17 February 2025 · Shift 1

Rigvedic rivers The river hymn of the Rigveda, the Nadistuti Sukta (Mandala 10), praises ten rivers: Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Sutudri, Parushni, Asikni, Marudvridha, Vitasta, Arjikiya and Sushoma. In modern names Sutudri is the Sutlej, Parushni the Ravi, Asikni the Chenab and Vitasta the Jhelum - every one of them a river of the north-west. Krishna is a peninsular river rising at Mahabaleshwar in the Deccan, far outside the Sapta Sindhu land the Rigveda describes, so it never appears in the text. Hence the correct option is (a).

Tethys Ocean The ocean that lay between the northern landmass Laurasia and the southern landmass Gondwana through the Mesozoic Era was the Tethys Sea. As the Indian plate drifted north and struck Asia, the Tethys was squeezed shut and its sea-floor sediments were folded up into the Himalayas - which is why marine fossils are found high in those mountains. The Ionian and Aegean Seas are arms of the present-day Mediterranean (itself a remnant of the Tethys), and the Aral Sea is a shrinking inland lake of Central Asia - none of the three is an ancestor of the Indian Ocean. Hence the correct option is (a).

Social reformers' writings 'Sarvajanik Satyadharma' was written by Jyotiba Phule in 1889 and published in 1891, a year after his death; in it he sets out a universal religion of truth open to every human being, needing no priest and recognising no caste. Phule had founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873 to carry the same idea into practice, and his other well-known works are Gulamgiri (1873) and Shetkaryacha Asud (1883). Debendranath Tagore compiled Brahmo Dharma, Swami Vivekananda wrote Raja Yoga and Karma Yoga, and Mahatma Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj - none of these is the book named. Hence the correct option is (a).

Fifth Five Year Plan The Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79), drafted by D.P. Dhar, is remembered for making 'Garibi Hatao' - removal of poverty - its declared objective, alongside attainment of self-reliance. That thrust was carried forward through the 20-Point Programme of 1975; the plan was cut short a year early, in 1978, by the incoming Janata government. Economic liberalisation is the mark of the Eighth Plan (1992-97), and no Indian plan was ever confined to the service sector, so options (b) and (c) fail; environmental concern had already entered planning in the Fourth Plan period, so (a) is not what makes the Fifth Plan distinctive. Hence the correct option is (d).

Playback singers 'London Thumakda' from Queen (2014) was composed by Amit Trivedi and sung by Labh Janjua with the sisters Sonu Kakkar and Neha Kakkar; of the four names offered, only Neha Kakkar sang on this track. Lata Mangeshkar (Bharat Ratna, 2001), Asha Bhosle and Alka Yagnik are all celebrated playback singers, but none of them recorded this song. Hence the correct option is (b).

74th Amendment Act The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 inserted Part IXA (Articles 243P to 243ZG) into the Constitution to give urban local bodies a constitutional footing. Within that Part, Article 243ZA vests the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to the Municipalities in the State Election Commission - the same body that Article 243K creates for Panchayat elections; its Commissioner is appointed by the Governor. The Election Commission of India works under Article 324 and handles only Parliament, the State Legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President; 'district' and 'divisional' election commissions have no constitutional existence. Hence the correct option is (b).

Padma awards Sonal Mansingh, the Odissi and Bharatanatyam exponent, was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2003. The two dates go together in pairs: she had received the Padma Bhushan in 1992 as one of its youngest recipients in dance, and eleven years later became the first woman dancer to be given the Padma Vibhushan. She founded the Centre for Indian Classical Dances in Delhi in 1977 and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2018. Hence the correct option is (a).

Election Commission of India Rajiv Kumar took charge as the 25th Chief Election Commissioner of India on 15 May 2022, having joined the Commission as an Election Commissioner on 1 September 2020. The other three names are all earlier holders of the post: Sukumar Sen was the very first CEC (1950-58) and conducted the first two general elections, T. Swaminathan served from 1973 to 1977 and N. Gopalaswami from 2006 to 2009. The Election Commission of India is a constitutional body under Article 324, set up on 25 January 1950 - the day now observed as National Voters' Day - with its headquarters at New Delhi. Hence the correct option is (d).

Asian Games 2023 At the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games (Hangzhou, 23 September to 8 October 2023) the Indian contingent was led by hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and boxer Lovlina Borgohain as joint flag bearers. Neeraj Chopra, Annu Rani, Bajrang Punia and PV Sindhu all competed at these Games and Annu Rani and Neeraj Chopra even won javelin gold, but the flag-bearing pair named by the Indian Olympic Association was Harmanpreet with Lovlina - so every option that swaps one of those two names is wrong. India ended the meet with 107 medals - 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze - its first hundred-plus haul at an Asian Games. Hence the correct option is (d).

