Prelims GS Paper I 2016

Answer: (b) 2 only

Article 107 of the Constitution settles both points. Prorogation only ends a session, so no pending Bill lapses because of it; and a Bill that is still in the Rajya Sabha and has never been passed by the Lok Sabha survives a dissolution of the Lok Sabha.

• ✗ 1. Article 107(3) says a Bill pending in Parliament shall not lapse by reason of the prorogation of the Houses. Lapsing is linked to dissolution of the Lok Sabha, not to prorogation.
• ✓ 2. Article 107(4) protects a Bill pending in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) that the House of the People (Lok Sabha) has not passed; it does not lapse on dissolution.

Remember · Prorogation kills no Bill. Dissolution of the Lok Sabha kills Bills pending in the Lok Sabha, or passed by it and pending in the Rajya Sabha (Art. 107(5)), subject to Art. 108.

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Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

From 2015 the Global Hunger Index (GHI) has been built from four indicators: undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. All three listed items are among them; the only one missing from the list is child wasting.

• ✓ 1. Undernourishment, the share of the population with insufficient calorie intake, is the only GHI indicator that covers the whole population.
• ✓ 2. Child stunting (low height for age among children under five) captures chronic undernutrition; it replaced child underweight when the formula was revised in 2015.
• ✓ 3. Child mortality, the death rate of children under five, is the fourth GHI indicator.
• • Since then In 2016 IFPRI co-published the GHI. Recent editions are prepared by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, and India's government has criticised the index's method (PIB, December 2021).

Remember · GHI = undernourishment + child wasting + child stunting + child mortality (four indicators since 2015; child underweight was dropped).

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

A deficit is the gap between what the government spends and what it earns, so it narrows only if spending falls or receipts rise. Cutting revenue expenditure and rationalising subsidies lower spending; new welfare schemes add spending and a lower import duty cuts tax receipts, so both widen the gap.

• ✓ 1. Revenue expenditure (salaries, interest, subsidies, day-to-day running costs) is spending; reducing it directly lowers the revenue and fiscal deficits.
• ✗ 2. A new welfare scheme is fresh expenditure. Unless matched by new revenue, it enlarges the deficit.
• ✓ 3. Subsidies on food, fertiliser and fuel are a large part of revenue expenditure; targeting them better cuts spending without cutting welfare.
• ✗ 4. Import duty is a tax receipt of the Union. Lowering it reduces revenue and therefore increases the deficit.

Remember · Deficit falls only by raising receipts or cutting expenditure. Anything that adds spending or gives up tax revenue widens it.

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Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only

RBI's licensing guidelines of 27 November 2014 made payments banks narrow banks: they take small deposits and offer payment and remittance services, but they may not lend. Resident-owned mobile telephone companies and supermarket chains were expressly named as eligible promoters, and only ATM/debit cards, not credit cards, are allowed.

• ✓ 1. The guidelines list mobile telephone companies and super-market chains, among others, as eligible promoters provided they are owned and controlled by residents.
• ✗ 2. A payments bank may issue ATM/debit cards, but the guidelines state plainly that it cannot issue credit cards, because a credit card is a form of lending.
• ✓ 3. The guidelines bar lending altogether; apart from CRR, at least 75 per cent of demand deposit balances must be invested in government securities or treasury bills.

Remember · Payments bank: deposits (small), remittances, debit/ATM cards, no credit cards, no loans. Promoters can be telcos, supermarket chains, PPI issuers and others owned by residents.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) is a form of visible light communication: an LED is switched on and off far faster than the eye can notice, and those flickers carry data through the air to a photodetector. It is wireless like Wi-Fi, but uses the visible-light band instead of radio waves and has reached speeds several times higher.

• ✓ 1. Li-Fi sends data by modulating visible light from LEDs rather than by radio waves; the Telecommunication Engineering Centre describes it as data transfer through LED light.
• ✓ 2. No cable is involved, so it is wireless. TEC's comparison puts Li-Fi at about 1 Gbps against about 150 Mbps for Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), several times faster, though over a short range of under 10 metres.

Remember · Li-Fi = wireless data over visible light from LEDs (IEEE 802.15.7); faster and more secure than Wi-Fi, but short-range and blocked by walls.

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Answer: (b) plan of action outlined by the countries of the world to combat climate change

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) were the climate action plans that countries submitted under the UNFCCC in 2015, ahead of the Paris conference (COP 21). Each country set its own emission and adaptation goals, and under the Paris Agreement these became Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

• ✓ (b) INDCs are climate pledges made under the UNFCCC. India submitted its INDC on 2 October 2015, promising to cut the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level.
• ✗ (d) The Sustainable Development Goals (2015) are tracked through voluntary national reviews at the UN, not through 'nationally determined contributions'.
• ✗ (c) Capital subscribed to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is simply called a capital subscription; it has nothing to do with the climate term INDC.

Remember · INDC (2015, pre-Paris pledge) → NDC once a country joins the Paris Agreement; every Party must prepare, communicate and maintain successive NDCs (Article 4.2).

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Answer: (d) Providing for financial turnaround and revival of power distribution companies

UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana), approved by the Union Cabinet on 5 November 2015, was a rescue-and-reform package for the loss-making State power distribution companies (DISCOMs). Its stated aim was their financial turnaround and revival.

• ✓ (d) States were to take over 75 per cent of DISCOM debt as on 30 September 2015 over two years, cutting the interest burden, while DISCOMs committed to reduce losses and costs.
• ✗ (b) Electrifying villages and households was the task of separate schemes such as the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, not UDAY, which dealt with the finances of distribution companies.
• ✗ (c) UDAY did not decide the fuel mix of power generation; it worked at the distribution end of the power sector.

Remember · UDAY (Nov 2015) = Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana: States take over 75% of DISCOM debt; DISCOMs cut losses. Target: financial turnaround of power distribution companies.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Masala bonds were first issued in November 2014 by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector lending member of the World Bank Group, as offshore bonds denominated in Indian rupees. In September 2015 RBI opened the same route to any Indian corporate or body corporate, so rupee bonds sold abroad became a debt-raising tool for both public and private companies.

• ✓ 1. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group; its first Masala bonds were 10-year offshore rupee bonds listed on the London Stock Exchange.
• ✓ 2. The bonds are denominated in rupees, so the currency risk lies with the foreign investor. RBI's framework of 29 September 2015 lets any corporate or body corporate issue them, public or private, as borrowing within ECB policy.

Remember · Masala bond = rupee-denominated bond issued abroad; first issuer IFC (World Bank Group), Nov 2014; RBI framework Sept 2015 under ECB; exchange-rate risk borne by the investor.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Under Krishnadeva Raya (ruled 1509-29) land revenue was the main source of income, and it was not one flat rate: assessment took account of the type of land, the crop grown and the soil, and the demand varied from a sixth of the produce to a third or more. The state also taxed manufacturers and professions, so craft producers paid a levy linked to their trade.

• ✓ 1. Land was divided into wet and dry land, and the assessment considered the region, the crop and the soil pattern, so the rate differed from plot to plot rather than being one flat share; two assessments, old and new (from AD 1513), were in use in Krishnadeva Raya's reign.
• ✓ 2. Separate taxes were levied on professions and manufacturing units; for example, Saliya weavers in the Vijayanagara period paid 9 peranams per loom each year. The amara-nayakas collected taxes and dues from peasants, craftspersons and traders.

Remember · Krishnadeva Raya (Tuluva dynasty, 1509-29): land revenue graded by land quality; taxes also on crafts, trade and workshops, collected in many areas by amara-nayakas.

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Answer: (b) Malavikagnimitra

The Sunga (Shunga) dynasty was founded by Pushyamitra about 185 BCE, and his son and successor was Agnimitra. Kalidasa's Sanskrit play Malavikagnimitra ('Malavika and Agnimitra') is built around Agnimitra and his love for Malavika.

• ✓ (b) Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitra describes Agnimitra, the son of Pushyamitra (a viceroy at Vidisha in the play), and its plot is his love for Malavika.
• ✗ (a) Swapnavasavadatta, attributed to Bhasa, is about King Udayana of Vatsa and his queen Vasavadatta, not a Shunga prince.
• ✗ (c) Meghadoota is also by Kalidasa, but it is a lyric poem in which an exiled yaksha sends a message to his wife through a cloud.

Remember · Pushyamitra Shunga (c. 185 BCE) → son Agnimitra, hero of Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitra. Ratnavali is Harsha's play; Swapnavasavadatta is Bhasa's.

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Answer: (a) WTO affairs

The coloured 'boxes' are the WTO's way of classifying farm subsidies under the Agreement on Agriculture, borrowed from traffic lights. Green box support is allowed freely, amber box support distorts trade and must be reduced, and blue box support is tied to programmes that limit production.

• ✓ (a) The WTO backgrounder on domestic support explains that subsidies are grouped into green (permitted), amber (to be reduced) and, in agriculture, a blue box for production-limiting programmes.
• ✗ (c) UNFCCC talks use terms like NDCs, Annex I and CDM, not subsidy boxes.
• ✗ (d) An India-EU free trade agreement would negotiate tariffs and market access; the box classification belongs to the multilateral WTO Agreement on Agriculture.

Remember · WTO farm subsidy boxes: green = minimal trade distortion, allowed; amber = trade-distorting, capped and reduced; blue = production-limiting; no red box in agriculture.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

The capital budget has two sides: capital receipts (borrowings, including loans from foreign governments, and recoveries of loans) and capital payments (spending on assets, investments, and loans given to States, UTs and others). Item 2 is a capital receipt, while items 1 and 3 are capital payments, so all three belong to the capital budget.

• ✓ 1. Spending that creates assets such as land, buildings and machinery is capital expenditure, a part of capital payments.
• ✓ 2. Loans received from foreign governments create a liability for the government, so they are capital receipts.
• ✓ 3. Loans and advances given by the Centre to State and UT governments create a financial asset (a claim on repayment), so they are capital payments.

Remember · Capital budget = capital receipts (loans taken, recoveries, disinvestment) + capital payments (asset creation, investments, loans given). Test: does it create a liability or change assets?

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

The UNCCD (adopted 1994) works through national action programmes backed by international cooperation, and it insists that local people take part in decisions on combating desertification. Its special regional priority is Africa (Article 7), not South Asia and North Africa, so statement 2 is wrong.

• ✓ 1. Article 2 makes action at every level, backed by international cooperation and partnerships, the Convention's objective; in practice this is delivered through national action programmes drawn up by affected countries.
• ✗ 2. Article 7 gives priority to affected African country Parties. The Convention's secretariat does not hand out the bulk of funds to any region; financing comes from Parties, the GEF and the Global Mechanism.
• ✓ 3. Article 3(a) asks Parties to take decisions on anti-desertification programmes with the participation of populations and local communities, a bottom-up approach.

Remember · UNCCD (1994): national action programmes plus international partnership; participation of local communities; regional priority = Africa (Article 7).

