UPPCS Prelims 2021: questions with answers

The Mughal state rested on the mansabdari system, a military-cum-civil bureaucracy, so the strength of central government depended on military power.

Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic off north-west Africa.

WPI is released by the Office of the Economic Adviser, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Under the DM Act 2005 the Prime Minister chairs the NDMA.

UP's 2021-22 budget provided tablets for students preparing for competitive exams under the Mukhyamantri Abhyudaya Yojana.

Cocoa needs a humid tropical climate; Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon are major producers, Latvia is a Baltic country.

Article 267 creates the Contingency Fund; 266 is the Consolidated Fund and Public Account.

The 2021 theme of World Youth Skills Day (15 July) was 'Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic'.

IIT Bombay converted a PSA nitrogen plant into an oxygen generator in April 2021.

Mediterranean-origin western disturbances bring winter rain and snow to north-west India.

Fly ash is the fine residue from burning coal in thermal power plants.

The scheme offered subsidised religious/historical tours for workers registered with the UP Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.

Fresh snow has the highest albedo (about 80-90%).

The first Indian Institute of Skills was established at Kanpur (foundation stone laid in December 2016).

Barbora Krejcikova is Czech.

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan described Fundamental Rights as 'a pledge to our people and a pact with the civilized world'. (As per the official UPPSC answer key.)

Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency causes cheilosis (cracked lips); pellagra is niacin, scurvy vitamin C and beri-beri thiamine.

Mandi is in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh.

Sleeping sickness is transmitted by the tsetse fly.

Arunachal Pradesh has the lowest density (17 persons per sq km).

Botulism is caused by ingesting the pre-formed toxin of Clostridium botulinum in food, i.e. food intoxication.

The 61st Amendment (1988) amended Article 326 to lower the voting age to 18.

Radioactivity arises from unstable nuclei; the hydrogen bomb works on nuclear fusion (triggered by fission).

Singrauli STPS (Shaktinagar, Sonbhadra, UP) was NTPC's first project; it is not in Chhattisgarh.

Suspended dust particles and molecules scatter sunlight in the atmosphere.

The Inter-State Council was set up in 1990 under Article 263 on the Sarkaria Commission's recommendation.

Oranges are a vitamin C source; vitamin A comes from carrots, liver, etc.

The Statue of Peace (Jain Acharya Vijay Vallabh Surishwar) is at Jetpura, Pali, Rajasthan.

PM-WANI (Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) aims to spread public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Ecomark (BIS, 1991) certifies environment-friendly products.

Voting is not among the Article 51A duties; the others are.

The WFP won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for combating hunger.

Malik Sarwar Khwaja Jahan founded the Sharqi dynasty of Jaunpur, not Malwa (Malwa's independent sultanate was founded by Dilawar Khan Ghori). (As per the official UPPSC answer key.)

World TB Day 2021 (24 March) had the theme 'The Clock is Ticking'.

The 101st Amendment (2016) introduced GST (Article 246A, GST Council under 279A).

Antony Blinken is the US Secretary of State.

Simon Commission (Nov 1927), Nehru Report (1928), Sharda Act (1929), Dandi March (1930).

Blue baby syndrome (methaemoglobinaemia) is due to methaemoglobin in the blood, which cannot carry oxygen; nitrate in water is the usual trigger. (As per the official UPPSC answer key.)

Bottleneck inflation stems from supply-side constraints that monetary tools cannot easily fix, which is why it is hard to tackle.

Lichens are highly sensitive to SO2 and disappear in polluted air.

Haryana (1966), Goa (1987), Jharkhand (2000), Telangana (2014).

American journalist Webb Miller reported the brutal beating of satyagrahis at Dharasana (May 1930).

16 September marks the signing of the Montreal Protocol (1987).

Urbanisation and literacy (especially female literacy) are both associated with lower birth rates.

The draft Bill aimed at a TFR of 2.1 by 2026 against a current TFR of about 2.7. (The question loosely says 'per thousand' but intends these figures.)

Residual powers with the Centre are borrowed from Canada; Australia gave the Concurrent List.

ONGC's registered office is New Delhi; MECL - Nagpur; NMDC - Hyderabad; NALCO - Bhubaneswar.

The UK hosted the 2021 summit at Carbis Bay; guests were India, Australia, South Korea and South Africa, not Brazil.

The PAC's main task is examining the CAG's audit reports on appropriation and finance accounts.

The S-shaped urbanisation curve has an initial stage, an acceleration (second) stage and a terminal stage.

