Topics Covered
About these MCQs
Model questions written for the official Paper I syllabus, twenty on each unit, at the level of the paper. Each has four options and one right answer; Show Answer gives the answer and why, and often why the tempting wrong option is wrong. Units are added as their notes are written. For the real thing, work through Paper I of June 2026.
Jump to Unit:
- Unit 1 — Teaching Aptitude
- Unit 2 — Research Aptitude
- Unit 3 — Comprehension
- Unit 4 — Communication
- Unit 5 — Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude
- Unit 6 — Logical Reasoning
- Unit 7 — Data Interpretation
- Unit 8 — Information and Communication Technology
- Unit 9 — People, Development and Environment
- Unit 10 — Higher Education System
Unit 1 — Teaching Aptitude (20 MCQs)
Levels and objectives of teaching, learners, methods, SWAYAM, support systems, evaluation, CBCS.
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A. The memory level, the lowest and most teacher-centred, is Herbart's; the understanding level is Morrison's and the reflective level Hunt's.
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C. Hunt's reflective level is the highest: learner-centred, built on problem-solving and critical thinking.
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D. The revision renamed the levels as verbs and put create (once synthesis) above evaluate. Synthesis is the old name, not a level of the revision.
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A. The affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia, 1964) runs receiving, responding, valuing, organisation, characterisation.
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C. Planning comes before the class: the pre-active phase. The interactive phase is the class itself; the post-active phase is evaluation afterwards.
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B. Real scores are concrete; the definition is abstract. The maxim is concrete to abstract (and particular to general, not general to particular).
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A. Knowles set andragogy against pedagogy. Piaget described cognitive stages, Erikson psychosocial stages, Dale the cone of experience.
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D. Formal operations begin around eleven or twelve, which is why adolescents can handle abstract ideas that younger children cannot.
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C. Knowles held that adults' motivation is mainly internal (self-esteem, satisfaction, quality of life). The other three are among his assumptions.
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D. Class size is set by the institution's policies and resources, so it is an institutional factor.
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C. In the project method learners plan and carry out a purposeful task; the teacher guides. Lecture, demonstration and recitation are teacher-centred.
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A. Kilpatrick set it out in 1918, drawing on Dewey. Armstrong is known for the heuristic method, Parkhurst for the Dalton plan, Skinner for programmed instruction.
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B. Skinner's linear programming grew from his work on reinforcement. Keller devised the Personalised System of Instruction, Osborn brainstorming, Flanders interaction analysis.
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A. The usual order is flipped: first contact with the content is at home (video, reading), and class time is for active work.
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C. SWAYAM, launched in 2017, is the Government of India's MOOC platform: Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds.
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D. The four quadrants are e-tutorial, e-content, self-assessment and a discussion forum. Attendance in a classroom is not part of a MOOC.
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B. Direct, purposeful experiences form the base; verbal symbols, which depend on words alone, sit at the top.
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B. Formative evaluation happens during teaching and shapes it; summative evaluation judges at the end. Scriven introduced the two terms in 1967.
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D. Criterion-referenced tests measure against a standard; norm-referenced tests rank candidates against one another (Glaser, 1963).
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A. SGPA = (4×8 + 3×6 + 3×10) / (4 + 3 + 3) = (32 + 18 + 30) / 10 = 8.0. Here the simple mean of the grade points is also 8.0, but only by chance: always weight by credits.
Unit 2 — Research Aptitude (20 MCQs)
Types and methods of research, positivism, steps, sampling, referencing, ICT, ethics.
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A. Lewin introduced action research in the 1940s; Stephen Corey took it into education. Popper is known for falsification, Comte for positivism, Weber for Verstehen.
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B. Applied research aims at a practical solution; fundamental (pure) research aims to extend knowledge or theory.
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D. Comte founded positivism. Popper's falsification underlies post-positivism; Weber's Verstehen, interpretivism; Glaser, grounded theory.
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B. Popper's falsification: one black swan refutes "all swans are white", but no number of white swans proves it.
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C. Only the experimental method manipulates the presumed cause while controlling other variables. Surveys and case studies can show association, not cause.
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D. Random assignment is what makes a design truly experimental. A control group without it is quasi-experimental; one group without a control is pre-experimental.
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B. External criticism tests authenticity (is it what it claims to be?); internal criticism tests the credibility of its content.
