WBPSC Clerkship General Knowledge Previous Year Questions

Correct Answer: (A) Polo

The Ezra Cup is a famous polo trophy, contested in Kolkata under the Calcutta Polo Club (founded 1862). The Calcutta Polo Club is regarded as the oldest existing polo club in the world.

Exam Facts

• Polo trophies in India include the Ezra Cup, Prithi Singh Cup, Radha Mohan Cup and Jodhpur Cup.
• Modern polo originated in Manipur, where it is called Sagol Kangjei. The British adopted it in the 19th century.
• The Silchar Polo Club (1859, Assam) was the first modern polo club, set up by British planters.
• A polo team has 4 players on horseback, and a match is divided into periods called chukkers (about 7.5 minutes each).
• The Indian Polo Association was founded in 1892. India won the World Polo Championship in 1957.
• Tennis (option B) and Lawn Tennis (option C) are essentially the same sport. Their trophies include the Davis Cup (men) and the Billie Jean King Cup (women; called the Fed Cup until 2020).
• Having two options for the same sport makes them weak distractors.
• Cricket (option D) trophies include the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Irani Cup and The Ashes.
• Other famous sports trophies: football’s Durand Cup (Asia’s oldest football tournament) and hockey’s Beighton Cup (Kolkata).
• The 61st Cavalry of the Indian Army is a leading polo regiment and one of the world’s last horse-mounted cavalry units.

Correct Answer: (C) Peso

The currency of Argentina is the Argentine Peso (code ARS). Several other Latin American countries also use pesos.

Exam Facts

• The peso is also used in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Uruguay and the Philippines.
• Argentina’s capital is Buenos Aires; its central bank is the Banco Central de la República Argentina.
• The Dollar (option A) is the currency of the USA, Canada, Australia and others.
• The Kroon (option B) was the currency of Estonia until it adopted the euro in 2011.
• The Sol (option D) is the currency of Peru (Sol, code PEN).
• Brazil uses the Real; Venezuela uses the Bolívar; Paraguay uses the Guaraní.
• Bolivia uses the Boliviano.
• Argentina won the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar under Lionel Messi.
• Argentina’s highest peak, Aconcagua, is the highest mountain in the Americas.
• The Krona/Krone is used in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

Correct Answer: (C) Aurobindo Ghosh

The Life Divine is the main philosophical work of Sri Aurobindo (Aurobindo Ghosh). It first came out in serial form in the monthly Arya from 1914 to 1919, was revised and published as a book in 1939-40, and sets out his philosophy of Integral Yoga and the evolution of the spirit.

Exam Facts

• Other works by Sri Aurobindo: Savitri (epic poem), The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita and The Human Cycle.
• Aurobindo was a leading Extremist in the Swadeshi movement and edited Bande Mataram.
• He was tried in the Alipore Bomb Case (1908-09); C.R. Das defended him and he was acquitted.
• In 1910 he moved to Pondicherry, where the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded in 1926.
• Auroville was founded in 1968 by The Mother (Mirra Alfassa).
• Swami Vivekananda (option A) wrote Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
• Keshab Chandra Sen (option B) led the Brahmo Samaj of India and founded the Nava Vidhan.
• Swami Dayananda Saraswati (option D) wrote Satyarth Prakash and founded the Arya Samaj in 1875.
• Aurobindo was born on 15 August 1872 in Calcutta.
• He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1943) and the Nobel Peace Prize (1950).

Correct Answer: (D) Binda Khan

Ustad Binda Khan was a well-known sarangi player of Hindustani classical music, from a Delhi family of musicians. The sarangi is a bowed string instrument with a skin-covered resonator and many sympathetic strings.

Exam Facts

• Other sarangi players: Pandit Ram Narayan, Ustad Sultan Khan, Ustad Sabri Khan and Dhruba Ghosh.
• Amjad Ali Khan (option A) is a sarod maestro of the Senia Bangash gharana.
• V.G. Jog (option B), Vishnu Govind Jog, was a famous violin player.
• Buddhadeb Das Gupta (option C) was a sarod player (not the Bengali film-maker of the same name).
• The sarangi is said to have a voice close to the human voice and has been used to accompany vocal music.
• It is made from one block of wood (often tun or teak) with a goat-skin cover.
• Other bowed instruments: violin, esraj, dilruba and ravanahatha.
• Shiv Kumar Sharma played the santoor and Hariprasad Chaurasia plays the flute.
• Bismillah Khan (shehnai) received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.
• Some sources treat Binda Khan and Bundu Khan as the same person, but either way the instrument is the sarangi.

Correct Answer: (B) 1904

FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded on 21 May 1904 in Paris by seven European associations. Its headquarters is in Zürich, Switzerland.

Exam Facts

• The founding members were France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
• The first FIFA President was Robert Guérin (France).
• The first FIFA World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay, and Uruguay won it, so 1930 (option D) is the first World Cup, not FIFA’s founding.
• 1900 (option A) is when football first featured at the Olympics (Paris).
• 1920 (option C) does not match any FIFA founding milestone.
• Jules Rimet, FIFA president from 1921-1954, started the World Cup.
• Gianni Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016.
• India’s governing body, the AIFF, was formed in 1937 and joined FIFA in 1948.
• Argentina won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
• The 2026 FIFA World Cup is hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico with 48 teams.

Correct Answer: (D) Albania

The lek (code ALL) is the currency of Albania, issued by the Bank of Albania. It is named after Alexander the Great (Leka in Albanian).

Exam Facts

• Albania’s capital is Tirana.
• One lek was traditionally divided into 100 qindarka.
• Azerbaijan (option A) uses the manat.
• Angola (option B) uses the kwanza.
• Indonesia (option C) uses the rupiah.
• The Bulgarian lev and Romanian leu are similar-sounding but different currencies.
• Albania is on the Balkan Peninsula along the Adriatic and Ionian seas.
• Mother Teresa was an ethnic Albanian, born in Skopje (now North Macedonia).
• Albania became a NATO member in 2009.
• Albania is an official EU candidate country.

Correct Answer: (B) 1913

The Olympic symbol of five interlaced rings was designed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, in 1913. It was presented at the Olympic Congress in Paris in 1914 and first flown on the Olympic flag at the 1920 Antwerp Games.

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Correct Answer: (B) Mural

A mural is any artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other permanent surface. The word comes from Latin murus (wall), so Mural is the general term asked for.

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Correct Answer: (B) 14th June

World Blood Donor Day is observed every year on 14 June to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors and to raise awareness about the need for safe blood. The date marks the birth anniversary of Karl Landsteiner (born 14 June 1868), who discovered the ABO blood group system. The day was first observed in 2004 and was formally recognised by the World Health Assembly in 2005.

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Correct Answer: (C) Switzerland

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has its headquarters at Gland, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was founded on 5 October 1948 at Fontainebleau, France, and is best known for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is a union of governments and civil-society organisations working on nature conservation.

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Correct Answer: (D) December 1

World AIDS Day is observed on 1 December every year to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, remember those who have died and support people living with HIV. First observed in 1988, it was the first-ever global health day. Its symbol is the red ribbon.

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Correct Answer: (A) Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Asol Aap is the traditional canoe race of the Nicobarese people of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, held mainly at Car Nicobar. Long canoes race on the open sea around the island, and the crew size depends on the size of the canoe. Because of the depth and currents of the sea, only two teams race at a time.

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Correct Answer: (B) Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook on 4 February 2004 while a student at Harvard University, together with his roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. It started as “TheFacebook” for Harvard students and later opened to everyone. In October 2021 the parent company was renamed Meta Platforms.

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Correct Answer: (B) 1858

The official key gives 1858 (option B), but this question is flawed: the Times of India was founded on 3 November 1838 as “The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce” and took the name The Times of India in 1861. Neither year is among the options, so 1858 is accepted as the closest option, probably a misprint of 1838. It is published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL).

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Correct Answer: (A) Pullela Gopichand

“Pullela Gopichand: The World Beneath His Feet” is a biography of badminton star and coach Pullela Gopichand, written by Sanjay Sharma and Shachi Sharma and published by Rupa in 2011. It tells how he came back from a serious knee injury in 1994 to win the All England Open in 2001. He later became India’s chief national badminton coach.

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Correct Answer: (D) August 29

National Sports Day is celebrated in India on 29 August, the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand (born 29 August 1905 in Allahabad). It has been observed since 2012, and the National Sports Awards are traditionally presented around this date. The printed official key shows option C (August 25), which is wrong; the correct date is August 29 (option D).

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Correct Answer: (B) Telangana

Bathukamma (written “Batukamma” in the question) is the state festival of Telangana. It is a floral festival celebrated by women for nine days during Durga Navratri, ending with Saddula Bathukamma on Durgashtami.

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Correct Answer: (C) Leva

The currency of Bulgaria was the Bulgarian lev (plural leva, code BGN), divided into 100 stotinki. Option C gives the plural form “Leva“, so it is the answer. Note: Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026.

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Correct Answer: (B) 2019

Former President Pranab Mukherjee received the Bharat Ratna in 2019. It was announced on 25 January 2019 and conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind on 8 August 2019, along with posthumous awards to Nanaji Deshmukh and Bhupen Hazarika.

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Correct Answer: (C) 64

A standard chessboard is a square grid of 8 rows × 8 columns = 64 squares, coloured alternately light and dark, so it has 32 light and 32 dark squares. The game begins with 32 pieces, 16 for each player.

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Correct Answer: (A) Tejas Express

The Lucknow–New Delhi Tejas Express, run by IRCTC (a PSU under the Ministry of Railways), became India’s first “private” (corporate-run) train. Yogi Adityanath flagged it off on 4 October 2019.

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Correct Answer: (B) The Louvre

Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ (La Gioconda), painted around 1503-1519, hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. It has been part of the French national collection since the French Revolution.

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Correct Answer: (B) Vincent Van Gogh

‘The Starry Night’ (1889) was painted by the Dutch Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh while he was staying at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. It is kept at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.

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Correct Answer: (A) Odisha

Boita Bandana is celebrated in Odisha on Kartika Purnima (October-November). People float small toy boats (boitas) made of banana stems, paper or cork in rivers and ponds before dawn, remembering the ancient Kalinga sea traders (sadhabas) who sailed to Bali, Java, Sumatra and Sri Lanka.

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Correct Answer: (D) Hockey

Jude Felix (Jude Felix Sebastian), born 26 January 1965 in Bengaluru, is a former Indian hockey captain (1993-95). He led India at the 1994 World Cup (Sydney) and the 1994 Asian Games (Hiroshima) and played at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

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Correct Answer: (A) Rugby

Rugby has the most players per side among the options: 15 players a side in Rugby Union (13 in Rugby League). Soccer has 11, baseball has 9 and water polo has 7 players a side.

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Correct Answer: (B) Euclid

Euclid of Alexandria (about 300 BC), a Greek mathematician, is called the Father of Geometry. His book “Elements”, in 13 books, set out geometry from definitions, axioms and postulates and was the standard textbook for over 2,000 years.

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Correct Answer: (A) Arati Saha

Arati Saha of Kolkata became the first Indian woman (and first Asian woman) to swim across the English Channel, on 29 September 1959. She swam from Cap Gris Nez, France to Sandgate, England in about 16 hours 20 minutes.

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Correct Answer: (A) Nuclear Weapon

CTBT stands for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions, for military or peaceful purposes. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 September 1996 and opened for signature on 24 September 1996, so it is linked with nuclear weapons.

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Correct Answer: (B) 1949

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was formed on 4 April 1949 when 12 countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty (Washington Treaty) in Washington, D.C. So (B) 1949 is correct.

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Correct Answer: (C) The Age of Revolution (1789-1848)

Eric J. Hobsbawm (1917-2012), the British Marxist historian, wrote The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 (1962). It is the first book of his famous “Age of” series on the long 19th century, so option (C) is correct.

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Correct Answer: (B) Shashi Tharoor

“An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India” (2016, Aleph Book Company) was written by Shashi Tharoor. It grew out of his famous Oxford Union debate speech (2015) arguing that Britain owes reparations to India, so option (B) is correct.

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Correct Answer: (D) King is dead.

The chess word checkmate comes from the Persian phrase “shāh māt”. The official and popular key meaning is “the king is dead”, so the answer is (D). Many dictionaries translate māt as “helpless” or “defeated” (close to option B), and the “dead” sense comes from the Arabic word māta (“he died”), but standard GK keys give “the King is dead”.

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Correct Answer: (B) Edmund Hillary

Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin and Sunita Williams are all astronauts who went to space, while Edmund Hillary was a mountaineer. Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953, so Hillary is the odd one out.

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Correct Answer: (A) Arunachalam Muruganantham

The 2018 Hindi film ‘Padman’ is based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, who invented a low-cost machine for making sanitary pads. The film was directed by R. Balki and starred Akshay Kumar in the lead role.

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Correct Answer: (A) Korea

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art, so Korea is its country of origin. The name means “the way of the foot and the fist” (tae = kick, kwon = fist, do = way), and it is known for high, fast kicking techniques.

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Correct Answer: (C) Nagaland

The Hornbill Festival is celebrated every year in Nagaland from 1 to 10 December at the Naga Heritage Village, Kisama, near Kohima. Started in 2000 by the state government, it shows the culture of all Naga tribes and is called the “Festival of Festivals”.

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Correct Answer: (A) France

FIFA was founded on 21 May 1904 in Paris, France, and its founding members were France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The question is flawed because all four options were founding members, but the official key gives France, as FIFA was founded in Paris at the initiative of the French, and its first president was the Frenchman Robert Guérin.

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Correct Answer: (B) Dipa Karmakar

Dipa Karmakar of Agartala, Tripura became the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics when she qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympics in April 2016. She was also the first Indian gymnast at the Olympics in 52 years (since 1964), and she finished 4th in the vault final at Rio.

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Correct Answer: (A) 1955

The Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI) was established on 11 May 1955 to make value-based films for children. The idea came from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and Hriday Nath Kunzru was its first president.

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Correct Answer: (D) Zoroastrianism

Fire temples are the places of worship of Zoroastrianism, where a sacred fire (Atar), the symbol of purity and of Ahura Mazda, is kept burning constantly. In India the followers of this faith are the Parsis, and their fire temples are called Atash Behram and Agiary.

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Correct Answer: (C) Canada

Canada is not a permanent member of the UN Security Council and therefore has no veto power. Only the five permanent members (P5), the USA, UK, France, Russia and China, hold the veto under Article 27(3) of the UN Charter.

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Correct Answer: (B) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the world’s largest animal rights organisation. It was founded in 1980 in the USA by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco.

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Correct Answer: (A) a hand-painted cotton textile in South India.

Kalamkari is a hand-painted (and block-printed) cotton textile of South India, made mainly in Andhra Pradesh using natural dyes. The name comes from the Persian words kalam (pen) and kari (craftsmanship).

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Correct Answer: (B) Border Security Forces (BSF)

The India-Bangladesh border is guarded on the Indian side by the Border Security Force (BSF), which also guards the India-Pakistan border. BSF is a Central Armed Police Force under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

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Correct Answer: (A) Tennis

Jaidip Mukerjea (also spelt Jaideep Mukherjee) is a Kolkata-born tennis player who represented India in the Davis Cup for 13 years. He was part of the team that reached the Davis Cup final (Challenge Round) in 1966.

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Correct Answer: (B) Myanmar

Myanmar is not a member of SAARC; it is an observer, and a member of ASEAN and BIMSTEC. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are all founder members.

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Correct Answer: (B) Scotland

Scotland is not an independent state; it is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom, with England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Australia, Belgium and Spain are sovereign states.

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Correct Answer: (B) Argentina

Lionel Messi is from Argentina. He was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario and at the time of the exam played for FC Barcelona, Spain.

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Correct Answer: (B) 1

China has two Special Administrative Regions (SARs): Hong Kong and Macau. Apart from Hong Kong there is only one other SAR, Macau.

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Correct Answer: (B) Rio-de-Janeiro

The 2016 Summer Olympics (Games of the XXXI Olympiad) were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the first Olympics in South America.

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Correct Answer: (A) Geneva

The UN Commission on Human Rights was based in Geneva, Switzerland. It was replaced in 2006 by the UN Human Rights Council, which is also based in Geneva.

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Correct Answer: (B) New Delhi

The first Asian Games were held in New Delhi from 4 to 11 March 1951, at the National Stadium (now the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium). Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru opened the Games.

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Correct Answer: (C) Raghuram Rajan

“The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind” (2019) was written by Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor. It argues that the community is the third pillar of society alongside the state and markets.

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Correct Answer: (D) Mcleodganj, Dharmashala

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, lives in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala (Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh), where he has stayed since 1960. Dharamshala is the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile.

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Correct Answer: (D) Tarasankar Bandhopadhyay

Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay was a novelist, not a sculptor; he is famous for Ganadevata, which won the Jnanpith Award (1966). Strictly, Jogen Chowdhury and Nandalal Bose are painters too, but they are visual artists, while Ramkinkar Baij is India’s best-known modern sculptor, so (D) is the clear odd one out; the provisional official key printed (C), which cannot be right because Ramkinkar was a sculptor.

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Correct Answer: (B) 2010

India hosted the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi from 3 to 14 October 2010. India won 101 medals (38 gold) and finished second behind Australia, its best-ever Commonwealth Games tally.

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Correct Answer: (B) H. G. Khorana

Har Gobind Khorana (Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1968) was born at Raipur in Punjab (now in Pakistan), studied at Lahore and Liverpool, and worked in Canada and the USA. He had no significant link with Kolkata, unlike the other three laureates.

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Correct Answer: (A) Pakistan

Pakistan is not a member of BIMSTEC. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation has seven members: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

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Correct Answer: (A) Narasimha Rao

India’s Look East Policy was launched in 1991 by the government of P. V. Narasimha Rao, to build economic and strategic ties with South-East Asia and ASEAN after the Cold War. Narendra Modi upgraded it to the Act East Policy in 2014. The official provisional key gives (D) Narendra Modi, which confuses Look East with Act East, so the correct answer here is (A).

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Correct Answer: (A) Homi Bhaba

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was the first Chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), set up in August 1948. He is called the father of India’s nuclear programme.

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Correct Answer: (C) Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy has not won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She won the Booker Prize (1997) for her novel “The God of Small Things”. The other three are Nobel laureates in Literature.

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Correct Answer: (B) UK

In Commonwealth member countries, India’s diplomatic head is called a High Commissioner instead of an Ambassador. The UK is a Commonwealth member, so India has a High Commissioner in London; the USA, Germany and Russia are not, so India sends Ambassadors there.

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Correct Answer: (A) Long distance runner

Usain Bolt of Jamaica is a sprinter (100 m and 200 m), not a long-distance runner, so no option is fully right. The official key accepts (A) because it is the only option describing a runner (athlete); the swimmer, basketball player and archer options are plainly wrong.

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Correct Answer: (B) Milkha Singh

Milkha Singh, the “Flying Sikh”, was an athlete (sprinter, 400 m), not a hockey player. Dhyan Chand, Sardar Singh and Sandeep Singh are famous Indian hockey players.

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Correct Answer: (B) Bengaluru

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has its headquarters at Antariksh Bhavan, Bengaluru. It was founded on 15 August 1969, and its founding father was Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.

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Correct Answer: (A) Bibhuti Bhusan Bandyopadhyaya

‘Asani Sanket’ (Distant Thunder) is a Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay set against the Bengal Famine of 1943. It shows how the famine destroys life in a Bengal village, and it was later filmed by Satyajit Ray.

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Correct Answer: (C) Bankimchandra

‘Anandamath’ was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in 1882. The novel is set against the Sannyasi Rebellion of the late 18th century and contains the song “Vande Mataram”.

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Correct Answer: (B) Dilip Kumar

The title ‘Tragedy King’ of Indian cinema belongs to Dilip Kumar (real name Muhammad Yusuf Khan), famous for intense tragic roles in films such as Devdas (1955), Daag, Deedar and Jogan. The printed key shows (A) Raj Kapoor, but Raj Kapoor is known as ‘The Showman’, so the correct answer is (B) Dilip Kumar.

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Correct Answer: (B) Vocalist

Mallikarjun Mansur was a celebrated Hindustani classical vocalist of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, from Dharwad, Karnataka. He died on 12 September 1992 (born 31 December 1910, so he was actually 81, not 82 as printed), but the answer vocalist is unaffected.

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Correct Answer: (C) Sitar

The question is loosely worded, because no famous musician is called simply “Ustad Alikhan”: Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and his father Ustad Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana are known for the sarod, which is not an option. The printed key accepts (C) Sitar, the closest string instrument and the one associated with Ustads such as Vilayat Khan, so (C) is taken as the answer.

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Correct Answer: (D) Amjad Ali Khan

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is one of India’s most famous sarod players. Born in 1945 in Gwalior, he is the son of sarod maestro Haafiz Ali Khan of the Senia Bangash gharana and received the Padma Vibhushan in 2001.

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Correct Answer: (A) 10th March

Exiled Tibetans observe 10 March as Tibetan Uprising Day, marking the Lhasa uprising of 10 March 1959 against Chinese rule. After the revolt was crushed, the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India. The day was in the news just before the exam, because the March 2008 Tibetan unrest began on 10 March 2008, a few months before the Beijing Olympics.

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Correct Answer: (B) Bhoomi

Bhoomi is the Kolkata-based Bangla band that describes its music as ‘urban folk’. Formed in 1999, it fuses modern urban lyrics with rural Bengali folk tunes such as baul and bhatiyali. Its founder members include Soumitra Ray and Surojit Chatterjee.

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Correct Answer: (B) VS Naipaul

‘A Writer’s People: Ways of Looking and Feeling’ (2007) is a non-fiction work by V. S. Naipaul, the Trinidad-born British writer of Indian origin. In it he reflects on writers who shaped him, including Derek Walcott, Gustave Flaubert and Mahatma Gandhi. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.

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Correct Answer: (D) Kanpur

Green Park Stadium is in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Ganga. It is one of India’s oldest Test cricket venues and hosted its first Test in January 1952 (India v England). It is the home ground of the Uttar Pradesh cricket team.

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Correct Answer: (B) Brazil

José Ramirez Barreto, Mohun Bagan’s star striker, is from Brazil (born in Rio de Janeiro in 1976). He joined Mohun Bagan in 1999 from Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale and became one of the most popular foreign footballers in Indian history. Fans called him the “Sabuj Maroon Tota” (green-maroon parrot).

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Correct Answer: (C) Cricket

The Cooch Behar Trophy is a cricket tournament. It is the BCCI’s national multi-day (four-day) junior tournament, now played at the Under-19 level, and is named after the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, a noted patron of Indian cricket. It was first held in 1945-46.

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Correct Answer: (C) Sports coaching

The Dronacharya Award is India’s highest honour for excellence in sports coaching. It was instituted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in 1985 and is named after Dronacharya, the guru of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata. Coaches of any sport, including archery, wrestling and boxing, can receive it.

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Correct Answer: (B) Hockey

The Aga Khan Cup (Aga Khan Gold Cup) is associated with hockey. It was started in Bombay in 1896 and is one of the oldest hockey tournaments in India.

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Correct Answer: (A) Mumbai

Mumbai is called the commercial (financial) capital of India. It hosts the Reserve Bank of India headquarters, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange and the head offices of most major banks and companies.

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Correct Answer: (D) Sachin Tendulkar

As of the exam (June 2008), Sachin Tendulkar was the only cricketer to have received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour, which he got for 1997-98. M. S. Dhoni received it later, for 2007-08, in August 2008.

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Correct Answer: (C) Mina Kumari

Meena Kumari (born Mahjabeen Bano, 1933-1972) is famous as the “Tragedy Queen” of Indian cinema for her moving roles in tragic films. Her best-known films include Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) and Pakeezah (1972).

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Correct Answer: (C) Classical Dance

Mallika Sarabhai is an eminent classical dancer (Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam), choreographer and actress. She is also a well-known social activist, but her main field is classical dance. The printed key shows (A) Social Service, but the standard answer is (C) Classical Dance.

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Correct Answer: (D) Sarod

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is a world-famous sarod maestro of the Senia Bangash gharana. He was born in Gwalior in 1945, the son of sarod player Haafiz Ali Khan.

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Correct Answer: (A) Films

Kamal Haasan is a celebrated film actor, director, screenwriter and producer, mainly in Tamil cinema, who also acted in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He is known for versatile roles and for using new film technology.

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Correct Answer: (D) Instrumental Music

Ustad Vilayat Khan (1928-2004) was a legendary sitar player of the Imdadkhani (Etawah) gharana, so he is associated with instrumental music. He developed the “gayaki ang”, a style of playing the sitar that imitates the human voice.

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Correct Answer: (A) Voldemort

Lord Voldemort is the main villain of the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. Born Tom Marvolo Riddle, he is the dark wizard who killed Harry’s parents and is called “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”. The printed key shows (D) Hagrid, which is clearly wrong; Hagrid is one of Harry’s protectors.

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