The Adalat-i-Ala, Ranjit Singh's highest court, was at his capital Lahore.

Top performers were Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Uttarakhand; Gujarat was lower.

Socotra belongs to Yemen; it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in 2008.

The scheme requires the applicant to be a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh.

Article 109: Money Bills can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha.

Zero Hour starts immediately after Question Hour (about 12 noon), an Indian innovation not in the rules.

Vasupujya attained nirvana at Champapuri; 20 other Tirthankaras did so at Sammed Shikhar.

Janet Yellen became the first woman US Treasury Secretary in January 2021.

Golaknath (1967), 24th Amendment (1971), Kesavananda Bharati (1973), 42nd Amendment (1976).

The New York Times won the 2021 Public Service Pulitzer for its COVID-19 coverage.

Chilika in Odisha is India's largest coastal lagoon.

INS Talwar participated in Cutlass Express 2021 off East Africa.

Carbohydrates contain only C, H and O; chlorophyll and nucleic acids contain nitrogen.

'Federal' does not appear in the Preamble or anywhere in the Constitution; India is a 'Union of States'.

Amir Hasan Sijzi compiled the malfuzat Fawaid-ul-Fuad.

The EPA was passed in 1986 after the Bhopal gas tragedy.

Capital, technology, population/labour and specialisation drive growth; technocrats and bureaucrats are not a growth factor as such.

The Ringelmann chart grades the density (blackness) of smoke from chimneys.

Vaikom Satyagraha (1924-25) demanded access to temple roads for lower castes; Gandhi visited Vaikom in 1925 and negotiated a settlement.

Low temperature slows respiration and enzyme activity, delaying ripening and decay.

Comte's law of three stages: theological, metaphysical and positive.

Neutrinos are electrically neutral; positrons (+), electrons (-) and alpha particles (+2) are charged.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is Nigerian, the first woman and first African WTO chief.

The Central Agroforestry Research Institute is at Jhansi, not Banda.

Dadabhai Naoroji's book was published in 1901.

K. C. Neogy chaired the First Finance Commission (1951).

Salt makes the outside hypertonic, so water moves out of cells by (ex)osmosis.

Surinsar-Mansar Lakes are in Jammu and Kashmir; the rest are UP Ramsar sites.

Gas exchange occurs across the thin walls of the alveoli.

Rural communities are marked by homogeneity, we-feeling, a definite territory and relative self-sufficiency, not cultural diversity.

Tapa (bark cloth) is made from the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) of the Moraceae family.

The Indian Councils Act 1861 gave statutory recognition to Canning's portfolio system.

Ecosystem components are interdependent, so A is false; R is true.

The 2021-22 UP budget announced the Atmanirbhar Krishak Samanvit Vikas Yojana, Saksham Suposhan Yojana and Pravasi Shramik Udyamita Vikas Yojana; the YUVA Abhiyan came later (2024-25).

Budha Ghagh (Lodh) falls is on the Burha river in Jharkhand; Kanchi river has Dassam falls.

Milk sours due to lactic acid produced by bacteria.

Rainier - USA; Etna - Italy; Paricutin - Mexico; Apo - Philippines.

LPG is mostly butane with propane.

The Jonk is a tributary of the Mahanadi; Punpun, Ajay and Jalangi belong to the Ganga system.

Blood sugar is reported in mg/dL in India and the US.

Saras Aajeevika Mela 2021 was held at Noida Haat, Noida (UP).

Kanto (Tokyo) and Nobi (Nagoya) are Japan's major plains.

The Environment Ministry launched the portal on 21 November 2020.

Bismil's birthplace is Shahjahanpur, where the celebration was held.

Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784.

Net zero means residual emissions are balanced by removals (sinks, capture), not that emissions fall to zero.

Article 75(3) makes the Council of Ministers collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha only; R is true.

AIDC was imposed on a set of items (petrol, diesel, gold, silver, alcoholic beverages, pulses, etc.) covering about 29 tariff products. (Low-confidence; verify with the official key.)

Under Article 317, SPSC members are appointed by the Governor but removed only by the President after an SC inquiry.

Black Sea littoral states: Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia; Syria borders the Mediterranean.

Ralph Fitch (1583), William Hawkins (1608), Nicholas Downton (1614), Thomas Roe (1615).

Capital formation needs savings, their mobilisation by financial institutions, and their investment.

Similipal - Odisha; Pachmarhi - Madhya Pradesh; Nanda Devi - Uttarakhand; Nokrek - Meghalaya.

