Awards, Books, Firsts and Symbols for CUET General Aptitude

AnswerC · The Bharat Ratna

1. The Bharat Ratna stands above the three Padma awards.

2. The Param Vir Chakra is the highest gallantry award, which is a separate family of honours.

AnswerA · C. V. Raman

1. The first three awards, in 1954, went to C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman.

2. Abdul Kalam received the Bharat Ratna much later, in 1997; Bhabha and Sarabhai received the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan instead.

AnswerB · Republic Day

1. The list of Padma awards is released on the eve of Republic Day, 25 January.

2. The President confers the awards at ceremonies at Rashtrapati Bhavan, usually in March or April.

AnswerC · two civilian awards: Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan

1. Two awards were created in 1954 — the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan.

2. The Padma Vibhushan then had three classes, called Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg.

3. A Presidential Notification of 8 January 1955 renamed those three classes Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

AnswerC · Article 18(1) of the Constitution abolishes titles, so the award does not amount to one

1. The scheme says in terms that the award does not amount to a title and cannot be used as a suffix or prefix.

2. It ties that to Article 18(1) of the Constitution, which abolishes titles conferred by the State.

3. The bar reaches letterheads, invitation cards, posters and books, and misuse costs the recipient the award.

AnswerD · the Prime Minister, with no formal recommendation being necessary

1. The scheme of the award places the recommendation with the Prime Minister, who makes it directly to the President.

2. It adds that no formal recommendation is necessary, so there is no nomination portal and no window for the public.

3. The Padma Awards Committee, which the Prime Minister constitutes every year, handles the Padma awards and not this one.

AnswerA · A serving officer of a public sector undertaking

1. Government servants, including those working with public sector undertakings, are not eligible.

2. The scheme carves out an exception for doctors and scientists, so both of those government employees remain eligible.

3. Foreigners are eligible and are simply counted outside the annual ceiling.

AnswerD · at least five years have elapsed since the earlier award

1. The scheme sets a minimum gap of five years between an earlier Padma award and a higher one.

2. The Awards Committee may relax the gap in a highly deserving case, so it is a rule with a stated exception rather than a bar.

3. Nothing in the scheme asks for the earlier award to be given up.

AnswerD · Param Vir Chakra

1. The Param Vir Chakra is India's highest wartime gallantry award.

2. Below it in the wartime series come the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra.

AnswerB · Ashoka Chakra

1. The Ashoka Chakra is the highest award for bravery otherwise than in the face of the enemy.

2. The Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra follow it, and civilians are eligible for all three.

AnswerB · one is for bravery in the presence of the enemy and the other for bravery otherwise than in the face of the enemy

1. The Param Vir Chakra is awarded for valour in the presence of the enemy.

2. The Ashoka Chakra is awarded for valour otherwise than in the face of the enemy.

3. All of these awards may be conferred posthumously, and all are conferred by the President, so neither of those separates the two.

AnswerA · 15 August 1947

1. The three awards were backdated to 15 August 1947.

2. That let acts of bravery from the first days of independence be recognised although the decorations did not yet exist.

3. The three Chakras instituted on 4 January 1952 were backdated to the same day for the same reason.

AnswerC · twice a year, on Republic Day and Independence Day

1. The awards are announced twice a year.

2. The two occasions are Republic Day and Independence Day.

3. The Padma awards, by contrast, are announced once a year and only on Republic Day, which is where the single-occasion answer comes from.

AnswerD · Indra's thunderbolt, the vajra

1. The medal shows four replicas of the vajra, the weapon of Indra, around the State Emblem.

2. It was designed by Savitri Khanolkar, and the vajra recalls the sage Dadhichi, from whose bones the weapon was said to be made.

AnswerD · the Ashoka Chakra

1. The order runs Param Vir Chakra, Ashoka Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra, Kirti Chakra, Vir Chakra, Shaurya Chakra.

