UPSC 2018 Geography PYQs with Answers

Critical Wildlife Habitat is defined in the Forest Rights Act, 2006, and Baigas were recognized with habitat rights. Habitat Rights are processed/recognized under tribal/forest-rights mechanisms, not officially declared by MoEFCC as stated.

PSLV is mainly used for Earth observation/remote-sensing and other satellites in lower orbits, while GSLV is designed for heavier communication satellites. PSLV satellites do not appear fixed in the sky, and GSLV Mk III is not a four-stage vehicle as described.

Pakhui or Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary lies in Pakke-Kessang district of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering Assam, and is famous for hornbills and its hornbill conservation programme. It was notified as a sanctuary in 1977 and declared a tiger reserve in 2002.

Momentum for Change: Climate Neutral Now is an initiative of the UNFCCC secretariat encouraging climate-neutral action.

Most coral reefs occur in tropical waters; Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines together contain a large share; and coral reefs host more animal phyla than tropical rainforests. All three statements are correct.

PAGE emerged at/after Rio+20, the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, to support green economy transitions.

Organic matter increases, not reduces, soil water-holding capacity, and soil participates in the sulphur cycle. Long-term irrigation can cause salinization in some agricultural lands.

Heavy sand mining can disturb riverbeds, affect aquifers and cause groundwater pollution and lowering of the water table. It is not expected to decrease river salinity as a general consequence.

Kodaikanal Lake is an artificial/man-made lake. Kolleru, Nainital and Renuka are natural lakes.

Subsidiary Alliance helped maintain troops at Indian rulers' expense, counter French/Napoleonic influence and establish British paramountcy. Securing a fixed income for the Company is not its defining feature.

Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri is mainly red sandstone with marble decoration, not simply white marble. Bara Imambara and Rumi Darwaza at Lucknow are primarily brick/lime-plaster structures, not red sandstone and marble.

India is not the third-largest silicon wafer manufacturer, and solar tariffs are discovered through bidding/regulatory processes, not simply determined by SECI. Both statements are incorrect.

Carbon fertilization means increased plant photosynthesis/growth caused by higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, subject to nutrient/water limits.

Blockchain is correctly associated with digital/cryptocurrency. Belle II is a particle-physics experiment, and CRISPR-Cas9 is a genome-editing tool, not particle physics.

GM mustard DMH-11 uses barnase/barstar/bar genes enabling hybrid seed production/cross-pollination systems. It is not primarily a broad pest-resistance crop and was developed by Delhi University/Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, not jointly by IARI and PAU.

The sixth mass extinction refers to biodiversity loss driven by human overuse of resources, habitat loss/fragmentation, ecosystem destruction, pollution and climate change.

Tyagaraja composed mainly in praise of Lord Rama, not Krishna. He is credited with creating/using several ragas. Annamacharya was much earlier than Tyagaraja and composed devotional songs for Lord Venkateshwara.

GACSA was launched before the Paris summit and is voluntary/non-binding. India was not instrumental in creating it, so only statement 2 is correct.

ILO Convention 138 concerns minimum age for employment and Convention 182 concerns worst forms of child labour; both relate to child labour.

Bengaluru's longitude is closest to Delhi among the listed cities.

State Governments do auction non-coal minerals, and gold mines exist in states including Andhra Pradesh/Jharkhand contexts. Rajasthan has iron ore mines, so only statement 3 is correct.

The two-state solution refers to the Israel-Palestine issue, envisaging Israel and Palestine as two states.

The FSS Act, 2006 replaced earlier food laws including the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. FSSAI is an autonomous statutory authority under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, not under the Director General of Health Services.

Wood's Dispatch introduced grants-in-aid and recommended universities. It did not recommend English as the medium at all levels; vernacular languages were to be used at lower levels.

Aadhaar APIs allow authentication services to be integrated into electronic applications/devices, and Aadhaar supports online biometric authentication including iris.

The Aral Sea has drastically shrunk due to human diversion of feeder rivers for irrigation. The Black Sea and Lake Baikal have not similarly dried up/shrunk immensely in the same way.

Aadhaar is proof of identity, not citizenship or domicile. Aadhaar numbers can be deactivated/omitted under specified regulations, so both statements are incorrect.

NSG membership can ease access to advanced nuclear technology and materials. It does not automatically make a country a party/member of the NPT.