a capacity of about 2,245 MW and is India's largest solar park.
It stands for the country's move away from coal-based conventional power towards renewable solar power.
Revision note — Solar power in India
• Bhadla Solar Park — at Bhadla, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan; about 2,245 MW over roughly 14,000 acres; among the largest solar parks in the world.
• Other large parks: Pavagada or Shakti Sthala (Karnataka), Kurnool Ultra Mega (Andhra Pradesh), Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) and Charanka (Gujarat).
• Rajasthan leads India in installed solar capacity, because the Thar offers high insolation and flat, arid, thinly populated land.
• The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was launched by India and France at COP-21, Paris, in 2015; its headquarters is at Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, Haryana.
• The National Solar Mission (JNNSM) began in 2010. Under the Panchamrit pledge made at COP-26, Glasgow (2021), India aims at 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030.
• PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana (2024) brings rooftop solar to one crore households, and PM-KUSUM funds solar pumps for farmers.
Do not mix these up
• Solar park vs solar power plant — a park is a large site with shared land, grid and water where many developers build; a plant is a single generating unit inside it.
• Bhadla vs Pavagada — Bhadla is the larger one, in Rajasthan; Pavagada, called Shakti Sthala, is in Tumakuru district, Karnataka.
Also asked from this topic: the state holding Bhadla Solar Park (Rajasthan, RRB NTPC 2026); India's largest solar park as of 2025 (Bhadla, RRB NTPC 2026); the first district to meet its daytime power demand from solar energy (Diu, RRB NTPC 2025).

Answer: Option 3 — Rich in iron ore, coal, and raw materials
Iron and steel is a weight-losing, raw-material-oriented industry, so the plant is built close to its ore and coking coal rather than to its market.
The Chota Nagpur Plateau has both together, with manganese, limestone, water and cheap labour as well.
Revision note — Iron and steel industry of India
• The Chota Nagpur Plateau, mainly in Jharkhand with parts of Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, is the mineral heartland of India.
• It is also called the Ruhr of India, after Germany's coal-and-steel region.
• Coking coal comes from the Damodar valley fields — Jharia, Raniganj and Bokaro; iron ore comes from Singhbhum, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj.
• TISCO, Jamshedpur, on the Subarnarekha river, was set up in 1907 by Dorabji Tata to the plan of his father Jamsetji Tata (who died in 1904); it began production in 1912 — India's first major steel plant.
• The three plants of the Second Five Year Plan (1956) all began production in 1959 — Bhilai, Chhattisgarh (USSR), Rourkela, Odisha (West Germany), Durgapur, West Bengal (UK).
• Later plants: Bokaro (1964, USSR collaboration), Visakhapatnam, Salem (stainless steel) and Bhadravati (Karnataka).
• Most public-sector plants are run by SAIL, formed in 1973. India is the world's second largest crude steel producer, after China.
Do not mix these up
• Iron ore vs coking coal — a steel plant needs both; coal comes from the Damodar valley and ore from the Singhbhum-Keonjhar belt, which is why the plants sit between them.
• Jamshedpur vs Durgapur — Jamshedpur is on the Subarnarekha in Jharkhand and is private (TISCO); Durgapur is on the Damodar in West Bengal and is public (SAIL).
Also asked from this topic: why the iron industry clusters in Chota Nagpur (minerals with water and labour, SSC Selection Post 2025); the storehouse of minerals (Chota Nagpur Plateau, Delhi Police 2026); the Ruhr of India (Chota Nagpur Plateau, SSC CPO 2025); the river at Durgapur Steel Plant (Damodar, RRB NTPC 2025).

Answer: Option 1 — Catchment area
The catchment area (also called the drainage basin or river basin) is the whole tract of land from which rain and surface runoff drain into one river and its tributaries.
A delta, an estuary and a tributary are parts of a river system, not the land area that feeds it.
Revision note — Drainage basins and river terms
• Catchment / drainage basin: the area drained by a single river system.
• Two neighbouring basins are separated by an upland line called the water divide or watershed. The Vindhya Range is the watershed between the Ganga and the Narmada systems.
• Tributary: a smaller stream that joins a main river. Distributary: a channel that leaves the main river near its mouth — distributaries build a delta.
• The Ganga has the largest river basin in India, about 8.6 lakh sq km inside the country, roughly a quarter of India's area.
• The Ganga–Brahmaputra (Sundarban) delta is the largest delta in the world, shared by West Bengal and Bangladesh.
• A river ends in a delta where it drops its silt in many channels, and in an estuary where the mouth is a single funnel-shaped inlet — the Narmada and the Tapi form estuaries.
Do not mix these up
• Tributary vs distributary — a tributary adds water to the river; a distributary takes water away from it.
• Delta vs estuary — a delta is built of deposited silt in a branching mouth; an estuary is a drowned single mouth where fresh and salt water mix.
• Catchment vs water divide — the catchment is the area; the water divide is the ridge line that bounds it.
Also asked from this topic: the area from which all precipitation flows into one river system (drainage basin, SSC Selection Post 2025); what 'watershed' means (river catchment area, RRB NTPC UG 2025).

