UPSC Prelims 2023 Question Paper (GS Paper I) with Answers

Option (c) is correct: water vapour, concentrated in the lower atmosphere, is the main absorber of the infrared (long-wave) part of radiation. Infrared is not part of the visible spectrum (it lies beyond red), it makes up a little under half of insolation rather than two-thirds, and the Equator receives roughly two to two-and-a-half times the annual insolation of the poles, not ten times.

Chad (2021), Guinea (2021), Mali (2020 and 2021) and Sudan (2021) all saw successful military coups within a short span, prompting talk of a 'coup belt' across the Sahel and West Africa. None of the other options is common to all four countries.

In the Wolbachia method, mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) are infected with the naturally occurring Wolbachia bacterium, which blocks the growth of dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses inside the mosquito. Releasing such mosquitoes, as in the World Mosquito Program trials, reduces transmission of these viral diseases.

Honeybee foragers perform the waggle dance on the comb to tell hive-mates the direction (angle relative to the Sun) and distance (length of the waggle run) of a food source. Karl von Frisch decoded this 'dance language' and received the Nobel Prize in 1973.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct: the 44th Chess Olympiad at Mamallapuram near Chennai was the first held in India, and its mascot was 'Thambi'. Statements 3 and 4 are swapped: the open section trophy is the Hamilton-Russell Cup and the women's trophy is the Vera Menchik Cup. Hence only two.

All three statements are incorrect. The East-West Corridor of the NHDP links Silchar (Assam) with Porbandar (Gujarat), and it is separate from the Golden Quadrilateral. The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway runs from Moreh to Mae Sot in Thailand, not Chiang Mai. The BCIM corridor was planned from Kolkata to Kunming, not from Varanasi.

Rainforest soils are generally poor: nutrients released by rapid decomposition are quickly taken up by plants or leached away by heavy rain, so most nutrients are locked in the living biomass, not the soil. Statement-I is therefore incorrect, while Statement-II, that heat and moisture cause rapid decomposition, is correct.

Carbon fibres, prized for their strength and lightness, are used in aircraft, cars, wind-turbine blades and sports goods, so statement 1 is correct. They can be recycled by pyrolysis or solvolysis to recover the fibres, although the process is costly and the fibres lose some strength, so statement 2 is incorrect.

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct: the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna rewards the most spectacular performance over the previous four years and the Dronacharya Award honours coaches. The Arjuna Award is for consistent outstanding performance over four years (the Dhyan Chand Award covers lifetime achievement), and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar goes to organisations and corporates that promote sports. Hence only two.

Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, hard pressed by Humayun's invasion in 1535, ceded Diu to the Portuguese by the Treaty of Bassein in return for military help. The Portuguese killed him during negotiations off Diu in 1537 and held the island until 1961.

'Vatakkiruttal' in Sangam poetry refers to the custom by which a king defeated or humiliated in battle sat facing north and starved himself to death to preserve his honour. The Chera king Cheraman Kanaikkal Irumporai and the Chola king Kopperuncholan are recorded as having done so.

Land heats and cools faster than water because water has a higher specific heat (Statement-II correct). In winter the continents cool far below the still-warm oceans, so the land-sea temperature contrast is greatest in winter, not summer; Statement-I is therefore incorrect.

Japan operates the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS, 'Michibiki'), a regional satellite navigation system that augments GPS over Japan and the Asia-Oceania region. Australia, Canada and Israel rely on GPS and other foreign systems. India's own regional system is NavIC.

'Due process of law', the American doctrine, lets courts examine whether a law depriving a person of life or liberty is fair, just and reasonable, i.e. in accord with the principles of natural justice; 'procedure established by law' originally meant only that the procedure be legally enacted. In Maneka Gandhi (1978) the Supreme Court read due process into Article 21.

Intangible assets have no physical form: brand recognition, intellectual property (patents, copyrights) and a mailing list of clients are all intangible investments. Inventory, the stock of goods, is a tangible current asset. Hence only three.

