Prelims GS Paper I 2017

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

A private member's bill is any bill moved by an MP who is not a minister, whether elected or nominated. And such bills are not new to Parliament: fourteen of them have become law since 1952, so neither statement holds.

• ✗ 1. The test is whether the mover is a minister, not how the member reached Parliament. Any non-minister MP, elected or nominated, introduces a private member's bill; a minister's bill is a government bill.
• ✗ 2. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat records 14 private members' bills enacted so far, starting with the Muslim Wakf Bill, 1952; the last of them became law in 1970. So when the Rajya Sabha passed the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2014 on 24 April 2015, it was not a first.

Remember · Private member's bill = moved by any MP who is not a minister. Only 14 have ever become law; the last one cleared both Houses in 1970.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Statement 2 is the one to reject: Harappan metal workers used gold, silver, lead and copper, and iron came into use in the subcontinent only around 1000 BCE, long after the Harappan cities. The other two statements reflect the standard contrast between a warlike, horse-centred Rigvedic society and the Harappan record.

• ✓ 1. Rigvedic Aryan warriors are described as fighting in coats of mail and headgear, whereas Harappan sites have yielded no armour, and re-examination of Mohenjodaro found no warriors clad in armour.
• ✗ 2. Harappans worked gold, silver, lead and copper, and alloyed copper with tin and arsenic. Iron belongs to a much later phase, around 1000 BCE, so 'only copper and iron' is wrong on both counts.
• ✓ 3. The horse-drawn chariot was one of the two new instruments of combat the Rigvedic Aryans brought, and the horse is central to the Rigveda. Harappan seals show the bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, bison, goat and buffalo, but not the horse, which is why the key treats it as absent.

Remember · Harappans: bronze-age, knew gold, silver, copper, lead, tin; no iron (iron c. 1000 BCE). Horse and armour are Rigvedic hallmarks, not Harappan.

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Answer: (a) Certifying the skills acquired by construction workers through traditional channels.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) gives a formal certificate to people who already have a skill learnt on the job or from family, without a formal course. Its first pilot was run for construction workers by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and it later became a component of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

• ✓ (a) The Ministry of Labour and Employment launched an RPL pilot in the construction sector to certify skills that informal workers had picked up through experience or other non-formal channels.
• ✗ (d) RPL is meant for people who were never formally trained; trainees who finish a formal skill course are assessed and certified under that course itself, not under 'prior learning'.
• ✗ (b) RPL has nothing to do with university admission or distance education; it assesses existing workplace skills against national occupational standards.

Remember · RPL = certifying skills already learnt informally (on the job, in the family). Piloted for construction workers; now a component of PMKVY under the Skill Development ministry.

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Answer: (a) Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve

Sathyamangalam, in the Erode region of western Tamil Nadu, sits where the Western Ghats meet the Eastern Ghats. Its forests form a corridor that lets tigers, elephants and other wildlife move between the two hill systems; it became a tiger reserve in 2013.

• ✓ (a) The reserve's own management describes it as the vital corridor linking the Western and Eastern Ghats, which keeps wildlife populations of the two ranges connected.
• ✗ (c) Nagarhole in Karnataka is a Western Ghats park; it does not reach the Eastern Ghats.
• ✗ (d) Seshachalam, around Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, is an Eastern Ghats biosphere reserve with no link to the Western Ghats.

Remember · Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (Tamil Nadu, 2013) is the junction and wildlife corridor between the Western and Eastern Ghats, within the Nilgiri landscape.

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Answer: (a) Privileges

Equality means that the treatment people get and the chances open to them are not fixed by birth or status. That requires ending special privileges reserved for a few; it does not require removing rules, rivalry or beliefs.

• ✓ (a) The first step towards equality is dismantling formal systems of inequality and privilege, such as rights, offices or entry open only to some castes, classes or sexes.
• ✗ (c) Equality of opportunity is compatible with competition; liberal thinkers in fact treat fair competition as a just way to distribute rewards once everyone starts on equal terms.
• ✗ (b) An equal society still has laws and restraints; equality asks that the same restraints apply to all, not that restraints disappear.

Remember · Equality = no special privileges by birth or status, plus equal opportunities. It sits comfortably with laws (restraints) and fair competition.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

TRAFFIC is a non-governmental wildlife trade monitoring network founded by IUCN and WWF, not a UN body. Its whole purpose is to keep the trade in wild species from harming their survival, so only statement 2 is right.

• ✗ 1. TRAFFIC was set up in 1976 by IUCN and WWF, which remain its founders and partners. It describes itself as a non-governmental organisation and has no place in the UNEP structure.
• ✓ 2. TRAFFIC's own 2017 website stated this as its mission, word for word. It now phrases the same aim as keeping trade in wild species legal and sustainable.

Remember · TRAFFIC = NGO wildlife-trade monitoring network, founded 1976 by IUCN and WWF; works closely with CITES but is not a UN or UNEP body.

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Answer: (b) Participation of workers in the management of industries

Article 43A, which asks the State to secure workers' participation in the management of industries, was inserted by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, with effect from 3 January 1977. The other three principles were in the original Constitution of 1950.

• ✓ (b) The official text of the Constitution marks Article 43A as inserted by section 9 of the Forty-second Amendment Act, 1976.
• ✗ (a) Equal pay for equal work for men and women is Article 39(d), part of the original Directive Principles.
• ✗ (d) A living wage and decent conditions of work for workers is Article 43, also original; the 42nd Amendment only added the new Article 43A beside it.

Remember · 42nd Amendment (1976) added to DPSP: Article 39(f) (reworded), 39A free legal aid, 43A workers in management, 48A environment, forests and wildlife.

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Answer: (c) Rights are claims of the citizens against the State.

A right is a justified claim that a person makes, and it binds the State: it limits what the State may do and obliges it to act in certain ways. So rights are claims of citizens on the State, not favours granted to some.

• ✓ (c) Political theory defines a right as an entitlement or justified claim, and rights place obligations and limits on the authority of the State.
• ✗ (b) A constitution recognises rights and makes them enforceable, but that legal endorsement is not what makes them rights; and they are entitlements, not privileges.
• ✗ (d) Rights belong equally to all; even minority rights are meant to secure equal respect, not special privileges for a few.

Remember · Right = justified claim of the individual that the State must respect and help secure. Rights limit State power; they are not privileges.

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Answer: (a) World Economic Forum

The Global Gender Gap Index is published every year by the World Economic Forum in its Global Gender Gap Report. It scores countries on the gap between men and women in economic participation, education, health and survival, and political empowerment.

• ✓ (a) The Global Gender Gap Report 2016 of the World Economic Forum placed India 87th among 144 countries on the index, as the Ministry of Women and Child Development noted in December 2016.
• ✗ (c) UN Women runs programmes on gender equality but does not publish this index. The UN's own gender ranking, the Gender Inequality Index, comes from UNDP's Human Development Report.
• ✗ (b) The UN Human Rights Council reviews countries' human rights records through the Universal Periodic Review; it issues no gender gap ranking.

Remember · Global Gender Gap Index = World Economic Forum (4 dimensions). Gender Inequality Index and Gender Development Index = UNDP.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Smart India Hackathon is a competition, not a scheme or a digitisation target: ministries post real problems and student teams build technology solutions to them. The first edition, SIH 2017, was held on 1–2 April 2017 with 598 problem statements from 29 ministries and departments.

• ✗ 1. The hackathon builds no cities. The centrally sponsored programme for urban renewal is the separate Smart Cities Mission, which covers 100 selected cities, not every city.
• ✓ 2. Its stated aim is to give students a platform to solve pressing everyday problems and to build a culture of product innovation, using problem statements set by government departments.
• ✗ 3. The hackathon sets no target for digital payments; promoting cashless transactions was the work of other initiatives such as Digital India and UPI-based payments.

Remember · Smart India Hackathon (first held 1–2 April 2017): students solve problem statements posted by ministries; a hunt for tech innovations, not a scheme.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

The MPC, set up under Section 45ZB of the amended RBI Act, 1934, fixes the policy repo rate needed to meet the inflation target. It has six members, is chaired by the RBI Governor, and its external members serve four-year terms, so only statement 1 is right.

• ✓ 1. The MPC determines the policy repo rate, the RBI's benchmark rate; the first MPC was constituted on 29 September 2016.
• ✗ 2. It has six members, not twelve: three from the RBI (the Governor, the Deputy Governor in charge of monetary policy and one officer nominated by the central board) and three appointed by the Central Government for four years.
• ✗ 3. The RBI Governor is its chairperson ex officio. The Finance Minister is not a member; the government's role is to set the inflation target and appoint the external members.

Remember · MPC: six members (3 RBI + 3 government-appointed for 4 years), chaired by the RBI Governor, sets the repo rate; Governor has a casting vote in a tie.

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Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only

Sankirtana, inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013, is the ritual singing, drumming and dancing of the Vaishnava people of the Manipur plains. Performers tell the life and deeds of Krishna through song and dance, and drums are central to it, so cymbals are not the only instruments.

• ✓ 1. It combines singing and dancing, performed in a temple hall or courtyard with devotees seated around the performers.
• ✗ 2. UNESCO describes a typical performance as two drummers with about ten singer-dancers, and its very title reads 'singing, drumming and dancing'; so drums are as central as cymbals.
• ✓ 3. UNESCO describes performers narrating the lives and deeds of Krishna through song and dance.

Remember · Sankirtana (Manipur): Vaishnava ritual singing, drumming and dancing that narrates Krishna's life; on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2013.

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Answer: (c) 2 and 3 only

The ryotwari system, a settlement made directly with the cultivators, was first tried by Captain Alexander Read in territories taken from Tipu Sultan and then developed and extended across south India by Thomas Munro. Cornwallis is linked with the opposite model, the Permanent Settlement with zamindars in Bengal (1793).

• ✗ 1. Cornwallis was Governor-General of Bengal when the Permanent Settlement of 1793 fixed revenue in perpetuity with zamindars; ryotwari was a move away from that idea.
• ✓ 2. Alexander Read tried the ryotwari system on a small scale in areas the Company took over after the wars with Tipu Sultan.
• ✓ 3. Thomas Munro developed Read's system and extended it over south India, arguing that settlement should be made directly with the ryots who tilled the land.

Remember · Permanent Settlement (1793, Bengal) = Cornwallis, with zamindars. Ryotwari = Read, then Munro (Madras); Mahalwari = village-based, north-west.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Bioremediation speeds up the natural breakdown of pollutants by microbes, and microbes can be genetically engineered for the job. But microbes break down organic compounds; metals such as cadmium and lead are elements that cannot be degraded, only changed in form or immobilised, so statement 2 overclaims.

