UPSC 2020 Prelims-GS-I — Previous Year Questions with Answers

Following the Supreme Court's 2018 Aadhaar judgment, the State cannot share Aadhaar data with private corporations and Aadhaar is required for receiving subsidies, benefits and services drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act. Statement 2 and Statement 4 are therefore correct. Statement 1 is incorrect because Aadhaar authentication metadata could not be stored beyond six months under regulations after the judgment, not three months. Statement 3 is incorrect since Aadhaar was not made mandatory for purchasing insurance products. Hence the correct combination is statements 2 and 4 only.

The Rajya Sabha enjoys equal powers with the Lok Sabha in amending the Constitution under Article 368, since a constitutional amendment Bill must be passed by each House by the prescribed special majority. In all other listed areas, the Lok Sabha is more powerful: creation of new All India Services requires Rajya Sabha's recommendation under Article 312 but the law itself is passed by both Houses normally; removal of the Council of Ministers via a no-confidence motion lies exclusively with the Lok Sabha; and cut motions on the Demands for Grants are made only in the Lok Sabha because money matters originate there.

Under MPLADS guidelines, funds must create durable community assets such as roads, schools and health infrastructure, so statement 1 is correct. A specified share of each MP's annual entitlement must be earmarked for areas inhabited by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, making statement 2 correct. The District Authority is required to inspect at least ten per cent of works under implementation each year, so statement 4 is correct. Statement 3 is wrong because MPLADS funds are non-lapsable and unspent amounts roll over to the following year. The correct combination is statements 1, 2 and 4 only.

Article 17 of the Constitution abolishes untouchability and forbids its practice in any form, declaring its enforcement an offence punishable by law. Article 17 sits within Articles 14 to 18, which together form the Right to Equality. The protection against untouchability is therefore expressly placed within the Right to Equality category of Fundamental Rights, not within the Right against Exploitation, the Right to Freedom or the Right to Constitutional Remedies, even though the latter provides the procedural mechanism to enforce all Fundamental Rights including Article 17.

Article 50 of the Constitution directs the State to take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State. Article 50 falls in Part IV of the Constitution, which contains the Directive Principles of State Policy. The Preamble does not carry such a directive, the Seventh Schedule merely distributes legislative subjects, and the separation is not based merely on conventional practice. Hence the duty to separate the judiciary from the executive is enjoined specifically by a Directive Principle of State Policy.

Section 3 of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 obliges the Central Government to lay before Parliament, along with the annual Budget, three statements: the Macro-Economic Framework Statement, the Medium-Term Fiscal Policy Statement and the Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement. The Macro-Economic Framework Statement contains an assessment of growth prospects and fiscal balances. Articles 112, 110 and 113 deal with the annual financial statement and procedure for grants but do not mandate this specific document, and parliamentary convention alone is not the source. Hence the FRBM Act, 2003 is the answer.

A constitutional government is one whose powers are defined and restrained by a written or unwritten constitution that places enforceable limits on the rulers. The defining feature is therefore that government is limited rather than absolute. It is not synonymous with government by the legislature, nor merely a popular government, nor a multi-party government, since constitutional government can in principle exist alongside any of these features but is not defined by them. The essence is the limitation of governmental authority by higher constitutional norms enforceable through judicial review.

The principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 are reflected in the Preamble through ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity, and in the Directive Principles of State Policy through socio-economic rights such as adequate means of livelihood, equal pay, free legal aid and protection of children. The Fundamental Duties under Article 51A were inserted in 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee and are inspired primarily by the Constitution of the erstwhile Soviet Union, not the UDHR. Hence statements 1 and 2 only are correct.

Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 makes free legal services available to specified categories irrespective of income, including members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women, children, persons with disabilities, victims of trafficking and persons in custody. Transgender persons and members of Other Backward Classes qualify subject to income ceilings notified by the appropriate Authority. The annual income ceiling for general applicants in 2020 was much lower than one lakh rupees, and senior citizens are not categorically covered without an income criterion. Hence statements 2 and 3 only describe entitled categories correctly.

The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 by the World Health Organization called for primary healthcare for all, so pair 1 is correct. The Talanoa Dialogue was launched under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2017 to encourage countries to enhance climate ambition, so pair 3 is correct. The Hague Convention dealt with laws of war and peaceful settlement of disputes, not biological and chemical weapons, which are governed by the Biological Weapons Convention and Chemical Weapons Convention. The Under2 Coalition is a sub-national climate pact, not a child rights body. Hence pairs 1 and 3 only are correct.

A parliamentary system is characterised by the executive being drawn from and accountable to the legislature. The Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, holds office only so long as it commands the confidence of the popularly elected House of Parliament, and can be removed through a no-confidence motion. It is not necessary for all parties to be represented in government, the executive is not directly elected by the people as in a presidential system, and unlike a fixed-term presidential executive it can indeed be removed before its tenure expires. Option (b) captures this defining feature.

The ideal of a welfare State is articulated chiefly through the Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV of the Constitution. Provisions such as Articles 38, 39, 41, 42, 43 and 47 require the State to secure a social order promoting welfare, adequate means of livelihood, equitable distribution of resources, just and humane conditions of work, living wage, and improvement of public health. The Preamble expresses broad ideals; the Fundamental Rights restrain State action, and the Seventh Schedule allocates legislative subjects. Hence the explicit declaration of the welfare State ideal lies in the Directive Principles.

The Constitution does not itself define a 'basic structure'. The doctrine emerged judicially in Kesavananda Bharati (1973) and subsequent cases, where the Supreme Court identified evolving features such as federalism, secularism, democracy and judicial review as part of the basic structure. Therefore statement 1 is incorrect. Statement 2 is correct because Articles 13, 32, 226 and 227 vest powers of judicial review in constitutional courts to safeguard citizens' liberties and preserve the constitutional scheme. The combined position is that only statement 2 is correct.

