There were 100 questions to be answered in an OMR sheet in 90 minutes with two marks for every right answer and one negative mark for each wrong answer.
Questions & Answers
- The tallest statue of Hanuman is in
- Maharashtra
- Punjab
- Tamil Nadu
- Andhra Pradesh
A) Andhra Pradesh (in Paritala 135 feet) - Which Indian city manufactured balls for the World Cup Football?
- Ludhiana
- Mumbai
- Jalandhar
- Chennai
A) Jalandhar - Name the oldest mountain range of India
- Himalayas
- Nilgiris
- Aravallis
- Vindhyas
A) Aravallis - In which year was Teachers' Day first celebrated in India?
- 1965
- 1947
- 1962
- 1975
A) 1962 - Which of these sanctuaries is in Karnataka
- Gir Sanctuary
- Kaziranga Sanctuary
- Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary
- Tadoba National Park
A) Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary (Tadoba is in Maharashtra, Gir - Gujarat, Kaziranga - Assam) - On which riverbank is Goa located?
- Ganga
- Mandovi
- Gomati
- Sabarmati
A) Mandovi (Gomati is a tributary of Ganga, Sabarmati is in Gujarat) - Name the Indian Tennis player who has turned Hollywood filmmaker?
- Leander Paes
- Mahesh Bhupathi
- Vijay Amritraj
- Ashok Amritraj
A) Ashok Amritraj (brother of Vijay Amritaraj, both of them Tennis players. But Vijay Amritraj has only acted in movies) - The Great Indian Bustard, an endangered bird, is found in
- The Thar Desert
- The Deccan Plateau
- The Sunderbans
- The Sambhar Lake
A) The Thar Desert (and adjoining states in India, Pakistan) - Which state was the first to electrify all its villages?
- Haryana
- Kerala
- Maharashtra
- Tamil Nadu
A) (not Maharashtra, not Kerala) - 'Prem Rog' a movie directed by Raj Kapoor is based on which social cause?
- Dowry
- Widow-remarriage
- Untouchability
- Casteism
A) Widow-remarriage (man in love with widow of higher status) - Which of these foreign rulers were the last to leave the country?
- British
- Dutch
- French
- Portugese
A) Portugese (left Goa only in 1961) - Which is India's second highest civilian honour?
- Ashoka Chakra
- Padma Bhushan
- Padma Shri
- Padma Vibhushan
A) Padma Vibhushan (followed by Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Ashok Chakra isn't civilian) - Which monument was built by the Mughal emperor Akbar?
- Qutub Minar
- Red Fort
- Charminar
- Fatehpur Sikhri
A) Fatehpur Sikhri (in 1571) - The stories depicted in the Ajanta and Ellora caves are from the
- Ramayana
- Mahabharata
- Jataka
- Panchatantra
A) Jataka???? (stories) - Hamida Begum was the mother of
- Akbar
- Humayun
- Babar
- Aurangazeb
A) Akbar (Humayun's wife) - One of the oldest and holiest Indian cities lies on the banks of the river Shipra. What is its name?
- Ujjain
- Gandhinagar
- Chandipur
- Mysore
A) Ujjain - Name the river whose main tributary is the Tungabhadra
- Krishna
- Godavari
- Kaveri
- Narmada
A) Krishna - Which city is called the religious capital of Maharashtra?
- Mumbai
- Pune
- Nasik
- Shirdi
A) Nasik (Pune is the cultural capital) - What was Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula, known as during the British rule?
- Cape Coromandel
- Cape Comorin
- Cape Victoria
- Cape Connaught
A) Cape Comorin - In which state is India's first marine national park located?
- Gujarat
- Kerala
- Goa
- Tamil Nadu
A) Gujarat (acknowledged in 1982) - Which is the Indian state whose ruler was the only royalty who did not attend the Delhi Durbar for King George V in 1911?
- Udaipur
- Hyderabad
- Mysore
- Gwalior
A) Udaipur (Maharana Fateh Singh) - In which monument would you find the grave of Sultan Mohammad Adil Shah?
- Lodhi Tomb, Delhi
- Gol Gumbaz, Bijapur
- Charminar, Hyderabad
- Bibi ka Maqbara, Aurangabad
A) Gol Gumbaz - Which Indian state gets its name from the Burmese word for "people with pierced ears"?
- Mizoram
- Tripura
- Nagaland
- Manipur
A) Nagaland (Naka) - Which noted Indian personality's father was one of the three main (Indian) contractors who built Connaught Place? The other two were Sardar Dharam Singh and Rai Bahadur Narain Singh.
- Amrita Shergil
- Vir Sanghvi
- Khuswant Singh
- Swaraj Paul
A) Khuswant Singh (his father Sir Sobha Singh) - Which artist, of royal descent, became so famous that his Palace was "completed to open a post office" due to the countless painting requests that arrived "every day from everywhere"?