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Answer: (d) Renminbi

On 30 November 2015 the IMF Executive Board, in its five-yearly review of the Special Drawing Right (SDR), decided that China's renminbi met the criteria and would join the SDR basket as its fifth currency from 1 October 2016.

• ✓ (d) The renminbi was declared a 'freely usable' currency and added to the basket alongside the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound.
• ✗ (c) The Indian rupee has never been in the SDR basket; it is not a fully convertible currency on the capital account.
• ✗ (a) The key question in the 2015 review was whether the renminbi qualified; the Russian rouble and the South African rand are not in the SDR basket.

Remember · SDR basket since 1 Oct 2016: U.S. dollar, euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, British pound (five currencies). The SDR is the IMF's reserve asset, not a currency.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

The IMFC is the ministerial-level committee of the IMF's Board of Governors. It meets twice a year, reviews developments in the world monetary and financial system and, though it has no formal decision-making power, gives strategic direction to the Fund's work; the World Bank is among the institutions that attend as observers.

• ✓ 1. The IMF describes the IMFC as advising the Board of Governors on the international monetary and financial system and as a key instrument for giving strategic direction to the work and policies of the Fund.
• ✓ 2. The IMF factsheet states that several international institutions, including the World Bank, participate as observers in IMFC meetings.

Remember · IMFC: 25 members (mirrors the IMF Executive Board), meets at the Spring and Annual Meetings, advisory only, works by consensus; World Bank attends as an observer.

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Answer: (c) eradicate the practice of manual scavenging and rehabilitate the manual scavengers

Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan ('national campaign for dignity') is a civil-society campaign to end manual scavenging and rehabilitate the people, mostly Dalit women, pushed into it. The Government of India itself named it among the NGOs associated with identifying and rehabilitating manual scavengers. 'Garima' means dignity, which is exactly what manual scavenging denies.

• ✓ (c) The campaign targets manual scavenging, the carrying of human excreta from dry latrines, which the 1993 Act prohibited and the 2013 Act (in force from 6 December 2013) outlawed together with a duty to rehabilitate.
• ✗ (d) Release of bonded labourers is governed by the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, and is not the aim of this campaign.
• ✗ (a) Livelihoods for the homeless and destitute are addressed by government shelter and livelihood schemes, not by the Garima Abhiyan.

Remember · Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan = campaign against manual scavenging (dignity for safai workers). Law: Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both groups stood outside the Brahmanical ritual order. The Tamil Siddhas (Sittars) were a monotheistic, mystical movement within Tamil Shaivism that criticised conventional ritual; the Lingayats (Virashaivas) of Karnataka rejected caste hierarchy and, as NCERT records, questioned rebirth.

• ✓ 1. The Sittars or Siddhas of the Tamil region were a monotheistic, mystical movement within Shaivism. Like other Siddha and Nath groups, they criticised conventional ritual and the social order and looked to a formless Ultimate Reality, which is why UPSC's key treats the statement as correct.
• ✓ 2. NCERT records that the Lingayats challenged the idea of caste and the 'pollution' attributed to some groups, and also questioned the theory of rebirth, which won them followers among the marginalised.

Remember · Lingayats/Virashaivas: Basavanna (1106-68), Karnataka; worship Shiva as linga, reject caste and rebirth, bury the dead. Tamil Siddhas (Sittars): monotheistic, mystical, critics of ritual.

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Answer: (d) It is the number of months of imports that could be paid for by a country's international reserves

Import cover is a reserve-adequacy measure: foreign exchange reserves divided by the average monthly import bill, so it tells how many months of imports the reserves could pay for if all other inflows stopped. That is why it is always quoted in months.

• ✓ (d) The Economic Survey 2024-25 reports India's import cover as 10.9 months (December 2024) and notes that this exceeds the IMF's recommended three months for emerging economies.
• ✗ (a) Imports as a share of GDP is a measure of import dependence or openness, not of reserve adequacy.
• ✗ (c) The ratio of exports to imports describes the trade balance between partners; it says nothing about how long reserves would last.

Remember · Import cover = forex reserves ÷ monthly imports, expressed in months. A common rule of thumb is at least three months.

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Answer: (c) 2 and 3

The Kurds are a West Asian people spread across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, so pairing them with Bangladesh is wrong. The Madhesis of Nepal's southern Terai plains were in the news for their 2015-16 agitation over Nepal's new Constitution, and the Rohingyas are a Muslim minority of Myanmar's Rakhine State.

• ✗ 1. Kurdish nationalist movements are found in Turkey and Iraq (and Syria and Iran); the Kurds have no connection with Bangladesh.
• ✓ 2. Madhesis (also spelt Madeshi) are the people of the Terai plains of southern Nepal; the UN human rights office described the 2015 protests in the Terai against Nepal's new Constitution as led by ethnic Madeshi groups demanding that their concerns be addressed.
• ✓ 3. The Rohingyas are from Myanmar; their movement into India and Bangladesh has been a source of friction in South Asia.

Remember · Kurds: Turkey-Iraq-Syria-Iran. Madhesis: Nepal's Terai. Rohingyas: Myanmar's Rakhine State (refugees in Bangladesh).

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Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

The OPCW, based in The Hague, is the global body that implements the Chemical Weapons Convention (in force since 29 April 1997); its members are States Parties from all over the world, not the European Union. Its work includes inspecting chemical industry so that weapons do not re-emerge, and helping member states protect themselves against chemical attack.

• ✗ 1. The OPCW is the implementing body of a worldwide treaty with 193 Member States today (India is one); it is not an EU agency, and its formal ties are with the United Nations, not NATO.
• ✓ 2. Through declarations and industry inspections under Article VI of the Convention, the OPCW works to prevent the re-emergence of chemical weapons, including by misuse of existing chemical facilities.
• ✓ 3. Article X of the Convention covers assistance and protection: the OPCW helps members build national protection capacity and can send assistance if chemical weapons are used against them.

Remember · OPCW: The Hague; implements the Chemical Weapons Convention (1997); verifies destruction of stockpiles, inspects industry, gives assistance and protection; Nobel Peace Prize 2013.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

PMFBY, approved by the Cabinet on 13 January 2016, fixed different farmer premiums by season and crop type (2% kharif, 1.5% rabi, 5% annual commercial and horticultural crops), so there is no single 2% rate for all crops. It did, however, extend post-harvest loss cover from cyclonic rain to unseasonal rain as well, across India.

• ✗ 1. The 2% rate applies only to kharif crops; rabi crops carry 1.5% and annual commercial or horticultural crops 5%, with the government paying the balance premium.
• ✓ 2. PIB's comparison table shows PMFBY covering post-harvest losses all over India for cyclonic and unseasonal rain, whereas the earlier modified scheme covered only cyclonic rain in coastal areas.

Remember · PMFBY (2016) farmer premium: kharif 2%, rabi 1.5%, commercial/horticultural 5%. Covers prevented sowing, localised risks and post-harvest losses (cyclone, unseasonal rain).

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Answer: (d) Western Ghats

The Great (Indian) Hornbill is a bird of tall, evergreen tropical forests: it feeds largely on fruit and nests in cavities of big old trees. In India such forests occur in the Western Ghats and the north-east; deserts, the treeless high Himalayas and salt marshes offer neither food nor nest sites.

• ✓ (d) The Kerala Forest Department records the Great Indian Hornbill in the evergreen forests of the State, in the Western Ghats, and it is Kerala's State bird.
• ✗ (b) The higher Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir are cold and largely treeless above the forest line, with no tropical evergreen forest.
• ✗ (a) The Thar sand desert has scrub vegetation, not the large, old trees hornbills need for nesting.

Remember · Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis): evergreen forests of the Western Ghats and north-east India; nests in holes of big old trees; State bird of Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.

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Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

NGRBA, set up by a notification of 20 February 2009 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, adopted a river-basin approach to planning and management and acted as the national planning, financing and coordinating authority for cleaning the Ganga. It was chaired by the Prime Minister, not by a Chief Minister in rotation.

• ✓ 1. Its stated objective was to abate pollution and conserve the Ganga by adopting a river basin approach for comprehensive planning and management.
• ✓ 2. It was the apex body at the national level, mandated as the planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Centre's and States' efforts to conserve the river.
• ✗ 3. The Prime Minister chaired the authority; the Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal were members, with no rotation of the chair.
• • Since then NGRBA was dissolved with effect from 7 October 2016 and replaced by the National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga (National Ganga Council), also under the EPA, 1986 (NMCG).

Remember · NGRBA (2009-2016): river-basin approach, chaired by the PM, CMs of Ganga States as members; NMCG was its implementing arm. Replaced by the National Ganga Council in October 2016.

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Answer: (b) Neem coating slows down the rate of dissolution of urea in the soil

A thin coat of neem oil makes urea release its nitrogen into the soil slowly, so more of it is taken up by the crop and less is lost; this raises nitrogen use efficiency and cuts the quantity of urea needed. Neem coating also makes subsidised urea hard to divert to industrial uses. The Centre made neem coating compulsory for all domestic urea from 1 September 2015 and for imported urea from 1 December 2015.

• ✓ (b) Neem coating slows the release of nitrogen from urea to the soil, which the Department of Fertilizers credits for higher nitrogen use efficiency and lower urea consumption.
• ✗ (a) Neem compounds act by slowing the conversion and release of nitrogen already supplied by urea; they are not promoted for boosting biological nitrogen fixation by soil microbes.
• ✗ (c) Slower release can reduce nitrogen losses, but no coating stops nitrous oxide emission from fields altogether; 'not at all released' overstates the effect.
• ✗ (d) Neem-coated urea is a fertiliser only; it contains no weedicide.

Remember · Neem-coated urea (100% mandatory from 2015): slow nitrogen release, higher nitrogen use efficiency, lower urea use, and no diversion of subsidised urea to industry.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

The Chief Secretary, the senior-most civil servant of a State, is picked by the Chief Minister and appointed by the State Government; the order only carries the Governor's name because all State executive action is expressed in that name (Article 166). The post has no fixed tenure, which is why the Second Administrative Reforms Commission recommended a fixed tenure of at least two years.

• ✗ 1. The choice is the Chief Minister's and the appointment is an executive act of the State Government; the Governor does not select the officer, even though the order is issued in the Governor's name under Article 166(1).
• ✗ 2. No law fixes the Chief Secretary's term; the officer holds the post at the State Government's discretion until moved or retired. The 2nd ARC (15th Report, 2009) asked for a collegium-based panel and a fixed tenure of at least two years.

Remember · Chief Secretary: senior-most State civil servant, chosen by the CM, no fixed tenure; 2nd ARC proposed a collegium panel and a minimum two-year tenure.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Stand Up India, approved by the Union Cabinet on 6 January 2016 and launched on 5 April 2016, asks every bank branch to back at least one Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower for a new non-farm enterprise. Its support structure includes a refinance window through SIDBI (initially ₹10,000 crore) and credit guarantees through NCGTC, so both statements are correct.

• ✓ 1. The Cabinet approved the scheme specifically to promote entrepreneurship among SC/ST and women entrepreneurs, with bank loans of ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore for greenfield enterprises.
• ✓ 2. The scheme provides a refinance window through the Small Industries Development Bank of India, with an initial amount of ₹10,000 crore.

