SSC CHSL Tier 1 2021 General Awareness Questions with Solutions

Explanation

The 44th Amendment Act of 1978 deleted the right to property from the list of Fundamental Rights by omitting Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31. Instead, it inserted Article 300A in Part XII of the Constitution, making the right to property a legal right rather than a fundamental right. This change ensured that while the state could still acquire private property for public purposes, it was no longer a violation of fundamental rights, and the affected individuals could not approach the Supreme Court directly under Article 32 for its enforcement.

Explanation

Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award in 2021. He secured this prestigious honor after a remarkable season in which he won his 13th French Open title, thereby equalling Roger Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam singles titles. This was Nadal's second Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, having previously won the title in 2011.

Explanation

Dr. Radhe Shyam Barle, a renowned Panthi folk dancer from Chhattisgarh, was conferred the prestigious Padma Shri Award in 2021 by the Government of India for his outstanding contributions to Art. He has played a monumental role in promoting and popularizing Panthi, a traditional folk dance form of Chhattisgarh, globally. This energetic dance is performed primarily by the Satnami community of Chhattisgarh to propagate the messages of social reformer Guru Ghasidas.

Explanation

Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma, popularly known as Satyam, was a legendary Indian classical dancer and choreographer who is widely recognized as one of the greatest exponents of the Kuchipudi dance form. Born in the Kuchipudi village of Andhra Pradesh, he belonged to a traditional family that has preserved this classical dance form for generations.

He gained nationwide acclaim for his exceptional mastery in stree-vesham, a practice where male dancers portray female roles on stage. His most celebrated performances included the role of Satyabhama in the Kuchipudi dance-drama Bhama Kalapam. For his outstanding contribution to the popularization and preservation of Kuchipudi, he was honored with several prestigious accolades, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1961, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1969, and the Padma Shri in 1970.

Explanation

Sheik Chinna Moulana was a legendary Indian musician who specialized in playing the nadhaswaram, a traditional double-reed wind instrument of the Carnatic music tradition. Born in Andhra Pradesh, he later settled in Tamil Nadu, where he achieved immense fame for his exceptional command over the instrument, his lyrical style of rendering krities, and his extraordinary raga alapanas. He was honored with several prestigious awards during his lifetime, including the Padma Shri, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, and the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title awarded by the Music Academy of Madras.

Explanation

Guru Bipin Singh was a distinguished exponent, choreographer, and scholar of Manipuri dance, not Kuchipudi. He is regarded as one of the pioneers who revived and popularized the classical Manipuri dance form across India and the world, receiving the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1966 for his immense contributions.

Explanation

Ginning is a process used in the textile industry to separate cotton fibers from their seeds and debris. It is entirely unrelated to metallurgy or the steel manufacturing process, which involves chemical and physical transformations of iron ore into steel.

Explanation

Viswanathan Anand, India's first Chess Grandmaster and a five-time World Chess Champion, authored the autobiography titled Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion's Life. Co-authored with sports journalist Susan Ninan and published in December 2019, the book encapsulates his experiences, strategies, and the mental resilience required to compete at the highest level of chess, offering valuable life lessons drawn from his illustrious career.

Explanation

The asthenosphere is the highly viscous, mechanically weak, and ductile region of the Earth's upper mantle, lying directly beneath the rigid lithosphere. It extends from a depth of about 80 km to around 200 km below the Earth's surface. High temperatures and immense pressure in this layer cause the solid rock to behave plastically. This allows the rocks to slowly deform and flow over geological timescales with a viscous consistency, similar to hot asphalt or thick caramel, which facilitates the movement of the overlying tectonic plates.

Explanation

Pandit Birju Maharaj, the legendary Kathak maestro, vocalist, and choreographer belonging to the Lucknow Kalka-Bindadin gharana, was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan in 1986. This prestigious award, which is India's second-highest civilian honour, was conferred upon him in recognition of his extraordinary contributions and excellence in the field of Indian classical dance.

