17 November 2025 · Shift 2

Parts of the Constitution Part IX, titled 'The Panchayats' (Articles 243 to 243-O), was inserted by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, giving Panchayati Raj institutions constitutional status. Statement I is correct. Part IXB, 'The Co-operative Societies' (Articles 243ZH to 243ZT), was inserted by the 97th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2011. Statement II is correct. Memory hook for the order: Part IX — Panchayats, Part IXA — Municipalities (74th Amendment, 1992), Part IXB — Co-operative Societies. The same 97th Amendment also made forming co-operative societies a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(c) and added Article 43B to the Directive Principles. Hence, option (c) is the most appropriate answer.

Kaladan project In July 2025 Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, said the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project would be operational by 2027. The route runs by sea from Kolkata to Sittwe port in Myanmar, then up the Kaladan river to Paletwa, and finally by road to Zorinpui in Mizoram. It gives the North-East a second gateway to the sea and cuts dependence on the narrow Siliguri Corridor, the 'Chicken's Neck'. The project is a flagship of India's Act East Policy; the Sittwe port itself was handed over for operations in 2023. Hence, option (b) is the most appropriate answer.

East Asia Summit Australia is a founding member of the East Asia Summit, the leaders-led forum launched at Kuala Lumpur in 2005. The EAS has 18 members: the 10 ASEAN states plus India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the United States. ASEAN sits at the centre of the process and the summit is chaired by the ASEAN chair of the year. Qatar, Iran and Brazil are not members; signing ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, as several West Asian and Latin American states have done, does not make a country an EAS member. Hence, option (a) is the most appropriate answer.

Freedom fighters' titles Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a Pashtun leader of the North-West Frontier Province, was called 'Badshah Khan' and 'Frontier Gandhi' for his lifelong commitment to non-violence and his closeness to Mahatma Gandhi. In 1929 he founded the Khudai Khidmatgar ('Servants of God'), the Red Shirt movement, which resisted British rule peacefully. He received the Bharat Ratna in 1987 — the first non-Indian citizen to be given the award. The other titles: Bal Gangadhar Tilak — Lokmanya; Lala Lajpat Rai — Punjab Kesari; Abul Kalam Azad — India's first Education Minister. Hence, option (b) is the most appropriate answer.

Appointments in science Dr Cherukumalli Srinivasa Rao took charge as Director of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute in December 2024. He moved to IARI from ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad, and is known for research on soil carbon, rainfed farming and climate-resilient agriculture. IARI, now at Pusa in New Delhi, was founded in 1905 at Pusa in Bihar; its wheat research drove the Green Revolution and it functions as a deemed university. The other names: M. S. Swaminathan headed IARI in 1966–72, S. Ayyappan was a former Director General of ICAR, and Ramesh Chand is an agriculture economist and NITI Aayog member. Hence, option (b) is the most appropriate answer.

Government scholarship scheme PM-YASASVI is the PM Young Achievers' Scholarship Award Scheme for Vibrant India, run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for OBC, EBC and DNT students since 2021-22. It is an umbrella scheme: the ministry's older scholarship and hostel programmes were merged and re-packaged under it. Two scholarship components (pre-matric and post-matric), two top-class education components (school and college) and one hostel component make five sub-schemes in all. So the correct option is (b).

Bio-RIDE Scheme Bio-RIDE stands for Biotechnology Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development, a unified scheme cleared by the Union Cabinet in September 2024. It is implemented by the Department of Biotechnology, which is a department of the Ministry of Science and Technology — hence that is the nodal ministry. The scheme has three components: Biotechnology Research and Development, Industrial and Entrepreneurship Development, and Biomanufacturing and Biofoundry, the last one supporting the BioE3 policy. So the correct option is (a).

T20 World Cup 2024 India won the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024, beating South Africa by 7 runs in the final at Bridgetown, Barbados, on 29 June 2024. The head coach of that Indian team was Rahul Dravid, who had taken charge in November 2021; this was his first ICC title as coach and his last assignment with the team. Rohit Sharma led the side, and it was India's second men's T20 World Cup crown after the inaugural 2007 title under M. S. Dhoni. So the correct option is (b).

