RRB NTPC CBT 1 2016 General Awareness Questions with Solutions

Explanation

Human nails are made of a tough protective protein called keratin, which is also the primary structural component of human hair and the outermost layer of the skin. Keratin is produced by keratinocytes and undergoes cornification, forming dense, hardened layers of dead cells that protect the sensitive tissue at the ends of fingers and toes.

Explanation

Geographically, the region of Kashmir is bounded by the Ladakh region on its east. The former state of Jammu and Kashmir comprised three principal geographical territories: Jammu in the south, the Kashmir Valley in the central portion, and the cold desert plateau of Ladakh extending across the eastern part of the state.

Explanation

Paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) is a widely used medication classified as both an analgesic and an antipyretic. It effectively relieves mild to moderate pain by inhibiting prostaglandin synthesis in the central nervous system, and reduces fever by acting on the heat-regulating center of the hypothalamus in the brain.

Explanation

Sachin Tendulkar made his Test debut against Pakistan on November 15, 1989, at the National Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan. At the age of 16 years and 205 days, he became the youngest player to represent India in Test cricket.

Explanation

Pressing the F11 function key toggles full-screen mode on and off in most web browsers on Windows, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Internet Explorer. It expands the browser window to cover the entire screen by hiding the address bar, tabs, toolbars, and the Windows taskbar.

Explanation

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) is the primary screening test used to diagnose HIV infection. It works by detecting the presence of antibodies produced by the immune system in response to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or by identifying specific viral antigens such as p24 in a blood sample.

Explanation

An Air Quality Index (AQI) is a standardized numerical value used by government agencies to communicate the level of air pollution to the public. It converts complex measurements of major atmospheric pollutants—such as PM2.5, PM10, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide—into a single easily understandable number that indicates overall health risk levels.

Explanation

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel served as the first Deputy Prime Minister of independent India from 15 August 1947 until his death on 15 December 1950. Simultaneously holding the portfolios of Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of States, he played a pivotal role in the political integration of over 500 princely states into the Indian Union.

Explanation

Secularism is a principle that guarantees freedom of conscience and the liberty to profess, practice, and propagate any religion of choice without state interference or discrimination. In the Indian constitutional framework, secularism embodies a positive concept where all religions are treated equally by the state, and fundamental rights under Articles 25 to 28 guarantee every individual complete freedom of religion and worship.

Explanation

National Science Day is celebrated in India on 28th February every year to mark the discovery of the Raman Effect by Indian physicist Sir C. V. Raman on 28 February 1928. For this ground-breaking discovery in physics, Sir C. V. Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. In 1986, the National Council for Science and Technology Communication requested the Government of India to designate 28 February as National Science Day, which was first officially celebrated in 1987.

Explanation

One World Trade Center, originally nicknamed the Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Standing at a symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541 meters) to represent the year of the United States Declaration of Independence, it officially opened in November 2014 as the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere.

Explanation

The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a world-renowned sculpture garden located in Chandigarh, India. It was created in 1957 by Nek Chand Saini, a self-taught artist who built it secretly in his spare time using urban and industrial waste, discarded household items, broken glass, ceramics, and tiles. Spanning over 40 acres near Sukhna Lake, it features complex interlinked courtyards and thousands of statues made entirely from recycled materials.

Explanation

The Maharatna status was introduced by the Government of India in December 2009 for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to empower large mega public sector companies to expand their operations and emerge as global giants. CPSEs that fulfill specific eligibility criteria—such as holding Navratna status, being listed on an Indian stock exchange, and maintaining a high average annual turnover, net worth, and net profit over three consecutive years—are granted Maharatna status, giving them enhanced financial and operational autonomy.

Explanation

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a character encoding scheme used in computers and electronic communications. It represents text and control characters as numeric codes, using a 7-bit binary format to encode 128 standard characters including letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.

Explanation

Both the ancient and modern Olympic Games originated in Greece. The ancient Olympics were first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, as a religious festival in honor of Zeus. The first modern Olympic Games were revived in 1896 and held in Athens, Greece.

Explanation

The Commonwealth Games is an international multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. First organized in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada, as the British Empire Games, this quadriennial event has been hosted regularly every four years, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was canceled due to World War II.

Explanation

In June 2013, the International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded the hosting rights of the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup to India. This marked the 13th edition of the tournament and the first time India hosted the event entirely on its own, having previously co-hosted in 1987, 1996, and 2011.