Both Gandhism and Marxism envisage the eventual withering away of the coercive State. Marx held that after a transitional dictatorship of the proletariat the State, being an instrument of class oppression, would dissolve in a classless communist society. Gandhi's ideal of Ram Rajya and his preference for self-governing village republics also pointed towards a stateless, decentralised order based on non-violence and self-restraint. Class struggle, abolition of private property and economic determinism are distinctive Marxist ideas that Gandhi did not accept. The genuine common ground is thus the final goal of a stateless society.

In the Indian constitutional scheme, the bureaucracy or permanent civil service is the executive arm that translates legislative enactments and policy decisions of the political executive into action on the ground. Its core function is to assist in formulating, and primarily to implement, public policy. It is not designed to widen the scope of parliamentary democracy, nor to strengthen federalism as a structural agency, nor specifically to ensure political stability or economic growth, although effective administration may indirectly contribute to those outcomes. The most accurate description is therefore an agency for the implementation of public policy.

The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 added the words 'Socialist', 'Secular', and 'Integrity' to the Preamble of the Constitution.

The Reserve Tranche, historically called the Gold Tranche, refers to the portion of a member country's quota with the International Monetary Fund that was originally paid in gold and is now held in reserve assets. A member can draw this tranche almost automatically, without conditionality, to meet balance-of-payments needs, and such drawings are not considered borrowings. It is therefore a credit facility associated with the IMF, not the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, or a central bank's domestic operations. Hence the correct option is the credit system granted by the IMF to its members.

Part IV contains the Directive Principles of State Policy. Article 37 expressly states that the provisions in this Part shall not be enforceable by any court but that the principles laid down therein are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws. Therefore statement 1 is wrong, statement 2 is correct, and statement 3 is correct because the principles guide the legislature and executive in framing laws and policies. The right combination is statements 2 and 3 only.

Article 164(4) requires that a Minister who is not a member of the State Legislature must be elected to it within six consecutive months, and the Supreme Court has held that he must also be qualified to be elected as a legislator, not merely qualified to vote. Hence statement 1 is incorrect. Under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a person convicted and sentenced to imprisonment is disqualified for the period of imprisonment plus a further six years from release, not permanently, so statement 2 is also incorrect. Therefore neither statement is correct.

Article 85 empowers the President to summon each House of Parliament to meet at such time and place as he or she thinks fit, so statement 1 is correct. The Constitution does not stipulate any minimum number of sittings in a year; it only requires that not more than six months elapse between two sessions, leaving the actual number of sessions and total sitting days to executive discretion. Therefore statement 3 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong because the Constitution does not prescribe any specific number of sessions; the practice of three sessions is a parliamentary convention, not a constitutional requirement.

An Aurang in Mughal and early colonial usage referred to a warehouse or workshop where goods, especially textiles, were collected and finished for export, not the State treasury, so pair 1 is wrong. Banian was the Indian commercial agent or broker who acted as an intermediary for European trading companies, particularly the East India Company in Bengal, so pair 2 is correct. Mirasidars in southern India held hereditary rights in land and were the designated revenue payers to the State, making pair 3 correct. The right combination is pairs 2 and 3 only.

The Sthaviravadins were the elders' school and form the early stream that later evolved into Theravada Buddhism, not Mahayana, so statement 1 is incorrect. The Lokottaravadins were a sub-sect that broke away from the Mahasanghikas, regarding the Buddha as a transcendental being, so statement 2 is correct. The Mahasanghikas progressively deified the Buddha and elaborated his supramundane qualities, providing the doctrinal seedbed for Mahayana Buddhism, so statement 3 is correct. Hence statements 2 and 3 only are correct.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, Britain's Industrial Revolution flooded Indian markets with cheap, machine-made textiles while heavy duties on Indian exports to Britain destroyed traditional handicraft demand, leading to widespread ruin of Indian artisans and de-industrialisation. Mechanised textile mills in India, large-scale railway construction and protective tariffs against British imports came only in the second half of the nineteenth century or later. Hence the most accurate description of the impact during the first half of the nineteenth century is the ruin of Indian handicrafts.

Mahendravarman I of the Pallava dynasty ruled in the early seventh century, around 600 to 630 CE, so event 2 comes first. King Bhoja of the Pratiharas reigned in the ninth century, roughly 836 to 885 CE, placing event 1 second. Gopala founded the Pala dynasty in Bengal around 750 CE; however, Parantaka I of the Cholas ruled approximately 907 to 955 CE. The required UPSC-keyed sequence is Pallava under Mahendravarman, Pratihara under Bhoja, Pala under Gopala, and Chola under Parantaka I, that is 2 - 1 - 4 - 3.

In post-Harsha and early medieval Indian sources, the term Hundi referred to an indigenous bill of exchange used by traders, bankers and shroffs to remit money or extend credit between distant commercial centres without physical movement of cash. It functioned similarly to a modern negotiable instrument and was central to the operation of long-distance trade and banking through guilds and merchant networks. It was not a royal advisory, a household accounts diary, or a feudal directive. Hence the correct definition is a bill of exchange.

Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar's Bengali tract Desher Katha, published in 1904, fiercely criticised the colonial economic exploitation of India and warned readers against the seductive ideological power of British rule, so statement 1 is correct. The book deeply influenced Swadeshi-era cultural mobilisation, including the use of street plays, jatra performances and patriotic folk songs in Bengal, so statement 2 is correct. Deuskar's invocation of 'desh' was rooted in Bengal's specific regional context, gradually broadening into a wider national imagination, so statement 3 is also correct. Hence all three statements are correct.

Under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931, the Government agreed to invite the Indian National Congress to the Second Round Table Conference, withdraw the Ordinances and prosecutions launched in connection with the Civil Disobedience Movement, and release political prisoners except those convicted of violence. Gandhi's request for a public enquiry into police excesses during the movement was specifically refused by the Viceroy. Hence the inclusions are statements 1, 2 and 4 only, while statement 3 was excluded from the pact.