• ✓ 1. It uses microorganisms that feed on or co-metabolise contaminants, boosting the same biodegradation that happens in nature by supplying nutrients, oxygen or other electron acceptors.
• ✗ 2. Bioremediation is described as degrading organic contaminants. Heavy metals cannot be broken down by microbes, so 'readily and completely treated' is wrong; at best microbes change their chemical form.
• ✓ 3. Biotechnology uses genetically modified microbes for bioremediation; in 1971 Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty developed a bacterium that could break down oil spills.

Remember · Bioremediation = microbes degrading organic pollutants (oil, solvents, pesticides); engineered microbes help. Heavy metals cannot be degraded, only transformed or immobilised.

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Answer: (d) a system of tribunals and a ban on strikes.

Passed amid the labour unrest of the late 1920s, the Trade Disputes Act, 1929 let the government refer an industrial dispute to a Court of Inquiry or a Board of Conciliation, and it put restraints on strikes and lock-outs in public utility services. Tribunals plus curbs on strikes is option (d).

• ✓ (d) The Act let the government set up Courts of Inquiry and Boards of Conciliation to investigate and settle disputes, and it restrained strikes and lock-outs, above all in public utility services.
• ✗ (a) The Act gave workers no role in management. Even Works Committees of employer and worker representatives came only with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which replaced the 1929 Act.
• ✗ (c) Disputes went to bodies the government itself appointed, not to a British court; the 1946 review noted that their findings were not even binding on the parties.

Remember · Trade Disputes Act, 1929: Courts of Inquiry and Boards of Conciliation + restraints on strikes in public utility services; replaced by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

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Answer: (b) Democratic decentralisation

Local self-government moves power from the Central and State governments to elected bodies of villages and towns, so that people decide local matters themselves. Handing power down to elected local bodies is exactly what democratic decentralisation means.

• ✓ (b) When power is taken from Central and State governments and given to elected local government, it is decentralisation; panchayats were seen as instruments of decentralisation and participatory democracy.
• ✗ (a) Federalism is a constitutional division of power between the Union and the States. Local bodies are a third tier created within the States, and their powers depend on State laws.
• ✗ (c) Administrative delegation passes work to appointed officials who stay answerable to superiors; local self-government gives authority to bodies elected by and answerable to the local people.

Remember · Local self-government (73rd and 74th Amendments) = democratic decentralisation: power shifted from Centre and States to elected panchayats and municipalities.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither is correct. Directive Principles are guidelines for the State that no court can enforce, so they are not legal limits on what Parliament may pass or what the executive may do. The real limits come from the Fundamental Rights, which courts do enforce.

• ✗ 1. Article 37 says the Directive Principles are not enforceable by any court. A law is therefore not struck down merely because it does not follow one; they guide law-making rather than restrict it.
• ✗ 2. They tell governments what to aim for, but they are non-justiciable: if a government does not act on a directive, citizens cannot ask a court to make it do so. They are instructions, not limitations.

Remember · Directive Principles guide the State (Article 37) but are non-justiciable; only Fundamental Rights actually limit legislative and executive action.

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Answer: (c) EU

The Digital Single Market Strategy is a European Commission plan, adopted on 6 May 2015, to turn the separate national digital markets of the European Union into one market by removing barriers to cross-border online activity.

• ✓ (c) The strategy was adopted by the European Commission on 6 May 2015 and rests on three pillars: better access to online goods and services, the right environment for digital networks, and digital as a driver of growth.
• ✗ (a) ASEAN has its own digital plans, but the 'Digital Single Market Strategy' is the name of the EU's 2015 programme.
• ✗ (d) The G20 is a forum of major economies with no single market of its own; a single market with common rules is a feature of the EU.

Remember · Digital Single Market Strategy = European Union (European Commission, 6 May 2015): from 28 national digital markets to one, in three pillars.

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Answer: (c) Chandipur

Chandipur, on the Bay of Bengal coast in Balasore district of Odisha, has a very gently sloping shore: at low tide the sea pulls back up to about 5 km, so visitors can walk on the exposed sea bed, and the water returns with the high tide.

• ✓ (c) Odisha Tourism calls Chandipur a 'hide and seek' beach: at each low tide it recedes up to about 5 km, exposing the sea bed, and the sea comes back at high tide (tides come roughly twice a day).
• ✗ (a) Bhavnagar is a port city on the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat; it is not the beach known for this walk-on-the-sea-floor phenomenon.
• ✗ (b) Bheemunipatnam is a coastal town near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh with an ordinary beach, not a receding one.

Remember · Chandipur (Balasore, Odisha) = the 'vanishing sea' beach: at low tide the sea recedes up to about 5 km and you can walk on the sea bed.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

The amended Act (in force from 1 November 2016) expressly counts a deal as benami even when the recorded owner is unaware of it, lets the Government confiscate benami property, and provides an appeal route through an Adjudicating Authority and an Appellate Tribunal. Only statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. The definition of a benami transaction includes an arrangement where the owner of the property is not aware of, or denies knowledge of, the ownership. Lack of awareness makes it benami; it does not exempt it.
• ✓ 2. Property held benami can be provisionally attached and then confiscated by the Government, without payment of compensation.
• ✗ 3. Income-tax officers act as Initiating Officer, Approving Authority and Administrator, and there is an Adjudicating Authority too; appeals lie to the Appellate Tribunal, so an appellate mechanism does exist.

Remember · PBPT Act (amended 2016, effective 1 Nov 2016): 'owner unaware' still counts as benami; benami property confiscated without compensation; appeals via Adjudicating Authority and Appellate Tribunal.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Butterflies are pollinators and also food for many predators, so their decline would hurt pollination and the animals that eat them. They play no role in keeping fungal diseases of crops in check, so statement 2 does not follow.

• ✓ 1. Butterflies are among the common animal pollinators of flowering plants, so plants that depend on them could set fewer seeds.
• ✗ 2. Butterflies and their caterpillars feed on nectar and leaves; they do not control plant-infecting fungi, so their loss gives no reason for fungal infections to rise.
• ✓ 3. Birds, spiders, wasps and dragonflies prey on butterflies or their caterpillars; when a prey species crashes, predators that rely on it can decline too.

Remember · Removing one species ripples through the web: butterflies = pollinators + prey. Their crash hits pollination and predator populations, not fungal disease.

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Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Algae for fuel are grown on land, in open ponds or closed photobioreactors, often on non-arable land with non-potable water, so statement 1 is false. The real hurdles for a developing country are the engineering know-how needed and the very large scale (land, water, nutrients, CO2) needed to make it pay.

• ✗ 1. Algae are cultivated on land in open raceway ponds, attached-growth systems and closed photobioreactors; non-arable land is listed as one of the resources for growing them.
• ✓ 2. Designing cultivation systems that keep resource use and costs low while keeping productivity high, and then harvesting and processing the biomass, needs advanced technology and skills.
• ✓ 3. An algal biofuel industry has to scale up to use a large amount of land, water, nutrients and CO2, which can compete with other uses and raise ecological and social concerns.

Remember · Algal (third-generation) biofuel: grown on land in ponds or photobioreactors, even on non-arable land with saline or waste water; the limits are technology and the scale needed to be viable.

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Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The National Nutrition Mission (later POSHAN Abhiyaan) targets malnutrition among children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, and sets yearly targets to cut stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight. It works through convergence of schemes and a people's movement for awareness; promoting particular foods such as millets or eggs was not among its stated objectives.

• ✓ 1. The Mission targets the nutrition of children up to 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers, and involves the public through a Jan Andolan to spread awareness about nutrition.
• ✓ 2. It aims to reduce anaemia among young children, women and adolescent girls by 3% a year, alongside stunting, under-nutrition and low birth weight.
• ✗ 3. Promoting millets, coarse cereals and unpolished rice was not an objective of the Mission as framed; they concern food-grain policy.
• ✗ 4. Encouraging the consumption of poultry eggs was not a stated objective of the Mission.
• • Since then Since then, under Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, the guidelines require millets to be served at Anganwadis at least once a week (PIB, 2023).

Remember · National Nutrition Mission / POSHAN Abhiyaan: cut stunting, under-nutrition and low birth weight by 2% a year and anaemia (children, women, adolescent girls) by 3% a year; convergence plus Jan Andolan.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

The Factories Act, 1881 (passed under Lord Ripon) was a limited measure about working conditions, chiefly of child workers in factories; it neither fixed wages nor recognised trade unions. Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, who founded the Bombay Mill Hands Association in 1884, is hailed as the father of the trade union movement in India.

• ✗ 1. The 1881 Act regulated factory conditions, mainly for children. Laws on wages (Payment of Wages Act, 1936; Minimum Wages Act, 1948) and on registering trade unions (Trade Unions Act, 1926) came decades later.
• ✓ 2. Lokhande set up the Mill Hand Association in 1884, which marked the institutionalisation of the labour movement; his agitation led to the Factory Labour Commission and the Factory Act of 1891.

Remember · N.M. Lokhande: Bombay Mill Hands Association (1884), father of India's trade union movement. Factory Act 1881 (Ripon) = child labour; trade unions legalised only by the Trade Unions Act, 1926.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

Geological carbon storage injects captured CO2 deep underground into porous rock sealed by an impermeable cap. Saline formations, oil and gas reservoirs and unmineable coal seams are all standard candidate sites, so all three are correct.

• ✓ 1. Coal that cannot be mined economically can adsorb CO2 on its surfaces; unmineable coal seams are one of the formation types studied for storage.
• ✓ 2. Oil and gas reservoirs held fluids for millions of years under a sealing layer, so once depleted they can hold injected CO2; injection can also push out extra oil.
• ✓ 3. Deep saline formations (porous rock filled with brine) have the largest storage capacity and are the main target for large-scale storage.

Remember · Geological CO2 storage sites: deep saline formations, depleted oil and gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams (also organic-rich shales and basalt).

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Answer: (d) Improve the relationship between the Government of India and the Indian States.

The Butler Committee was the Indian States Committee, set up in 1927 under Sir Harcourt Butler to examine the relationship between the Paramount Power (the British Crown acting through the Government of India) and the princely states, including their financial and economic relations with British India.