Explanation

An alkali is a base that dissolves in water. When an alkali is dissolved in water, it dissociates to release hydroxide ions (OH⁻), which are responsible for the basic properties of the solution, such as a slippery feel, a bitter taste, and the ability to turn red litmus paper blue. Common examples of alkalis include sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium hydroxide (KOH).

Explanation

Rich Like Us is a novel by Nayantara Sahgal, published in 1985. The story is set in New Delhi against the backdrop of the political unrest and social upheaval following the declaration of the Emergency in India in 1975. Through its characters, the novel critically examines the impact of authoritarian rule, bureaucratic corruption, and the erosion of democratic institutions in the capital during this period.

Explanation

Deep sea plains, also known as abyssal plains, are vast, gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basins. They are the flattest and smoothest regions on Earth because of the continuous and uniform deposition of fine-grained sediments, such as silt, clay, and marine organisms, over millions of years. This thick layer of sediment covers and buries the rugged, uneven volcanic topography of the underlying oceanic crust, resulting in an exceptionally even and featureless landscape across thousands of kilometers.

Explanation

Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma is a legendary Indian classical musician and composer who is credited with adapting the santoor, a traditional hundred-stringed folk instrument from Jammu and Kashmir, for Hindustani classical music. He modified the instrument's design and playing techniques to make it suitable for classical ragas, successfully transforming it from a simple folk accompaniment into a leading solo classical instrument.

Explanation

Money performs several vital functions in an economy, which are broadly classified into primary and secondary functions.

First, it serves as a medium of exchange, facilitating the smooth purchase and sale of goods and services by eliminating the need for a double coincidence of wants inherent in barter transactions.

Second, it acts as a measure of value, or a unit of account, providing a common standard to express the prices of different goods and services, which simplifies economic calculations.

Third, money functions as a store of value, allowing individuals to save purchasing power and transfer wealth from the present into the future.

Since all three functions are fundamental roles of money, statements A, B, and C are correct.

Explanation

The Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar is a national award instituted by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, which is India's national academy for music, dance, and drama. Introduced in 2006 in honor of the legendary shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, the award is conferred annually upon young, outstanding artists below the age of 40. It recognizes exceptional talent and contribution across various categories, including music, dance, theatre, traditional, folk, tribal dance, music, theatre, and puppetry, thereby encouraging the next generation of performing artists in India.

Explanation

The Blue Umbrella is a popular 1980 novel written by the renowned Indian author Ruskin Bond. Set in a small, scenic village in Himachal Pradesh, the story revolves around a young village girl named Binya who acquires a beautiful blue silk umbrella in exchange for her lucky leopard-claw pendant. The novella captures the innocence of childhood, the beauty of the Himalayan hills, and human emotions like jealousy and redemption, particularly through the character of the local shopkeeper, Ram Bharosa. In 2005, the story was adapted into an award-winning Hindi film of the same name directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.

Explanation

Pandit Pannalal Ghosh, born Amal Jyoti Ghosh, was a legendary Indian flutist and composer who popularized the bansuri as a classical concert instrument. He revolutionized Hindustani classical music by introducing the seven-holed larger bass bansuri, which allowed for the deep, resonant tones necessary for playing classical ragas. He was a disciple of the legendary Allauddin Khan and served as a composer and conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio.

Explanation

The Indian men's table tennis team won the bronze medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championship 2021 held in Doha, Qatar. The team secured the podium finish after reaching the semi-finals, where they lost 0-3 to the top-seeded South Korean team. Under the tournament rules, both losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals. The medal-winning Indian squad featured prominent players including Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, and Manav Thakkar. This achievement marked only the second time India won a medal at the prestigious continental event since 1976.

