Search Previous Year Questions

The correct answer is growth in per capita real income from year to year

Key Points

• The best Index of Economic Development is provided by Per capita, Gross National Product (GNP)  Hence option 2 is correct.
• It can be derived by dividing the GNP of a country by its population. The higher the level of per capita income, the higher is the economic development.
• The World Bank, in its world development report 1998, classified the countries in the world on the bases of per capita GNP.

The correct answer is 2020-21 to 2024-25

Key PointsSwachh Bharat Mission (Grameen)

• Under the mission, all villages, Gram Panchayats, Districts, States and Union Territories in India declared themselves "open-defecation free"
• The Mission is moving towards the next Phase II of SBMG i.e ODF-Plus.
• Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase II is to be implemented during the 2020-21 to 2024-25 time period. Hence option 3 is correct.
• ODF Plus activities under Phase II of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) will reinforce ODF behaviors and focus on providing interventions for the safe management of solid and liquid waste in villages.

Additional Information

• To accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put the focus on sanitation, the Prime Minister of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2^nd October 2014.
• Under the mission, all villages, Gram Panchayats, Districts, States and Union Territories in India declared themselves "open-defecation free" (ODF) by 2 October 2019 in First Phase.
• On the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, by constructing over 100 million toilets in rural India.
• To ensure that the open defecation-free behaviours are sustained, no one is left behind, and that solid and liquid waste management facilities are accessible,

The correct answer is option 5

Key Points

• National Development Council (NDC) or the Rashtriya Vikas Parishad is the apex body for decision-making and deliberations on development matters in India presided over by the Prime Minister.
• The Council comprises the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers of all States or their substitutes, representatives of the Union Territories, and the members of the NITI Aayog (erstwhile Planning Commission).
• National Development Council was set up on August 6, 1952, to strengthen and mobilize the effort and resources of the nation in support of the Plan, to promote common economic policies in all vital spheres, and to ensure the balanced and rapid development of all parts of the country.
• NDC (National Development Council) has been proposed to be abolished. But till date no resolution has been passed to abolish it. Since the inception of NITI Aayog's Governing Council

The correct answer is 

Key Points 

Sarkaria Commission

• The Sarkaria Commission was set up in 1983 under the chairmanship of RS Sarkaria.
• It gave its final report in 1987.
• its main objective is to strengthen Central-State Relationship.
• It made 247 recommendations related to Central state relations that were against over-centralization or under-centralization.

C. Rangarajan Committee

• The C Rangarajan Committee was formed to Review the Poverty Measurement Methodology and presented its report to Union Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh.
• The report dismissed the Tendulkar Committee's estimate of India's poverty rate. According to the report, this figure was substantially higher in 2011-2012, at 29.5 percent of the population, implying that three out of ten Indians were poor.

Parekh committee

• A high-level government committee on infrastructure has proposed a public-private partnership (PPP) model for power distribution starting with cities, modernization of public-sector Discoms with viability gap funding by the Centre, and a unique model to privatize coal mining where Coal India or its arms retain ownership of mines.
• The Deepak Parekh committee, in its final report to be submitted to the government this week, will also recommend earmarking 15% of the power generation capacity of Central PSUs for open access consumers.

Narasimham Committee

• Narasimhan committee recommendation on the Banking sector.
• The Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Maidavolu Narasimham. He was the 13^th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 2 May 1977 to 30 November 1977.

The correct answer is option 4.

Key Points

Rice production in India:

• India is the second-largest producer of rice in the world after China.
• India contributes more than 20% to the world's rice production.
• National Food Security Mission, Hybrid Rice Seed Production and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana are a few government initiatives to support rice cultivation.
• The major rice-producing states are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Assam, and Haryana.
• Hence the correct ascending order is Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.
• Hence, the correct answer is option 4.

The correct answer is option 2.

Key Points

The arrival of the Cripps Mission (March 1942):

• In March 1942, a mission headed by Stafford Cripps was sent to India with constitutional proposals to seek Indian support for World War II.
• Stafford Cripps was a left-wing Labourite, the leader of the House of Commons, and a member of the British War Cabinet who had actively supported the Indian national movement.

Quit India Resolution (July 1942):

• After Cripps’ departure, Gandhi framed a resolution calling for British withdrawal and a non-violent non-cooperation movement against any Japanese invasion.
• The CWC meeting at Wardha (July 14, 1942) accepted the idea of a struggle.
• The Quit India Resolution was ratified at the Congress meeting at Gowalia Tank, Bombay, on August 8, 1942.