• ✓ (d) Its brief was the relationship between the Paramount Power and the Indian (princely) States; its 1929 report held that paramountcy must remain supreme and that the states could not be handed over to an Indian government without their consent.
• ✗ (a) Dividing jurisdiction between the Centre and the provinces was the subject of the 1919 and 1935 Government of India Acts and the Simon Commission, not the Butler Committee.
• ✗ (b) The Secretary of State's powers were fixed by Acts of the British Parliament; the Butler Committee dealt only with the princely states.

Remember · Butler Committee = Indian States Committee (1927–29), chaired by Sir Harcourt Butler: relations between the Paramount Power and the princely states.

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Answer: (a) Developing solar power production in our country

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, some solar projects had to use Indian-made solar cells and modules. These Domestic Content Requirements (DCR) were challenged by the United States at the WTO, which is why the term was in the news before 2017.

• ✓ (a) In 2013 the US sought WTO consultations on India's domestic content requirements for solar cells and modules under the National Solar Mission; the panel found the DCR measures gave imported cells and modules less favourable treatment.
• ✗ (b) Licensing of foreign TV channels is governed by uplinking and downlinking guidelines, not by a 'domestic content requirement'.
• ✗ (d) Campuses of foreign universities are a question of education regulation; the DCR debate concerned locally made solar equipment.

Remember · Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) = mandatory use of Indian-made solar cells and modules under the National Solar Mission; the US won the WTO case (DS456) against it.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

The Nuclear Security Summits were a US-initiated series of leaders' meetings (2010–2016), not a UN process, and the International Panel on Fissile Materials is an independent group of experts, not part of the IAEA. Both statements are wrong.

• ✗ 1. The summit process was announced by US President Barack Obama in April 2009. Four summits were held (Washington 2010, Seoul 2012, The Hague 2014, Washington 2016), hosted by those countries, not by the UN.
• ✗ 2. The IPFM was founded in January 2006 as an independent panel of experts drawn from countries with and without nuclear weapons; it studies fissile material policy and is not part of the IAEA.

Remember · Nuclear Security Summits: Obama's initiative, four summits 2010–2016, outside the UN. IPFM (2006): independent expert panel on fissile material, not an IAEA body.

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Answer: (c) All State Government employees joining the services after the date of notification by the respective State Governments

States adopted NPS one by one, each from the date it notified, so State Government employees who join after their State's notification are covered. The other options are wrong: non-resident Indians can join, the age band was never 21–55, and the Central scheme began on 1 January 2004 and excludes the armed forces.

• ✓ (c) State Governments adopted the NPS architecture from their own effective dates through State notifications, so their new recruits after that date come under NPS.
• ✗ (a) Voluntary NPS is open to Indian citizens whether resident or non-resident, so 'resident citizens only' is wrong.
• ✗ (d) NPS applies to Central Government employees joining on or after 1 January 2004 (not 1 April 2004), and armed forces personnel are excluded.
• ✗ (b) The entry age started at 18, not 21, and the upper limit was not 55.
• • Since then Since the exam, PFRDA has widened entry: citizens (resident or non-resident) and Overseas Citizens of India aged 18 to 85 can now join voluntarily (PFRDA).

Remember · NPS: Central Government employees joining on/after 1 Jan 2004 (armed forces excluded); States from their own notification dates; voluntary for all Indian citizens, resident or NRI.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

The Teesta rises inside Sikkim, not at the Brahmaputra's source in Tibet, and it does not reach the sea on its own: it joins the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) inside Bangladesh. The Rangeet, which has its headwaters in West Sikkim, is a right-bank tributary of the Teesta, so only statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. The Teesta rises from the Pahunri (Teesta Kangse) glacier in north Sikkim and flows south through the Sikkim Himalaya; the Brahmaputra rises far away in the Kailash range of Tibet near the Konggyu Tsho lake.
• ✓ 2. The Rangit (Rangeet) has its headwaters in the glaciers of West Sikkim, such as East Rathong, and is the main tributary that meets the Teesta just before Teesta Bridge, near the Sikkim–West Bengal border.
• ✗ 3. The Teesta joins the Brahmaputra on its right bank inside Bangladesh, after which the river is called the Jamuna; it does not enter the Bay of Bengal on its own.

Remember · Teesta: rises in north Sikkim, tributary Rangeet (right bank), joins the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) in Bangladesh; Brahmaputra rises in the Kailash range, Tibet.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 India: Physical Environment, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Zika is spread mainly by Aedes mosquitoes (chiefly Aedes aegypti), the same day-biting mosquitoes that carry dengue and chikungunya, and WHO confirms that it can also pass through sexual contact. Both statements are correct.

• ✓ 1. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus carry Zika as well as dengue, chikungunya and urban yellow fever; these mosquitoes are most common in tropical and subtropical regions.
• ✓ 2. Besides mosquito bites, Zika spreads from mother to fetus in pregnancy, through sexual contact, blood transfusion and laboratory exposure.

Remember · Zika: flavivirus spread by Aedes aegypti (also dengue, chikungunya vector); also sexual and mother-to-fetus transmission; infection in pregnancy can cause microcephaly.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Automotive tyres and tubes are among the products that must carry the BIS Standard (ISI) Mark because they affect safety. AGMARK is an Indian mark, given by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture under a 1937 Act, not by the FAO.

• ✓ 1. For products that affect health and safety, BIS certification is compulsory; automotive tyres and tubes are under compulsory certification, so they must bear the ISI mark.
• ✗ 2. AGMARK grading is run by India's Directorate of Marketing and Inspection under the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act, 1937. The FAO is a UN agency and issues no such mark.

Remember · ISI mark = BIS (compulsory for safety items like automotive tyres, LPG cylinders, cement). AGMARK = Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act, 1937.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

The e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), launched in 2016, is a pan-India online portal that links regulated mandis. Because buyers across the country can bid on assayed produce, a farmer reaches a nationwide market and better quality can fetch a better price. Both statements are correct.

• ✓ 1. The Union Government launched e-NAM in 2016 as a pan-India online portal connecting mandis and regulated market yards.
• ✓ 2. Linking mandis on one electronic platform lets traders from other markets bid, with quality testing of produce, so farmers get wider access and prices that reflect quality.

Remember · e-NAM (2016): pan-India electronic trading portal networking APMC mandis into a unified national market for farm produce.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Economic Development, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

The National IPR Policy approved by the Union Cabinet in May 2016 explicitly reiterates India's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement, and makes the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) the nodal department for IPRs in India. Both statements are correct.

• ✓ 1. The policy notes India's TRIPS-compliant legal framework and reiterates its commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement while using the flexibilities they allow.
• ✓ 2. DIPP was named the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee the implementation and future development of IPRs, monitoring action by other ministries.
• • Since then Since January 2019, DIPP has been renamed the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which continues as the nodal department for IPR.

Remember · National IPR Policy (May 2016): slogan 'Creative India; Innovative India'; TRIPS and Doha commitment reiterated; DIPP (now DPIIT) nodal department.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three are listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which gives the highest protection. Hunting them is banned except in the two cases the Act itself allows: a Chief Wild Life Warden's order under Section 11, or a special permit under Section 12.

• ✓ 1. The Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a crocodilian listed in Schedule I, Part C (Reptiles).
• ✓ 2. The Indian wild ass (Equus hemionus) is listed in Schedule I, Part A (Mammals), under wild asses.
• ✓ 3. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) is listed in Schedule I, Part A (Mammals), under wild cattle.
• • Since then The Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022 cut the schedules from six to four and rewrote Section 9 to ban hunting of Schedule I and II animals. All three animals remain in Schedule I, so the answer is unchanged.

Remember · Schedule I species get absolute protection: hunting is allowed only under Section 11 (animal dangerous or beyond recovery) or Section 12 (special permits, such as research). Gharial, wild buffalo and wild ass are all Schedule I.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is true. The Constitution lists the Fundamental Duties in Article 51A but says nothing about enforcing them, and they were added to remind citizens of their responsibilities, not as legal duties tied to legal rights.

• ✗ 1. The 42nd Amendment (1976) inserted the duties, but the Constitution provides no legislative or other process to enforce them. NCERT states that it does not say anything about enforcing these duties.
• ✗ 2. The duties are framed as things a citizen should do, to remind citizens of their responsibilities. They are not the counterpart of legal duties, and the Constitution does not make enjoyment of rights depend on performing them.

Remember · Fundamental Duties (Article 51A, Part IV-A, added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976) are non-enforceable obligations; rights do not depend on performing them.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct; pair 2 is wrong. Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty founded the Madras Native Association in 1852, whereas the Madras Mahajana Sabha was a different body formed in 1884.

• ✓ 1. The British Indian Association was founded at Calcutta on 29 October 1851 with Raja Radhakanta Deb as its President and Debendranath Tagore as its Secretary.
• ✗ 2. Chetty, a businessman and journalist, founded the Madras Native Association in 1852, the first Indian political organisation of the Madras Presidency. The Madras Mahajana Sabha came 32 years later, in May 1884, as a separate body, established by S. Ramaswami Mudaliar and P. Anandacharlu.
• ✓ 3. Surendranath Banerjee, with Ananda Mohan Bose, founded the Indian Association in Bengal in 1876. It was a forerunner of the Indian National Congress.

Remember · British Indian Association (1851): Radhakanta Deb, president. Madras Native Association (1852): G. L. Chetty. Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884). Indian Association (1876): Surendranath Banerjee.

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Answer: (b) Economic liberty

The Preamble secures liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, but it does not mention economic liberty. The word 'economic' appears in the Preamble only with justice: 'social, economic and political' justice.

• ✓ (a) 'Liberty of thought' is the first liberty listed in the Preamble, so it is embodied there.
• ✗ (b) The Preamble has no 'economic liberty'. Its economic goal is economic justice, a different idea. This is the option that is not embodied.
• ✓ (c) 'Expression' is named in the Preamble's list of liberties.
• ✓ (d) 'Belief' is named in the same list, along with faith and worship.

Remember · Preamble liberty = thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. 'Economic' occurs only in 'justice, social, economic and political'.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both statements are correct. QCI is an autonomous society that the Government of India created in partnership with Indian industry, and its Chairman is nominated by the Prime Minister.

• ✓ 1. A committee of ministries and industry recommended, and the Cabinet Committee accepted, that the quality body be built jointly by Government and industry. The result was QCI, a non-profit autonomous society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• ✓ 2. QCI's Council lists its Chairman as 'nominated by Prime Minister of India'. The Council has equal representation of Government, industry and other stakeholders.

