25 November 2025 · Shift 3

Chola dynasty rulers Rajaraja I (reigned about 985–1014 CE) is regarded as the greatest and most powerful of the Chola rulers. He built a strong navy, subdued the Cheras, the Pandyas and northern Sri Lanka, and organised land revenue surveys and village self-government. His reign is remembered above all for the Brihadeeswarar (Rajarajeswaram) temple at Thanjavur, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Vijayalaya only founded the imperial line in the 9th century, Parantaka I lost the battle of Takkolam, and Kulothunga I ruled much later, after the empire had passed its peak. Hence option (c) is correct.

Delhi Sultanate dynasties After the Tughlaqs, the Delhi Sultanate passed to the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451) and then to the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). Sikandar Lodi founded the city of Agra in 1504 and shifted his capital there, so the rulers of Agra just before the Mughals were the Sayyids and the Lodis. This phase ended when Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 and founded the Mughal Empire. The Khiljis ruled before the Tughlaqs and the Surs only after 1540, so neither can fill this gap. Hence option (d) is correct.

Cultural and educational rights Article 29 — 'Protection of interests of minorities' — gives any section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture the right to conserve it. It also forbids denial of admission to any State-maintained or State-aided educational institution on grounds only of religion, race, caste or language. Article 29 stands in Part III of the Constitution under the heading 'Cultural and Educational Rights' (Articles 29 and 30), so it is a Fundamental Right. Article 28 concerns religious instruction in State-funded institutions, Article 34 restricts rights while martial law is in force, and Article 36 merely defines 'the State' for the Directive Principles. Hence option (c) is correct.

National Education Policy 2020 The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020 on 29 July 2020, so the policy completed five years in July 2025. NEP 2020 replaced the National Policy on Education of 1986 and is implemented by the Ministry of Education. Its main reforms are the 5+3+3+4 school structure, teaching in the mother tongue in the early grades, a four-year multidisciplinary degree with multiple entry and exit, and a target of 6% of GDP for education. Hence option (c) is correct.

Women cadets at the NDA 17 women cadets completed their training in the 148th course of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla — the first-ever batch of women to graduate from the NDA. Women were admitted to the NDA from 2022, after the Supreme Court order of 2021 opened the academy to them. The batch passed out at the Passing Out Parade of 30 May 2025, alongside more than 300 male cadets, and the women then moved on to the training academies of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Hence option (b) is correct.

SOAR initiative 2025 SOAR stands for Skilling for AI Readiness, launched in July 2025 by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship during the tenth-anniversary events of the Skill India Mission. Its target group is school children: age-graded Artificial Intelligence modules are delivered to students of Classes 6 to 12, with a separate module that trains teachers to run them. The modules build early AI awareness, computational thinking and responsible use of AI, in line with the National Education Policy 2020. Digital marketing for rural women, artisan skilling and gig-worker training are handled by other programmes, so the correct option is (b).

National Technical Textiles Mission The National Technical Textiles Mission was cleared by the Cabinet in February 2020 under the Ministry of Textiles with an outlay of ₹1,480 crore, and its implementation period runs from 2020-21 to 2025-26. It works through four components: research, innovation and development; promotion and market development; export promotion; and education, training and skill development. Technical textiles are performance fabrics used in healthcare, agriculture (agrotech), infrastructure (geotech), defence and environmental protection, and the mission aims to make India a global hub for them. Hence the correct option is (c).

State Mining Readiness Index The State Mining Readiness Index is prepared by the Ministry of Mines to compare States on how ready they are for orderly development of the mineral sector. The index is built on four key indicators: Each State's score on these four heads shows where reform is needed — faster auctions, quicker clearances, more exploration or better environmental and community practice. Since the index rests on four pillars, the correct option is (a).

Export Preparedness Index The first Export Preparedness Index was released by NITI Aayog, along with the Institute for Competitiveness, in 2020. It ranks States and Union Territories on four pillars: The idea is competitive federalism — a State can see exactly which pillar drags its score down and fix that policy or infrastructure gap. Therefore the correct option is (d).

NADA headquarters The National Anti Doping Agency has its headquarters in New Delhi, in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex. Set up in 2005 under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, it plans and conducts dope tests on Indian sportspersons and enforces the National Anti-Doping Rules framed on the WADA Code. Its testing samples are analysed by the National Dope Testing Laboratory, also in New Delhi, and the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 gave the agency statutory status. So the correct option is (d).

Bird sanctuaries of Tamil Nadu Sakkarakottai and Therthangal are wetland bird sanctuaries in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, both centred on old irrigation tanks. They are winter feeding grounds for resident and migratory water birds such as painted storks, spot-billed pelicans, flamingos and open-billed storks. Tamil Nadu has the largest number of bird sanctuaries in India — Vedanthangal, Karikili, Point Calimere, Pulicat Lake, Koonthankulam and Udayamarthandapuram are others. Hence the correct option is (c).

Handball in India The first Senior National Handball Championship was held in 1972 at the Sir Chhotu Ram Stadium, Rohtak, Haryana. The year is easy to anchor: the Handball Federation of India was registered under the Societies Registration Act on 15 June 1972, and the championship followed in the same year. Haryana won the men's title and Maharashtra the women's title in that first edition, and the tournament has been held annually since. Therefore the correct option is (c).