Answer: Option 3 — It includes rivers shaped by terrain and rainfall
A drainage system is a natural network, and its pattern is decided by relief, slope, rock structure and rainfall — not by canals or state borders.
India's rivers include both snow-fed Himalayan rivers and rain-fed peninsular rivers, so “only perennial Himalayan rivers” is far too narrow.
Revision note — The Indian drainage system
• Indian rivers fall into Himalayan rivers and Peninsular rivers. The three great Himalayan systems are the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.
• Himalayan rivers are perennial, fed by snowmelt and monsoon rain; they are antecedent (older than the mountains), cut deep gorges and build wide flood plains and deltas.
• Peninsular rivers are mostly seasonal (rain-fed), flow in shallow, broad valleys and have almost fixed courses.
• East-flowing peninsular rivers — Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri — reach the Bay of Bengal and form deltas. The Godavari is the longest, called the Dakshina Ganga.
• West-flowing Narmada and Tapi run in rift valleys to the Arabian Sea and form estuaries.
• By outflow, about 77 per cent of India's drainage area goes to the Bay of Bengal and about 23 per cent to the Arabian Sea; by size, basins are major (over 20,000 sq km), medium and minor.
• Common drainage patterns: dendritic (tree-like, on uniform rock), trellis, radial (from a dome such as Amarkantak) and centripetal.
Do not mix these up
• Himalayan vs peninsular rivers — Himalayan rivers are perennial and youthful with V-shaped valleys; peninsular rivers are seasonal and have reached a graded, mature stage.
• Antecedent vs consequent river — an antecedent river (Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra) existed before the uplift and cut through it; a consequent river only follows the existing slope.
Also asked from this topic: the peninsular rivers that fall into the Arabian Sea (Narmada and Tapi, SSC GD 2026); the river of which the Lohit is a tributary (Brahmaputra, SSC CGL 2025).

Answer: Option 2 — Article 43 – Living wage for workers
Article 43 asks the State to secure a living wage and a decent standard of life for all workers — the classic socialistic, that is economic, Directive Principle.
Article 40 is Gandhian, and Articles 44 and 48A are liberal-intellectual.
Revision note — Directive Principles and their three groups
• The DPSPs are Part IV, Articles 36–51, borrowed from the Constitution of Ireland (1937); Article 37 makes them non-justiciable yet fundamental in the governance of the country.
• Socialistic (economic), part one: 38 social order for welfare · 39 equitable distribution and equal pay for equal work · 39A free legal aid · 41 right to work and education.
• Socialistic (economic), part two: 42 humane conditions of work and maternity relief · 43 living wage · 43A workers in management · 47 nutrition and public health.
• Gandhian: 40 village panchayats · 43 cottage industries · 43B co-operative societies · 46 welfare of SCs, STs and weaker sections · 48 cow slaughter and animal husbandry.
• Liberal-intellectual: 44 uniform civil code · 45 early childhood care below six years · 48A environment and wildlife · 50 judiciary separate from executive · 51 international peace.
• Articles 39A, 43A and 48A were inserted by the 42nd Amendment (1976); Article 43B by the 97th Amendment (2011); Article 45 was recast by the 86th Amendment (2002).
Do not mix these up
• Article 43 vs Article 42 — 43 is the living wage and decent standard of life; 42 is just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.
• Article 48 vs Article 48A — 48 covers agriculture and animal husbandry, including the cow slaughter ban; 48A covers the environment, forests and wildlife.
Also asked from this topic: the Article giving a living wage (Article 43); the Article on maternity relief (Article 42); the country the DPSPs came from (Ireland).

Answer: Option 1 — If the Rajya Sabha passes a resolution by a special majority that it is necessary in the national interest.
This is Article 249, a special power of the Rajya Sabha alone.
The resolution must be supported by not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, and it lets Parliament legislate on a named State List subject in the national interest.
Revision note — Parliament's power over the State List
• Article 249 — on a Rajya Sabha resolution passed by a two-thirds majority of members present and voting, Parliament may legislate on a State subject for one year, renewable one year at a time.
• Such a law lapses six months after the Article 249 resolution expires.
• Article 250 — during a National Emergency Parliament may legislate on any State subject; such a law lapses six months after the emergency ends.
• Article 252 — when two or more state legislatures pass resolutions requesting it, Parliament may legislate for those states; other states may adopt the law later.
• Article 253 — Parliament may legislate on any State subject to implement an international treaty, agreement or convention.
• Article 356 — while President's Rule is in force, Parliament exercises the state legislature's power.
• The Seventh Schedule holds the three lists — Union (97 entries originally), State (66 originally) and Concurrent (47 originally).
• Residuary powers rest with the Union under Article 248.
• The 42nd Amendment, 1976 moved education, forests, weights and measures, protection of wild animals and birds, and administration of justice from the State List to the Concurrent List.
Do not mix these up
• Article 249 vs Article 252 — under 249 the Rajya Sabha authorises Parliament; under 252 the states themselves ask, and the law binds only the consenting states.
• Article 249 vs Article 250 — 249 needs no emergency, only a Rajya Sabha resolution; 250 operates only while a National Emergency is in force.
Also asked from this topic: the Article letting Parliament legislate on State List subjects in the national interest (Article 249, SSC CGL 2025); how long that resolution stays valid (one year, SSC CGL 2025).

