26 September 2025 · Shift 1

Expansionary fiscal policy Expansionary fiscal policy aims to put more money into the economy. It does this by spending more and taxing less. Reducing government expenditure pulls money out — that is CONTRACTIONARY. Hence option (c).

Shukrayaan-1 "Shukra" is the Sanskrit name for Venus. The orbiter is meant to study the Venusian atmosphere, its thick cloud layers and the surface below. India’s Mars mission was Mangalyaan. Hence option (a).

Malabar pepper Marco Polo passed along the south-western coast of India in the late thirteenth century. He described the Malabar coast as a great centre of the pepper trade. Malabar pepper had drawn traders from Rome to Arabia for centuries. Hence option (c).

Mahila Shakti Kendra The Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme was launched in 2017. It works at the village level to give rural women skill training, employment guidance and support for enterprise. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is aimed at the child sex ratio and girls’ education. Hence option (b).

Parallel resistors For a parallel combination, $\frac{1}{R}$ = $\frac{1}{R\mathrm{₁}}$ + $\frac{1}{R\mathrm{₂}}$. $\frac{1}{2}$ + $\frac{1}{4}$ = $\frac{3}{4}$, so R = $\frac{4}{3}$ Ω. By Ohm’s law, I = $\frac{V}{R}$ = 6 ÷ $\frac{4}{3}$. = 6 × $\frac{3}{4}$ = 4.5 A — option (d).

Nagara style Kedarnath, Badrinath and Jageshwar all follow the Nagara pattern. Its mark is the curved shikhara rising over a square sanctum, topped by an amalaka. The Dravida style belongs to the south and Vesara is the blend seen in the Deccan. Hence option (c).

CWG 2022 At Birmingham 2022 India won 61 medals in all. These were 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze. India finished fourth in the medal table. Hence option (c).

Phloem Water is carried upward by the XYLEM, not the phloem. The phloem carries food, mainly sucrose, made in the leaves to the rest of the plant. So the statement about phloem is the wrong one. Hence option (b).

Goa Civil Code Goa follows the Portuguese Civil Code of 1867, kept in force after liberation. The same rules on marriage, divorce, succession and adoption apply to Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike. It is therefore the only part of India with a uniform civil code in practice. Hence option (b).

Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi was commissioned into the Indian Navy in July 1985. He served as Vice Chief of Naval Staff and headed the Western Naval Command. He took over as Chief of the Naval Staff in 2024. Hence option (b).

Maruni dance Maruni is a Nepali folk dance popular in Sikkim and Darjeeling. Women perform it at weddings and at Tihar, in bright costumes and heavy jewellery. Chhau belongs to eastern India, Giddha to Punjab and Lavani to Maharashtra. Hence option (a).

Prehistoric order Palaeo means old, meso means middle and neo means new — the names give the order. So Palaeolithic comes first, then Mesolithic, then Neolithic. The Metal Age, beginning with copper, follows the Stone Age. Hence option (b).

Indian Railways The first train ran on 16 April 1853 from Bombay (Bori Bunder) to THANE, a stretch of 34 km — not to Pune. So Statement 1 is not correct. Broad gauge does account for by far the largest part of the network, so Statement 2 is correct. The incorrect one is 1 only — option (a).

Temporary settlements Temporary settlements arise where people must move with the season or the resource. Cold deserts force herders to shift with pasture; forest dwellers move with shifting cultivation; hill communities move between summer and winter camps. All three conditions produce such settlements. Hence option (d).

Southern India temperature Southern India lies near the equator with sea on three sides, so the water moderates day-to-night change — the diurnal range is SMALL, not large. Statement 1 is therefore wrong. Coasts feel a MARITIME influence, which also keeps the annual range low; Statement 2 wrongly calls it continental. Neither is correct — option (d).

Fosbury Flop Dick Fosbury introduced this method and won gold with it at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. The jumper goes over head-first and face-up, arching the back over the bar. In the straddle the athlete crosses face-down, and in the scissor jump upright. Hence option (d).

Sati prohibition The Company had a standing policy of not interfering in religious custom. It feared that any such law would be read as an attack on faith and would provoke revolt. Only after reformers led by Raja Ram Mohan Roy built support did Bentinck ban Sati in 1829. Hence option (b).

The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai won the Man Booker Prize in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss. The novel is set in Kalimpong against the Gorkhaland agitation. Her mother Anita Desai was shortlisted three times but never won. Hence option (b).

Pranav Soorma In the club throw (F51) at the 2023 Khelo India Para Games, Pranav Soorma broke his own national mark of 30.01 m — Statement 1 correct. His throw of 33.54 m set a new Asian record — Statement 2 correct. He had also won silver at the Asian Para Games that year. Both correct — option (c).

President's Rule Article 356 deals with the failure of constitutional machinery in a State. Article 352 covers a National Emergency and Article 360 a Financial Emergency. Article 371 provides special arrangements for certain States. Hence option (b).

Matangini Hazra Matangini Hazra led a procession during the Quit India Movement in Tamluk, Midnapore. She was shot by the police in 1942 but kept holding the tricolour aloft as she fell. She is remembered as "Gandhi Buri", the old lady of Gandhi. Hence option (c).

Mars Colour Camera MCC stands for Mars Colour Camera. It sent back the well-known full-disk images of the planet and studied its surface features and dust storms. LAM was the Liquid Apogee Motor, the engine that inserted the craft into orbit. Hence option (d).

Land reforms The first step was abolishing zamindari and other intermediary tenures. Ceiling laws then capped how much land one family could hold, freeing the surplus for redistribution. Together these aimed at land to the tiller and a fairer spread of ownership. Hence option (c).

LPG reforms The New Economic Policy was announced in July 1991. LPG stands for liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. It followed a severe balance-of-payments crisis, under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. Hence option (a).

Article 356 safeguard Article 356 lets the President take over a State when its constitutional machinery fails, usually on the Governor’s report. The proclamation must be approved by BOTH Houses of Parliament within two months, or it lapses. Once approved it runs for six months and may be extended, subject to limits. Hence option (b).