Explanation

In biological systems, adaptation is a genetically or environmentally driven process that enables organisms to survive and reproduce. While organisms undergo morphological, physiological, and behavioural changes to adapt to their environments, emotional mechanisms are not a recognized biological category of evolutionary adaptation. Emotions are subjective psychological states and cognitive reactions rather than evolutionary traits that physically or systematically alter an organism's structure, functional biology, or survival instincts in a scientific context.

Explanation

Ricky Kej won the 57th Grammy Award in 2015 in the Best New Age Album category for his collaborative album Winds of Samsara, which he created along with South African flutist Wouter Kellerman. The album is a musical tribute to the philosophies of peace, harmony, and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, blending Indian classical influences with African rhythms.

Explanation

In 1817, the German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner proposed the Law of Triads as an early classification system for chemical elements. According to this law, elements with similar chemical properties could be grouped into sets of three, where the atomic weight of the middle element was approximately equal to the arithmetic mean of the atomic weights of the first and third elements. The relationship between nitrogen, phosphorus, and arsenic as a potential triad—where the weight of phosphorus represents the mean of nitrogen and arsenic—was formulated on the basis of this classification.

Explanation

The United States of America secured the top position in the medal tally at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by winning the highest number of gold medals. The US delegation won a total of 39 gold medals, accompanied by 41 silver and 33 bronze medals, achieving an overall tally of 113 medals. This outstanding performance placed them at the very top of the official medal table.

Explanation

In April 1820, the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted observed during a lecture demonstration that a magnetic compass needle deflected from magnetic north when an electric current from a battery was switched on and off. Through further experimentation, he established that an electric current flowing through a wire creates a magnetic field around it, which exerts a force on the magnetic needle. This discovery provided the first empirical evidence linking electricity and magnetism, founding the science of electromagnetism.

Explanation

Pandit Anokhelal Mishra was a legendary Indian classical musician and a master of the tabla, belonging to the Banaras Gharana of Hindustani classical music. Often referred to as Tabla Samrat, he was highly celebrated for his speed, clarity of strokes, and exceptional mastery over complex rhythmic cycles, especially the teen taal. He received rigorous training in tabla for around fifteen years under Pandit Bhairav Prasad Mishra and earned widespread recognition both as a soloist and as an accompanist to some of the greatest musicians of his era.

Explanation

The Barakar River is the principal tributary of the Damodar River. It originates near Padma in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand, flowing eastward across the northern part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. After flowing for a length of approximately 225 km, it joins the Damodar River near Dishergarh on the border of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The Barakar River plays a crucial role in the multi-purpose project of the Damodar Valley Corporation, hosting major reservoirs like the Tilaiya Dam and the Maithon Dam.

Explanation

Sourav Ganguly was appointed as the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men's Cricket Committee on November 17, 2021. He took over the role after the previous chairman completed the maximum allowed tenure of nine years. At the time of this appointment, Ganguly was also serving as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The ICC Men's Cricket Committee plays a key role in recommending and shaping the rules, regulations, and playing conditions of international cricket.

Explanation

The One Health Consortium, launched by the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology in October 2021, consists of 27 organisations. Led by the DBT-National Institute of Animal Biotechnology in Hyderabad, this initiative is designed to monitor and control zoonotic and transboundary pathogens in India. It integrates major national institutions such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, and various wildlife and animal science universities across the country.

Explanation

Unbreakable is the autobiography of the famous Indian Olympic boxer M.C. Mary Kom, co-authored with Dina Serto and published in 2013. The autobiography of the Olympic gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra is titled A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold, which was released in 2011.

Explanation

Correct Answer: B

Anshu Malik created history by becoming the first Indian female wrestler to win a silver medal at the World Wrestling Championships, which took place in Oslo, Norway, in October 2021. Competing in the 57 kg weight category, she advanced to the gold medal match after a dominant victory over Solomiia Vynnyk of Ukraine in the semi-finals, before earning the historic silver medal in her final bout against Olympic champion Helen Maroulis of the United States.

Explanation

The value of second-hand goods is not included in the calculation of national income because these goods have already been counted in the year of their original production. Including them again would lead to the problem of double counting, as they do not contribute to the current flow of goods and services in the economy.

Explanation

During the period of 1921 to 1951, which is classified as Phase II in India's demographic history, the country witnessed a steady population growth. Following the year 1921, widely referred to as the "Year of the Great Divide," there was a significant reduction in mortality rates. This decline in death rates was primarily driven by overall improvements in public health, sanitation, and the control of widespread epidemics. At the same time, better transport and communication networks improved food distribution systems. Because the crude birth rate remained consistently high during this phase, the reduction in mortality resulted in a steady and continuous increase in the population.

Explanation

Padma Subramaniam is an eminent classical dancer, research scholar, and choreographer who developed the unique dance style known as Bharat Nrityam. Through her extensive research on the ancient Natya Shastra, she reconstructed the 108 Karanas (the fundamental movement units or dynamic dance gestures) which were previously thought to be static poses in temple sculptures. By integrating these reconstructed Karanas with traditional Bharatanatyam techniques, she formulated a comprehensive new pedagogical and performance system that she named Bharat Nrityam. For her monumental contributions to Indian classical dance, she was awarded the Padma Shri in 1981, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1983, and the Padma Bhushan in 2003.

Explanation

Ruskin Bond is the author of the novel The Room on the Roof, which was his literary debut. He wrote this semi-autobiographical book when he was seventeen years old, and it was published in 1956. The story revolves around Rusty, an orphaned seventeen-year-old Anglo-Indian boy living in Dehradun, who runs away from his strict guardian to live with his Indian friends. For this outstanding debut novel, Ruskin Bond was awarded the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957.

Explanation

According to the rules of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), a standard tennis court for doubles matches is designed with a width of 36 feet, which is equivalent to 10.97 meters. This width includes the doubles alleys, which are used during doubles play to expand the playable area of the court.

Explanation

Part VI of the Constitution of India deals with the states under Articles 152 to 237. Within this Part, Chapter III specifically provisions for the State Legislature, spanning Articles 168 to 212. These articles govern the constitution, composition, duration, officers, conduct of business, disqualifications of members, and legislative procedures of the legislatures in the states.

Explanation

Mosses are small, non-vascular, flowerless plants belonging to the taxonomic division Bryophyta. They absorb water and nutrients directly through their leaves and lack specialized vascular tissues like xylem and phloem for internal transport, which typically limits their growth size. Bryophytes, including mosses, reproduce via spores rather than producing seeds or flowers, and they rely heavily on damp, shaded environments to facilitate reproduction and moisture absorption.

Explanation

John Dalton was awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society of London in 1826, which was the inaugural year of the prestigious award. He received this honour specifically for his development of the chemical theory of definite proportions, commonly referred to as his atomic theory, as well as for his various other discoveries and papers in the fields of chemistry and physics. Dalton's formulation of atomic theory laid the foundation for modern quantitative chemistry by demonstrating how elements combine in fixed, simple numerical ratios.

Explanation

Lata Mangeshkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor, in 2001 in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to Indian music. Known as the Nightingale of India, she was the second vocalist to receive this prestigious award, following classical singer M. S. Subbulakshmi in 1998. Her illustrious career spanned several decades, during which she recorded thousands of songs in over thirty-six Indian and foreign languages.

Explanation

Gluten is a group of storage proteins found naturally in cereal grains such as wheat, barley, and rye. It acts as a binding agent that holds food together, giving dough its characteristic elasticity and stretchiness. When mixed with water, gluten forms a sticky, elastic network of proteins that traps gas during fermentation, which helps dough rise and gives baked goods their soft, chewy structure.