None of the pairs is correct. Donbas is the industrial region of eastern Ukraine at the centre of the Russia-Ukraine war; Kachin is a conflict-ridden state in northern Myanmar; and Tigray is the northern region of Ethiopia where a civil war was fought in 2020-22.

The Global Compact for Migration (2018) was adopted by 164 countries, not all UN members; the USA and several others stayed out (statement 1 incorrect). It is a non-binding cooperative framework (statement 2 incorrect), and it deals with international migration only, not internal migration or internally displaced persons (statement 3 incorrect). Hence none.

The Flag Code of India, 2002 prescribes nine standard sizes ranging from 6300 x 4200 mm to 150 x 100 mm, and 600 x 400 mm is not among them, so Statement-I is incorrect. The Code requires the flag to be rectangular with a length-to-height ratio of 3:2, so Statement-II is correct.

Biodiversity Management Committees, set up by local bodies under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, document local biodiversity in People's Biodiversity Registers and are central to India's access-and-benefit-sharing regime under the Nagoya Protocol. They may levy collection fees on access to biological resources within their area for commercial use. Both statements are correct.

Pairs 1 and 3 are correct: the Official Secrets Act, 1923 punishes the unauthorised wearing of military or police uniforms, and the Arms (Amendment) Act, 2019 made celebratory gunfire endangering safety an offence. Misleading or obstructing a police or military officer is an offence under the Official Secrets Act itself (and the penal code), not the Indian Evidence Act. Hence only two.

The SHG-bank linkage programme was launched by NABARD in 1992, not the State Bank of India, so statement 1 is incorrect. SHGs work on joint liability, with the group answerable for each member's loan (statement 2), and commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks lend to them (statement 3). Hence only two.

Carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and national emissions-trading schemes are expected to become one of the most widespread climate-policy tools, so Statement-I is correct. In cap-and-trade systems governments auction emission allowances, which does transfer money from private emitters to the State, so Statement-II is also correct; but this transfer is not the reason carbon markets are spreading, which is their cost-effective way of cutting emissions. Hence (b).

Since the Finance Act, 2023 the interest and dividend distributed by InvITs are taxable in investors' hands, so Statement-I is incorrect. The SARFAESI Act was amended in 2016 to recognise InvITs and REITs as borrowers, enabling banks to lend to them against security, so Statement-II is correct.

The Rann of Kutch was a shallow arm of the Arabian Sea that was cut off and raised by repeated falls in sea level and tectonic uplift, leaving a vast salt marsh that floods in the monsoon and dries into a salt crust in summer. The other options are mangroves, salt pans and a coastal swamp, not products of repeated sea-level fall.

Hydrofluorocarbons replaced ozone-depleting CFCs and HCFCs as propellants in aerosols, as blowing agents in foams and as fire-suppression agents; they are not used in lubricants. Because HFCs are powerful greenhouse gases, the Kigali Amendment (2016) to the Montreal Protocol phases them down. Hence only three.

Beta measures how much a stock's returns move relative to the overall market: a beta of 1 moves with the market, above 1 is more volatile and below 1 less volatile. It captures systematic (market) risk and is used in the capital asset pricing model. Option (a) describes arbitrage and (b) portfolio management.

'Prisons' is a State subject under entry 4 of the State List, and each state administers its jails under its own prison manual (Statement-I). The colonial Prisons Act, 1894 placed prisons under provincial governments and still provides the legal framework (Statement-II). Both are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I.

In the 'Small Farmer Large Field' model, promoted by the International Rice Research Institute, neighbouring small and marginal farmers keep their individual plots but organise into groups to synchronise operations such as sowing, irrigation, harvesting and marketing, gaining the economies of scale of a large field without pooling land.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct: under the Fifth Schedule the President declares Scheduled Areas by order, and such areas may be a district, block, tehsil or cluster of villages. Statement 3 is incorrect: it is the Governor, not the Chief Minister, who sends an annual report on the administration of Scheduled Areas to the President. Hence only two.