​The arrival of Lord Wavell as the Governor-General (June 1943):

• On 15 June 1943, Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered Lord Wavell the position of Viceroy of India, which he accepted.
• He was Viceroy of India from 1943 to 1947.

The arrival of the Cabinet Mission (February 1946):

• The Attlee government announced in February 1946 the decision to send a high-powered mission of three British cabinet members (Pethick Lawrence, Secretary of State for India; Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade; and A.V. Alexander, First Lord of Admiralty) to India to find out ways and means for a negotiated, peaceful transfer of power to India. (Pethick Lawrence was the chairman of the mission.)
• The Cabinet Mission reached Delhi on March 24, 1946.

The correct answer is Jawaharlal Nehru

Key Points

 Lahore Session of INC

• In 1929 the Congress session under the presidentship of Jawaharlal Nehru was held at Lahore in 1929. Hence option 3 is correct.
• This session was very significant because in this Lahore session the prominent party Indian National Congress took the resolution of Poorna Swaraj or complete independence.
• In this, the Indian tricolor flag was hoisted by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru on the bank of the Ravi river.

Additional Information

• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel became the president of the Indian National Congress in the Karachi session in 1931.
• Motilal Nehru became the president of the Indian National Congress in the Calcutta session in 1928.
• Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress during the Bombay session in October 1934. He again became the president when Subhash Chandra Bose resigned in 1939.

The correct answer is Ram Manohar Lohia.

Key Points

Champaran Satyagraha (1917): First Civil Disobedience

• Mahatma Gandhi was requested by Rajkumar Shukla, a local man, to look into the problems of the farmers in the context of indigo planters of Champaran in Bihar.
• The European planters had been forcing the peasants to grow indigo on 3/20 part of the total land (called Tinkathia system).
• Besides, the peasants were forced to sell the produce at prices fixed by the Europeans.
• When Gandhi, joined now by Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul-Haq, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parekh, and J.B. Kripalani, reached Champaran to probe into the matter, the authorities ordered him to leave the area at once.
• The government appointed a committee to go into the matter and nominated Gandhi as a member.
• Gandhi was able to convince the authorities that the Tinkathia system should be abolished and that the peasants should be compensated for the illegal dues extracted from them.
• As a compromise with the planters, he agreed that only 25% of the money taken should be compensated.
• Other popular leaders associated with Champaran Satyagraha were Brajkishore Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Ramnavmi Prasad, and Shambhusharan Varma.
• Hence, Ram Manohar Lohia is not related to the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 AD.

The correct answer is Jagdishpur.

Key Points

• The Revolt of 1857 was also called the First War of Independence and 'Sepoy Mutiny'.
• It was a widespread but unsuccessful revolt against British Rule from 1857-59.
• In Bihar, the revolt was led by Kunwar Singh, the zamindar of Jagdishpur.
• Babu Kunwar Singh ( 1777- 1858) was a zamindar of Jagdishpur near Arrah in the state of Bihar.
• He belonged to a royal Ujjainiya (Panwar) Rajput house of Jagdispur, currently a part of Bhojpur district, Bihar.
• He was the son of Raja Shahabzada Singh and Rani Panchratan Kunwar Devi Singh.
• At the age of 80 years, during India's first war of Independence (1857-58), he assumed command of the soldiers who had revolted at Danapur on 5 July 1857.
• He occupied Arrah which was relieved by major Eyre on 3^rd  August.

In his last battle which was fought on 23 April 1858 near Jagdishpur, Kunwar Singh had a victory over the force led by Captain Le Grand.

Additional Information

The correct answer is Jayaprakash Narayan.

Key Points

• During the Quit India Movement of August 1942, Jayaprakash Narayan along with Ram Manohar Lohia and Aruna Asaf Ali, took charge of the ongoing stir when all the senior leaders had been arrested.
• However, he also could not remain outside the jail for a long time and was soon arrested under Defence of India Rules, a preventive detention law that did not require a trial.
• He was put in Hazari Bagh Central Jail.
• Jayaprakash Narayan along with his accomplices started making plans to escape from the Jail. Their chance came soon on a Diwali day in November 1942 when a large number of guards were on leave because of the festival. It was a daring escape which made Jayaprakash Narayan into a folk hero.
• Jayaprakash Narayan organised an “Azaad Dasta” (freedom brigade) in Nepal.
• He is the main leader of the Total Revolution Movement against Indira Gandhi.
• On June 5, 1974, Jayaprakash Narayan gave the slogan of Sampurn Kranti (total revolution) against Indira Gandhi.
• Jayaprakash Narayan was Posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna in 1999.