Civil Services Examination Prelims 2020: questions with answers

In the Puttaswamy (Aadhaar) verdict (2018) the SC allowed metadata storage for up to 6 months (not 3), struck down Section 57 so private entities cannot use Aadhaar data, and held Aadhaar is not mandatory for insurance/bank accounts; it remains mandatory for subsidies/benefits from the Consolidated Fund of India (Section 7).

A constitutional amendment bill under Article 368 must be passed by each House separately with a special majority; there is no joint sitting, so both Houses have equal power. Creating new AIS is an exclusive Rajya Sabha power (Art. 312), while removal of government and cut motions belong to Lok Sabha.

MPLADS works must create durable community assets; at least 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST areas; district authority must inspect at least 10% of works yearly. Funds are non-lapsable and can be carried forward, so statement 3 is wrong.

Article 17 (abolition of untouchability) falls under the Right to Equality (Articles 14–18).

Article 50 (a DPSP) directs the State to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.

Section 3 of the FRBM Act, 2003 requires the Macro-Economic Framework Statement, Medium-Term Fiscal Policy Statement and Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement to be laid with the Budget.

A constitutional government is one whose powers are limited by a constitution, i.e., a limited government.

The Preamble (justice, liberty, equality, dignity), DPSPs (social and economic rights) and Fundamental Duties (Art. 51A; UDHR Art. 29 speaks of duties to community) all reflect UDHR principles.

Under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 and related rules (e.g., NALSA/Delhi), persons with income below ₹1 lakh and transgenders with income below ₹2 lakh are eligible. There is no OBC-specific criterion, and senior citizens are eligible only subject to income limits set by states.

Alma-Ata (1978) is on primary health care; the Talanoa Dialogue was a UNFCCC climate process. The Hague Convention commonly refers to civil aspects of international child abduction (not bio-chemical weapons), and the Under2 Coalition is about climate change, not child rights.

The defining feature of the parliamentary system is executive responsibility to the legislature, which can remove it by a no-confidence motion.

DPSPs (Part IV, e.g., Art. 38) direct the State to promote the welfare of the people, embodying the concept of a welfare state.

'Basic structure' is a judicial doctrine (Kesavananda Bharati, 1973) and is not defined in the Constitution. Judicial review is provided through Articles 13, 32, 226 etc.

Both Gandhi (enlightened anarchy/Ram Rajya) and Marx (withering away of the State) envisaged a stateless society as the ultimate goal.

The bureaucracy's core role is to implement the policies framed by the political executive.

Since Kesavananda Bharati the Preamble is part of the Constitution, but it is non-justiciable on its own; it is used to interpret other provisions.

The reserve tranche is the portion of a member's IMF quota it can draw without conditions or service charges.

Article 37: DPSPs are not enforceable by any court but are fundamental in governance and the State shall apply them in making laws.

Statement 1 is wrong because a minister must be qualified to be a legislator (age 25, etc.), not merely eligible to vote. Under Section 8 of RPA, a person sentenced to 2+ years is disqualified for the sentence period plus six years, not permanently.

Article 85 lets the President summon each House 'at such time and place as he thinks fit'. The Constitution only requires that the gap between sessions not exceed six months; three sessions are a convention, and no minimum sitting days are prescribed.

Aurang was a Persian term for a warehouse/production centre, not a treasury official. Banians were Indian agents of the Company, and Mirasidars were recognised revenue payers in the Madras presidency.

Sthaviravadins were the early 'elders' school, the forerunner of Theravada (Hinayana), not Mahayana. Lokottaravada branched from the Mahasanghikas, whose view of a supramundane Buddha fostered Mahayana.

Cheap machine-made British goods flooded India and ruined handicrafts (de-industrialisation). Railways came after 1853, and British imports faced low, not heavy, duties.

Mahendravarman I (c. 600–630 CE), Gopala founded the Palas (c. 750 CE), Mihira Bhoja (c. 836 CE), Parantaka I (c. 907 CE).

A hundi was a bill of exchange/credit instrument used by merchants to transfer money.

Desher Katha (1904) critiqued colonial economic exploitation and the 'hypnotic conquest of the mind', and inspired swadeshi plays and songs. 'Desh' referred to India as a whole, not just Bengal.

The Pact (1931) invited Congress to the Second RTC, withdrew CDM ordinances and released non-violent prisoners. Gandhi's demand for an inquiry into police excesses was rejected.

Gopal Baba Walangkar, an early Dalit activist, published Vital-Vidhvansak (1888).

Kulyavapa and dronavapa were land measurement units mentioned in Gupta-period land grants of Bengal.

This is from Ashoka's Major Rock Edict XII, which preaches religious tolerance.