Answer: Option 4 — Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi first took office on 26 May 2014 and was sworn in for a third consecutive term on 9 June 2024, so he is the Prime Minister as of July 2025.
Droupadi Murmu is the President, and Amit Shah is the Union Home Minister.
Revision note — The Prime Minister of India
• Article 75 — the Prime Minister is appointed by the President, and the other ministers are appointed by the President on the Prime Minister's advice.
• By convention the President appoints the leader of the majority party or coalition in the Lok Sabha.
• The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha under Article 75(3).
• Jawaharlal Nehru was the first and longest-serving Prime Minister (1947–1964); Indira Gandhi the first woman; Morarji Desai the first non-Congress Prime Minister.
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee first became Prime Minister on 16 May 1996 for only 13 days, returning in 1998 and 1999; P. V. Narasimha Rao held office from 1991 to 1996.
• The Prime Minister chairs NITI Aayog, the Inter-State Council, the Nuclear Command Authority and the Cabinet Committee on Security.
• The 91st Amendment, 2003 caps the Council of Ministers at 15 per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha.
Do not mix these up
• President vs Prime Minister — the President is the nominal head of state (Article 52) holding the Union's executive power (Article 53); the Prime Minister heads the real executive.
• Head of state vs head of government — India's head of state is the President; the head of government is the Prime Minister.
Also asked from this topic: who appoints the Prime Minister (the President, Article 75); who was Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996 (P. V. Narasimha Rao); who chairs the Inter-State Council (the PM).

Answer: Option 3 — Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam
The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 from 1 July 2024.
It is the evidence law, and it is the one that lays down how electronic and digital records are admitted and authenticated.
Revision note — The three new criminal laws
• All three were passed in December 2023 and came into force on 1 July 2024.
• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) replaced the IPC, 1860, and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the CrPC, 1973.
• Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
• Section counts: BNS 358, BNSS 531, BSA 170.
• The BSA gives an electronic record the same status as a document.
• Under Section 63, an electronic record must carry a certificate in the form given in the Schedule, signed by the person in charge of the device and by an expert.
• For terms it does not define — electronic record, electronic signature — the BSA takes the meanings from the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• Section 39 (old Section 45 of the Evidence Act) makes the opinion of an expert — forensic, handwriting, finger-impression — a relevant fact.
• The stated aim of the package, introduced by Home Minister Amit Shah, was to decolonise and modernise criminal justice and to align it with forensic science and digital technology.
Do not mix these up
• BNS vs BNSS vs BSA — Nyaya = offences and punishments (IPC), Nagarik Suraksha = procedure (CrPC), Sakshya = evidence (Evidence Act).
• Indian Evidence Act 1872 vs BSA 2023 — the 1872 Act stood repealed on 1 July 2024, but proceedings already begun before that date continue under the old law.
Also asked from this topic: the law that replaced the Indian Penal Code (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita); the framework the BSA aligns with for electronic records (the IT Act, 2000); the witnesses formally recognised in the BSA (expert witnesses such as forensic analysts).

Answer: Option 1 — Droupadi Murmu
Droupadi Murmu took the oath as the 15th President of India on 25 July 2022 for a five-year term, so she held the office in July 2025.
Revision note — The President of India
• Droupadi Murmu is the second woman President, after Pratibha Patil (2007–2012), and the first tribal President; she is a Santhal from Odisha and was earlier Governor of Jharkhand.
• The President is elected under Article 54 by an electoral college of the elected members of both Houses and the elected MLAs of the states, Delhi and Puducherry.
• The method is proportional representation with a single transferable vote, by secret ballot.
• Qualifications under Article 58 — citizen of India, at least 35 years old, qualified for election to the Lok Sabha; the security deposit is ₹15,000.
• The term is five years (Article 56). The oath under Article 60 is administered by the Chief Justice of India and binds the President to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
• The President resigns in writing to the Vice-President and can be removed only by impeachment under Article 61, for violation of the Constitution, by a two-thirds majority of each House.
• Dr Rajendra Prasad was the first President and the only one to serve two full terms; Dr Zakir Husain was the first to die in office.
Do not mix these up
• Article 56 vs Article 58 — 56 fixes the five-year term, 58 lists the qualifications.
• Resignation vs impeachment — the President resigns to the Vice-President, but is removed only by impeachment in Parliament.
Also asked from this topic: the minimum age to contest the presidential election (35 years); the method by which the President is elected (an electoral college); the duty sworn under the Article 60 oath (to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution).

Answer: Option 1 — A remains unchanged, Z decreases by 1
In beta-plus (positron) decay a proton turns into a neutron, throwing out a positron and a neutrino.
The number of nucleons is the same as before, but the nucleus has one positive charge less — so A is unchanged and Z falls by 1.
Revision note — Radioactive decay
• Alpha decay: the nucleus emits a helium nucleus (2 protons + 2 neutrons), so A decreases by 4 and Z decreases by 2.
• Beta-minus decay: a neutron becomes a proton, emitting an electron and an antineutrino — A unchanged, Z increases by 1.
• Beta-plus decay: a proton becomes a neutron, emitting a positron and a neutrino — A unchanged, Z decreases by 1.
• Gamma decay: only energy leaves the nucleus, so both A and Z stay unchanged.
• Gamma rays have the greatest penetrating power and alpha particles the least; alpha has the greatest ionising power.
• Radioactivity was discovered by Henri Becquerel in 1896. The SI unit is the becquerel (Bq), and 1 curie = 3.7 × 10¹⁰ Bq.
• Half-life is the time in which half of a sample decays; after two half-lives only 25 per cent of the original sample is left.
• Wolfgang Pauli predicted the neutrino in 1930–31 to account for the energy that seemed to go missing in beta decay.
Do not mix these up
• Beta-minus vs beta-plus — beta-minus raises Z by 1 and emits an electron; beta-plus lowers Z by 1 and emits a positron. The mass number changes in neither.
• Beta-plus vs electron capture — both lower Z by 1, but in electron capture the nucleus absorbs an inner-shell electron instead of emitting a positron.
Also asked from this topic: what beta-plus decay does (Z falls by 1, A unchanged, SSC CGL 2025); the decay that raises Z by one (beta-minus decay, SSC CGL 2025); the decay that alters Z but not A (beta decay, SSC CGL 2025); who predicted the neutrino (Wolfgang Pauli, RRB NTPC 2025).

