RRB NTPC CBT 1 2016 General Awareness Questions with Solutions

Explanation

A glucometer, also known as a blood glucose meter, is a portable medical device used to measure the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood. It is an essential diagnostic tool widely used in home blood glucose monitoring by individuals diagnosed with diabetes mellitus to manage and track their blood sugar levels effectively.

Explanation

Chlorine is a halogen element that exists as a greenish-yellow gas under standard temperature and pressure. It has a highly distinctive, sharp, and suffocating bleach-like odor, making it both distinctly colored and strong-smelling.

Explanation

The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th edition of the tournament, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand from 14 February to 29 March 2015. A total of 49 matches were played across 14 venues split evenly between the two host nations, with the final held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.

Explanation

The Bhimbetka rock shelters, located in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for housing over 750 rock shelters spread across seven hills. Discovered by archaeologist V. S. Wakankar in 1957, these naturally carved sandstone shelters contain prehistoric cave paintings dating back to the Paleolithic and Mesolithic eras, providing crucial archaeological evidence of early human life and culture in the Indian subcontinent.

Explanation

Photosynthesis is the biochemical process by which green plants utilize chlorophyll to convert light energy from the sun into stored chemical energy in the form of glucose. Thus, Assertion (A) is factually correct.

Reason (R) is also factually correct because human beings and other heterotrophs consume plant-derived sugars as food to fuel cellular respiration and body functions.

However, the consumption and utilization of synthesized sugars by humans is a downstream biological consequence, not the scientific mechanism that drives or explains how plants convert light energy into chemical energy. Therefore, Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).

Explanation

Kinetic energy is the energy possessed by an object due to its motion. By definition, any body of mass m moving with a velocity v possesses kinetic energy given by the formula:

KE = ½ mv²

Since velocity v is non-zero for any body in motion, kinetic energy is inherently and essentially present whenever an object moves, regardless of its position, orientation, or environment.

Explanation

Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Kailash Satyarthi is an Indian child rights activist who founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, while Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani advocate for female education who became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate at the age of 17.

Explanation

Aditya (later renamed Aditya-L1) is ISRO's first dedicated scientific mission to study the Sun. Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation in collaboration with national research institutes, the mission aims to continuously observe the solar atmosphere, corona, chromosphere, and solar wind from a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point 1 (L1).

Explanation

Annie Besant became the first woman President of the Indian National Congress when she presided over its Calcutta session in 1917. She was a prominent British socialist, theosophist, and campaigner for Indian self-rule who established the Home Rule League in 1916 to advocate for Indian autonomy.

Explanation

The Right to Information (RTI) Act was enacted by the Parliament of India on 15 June 2005 and came into full force on 12 October 2005. It replaced the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, establishing a practical framework that empowers citizens to request information from public authorities, thereby ensuring transparency and accountability in governance.

Explanation

A. R. Rahman has not been awarded the Bharat Ratna. India's highest civilian award has not been conferred upon him, though he has received the Padma Shri in 2000 and the Padma Bhushan in 2010 for his distinguished contributions to Indian music and cinema.

Explanation

Victoria Memorial Hall is a grand white marble monument located in Kolkata, West Bengal. Built between 1906 and 1921 in memory of Queen Victoria, it was designed by Sir William Emerson in the Indo-Saracenic Revival architectural style, blending British, Mughal, Deccani, and Islamic features. Today, it functions as a major national museum housing a vast collection of colonial-era paintings, manuscripts, and artifacts.

Explanation

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is referred to as the Bismarck of India for his pivotal role in the political integration of the country. Just as Otto von Bismarck unified the fragmented German states into a powerful nation in the 19th century, Patel successfully persuaded and integrated over 560 princely states into the Indian Union following independence in 1947 through a combination of diplomatic tact and firm resolve.

Explanation

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), informally called Mangalyaan, was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 5 November 2013 aboard the PSLV-C25 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. India became the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first nation in the world to do so in its maiden attempt when the spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit in September 2014.

Explanation

Mangroves are salt-tolerant coastal trees and shrubs adapted to intertidal zones, belonging to botanical families such as Rhizophoraceae and Acanthaceae. They do not produce the fruit known as mangoes, which comes from Mangifera indica, a flowering plant of the family Anacardiaceae.

Explanation

Hypothermia occurs when the human body loses heat faster than it can produce it, resulting in a drop in core body temperature below the normal range. The average normal body temperature is approximately 98.6°F (37°C). When core body temperature decreases by about 2 to 3.5°F below normal, reaching roughly 95°F to 96.6°F, mild hypothermia sets in, triggering physiological responses such as shivering to attempt to restore normal thermal equilibrium.