2. It interleaves the two families rather than exhausting one and then starting the other.

3. So the Ashoka Chakra stands above the Maha Vir Chakra, which is the step most often missed.

AnswerD · Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra

1. The three classes were renamed in January 1967.

2. Class I became the Ashoka Chakra, Class II the Kirti Chakra and Class III the Shaurya Chakra.

3. The Vir Chakra series was never a class structure and was never renamed.

AnswerA · Physics

1. Raman received the Physics prize for his work on the scattering of light, now called the Raman effect.

2. He was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in a science.

AnswerC · The Prize in Economic Sciences

1. Amartya Sen was awarded the 1998 Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on welfare economics, poverty and famine.

2. He received the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

AnswerA · Malala Yousafzai

1. The 2014 prize was shared by Kailash Satyarthi of India and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, for their struggle for children's right to education.

2. Malala, at seventeen, became the youngest Nobel laureate.

AnswerB · physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace

1. The will of 27 November 1895 named five fields: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.

2. Economics was not among them and was added by a different body seventy-three years later.

3. Mathematics has never had a Nobel Prize at all.

AnswerB · three persons

1. The statutes say that in no case may a prize amount be divided between more than three persons.

2. That is a cap on persons, and it is why a discovery with a dozen contributors still produces at most three names.

3. Organisations are outside this arithmetic, and only the Peace Prize has ever gone to one.

AnswerD · Rabindranath Tagore, in Literature, in 1913

1. Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, and took the whole prize rather than a share of it.

2. It was the first Nobel Prize to an Indian and the first to anyone from Asia.

3. C. V. Raman's Physics prize of 1930 came seventeen years later.

AnswerC · Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, in 1968

1. Sweden's central bank established the prize in 1968.

2. It is awarded in memory of Alfred Nobel but is not in his will and is not paid from his bequest.

3. That is why its full name is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

AnswerC · Oslo, by the Chairman of the Nobel Committee

1. The Peace Prize ceremony is held in Oslo while the other prizes are presented in Stockholm.

2. In Stockholm the King of Sweden hands over the prize; in Oslo the King of Norway is present but the Chairman of the Nobel Committee hands it over.

3. The split follows Nobel's will, which gave the peace prize to a Norwegian committee.

AnswerD · Tomb of Sand (Ret Samadhi)

1. Tomb of Sand, Daisy Rockwell's English translation of the Hindi novel Ret Samadhi, won in 2022.

2. It was the first book translated from any Indian language to win the prize.

3. The other three novels won the Booker Prize itself, which is for books written in English.

AnswerB · the United States

1. The Pulitzer Prizes are administered by Columbia University in New York and are for American journalism, literature and music.

2. They were set up under the will of the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer and first given in 1917.

AnswerD · the most outstanding original book published in a recognised language

1. The rules make it an award for a book: the most outstanding original book by an Indian author in a recognised language.

2. A work of translation is expressly excluded, and the Akademi runs a separate Prize for Translation for that.

3. Lifetime contribution is what the Akademi’s Fellowship recognises, and the Akademi runs separate honours for young writers and for writing for children.

AnswerB · Vigyan Team

1. The four categories are Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and Vigyan Team.

2. The team category is the distinctive one: it recognises three or more scientists working together, which no other national science honour does.

3. The names that echo the Padma series are not categories of this award.

AnswerD · the first seventeen awards went to a book and the awards from the eighteenth go to the writer

1. For the first seventeen awards the Jnanpith selected the most outstanding work.

2. From the eighteenth award the rule was revised and the entire contribution of the author is taken into account.

3. That is why a citation from the 1960s names a title and a recent one does not.

AnswerA · the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust

1. The award is given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, which is a trust and not a government body.

2. It is open only to Indian citizens, and English joined its language list from the forty-ninth award.

3. The Sahitya Akademi is the government's literary body and gives its own, separate award.

AnswerA · young scientists making an exceptional contribution

1. The category is Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, and it recognises and encourages young scientists.