Remember · Stand Up India (2016): loans of ₹10 lakh–₹1 crore to SC/ST and women for greenfield enterprises; SIDBI refinance, NCGTC credit guarantee, handholding support.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

FAO's GIAHS programme exists to recognise and protect living traditional farming systems, together with their landscapes, agro-biodiversity and local knowledge, through 'dynamic conservation'. It does not aim to modernise these systems for higher output, and it has nothing to do with granting Geographical Indication tags.

• ✗ 1. Replacing traditional practice with modern technology to maximise yields runs against the programme's purpose, which is to conserve heritage farming systems while keeping them viable.
• ✓ 2. FAO states the overall goal as identifying and safeguarding these heritage systems with their landscapes, agricultural biodiversity and knowledge systems.
• ✗ 3. Geographical Indications are granted under national law (in India, the Geographical Indications of Goods Act, 1999), not by FAO; a GIAHS listing confers no GI status.

Remember · GIAHS (FAO, launched 2002): dynamic conservation of traditional agricultural systems, their landscapes, agro-biodiversity and knowledge; it is recognition, not modernisation or GI tagging.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three rivers feed the Brahmaputra. Soon after the Siang (Dihang) enters India in Arunachal Pradesh, it is joined by the Dibang and the Lohit from the left, and only then takes the name Brahmaputra; the Kameng joins it later from the right bank in the Assam valley.

• ✓ 1. The Dibang (also called Sikang) is one of the two main left-bank tributaries that join the Siang near Sadiya.
• ✓ 2. The Kameng is a right-bank tributary, alongside the Subansiri, Manas and Sankosh.
• ✓ 3. The Lohit joins from the left bank near Sadiya, together with the Dibang, after which the river is called the Brahmaputra.

Remember · Brahmaputra tributaries: left bank: Dibang, Lohit, Burhi Dihing, Dhansari; right bank: Subansiri, Kameng, Manas, Sankosh (Subansiri is antecedent).

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Core Banking Solutions (CBS) is a bank's centralised IT platform: all branches work on one common database, so an account-holder is a customer of the whole bank and can transact at any networked branch, not only the one where the account was opened. It is neither an RBI control device nor a merger procedure.

• ✓ 1. This is what CBS does; the RBI expects banks on CBS to serve their customers uniformly at every branch and not to penalise transactions at 'non-home' branches.
• ✗ 2. CBS is each bank's own operating platform for serving customers; RBI's supervisory powers come from the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, not from branch networking.
• ✗ 3. Rescuing a weak bank by merging it with another is amalgamation (for example, under Section 45 of the Banking Regulation Act); it has nothing to do with CBS.

Remember · Core Banking Solutions: centralised, networked branch operations; the customer belongs to the bank, not the branch, enabling 'anywhere banking', ATMs, internet and mobile banking.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 3 only

Only the third pair is right. 'Annex I' is a category of Parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992), used again in the Kyoto Protocol; Certified Emission Reductions are the credits issued under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. The Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols belong to the Convention on Biological Diversity and deal with biosafety and benefit-sharing.

• ✗ 1. Annex I lists the developed countries and economies in transition that took on specific mitigation commitments under the UNFCCC. The Cartagena Protocol (2000) governs the safe handling and transport of living modified organisms.
• ✗ 2. Certified Emission Reductions come from CDM projects under Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. The Nagoya Protocol (2010) is about access to genetic resources and fair sharing of benefits from their use.
• ✓ 3. Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol (1997) created the Clean Development Mechanism, under which projects in non-Annex I countries earn CERs that Annex I countries may use towards their targets.

Remember · UNFCCC/Kyoto: Annex I, CDM, CERs, emissions trading, joint implementation. CBD protocols: Cartagena (biosafety, LMOs) and Nagoya (access and benefit-sharing).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) the full range of mRNA molecules expressed by an organism

Just as the genome is the full set of an organism's DNA, the transcriptome is the full set of RNA transcripts copied from that DNA, the 'gene readouts' in a cell. Of the options, 'the full range of mRNA molecules expressed' is the one that names this collection; the others describe tools, processes or mutations rather than a set of molecules.

• ✓ (b) Transcription copies genes into RNA; these gene readouts are called transcripts, and the transcriptome is the collection of all of them in a cell, with messenger RNA (mRNA) as the major type.
• ✗ (c) The transcriptome is a set of molecules, not an account of how gene expression works; reading it shows which genes are being expressed, but it is not the mechanism itself.
• ✗ (a) Genome-editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases are enzymes; they have nothing to do with the term transcriptome.

Remember · -ome words: genome = all DNA; transcriptome = all RNA transcripts (mainly mRNA) expressed in a cell; proteome = all proteins. The transcriptome changes with tissue, stage and condition.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Biology, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) immunization of children and pregnant women

Mission Indradhanush is the Health Ministry's catch-up vaccination drive, launched in December 2014 under the Universal Immunization Programme. It targets districts and pockets where many children are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated, and also vaccinates pregnant women, with the aim of raising full immunisation coverage of children to 90%.

• ✓ (a) In its first three phases the mission reached more than 2.1 crore children and also vaccinated 55.9 lakh pregnant women against tetanus (MoHFW).
• ✗ (b) Urban development of 100 cities is the Smart Cities Mission (2015) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• ✗ (c) Indradhanush ('rainbow') refers to the several vaccine-preventable diseases the drive targets; it has no link to astronomy or exoplanet searches.

Remember · Mission Indradhanush (December 2014, MoHFW): intensified vaccination of unvaccinated/partly vaccinated children and pregnant women in low-coverage areas; goal of 90% full immunisation.

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Answer: (c) 3 only

Launched under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008), which has eight missions, the Green India Mission is about forests: protect, restore and enhance India's forest and tree cover while helping the country both adapt to and mitigate climate change. It is neither a budget-accounting reform nor an agricultural programme.

• ✗ 1. Valuing environmental costs and benefits in national or State accounts is 'green accounting', a separate idea; it is not what the Green India Mission does.
• ✗ 2. Raising farm output is the domain of agriculture programmes (NAPCC's own farm mission is the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture), not of the Green India Mission.
• ✓ 3. GoI describes GIM as aiming to protect, restore and enhance India's diminishing forest cover and to respond to climate change through adaptation and mitigation; its goals include better forest/tree cover on 5 million ha and better quality on another 5 million ha.

Remember · Green India Mission (NAPCC mission): forest/tree cover up on 5 million ha, quality improved on another 5 million ha, more ecosystem services, forest-based livelihoods for 3 million households.

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Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 4

Regulation 2.2.2 of the 2011 FSSAI rules listed what every pre-packaged food label must carry: the name of the food, a list of ingredients (with additives), nutritional information, the veg/non-veg symbol, food-additive declarations, the maker's name and address, net quantity, batch number, dates and so on. A general statement of medical advice on possible allergic reactions was not among these mandatory items.

• ✓ 1. Except for single-ingredient foods, ingredients had to be listed on the label under a heading such as 'Ingredients', in descending order of weight or volume, with additives declared.
• ✓ 2. Nutritional information per 100 g, 100 ml or per serving (energy in kcal, protein, carbohydrate with sugar, fat) was required, with exemptions for items such as raw agricultural commodities.
• ✗ 3. The 2011 regulations had no general requirement to print medical recommendations about allergic reactions; allergy-related wording appeared only in special cases such as hypoallergenic infant formula.
• ✓ 4. Every package had to carry the green (vegetarian) or brown (non-vegetarian) symbol in the prescribed square-and-circle form.
• • Since then The 2011 rules have since been replaced by the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020, which now require a separate 'Contains...' declaration of common food allergens (FSSAI compendium).

Remember · FSSAI labelling (2011): name, ingredients with additives, nutrition facts, veg/non-veg symbol, maker, net quantity, batch, dates. Mandatory allergen declaration arrived only with the 2020 Labelling and Display Regulations.

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Answer: (b) wireless communication technology

Project Loon, begun at Google X and later an Alphabet company, used large balloons drifting in the stratosphere as floating relay stations to beam internet connectivity to rural, remote and underserved areas. It is therefore a wireless communication technology; the balloons' solar panels only powered the equipment on board.

• ✓ (b) Each balloon carried radio equipment that linked with ground stations and other balloons to deliver internet (including LTE) service to people below.
• ✗ (c) The balloons did carry solar panels, but only to run their own electronics; generating solar power was not the project's purpose.
• ✗ (a) Loon had nothing to do with handling waste; its aim was internet access.
• • Since then Alphabet wound Loon down in 2021; some of its technology lives on in Taara, which uses light beams for connectivity (X, the Moonshot Factory).

Remember · Project Loon: stratospheric balloons as flying cell towers for internet in remote areas (Google X, 2013; shut in 2021).

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Answer: (a) production and use of solar energy by the households/consumers

Net metering lets a household or other consumer with a grid-connected rooftop solar system send its surplus power to the grid and offset it against the power it draws. A single two-way meter records both flows, and the consumer is billed (or credited) only for the net amount, which makes rooftop solar more attractive.

• ✓ (a) Under India's electricity consumer rules, solar energy exported by a 'prosumer' is deducted from energy imported, in kWh, through a single bidirectional meter at the point of supply.
• ✗ (b) Piped natural gas is metered by gas volume consumed; there is no export back to the network, so 'net' metering does not arise.
• ✗ (c) CNG kits in cars are about cleaner transport fuel and involve no electricity metering.

Remember · Net metering: one bidirectional meter; rooftop solar exports minus grid imports = net bill. Gross metering: generation and consumption billed separately at feed-in and retail tariffs.

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Answer: (c) World Bank

The World Bank Group published the Ease of Doing Business ranking in its annual Doing Business report. In the 2016 edition, released in October 2015, it ranked India 130th out of 189 economies.

• ✓ (c) The ranking came from the World Bank Group's Doing Business report, which measured business regulations for local firms in 190 economies. The 2016 edition placed India 130th of 189, up from 142nd.
• ✗ (b) The World Economic Forum publishes the Global Competitiveness Report, a different index, not the Ease of Doing Business ranking.
• ✗ (a) The OECD does not compile the Ease of Doing Business ranking.
• ✗ (d) The WTO deals with trade rules and disputes; it does not rank countries on ease of doing business.
• • Since then The World Bank Group discontinued the Doing Business report on 16 September 2021 after data irregularities were found in the 2018 and 2020 editions. The ranking is no longer published; the answer stands as of the exam year.

Remember · The Ease of Doing Business ranking was issued by the World Bank Group (Doing Business report; discontinued in September 2021).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) traders

Banjaras were nomadic traders who moved grain and other goods by caravan on pack animals, especially bullocks. Sultan Alauddin Khalji used them to bring grain to city markets, and under the Mughals they supplied grain to armies on campaign.