- Nandalal Bose
- Raja Ravi Varma
- Sobha Singh
- Rabindranath Tagore
A) Raja Ravi Varma (it is!) - Which landmark film deals with the story of the King of Kumarpur and his two quarrelling wives Dilbahar and Navbahar?
- Light of Asia
- Raja Harishchandra
- Alam Ara
- Prithvi Vallabha
A) Alam Ara - During his incarceration at which prison from 1942 to 1946 did Jawaharlal Nehru write the 'Discovery of India'?
A) Ahmednagar (actually in five months April to September 1944) - Indian state capital was designed by the noted German architect Otto Konigsberger in 1946?
A) Bhubaneswar - Which tradition of the Republic Day parade was discontinued in 2009 owing to security concerns after they caused a scare at the previous year's parade?
A) Elephants - In 2000, P. Gopichand became the 2nd player to win the All-England title in badminton, 20 years earlier, who had become the first?
A) Prakash Padukone - Which Maratha leader was known as the Maratha Machiavelli by the Europeans in the 18th-19th centuries?
A) Nana Phadnavis - The subject of a classic poem by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, which apsara was the wife of the King Pururavas?
A) Urvashi (the poem - Urvashi) - Which daughter of Fatma Begum, from Surat, became a famous film star, and also India's first woman film director?
A) Zubeida (the first woman film director is Fatma Begum, though Zubeida is her daughter) - Who is acknowledged to be the first Indian to play at the Wimbledon tennis championships?
A) S Nihal Singh (played at Wimbledon in 1908. Though B Nehru entered the competition in 1905, he gave a walkover to his opponent) - the famous film start seen in this still from one of his films
A) Dara Singh
- Which town has the distinction of being the coldest inhabited town in India, and is the second coldest inhabited town in the world?
A) Drass - Who was the youngest ever luge (men's category) Olympian (at 16 years old) and the sole Indian representative at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan?
A) Shiva Keshavan - Which English word, meaning "Any large, overpowering, destructive force" has origin in the falsehood that Hindu devotees of Krishna were lunatic fanatics who threw themselves under the wheels of chariots in order to attain salvation?
A) Juggernaut (Jaggannath) - Which of these English words does not have a Hindi or Urdu origin?
A) Banana - Identify the Indian architect who has worked with Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, and has been on the selection committee for the Pritzker Prize, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, and the Aga Khan Award. He was also the first founder Director of School of Architecture, Ahmedabad.
A) B V Doshi - Who is the fictional private investigator that has starred in a series of Bengali novels, short stories and movies, from the series Feluda created by the famous Indian Bengali film director and writer Satyajit Ray?
A) Pradosh Chandra Mitter - Which is the second most commonly spoken language in India, after Hindi?
A) Bengali (83 million speakers followed by Telugu - 74, Marathi - 72, Tamil - 61) - Which is the largest freshwater island in South Asia?
A) Majuli, Assam (in Brahmaputra) - Which is the island on which Mumbai and Thane lie, thus the most populous island in India and the 14th most populous in the world?
A) Salsette Island - Identify this Jain religious cenre:
A) Shatrunjaya Hill
- This miniature painting is an illustration from which early Mughal manuscript, commissioned by Akbar and directed by Mir Sayyed Ali and Abd as Samad?
A) Tutinama
- In which city would you currently find this priceless sculpture from the trove of Indian heritage?
A) Patna
- Born in Bilaspur, in 1927, which Indian player holds the record with Udham Singh, for winning the greatest number of gold medals in field hockey at the Olympic Games?
A) Leslie Claudius - Identify this painting, often called "India's Mona Lisa."
A) Bani Thani
- Which Arjuna Awardee and Padma Shri, who won a gold medal in the 1970 Asian Games, died recently in New Delhi?
A) Chandgi Ram - From which city did Doordarshan first start its broadcast on 15 September 1959?
A) Delhi - Which mythological figure is also known as Halyudha, Adiguru and Anmkarsana, which means child transferred from the womb?
A) Balarama - Identify this tennis legend
- Ramanathan Krishnan
- Ramesh Krishnan
- Ghaus Mohammad
- Zeeshan Ali
A) Ramesh Krishnan (not Ramanathan Krishnan)
- Which of the following newspaper was established by Mahatma Gandhi?
A) Indian Opinion (in South Africa) - Pick the wrong match.
- Chilka Lake :: Orissa
- Kolleru Lake :: Karnataka
- Dal Lake :: Kashmir
- Sambhar Lake :: Rajasthan
A) Kolleru Lake is in Andhra Pradesh - Aryabhata was India's first satellite. Which was the second one?
A) Bhaskara-1 (1979) - Where was the first Indian Institute of Technology setup?
A) Kharagpur (1951) - What is the odd one out?
- Silambam
- Gatka
- Thang-fa
- Bando
A) Thang-fa (is a meaningless word. Others martial arts: Silambam- Tamil Nadu, Gatka - Punjab, Bando - near Myanmar) - Which of the following is the motto of the Indian Navy
- 'शं नो वरुणः'- "May Vauna be peaceful to us"
- We protect
- On the Sea We Are Glorious
- Touching the Sky with Glory
A) शं नो वरुणः - What is the meaning of 'Koh-i-Noor'?