Explanation

On 24th November 2015, Japan launched its first commercial satellite, Telstar 12 VANTAGE, carried by an upgraded H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. The mission was conducted by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to place the Canadian telecommunications satellite into geostationary orbit, marking the country's official entry into the commercial launch market under its National Space Program.

Explanation

Sikkim is a full-fledged constituent state of India. It joined the Indian Union as its 22nd state on 16 May 1975 through the 36th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1975, rather than being administered as a Union Territory.

Explanation

Hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) is a colorless, toxic gas with a characteristic rotten-egg odor. It acts primarily as a reducing agent in chemical reactions and is widely used in analytical chemistry and industrial production of sulfur compounds, but it lacks the oxidizing or decolorizing properties necessary to act as a bleaching agent.

Explanation

The Chauri Chaura incident took place on 4 February 1922 at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, where a large group of protesters participating in the Non-Cooperation Movement clashed with the police, who opened fire. In retaliation, the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, resulting in the deaths of 22 policemen. Distressed by the violent turn of events and believing the country was not yet ready for a peaceful struggle, Mahatma Gandhi suspended the Non-Cooperation Movement on 12 February 1922.

Explanation

Jantar Mantar in Delhi was constructed in 1724 by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur. It is a historical astronomical observatory featuring 13 distinct architectural astronomy instruments, including the Samrat Yantra, Ram Yantra, and Jai Prakash Yantra, built to track celestial bodies, compile astronomical tables, and predict the movements of the sun, moon, and planets.

Explanation

Bharat Stage Emission Standards (BSES) are regulatory standards instituted by the Government of India to control the output of air pollutants emitted by internal combustion engine equipment, particularly motor vehicles. Modeled after European emission standards (Euro standards), these norms set permissible limits on key vehicular exhaust pollutants such as carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter.

Explanation

A multitasking operating system allows the CPU to execute more than one process or task concurrently by rapidly switching between them using time-sharing. This enables multiple programs to reside in memory and execute in parallel, maximizing central processing unit utilization and overall system efficiency.

Explanation

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the School Nursery Yojana in August 2015 to involve school students in raising saplings within their school campuses. Targeted primarily at students from classes VI to IX, the scheme aims to bring young minds closer to nature, instil environmental awareness, and foster a lifelong bond with the environment through hands-on activities like sowing seeds, maintaining plant beds, composting, and tree counting.

Explanation

Under Article 324(5) of the Constitution of India, the Chief Election Commissioner can only be removed from office in the same manner and on the same grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court. This requires a resolution passed by both Houses of Parliament with a special majority—a majority of the total membership of that House and a majority of at least two-thirds of the members present and voting—on the grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

Explanation

The Syed Modi International Badminton Championship is an annual international badminton tournament held at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Named in memory of eight-time Indian National Badminton Champion Syed Modi, the event was established in 1991 and was upgraded to a Grand Prix Gold status tournament in 2009 by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

Explanation

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was popularly known as Badshah Khan (or Bacha Khan) and Frontier Gandhi. He was a prominent Pashtun political and spiritual leader who advocated non-violent resistance against British colonial rule in India and founded the Khudai Khidmatgar ("Servants of God") movement in 1929.

Explanation

Jammu and Kashmir is the primary and largest producer of saffron in India, accounting for nearly the entire domestic production. The region's temperate climate, cool winters, and well-drained lacustrine soil deposits known as Karewas provide ideal agro-climatic conditions for growing Crocus sativus. The Pampore region in the Pulwama district is especially renowned as the Saffron Bowl of India.

Explanation

The Constituent Assembly adopted the National Flag of India on 22nd July 1947, just a few weeks before India gained independence on 15th August 1947. Originally designed by Pingali Venkayya, the flag features three equal horizontal bands of saffron, white, and green, with a navy blue Ashoka Chakra containing 24 spokes at the centre of the white band.

Explanation

When milk sours, lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus convert the lactose present in milk into lactic acid through fermentation. This increase in lactic acid raises the acidity of the milk, lowering its pH and causing the milk proteins, particularly casein, to coagulate, resulting in a sour taste and thick texture.

Explanation

Leopard, tiger, jaguar, and lion all belong to the biological family Felidae, commonly known as the cat family. Within this family, all four species are classified under the genus Panthera, which comprises the big cats characterized by a distinct structure of the hyoid bone that enables them to roar.

Explanation

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, considered the Father of the Indian Space Program, served as the first chairman of ISRO when the organization was established in August 1969. He previously led the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), set up in 1962, which laid the foundation for India's space program and peaceful development of satellite technologies.