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C. Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967). Campbell and Stanley classified experimental designs.
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C. Snowball sampling grows through referrals and suits hidden populations. The other three are probability methods that need a list or frame.
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D. In stratified random sampling every unit has a known chance of selection. Quota, purposive and convenience sampling are non-probability methods.
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A. The problem comes first; the literature review shows what is known; hypotheses follow from both; data are collected to test them.
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B. The teaching method is the presumed cause (independent); achievement is the outcome measured (dependent).
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C. The null hypothesis states no difference or no relation; it is the one tested statistically.
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A. MLA uses author–page. APA uses author–date (Rao, 2019); Vancouver and IEEE number their references.
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A. Ibid. (ibidem, in the same place) refers to the source cited immediately before. Op. cit. is the work already cited; cf. is compare; et al. is and others.
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B. Four papers have at least 4 citations (12, 10, 7, 5), but there are not five papers with at least 5 (the fifth has 3). So h = 4.
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D. Shodhganga holds theses submitted to Indian universities. Plagiarism-detection software is provided through Shodh Shuddhi; SWAYAM is the MOOC platform.
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A. Level 0, up to 10%, is minor similarity and carries no penalty. Level 1 is above 10% to 40%, Level 2 above 40% to 60%, Level 3 above 60%.
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D. Fabrication is inventing data; falsification is changing them; plagiarism is copying without credit. Together they are the three serious forms of misconduct.
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C. The Belmont Report's principles are respect for persons, beneficence and justice; informed consent is how respect for persons is applied.
Unit 3 — Comprehension (20 MCQs)
Four passages, five questions each: main idea, detail, inference, vocabulary, tone.
For most of the twentieth century, India's farms drew their water from canals and tanks; today the larger share of irrigated land is watered from wells. The change brought great gains. A farmer with a tube well need not wait for a canal's turn; she can water when the crop needs it, and yields have risen accordingly. But groundwater is a bank account that is refilled only by the rain that soaks into the soil, and in many districts more is withdrawn each year than the monsoon returns. Water tables have fallen so far in places that wells must be deepened every few years, at a cost the poorest farmers cannot meet.
The difficulty is that no single farmer gains by holding back: water she leaves in the ground may simply be pumped by a neighbour. Free or cheap electricity for pumps, introduced to help farmers, has made the problem worse by removing the one cost that might have encouraged restraint. Some villages have shown another way. By agreeing among themselves which crops to grow and how much to pump, and by building small structures that slow run-off and let rain soak in, they have stabilised their water tables. Their experience suggests that the answer lies less in new technology than in new rules, made by those who share the resource.
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B. The first paragraph gives the gains and the overuse; the second, why it happens and what some villages did. (A) is one detail; (C) goes beyond the passage, which says cheap power worsened the problem but proposes no abolition; (D) is never argued.
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A. The passage says so directly: "water she leaves in the ground may simply be pumped by a neighbour". (C) contradicts it: more is withdrawn than the monsoon returns.
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C. The villages stopped the decline of their water tables. Nothing says the tables rose sharply, so (A) claims too much.
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D. The last sentence: the answer lies "in new rules, made by those who share the resource". (A) is what the author plays down; (B) contradicts "refilled only by the rain".
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A. Rain is the deposit, pumping the withdrawal; when withdrawals exceed deposits, the balance (the water table) falls.
Before a scientific paper is published in a reputable journal, it is usually sent to two or three experts in the field who are not its authors. These reviewers judge whether the question is worth asking, whether the methods can answer it, and whether the conclusions follow from the results. They may recommend that the paper be accepted, revised or rejected. The system, called peer review, is often described as the gatekeeper of science.
Gatekeeper is too strong a word. Reviewers rarely see the raw data and almost never repeat the experiment; they judge the paper as it is written. They can miss honest errors, and a determined fraud may pass them altogether. Their judgement can also be coloured by the authors' reputation, which is why many journals now hide the authors' names from reviewers. None of this means that peer review is worthless: it catches many weak arguments and improves most of the papers that pass through it. But a reader should treat publication as a sign that a paper has been checked for sense, not as a guarantee that its findings are true. That guarantee, as far as science offers one, comes only when other researchers, working independently, find the same result.
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B. It describes what peer review does and then what it cannot do. Fraud and hidden names are single points within that.
