1. Which one of the following is the boundary line between India and Pakistan?
A. Durand Line
B. Blue Line
C. Radcliffe Line
D. McMohan Line
Solution
The boundary line between India and Pakistan is Radcliffe Line.
A border line is a dividing line that marks the territorial limits between two countries. Our country India shares land borders with seven countries including Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan and maritime borders with Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia. It has 15,106.7 kilometres of land border and a coastline of 7,516 kilometres including its island territories.
Key Points
Radcliffe Line:
- Radcliffe Line divided British India into India and Pakistan.
- It is named after the architect of this line, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was also the chairman of the Boundary Commissions.
- The Radcliffe Line was drawn between West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and India on the western side and between India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) on the eastern side of the subcontinent.
Additional Information
McMahon Line:
- Named after the British Indian Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Henry McMahon, who was also an administrator in British India, the McMahon line is a demarcation that separates Tibet and the north-east India. Colonel McMahon had proposed this line as the boundary between Tibet, China, and India at the Shimla Convention of 1914.
Durand Line:
- Boundary line between India and Afghanistan demarcated by Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat in the year 1896 is known as the Durand Line.
- It separated British India and Afghanistan. After partition, Pakistan inherited this line.
- However, a short section of the Afghanistan border is shared with the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Line of Actual Control (LAC):
- Line of Actual Control is the demarcation line between India and China which separates the India controlled territory from the China-controlled territory in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Line of Control (LOC):
- The military controlled line between India and Pakistan in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir is named as the Line of Control (LOC). It was originally known as the Ceasefire Line.
2. Which of the following statements is/are correct with respect to Time Zone in India?
1. Indian Standard Time (IST) is five and a half hours behind GMT.
2. Recently, India adopted Chaibagan Time Zone as a second Time Zone for India.
3. Sri Lanka has pushed back its time and synchronised with the Indian Standard Time.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
A. 1 and 2 only
B. 3 only
C. 2 and 3 only
D. 1, 2 and 3
Solution
The correct answer is 3 only.
Key Points
Time Zone in India:
- Indian Standard Time is based on longitude 82.5°, which passes through Mirzapur, near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.
- It is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), now called the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
- There is only one standard time for the whole country. At present, the country observes a single time zone based on the longitude passing through 82°33′E.
- The standard meridian of India passes through 5 states namely Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh.
- India stretches 3,000km from east to west, spanning roughly around 30 degrees longitude with a two-hour difference in mean solar times. That means the sun rises nearly two hours earlier in the east of India than in the far west.
Chaibagan Time Zone:
- Early sunrise leads to the loss of daylight hours by the time offices or educational institutions open. In winter, this problem gets even more severe as the sun sets much early and therefore, more consumption of electricity is required.
- To deal with this tea gardens of Assam have been following ‘Chaibagaan time’ which is one hour ahead of Indian Standard Time (IST).
- India never adopted this Time Zone officially. Also, there is only one Time Zone in India. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
Sri Lanka:
- Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) +5:30 is named “India Standard Time”, it has mostly political reasons.
- It simply means that eg beginning and ending of daylight saving time always uniformly apply here.
- Sri Lanka has the same temporal distance as UTC (Universal Time Coordinated).
- Sri Lanka has pushed back its time and synchronised with the Indian Standard Time. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
3. Indian Standard Time is calculated on the basis of which longitude?
A. 82.5° East
B. 82.5° West
C. 83.5° East
D. 83.5° West
Solution
The correct answer is 82.5° East.
- Indian Standard Time is calculated at the reference longitude IST at 82°30’E within about 4 angular minutes from the clock tower of Mirzapur.
- In 1905, the meridian passing east of Allahabad was declared as a standard time zone for British India and as IST in 1947 for the dominion of India.
Additional Information
- Indian standard meridian is also called the standard meridian of India and passes through Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh.
- India’s west to east distance is 2,933 km in terms of longitude.
- Gujarat is bordered on the west and Arunachal Pradesh in the east and there is a great difference in sunrise time in Gujarat in the east and Arunachal Pradesh in the west.
- There is a difference of 29º longitude between the two, so the sunrise and set times are about two hours earlier in the eastern states than Gujarat in the west.
4. The highlighted portion in the map Shows
A. Maikal Range
B. Satmala Range
C. Ajanta Range
D. Patkai Range
Solution
The correct answer is Maikal Range.
Key Points
- The Maikal range:
- They are located in the eastern part of the Satpuras range in the Kawardha District of Chhattisgarh and the Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh.
- Narmada, Mahanadi and Son River originate through this range.
- The highest peak of this range is Mount Amarkantak.
- It is the broad topographical division located in Chhattisgarh.
- Kanha National Park is located in the Maikal hills of the Satpuras region.
- The Baigas and the Gonds are two hilly tribes located here.
5. The highlighted part in the map shows ________
A. Satpura Range
B. Vindhya Range
C. Aravalli Range
D. Garo Hills
Solution
The correct answer is Satpura Range.
Key Points
- Satpura Range is a part of the Deccan plateau.
- It is a series of seven mountains. Hence, called Satpura.
- It runs in an east-west direction south of the Vindhyas and in between the Narmada and the Tapi, roughly parallel to these rivers.