Remember · QCI: autonomous society (1997) set up jointly by the Government of India and industry; its Chairman is nominated by the Prime Minister; the Commerce Ministry's DPIIT is its nodal department.

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Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The RBI set up Small Finance Banks to further financial inclusion: to give people safe savings options and to supply credit to small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and other unorganised-sector entities. Encouraging young entrepreneurs in rural areas is not among the stated objectives.

• ✓ 1. Credit to small business units is named in the RBI's 2014 licensing guidelines as an objective of SFBs.
• ✓ 2. Credit to small and marginal farmers is named in the same objective.
• ✗ 3. The guidelines list savings vehicles and credit to small businesses, farmers, micro and small industries and unorganised-sector entities. Promoting young rural entrepreneurs is not a listed objective.

Remember · SFBs (RBI licensing guidelines, 27 November 2014): financial inclusion through savings vehicles and credit to small businesses, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries, and the unorganised sector.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is correct. The first APMCHUD was indeed held in New Delhi in December 2006, but its theme was 'A vision for sustainable urbanisation in the Asia-Pacific by 2020'. The conference is biennial and is hosted by different countries, not held annually in India.

• ✗ 1. The inaugural conference met in New Delhi on 13–16 December 2006. Its official theme was 'A vision for sustainable urbanisation in the Asia-Pacific by 2020', not 'Emerging Urban Forms'.
• ✗ 2. The Delhi Declaration of 2006 made it a biennial conference that normally meets every two years, and Iran offered to host the next one. Later editions were held in Solo, Amman, Seoul and New Delhi, so India does not host them all. The statement's partnership with ADB, APEC and ASEAN is also not part of the arrangement.

Remember · APMCHUD: inter-governmental forum for Asia-Pacific housing ministers, launched at New Delhi in December 2006 (theme: sustainable urbanisation by 2020); meets every two years, hosted by different countries.

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Answer: (a) the intelligence and character of ordinary men and women.

Democracy's special strength is that it draws ordinary citizens into public life and makes use of their judgement and character. Its quality depends on how widely people take part, not on a leader, a party cadre or a stronger executive.

• ✓ (a) Democracy rests on participation by ordinary people. NCERT says the quality of democracy depends on the degree of public participation.
• ✗ (b) Strengthening executive leadership is about how a government is run. It is not what makes democracy special, and democracy also stresses accountability of the executive.
• ✗ (c) Relying on a single superior individual is the opposite of democratic participation by many.
• ✗ (d) Party workers are only one part of political life. Democracy's virtue is that it involves all citizens, not a small dedicated band.

Remember · The virtue of democracy is participation: it draws on the intelligence and character of ordinary men and women, not on one leader or a small group.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 Democratic Politics – II, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 8 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (a) Mobile wallets will not be necessary for online payments.

UPI moves money straight from one bank account to another through a single mobile app, so users need not first load money into a mobile wallet. That makes 'wallets will not be necessary' the most likely consequence; the other three options are sweeping claims that UPI does not directly cause.

• ✓ (a) UPI links bank accounts to a phone app and transfers money instantly, round the clock. NCERT notes that such mediums directly transfer money from one person's bank account into another, so a separate wallet is not needed.
• ✗ (b) UPI is a way of moving money between bank accounts, not a new currency. Nothing about it points to physical currency being totally replaced within two decades.
• ✗ (c) FDI depends on investment policy, markets and regulation. A domestic payment system does not make foreign investment rise drastically.
• ✗ (d) Subsidy transfers depend on a beneficiary's bank account being identified and linked to the scheme. UPI is a payment channel and does not by itself make them very effective.

Remember · UPI (NPCI, launched 2016) connects bank accounts to one mobile app for instant 24x7 transfers, so a mobile wallet becomes unnecessary.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 7 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 11 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (a) Observation and understanding of the Universe

All four terms belong to physics and cosmology, the study of how the Universe is built and how it began. An event horizon and a singularity are parts of a black hole, and the Standard Model describes matter and its forces.

• ✓ (a) The event horizon is a black hole's boundary, inside which nothing can escape, and the singularity is the point at its centre where matter is crushed to infinite density. The Standard Model explains how the building blocks of matter interact. String theory is a physicists' theory of fundamental forces and matter. All four help us understand the Universe.
• ✗ (b) Eclipses are explained by the positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon and need none of these terms.
• ✗ (c) Launching satellites concerns rockets and orbits, not black holes or particle physics.
• ✗ (d) The origin of living organisms belongs to biology and evolution. NCERT ties 'singularity' to the Big Bang, the origin of the Universe.

Remember · Event horizon and singularity are black-hole terms; the Standard Model is particle physics; string theory is theoretical physics. All concern the Universe.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Fundamentals of Physical Geography, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three uses are correct. Reading a crop's full DNA reveals markers for traits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance, cuts the years needed to breed a new variety, and shows how crops and their disease-causing organisms interact.

• ✓ 1. When 90 chickpea genomes were sequenced, the work gave millions of genetic markers that can be used to breed varieties with better drought tolerance and disease resistance.
• ✓ 2. Breeding a new chickpea variety normally takes 4–8 years; the scientists behind the chickpea genome said the sequence could cut this to half.
• ✓ 3. Sequencing crop and pathogen genomes lets researchers study plant–pathogen interactions and plant resistance at gene level.

Remember · Genome sequencing in crops: finds trait markers (drought, disease resistance), speeds up breeding (chickpea: 4–8 years cut to about half) and reveals host–pathogen interactions.

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Answer: (c) the executive remains responsible to the legislature.

The defining advantage of the parliamentary system is that the executive stays answerable to the legislature. In India the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, so a government that loses the House's confidence cannot continue.

• ✓ (c) Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the House of the People. NCERT says the parliamentary form has many mechanisms that keep the executive answerable to and controlled by the legislature.
• ✗ (a) Independent working is a feature of the presidential system. In the parliamentary system the two organs are interdependent.
• ✗ (d) The government must have a majority in the legislature, so a Prime Minister can be replaced when that support is lost, without a fresh election.
• ✗ (b) Continuity and efficiency are not guaranteed, since a government can fall when it loses its majority. Accountability to the legislature is the main advantage.

Remember · Parliamentary system: the executive is drawn from, and answerable to, the legislature. Article 75(3): the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (a) Rights are correlative with Duties.

Rights and duties go together: a right is not only a claim on the State, it also places obligations on each of us. So rights are correlative with duties, and neither can be treated as the only thing that matters.

• ✓ (a) NCERT says rights place obligations on the State and also on every citizen, for example to protect the environment for everyone's good. This pairing of rights with responsibilities is what 'correlative' means.
• ✗ (b) Rights are not purely personal. They make us think beyond our own needs and defend things that are good for all, so they cannot be separated from society or from duties.
• ✗ (c) It sets rights against duties. Both matter for personal development; the Constitution lists both Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties.
• ✗ (d) Stability of the State does not rest on duties alone; rights are what limit State power and protect citizens. The two work together.

Remember · Rights and duties are two sides of one relationship: my right places obligations on the State and on others, and citizens have duties towards society.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (a) The Preamble

The Preamble sums up the vision and philosophy of the Constitution's makers: the objectives they set for the country and the statement that it was adopted by 'We, the people of India'. The other three are specific parts of the Constitution, and the Fundamental Duties were added only in 1976.

• ✓ (a) NCERT says the best summary of the Constitution's vision or philosophy is found in the Preamble. It names the objectives of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity and states that the Constitution was adopted by the people.
• ✗ (b) Fundamental Rights are one part of the Constitution, listing enforceable rights of individuals. They do not sum up the whole design.
• ✗ (c) The Directive Principles are goals for governments to work towards; like the Rights, they are a single part of the whole.
• ✗ (d) The Fundamental Duties were inserted by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, so they were not part of what the original makers wrote in 1949.

Remember · The Preamble is the summary of the Constitution's philosophy and the makers' vision. Fundamental Duties were added later, in 1976.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 10 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (b) 7

The shortest chain of neighbouring States from Kohima (Nagaland) to Kottayam (Kerala) has seven States: Nagaland, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Each State in this chain shares a border with the next.

• ✓ (b) Nagaland borders Assam on the west, and Assam has a boundary with West Bengal. West Bengal has Odisha to its south, Andhra Pradesh lies south of Odisha, Tamil Nadu is on Andhra Pradesh's southern border, and Kerala is on Tamil Nadu's west. That is 7 States.
• ✗ (a) Six is not possible. Odisha does not touch Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Kerala, so a route must pass through Andhra Pradesh and then one of Tamil Nadu or Karnataka before reaching Kerala.
• ✗ (c) Eight would come from a longer route, for example adding Jharkhand or going through both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The question asks for the minimum.

Remember · Kohima to Kottayam by road, shortest State chain: Nagaland, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (or Karnataka), Kerala = 7.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three are tools by which Parliament controls the Council of Ministers. Because ministers must answer to the House, members can question them, discuss urgent public matters, and press for further answers.

• ✓ 1. An adjournment motion lets the House set aside its business to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance, with the Speaker's consent (Lok Sabha Rule 56). NCERT lists it among the instruments of control over the executive.
• ✓ 2. Question Hour is held every day during sessions and ministers must answer searching questions from members. NCERT calls it perhaps the most effective way of keeping vigil on the executive.
• ✓ 3. A supplementary question follows a minister's answer and lets a member seek further facts on it (Lok Sabha Rule 50). NCERT lists such questions among the ways the Lok Sabha controls the executive.

Remember · Parliament controls the executive through Question Hour, supplementary questions, adjournment motion, resolutions and the no-confidence motion.

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Answer: (b) Motupalli

Motupalli, on the Andhra coast near Chirala, was the chief port of the Kakatiya kingdom. The Kakatiya king Ganapatideva issued an edict of safety there in 1244-45 promising overseas merchants protection and fixed duties.

• ✓ (b) Ganapatideva's Abhaya Sasana, carved on a pillar at Motupalli, guaranteed traders safety and the payment of only the usual duties, which shows it was the kingdom's main port for overseas trade.
• ✗ (c) Machilipatnam (Masulipatnam) is another Andhra coastal town, but it is not the port linked with the Kakatiya kingdom.
• ✗ (a) Kakinada is also on the Andhra coast, but it was not the Kakatiya kingdom's chief port.

Remember · Kakatiya port: Motupalli. Ganapatideva's Abhaya Sasana (1244-45) there protected overseas merchants and fixed duties.