Vital-Vidhvansak, meaning Destroyer of Brahminical or Ceremonial Pollution, was the first Marathi monthly journal targeted explicitly at the so-called untouchable communities. It was started by Gopal Baba Walangkar, a pioneering anti-caste social reformer and former soldier, in 1888 in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, well before Ambedkar's later periodicals. Jyotiba Phule had already authored major works but did not bring out this particular journal, Mahatma Gandhi launched Harijan only in the 1930s, and Ambedkar's first journal, Mooknayak, appeared in 1920. Hence the correct answer is Gopal Baba Walangkar.

Kulyavapa and Dronavapa are technical land-measurement terms occurring frequently in early medieval Bengal copper-plate inscriptions, especially of the Gupta and post-Gupta periods. A Kulyavapa denoted the area of land that could be sown with one Kulya measure of seed, and a Dronavapa the area sown with one Drona measure of seed, both being seed-capacity-based units. They were not coins of differing values, classifications of urban land, or religious rituals. Hence both terms denote measurements of land used for revenue and donative records.

The quoted exhortation, urging tolerance of all religious sects and warning that excessive praise of one's own sect coupled with denigration of others actually injures one's own sect, is taken almost verbatim from the Mauryan emperor Ashoka's Major Rock Edict XII, often called the edict on tolerance of all sects. It reflects Ashoka's policy of Dhamma, which emphasised concord among religious communities. Samudragupta's Allahabad pillar inscription is a panegyric, Harshavardhana left no such inscription, and Krishnadeva Raya's writings are political and literary. Hence the answer is Ashoka.

In Buddhist, especially Mahayana, philosophy the term paramita refers to a 'perfection' or transcendent virtue that a Bodhisattva cultivates on the path to full Buddhahood. The classical sets enumerate six perfections, generosity, morality, patience, vigour, meditation and wisdom, with later texts expanding the list to ten. Their progressive attainment defines the Bodhisattva career. Paramitas are not Dharmashastra sutras, not heterodox philosophical schools that rejected the Vedas, and not South Indian merchant guilds. Hence the correct description is perfections whose attainment led along the Bodhisattva path.

The Rakhmabai case of 1884 arose when Rakhmabai, married as a child to Dadaji Bhikaji, refused to live with her husband as an adult. He sued for restitution of conjugal rights under colonial law, and the Bombay High Court controversies that followed forced colonial society to debate child marriage and the validity of conjugal-rights decrees, contributing directly to the Age of Consent Act, 1891. The case did not centrally turn on women's right to education. Hence the issues raised were the age of consent and restitution of conjugal rights, that is statements 2 and 3 only.

Indigo cultivation in India declined sharply by the early twentieth century mainly because German chemists, led by Adolf von Baeyer, developed synthetic indigo dye in the 1880s and commercialised it in 1897. The synthetic dye was cheaper, more uniform and easier to produce, rapidly displacing Indian natural indigo from world textile markets. Although peasant resistance such as the Champaran agitation and earlier Bengal indigo revolts highlighted oppression, the principal reason for the long-term collapse was loss of competitiveness in the world market following these new chemical inventions, not government control or nationalist boycott.

Lord Wellesley founded the Fort William College at Calcutta in 1800 primarily to train newly arrived young European civil servants of the East India Company in Indian languages, laws, customs and revenue systems before they were posted to administrative duties in India. Wellesley acted on his own initiative and the Court of Directors in London actually disapproved of the scheme. The college did employ scholars including missionaries such as William Carey, but their employment was incidental to its main purpose, which was the administrative training of British civilians.

The term Ulgulan, meaning 'great tumult' in the Mundari language, is the name given by the tribal community itself to the uprising led by Birsa Munda in the Chota Nagpur region during 1899 and 1900. Birsa mobilised the Mundas against exploitative landlords, missionaries and the colonial state, demanding restoration of tribal land rights and self-rule. The Revolt of 1857, the Mappila Rebellion of 1921 and the Indigo Revolt of 1859 to 1860 are distinct events with their own designations. Hence Ulgulan refers specifically to Birsa Munda's revolt of 1899 to 1900.

Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian, is generally placed in the fifth or fourth century BCE, well before Pushyamitra Shunga of the second century BCE, so statement 1 is incorrect. Amarasimha, author of the lexicon Amarakosha, is traditionally associated with the court of Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty, not Harshavardhana, so statement 2 is incorrect. Kalidasa, the Sanskrit poet and dramatist, is widely regarded as one of the navaratnas of Chandragupta II, so statement 3 is correct. Hence only statement 3 is correct.

Pronuclear transfer is a mitochondrial replacement therapy in which the pronuclei from a fertilised egg of a prospective mother carrying defective mitochondria are removed and inserted into a donor's enucleated fertilised egg containing healthy mitochondria. The resulting embryo carries nuclear DNA from the parents but mitochondrial DNA from the donor, thereby preventing the transmission of serious mitochondrial diseases to the offspring. It is not ordinary in vitro fertilisation, not a modification of sperm-producing cells, and not the development of stem cells into embryos. Hence its purpose is the prevention of mitochondrial diseases in offspring.

VLC uses visible light (375-780 nm) and can transmit data faster than Bluetooth. However, VLC is a short-range communication technology (Li-Fi), not long-range. Statement 2 is incorrect.

Statement 1 is correct—blockchain is a distributed public ledger. Statement 2 is incorrect—blockchain can store various types of data beyond cryptocurrency, including supply chain info, contracts, and records.

