Famous Personalities Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The 'Father of Green Revolution' in India is M. S. Swaminathan.

The agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan led the introduction and adaptation of high-yielding dwarf wheat and rice varieties in India in the 1960s, which together with irrigation and fertilisers made the country self-sufficient in food grains.

C. Subramaniam was the Union Agriculture Minister who backed the policy, B.P. Pal was a wheat breeder and K.C. Mehta a plant pathologist known for his work on wheat rust, but the title belongs to Swaminathan. Norman Borlaug holds it worldwide.

Answer: C

The first woman Chief Minister was Sucheta Kripalani.

Sucheta Kripalani became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1963, the first woman to head any Indian state government.

Sarojini Naidu was the first woman Governor of an Indian state (United Provinces, 1947). Indira Gandhi was the first woman Prime Minister. Rajkumari Amrita Kaur was independent India's first Health Minister. None of them was a Chief Minister.

Answer: A

The father of modern architecture in Tripura is Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya.

Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, who ruled from 1923 to 1947, planned much of modern Agartala and built landmarks such as Neermahal, the water palace in Rudrasagar lake, which is why he is remembered as the architect of modern Tripura.

Kirit Bikram Kishore was his son and successor at the time of the merger with India. Birendra Kishore and Ishan Chandra Manikya were earlier rulers who are not given this title.

Answer: D

Swami Agnivesh campaigned against child labour and bonded labour.

He founded the Bandhua Mukti Morcha (Bonded Labour Liberation Front) in 1981 and chaired the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. Baba Amte worked with leprosy patients, Shabana Azmi is an actor and activist, and Mira Nair a film director.

Answer: B

Gangubai Hangal was a name in music.

She was one of the great exponents of the Kirana gharana of Hindustani classical vocal music, known for a deep, powerful contralto. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1971 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2002.

Answer: A

Florence Nightingale is the Lady with the Lamp.

The name comes from her rounds of the wards at night during the Crimean War, when she tended the wounded at Scutari and cut the death rate sharply by improving sanitation. She founded modern nursing and the first secular nursing school, at St Thomas's Hospital in 1860.

Answer: B

Hari Prasad Chaurasia is a renowned flute player.

He plays the bansuri, the bamboo transverse flute, and is credited with bringing it to the front rank of Hindustani classical instruments. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2000.

Answer: C

Dr Verghese Kurien is famous for dairy development.

He built the Amul cooperative at Anand and led Operation Flood from 1970, which turned India from a milk-deficient country into the world's largest producer. He is called the Father of the White Revolution.

Answer: D

The expedition was to focus attention on the spirit of adventure.

Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Everest in 1984, later led the Indian Women's Trans-Himalayan Expedition of 1997, which traversed some 4,500 km from Arunachal Pradesh to Siachen.

Answer: C

Hitendra Desai was a figure in politics.

He was Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1965 to 1971, the state's third, and later served as a Union Minister.