A) Mountain of Light - The 'Sanskriti Express' train is a tribute from the Indian Railways to which Indian Nobel laureate?
A) Rabindranath Tagore - Which was Indian television's first soap opera?
A) Hum Log - According to tradition, which style of painting is said to be originated in the Ramayana, when King Janaka commissioned artists to do paintings for the marriage of his daughter, Sita, to Lord Rama?
A) Madhubani - Which was India's first fully indigenous passenger car?
- Maruti Suzuki
- Hyundai Santro
- Honda Accent
- Tata Indica
A) Tata Indica (of course Suzuki, Honda, and Hyundai are foreign) - Which of the following sports/games originated in India?
A) Chess - Which of the following is not a 'Classical Language' of India?
A) Hindi (Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu are the 4) - 'Losar' meaning the 'New Year' is celebrated in which part of India?
A) Sikkim (Tibet) - Which contemporary Indian writer was born as 'Nilanjana Sudeshna'?
A) Jhumpa Lahiri - Who was the director of Bollywood blockbuster '3 Idiots'?
A) Rajkumar Hirani - India celebrates the 'National Science Day' on 28th February every year in honor of which scientist?
A) C.V. Raman for the Raman Effect - Which Indian freedom fighter was born as 'Manikarnika' in the city of Varanasi?
A) Rani Laxmibai - Pick the odd one out.
- Tapti
- Mahi
- Narmada
- Kaveri
A) Kaveri is the only East flowing one. - Who amongst them was a professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, who was also an advisor of Google and Paypal?
A) Rajeev Motwani - Who was the first "crorepati" in the T.V. show Kaun Banega Crorepati?
A) Harshavardhan Navathe - The movie Slumdog Millionaire is an adaptation of which novel?
A) Q & A - What special about the movie 'My Dear Kuttichathan' released in 1984?
A) The first 3D movie released in India - Which of the following cities doesn't have a 'Jantar Mantar'?
A) Udaipur - Which state capital in India is also known as the 'Scotland of the East'?
A) Shillong - Which form of art did Maharani Gayatri Devi help revive?
A) Blue Pottery - Which athelete is known as Payolli Express?
A) P.T. Usha - Tirupati, the famous temple town is in which state?
A) Andhra Pradesh - If I am good at penning 'Thrilling Tales' without 'Too Much Trouble' as I walk you on the 'Roads to Mussoorie' to a 'Stairway To Nowhere' and 'The India I love' then who am I?
A) Ruskin Bond - Used in India before our independence, the term derives from the Latin prefix meaning "in the place of" and a French word, meaning king. What word?
A) Viceroy ('Vice' - "in the place of", 'roi' - king) - The letter "M" stands for which city in the name of the great singer MS Subbalakshmi?
A) Madurai
- Which Vice Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University represented India at UNESCO from 1948-49 and was later Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union, from 1949 to 1952?
A) Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (He was vice president from 1952-1962. The first presidential election took place only in 1952 :P) - Calicocotton is a cloth named after which Indian port?
A) Calicut - What was the name of Dhirutarastra's daughter in the Mahabharath?
A) Dushala - Rabindranath Tagore composed the National Anthem of India and which other country?
A) Bangladesh (Amar Shonar Bangla) - city is known as the Diamond capital of India?
A) Surat - Who established Aligarh Muslim University?
A) Sir Syed Ahmaed Khan - Which famous sufi saint's shrine is in Fatehpur Sikri?
A) Khwaja Saleem Chisti - If you land at the Choudhari Charan Singh airport which city are you in?
A) Lucknow - Who laid the foundation of the Maurya Dynasty?
A) Chandragupta Maurya - Who defeated the Marathas in the third battle of Panipat?
A) Ahmad Shah Abdali - Who among the following was the signatory to the Poona Pact in the Yerwada Jail near Pune when Mahatma Gandhi was sick?
A) B. R. Ambedkar - Where do you find the historic gate Rumi Darwaza, named after the great Turkish poet Rumi in India?
A) Lucknow - Who wrote "Kanan Kusum"?
A) Jaishankar Prasad - Which one of these schools of the performing arts was founded in 1930?
- Kerala Kalamandalam
- Sangeet Natak Academy
- Margi
- School of Drama
A) Kerala Kalamandalam (Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi - 1952, Margi theater Trivandrum - 1970, School of Drama, New Delhi - 1959) - The greeting 'Jai Hind' was started by which famous person?
- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
- MK Gandhi
- Subhash Chandra Bose
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak
A) SC Bose (though Chempakaraman Pillai is said to have introduced it) - 'Bandi Nata' is the folk play of which Indian state?
- Orissa
- Maharashtra
- Gujarat
- Madhya Pradesh
A) Orissa
RESULTS of this quiz
The schools which qualified in this preliminary test