2. Lifetime achievement is Vigyan Ratna and distinguished contribution is Vigyan Shri.

3. The team award carries no personal name at all.

AnswerC · Best Original Song

1. 'Naatu Naatu', composed by M. M. Keeravani with lyrics by Chandrabose, won Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards.

2. The same night 'The Elephant Whisperers' won Best Documentary Short.

AnswerB · Dadasaheb Phalke

1. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, known as Dadasaheb Phalke, made Raja Harishchandra, a silent film.

2. Ardeshir Irani made Alam Ara (1931), the first Indian talkie.

AnswerC · the State Awards

1. They were established in 1954 and were initially called the State Awards.

2. The first edition honoured the films of 1953, so the year of the award and the year of the films differ by one.

3. The early prizes were two President's Gold Medals, two certificates of merit and twelve silver medals for regional films.

AnswerC · lifetime contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema

1. The award recognises lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.

2. Best Writing on Cinema is a separate section of the National Film Awards, covering books and criticism rather than films.

3. Feature films and debut work are decided by the feature film juries.

AnswerC · no entries are invited; a specially constituted committee of eminent film personalities recommends the name

1. No entries are invited for this award.

2. The selection rests on the recommendations of a committee of eminent film personalities constituted specially for the purpose.

3. The two-tier process of regional panels and a national panel is how the feature film section is decided, not this award.

AnswerB · the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and presented by the President

1. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confers the awards and the President presents them.

2. The National Film Development Corporation took over the organisation of film festivals in March 2022, which is a different job from conferring these awards.

3. The Sangeet Natak Akademi covers music, dance and drama, not cinema.

AnswerA · five regional panels shortlisting entries and a national panel deciding

1. The feature film section runs a two-tier selection: five regional panels shortlist the entries and a national panel picks the winners.

2. The non-feature film section and Best Writing on Cinema have juries specific to those awards.

3. The Dadasaheb Phalke committee is separate again and invites no entries.

AnswerA · The tiger

1. The tiger was adopted as the national animal in 1973, the year Project Tiger began.

2. The lion had held the place before that, and the elephant was declared the national heritage animal in 2010.

AnswerC · lotus

1. The lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is India's national flower.

2. It grows from muddy water yet stays clean, and appears widely in Indian art and religious imagery.

AnswerD · Rabindranath Tagore

1. Rabindranath Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana in Bengali; the Constituent Assembly adopted it as the national anthem on 24 January 1950.

2. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote Vande Mataram, the national song, and Iqbal wrote 'Saare Jahan Se Achha'.

AnswerA · of any size, with the ratio of length to height fixed at 3:2

1. The Flag Code fixes the proportion but not the size.

2. The Flag may be of any size so long as it is rectangular and the ratio of its length to its height is 3:2.

3. A ratio of 2:1 belongs to other countries' flags and is the usual distractor here.

AnswerA · a specified list of dignitaries including the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister and Governors

1. The privilege of flying the National Flag on a motor car is limited to the dignitaries the Flag Code names.

2. That list includes the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister and Governors.

3. A member of the public may hoist or display the Flag on all days, but that permission is about display and not about vehicles.

AnswerC · to the right in reference to the flag, that is, to the left of a person facing it

1. The rule is written from the flag's point of view, not the viewer's.

2. The saffron band is to the right in reference to the flag, which puts it on the left of a person standing in front of it.

3. Uppermost is the rule for a flag displayed flat and horizontal on a wall, which is the other case the FAQ covers.

AnswerA · hoisted to the peak of the staff first, then lowered to the half-mast position

1. The Flag is hoisted to the peak or top of the staff first and only then lowered to the half-mast position.

2. Before it is lowered for the day it is raised to the peak again.

3. The Flag is not flown at half-mast at all except on occasions instructed by the Government of India, so there is no personal discretion in it.