Paramitas (e.g., dana, sila, prajna) are the perfections a Bodhisattva cultivates in Mahayana Buddhism.

Rakhmabai, married as a child, refused to live with her husband, who sued for restitution of conjugal rights; the case fed into the Age of Consent Act, 1891.

The invention of synthetic indigo (Germany, late 1890s) made natural indigo unprofitable.

Fort William College (1800) trained young British civil servants in Indian languages and customs for administration.

Birsa Munda's movement in Chotanagpur is known as Ulgulan (Great Tumult).

Kalidasa and Amarasimha were among the Navaratnas of Chandragupta II. Panini (c. 5th–4th century BCE) predates Pushyamitra; Patanjali is associated with Pushyamitra Shunga.

Pronuclear transfer moves the pronuclei from a fertilised egg with faulty mitochondria into a donor egg with healthy mitochondria to prevent mitochondrial disease.

AI can optimise energy use, aid diagnosis and do text-to-speech. (As per the official key) meaningful creative writing was not considered effective then, and wireless power transfer is a physics/engineering task, not AI.

VLC uses visible light (~375–780 nm), is faster than Bluetooth and free from EM interference, but it is a short-range technology.

Blockchain is a decentralised public ledger and open/permissionless for building applications; it is used far beyond cryptocurrency (supply chains, land records, etc.).

CNTs are used for drug/antigen delivery, have been researched as artificial capillaries, are used in biosensors, and studies show they can be biodegraded by enzymes such as myeloperoxidase. The official UPSC key gives (d).

Drones are already used for crop spraying, volcano crater inspection and collecting whale 'snot' (SnotBot) for DNA analysis.

Evolved LISA (eLISA) is a planned space gravitational-wave observatory of three spacecraft in a triangle linked by lasers; LISA Pathfinder was a single-craft test mission.

Germline editing, embryo editing (e.g., CRISPR) and human-pig chimera experiments using iPSCs have all been demonstrated.

PCV protects against pneumococcal pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, reducing antibiotic use and resistance. No vaccine is free of side effects or allergic reactions.

PKI underpins digital signatures and encryption (regulated by the Controller of Certifying Authorities under the IT Act).

Plant cells have cellulose walls and a large central vacuole; animal cells have small vacuoles. Both cell types have a plasma membrane.

Benzene is emitted by vehicle exhaust, tobacco smoke, wood burning, and off-gassing from varnishes, paints and polyurethane products.

Low reliance on short-term external debt reduces vulnerability to sudden capital flight. More foreign banks and full capital account convertibility increase exposure to global shocks.

M1/M3 include both currency with the public and demand deposits; withdrawal merely converts one component into another, leaving money supply unchanged.

FDI is an equity-based, non-debt-creating flow and can be in listed or unlisted companies.

India has a merchandise trade deficit, a services trade surplus and an overall current account deficit (at the time). Imports of iron and steel, chemicals, fertilisers and machinery had been rising, not falling.

WTI is a benchmark grade of crude oil, along with Brent and Dubai/Oman.

Non-financial debt is debt owed by non-financial sectors: households (housing loans, credit cards), non-financial corporations and government (e.g., Treasury bills).

Under the Indo-US deal and separation plan, reactors using imported fuel are placed under IAEA safeguards; those using domestic uranium can stay outside.

The WTO TRIMS Agreement prohibits trade-distorting measures like quantitative restrictions; it applies only to trade in goods and does not regulate foreign investment as such.

An expansionary policy lowers SLR, bank rate and repo rate; raising the MSF rate would tighten liquidity.

Productivity rose in both rural and urban areas, and the rural share of the workforce declined. Rural non-farm activity grew while the rural employment growth rate slowed.

Scheduled commercial banks provide the largest share of agricultural credit. DCCBs sit in the middle tier of the short-term cooperative structure and fund PACS.

Cyber insurance covers restoration costs, cyber-extortion consultants and legal defence costs, but not the replacement cost of physically damaged hardware.

Public investment creates capital assets: PACS computerisation, social capital and cold storage. MSP, free power and loan waivers are subsidies/transfers, not investment.

ICR = EBIT / interest expense; it shows both current and emerging repayment risk. A higher ICR means a better, not worse, ability to service debt.

MSP, government procurement/trading (OMSS), buffer stocking and PDS consumer subsidies all influence rice prices.

Indo-Sri Lanka trade fluctuated rather than rising consistently, and Bangladesh (not Nepal) is India's largest trading partner in South Asia. Textiles are a major item in India-Bangladesh trade.

Malaysia, New Zealand, Iran, Vietnam and Singapore are not G20 members.