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C. "Reviewers rarely see the raw data and almost never repeat the experiment; they judge the paper as it is written."
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A. The passage links the practice to reputation. It does not claim that hiding names prevents fraud; it says fraud may pass review.
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B. "That guarantee … comes only when other researchers, working independently, find the same result." Publication is only "a sign that a paper has been checked for sense".
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D. "Gatekeeper is too strong a word." The author still values peer review, so (B) is wrong.
Children who begin school in a language they do not speak at home face two tasks at once: learning to read, and learning the language in which reading is taught. Many manage both, but many fall behind in the first years and never catch up. Studies in several countries have found that children taught first in their mother tongue learn to read sooner, and later learn a second language at least as well as children taught in it from the start. The skills of reading, it seems, transfer from one language to another; what does not transfer is the understanding of words never heard before.
Why, then, do many parents prefer that their children be taught from the first day in a language of wider use, such as English? Their reasons are not foolish. That language opens doors to higher education and to jobs, and parents fear that a child taught first at home will be left behind. The research suggests that their aim and the mother-tongue approach need not conflict: a strong start in the home language, with the second language introduced gradually and taught well, may be the surest route to the very fluency parents want. The difficulty is practical. It needs teachers and books in many languages, which poorer school systems find hard to provide.
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C. The passage gives the evidence for a mother-tongue start, reconciles it with parents' aims, and names the practical difficulty. (B) contradicts "their reasons are not foolish"; (D) contradicts "the skills of reading … transfer".
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D. "What does not transfer is the understanding of words never heard before." Reading skills, by contrast, do transfer.
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A. The author explains their reasons ("not foolish": higher education, jobs) and argues their aim can be met another way.
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B. The second paragraph says so. (C) contradicts "the second language introduced gradually"; (D) contradicts the last two sentences.
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C. The next sentence explains it: the approach "needs teachers and books in many languages".
Every winter, thousands of volunteers in many countries spend a few hours counting the birds they see and send their tallies to a central database. No single count is precise: volunteers differ in skill, some days are cloudy, and a rare bird may be recorded twice or missed altogether. Yet taken together, over decades, such counts have revealed changes that no team of professionals could have measured alone, such as the slow northward shift of many species' winter ranges.
The value of such citizen science depends on its design. Volunteers must follow the same simple method, count for a fixed time in a fixed place, and record not only what they saw but how long they looked. With these details, statisticians can correct for differences in effort and skill. Without them, a rise in the number of birds recorded might mean only a rise in the number of people looking. The lesson reaches beyond birds: large amounts of imperfect data can answer questions that small amounts of perfect data cannot, provided the way the data were gathered is known.
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A. The passage is about how many imprecise counts, gathered by a known method, become valuable. (B) and (C) are single points.
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D. "With these details, statisticians can correct for differences in effort and skill." Recording time does not make a single count precise.
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B. Without a record of effort, more observers would look like more birds. The passage does not say the counts are useless.
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C. The author admits each count's imprecision and praises what the counts reveal together.
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D. The passage says the opposite: the counts "revealed changes that no team of professionals could have measured alone".
Unit 4 — Communication (20 MCQs)
Models, types, non-verbal cues, culture and groups, classroom talk, barriers, mass media.
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C. Lasswell's verbal model (1948) names the five questions.
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D. Shannon and Weaver's mathematical model (1948–49) added noise, anything that distorts the signal between transmitter and receiver.
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A. Berlo (1960): Source, Message, Channel, Receiver, each with its own elements (skills, attitudes, knowledge, culture).
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A. Schramm (1954): communication works where the fields of experience overlap; his model is circular and interactive. The helix is Dance's.
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D. Upward communication runs from subordinate to superior; downward, the other way; horizontal, between equals.
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C. The grapevine runs outside official channels: informal communication.
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C. Proxemics (Edward T. Hall). Kinesics is body movement, haptics touch, chronemics time.
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D. Chronemics covers punctuality, waiting and pauses: how time communicates.
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A. Paralanguage (vocalics) is the vocal part of speech other than the words themselves.
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C. Intimate up to about 45 cm, personal about 45 cm to 1.2 m, social about 1.2 to 3.6 m, public beyond about 3.6 m.
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C. The finding concerned messages about feelings and attitudes with inconsistent cues. Applying it to all communication is a common misquotation.