AnswerD · the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005

1. The State Emblem has a statute of its own, passed in 2005, with rules made under it in 2007.

2. The Flag Code governs the hoisting and display of the National Flag and is not a statute at all.

3. The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 is the law that covers insults to the Flag and the Anthem.

AnswerB · S. Radhakrishnan

1. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, philosopher and the second President of India, was born on 5 September 1888.

2. When students asked to celebrate his birthday, he asked that the day be kept for teachers instead.

3. Maulana Azad's birthday, 11 November, is National Education Day.

AnswerD · Swami Vivekananda

1. Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 January 1863, and the day has been National Youth Day since 1985.

2. Nehru's birthday, 14 November, is Children's Day, and Bose's, 23 January, is Parakram Diwas.

AnswerB · 21 June

1. The United Nations observes the International Day of Yoga on 21 June.

2. It was created by General Assembly resolution A/RES/69/131.

3. 11 May is National Technology Day, which is an Indian observance with no UN resolution behind it.

AnswerA · 5 June

1. World Environment Day falls on 5 June, under General Assembly resolution A/RES/2994 (XXVII).

2. 16 September is the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, which is a different environmental observance.

3. 22 April is not the date the United Nations assigns to World Environment Day.

AnswerA · the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted

1. The day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and rests on General Assembly resolution A/RES/423 (V).

2. The United Nations came into existence on 24 October, which is United Nations Day.

3. The Nobel Peace Prize is indeed presented on 10 December, but that is Alfred Nobel's death anniversary and is a coincidence of dates rather than the reason for the observance.

AnswerC · the announcement of the discovery of the Raman effect

1. On 28 February 1928 C. V. Raman announced the discovery of the effect that bears his name.

2. The Pokhran tests of 1998 are remembered on 11 May, National Technology Day.

AnswerB · 11 May

1. National Technology Day is 11 May, and the awards are announced on that day.

2. The award ceremony is held on 23 August, which is National Space Day.

3. 28 February is National Science Day, a third Indian observance and not the one the announcement is tied to.

AnswerA · World Refugee Day

1. World Refugee Day, on 20 June, is on the United Nations list of international days and rests on General Assembly resolution A/RES/55/76.

2. National Space Day and National Technology Day are Indian observances, marked by the Government of India.

3. National Science Day is likewise Indian and has no General Assembly resolution behind it.

AnswerA · Jawaharlal Nehru

1. Nehru wrote The Discovery of India in 1944 during his imprisonment after the Quit India resolution; it was published in 1946.

2. Maulana Azad was imprisoned at the same fort, which is why he is the tempting option; his own book is India Wins Freedom.

AnswerD · A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

1. Wings of Fire, written with Arun Tiwari and published in 1999, tells Kalam's life from his childhood in Rameswaram to India's missile programme.

2. Kalam later became the eleventh President of India.

AnswerA · Premchand

1. Premchand published Godan in 1936, the year he died; it is often counted as his finest novel.

2. Jaishankar Prasad wrote the epic poem Kamayani, and Harivansh Rai Bachchan the poem Madhushala.

AnswerD · Best Writing on Cinema

1. Best Writing on Cinema is a section of the National Film Awards in its own right, honouring books and critics.

2. It has a jury specific to it, separate from the feature and non-feature juries.

3. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is for lifetime contribution to cinema and is not about writing at all.

AnswerB · the Sahitya Akademi Award

1. The Sahitya Akademi Award goes to the most outstanding original book by an Indian author in a recognised language.

2. The Jnanpith selected a work for its first seventeen awards but has taken the author's entire contribution into account since the eighteenth.

3. So only one of the two is still an award for a book.

AnswerD · a work of translation

1. The rules require an original book and expressly exclude a work of translation.

2. A critical work is allowed: the rules admit creative and critical work alike.

3. The Akademi runs a separate Prize for Translation, which is where a translator's work is recognised.

AnswerB · within the five years before the year immediately preceding the award

1. The rules set a five-year window, ending with the year before the year preceding the award.

2. The Akademi's own illustration makes this concrete: for the award of 2004, books published between 1998 and 2002 would be considered.