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Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) is a European Union initiative, launched in 2007 to help the poorest and most climate-vulnerable developing countries, so statements 1 and 2 are correct. It is run by the EU, not by two private research and business bodies.

• ✓ 1. The EU launched the GCCA in 2007 for poor developing countries most exposed to climate change; it later became GCCA+, the EU's flagship climate initiative for such countries.
• ✓ 2. The Alliance was designed to give technical and financial support for adaptation and for building climate change into national development strategies, sometimes through budget support.
• ✗ 3. WRI and WBCSD are the two bodies behind the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a corporate emissions-accounting standard. They do not coordinate the GCCA, which is managed by the EU.

Remember · GCCA (2007) is an EU initiative for least developed countries and small island states. WRI and WBCSD belong to the GHG Protocol, a different matter.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Sautrantika and Sammitiya were schools of Buddhism, not Jainism, so statement 1 is wrong. Sarvastivadins held that the basic factors of existence (dharmas) are lasting realities even though they show up only momentarily in the world, so statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. NCERT calls Sautrantika a philosophical sect of Hinayana Buddhism, and IGNOU places Sarvastivada in the same early Buddhist tradition. Sammitiya is likewise an early Buddhist school. Sautrantika arose around the 2nd century BCE as an offshoot of the Sarvastivada, and Sammitiya (also spelt Sammatiya) taught a distinctive theory of the ‘person’ (pudgala). Neither is a Jain sect.
• ✓ 2. Sarvastivadins treated everything in the empirical world as impermanent but maintained that the underlying dharma factors are eternally existing realities. Sautrantikas rejected this and held that dharmas exist only momentarily.

Remember · Sarvastivada, Sautrantika and Sammitiya are early Buddhist schools. Sarvastivadins said dharmas are enduring realities; Sautrantikas said they are only momentary.

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Answer: (c) 3 and 4 only

Only Lebanon and Syria, of the four West Asian countries listed, have a Mediterranean coastline. Jordan and Iraq have no Mediterranean coast: Jordan's short coast is on the Gulf of Aqaba and Iraq's on the Persian Gulf.

• ✗ 1. Jordan has about 26 km of coast, all on the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea side), where Aqaba is its only port. It does not touch the Mediterranean.
• ✗ 2. Iraq's small coastline of about 58 km lies at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, far from the Mediterranean.
• ✓ 3. Lebanon is on the eastern Mediterranean shore and is a Contracting Party to the Barcelona Convention, which covers the Mediterranean's coastal states.
• ✓ 4. Syria also has a western coast on the Mediterranean and is likewise a Contracting Party to the Barcelona Convention.

Remember · Eastern Mediterranean coast, north to south: Türkiye, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, then Egypt. Jordan and Iraq are not on it.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is correct. The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) is a Ministry of Finance-backed fund set up in December 2015 as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund, not an organ of NITI Aayog, and its proposed corpus was ₹40,000 crore, one-tenth of the figure stated.

• ✗ 1. NIIF was formed on 28 December 2015 as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund structured as a trust, with the Government of India holding 49%. It is run by NIIF Limited and comes under the Ministry of Finance, not NITI Aayog.
• ✗ 2. The proposed corpus was ₹40,000 crore (about US$ 6 billion), with an initial authorised corpus of ₹20,000 crore. ₹4,00,000 crore is ten times too large.
• • Since then In June 2026 the Cabinet approved a further ₹30,000 crore, taking the Government of India's total commitment to NIIF to ₹60,000 crore (PIB, 29 June 2026).

Remember · NIIF (Dec 2015) is a Ministry of Finance-backed sovereign-anchored fund with a proposed corpus of ₹40,000 crore. It is not part of NITI Aayog.

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Answer: (b) World Bank collaboration that facilitates the preparation and structuring of complex infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to enable mobilization of private sector and institutional investor capital.

The Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF) is a G20 initiative, backed by the World Bank, that helps governments prepare and structure infrastructure projects so that private and institutional money can be attracted. It is not an ASEAN, OECD or UNCTAD body.

• ✓ (b) The GIF is a collaboration platform that gives funding and advisory support to governments and multilateral development banks to structure bankable infrastructure projects, including PPPs, in emerging markets, in order to mobilise private capital.
• ✗ (a) It is a global G20 initiative, not an ASEAN scheme. Its funding comes from governments (Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the United States) and the World Bank, not from Asian Development Bank credit.
• ✗ (c) Its platform brings together governments, multilateral development banks and the private sector; it is not a group of the world's major banks working with the OECD.
• ✗ (d) UNCTAD is not among its funders, which are the governments named above and the World Bank.

Remember · GIF: a World Bank-backed G20 initiative that prepares bankable, complex infrastructure and PPP projects to mobilise private capital.

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Answer: (c) any citizen of India whose name appears in the electoral roll of a constituency.

To contest a Lok Sabha election a person must be a citizen of India and also a registered voter (an elector) in some parliamentary constituency. The constituency need not be the one he or she contests from, and mere residence or citizenship is not enough.

• ✓ (c) Article 84(a) requires Indian citizenship, and Section 4(d) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 requires the person to be an elector in any parliamentary constituency.
• ✗ (d) Citizenship alone is not enough. A citizen who is not on any electoral roll cannot be a candidate.
• ✗ (a) Residence is irrelevant, and a resident who is not a citizen (a foreigner) is barred by Article 84(a).
• ✗ (b) There is no rule that a candidate must live in, or be a voter of, the constituency contested. A voter registered in Delhi may contest from another State, apart from the exceptions in Section 4 for Assam, Lakshadweep and Sikkim.

Remember · Lok Sabha candidate: an Indian citizen aged 25 or more who is a registered voter in any parliamentary constituency of the country.

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Answer: (b) 3 only

Only statement 3 is correct: Pulicat Lake lies in exactly two States, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The Himalayas cover many more than five States, and the Western Ghats run through six.

• ✗ 1. The Indian Himalayan Region is officially counted as twelve States, taking in Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, plus two districts of Assam and Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal.
• ✗ 2. The Western Ghats spread over six States: Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Gujarat is the northern end of the range and is the easiest to forget.
• ✓ 3. Pulicat, the second largest brackish-water lagoon in India, lies partly in Andhra Pradesh and partly in Tamil Nadu.

Remember · Western Ghats: six States (Gujarat to Tamil Nadu). Himalayas: many more than five. Pulicat Lagoon: two States, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

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Answer: (c) Pollution assay in aquatic ecosystems

BOD is the amount of oxygen that bacteria would use up to break down the organic matter in a sample of water, so it is a standard test of how polluted water is. A higher BOD means more organic pollution.

• ✓ (c) BOD measures the oxygen consumed by microbes in decomposing the organic matter in water, so it works as an indirect measure of that matter. The greater the BOD of waste water, the greater its polluting potential.
• ✗ (a) BOD is a test on water samples. It has nothing to do with the oxygen carried in blood.
• ✗ (b) BOD says nothing about oxygen in forests. It tells us how much oxygen microbes need in water that carries organic waste.

Remember · BOD is oxygen bacteria need to decompose the organic matter in water. Higher BOD means more pollution; sewage treatment aims to bring it down.

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Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only

UN-Habitat, the UN Human Settlements Programme, is mandated by the General Assembly to promote sustainable towns and cities and works to reduce poverty and improve access to water and sanitation, so statements 1 and 3 hold. Statement 2 fails because its partners are not only governments and city authorities.

• ✓ 1. UN-Habitat is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities; the aim it has long stated is adequate shelter for all.
• ✗ 2. UN-Habitat works with a wide range of partners: political actors, civil society, professional organisations, the private sector, universities and foundations, apart from national and local governments.
• ✓ 3. UN-Habitat promotes urbanisation as a force for reducing inequality, discrimination and poverty, and its work on urban planning and waste management supports access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

Remember · UN-Habitat (Nairobi) is the UN's human settlements programme. It has a General Assembly mandate for sustainable cities and works with governments, civil society and business alike.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

NSQF recognises competency however it was acquired, so statement 1 is wrong. One of its stated aims is to let people move between vocational and general education, so statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. NSQF levels are defined by learning outcomes that a learner must possess regardless of whether they were acquired through formal, non-formal or informal learning. Prior learning outside a classroom can therefore be certified.
• ✓ 2. The framework is meant to give multiple pathways, both horizontal and vertical, among vocational education, vocational training, general education and technical education, with academic equivalence between vocational and general education.

Remember · NSQF levels are defined by learning outcomes, whether acquired through formal, non-formal or informal learning, and the framework aims to allow movement between vocational and general education.

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Answer: (d) Division of the subjects delegated to the provinces into two categories.

Dyarchy, introduced in the provinces by the Government of India Act, 1919, divided provincial subjects into two lists: ‘reserved’ subjects run by the Governor with his executive council, and ‘transferred’ subjects run by Indian ministers answerable to the elected provincial legislature.

• ✓ (d) Provincial subjects were split into reserved and transferred categories, and each was administered by a different set of authorities under the same Governor.
• ✗ (a) The 1919 Act did make the central legislature bicameral (a Legislative Assembly and a Council of State), but that was a separate reform. Dyarchy was confined to the provinces.
• ✗ (b) A division of powers between the Centre and the provinces is a federal arrangement, not dyarchy. Dyarchy worked inside each province; the 1919 Act classified subjects as Central and Provincial and split only the provincial ones.
• ✗ (c) Dyarchy was not about rulers in London and Delhi. It concerned the division of authority within a provincial government.

Remember · Dyarchy (1919 Act): provincial subjects split into reserved (Governor and executive council) and transferred (ministers from the elected legislature); no dyarchy at the Centre.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is correct. The National Career Service (NCS) belongs to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, not the Department of Personnel and Training, and it is an employment-service platform for all job seekers, not a scheme aimed at uneducated youth.

• ✗ 1. NCS is a project of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, run through its Directorate General of Employment. It does not belong to the Department of Personnel and Training.
• ✗ 2. Although NCS is indeed a Mission Mode Project, it is meant to transform the National Employment Service into a portal for career counselling, vocational guidance, skill courses, apprenticeships and job matching for all job seekers. It is not restricted to uneducated youth.

Remember · NCS (launched 20 July 2015) is a Mission Mode Project of the Ministry of Labour and Employment that turns employment exchanges into career centres and offers an online job portal.

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Answer: (b) It is a scheme of RBI for reworking the financial structure of big corporate entities facing genuine difficulties.

S4A was a scheme of the Reserve Bank of India that gave banks a way to rework the financial structure of entities in genuine difficulty that needed deep, co-ordinated restructuring of their debt.

