Prelims GS Paper I 2024

Answer: (d) Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

The atmosphere lets most short-wave sunlight pass through; the Earth's surface absorbs it and then radiates long-wave (terrestrial) energy, which carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases absorb. So the air is heated mainly from below by the Earth, not directly by the Sun: Statement-I is wrong, Statement-II is right.

• ✗ Statement-I The atmosphere is largely transparent to incoming short-wave solar radiation. It is heated indirectly, from below, by the long-wave radiation the warmed Earth gives out.
• ✓ Statement-II Terrestrial radiation is long-wave, and carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases absorb it well. This is the basis of the greenhouse effect.

Remember · Sun heats the ground (short wave); the ground heats the air (long wave, terrestrial radiation). Greenhouse gases trap that long-wave energy.

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Answer: (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I

The troposphere reaches about 18 km over the equator but only about 8 km near the poles. The reason is the intense heating at the equator: strong convection currents carry heat high up, so Statement-II is the cause of Statement-I.

• ✓ Statement-I Average height of the troposphere is 13 km; it is roughly 18 km at the equator and 8 km near the poles.
• ✓ Statement-II Strong convectional currents over the hot equator lift heat to great heights, which pushes the top of the troposphere upward. This explains Statement-I.

Remember · Troposphere: ~18 km at equator, ~8 km at poles, average 13 km — thickest at the equator because of strong convection.

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Answer: (d) All four

An eruption brings out solid, liquid and gaseous material: lava, fragments of rock, fine ash and dust, and gases. The gases include nitrogen and sulphur compounds, so all four listed items are volcanic products.

• ✓ 1. Pyroclastic debris — rock fragments blown out by the explosion — is thrown out along with lava flows and volcanic bombs.
• ✓ 2. Fine ash and dust are ejected in eruptions and can spread over large areas.
• ✓ 3. Nitrogen compounds are among the gases released by volcanoes.
• ✓ 4. Sulphur compounds are also released as volcanic gases, alongside small amounts of chlorine, hydrogen and argon.

Remember · Volcanic output: lava, pyroclastic debris, volcanic bombs, ash and dust, and gases (nitrogen and sulphur compounds, minor chlorine, hydrogen, argon).

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Answer: (a) 1 only

In the northern winter the oceans stay warmer than the land, so January isotherms bulge north over the oceans and dip south over the continents. Statement 2 fails because the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift are warm currents that make the North Atlantic warmer, not colder.

• ✓ 1. In January the isotherms swing northward over the oceans and southward over the land masses, most clearly over the North Atlantic and Europe.
• ✗ 2. The Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift are warm currents. They make the North Atlantic warmer, which is why the isotherms bend north there.

Remember · January isotherms: bend poleward over oceans, equatorward over continents. Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift are warm currents.

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Answer: (c) Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana

Cocoa needs a hot, wet equatorial climate, and West Africa's Gulf of Guinea coast supplies most of the world's crop. Côte d'Ivoire is the largest producer and Ghana the second; the other pairs lie in drier parts of Africa and are not significant cocoa growers.

• ✓ (c) Côte d'Ivoire is the world's largest cocoa producer, and it and Ghana are the largest cocoa exporters; with Cameroon they account for nearly two-thirds of global cocoa exports.
• ✗ (a) Algeria and Morocco lie in North Africa's dry belt; neither is among the handful of countries that grow almost all of the world's cocoa.
• ✗ (d) Neither Madagascar nor Mozambique is among the nine countries that the International Cocoa Organization says produce over 93% of world cocoa.

Remember · Cocoa belt = West Africa's Gulf of Guinea coast. Côte d'Ivoire is No. 1, Ghana No. 2; together they dominate world cocoa supply.

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Answer: (b) Gomati – Ghaghara – Gandak – Kosi

Follow the Ganga eastward from Prayagraj: the Gomati joins first at Kaithi (Ghazipur district, near Varanasi), then the Ghaghara near Chhapra, then the Gandak at Sonpur opposite Patna, and finally the Kosi further east in Bihar.

• ✓ (b) Gomati (Kaithi, Ghazipur) → Ghaghara (Chhapra) → Gandak (Sonpur, opposite Patna) → Kosi (eastern Bihar) is the west-to-east order of their confluences.
• ✗ (a) The Ghaghara cannot come first: the Gomati meets the Ganga upstream, near Varanasi, well before Chhapra.
• ✗ (d) The Kosi basin lies east of the Gandak and Burhi Gandak basins, so the Kosi joins after the Gandak, not before it.

Remember · Left-bank Himalayan tributaries of the Ganga, west to east: Ramganga, Gomati, Ghaghara, Gandak, Kosi, Mahananda.

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Answer: (a) Both Statement-II and Statement-III are correct and both of them explain Statement-I

Chemical weathering works through water, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Falling rain dissolves both gases from the air: the dissolved carbon dioxide forms a weak acid that attacks rocks (carbonation), and the dissolved oxygen oxidises minerals such as iron. So both II and III are true and each explains why rain weathers rock.

• ✓ Statement-I Rainwater drives chemical weathering processes such as solution, carbonation, hydration and oxidation.
• ✓ Statement-II Rain dissolves atmospheric carbon dioxide and becomes weakly acidic; this acid dissolves minerals, especially in limestone (carbonation). It explains Statement-I.
• ✓ Statement-III Rain also carries dissolved oxygen, which oxidises iron-bearing minerals and weakens the rock. It too explains Statement-I.

Remember · Chemical weathering needs water plus air — oxygen (oxidation) and carbon dioxide (carbonation). Rainwater brings both.

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Answer: (b) Only two

The North Sea lies between Great Britain and the North European mainland. Its shores belong to Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom (with Sweden on the Kattegat side). Finland and Russia face the Baltic Sea instead, so only Germany and Norway qualify.

• ✗ 1. Finland's coasts are on the Baltic Sea — the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland — not the North Sea.
• ✓ 2. Germany's north-western coast, with the Elbe and Weser estuaries, opens onto the North Sea.
• ✓ 3. Norway's southern and western coast borders the North Sea.
• ✗ 4. Russia's European coasts are on the Baltic (Gulf of Finland, Kaliningrad), the Barents and White Seas and the Black Sea — none on the North Sea.

Remember · North Sea countries: UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France. Finland and Russia are Baltic, not North Sea, states.

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Answer: (a) Only one

Only the Hundru row is fully right. Dhuandhar is on the Narmada but near Jabalpur in the Narmada rift valley, not in the Malwa plateau; Gersoppa (Jog) Falls is in the Western Ghats but on the Sharavati, not the Netravati.

• ✗ 1. Dhuandhar falls is on the Narmada near Jabalpur, where the river flows in a rift valley between the Vindhyas and Satpuras. The Malwa plateau lies to the north of the Narmada valley.
• ✓ 2. Hundru Falls is on the Subarnarekha river on the Chota Nagpur plateau, near Ranchi.
• ✗ 3. Gersoppa Falls, better known as Jog Falls, is in the Western Ghats but is formed by the Sharavati river. The Netravati is a different west-flowing river further south.

Remember · Dhuandhar — Narmada, near Jabalpur. Hundru — Subarnarekha, Chota Nagpur. Jog/Gersoppa — Sharavati, Western Ghats.

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Answer: (b) Only two

Rows 3 and 4 are right: the Appalachians and the Andes are fold mountains raised where plates converged. Row 1 is wrong twice over — the Vosges are in Europe (France) and are a block mountain beside the Rhine rift valley; row 2 is wrong because the Alps are young fold mountains, not block mountains.

• ✗ 1. The Vosges are in north-eastern France, west of the Rhine Graben — a sunken block of crust. They are a classic block (horst) mountain of Europe, not a fold range of Central Asia.
• ✗ 2. The Alps belong to the young zone of continental collision that runs from the Himalayas to Europe; they are fold mountains, not block mountains.
• ✓ 3. The Appalachians formed in continental collisions 500–300 million years ago; their sedimentary layers were folded and faulted. They are old, worn-down fold mountains.
• ✓ 4. The Andes were raised as the oceanic Nazca Plate pushed under the South American Plate — a convergent-boundary fold range.

Remember · Fold: Himalayas, Alps, Andes, Rockies (young); Appalachians, Aravallis, Urals (old). Block: Vosges and Black Forest on either side of the Rhine rift valley.

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Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

A greenfield airport is built on a fresh site. Donyi Polo (Hollongi, Itanagar) and Kushinagar are among the greenfield airports approved under the Greenfield Airports Policy and operationalised in recent years. Vijayawada is an older Airports Authority of India airport at Gannavaram that has been expanded with a new terminal, which makes it a brownfield upgrade.

• ✓ 1. Donyi Polo Airport is the greenfield airport at Hollongi, Itanagar; the Union Cabinet approved the name in November 2022.
• ✓ 2. Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh is one of the greenfield airports given 'in-principle' approval and later operationalised, as an international airport.
• ✗ 3. Vijayawada is an existing AAI airport at Gannavaram; it is not on the list of 21 approved greenfield airports. Recent work there is a new integrated terminal building at the old site.

Remember · Greenfield = new site. Recent greenfield airports include Donyi Polo (Itanagar), Kushinagar, Mopa, Shivamogga, Sindhudurg, Kalaburagi, Orvakal.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Water vapour is a variable gas concentrated near the surface, so it thins out with height. It is most plentiful in the warm, wet tropics (up to about 4% of air by volume) and scarcest in cold, dry polar and desert air (under 1%).

• ✓ 1. Water vapour is a variable gas whose amount decreases with altitude, because evaporation happens at the surface and cold upper air holds little moisture.
• ✗ 2. Its share is lowest, not highest, at the poles — below 1% of the air — and highest in the warm, wet tropics at about 4%.

Remember · Water vapour: up to ~4% of air in humid tropics, under 1% in polar and desert air; decreases with altitude and from equator to poles.

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Answer: (d) Marine West coast climate

All three features describe the Marine West Coast (Cfb) climate of places like north-western Europe: the sea keeps both annual and daily temperature ranges small, rain falls in every month, and totals vary widely between about 50 and 250 cm.

• ✓ (d) Koeppen's Cfb climate has small annual and daily temperature ranges, precipitation throughout the year, and 50–250 cm of precipitation — exactly the three clues.
• ✗ (a) Equatorial climate also has rain all year and a small annual range, but its rainfall is much heavier and it is hot throughout the year; the 50–250 cm spread points to the mid-latitude west coasts.
• ✗ (c) Humid subtropical (China type) climate lies on eastern margins, with hot summers and about 75–150 cm of rain, often with summer thunderstorms.

Remember · Marine West Coast (Cfb): NW Europe, British Columbia, southern Chile, New Zealand — mild, small temperature ranges, rain all year, 50–250 cm.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

The Coriolis force comes from the Earth's rotation and deflects moving air — to the right in the northern hemisphere, to the left in the southern. Its strength rises with wind speed and with latitude, so it is greatest at the poles and zero at the equator.

• ✓ 1. The deflection grows with the speed of the wind: the faster the air moves, the stronger the Coriolis effect on it.
• ✓ 2. The force is proportional to the sine of the latitude, so it is maximum at the poles and absent at the equator. That is why tropical cyclones do not form right on the equator.