KCC short-term credit covers crop cultivation, post-harvest expenses, household consumption and working capital for farm assets. Tractors, houses and cold storage are long-term investment needs.

Food has about 46% weight in CPI vs about 24% in WPI; WPI excludes services. RBI uses CPI (combined) for inflation targeting, not WPI.

The Mekong drains into the South China Sea and the Thames into the North Sea. The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea and the Zambezi into the Indian Ocean (Mozambique Channel).

Procurement of pulses and oilseeds is capped (e.g., 25% of production under PM-AASHA), and market prices can and often do rise above MSP.

CDs are short-term instruments issued by banks/FIs, not the RBI. Zero-coupon bonds pay no periodic interest and are issued at a discount.

Shramanas were ascetics outside the Vedic priestly tradition, not high-status priests. Parivrajakas were wandering renunciants, and Upasakas were Buddhist lay followers.

Herds are led by the matriarch and gestation is up to 22 months. Elephants can calve into their 50s–60s, and Karnataka has the largest elephant population.

Nagarhole, Sathyamangalam and Wayanad lie in the Cauvery basin; Papikonda is on the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.

All four are bird species found in India.

Kanha NP is home to the hard-ground barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii branderi), the state animal of Madhya Pradesh.

Steel slag is used as road aggregate, as a soil conditioner (liming agent) and in cement manufacture.

Musk deer live in high-altitude Himalayan forests such as Askot (a musk deer sanctuary) and Gangotri. Kishanpur (terai) and Manas (Assam plains) are low-altitude areas.

PMGSY green guidelines promote waste materials like copper slag, cold-mix asphalt (no heating) and geotextiles. Hot-mix asphalt and Portland cement are energy-intensive.

Fly ash contains toxic heavy metals, coal plants emit SO2 and NOx, and Indian coal has high ash content (30–45%).

Biochar is a porous charcoal used in soil-less/vertical farming media; it improves water retention and supports beneficial microbes including nitrogen fixers.

Schedule VI (pre-2022 amendment) listed specified plants whose cultivation and trade required a licence.

Ghantasala and Kadura (Andhra coast) and Chaul (west coast) were ports handling foreign trade.

Zero tillage (e.g., Happy Seeder) allows sowing wheat into residue without burning, enables direct seeding of rice, and increases soil carbon.

The 2018 policy allows sugarcane juice, sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starchy materials like cassava, damaged food grains and rotten potatoes. Groundnut and horse gram are not listed.

The social cost of carbon estimates the economic damage from emitting one additional tonne of CO2 in a given year.

Urad is grown in both seasons. Gram (chickpea), not green gram, is about half of production, and rabi pulses have also increased.

Cotton needs about 210 frost-free days, 50–100 cm rainfall and moisture-retentive soils such as black soil.

Solar power can run both surface and submersible pumps, and both centrifugal and positive-displacement (piston) pumps.

Bud-chip nurseries save seed cane, and tissue-culture settlings are used. Multi-budded (3-bud) setts germinate and survive better than single-bud setts in direct planting.

Crop diversification, legumes (nitrogen fixation), tensiometers (efficient irrigation) and vertical farming (less land/water) are all eco-friendly practices.

Fertigation allows pH/alkalinity control, better nutrient availability and less leaching. Rock phosphate and many phosphatic fertilisers are insoluble and unsuited to fertigation.

Chromite, kyanite and sillimanite are major minerals under the MMDR Act; bentonite is notified as a minor mineral.

OMT is measured up to the 26°C isotherm, which during January–March in the SW Indian Ocean is about 59 m deep, not 129 m. OMT for Jan–Mar is used to predict whether monsoon rainfall will be above or below the long-term mean.

Urea's MRP is fixed by the government (and P&K prices are influenced via NBS). Ammonia is made from natural gas, and sulphur is recovered as a refinery by-product.

Desert NP spans Jaisalmer and Barmer districts and is a key Great Indian Bustard habitat, but it has villages/human habitation inside.

The Siachen Glacier lies in the Karakoram, north of the Nubra Valley; the Nubra river originates from its snout.

Bhilsa (Vidisha) is in MP and Girinagar (Girnar) in Gujarat. Dwarasamudra (Halebidu) is in Karnataka and Sthanesvara (Thanesar) in Haryana.

CGWA was constituted under Section 3(3) of the EPA, 1986, and India has the world's largest groundwater-irrigated area. The CGWB assessment unit figure was about 17% blocks, not 36% districts.

Jet streams occur in both hemispheres, and the eye of a cyclone is warmer (not cooler) than its surroundings due to sinking air. Only mature tropical cyclones develop an eye.

Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh) has the largest core/critical tiger habitat (about 2,595 sq km) among these reserves.