All three are discussed as carbon capture and sequestration techniques: enhanced rock weathering spreads crushed basalt on farmland so it reacts with CO2; ocean alkalinity enhancement adds lime or other minerals so seawater absorbs more CO2; and carbonated water or CO2 is injected into depleted mines, aquifers and basalt formations for geological storage.

The Charter Act of 1833 made the Governor-General of Bengal the Governor-General of India with authority over all British territories, Lord William Bentinck being the first. It also centralised legislation, ended the Company's trading functions and made it a purely administrative body.

According to the UN World Water Development Report 2022, India is the largest user of groundwater, withdrawing about a quarter of the global total, so Statement-I is correct. Most of this water, nearly 90 per cent, goes to irrigation, not drinking and sanitation, so Statement-II is incorrect.

A Finance Bill (other than a Money Bill) can be amended or rejected by the Rajya Sabha (statement 1 correct), while a Money Bill can only be returned with recommendations within 14 days (statement 2 correct). There is no joint sitting for a Money Bill, but a joint sitting for a Finance Bill is only possible in case of deadlock, not 'necessary', so statement 3 is incorrect. Hence only two.

The Congo Basin spans six countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Nigeria, South Sudan and Uganda lie outside the basin, so Cameroon is the answer.

In a recirculating aquaculture system, water from the fish tanks passes through biofilters whose nitrifying bacteria convert the toxic ammonia excreted by fish into nitrite and then nitrate (statement 2), while the filter beds also help break down the organic waste from uneaten feed (statement 1). Biofilters remove waste; they do not add phosphorus as a nutrient (statement 3 incorrect). Hence only two.

Somalia has suffered civil war since 1991, with al-Shabaab insurgency, weak government and repeated droughts; in 2022-23 a fifth failed rainy season brought the country to the brink of famine and the UN warned of severe food shortages. Angola, Costa Rica and Ecuador have had no such famine.

Mahua and teak are deciduous trees of India's tropical dry and moist deciduous forests, shedding their leaves in the dry season. Jackfruit is an evergreen tree of the Western Ghats and other humid regions. Hence only two.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces roughly 70-75 per cent of the world's mined cobalt, much of it from the Katanga copper belt, making it central to electric-vehicle battery supply chains. Argentina is a lithium producer, Botswana produces diamonds and Kazakhstan uranium.

Ilmenite (FeTiO3) and rutile (TiO2) are titanium-bearing heavy minerals found in the beach sands of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh; India holds among the world's largest reserves. Titanium is used in aircraft, implants and the pigment titanium dioxide.

Only the Malabar civet, a critically endangered carnivore of the Western Ghats, is nocturnal. The lion-tailed macaque is diurnal, foraging in the canopy by day, and the sambar is mainly crepuscular, feeding around dawn and dusk rather than after sunset. Hence only one.

The Stability and Growth Pact (1997) requires EU member states to keep their budget deficit below 3 per cent of GDP and public debt below 60 per cent of GDP, with surveillance and corrective procedures. It has nothing to do with sharing infrastructure or technology. Hence only one.

Statement 1 is correct: the Jhelum flows through Wular Lake, India's largest freshwater lake. Kolleru Lake is fed by the Budameru and Tammileru streams and by Krishna-Godavari delta channels, not directly by the Krishna, and Kanwar (Kabartal) Lake is an ox-bow lake of the Burhi Gandak, not the Gandak. Hence only one.

The chief purpose of a constitution is to define the organs of government, allocate their powers and limit them, so that government is conducted under law and citizens' rights are protected. Creating offices or securing social justice are consequences of this basic function, not its essence.