Ambika Chakravarti was part of Surya Sen's Chittagong group; the others were Naujawan Bharat Sabha members in Punjab.

West to east: Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok.

Sambhar in Rajasthan is India's largest inland salt lake (Chilika is a brackish lagoon).

The Madras Municipal Corporation was set up in 1688.

Amartya Sen's memoir 'Home in the World' was published in July 2021.

The Sensex tracks 30 large, liquid blue-chip stocks.

Sukumar Sen was the first CEC (1950); V. S. Ramadevi briefly served as CEC in 1990, the only woman to hold the post.

Among these, Hapur (about 660 sq km) is the smallest.

Dr Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant in Cape Town in 1967.

The Mekong rises in Qinghai-Tibet and its delta lies in southern Vietnam.

Retinol (vitamin A) forms rhodopsin needed for vision.

Sardar Patel said this while opposing separate electorates in the Constituent Assembly.

Europe remained the most peaceful region in GPI 2021; Iceland was the most peaceful country.

Most vitamins must come from diet (the body makes only a few, like D and K via gut bacteria), so A is false while R is true.

The Accessible India Campaign (2015) aims at universal accessibility for persons with disabilities.

Electric potential (work per unit charge) has only magnitude; it is scalar.

Tamil Nadu - Doddabetta; Rajasthan - Guru Shikhar; Nagaland - Saramati; Madhya Pradesh - Dhupgarh.

Petroleum is a fossil fuel formed over millions of years and is non-renewable.

India had its largest trade surplus (about $17 bn) with the USA in 2019-20.

The P. C. Hota Committee on civil services reforms was constituted in 2004.

Carbon credits/emissions trading came from the Kyoto Protocol (1997).

Satavahana inscriptions and the Gathasaptashati are in Prakrit, and the period saw popular, publicly funded art (Amaravati, Karle, Nashik).

Crookes glass contains cerium oxide, which absorbs UV; it is used in sunglasses.

The Shamal is a hot north-westerly wind over Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

Rajasthan 10, Gujarat 11, Karnataka 12, Punjab 7.

Chloe Zhao directed Nomadland, which won Best Picture and Best Director at the 2021 Oscars.

The Koryaks live in Kamchatka, north-east Siberia; Alaska has Eskimo/Inuit and Aleut peoples.

Balwant Rai Mehta (1957), Ashok Mehta (1977), G.V.K. Rao (1985), L.M. Singhvi (1986).

Article 321 lets the state legislature confer additional functions on the SPSC.

The Teesta shifted from the Ganga system to the Brahmaputra; river shifting/capture is a characteristic feature of Himalayan rivers, which explains A. (As per the official UPPSC answer key.)

Article 280(3)(a): the FC recommends sharing of divisible tax proceeds between the Union and the states.

The Code on Wages subsumes the Payment of Wages, Minimum Wages, Payment of Bonus and Equal Remuneration Acts; contract labour is in the OSH Code.

The accused were Muzaffar Ahmed, S. A. Dange, Nalini Gupta and Shaukat Usmani; Dr M. A. Ansari was a Congress leader.

Uttar Pradesh had about 19.98 crore people in 2011.

Promotion of co-operative societies is Article 43B (97th Amendment); Article 43A covers workers' participation in management.

Maitri (1989) and Bharati (2012) are operational; Dakshin Gangotri is decommissioned.

Bajrang Punia won bronze in wrestling (65 kg); Ravi Dahiya won the wrestling silver.

UP has 8 aspirational districts: Bahraich, Balrampur, Chandauli, Chitrakoot, Fatehpur, Shravasti, Siddharthnagar and Sonbhadra.

UNFPA publishes the State of World Population report (2021: 'My Body is My Own').

Ragamala - Pundarika Vitthala; Rasa Kaumudi - Srikantha; Raga Vibodha - Somanatha; Chaturdandi Prakashika - Venkatamakhi.

Article 87 provides both the timing of the special address and that it informs Parliament of the causes of its summons.

The Great Reset was launched by the WEF in June 2020.

Clove is the dried unopened flower bud of Syzygium aromaticum.

Since 2014 the RBI uses CPI-Combined (rural + urban) as the headline inflation measure.

Under Article 280(2) Parliament determines the qualifications (via the FC Act 1951); the President appoints them.

Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana - 2007; PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana - 2021; PMJAY - 2018; PMSBY - 2015 (the closest option lists 2016).

Tilak never became INC President; Lajpat Rai (1920), Gokhale (1905) and Bose (1938, 1939) did.