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D. Hall, in Beyond Culture (1976). Hofstede gave the dimensions of national culture; Tuckman the stages of groups; Janis groupthink.
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D. High and low context is Hall's distinction, not one of Hofstede's dimensions.
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B. Forming, storming, norming, performing (1965); adjourning was added in 1977.
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B. Categories 1–4 are indirect teacher talk: 1 accepts feeling, 2 praises, 3 accepts or uses ideas, 4 asks questions. Lecturing is 5; criticising is 7.
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B. Ten: seven of teacher talk, two of student talk, and one for silence or confusion.
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B. Semantic barriers arise from language: jargon, ambiguity, unfamiliar words.
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A. McLuhan, Understanding Media (1964), who also gave us the "global village".
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B. The media decide which issues people consider important, not their opinions on them. (D) describes the hypodermic needle theory.
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A. James Augustus Hicky started it in Calcutta in 1780. 1936 is the year the name All India Radio was adopted.
Unit 5 — Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude (20 MCQs)
Reasoning, series, codes, directions, and the arithmetic: speed, percentages, profit, interest, averages.
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C. Each term is twice the one before plus one: 5×2 + 1 = 11, 11×2 + 1 = 23, …, 95×2 + 1 = 191.
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D. Despite its name, mathematical induction proves a statement for every n from a base case and a step that is shown to hold in general, so the conclusion is certain: it is deduction.
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A. It moves from particular cases (the sample) to a general claim (the population), and the conclusion is probable rather than certain: induction, in its statistical form.
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C. The positions are 3, 6, 9, 12: add 3 each time, so 15, which is O.
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D. The positions are 26, 24, 22, 20: subtract 2 each time, so 18, which is R.
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A. Each letter moves one place forward: M→N, A→B, N→O, G→H, O→P. So A→B, P→Q, P→Q, L→M, E→F: BQQMF.
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A. A letter's opposite has position 27 minus its own: D (4) → 23 = W, O (15) → 12 = L, G (7) → 20 = T. So WLT.
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B. Facing south, a left turn faces east. The two legs are at right angles, so the distance is √(6² + 8²) = √100 = 10 km. 14 km is the distance walked, not the distance from the start.
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D. C is B's father and D, C's wife, is B's mother. A is B's brother, so A is also D's child, and a brother is male: A is D's son.
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C. As decimals: 3/4 = 0.75, 5/7 ≈ 0.714, 7/9 ≈ 0.778, 2/3 ≈ 0.667. The largest is 7/9.
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B. For equal distances, average speed = 2 × 30 × 60 ÷ (30 + 60) = 3,600 ÷ 90 = 40 km/h. 45 km/h, the mean of the speeds, ignores that the slower leg takes twice as long.
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D. Multiply by 5/18: 90 × 5 ÷ 18 = 25 m/s.
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C. 72 km/h = 20 m/s. To pass the platform the train covers its own length and the platform's: (200 + 300) ÷ 20 = 25 seconds. 10 seconds would be for passing a pole.
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B. 100 × 1.10 × 0.90 = 99. The fall of 10% is taken on the higher price, so the net change is 10 − 10 − 10×10/100 = −1%.
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A. Make B equal in both: 3 : 4 = 9 : 12 and 6 : 7 = 12 : 14. So A : B : C = 9 : 12 : 14.
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D. Profit = 1,500 − 1,250 = ₹250, and on cost it is 250 ÷ 1,250 × 100 = 20%. 16% (about 250 ÷ 1,500) takes the selling price as the base, which is wrong.
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C. 1,200 × 0.90 = 1,080, then 1,080 × 0.95 = ₹1,026. Two discounts of 10% and 5% are not one discount of 15% (which would give ₹1,020).
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B. For two years, CI − SI = P(R/100)² = 5,000 × 0.08 × 0.08 = ₹32. (SI = ₹800; CI = 5,000 × 1.08² − 5,000 = ₹832.)
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A. Present value = 13,310 ÷ 1.1³ = 13,310 ÷ 1.331 = ₹10,000. Discounting runs compound interest backwards.
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B. Weighted average = (40 × 50 + 60 × 60) ÷ 100 = (2,000 + 3,600) ÷ 100 = 56. 55, the mean of the two averages, ignores that the groups differ in size.
