Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in Current Affairs.

Species diversity increases from the equator towards the poles is NOT correct.

• Species diversity decreases from the equator towards the poles.

• Species diversity is higher at the equator than at the poles.
• The pattern of species is rich in tropics relative to species-poor temperate and polar areas.

• Tropics harbour more species than temperate areas.
• The greatest biodiversity occurs in the Amazonian rain forest.
• Species diversity decreases from temperate areas towards poles.

The philosophy propounded in the Upanishads is known as Vedanta.

The correct answer is Haryana.

• Tropic of Cancer is an imaginary line that is at an angle of 23.50 degrees.
• It is North of the Equator, which passes through the middle of India.
• Tropic of Cancer passes through 17 countries.
• The Tropic of Cancer passes through eight states in India:
  •   Gujarat (Jasdan)
  • Rajasthan (Kalinjarh)
  • Madhya Pradesh (Shajapur)
  • Chhattisgarh (Sunhat)
  • Jharkhand (Lohardaga)
  • West Bengal (Krishnanagar)
  • Tripura (Udaipur)
  • Mizoram (Champhai)

• Tropic of Cancer crosses Mahi River twice, first in Madhya Pradesh from where it flows towards Rajasthan and enters Gujarat where it cuts for the second time.
• The maximum length of the Tropic of Cancer is in Madhya Pradesh.
• The minimum length of the Tropic of Cancer is in Rajasthan.   

The correct answer is Hunter Commission.

Mahatma Jothirao Phule presented his testimonies regarding education to Hunter Commission (Education Commission) in 1881.

• Phule was responsible for movements for justice, equality, and liberation in India.
• 1^st person to demand the independence of laborers, untouchables, and women

Hunter Commission:

• Presided by Sir William Hunter (appointed by Lord Rippon)
• Formed to locate aspects related to primary education in India

Major recommendations of Hunter Commission:

• Preference to literates for government jobs in the lower cadre
• Primary schools expansion in rural and backward areas
• Primary school’s education management to be handled by District and municipal boards as per Self Government Act
• Separation of funds for rural and urban schools to stop misuse of funds allocated to rural school by urban schools
• Private parties would establish Secondary schools
• Opening of Model schools in each district by the government to guide private schools
• Division of school curriculum including academic and vocational courses
• Special care for girls’ education
• Discourage Missionary schools

• Hunter Commission’s recommendations were limited to schools under British Indian Government.
• Lack of funds caused traditional schools to close which in turn increased the burden on government schools that had directly impacted primary education

• Simon Commission – (1928) to study constitutional reforms in British India led by Sir John Simon
• University Grants Commission – (1956) to maintain education standards; in India set up by the Government in accordance with UGC Act 1956
• Macaulay Commission – (1834) 1^st law commission during British raj led by Lord Macaulay to bring law reforms in India

• 1^st law commission of independent India – 1955 (3-year term)

The correct answer is the United States of America.

• The Nobel Prize is given since 1901 in the name of 'Alfred Nobel' of Sweden.
• Economic -
  • American economists William D. Nordhaus and Paul M. Roemer were awarded the Nobel Prize.
  • Provided for the discovery of new technology on climate change.
• Peace -
  • Nadia Murad of Iraq and Dennis Mukwez of the Democratic Republic of Congo of Africa were awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace.
  • Nadia campaigned against sexual violence and Dennis treated women victims of sexual violence.
• Chemistry -
  • America's Frances Arnold, America's George Smith, and Britain's Gregory Winter were awarded the Nobel Prize in the field of chemistry.
  • These provided for new discoveries in the field of directed evolution and phase display.
• Physics -
  • Arthur Ashkin of America, Gerard Mouro of France, and Donna Strickland of Canada were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
  • He was awarded for his work in the field of 'laser physics'.
• The 2018 Nobel Prize in 'literature' is not given.

• Floriculture plays a significant role in Indian Agriculture. 
• It has a great potential of generating income. 
• It provides employment opportunities for farmers and women 
• Adds to export of India.

• They are renewable, pollution free, eco-friendly. 
• Found in abundance. 
• Can be conveniently supplied to urban and rural areas. 
• Capable of meeting power requirements in India. 
• Will augment energy crisis.

The correct answer is Firoz Tughlaq.

