21 February 2025 · Shift 1

Union Territory administration Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan was Governor of Telangana and held the additional charge of Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. In March 2024 she resigned from both offices to contest the Lok Sabha election from Tamil Nadu. Only Puducherry, being a union territory with a legislature, was under her as Lieutenant Governor; Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Lakshadweep had their own separate administrators at that time. Hence the correct option is (a).

Kinetic and potential energy As the object rises, gravity slows it down, so its kinetic energy $KE=\frac{1}{2}m{v}^2$ keeps falling while its potential energy PE=mgh keeps rising. At the highest point the object is momentarily at rest, so v=0 and KE=0. The whole of the mechanical energy is now stored as potential energy at the greatest height, so PE is maximum there. Total energy is conserved, so it can never be zero (option d), and KE is maximum at the moment of throw, not at the top (option c). Hence the correct option is (a).

Foreign rulers of Taxila North-west India saw a fixed order of Central Asian arrivals, and the question fixes the date at the 1st century BC. The Shakas (Indo-Scythians), pushed out of Central Asia, moved down through the Bolan and Khyber routes and settled around Taxila in the 1st century BC, taking the region from the Indo-Greeks; their king Maues struck coins at Taxila. The Indo-Greeks belong to the 2nd century BC, the Parthians (Pahlavas) under Gondophares to the 1st century AD, and the Kushanas from Kujula Kadphises onwards to the 1st-3rd centuries AD. Hence the correct option is (d).

Five-Year Plans The Emergency was declared in June 1975, which falls inside the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974-79). Indira Gandhi announced the 20-Point Programme in July 1975, and the Plan's implementation machinery was turned towards its targets - land reform, bonded-labour release, cheap food, housing and rural employment. The Fifth Plan was itself cut short in 1978 by the Janata government, so the Sixth Plan started only afterwards; the Third (1961-66) and Fourth (1969-74) Plans were over before the Emergency began. Hence the correct option is (a).

Common chemical substances Citric acid is the weak organic acid that gives lemons, limes and oranges their sour taste, so A goes with 3. Quicklime is calcium oxide, $CaO$; it is a basic oxide that reacts with water to give slaked lime, so B goes with 1. Common salt is sodium chloride, $NaCl$, so C goes with 2. Bleaching powder is calcium oxychloride, $CaOC{l}_2$, made by passing chlorine over dry slaked lime, so D goes with 4. The pairing is therefore A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4. Hence the correct option is (b).

Appointments in CAPFs Sanjeev Raina, a 1987-batch cadre officer of the force itself, was appointed Additional Director General of the ITBP in August 2024. ADG is the second-highest rank in the force after the Director General, and this was only the second time an ITBP cadre officer rose to it - the post usually goes to an IPS officer on deputation. The ITBP was raised after the 1962 Sino-Indian War and guards the India-China Line of Actual Control under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Hence the correct option is (a).

Indian Independence Act 1947 The Indian Independence Act was passed by the British Parliament and received royal assent on 18 July 1947. It ended British paramountcy from 15 August 1947 and divided British India into two independent dominions - India and Pakistan - with a boundary commission to fix their limits. Each dominion's Constituent Assembly became a sovereign legislature free to frame its own constitution, so exactly two dominions were created, not three or four. Hence the correct option is (b).

Joint sitting of Parliament Article 108 lets the President summon a joint sitting of both Houses to resolve a deadlock over an ordinary or a financial (non-money) bill. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides over it, and under Article 118(3) the sitting is conducted by the rules of procedure of the Lok Sabha. If the Speaker is absent the Deputy Speaker presides, and after him the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha - but the rules followed are still those of the Lok Sabha, so Rajya Sabha rules and any special rules of the President or the Cabinet are ruled out. Hence the correct option is (a).

Khelo India University Games Panjab University, Chandigarh topped the medal tally of the Khelo India University Games 2023, held in Uttar Pradesh. Its tally was 26 gold, 17 silver and 26 bronze, so the total is 26+17+26=69 medals. Hence the correct option is (d).

Banking - cheque status Every cheque leaf carries its own six-digit cheque number, printed at the bottom left as the first block of the MICR band. That number is unique to that single leaf, so the bank tracks a cheque by it - whether it is presented, cleared, returned or stopped. The MICR number identifies the branch for clearing and the IFSC identifies the branch for electronic transfers; both are the same on every leaf of the book, so neither can tell one cheque from another. Hence the correct option is (a).