• ✓ (b) The RBI describes S4A as an avenue for reworking the financial structure of entities facing genuine difficulties and needing co-ordinated deep financial restructuring, which may involve material write-down of debt.
• ✗ (d) S4A was put in place by the Reserve Bank as its own scheme for banks. It is not a provision of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which is a separate law.
• ✗ (a) S4A is a banking tool for stressed loans and has nothing to do with the ecological costs of government projects; option (c), disinvestment of PSUs, is also unrelated.
• • Since then In the exam year the scheme was live. On 12 February 2018 the RBI's revised framework withdrew S4A, along with several other restructuring schemes, with immediate effect.

Remember · S4A (RBI): a scheme to rework the debt of stressed companies facing genuine difficulty. Withdrawn by the RBI on 12 February 2018.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) is a voluntary partnership convened within the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), not an initiative of the G20, so statement 1 is wrong. It targets methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons, so statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. The CCAC was founded in 2012 and is convened within UNEP. It is a voluntary partnership of governments, intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations, not a project of the G20 group.
• ✓ 2. The CCAC works to cut short-lived climate pollutants: methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons and tropospheric ozone. These stay in the air only briefly but heat the planet strongly and harm air quality.

Remember · CCAC (2012) is a UNEP-convened voluntary coalition on short-lived climate pollutants: methane, black carbon, HFCs and tropospheric ozone. It is not a G20 body.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

The Indian Ocean Dipole is a sea-surface temperature difference between the western and the south-eastern tropical Indian Ocean, not the Eastern Pacific, so statement 1 is wrong. A positive or negative IOD can strengthen or weaken the effect of an El Nino on the Indian monsoon, so statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. The IOD is measured as the temperature difference between the tropical western Indian Ocean and the tropical south-eastern Indian Ocean. The Eastern Pacific is the region watched for El Nino and La Nina, which is a different phenomenon.
• ✓ 2. The El Nino-induced circulation over India can be countered or supported by the circulation the IOD sets up, depending on the phase and strength of each. This is why a positive IOD can soften an El Nino's damage to the monsoon.

Remember · IOD = west-minus-east sea-surface temperature contrast inside the Indian Ocean. It can counter or reinforce El Nino's effect on the Indian monsoon.

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Answer: (b) Chambal River

The Chambal River is the best place to see gharials in the wild. A 600 km stretch of it is the National Chambal Sanctuary, set up in 1978 mainly to protect the gharial, and it has the world's largest population of the species.

• ✓ (b) The National Chambal Sanctuary, on the Chambal, was created in 1978 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for the conservation and management of the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus).
• ✗ (a) Bhitarkanika is a coastal mangrove area of Odisha, not a river stretch protected for gharials.
• ✗ (c) Pulicat is a brackish-water lagoon shared by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, better known as a bird-watching site than for gharials.

Remember · Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus): the National Chambal Sanctuary, a 600 km stretch of the Chambal River protected since 1978, has the world's largest wild population.

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Answer: (b) 2 only

The inaugural IONS was held in New Delhi in February 2008, not 2015, so statement 1 is wrong. IONS is a voluntary forum that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among the navies of Indian Ocean littoral states, so statement 2 is correct.

• ✗ 1. The inaugural IONS took place in New Delhi in February 2008, with the Indian Navy as Chair for two years (2008–2010). The year 2015 is wrong, although the Indian Navy did chair the first edition.
• ✓ 2. IONS calls itself a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region, offering an open and inclusive forum on regional maritime issues.

Remember · IONS: launched by the Indian Navy in 2008 (New Delhi); a voluntary, open forum of Indian Ocean littoral navies with a rotating Chair.

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Answer: (a) Ajanta

The famous Padmapani painting is in Cave No. 1 at Ajanta. NCERT names the Padmapani and Vajrapani paintings of Cave No. 1 among Ajanta's best-known works.

• ✓ (a) NCERT lists ‘the famous Padmapani and Vajrapani in Cave No. 1’ among Ajanta's important paintings and notes that Cave No. 1 has the best-preserved examples.
• ✗ (d) Ellora also has Padmapani, but as a carved image, one of the pair guarding the large Buddha figures in its shrines. The renowned painting is at Ajanta.

Remember · Padmapani and Vajrapani, the Bodhisattva paintings of Ajanta Cave No. 1, are among India's best-known ancient murals.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Only pair 1 is correct: Chaliha Sahib is a 40-day festival of the Sindhis. Nanda Raj Jaat is a pilgrimage in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district and the Wari is a pilgrimage of Maharashtra, so neither belongs to the Gonds or the Santhals.

• ✓ 1. Chaliha Sahib is a 40-day period of austerity and prayers that Sindhis observe for Bhagwan Jhulelal Saeen, the god of water.
• ✗ 2. The Nanda Devi Raj Jat (Nanda Raj Jaat) is a pilgrimage of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand, held once in 12 years, in which Goddess Nanda's palanquin is carried towards the Himalayas. It is not a Gond tradition.
• ✗ 3. The Wari, the regular annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur, is described by NCERT as an 800-year-old tradition in Maharashtra. It has no link with the Santhals.

Remember · Chaliha Sahib: Sindhis (40 days, Jhulelal). Nanda Raj Jat: Uttarakhand, every 12 years. Wari-Warkari: Maharashtra, Pandharpur.

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Leaving the soil undisturbed (reduced or zero tillage) and leaving crop residue on the field both conserve water, because the residue cover cuts evaporation and lets more rain soak in. Gypsum is a soil amendment for sodic soils, not a water-saving practice.

• ✓ 1. No-till or reduced tillage, together with residue mulch, is the basis of conservation farming because it conserves water and prevents erosion.
• ✗ 2. Gypsum supplies soluble calcium to replace exchangeable sodium in sodic soils. It is used to reclaim such soils and is not a way of saving irrigation water.
• ✓ 3. Crop residue left on the soil surface reduces evapotranspiration (water loss to the air), raises infiltration rates and suppresses weeds.

Remember · Water-saving conservation farming: minimum or no tillage plus a residue mulch. Gypsum is for reclaiming sodic soils, not for saving water.

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Answer: (b) 3 only

The Soil Health Card Scheme aims at soil-test-based fertiliser use: each farmer gets a card showing the nutrient status of the soil and the dosages to apply, which discourages overuse. It is not an irrigation scheme and it is not a tool for bank lending.

• ✗ 1. Expanding the area under assured irrigation is the aim of a different scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (launched 2015-16). A soil health card only reports what nutrients the soil has.
• ✗ 2. The card gives nutrient recommendations to the farmer. None of the scheme's stated objectives concerns banks assessing loan amounts from soil quality.
• ✓ 3. The card lets a farmer apply only the recommended dosage of nutrients, and the scheme was designed to correct deficiencies and wasteful fertiliser practices, so it checks overuse.

Remember · Soil Health Card (launched 2015): a soil-test report for each farmer, with crop-wise nutrient advice. It is meant to promote balanced fertiliser use, not irrigation or credit.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three pairs are correct. Each names a chemical that has drawn regulatory or health concern in an everyday product: lead in cosmetics such as lipstick, brominated vegetable oil in soft drinks, and added monosodium glutamate (MSG) in Chinese-style fast food.

• ✓ 1. Lead is a toxic heavy metal that can turn up as a contaminant in cosmetics. Indian rules bar lead compounds as colouring in cosmetics and Indian Standards set a 20 ppm ceiling for lead.
• ✓ 2. Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is a clouding agent that has been used in soft drinks. WHO's food-additive expert committee (JECFA) allocated it no acceptable daily intake, and FSSAI's manual carries a test to detect BVO in soft drinks.
• ✓ 3. MSG is a flavour enhancer commonly added in Chinese-style cooking. It is controversial enough that FSSAI requires a label on foods with added MSG, saying it is not recommended for infants below 12 months and pregnant women.

Remember · Lead in lipstick, brominated vegetable oil in soft drinks, MSG in Chinese fast food: all three are chemicals of health concern, so all pairs match.

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Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

All three statements are advantages of OLED displays. Each OLED pixel makes its own light, so the panel needs no rigid backlight unit as an LCD does, and it can be built thin, on flexible plastic, see-through or rolled up.

• ✓ 1. OLED layers can be deposited on flexible substrates, not only on glass, which is why bendable and foldable phone screens use them. An LCD needs a backlight and a rigid liquid-crystal cell.
• ✓ 2. Because the panel can be made on a flexible base, roll-up and wearable displays, including ones stitched into clothing, are possible. Curved, bendable, foldable and rollable OLED screens already exist.
• ✓ 3. OLEDs can be made transparent, so a see-through display is possible. An LCD depends on a backlight behind the screen, which blocks that.

Remember · OLED pixels emit their own light (no backlight), so screens can be thin, flexible, rollable and transparent. LCDs cannot do this easily.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Only Arasavalli, near Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, is famous for a Sun temple. Amarkantak is known as the source of the Narmada, and Omkareshwar is a Shiva shrine with a Jyotirlinga.

• ✓ 1. Arasavalli has the Suryanarayana Swamy temple, one of the few ancient Sun God temples in India. Its Ratha Saptami festival honours the Sun.
• ✗ 2. Amarkantak is a plateau in Madhya Pradesh where the Narmada and the Son rise. It is a pilgrimage centre, not a Sun-temple site.
• ✗ 3. Omkareshwar, on an island in the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh, is a Shaiva site with one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva.

Remember · Arasavalli (Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh) has a famous Sun temple. Amarkantak is the source of the Narmada; Omkareshwar is a Jyotirlinga shrine of Shiva.

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Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither statement is correct. Lok Sabha and Assembly seats are won by plurality, the most votes, and not by a 50 per cent majority. The Constitution only says the House elects its Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among its members; it does not reserve either post for a party.

• ✗ 1. India uses the First Past the Post system: the candidate with more votes than every other candidate wins, and need not secure a majority of the votes polled.
• ✗ 2. Article 93 says the House of the People chooses two of its members as Speaker and Deputy Speaker. It says nothing about the majority party or the Opposition; any such sharing is only a convention, not a constitutional provision.

Remember · Lok Sabha seats are won by plurality (First Past the Post), not a 50 per cent majority. Article 93: the House elects its own Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

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Answer: (b) 2, 3 and 4 only

After 1991 India's exports, FDI inflows and foreign exchange reserves all rose sharply, while agriculture's share in GDP kept falling as industry and services grew faster. So statements 2, 3 and 4 are true and 1 is false.

• ✗ 1. The share of agriculture in GDP was on a decline, even though the workforce dependent on farming did not fall much. It did not increase.
• ✓ 2. India's share in world merchandise exports rose from 0.5 per cent in 1990 to 0.8 per cent in 2003, according to the Economic Survey 2005-06.
• ✓ 3. Opening the economy led to a rapid increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign institutional investment.
• ✓ 4. Foreign exchange reserves rose from about US $ 6 billion in 1990-91 to about US $ 646 billion in 2023-24, a very large increase.

Remember · Post-1991 India: agriculture's share in GDP fell, while exports, FDI and forex reserves rose sharply.

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Answer: (c) Reproductive cloning of animals

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is the technique used for reproductive cloning of animals. The nucleus of an ordinary body (somatic) cell is placed into an egg cell whose own nucleus has been removed, and the egg develops into an animal genetically identical to the donor.

• ✓ (c) Dolly the sheep (1997), the most famous cloned animal, was made this way. In India, NDRI Karnal has used a hand-guided version of the method to clone buffalo calves.
• ✗ (a) Biolarvicides are biological agents used to kill mosquito larvae. They have no link with moving cell nuclei.
• ✗ (b) Biodegradable plastics are made from natural or microbial polymers through chemistry and fermentation, not by nuclear transfer.
• ✗ (d) SCNT copies the donor's genome, including any inherited fault; it does not make an organism disease-free.

Remember · SCNT = nucleus of a body cell put into an enucleated egg. It is the method of reproductive cloning, as with Dolly the sheep.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both statements are correct. NPCI is the umbrella body for retail payment systems set up with the Reserve Bank's encouragement, and RuPay is its domestic card scheme, whose debit card is issued to Jan Dhan account holders as part of the drive for financial inclusion.

• ✓ 1. NPCI operates the country's retail payment systems, and its RuPay debit card is what beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the national financial inclusion mission, receive with their accounts. Through this card NPCI is tied into the drive for financial inclusion.
• ✓ 2. RuPay is India's own domestic card scheme, launched in March 2012 with NPCI as the body responsible for it.

Remember · NPCI: the RBI-encouraged umbrella body for retail payments (functional 2009). Its RuPay card scheme (launched 2012) is also the debit card issued under Jan Dhan.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Maintenance of Tiger Reserves

M-STrIPES is the Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status, a technology platform of the National Tiger Conservation Authority. It is used to assist patrolling, assess ecological status and reduce human-wildlife conflict in and around tiger reserves.

• ✓ (b) NTCA describes it as a platform that helps manage tiger reserves through effective patrolling, ecological assessment and conflict mitigation. That is the maintenance of Tiger Reserves.
• ✗ (a) M-STrIPES monitors tigers in their reserves. It is not a captive-breeding programme.
• ✗ (c) India's indigenous satellite navigation system is the ISRO-run Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), also called NavIC.
• ✗ (d) It has nothing to do with highway security; it works in and around tiger reserves.

Remember · M-STrIPES = Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status, NTCA's technology platform for patrolling and monitoring in tiger reserves.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Only the first statement describes what GST does: it merged many central and state indirect taxes into one tax, so goods and services move across India as in a single market. GST is a tax reform, so claims of a sharply lower current account deficit or of overtaking China are exaggerations.

• ✓ 1. GST amalgamated a large number of central and state taxes and cesses into one tax that applies throughout the country, with one rate for one type of goods or service.
• ✗ 2. The current account deficit depends on trade, oil prices, capital flows and similar factors. NCERT lists GST's expected gains as more revenue, less tax evasion and one national market; it does not list a fall in the deficit.
• ✗ 3. No official source promises that GST will enormously raise growth or let India overtake China. A tax reform can help growth only indirectly; the claim is too strong.

Remember · GST (operational 1 July 2017): one destination-based indirect tax replacing many central and state levies, meant to create 'one nation, one tax, one market'.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Introductory Macroeconomics, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Economic Development, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (a) European Union

BTIA is the India–European Union Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement, a free trade deal whose negotiations the two sides launched in 2007. The other three bodies named have no negotiation called BTIA with India.

• ✓ (a) The EU and India launched the BTIA negotiations in 2007 to widen trade in goods and services, investment and access to public procurement.
• ✗ (b) The Gulf Cooperation Council is a different trading partner. The name BTIA belongs to the India–EU negotiation, not to any GCC talks.
• ✗ (c) The OECD is a forum for policy coordination among its member countries; India is not a member and does not negotiate a BTIA with it.
• ✗ (d) The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a political, security and economic grouping. It is not a partner in a trade and investment agreement of this kind.
• • Since then The EU trade website now shows separate tracks: a Free Trade Agreement, which the EU and India concluded on 27 January 2026, and an Investment Protection Agreement and a Geographical Indications Agreement, both still being negotiated.

Remember · BTIA = Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement between India and the European Union, negotiations begun in 2007.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

Statements 1 and 2 are correct: India ratified the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement in April 2016, and the TFA was concluded at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference. Statement 3 is wrong, because the TFA entered into force on 22 February 2017.

• ✓ 1. India handed its instrument of ratification to the WTO Director-General in April 2016 and was the 76th WTO member to accept the TFA.
• ✓ 2. WTO members concluded the TFA at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference, so it belongs to the Bali package.
• ✗ 3. The TFA came into force only when two-thirds of WTO members had ratified it, on 22 February 2017, not in January 2016.

Remember · WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement: concluded at Bali (Dec 2013), India ratified April 2016, in force 22 February 2017.

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Answer: (c) India will not depend on Pakistan for access to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Chabahar, a port on Iran's southern coast, gives India a sea-and-land route to Afghanistan and Central Asia that does not pass through Pakistan. Pakistan does not allow Indian goods to move overland through its territory to Afghanistan and beyond, which is why this route matters.

• ✓ (c) Chabahar is described as a gateway for trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian countries. It is a sea route through Iran, so India need not rely on Pakistan for land transit.
• ✗ (a) Chabahar is on the Gulf of Oman side of Iran and is meant for links with Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Trade with Africa is not its purpose.
• ✗ (b) Iran is not an Arab country, and the project is about transit connectivity, not about ties with Arab oil producers.
• ✗ (d) Chabahar is a port project. It involves no gas pipeline between Iraq and India, and Pakistan is not a party to it.

Remember · Chabahar (Iran) is India's route to Afghanistan and Central Asia that avoids Pakistan, and links to the International North-South Transport Corridor.

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three are covered. Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 lets the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) call for information and give directions to service providers, intermediaries, data centres, body corporate and any other person. Failing to comply is punishable, so reporting is a legal duty.

• ✓ 1. Service providers are named in Section 70B(6) as bound by CERT-In's calls for information and directions.
• ✓ 2. Data centres are also named in Section 70B(6).
• ✓ 3. A body corporate (a company or firm) is named too, and Section 70B(7) makes non-compliance punishable with up to one year's imprisonment, a fine of up to one lakh rupees, or both.
• • Since then CERT-In's directions of 28 April 2022 spell this out: any service provider, intermediary, data centre, body corporate and Government organisation must report specified cyber incidents to CERT-In within 6 hours of noticing them.

Remember · Under Section 70B of the IT Act, service providers, intermediaries, data centres and body corporate must give CERT-In the information it seeks; the 2022 directions set a 6-hour reporting window.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Constitutional Right

The right to vote comes from the Constitution itself: Article 326 says elections to the Lok Sabha and Assemblies rest on adult suffrage. It is therefore a constitutional right, but it is not one of the Fundamental Rights, which are listed in Part III (Articles 12 to 35).

• ✓ (c) Article 326 gives every citizen who is of the prescribed age and not otherwise disqualified the right to vote. Citizens equally have the right to stand for election, subject to age and other conditions set by law.
• ✗ (a) Article 326 sits in the part of the Constitution on elections, not in Part III on Fundamental Rights, so the right to vote cannot be enforced as a Fundamental Right.
• ✗ (b) A natural right is one a person is said to hold irrespective of any law. Here the right is created and regulated by the Constitution and election laws.
• ✗ (d) A legal (statutory) right rests on an ordinary Act. The right to vote is anchored in the Constitution, although the conditions are worked out by laws such as the Representation of the People Act.

Remember · Right to vote (Art. 326, adult suffrage): a constitutional right, not a Fundamental Right.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) To detect gravitational waves

eLISA was planned as a space-based observatory to detect gravitational waves, the ripples in space-time caused by events such as merging black holes. It works as a laser interferometer in space, so its purpose is gravitational-wave detection.

• ✓ (b) The name gives it away: a Laser Interferometer Space Antenna is a laser-based gravitational-wave detector in space, the space counterpart of ground detectors such as LIGO.
• ✗ (a) Neutrinos are detected by large underground or under-ice detectors, not by a laser interferometer in space.
• ✗ (c) A missile-defence test has nothing to do with this science mission.
• ✗ (d) Solar flares are studied by solar observatories and space-weather missions, not by an interferometer built for gravitational waves.
• • Since then The eLISA concept is now the European Space Agency's LISA mission, described as the first space-based observatory for gravitational waves, with launch planned for 2035.

Remember · eLISA/LISA = laser interferometer in space to detect gravitational waves. Ground-based cousin: LIGO, which India is joining.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (a) 2 only

Vidyanjali is a school volunteer programme that brings community and private-sector volunteers into government schools to improve the quality of learning. It has nothing to do with foreign university campuses, and it works through volunteers' time, skills and materials, not cash donations.

• ✗ 1. Vidyanjali concerns volunteers in government schools. It has no link to foreign educational institutions opening campuses in India.
• ✓ 2. The programme, launched in June 2016, involves volunteers from different walks of life in government schools and rests on the idea that community engagement improves the quality of learning.
• ✗ 3. The Vidyanjali guidelines define a volunteer's contribution as non-monetary, in the form of service or of assets, materials or equipment. Money is not accepted through the platform.

Remember · Vidyanjali (launched June 2016): a school volunteer programme that brings community and private-sector volunteers into government schools. Contributions are non-monetary.

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Answer: (b) Connecting institutions of higher education with local communities to address development challenges through appropriate technologies.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan links higher educational institutions with villages so that they use their knowledge to help solve local development problems. Its stated aim is to bring suitable technologies and solutions from institutions to rural communities.

• ✓ (b) The Ministry of HRD (now Education) flagship programme links each participating institution with at least five villages so it can contribute to their economic and social betterment. It also seeks to identify, customise and apply technologies for local needs.
• ✗ (a) UBA is not a literacy campaign and does not centre on voluntary organisations; the partners are higher educational institutions.
• ✗ (c) UBA does not aim at strengthening research institutions as such. It sends knowledge from institutions out to villages.
• ✗ (d) UBA is not a funding scheme for health care and education of the poor. Its channel is higher educational institutions working with adopted villages; skill training is only one of the ways they help.

Remember · Unnat Bharat Abhiyan: higher educational institutions adopt villages (at least five each) and help solve local problems with appropriate technology.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 3 only

Only statement 3 is correct. The Election Commission itself, not the Home Ministry, fixes election schedules, it is not a five-member body, and the Symbols Order gives it the power to decide disputes over splits and mergers of recognised parties.

• ✗ 1. Article 324 provides for a Chief Election Commissioner and such other Election Commissioners as the President fixes. In practice the Commission is a three-member body, the CEC and two Election Commissioners, with equal powers.
• ✗ 2. The Election Commission determines the timing of elections and prepares the election schedule. The Home Ministry does not decide it.
• ✓ 3. Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 lets the Commission decide which rival group of a recognised party is that party, and paragraph 16 deals with amalgamation of parties. Its decision on rival groups is binding.

Remember · The Election Commission fixes election schedules, is a three-member body (CEC plus two ECs), and settles party-split disputes under para 15 of the Symbols Order, 1968.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) It enjoys the same level of protection as the tiger.

Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 gives a species the highest degree of protection, the same level as the tiger. Listing says nothing about the species being extinct in the wild or being confined to one region.

• ✓ (a) Tiger and other rare and endangered species are in Schedule I, which gives the highest degree of protection. A tortoise placed in the same Schedule gets that same top-level protection.
• ✗ (b) Schedule I is a legal category of protection for rare and endangered species that still live in the wild. It is not a statement that a species has disappeared from the wild or that extinction cannot be stopped.
• ✗ (c) Being endemic to one region is not the test for Schedule I. The Schedule lists rare and endangered species from many parts of the country, and the protection is the same wherever they live.
• ✗ (d) Both (b) and (c) are wrong, so (d) fails.

Remember · Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 = highest legal protection, the same tier as the tiger. It does not mean 'extinct in the wild' or 'endemic'.

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Answer: (a) the power of the Judiciary to pronounce upon the constitutionality of laws and executive orders.

Judicial review in India is the power of the Supreme Court and High Courts to test whether a law is consistent with the Constitution and to declare it void if it is not. The Constitution's own definition of "law" in Article 13 includes ordinances, orders, rules and notifications, so executive orders are covered too.

• ✓ (a) This is the standard meaning of judicial review: the courts decide whether a law or an order having the force of law violates the Constitution. Article 13(3)(a) counts an ordinance, order, bye-law, rule, regulation or notification as "law".
• ✗ (b) Courts test the constitutionality (legal validity) of a law, not whether it is a wise or good policy. Policy choices belong to Parliament and the State Legislatures.
• ✗ (c) Review happens after a law is made, when someone challenges it. Courts do not vet Bills before the President gives assent.
• ✗ (d) Looking again at its own earlier judgments is a separate power, the review jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 137. It is not what "judicial review" means.

Remember · Judicial review: courts strike down a law or order that violates the Constitution. It checks constitutionality, not the wisdom of policy.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (c) 3-2-1

The Second Round Table Conference was held in London in late 1931, the Quit India Movement began in August 1942, and the Royal Indian Navy ratings' mutiny broke out in Bombay in February 1946. So the order is 3-2-1.

• ✓ (c) 3 (December 1931), then 2 (August 1942), then 1 (February 1946) is the right order.
• ✗ (d) It places the naval mutiny of 1946 before Quit India; the mutiny came about three and a half years after Quit India.
• ✗ (b) It puts the Round Table Conference (1931) last, though it was the earliest of the three.
• ✗ (a) It reverses the true sequence and puts the 1931 Conference last.

Remember · Second Round Table Conference (Dec 1931) → Quit India (Aug 1942) → Royal Indian Navy mutiny (Feb 1946).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Neither ratio rose steadily over the decade to 2016-17. The tax-to-GDP ratio hovered around 10 per cent from 2008-09 and crossed 11 per cent only in 2016-17, while the Centre's fiscal deficit jumped to 6.5 per cent of GDP in 2009-10 and then fell to 3.5 per cent by 2016-17.

• ✗ 1. The Union Budget documents for 2017-18 say the gross tax-to-GDP ratio had been stagnating in the range of 10 per cent since 2008-09; it was estimated to cross 11 per cent only in 2016-17, for the first time since 2007-08. That is stagnation and a late rise, not a steady increase.
• ✗ 2. The Centre's fiscal deficit was 6.0 per cent of GDP in 2008-09 and 6.5 per cent in 2009-10, then fell year after year to 3.5 per cent in 2016-17. The trend was downward consolidation, not a steady increase.

Remember · Tax-to-GDP stayed near 10 per cent for most of 2008-09 to 2015-16, and the Centre's fiscal deficit fell from 6.5 per cent (2009-10) to 3.5 per cent (2016-17).

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Answer: (b) Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary

The proposal was to give the Asiatic lion a second home at Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Every wild Asiatic lion lives in Gujarat, so one epidemic or disaster could wipe out the subspecies, and Kuno was chosen as the best alternative site.

• ✓ (b) Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Madhya Pradesh was picked as the best site for a second lion population. In April 2013 the Supreme Court directed that the lions be re-introduced there.
• ✗ (a) Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand is a tiger reserve. The lion proposal named Kuno, not Corbett.
• ✗ (d) Sariska in Rajasthan is a tiger reserve. It was not the site proposed for the lions.
• ✗ (c) Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu is a tiger reserve in the south. It was not the site proposed for the lions.

Remember · The second home planned for Gir's Asiatic lions is Kuno (Palpur-Kuno) Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh.

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Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only

Under Article 356 the President takes over the State Government's functions, so the Council of Ministers necessarily goes. The Assembly need not be dissolved, because its powers pass to Parliament and it can be kept suspended, and the proclamation does not touch local bodies at all. So 1 and 3 are the ones that are not necessary consequences.

• ✓ 1. Dissolution of the Assembly is not automatic. Article 356(1)(b) only says the Legislature's powers become exercisable by or under Parliament, and NCERT notes the Assembly may be suspended or dissolved, so both are possible.
• ✗ 2. Removal of the Council of Ministers is a necessary result, because the President assumes the functions of the State Government under Article 356(1)(a). The item is therefore not in the answer set.
• ✓ 3. Article 356 says nothing about Panchayats or Municipalities. They are constituted under Parts IX and IXA, and Article 243E(1) lets a Panchayat be dissolved only under a law in force, so President's rule does not itself dissolve them.

Remember · President's rule (Article 356) puts the State Government in the President's hands, so ministers go. The Assembly may be suspended or dissolved, and local bodies are unaffected.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 7 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (c) 1 and 4 only

The Right against Exploitation consists only of Articles 23 and 24: the ban on trafficking and forced labour, and the ban on employing children in factories, mines and other hazardous work. Untouchability and minority interests are covered by other Fundamental Rights.

• ✓ 1. Article 23 prohibits traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour.
• ✗ 2. Abolition of untouchability is Article 17, which falls under the Right to Equality.
• ✗ 3. Protection of the interests of minorities is Article 29, under Cultural and Educational Rights.
• ✓ 4. Article 24 bars employing a child below fourteen years in any factory or mine or other hazardous employment.

Remember · Right against Exploitation = Articles 23 (trafficking, forced labour) and 24 (child labour in hazardous work). Untouchability is Article 17; minorities, Article 29.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (a) Sumatra

Sumatra (Indonesia) is the closest. Indira Point, the southern tip of Great Nicobar and the southernmost point of India, is only about 140 km from Sumatra. Java, Borneo and Sri Lanka lie much farther away.

• ✓ (a) The Andaman and Nicobar Administration puts Indira Point barely 140 km from Sumatra; its geography note gives about 91 geographical (nautical) miles to Achin Head in Sumatra.
• ✗ (d) Sri Lanka lies across the Bay of Bengal to the west, much farther from Great Nicobar than Sumatra is.
• ✗ (c) Java lies south-east of Sumatra, so it is farther from Great Nicobar than Sumatra is.
• ✗ (b) Borneo lies far to the east of Sumatra, so it is also farther from Great Nicobar.

Remember · Great Nicobar (Indira Point, India's southernmost point) lies only about 140 km from Sumatra, Indonesia.

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Answer: (c) A mechanism of parliamentary democracy for ensuring collective responsibility of the Government to the people.

The principle behind the Cabinet form of government is collective responsibility: the whole Council of Ministers answers to the elected House, and through it to the people. Article 75(3) states this for the Union: the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

• ✓ (c) Collective responsibility means the ministers sink or swim together, and the ministry must resign if the Lok Sabha withdraws its confidence. That is how a parliamentary democracy holds the government accountable to the people.
• ✗ (a) The Cabinet system does not exist to reduce criticism; it exposes the government to questions and debate in the legislature.
• ✗ (b) Speed of decision-making is a side benefit at most; accountability to the legislature is the defining principle.
• ✗ (d) The Cabinet system is meant to make the executive answerable, not to strengthen a leader whose support has weakened.

Remember · Cabinet (parliamentary) government rests on collective responsibility: the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha (Article 75(3)).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (d) It is the result of an agreement among the federating units.

Indian federalism is not the result of an agreement among the States. India is a "holding together" federation, where a large country divides power between the Centre and the States, unlike the USA, where independent States came together. The Constitution calls India a Union of States, and the other three options are real features.

• ✓ (d) This is the odd one out. The Constitution begins with "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States"; the units did not sign a compact to form it. NCERT classes India with the "holding together" federations, not the "coming together" ones like the USA.
• ✗ (b) Powers are divided by the Seventh Schedule; for example, Article 246 gives Parliament exclusive power over the Union List. So this is a federal feature.
• ✗ (c) Seats in the Rajya Sabha are allocated State-wise under the Fourth Schedule (Article 80(2)), so States are not equally represented. This unequal representation is a real feature of Indian federalism.
• ✗ (a) An independent judiciary that settles Centre-State disputes is a standard feature of a federation and is present in India.

Remember · India is a "holding together" federation created by the Constitution (a Union of States), not by an agreement among States.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 Democratic Politics – II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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