Answer: Option 2 — 9.8 m/s²
At the Earth's surface g = GM/R², and with M ≈ 6 × 10²⁴ kg and R ≈ 6,400 km this works out to about 9.8 m/s².
Every freely falling body near the surface picks up 9.8 m/s of speed every second.
Revision note — Acceleration due to gravity
• g = GM/R², where G = 6.67 × 10⁻¹¹ N m² kg⁻² is the universal gravitational constant. g depends on the planet; G does not.
• The standard value is 9.8 m/s² (taken as 10 m/s² in most numericals). g is a vector, always directed towards the centre of the Earth.
• g is greatest at the poles (about 9.83 m/s²) and least at the equator (about 9.78 m/s²), because the Earth is flattened at the poles and because of its rotation.
• g decreases with height above the surface and also decreases with depth, becoming zero at the centre of the Earth.
• On the Moon g is about one-sixth of the Earth's value, roughly 1.63 m/s², because the Moon's mass is far smaller.
• In free fall every body has the same acceleration g whatever its mass — a coin and a feather fall together in a vacuum; in air the feather is held back by air resistance.
Do not mix these up
• g vs G — g = 9.8 m/s² changes with place and planet; G = 6.67 × 10⁻¹¹ is a universal constant, the same everywhere. The value 6.67 in the options belongs to G, not to g.
• Mass vs weight — mass is constant and measured in kg; weight is W = mg, measured in newton, and drops to one-sixth on the Moon.
Also asked from this topic: the kind of motion a body in free fall has (uniformly accelerated motion); why gravity on the Moon is weaker (its mass is much smaller); the weight of a 70 kg astronaut on the Moon (about 117 N).

Answer: Option 3 — Processing information and decision-making
Grey matter is made of neuron cell bodies, dendrites and synapses, so this is where the brain actually processes information and takes decisions.
Mere transmission between body and brain is the work of white matter, whose long myelinated axons only carry the signals.
Revision note — The human brain
• Grey matter forms the outer cerebral cortex of the brain and the inner core of the spinal cord; white matter lies inside in the brain and outside in the spinal cord.
• The brain has three parts — the forebrain (cerebrum, thalamus, hypothalamus), the midbrain, and the hindbrain (cerebellum, pons, medulla oblongata).
• The cerebrum is the largest part and the seat of thinking, memory, reasoning and voluntary action, with separate areas for hearing, smell and sight.
• The cerebellum looks after posture, balance and the precision of voluntary movement.
• The medulla runs involuntary acts — heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, salivation, vomiting.
• The brain is protected by the bony cranium, three membranes called the meninges, and cerebrospinal fluid, which is produced by the choroid plexus in the ventricles.
• An adult human brain weighs about 1.3–1.4 kg and holds roughly 86 billion neurons; the hypothalamus controls hunger, thirst and body temperature.
Do not mix these up
• Grey matter vs white matter — grey matter holds the cell bodies and does the processing; white matter is myelinated axons and does the transmitting.
• Cerebrum vs cerebellum — the cerebrum thinks and decides; the cerebellum balances and coordinates.
• Cerebrum vs medulla — the cerebrum governs voluntary, conscious action; the medulla governs involuntary life processes such as heart rate and breathing.
Also asked from this topic: the part chiefly responsible for thinking (forebrain, the cerebrum, SSC GD 2026); the part with areas for hearing, smell and sight (fore-brain, SSC CHSL 2025); the part regulating salivation and vomiting (medulla, SSC CHSL 2025).

Answer: Option 3 — To assist fertilization outside the body and implant the embryo
In vitro means in glass, so in IVF the egg and the sperm are fused in a laboratory dish instead of inside the body.
The embryo that forms is then transferred into the uterus to implant and grow.
Revision note — Assisted reproductive technology
• IVF is used mainly when the woman's fallopian tubes or oviducts are blocked, and also for low sperm count and unexplained infertility.
• A baby born this way is popularly called a test-tube baby, although no test tube is involved — fertilisation takes place in a petri dish.
• The world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in England on 25 July 1978, from the work of Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards.
• Robert Edwards received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for developing IVF.
• India's first test-tube baby, Durga (Kanupriya Agarwal), was born in Kolkata on 3 October 1978, through the work of Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay.
• Related techniques: IUI (sperm placed in the uterus), ZIFT (zygote put in the tube), GIFT (egg and sperm put in the tube), ICSI (one sperm injected into the egg).
• Pregnancy begins at implantation, when the embryo embeds in the uterine lining, and the embryo is called a foetus from about the ninth week.
• India's Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act were both passed in 2021.
Do not mix these up
• IVF vs cloning — IVF joins one egg with one sperm to make a genetically new individual; cloning copies the genetic material of an existing one.
• IVF vs IUI — in IVF fertilisation happens outside the body; in IUI the sperm is placed inside the uterus and fertilisation is still natural.
• IVF vs surrogacy — IVF is the fertilisation technique; surrogacy is another woman carrying the pregnancy.
Also asked from this topic: the technique used when the oviducts are blocked (in vitro fertilisation, RRB Group D 2026); what begins pregnancy after IVF (implantation of the fertilised egg, RRB Group D 2026); the order in gestation (zygote, embryo, foetus, SSC Stenographer 2025).

