Social Science: Indian History, Geography & Economics

The Ajanta caves paintings primarily depict scenes from the Jataka tales, which are stories about the previous lives of Buddha. Ramayana and Mahabharata are Hindu epics not featured at Ajanta.

Tamil Nadu has a tropical climate suitable for rice cultivation, not wheat which requires temperate conditions. Maharashtra (A) and Uttaranchal/C (now Uttarakhand) are major wheat-growing states. The 'None of these' option is incorrect since Tamil Nadu genuinely does not cultivate wheat commercially.

Bahadur Shah II (Zafar) was the last Mughal Emperor and was declared the symbolic leader of the 1857 Revolt in Delhi by the sepoys. Though Bakht Khan (B) was the actual military commander of the rebel forces in Delhi, Bahadur Shah provided the legitimacy and was the nominal head.

Fire was discovered and mastered by humans during the Palaeolithic Age, revolutionizing daily life. Metal implements (A) came much later in the Chalcolithic period, the potter's wheel (C) in Neolithic, making fire the greatest Palaeolithic invention.

Tantiya Tope, a prominent leader of the 1857 Revolt and close associate of Nana Saheb, was born as Ramchandra Panduranga. He was known for his guerrilla warfare tactics against the British.

Limestone is an organically formed sedimentary rock created from the accumulation of marine organism shells and skeletal fragments. Gypsum (A) is chemically precipitated, Mudstone (B) is clastic - both are not organically formed.

Guru Govind Singh founded the Sikh Khalsa in 1699, establishing the order of initiated Sikhs. Guru Nanak (A) founded Sikhism itself, Guru Teg Bahadur (C) was his father, and Guru Angad Dev (D) was the second Guru.

Earth's equatorial circumference is approximately 40,075 km, commonly rounded to 40,000 km. This measurement is fundamental to geography and was the basis for defining the meter.

Kundalagrama (also spelled Kundagram or Kundalpur) in Vaishali district of ancient Bihar is recorded as the birthplace of Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism. Pava (B) is where he attained nirvana.

M. Visvesvaraya, the renowned engineer and statesman, authored 'Planned Economy for India' in 1934, outlining his vision for India's economic development. Gandhi (A) and Nehru (C) had different economic approaches.

Silk production has no specific 'colored revolution' in India's agricultural revolution terminology. Yellow (A) is oilseeds, Green (B) is wheat/grains, White (C) is dairy. Silk production exists but doesn't have a named revolution.

Oxygen is the most abundant element in Earth's crust, comprising approximately 46-47% by weight. It exists primarily in silicate minerals. Calcium and carbon are present in much smaller quantities (about 4% and 0.1% respectively).

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established in 1964 under the Unit Trust of India Act and was not directly affiliated with the Reserve Bank of India. The Deposit Insurance Corporation and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) are RBI subsidiaries, while IDBI was initially under RBI before becoming autonomous.

Keoladeo National Park, formerly known as Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, is located in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for migratory birds, especially Siberian cranes. Assam has Kaziranga and Manas, while Uttarakhand has Jim Corbett and Rajaji.

Argon is a noble gas with a complete outer electron shell, making it chemically inactive and unreactive under normal conditions. It constitutes about 0.93% of Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen is relatively inert but can form compounds; oxygen is highly reactive. Argon's inertness makes it useful in welding and light bulbs.

During the Neolithic age (New Stone Age, 7000-1000 BCE in India), people knew and used copper. This period saw the beginning of metal use, with copper being the first metal worked extensively. Iron came much later during the Iron Age (1200 BCE onwards in India). Gold was known but copper was the primary metal for tools and artifacts.

A cosmic year (also called galactic year) is the time taken for the Sun to complete one orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy, approximately 225-250 million Earth years. A light year is a unit of distance. An astronomical year refers to Earth's orbit around the Sun.

Chandragupta Maurya's empire (322-298 BCE) under the guidance of Chanakya extended to the Hindukush mountains in the northwest after defeating Seleucus Nicator. The boundary included modern-day Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. The Indus and Ravi rivers were within the empire, but Hindukush marked the northwestern frontier.

Norman E. Borlaug, an American agronomist, is known as the father of the Green Revolution. He developed high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat varieties in Mexico, which were later introduced to India and Pakistan in the 1960s. M.S. Swaminathan adapted these technologies to Indian conditions. Garry Becker is an unrelated economist (Nobel laureate in Economics).

Grasim Industries (part of Aditya Birla Group) is a major cement manufacturer in India through its subsidiary UltraTech Cement, which is India's largest cement company. TELCO (now Tata Motors) is in automobiles. Reliance is in petrochemicals, refining, and telecommunications. Grasim is the correct answer for cement industry association.

The Battle of Ten Kings (Dasharajnya) described in Rigveda (Book 7) was fought between King Sudas of the Bharata tribe and a confederation of ten tribes. The battle took place on the banks of the Parushni River, which is the modern Ravi River in Punjab. The Asikini is Chenab and Vipas is Beas.