3. A one-year window would leave no time for a book to be read and judged, which is why the rule allows the gap it does.

AnswerC · from the 49th award

1. English joined the Jnanpith's language list from the forty-ninth award.

2. English is not in the Eighth Schedule and never has been, so that cannot be the trigger.

3. The award is open only to Indian citizens, wherever they write from.

AnswerC · Rakesh Sharma

1. Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma flew aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 in April 1984 and spent about eight days on the Salyut 7 station.

2. Ravish Malhotra trained as his back-up. Kalpana Chawla, the first woman of Indian origin in space, flew later as an American astronaut.

AnswerB · Indira Gandhi

1. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in January 1966.

2. Sucheta Kripalani was the first woman Chief Minister of a state (Uttar Pradesh, 1963), and Pratibha Patil the first woman President (2007).

3. Sarojini Naidu was the first woman Governor of a state.

AnswerC · designed and fabricated in India and launched by a Soviet rocket

1. Aryabhata was completely designed and fabricated in India.

2. It was launched on 19 April 1975 by a Soviet Kosmos-3M rocket from Kapustin Yar.

3. India's first launch from its own soil using its own launch vehicle came later, which is why the 1980 option is offered.

AnswerB · 1953

1. The first edition honoured the films of 1953, the year before the awards were established.

2. That one-year offset between the films and the ceremony has been kept ever since.

3. It is the reason the numbering of the awards and the year of the films never match.

AnswerB · 1955

1. The Akademi was set up in 1954 and the first Awards were given in 1955.

2. A one-year gap between founding and first award is common, because the first cycle of reading and judging has to run before anything can be given.

3. The Jnanpith, founded on the same pattern, gave its first award in 1965.

AnswerB · eleventh President of India

1. Kalam was the eleventh President of India.

2. K. R. Narayanan was the tenth and Pratibha Devisingh Patil the twelfth.

3. Pranab Mukherjee, the thirteenth, followed her.

AnswerA · Henry Dunant, the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross

1. Henry Dunant was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

2. The organisation he founded has been honoured with the Peace Prize three times, but those awards came later.

3. The League of Nations did not exist in 1901.

AnswerD · the Ministry of Home Affairs

1. The scheme of the Padma awards is a Ministry of Home Affairs document and the nominations run through it.

2. The President confers the awards, but conferring and administering are different jobs.

3. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting handles the film awards, not these.

AnswerB · the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports

1. The national sports awards, including the Arjuna Award, the Dronacharya Award for coaches and the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, are conferred by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

2. The President presents them at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Indian Olympic Association is a sports body, not an awarding ministry.

AnswerB · The Jnanpith Award

1. The Jnanpith Award is given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, which is a trust.

2. The Sahitya Akademi is the national academy of letters and the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar is a government award in science.

3. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is part of the National Film Awards, conferred by a ministry.

AnswerB · the Ministry of Defence, with civilians eligible for the Ashoka, Kirti and Shaurya Chakras

1. The gallantry awards are a Ministry of Defence subject.

2. Civilians and members of the police forces are eligible for the Ashoka Chakra, the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra.

3. Only the Param Vir, Maha Vir and Vir Chakras are confined to the armed forces and the services attached to them, because those require an act in the presence of the enemy.

AnswerD · the Sangeet Natak Akademi

1. The Sangeet Natak Akademi covers music, dance and drama.

2. The Lalit Kala Akademi covers the fine arts — painting, sculpture and graphics.

3. Drama sitting with music and dance rather than with literature is the division most often got wrong.

AnswerA · the Prize in Economic Sciences, established by Sweden's central bank

1. Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, established the Prize in Economic Sciences in 1968.

2. The other four prizes named here come from Nobel's will of 1895, which assigned each to an awarding institution.

3. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Peace Prize under the will rather than having created the prize.