25 February 2025 · Shift 3

Census 2011 literacy Literacy rate in the Census means the share of people aged 7 years and above who can read and write with understanding. In Census 2011 Kerala stands first among the states with about 94% literacy, and it also leads the country as a whole. The other three are all above the national average of 73%, but each is more than 11 percentage points behind Kerala: Himachal Pradesh about 82.8%, Tamil Nadu about 80.1%, Manipur about 79.2%. Hence the correct option is (a).

AITUC foundation The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded on 31 October 1920 at Bombay (now Mumbai). It is the oldest trade union federation of India; Lala Lajpat Rai was its first president and Dewan Chaman Lall its first general secretary. The immediate reason for founding it was to choose India's workers' delegates to the International Labour Organisation, which had itself come into being in 1919 - that is why 1919 is the tempting wrong choice here. Hence the correct option is (c).

Maukhari royal title The Maukharis rose in the Kanauj region in the sixth century CE, as the Gupta empire was breaking up. Their early rulers used only 'Maharaja', a title fit for a feudatory; Ishanavarman was the first Maukhari to take the full imperial title 'Maharajadhiraja' - 'great king of kings' - which was exactly the title borne by the Gupta emperors. So the title that marks the imitation of the Guptas is the one that outranks 'Maharaja', not 'Maharaja' itself. 'Samanta' means a subordinate chief, and 'Rajadhiraja' was a Chola imperial title of the far south, so neither shows any Gupta model. Hence the correct option is (d).

Women's Premier League 2023 The first edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL), a Twenty20 tournament run by the BCCI, was played from 4 to 26 March 2023, entirely in Mumbai. Five franchises took part: Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, UP Warriorz and Gujarat Giants. Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals in the final to become the first champions. The men's IPL began with eight teams, which is why 8 is the tempting distractor. Hence the correct option is (b).

First Paralympic Games The Paralympic movement grew out of the Stoke Mandeville Games, started in England in 1948 by Dr Ludwig Guttmann for injured war veterans. The first Paralympic Games proper were held at Rome, Italy, in 1960, just after the Rome Olympics; about 400 athletes from 23 countries competed in 8 sports. Since then the Games have been held every four years in the same year as the Olympics, and since 1988 (Seoul) in the same host city. London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 were much later editions, so they cannot be the first. Hence the correct option is (b).

Disinvestment Disinvestment is the sale by the government of its assets - typically a part of its shareholding in a Public Sector Enterprise - to raise resources and improve efficiency. The prefix 'dis-' reverses 'investment': investment puts money into an asset, disinvestment takes money out by selling it. In disinvestment the government usually keeps 51% or more and so keeps management control; when the stake is cut below 51% and control passes to a private buyer, it is called privatisation. Commercialisation and capitalisation describe running an activity for profit and converting funds into capital respectively - neither means a sale of assets. Hence the correct option is (c).

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Puru Dadheech is a Kathak dancer, scholar and guru from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, and the first person in India to earn a doctorate in Kathak. The Sangeet Natak Akademi honoured him in 2018 for his overall contribution to the performing arts. His other honours include the Kalidas Samman and the Padma Shri, conferred in 2020. He is credited with bringing the older Kathak repertoire, including the danced Dhrupad, back onto the concert stage. Hence the correct option is (a).

Green Revolution The Green Revolution in India began in 1966, when the High-Yielding Variety (HYV) seed programme was launched after two successive drought years. Its package was HYV seeds - the Mexican dwarf wheat varieties brought in by Norman Borlaug - together with assured irrigation, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and tractors. M.S. Swaminathan led the effort in India and is called the Father of the Green Revolution in India; wheat output rose fastest in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. 1950 and 1960 fall before the HYV seeds ever reached Indian fields, so neither can mark the beginning. Hence the correct option is (d).

Classical dance regions Kathak is the classical dance of North India, chiefly Uttar Pradesh, and grew out of the storytelling of the 'kathakars' of the temples. It later absorbed Mughal court influence, which is why it is danced on straight legs with fast spins (chakkars) and intricate footwork, unlike the bent-knee southern styles. Kathakali and Mohiniyattam both belong to Kerala and Kuchipudi to Andhra Pradesh, so all three are southern forms. Hence the correct option is (b).

Atmospheric layers, ozone The protective screen is the ozone layer, and the ozone layer lies in the stratosphere, roughly 15 to 35 km above the surface. Ozone there absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet rays, which would otherwise cause skin cancer, cataracts and damage to crops and plankton. The other layers do other work: meteors burn up in the mesosphere, the thermosphere heats up and carries the ionosphere that reflects radio waves, and all weather happens in the lowest layer, the troposphere. Hence the correct option is (a).

