UPSC Prelims 2014 — solved PYQs

Oxides of nitrogen are also released during high-temperature combustion in steel furnaces.

Oxides of sulphur and carbon dioxide are also significant emissions from steel production.

Carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen are also major pollutants from steel manufacturing processes.

These terms do not appear in military contexts. They are found in land-grant inscriptions referring to local rural functionaries.

These were administrative titles in rural settings, not designations for ritual specialists or Vedic priests.

Craft guild chiefs were known by different terms such as Shreshthin or Jyeshthaka. Mahattara and Pattakila were village-level headmen.

Japan is not an Arctic Council member; it holds observer status only.

Japan and the United Kingdom are not Arctic Council members; only the eight Arctic states belong.

The United Kingdom is not a member of the Arctic Council; it is an observer state.

Neither the Drought-Prone Area Programme nor the Desert Development Programme was administered by the ministries stated. Both pairings are incorrect.

The National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas was not administered by the Ministry of Rural Development in the manner stated. This pairing is also incorrect.

All three pairings are mismatched. These programmes were administered under different ministries or departments than those shown in the options.

The Ibadat Khana was not a mosque. Fatehpur Sikri had a separate Jama Masjid for congregational prayers. The Ibadat Khana served a completely different function.

It was not a private prayer chamber. Akbar built the Ibadat Khana specifically for hosting inter-religious dialogues, not personal devotion.

The discussions were initiated and presided over by Akbar himself with invited scholars and theologians, not merely a gathering room for nobles of different faiths.

Diphtheria still occurs in India despite vaccination, and chickenpox cases continue to be reported regularly.

Only smallpox has been eradicated; diphtheria and chickenpox cases are still reported in India.

Smallpox has been eradicated both in India and worldwide, so 'none' is incorrect.

Egypt witnessed major protests after Tunisia, but the Arab Spring did not originate there.

Lebanon was not the starting point of the Arab Spring movement.

Syria's civil war was a consequence of the broader Arab Spring wave, not its origin.

Retinal scanning and voice recognition are also established biometric identification methods.

Iris scanning is a widely used biometric method, so excluding it is incorrect.

Retinal scanning, which maps blood vessel patterns at the back of the eye, is also a valid biometric identification method.

Kuno-Palpur is correctly located in Madhya Pradesh, but Sultanpur National Park is in Haryana, not Rajasthan. Wait — this answer claims pair 2 is correct. Actually Kuno National Park is indeed in Madhya Pradesh, so pair 2 is correct; however the original PYQ answer key marks (c).

Sultanpur National Park is in Haryana, not Rajasthan, so pair 3 is incorrect. This option is wrong.

Sultanpur National Park is located in Gurugram district, Haryana, not in Rajasthan. Pair 3 is wrong.

While soil runoff prevention is a benefit, river-linking is a separate mega-project and not part of watershed development.

Linking perennial and seasonal rivers is not part of the IWDP; it belongs to the inter-linking of rivers proposal.

Statement 2 about linking rivers is not a component of watershed development programmes.

Fiscal deficit is a budgetary variable and not directly fixed through reserve requirements.

MSP is an agricultural pricing decision unrelated to reserve ratios.

Direct tax collection is a fiscal matter, not a function of CRR or SLR.

Budding and grafting are vegetative propagation methods, not techniques for creating transgenic organisms.

Budding and grafting are traditional horticultural practices, not transgenic techniques.

Cytoplasmic male sterility and gene silencing are valid transgenic crop development tools.

A panchayat (assembly of five elders) is a village governance institution, distinct from the architectural term panchayatan used in temple construction.

Panchayatan is not a religious sect. Various sects like Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta etc. have their own nomenclatures unrelated to this architectural term.

Panchayatan is not an administrative role. It is a term from the vocabulary of Hindu temple architecture.

The channel between Nicobar and Sumatra is the Great Channel (Six Degree Channel), not the Ten Degree Channel.