Explanation

The dancer couple, Vannadil Pudiyaveettil (V.P.) Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan, popularly known as the Dhananjayans, are legendary exponents of Bharatanatyam. Trained under Rukmini Devi Arundale at the Kalakshetra academy in Chennai, they later founded their own academy, Bharata Kalanjali, to preserve, innovate, and propagate the art of Bharatanatyam globally. The Culture Department of Madhya Pradesh conferred the prestigious Rashtriya Kalidas Samman for the year 2020-21 on them in the Classical Dance category to recognize their lifetime of dedication and outstanding contributions to the promotion and enrichment of Bharatanatyam.

Explanation

Ustad Asad Ali Khan was a legendary Indian classical musician and one of the finest virtuosos of the rudra veena, an ancient and complex plucked string instrument. Born into a prominent family of royal court musicians in Alwar, Rajasthan, he was a seventh-generation player of the Jaipur Beenkar gharana. He was particularly celebrated for keeping alive the rare Khandarbani style of Dhrupad. For his immense mastery and efforts to preserve this traditional instrument, he was honored with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1977 and the Padma Bhushan in 2008.

Explanation

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic Southern Gothic novel written by the American author Harper Lee and published in 1960. Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, the story focuses on the lawyer Atticus Finch as he defends a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, narrated from the perspective of his young daughter, Scout. The book achieved immediate success, earning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961, and has become a standard text in modern literature curriculum globally.

Explanation

Tartaric acid is a dicarboxylic organic acid with the chemical formula C₄H₆O₆. It occurs naturally in many fruits, most notably grapes, and is characterized by a strong, sharp, and tart taste. Among solid acidulants, it exhibits excellent water solubility and stability. This sharp taste profile and high solubility make it the ideal food additive and acidulant to enhance the tartness in grape- and lime-flavoured beverages, gelatine desserts, jams, jellies, and hard sour confectionery, where it also helps regulate pH to facilitate proper gelation.

Explanation

The Asian Cricket Council awarded the hosting rights of the 2023 Asia Cup to Pakistan. This decision was officially confirmed in 2021 during an Asian Cricket Council meeting. Pakistan was designated as the official host country for the sixteenth edition of the tournament, which was scheduled in the 50-over One Day International format to serve as a key preparatory tournament ahead of the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup.

Explanation

Manjamma Jogathi is a renowned Kannada theatre actress, singer, and dancer of Jogathi Nritya, which is a traditional folk dance form of North Karnataka. In 2019, she made history by becoming the first transgender woman to serve as the president of the Karnataka Janapada Academy, the state's apex institution for folk arts. Recognizing her lifetime of dedicated efforts in performing, preserving, and popularizing folk art forms and rural traditions across Karnataka and neighboring regions, the Government of India conferred the prestigious Padma Shri award upon her in 2021 in the field of arts.

Explanation

The bacterial flagellum is a complex, rigid appendage used by bacteria for locomotion. Its structure is composed of three main parts: the basal body anchored in the cell membrane, the flexible hook, and the long propeller-like filament. The term torso is not a component of the flagellar anatomy.

Explanation

Ileana Citaristi, an Italian-born classical dancer who made Odisha her home in 1979, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2006 for her outstanding contributions to Odissi. This made her the first classical dancer of foreign origin to receive the prestigious civilian honor. She trained extensively under the legendary Odissi pioneer Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and also mastered Mayurbhanj Chhau under Guru Hari Nayak. In 1996, she founded the Art Vision Academy in Bhubaneswar, which serves as an institution for training and research in Indian classical dance.

Explanation

Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran assumed office as the Chief Economic Advisor of India on 28 January 2022. He is a prominent economist, academic, and author who holds a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a doctoral degree in finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to this appointment, he served as a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India from 2019 to 2021. As the Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance, he is responsible for advising the government on macroeconomic policies and leading the preparation of the Economic Survey of India.

Explanation

Fotu La is a high mountain pass in the Zanskar Range of the Himalayas, located in the Kargil district of the Union Territory of Ladakh. Standing at an elevation of 4108 meters (13478 feet) above sea level, it is the highest point along the strategic Srinagar-Leh National Highway (NH 1), surpassing the famous Zoji La pass.