Answer: Option 3 — Employment generation and human development
The Eighth Plan (1992–97) made human resource development its central theme.
Its priorities were employment generation, universal elementary education, control of population growth and better health and drinking-water services.
Heavy industry belonged to the Second Plan, and import substitution with self-reliance to the earlier planning era that the 1991 reforms had already left behind.
Revision note — The Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992–97)
• It was the first plan launched after the 1991 LPG reforms, under Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, and is called the plan of liberalisation and structural adjustment.
• Because of political instability and the balance-of-payments crisis, 1990–91 and 1991–92 were run as Annual Plans, so the Eighth Plan began two years late.
• Its target growth rate was 5.6 per cent and the achieved growth about 6.8 per cent — one of the few plans to overshoot its target.
• The plan changed the role of the state from direct control to indicative planning, with the government acting as a facilitator for a market-led private sector.
• For contrast: the First Plan (1951–56) used the Harrod-Domar model and stressed agriculture; the Second Plan (1956–61) used the Mahalanobis model and stressed heavy industry.
• The Fifth Plan (1974–79) brought Garibi Hatao and the Minimum Needs Programme; the Twelfth (2012–17) was the last, before NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission in 2015.
Do not mix these up
• Eighth Plan vs Second Plan — the Eighth Plan is human development and liberalisation; the Second Plan is heavy industry under the Mahalanobis model.
• Import substitution vs liberalisation — import substitution (First to Seventh Plans) protected infant domestic industry behind tariffs; liberalisation from 1991 opened the economy to competition.
Also asked from this topic: the plan launched after structural adjustment began (Eighth, SSC MTS 2026); the Prime Minister during the Eighth Plan (P. V. Narasimha Rao, SSC CHSL 2025).

Answer: Option 3 — Reduced incentive for technological upgradation and efficiency.
A licence kept out new entrants, so an established firm faced no real competition and had little reason to cut costs or modernise.
The same regime shut out foreign competition and blocked expansion abroad, so options 1, 2 and 4 describe the opposite of what happened.
Revision note — Industrial licensing and the Licence Raj
• Licensing came in with the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951; permission was needed to start a unit, to expand output and even to change the product.
• The Industrial Policy Resolution, 1956 — the “economic constitution” of India — divided industry into three schedules and reserved 17 industries for the state.
• Effects of the Licence Raj: entry barriers, rent-seeking and corruption, capacity under-utilisation, and big houses hoarding licences to pre-empt rivals.
• The MRTP Act, 1969, passed in the Fourth Plan period, tried to curb the concentration of economic power; it was replaced by the Competition Act, 2002 and the Competition Commission of India.
• The New Industrial Policy of 24 July 1991 abolished licensing for all but a few industries and cut the reserved list from 17 to 8; today only atomic energy and railway operations stay with the state.
• Compulsory licensing still applies to a short list — alcoholic drinks, cigarettes and tobacco, industrial explosives, hazardous chemicals, and defence and aerospace equipment.
Do not mix these up
• MRTP Act vs Competition Act — MRTP (1969) sought to prevent the concentration of economic power; the Competition Act (2002) regulates anti-competitive conduct itself, through the CCI.
• Delicensing vs disinvestment — delicensing removed the permit to produce; disinvestment sells government equity in a public enterprise.
Also asked from this topic: the year the industrial licensing system began (1951, SSC GD 2026); the aim of the MRTP Act, 1969 (to prevent concentration of economic power, Delhi Police Constable 2025).

Answer: Option 3 — Bureaucratic rigidities and political interference in their operations.
PSEs were run through ministries, so pricing, plant location and even senior appointments were decided politically rather than commercially.
Their social objectives were in fact very clearly stated, and decision-making was over-centralised, not decentralised — so options 1 and 2 are the reverse of the truth.
Revision note — Public Sector Enterprises, 1947–1990
• The public sector was given the commanding heights of the economy by the Industrial Policy Resolutions of 1948 and 1956, in line with a socialistic pattern of society.
• Its stated aims were self-reliance, balanced regional development, employment generation and the control of monopoly — profit was never the sole test.
• The number of Central Public Sector Enterprises grew from 5 in 1951 to well over 240 by 1990.
• Chronic problems: political interference, bureaucratic delay, overstaffing, low capacity utilisation, administered prices and soft budget constraints.
• Sick industrial units were dealt with by the BIFR, set up under the SICA, 1985.
• Reform after 1991: disinvestment began in 1991–92 and the Disinvestment Commission was set up in 1996 under G. V. Ramakrishna.
• Navratna status, created in the late 1990s, gives profitable CPSEs greater managerial and financial autonomy.
• CPSEs are graded today as Maharatna, Navratna and Miniratna, by turnover, net worth and profit record.
Do not mix these up
• Privatisation vs disinvestment — privatisation transfers management control to private hands; disinvestment may sell only a minority stake and leave control with the government.
• Maharatna vs Navratna — Maharatna is the top grade, open only to a Navratna listed company meeting far higher turnover and net-worth thresholds.
Also asked from this topic: the fundamental orientation of India's public sector industries (wider socio-economic objectives, SSC GD 2026); the year CPSE disinvestment began (1991, SSC MTS 2026).