After the pandemic, central banks from the US Federal Reserve to the RBI raised interest rates sharply in 2022-23 (Statement-I). They did so because the standard view of monetary policy is that higher policy rates dampen demand and bring down inflation (Statement-II). Both are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I.

Bhaja near Pune is a Buddhist chaitya-vihara cave complex of the 2nd century BC, and Sittanavasal in Tamil Nadu is a Jain cave shrine famous for its paintings; so pairs 2 and 3 are correct. Besnagar (Vidisha) is known for the Heliodorus pillar, a Vaishnava monument, not a Shaivite cave shrine. Hence only two.

A Community Reserve under section 36C of the Wild Life (Protection) Act is managed by a Community Reserve Management Committee of local people, not by the Chief Wildlife Warden (statement 1 incorrect). Hunting is prohibited in every protected area (statement 2 correct), and the people's traditional land use, including agriculture, continues (statement 4 correct); collection of forest produce is regulated by the committee rather than being a general right (statement 3 incorrect). Hence only two.

The G-20 was created in 1999 as a forum of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors after the Asian financial crisis, and was raised to the level of leaders' summits in 2008 (statement 1). Digital public infrastructure, along with green development and women-led development, was a priority of India's 2023 presidency (statement 2). Both are correct.

India has uranium deposits in Jharkhand (Jaduguda) and Andhra Pradesh (Tummalapalle), yet coal still generates about 70 per cent of its electricity, so Statement-I is correct. Power reactors need only natural uranium (India's PHWRs) or low enrichment of 3-5 per cent; 60 per cent enrichment is near weapons grade, so Statement-II is incorrect.

Hyperthermophilic archaea such as Pyrolobus fumarii grow at over 100 degrees C near hydrothermal vents; psychrophiles grow in sea ice and permafrost below 0 degrees C; and acidophiles such as Picrophilus thrive at pH below 1. All three statements are correct.

Mushrooms such as reishi and shiitake have medicinal uses; Psilocybe species are psychoactive; some fungi such as Cordyceps and the fly agaric have insecticidal properties; and species such as Mycena and Panellus glow in the dark through bioluminescence. All four statements are correct.

Both statements are wrong. A ballistic missile is rocket-powered only in its boost phase and then follows a high, unpowered arc at hypersonic speed; a cruise missile is jet-propelled throughout its flight, usually at subsonic or supersonic speed, and flies low like an aircraft. Agni-V is a solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile and BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile, the reverse of statement 2.

Marsupials, the pouched mammals such as kangaroos, koalas and opossums, occur naturally only in Australasia and the Americas, so Statement-I is correct. They live in a wide range of habitats, from deserts and rainforests to grasslands, and coexist with predators, so Statement-II is incorrect.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct: Article 355 makes it the Union's duty to protect states against external aggression and internal disturbance, and Article 22(3) withholds the right to legal counsel from persons held under preventive detention. Statement 3 is incorrect: POTA, 2002 made confessions before a police officer of SP rank admissible as evidence. Hence only two.

Pairs 2 and 4 are correct: Nayachandra Suri wrote the Hammira-Mahakavya on the Chauhan ruler Hammira, and Somadeva Suri wrote the Nitivakyamrita, a treatise on polity. Devichandraguptam is a play by Vishakhadatta, not Bilhana, and the Milinda-panha records the dialogue between King Menander and the monk Nagasena, not Nagarjuna. Hence only two.

Kamarajar Port (Ennore) was the first major port registered as a company under the Companies Act (pair 1 correct), and Mundra Port of Adani Ports is India's largest privately owned port (pair 2 correct). India's largest container port is Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva), not Visakhapatnam (pair 3 incorrect). Hence only two.

All three are incorrect. Amarkantak is where the Vindhya and Satpura ranges meet (the Maikal hills), not the Sahyadri. The Biligirirangan hills of Karnataka lie at the junction of the Western and Eastern Ghats, not in the Satpura range. The Seshachalam hills of Andhra Pradesh are part of the Eastern Ghats, not the Western Ghats.