Remember · Coriolis force rises with wind speed and latitude: zero at the equator, maximum at the poles; deflects winds right (north) and left (south).

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Answer: (d) 2 and 4

21 June is the summer solstice of the northern hemisphere, when the North Pole is tilted towards the Sun. Every place north of the equator then gets more than 12 hours of daylight, the equator gets exactly 12, and the southern hemisphere gets less. So the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle qualify.

• ✗ 1. The equator has about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness throughout the year, never more.
• ✓ 2. The Tropic of Cancer is in the northern hemisphere, where days are longer than 12 hours in June; on 21 June the Sun is overhead there at noon.
• ✗ 3. The Tropic of Capricorn is in the southern hemisphere, where June is winter and daylight is shorter than 12 hours.
• ✓ 4. On 21 June the Arctic Circle has its longest day — the Sun stays above the horizon for about 24 hours.

Remember · 21 June: longest day north of the equator (24-hour day at and beyond the Arctic Circle); equator always ~12 hours; southern hemisphere has short winter days.

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Answer: (b) Congo Basin

The Cuvette Centrale peatlands of the Congo Basin, spread across the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, form the world's largest tropical peatland. They lock away carbon equal to about three years of global greenhouse gas emissions, which would be released if the peat were drained or degraded.

• ✓ (b) The Congo Basin peat swamp forest stores around 29 billion tonnes of carbon, roughly three years of global emissions; the 2018 Brazzaville Declaration was signed to protect it.
• ✗ (a) The Amazon has peatlands too, but the single largest tropical peatland complex is the Congo Basin's Cuvette Centrale.
• ✗ (c) The Kikori Basin is a river basin in Papua New Guinea, rich in forest but not the world's largest tropical peatland.

Remember · Cuvette Centrale, Congo Basin: world's largest tropical peatland, ~29 billion tonnes of carbon ≈ three years of global emissions; Brazzaville Declaration (2018).

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

PFAS are man-made fluorinated chemicals used for non-stick, stain-proof and grease-proof products. Their carbon–fluorine bonds make them extremely persistent ('forever chemicals'), so they spread through water, food and packaging and build up in the bodies of people and animals. All three statements hold.

• ✓ 1. PFAS turn up in drinking water, in foods such as fish and dairy, and in grease-resistant food packaging like fast-food wrappers and pizza boxes.
• ✓ 2. They are long-lasting chemicals whose components break down very slowly, so they persist in the environment.
• ✓ 3. Because they persist, many PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals worldwide, and some accumulate in the body over time.

Remember · PFAS = 'forever chemicals': very slow to break down, found in water, food and packaging, and accumulate in human and animal bodies.

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Answer: (b) Only three

A parasitoid is an insect whose larva lives on or inside a single host and eventually kills it. Almost all parasitoids are wasps and flies, with a smaller number of beetles, including some carabid (ground) beetles. Centipedes are free-living predators and termites are social decomposers, so only three groups qualify.

• ✓ 1. Some carabid beetles are parasitoids: for example, the larvae of Lebia grandis develop on and kill the pupae of the Colorado potato beetle.
• ✗ 2. Centipedes are active predators that kill prey with venomous claws; they do not develop inside a host.
• ✓ 3. Many flies are parasitoids — tachinid and conopid flies, for example, grow inside other insects and kill them.
• ✗ 4. Termites are social insects that feed on wood and plant matter; none lives as a parasitoid.
• ✓ 5. Parasitic wasps are the largest parasitoid group: they lay eggs inside other insects and the host dies, which is why they are used in biological pest control.

Remember · Parasitoids kill their host (unlike true parasites). Main groups: wasps (Hymenoptera), flies (Diptera), some beetles. Used widely for biological pest control.

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Answer: (c) All three

The pea family is Fabaceae (Leguminosae), the legumes — plants that bear pods and host nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules. Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), horse-gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) and soybean (Glycine max) are all legumes, so all three belong to it.

• ✓ 1. Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is an oilseed legume whose pods ripen underground.
• ✓ 2. Horse-gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum, kulthi) is a drought-hardy pulse legume grown mainly in peninsular India.
• ✓ 3. Soybean (Glycine max) is a legume with the highest protein content among them, grown for oil and food.

Remember · Pea family = Fabaceae/Leguminosae: pulses (gram, horse-gram, lentil, pea) and oilseed legumes (groundnut, soybean) — all fix nitrogen via root nodules.

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UPSC dropped this question from evaluation in its final answer key.

UPSC dropped this question from evaluation in its final answer key. Statement-II is plainly wrong - the Indian flying fox is a fruit bat that eats fruit and nectar, not blood. Statement-I was also out of date by 2024: the 2022 amendment removed the Act's vermin schedule, so none of the four options fits.

• ✗ Statement-I The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022 cut the schedules from six to four and removed the vermin schedule, so by 2024 the statement was out of date. Under the amended section 62, the Central Government may declare a Schedule II animal to be vermin by notification, for a stated area and period.
• ✗ Statement-II The Indian flying fox (Pteropus medius) is one of India's largest fruit bats; it feeds on fruits and nectar and helps pollinate flowers and disperse seeds. Blood-feeding vampire bats live only in the Americas.

Remember · Indian flying fox = fruit bat (fruit, nectar; Nipah virus reservoir). WPA amendment 2022: four schedules, no vermin schedule; the Central Government declares vermin by notification under Section 62.

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Answer: (c) Insects

All three are insects, and all three belong to Hemiptera, the true bugs. The cicada is the loud 'singing' insect of trees, the froghopper (spittlebug) is a small jumping insect whose young hide in blobs of froth on plants, and the pond skater (water strider) runs across the surface film of still water.

• ✓ (c) Cicadas and froghoppers (spittlebugs) are grouped in the Auchenorrhyncha, and water striders (pond skaters) in the Heteroptera; both groups are true bugs (order Hemiptera), and true bugs are insects with six legs and a body in three parts.
• ✗ (b) The pond skater lives on water but never under it: water-repellent hairs on its legs let it stand on the surface, and it breathes air like other insects.
• ✗ (d) 'Froghopper' is only a name for its frog-like leap; it is a small bug, not a reptile or an amphibian.

Remember · Cicada (Cicadidae), froghopper or spittlebug (Cercopidae) and pond skater or water strider (Gerridae) are all insects of the bug group Hemiptera.

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Answer: (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I

The chewy part of most modern gum is not a natural tree gum but a synthetic 'gum base' made of polymers such as polyvinyl acetate, polyethylene and butyl rubber, which are plastics. Because that base does not biodegrade, spat-out gum stays on pavements for years and slowly breaks into microplastics, so the plastic base is exactly why gum is counted as a pollutant.

• ✓ Statement-I Discarded gum is treated as litter, for example under the UK Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, because a synthetic gum base does not biodegrade. It hardens on pavements, is costly to scrape off, and over years breaks into microplastic fragments.
• ✓ Statement-II Traditional gum used chicle, the latex of the sapodilla (zapota) tree. FSSAI's standard now permits both natural and synthetic gum bases, including synthetic rubber latex, synthetic resin and polyvinyl acetate, and US food rules list polyethylene, polyisobutylene and polyvinyl acetate. The plastic base is exactly why the gum lasts as litter, so Statement-II explains Statement-I.

Remember · Modern gum base = synthetic polymers (polyvinyl acetate, polyethylene, butyl rubber), i.e. plastic; old gum base = chicle from the zapota tree. Non-biodegradable, so gum litter becomes microplastic.

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Answer: (d) None

Every pair is shuffled. The indri is a lemur that lives only in Madagascar, the bonobo is an African ape found in the Congo basin forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the elk is a large deer of North America and the cold uplands of Asia; none of them occurs wild in the country it is paired with.

• ✗ 1. The indri (Indri indri), the largest of the lemurs, lives in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar and is Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Lemurs do not occur naturally in South America, so Brazil is wrong.
• ✗ 2. The elk (wapiti) is a large deer known from North America, where scientists call it Cervus canadensis, and it is also found in parts of Central and East Asia. Tropical Indonesia has no wild elk.
• ✗ 3. The bonobo, or pygmy chimpanzee, is an African great ape; UNESCO notes it as a threatened species of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Madagascar has no apes.

Remember · Indri = Madagascar (largest lemur). Bonobo = DR Congo only (Salonga NP). Elk/wapiti = North America and Central/East Asia. Madagascar has lemurs but no apes.

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Answer: (a) 2 only

The World Toilet Organization is a Singapore-based non-profit founded by Jack Sim on 19 November 2001, not a UN body. It started World Toilet Day, the World Toilet Summit and the World Toilet College, and it works by advocacy, training and local sanitation markets rather than by handing out grants to countries.

• ✗ 1. WTO describes itself as a global non-profit registered in Singapore. The UN adopted its 19 November day as UN World Toilet Day in 2013 through a resolution Singapore sponsored, but that did not make WTO a UN agency.
• ✓ 2. WTO launched World Toilet Day and the World Toilet Summit in 2001 and the World Toilet College in 2005, all to push sanitation up the global agenda.
• ✗ 3. Its work is lobbying, education and training, and helping local sanitation businesses (for example through SaniShop); it is not a funding agency that gives grants to poorer countries.

Remember · World Toilet Organization: Singapore non-profit, founded 19 Nov 2001 by Jack Sim. Started World Toilet Day (UN-recognised 2013), World Toilet Summit (2001), World Toilet College (2005).

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Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

Lions mate at any time of the year, and cheetahs, which are not in the roaring genus Panthera, chirp, purr and growl instead of roaring. Statement 3 fails because male leopards do scent-mark: they hold their territories through boundary scent-marking.

• ✓ 1. Lions have no fixed breeding season. Females give birth about every 20 months if they raise their cubs, and sooner if they lose them, so lions can breed at any time of year.
• ✓ 2. The lion and tiger belong to the roaring genus Panthera (NCERT); the cheetah is the only living species of a separate genus, Acinonyx, and does not roar. It purrs, barks, growls, hisses and chirps.
• ✗ 3. Male leopards maintain their territories through a boundary scent-marking strategy, so they do proclaim territory by scent.

Remember · Roaring cats = genus Panthera (lion, tiger and kin); the cheetah (genus Acinonyx) purrs and chirps, and cannot roar. Lions breed year-round. Male leopards, like lions, scent-mark their territory.

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Answer: (a) It is a platform for accelerating the transition towards food and water systems that are net-zero (carbon), nature-positive and that aims to increase farmer resilience.

100 Million Farmers is a World Economic Forum platform, launched in 2021, that brings companies, governments, farmer groups and financiers together to shift food and water systems to net-zero, nature-positive farming by 2030 while making farmers more resilient. The name refers to its goal of reaching 100 million farmers.

• ✓ (a) The WEF describes it as a multi-stakeholder platform for net-zero, nature-positive food systems by 2030 that backs local solutions, farmer incentives and resilience, including through regenerative and climate-smart practices.
• ✗ (b) An international network devoted to organic animal husbandry is a different body; 100 Million Farmers deals with climate and nature outcomes across farming, not organic livestock specifically.
• ✗ (d) Organising farmers into producer organisations for market access is a common policy tool, but it is not the purpose of this WEF climate-and-nature platform.