Multidimensional Poverty Index NITI Aayog's report 'National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023' records that 13.5 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21. Over the same period the share of the multidimensionally poor fell from 24.85% to 14.96% of the population, the sharpest fall being in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The index does not use income at all: it scores deprivation on 12 indicators grouped under health, education and standard of living. 120.5 crore is close to India's whole population, so it can be ruled out at sight. Hence the correct option is (c).

Second Five-Year Plan The Second Five-Year Plan ran from 1956 to 1961, so the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 falls inside it. That plan was built on P.C. Mahalanobis's model and put heavy industry first - the steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur belong to it. The Resolution matched that aim: it declared the goal of a 'socialistic pattern of society' and divided industry into Schedule A (17 industries reserved for the State), Schedule B (12 to be progressively state-owned) and the rest left to private enterprise. The First Plan (1951-56) was agriculture-led and had ended by 1956, so it cannot be the answer. Hence the correct option is (d).

Civil Registration System app The Civil Registration System (CRS) mobile app was launched in October 2024 by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Births and deaths are registered under the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, and that office works under the Ministry of Home Affairs - the same office that conducts the Census. The app lets a citizen register a birth or a death from anywhere, in the official language of the State, under the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023. Agriculture, Defence and Social Justice have no role in vital registration, so they can be set aside at once. Hence the correct option is (b).

National festivals of India India keeps three national festivals: Republic Day on 26 January, Independence Day on 15 August and Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October. Republic Day marks 26 January 1950, the day the Constitution came into force and India became a sovereign republic instead of a British Dominion. The date was chosen because the Congress had declared Purna Swaraj on 26 January 1930. Constitution Day is 26 November, the day the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution in 1949, and it is an observance, not a national festival. Hence the correct option is (b).

PM's visit to Austria Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Vienna on 9 July 2024, straight from Moscow, for a two-day visit to Austria. It was the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Austria in 41 years, and it came in the year the two countries marked 75 years of diplomatic relations. He held talks with Chancellor Karl Nehammer and President Alexander Van der Bellen, and the two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in technology, infrastructure and green energy. Hence the correct option is (c).

Kepler's law of periods Kepler's third law, the law of periods, says the square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit: $T^2\propto a^3$. Because the cube grows faster than the square, doubling the orbital radius makes the period grow by $2^{3/2}\approx 2.83$ times - the period rises steeply with the radius, exactly as the question describes. Kepler's first law gives elliptical orbits with the Sun at a focus, and the second law says the Sun-planet line sweeps equal areas in equal times. Hubble's law relates a galaxy's recession speed to its distance and the Drake equation estimates communicating civilisations; neither is about planetary periods. Hence the correct option is (a).

Carnatic music trinity Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775-1835) was a South Indian poet, singer and veena player, counted in the Trinity of Carnatic music along with Tyagaraja and Syama Sastri. Carnatic music is the classical tradition of South India, built on ragas (melodic frameworks) and talas (rhythmic cycles); his kritis, many in Sanskrit, are still core concert repertoire. Odissi is a dance form, not a school of music, and Sufi and semi-classical music are traditions no one associates with the Trinity. Hence the correct option is (c).

Functions of a Chief Minister A Chief Minister's work is confined to his own State, so anything that runs across States cannot be his function. Coordination between States is done at the Centre: the Inter-State Council is set up by the President under Article 263, and a Joint State Public Service Commission is created by Parliament with its chairman appointed by the President. That is why option (a) is the odd one out even though the other three are textbook duties of a Chief Minister. Under Article 167 the Chief Minister must communicate all decisions of the Council of Ministers to the Governor, which makes him the sole channel between the two. He also heads the Council of Ministers, guides State policy and advises the Governor on appointments such as the Advocate General and members of the State Public Service Commission. Hence the correct option is (a).

Preparation of salts Take the pairs one by one and the whole option follows. A. Bleaching powder, $CaOC{l}_2$, is made by passing chlorine gas over dry slaked lime, $Ca{\left(OH\right)}_2$ - so A-3. D. Plaster of Paris is made by heating gypsum to about 100°C, which drives off three-fourths of its water - so D-2. C. Washing soda is obtained by heating baking soda to sodium carbonate and then recrystallising it with water of crystallisation - so C-1. B. Baking powder is baking soda mixed with a mild edible acid such as tartaric acid, and it works by an acid-base reaction that sets carbon dioxide free - so B-4. Hence the correct option is (c).

Fundamental Duties The Fundamental Duties were added in 1976 by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. They form Part IV-A of the Constitution, which has a single article, Article 51A, and the idea was borrowed from the Constitution of the erstwhile USSR. Ten duties were inserted in 1976; an eleventh - a parent's duty to provide education to a child aged 6 to 14 - was added by the 86th Amendment in 2002, making eleven in all. The other years are too early: the Constitution itself had only just come into force in 1950, and Part IV-A did not exist until the Emergency-era amendment of 1976. Hence the correct option is (a).