Water of crystallisation The fixed number of water molecules chemically combined in one formula unit of a salt is called its water of crystallisation, and it is written after a dot in the formula. It gives the crystal its shape and often its colour: blue copper sulphate is $CuS{O}_4\cdot 5H_{2}O$, washing soda is $N{a}_{2}C{O}_3\cdot 10H_{2}O$ and gypsum is $CaS{O}_4\cdot 2H_{2}O$. Heating drives this water off - blue $CuS{O}_4\cdot 5H_{2}O$ turns into white anhydrous $CuS{O}_4$, and adding water restores the blue. 'Fixed water', 'unmovable water' and 'crystallised aqua' are not chemical terms at all, so the correct option is (d).

Goals of Five Year Plans In Indian planning 'growth' means an increase in the country's productive capacity - a larger stock of capital goods and services and a steadily rising output, measured by GDP. Growth was one of four standing goals of the Five Year Plans, the other three being modernisation, self-reliance and equity. Foreign investment and imports are only means that may help production, not the goal itself, and a rise in population is a demographic change, not economic growth. Hence the correct option is (a).

Bihu festival of Assam The Assamese New Year falls in mid-April, in the month of Bohag, and the festival that opens the farming year then is Rongali or Bohag Bihu. Assam keeps three Bihus in a year, each tied to a different stage of the crop cycle, and only the Bohag one carries the New Year; Kati and Magh come later, and Chaitra is not a Bihu at all. Hence the correct option is (a).

Chief Ministers of States Atishi Marlena was sworn in as the 8th Chief Minister of Delhi on 21 September 2024, after Arvind Kejriwal resigned, so she held the office in October 2024. She was the third woman to lead Delhi, after Sushma Swaraj and Sheila Dikshit, and she held the Education and Finance portfolios as well. The other three names belong to other states - Hemant Soren to Jharkhand, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to Himachal Pradesh and Bhupendra Patel to Gujarat. Hence the correct option is (b).

Common names of compounds A suspension of magnesium hydroxide $Mg{\left(OH\right)}_2$ in water looks milky white, and that is exactly why it is sold as milk of magnesia. Being a weak base it neutralises the excess hydrochloric acid of the stomach, which makes it an antacid; in a larger dose it draws water into the intestine and acts as a laxative. The other three names are different magnesium compounds: magnesia alba is magnesium carbonate, while fused magnesia and caustic-calcined magnesia are forms of magnesium oxide $MgO$ made by heating. Hence the correct option is (b).

Directive Principles Article 46 directs the State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections, and in particular of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and to protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. It lies in Part IV (Articles 36-51), so it is not enforceable in a court, yet the Constitution calls these principles fundamental in the governance of the country. Hence the correct option is (d).

Rural livelihood schemes Aajeevika - the National Rural Livelihoods Mission - was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in June 2011, restructuring the earlier Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). Its method is to organise poor rural households, mainly women, into self-help groups and their federations, and then link those groups to bank credit, skill training and market access. It was renamed the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - NRLM (DAY-NRLM) in 2015, and its aim is to reach one woman from every rural poor household. Hence the correct option is (c).

Census 2011 literacy Literacy rate is the share of people aged seven and above who can read and write with understanding in any language. Census 2011 gives the four southern states as Kerala $94.00\%$, Tamil Nadu $80.09\%$, Karnataka $75.36\%$ and Andhra Pradesh (then undivided, including present Telangana) $67.02\%$. So Andhra Pradesh is the lowest of the four - and was in fact among the lowest in the whole country - while Kerala was the highest state in India. For comparison, India's own literacy in 2011 was $74.04\%$, being $82.14\%$ for males and $65.46\%$ for females; hence the correct option is (b).

Classical dance forms Sattriya takes its very name from the sattras, the Vaishnava monasteries founded in Assam by Srimanta Sankaradeva in the 15th-16th century, where it grew as a way of telling the stories of Krishna through the dance-drama ankiya nat. The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognised it as a classical dance form in 2000, making it the eighth in the list alongside Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri and Mohiniyattam. Hence the correct option is (c).

Demand and purchasing power In economics, demand is a desire backed by both the willingness and the ability to pay; the ability half comes from the consumer's income, which is what creates purchasing power. Advertisement and taste only shape the desire, and investment is a use of savings rather than the source of a household's spending power - none of them lets a buyer pay. Hence the correct option is (d).

Sportspersons and their sports Bhakti Pradip Kulkarni is an Indian chess player from Goa, a Woman Grandmaster who won the National Women's Championship in 2016 and again in 2018. She was given the Arjuna Award in 2022 for chess, the sport she has represented India in at Olympiads and Asian team events. Hence the correct option is (c).