None of the pairs is correct. North Kivu and Ituri are provinces of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo troubled by armed groups; Nagorno-Karabakh is the territory fought over by Armenia and Azerbaijan; and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are Ukrainian regions occupied in the Russia-Ukraine war.

National Handloom Day is observed on 7 August because the Swadeshi Movement was launched on 7 August 1905 at the Calcutta Town Hall, with the boycott of foreign goods and the promotion of Indian handlooms. Both statements are correct and Statement-II explains the choice of date.

Indian palm squirrels and giant squirrels build nests (dreys) of leaves and twigs in trees rather than burrows, so statement 1 is incorrect. They do cache nuts and seeds in the ground (statement 2), and they are omnivorous, eating fruit, seeds, insects and eggs (statement 3). Hence only two.

Central bank digital currencies can be settled directly between central banks or on shared platforms (such as the BIS mBridge project), bypassing the US dollar and SWIFT messaging (statement 1). Being programmable, a CBDC can carry conditions such as an expiry date or a restriction on what it may be spent on (statement 2). Both are correct.

The Fifteenth Finance Commission's horizontal devolution formula for 2021-26 uses six criteria: population (15%), area (15%), income distance (45%), forest and ecology (10%), demographic performance (12.5%) and tax and fiscal efforts (2.5%). Governance reforms and stable government are not criteria. Hence three of the listed items.

Janani Suraksha Yojana is a centrally sponsored safe-motherhood scheme under the National Health Mission, not a state intervention (statement 1 incorrect). It aims to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting institutional delivery among poor pregnant women through cash assistance (statements 2 and 3 correct). Care for sick infants falls under other schemes (statement 4 incorrect). Hence only two.

Ukraine's western neighbours are Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, besides Belarus to the north and Russia to the east. Of the listed countries only Hungary and Romania share a land border with Ukraine; Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania do not. Hence only two.

Aerial metagenomics (airborne environmental DNA sampling) collects the DNA shed by organisms into the air of a habitat, such as a forest or a zoo, and sequences it to identify the species present, all from a single air sample. It is a non-invasive biodiversity survey technique.

Home Guards are raised under the Home Guards Acts and Rules of the states and union territories, not the Central Government (statement 1 incorrect). They serve as an auxiliary to the police in maintaining internal security and helping in emergencies (statement 2), and Border Wing Home Guard battalions have been raised in border states to check infiltration (statement 3). Hence only two.

The capital market deals in long-term securities: the government bond market and the stock market belong to it. The call money market (overnight lending between banks) and the treasury bill market (government paper of up to one year) are parts of the money market. Hence only two.

In cases such as Indra Sawhney and M. Nagaraj, the Supreme Court held that reservations under Article 16(4) must be balanced against Article 335, which requires that claims of SCs and STs be considered 'consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration'; so Statement-I is correct. Article 335 does not define 'efficiency of administration', so Statement-II is incorrect.

All three statements are wrong. Coastal plants such as Mundra and Tuticorin use seawater for cooling; many plants, including several in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, are located in water-stressed districts; and a large share of thermal capacity is privately owned by companies such as Adani Power and Tata Power. Hence none.

Jainism holds that jiva (soul) exists not only in plants and animals but also in earth, water, fire and air bodies, so that even rocks and running water are animated by souls. This belief underlies the strict Jain practice of ahimsa. Buddhism, Shaivism and Vaishnavism do not attribute souls to such natural objects.

Only the National Commission for Backward Classes is a constitutional body, given that status under Article 338B by the 102nd Amendment Act, 2018. The NHRC (Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993) and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (Consumer Protection Act) are statutory, and the Law Commission is an executive body set up by government resolution. Hence only one.

Microsatellite DNA (short tandem repeats) consists of short repeated sequences whose lengths vary greatly between individuals and populations. Because they are highly polymorphic and inherited in a Mendelian way, they are used in population genetics and in studying evolutionary relationships among species, as well as in DNA fingerprinting.