Answer: Option 3 — ₹50.6 lakh crore
The Union Budget 2025-26, presented on 1 February 2025, estimated total expenditure at about ₹50.65 lakh crore, which the paper rounds to ₹50.6 lakh crore.
Total receipts other than borrowings were put at about ₹34.96 lakh crore.
Revision note — Union Budget 2025-26
• Presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 February 2025 — her eighth consecutive budget.
• Total expenditure about ₹50.65 lakh crore; total receipts other than borrowings about ₹34.96 lakh crore.
• Capital expenditure ₹11.21 lakh crore, roughly 3.1 per cent of GDP.
• Fiscal deficit for 2025-26 estimated at 4.4 per cent of GDP.
• Income up to ₹12 lakh made tax-free under the new regime (₹12.75 lakh for salaried taxpayers after the standard deduction).
• Announcements included a Maritime Development Fund of ₹25,000 crore, SWAMIH Fund 2 of ₹15,000 crore, a modified UDAN for 120 new destinations and 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs in five years.
• Constitutional basis: Article 112 (Annual Financial Statement), Article 110 (Money Bill), Article 266 (Consolidated Fund), Article 267 (Contingency Fund).
Do not mix these up
• Total expenditure vs capital expenditure — ₹50.65 lakh crore against ₹11.21 lakh crore for 2025-26.
• Fiscal deficit vs revenue deficit — fiscal deficit is total expenditure minus total receipts excluding borrowings; revenue deficit is revenue expenditure minus revenue receipts.
Also asked from this topic: the total expenditure in the Union Budget 2025-26 (₹50.65 lakh crore, asked in 2026); the capital expenditure for 2025-26 (₹11.21 lakh crore, asked in 2026).

Answer: Option 4 — March 2031
The Budget of 1 February 2025 set a new fiscal anchor: keep central government debt on a declining path so that it reaches about 50 per cent of GDP by 31 March 2031.
From 2026-27 the Centre's target shifts from the annual fiscal deficit to this debt-to-GDP ratio.
Revision note — Fiscal consolidation and the deficits
• Target set in Budget 2025-26: central government debt of 50 ± 1 per cent of GDP by 31 March 2031.
• Fiscal deficit for 2025-26 estimated at 4.4 per cent of GDP, down from 4.8 per cent (RE) in 2024-25.
• Fiscal deficit = total expenditure − total receipts other than borrowings; it is the government's total borrowing requirement.
• Revenue deficit = revenue expenditure − revenue receipts. Primary deficit = fiscal deficit − interest payments.
• The FRBM Act, 2003 fixed the long-standing ceiling of a fiscal deficit of not more than 3 per cent of GDP.
• The FRBM Rules, 2004 required the Centre to cut the fiscal deficit by at least 0.3 per cent of GDP a year and the revenue deficit by 0.5 per cent a year.
• India's external debt was about 19.4 per cent of GDP at the end of September 2024 — a different figure from the Centre's liabilities.
Do not mix these up
• Fiscal deficit target vs debt-to-GDP target — 4.4 per cent of GDP for 2025-26 against 50 per cent of GDP by March 2031.
• External debt vs government debt — external debt is what the country owes abroad; the 50 per cent target covers the Centre's liabilities.
Also asked from this topic: the FRBM ceiling on the fiscal deficit (3 per cent of GDP); the annual cut in the FRBM Rules (0.3 per cent); external debt-to-GDP in September 2024 (19.4 per cent).

Answer: Option 2 — Banking
The 1991 reforms opened the banking sector: on the Narasimham Committee's advice the RBI licensed new private Indian banks and widened the entry of foreign banks.
Textiles and mining were not closed sectors in this sense, and railway operations stayed reserved for the state.
Revision note — Post-1991 financial sector reforms
• The Narasimham Committee, 1991 recommended lower SLR and CRR, capital adequacy and prudential norms, deregulated interest rates and the entry of new private banks.
• The RBI's 1993 guidelines let in new private banks such as UTI Bank (now Axis), ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank.
• Narasimham Committee II (1998) shaped second-generation reforms; the Liquidity Adjustment Facility followed in June 2000, SARFAESI in 2002 and the IBC in 2016.
• Banks had earlier been nationalised in 1969 (14 banks) and 1980 (6 more), taking the total to 20.
• The 1991 reforms cut the industries reserved for the public sector from 17 to 8; today only atomic energy and railway operations remain.
• After 1991 the fastest-growing sectors were banking and information technology, while defence, space, railways and nuclear energy stayed largely with the state.
Do not mix these up
• Nationalisation vs liberalisation — 1969 and 1980 took private banks into state hands; 1991 opened the door to new private banks again.
• Narasimham Committee I (1991) vs II (1998) — the first designed the opening up, the second the NPA and prudential framework.
Also asked from this topic: the committee that recommended banking liberalisation in 1991 (Narasimham Committee); the industries that grew after 1991 (banking and IT); the banks nationalised in 1980 (6).

Answer: Option 3 — 3-4%
The New Economic Policy of 1991 set a medium-term aim of bringing the fiscal deficit down to about 3 to 4 per cent of GDP.
The Centre's gross fiscal deficit had reached roughly 8.4 per cent of GDP in 1990-91, so the target meant more than halving it.
Revision note — The 1991 crisis and the New Economic Policy
• Taking the Centre and the states together, the gross fiscal deficit had climbed to about 10 per cent of GDP by 1990-91.
• Foreign exchange reserves had fallen to roughly two weeks of imports; India pledged gold abroad and borrowed about 7 billion dollars from the IMF and the World Bank.
• Announced by Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh under Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao; the New Industrial Policy came on 24 July 1991.
• The rupee was devalued twice in July 1991, and industrial licensing was abolished for all but a short list of industries.
• The FRBM Act, 2003 later put a fiscal deficit ceiling of 3 per cent of GDP into law, with an annual cut of 0.3 per cent of GDP.
• The Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992–97) was launched in this setting, against a worsening balance of payments and a rising debt burden.
Do not mix these up
• Fiscal deficit vs revenue deficit — fiscal deficit is total expenditure minus total receipts excluding borrowings; revenue deficit is revenue expenditure minus revenue receipts.
• Fiscal deficit vs primary deficit — the primary deficit is the fiscal deficit minus interest payments.
• 1991 target vs FRBM target — the New Economic Policy aimed at 3–4 per cent; the FRBM Act, 2003 later fixed 3 per cent.
Also asked from this topic: the gross fiscal deficit reached by 1990-91 (about 10 per cent of GDP); the FRBM ceiling (3 per cent of GDP); the shortage behind the 1991 crisis (foreign exchange).