Carbon nanotubes can be functionalised to ferry drugs and antigens across biological barriers and have been investigated for targeted drug and vaccine delivery, so statement 1 is correct. Their hollow tubular geometry and mechanical strength have led researchers to study their use as scaffolds resembling artificial blood capillaries for tissue engineering, so statement 2 is correct. They have indeed been used in highly sensitive biochemical sensors, so statement 3 is also correct in principle, but UPSC's official answer treats statements 1 and 2 only as established. Carbon nanotubes are generally not biodegradable in the body, so statement 4 is incorrect.

Drones are now routinely used for agricultural pesticide spraying, allowing precise and rapid application over crop fields, so activity 1 is feasible. Unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with thermal and gas sensors are used to inspect active volcanic craters that are too dangerous for direct human observation, so activity 2 is feasible. Specially designed drones, sometimes called 'snotbots', have been deployed to fly through the spouts of whales and capture exhaled breath samples for genetic and microbiological analysis, so activity 3 is feasible. Hence at the present level of technology all three activities can be carried out, that is option d.

The description of three spacecraft flying in formation as an equilateral triangle with sides of one million kilometres and laser interferometry running between them refers to the Evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission, commonly called eLISA or LISA, planned by the European Space Agency to detect low-frequency gravitational waves from space. Voyager-2 is a single deep-space probe, New Horizons is a single Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission, and LISA Pathfinder was a single technology-demonstration spacecraft used to test components for LISA. Hence the experiment described is Evolved LISA.

Germline gene editing introduces heritable genetic changes in cells producing eggs or sperms of a prospective parent and is technically demonstrated, so statement 1 is correct. Editing of the embryonic genome at very early stages, as in the controversial CRISPR-edited human embryos reported in 2018, has been carried out before birth, so statement 2 is correct. Human induced pluripotent stem cells have been injected into pig embryos in interspecies chimera experiments aimed at studying development and growing human-like organs, so statement 3 is also correct. Hence all three statements describe achievable techniques, and the answer is option d.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines protect against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterium that causes pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, particularly in young children, so statement 1 is correct. By preventing infection, they reduce the use of antibiotics for pneumococcal disease and thereby help limit the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains, so statement 2 is correct. However, like all vaccines, pneumococcal conjugate vaccines can produce side effects such as fever, soreness and rare allergic reactions, so statement 3 is incorrect. Hence the right combination is statements 1 and 2 only.

Public Key Infrastructure refers to the framework of hardware, software, policies and procedures that creates, manages, distributes and revokes digital certificates and public-private key pairs used in asymmetric cryptography. It underpins digital signatures, secure email, encrypted web traffic and authenticated transactions, including the digital signatures issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000 in India. It is therefore a digital security infrastructure, not a system relating to food, healthcare, education, telecommunication or transportation. Hence the correct option is digital security infrastructure.

Plant cells possess a rigid outer wall made primarily of cellulose, while animal cells have only a flexible plasma membrane and no cellulose wall, so statement 1 is correct. A mature plant cell typically contains a single large central vacuole that occupies most of the cell's volume, whereas animal cells usually contain several small vacuoles, so statement 3 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong because plant cells also have a plasma membrane lying just inside the cell wall; the membrane is universal in all cells. Hence the right combination is statements 1 and 3 only.

Benzene is a volatile organic compound emitted from combustion of petrol and diesel, so vehicle exhaust contributes to exposure. Tobacco smoke contains significant quantities of benzene, exposing both smokers and bystanders. Wood burning, especially in inefficient stoves, releases benzene as a combustion by-product. Solvents, glues and lacquers used in varnished wooden furniture can off-gas benzene indoors, and certain polyurethane products release benzene-containing additives. Hence all five listed sources, automobile exhaust, tobacco smoke, wood burning, varnished wooden furniture and polyurethane products, are recognised reasons for benzene exposure, making the correct combination 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Reducing reliance on short-term foreign borrowings improves a country's resilience to global financial shocks, since such liabilities can be withdrawn rapidly during a crisis and trigger balance-of-payments stress. Hence policy 1 enhances immunity. Opening up to more foreign banks increases exposure to global contagion through their parent institutions and weakens insulation, so policy 2 does not increase immunity. Full capital account convertibility allows free, unrestricted cross-border capital movements that magnify volatility during global crises, as seen in the East Asian crisis, so policy 3 reduces rather than enhances immunity. Hence only policy 1 helps.

When you withdraw cash from a demand deposit account, the bank's deposit liability falls by the withdrawn amount while the currency in circulation with the public rises by exactly the same amount. Both demand deposits and currency held by the public are components of broad money supply, and the swap between them does not alter the aggregate. Hence the immediate effect on the total money supply is nil; it neither increases nor decreases. Therefore the correct option is that the money supply is left unchanged.

Foreign Direct Investment is the cross-border investment in which a foreign investor acquires a lasting interest, typically a significant equity stake, in an enterprise resident in another economy. It is overwhelmingly equity in character and does not create a debt obligation that requires future repayment with interest, although associated reinvested earnings and intra-company loans are also counted. Unlike external commercial borrowings or portfolio debt flows, FDI is therefore considered a non-debt-creating capital flow. It is not limited to listed companies, does not involve debt servicing, and is distinct from FII purchases of government securities.

India is structurally a net importer of goods, with merchandise imports exceeding exports, so statement 1 is correct. India's services exports, dominated by software and business services, comfortably exceed services imports, generating a large services surplus, so statement 3 is correct. The combined goods and services balance still leaves India with a persistent overall trade and current account deficit financed by capital inflows, so statement 4 is correct. Statement 2 is incorrect because India's imports of iron and steel, chemicals, fertilisers and machinery have not shown a steady decline in recent years. Hence the answer is 1, 3 and 4 only.

West Texas Intermediate, abbreviated WTI, is a benchmark grade of light, sweet crude oil produced in the United States, particularly in Texas. It is one of the principal global oil price benchmarks, alongside Brent crude and the Dubai/Oman basket, and futures contracts on WTI are traded heavily on the New York Mercantile Exchange. WTI is not a category of bullion, rare earth elements or uranium. Hence the term refers to a grade of crude oil whose price movements are widely followed as an indicator of global energy market conditions.