Explanation

BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. It is non-volatile firmware embedded on a chip on the motherboard. During system startup, BIOS performs the Power-On Self-Test (POST) to initialize and test essential hardware components like RAM, processor, keyboard, and storage devices before loading the operating system into memory.

Explanation

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the central component responsible for processing data and performing calculations in a personal computer. It carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing basic arithmetic, logic, control, and input/output operations specified by the instructions, acting as the primary computing engine of the system.

Explanation

The Indian Rupee sign (₹) was designed by Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam and officially adopted by the Cabinet of the Government of India on 15 July 2010. The sign is a combination of the Devanagari letter "Ra" and the Latin capital letter "R" without its vertical bar, with two horizontal parallel lines at the top representing the national flag and the equality sign.

Explanation

The Godavari is the second longest river in India after the Ganga, stretching over a length of approximately 1,465 km. It originates at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik in Maharashtra and flows eastward across the Deccan Plateau before draining into the Bay of Bengal. Due to its large length, basin area, and cultural significance, it is also known as the Dakshin Ganga or South Ganges.

Explanation

On 24 November 2015, a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber was shot down by a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet near the Syria–Turkey border. Turkish authorities stated that the aircraft had encroached into Turkish airspace and was engaged after repeatedly ignoring warnings to alter its course.

Explanation

Saina Nehwal created history at the 2012 London Olympics by winning the bronze medal in the women's singles badminton event. She achieved this victory after her opponent retired due to injury during the bronze medal match, making her the first Indian badminton player to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

Explanation

At high cruising altitudes, the outside atmospheric pressure is extremely low, making the air too thin for human survival and respiration. To ensure passenger comfort and safety, aircraft cabins are artificially pressurized to maintain an internal air pressure equivalent to an altitude of around 6,000 to 8,000 feet, which is significantly higher than the ambient atmospheric pressure outside the plane.

Explanation

Akash is a medium-range surface-to-air missile system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). It is designed to defend vulnerable areas and points against air attacks, capable of engaging multiple airborne targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles, and air-to-surface missiles simultaneously at supersonic speeds.

Explanation

Yahoo India named the cow as its Personality of the Year in its 2015 Year in Review report. The selection was driven by user search habits, news engagement, and intense public debate throughout 2015. Topics such as the beef ban in Maharashtra, the Dadri lynching, and the nationwide discussion on intolerance made the cow the most searched and discussed subject on the platform during that year.

Explanation

Zika virus is an RNA virus belonging to the Flaviviridae family. It is primarily transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes belonging to the Aedes genus, mainly Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, which bite predominantly during daylight hours.

Explanation

Neil Armstrong uttered these historic words on July 20, 1969, as he stepped off the Lunar Module Eagle onto the surface of the Moon during NASA's Apollo 11 mission, becoming the first human to walk on the lunar surface.

Explanation

India shares its longest land border with Bangladesh, extending over a distance of 4,096.7 kilometers. This international boundary is shared across five Indian states: West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, with West Bengal accounting for the largest share of this boundary.

Explanation

Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza were named the 2015 Women's Doubles World Champions by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in December 2015. The duo formed a dominant partnership during the 2015 season, winning nine titles together, including two Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and the US Open, as well as the year-end WTA Finals.

Explanation

World No-Tobacco Day is observed globally every year on 31st May. Created by the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1987, the day raises awareness about the lethal effects of tobacco consumption and second-hand smoke exposure, while advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco usage worldwide.

Explanation

Biotechnology is the application of biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof to develop or make products and processes for specific uses, particularly in industrial, agricultural, and healthcare applications. It harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to solve problems and manufacture valuable products, ranging from pharmaceuticals and biofuels to fermented foods and industrial enzymes.

Explanation

Debugging is the process of locating, identifying, and correcting errors, bugs, or defects within a computer program's code. It ensures that the software executes properly without unintended behavior, incorrect results, or crashes during execution.

Explanation

The 103rd Indian Science Congress was held from January 3 to 7, 2016, at the University of Mysore in Mysuru (Mysore), Karnataka. Inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the focal theme of this edition was Science and Technology for Indigenous Development in India.

Explanation

The intensity of sound is measured in decibels (dB). A normal human conversation typically produces sound at a level of about 60 dB, which is considered a comfortable and safe sound intensity for human hearing without causing auditory fatigue.