Volleyball at Olympics Volleyball entered the Olympic programme for the first time at the 1964 Tokyo Games, with men's and women's indoor events introduced together. The game was invented by William G. Morgan in 1895 and its world body, the FIVB, was set up in 1947; the popularity it gained after that earned it Olympic status. Beach volleyball is a much later addition — it became an Olympic event only at the 1996 Atlanta Games. So the correct option is (d).

Hockey Asia Cup 2025 The 2025 Men's Hockey Asia Cup was hosted by India at the Rajgir Hockey Stadium in Bihar from 27 August to 7 September 2025. India won the title by beating Korea 4-1 in the final — its fourth Asia Cup crown after 2003, 2007 and 2017 — and with it a direct berth in the 2026 FIH Men's World Cup. The event is conducted by the Asian Hockey Federation, founded in 1958 and headquartered at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So the correct option is (a).

Carnatic violinists Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu (1893-1964) is the celebrated violinist of Andhra Pradesh, remembered as the 'violin wizard of Vizianagaram', where he taught and later headed the Maharaja's Music College. He brought the gayaki (vocal) style to the violin and made solo violin recitals popular; he was honoured with the Sangeetha Kalanidhi (1941), the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1953) and the Padma Shri (1957). The other three artistes belong to other regions, which is exactly what the question is testing. So the correct option is (c).

Indian English novel The God of Small Things (1997) is the debut novel of Arundhati Roy and won her the Booker Prize in the same year. Set in Ayemenem in Kerala, it follows the twins Estha and Rahel and deals with caste, family and the 'Love Laws' that decide who may be loved and how much. Her later works include The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) and essay collections such as The Algebra of Infinite Justice. So the correct option is (b).

Natya Shastra instruments Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra divides musical instruments into four groups according to the way each one produces sound. Tata (strings), Sushira (air column), Avanaddha (stretched membrane) and Ghana (solid body) — four categories, the oldest such classification known anywhere and still used in Indian musicology. So the correct option is (b).

Contemporary Indian fiction Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous (2017) is a novel by Manu Joseph, a journalist and columnist who was the founding editor of Open magazine. The story moves between a collapsed building in Mumbai and a highway chase in Gujarat, and satirises contemporary Indian politics, policing and the media. His other novels are Serious Men (2010), winner of the PEN/Open Book Award, and The Illicit Happiness of Other People (2012). So the correct option is (b).

Dravidian temple architecture The Meenakshi Amman Temple at Madurai, on the bank of the Vaigai, is popularly called the 'Taj Mahal of the South' because of the richness of its sculpture and its towering gopurams. Dedicated to Meenakshi (Parvati) and Sundareswarar (Shiva), it was largely rebuilt and expanded by the Nayaka rulers in the 16th-17th century, especially Tirumala Nayaka; it has 14 gopurams and the famous Hall of a Thousand Pillars. The Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur, in contrast, is the Chola 'Big Temple' of Rajaraja I and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is why option (a) tempts. So the correct option is (b).

Festivals of India Raja Parba is a three-day festival of Odisha that welcomes the first monsoon showers and celebrates the fertility of the earth. It is believed that Bhudevi, the earth goddess, menstruates during these days, so no ploughing or digging is done; unmarried girls swing on decorated ropes and poda pitha is prepared. The three days are called Pahili Raja, Mithuna Sankranti and Basi Raja; Rath Yatra, Bali Jatra and Nuakhai are the other well-known festivals of the state. So the correct option is (b).

Folk dances of India The Garia dance belongs to Tripura. It is performed by the Tripuri and Reang communities during Garia Puja in mid-April, when the deity Garia is worshipped for a good harvest and prosperity. Dancers move in a circle round the bamboo pole that represents the deity, to the beat of the kham drum and the sumui flute. Hojagiri, Lebang Boomani and Mamita are the other well-known folk dances of Tripura. So the correct option is (c).