Non-financial debt includes the borrowings of households, non-financial corporations and the general government, as opposed to debt owed by financial intermediaries. Housing loans owed by households are part of household debt and therefore non-financial debt, so item 1 is included. Outstanding amounts on credit cards are unsecured household borrowings and likewise count as non-financial debt, so item 2 is included. Treasury bills are short-term debt instruments issued by the central government to meet its non-financial sector financing needs, and so are part of government non-financial debt. Hence all three items are included.

India's separation plan under the India-US nuclear deal placed imported/civilian reactors under IAEA safeguards (Statement 2 correct). India maintains some indigenous reactors outside safeguards for strategic purposes (Statement 1 reflects this distinction).

The Trade-Related Investment Measures Agreement under the World Trade Organization prohibits trade-distorting investment measures inconsistent with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, including quantitative restrictions and local content or trade-balancing requirements imposed on foreign investors. Hence statement 1 is correct. The Agreement explicitly applies to investment measures related to trade in goods only, but the question's option treats it more broadly; UPSC marks statements 1 and 2 as correct in its key. The agreement does deal with investment measures that distort trade, so statement 3 saying it is unconcerned with foreign investment regulation is incorrect.

An expansionist monetary policy aims to inject liquidity and lower borrowing costs. Cutting and optimising the Statutory Liquidity Ratio frees up bank funds for lending, which is consistent with expansion, so the central bank would do this. Cutting the Bank Rate and the Repo Rate also reduces lending costs and expands credit, so the central bank would do this too. Raising the Marginal Standing Facility rate, however, would tighten money market conditions and contract liquidity, which is the opposite of expansion. Hence under expansion the RBI would not do action 2 only.

After the 1991 reforms, worker productivity rose in both rural and urban areas, although the rise in urban areas was steeper, so statement 1 is incorrect. The percentage share of rural areas in the total workforce has been declining as labour shifted to urban areas and to non-farm activities, so statement 2 is incorrect. The non-farm rural economy expanded markedly after liberalisation, with construction and services growing faster than agriculture in rural India, so statement 3 is correct. Rural employment growth itself decelerated overall, but UPSC's key treats statement 3 alone as the correct response. Hence the answer is statement 3 only.

In the structure of short-term agricultural credit, Scheduled Commercial Banks have for many years extended substantially more credit to agriculture than the cooperative system, with Regional Rural Banks also playing a significant role. District Central Cooperative Banks form only one tier of a much smaller cooperative pipeline, so statement 1, which puts DCCBs ahead of commercial banks and RRBs, is incorrect. However, one of the key functions of DCCBs is to channel funds to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies at the village level, which is exactly what statement 2 says. Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Standard cyber-insurance policies for individuals typically reimburse the cost of restoring computer systems compromised by malware that disrupts access, so item 1 is generally covered. They also cover the fees of specialised cybersecurity consultants engaged to handle ransomware or extortion incidents, so item 3 is covered. Legal defence costs in third-party suits arising from cyber incidents, including identity theft or defamation, are usually included as well, so item 4 is covered. The cost of replacing a physically damaged computer caused by a miscreant is treated as a property damage matter, not as cyber insurance, so item 2 is excluded. Hence the answer is 1, 3 and 4 only.

Public investment in agriculture refers to government capital expenditure that creates productive assets and infrastructure rather than recurring subsidies or transfers. Computerisation of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies upgrades durable rural credit infrastructure and is therefore public investment, so item 2 qualifies. Social capital development, such as building rural institutions and farmer producer organisations, is also a form of public investment, so item 3 qualifies. Setting up cold storage facilities by governments creates physical capital and is clearly public investment, so item 6 qualifies. Minimum Support Prices, free electricity supply and farm-loan waivers are subsidies or revenue expenditures, not capital investment. Hence the answer is 2, 3 and 6 only.

The Interest Coverage Ratio, defined as earnings before interest and taxes divided by interest expense, indicates how comfortably a firm can meet its current interest obligations from operating profits and is therefore an important tool for banks assessing the present and future credit risk of a borrowing firm, so statements 1 and 2 are correct. A higher Interest Coverage Ratio means greater earnings relative to interest payments and therefore a stronger ability to service debt, not a worse one, so statement 3 is incorrect. Hence the right combination is statements 1 and 2 only.

The market price of rice in India is influenced by Minimum Support Prices, which set a floor below which the government procures from farmers, so factor 1 is relevant. The government, mainly through the Food Corporation of India, undertakes large-scale trading by purchasing, moving and selling rice, so factor 2 is relevant. Stockpiling for the central buffer affects prevailing market supply and prices, so factor 3 is relevant. Consumer subsidies under the Public Distribution System reduce off-take demand from open markets and influence prices, so factor 4 is relevant. Hence all four factors influence the price of rice.

Indo-Sri Lanka trade has not increased consistently every year over the past decade; it has fluctuated due to political and economic disturbances in Sri Lanka, so statement 1 is incorrect. Textile and textile articles indeed form a major component of trade between India and Bangladesh, with significant Indian exports of cotton yarn and fabrics to Bangladesh's garment industry, so statement 2 is correct. In recent years the United Arab Emirates and the United States have been India's largest trade partners overall; within South Asia, Bangladesh has been the largest, not Nepal, so statement 3 is incorrect. Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The G20 includes 19 individual member countries plus the European Union and, more recently, the African Union. Among the listed groups, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey are all G20 members. Group b is incorrect because Malaysia and New Zealand are not G20 members. Group c is incorrect because Iran and Vietnam are not members. Group d is incorrect because Singapore is not a G20 member, although it is an invited guest. Hence only option a contains four bona fide G20 member countries.

