English Comprehension PYQs

The correct answer is 4.

Key Points

Speaker of Lok Sabha:

• The Office of the Speaker in India is a living and dynamic institution that deals with the actual needs and problems of Parliament in the performance of its functions.
• Article 93 of the Constitution provides for the election of both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.
• The institutions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker originated in India in 1921 under the provisions of the Government of India Act of 1919 (Montague-Chelmsford Reforms).

List of Lok Sabha Speakers:

• Hence, all of them were Speakers of Lok Sabha.

The correct answer is option 1.

Mistake Points

Note:

This is a new Question-Type in which the number of correct pairs is asked instead of the correct pair itself.

• Therefore option 1 is correct and not option 3.

Key Points

Schedules of the Indian Constitution:

• Indian Constitution originally had eight schedules.
• Four more schedules were added by different amendments, now making a total tally of twelve.

• Hence, only pair 3 is correctly matched.

The correct answer is option 3.

Key Points

Article 21A of the Constitution of India:

• The 86^th Constitutional Amendment in 2002, provided Right to Education as a fundamental right in Part-III of the Constitution.
• It inserted Article 21A which made Right to Education a fundamental right for children between 6-14 years. Hence, option 1 is not correct.
• It provided for a follow-up legislation Right to Education Act 2009.

Article 26 of the Constitution of India:

• This Article provides that every religious denomination has the following rights, subject to morality, health, and public order. Hence, option 2 is not correct.
• The right to form and maintain institutions for religious and charitable intents.
• The right to manage its own affairs in the matter of religion.
• The right to acquire the immovable and movable property.
• The right to administer such property according to the law.

Article 30 of the Constitution of India:

• Article 30 of the Indian Constitution states the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.
• It says: “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.”
• While Article 30 and Article 29 of the Constitution do not specify 'minorities' in India, it is classified into religious minorities and linguistic minorities. Hence, option 3 is correct.

​Article 32 of the Constitution of India:

• Referred to as the ‘heart and soul of the constitution’ by Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Article 32 is a fundamental right envisaged under Part III of the Constitution of India.
• Article 32(3) empowers the parliament to confer the power to issue orders, directions, and writs to any other court within the local jurisdictional limits of India. Hence, option 4 is not correct.

The correct answer is Gravitational pull by Sun and Moon.

Key Points

• The primary forces that influence the currents are:
• heating by solar energy;
• wind
• gravity
• Coriolis force, hence
• The secondary forces that influence the currents are:
• Temperature difference;
• Salinity difference

Important Points

Factors affecting Ocean Currents:

• Density
• Varying density caused by temperature and salinity in oceans led to vertical currents in oceans.
• Air pressure and wind
• Monsoon winds are responsible for the seasonal reversal of ocean currents in the Indian Ocean.
• Further influence of atmospheric pressure and insolation causes variation in winds movements which affects ocean currents eventually.
• Rotation of Earth
• The Coriolis effect is a result of the rotation of the earth.
• Coriolis force causes the matter to move right in the northern hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere.

The correct answer is Geyserites.

Key Points

Sedimentary Rocks:

• Sedimentary rocks are formed by lithification ― consolidation and compaction of sediments.
• Hence, they are layered or stratified of varying thickness. Example: sandstone, shale etc.
• Sediments are a result of denudation (weathering and erosion) of all types of rocks.
• Depending upon the mode of formation, sedimentary rocks are classified into:
• mechanically formed — sandstone, conglomerate, limestone, shale, loess.
• Organically formed — geyserite, chalk, limestone, coal. Hence option 4 Is correct.
• Chemically formed — limestone, halite, potash.

Mechanically Formed Sedimentary Rocks:

• They are formed by mechanical agents like running water, wind, ocean currents, ice, etc.
• Arenaceous sedimentary rocks have more sand and bigger sized particles and are hard and porous.
• They form the best reservoirs for liquids like groundwater and petroleum. E.g. sandstone.
• Argillaceous rocks have more clay and are fine-grained, softer, mostly impermeable (mostly non-porous or have very tiny pores). E.g. claystone and shales are predominantly argillaceous.

The correct answer is 1 and 2 only.

Key Points

Inversion of temperature:

• Under normal conditions, temperature usually decreases with increase in altitude in the troposphere at a rate of 1 degree for every 165 metres. This is called normal lapse rate.
• But on some occasions, the situations get reversed and the temperature starts increasing with height rather than decreasing. This is called temperature inversion. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• It is a reversal of the normal behavior of temperature in the troposphere. Under this meteorological phenomenon a layer of warm air lies over the cold air layer.
• It is caused in stac atmospheric conditions while some times, it occurs due to horizontal or vertical movement of air.
• Temperature inversion is usually of short duration but quite common nonetheless.

​​​Favourable Conditions for Temperature Inversion:

• Long winter nights
• Loss of heat by terrestrial radiation from the ground surface during night may exceed the amount of incoming solar radiation.
• Cloudless and clear sky.
• Loss of heat through terrestrial radiation proceeds more rapidly without any obstruction. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Dry air near the ground surface
• Slow movement of air
• Snow covered ground surface
• It results in maximum loss of heat through reflection of incoming solar radiation.
• This regular temperature inversion in the high Arctic is caused by the lack of surface heating by the Sun, which stays below the horizon during the winter (the Polar Night), and the continuous loss of heat from the surface (through emission of infrared radiation).
• Hence, temperature inversion is common phenomenon at the poles. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

The correct answer is Sikkim.

Key Points

• Tsomgo Lake is situated in Sikkim.
• It is also known as Changu Lake.
• This lake is a glacial lake near the capital Gangtok.
• The world's third-highest mountain, Kanchenjunga, regarded as the guardian deity of Sikkim.
• Sikkim is a part of the Eastern Himalayas, one of the 18 Biodiversity hotspots in the world.

The correct answer is 1, 2 and 3.

Key Points

Geographical differences between Eastern Coast and Western Coast of India:

• From the above table, statements 1, 2 and 3 are correct.

The correct answer is Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Key Points

Coral Reefs of India:

• Being one of the most ancient and dynamic ecosystems of the world, coral reefs have been necessary to sustain life in the oceans.
• Due to the warm, tropical region in India, corals thrive in the Indian Ocean.
• These reefs not only provide sanctuary to a vast ecosystem but also protect the coastlines from eroding.
• India is recorded to have around 7,517 km of coastline but only 6,100 km represents the mainland coastline.
• The three major types of coral reefs found in India are fringing, barrier and atolls.
• Coral reefs in India are found in many areas including the Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, Andaman & Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands.
• The Gulf of Kutch in the northwest has some of the most northern reefs in the world.
• Patches of coral reefs are also found in Ratnagiri, Malvan, and Redi, south Bombay, and at the Gaveshani Bank located in the west of Mangalore.

Important Points

The correct answer is Acceptance of deposits.

Key Points 

• Functions of Commercial Banks
• ​Bank refers to a financial institution where we deposit our savings, withdraw our money in case of emergency, and take loans.
• The banker is under obligation to repay the money to the depositor as and when demanded by the depositor.
• The depositor can withdraw his money through cheques, drafts, etc.
• The Agency functions can be divided under the following heads:
• Accepting deposits - Commercial banks accept deposits from their customers in the form of saving, fixed, and current deposits. Hence option 1 is correct.
• Providing loans - One of the main functions of commercial banks is providing credit to organizations and individuals, and profit from the earned interest

Important Points

• Secondary Functions:
• Collection of cheques, bills, and drafts
• Payment of interest, installments of loans, insurance premiums, etc.
• Purchase and sale of securities
• Collection of interest, dividend, etc
• Transfer of funds through demand drafts, mail transfer, etc
• Purchase and sale of foreign exchange.

The correct answer is M3.

Key Points

• Money supply, like money demand, is a stock variable.
• The total stock of money in circulation among the public at a particular point of time is called money supply.
• RBI publishes figures for four alternative measures of money supply which is M1, M2, M3 and M4. They are defined as follows
• M1 = CU + DD
• M2 = M1 + Savings deposits with Post Office savings banks
• M3 = M1 + Net time deposits of commercial banks
• M4 = M3 + Total deposits with Post Office savings organisations (excluding National Savings Certificates).
• CU is currency (notes plus coins) held by the public and DD is net demand deposits held by commercial banks.
• M1 and M2 are known as narrow money while M3 and M4 are known as broad money.
• These measures are in decreasing order of liquidity.
• M1 is most liquid and easiest for transactions whereas M4 is least liquid of all.
• M3 is the most commonly used measure of money supply. It is also known as aggregate monetary resources.

