18 November 2025 · Shift 2

Chahamana dynasty - Tarain The correct answer is Prithviraja III, popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan. In 1191 CE he defeated Muhammad Ghori at the First Battle of Tarain, fought near Thanesar in present-day Haryana. The very next year Ghori returned and won the Second Battle of Tarain (1192 CE), which opened northern India to Turkish rule. Ajayaraja II founded Ajayameru (Ajmer) and Vigraharaja IV (Visaladeva) took Delhi from the Tomaras, but neither of them fought Ghori.

Fundamental Duties - Article 51A Promoting co-operative societies is not a Fundamental Duty. It is a Directive Principle of State Policy under Article 43B, inserted by the 97th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2011. Fundamental Duties appear only in Article 51A of Part IVA, added by the 42nd Amendment (1976) on the advice of the Swaran Singh Committee; there are 11 of them today. The other three options are genuine duties - protecting the unity and integrity of India is 51A(c), cherishing the composite culture is 51A(f) and developing scientific temper is 51A(h). Hence option (a) is correct.

Sources of the Constitution The method of electing members of the Rajya Sabha is the odd one out - it is drawn from the Constitution of South Africa. From South Africa India also borrowed the procedure for amendment of the Constitution under Article 368. The three Australian borrowings are the Concurrent List, the joint sitting of the two Houses (Article 108) and the freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse (Article 301). Note the trap: the nomination of 12 members to the Rajya Sabha comes from Ireland, but their election is the South African feature. Hence option (d) is correct.

BIMSTEC membership Only statement I is correct - Nepal is a full member of BIMSTEC, admitted in 2004 along with Bhutan. BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) began in 1997 as BIST-EC through the Bangkok Declaration; its permanent secretariat is at Dhaka. Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island state, is not a Bay of Bengal littoral or adjacent country and is not a member; it belongs to groupings such as IORA and the African Union. Hence option (a) is correct.

International Solar Alliance The International Solar Alliance was launched jointly by India and France. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Francois Hollande unveiled it on 30 November 2015 at the COP-21 climate conference in Paris. Its headquarters is at Gwal Pahari, Gurugram (Haryana) - the first international intergovernmental organisation to be headquartered in India. The ISA was first aimed at countries lying fully or partly between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and was later opened to all UN member states. Hence option (c) is correct.

Mountaineering firsts Bachendri Pal reached the summit of Mount Everest on 23 May 1984 and became the first Indian woman to do so. She was part of the fourth Indian Everest expedition, and the feat later brought her the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. The other three names are also Everest climbers, but each holds a different record, so none of them is the first. Hence the correct option is (c).

Women achievers of India Kiran Bedi joined the Indian Police Service in 1972 and thus became India's first woman IPS officer. She later headed the Bureau of Police Research and Development and served as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry; she is also the first Indian woman to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service. The other three are famous names of the freedom movement and of politics, not of the police service. Hence the correct option is (b).

Diplomatic appointments In January 2025 the Government of India named Jitender Pal Singh (J.P. Singh), a 2002-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, as India's Ambassador to Israel. He succeeded Sanjeev Singla, who had held the post since 2019. Before this posting J.P. Singh was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, in charge of the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran (PAI) division. Sanjay Verma was India's High Commissioner to Canada, so option (a) belongs to a different mission. Hence the correct option is (b).

Foreign honours to Indians On 10 August 2024, President Droupadi Murmu was conferred the Grand-Collar of the Order of Timor-Leste by President Jose Ramos-Horta at Dili. It is the highest civilian honour of Timor-Leste and was given in recognition of her lifelong service in the fields of education, public service and social welfare. The award came during the first-ever State visit of an Indian Head of State to Timor-Leste, which also produced agreements on capacity building and cultural exchange. The question asks for a dignitary honoured in August 2024, and only the President's Dili visit fits that date. Hence the correct option is (c).

Women entrepreneurship schemes In January 2025 the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) of NITI Aayog launched EmpowHER Biz - Sapno Ki Udaan. It was launched with the retail chain New Shop under WEP's 'Award to Reward' (ATR) framework, and gives women mentorship, training in retail management and franchise support, including fee waivers for the best participants. Its aim is to move women from small self-run shops to organised, sustainable retail businesses. Stand-Up India and Startup India Seed Fund are financing schemes of other ministries, and Mission Shakti is the Women and Child Development Ministry's umbrella scheme, so none of them is a WEP launch. Hence the correct option is (b).

Supreme Court directions On 29 January 2025 the Supreme Court ordered a complete ban on manual scavenging and hazardous manual sewer cleaning in six metropolitan cities. The six cities named were Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar directed the chief executives of these cities to file affidavits stating how and from when the practice had been stopped. The order builds on the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, which had already outlawed the practice nationwide. Hence the correct option is (b).

PM Internship Scheme The Prime Minister's Internship Scheme (PMIS) was announced in the Union Budget 2024-25 by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It aims to give 12-month paid internships in the top 500 companies to 1 crore youth over five years, that is $1\mathrm{crore}={10}^7$ young Indians. An intern gets a monthly assistance of ₹5,000, of which ₹4,500 comes from the government and ₹500 from the company's CSR funds, plus a one-time grant of ₹6,000. The pilot round launched in October 2024 offered about 1.25 lakh internship slots. Hence the correct option is (a).

Skill development scheme The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) was launched on 15 July 2015, the day observed as World Youth Skills Day. Counting from that date, 2025-2015=10, so by July 2025 the scheme had completed 10 years. PMKVY is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and has run in phases - PMKVY 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and PMKVY 4.0 under the Skill India Programme. Hence the correct option is (d).