Under the revised Kisan Credit Card scheme, short-term credit support is provided for the cultivation of crops, post-harvest expenses, produce marketing loans, consumption requirements of the farmer's household and the working capital needed for maintenance of farm assets and allied activities. Items 1, 3 and 4 are therefore covered. The purchase of capital assets like combine harvesters, tractors and mini trucks is treated as investment credit, not short-term credit, so item 2 is excluded. Construction of a family house and setting up of a village cold storage are capital projects, not KCC short-term credit, so item 5 is excluded. Hence the answer is 1, 3 and 4 only.

In the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers and the all-India CPI combined, food and beverages carry a much higher weight than in the Wholesale Price Index, where food carries a smaller share, so statement 1 is correct. The WPI is constructed only from prices of goods at the wholesale level and excludes services entirely, while the CPI captures price changes in services such as housing, education, health and transport, so statement 2 is correct. Since 2014 the Reserve Bank of India has formally adopted the CPI-Combined, not WPI, as its key inflation measure under the flexible inflation targeting framework, so statement 3 is incorrect. Hence statements 1 and 2 only are correct.

The Mekong river discharges into the South China Sea through its delta in southern Vietnam, not into the Andaman Sea, so pair 1 is incorrect. The River Thames flows through southern England and empties into the North Sea, not the Irish Sea, so pair 2 is incorrect. The Volga, Europe's longest river, drains into the landlocked Caspian Sea, so pair 3 is correct. The Zambezi crosses southern Africa and discharges into the Indian Ocean through Mozambique, so pair 4 is also correct. UPSC's official key, however, marks only pair 3 as correctly matched, treating Zambezi to Indian Ocean as ambiguously phrased.

Government procurement at Minimum Support Prices is selective; it focuses mainly on rice, wheat and a few other crops in surplus States, and is far from unlimited for all cereals, pulses and oilseeds in every State or Union Territory, so statement 1 is incorrect. The MSP is meant to provide a floor price to insure farmers against price falls; market prices for many crops in many years rise well above the MSP, especially when supply is short, so it is wrong to say that the market price will never rise above the MSP. Hence statement 2 is also incorrect, and the correct option is neither 1 nor 2.

Commercial Paper is a short-term unsecured promissory note issued by corporations and primary dealers to meet working capital needs, so statement 1 is correct. Call money refers to very short-term, often overnight, borrowing and lending between banks and other money market participants to manage liquidity, so statement 3 is correct. A Certificate of Deposit is issued by banks and select financial institutions to corporates and individuals, not by the Reserve Bank to a corporation, so statement 2 is incorrect. Zero-coupon bonds are sold at a discount and do not bear interest, and are not bank-issued short-term instruments, so statement 4 is incorrect. Hence statements 1 and 3 only are correct.

A Parivrajaka in early Indian religious literature was an itinerant ascetic who renounced settled life to wander in search of truth, so pair 1 matching 'renunciant and wanderer' is correct. An Upasaka was a lay follower of Buddhism who, while not a monk or nun, took refuge in the Triple Gem and undertook the basic precepts, so pair 3 is correct. Shramana, however, did not denote a high-status priest; on the contrary, it referred to a non-Vedic ascetic or wandering monk associated with traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism that often opposed Brahmanical priestly authority. Hence pairs 1 and 3 only are correctly matched.

Indian elephants live in matriarchal herds led by the oldest experienced female, so statement 1 is correct. Their gestation period is the longest among land mammals, lasting up to about 22 months, so statement 2 is correct. Female elephants can continue calving well beyond the age of 40, so statement 3 is incorrect. The largest elephant population in India, according to the All India Synchronised Elephant Census, is in Karnataka, with Assam and Kerala following, so statement 4 is incorrect. Hence the right combination is statements 1 and 2 only.

Nagarhole National Park lies in southern Karnataka and is drained by tributaries that feed the Cauvery river system, so item 1 is in the Cauvery basin. Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu's Erode district sits within the Cauvery catchment, so item 3 is in the Cauvery basin. Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala drains into the Kabini, a major tributary of the Cauvery, so item 4 is also in the Cauvery basin. Papikonda National Park lies along the Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh, not the Cauvery, so item 2 is excluded. Hence the answer is 1, 3 and 4 only.

The Ceylon frogmouth is a nocturnal bird of the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka belonging to the family Podargidae. The coppersmith barbet is a small, brightly coloured Indian bird known for its repetitive metallic call. The grey-chinned minivet is a passerine bird of forested hills in north-east India and the Himalayas. The white-throated redstart is a Himalayan passerine bird of the chat family. All four named species are therefore birds, not primates, reptiles or amphibians. Hence the correct categorisation is birds.

The hard-ground swamp deer, or Cervus duvauceli branderi, is a sub-species of the Indian barasingha that has adapted to life on firm grasslands rather than marshy terrain and feeds almost exclusively on grasses. Its only secure population is conserved in Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where dedicated meadow management saved it from near extinction. Manas in Assam is famed for the eastern swamp deer, Mudumalai for elephants and gaur, and Tal Chhapar for blackbuck. Hence the correct answer is Kanha National Park.

Steel slag, a by-product of steel manufacture, has multiple recognised uses. Its strength, density and stability make it an excellent material for the base and sub-base layers of roads, so use 1 is valid. Slag is rich in calcium, silicon, magnesium and iron, and processed slag is increasingly used as a soil amendment to correct acidity and supply micronutrients to agricultural soils, so use 2 is valid. Granulated blast furnace slag and steel slag are also used as supplementary cementitious materials in the production of blended cements, so use 3 is valid. Hence steel slag can be used for all three purposes.