The Eight Degree Channel separates Maldives from Minicoy Island (Lakshadweep), not the Ten Degree Channel.

The Sunda Strait separates Sumatra from Java.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Under Article 77(1), all executive action of the Government of India shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President, not the Prime Minister.

Only Statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 wrongly substitutes 'Prime Minister' for 'President' in the context of Article 77.

Statement 1 is a nearly verbatim reproduction of Article 77(3) and is correct.

Statement 1 is incorrect; Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), not UNEP and UNESCO.

Statement 3 is also correct; raising climate-change awareness is a core purpose of Earth Hour.

Statement 1 is wrong; Earth Hour was started by WWF Australia in 2007.

Painted Storks are wetland birds that wade in shallow water to catch fish. They do not follow cattle in grasslands.

Black-necked Cranes are high-altitude birds found in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. They do not stalk cattle in lowland countryside.

Black-necked Cranes feed in alpine wetlands, not alongside cattle in grasslands. The Common Myna is the correct answer.

Crustaceans are consumers and cannot be the starting point of a food chain. Primary producers (diatoms) must come first.

Herrings do not typically feed directly on diatoms; they consume zooplankton such as crustaceans. The trophic order is producers then primary consumers then secondary consumers.

This reverses the energy flow. In a food chain, energy moves from producers to consumers, not from crustaceans to herrings to diatoms.

Darfur is in Sudan and Swat Valley is in Pakistan; neither pair is correctly matched.

The Swat Valley is in Pakistan, not Iraq, so pair 3 is incorrect.

Only pair 1 is correct; pairs 2 and 3 have the wrong country associations.

Avanti and Gandhara were not directly associated with the life of the Buddha. While Buddhism later spread to these regions, the Buddha's life events took place elsewhere.

While Magadha is correct, Gandhara in the northwest was far from the region where the Buddha lived and preached. Gandhara became important for Buddhist art much later.

Avanti, centred around Ujjain, was not directly linked to the life events of the Buddha, even though its king Pradyota was a contemporary.

National parks are strict protected areas where human activities like grazing and resource extraction are generally prohibited, making them less suited for integrating traditional human life.

Wildlife sanctuaries allow some regulated human activities but their primary mandate is wildlife protection, not the comprehensive integration of human life and conservation.

Botanical gardens are ex-situ conservation facilities for plant species and do not encompass traditional human communities or large ecosystems.

Statement 3 is also correct. Brominated flame retardants are known endocrine disruptors that interfere with thyroid function.

Statement 1 is also correct. Several brominated flame retardants are listed under the Stockholm Convention as persistent organic pollutants.

Statement 2 is also correct. These chemicals are lipophilic and accumulate in fatty tissues of organisms, biomagnifying through food chains.

Cardamom Hills are in the southern Western Ghats of Kerala, not the Coromandel Coast. Kaimur Hills are in Madhya Pradesh-Uttar Pradesh, not the Konkan Coast.

Kaimur Hills are an eastern extension of the Vindhyas in central-eastern India, not near the Konkan Coast. Only Mahadeo Hills in Central India is correct from this pair.

Kaimur Hills are in the Vindhya region of UP-MP, not the Konkan Coast. While Mikir Hills in North-East India is correct, this combination is incomplete.

Advisory jurisdiction under Article 143 is exercised when the President seeks the Court's opinion, not when adjudicating Centre-State disputes.

Appellate jurisdiction deals with appeals from lower courts. Centre-State disputes are heard directly by the Supreme Court under its original jurisdiction.

Writ jurisdiction under Article 32 deals with enforcement of Fundamental Rights, not adjudication of federalism-based disputes between the Centre and States.

Kinnaur is known for apples and dry fruits, not areca nut. Mewat is not particularly famous for mangoes.

The Coromandel coast is known for rice cultivation, not soya bean.

None of the pairs are correctly matched. Kinnaur is famous for apples, not areca nut; Mewat is not noted for mangoes; and Coromandel is associated with rice, not soya bean.