Athletics terminology In a relay race the whole distance is divided among the team members, and the stretch run by one athlete is called a leg. So a $4\times 100$ m relay has four legs of 100 m each, and the baton is passed from one leg to the next inside a 20 m change-over zone. A lap means one complete circuit of the track (400 m on a standard track), which need not equal a leg, so option (a) is wrong. 'Sprint' names a category of short races and 'stage' is used in cycling, not in relay running. Hence the correct option is (b).

Classification of races Track running events are grouped by distance into sprints, middle-distance and long-distance races. A track race is called long-distance when it is not less than 3000 metres, which is why the 3000 m, 5000 m and 10000 m events are all long-distance. 800 m and 1500 m are middle-distance, so option (b) is too short a limit, while 2000 m and 6000 m are not standard cut-offs at all. Hence the correct option is (c).

Eco-tourism initiative In May 2025 the Uttar Pradesh government flagged off India's first Vistadome jungle safari train. It runs on the metre-gauge route between the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (Bahraich) and the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (Lakhimpur Kheri), a stretch of about 107 km through dense forest. The coach has a glass roof, wide glass windows and rotating seats, so passengers get a panoramic view of the Terai forest and its wildlife. It is part of the state's 'One Destination, Three Forests' eco-tourism campaign covering Dudhwa, Katarniaghat and Kishanpur. Hence the correct option is (c).

Tiger census 2024 The report 'Status of Tigers in Kaziranga, 2024' put the tiger strength of the Kaziranga Tiger Reserve at 148. This is a rise of 44 over the 104 tigers counted in 2022; the newly added Biswanath Wildlife Division alone contributed 27 tigers to the count. With about 18.65 tigers per 100 sq km, Kaziranga now has the world's third-highest tiger density. The numbers 410 and 660 are of the order of a whole State's tiger population, not of a single reserve, so they can be ruled out at once. Hence the correct option is (c).

Harappan town planning The Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilisation was a Bronze Age culture: its people worked in copper, bronze, gold and stone, but iron was completely unknown to them. Iron reached the Indian subcontinent only in the later Vedic period, around 1000 BCE, long after the Harappan cities had declined. The grid street plan cutting at right angles, the standardised baked bricks and the covered drains along the streets are all genuine Harappan features. So the feature that was NOT characteristic is the widespread use of iron tools. Hence the correct option is (b).

Folk theatre forms Nautanki is the popular folk dance-theatre of Uttar Pradesh and the Hindi-speaking belt around it. It grew out of the older 'Svang' tradition and mixes verse, song, dialogue and melodrama, with the nagara drum keeping the beat. Its two great gharanas are the Hathras style, which stresses singing, and the Kanpur style, which stresses dialogue and acting. Rajasthan's comparable forms are Khyal and Rammat, Punjab's is Bhand, and Madhya Pradesh's is Maach, so the other options belong elsewhere. Hence the correct option is (c).

Tribal folk dances The Tapu dance is a war dance of the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. It is performed mainly by men during the Aran festival, with war cries and mock combat movements meant to drive evil spirits away from the village. The dancers wear warrior dress - helmet, shield and sword - which is why it is also called the Adi war dance. Nagaland is known for the Chang Lo and Zeliang dances, Mizoram for Cheraw, and Tripura for Hojagiri, so the other options point to different States. Hence the correct option is (c).

Sikh Misl period In the eighteenth century, during the age of the Sikh Misls, the whole Panth assembled twice a year - on Baisakhi and on Diwali - at the Akal Takht in Amritsar. Such an assembly was called the Sarbat Khalsa, and the resolutions it passed in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib were the Gurmatas, binding on every Sikh. The Gurmata was the instrument through which the Misls settled disputes among themselves and planned joint action against the Mughal and Afghan invaders. Anandpur Sahib is linked with the founding of the Khalsa in 1699 and Kartarpur with Guru Nanak, so they do not fit the Misl-period assemblies. Hence the correct option is (b).

Union Budget bills The Finance Bill is introduced in the Lok Sabha immediately after the Budget speech to give legal effect to the government's tax proposals. It deals with the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of taxes - exactly the subjects named in the question. The Appropriation Bill is the other Budget bill, but it only authorises withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund of India, that is the expenditure side. Hence the correct option is (b).

FRBM escape clause Section 4(2) of the FRBM Act, 2003 carries the 'escape clause', which lets the Centre exceed the fiscal deficit target in listed exceptional situations. The grounds named there include national security, acts of war, national calamity, collapse of agriculture severely affecting output, structural reforms with unanticipated fiscal implications, and a sharp fall in real output growth. Statement I - situations affecting national security - is therefore a valid ground. Statement II - events classified as national disasters or calamities - is also a valid ground. Both statements are correct, and the deviation is capped at 0.5% of GDP in a year on the advice of the Fiscal Council. Hence the correct option is (c).

Capitals of Magadha Rajagriha, the modern Rajgir in Nalanda district of Bihar, was the first capital of Magadha. It lay in a valley ringed by five hills and had a massive cyclopean stone wall, which made it easy to defend. It remained the capital under Bimbisara and Ajatashatru of the Haryanka dynasty. Udayin, son of Ajatashatru, then shifted the capital to Pataliputra in the 5th century BCE because of its position at the meeting of the Ganga and the Son. Hence the correct option is (b).

Vedic literature The Samaveda is called the Veda of melodies or the Book of Chants: nearly all of its verses are taken straight from the Rigveda and set to tunes called Samans. These chants were sung by the Udgatri priest during the soma sacrifice, and Indian classical music traces its beginnings to them. The Rigveda itself is a collection of 1028 hymns of praise recited by the Hotri priest, so it supplies the words but not the musical setting. Therefore only statement I is correct. Hence the correct option is (a).