National Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The Survey of India was set up in 1767.

The Survey of India, the national mapping agency now under the Department of Science and Technology, traces its origin to 1767, when the East India Company appointed Major James Rennell as Surveyor General of Bengal. It is one of the oldest scientific departments of the government.

1757 is the year of the Battle of Plassey, and 1777 and 1787 are not founding years of the Survey.

Answer: A

The Atal Tunnel is in Himachal Pradesh.

The Atal Tunnel, opened in October 2020, runs under the Rohtang Pass and connects Manali with the Lahaul-Spiti valley. At about 9 km, it is described as the world's longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet, and it keeps the route open in winter.

Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh have their own tunnels and highways, but the Atal Tunnel is not in any of them.

Answer: B

The Oxford Hindi word of the year 2020 was Aatmanirbharta.

Oxford Languages chose aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) because its use rose sharply after the Prime Minister's call for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat during the pandemic in 2020.

'Sankraman' (infection), 'Mahamari' (pandemic) and 'Yoga' were also common words, but they were not the word Oxford chose for 2020.

Oxford Languages has chosen a Hindi word of the year since 2017; earlier choices included 'Aadhaar' (2017) and 'Naari Shakti' (2018), picked for words that captured the year's public mood.

Answer: C

The first woman mountaineer of Madhya Pradesh to climb Everest is Megha Parmar.

Megha Parmar, from Sehore district, reached the summit of Mount Everest on 22 May 2019, becoming the first woman from Madhya Pradesh to do so.

Arunima Sinha, from Uttar Pradesh, was the first woman amputee to climb Everest. Shivangi Pathak, from Haryana, was the youngest Indian woman to climb it in 2016. 'Shivangi Thapa' is not a known Everest summiteer from the State.

Answer: B

The first cheetahs came from Namibia.

On 17 September 2022 eight cheetahs flown in from Namibia were released into Kuno National Park in Sheopur, the first reintroduction of the species in India since it was declared extinct in 1952. A second group of twelve came from South Africa in February 2023, but South Africa is not among the options.

Kenya, Sudan and Zambia did not supply cheetahs to Project Cheetah.

Answer: A

Smita Kumari was included in the Guinness World Records for Yoga.

Guinness records her hold of the centre split pose (Samakonasana) for 3 hours 10 minutes 12 seconds, set on 17 December 2022 in Ahmedabad. It is a yoga posture record, awarded for endurance in the pose.

Mountaineering, weightlifting and sea diving have no connection with her record. A later record, in a seated split pose called Bhunamanasana, is also a yoga pose.

Answer: B

The fifth phase had the fewest seats.

The 2024 Lok Sabha election was held in seven phases between 19 April and 1 June. The fifth phase, on 20 May, covered 49 constituencies, the smallest number of any phase.

The fourth phase was the largest of the later phases, with 96 seats, and the sixth and seventh phases covered 58 and 57 seats respectively, all more than the fifth.

Answer: C

In February 2021 the Prime Minister inaugurated the Chauri Chaura Centenary Celebration.

On 4 February 2021 the Prime Minister inaugurated the year-long centenary celebrations of the Chauri Chaura incident of 4 February 1922 in Gorakhpur district, Uttar Pradesh, when a crowd set fire to a police station after police fired on protesters. The violence led Gandhi to call off the Non-Cooperation Movement.

The Jallianwala Bagh centenary fell in 2019, the Champaran Satyagraha centenary in 2017, and the Non-Cooperation Movement began in 1920.

Answer: A

The water body declared a living entity was Sukhna.

In March 2020 the Punjab and Haryana High Court declared Sukhna, in Chandigarh, a legal or living entity, giving it rights of a legal person so that it could be protected from pollution and encroachment. Strictly, Sukhna is a lake, not a river, but it is the only option the court so declared.

Amrit Sarovar is the sacred tank at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Kanjli is a wetland in Punjab, and Karna is a lake in Haryana; none was the subject of that declaration.

Answer: B

The conference was held in New Delhi.

The International Judicial Conference 2020 was hosted by the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi in February 2020, on the theme 'Judiciary and the Changing World'. Judges from many countries attended, and the Prime Minister addressed the inaugural session.

Tokyo, Paris and Bangalore did not host it.