National and International Appointments

Justice M. Hidayatullah served as Acting President of India in 1969 (after President Zakir Husain's death and before Giri's election) and again in 1982 (after President Reddy's term). He was the only Chief Justice to have served as President (even if temporarily).

N. Gopalaswami succeeded B.B. Tandon as Chief Election Commissioner of India in 2006. He served from 2006 to 2009. The sequence was: B.B. Tandon (2004-2006), N. Gopalaswami (2006-2009), and then S.Y. Qureshi (2010-2012). M. Damodaran was SEBI Chairman, Y.V. Reddy was RBI Governor.

S. S. Gill served as a Supreme Court judge but was never appointed Chief Justice of India, while the other options - R. C. Lahoti (CJI 2004-05), G. B. Pattanaik (CJI 2002-03), and V. N. Khare (CJI 2002-04) - all held the highest judicial office. Justice Gill retired as a judge of the Supreme Court without reaching the Chief Justice position.

Azim Premji is the chairman of Wipro Limited, one of India's major IT services companies. Note that the option spells it as 'Aziz Premji' but this refers to Azim Premji. Narayan Murthy is associated with Infosys, Ramalinga Raju with Satyam, and Nandan Nilekani is also from Infosys.

V.S. Achuthanandan was the Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006-2011. M. Karunanidhi was from Tamil Nadu, B.S. Yeddyurappa from Karnataka, and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy from Andhra Pradesh. This question reflects the political leadership of the late 2000s.

D Subbarao served as RBI Governor from 2008-2013. Montek Ahluwalia was Planning Commission Deputy Chairman. Chidambaram was Finance Minister. YV Reddy was the previous RBI Governor.

Lalit Modi was the IPL Chairman and Commissioner from 2007-2010 before his suspension. Sharad Pawar was BCCI president. Sunil Gavaskar was a commentator. Shahrukh Khan owned a team.

Kishore Biyani, founder of Future Group and brands like Pantaloon and Big Bazaar, pioneered modern retail formats in India. Ratan Tata and Narayana Murthy are industrialists. Anil Ambani is in finance/infrastructure.

Vikram Pandit served as CEO of Citigroup from 2007-2012, making him the correct answer for the time period when this question was written. Kenneth Lewis was CEO of Bank of America, not Citigroup. Chanda Kochhar was ICICI Bank's CEO, and Deepak Parekh is HDFC's chairman - both Indian banking leaders but not Citigroup CEOs.

Correct option is (4).

K.K. Sharma was appointed as Delhi's Chief Secretary in March 2015. As Chief Secretary, he is the senior-most IAS officer in the Delhi administration and heads the bureaucratic machinery, reporting directly to the Chief Minister.

Correct option is (3).

Correct option is (1).

Arun Singh was appointed India's Ambassador to the United States in March 2015, succeeding S. Jaishankar who moved to become Foreign Secretary. This was a routine diplomatic transition during the BJP government's tenure.