The correct answer is Goa.

Key Points

• Goa has become the first state in the country to provide 100 percent tap water connections covering 2.30 lakh households.
• The State of Punjab and the UTs of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu have also crossed the milestone of covering 75% of rural homes with assured tap water supply.
• The Union Territory of Puducherry has become the fourth State/UT after Goa, Telangana and Andaman & Nicobar Islands to provide assured tap water supply to every rural home under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)

Additional Information

• Jal Jeevan Mission
• ​JJM envisages supply of 55 litres of water per person per day to every rural household through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) by 2024.
• It is under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and states is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States, 50:50 for other states, and 100% for Union Territories.
• The total allocation to the scheme is over Rs. 3 lakh crore.
• It also encompasses prioritizing provision of FHTCs in quality affected areas, villages in drought prone and desert areas, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) villages, etc.

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• The central government proposes to replace 29 existing labour laws with four Codes.
• The objective is to simplify and modernise labour regulation.
• The Labour Codes which were passed in both the Houses of the Parliament and received Presidential Assent are as follows:
• Code on Wages
• Industrial Relations Code
• Social Security Code
• Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code
• The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 
• ​​The code aims to consolidate and amend the laws regulating the occupational safety, health and working conditions of the persons employed in an establishment.
• This Code replaces 13 existing Laws:
• ​ The Factories Act, 1948, The Mines Act, 1952, The Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986, The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, The Plantations Labour Act, 1951, The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.

Additional Information 

• Labour falls under the Concurrent List of the Constitution.
• Therefore, both Parliament and state legislatures can make laws regulating labour.​

The correct answer is 2 only.

Key Points

• Life expectancy at any age is the average number of additional years a person is expected to live at current mortality trends.
• Life expectancy at birth is the age a person is expected to live up to.
• Estimates of life expectancy are based on death rates estimated through the Sample Registration System (SRS), an ORGI survey conducted to provide mortality and fertility estimates.
• Data:
• India has seen an improvement in overall life expectancy at birth to 69 years, with women expected to live for 70.4 years and men for 67.8 years. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
• According to the latest Sample Registration Survey (SRS) for 2013-17,

the overall life expectancy grew from 68.7 years in 2012-16, when life expectancy for women was 70.2 years and that for men was 67.4 years.

• Life expectancy for women was 73.70 years in urban centres and 69 in rural areas while the comparative figures for men were 71.20 years and 66.40 years, respectively.
• Life expectancy at birth increased by 0.3 years for rural India to 68.3 years in 2015-19.
• For urban India, which has always had a higher life expectancy, the increase was bigger (0.4 year). Urban Indians were expected to live up to 73 years. Hence statement 1 is correct.

Additional Information

• India’s life expectancy at birth has reached up to 69.7 during 2015-2019.
• Data suggests that high under-five mortality and infant mortality could be one of the reasons that, India finds it difficult to increase life expectancy at birth.

The correct option is 2 and 3.

Key Points

• Kisan Drones
• The Kisan drone will have an unmanned tank filled with insecticides and nutrients.
• The drones are expected to have a high capacity of 5 to 10kg.
• The drone will spray the same amount of pesticide on about one acre of land in just 15 minutes.
• It will save time, will require less effort and spraying will be done uniformly.
• They will also be used to carry vegetables, fruits, fish, etc to the markets from the farms.
• These items will be supplied directly to the market with minimal damage, consuming lesser time, and resulting in more profits for farmers and fishermen.
• Kisan Drones will be used to boost the agricultural sector in the country.

Mistake Points

• The use of Kisan Drones will be promoted for crop assessment, digitization of land records, and spraying of insecticides and nutrients but not spraying weedicides.​ Hence option 2 is correct.

Additional Information

• The government banned the import of drones to encourage their manufacturing in India (Drone Shakti Scheme).
• In January, 2022 revised guidelines of the “Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization” (SMAM) scheme was issued in a move aimed at making drones more accessible to the farmers.

The correct answer is option 4.