Booker Prize: Indian writing Midnight's Children (1981) was written by Salman Rushdie and won the Booker Prize in 1981. The novel follows Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947, and uses magic realism to retell India's journey from independence to the Emergency. It is the only novel to have won the Booker of Bookers (1993) and the Best of the Booker (2008). So the correct option is (b).

Forts and their States The two States have simply been swapped. Golconda Fort stands on a granite hill in Hyderabad, Telangana; it was the Qutb Shahi capital and the diamond market that handled the Koh-i-Noor. Bharatpur Fort, better known as Lohagarh (the iron fort), is in Rajasthan and was built by the Jat ruler Maharaja Suraj Mal. Both pairs are therefore wrong, so the correct option is (c).

GSLV launch vehicle stages GSLV-D1, the first developmental flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, was launched by ISRO from Sriharikota on 18 April 2001 with the experimental satellite GSAT-1. The vehicle is a three-stage launcher: The four liquid strap-on motors are boosters strapped around the solid first stage, so they are not counted as a separate stage. Hence the number of propulsion stages is three, and the correct option is (b).

Inertia and Newton's first law Inertia is the property by which a body resists any change in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line. This is exactly the content of Newton's first law, which is why that law is called the law of inertia. Mass is the measure of inertia: a heavier body needs a larger force to produce the same change in velocity, so it is harder to start, stop or turn. Option (a) says the opposite of inertia, (c) describes an applied force and (d) describes gravity, so the correct option is (b).

Planetary parade 2025 In January-February 2025 several planets were on the same side of the Sun as seen from the Earth, so they all appeared in the evening sky at once — a planetary parade. All planets orbit in nearly the same plane, so they always appear along one line in the sky, the ecliptic; their places along that line follow their orbital radii, that is their distance from the Sun. Reading outward from the Sun gives Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (with Uranus and Neptune needing a telescope), which is the order in which they were strung across the sky. Size, brightness and orbital speed do not set the order in which they appear, so the correct option is (d).

Rajput states after the Mughals As Mughal authority collapsed in the eighteenth century, the imperial jagirs of Rajputana were absorbed by the neighbouring Rajput houses. Nagaur, held for a time as a separate Rathore appanage, passed to Bakht Singh and through him was merged into the kingdom of Jodhpur (Marwar), ruled by the Rathores. The Rathores of Jodhpur were the dominant power of western Rajasthan, and Nagaur lies squarely in Marwar territory, between Jodhpur and Bikaner. The Sisodias ruled Mewar (Udaipur), the Kachwahas Amber (Jaipur) and the Bhatis Jaisalmer, none of which controlled Nagaur, so the correct option is (d).

Foreign Investment Promotion Board The FIPB was created in 1991, with the liberalisation reforms, as a single window to clear foreign direct investment proposals that did not fall under the automatic route. In that early phase it was housed in the Prime Minister's Office and chaired by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, which gave its clearances political weight and speed. It was later moved to the Ministry of Industry and then to the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, where the Secretary of the department chaired it. The board was abolished in 2017, once over 90 per cent of FDI had been placed on the automatic route, so the correct option is (a).

BCSBI establishment The Banking Codes and Standards Board of India was registered as an independent society on 18 February 2006, on the recommendation of the S. S. Tarapore Committee on customer service. It was set up by the Reserve Bank of India as a watchdog: member banks adopted a voluntary Code of Bank's Commitment to Customers, and the board monitored whether they kept it. Its work covered fair treatment, transparency in charges and clear disclosure to depositors and borrowers. The RBI wound up the board in 2021, folding its functions into its own supervisory and grievance machinery; so the correct option is (c).

Extremists vs Moderates All three named leaders belonged to the Extremist or Assertive wing of the Congress, famous together as Lal-Bal-Pal. They dismissed the Moderate method of petitions, memorials and appeals to British good faith as a "politics of prayer, petition and protest" that produced nothing. In its place they preached swadeshi, boycott, national education and passive resistance, and this split came into the open at the Surat session of 1907. Since the criticism came from all three, the correct option is (d).

Article 355: duty of the Union Article 355 says it shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance, and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the Constitution. It is the duty in Article 355 that justifies the Union acting under Article 356 when constitutional machinery in a State breaks down. The other three articles deal with quite different matters, so the correct option is (c).

Census 1921: Great Divide The decade 1911-1921 is the only decade since census-taking began in which India's population actually fell. The causes were the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, which killed millions, along with famine, plague, malaria and the strain of the First World War. After 1921 death rates began to fall steadily while birth rates stayed high, so population rose in every later decade; for this reason 1921 is called the Year of the Great Divide. So the correct option is (b).

Taxes subsumed in GST Both taxes named were State-level levies before GST, not Central ones. Entertainment tax on cinema tickets, shows and amusement parks was levied by State governments and local bodies under Entry 62 of the State List. Entry tax, including octroi, was charged by States or municipal bodies on goods entering a local area for use, sale or consumption. The Centre's main indirect taxes then were central excise duty, service tax and countervailing duties, so the correct option is (c).

Foreign travellers to India Megasthenes was sent by Seleucus I Nicator, the Greek ruler of the West Asian Seleucid empire, as his ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya after the treaty of about 303 BCE. He lived at the Mauryan capital Pataliputra and wrote Indica, our chief foreign account of Mauryan administration, the city's municipal boards and the seven classes of Indian society. The other three came to India in much later periods and none of them was Greek, so the correct option is (d).