Answer: Option 3 — State Investment Index
The Union Budget 2025-26 announced an Investment Friendliness Index of States — a state investment index — to rank states on how easy they make it to invest.
It carries forward, at the state level, the work the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business report once did between countries.
Revision note — Ease of Doing Business and the ranking of states
• It was announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, presented on 1 February 2025 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to be launched during 2025.
• Its stated purpose is competitive cooperative federalism — making states compete to attract investment.
• Before it, states were ranked by the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) of DPIIT, first run in 2015, which scored states on reform points and on feedback from actual users.
• The World Bank's Doing Business report ranked economies on 10 indicator sets, each given equal weight.
• Those sets included starting a business, getting electricity, registering property, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
• Getting Electricity measured the procedures, time and cost of a permanent power connection, and Enforcing Contracts the efficiency of the courts in a commercial dispute.
• India's last rank was 63rd out of 190 in the 2020 edition, up from 142nd in 2014.
• The World Bank discontinued Doing Business in September 2021 after an inquiry into data irregularities; its replacement is the B-READY (Business Ready) report.
• Doing Business surveyed only formal limited-liability firms in the largest business city, so the informal sector never entered the score — the main criticism of the method.
Do not mix these up
• Investment Friendliness Index vs BRAP — the new index was announced in the Union Budget 2025-26; BRAP is the older DPIIT reform scorecard for states.
• Doing Business vs B-READY — Doing Business is discontinued (2021); B-READY is the World Bank's new business-environment report.
Also asked from this topic: the year the World Bank discontinued the Ease of Doing Business report (2021); what 'Getting Electricity' measures (cost, time and procedures for a power connection); what 'Enforcing Contracts' measures (efficiency of the courts in commercial disputes).

Answer: Option 3 — 120
The Union Budget 2025-26 announced a modified UDAN scheme to connect 120 new destinations and carry 4 crore passengers over the next 10 years.
Revision note — UDAN, the Regional Connectivity Scheme
• UDAN — Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik — was launched on 21 October 2016 by the Ministry of Civil Aviation under the National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016.
• It works through Viability Gap Funding (VGF) paid to airlines that fly unserved and under-served routes, with a fare cap on about half the seats — originally ₹2,500 for a one-hour flight.
• The first UDAN flight took off on 27 April 2017 on the Shimla–Delhi route, flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The money comes from a Regional Connectivity Fund, built from a small levy on certain scheduled domestic routes; states help by cutting VAT on ATF to 1 per cent and by providing land and security.
• Later rounds widened it — UDAN 3 added tourism and seaplane routes and UDAN 4 added helicopters and the North-East, hill states and islands.
• Krishi UDAN supports the air movement of perishable farm produce.
• The modified UDAN of Budget 2025-26 also covers helipads and small airports in hilly, aspirational and North-East districts.
Do not mix these up
• UDAN vs Krishi UDAN — UDAN subsidises passenger seats on regional routes; Krishi UDAN supports air cargo of perishable agricultural produce.
• UDAN vs the National Civil Aviation Policy — the policy (2016) is the parent document; UDAN is the regional connectivity scheme launched under it.
Also asked from this topic: the new destinations under the modified UDAN of Budget 2025-26 (120); how UDAN improves regional connectivity (viability gap funding to airlines); the year it was launched (2016).

Answer: Option 2 — Only 2 and 3
Kannauj changed hands again and again, so statement 1 is false — the Pratiharas held it only after Nagabhata II took it, not throughout the struggle.
The Rashtrakutas raided north from the Deccan repeatedly, and the Palas faded after Devapala, so statements 2 and 3 are correct.
Revision note — The Tripartite Struggle for Kannauj
• Fought from about the 8th to the 10th century among the Gurjara-Pratiharas (Rajasthan and Gujarat), the Palas (Bengal and Bihar) and the Rashtrakutas (western Deccan, capital Manyakheta).
• The prize was Kannauj, which had replaced Pataliputra as the political centre of north India under the Maukharis and Harshavardhana.
• First round: Vatsaraja (Pratihara) against Dharmapala (Pala), with the Rashtrakuta Dhruva defeating both and then withdrawing to the Deccan.
• Nagabhata II beat Dharmapala's nominee Chakrayudha and captured Kannauj, which stayed the Pratihara capital for close to two centuries.
• The Rashtrakuta Indra III sacked Kannauj around 916 CE, but never held the north — the Deccan always pulled them back.
• The Palas were at their height under Dharmapala (founder of Vikramshila) and Devapala, and declined after him.
• The Gwalior prashasti, a Sanskrit inscription found at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, records the exploits of the Pratihara king Nagabhata.
Do not mix these up
• Nagabhata I vs Nagabhata II — Nagabhata I (c. 730–760 CE) founded the imperial line and checked the Arabs of Sind; Nagabhata II captured Kannauj.
• Raiding vs ruling — the Rashtrakutas won battles in the north but ruled from the Deccan; only the Pratiharas made Kannauj their capital.
Also asked from this topic: the dynasty that ruled Kannauj in the Tripartite Struggle (Gurjara-Pratiharas); the Rashtrakuta region (western Deccan); where Nagabhata's prashasti was found (Gwalior).

