UPSC 2017 Geography PYQs with Answers

Great Nicobar is geographically closest to Sumatra among the options.

NPCI operates retail payment systems that support financial inclusion and launched RuPay as an indigenous card payment scheme. Both statements are correct.

OLEDs can be made on flexible substrates, enabling roll-up/flexible displays including wearable uses, and transparent OLED displays are possible.

IONS was inaugurated in India in 2008, not 2015. It is a voluntary initiative to promote maritime cooperation among navies of Indian Ocean littoral states.

The Chambal River/National Chambal Sanctuary is the best-known natural habitat for gharials among the options.

IOD is a sea-surface temperature contrast between western and eastern Indian Ocean, not eastern Pacific. It can modulate or offset El Nino's effect on the Indian monsoon.

CCAC is not a G20 initiative; it is a voluntary global partnership. It focuses on short-lived climate pollutants such as methane, black carbon and HFCs.

Dyarchy under the Government of India Act, 1919 divided provincial subjects into transferred and reserved categories, with different modes of control.

The Himalayas and Western Ghats extend across more than five States each. Pulicat Lake is spread across Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, so only statement 3 is correct.

Lebanon and Syria border the Mediterranean Sea. Jordan and Iraq do not have Mediterranean coastlines.

The Global Climate Change Alliance is an EU initiative that provides technical and financial support to vulnerable developing countries for integrating climate change into policies and budgets. It is not coordinated by WRI/WBCSD.

A minimum road route from Nagaland to Kerala can pass through Nagaland, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, totaling seven States.

BIS certification is mandatory for automotive tyres and tubes. AGMARK is issued under Indian agricultural produce grading law, not by FAO.

Zika is mainly transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, which also transmit dengue, and sexual transmission of Zika is documented.

Rangeet originates in Sikkim and is a tributary of Teesta. Teesta does not share the same source as the Brahmaputra, and it joins the Brahmaputra/Jamuna system in Bangladesh rather than flowing directly into the Bay of Bengal at the border.

State Government employees can join NPS after their respective State Governments notify/implement it. The other options are too restrictive or incorrectly include Armed Forces for the 2004 central-government NPS rule.

Nuclear Security Summits were state-led summits initiated outside the UN framework, and the International Panel on Fissile Materials is an independent group, not an IAEA organ.

Geological carbon sequestration can use abandoned/unmineable coal seams, depleted oil and gas reservoirs, and deep saline formations.

Benami properties are liable for confiscation. The Act does provide appellate mechanisms, and the owner's awareness is not the stated exemption in the way option 1 frames it.

Chandipur beach in Odisha is famous for the sea receding several kilometres at low tide and returning later, allowing people to walk on the exposed seabed.

Smart India Hackathon 2017 was an innovation initiative to find digital/technology solutions to real problems. It was not a Smart Cities scheme or a programme to make all transactions digital.

TRAFFIC is a wildlife trade monitoring network run by WWF and IUCN, not a UNEP bureau. Its mission is to ensure trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to nature conservation.