• Firoz Shah Tuglaq was a Turkish leader who was born in 1309 and was in power in Delhi from 1351 to 1388.
• He was the third ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty after the death of Mohammad-bin Tughlaq.
• He established several hospitals portrayed differently as Darul-Shifa, Bimaristan, or Shifa Khana, in Delhi.
• He instituted economic policies to increase the material welfare of his people.
• He established the Employment Bureau, a charity bureau, and a charitable hospital.
• He provided money for the marriage of girls belonging to poor families.
• He died in 1388 and the Tughlaq dynasty could not continue much after his death.

• Mohammad Bin Tughlaq succeeded his father Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq and was one of the most controversial rulers in India History. He is referred to as the wise fool in Indian History.
• Alauddin Khilji was the second sultan of the Khilji dynasty of Delhi in India. He murdered his father-in-law and consolidated his power in Delhi.
• Balban was purchased as a slave by Iltutmish. He rose up the ranks quickly. After Nasir’s death, Balban declared himself the Sultan.

In the year 2012 HDI was 0.554. India ranked 136 among 166 countries.

•  Low life expectancy (65.8 years) 
• Low per Capita Income ($3203) 
• Low average years of schooting (4.4 years)

The correct answer is Peepal.

• The Ficus religiosa is commonly known as the Peepal tree in India. 
  • The peepal tree is known by its botanical name as Ficus religiosa.
  • It is also called a sacred fig tree in Indian culture because of several religious and cultural practices related to it.
  • India has a long culture of considering various trees and animals as sacred because of religious principles and practices.
  • One such principle suggests that the peepal tree is the residence of gods and hence should be protected.
  • One other aspect linked with the peepal tree is that Lord Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under the shade of a peepal tree and hence, it is also considered as sacred for Buddhists.
  • For all such practices prevalent in India people are encouraged to plant peepal trees which ultimately helps in increasing the green cover and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere but also helps in conservation as these trees become home for several birds and insects species.
  • This is the tree under which Gautama Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment. 

•  Babool
  • The traditional toothbrush for Indians, Babul knew as Kikar or Vachellia Nilotica or Acacia Nilotica is quite a common tree in these parts of the country.
  • A thorny tree, Babul shoots up to a height of 12 meters and flaunts small yellow round nectar- fewer flowers.
• Sal
  • Sal is also known as Shorea robusta, is an imperative non-timber forest product that spreads across 10 million in India covering almost 14% of the total forest area of the country.
  • It has an eminent role in the economics of some Indian states i.e. Jharkhand, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh.
• Neem
  • ​Azadirachta indica, commonly known as neem, nimtree, or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae.
  • It is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta, and is native to the Indian subcontinent.

• Entrepreneurship refers to the “pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled.”
• Entrepreneurship has become increasingly socially conscious, taking stock of the impact of entrepreneurial activity on societal issues and tending to view the possibility of addressing those issues as an important function of entrepreneurship.
• The impact of entrepreneurs on economic growth is overall positive, though it may be more mixed than its proponents realize with evidence pointing towards widely different results within different sectors of the economy.
• The evidence of how effective socially-conscious innovations have been at solving the issues they tackle historically has been mixed.

• The license of East India Company was canceled and India was brought under the direct administration of the Queen. 
• The post of Governor General was changed into ‘Viceroy’. Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of India. 
• A new post called ‘Secretary of State for India’ was created in the British government. The secretary was part of British cabinet and was responsible for the administration of India. 
• A Council of India was created in order to assist the secretary in the administration. The council had fifteen members.

The correct answer is Manika Batra.

• Table tennis player Manika Batra, was conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2020.
• She is 'looking forward to bring more laurels' to the country.
• Manika had a successful 2018 when she won gold in the Commonwealth Games and bronze in the Asian Games.

• Manika Batra is an Indian Table Tenis Player.
• Indian women's tennis team staged a winning show at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as they defeated defending champions Singapore 3-1 to claim gold. India took the lead with the help of Manika Batra.
• This is India's first-ever gold at the multi-sport event. It was only the second table tennis team gold for India at the Games with the men achieving the feat in the 2006 Melbourne edition. 

• Important Table Tennis players in India are:
  • Sharath Kamal.
  • Naina Jaiswal.
  • Soumyajit Ghosh.
  • Anthony Amalraj.
  • Paulomi Ghata.
  • Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.
  • Neha Aggarwal. 

The correct answer is World Bank.

• Rs. 6000 crores to be implemented over a period of 5 years (2020-21 to 2024-25), 50% shall be in the form of a World Bank loan. 

• Atal Bhujal Yojana:
  • ​The Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY) is a central sector scheme worth Rs.6,000 crore for sustainable management of groundwater with community participation.
  • It is being implemented by the Ministry of Jal Shakti (earlier known as Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation).
  • The scheme is being funded by the Government of India and the World Bank on 50:50 basis.

The correct answer is Clay.

• The particles that makeup soil are categorized into three groups by size – sand, silt, and clay.
  • Single clay particles cannot be seen with a naked eye.
  • Size is less than 0.002 mm in diameter.
  • ​​Sand particles are the largest and clay particles the smallest. 

• The particles in clay are tightly packed together with each other with very little or no airspace.
• This clay has very good water storage qualities and makes it hard for moisture and air to penetrate into it.
  • It is very sticky to the touch when wet, but smooth when dried.
  • It is the densest and heaviest type of soil that does not drain well or provide space for plant roots to flourish.

The correct answer is Captain Walter.

• Captain Walter was the first to emphasize the need to establish separate educational institutions for the rulers of the princely states of Rajasthan.

• About Mayo College - The origin of Mayo College, one of the oldest Public Schools in the country, dates back to 1869, when Col F K M Walter, the Political Agent of the Bharatpur Agency recommended a school in India "for a large number of pupils, with a staff thoroughly educated-not mere bookworms, but men fond of field sports and outdoor exercise.
  • In 1870, Lord Mayo, the then Viceroy and Governor-General, came to Ajmer, wherein a Darbar, before the Chiefs of the ruling Princes of Rajputana, he expressed his desire to set up a 'Raj Kumar College' in Ajmer, devoted exclusively to the education of the sons of Chiefs, Princes and leading Thakurs.
  • The College was opened in October 1875, with Sir Oliver St. John as the first Principal and one boy, Maharaja Mangal Singh of Alwar.
  • The Main Building was completed in 1885 and was designed by Major Mant.

• Captain Walter was the first to emphasis the need to establish separate educational institution for the rulers of the princely states of Rajasthan.
• Separate educational institute provide the quality education for the ruler of princely states.

• 'Hansawali', an early work of Rajasthani literature was written by Asayit.
• The famous Sufi poet Asait was its creator and it was composed in 1370 AD.
• It is considered to be the oldest work of the pre-eminent tradition and the ancient Rajasthani language has been used in it.

The correct answer is Birbal.

• The theory of Din-i-Ilahi was introduced by Mughal Emperor Akbar.
  • It is based on Monotheism, which means belief in one God.
  • The first initiated disciples of Din-i-Ilahi during emperor Akbar included Birbal, Prince Salim, and Abul-Fazl ibn Mubarak.

The invention of fire and wheel are the most important gifts of the ancient man to the present generation.

After the invention of the wheel, the man-made vehicles like bullock-cart, camel cart, etc. After these, the man-made vehicle, run by machine and fuel. As a result of these vehicles, our life became easy; travel and transportation of goods, became speedy. Time is saved. In this way, the invention of wheel has revolutionalised our lives today.

The primitive man might have chosen the caves of mountains to protect himself against wild animals and cold.

The primitive man might have chosen the banks of rivers for getting water, to live collectively by building shelters and for agriculture and rearing animals.

Seals were used by merchants as a form of identification during the period of Indus Valley Civilization. It is also used for maintaining contacts more comfortable with the people living at far away distance. A script is a form of writing used by people for the luggage they use. The details of the sender were available from the script.

Bevelling seals the free edge layers.

Beautiful toys like clay-cocks, whistles of the bird- shape, clay-rattles, marbles, clay-cart, ox with a shaking head, monkey moving up and down with the help of a string, etc. for entertainment of children are found from Sindhu Valley Civilization.

The following are the three National festivals which we celebrate together:

1. Republic Day,
2. Independence Day and
3. Gandhi Jayanti.

‘These are our National festivals. Therefore, we celebrate them together.

The coastline of Gujarat is about 1600 kilometres long. In comparison with other states of India, the sea coast of Gujarat is longer and less dissected. That is why it is useful for navigation.

In this case, Lucy from Canada will be given the citizenship of India.
According to one condition of law, to get Indian citizenship, if a foreigner lady marries an Indian citizen, she can get Indian citizenship. In this case, as Lucy from Canada has married Prof. Shri Jani, who is an Indian citizen, she can get Indian citizenship.

The duties of an ideal citizen are:

1. He should show love and loyalty towards his country.
2. His behaviour should be such that it adds to the pride of his nation.
3. He should live with co-operation and helping attitude with fellow citizens.
4. He should not do any activity which is harmful to the nation’s pride.
5. He should abide by the laws of the nation.
6. In case of natural calamities, he should render his services to the affected people wholeheartedly.

The things run by wheel and used in our house are baby-walker, perambulator, manual grinder, bicycle, scooter, motorcar, toys of different types, etc.

In spite of diversity in India, there was a strong feeling of unity in the people of India during freedom movement. A high level of National feeling and patriotism were seen in people.

Biosphere means sphere of life or sphere of living organisms.

The main aims of the project are flood control, Promotion of irrigation, Generating Hydro Electricity, Navigation, Afforestation, Prevents Soil erosion, Inland fishing and recreation facilities. 

Its features are as follows :

Damodar and its tributaries – It comprises four Dams, three Hydel Power stations one barrage and three thermal power stations.

1. Tilaiya Dam : This dam has been constructed on Barakar river a tributary of Damodar.

• Its gross storage capacity is 395 million cubic metres. 
• Two power stations of 200 KW each have been set up here. The dam provides irrigation facilities to 40,000 hectares.

2. Konar Dani :

• It has been constructed on Konar river. 
• Its gross storage capacity is 337 million cubic metres, Its provides irrigation facilities to 1.4 Lakh hectares.

3. Maothon Dam : It has been constructed on Barakar river.

Active volcano and Dormant Volcanoes.

Natural vegetation is the sum total of plant species and the ground cover they provide.

1. Internal Migration : Movement of people from one region to another within the same country’ is called internal migration. In India there are four streams of internal migration. They are

(a) Rural to Rural 

(b) Rural to urban 

(c) Urban to Urban 

(d) Urban to Rural.

(a) Rural to Rural: This is estimated that about 65.2% of total migration is of this category’.

• Female migrants dominated in this stream. Thus it is an important example for matrimonal migration and it is called women migration.

(b) Rural to Urban: Rural to Urban migration (17.6%) is second important type of migration. Rural-Urban migration is caused by both push of the rural areas as well as pull of the urban areas.

(c) Urban to Urban: Generally, people like to move from small town with less facility to large cities with more facilities.

(d) Urban to Rural: Urban areas are usually affected by the pollution.

• The retired and aged people prefer to spend their old age life in nearby villages. Thus people move from Urban to Rural.

2. International Migration: Movement of people from one country to another across international borders is called International migration.

The method of carrying goods and passengers on boats, ships, steamers etc on water from place to place is water transport.

The process of conversion of raw materials into finished goods employing machinery and man power is called as industry.

According to Ellen C. Sample – “The study of changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth."

Bihar with 63.82% is the Lowest Literacy state.

Network is the largest mega city in the world.

An Inter connected system of networks that connects computers around the world.

Naturalisation of humans refers to the human condition when human actions were dictated by nature. It is also called as ‘environmental determinism’. In the early, or rather primitive, stages of very low technological development, humans – who were unable to understand the forces of nature - were afraid of nature’s fury and worshipped it. They lived their lives in complete harmony with their natural environment, and viewed nature as a powerful force, revered and conserved it. They directly dependent on nature for resources to sustain themselves. For such societies, the physical environment becomes the “Mother Nature”.

But over time, humans began to understand the forces of nature with the help of advanced technology. They began to move from a state of necessity to a state of freedom, and began to create new possibilities with the resources obtained from the environment. The imprints of human activities are now created everywhere. Slowly, nature is being humanised or it is already.

Nature and human are inseparable. The earth is the home of mankind. It may be in different forms. All types of life supports are provided by nature. They directly depend on nature. Nature and humans are inseparable and should be seen holistically. Physical features are described in metaphors using symbols from the human anatomy.
For example: face of earth, nose of glacier, eye of storm, mouth of river, neck of isthmus, profile of soil etc.

Dualism is one of the main characteristics of geography which got introduced from the very beginning. This dualism depended on the aspect emphasised in the study. Earlier scholars laid emphasis on physical geography. Thus developed human geography with emphasis on human activities.

(c) Agriculture

(a) Downfall in working population in rural areas

(i) Transcontinental railway

(ii) Halifax To Vancouver

This is the change of population expressed in percentage

Factors of positive growth of population 

(i) Birth 

(ii) Inmigration