Explanation

According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directives issued under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, the validity period of cheques, demand drafts, pay orders, and banker's cheques is 3 months from the date of issue. This rule came into effect on April 1, 2012, in order to curb fraudulent practices and reduce the circulation of stale financial instruments in the banking system.

Explanation

The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was launched in June 1985 by the Government of India under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with the primary objective of improving water quality by reducing pollution in the River Ganga. It focused on the interception, diversion, and treatment of domestic sewage, alongside controlling toxic industrial effluents entering the river system.

Explanation

Earth's atmosphere is composed primarily of nitrogen and oxygen. By volume, dry air consists of approximately 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, and 0.04% carbon dioxide, along with trace amounts of other gases. Nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere and plays a crucial role in the nitrogen cycle that supports living organisms.

Explanation

The historic Shimla Agreement of 1972 between Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was signed at Barnes Court in Shimla on July 2, 1972. Signed in the Summit Hall of this Tudor-style heritage building, which now serves as the official residence of the Governor of Himachal Pradesh (Raj Bhavan), the treaty established a bilateral framework for peaceful resolution of disputes following the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.

Explanation

A thermostat is an automatic control device designed to regulate and maintain the temperature of a system at a specific desired level or set point. It works by sensing the ambient or system temperature and triggering heating or cooling mechanisms to switch on or off, thereby holding the temperature steady within a designated range.

Explanation

Pressure is defined as the physical force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area. The standard formula for calculating pressure is P = Force / Area. Thus, pressure is measured in terms of force and area, with its SI unit being the Pascal (Pa), which is equivalent to one Newton per square meter (N/m²).

Explanation

In the human digestive system, the small intestine is significantly longer than the large intestine, measuring about 6 meters (20 feet) in length in an adult, compared to the large intestine's length of approximately 1.5 meters (5 feet). The small intestine is named "small" because its lumen diameter is narrower than that of the large intestine, not because of its length.

Explanation

The ICAR - National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics (NIVEDI), located at Yelahanka in Bengaluru, established a state-of-the-art Biosafety Laboratory to conduct detailed research on disease-causing organisms in livestock. This advanced high-containment facility facilitates molecular-level investigation, surveillance, and forecasting of emerging and zoonotic infectious animal diseases to strengthen counter-disease measures across the country.

Explanation

ASTROSAT is India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space astronomy observatory, launched by ISRO on 28 September 2015 aboard a PSLV-C30 rocket. It enables simultaneous observations of celestial objects in the ultraviolet, optical, low energy X-ray, and high energy X-ray wavebands using a single satellite platform.

Explanation

The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was a political agreement signed by Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, on 5 March 1931 in London/Delhi prior to the Second Round Table Conference. Under the pact, the Indian National Congress agreed to discontinue the Civil Disobedience Movement and participate in the Second Round Table Conference, while the British government agreed to release political prisoners not convicted of violence.

Explanation

The Bank of Hindustan was established in 1770 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) by the agency house of Alexander and Company. It was the first bank established in India, marking the inception of modern banking in the country.

Explanation

The 100th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2015 ratified the historic Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between India and Bangladesh. It amended the First Schedule of the Constitution of India to facilitate the acquisition of certain territories by India and the transfer of certain other territories to Bangladesh. This enabled the exchange of 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India, resolving a long-standing border dispute between the two nations and granting citizenship rights to residents of those enclaves.

Explanation

GAGAN (GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation) is a Space-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). It uses a network of ground reference stations to monitor GPS satellite signals, calculate necessary corrections, and broadcast these augmentation messages via geostationary satellites to significantly enhance the accuracy, integrity, and availability of satellite navigation over the Indian flight information region.

Explanation

According to official reports by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), total forest cover in the country has actually shown a gradual increase over recent decades rather than a decrease, making the assertion false. Meanwhile, human encroachment on forest lands through illegal settlements, agriculture, and grazing remains a major ongoing concern for forest authorities, making the reason true.

Explanation

The Indian Rupee symbol '₹' was designed by D. Udaya Kumar and officially adopted by the Government of India in 2010. The design is a combination of the Devanagari letter 'र' (ra) and the Roman capital letter 'R' without its vertical stem. The two horizontal parallel lines at the top represent the Indian national flag as well as an equality sign denoting economic balance.

Explanation

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the national space agency of India, operating under the Department of Space (DOS). Established on August 15, 1969, its primary administrative headquarters, known as Antariksh Bhavan, is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka.