Search Previous Year Questions

The correct answer is Only 4.

Key Points

• The Economic Survey 2023 indicates that the trend of FDI in India is expected to rebound. During the first half of the fiscal year, Singapore emerged as the top investor, followed by Mauritius, the UAE, the USA, the Netherlands, and Japan. This suggests a positive trajectory for FDI inflows, contrary to the statement that it has decreased due to less private sector participation. Hence statement 1 is incorrect.
• Latest data released by RBI in the monthly bulletin showed that during the previous financial year, after adjusting for repatriation and disinvestment by foreign investors, direct inflows were 27% lower at $41.6 billion.
• It has increased compared to the prepandemic levels. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.
• As per the Economic Survey 2022-23, the Indian economy is expected to grow at 7% (in real terms) for the year ending March 2023, following an 8.7% growth in the previous financial year.
• The Economic Survey 2023 suggests a positive trajectory for FDI inflows, contrary to the statement that it has increased rapidly without decreasing in any financial year after the telecom sector was entirely reformed.. Hence statement 3 is incorrect.
• Global FDI collapsed in 2020,due to the pandemic, the recent Russia Ukraine War, and Trade war are also one reasons. So weak global situation was one of the reasons for decrease in FDI. Hence statement 4 is correct.$

• According to 2011 Census the population of Gaya District was 43 lakh (4391418). According to the population estimates and projections from the latest revision of the UN World Urbanization Prospects, Gaya's 2023 population is now estimated at 598,345.
• These estimates represent the Urban agglomeration of Gaya, which typically includes Gaya's population in addition to adjacent suburban areas. But according to estimates as per Aadhar uidai.gov.in Dec 2023 data, the current population is estimated to be 6,104,072.
• So, in view of varying estimates and in the absence of any recent census data, there is no authentic data about current population.

Hence the question is deleted.

The correct answer is The expenditure is on interest payments.

Key Points

• Non-plan expenditures of the Central Government (or Union Government) in India refer to government expenditures that are not part of the planned development activities and projects outlined in the Five-Year Plans.
• These non-plan expenditures are recurring or non-development expenditures that are necessary for the day-to-day functioning of the government. They cover a wide range of expenses and are typically categorized into two main components:
• Revenue Expenditure: This includes the day-to-day operational expenses of the government, such as salaries and wages of government employees, pensions, subsidies, interest payments on loans, maintenance of government offices and infrastructure, and other routine expenses necessary for the functioning of government departments and services. Hence option 1 is correct.
• Capital Expenditure: This category covers government spending on assets that have a long-term value. Capital expenditures include investments in infrastructure development, the purchase of assets like land, buildings, machinery, and equipment, and other items that contribute to the growth and development of the country. While this is not directly related to planned development, it is essential for the overall economic and social progress of the nation.

The correct answer is Increase in exports is greater than increase in imports.

Key Points Impact of Globalisation on Indian Economy: Globalization refers to the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of countries through the exchange of goods, services, information, ideas, and culture across national borders.

• Economic Growth: Globalization has played a vital role in India's economic growth. The liberalization of the Indian economy in the early 1990s opened up opportunities for foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): India has attracted significant FDI, leading to the development of various sectors such as information technology, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• Technology and Innovation: Globalization has facilitated the transfer of technology and knowledge, particularly in the IT sector. India has become a major hub for IT services, and Indian professionals have made significant contributions to the global technology industry.
• Trade: India's trade has expanded significantly, both in terms of exports and imports. The country has become an important player in global trade, benefiting from export-oriented industries such as software services, textiles, and pharmaceuticals. Hence statement 3 is incorrect.
• Cultural Exchange: Globalization has led to greater cultural exchange, with Indian music, film, and cuisine gaining popularity around the world. It has also allowed for greater exposure to and adoption of Western culture in India.
• Education: Indian students have more opportunities to study abroad, and India has become a popular destination for foreign students, contributing to the growth of the education sector.
• Environmental Concerns: The industrial growth associated with globalization has raised environmental challenges, including pollution, resource depletion, and climate change.
• Social and Cultural Challenges: Globalization has introduced new cultural influences and sometimes led to clashes with traditional values and practices in India.

The Correct answer is Only 1.

Key Points

• The central government accounts are divided mainly into two parts- Revenue Account and Capital Account.
• The revenue account consists of revenue receipts and revenue expenditure.
• The capital account consists of capital payments and capital expenditure.
• Fiscal Deficit is the difference between the total income of the government (total taxes and non-debt capital receipts) and its total expenditure.
• It is calculated both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
• The fiscal deficit calculations are based on two components - income and expenditure.
• A high deficit at times also emerges if the government is spending on developmental works like construction of highways, ports, roads, airports which will later generate revenue for the government.
• The Union Budget estimated a central fiscal deficit of 9. per cent (10.2 including off-budget borrowing) of GDP in 2020-21 and 6.8 per cent (7 including off-budget) for 2021-22. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• According to the information of Union Budget the fiscal deficit for FY22 is estimated to be 6.4% of GDP.  Hence statement 2 is incorrect.
• The revenue collection over the last two years has not gone down. Hence statement 3 is incorrect.