Hindustani music gharanas Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar (1849-1926) was a khyal vocalist of Hindustani classical music. He trained at Gwalior and then carried the Gwalior gharana style into Maharashtra, where his pupils - Vishnu Digambar Paluskar among them - spread it widely. The Gwalior gharana is the oldest school of khyal singing; the Kirana, Patiala and Jaipur-Atrauli gharanas were founded later by other musicians, so none of them is his school. Hence the correct option is (d).

Folk dances of India The Kinnauris are the people of Kinnaur district, which lies in the trans-Himalayan part of Himachal Pradesh. Losar Shona Chuksam is their sowing-season dance, performed at Losar, the new year of the region, and it mimes the whole cycle of sowing and harvesting. The other three states have no district called Kinnaur, so only Himachal Pradesh fits. Hence the correct option is (b).

Right to work - MGNREGA MGNREGA, 2005 guarantees at least 100 days of paid unskilled manual work in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members ask for it. Because the work is a legal entitlement - with an unemployment allowance payable if it is not given within 15 days - it is the statute that turns the 'right to work' into an enforceable right. The EPF Act only creates retirement savings for those already employed, the IIM Act governs institutes and the Citizenship Act deals with nationality; none of them promises employment. Hence the correct option is (d).

Population age structure The age of a population is compared by its median (average) age - the age that divides the people into two equal halves. In 2023 Pakistan's median age was about 20.6 years, the lowest of the four, because of its high birth rate and large share of children. Nepal and Bangladesh stood in the middle twenties, while Sri Lanka, with low fertility and long life expectancy, had the oldest population of the group. Hence the correct option is (c).

Fundamental Rights The Right to Property was a fundamental right until 1978, standing in Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31. The 44th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1978 deleted both and re-enacted it as Article 300-A, so today it is only a constitutional or legal right - it cannot be enforced by a writ under Article 32. Equality (Articles 14-18) and Education (Article 21A, inserted by the 86th Amendment) are fundamental rights, and privacy was declared part of the fundamental right to life in the 2017 Puttaswamy judgment. Hence the correct option is (d).

Padma Shri 2023 Domar Singh Kunwar received the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of Art. He is a Nacha artist of Chhattisgarh who has spent his life keeping alive Natya Nacha, the state's traditional folk theatre-dance, and training younger performers in it. Hence the correct option is (b).

Ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the steady fall in the pH of sea water caused by the ocean absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The dissolved gas forms carbonic acid, $C{O}_2+H_{2}O\to H_{2}C{O}_3$, which ionises to release $H^{+}$ ions. More $H^{+}$ means a lower pH, which is the opposite of neutralisation (option a) and of rising alkalinity (option d); the extra $H^{+}$ also eats into the carbonate that corals and shellfish need. Rising sea level is a different consequence of global warming and is not a change in chemistry, so option (b) does not describe acidification. Hence the correct option is (c).

IOC Session in India The 141st Session of the International Olympic Committee was held in October 2023 at the Jio World Centre, Mumbai, and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was the first IOC Session in India in forty years - the earlier one was the 86th Session, held in New Delhi in 1983, which is why New Delhi is the tempting wrong option. At this Session India declared its interest in hosting the 2036 Summer Olympics and the 2029 Youth Olympics, and cricket was cleared for the Los Angeles 2028 Games. Hence the correct option is (c).

Festivals of India Shigmo (Shigmotsav) is the spring festival of Goa, celebrated by the Konkani farming community over about a fortnight in the month of Phalguna. It is Goa's form of Holi, marked by street parades of decorated floats, folk dances such as Ghode Modni and Romta Mel, and drums and cymbals. The same spring festival appears under other names elsewhere - Holi in north India, Dol Jatra in Bengal and Assam, Kamadahana in the south - but the name Shigmo belongs to Goa. Hence the correct option is (a).

Third Five-Year Plan The Third Five-Year Plan (1961-66) aimed at a self-reliant, self-generating economy, but it ran into war twice. The Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 forced a sudden shift of money and materials from development to defence, and it came on top of the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the drought of 1965-66. The Plan therefore missed its growth target badly, and planning was suspended for three years of annual 'Plan Holiday' Plans from 1966 to 1969. Space research began only with INCOSPAR in 1962 and took a tiny share of outlay, industry was being taken into the public sector rather than privatised, and the Plan's stress was on agriculture and heavy industry, not on cities. Hence the correct option is (a).