Key Points

• Prime Minister Modi on June 6, 2022, launched Jan Samarth Portal for credit-linked government schemes.
• It is a one-stop digital portal linking government credit schemes.
• PM also inaugurated the Iconic Week Celebrations of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 6 June 2022.
• The Iconic week (June 6-11,2022) is being celebrated as part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

Additional Information

• It is the first of its kind platform, connecting beneficiaries directly to the lenders.
• It ensures end-to-end coverage of all the linked schemes.
• Jan Samarth Portal is a unique digital portal, that will link 13 Credit Linked Government schemes on a single platform.

The correct answer is Uttarakhand.

Key Points 

• The first liquid mirror telescope in the country and the largest in Asia - was commissioned atop Devasthal, a hill in Uttarakhand.
• It will now keep a watch on the overhead sky to identify transient or variable objects such as
• Supernovae, gravitational lenses, space debris, and asteroids.
• The Indian Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) will help in surveying the sky making it possible to observe several galaxies.

Additional Information

• It is built by astronomers from India, Belgium, and Canada, the novel instrument employs a 4-meter-diameter rotating mirror made up of a thin film of liquid mercury to collect and focus light.
• It is located at an altitude of 2,450 metres at the Devasthal Observatory campus of Aryabhatt Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India in Nainital district, Uttarakhand.
• Devasthal Observatory now hosts two four-meter class telescopes - the ILMT and the Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT).
• The telescope was designed and built by the Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems (AMOS) Corporation and the Centre Spatial de Liege in Belgium.

The correct answer is New Delhi.

Key Points

National Tribal Research Institute:

• As a part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Shri Amit Shah inaugurated the National Tribal Research Institute in New Delhi.
• The National Tribal Research Institute will be a premier national-level institute.
• It will become a nerve centre of tribal concerns, matters and issues in academic, legislative and executive fields.
• There are 26 Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs) supported by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India.
• The National Tribal Research Portal facilitates the Tribal Research Institute (TRIs), Centre of Excellence (CoEs) & Research Institutes recognised by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Functions of National Tribal Research Institute:

• It will network and collaborate with reputed research institutes, organisations, universities, resource centres and academic bodies.
• The institute will monitor projects of Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs), research scholars of NFS and Centres of Excellence (CoEs).
• It will also set up norms to improve in quality of research and training.

The correct answer Shooting.

Key Points

• Avani Lekhara is from Jaipur, Rajasthan.
• As 19-year-old Avani Lekhara won the gold medal in women’s 10 m air rifle Standing event in the SH 1 category at the Tokyo Paralympics.
• She became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics.
• Avani shot 249.6 points in the R2 women’s 10m air rifle SH1 category for a Paralympic Record and equal the World Record.
• In the final, she led from the start and edged out China’s Zhang C and Ukraine’s I Shchetnik in the medal series to win the gold.
• Avani has won many World Cup medals since 2017 including a Silver with a Junior World Record in R2 at the WSPS World Cup 2017, bronze at the WSPS World Cup Bangkok 2017, silver in the WSPS World Cup in Osijek, Croatia 2019 and silver in the WSPS World Cup Al-Ain 2021. She won the Tokyo Paralympics quota in February 2019 in the UAE.
• In 2012, the whole Lekhara family met with an accident on their way to Dholpur from Jaipur.
• The then 11-year-old Avani suffered a spinal cord injury and was paralysed below the waist.

The Correct Answer is Sulphuric acid.

Key Points

Key facts about Venus are as follows:

• Venus’s clouds are laced with toxic sulfur dioxide, and its surface temperature is 500°C.
• Venus year is identical to 225 days even as a Venus day is identical to 243 days.
• An afternoon on Venus is longer than a year.
• The atmosphere of Venus is made up mainly of carbon dioxide, and thick clouds of sulfuric acid completely cover the planet.
• These opposed situations are due to a runaway greenhouse impact on Venus.
• Venus is also known as Morning or Evening Star.
• Venus rotates backward which means that on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
• Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon and sometimes looks like a bright star in the morning or evening sky.

Important Points

• Venus is included with the aid of using a thick layer of so-called sulfuric acid clouds.
• Venus is a rocky planet and is about equal length because of the earth. product of rocky crust and mantel and an iron center.
• Its surroundings particularly are composed of carbon dioxide, which's an effective greenhouse gas and makes the planet a warm oven with temperatures as much as 470°C.
• There are thick clouds of sulfuric acid throughout its sky.