DRDO glide bomb 'Gaurav' is the long-range glide bomb developed by DRDO; its release trials from a Su-30 MKI were completed successfully in April 2025 off the Odisha coast, the bombs striking targets on Long Wheeler Island. It is a 1,000 kg class stand-off weapon steered by a hybrid navigation system using INS with GPS/NavIC updates, so the aircraft can hit a target from far outside the enemy's air-defence cover. The other names are different classes of weapon: Astra is a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, Pralay a short-range tactical ballistic missile and Rudram an anti-radiation missile. So the correct option is (b).

Economic crisis of 1991 By June 1991 India's foreign exchange reserves had fallen to about $1 billion, enough to pay for only two to three weeks of imports — an acute balance of payments crisis. The Gulf War of 1990-91 pushed up oil prices and cut remittances from West Asia, while a large fiscal deficit and heavy external borrowing had already weakened the external account and India's credit rating. The country had to pledge gold with the Bank of England and borrow from the IMF, and the crisis led straight to the New Economic Policy of 1991 — liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. Food shortage, a fall in farm output and nationalisation were not the trigger, so the other options fail. So the correct option is (c).

Foreign trade administration The Directorate General of Foreign Trade came into being in 1991, when the old office of the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports was reorganised and renamed. The change matched the shift of 1991 from controlling imports to promoting exports under the new economic policy, and was given statutory backing by the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992. The DGFT works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, frames and implements the Foreign Trade Policy and issues the Importer-Exporter Code (IEC) to every exporter and importer. So the correct option is (b).

Veto power of President Article 111 gives the President of India three kinds of veto over a bill passed by Parliament. Absolute veto — assent is withheld and the bill lapses; suspensive veto — a non-money bill is returned for reconsideration, but if the Houses pass it again the President must assent; pocket veto — no action is taken at all, as with the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 1986. The qualified veto, which the legislature can override only by a special majority, is a feature of the American Constitution; the Indian Constitution provides nothing of the kind. So the correct option is (d).

Money Bill Article 110(3) of the Constitution lays down that if any question arises whether a bill is a Money Bill or not, the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is final. The Speaker endorses a certificate on the bill when it goes to the Rajya Sabha and when it is presented to the President, and that certificate cannot be questioned in either House or, ordinarily, in a court. A Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha on the President's recommendation; the Rajya Sabha may hold it for at most 14 days and can only make recommendations, which the Lok Sabha may reject. So the correct option is (d).

Transport of carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide produced by respiring tissues diffuses into the blood capillaries and is carried to the lungs by the blood. About 70% of it travels as bicarbonate ions $HCO3-$ made inside red blood cells by the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, about 23% as carbaminohaemoglobin bound to haemoglobin, and only about 7% dissolved as such in plasma. Since most of the gas is handled inside the red blood cells, 'plasma only' is too narrow; tissue fluid and lymph merely drain back into the blood and are not the main medium. So the correct option is (c).

Jainism - Mahavira Mahavira, the 24th and last Tirthankara of Jainism, was born about 599 BCE at Kundagrama (Kundalpur), a settlement close to Vaishali in present-day Bihar. His father Siddhartha was the head of the Jnatrika kshatriya clan and his mother Trishala was a Lichchhavi princess, sister of Chetaka, the ruler of Vaishali. Vaishali was the capital of the Vajji confederacy, one of the sixteen mahajanapadas; Rajgir was the Magadhan capital where Mahavira later preached, not his birthplace. So the correct option is (b).

Urine formation The filtrate formed in the Bowman's capsule still contains everything small enough to pass the glomerulus — glucose, amino acids, salts, water and urea. In the proximal convoluted tubule the useful substances are taken back into the blood by selective reabsorption; glucose and amino acids are reabsorbed almost completely by active transport, which needs energy. So both the substances listed are selectively reabsorbed, and glucose shows up in urine only when blood sugar crosses the renal threshold of about 180 mg/dL, as in diabetes mellitus. So the correct option is (c).