Unit 6 — Logical Reasoning (20 MCQs)
Syllogisms, argument forms, distribution, the square of opposition, fallacies, analogies, Indian logic.
Conclusions: I. Some doctors are teachers. II. Some teachers are graduates.
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B. I does not follow: the graduates who are teachers may all be outside the doctors. II follows: "Some graduates are teachers" converts to "Some teachers are graduates".
Conclusions: I. Some fruits are not apples. II. No fruit is an apple.
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A. Every mango is a fruit and no mango is an apple, so the mangoes are fruits that are not apples: I follows. II does not: there may be fruits outside the mangoes that are apples.
Conclusions: I. All pens are erasers. II. Some erasers are pens.
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C. I follows (Barbara: AAA in the first figure). II follows from I by conversion: if all pens are erasers and there are pens, some erasers are pens. Both follow.
Conclusions: I. Some cats are rats. II. No cat is a rat.
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D. From two particular premises no conclusion follows. The dogs that are cats and the dogs that are rats may or may not overlap, so neither I nor II must be true.
Conclusions: I. Some boxes are not books. II. Some books are boxes.
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A. The pens that are boxes cannot be books, so some boxes are not books: I follows. Nothing is said of books and boxes otherwise, so II does not follow.
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C. It affirms the consequent ("it is a fruit") and concludes the antecedent. That form is invalid: a banana is a fruit too.
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D. O says that some S is excluded from the whole of P, so it distributes the predicate only. A distributes the subject, E both, I neither.
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C. A false makes its contradictory O true, but tells us nothing about I, which can still be true or false. Only from A true does I follow.
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A. E and I differ in both quantity and quality, and exactly one of them is true: contradictories. The other pair of contradictories is A and O.
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D. That is the relation of I and O, the subcontraries. Contraries (A and E) are the reverse: they cannot both be true but may both be false.
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B. It argues from popularity: appeal to the people (ad populum).
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A. It treats a lack of disproof as proof: the argument from ignorance.
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B. Adding attributes narrows the class: animal → mammal → dog. Denotation falls, or at least does not rise.
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C. The first figure is M–P, S–M. The second is P–M, S–M; the third M–P, M–S; the fourth P–M, M–S.
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D. A pen is the tool of a writer; a scalpel is the tool of a surgeon. A knife is another tool, and the hospital and patient are the place and the person served.
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A. Nyaya accepts perception, inference, comparison and verbal testimony. Bhatta Mimamsa and Advaita Vedanta accept six; Sankhya three; Buddhism and Vaisheshika two.
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B. Charvaka accepts perception (pratyaksha) alone, and rejects inference because no universal connection can be perceived.
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C. The paksha is the subject about which something is proved: the hill. Fire is the sadhya and smoke the hetu; the kitchen is the example (drishtanta).
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D. Viruddha, the contradictory reason, as in "sound is eternal because it is produced". Savyabhichara is the irregular reason, asiddha the unproved one, badhita the one contradicted by another pramana.
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B. It supposes the one fact that reconciles the two given facts: arthapatti, postulation.
Unit 7 — Data Interpretation (20 MCQs)
Two data sets of five questions each, then sources and kinds of data, scales, charts and data governance.
The table shows the sales of three publishers, A, B and C, in thousands of copies.
| Publisher | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 30 | 36 | 45 | 54 |
| B | 40 | 38 | 42 | 48 |
| C | 25 | 30 | 33 | 36 |
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C. 45 + 42 + 33 = 120 thousand.
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B. (54 − 45) ÷ 45 × 100 = 9 ÷ 45 × 100 = 20%. The base is the earlier year, 2023.
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A. The 2022 total is 36 + 38 + 30 = 104 thousand, and 38 ÷ 104 × 100 ≈ 36.5%.
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D. (25 + 30 + 33 + 36) ÷ 4 = 124 ÷ 4 = 31 thousand.
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D. B sold 40 in 2021 and 38 in 2022, a fall; it then rose to 42 and 48. 2021 has no earlier year in the table.
A college spent ₹50 lakh in one year, divided as follows.
| Head | Share of spending |
|---|---|
| Salaries | 45% |
| Library | 10% |
| Laboratories | 15% |
| Maintenance | 12% |
| Scholarships | 8% |
| Others | 10% |
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A. 15% of ₹50 lakh = 0.15 × 50 = ₹7.5 lakh.