Remember · 100 Million Farmers = World Economic Forum platform (2021) for net-zero, nature-positive food and water systems and farmer resilience by 2030.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) All four

Distributed energy resources (DER) are small generating or storage units placed close to where power is used, usually on the consumer's side of the meter, instead of large central power stations. Rooftop solar, home or grid batteries, small biomass generators and fuel cells are all standard examples.

• ✓ 1. Battery storage, including electric-vehicle batteries that can send power back to the grid, is listed by Australia's energy market rule-maker (AEMC) as a distributed energy resource.
• ✓ 2. Small biomass generators running on waste gas or farm and industrial by-products are a DER; the US EPA also lists biomass combustion among distributed generation options.
• ✓ 3. Fuel cells, run on natural gas, hydrogen or biomass-derived gas, produce electricity on site and are counted as distributed generation.
• ✓ 4. Rooftop solar PV is the most common DER: power is produced on the building that uses it, and surplus can be fed into the distribution grid.

Remember · DER = small, local generation or storage near the point of use: rooftop solar, small wind, batteries (incl. EVs), biomass generators, fuel cells, CHP units, mini-hydro.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Fig

Fig trees and fig wasps are the classic case of coevolved mutualism. Many fig species can be pollinated only by one partner wasp species; the female wasp pollinates the fig inflorescence while looking for a place to lay her eggs, and her larvae feed on some of the developing seeds.

• ✓ (a) NCERT describes a tight one-to-one link between many fig species and their pollinating wasps: a given fig can be pollinated only by its 'partner' wasp, which in turn needs the fig to breed.
• ✗ (b) Mahua's strong-smelling flowers open at night and are a major attraction for bats, which Down To Earth calls essential for its pollination and seed dispersal; it has no single insect partner.
• ✗ (d) The red silk cotton tree (Bombax ceiba) is pollinated by generalist birds, not by one coevolved insect.

Remember · Fig–fig wasp: obligate, coevolved, often one-to-one mutualism. The wasp pollinates the fig inflorescence and lays eggs in the fruit; each depends on the other.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Biology, Ch 11 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Biology, Ch 11 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) All three

Each group includes species that are toxic to eat or touch, a defence that makes predators avoid them. The monarch butterfly stores a poison from the weed its caterpillar eats, many pufferfish carry the deadly nerve toxin tetrodotoxin, and poison frogs secrete toxins through their skin.

• ✓ 1. The monarch butterfly is distasteful and harmful to birds because of a chemical it takes in as a caterpillar feeding on a poisonous weed.
• ✓ 2. Pufferfish carry tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin usually concentrated in the ovaries, liver, intestine and skin; it is not destroyed by cooking, and eating badly prepared fish can be fatal.
• ✓ 3. NCERT notes that some frogs are poisonous and are therefore left alone by predators; the brightly coloured poison dart frogs of Central and South America are the best-known case.

Remember · Poisonous = harmful when eaten or touched (monarch butterfly, pufferfish, poison dart frog); venomous = injects toxin (snake, scorpion). Both are anti-predator defences.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Biology, Ch 11 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Biology, Ch 11 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Only one

Only red sanders is Indian by origin: it grows wild in a small tract of the southern Eastern Ghats. Cashew and papaya are both American plants brought to India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, even though India is now a leading grower of both.

• ✗ 1. Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is a native of eastern Brazil. The Portuguese introduced it to India in the 16th century, first in Goa, from where it spread along the coasts.
• ✗ 2. Papaya came from the New World (the Americas) along with the pineapple, tomato, potato and chilli during the Mughal period, as NCERT's history text notes.
• ✓ 3. Red sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus, 'rakta chandan') is native to southern India, found on dry, rocky hills of the south-eastern peninsula; it is prized and heavily smuggled for its red heartwood.

Remember · Red sanders = native, endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats (mainly Andhra Pradesh). Cashew (Brazil) and papaya (tropical America) were introduced by the Portuguese.

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

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

An RTG is not a reactor: nothing is split in a chain reaction. It simply turns the steady heat given off by the natural decay of plutonium-238 into electricity using thermocouples, which is why it powers deep-space probes and rovers such as Voyager, New Horizons, Curiosity and Perseverance. The US made its plutonium-238 at the Savannah River nuclear-materials plant, part of its weapons complex.

• ✗ 1. RTGs have no fission or chain reaction. Heat from the spontaneous radioactive decay of plutonium-238 is converted to power by thermocouples, with no moving parts.
• ✓ 2. They supply electricity and warmth to spacecraft where sunlight is weak or dust blocks solar panels; the current US model, the MMRTG, gives about 110 watts at launch.
• ✓ 3. Plutonium-238 is not weapons-grade plutonium, but the US produced it at its Savannah River plant, a site built to make nuclear-weapons materials, until the late 1980s; it is the standard RTG fuel.

Remember · RTG = heat from natural decay of Pu-238 → electricity via thermocouples (Seebeck effect). No fission. Powers Voyager, Cassini, New Horizons, Curiosity, Perseverance.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

A star's mass decides how fast it burns. Big, massive stars need very high rates of nuclear fusion in their cores to hold themselves up against their own gravity, so they use up their hydrogen in a few million years, while small dwarf stars burn slowly and can shine for billions or even trillions of years. So the fusion-rate statement is true, and the longer-life statement is the reverse of the truth.

• ✗ Statement-I Massive stars are short-lived: some last only a few million years, whereas low-mass red dwarfs can last trillions of years; the Sun will spend about 10 billion years on the main sequence.
• ✓ Statement-II More massive stars must fuse hydrogen at a much higher rate to generate the outward pressure that balances their stronger gravity, which also makes them hotter and brighter.

Remember · Bigger star → faster fusion → shorter life. Massive stars: millions of years, end as supernovae; red dwarfs: trillions of years. Sun: about 10 billion years on the main sequence.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Nitric oxide

Nitric oxide (NO) is made by the cells lining our blood vessels (the endothelium). It diffuses into the surrounding smooth muscle and makes it relax, which widens the vessels and lets more blood flow; its discovery as a signalling molecule won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

• ✓ (a) Furchgott, Ignarro and Murad showed that the 'endothelium-derived relaxing factor' that dilates blood vessels is nitric oxide; heart drugs such as nitroglycerin work by releasing NO.
• ✗ (b) Nitrous oxide (N2O) is 'laughing gas', used as an anaesthetic and a greenhouse gas; the body does not make it to control blood vessels.
• ✗ (c) Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a brown, toxic air pollutant from vehicle exhausts and combustion that irritates the lungs; it is not a body signal.

Remember · Nitric oxide (NO) = body's own vasodilator, made by the endothelium; 1998 Nobel (Furchgott, Ignarro, Murad). Nitroglycerin relieves angina by releasing NO. N2O = laughing gas.

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

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only two

Radar sends out radio pulses and times their echoes to find the distance and speed of whatever reflects them. That makes it excellent for watching rain, hail and snow and for following flocks of migrating birds or swarms of insects in the sky, but an echo cannot reveal what chemical a passenger is carrying, so radar is not a narcotics detector.

• ✗ 1. Drugs on passengers are found with X-ray and body scanners, trace-detection equipment and sniffer dogs; radar only tells where an object is and how it moves, not what substance it is.
• ✓ 2. Doppler weather radars measure reflected pulses from raindrops and ice; dual-polarisation radars can tell rain, hail, snow and ice pellets apart.
• ✓ 3. Weather-radar networks also pick up birds, bats and insects aloft; ornithologists use these echoes to map and forecast nightly bird migration.

Remember · Radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging) gives range and velocity of targets: rain, storms, aircraft, ships, bird and insect movements. It cannot identify substances such as drugs.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) None

A fifth-generation fighter is built around stealth (low-observable shaping, weapons carried inside the body), fused sensor data and network-centric operations; Lockheed Martin describes the F-35 this way, and ADA lists the same features for India's own fifth-generation project, the AMCA. UPSC's key counts none of the three listed aircraft as fifth generation, and ADA's Tejas Mk-1 page lists fly-by-wire controls, a glass cockpit and a multi-mode radar, with external stores and drop tanks, and no stealth features.

• ✗ 1. The Rafale (printed 'Rafael') is a French twin-engine multirole fighter. UPSC's official key treats it as not fifth generation; we could not confirm its generation label from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✗ 2. The MiG-29 is a Soviet-designed fighter. UPSC's official key treats it as not fifth generation; we could not confirm its generation label from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✗ 3. ADA's page for Tejas Mk-1 lists relaxed static stability, fly-by-wire control, a glass cockpit and a multi-mode radar, with external stores and drop tanks; the low-observability shaping and internal weapons that ADA lists belong to the AMCA, India's own fifth-generation project.

Remember · Fifth-gen = stealth shaping + internal weapons + sensor fusion + networking (F-35, and India's AMCA). Tejas Mk-1 has none of the stealth features.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Hydrogels are water-swollen networks of cross-linked polymers, soft and compatible with body tissue. Their best-established use is medical: a drug trapped in the gel is released over time at a controlled rate, and the gels are also used in wound dressings, contact lenses and tissue engineering. UPSC's key treats statements 2 and 3 as incorrect.

• ✓ 1. Hydrogels can hold small drugs, proteins or even cells and release them over time and at a chosen site, and several such delivery systems are in clinical use.
• ✗ 2. UPSC's official key treats this statement as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✗ 3. UPSC's official key treats this statement as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.

Remember · Hydrogel = cross-linked, water-absorbing polymer network; soft, biocompatible. Uses: controlled drug release, wound dressings, soft contact lenses, tissue engineering.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Water vapour

A hydrogen fuel cell combines hydrogen from the tank with oxygen from the air to produce electricity for the motor. The only chemical product of that reaction is water (H2O), so the tailpipe of a fuel-cell car releases just water vapour and some warm air, with no smog-forming pollutants.

• ✓ (d) At the cathode, the hydrogen ions, the electrons that have passed through the circuit and oxygen join to form water, which leaves as vapour.
• ✗ (c) Oxygen is consumed by the fuel cell, not given out; it is taken in from the air as a reactant.
• ✗ (a) Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is not a product of a fuel cell's hydrogen–oxygen reaction; the cell is designed to yield plain water.

Remember · Hydrogen fuel cell: 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O + electricity + heat. FCEV tailpipe emits only water vapour and warm air.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Long duration energy storage

Pumped-storage hydropower is a way of storing electricity, not of watering crops. When power is cheap or surplus (for example sunny afternoons with lots of solar), water is pumped from a lower reservoir to an upper one; when demand peaks, it is released back down through turbines. It can hold energy for many hours, which is why it is discussed as long-duration storage for a grid with more solar and wind.

• ✓ (c) Two reservoirs at different heights work like a giant rechargeable battery; pumped storage is the dominant form of grid-scale energy storage worldwide.
• ✗ (b) Lift irrigation also pumps water uphill, but only to deliver it to fields; nothing flows back through turbines to generate electricity.
• ✗ (d) Rainwater harvesting collects and stores rainwater for use or groundwater recharge; it has no power-generation or storage role.

Remember · Pumped-storage hydro = pump water up with surplus power, release it through turbines at peak demand. The biggest grid-scale storage technology; key for integrating solar and wind.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Wastewater treatment technologies

A membrane bioreactor (MBR) is a sewage and industrial-effluent treatment system. It joins the usual biological step, in which microbes break down organic waste, with fine membrane filtration that holds back solids and bacteria, so it produces clean, reusable water from a much smaller plant than conventional settling tanks.

• ✓ (d) The US EPA describes MBRs as a secondary-treatment technology for municipal wastewater that combines a suspended-growth biological reactor with microfiltration, removing nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria and organic load.
• ✗ (c) Vaccine and biologics production uses bioreactors (fermenters) too, but the term 'membrane bioreactor' refers to the filtration-based wastewater process.
• ✗ (b) Nano drug-delivery systems use carriers such as liposomes and nanoparticles; they are not membrane bioreactors.

Remember · Membrane bioreactor = activated-sludge (microbial) treatment + membrane micro/ultrafiltration; compact, high-quality effluent fit for reuse. Used for sewage and industrial wastewater.

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

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Money market

Collateralised Borrowing and Lending Obligations (CBLO) are money market instruments: short-term loans in which the borrower gives securities as collateral. The Reserve Bank of India itself describes CBLO as a money market instrument, run through the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL) from 20 January 2003.

• ✓ (c) CBLO let banks, mutual funds and other participants borrow and lend funds for short periods against collateral. Short-term borrowing and lending is what the money market does.
• ✗ (a) The bond market trades long-term debt securities. CBLO is a short-term borrowing and lending tool, not a bond.
• ✗ (b) The forex market deals in currencies. CBLO involves rupee funds and collateral, not currency exchange.
• ✗ (d) The stock market trades company shares. CBLO is a debt-like short-term funding instrument.

Remember · CBLO (Collateralised Borrowing and Lending Obligation) is a money market instrument operated through CCIL, used for short-term collateralised funding.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) the average number of live births a woman would have by the end of her child-bearing age.

Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her child-bearing years, given the fertility rates of a particular period. It is counted per woman, not per couple and not per 1,000 people.

• ✓ (d) The WHO defines TFR as the average number of children a hypothetical group of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they experienced the fertility rates of a given period. NCERT reads a TFR of 1.7 as the average woman having 1.7 children.
• ✗ (a) Births per 1,000 people in a year is the crude birth rate, which is measured against the whole population, not against women.
• ✗ (b) TFR is measured per woman and is not a count of children per couple.
• ✗ (c) Birth rate minus death rate is the natural rate of population growth.

Remember · TFR = average children per woman over her child-bearing years; replacement level is about 2.1, and India's TFR fell to 2.0 in NFHS-5 (2019-21).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Indian Society, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

All three statements hold. RBI's repo and reverse repo auctions (the LAF window) are open to scheduled commercial banks and Primary Dealers, and Standalone Primary Dealers are NBFCs registered with RBI. Foreign portfolio investors may hold G-Secs within RBI's limits, and stock exchanges run separate debt-market platforms.

• ✓ 1. LAF auctions are open to scheduled commercial banks (not RRBs) and Primary Dealers. A Standalone Primary Dealer is an NBFC registered with RBI, so this category of NBFC does reach the window. An ordinary lending NBFC has no such access, which is why the statement is loosely worded.
• ✓ 2. RBI's primer on the G-Secs market says foreign portfolio investors may take part in it within limits set from time to time (now the Fully Accessible Route), so foreign institutional money can hold G-Secs.
• ✓ 3. Exchanges host a separate debt segment. Corporate bonds trade there on an anonymous order-matching platform open to institutional and retail investors.

Remember · LAF (repo/reverse repo) is open to scheduled commercial banks and Primary Dealers, and standalone PDs are NBFCs. Foreign portfolio investors can hold G-Secs; exchanges run separate debt platforms.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

None of the three is shut out. Insurers and pension funds are regular institutional players in the government securities market and in company debt, and retail investors now have direct doors into both: RBI's Retail Direct gilt account for G-Secs and the stock exchanges' bond platforms for corporate bonds.

• ✓ 1. RBI lists insurance companies among the major institutional players in the G-Secs market. Being institutional investors, they can also use the exchange platforms for corporate bonds.
• ✓ 2. RBI counts provident and pension funds among G-Sec market participants, and PFRDA's investment pattern for pension schemes allows listed debt securities issued by companies and banks.
• ✓ 3. An RBI Retail Direct gilt account lets an individual buy G-Secs at auction and buy or sell them in the secondary market. The stock exchanges' order-matching platform for corporate bonds is open to retail investors as well.

Remember · G-Secs and corporate bonds are open to institutions (insurers, pension funds) and to retail investors: RBI Retail Direct for G-Secs, exchange debt platforms for corporate bonds.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1 and 3 only

A financial instrument is a tradable financial claim or contract, such as a share, bond, fund unit or derivative. An ETF is a fund whose units trade on a stock exchange, and a currency swap is a foreign exchange derivative contract, so both count. A motor vehicle is a physical good, not a financial claim.

• ✓ 1. ETF units are bought and sold on a stock exchange like a share, and the fund tracks an index such as the Sensex or Nifty.
• ✗ 2. A motor vehicle is a physical asset, in the same class as the machinery and equipment NCERT sets apart from shares and loans. It creates no financial claim between two parties.
• ✓ 3. RBI lists currency swap among the foreign exchange derivative contracts that authorised dealers may offer. Derivatives are one of the instrument types RBI treats as financial market instruments.

Remember · Financial instruments are financial contracts or claims: shares, bonds, fund units (including ETFs) and derivatives such as swaps. Physical goods like vehicles are not.

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

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only two

Only pairs 2 and 4 are right. Dairy farming works on natural products, so it is primary, and weaving turns yarn into cloth, so it is secondary. Storage is a support service, so it is tertiary, and mineral work belongs with mining, a primary activity.

• ✗ 1. Storing farm produce in godowns supports production and trade without making a good. NCERT lists storage among tertiary (service) activities, not secondary.
• ✓ 2. Milk is a natural product from animals. NCERT places agriculture, dairy, fishing and forestry in the primary sector.
• ✗ 3. Minerals and ores are natural products, and mining is a primary activity. Mineral exploration is part of that work, not a support service like banking or trade.
• ✓ 4. Weaving makes cloth from yarn through manufacturing, which is the mark of the secondary sector.

Remember · Primary means taking from nature (farming, dairy, mining). Secondary means manufacturing (weaving). Tertiary means supporting services (transport, storage, banking, trade).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 Understanding Economic Development, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 10 Understanding Economic Development, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 10 Understanding Economic Development, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Fundamentals of Human Geography, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Sustainable Aviation Fuel is made from renewable, non-petroleum feedstocks, and the US Department of Energy's list of them names all four materials: agricultural residues, corn grain, wet waste such as wastewater treatment sludge, and wood mill waste.

• ✓ 1. Agricultural residues are named on the DOE list of SAF feedstocks. They are a typical waste-based biomass source.
• ✓ 2. Corn grain is also on the list. It is a starch crop, which is why it feeds ethanol-based routes to jet fuel. ICAO's India study notes that maize supplies part of India's ethanol, and that ethanol can be turned into jet fuel by the alcohol-to-jet route.
• ✓ 3. Wet wastes, specifically manures and wastewater treatment sludge, are listed as feedstocks. ICAO's India study also mentions sewage sludge as a wet waste that can be turned into biocrude for SAF.
• ✓ 4. Wood mill waste is on the list. ICAO's India study lists sawdust and bark from sawmills among forest-based SAF feedstocks.

Remember · SAF feedstocks are broad: crops such as corn, crop and forest residues, wood mill waste, municipal solid waste, wet waste such as sludge, and fats, oils and greases.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only two

Fixed capital is durable equipment that keeps yielding service for years. Working capital is what production uses up, such as raw materials and fuel. So the computer (fixed) and petrol (working) are matched correctly, while the plough is fixed capital and the weaver's yarn is working capital.

• ✗ 1. A plough is a durable implement used season after season. It is fixed capital, not working capital.
• ✓ 2. A computer is a machine that serves for years without being consumed, so it is fixed capital.
• ✗ 3. Yarn is a raw material that is used up in making cloth. NCERT places raw materials like cloth among working-capital needs and sewing machines and handlooms among assets, so yarn is working capital.
• ✓ 4. Petrol is burnt up when used, an input consumed in production, so it is working capital.

Remember · Fixed capital: durable tools and machines that serve for years. Working capital: inputs used up in production, such as raw materials and fuel.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Introductory Macroeconomics, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 10 Understanding Economic Development, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Metaverse

The description fits the metaverse: a shared, persistent network of 3D virtual worlds that very many users can be in at the same time, where things like identity, entitlements and objects carry over. Big data analytics and cryptography are ways of handling or securing data, not virtual worlds.

• ✓ (c) ITU's technical report describes the metaverse as an interoperable network of real-time 3D virtual worlds experienced by a very large number of users, with continuity of data such as identity, entitlements and objects.
• ✗ (a) Big data analytics means analysing very large datasets to find patterns. It says nothing about virtual worlds or ownership of virtual items.
• ✗ (b) Cryptography secures information with codes. It supports digital assets, but it is a security technique, not a network of worlds.

Remember · Metaverse: a persistent, interoperable network of 3D virtual worlds where many users are present together and carry identity, entitlements and objects across worlds.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, 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

Both statements are wrong. RBI's scheme for wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS) of foreign banks sets an initial minimum paid-up voting equity capital of ₹5 billion (₹500 crore). On the board, the 50 per cent rule counts Indian nationals, NRIs and PIOs together, with a separate condition that one-third of the directors are Indian nationals resident in India.

• ✗ 1. A WOS must start with at least ₹5 billion (₹500 crore) of paid-up voting equity capital, and a newly set up WOS must bring in all of it upfront from its parent.
• ✗ 2. The rule is wider than 'Indian nationals': not less than 50 per cent of directors must be Indian nationals, NRIs or PIOs, and one-third of the directors must be Indian nationals resident in India. The statement misstates it.
• • Since then RBI has since issued the Reserve Bank of India (Setting Up of Wholly Owned Subsidiaries by Foreign Banks) Guidelines, 2025, amended in March 2026. The points above follow the 2013 scheme that applied in the exam year.

Remember · A foreign bank's Indian WOS needs at least ₹5 billion (₹500 crore) paid-up capital. Its board needs 50% Indian nationals/NRIs/PIOs, including one-third resident Indian nationals.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Statement 1 is right: the CSR Rules leave out activities that benefit the company's own employees, that are part of its normal business, or that are sponsorship for marketing benefit. Statement 2 is wrong: under section 135 the Board must ensure the company spends at least two per cent of its average net profit of the three preceding years on CSR.

• ✓ 1. Rule 2(1)(d) of the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014 excludes activities in the normal course of business, activities benefitting employees, and sponsorship done to gain marketing benefit. CSR money has to serve society, not the company or its staff.
• ✗ 2. The law does set a floor. The Board must ensure the company spends at least two per cent of the average net profits made in the three immediately preceding financial years.

Remember · CSR floor: at least 2% of average net profit of the preceding three years. Activities benefitting employees, done as normal business, or sponsored for marketing do not count.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I

Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (a). A stricter legal reading objects that a default would not extinguish holders' claims — the US Constitution (14th Amendment, section 4) says the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned — so some read Statement-I as incorrect and pick (d). But 'exercise their claims to receive payment' is about actually being paid, which a default by definition prevents, and the absence of any hard asset behind the debt (Statement-II) is precisely why holders would have no recourse. In the exam, read such statements as economics, not as a point of law.

UPSC's key accepts both statements, with Statement-II explaining Statement-I. US Treasury securities carry no collateral; they rest on the full faith and credit of the US government, a promise to pay. A default is a failure to honour that promise, and because nothing but the promise stands behind the bonds, holders would have no asset to claim against and could not get paid.

• ✓ Statement-I A default means the government does not make the payments due. Holders' claims rest on the government's promise alone, so when the promise fails there is no collateral to seize and no asset to realise: the claim to payment exists but cannot be exercised.
• ✓ Statement-II The US Treasury states that all its marketable securities are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government — a pledge of the government's word (reinforced by the constitutional rule that the validity of the public debt 'shall not be questioned'), not of specific assets. That is exactly why Statement-I follows: with no hard asset behind the debt, a default leaves holders with nothing to enforce against.

Remember · US Treasury debt is unsecured: it rests on the government's full faith and credit, not on collateral. That is why a default would leave holders unable to collect — there is no hard-asset fallback.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

UPSC dropped this question from evaluation in its final answer key.

UPSC dropped this question from evaluation in its final answer key. On the facts, a syndicated loan is one loan made by a group of lenders to a single borrower, so each lender carries only part of the default risk and Statement-I holds. Syndicated loans come both as fixed-amount term loans and as credit lines, so Statement-II is wrong.

• ✓ Statement-I In a syndicate, a group of financial institutions funds parts of one loan, so the risk of the borrower defaulting is shared among them. The BIS says the syndicated loan market allows a more efficient geographical and institutional sharing of risk.
• ✗ Statement-II A syndicated loan need not be a lump sum. BIS data on syndicated loans show credit lines and term loans both in large numbers: credit lines are 50% of bank loans and 41% of non-bank loans, term loans 40% and 48%.

Remember · A syndicated loan is one loan from several lenders to one borrower, which spreads the risk. It can be a fixed-amount term loan or a credit line.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 4

Statements 1, 2 and 4 are features RBI lists for the digital rupee: a sovereign currency issued in line with monetary policy, a liability on the central bank's balance sheet, and freely convertible against commercial bank money and cash. Statement 3 is not: nothing in RBI's design promises protection against inflation, and e₹ is a digital ₹ note that pays no interest.

• ✓ 1. RBI's concept note describes a central bank digital currency as sovereign currency issued by the central bank in alignment with its monetary policy.
• ✓ 2. Like a paper note, it is a direct liability of the central bank and appears on its balance sheet, not on a commercial bank's.
• ✗ 3. RBI calls it a safe store of value, but that is not a promise against rising prices. The design carries no such cover, and no interest is paid on e₹ wallet balances, exactly as with cash.
• ✓ 4. The concept note lists free convertibility against commercial bank money and cash among its features.

Remember · Digital rupee: sovereign currency issued by RBI in line with monetary policy, an RBI liability, freely convertible with bank money and cash. No interest, no inflation cover.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Shakyamuni ('sage of the Shakya clan') and Tathagata are both titles of the Buddha, but Nayaputta is not: it is the name by which the early Jain texts refer to Mahavira (the Pali Nataputta). So only 2 and 3 are correct.

• ✗ 1. Nayaputta is the epithet found in the earliest Jain texts for Mahavira, the Pali form being Nataputta; Buddhist texts call him Nigantha Nataputta. It is not a title of the Buddha.
• ✓ 2. The Buddha was born in the Sakya (Shakya) clan. Ashoka's Lumbini pillar inscription calls him the Buddha Shakyamuni.
• ✓ 3. NCERT quotes the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, where Ananda speaks of 'the remains of the Tathagata (another name for the Buddha)'.

Remember · Buddha = Shakyamuni, Tathagata. Mahavira = Nayaputta (Pali Nataputta).

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

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3

Rows 2 and 3 are correctly matched. Inamgaon (Maharashtra) is a Chalcolithic site and Mangadu (Kerala) is a megalithic site. Chandraketugarh is a port town but in West Bengal, not Odisha, and Salihundam is a Buddhist complex of stupas and viharas, not rock-cut cave shrines.

• ✗ 1. Chandraketugarh was a trading port town, but it lies in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, not in Odisha.
• ✓ 2. Inamgaon, in Pune district, Maharashtra, is a well-excavated Chalcolithic (copper-stone age) village site.
• ✓ 3. Mangadu (Mangad) in Kollam, Kerala, is one of the megalithic urn-burial sites excavated by the Kerala Department of Archaeology.
• ✗ 4. Salihundam in Andhra Pradesh is a Buddhist settlement with votive stupas, a mahastupa, chaityas and viharas built on a hill, not rock-cut cave shrines.

Remember · Chandraketugarh: West Bengal port town. Inamgaon: Maharashtra Chalcolithic. Mangadu: Kerala megalithic. Salihundam: Andhra Buddhist stupa-vihara complex.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Krishnadevaraya

Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara allowed the Portuguese to build a fort at Bhatkal, a west-coast port of his empire, when the Portuguese governor Albuquerque asked for it. He kept friendly relations with the Portuguese, and Goa had been the entrepot (trade hub) of the Deccan states for horse trade.

• ✓ (a) Krishnadevaraya kept friendly relations with the Portuguese. On Albuquerque's request he permitted the construction of a fort at Bhatkal, and Portuguese soldiers helped him against Ismail Adil Khan of Bijapur.
• ✗ (b) Narasimha Saluva belonged to the Saluva line that came before Krishnadevaraya's Tuluva dynasty, so he ruled before the Portuguese emerged as a power around 1510.
• ✗ (c) Muhammad Shah III was a Bahmani sultan of the fifteenth century. The Bahmani kingdom had started breaking up around 1490, well before the Portuguese took Goa in 1510.
• ✗ (d) Yusuf Adil Khan founded the Bijapur sultanate around 1490. It was Vijayanagara, not Bijapur, that gave the Portuguese permission at Bhatkal, and the Portuguese later fought on Krishnadevaraya's side against Bijapur.

Remember · Krishnadevaraya (Vijayanagara) permitted the Portuguese to build a fort at Bhatkal at Albuquerque's request.

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UPSC dropped this question from evaluation in its final answer key.

UPSC dropped this question from evaluation in its final answer key. On the facts, Statement 2 is correct and Statement 1 is wrong: under the Permanent Settlement a zamindar who missed the fixed date lost his estate, while under the ryotwari system there was no exemption for bad harvests. The stem is also loose, because Cornwallis brought in the Permanent Settlement, not the ryotwari system.

• ✗ 1. Under the ryotwari system in the Bombay Deccan, peasants could not pay when rains failed and harvests were poor, yet collectors extracted the revenue with utmost severity. There was no exemption. Also, ryotwari was developed by Read and Munro in the south, not by Cornwallis.
• ✓ 2. Under the Sunset Law of the Permanent Settlement, if payment did not come in by sunset on the fixed date, the zamindari was liable to be auctioned, so the zamindar lost his estate.

Remember · Permanent Settlement (Cornwallis, 1793, Bengal): fixed revenue, Sunset Law auction of estates. Ryotwari (Read and Munro, south India): revenue settled with the ryot, no relief for bad harvests.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Only Statement 2 is correct. The Upanishads do contain many teaching stories, such as the tale of Shvetaketu and his father, and they are much older than the Puranas, which were compiled only from about the early centuries CE.

• ✗ 1. NCERT points to many stories in the Upanishads, for example Shvetaketu and the seed of reality in the Chhandogya Upanishad, and Nachiketa and Yama. Stories that teach a lesson are parables.
• ✓ 2. The early Upanishads date from about the sixth century BCE onwards, while the Puranas were compiled by about the middle of the first millennium CE (from c. 200 CE onwards).

Remember · Upanishads (c. 6th century BCE onwards) are full of teaching stories and are far older than the Puranas (compiled from c. 200 CE onwards).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 6 Exploring Society: India and Beyond, Ch 7 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Only the first statement holds: India is one of the countries that make up the International Grains Council (IGC). The second fails, because the IGC is a forum for co-operation, information-sharing and market transparency, and belonging to it is not a condition for exporting or importing rice or wheat.

• ✓ 1. The IGC lists India among the parties to the Grains Trade Convention, 1995, which make up its membership. India was moved in 2003 from the list of importing members to the list of exporters.
• ✗ 2. The IGC seeks to further co-operation in grains trade and improve market transparency through information-sharing and analysis. It does not license trade, so non-members can still export or import grains.

Remember · India is an IGC member (Grains Trade Convention, 1995); the IGC promotes grain market transparency and does not control who may trade.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Garba dance

Garba of Gujarat is the most recent of the four, inscribed in December 2023. The other three were listed earlier: Chhau dance in 2010, Kumbh Mela in 2017 and Durga Puja in Kolkata in 2021.

• ✓ (c) UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee inscribed Garba of Gujarat on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at its 18th session in Kasane, Botswana, in December 2023. It was India's 15th inscription.
• ✗ (d) Kumbh Mela was inscribed in 2017 (12th session of the Committee), six years before Garba.
• ✗ (b) Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed in 2021 (16th session), two years before Garba.
• ✗ (a) Chhau dance is the oldest of the four, inscribed in 2010 (5th session).

Remember · Chhau 2010, Kumbh Mela 2017, Durga Puja in Kolkata 2021, Garba of Gujarat 2023 (India's 15th ICH inscription).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha

Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha presided over the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1946 as its temporary Chairman, because he was its oldest member. Dr. Rajendra Prasad was then elected the permanent President on 11 December 1946.

• ✓ (d) At the first sitting, J.B. Kripalani invited Dr. Sinha to take the chair as temporary Chairman, pointing out that he was the oldest member and the oldest parliamentarian in India.
• ✗ (b) Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is remembered as Chairman of the Drafting Committee, not as the presiding officer of the Assembly.
• ✗ (a) C. Rajagopalachari was not the temporary Chairman at the first sitting on 9 December 1946.
• ✗ (c) T.T. Krishnamachari was not the temporary Chairman at the first sitting on 9 December 1946.

Remember · First sitting 9 December 1946: Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha (oldest member) was temporary Chairman; Dr. Rajendra Prasad became permanent President on 11 December 1946.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

The 1935 Act did provide for an All-India Federation of the British Indian provinces and the princely states willing to join, although the federal part never came into operation. Defence and foreign affairs, however, were not placed under the federal legislature: the colonial power kept control of foreign affairs, defence and internal security.

• ✓ 1. The Act envisaged a 'federation of all-India' made up of the British provinces and the Indian states willing to join it. The federal part never came into operation, so only the provincial part of the Act worked.
• ✗ 2. Under the 1935 reform the colonial power kept control of foreign affairs, defence and internal security; they were not handed to a federal legislature.

Remember · 1935 Act: an All-India Federation of provinces and willing princely states was proposed, but the federal part never came into operation; the British kept foreign affairs, defence and internal security.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Madhyama-vyayoga

Bhasa is the early Sanskrit dramatist whose plays draw on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Thirteen of them survive, and Madhyamavyayoga is one. The other titles are not his plays: Natyashastra is a treatise on drama and Mahabhashya is a work on grammar.

• ✓ (c) NCERT lists Madhyamavyayogam among Bhasa's extant plays, along with Carudattam, Pratimanatakam and Karnabharam.
• ✗ (b) Natyashastra is the oldest treatise on dramaturgy, ascribed to Sage Bharata. It is a theory text, not a play.
• ✗ (d) Mahabhashya is Patanjali's work, grouped with Panini's Ashtadhyayi among the foundational texts of Sanskrit grammar.

Remember · Bhasa wrote Sanskrit plays on epic themes (thirteen survive), including Madhyamavyayoga. Natyashastra is Bharata's treatise on drama; Mahabhashya is Patanjali's grammar work.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India, Part I, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Sarvastivada Vinaya

Sanghabhuti, a monk from Kabul, worked in China in the late 4th century (AD 381–85). The other titles belong to different traditions and periods.

• ✓ (c) UPSC's official key treats this option as correct; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here. A Vinaya is the rulebook for those who join the sangha. The Sarvastivada Vinaya was itself translated into Chinese in AD 404 by Punyatara with Kumarajiva, about two decades after Sanghabhuti's years in China.
• ✗ (b) Visuddhimagga is Buddhaghosa's exposition of Theravada teaching, written in Sri Lanka in the 5th century, a Pali work of a later date and a different school.
• ✗ (d) Lalitavistara is a legendary biography of the Buddha, not a commentary on monastic rules.

Remember · Sanghabhuti: monk from Kabul, in China AD 381–85. Visuddhimagga is Buddhaghosa's; Lalitavistara a Buddha biography.

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

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Only two

UNESCO's own records show two of the four were inscribed in 2023: Santiniketan and the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas. Rani-ki-Vav joined the World Heritage List in 2014 and the Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya in 2002.

• ✓ 1. Santiniketan, the residential school and art centre set up by Rabindranath Tagore in rural West Bengal in 1901, was inscribed in 2023. UNESCO spells it Santiniketan.
• ✗ 2. Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen's Stepwell) at Patan, Gujarat, was inscribed in 2014.
• ✓ 3. This serial property of three Hoysala temple complexes in Karnataka (Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura) was inscribed in 2023.
• ✗ 4. The Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya in Bihar was inscribed much earlier, in 2002.

Remember · India's 2023 World Heritage additions: Santiniketan and the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas. Rani-ki-Vav is 2014; the Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya is 2002.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

Article 368(1) says in so many words that Parliament may, in exercise of its constituent power, amend any provision of the Constitution by way of addition, variation or repeal, following the procedure laid down in that article. All three modes are named, though the Supreme Court has held that the basic structure cannot be altered.

• ✓ 1. Addition is the first mode listed in Article 368(1).
• ✓ 2. Variation, that is changing the existing wording, is the second mode listed.
• ✓ 3. Repeal, that is removing a provision, is the third mode listed.

Remember · Article 368(1): Parliament amends by addition, variation or repeal, through the prescribed procedure. The basic structure (Kesavananda Bharati, 1973) cannot be violated.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 9 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1, 2 and 4

Italy, Japan and South Korea are the standard examples, in NCERT, of countries where fertility has fallen so low that the population is ageing and beginning to shrink. Nigeria is the opposite case, a young and rapidly growing population, and South Africa, whose population is still growing by over 1% a year, is not one of these examples.

• ✓ 1. NCERT names Italy among the European and East Asian countries whose population is shrinking because fertility has dropped.
• ✓ 2. Japan is NCERT's example of an ageing society. It has raised its retirement age and uses automation to make up for labour shortages.
• ✗ 3. Nigeria has a wide-based, young age structure and a population that continues to grow rapidly, so it is not a low-birth-rate case.
• ✓ 4. South Korea is listed together with Italy and Japan as a country where very low fertility is making the population shrink.
• ✗ 5. South Africa is not among the shrinking or ageing countries NCERT names. Stats SA puts its 2025 population at 63.1 million and still growing at 1.23% a year, with about 2.2 children per woman, so it is not a shrinking-population case like Italy, Japan or South Korea.

Remember · Low fertility, ageing or shrinking population: Italy, Japan, South Korea (also China). Nigeria has a young, fast-growing population.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 6 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 6 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

Article 109 lays down a special procedure for Money Bills: they cannot start in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), which may only return the Bill with recommendations within fourteen days. The House of the People (Lok Sabha) is free to accept or reject those recommendations, so statement 4 is wrong.

• ✓ 1. Article 109 is headed 'Special procedure in respect of Money Bills'.
• ✓ 2. Article 109(1) says a Money Bill shall not be introduced in the Council of States; it can start only in the Lok Sabha.
• ✓ 3. The Rajya Sabha cannot reject or amend a Money Bill. It can only send back recommendations, so its role is limited to suggesting changes.
• ✗ 4. Under Article 109(2) the Lok Sabha may either accept or reject all or any of the Rajya Sabha's recommendations. It is not bound to accept them.

Remember · Money Bill: introduced only in Lok Sabha; Rajya Sabha can only recommend within 14 days; Lok Sabha may accept or reject the recommendations (Article 109).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 3 only

Only row 3 is a true equivalence: an Army Major ranks with a Squadron Leader in the Air Force and a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. In the other rows the Navy rank is misplaced: Commander is not a Brigadier's counterpart, Vice Admiral is not a Major General's, and Captain is not a Lieutenant Colonel's.

• ✗ 1. Brigadier and Air Commodore are equivalent, but the Navy counterpart is Commodore. Commander sits two steps lower in the Navy ladder and corresponds to Lieutenant Colonel and Wing Commander.
• ✗ 2. Major General and Air Vice Marshal are equivalent to Rear Admiral. Vice Admiral is the next rank up, equal to Lieutenant General and Air Marshal.
• ✓ 3. Major, Squadron Leader and Lieutenant Commander are the equivalent mid-level officer ranks in the three services.
• ✗ 4. Lieutenant Colonel corresponds to Wing Commander and Commander. Group Captain and Captain (Navy) are equivalent to a Colonel, one rank higher.

Remember · Ladder of equivalents: Major = Squadron Leader = Lieutenant Commander; Lt Colonel = Wing Commander = Commander; Colonel = Group Captain = Captain; Brigadier = Air Commodore = Commodore.

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Answer: (a) 1, 2 and 3 only

Section 3 of the North-Eastern Council Act, 1971, as rewritten by Act 68 of 2002 (in force from 26 June 2003), makes the Council consist of the Governors and the Chief Ministers of the eight north-eastern States, together with three members nominated by the President. The Union Home Minister is not one of the members named in the Act.

• ✓ 1. Section 3(1)(i) puts the Governor(s) of the States on the Council.
• ✓ 2. Section 3(1)(ii) includes the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
• ✓ 3. Section 3(1)(iii) adds three members nominated by the President.
• ✗ 4. The Home Minister has no seat by right. The President may nominate a Union Minister as a member (section 3(2)) and nominates the Chairman (section 3(3)), but the Act does not name the Home Minister.
• • Since then The Council's own website now lists the Union Home Minister as its Chairman and the Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region as Vice-Chairman. The Chairman is named by the President (section 3(3)); the Home Minister still has no seat as of right under section 3(1).

Remember · NEC Act 1971, as amended in 2002: Governors and Chief Ministers of the eight north-eastern States plus three Presidential nominees; the President nominates the Chairman.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Four

Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (d), the count the Election Commission and NCERT both give: 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002. A Delimitation Commission was also constituted on 6 March 2020 under section 3 of the Delimitation Act, 2002, for Jammu and Kashmir (and at first four north-eastern States, dropped in 2021), which a strict reader might add as a fifth; but the official count treats the four nation-wide Commissions as 'the' Delimitation Commissions, and 'five' is not offered. In the exam, answer four, and know the 2020 Jammu and Kashmir Commission separately.

NCERT lists four Delimitation Commissions in India, set up in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002, so the count is four. It also draws attention to the long interval between the third (1973) and the fourth (2002).

• ✓ (d) The four Commissions are those of 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002. The last one worked under the Delimitation Act, 2002, which repealed the earlier Delimitation Act, 1972.
• ✗ (c) Three undercounts. The 2002 Commission is the fourth, after those of 1952, 1963 and 1973.
• • note Separate from this count: a notification under section 3 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 (S.O. 1015(E), 6 March 2020) set up a Commission for Jammu and Kashmir and, at first, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland; those four States were dropped by a notification of 3 March 2021. The Election Commission's own count of four covers the nation-wide Commissions.

Remember · Delimitation Commissions: 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002, four in all; Article 82 mandates the establishment of a Delimitation Commission.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 9 Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Ch 7 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1, 2 and 3

The Eighth Schedule itself shows that Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were inserted by the 71st Amendment (in force from 31 August 1992). Maithili came later, through the 92nd Amendment of 2003, along with Bodo, Dogri and Santhali.

• ✓ 1. Konkani was inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-first Amendment) Act, 1992.
• ✓ 2. Manipuri was inserted by the same 71st Amendment.
• ✓ 3. Nepali was also inserted by the 71st Amendment.
• ✗ 4. Maithili was inserted by the Constitution (Ninety-second Amendment) Act, 2003, in force from 7 January 2004.

Remember · 71st Amendment (1992): Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali. 92nd Amendment (2003): Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santhali. Sindhi was added by the 21st Amendment (1967).

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Answer: (b) Only two

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951, and Jagjivan Ram led the Congress for Democracy. In pairs 2 and 4 the leaders are swapped: C. Rajagopalachari led the Swatantra Party, while Acharya Narendra Dev was a socialist leader.

• ✓ 1. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1951 with Shyama Prasad Mukherjee as its founder-President.
• ✗ 2. C. Rajagopalachari is associated with the Swatantra Party. He is not among the socialist leaders NCERT names, such as Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Rammanohar Lohia.
• ✓ 3. Some Congress leaders left the party under Jagjivan Ram's leadership and formed the Congress for Democracy, which later merged with the Janata Party.
• ✗ 4. Acharya Narendra Dev was among the leaders of the socialist parties. The Swatantra Party, formed in 1959, was led by C. Rajagopalachari.

Remember · Jana Sangh: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (1951). Congress for Democracy: Jagjivan Ram. Swatantra Party: C. Rajagopalachari (1959). Narendra Dev: socialist.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 6 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three statements match the Constitution's own arrangement. Part IXA is 'The Municipalities' (Articles 243P to 243ZG), Part XVIII is 'Emergency Provisions' (Articles 352 to 360), and Part XX is 'Amendment of the Constitution' (Article 368).

• ✓ 1. Part IXA, 'The Municipalities', includes Article 243W on the powers, authority and responsibilities of Municipalities.
• ✓ 2. Part XVIII, 'Emergency Provisions', begins with Article 352 (Proclamation of Emergency) and runs to Article 360 (financial emergency).
• ✓ 3. Part XX contains a single article, Article 368, on the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution and the procedure for it.

Remember · Part IXA: Municipalities (243P-243ZG). Part XVIII: Emergency (352-360). Part XX: Amendment (368).

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Answer: (c) Inter-State quarantine is a Union subject under the Union List.

Entry 81 of the Union List (List I) in the Seventh Schedule reads 'Inter-State migration; inter-State quarantine', so quarantine between States is a Union subject. The other three options wrongly place Union List subjects in the State List.

• ✓ (c) Inter-State quarantine appears in entry 81 of the Union List.
• ✗ (b) Inter-State migration sits in the very same Union List entry 81, so it is not a State subject.
• ✗ (a) Inter-State trade and commerce is entry 42 of the Union List.
• ✗ (d) Corporation tax is entry 85 of the Union List.

Remember · Union List: entry 42 inter-State trade and commerce; entry 81 inter-State migration and quarantine; entry 85 corporation tax.

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Answer: (d) Article 21

In Justice K S Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (24 August 2017) a nine-judge Bench held that the right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, and as part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III. It overruled the earlier M P Sharma and Kharak Singh rulings to the extent that they denied such a right.

• ✓ (d) Article 21, 'Protection of life and personal liberty', is the Article the Court named as the home of the right to privacy.
• ✗ (c) Article 19 covers freedoms such as speech. The Court did not anchor privacy there; it named Article 21 and, more widely, the freedoms of Part III.
• ✗ (a) Article 15 is the equality provision against discrimination by the State on the listed grounds, such as religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth. The Court did not place privacy under it.
• ✗ (b) Article 16 deals with equality of opportunity in public employment, not privacy.

Remember · Puttaswamy (2017), nine judges: privacy is a fundamental right, an intrinsic part of life and personal liberty under Article 21 and of the freedoms in Part III.

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Answer: (d) 1 and 3 only

As the Government of India has defined the post, the CDS is the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Principal Military Adviser to the Raksha Mantri on all tri-services matters, and he is also Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs. The Cabinet decision says he will not exercise any military command, including over the three Service Chiefs; the Chiefs go on advising the Raksha Mantri on matters exclusively concerning their own Services.

• ✓ 1. The CDS is the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, alongside being Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs.
• ✗ 2. The Cabinet decision of 24 December 2019 says the CDS will not exercise any military command, including over the three Service Chiefs, so that he can give impartial advice. The three Chiefs continue to advise the Raksha Mantri on matters exclusively concerning their respective Services.
• ✓ 3. The CDS acts as the Principal Military Adviser to the Raksha Mantri on all tri-services matters.

Remember · CDS: Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Principal Military Adviser to the Raksha Mantri on tri-services matters, and Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs. He does not command the Service Chiefs.

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Answer: (c) Operation Sadbhavana

Operation Sadbhavana is the Indian Army's Military Civic Action programme for 'winning hearts and minds' in remote border areas. It runs projects in healthcare, education, women empowerment and similar fields, so it fits the description of uplifting local people and meeting their basic needs.

• ✓ (c) The Ministry of Defence names Operation Sadbhavana, along with Operation Samaritan, as the Army's vehicle for Military Civic Action among people in remote border areas. Its projects cover healthcare, human resource development, women empowerment, environment protection, education, sports and national integration.
• ✗ (a) Operation Sankalp is the Indian Navy's maritime security operation, not an Army programme. PIB describes it as ongoing maritime security operations, for example the response to the hijacking of MV Ruen in December 2023.
• ✗ (b) Operation Maitri was India's response to the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, using IAF aircraft, an Army engineer task force, NDRF teams and MEA diplomacy. It is relief work, not a long-term civic-action programme.
• ✗ (d) Operation Madad was the Southern Naval Command's 2018 Kerala flood rescue and relief effort, ended on 24 August 2018. It was a Navy disaster-relief operation, not the Army's civic-action programme.

Remember · Operation Sadbhavana is the Army's civic-action programme to win hearts and minds in remote border areas, alongside Operation Samaritan.

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Answer: (a) Canada and the United States of America

Canada and the United States share the longest international border in the world, about 8,891 km (5,525 miles) as maintained by the International Boundary Commission. Every other pair listed, including Chile-Argentina, China-India and Kazakhstan-Russia, has a shorter border.

• ✓ (a) The Government of Canada describes the Canada-US land border, at close to 9,000 km, as the longest international border in the world. The joint International Boundary Commission gives its length as 8,891 km.
• ✗ (d) Kazakhstan and Russia share a very long land border, but it is shorter than the Canada-US boundary.
• ✗ (b) The Chile-Argentina border is long and runs along the Andes, but it too is shorter than the Canada-US boundary.

Remember · World's longest international border: Canada-United States, about 8,891 km (5,525 miles).

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Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Statements 1 and 3 are correct; statement 2 is wrong because Lok Sabha's Rule 233A lets any person, not only a Member, complain about a Member's unethical conduct, provided a Member forwards it. The Committee on Ethics began as an ad-hoc committee in 2000 and was made a regular standing committee in 2015.

• ✓ 1. The Committee on Ethics was first constituted as an ad-hoc committee on 16 May 2000, during the 13th Lok Sabha.
• ✗ 2. Rule 233A says any person or member may complain. If the complaint comes from an outsider, a Member must forward it, and an affidavit is needed unless a Member is the complainant.
• ✓ 3. Rule 233A(10) bars the Committee from taking up any sub-judice matter (one pending before a court), and the Committee's own decision on whether a matter is sub-judice is final.
• • Since then Since 2015 (16th Lok Sabha) the Committee is a regular standing committee under Rule 316A, no longer ad-hoc (Lok Sabha Secretariat).

Remember · Lok Sabha's Ethics Committee: ad-hoc from 2000, standing since 2015; any person may complain through a Member; sub-judice matters are excluded.

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Answer: (c) 2 and 3 only

Statements 2 and 3 are correct. The women's reservation (Constitution 106th Amendment) Act, 2023 lapses 15 years after its commencement and sets aside one-third of the Scheduled Caste seats for SC women. Statement 1 is wrong because reservation starts only after a fresh delimitation based on the first census taken after the Act, not from the 18th Lok Sabha.

• ✗ 1. Article 334A says the reservation takes effect after delimitation is done using the first census figures published after the Act's commencement. The 18th Lok Sabha (elected in 2024) was therefore not covered.
• ✓ 2. Article 334A(1) provides that the reservation ceases to have effect on the expiry of fifteen years from commencement. Parliament may extend this by law.
• ✓ 3. Article 330A(2) reserves, as nearly as may be, one-third of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (and for Scheduled Tribes) for women of those communities.

Remember · Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (106th Amendment, 2023): one-third seats for women, SC/ST quota sub-reserved, effective after post-census delimitation, lapses 15 years from commencement.

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Answer: (d) 2, 3 and 4

Mitra Shakti-2023 was the ninth edition of the joint military exercise between India and Sri Lanka, held at Aundh (Pune) in November 2023. Its scope covered joint responses in counter-terrorist operations, and Indian Air Force personnel took part. Only statement 1, which names Bangladesh, is wrong.

• ✗ 1. The partner was Sri Lanka, not Bangladesh. The Indian contingent came mainly from the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment and the Sri Lankan side from its 53 Infantry Division.
• ✓ 2. The ninth edition commenced on 16 November 2023 at Aundh, Pune, and ran till 29 November 2023.
• ✓ 3. The scope of the exercise included synergising joint responses during counter-terrorist operations, under sub-conventional operations as envisaged in Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
• ✓ 4. 15 Indian Air Force personnel, along with five from the Sri Lankan Air Force, also took part.

Remember · Mitra Shakti is the India–Sri Lanka joint military exercise. Its ninth edition (2023) was held at Aundh, Pune, with counter-terrorism drills and Indian Air Force participation.

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Answer: (c) the lower court prohibiting continuation of proceedings in a case.

The writ of prohibition is issued by a higher court, that is the Supreme Court or a High Court, to a lower court that has taken up a case going beyond its jurisdiction. Its effect is to stop that lower court from continuing the proceedings.

• ✓ (c) A lower court that has considered a case beyond its jurisdiction is the target of this writ. The higher court orders it to stop the proceedings.
• ✗ (a) A writ aimed at an office holder who is not doing his legal duty is mandamus, which orders him to act. Prohibition is not addressed to an officer.
• ✗ (d) This writ is not aimed at the Government or at a legislature, as in options (d) and (b). It is directed at a lower court acting beyond its jurisdiction.

Remember · Prohibition: a higher court stops a lower court that has taken up a case beyond its jurisdiction. Mandamus is issued when an office holder neglects a legal duty.

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

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Answer: (b) 2 only

Under Article 342 it is the President, not the Governor, who specifies the Scheduled Tribes by public notification, consulting the Governor where a State is concerned. The specification is made 'in relation to' a particular State or Union territory, so a community can be a Scheduled Tribe in one State and not in another.

• ✗ 1. Article 342(1) gives the power to the President, who acts by public notification after consulting the Governor of the State. The Governor only gives his views. Once notified, the list can be changed only by Parliament through law (Article 342(2)).
• ✓ 2. A tribe is deemed a Scheduled Tribe 'in relation to that State' (or Union territory). The status is therefore State-specific and does not automatically carry over to another State.

Remember · Scheduled Tribes are specified by the President (after consulting the Governor) under Article 342, State by State. Only Parliament can alter the list; the Governor does not declare them.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Statement 2 is straight from the Constitution: Article 113(3) bars any demand for a grant without the President's recommendation. For statement 1, the Finance Minister lays the Annual Financial Statement before Parliament for the Government, the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister, on whose advice the President 'causes' it to be laid under Article 112. UPSC's key treats both as correct.

• ✓ 1. Article 112(1) makes the President cause the Annual Financial Statement to be laid before both Houses; under Article 74 the President acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at its head, and the Finance Minister lays the statement on the Government's behalf, presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha and laying it in the Rajya Sabha.
• ✓ 2. Article 113(3): no demand for a grant shall be made except on the recommendation of the President. Demands for grants are submitted to the Lok Sabha only in this way.

Remember · Art 112: the President causes the Annual Financial Statement to be laid; the Finance Minister presents the Budget for the Government headed by the Prime Minister. Art 113(3): no demand for a grant without the President's recommendation.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Social Change and Development in India, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (d) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

Both books are by Dr S. Jaishankar, India's External Affairs Minister. 'The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World' was published in 2020 and 'Why Bharat Matters' in 2024.

• ✓ (d) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister, wrote both 'The India Way' (2020) and 'Why Bharat Matters' (2024).
• ✗ (c) Shashi Tharoor has written other books, but neither of these two titles is his.
• ✗ (b) Nalin Mehta is not the author of these two books.

Remember · S. Jaishankar, India's External Affairs Minister, wrote 'The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World' (2020) and 'Why Bharat Matters' (2024).