It stretches for a distance of about 900 km. - Dhupgarh which is 1,350 m high is located near Pachmarhi on Mahadev Hills.
6. Arunachal Pradesh shares borders with how many neighboring countries of India?
A. 4
B. 3
C. 5
D. 2
Solution
The correct answer is 3.
Key Points
- Arunachal Pradesh, situated in the northeastern part of India is 83,743 sq km in area and has a long international border with Bhutan to the west (160 km), China to the north and north-east (1,080 km), and Myanmar to the east (440 km).
- Popularly known as ‘Land of the Dawn-lit-Mountains’, is a state in Northeastern India.
- It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region and became a state on 20 February 1987.
- Itanagar is the capital of the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
- Arunachal Pradesh is the largest of the Seven Sister States of Northeast India by area.
- As of Feb 2024, Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik is the governor and Pema Khandu Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh
7. Which neighboring country of India is connected through the Nathu La Pass in the Himalayan ranges?
A. Bhutan
B. Pakistan
C. China
D. Nepal
Solution
The correct answer is China.
- Nathu La, one of the highest motorable roads in the world, is a mountain pass in the Himalayan peaks on the Indo-Tibetan border at 14,450 feet above sea level.
- Nathu means ‘listening ears‘, and La means ‘pass‘.
- It is an open trade border post between India and China.
Additional Information
- Banihal Pass – Kashmir Valley with the outer Himalaya and the plains to the south.
- Bara-Lacha-La Pass – Lahaul district in Himachal Pradesh with Leh district in Ladakh.
- Rohtang Pass – Kullu Valley with the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys of Himachal Pradesh.
- Shipki La Pass – Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh with Autonomous Region of Tibet, China.
- Jelep La Pass – Sikkim with Autonomous Region of Tibet, China.
8. Which of the following country is not a neighbor of India?
A. Cambodia
B. Myanmar
C. China
D. Pakistan
Solution
The correct answer is Cambodia.
Key Points
- India is a vast country lying entirely in the Northern hemisphere the mainland extends between latitudes 8°4’N and 37°6’N and longitudes 68°7’E and 97°25’E.
- The landmass of India has an area of 3.28 million square km.
- India’s total area accounts for about 2.4 percent of the total geographical area of the world.
- India shares its land boundaries with Pakistan and Afghanistan in the northwest, China (Tibet), Nepal, and Bhutan in the north, and Myanmar, and Bangladesh in the east.
- Southern neighbors across the sea consist of two island countries, namely Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
9. Consider the following pairs:
| Peak | Mountains | |
| 1. | Namcha Barwa | Garhwal Himalaya |
| 2. | Nanda Devi | Kumaon Himalaya |
| 3. | Nokrek | Sikkim Himalaya |
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched ?
A. 1 and 2
B. 2 only
C. 1 and 3
D. 3 only
Solution
The correct answer is 2 only.
Key Points
Namcha Barwa:
- Namcha Barwa is in North-Eastern India whereas Garhwal Himalaya is in Uttarakhand. Hence, Pair 1 is not correctly Matched.
- Located in the extreme east of Arunachal Pradesh, IndiaConsidered the easternmost point of the Himalayas
- It stands inside the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River as the river enters its notable gorge across the Himalayas, emerging as the Siang and becoming the Brahmaputra.
- On other hand, the Garhwal Himalayas are mountain ranges located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.
Nanda Devi:
- Kumaun Himalayas, the west-central section of the Himalayas in northern India, extends 200 miles (320 km) from the Sutlej River east to the Kali River.
- The range, comprising part of the Siwalik Range in the south and part of the Great Himalayas in the north, lies largely within the state of Uttarakhand, northwest of Nepal.
- It rises to 25,646 feet (7,817 metres) at Nanda Devi, the range’s highest peak. Hence, Pair 2 is correctly matched.
- Nokrek Peak is the highest peak in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, India. It’s located in the Nokrek National Park, which is part of the Nokrek Biosphere Reserve Hence, Pair 3 is not correctly matched.
10. The southernmost range of India is
A. Nilgiri
B. Annamalai
C. Cardamom
D. Nallamalai
Solution
The correct answer is Cardamom Hills.
Key Points
- India’s southernmost mountain range is Cardamom Hill, which is located in Kerala.
- The Cardamom hill is also called the hill of cardamom.
- Here, spices are produced extensively. It is a part of the Western Ghats.
Important Points
Nilgiri Hills
- Nilgiri Hills are situated in Tamil Nadu.
- Doddabetta is the highest peak of the Nilgiri hills.
- Nilgiri hills are a part of the Western Ghats.
- The hills are located at the tri-junction of the states Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Anaimalai Hills
- The Anaimalai or Anamala Hills, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are the range of mountains that form the southern portion of the Western Ghats and span the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in Southern India.
Nallamalai Range
- The Eastern Ghats reappear as more or less a continuous hill range in the Cuddapah and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh where they are called as Nallamalai Range with a general elevation of 600-850 m.
- Located south of the Krishna River, the hills run north to south, parallel to the Coromandel Coast on the Bay of Bengal.
- The rugged, sparsely populated hills are composed for the most part of jumbled quartzites and slates and exemplify the mountain scenery of the Eastern Ghats.