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B. Each 1% takes 3.6°, so 10% takes 36°.
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C. 45% − (15% + 8%) = 22% of ₹50 lakh = ₹11 lakh.
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A. 12% : 8% = 12 : 8 = 3 : 2.
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B. The new budget is 50 × 1.2 = ₹60 lakh, and 10% of it is ₹6 lakh.
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D. Primary data are collected for the present purpose; secondary data were collected by someone else for another purpose.
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C. The enumerator asks the questions and records the answers on a schedule; a questionnaire is filled in by the respondent.
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A. Blood groups are categories with no order: a nominal scale. Its proper average is the mode.
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D. Only the ratio scale (height, income, marks) has a true zero; on an interval scale such as °C, 40° is not twice as hot as 20°.
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C. Differences are equal (10° to 20° is the same step as 30° to 40°) but 0 °C is not an absence of heat: an interval scale.
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B. A histogram shows a continuous variable in adjoining class intervals. A bar chart compares separate categories; a pie chart shows shares of a whole; a line chart shows change over time.
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C. Area represents frequency. With equal class widths the heights are in proportion too, but with unequal widths the heights must be adjusted.
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B. It can take only whole-number values, 0, 1, 2, …: discrete. Height or time would be continuous.
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D. NDSAP was notified in 2012. 2023 is the year of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act; 2016 of the Aadhaar Act.
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A. A choropleth map shades areas (districts, states) by their values, such as literacy rate. The others are dot maps, proportional-symbol maps and route maps.
Unit 8 — Information and Communication Technology (20 MCQs)
Bits and bytes, protocols, internet, intranet, e-mail, conferencing, digital initiatives, e-governance.
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B. A byte is 8 bits. 1,024 is the number of bytes in a kilobyte in computing usage.
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D. 2 KB = 2 × 1,024 = 2,048 bytes, and each byte is 8 bits: 2,048 × 8 = 16,384 bits. 2,048 is the number of bytes, not bits.
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C. 1×8 + 0×4 + 1×2 + 1×1 = 8 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 11.
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A. 1×16 + 1×8 + 0×4 + 0×2 + 1×1 = 16 + 8 + 1 = 25.
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A. DNS turns a name such as ugc.gov.in into the IP address of the server. Encryption is HTTPS's job; sending mail is SMTP's.
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C. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) sends mail; POP3 and IMAP are used to receive it; FTP transfers files.
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B. IMAP keeps messages on the server and synchronises every device. POP3 usually downloads mail to one device and removes it from the server.
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D. BCC (blind carbon copy) recipients get the message, but no one else sees their addresses. CC recipients are visible to all.
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B. The S stands for secure: the traffic is encrypted (with TLS), so it cannot be read or altered on the way.
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D. Tim Berners-Lee proposed the web at CERN. Vint Cerf co-designed TCP/IP; Ray Tomlinson sent the first networked e-mail (1971).
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C. An intranet is private to one organisation. An extranet extends it to chosen outsiders; the internet is public.
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A. A private network opened to selected outside users is an extranet.
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B. Metropolitan Area Network. A LAN covers a building or campus, a WAN a country or the world, a PAN a single person's devices.
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D. Phishing tricks people into giving up passwords or other details. Spam is unwanted bulk mail, which may or may not be phishing.
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C. A web seminar: speakers present live, and the audience usually listens and asks questions by chat.
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C. NDLI is developed by IIT Kharagpur under the Ministry of Education. INFLIBNET runs Shodhganga, e-ShodhSindhu and e-PG Pathshala.
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A. It is the UGC's e-content programme for postgraduate subjects, run through INFLIBNET. Degree certificates are in DigiLocker through NAD.
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B. NAD holds degrees and mark sheets digitally, through DigiLocker, so they can be retrieved and verified. Ranking is NIRF's job.
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D. Digital India was launched on 1 July 2015. 2006 is the year of the National e-Governance Plan.
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A. Government to business. Certificates and pensions for citizens are G2C; data shared between departments is G2G; payroll for staff is G2E.
Unit 9 — People, Development and Environment (20 MCQs)
MDGs and SDGs, pollution and waste, pollutants and health, laws, the NAPCC, international agreements, disasters.
