Indian Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

CGWB is the Central Ground Water Board.

Set up in 1970 under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, it surveys and monitors India's aquifers, assesses the annual replenishable groundwater resource, and regulates extraction in over-exploited blocks.

Answer: A

The Ganga-Brahmaputra valley is most prone to earthquakes.

It lies along the front of the Himalayas, where the Indian plate is still driving under the Eurasian, so strain accumulates and is released in large shallow earthquakes. The Deccan plateau is part of the stable ancient shield and is comparatively quiet.

Answer: B

Mumbai is called the Cottonopolis of India.

India's first cotton mill was set up there in 1854, and the city had a hinterland of black cotton soil, a humid climate that suited spinning, a port for machinery and export, and capital from the China trade. The name echoes Manchester's.

Answer: B

1921 is the Great Divide in India's demographic history.

Until then the population rose and fell with famine and epidemic, and the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 made 1911-21 the only decade of the century to record a fall. After 1921 the death rate declined steadily while the birth rate did not, so growth became continuous and rapid.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The Bhils

The Bhils are the most numerous Scheduled Tribe in India, spread across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Gonds are the second largest, concentrated in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Maharashtra, and the Santhals the third, in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar. Scheduled Tribes make up about 8.6 per cent of India’s population by the 2011 census. Madhya Pradesh has the largest tribal population in absolute numbers; Mizoram and Lakshadweep have the highest proportion, above 90 per cent. Their administration is provided for constitutionally. The Fifth Schedule governs scheduled areas in most states, giving the Governor special responsibility and requiring a Tribes Advisory Council; the Sixth Schedule creates autonomous district councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, with genuine legislative powers over land, forests and custom. The Forest Rights Act of 2006 recognises the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land they have long occupied.

Answer: A

Cement is generally classed as a raw-material-oriented industry.

Limestone loses weight in manufacture - roughly 1.6 tonnes of raw material give a tonne of cement - so it is cheaper to bring the fuel to the quarry than the stone to the market. Cement plants therefore cluster on the limestone belts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

Answer: B

ICFRE was created in 1987.

The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, at Dehradun, is an autonomous body under the environment ministry that coordinates forestry research through nine institutes, among them the Forest Research Institute founded in 1906.

Answer: C

The best explanation is the absence of mountains north of Rajasthan to cause the monsoon to shed its moisture there.

The Aravallis run parallel to the path of the Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon rather than across it, so they do not force the air to rise. With no barrier lying athwart the wind, the moisture is carried past Rajasthan without being precipitated.

Answer: D

The Apatanis are a tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.

They live in the Ziro valley of Lower Subansiri district and are known for a wet-rice cultivation that rears fish in the same fields and uses no draught animals - a system so efficient that UNESCO has considered the valley for World Heritage listing.

Answer: A

Arthur Holmes propounded the convection current hypothesis.

He proposed in 1928-29 that heat from radioactive decay drives slow convection in the mantle, and that the moving currents could carry continents apart. This supplied the mechanism Wegener's continental drift had lacked, and prepared the way for plate tectonics.