The correct answer is All of the above.

Key PointsCauses of the Failure of the Revolt of 1857:

• ​​English Superiority in a Variety of Fields:
• ​The resources of British Imperialism were limitless.
• The British army was excessive in size, having been transported into India in vast numbers from many parts of the world, and many more men were recruited in India itself to put down the Mutiny.
• The British possessed better weapons than the insurgents.
• The British possessed sophisticated rifles and cannons. The Indians had canons, but they were ancient and scarce in number. They were usually using swords and spears to combat.
• The British Navy was superior.
• No Common Goal
• The revolt had no overarching ideology or objective. After seizing control of numerous provinces, leaders and rebels had no long-term strategy for India.
• Every rebellion joined it for its own reasons: rulers joined because they were losing power in the region; Sepoys joined because they felt inferior and wanted to restore the glory of the Mughals, civilians because of religious interference; peasants joined because they wanted to remove zamindars and moneylenders; and so on.
• This made it simple for the British to put down the rebellion.
• ​All-India participation was absent.
• Even though the revolt was massive and widespread, it was mostly localized, confined, and poorly organized.
• The Mutiny was not widespread. It was never a pan-India character, but rather a regional, confined, and poorly organized one.
• The Punjab, the United Provinces, Rohilkhand, Oudh, the Territory between the Narmada and the Chambal, and the Western sections of Bengal, as well as Bihar in the northeast, were all devastated.
• Under Dost Mohammad, Afghanistan was a friendly country. Sindh was quiet, and Rajputana was devoted.
• Though local regiments mutinied at Kolhapur in the Southern Maratha area, and there were numerous violent eruptions of sentiments in Hyderabad, the Nizam's Capital, there was no significant movement south of the Narmada River.
• Central and Eastern Bengal were unaffected, and Nepal aided the British in putting down the rebellion.
• As a result, the uprising was limited to a local level rather than a national one.

Hence all the statements are correct.

The correct answer is Batak Mian.

Key Points

• The year was 1917. On the afternoon of April 15, thousands had gathered at Motihari railway station (in Bihar’s East Champaran) to wait for a man who was destined to lift their lives out of misery.
• It was 3 pm when Gandhi alighted at the station from a train coming from Muzaffarpur. He had come to probe the appalling conditions under which local farmers were being forced by the landlords to grow indigo.
• According to the book Champaran Ke Swatantatra Senani, during this visit, Gandhi got a dinner invitation from a British manager of an indigo plantation named Erwin.
• So, Erwin told his cook, Batak Mian, to serve Gandhi a glass of milk laced with poison. To ensure that this was done, he offered substantial inducements as well as issued threats of dire punishment.
• When the time came, the deeply patriotic cook did present the glass of milk to Gandhi, but also warned him of its contents and revealed Erwin’s sinister intentions behind it.
• Dr Rajendra Prasad, who would later go on to become India’s first president, witnessed the entire episode.
• While Gandhi escaped the assassination attempt to successfully lead the Champaran Satyagraha, the man who had saved his life had to pay dearly for it.
• Dismissed from work, Batak Mian was thrown behind bars and tortured. His house was turned into a crematorium and his family was driven out of their village (Siswa Ajgari, a hamlet near Motihari).

The correct answer is Swami Sahajanand Saraswati.

Key Points 

• After Champaran Satyagraha, Bihar witnessed an important peasant struggle under the aegis of the Bihar Kisan Sabha from 1936-1939.
• The Bihar Pradesh Kisan Sabha at its Gaya session in 1934 gave the call for the rent reduction.
• At some places, Zamindars started selling the Bakasht lands of the peasants on the pretext of the non-payment of rent. Bakasht land was a category of land which was cultivated by the tenants having no occupancy right over it. They would pay rent on it to the Zamindars. Hence, option 1 is the correct answer.
• There was also a provision that if a peasant had been cultivating the Bakasht land for 12 years consecutively, they had the right to occupancy ownership over such land.
• But the peasants were ignorant of such provision and had also no documentary evidence of their continuous cultivation of such lands for 12 years.
• The Zamindars took advantage of this and started either selling the Bakasht lands or converting them into their zirat land, a land as their private holding. The BPKS raised the issue and started the movement known as the Bakasht Sangharsh.

The correct answer is 2–4–1–3.

Key Points The correct chronological order is Surat Split - Minto-Morley Reforms - Home Rule Movement - Kheda Satyagraha.

