Appointments and Resignations Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Leo Varadkar was the Prime Minister (Taoiseach) of Ireland.

Varadkar, the leader of Fine Gael, was Taoiseach from 2017. After the February 2020 general election he formally tendered his resignation, staying on in a caretaker role until a coalition government was formed in June 2020, when Micheál Martin became Taoiseach and Varadkar became Tánaiste (deputy prime minister).

He was never the head of government of France, the Netherlands or Greece.

Answer: D

The first woman Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar is Renu Devi.

After the 2020 Bihar Assembly election, Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister in November 2020 with two BJP leaders as Deputy Chief Ministers: Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, the MLA from Bettiah. She became the first woman to hold the post in Bihar.

The other names are not Bihar's deputy chief ministers.

Answer: D

The first Chief of Defence Staff was Bipin Rawat.

General Bipin Rawat, who had been Chief of the Army Staff, took office as India's first Chief of Defence Staff on 1 January 2020. The CDS heads the Department of Military Affairs and is the single-point military adviser to the government.

M.M. Naravane succeeded Rawat as Army Chief. V.K. Singh is a former Army Chief who became a Union minister, and 'S. Yadav' is not associated with the post.

Answer: D

On 28 August 2021 the Chief Justice of India was Justice N. V. Ramana.

Justice N. V. Ramana was sworn in as the 48th Chief Justice of India on 24 April 2021 and served until 26 August 2022.

Justice S. A. Bobde was his predecessor and retired on 23 April 2021. Y. V. Chandrachud was Chief Justice from 1978 to 1985, and his son D. Y. Chandrachud became Chief Justice only in November 2022. Justice Akil Kureshi headed state High Courts but was never Chief Justice of India.

Answer: B

The new Governor of Manipur was La Ganesan.

La. Ganesan, a senior leader from Tamil Nadu, took oath as Governor of Manipur on 27 August 2021, succeeding Najma Heptulla. A Governor is appointed by the President and takes the oath of office before the Chief Justice of the state's High Court.

Ramesh Bais (printed 'Ramesh Vaish') was then Governor of Tripura and later of Jharkhand, and Anandiben Patel was Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Arun Prasad did not take oath as Governor of Manipur on that date.

Answer: D

Volodymyr Zelensky (printed in the paper as Zelenesky) is a comedian.

Before entering politics he was a comic actor and producer, best known for the television series Servant of the People, in which he played a schoolteacher who unexpectedly becomes President of Ukraine. He then won the real presidential election in April 2019, taking office in May.

Playing a teacher on screen is the source of the 'Teacher' distractor. He holds a law degree, which makes 'Lawyer' tempting too, but he never practised law; he was known as an entertainer.