• ✓ (d) NCERT calls the Banjaras the most important trader-nomads of the period. Alauddin Khalji used them to carry grain to city markets, and Jahangir's memoirs mention them selling grain from their bullocks in towns.
• ✗ (a) They were not settled farmers; they moved with their caravans from place to place.
• ✗ (b) They carried food grain for the Mughal army, but as suppliers and carriers, not as fighters.
• ✗ (c) Weaving was the work of other artisan communities; the Banjaras carried goods between regions.

Remember · Banjaras were the main trader-nomads of medieval India, moving grain and goods in caravans on pack animals such as bullocks.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Indian Society, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) James Prinsep

James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered the Brahmi script of Ashoka's inscriptions in 1838. Once Brahmi could be read, historians found that the king named in them, Piyadassi, was Ashoka.

• ✓ (b) Prinsep deciphered Brahmi and Kharosthi in the 1830s and read Ashokan Brahmi in 1838. NCERT says he also found that most inscriptions named a king called Piyadassi, meaning “pleasant to behold”.
• ✗ (d) William Jones came to Calcutta in 1783 as a junior judge of the Company's Supreme Court and is remembered as an Orientalist scholar; he did not read Ashokan Brahmi.
• ✗ (a) Georg Bühler was a later scholar of Indian inscriptions; the first decipherment was Prinsep's.
• ✗ (c) Max Müller is known for editing and translating Sanskrit texts such as the Rig Veda, not for deciphering Ashoka's edicts.

Remember · James Prinsep deciphered Ashokan Brahmi in 1838; the Piyadassi of the inscriptions was identified as Ashoka.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Under the Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008 the village courts hear both civil and criminal cases, so statement 1 is wrong. The Act does let village-level social workers act as conciliators, so statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. Section 11 says a Gram Nyayalaya exercises both civil and criminal jurisdiction, in the manner and to the extent the Act provides.
• ✓ 2. Section 27 has the District Court prepare a panel of village-level social workers of integrity to serve as Conciliators, and the Gram Nyayalaya is to try to settle disputes by conciliation.

Remember · Gram Nyayalayas (Act of 2008) are village courts with both civil and criminal jurisdiction, and they use village-level social workers as conciliators.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was a trade and investment agreement signed on 4 February 2016 by twelve countries. It was not a maritime-security alliance, and it did not cover every Pacific Rim country other than China and Russia, so neither statement is correct.

• ✗ 1. Only twelve countries signed: the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam. Many other Pacific Rim economies, such as South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, were not signatories.
• ✗ 2. The ministers' statement calls it an agreement to set a new standard for trade and investment. It is an economic agreement, not a security alliance.
• • Since then The United States told the other signatories in 2017 that it did not intend to join. The remaining eleven concluded the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which entered into force on 30 December 2018.

Remember · The TPP (signed 4 February 2016) was a 12-country trade and investment pact, not a maritime-security alliance, and it left out many Pacific Rim economies.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Only statement 1 is correct. The India-Africa Forum Summit series began in New Delhi in 2008, was held again in Addis Ababa in 2011, and its third edition met in New Delhi in October 2015. There is no record of a summit of this kind being started by Nehru in 1951.

• ✓ 1. The Third India-Africa Forum Summit met in New Delhi on 29 October 2015, after the first summit (New Delhi, April 2008) and the second (Addis Ababa, May 2011).
• ✗ 2. The summit series is a twenty-first century process. India's Ministry of External Affairs dates the structured engagement with the African Union to the first summit (IAFS-I) in 2008, not to 1951.

Remember · India-Africa Forum Summits: I New Delhi (April 2008), II Addis Ababa (May 2011), III New Delhi (October 2015).

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both statements are correct. RBI's MCLR guidelines of 17 December 2015 aimed to make the way banks set lending rates more transparent, and to make credit available at rates fair to both borrowers and banks. They applied from 1 April 2016.

• ✓ 1. The Ministry of Finance told Parliament that the MCLR guidelines are expected to improve transparency in the methodology banks follow in fixing interest rates on advances.
• ✓ 2. The same reply says the guidelines are also expected to ensure availability of bank credit at rates that are fair to borrowers as well as banks.
• • Since then For new floating-rate retail loans and loans to micro and small enterprises from 1 October 2019 (and medium enterprises from 1 April 2020), RBI now requires an external benchmark such as the repo rate or Treasury bill yields, instead of MCLR.

Remember · MCLR (from 1 April 2016) is the internal benchmark for bank loan pricing, meant to improve transparency and give fair rates to both borrowers and banks.

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Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The Kharai camel of Kutch, Gujarat, is known as the "swimming camel": it swims across salty water to reach mangroves, which are a key part of its diet. It is not a wild animal; it is a recognised domestic breed reared by Jat and Rabari herding families.

• ✓ 1. The Kharai is famous for swimming through saline water to reach mangrove islands. This is what earned it the name "Swimming Camel". Down To Earth reports that the breed can swim up to three kilometres into the sea in search of mangroves; the ICAR article cited here gives no distance.
• ✓ 2. Mangroves are a key part of its diet and the camel swims across salty water to reach them, an adaptation to its coastal habitat.
• ✗ 3. Kharai camels are domesticated. Camel-breeding Jat and Rabari families rear them, and the Government of India designated the camel as an endangered domestic breed.

Remember · Kharai camel (Kutch, Gujarat): a domesticated, endangered breed that swims across saline water to feed on mangroves.

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Answer: (a) Andaman Islands

The banana is Musa indandamanensis, a wild species described by a Botanical Survey of India scientist from the forests of Little Andaman in the Andaman Islands. The plant stands about 11 metres tall and its ripe fruit pulp turns yellowish orange.

• ✓ (a) The species was collected during floristic exploration of Little Andaman and published in 2014 as new to science. The author says the species is named after the Andaman Islands.
• ✗ (b) The Anaimalai (Western Ghats) forests are not where this species was found; its description records it from Little Andaman only.
• ✗ (c) The Maikala Hills in Chhattisgarh are not the discovery site.
• ✗ (d) The north-eastern rain forests hold other wild bananas, but this new species was described from the Bay Islands.

Remember · Musa indandamanensis, a new wild banana (about 11 m tall, orange pulp), was described from Little Andaman in 2014 by a Botanical Survey of India scientist.

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Answer: (c) Torpedo launch and recovery vessel

INS Astradharini is an indigenously built Torpedo Launch and Recovery Vessel, commissioned into the Indian Navy on 6 October 2015 at Visakhapatnam. It is a small support vessel used to launch and recover torpedoes during underwater weapon trials, not a warship or submarine.

• ✓ (c) The Ministry of Defence release describes it as an indigenously built Torpedo Launch and Recovery Vessel, 50 m long, with a catamaran hull and a large deck with torpedo launchers.
• ✗ (a) An amphibious warfare ship carries and lands troops and vehicles; Astradharini is a 50 m trials-support vessel.
• ✗ (b) A nuclear-powered submarine is a combat vessel; Astradharini is a surface vessel for torpedo trials.
• ✗ (d) Astradharini is only 50 m long and is not an aircraft carrier of any kind.

Remember · INS Astradharini (commissioned 6 October 2015) is an indigenously built torpedo launch and recovery vessel of the Indian Navy.

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Answer: (a) Electric plane tested by NASA

Greased Lightning (GL-10) is an experimental battery-powered aircraft developed by NASA's Langley Research Center. It has ten electric motors and can take off vertically like a helicopter and then fly efficiently like an aeroplane.

• ✓ (a) NASA describes GL-10 as a battery-powered plane with 10 engines, eight electric motors on the wings and two on the tail, that takes off like a helicopter and cruises like an aircraft.
• ✗ (b) GL-10 is a NASA project. It is a small remotely piloted aircraft, not a solar-powered two-seater from Japan.
• ✗ (c) GL-10 is an aircraft, not a space observatory.
• ✗ (d) GL-10 is an aircraft, not a rocket, and it has nothing to do with ISRO.

Remember · GL-10 (Greased Lightning): NASA's ten-motor electric VTOL aircraft prototype from Langley Research Center.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 2 only

INSIMP was a sub-scheme of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, launched in 2011-12 with Rs 300 crore for 16 States, to demonstrate improved millet production and post-harvest technologies in an integrated way. Millets are a small-farmer crop, so statements 1 and 2 hold; nothing in the official description makes it a scheme to move commercial-crop farmers into millets.

• ✓ 1. The Ministry's operational guidelines say the scheme aims to demonstrate improved production and post-harvest technologies in an integrated manner, that technical assistants are placed in production and post-harvest clusters, and that processing and value addition are meant to create consumer demand for millet foods. UPSC's key accepts the statement.
• ✓ 2. The guidelines note that small millets are taken up by resource-poor tribal farmers in remote areas, and millets in general sustain the livelihood of over 60% of small and marginal farmers (NAAS paper). UPSC's key accepts this.
• ✗ 3. The guidelines offer free demonstration kits of nutrients and plant-protection inputs (micro-nutrients, fungicides, bio-fertilizers, DAP, urea, potash, pesticides) for farmers in the millet units, up to 2 hectares each. The kits contain no micro-irrigation equipment, and nothing in the guidelines makes it an aim to pull farmers of commercial crops into millets.

Remember · INSIMP (2011-12): a Rs 300 crore sub-scheme of RKVY in 16 States to demonstrate millet production, post-harvest and value-addition technologies, mainly benefiting small farmers.

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Answer: (a) agitation against the Partition of Bengal

Swadeshi and boycott were first used as mass methods of protest in the agitation against the 1905 Partition of Bengal. The Home Rule Movement (1916), the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920) and the Simon Commission protests (1927-28) all came later.

• ✓ (a) Curzon's plan to partition the Bengal presidency led to public meetings, processions and, beside them, two programmes of mass action: Swadeshi and boycott. People boycotted foreign goods, burnt foreign cloth and promoted Indian-made products.
• ✗ (b) The Home Rule movement of Tilak and Annie Besant dates from 1916, eleven years after the Swadeshi and boycott programmes began.
• ✗ (c) The Congress formally launched Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement at Nagpur in December 1920; it revived boycott but did not introduce it.

Remember · Swadeshi and boycott were born in the 1905 agitation against the Partition of Bengal; later movements (1916, 1920, 1928) reused them.

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Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

A Bodhisattva is a deeply compassionate being who uses his accumulated merit to help others reach liberation instead of taking nibbana for himself, so statements 2 and 3 are correct. This idea belongs to Mahayana Buddhism, not to the tradition Mahayanists called Hinayana, so statement 1 is wrong.

• ✗ 1. The concept of the Bodhisatta (Bodhisattva) developed with the Mahayana school, the 'great vehicle'. Its followers used the name Hinayana, the 'lesser vehicle', for the older tradition.
• ✓ 2. Bodhisattas are described as deeply compassionate beings who gather merit through their efforts.
• ✓ 3. They use that merit not to attain nibbana and leave the world, but to help others.