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Answer: (b) Only two pairs

Pairs 1 and 2 are correct. Argentina was in a deep economic crisis in 2023-24, and Sudan has been at war since April 2023 between its army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Turkey did not leave NATO: it has been a member since 1952 and is on NATO's list of 32 members in 2024.

• ✓ 1. Argentina's economy was in deep crisis around 2023-24. The IMF describes elevated and rising inflation, depleted reserves and high poverty as the inheritance of the new government, and an economy pushed to the brink of a full-blown balance of payments crisis.
• ✓ 2. Since 15 April 2023 the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a conflict that has displaced millions.
• ✗ 3. Turkey (Türkiye) joined NATO on 18 February 1952 and remained a member. NATO's page of member countries, updated 11 March 2024, lists Türkiye among its 32 members.

Remember · Sudan: army (SAF) versus paramilitary RSF since April 2023. Argentina: deep economic crisis in 2023-24. Turkey stayed in NATO, a member since 1952.

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Answer: (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I

The SUMED pipeline runs across Egypt and carries crude oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Together with the Suez Canal it forms a strategic route for Persian Gulf energy shipments to Europe. The Red Sea-Mediterranean link is exactly what makes it a route to Europe, so Statement-II explains Statement-I.

• ✓ Statement-I The US Energy Information Administration calls the Suez Canal and the SUMED Pipeline strategic routes for Persian Gulf crude oil, petroleum products and LNG shipments to Europe and North America.
• ✓ Statement-II The roughly 200-mile SUMED Pipeline carries crude oil northbound through Egypt from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It is the only alternative for such crude if ships cannot pass through the Suez Canal, which is why it works as a route to Europe.

Remember · SUMED pipeline: about 200 miles across Egypt, carrying crude oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean; the alternative to the Suez Canal for such crude.

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Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both statements are correct. The Red Sea lies in an arid region: no river drains into it and rainfall is scant. With very high evaporation and little fresh water coming in, it is one of the saltiest seas.

• ✓ 1. The Red Sea region is arid with little precipitation. The UN Regular Process assessment calls it an arid area with high evaporation, and NOAA explains its high salinity by very high evaporation and little fresh-water inflow.
• ✓ 2. No river brings water into the Red Sea; the UN assessment marks it as a sea with 'no rivers'. With so little fresh water, evaporation keeps the sea very salty; NCERT gives its salinity as high as 41 parts per thousand.

Remember · Red Sea: arid, no rivers, scant rain, very high evaporation and very high salinity (about 41 parts per thousand).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Fundamentals of Physical Geography, Ch 12 (practise this chapter)

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Answer: (d) Power plants using fossil fuels

The US Environmental Protection Agency names the burning of fossil fuels by power plants and other industrial facilities as the largest source of sulphur dioxide in the air. Metal extraction, volcanoes, locomotives and ships are only smaller sources.

• ✓ (d) Power plants that burn fossil fuels are the largest source of SO2 in the atmosphere according to the EPA.
• ✗ (c) Extracting metal from ore is an industrial process the EPA lists among the smaller sources.
• ✗ (b) Ships, like locomotives (option a), burn fuel with a high sulphur content, but the EPA counts them among the smaller sources.

Remember · Largest SO2 source: fossil-fuel burning by power plants and other industry. Smaller: extracting metal from ore, volcanoes, locomotives, ships.

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Answer: (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I

Both statements are correct. UN briefings to the Security Council describe armed groups and violent extremists gaining influence across West Africa and the Sahel, with security deteriorating in large parts of the region. Repeated military coups, in Mali and Burkina Faso among others, are themselves destabilizing governments, so Statement-II helps explain Statement-I.

• ✓ Statement-I UN officials told the Security Council that security had again deteriorated in large parts of the region, and voiced concern at terrorist threats spreading from the Sahel towards coastal West African countries.
• ✓ Statement-II The President of the ECOWAS Commission cited a recent spate of military coups in the region, including in Mali and Burkina Faso. The UN briefing noted that such repeated coups are destabilizing governments, which adds to the instability in Statement-I.

Remember · Sahel: rising armed-group violence and repeated military coups (Mali, Burkina Faso and others) feed each other's instability.

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Answer: (d) Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

India does import apples from the United States, so Statement-I is wrong. Statement-II is right: the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 bars the import of genetically modified articles of food except as the Act and its regulations permit.

• ✗ Statement-I The Ministry of Commerce and Industry records apple imports from the USA of US$ 5.27 million in FY 2022-23, down from US$ 145 million in FY 2018-19 after India imposed an additional 20% duty on US apples in 2019. Imports fell but never stopped, and in June 2023 India announced it would remove that extra duty.
• ✓ Statement-II Section 22 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 says that, save as otherwise provided under the Act and its regulations, no person shall manufacture, distribute, sell or import genetically modified articles of food. Such food can therefore enter only where the law permits it.

Remember · India does import US apples (US$ 5.27 million in FY 2022-23). Section 22 of the FSS Act 2006 bars import of GM food articles unless the Act and regulations permit.

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Answer: (a) 1 only

Article 96 lays down what happens while a resolution to remove the Speaker is under consideration. The Speaker may not preside, even though present, but keeps the right to speak and to take part in the proceedings, and can vote in the first instance like any member. So only statement 1 is correct.

• ✓ 1. Article 96(1): the Speaker shall not preside at the sitting while a resolution for his removal is under consideration, though he is present.
• ✗ 2. Article 96(2) gives the Speaker the right to speak in, and otherwise take part in, the proceedings of the House while the resolution is under consideration.
• ✗ 3. Article 96(2) entitles the Speaker to vote in the first instance on the resolution or any other matter in those proceedings. What he does not get is a casting vote in case of a tie.

Remember · Article 96: on his own removal resolution the Speaker does not preside but may speak and vote in the first instance; he has no casting vote in a tie.

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Answer: (b) 1 and 2

Article 107(5) says a Bill pending in the Lok Sabha, or passed by it and pending in the Rajya Sabha, lapses when the Lok Sabha is dissolved. That rule is 'subject to article 108', and Article 108(5) lets a joint sitting be held even after dissolution, so a Bill for which the President has notified a joint sitting does not lapse.

• ✓ 1. A Bill pending in the Lok Sabha lapses on its dissolution (Article 107(5)).
• ✓ 2. A Bill passed by the Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha also lapses when the Lok Sabha is dissolved (Article 107(5)).
• ✗ 3. Article 108(5) allows the joint sitting to be held and the Bill passed even though the Lok Sabha has been dissolved since the President notified the sitting. Such a Bill therefore does not lapse.

Remember · Lok Sabha dissolution lapses Bills pending in it, or passed by it and pending in Rajya Sabha. Bills only in Rajya Sabha, or with a joint sitting notified, survive.

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Answer: (c) 2 and 3

The President prorogues the Houses and dissolves the Lok Sabha under Article 85(2), but under Article 74(1) he acts in accordance with the advice of the Council of Ministers, so statement 1 is wrong. Prorogation usually follows an adjournment sine die, yet it can take place even while the House is sitting, and dissolution is ordinarily on the Council's advice too.

• ✗ 1. Article 74(1) makes the President act in accordance with the Council of Ministers' advice in exercising his functions, and prorogation is no exception. He may ask the Council to reconsider its advice once, but must then follow it.
• ✓ 2. Prorogation ends a session by the President's order under Article 85(2)(a). It usually follows adjournment sine die, but it can take place at any time, even while the House is sitting.
• ✓ 3. The Lok Sabha is dissolved by the President's order under Article 85(2)(b), and he ordinarily acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers under Article 74(1). The phrase 'save in exceptional circumstances' does not change that general rule.

Remember · The President prorogues the Houses and dissolves the Lok Sabha, acting on the Council of Ministers' advice (Art 74(1)). Prorogation usually follows adjournment sine die but can occur mid-session.

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Answer: (c) Statement-I is correct, but Statement-II is incorrect

Statement-I is correct: the European Parliament approved the Net-Zero Industry Act on 25 April 2024. Statement-II is wrong on two counts. The EU's goal is net-zero emissions by 2050, not 2040, and the Act aims for the EU to produce about 40% of its own annual needs for net-zero technologies by 2030, not all of them.

• ✓ Statement-I The European Parliament adopted the Act on 25 April 2024 by 361 votes to 121, with 45 abstentions. At that stage the Council still had to adopt it formally for it to become law.
• ✗ Statement-II The EU's climate target is a 55% cut in net emissions by 2030 and net-zero by 2050. The Act sets a target of 40% of annual deployment needs for net-zero technologies to be produced in Europe by 2030. It does not aim at making all clean technology in the EU.

Remember · EU Net-Zero Industry Act (Parliament vote 25 April 2024): target 40% of annual deployment needs of net-zero technologies made in the EU by 2030; EU climate neutrality target is 2050.

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Answer: (d) Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

Statement-I is wrong: Venezuela has not recovered from its economic crisis, and people have kept leaving, with UNHCR counting nearly 7.9 million Venezuelans abroad in its latest update. Statement-II is right: Venezuela holds the world's largest proven crude oil reserves, about 303 billion barrels in 2023.

• ✗ Statement-I The US Energy Information Administration says government mismanagement, sanctions and the country's economic crisis have severely hampered even its energy sector. UNHCR reports nearly 7.9 million people who have left Venezuela (December 2025 update), so emigration was not stopped.
• ✓ Statement-II Venezuela had the world's largest proven crude oil reserves in 2023, about 303 billion barrels or roughly 17% of global reserves. Its production is a small share of world output, which shows that reserves alone did not bring recovery.

Remember · Venezuela: crisis and mass emigration continue (nearly 7.9 million abroad, UNHCR Dec 2025), yet it has the world's largest proven crude oil reserves (about 303 billion barrels, 2023).

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Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three statements are correct. The Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) is a Central Sector Scheme funded fully by the Centre since 1 April 2016. Digitising cadastral maps is one of its components, and the Government has begun transliterating Records of Rights from local languages into any of the 22 Schedule VIII languages.

• ✓ 1. DILRMP was revamped from the earlier National Land Records Modernization Programme into a Central Sector Scheme with 100% Central Government funding from 1 April 2016.
• ✓ 2. The computerisation of land records under DILRMP includes digitisation of cadastral maps and their integration with the textual Records of Rights.
• ✓ 3. With technical support from C-DAC Pune, the Government has undertaken an initiative to transliterate Records of Rights from the local language into any of the 22 Schedule VIII languages of the Constitution.

Remember · DILRMP: Central Sector Scheme, 100% Central funding since 1 April 2016; components include cadastral map digitisation; Records of Rights are being transliterated into Schedule VIII languages.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

Only statement 2 is correct: PMSMA encourages private doctors to volunteer at government health facilities. Statement 1 goes wrong because PMSMA is an antenatal (before-birth) care programme run at designated government facilities; it has no six-month post-delivery package.

• ✗ 1. PMSMA guarantees a minimum antenatal package for women in the 2nd/3rd trimesters at designated government facilities, on the 9th of every month. Post-delivery care for six months is not part of it, and it is not offered at any government facility.
• ✓ 2. The programme has a systematic approach to engage the private sector, motivating private practitioners to volunteer for the campaign at government health facilities.