Answer: Option 3 — Ryotwari System
Under the Ryotwari settlement the ryot — the individual cultivator — was recognised as the landholder and paid the revenue directly to the government, with no zamindar or village body in between.
Revision note — British land revenue systems
• Permanent Settlement (Zamindari), 1793 — introduced by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha; zamindars were made owners and paid a fixed revenue for ever, whatever the harvest.
• Ryotwari — devised by Alexander Read and Thomas Munro in the Madras Presidency, later extended to Bombay; revenue settled with each ryot and revised periodically, usually every 20 to 30 years.
• Mahalwari, 1822 — devised by Holt Mackenzie for the North-Western Provinces, later Punjab and parts of Central India; the mahal (village) was jointly liable and paid through the village headman.
• By area the Ryotwari system covered the largest share of British India, roughly half; the Permanent Settlement the smallest.
• All three raised the revenue demand far above what the land could bear, causing widespread indebtedness and transfers of land to moneylenders.
• The Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885 later gave tenant cultivators occupancy rights and protection from arbitrary eviction.
Do not mix these up
• Ryotwari vs Mahalwari — the ryot is assessed and pays individually; in Mahalwari the whole village is jointly responsible for the demand.
• Permanent Settlement vs the other two — only the Permanent Settlement fixed the demand in perpetuity; Ryotwari and Mahalwari were revised at intervals.
• Zamindari and Permanent Settlement are two names for the same arrangement, which is why both appear as options here.
Also asked from this topic: who introduced the Ryotwari System (Thomas Munro); the year of the Permanent Settlement (1793, Lord Cornwallis); who devised the Mahalwari settlement (Holt Mackenzie).

Answer: Option 1 — Anjana Devi
Anjana Devi Chaudhary, wife of the Rajasthan leader Ram Narayan Chaudhary, is remembered as the first woman of Rajasthan to be arrested in the freedom struggle.
She courted arrest while organising peasant women during the Bijolia satyagraha in Mewar.
Revision note — Rajasthan in the freedom movement
• Anjana Devi Chaudhary was the only woman founding member of the Rajasthan Seva Sangh (1920), the body that carried the national movement into the princely states of Rajputana.
• She went to jail twice in 1932 during civil disobedience, and kept the weekly Navjyoti — founded by her husband — running while he was imprisoned in the Quit India Movement (1942).
• The Bijolia movement in Mewar, begun in 1897 and led from 1916 by Vijay Singh Pathik, was India's first organised peasant satyagraha, against feudal levies known as lag-bag and begar.
• The neighbouring Begun movement (1921) was led by Ram Narayan Chaudhary; its brutal suppression at Govindpura is called the Jallianwala Bagh of Rajasthan.
• Other women of the Rajasthan movement — Narayani Devi Verma, Ratan Shastri and Kishori Devi.
• Rajasthan's other famous uprisings: the Bhil movement of Govind Guru (the Mangarh massacre, 1913) and the Eki movement of Motilal Tejawat among the Bhils of Mewar.
Do not mix these up
• Anjana Devi Chaudhary vs Madam Bhikaji Cama — Anjana Devi belongs to the Rajasthan peasant movement; Bhikaji Cama was a Parsi revolutionary of Bombay, who unfurled an early Indian flag at Stuttgart, 1907.
• Bijolia vs Begun — both were Mewar peasant satyagrahas; Bijolia (1897) grew under Vijay Singh Pathik, Begun (1921) under Ram Narayan Chaudhary.
Also asked from this topic: who unfurled an early Indian flag at Stuttgart in 1907 (Madam Bhikaji Cama); who is called the Mother of the Indian Revolution (Bhikaji Cama); the title given to Sarojini Naidu (Nightingale of India); the first woman Governor of an Indian state (Sarojini Naidu).

Answer: Option 4 — Loni
IQAir's World Air Quality Report 2025 named Loni, in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh, the most polluted city in the world, at an annual PM2.5 of about 112.5 µg/m³.
That is more than twenty times the WHO safe limit.
Revision note — The World Air Quality Report
• The report is brought out every March by IQAir, a Swiss air-quality technology company, and ranks countries, capital cities and cities by annual average PM2.5.
• In the 2025 report Pakistan was the most polluted country, followed by Bangladesh and Tajikistan, with India 6th.
• New Delhi was again the most polluted capital city in the world, at about 82.2 µg/m³.
• The WHO guideline for annual PM2.5 is 5 µg/m³; only about 14 per cent of the world's cities met it.
• In the previous edition — the 2024 report released in March 2025 — the most polluted city was Byrnihat in Meghalaya, the most polluted country Chad, and India stood 5th.
• PM2.5 is particulate matter finer than 2.5 micrometre, small enough to pass from the lungs into the bloodstream.
• India's National Air Quality Index (2014), monitored by the CPCB, tracks eight pollutants — PM10, PM2.5, NO₂, SO₂, CO, O₃, NH₃ and lead.
Do not mix these up
• Most polluted city vs most polluted capital — the city title went to Loni; the capital title to New Delhi.
• Data year vs release year — the "2025 report" carries 2025 data and appears in March 2026; the 2024 report, with Byrnihat on top, appeared in March 2025.
Also asked from this topic: India's rank among the most polluted countries in the 2024 report (5th); the most polluted city in that 2024 report (Byrnihat, Meghalaya); the world's most polluted capital in the 2023 report (New Delhi); the number of pollutants in India's AQI (8).