India's public health system has historically concentrated on curative, hospital-based care, with preventive, promotive and rehabilitative services under-funded (Statement-I correct). Health is a State subject and states primarily organise health services (Statement-II correct), but this decentralisation does not explain the curative bias. Hence (b).

The MSMED Act, 2006 originally defined medium manufacturing enterprises by plant-and-machinery investment of Rs 5-10 crore, and the 2020 revision uses investment up to Rs 50 crore with turnover up to Rs 250 crore; the figures in statement 1 are wrong. All bank loans to MSMEs qualify as priority-sector lending under RBI guidelines, so statement 2 is correct.

Only pair 3 is correct: pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars left when massive stars exhaust their fuel and collapse. The descriptions of the other two are swapped: Cepheids are variable stars that brighten and dim periodically, and nebulae are giant clouds of gas and dust. Hence only one.

The Invasive Species Specialist Group is a global network of experts under the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It maintains the Global Invasive Species Database, which lists species such as Lantana and water hyacinth that threaten native biodiversity.

The stupa began as a pre-Buddhist burial mound over the remains of the dead, so statement 1 is incorrect. Buddhists adopted it as a repository of the relics of the Buddha and his disciples (statement 2) and built stupas as votive and commemorative monuments, as at Sanchi and Bharhut (statement 3). Hence only two.

Green hydrogen, produced by electrolysis using renewable power, can be burnt directly in suitably modified internal-combustion engines, blended with natural gas in pipelines for heating and power generation (as in India's pilot in Surat), and used in fuel cells to run vehicles. All three statements are correct.

Dhanyakataka, modern Amaravati on the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh, was the capital of the Satavahanas and a major centre of the Mahasanghika school of Buddhism; the great Amaravati stupa flourished there. The other regions are Gandhara (north-west), Kalinga (Odisha) and Magadha (Bihar).

Switzerland, home to the world's largest gold refineries, is the biggest exporter of gold by value, so Statement-I is correct. Its official reserves of about 1,040 tonnes rank it around eighth, behind the USA, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, China and others, so Statement-II is incorrect.

Devaraya I (1406-22) of the Sangama dynasty built a dam across the Tungabhadra and a long aqueduct to carry water to Vijayanagara, easing the water scarcity of the capital; he also built irrigation works that increased revenue. Mallikarjuna, Virupaksha and Vira Vijaya were later, weaker rulers.

Korkai (Pandya port on the Tamraparni estuary, known for pearls), Puhar or Poompuhar (Chola port at the Kaveri mouth) and Muchiri or Muziris (Chera port on the Kerala coast) were the famous ports of the Sangam age that traded with Rome and South-East Asia.

None of them. The Hoysalas rose in the Karnataka region around the 11th century, the Gahadavalas of Kanauj in the late 11th century, the Kakatiyas of Warangal in the 12th century and the Yadavas of Devagiri in the 12th century. All four were post-eighth-century dynasties.

Alexander Rea and A.H. Longhurst (Archaeological Survey of India, southern circle), Robert Sewell (who also wrote on Vijayanagara), James Burgess (Director-General of the ASI) and Walter Elliot were all associated with archaeological excavations and surveys in south India, including at Amaravati and the Pallava sites.

Only statement 4 is correct. Nominated members are excluded from the presidential electoral college (statement 1 incorrect). An MLA's vote value depends on the state's population divided by its elected seats, not on the number of seats (statement 2 incorrect), and Madhya Pradesh MLAs (131) have a lower value than Kerala MLAs (152) (statement 3 incorrect). Puducherry's value (16) exceeds Arunachal's (8) because its population-to-seat ratio is higher.

UNOPS's Sustainable Investments in Infrastructure and Innovation (S3i) initiative channels private investment into three sectors: affordable housing, renewable energy and health infrastructure. Mass rapid transport is not one of its focus areas. Hence only three.

Orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo have been observed stripping sticks and using them to probe tree holes and scrape out insects and honey, one of the best-documented cases of tool-making among non-human primates. Fishing cats, otters and sloth bears do not make tools.

Israel has diplomatic relations with Egypt (1979), Jordan (1994) and, under the 2020 Abraham Accords, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, so Statement-I is correct. The Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 was proposed by Saudi Arabia and adopted by the Arab League, but Israel never signed it, so Statement-II is incorrect.

Green hydrogen can replace grey hydrogen in ammonia and fertiliser production, in refinery processes such as hydrocracking and desulphurisation, and in direct-reduced-iron steelmaking in place of coal-based reduction. India's National Green Hydrogen Mission targets all three sectors. Hence all three.

India has more arable land than China (about 156 million hectares against about 120 million), so statement 1 is correct. China irrigates a larger proportion of its cultivated area, and its yields per hectare of rice, wheat and most crops are well above India's, so statements 2 and 3 are incorrect. Hence only one.

Sterilisation is the RBI's offsetting of the monetary effect of its foreign-exchange interventions: when it buys dollars and releases rupees, it absorbs the extra liquidity by selling government securities through open market operations (or the Market Stabilisation Scheme). The other options are unrelated regulatory or management functions.

Niger (ramtil) is one of the 22 crops for which the Government announces a Minimum Support Price (statement 1). It is a kharif oilseed grown mainly in tribal tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra (statement 2), where tribal communities use its oil for cooking (statement 3). All three are correct.

The US-EU Trade and Technology Council was launched at the June 2021 Brussels summit to coordinate on trade, standards, supply chains and emerging technologies, so Statement-I is correct. Its stated aim is cooperation on technology and trade policy, not to bring technological progress and productivity under US-EU control, so Statement-II is incorrect.

Anaemia Mukt Bharat provides prophylactic iron and folic acid, not calcium, so statement 1 is incorrect. It promotes delayed cord clamping at birth (statement 2), periodic deworming of children and adolescents (statement 3) and addresses non-nutritional causes such as malaria, haemoglobinopathies and fluorosis in endemic pockets (statement 4). Hence three.

All three statements are wrong. Article 71(2) says acts done by the President before a court declares the election void remain valid; the Supreme Court held in 1974 that the election cannot be postponed because some assemblies are dissolved; and Article 111 sets no time limit for the President to assent to a Bill (the 2025 Supreme Court ruling in the Tamil Nadu Governor case is the first to prescribe one). Hence none.

P (primary) waves travel fastest and reach a seismograph first (statement 1). They are longitudinal, with particles vibrating back and forth along the direction of travel, whereas S (secondary) waves are transverse, with particles moving at right angles to the direction of propagation (statement 2). Both are correct.

An accelerometer senses changes in velocity and orientation. Car airbags fire when the accelerometer detects the sudden deceleration of a crash; laptops park the hard-drive head when the accelerometer senses free fall; and smartphones rotate the display when the accelerometer detects tilt. All three require an accelerometer.

Artisanal gold mining, which uses mercury to amalgamate gold, is the largest source of mercury pollution worldwide (statement 1), and coal-fired power plants release mercury contained in coal (statement 2). Statement 3 is treated as incorrect because regulators do set tolerable exposure limits for mercury, such as the WHO's provisional tolerable weekly intake, unlike for lead. Hence only two.

Constitution Day is celebrated on 26 November to mark the adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and to promote constitutional values, so Statement-I is correct. The Drafting Committee under Dr Ambedkar was set up on 29 August 1947, not on 26 November 1949, so Statement-II is incorrect.

India's share of world merchandise exports is about 1.8 per cent (its share of services exports is around 4 per cent), so Statement-I is incorrect. Statement-II is correct: both domestic firms and foreign companies such as Apple's contract manufacturers have availed of the Production-Linked Incentive schemes.