UPSC 2020 Geography PYQs with Answers

Jet streams occur in both hemispheres, so statement 1 is wrong. Only some cyclones develop an eye, and the eye is generally warmer, not 10°C cooler, than surroundings.

CGWA was constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, and India has the world's largest area under groundwater irrigation. The 36% district figure is not correct as stated.

Bhilsa/Vidisha is in Madhya Pradesh and Girinagar/Girnar is in Gujarat. Dwarasamudra is in Karnataka and Sthanesvara/Thanesar is in Haryana, not Maharashtra/Uttar Pradesh.

Desert National Park spans Jaisalmer and Barmer districts and is a natural habitat of the Great Indian Bustard. There are human habitations/settlements within the landscape, so statement 2 is wrong.

OMT is useful for monsoon rainfall assessment when collected during January-March. The fixed 129 m depth in the south-western Indian Ocean is incorrect; OMT is measured down to the 26°C isotherm depth, which varies.

Chromite, kyanite and sillimanite are major minerals; bentonite is treated as a minor mineral.

Bud chip settlings raised in nurseries save seed material, and tissue-culture settlings can be used. Single-budded setts are more vulnerable than larger setts under adverse weather and do not necessarily have better germination in direct planting.

Solar power can run both surface and submersible pumps, and both centrifugal and positive-displacement/piston-type pumps. Hence neither statement is correct.

Black gram can be grown in both kharif and rabi seasons. Green gram does not account for nearly half of pulse production, and rabi pulse production has not decreased over the last three decades.

Social Cost of Carbon is the estimated monetary value of long-term damage caused by emitting one additional tonne of CO2 in a given year.

Biochar can be part of growing media, can support beneficial/nitrogen-fixing microorganisms and improves water retention. All three statements are correct.

Coal ash contains toxic elements such as arsenic, lead and mercury; coal plants emit SO2 and NOx; Indian coal typically has high ash content.

Kanha National Park is known for conserving the hard-ground barasingha, a subspecies of swamp deer.

Nagarhole, Sathyamangalam and Wayanad lie in the Cauvery basin landscape. Papikonda is in the Godavari basin.

Elephant herds are matriarchal and gestation can be about 22 months. Elephants can calve beyond 40, and Karnataka, not Kerala, has the highest elephant population among Indian States.

MSP procurement is not unlimited for all cereals/pulses/oilseeds across every State/UT, and MSP does not guarantee that market prices will never rise above it. Both statements are incorrect.

Volga flows into the Caspian Sea and Zambezi into the Indian Ocean. Mekong flows into the South China Sea, and Thames into the North Sea, not the listed seas.

Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey are all G20 members. The other options include non-G20 countries such as Malaysia, New Zealand, Iran, Vietnam or Singapore.

Plant cells have cellulose cell walls and usually one large central vacuole when mature. Both plant and animal cells have plasma membranes, so statement 2 is wrong.

Carbon nanotubes can be used for drug/antigen delivery and biochemical sensors, and some functionalized CNTs can be biodegradable. Artificial blood capillaries are not an established correct use in this UPSC framing.

Blockchain can be a public distributed ledger with no single controller, and permissionless applications can be built on public blockchains. Blockchain data are not limited to cryptocurrency.

VLC uses visible wavelengths around 375-780 nm, can transmit data faster than Bluetooth, and avoids electromagnetic interference. It is short-range optical wireless communication, not long-range.

Aurang was a warehouse/workshop term, not treasury in-charge. Banian was an Indian broker/agent of European companies, and mirasidar was a hereditary landholder/revenue payer. Thus pairs 2 and 3 are correct.

Alma-Ata relates to primary healthcare, and Talanoa Dialogue to climate change. Hague Convention is not about biological/chemical weapons in this pairing, and Under2 Coalition is about climate action, not child rights.

Aadhaar data-sharing with private bodies was restricted by the Supreme Court, and Aadhaar can be required for subsidies/benefits funded from the Consolidated Fund. Metadata retention is not merely three months, and Aadhaar is not mandatory for insurance products.