Surat Split:

• The Extremists wanted the 1907 session to be held in Nagpur (Central Provinces) with Tilak or Lajpat Rai as the president along with a reiteration of the swadeshi, boycott, and national education resolutions.
• The Moderates wanted the session at Surat in order to exclude Tilak from the presidency (since a leader from the host province could not be in session president and Surat was in Tilak’s home province of Bombay).
• Moderates wanted Rashbehari Ghosh as the president and sought to drop the resolutions on the swadeshi, boycott, and national education.
• Both sides adopted rigid positions, leaving no room for compromise.
• The split became inevitable.
• The Congress was now dominated by the Moderates.
• They reiterated the Congress’ commitment to the goal of self-government within the British Empire and the use of constitutional methods only to achieve this goal

Minto-Morley Reforms:

• Indian Council Act of 1909 AD or Morley-Minto Reforms:
• The act was named after the Secretary of State for India John Morley and the Viceroy of India was Lord Minto.
• A separate electorate was introduced for Muslims.
• Lord Minto came to be known as the father of the Communal Electorate and Non-officials to be elected indirectly.
• Thus, the election was introduced for the first time and one Indian was to be on Viceroy’s executive council.
• Satyendra Prasad Sinha was the first Indian to join the council as a Law member.
• During that period extremists and revolutionaries were suppressed with an iron hand by the British government.
• The moderates hoped for some constitutional reforms but however, they were also disappointed with that reforms and they are not supported the British.

Home Rule Movement:

• Annie Besant was a theosophist from Ireland who lived in India.
• She had started the Home Rule movement in India to demand self-government, similar to the Irish Home Rule League.
• After meeting Helena Blavatsky in 1889, Besant became a Theosophist.
• From 1907 to 1933, Annie Besant served as the society's president.
• In Benares, Besant founded the Central Hindu College.
• In 1916, Besant and Bal Gangadhar Tilak founded the All-India Home Rule League.

Kheda Satyagraha:

• In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi organized a satyagraha for the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat. The satyagraha was for the demand for relaxation in revenue collection.
• After arriving in India, Mahatma Gandhi successfully organized satyagraha movements in various places.
• In 1917, he traveled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system.
• Then in 1918, he organized a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda district of Gujarat.
• Gandhiji in 1918 launched Satyagraha at Kheda in Gujarat in support of the peasants who were not able to pay the land tax due to the failure of crops.
• During this struggle, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel emerged as one of the trusted followers of Gandhi.

The correct answer is The Ilbert Bill.

Key Points Lord Lytton:

• Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1^st Earl of Lytton, also known as Lord Lytton, was an English politician who was Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880.
• First Famine Commission was set up in 1878 under the Chairmanship of Sir Richard Strachey. The commission recommended state interference in food trade in the event of famine. India witnessed another major famine in 1896-97.
• Lytton's viceroyalty was characterized by ruthlessness in both domestic and foreign affairs.
• At the time, India was in the grip of a famine caused by crop failure in 1876. In response, he called a durbar and declared Queen Victoria to be the "Empress of India."​

Vernacular Press Act:

• People were dissatisfied with Lytton's unpopular policies, and the native vernacular press mocked him. He drafted the Vernacular Press Act to curtail the wings of the Vernacular Press.
• By virtue of this act, District Magistrates were empowered, without prior permission from the government, to compel a printer and publisher of any kind to enter into a bond, undertaking not to publish anything that might incite discontent against the government.
• The magistrate was also given the authority to deposit security, which could be confiscated if the printer violated the bond.
• If the printer violates again, his press may be seized.
• The worst aspect of this Act was that it discriminated against Native Vernacular Press and loyal Anglo-Indian Press and was dubbed the Gagging Act.
• It was specifically aimed at Amrita Bazaar Patrika, which had turned English overnight in order to avoid being caught up in the act.

Arms Act:

• Another repressive measure of Lord Lytton was the Indian Arms Act. By it, the Indians were asked to seek licence or permission to keep, sell or purchase arms.
• The offenders were to be punished both with fine and imprisonment for a maximum period of seven years.
• The Act itself and the discrimination which it made between the Indians and Englishmen on the basis of race, was bitterly resented by the Indian people.

Additional Information Ilbert Bill:

• It was a legislative act introduced in 1883 during the tenure of Viceroy Ripon.
• It was written by Sir Courtenay Pergine Ilbert.
• The bill stated that Britishers and Europeans would be tried equally in session courts by Indian judges.
• The bill evoked furious protests among the Calcutta European business that Indians are considered equal to Europeans.
• The propaganda that Indian judges could not be trusted in dealing with cases involving English females helped raise considerable support against the bill.
• They even raised a fund of one lakh fifty thousand rupees and established an organization called the European Defence Association.
• The press in England joined the issue. Hence, Ripon amended the bill to satisfy the English in India and England.
• So it was withdrawn but was reintroduced and enacted in 1884 in a severely compromised state.