KPSC Departmental Exams 2019 — Paper 1 - General Studies (GS)

Finland's capital is Helsinki, Venezuela's is Caracas, Mongolia's is Ulan Bator, and Kenya's is Nairobi, giving the code iv i ii iii.

Aconcagua, in the Andes in Argentina, is the highest peak in the Southern Hemisphere and outside Asia at 6,961 metres.

Allama Prabhu presided over the philosophical and religious discourses of the Sharanas at the Anubhava Mantapa in Basavakalyana.

Lothal, on the Gujarat coast, served as the principal port and dockyard of the Indus Valley Civilization.

UNESCO designated January 24 as the International Day of Education, first observed in 2019 to highlight education's role in development.

Telangana decided to raise an armed State Tiger Protection Force (STPF) to combat poaching in its tiger reserves.

The theme of National Voters' Day 2019, observed on January 25, was 'No Voter to be Left Behind'.

Saab AB is a Swedish aerospace and defence company known for fighter jets, radar systems, and missiles.

ISRO's Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC), set up to steer the Gaganyaan programme, is located in Bengaluru.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia launched 'Aber', a joint digital currency pilot for cross-border banking settlements between the two countries.

Mohammed Shami became the fastest Indian bowler to reach 100 ODI wickets, achieving the feat in his 56th match, during the series against New Zealand.

The 30th National Road Safety Week (2019) carried the theme 'Sadak Suraksha–Jeewan Raksha' (Road Safety–Life Safety).

The 106th Indian Science Congress (2019) was held at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab.

Urea is synthesized in the liver through the urea cycle, which converts toxic ammonia produced from protein breakdown into a form that can be excreted by the kidneys.

Sugarcane is commercially propagated vegetatively through stem cuttings (setts) rather than from seed.

Mustard gas was first used by German forces against Allied troops at Ypres in 1917 during the First World War.

North Macedonia (then still finalising its name dispute with Greece) signed the accession protocol to become NATO's 30th member.

The Union Cabinet approved the merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank into Bank of Baroda in January 2019, creating the country's third-largest bank.

Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term as President of Venezuela on January 10, 2019, a move widely disputed internationally.

Article 13(2) declares that the State shall not make any law that takes away or abridges Fundamental Rights, and any law made in contravention is void to that extent -- this is the specific textual basis that empowers courts to strike down unconstitutional laws, making Article 13 the article in which the concept of judicial review is inserted. Article 32 (and 226) merely provide the procedural remedy for approaching courts to enforce that review; standard references (e.g., Laxmikanth) explicitly identify Article 13 as the constitutional root of judicial review, so the correct option is D, not B.

Under Article 75(3) of the Constitution, the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.

The 'Rule of Law' as a foundational constitutional principle was propounded by A.V. Dicey and is a hallmark of the British constitutional system.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi served as the Chief Justice of India from October 2018 to November 2019, the period this question refers to.

The present tricolour design of the National Flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on July 22, 1947, shortly before independence.

The Jungle Book (1894) was written by Rudyard Kipling, the English author who spent much of his career in British India.

Naphthalene, an aromatic hydrocarbon, is the primary ingredient of mothballs, valued for its ability to sublime and repel moths.

By Archimedes' principle, the buoyant force on a body equals the weight (mass) of the fluid it displaces, not the body's own shape or mass.

Chemical fertilizers are primarily formulated around Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (the NPK nutrients); sodium is not a targeted plant nutrient and is rarely a fertilizer component.

Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious monument, is located near Siem Reap in Cambodia.

The Almatti Dam, a major hydroelectric and irrigation project, is built across the Krishna river in Karnataka's Bagalkot district.

Jawaharlal Nehru, as Congress President at the Lahore session of December 1929, presided over the declaration of 'Poorna Swaraj' (complete independence) as the party's goal.

Public Interest Litigation is a judicial tool exercised through the courts, not a legislative device; No-Confidence Motions, Question Hour, and Call Attention Motions are all parliamentary accountability mechanisms.

Nanda Devi, India's second-highest peak, lies in the Kumaon division of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand.

Among the given options, Canada has historically been a leading global producer of uranium, mined chiefly in the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan.

Simplifying girls:boys = 3.5:4.5 gives 7:9; with girls = 1540, one ratio unit = 1540/7 = 220, so boys = 220 x 9 = 1980. The question's wording asks for the 'total participants,' which would actually be 1540 + 1980 = 3520 -- a value not offered among the options -- so this question is internally inconsistent (likely meant to ask for the number of boys, not the total). Option B (1980) is retained as the intended answer since it is the only option that follows directly from the given ratio and girls' count, but strictly it answers 'how many boys,' not 'how many total participants.'

Humayun-nama, a biography of Emperor Humayun, was written by his half-sister Gulbadan Begum.

The Élysée Palace in Paris is the official residence and workplace of the President of France.

The Leaning Tower, the freestanding bell tower of Pisa Cathedral, is located in Pisa, Italy.

The Gateway of India, built to commemorate King George V's 1911 visit, is located in Mumbai overlooking the Arabian Sea.

Solving x + x² = 182 gives x² + x − 182 = 0, which factors to (x − 13)(x + 14) = 0, so the positive solution is 13.

The smallest 6-digit number is 100000 and the greatest 4-digit number is 9999; their difference is 90001.

The differences between consecutive terms decrease by 1 each time (10, 9, 8, 7, 6), so the next term after 77 is 77 + 6 = 83.

10% of 20 is 2 and 20% of 10 is 2, summing to 4, which equals 2% of 200 (0.02 × 200 = 4).

If a person is 9th from both ends of a queue, the total is 9 + 9 − 1 = 17, since the person is counted once in each count.

John Maynard Keynes was a British economist whose theories on government intervention and aggregate demand reshaped modern macroeconomic policy.

ASEAN comprises ten Southeast Asian nations including Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines; China is a dialogue partner but not a member state.

Setting A's age as a and D = 2a, B's sister C = B/2, with |A − B| = 2 and |D − C| = 40: A = 26, B = 24 satisfies both, since D = 52 and C = 12 differ by exactly 40.

The digit-sum condition (sum with reversed number = 110) requires the digits to add to 10, and the second condition (number − 10 = 5×digit-sum + 4 = 54) pins the number to 64.

At an original speed of 42 km/hr, the times are 63/42 = 1.5 hours and 72/48 = 1.5 hours, totalling exactly 3 hours.

With 20 girls in the class and Radha 17th from the top with 9 boys ahead of her, 7 girls rank ahead of her, leaving 20 − 1 − 7 = 12 girls ranked after her.

If the previous flight left 25 minutes before 10:45 a.m. (i.e., 10:20 a.m.) and flights run every 5 hours, the next flight departs at 3:20 p.m.

With 30,000 MB allowed and 15,700 MB used by October 20, the remaining 14,300 MB spread over the 11 remaining days of October gives an average of 1,300 MB/day.

Based on the pattern formed by the given cube views, the number that logically completes the sequence in the blank space is 5.

Since all horses are goats and no goat is a cow, no horse can be a cow, and since all lions are cows, no horse can be a lion either — so only conclusion III follows.

Guru Shikhar, the highest peak of the Aravalli Range, is located on Mount Abu in Rajasthan.

Evaluating the innermost fraction first: 1/(1+9) = 0.1, so 0.9 + 0.1 = 1, and 1/1 = 1; adding gives 9 + 1 = 10.

Each column of the grid sums to 25 (8+10+7, 9+8+8), so the missing number in the third column is 25 − 10 − 7 = 8.

Since Q is stated to be longer than both M and N, and N is longer than P, Q is the longest of the four.

Among the four states listed, Tamil Nadu (about 1.3 lakh sq. km) has the smallest area, compared to Karnataka, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

MIBOR (Mumbai Interbank Offer Rate), the benchmark rate for interbank lending, was first developed and is published by the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

SEBI constituted the T.K. Vishwanathan Committee to review and strengthen the regulatory framework on fair market conduct and unfair trade practices.

Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist, jointly won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Malala Yousafzai for their work against child exploitation.

Fundamental Duties were added by the 42nd Amendment (1976) as Article 51-A under a new Part IV-A of the Constitution.

Under Article 168, Bihar, Karnataka, and Maharashtra are among the few states with a bicameral legislature comprising a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council.

A Proclamation of Financial Emergency under Article 360 ceases to operate after two months unless approved by resolutions of both Houses of Parliament.

Part XX, consisting solely of Article 368, lays down the procedure for amending the Constitution of India.

Varaha (the boar, an incarnation of Vishnu) was the royal emblem of the Chalukya dynasty.

The Kannada Sahitya Parishat was established in 1915 in Bengaluru to promote the growth and development of the Kannada language and literature.

Diwan Sir Mirza Ismail, known for his industrialization drive in Mysore State, established the sugar factory at Mandya in 1934.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the engineer-statesman and Diwan of Mysore, popularised the slogan 'Industrialize or Perish' to push for rapid industrial development.

Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement (Zamindari System) in Bengal in 1793, fixing land revenue permanently with zamindars as revenue collectors.

Cloud seeding introduces particles like silver iodide into clouds to encourage water droplets to coalesce and fall as precipitation.

Oxygen (about 46%) and silicon (about 28%) together make up roughly three-quarters of the Earth's crust by mass.

The Western Ghats, running through Karnataka and other southern states, is recognized as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

The term 'heliophyte' derives from Greek helios (sun) + phyton (plant), meaning a sun-loving plant that is structurally and physiologically adapted to thrive under full, direct sunlight -- e.g., thick cuticles, sunken stomata, and high light-saturation points for photosynthesis. This is the opposite of sciophytes (shade plants), which perform best under low light intensity, so option A actually describes sciophytes, not heliophytes. The correct option is therefore B.

The stratospheric ozone layer absorbs short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation from the sun, preventing most of it from reaching the Earth's surface.

'The Violence of the Green Revolution' was authored by Vandana Shiva, an environmental activist critical of industrial agriculture's ecological impact.

The pristine natural caves referenced are situated at Kasaragod, near the Karnataka-Kerala border.

Lord Mountbatten was the last Governor-General/Viceroy of British India, overseeing the transfer of power and Partition in August 1947.

H. Ganapathiappa led the Kagodu Satyagraha, a tenant-farmers' movement in Shivamogga district demanding land and tenancy rights.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel served as India's first Deputy Prime Minister, alongside being Home Minister, in the first Union Cabinet.

Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban reorganized and centralized the Iqta administrative system originally introduced under the early Delhi Sultanate.

Lord Dalhousie is credited with laying the foundation of India's modern postal system, introducing uniform postage rates across British India.

Dyarchy -- a dual system of governance splitting provincial subjects into 'reserved' (administered by the governor) and 'transferred' (administered by ministers responsible to the legislature) -- was introduced at the provincial level by the Government of India Act, 1919, framed on the Montagu-Chelmsford (Montford) Reforms; this makes B the correct, first instance. The Government of India Act, 1935 abolished provincial dyarchy (replacing it with provincial autonomy) and instead proposed dyarchy only at the centre, a scheme that never came into force, so D cannot be the 'first' introduction.

The UN General Assembly declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, recognizing their contribution to socio-economic development.

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005 to improve healthcare access and delivery in rural India.

The World Economic Outlook is a flagship report published biannually by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Among the four options, only a wheeled map-measuring device is designed to trace and read off distance/length along a route on a map: a clinometer measures angles of elevation/slope, a pantograph is used to copy or scale drawings, and a planimeter measures area, not length -- so by elimination the distance-measuring instrument must be option D. The standard technical name for this small wheeled instrument is an 'opisometer' or 'curvimeter' (also loosely called a map measurer); 'rotometer' is a non-standard/misspelled label for the same device that nonetheless recurs consistently across regional exam sources for this exact question.

The Nirmal Gram Puraskar was a Government of India award recognizing villages and panchayats that achieved total sanitation under the Total Sanitation Campaign.

Polythene and PVC are thermoplastics — polymers that soften on heating and can be remoulded repeatedly, unlike thermosetting plastics which set permanently.

Sarfaraz Ahmed, Pakistan's wicketkeeper-captain, held the record for most catches by a wicketkeeper-captain in a single Test match.

The Rigveda, a collection of hymns to various deities, is the oldest of the four Vedas.

Rajyashri was the sister of Harshavardhana, the 7th-century ruler of the Pushyabhuti (Vardhana) dynasty of Thanesar and Kannauj.

The Tripitakas ('three baskets') are the earliest and most complete canonical collection of Buddhist scriptures.

Harisena, the court poet of Samudragupta, composed the Prayag Prashasti (Allahabad Pillar inscription) eulogizing the emperor's conquests.

The French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille, ending centuries of absolute monarchy.

Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian Chancellor, engineered the political and military unification of Germany in 1871, earning him the title 'founder of modern Germany'.

The rock-cut Kailasanatha temple at Ellora was built under the patronage of the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the 8th century.

The Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84) ended with the Treaty of Mangalore, signed between Tipu Sultan and the British East India Company.

Emperor Akbar's tomb is located at Sikandra, near Agra, built by his son Jahangir.