Explanation

Yankee Stadium is located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Opened in 2009 to replace the original 1923 stadium of the same name, it serves as the home ballpark for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) and New York City FC of Major League Soccer (MLS).

Explanation

An electric motor operates on the principle of magnetic force acting on a current-carrying conductor placed in a magnetic field. When an electric current flows through the motor's armature coils, the interaction between the current and the magnetic field generates a torque according to Fleming's left-hand rule. This magnetic torque forces the rotor shaft to spin, thereby converting electrical energy into mechanical energy.

Explanation

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), established in 1942, is India's premier autonomous research and development organization under the Ministry of Science and Technology. By constitution, the Prime Minister of India serves as the ex-officio President of CSIR, while the Union Minister of Science and Technology acts as its ex-officio Vice President.

Explanation

Gagan Narang is a renowned Indian sport shooter specializing in the 10 m air rifle event. He brought glory to the nation by winning the bronze medal in the men's 10 m air rifle event at the 2012 London Olympics. He has also won multiple gold medals across various Commonwealth Games editions, including four gold medals each in the 2006 and 2010 Games, and was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2011.

Explanation

Microsoft Corporation was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800 microcomputer.

Explanation

Babita Kumari Phogat is an Indian freestyle wrestler who was conferred the Arjuna Award in 2015 for her outstanding achievements in wrestling. She won the gold medal in the women's 55 kg category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, along with a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and a bronze medal at the 2012 World Wrestling Championships.

Explanation

The construction of the Parliament House (originally known as the Council House) in Delhi began on 12 February 1921, when its foundation stone was laid by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught. Designed by British architects Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker, the building took six years to complete and was officially inaugurated on 18 January 1927 by the then Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin.

Explanation

The Hornbill Festival is an annual cultural extravaganza celebrated in Nagaland every year from December 1 to 10 at the Kisama Heritage Village, located near Kohima. Organized by the state government, the event brings together all the tribes of Nagaland to showcase their rich cultural heritage, traditional music, folk dances, martial arts, and native crafts. Named after the Indian hornbill, a bird deeply revered in Naga folklore and traditional songs, the event is popularly known as the 'Festival of Festivals' and serves to preserve and promote Naga traditions.

Explanation

In January 2016, an international team of scientists described a new bird species named the Himalayan Forest Thrush (Zoothera salimalii). The species was discovered in Northeast India (primarily Arunachal Pradesh) and adjacent regions of China. It was differentiated from the plain-backed thrush through differences in its musical song, plumage structure, and genetic testing. The scientific name salimalii honours the eminent Indian ornithologist Sálim Ali.

Explanation

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. It is widely known as Hansen's disease, named in honor of the Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, who first identified the causative organism in 1873.

Explanation

Rahul Dravid was appointed as the head coach of the India Under-19 and India A cricket teams by the BCCI in June 2015. He served as the head coach of the Indian squad during the 2016 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which was held in Bangladesh from January 27 to February 14, 2016. Under his mentorship, India remained undefeated throughout the group and knockout stages, eventually finishing as the runners-up of the tournament.

Explanation

Kidambi Srikanth was conferred the Arjuna Award in 2015 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for his exceptional performance in badminton. In 2014, he became the first Indian male shuttler to win a Super Series Premier title after defeating Lin Dan at the China Open. In 2015, he achieved further success by winning the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold and the India Open Super Series, which propelled him into the top 5 of the BWF World Rankings.

Explanation

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is commonly known as laughing gas due to its euphoric effects upon inhalation. It is also a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat in the Earth's atmosphere and contributes significantly to global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion.

Explanation

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet because it failed to meet the criteria required for a full planet. Specifically, Pluto orbits the Sun and has enough mass for its gravity to pull it into a rounded shape, but it has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit in the Kuiper belt region.

Explanation

Biogas is produced through the anaerobic digestion of organic matter such as agricultural waste, animal manure, plant material, and municipal waste by methanogenic bacteria. Methane forms the major component of biogas, typically accounting for 50% to 75% of its total volume, which gives biogas its combustible property and high calorific value as a clean, renewable energy source.

Explanation

Mac OS (Macintosh Operating System) was introduced by Apple Inc. in 1984 to power its Macintosh line of personal computers. It was the first commercially successful operating system to feature a graphical user interface (GUI) with a mouse-driven interface for everyday users.

Explanation

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) extinguishes fire by cutting off the supply of oxygen required for combustion. Being denser than air, it settles over the burning material and forms a blanket that displaces oxygen, effectively smothering the flame. Additionally, carbon dioxide is non-combustible and does not support burning.