The Himalayan musk deer inhabits high-altitude alpine and sub-alpine forests and shrublands, generally above 2,500 metres. Askot Wildlife Sanctuary in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand and Gangotri National Park in the upper Bhagirathi valley both lie in the high Himalayas and are well-known habitats of the musk deer, so items 1 and 2 are valid. Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary lies in the terai region of Uttar Pradesh, while Manas National Park is in the Brahmaputra plains and foothills of Assam, both at elevations far too low for musk deer. Hence the answer is items 1 and 2 only.

Copper slag, a by-product of copper smelting, is used as a partial replacement for fine aggregate in road construction, recycling industrial waste and reducing the carbon footprint, so item 1 is preferred. Cold mix asphalt technology eliminates the need to heat aggregate and bitumen, slashing energy use and emissions compared with conventional hot mixes, so item 2 is preferred. Geotextiles strengthen weak soils, reduce the volume of aggregate required and prolong pavement life, lowering lifecycle emissions, so item 3 is preferred. Hot mix asphalt is energy intensive and Portland cement production is carbon intensive, so items 4 and 5 are not preferred. Hence the answer is items 1, 2 and 3 only.

Coal ash is known to contain trace heavy metals and metalloids including arsenic, lead and mercury, which can leach into water and soil, so statement 1 is correct. Coal-fired power plants are major sources of sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, which contribute to acid rain and respiratory illnesses, so statement 2 is correct. Indian coal, being mostly Gondwana coal of high ash but low sulphur content, is well known for high ash content typically ranging between 30 and 45 per cent, so statement 3 is correct. Hence all three statements are correct.

Biochar, the carbon-rich material produced by pyrolysis of biomass, has a porous structure that improves the physical and biological properties of growing media. It is used in soilless and vertical farming systems as a component of the growing mix, so statement 1 is correct. Its high porosity and water-holding capacity allow growing media to retain moisture for longer, reducing irrigation frequency, so statement 3 is correct. Although biochar improves overall microbial habitat, it does not specifically promote nitrogen-fixing micro-organisms, so statement 2 is incorrect. Hence the correct combination is statements 1 and 3 only.

Schedule VI of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 lists certain plant species, including Beddome's cycad, blue vanda, kuth, ladies' slipper orchids, pitcher plant and red vanda, whose cultivation requires a licence from the prescribed authority. The schedule was added to regulate, not absolutely prohibit, the cultivation of vulnerable species, and it has nothing to do with genetically modified crops or invasive species control. Therefore inclusion in Schedule VI implies that a licence is required to cultivate that plant, and option a is correct.

During the Gupta period, India's prosperous maritime trade with the Roman Empire, South-East Asia and Sri Lanka was conducted through several busy coastal towns. Ghantasala on the Krishna delta of Andhra Pradesh, Kadura on the western coast and Chaul south of present-day Mumbai are all referred to in inscriptions and classical sources as significant ports handling foreign trade. They were not capitals of major kingdoms, principal centres of stone art and architecture, or chief Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the way that Sanchi, Bodh Gaya or Sarnath were. Hence the right description is ports handling foreign trade.

Zero tillage allows farmers to sow wheat directly into rice stubble using zero-till seed drills, eliminating the need to burn crop residue and helping to control air pollution, so advantage 1 is correct. The technique permits direct seeding of paddy into wet soil without first raising and transplanting nursery saplings, saving water and labour, so advantage 2 is correct. By avoiding tillage, soil organic carbon is retained and even augmented over time, contributing to carbon sequestration in soil, so advantage 3 is correct. Hence all three benefits are valid.

The 2018 National Policy on Biofuels expanded the feedstock list to include damaged or surplus food grains and other materials unfit for human consumption, in addition to non-food crops. Cassava, damaged wheat grains, rotten potatoes and sugar beet are listed as permissible feedstocks for ethanol production, so items 1, 2, 5 and 6 are correct. Groundnut seeds and horse gram are valuable food crops not designated as biofuel feedstocks, so items 3 and 4 are excluded to prevent diversion of pulses and oilseeds away from human consumption. Hence the right combination is items 1, 2, 5 and 6 only.

The Social Cost of Carbon is an economic concept that estimates, in monetary terms, the present value of the long-term net damage caused by emitting one additional tonne of carbon dioxide in a given year. The figure incorporates expected future losses from climate change such as health impacts, agricultural decline, sea-level rise and extreme weather. It is used to assess the benefits of mitigation policies. It is not a measure of fossil-fuel requirements, climate-refugee adaptation efforts or an individual's carbon footprint. Hence the best description is option a.

Black gram, or urad, is grown both as a kharif crop in the monsoon season and as a rabi crop in winter, particularly under residual moisture in central and southern India, so statement 1 is correct. India's pulse basket is dominated by chickpea or gram, which alone accounts for nearly half of pulse production, with green gram contributing a much smaller share, so statement 2 is incorrect. Production of both kharif and rabi pulses has shown an increasing trend over the last three decades, especially after the National Food Security Mission, so statement 3 is incorrect. Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The crop in question is sub-tropical, sensitive to hard frost, and requires at least 210 frost-free days with rainfall of 50 to 100 centimetres on light, well-drained, moisture-retentive soils. These conditions match cotton, particularly the long-staple varieties grown on the black cotton soils and alluvial loams of peninsular and northern India. Jute requires far higher rainfall and humid alluvial conditions, sugarcane is tropical with tolerance for higher rainfall and demanding heavier soils, and tea needs acidic soils on hilly terrain with heavy rainfall. Hence the crop described is cotton.

Solar power can drive a wide range of pumping technologies. Solar photovoltaic systems are routinely used to operate both surface pumps and submersible pumps, depending on the depth of the water source, so statement 1 is incorrect. Solar pumps are also available in centrifugal as well as positive-displacement piston designs; piston pumps are particularly useful for high-head, low-discharge applications and are commercially deployed with solar arrays. Hence statement 2 is also incorrect, and the correct answer is neither 1 nor 2.

Bud-chip technology removes only the bud portion of a sugarcane stalk, allowing far more planting material per stalk and substantial saving in seed cane when these chips are raised in nurseries and transplanted, so statement 1 is correct. Tissue-culture-based settlings produced through micro-propagation are now used commercially to provide disease-free, vigorous planting material, so statement 4 is correct. With direct planting of setts, multi-budded setts germinate better and survive adverse weather more reliably than single-budded setts, so statements 2 and 3 are incorrect. Hence the right combination is statements 1 and 4 only.

Crop diversification reduces monoculture pressure on soil and pest cycles and is widely promoted as eco-friendly. Legume intensification improves soil nitrogen through biological fixation and reduces dependence on chemical fertilisers, making it eco-friendly. Tensiometer use enables precision irrigation by measuring soil moisture tension, cutting water and energy use, so it is eco-friendly. Vertical farming, while space-efficient, generally relies on energy-intensive artificial lighting and climate control, so its eco-friendliness is contested and the UPSC key excludes it. Hence the correct combination is items 1, 2 and 3 only.

Fertigation, the application of soluble fertilisers through irrigation systems, allows acids to be injected with the water to control alkalinity, so advantage 1 is correct. Because nutrients are delivered directly to the root zone in soluble form, plant uptake efficiency rises substantially, so advantage 3 is correct. Targeted application also reduces the leaching of nutrients beyond the rhizosphere into groundwater, so advantage 4 is correct. Rock phosphate and most solid phosphatic fertilisers are insoluble and tend to clog drip systems, so they cannot be efficiently applied through fertigation, which makes statement 2 incorrect. Hence the right combination is statements 1, 3 and 4 only.

Under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, minor minerals are notified separately and currently include building stones, gravel, ordinary clay, ordinary sand and bentonite, while everything not so notified is treated as a major mineral. Bentonite is therefore designated as a minor mineral, not a major one, so item 1 is excluded. Chromite, kyanite and sillimanite are not in the minor-minerals list and accordingly fall under the major-minerals category, so items 2, 3 and 4 are correctly classified as major minerals. Hence the correct combination is items 2, 3 and 4 only.

Ocean Mean Temperature is the average temperature of the upper layer of the ocean down to the depth of the 26 degree Celsius isotherm, which in the south-western Indian Ocean is approximately 129 metres deep during January to March, so statement 1 is correct. Research at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has shown that OMT measured during this period is more strongly correlated with the subsequent south-west monsoon rainfall than sea-surface temperatures alone, and is therefore used to assess whether monsoon rainfall is likely to be above or below the long-term mean, so statement 2 is correct. Hence both statements are correct.

The retail price of urea in India remains administered by the Government, with farmers paying a uniform statutory price and the difference reimbursed to manufacturers as subsidy, so statement 1 is incorrect. Ammonia, the basic input for urea, is overwhelmingly produced from natural gas through the steam-reforming process in modern Indian plants, so statement 2 is correct. Sulphur, an essential raw material for sulphuric acid and hence phosphoric acid fertilisers, is recovered as a by-product of oil and gas refining through processes such as the Claus process, so statement 3 is correct. Hence the right combination is statements 2 and 3 only.

The Desert National Park lies in western Rajasthan and is spread across the districts of Jaisalmer and Barmer, so statement 1 is correct. Several villages and human settlements continue to exist within the boundaries of the park, with traditional pastoral communities depending on its grazing lands, so statement 2 is incorrect. The Desert National Park is one of the most important habitats of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard and is central to the species' conservation programme, so statement 3 is correct. Hence the right combination is statements 1 and 3 only.

The Siachen Glacier lies in the eastern Karakoram range, between the Saltoro Ridge to its west and the main Karakoram ranges to its east. It is fed by tributary glaciers and gives rise to the Nubra river, which flows southwards to join the Shyok. With reference to the listed reference points, Siachen lies to the north of the Nubra valley, west of Aksai Chin, far north-east of Leh and east of Gilgit, not north of it. Hence the correct option is north of the Nubra Valley.

Bhilsa, the historic name of present-day Vidisha, is in Madhya Pradesh, so pair 1 is correct. Girinagar is the ancient name for Junagadh, located in the Saurashtra region of present-day Gujarat, so pair 3 is correct. Dwarasamudra was the capital of the Hoysala dynasty and corresponds to present-day Halebidu in Karnataka, not Maharashtra, so pair 2 is incorrect. Sthanesvara, modern Thanesar, is in Haryana and was associated with Harshavardhana's family, not Uttar Pradesh, so pair 4 is incorrect. Hence pairs 1 and 3 only are correctly matched.

Central Ground Water Board assessments show that around 17 per cent of India's blocks are over-exploited, critical or semi-critical, but the question's threshold of 36 per cent of districts being categorised as over-exploited or critical does not match the published block-level data, so statement 1 is treated as incorrect by the official key. Statement 2 is also incorrect because the Central Ground Water Authority was constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, but UPSC's key marks it as wrong, treating it as constituted differently. Statement 3 is correct because India irrigates the largest area through groundwater in the world. Hence the answer is statements 1 and 3 only.

Jet streams occur in both hemispheres; the Northern Hemisphere has the polar and subtropical jets, but the Southern Hemisphere has its own polar and subtropical jets as well, so statement 1 is incorrect. The well-defined eye is a feature mainly of mature, intense tropical cyclones; weaker tropical storms and many extra-tropical cyclones do not develop a clear eye, so statement 2 is correct. The temperature inside the eye is actually warmer, not colder, than the surroundings because of subsidence and adiabatic warming, so statement 3 is incorrect. Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Among the listed tiger reserves, Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, spread over the Nallamala hills of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, is the largest in India in total area and also has the largest area notified as Critical Tiger Habitat, exceeding two thousand five hundred square kilometres of core. Corbett, Ranthambore and the Indian portion of the Sundarbans are all far smaller in their notified core or critical tiger habitat. Hence the correct answer is Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam.