Appointments and Resignations Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Rajasthan's Energy Minister with independent charge was Shri Heeralal Nagar.

Heeralal Nagar, MLA from Sangod in Kota district, is Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Energy in the Bhajan Lal Sharma government formed in December 2023.

Bhajan Lal Sharma is the Chief Minister and Joga Ram Patel holds the law and parliamentary affairs portfolio, so neither is the independent-charge energy minister.

Answer: B

The Chairman of ISRO in April 2025 was Dr. V. Narayanan.

Dr. V. Narayanan, a rocket propulsion specialist who had headed the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, took over as Chairman of ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space, in January 2025.

He succeeded Dr. S. Somanath, who led ISRO from 2022 to January 2025. 'Dr. V. Somanath' and 'Dr. D. Venkatraman' mix the names and are not real holders of the post.

Answer: D

The correct matching is a-III, b-I, c-II, d-IV.

Three of the pairings are well established:

• K. Sanjay Murthy became Comptroller and Auditor General of India in November 2024 (a-III).
• Sanjay Malhotra became Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in December 2024 (c-II).
• Justice V. Ramasubramanian, a former Supreme Court judge, became Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission in December 2024 (d-IV).

That leaves Raja Subrmani with Chief of Defence Staff (b-I), which is the position the question gives as on June 2026. Only option D has all four pairs.

Answer: B

The correct code is a-3, b-4, c-2, d-1.

• Najma Heptulla: Governor of Manipur from August 2016.
• V.P. Singh Badnore: Governor of Punjab from August 2016.
• Banwarilal Purohit: Governor of Assam from August 2016.
• P. Sathasivam, former Chief Justice of India: Governor of Kerala from 2014.

All four appointments were current in August 2016. The other codes put Najma Heptulla in Kerala or Assam, which does not match.

Answer: A

The correct code is a-2, b-3, c-4, d-1.

• Prakash Javadekar: Human Resource Development, from the July 2016 reshuffle.
• Smriti Irani: Textiles, moved from HRD in the same reshuffle.
• Venkaiah Naidu: Information and Broadcasting, added to his Urban Development portfolio.
• Suresh Prabhu: Railways.

The code a-3, b-2, c-4, d-1 is the trap, giving the portfolios as they stood before the July 2016 reshuffle, when Smriti Irani held HRD.

Answer: A

The FICCI President for 2017 was Pankaj R. Patel.

The chairman and managing director of Zydus Cadila took over as President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in December 2016 for 2017, succeeding Harshavardhan Neotia.

The other options are incomplete names that do not correspond to a FICCI President for that year.

Answer: A

The CBDT Chairman appointed in 2016 was Sushil Chandra.

An Indian Revenue Service officer, he took charge as Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 1 November 2016. He later became a member of the Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner.

Karnal Singh was Director of the Enforcement Directorate and Luo Zhaohui (printed 'Luo Zhaobai') was China's ambassador to India; neither they nor Renu Pall was appointed Chairman of the CBDT in 2016.

Answer: C

The new chief of the IAF was B.S. Dhanoa.

Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa took over as Chief of the Air Staff on 31 December 2016, succeeding Arup Raha, who retired that day.

A.Y. Tipnis (printed 'A.V. Tipnis') was Chief of the Air Staff much earlier, from 1998 to 2001, and Nirmal Kumar Verma was Chief of the Naval Staff (2009-2012), not of the IAF.

Answer: D

Sushil Chandra took charge as Election Commissioner on 15 February 2019.

Sushil Chandra, an Indian Revenue Service officer who had been chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, joined the Election Commission as an Election Commissioner on 15 February 2019. He later became Chief Election Commissioner in 2021.

P.K. Mishra became Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister later in 2019, and Bhaskar Khulbe and Arvind Kumar Sharma were officers in the Prime Minister's Office, not Election Commissioners.

Answer: B

Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected President of Nigeria.

Buhari, first elected in 2015, won the Nigerian presidential election of February 2019 and began his second four-year term in May 2019.

Somalia, Kenya and Oman have different leaders: Oman is a sultanate with no elected president, and Kenya's president at the time was Uhuru Kenyatta.