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C. 17 goals (2015–2030), with 169 targets among them. 8 is the number of the earlier Millennium Development Goals.
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D. 169 targets, set out in the 2030 Agenda adopted in September 2015.
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B. The eight MDGs came from the Millennium Declaration of 2000, with 2015 as the target year; the SDGs took over for 2015–2030.
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B. SDG 4 is quality education. Zero hunger is SDG 2, gender equality SDG 5, climate action SDG 13.
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A. BOD measures the oxygen micro-organisms need to break down organic matter; sewage and other organic waste raise it and leave less oxygen for fish.
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C. Mercury, from industrial discharge into Minamata Bay in Japan in the 1950s. Cadmium causes itai-itai disease.
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B. Cadmium poisoning, first recorded in Japan, softens the bones and damages the kidneys.
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A. Nitrate, often from fertiliser run-off, reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen in infants. Excess fluoride causes fluorosis.
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A. Decibels (dB), a logarithmic scale of sound intensity. Hertz measures frequency (pitch); lux measures light.
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C. The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, based on extended producer responsibility. The solid, plastic, biomedical and hazardous waste rules date from 2016.
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A. Methyl isocyanate leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal in December 1984.
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D. 1986, after the Bhopal disaster. 1972 is the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1974 the Water Act, 1981 the Air Act.
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C. Eight: solar, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, the Himalayan ecosystem, green India, sustainable agriculture, and strategic knowledge for climate change.
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D. There is no nuclear energy mission among the eight. Solar, water and green India are three of them.
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A. It phases out ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs. Greenhouse-gas targets are the business of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
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B. Adopted in 1997, it came into force in 2005. 1992 is the Rio Summit; 2015 the Paris Agreement.
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D. Well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and pursuing 1.5°C; each country sets its own Nationally Determined Contribution.
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C. Gurugram, in Haryana, India. It was launched at the Paris climate conference in 2015.
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B. The Prime Minister chairs the NDMA; the Chief Ministers chair the state authorities.
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D. 2015–2030. It followed the Hyogo Framework for Action, 2005–2015.
Unit 10 — Higher Education System (20 MCQs)
Ancient centres, commissions and policies, regulators, kinds of programme, skills, value education, governance.
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B. Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty. Harsha later patronised it; Dharmapala founded Vikramashila.
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A. The Pala king Dharmapala, in the late 8th century. Gopala founded Odantapuri.
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C. Takshashila (Taxila) is near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Nalanda, Vikramashila and Odantapuri are in Bihar; Valabhi in Gujarat.
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C. S. Radhakrishnan. Kothari chaired the Education Commission of 1964–66, Mudaliar the Secondary Education Commission, and Kasturirangan the committee that drafted NEP 2020.
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D. 1964–66; its report, Education and National Development, led to the first National Policy on Education (1968).
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B. The UGC Act, 1956. The Commission had been inaugurated in 1953.
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A. NEP 2020 sets a gross enrolment ratio of 50% in higher education, vocational education included, by 2035.
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B. 1994, by the UGC, following the National Policy on Education of 1986. 2015 is the year NIRF was launched.
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C. 1985. 1962 is when Delhi University began correspondence courses, and 1982 when the first state open university was founded, in Andhra Pradesh.
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D. The All India Council for Technical Education. NCTE regulates teacher education; NAAC accredits; the UGC sets university standards and gives grants.
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A. NIRF ranks institutions annually. Accreditation with grades is NAAC's work; funding of state institutions is RUSA's.
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A. The 42nd Amendment of 1976. The 86th Amendment of 2002 made elementary education a fundamental right.
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C. The Academic Council. The Executive Council (or Syndicate) handles administration and finance.
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A. Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956. Section 12B concerns eligibility for central grants; Article 30, the rights of minority institutions.
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D. Oriental learning keeps the classical traditions: Sanskrit, Pali, Persian, Arabic. The others are technical, management and distance programmes.
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B. Open and distance programmes break the conditions of conventional, full-time, on-campus study.
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D. It organises qualifications in levels of knowledge, skill and aptitude, so that skills can be recognised, compared and built on.
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D. The National Medical Commission replaced the Medical Council of India in 2020.
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B. 1992, with a Programme of Action.
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C. M. C. Mehta v. Union of India. The other cases concern the basic structure of the Constitution, personal liberty and sexual harassment at work.