Remember · Bodhisattva: a compassionate being who delays his own nirvana to help others; the ideal is central to Mahayana, and 'Hinayana' was Mahayana's name for the older school.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (b) a non-governmental international organization

Doctors Without Borders (French name Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) is a private, independent medical aid body working across many countries, that is, a non-governmental international organisation. It was founded in France in 1971 and is not part of the WHO, the European Union or the UN system.

• ✓ (b) The UN's own civil-society database (UN DESA) lists Medecins sans frontieres (International) as a non-governmental organization with international scope. MSF calls itself an independent medical humanitarian organisation, and the Nobel Committee's 1999 speech notes that it insists on half its revenue coming from private donors, to protect its independence.
• ✗ (a) The WHO is a specialised agency of the United Nations; MSF is a separate, independent body and not one of its divisions.
• ✗ (c) MSF is not an agency of the European Union or of any group of governments.

Remember · Doctors Without Borders (MSF): an independent, international, non-governmental medical humanitarian organisation founded in France in 1971; Nobel Peace Prize 1999.

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Answer: (c) 2 and 3 only

TEEB is a global initiative, housed in UNEP (not in the IMF or the World Economic Forum), that draws attention to the hidden economic value of nature and gives decision-makers an approach to recognise, demonstrate and capture that value. So statements 2 and 3 are correct and 1 is not.

• ✗ 1. UNEP hosts the TEEB Office (in Geneva since March 2011). The IMF and the World Economic Forum are not its hosts.
• ✓ 2. TEEB seeks to draw attention to the invisibility of nature in the economic choices that governments and businesses make.
• ✓ 3. TEEB's structured approach to valuation helps decision-makers recognise the benefits of ecosystems, demonstrate their values in economic terms and, where suitable, capture those values in decisions.

Remember · TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity): a UNEP-hosted global initiative to make nature's values visible - recognise, demonstrate, capture. Not an IMF or WEF body.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) is endemic to a small tract of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh, so it is found only in a part of South India. It grows in dry deciduous forest, not in tropical rainforest, so statement 2 is wrong.

• ✓ 1. The IUCN describes it as an Indian endemic tree with a restricted range in the Eastern Ghats, in a distinct tract of forest in Andhra Pradesh.
• ✗ 2. It grows in dry deciduous forests, on dry, hilly and often rocky ground, and is not a tree of the tropical rainforests of South India.

Remember · Red Sanders: endemic to the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh; a dry-deciduous-forest tree, not a rainforest one; IUCN Endangered and listed under CITES Appendix II.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

REDD+ is mainly a climate tool that pays countries to cut emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, but the UN-REDD Programme's own material says well-planned REDD+ action also gives wider benefits: conserving biodiversity, strengthening ecosystem resilience and advancing goals such as poverty reduction. All three statements are therefore correct.

• ✓ 1. UN-REDD lists biodiversity conservation among the environmental benefits REDD+ can deliver when it prevents loss or degradation of forests.
• ✓ 2. Biodiversity kept intact through REDD+ helps strengthen ecosystem resilience.
• ✓ 3. UN-REDD says REDD+ actions with wider benefits can help countries progress on national goals such as biodiversity, green growth and poverty reduction.

Remember · UN-REDD (run by UNEP, FAO and UNDP) backs REDD+: cutting forest emissions while also protecting biodiversity, building forest resilience and supporting livelihoods and poverty reduction.

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Answer: (a) It is an international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify and manage greenhouse gas emissions

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is a set of accounting standards, guidance and tools, built by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, that businesses and governments use to measure and manage their greenhouse gas emissions. It is not a treaty and not a UN or World Bank programme.

• ✓ (a) GHG Protocol provides standards, guidance, tools and training for business and government to measure and manage emissions; the World Bank itself follows its guidance for its own emissions accounting.
• ✗ (b) It is not a UN scheme of financial incentives; it comes from two non-governmental bodies, WRI and WBCSD. Incentive-based forest schemes belong to REDD+.
• ✗ (c) A treaty ratified by countries and setting emission limits would be like the Kyoto Protocol; the GHG Protocol has no ratification and no national targets, and no 2022 deadline exists.
• ✗ (d) It is a measurement standard, not one of the World Bank's REDD+ funds.

Remember · GHG Protocol = the world's most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standard, from WRI and WBCSD. It measures emissions; it is not a treaty and sets no targets.

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Answer: (c) 2 and 3 only

The Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) is an apex body of the Government of India, chaired by the Union Finance Minister, that monitors macro-prudential supervision of the economy. It belongs to the Finance Ministry's set-up, not to NITI Aayog, so statements 2 and 3 are correct.

• ✗ 1. The Government set up the FSDC by a notification of 30 December 2010, from the Union Budget 2010-11 announcement; the Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry services it. It is not an organ of NITI Aayog.
• ✓ 2. The Chairman of the FSDC is the Finance Minister of India; its members are the heads of the financial regulators and senior Finance Ministry officials.
• ✓ 3. Without prejudice to the autonomy of regulators, the Council monitors macro-prudential supervision of the economy, including the functioning of large financial conglomerates.

Remember · FSDC (30 Dec 2010): non-statutory apex council chaired by the Union Finance Minister; watches financial stability, macro-prudential supervision and inter-regulatory coordination.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Agenda 21 is the global plan for sustainable development adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, so statement 1 is correct. It did not originate at the 2002 Johannesburg summit, so statement 2 is wrong.

• ✓ 1. Agenda 21 aims at global sustainable development and is meant to combat environmental damage, poverty and disease through global co-operation.
• ✗ 2. It was signed by world leaders in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the Rio Earth Summit, ten years before the Johannesburg summit.

Remember · Agenda 21 = the 1992 Rio Earth Summit (UNCED) action plan for sustainable development in the 21st century; Johannesburg 2002 was a later summit.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 Contemporary India – II, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Contemporary World Politics, Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (c) an anti-caste movement in Maharashtra

Jotirao Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth Seekers Society) in 1873 in Maharashtra to secure human rights and social justice for low-caste people, so it organised an anti-caste movement in Maharashtra.

• ✓ (c) Phule denounced the injustice of the caste system and the Samaj propagated caste equality among the Shudras and Ati Shudras of Maharashtra.
• ✗ (a) Phule's Samaj worked on caste in Maharashtra; it was not a tribal upliftment movement in Bihar.
• ✗ (b) Nothing links the Samaj to a temple-entry movement in Gujarat; its cause was caste equality in Maharashtra.

Remember · Satyashodhak Samaj: founded by Jotirao Phule in 1873; an anti-caste movement of Maharashtra for the rights of low castes. Phule also wrote Gulamgiri.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Indian Society, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

Viruses can infect every kind of cell-based life: bacteriophages infect bacteria, mycoviruses infect fungi and plant viruses such as the Tobacco Mosaic Virus infect plants. All three statements are correct.

• ✓ 1. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria; NCERT describes the Hershey-Chase experiment that used them.
• ✓ 2. Mycoviruses are viruses that infect fungi; the first was reported in 1962 from the cultivated mushroom Agaricus bisporus.
• ✓ 3. NCERT names microscopic plant viruses, and shows the rod-shaped Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) as an example.

Remember · Viruses multiply only inside a living host cell and can infect bacteria (bacteriophages), fungi (mycoviruses), plants (e.g. TMV) and animals.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Curiosity, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Biology, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) curbing of the tax evasion by multinational companies

Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) means tax-planning strategies by which multinational companies use gaps in tax rules to move profits artificially to low-tax or no-tax places. The OECD/G20 BEPS Project is the global effort to curb this, so 'curbing tax evasion by multinational companies' is the closest option.

• ✓ (b) BEPS is about multinationals shifting profits to low or no-tax locations to avoid paying tax. The OECD calls it tax avoidance; of the four options, this is the only one about tax.
• ✗ (c) Exploitation of a country's genetic resources by companies is the issue of biopiracy and access-and-benefit-sharing, not profit shifting.
• ✗ (d) Ignoring environmental costs in development projects is a matter for environmental impact assessment, not for tax rules.

Remember · BEPS = multinationals shifting profits to low-tax places to cut tax; countered by the OECD/G20 BEPS Project (15 actions) so that profits are taxed where value is created.

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Answer: (a) Andhra Pradesh

The first National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) to be cleared was at Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh. In March 2016 the Government told Lok Sabha that only two NIMZs, Prakasam (Andhra Pradesh) and Medak (Telangana), had received final approval, so Andhra Pradesh is the answer.

• ✓ (a) Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh was one of the only two NIMZs with final approval in March 2016; the other, Medak, is in Telangana, which is not among the options.
• ✗ (b) Gujarat's Ahmedabad-Dholera Investment Region was only announced as an NIMZ within the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor; it had no final approval in 2016.
• ✗ (c) Maharashtra's NIMZs (Shendra-Bidkin and Nagpur) had been announced or given in-principle approval only, not final approval.
• ✗ (d) Uttar Pradesh's sites (Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad, Auraiya, Jhansi) were also announced or at in-principle stage in 2016.
• • Since then By December 2018 three NIMZs had final approval: Prakasam (Andhra Pradesh), Sangareddy (Telangana) and Kalinganagar (Odisha), with 13 more at in-principle stage (PIB, Lok Sabha reply of 27 Dec 2018).

Remember · NIMZs are large developed manufacturing zones under the National Manufacturing Policy, 2011. Prakasam (Andhra Pradesh) and Medak (Telangana) got the first final approvals.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

A District Mineral Foundation (DMF) is a non-profit trust in a mining-affected district that works for the interest and benefit of the people and areas affected by mining, funded by contributions from miners. It does not promote exploration or license anyone, so only statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. Detailed exploration is the job of a different body, the National Mineral Exploration Trust, created by the same 2015 law and funded by a 2% levy on royalty.
• ✓ 2. The DMF's object is to work for the interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining related operations; miners pay into it, up to one-third of the royalty.
• ✗ 3. A DMF is a welfare trust financed by miners' contributions; it is not a body that authorises States to issue licences.

Remember · DMF (MMDR Amendment Act, 2015): a non-profit trust in each mining-affected district; miners contribute up to one-third of royalty; funds PMKKKY. Exploration is NMET's job (2% of royalty).

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Answer: (d) providing affordable and quality education to the citizens for free

SWAYAM is the Government of India's online-course platform that takes teaching resources for classes 9 to post-graduation to anyone, anywhere, free of cost, with the aim of access, equity and quality in education. So option (d) fits.

• ✓ (d) SWAYAM's objective is to take the best teaching-learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged; its courses are free of cost to any learner.
• ✗ (b) SWAYAM is an education platform, not a scheme of finance or technical help for start-up entrepreneurs.
• ✗ (a) It has nothing to do with organising Self Help Groups in rural areas; it hosts online courses.
• • Since then Courses on SWAYAM are still free to study, but a SWAYAM certificate now requires a proctored exam for which a fee is charged (SWAYAM website, 2026).

Remember · SWAYAM: Ministry of Education's free online-course (MOOC) platform for class 9 to post-graduation, built on the principles of access, equity and quality.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) constitutional reforms

The Montague-Chelmsford Proposals produced the constitutional reforms of 1919, which allowed some form of representation in provincial legislative assemblies and made the provincial executive partly responsible to the provincial legislature.

