APPSC Group II · Past-year questions with answers

The answer is (b) Convention. No rule or law requires an opposition chairman; it is a settled practice. The Public Accounts Committee examines the audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the accounts of the Government. Since the late 1960s its chairman has been chosen from the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha. No article of the Constitution and no rule of procedure demands this; it is a parliamentary convention that has been followed continuously. The aim is that the body checking government spending is not led by the government's own side.

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The answer is (d): only statement c is incorrect. European painting reached the Mughal court through Jesuit missionaries and, later, English envoys, not Danish merchants. Humayun spent years in exile at the Safavid court of Iran and brought the painters Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad back with him. They founded the Mughal atelier, so statement a is correct. Jahangir had a keen eye for nature, portraits and animal studies, and his reign is called the golden period of Mughal painting, so statement b is correct. European art came to the court through Portuguese Jesuit missions, which brought prints and paintings to Akbar's court, and Jahangir collected such works. Sir Thomas Roe, the English envoy, also presented European pictures. Danish merchants had no such role, so statement c is incorrect.

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The answer is (c): the Alps are young fold mountains. Young fold mountains were raised by the collision of plates in the Tertiary period, roughly the last 65 million years. The Alps, Himalayas, Rockies and Andes belong to this group. They are high, rugged and still rising. The Appalachians, Aravalis and Urals are very old, worn-down ranges formed hundreds of millions of years ago.

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The answer is (a). The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks. Repo means 'repurchase'. A commercial bank sells government securities to the RBI for short-term funds and agrees to buy them back later. The interest rate charged on this short-term loan is the repo rate. A higher repo rate makes borrowing dearer and tends to reduce credit and inflation, and a lower rate does the opposite. The reverse of this is the reverse repo rate, at which the RBI borrows from banks.

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The answer is (b): III, II, IV, I. Chauri Chaura (1922) came first, then the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931), the Poona Pact (1932) and the Cripps Mission (1942). Chauri Chaura took place on 4 February 1922, after which Gandhi called off the Non-Cooperation Movement. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed on 5 March 1931 and ended the first phase of Civil Disobedience. The Poona Pact followed on 24 September 1932 after the Communal Award. The Cripps Mission came to India in March 1942. So the order is III, II, IV, I.

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The answer is (a). Articles 20 and 21 stay enforceable even during a National Emergency, so the right under Article 21 cannot be suspended. The 44th Amendment (1978) changed Article 359 so that the President's order suspending the right to move courts for Fundamental Rights cannot cover Articles 20 and 21. These two protect against conviction under retrospective laws or double punishment (Article 20) and protect life and personal liberty (Article 21). Article 19 is different: under Article 358 its freedoms are suspended automatically while an Emergency based on war or external aggression is in force. Rights under Articles 14 and 22 can be covered by a Presidential order under Article 359.

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The answer is (c). Pairs I and III are correct. The Second Carnatic War ended with the Treaty of Pondicherry, not the Treaty of Yandabo. The First Carnatic War (1746–48) was an extension of the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe and ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, so pair I is correct. The Second Carnatic War (1749–54) ended with the Treaty of Pondicherry in 1754. The Treaty of Yandabo (1826) ended the First Anglo-Burmese War, so pair II is wrong. The Third Carnatic War (1758–63) was linked to the Seven Years' War and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, so pair III is correct.

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The answer is (d) None of the above: the Preamble does not call India unitary, federal or quasi-federal. The Preamble declares India a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. It does not use the word 'federal' or 'unitary'. Article 1 describes India as a 'Union of States', and the federal features sit in the body of the Constitution, not in the Preamble. So none of the three labels is stated by the Preamble.

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The answer is (a) Brahmaputra. In Tibet the Brahmaputra is called the Tsangpo. The Brahmaputra rises near the Mansarovar lake in Tibet, where it is called the Yarlung Tsangpo (Tsangpo). It flows east, turns around the Namcha Barwa peak and enters Arunachal Pradesh, where it is called the Siang or Dihang. In Assam it is the Brahmaputra and in Bangladesh the Jamuna.

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The answer is (b). Under Article 3 the President must refer the bill to the affected State Legislature for its views, but is not bound by them. Article 3 lets Parliament form a new State or alter the area, boundaries or name of an existing State by a simple majority law. A bill for this can be introduced only on the recommendation of the President. If it affects the area, boundaries or name of a State, the President refers it to that State's Legislature to express its views within a time he fixes. The President may extend that time. Neither the President nor Parliament is bound to accept those views, and no special majority or concurrence is needed. This is why Parliament can reshape States, unlike the amendment of the federal provisions.

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The answer is (b). Article 276 caps profession tax at ₹2,500 per person per year. Article 276 lets a state levy taxes on professions, trades, callings and employments. It sets a ceiling on the amount: not more than ₹2,500 per person per year. The earlier ceiling was ₹250, raised to ₹2,500 by the Constitution (Sixtieth Amendment) Act, 1988. The tax is levied by the states, and the cap exists so that it does not become a burden like income tax.

