General Knowledge: Global Affairs, Science & Current Events

Bihar was carved out of the Bengal Presidency on March 22, 1912, and celebrated its centenary in 2012. The question asks which state entered its hundredth year, and around 2011-2012 when this question was likely written, Bihar was completing 100 years. Other options like Bengal and Orissa have much older histories as regions/states.

A massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a devastating tsunami that caused widespread destruction, particularly at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The disaster is known as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

During the 2011 Libyan civil war, France became the first European country to officially recognize the National Transitional Council (NTC) as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. This recognition happened on March 10, 2011, before the NATO intervention began.

Coal India Limited was granted 'Maharatna' status in 2011, becoming the fifth PSU after ONGC, IOC, NTPC, and SAIL to receive this elite designation. The Maharatna status gives greater operational and financial autonomy to these large, profit-making public sector enterprises.

As per Census 2011, India's population density was 382 persons per square kilometer, an increase from 325 in 2001. The question appears to compare these two census periods.

According to Census 2011, India's literacy rate improved to 74.04%, commonly rounded to 74.1%, up from 64.83% in 2001. This represents a significant improvement of about 9.2 percentage points over the decade.

World Environment Day is celebrated annually on June 5th, having been established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 during the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

The Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) is located in Hyderabad. It is an autonomous institution under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, specializing in DNA fingerprinting and genetic research.

Fort William is located in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), West Bengal. It was built during the British East India Company's rule and served as a key military fortification. The other cities (Chennai, Goa, Mysore) do not host this fort.

The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, was officially the 16th session of the Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP meetings are numbered sequentially from 1995.

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project is located near the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu. It's an underground physics laboratory designed to study neutrinos. The other hill ranges (Anamalai, Khasi, Patkai) are not the INO site.

The first Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit was held in Bangkok, Thailand in 1996. ASEM is an interregional forum for dialogue between European and Asian countries. Thailand hosted this inaugural meeting.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flagged off the construction of the Vostochny Space Center in Russia's Far East. This spaceport was built to reduce Russia's dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

K. S. Sripathi served as the State Chief Information Commissioner for Tamil Nadu (Chennai region) under the Right to Information Act. The position is state-specific (Tamil Nadu), not Chennai-only, and the other names are not associated with this RTI role.

Deepti Priya Mehrotra authored 'Burning Bright: Irom Sharmila and the Struggle for Peace in Manipur,' a biography documenting Irom Sharmila's 16-year hunger strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur. The book examines her nonviolent protest for peace and human rights in northeast India.

Yukio Hatoyama served as Prime Minister of Japan from September 2009 to June 2010, leading the Democratic Party of Japan. He resigned due to controversies over a US military base in Okinawa and funding scandals, after which Naoto Kan succeeded him as Prime Minister in June 2010.

Srikumar Banerjee served as the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) from 2000 to 2004 and later as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. While he was associated with both organizations, BARC is the more precise answer as it represents his significant leadership role in India's nuclear research program. Option A refers to the commission he later chaired, making B the best choice.