• ✓ (d) NCERT calls Edwin Montagu the author of the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, which allowed some representation in provincial legislative assemblies, and records that the executive was made partly responsible to the provincial legislature in 1919.
• ✗ (a) The proposals changed how India was governed, not its social customs.
• ✗ (c) They did not deal with police administration or with education; they were about the structure of provincial government.

Remember · Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (1919): constitutional reform that made the provincial executive partly responsible to elected provincial legislatures.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (b) 3 only

The only thing common to Ajanta and Mahabalipuram is that both have rock-cut monuments. Ajanta is a Buddhist cave site cut in two phases, about the 2nd-1st century BCE and the 5th century CE, while Mahabalipuram is a Pallava group of the 7th and 8th centuries whose dynasty was mostly Shaivite.

• ✗ 1. Ajanta's caves belong to two phases, about the 2nd-1st century BCE and the 5th century CE onwards; Mahabalipuram's monuments were made mostly in the 7th and 8th centuries under the Pallavas.
• ✗ 2. Ajanta's caves are Buddhist, whereas the Pallava monuments at Mahabalipuram were mostly Shaivite (with some Vaishnava shrines).
• ✓ 3. Both are famous for rock-cut caves and monuments: Ajanta's chaitya and vihara caves and Mahabalipuram's rock-cut mandapas and rathas.

Remember · Ajanta: Buddhist rock-cut caves (2nd century BCE to 5th century CE). Mahabalipuram: Pallava rock-cut and structural temples (7th-8th century), mostly Shaivite. Common feature: rock-cut architecture.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 6 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art, Part I, Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer virtual currency with no central authority: any holder of an address can pay any other, and the parties can stay anonymous or pseudonymous. No central bank issues, authorises or tracks it, so statements 2 and 3 are correct and 1 is not.

• ✗ 1. The RBI said in December 2013 that the creation, trading or usage of virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, is not authorised by any central bank or monetary authority, and in 2017 that it had licensed no one to deal in them.
• ✓ 2. Payments in Bitcoins take place peer to peer, without an authorised central agency that regulates them.
• ✓ 3. The RBI notes that counterparties in such peer-to-peer anonymous or pseudonymous systems are not identified, which is why it warned of money-laundering risks.

Remember · Bitcoin: decentralised, peer-to-peer and pseudonymous, with no issuer or regulator. Central banks do not track or authorise it; the RBI cautioned users in 2013 and 2017.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

The New Development Bank (NDB) was set up by the BRICS countries, not by APEC, and its headquarters is in Shanghai. Statement 1 is wrong and statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. The NDB was established by the BRICS countries; its founding agreement was signed at the sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza in 2014. It is not an APEC body.
• ✓ 2. The NDB is headquartered in Shanghai; it moved into its permanent HQ there in 2021.
• • Since then Since 2016 the NDB has admitted new members, for example Bangladesh, Egypt, UAE and Uruguay in 2021, and it has set up regional offices, including one in GIFT City, Gujarat, in 2022 (NDB website).

Remember · NDB = the BRICS bank (agreement signed at Fortaleza, 2014; first President K.V. Kamath of India), headquartered in Shanghai. It is not an APEC body.

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Answer: (d) protection of Western Ghats

Both reports are about protecting the ecology of the Western Ghats. The Environment Ministry set up the Gadgil panel (headed by Prof. Madhav Gadgil) to mark ecologically sensitive zones there, and then the Kasturirangan group to review that panel's recommendations.

• ✓ (d) The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (Gadgil, report of August 2011) and the High Level Working Group on Western Ghats (Kasturirangan, report of April 2013) both dealt with conserving the Ghats and identifying ecologically sensitive areas.
• ✗ (a) Neither body had anything to do with constitutional reform; both were set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
• ✗ (b) The Ganga Action Plan was a river-cleaning programme; these two reports were about a mountain range, not a river.
• ✗ (c) Linking of rivers is a separate water-resources subject; neither the Gadgil nor the Kasturirangan panel was set up for it.

Remember · Gadgil (WGEEP, 2011) and Kasturirangan (HLWG, 2013) are the two Western Ghats reports; the second reviewed the first.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Keshab Chandra Sen set up the New Dispensation (Nava Vidhan) church (1881). The Calcutta Unitarian Committee (1821) was founded long before he was active, by William Adam and Rammohun Roy.

• ✗ 1. The Calcutta Unitarian Committee was founded in September 1821 by William Adam and Rammohun Roy. Keshab was born in 1838, so he had no hand in it.
• ✓ 2. Keshab founded the New Dispensation (Naba Bidhan or Nava Vidhan) in 1881, an institution meant to bring the truths of all great religions together. The question's 'Tabernacle of New Dispensation' is this church.
• ✓ 3. UPSC's official key treats this statement as correct; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.

Remember · Keshab Chandra Sen: Brahmo Samaj of India (1866), New Dispensation (1881). The Unitarian Committee (1821) belongs to Rammohun Roy and William Adam.

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Answer: (a) Iran

Iran is not in the Gulf Cooperation Council. The GCC was set up in 1981 by six Arab states of the Gulf: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

• ✓ (a) Iran, although it lies on the Gulf coast, was not among the six founding states and has never joined the GCC.
• ✗ (b) Saudi Arabia is a founding member; the agreement creating the GCC was concluded at Riyadh on 25 May 1981.
• ✗ (c) Oman is one of the six founding members.
• ✗ (d) Kuwait is one of the six founding members.

Remember · GCC (1981, Riyadh) has six members: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE. Iran and Iraq are Gulf countries but not members.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Both schemes, introduced in 2015, aim to bring gold held by Indian households into productive use and to cut the country's need to import gold. Neither is meant to attract foreign direct investment into the gold or jewellery trade.

• ✓ 1. The Gold Monetisation Scheme is meant to mobilise idle gold held by households and institutions and put it to productive use; the Sovereign Gold Bond gives savers a paper substitute for buying physical gold.
• ✗ 2. Neither scheme deals with FDI. They are about domestic gold holdings and gold bonds issued by the Government (through the RBI), not about foreign investment in gold or jewellery.
• ✓ 3. Since most gold demand is met by imports, shifting demand from physical gold to bonds, and putting household gold back into circulation, reduces import dependence and helps keep the current account deficit in check.
• • Since then The Medium and Long Term Gold Deposit components of the Gold Monetisation Scheme were discontinued from 26 March 2025 (Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance). The answer as it stood in 2016 is unchanged.

Remember · Sovereign Gold Bond and Gold Monetisation Scheme (2015): mobilise household gold and cut gold imports; they are not FDI schemes.

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Answer: (d) China

The Belt and Road Initiative is China's project to link Asia, Europe and Africa through roads, rail, ports and pipelines. President Xi Jinping launched it in 2013, first under the name One Belt, One Road.

• ✓ (d) It has two parts: the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the ocean-going Maritime Silk Road. Both are Chinese-led, financed and promoted by China.
• ✗ (a) The African Union is a continental body of African states; Africa is only one region where BRI projects are built.
• ✗ (b) Brazil has no connection with the scheme's origin; it is not a Belt and Road initiator.
• ✗ (c) The European Union is a partner-side region that BRI routes reach; the Initiative is not an EU programme.

Remember · Belt and Road Initiative = China's 2013 connectivity plan: Silk Road Economic Belt (land) plus 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (sea). Earlier called One Belt, One Road.

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Answer: (a) bringing the small entrepreneurs into formal financial system

MUDRA Yojana (announced 8 April 2015) gives loans to small and micro enterprises that were mostly left out of formal banking, so that they need not depend on informal lenders. Its purpose is to bring such small entrepreneurs into the formal credit system.

• ✓ (a) The scheme was designed for the crores of small units that stand outside the formal banking system and borrow from informal sources; it offers Shishu, Kishore, Tarun (and later Tarun Plus) loans through banks, NBFCs and micro-finance institutions.
• ✗ (b) MUDRA loans go to income-generating micro enterprises in manufacturing, trading and services. It is a business-loan scheme, not a scheme of crop loans for farmers.
• ✗ (c) MUDRA is a credit scheme for enterprises; it does not pay pensions to anyone.
• ✗ (d) MUDRA lends to enterprises through financial intermediaries; it does not fund voluntary organisations for skill development.

Remember · MUDRA = Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency: collateral-free loans up to a set limit to small enterprises, to bring them into formal credit.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three basins are assessed to hold shale gas. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas told Parliament in July 2015 that Cambay, Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery are among the basins where agencies have estimated shale gas resources.

• ✓ 1. The Cambay Basin (Gujarat) appears in every agency's list of shale gas basins quoted by the Ministry, including the US Geological Survey assessment.
• ✓ 2. The Cauvery Basin (Tamil Nadu coast) is listed alongside Cambay and Krishna-Godavari in the assessments given to the Rajya Sabha.
• ✓ 3. The Krishna-Godavari Basin (Andhra Pradesh coast) is also listed; the USGS put recoverable shale gas in these three basins at 6.1 trillion cubic feet.

Remember · Shale gas basins named in official lists: Cambay, Krishna-Godavari, Cauvery (plus Assam-Arakan, Damodar and Ganga valley in some estimates).

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Answer: (b) International Monetary Fund

The Global Financial Stability Report is published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), prepared by its Monetary and Capital Markets Department. It assesses the global financial system and the risks to its stability.

• ✓ (b) The IMF issues the report twice a year, looking at global financial markets, systemic risks and emerging-market financing.
• ✗ (a) The European Central Bank publishes its own Financial Stability Review, which covers the euro area, not the world.
• ✗ (c) The IBRD (World Bank) is known for reports such as Global Economic Prospects and the World Development Report, not this one.

Remember · Global Financial Stability Report = IMF. Do not mix it up with the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects or the OECD's Economic Outlook.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Statements 1 and 3 are correct; statement 2 is wrong. Atal Pension Yojana gives a Government-guaranteed monthly pension after age 60 to subscribers, especially unorganised-sector workers, and the same pension continues to the spouse; but every eligible family member can join separately.

• ✓ 1. APY is a voluntary scheme with a guaranteed monthly pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 from age 60, meant for all citizens but especially the poor and unorganised-sector workers.
• ✗ 2. One person can hold only one APY account, but all eligible family members aged 18 to 40 can open their own accounts.
• ✓ 3. After the subscriber's death, the spouse receives the same pension for life; after both have died, the accumulated pension wealth goes to the nominee.

Remember · Atal Pension Yojana: guaranteed Rs 1,000 to 5,000 a month from 60; spouse gets the same pension; one account per person, but every eligible family member may join.