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The answer is (c) Boghazkoi. This Hittite-site treaty tablet of about 1380 BCE names Indra, Varuna, Mitra and the Nasatyas as witnesses. Boghazkoi (ancient Hattusa) in Anatolia, Turkey, gave a treaty between the Hittite king Suppiluliuma and the Mitanni king Mattiwaza, dated about 1380 BCE. The gods swearing the oath include Indra, Varuna, Mitra and the Nasatyas (the Ashvins). These are Vedic names, so the tablet is key evidence for the early spread of Indo-Aryan speakers and for the age of the Rigveda. The Indian inscriptions listed are Ashokan edicts and a later Saka record, which carry no Vedic god names.

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The answer is (d), 6 hours. If both take T hours together, then T squared equals 8 times 4.5, so T is 6. Let both working together take T hours. Then Mahesh alone takes T + 8 hours and Krishna alone takes T + 4.5 hours. Their combined rate must equal the rate of the pair: 1/(T+8) + 1/(T+4.5) = 1/T. Combine the left side: (2T + 12.5) / ((T+8)(T+4.5)) = 1/T. Cross-multiply: T(2T + 12.5) = (T+8)(T+4.5) = T² + 12.5T + 36. So 2T² + 12.5T = T² + 12.5T + 36, which gives T² = 36 and T = 6. Check: Mahesh alone takes 14 hours and Krishna alone takes 10.5 hours. 1/14 + 1/10.5 = 3/42 + 4/42 = 7/42 = 1/6. Shortcut: when the two solo times are T + a and T + b, the joint time is the square root of a times b. Here the root of 8 × 4.5 = 36 is 6.

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The answer is (d) Nationally determined contributions. Each country sets its own climate pledge under the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement of December 2015 asks every country to put forward its own national climate action plan, called a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Countries decide their targets themselves, and these are reviewed and strengthened every five years. Before the agreement they were called 'intended' NDCs. India's pledge included cutting the emissions intensity of its GDP.

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The answer is (c) Stupas. The anda, harmika and chhatri are the three main parts of a stupa. A stupa is a Buddhist mound-shaped monument that holds relics. Its solid hemispherical dome is the anda. On top of the dome sits the harmika, a small square railing-like enclosure. From the harmika rises a pole carrying one or more stone umbrellas, the chhatri. The Great Stupa at Sanchi shows all three parts clearly.

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The answer is (b) Bathymetry, the measurement and mapping of the depth and shape of the sea floor. Bathymetry is the study and mapping of underwater depth, in the way that topography maps the land. It is done today with echo sounders (sonar) and satellite altimetry, and it produces charts of ocean-floor relief such as ridges and trenches. Oceanography is the wider study of the oceans, which includes bathymetry but is not specifically sea-floor mapping.

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The answer is (b) Capital account convertibility. The 1991 reforms freed the current account but did not open the capital account fully. The 1991 reforms liberalised industry and trade, opened the economy to foreign investment, and began privatisation through disinvestment of public sector shares. India moved to current account convertibility in 1994 but did not adopt full capital account convertibility; the Tarapore Committee only set out a roadmap to it. FDI in retail and in defence production was opened up step by step as part of the same liberalising direction, and disinvestment has been a core privatisation measure since 1991-92. So capital account convertibility is the one that is not a part of the LPG package.

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The answer is (d) 42.5625. The gaps between terms grow by a factor of 1.5, so the last term should be 43.5625, not 42.5625. Write the differences between consecutive terms: 4 - 2 = 2; 7 - 4 = 3; 11.5 - 7 = 4.5; 18.25 - 11.5 = 6.75; 28.375 - 18.25 = 10.125. Now compare them: 2 x 1.5 = 3; 3 x 1.5 = 4.5; 4.5 x 1.5 = 6.75; 6.75 x 1.5 = 10.125. So each difference is 1.5 times the one before. The next difference must be 10.125 x 1.5 = 15.1875. The last term should then be 28.375 + 15.1875 = 43.5625. The series gives 42.5625, which is exactly 1 less, so 42.5625 is the odd one. All earlier terms (2, 4, 7, 11.5, 18.25, 28.375) fit the rule.

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The answer is (a). ICDS is a centrally sponsored scheme whose cost is shared between the Centre and the State governments. ICDS was launched on 2 October 1975 and delivers services through anganwadi centres: supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health check-ups, referral services and pre-school education. It is a centrally sponsored scheme, so the cost is split between the Union and the State governments in an agreed ratio. It is not wholly paid by one government and it does not depend on foreign aid.

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The answer is (a) Dual In-line Memory Module. DIMM is the standard memory stick used in computers. DIMM stands for Dual In-line Memory Module. It is a small circuit board carrying RAM chips. Its name says that the contacts on the two sides of the board are separate and independent. This is unlike the older SIMM (Single In-line Memory Module), where the contacts on both sides were joined. Desktop computers use DIMMs, and laptops use the smaller SO-DIMM.

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