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Answer: (b) ASEAN

RCEP is a trade agreement led by ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Its negotiations were launched in November 2012 by the ten ASEAN members together with ASEAN's six free trade partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

• ✓ (b) ASEAN adopted the RCEP framework and drove the talks, on the principle of ASEAN centrality.
• ✗ (a) The G20 is a forum of major economies for financial and economic coordination; it did not negotiate RCEP.
• ✗ (c) The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation deals mainly with regional security and cooperation in Eurasia, not this trade pact.
• ✗ (d) SAARC is a South Asian grouping and was not involved in RCEP.
• • Since then The RCEP Agreement was signed on 15 November 2020 by ASEAN's ten members with Australia, China, Japan, Republic of Korea and New Zealand; India was not among the signatories (ASEAN).

Remember · RCEP = ASEAN plus its six FTA partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand); talks launched November 2012 at Phnom Penh.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three carry the BEE Star Label. In the Bureau of Energy Efficiency's 2016 list, tubular fluorescent lamps were under mandatory star labelling, while electric storage water heaters (geysers) and ceiling fans were under voluntary labelling.

• ✓ 1. Ceiling fans were covered by the BEE Star Label under the voluntary scheme.
• ✓ 2. Electric storage water heaters, that is, electric geysers, were covered under the voluntary scheme.
• ✓ 3. Tubular fluorescent lamps (tube lights) were labelled under the mandatory scheme.

Remember · BEE Star Label (Standards and Labelling programme, from 2006) rates appliances by energy efficiency; more stars mean less energy used. Fans, geysers and tube lights all carry it.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) It can build fusion reactors for power generation

ITER is an experiment to show that nuclear fusion, the joining of light atomic nuclei as in the Sun, can work at power-plant scale. Every ITER member shares the experimental results and intellectual property, so if it succeeds, India can build its own fusion reactors for power.

• ✓ (d) ITER is meant to prepare the way for future fusion power plants, and members share its results and intellectual property. Fusion power reactors are the natural next step for India.
• ✗ (a) Using thorium as fuel belongs to India's fission reactor programme; ITER is a fusion project and does not test thorium.
• ✗ (b) Satellite navigation depends on satellite systems (such as India's own navigation constellation), which have nothing to do with a fusion experiment.
• ✗ (c) Fusion is a different process from fission. A fusion success would not by itself make fission reactors more efficient.

Remember · ITER (in France; members China, EU, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, USA) tests nuclear fusion; the payoff is knowledge to build fusion power plants.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1 and 3

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct. Eripatti was tank land and Ghatikas were temple-linked centres of learning, but a taniyur was a village independent of the local district (nadu), not a village given to Brahmins; that description fits a brahmadeya.

• ✓ 1. Many villages in the Tamil country depended on tank irrigation, and land set apart for the tank was called Eripatti (eri means tank).
• ✗ 2. A taniyur was a separate village within a nadu with its own revenue and justice arrangements. Villages granted to a single Brahmin (ekabhoga) or a group of Brahmins (ganabhoga) were brahmadeyas (NCERT: brahmadeya was land gifted to Brahmanas); many brahmadeyas did become taniyurs, but the two terms are not the same.
• ✓ 3. NCERT describes ghatikas as centres of learning; they were educational institutions of the early medieval south; in general every temple had a Ghatika attached to it.

Remember · Eripatti = tank land; taniyur = independent village; brahmadeya = land or village gifted to Brahmins; ghatika = temple-attached college.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Only statement 1 is correct. India and France launched the International Solar Alliance at the COP21 climate conference in Paris in 2015, but it is a coalition of sunshine-rich countries that join voluntarily, not a body that includes every UN member.

• ✓ 1. The Alliance was launched in 2015 by India and France at COP21, the UN Climate Change Conference held in Paris.
• ✗ 2. When launched, the ISA was a coalition of sunshine-rich countries, and joining is a choice made by each state. It has around 120 member and signatory countries, well short of all UN members.
• • Since then Since the ISA Framework Agreement was amended in 2020, every UN member state is eligible to join, but the Alliance still does not automatically include all of them (ISA, PIB).

Remember · ISA: launched by India and France at COP21, Paris (30 November 2015); headquartered in India; a voluntary alliance, open to all UN members only since the 2020 amendment.

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) agency of EU that provides financial assistance to eurozone countries

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is the permanent rescue fund of the euro area. It lends money and gives other financial help to euro area countries in severe financial distress, acting as a lender of last resort. Strictly, the ESM calls itself an intergovernmental organisation of the euro-area states rather than an EU agency, so (b) is the closest option.

• ✓ (b) Set up on 8 October 2012 as the successor to the temporary European Financial Stability Facility, the ESM gives loans and other assistance to euro area members that cannot borrow from markets at sustainable rates.
• ✗ (a) Refugee arrivals are handled through other EU policies and funds; the ESM is a financial crisis fund and has no refugee role.
• ✗ (c) Trade agreements are dealt with by the EU's own institutions. The ESM is a financial-crisis fund and has no trade role.
• ✗ (d) The ESM does not settle disputes among members; it lends money to countries in financial trouble.

Remember · ESM (set up 2012) is the permanent euro-area bailout fund, successor to the EFSF; it lends to eurozone countries in severe financial distress.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Drip irrigation reduces weeds and soil erosion, but it does not reduce soil salinity; salt tends to build up at the edge of the wetted zone. Water goes only to the plant's root zone, so the rest of the field stays dry and there is little surface flow to wash soil away.

• ✓ 1. Water is placed at the plants, not spread over the whole field, so the soil between rows stays dry and fewer weeds grow. FAO lists reduced weed control among the advantages of drip irrigation, and ICAR notes that it reduces weed pressure.
• ✗ 2. Drip does not cut soil salinity: FAO notes that the dissolved salts accumulate at the periphery of the wetted soil mass, and salt accumulation at the wetting front is listed as a demerit of drip irrigation. (Drip does let farmers use saline water, and it spares leaves from salt burn, which is a different point.)
• ✓ 3. Water is delivered slowly through emitters with no flooding or heavy surface flow, so soil structure is disturbed least. A field study in a peer-reviewed journal measured suspended soil loss of 5.26 t per ha under furrow irrigation, 2.53 t per ha under subsurface drip at 120% of crop evapotranspiration, and none under deficit subsurface drip.

Remember · Drip irrigation: saves water, fertiliser and labour, keeps weeds down and spares soil structure; drawbacks are clogged emitters and salt build-up at the wetting front.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both statements are correct. DigiLocker is a Government of India digital document wallet run under the Digital India programme, and because it is cloud-based, you can reach your documents from the web or a mobile app wherever you are.

• ✓ 1. DigiLocker is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the Digital India programme.
• ✓ 2. It is a secure cloud-based platform for storing, sharing and verifying documents, accessible through the web portal and the mobile app, so no physical copies need to be carried.

Remember · DigiLocker = MeitY's cloud-based document wallet under Digital India; documents can be issued, stored, shared and verified digitally, from anywhere.

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Answer: (b) Godavari and Krishna

The link taken up was between the Godavari and the Krishna. In September 2015 Godavari water was carried into the Krishna delta through the Polavaram right canal, a link executed by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

• ✓ (b) The Godavari (Polavaram)-Krishna (Vijayawada) link was taken over by the State of Andhra Pradesh under the Indirasagar Polavaram Project, and water connectivity in the link canal has since been established. Godavari water reached the Krishna delta through this canal on 9 September 2015.
• ✗ (d) The Par-Tapi-Narmada link, the Narmada-Tapti proposal in the Ministry's list, was only at detailed-project-report stage; no such link was executed.
• ✗ (c) The Ministry's list has no Mahanadi-Sone link; the Mahanadi is proposed to be linked with the Godavari, and only a feasibility report exists for that.

Remember · The link executed in 2015 was Godavari-Krishna, through the Polavaram right canal in Andhra Pradesh.

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Answer: (b) 2, 3 and 4 only

Carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide are used in India's National Air Quality Index; carbon dioxide and methane are not. The index is built from eight pollutants for which short-term air quality standards exist: PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, ozone, ammonia and lead.

• ✗ 1. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, not one of the eight pollutants in the National AQI.
• ✓ 2. Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the eight AQI pollutants.
• ✓ 3. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the eight AQI pollutants.
• ✓ 4. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of the eight AQI pollutants.
• ✗ 5. Methane is a greenhouse gas and is not among the eight pollutants used for the AQI.

Remember · National AQI pollutants: PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, Pb. No CO2 and no methane.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is correct. Astrosat weighed about 1,513 kg at lift-off and was put into a 650 km orbit, not 2,000 kg and 1,650 km; and India is not the only country beyond the USA and Russia to have launched a space observatory, since Europe's ESA, for one, had already done so.

• ✗ 1. Other countries and agencies have launched space observatories. For example, ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory was launched on 17 October 2002, long before Astrosat (September 2015).
• ✗ 2. ISRO gives Astrosat's lift-off mass as about 1,513 kg and its orbit as 650 km, inclined at 6 degrees to the equator, launched by PSLV-C30.

Remember · Astrosat: India's multi-wavelength space observatory (UV to X-ray), launched by PSLV-C30 on 28 September 2015; about 1,513 kg, 650 km orbit at 6 degrees inclination.

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Answer: (c) waterwheel used in the irrigation of land

Araghatta is a waterwheel used to lift water so that fields can be irrigated: a Government of India water-sector publication lists water wheels (araghatta) among the means of lifting water for irrigation in Kashmir. It names a piece of irrigation technology, not a labour system, a land grant or a category of land.

• ✓ (c) A Government of India water-sector publication (Ministry of Jal Shakti) records that, in the elaborate irrigation system of Kashmir, water wheels (araghatta) were used to lift water from the Jhelum.
• ✗ (b) Grants of territory to military commanders describe systems such as the iqta of the Delhi Sultanate (territories assigned to nobles to collect taxes and maintain the army) and the amara-nayaka system of Vijayanagara (military commanders given territories to govern), as NCERT records, not the araghatta.
• ✗ (d) Araghatta does not mean reclaimed wasteland; it is a machine for lifting water, not a type of land.

Remember · Araghatta means a waterwheel used to lift water for irrigation (a Government of India publication records water wheels, araghatta, lifting water from the Jhelum).

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Answer: (d) Maagadha

The Maagadha (Magadha) belonged, along with the sutas, to the bardic tradition of ancient India, whose members sang the deeds of kings and heroes and kept dynastic memories alive by recitation. The other three options are not bardic professions: a shramana and a parivrajaka are wandering renouncers, and an agraharika is linked to an agrahara land grant.

• ✓ (d) Bards kept ancient tradition alive by memory and recitation. NCERT notes that the original Mahabharata story was probably composed by charioteer-bards called sutas, and that such compositions circulated orally. University study material adds that the bardic tradition emerged from the Sutas and Magadhas, the earliest authors of the Itihasas and Puranas, and that Kautilya lists the pauranika, the suta and the Magadha among the king's salaried officials for the Itihasa and Purana.
• ✗ (a) A shramana ("one who strives") is a renouncer who left household life for an ascetic path, as in the Buddhist and Jain traditions; it is not the name of a bard.
• ✗ (b) A parivrajaka is a wanderer who has given up settled life, not a keeper of dynastic histories.
• ✗ (c) An agrahara was land granted to a Brahmana, usually free of land revenue; an agraharika is linked to such a grant, not to reciting chronicles.

Remember · Sutas and Maagadhas were the bards of ancient India who remembered and recited royal deeds, genealogies and epic tales; shramanas and parivrajakas were renouncers.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (d) Maharashtra

Maharashtra was the first State in India to have an official State butterfly, and it chose the Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor). The Maharashtra Forest Department's own butterfly guide records this.

• ✓ (d) The Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor) was declared the State butterfly of Maharashtra, and Maharashtra is described as the first State in India to have one. It is a large swallowtail with a wingspan of 120-150 mm.
• ✗ (a) Arunachal Pradesh has also named a State butterfly, the Kaiser-i-Hind, but Maharashtra's choice was the first in the country.
• • Since then Since 2016 other States have named their own State butterflies as well, so 'first' describes the position only when the question was set. The Maharashtra Forest Department's Pench guide, for instance, notes that the Kaiser-i-Hind is Arunachal Pradesh's State butterfly.

Remember · Maharashtra was India's first State to declare a State butterfly: the Blue Mormon, Papilio polymnestor.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Statements 1 and 3 are correct, and statement 2 is wrong. Mangalyaan is ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission, and India reached Mars orbit on its very first try, but India was the fourth space agency to do so, not the second country after the USA.

• ✓ 1. ISRO itself says Mangalyaan and Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) are the same mission, India's first interplanetary mission, to Mars.
• ✗ 2. ISRO became the fourth space agency to put a spacecraft in Mars orbit, after NASA of the USA, Roscosmos of Russia and the European Space Agency, so India was not the second.
• ✓ 3. The spacecraft entered Martian orbit on 24 September 2014 and, in the words of the Government of India, India became the first country to reach Mars on its maiden attempt.

Remember · Mangalyaan = Mars Orbiter Mission (PSLV-C25, 5 November 2013; Mars orbit 24 September 2014): fourth space agency at Mars, first country to succeed at the first attempt.

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Answer: (b) Extremists' lack of faith in the capacity of the moderates to negotiate with the British Government

The Congress split at Surat because the Nationalists (called Extremists by their opponents) no longer trusted the Moderates to press the British. At Surat the Moderates tried to back away from the Calcutta resolutions on Swaraj, Swadeshi and Boycott and return to asking for minor administrative concessions.

• ✓ (b) NCERT says the Moderates at Surat tried to step back from the Calcutta resolutions and return to the old requests for minor concessions. The Nationalists led by Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Aurobindo Ghose refused, chaos followed when Tilak was prevented from speaking, and they held a separate session.
• ✗ (a) Lord Minto's separate electorates came with the Indian Councils Act of 1909, two years after Surat. NCERT's account of the split gives Minto no part in it.
• ✗ (c) The All-India Muslim League was founded at Dhaka in December 1906. The Surat quarrel was between Moderates and Nationalists inside the Congress, not a reaction to the League.
• ✗ (d) NCERT names Aurobindo Ghose only as one of the Nationalist leaders who walked out and presided over their separate session; it mentions no defeat of his in an election for president.

Remember · Surat 1907: the Congress split into Moderates and Nationalists over Swaraj, Swadeshi and Boycott, after the Moderates tried to retreat from the Calcutta resolutions.

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Answer: (d) India should be given Dominion status

The Cripps Mission of 1942 offered India Dominion status once the Second World War ended. Indian leaders rejected the offer, and its failure led Gandhi to launch the Quit India Movement in August 1942.

• ✓ (d) NCERT's timeline records that the Cripps Mission in 1942 proposed post-war dominion status, and that Indian leaders rejected it.
• ✗ (a) Complete independence was not on offer. Dominion status, a lower position within the British Empire, was what the Mission proposed, which is why it was rejected.
• ✗ (b) The Cripps proposal did not promise partition of India into two before independence; that idea came up in the later 1946-47 negotiations.
• ✗ (c) The offer was of Dominion status, not of a republic bound by a condition to join the Commonwealth.

Remember · Cripps Mission, March 1942: post-war Dominion status; rejected by Indian leaders; followed by the Quit India Movement in August 1942.

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Answer: (c) 2 and 5 only

Only pairs 2 and 5 are correct: Khajuraho lies in Bundelkhand and Tirupati in Rayalaseema. Bodh Gaya is in Bihar, Shirdi is in Ahmednagar district (not in Vidarbha), and Nashik is in Maharashtra, so pairs 1, 3 and 4 name the wrong region.

• ✗ 1. Bodh Gaya is in Gaya district of Bihar, about 115 km south of Patna (UNESCO). Baghelkhand is a region of Madhya Pradesh, which includes the Rewa division.
• ✓ 2. The Madhya Pradesh government's Bundelkhand tourism portal lists the temples of Khajuraho among the Bundela and Chandela attractions of Bundelkhand.
• ✗ 3. Shirdi is a village in Ahmednagar (now Ahilyanagar) district of Maharashtra. The Government of Maharashtra describes Vidarbha as the Amravati and Nagpur divisions, whose districts are Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Washim, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli; Ahmednagar is not among them.
• ✗ 4. Nashik is in Maharashtra (the Amravati division page lists a Nashik Division of the State). Malwa is a plateau region of Madhya Pradesh, as NCERT's mention of the Malwa plateau of Madhya Pradesh shows.
• ✓ 5. An expert committee report published by the Ministry of Home Affairs describes the Rayalaseema arc as made up of Kurnool, Anantapur, Tirupathi, Kadapa and Chittoor, so Tirupati belongs to Rayalaseema.

Remember · Khajuraho = Bundelkhand; Tirupati = Rayalaseema. Bodh Gaya is in Bihar, Shirdi (Ahmednagar) and Nashik are in Maharashtra, outside Vidarbha and Malwa.

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Answer: (d) Rajya Sabha by a majority of not less than two-thirds of its members present and voting

Under Article 249 only the Rajya Sabha can give Parliament this power, and it must do so by a resolution supported by at least two-thirds of its members present and voting. The Lok Sabha has no role in passing the resolution.

• ✓ (d) Article 249(1) says that if the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) declares, by a resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of members present and voting, that it is necessary or expedient in the national interest, Parliament may make laws on that State List matter for the whole or any part of India.
• ✗ (a) The Lok Sabha does not pass the Article 249 resolution, and a simple majority would not be enough in any case.
• ✗ (c) The House is right but the majority is wrong: the resolution needs two-thirds of members present and voting, not a simple majority of total membership.
• ✗ (b) Two-thirds is the correct size of majority, but it is counted in the Rajya Sabha and among members present and voting, not in the Lok Sabha.

Remember · Article 249: Rajya Sabha resolution, two-thirds of members present and voting, lets Parliament legislate on a State List subject in the national interest; it lasts up to one year and can be renewed.

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Answer: (d) Rajasthan

Rajasthan is the State that proposed an artificial inland shipping port at Jalore, to be linked to the Arabian Sea by a channel along the Kutch Creek. The Ministry of Shipping said in 2015 that a pre-feasibility study would be done by the Rajasthan Government with support from the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).

• ✓ (d) The Press Information Bureau (13 August 2015) records a proposal from the Government of Rajasthan for an inland shipping port at Jalore, connected to the Arabian Sea by a channel along the Kutch Creek.
• ✗ (a) Andhra Pradesh has a long coastline and its own sea ports, so it needs no artificial channel to reach the sea.
• ✗ (b) Chhattisgarh is landlocked, but the government's inland-port proposal of 2015 came from Rajasthan, not Chhattisgarh.

Remember · Rajasthan's proposed Jalore inland port would be joined to the Arabian Sea by a channel along the Kutch Creek; a pre-feasibility study was agreed with IWAI in 2015.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Only statement 2 is correct: the Paris Agreement's temperature goal is to hold warming well below 2 °C and pursue 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Statement 1 is wrong because the Agreement entered into force in 2016, and statement 3 is wrong because the finance goal is USD 100 billion a year, not 1000 billion.

• ✗ 1. The Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, the thirtieth day after 55 Parties covering at least 55 per cent of global emissions had deposited ratifications (Article 21), not in 2017. It was opened for signature from 22 April 2016 to Parties to the UNFCCC, and every country joins by its own signature and ratification.
• ✓ 2. Article 2(1)(a) sets the aim of holding the rise in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C.
• ✗ 3. The Paris decision urges developed countries to scale up finance towards jointly providing USD 100 billion a year by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation. The figure is 100 billion, not 1000 billion.

Remember · Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, in force 4 November 2016): well below 2 °C, pursue 1.5 °C; developed countries' goal of USD 100 billion a year by 2020.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Statement 2 is correct and statement 1 is wrong. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of the UN's 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015 and to be achieved by 2030, and the UN decided to develop them at the Rio+20 conference in 2012. The Club of Rome's 1972 contribution was a book, Limits to Growth.

• ✗ 1. The idea of SDGs was launched by UN Member States at the 2012 Rio+20 Conference, not by the Club of Rome. NCERT says the Club of Rome, a global think tank, published Limits to Growth in 1972, a warning about the depletion of the Earth's resources.
• ✓ 2. The 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN in 2015 with 17 Goals and 169 targets, commits countries to working for its full implementation by 2030.

Remember · SDGs: 17 goals, adopted by the UN in 2015, target year 2030; idea launched at Rio+20 (2012). The Club of Rome's 1972 work was Limits to Growth.

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Answer: (a) S. Ramanujan

The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015) is a film on the life of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), with Dev Patel in the title role. It takes its name from Robert Kanigel's 1991 biography of Ramanujan, and the film adapts that book.

• ✓ (a) The film shows Ramanujan's rise from Madras to Cambridge and his work with G. H. Hardy. Ramanujan reshaped twentieth-century mathematics through work on infinite series, continued fractions and number theory.
• ✗ (b) S. Chandrasekhar was an astrophysicist, not a mathematician, and the film is not about him.
• ✗ (c) S. N. Bose was a physicist known for Bose-Einstein statistics; he is not the subject of this film.
• ✗ (d) C. V. Raman was a physicist who won the Nobel Prize for the Raman effect; the film is not about him.

Remember · The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015), starring Dev Patel, is the film on Srinivasa Ramanujan; his birthday, 22 December, is National Mathematics Day.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Statement 2 is correct and statement 1 is wrong. Article 243E(4) says a Panchayat formed after an early dissolution lasts only for the remainder of the dissolved body's five-year term, while Article 243F lets a person be a Panchayat member from the age of 21.

• ✗ 1. Article 243F(1)(a) applies the State Legislature's age qualification but adds that no one can be disqualified for being under twenty-five if he has attained twenty-one years. The minimum age for a Panchayat member is therefore 21, not 25.
• ✓ 2. Article 243E(4) says a Panchayat constituted after an early dissolution continues only for the remainder of the period for which the dissolved Panchayat would have continued, so it does not get a fresh five-year term.

Remember · Panchayat members: minimum age 21 (Art. 243F). A Panchayat set up after premature dissolution serves only the remainder of the old term (Art. 243E(4)); fresh election within six months.

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