This page lists 52 previous year UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination (General Studies Paper-I) questions on the UPSC 2008 Prelims. Choose an option to see the correct answer and the full explanation on the same page.
Showing 1–10 of 52 questions
Order of Planets in the Solar System (from the Sun) is Mercury> Venus > Earth > Mars > Jupiter > Saturn > Uranus > Neptune. Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun and Uranus is the 7th planet from the Sun. Therefore the planets that lie between Mars (4th) and Uranus (7th) are Jupiter (5th) and Saturn (6th).
Option (b) is correct: The First Session of the Indian National Congress (INC) took place in Bombay (now Mumbai) in December 1885. It was chaired by Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee. Other Key Congress Sessions:
Year Place President Highlights 1886(2nd Session) Calcutta Dadabhai Naoroji merger of National Congress and National Conference 1887 Madras Syed Badruddin Tyabji first Muslim President 1888 Allahabad George Yule first British President 1905 Benaras Gopal Krishna Gokhale expressed resentment against the partition of Bengal 1906 Calcutta Dadabhai Naoroji the word ‘swaraj’ mentioned for the first time. 1907 Surat Rash Behari Ghosh split in the Congress into the Moderates and the Extremists.
Albedo is the measure of a surface’s reflectivity, with higher albedo indicating greater reflection of sunlight, influencing Earth’s temperature and climate.
Statement 1 is correct: Albedo refers to the reflectivity of a surface, or the fraction of light that a surface reflects. A higher albedo means more reflection of light, which causes an object to appear brighter when viewed with reflected light. This is why snowy surfaces (with high albedo) appear brighter than forests or oceans (with low albedo).
Statement 2 is incorrect: Mercury actually has a much lower albedo than Earth. Mercury’s rocky and heavily cratered surface reflects only about 12 to 14% of sunlight, meaning it absorbs the vast majority of incoming sunlight and appears relatively dark. On the other hand, Earth has a higher albedo due to its cloud cover, oceans, and ice caps, which reflect a significant portion of sunlight back into space. Earth’s average albedo is around 0.30 to 0.35.
The albedo scale ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 means a surface absorbs all incoming sunlight (no reflection) and 1 means a surface reflects all incoming sunlight (no absorption). For ex-ample, snow and ice have high albedo values of around 0.8-0.9, while forests and oceans have low albedo values, around 0.1-0.2.
The English East India Company established its first factory in India in 1613 during the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1605-1627). This historic milestone was achieved when Jahangir granted the Company permission to set up a trading post in Surat, following diplomatic efforts by Sir Thomas Roe. The factory in Surat marked the beginning of a sustained British commercial presence in India and was crucial for accessing the lucrative Indian spice and textile markets. Surat, being a major port city, was central to maritime trade in the Arabian Sea, attracting not only the British but also the Portuguese, Dutch, and other European powers.
The Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919 during the viceroyalty of Lord Chelmsford (1916-1921). Officially known as the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919, it aimed to curb revolutionary activities by allowing imprisonment without trial for up to two years, essentially denying people their basic civil rights.
Statement 1 is Incorrect: The prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour is covered under Article 23, which is part of the Fundamental Rights, not the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP).
Statement 2 is correct: The prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs which are injurious to health, except for medicinal purposes, is included in the Directive Principles of State Policy under Article 47, which directs the state to improve public health and to prohibit harmful substances.
The Baudhayan Sulva Sutras contain one of the earliest known statements of the Pythagorean theorem, relating to the lengths of the sides of a right-angled triangle. This ancient Indian text provided a geometric construction method for determining the length of the hypotenuse based on the other sides of the right-angled triangle. It predates the work of Pythagoras. The theorem is significant in the history of Indian mathematics and geometry.
The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists the officially recognized languages of India. This schedule was expanded in 2003 through the Constitution (Ninety-second Amendment) Act, which added four additional languages: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali. This amendment increased the total number of languages in the Eighth Schedule from 18 to 22. The 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act enables reservations for socially and educationally backward classes in admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions. The 91st Constitutional Amendment Act limits the number of ministers in the Council of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, to a maximum of 15% of the total members of the Lok Sabha (House of the People)(Similarly it applies to State CoM also.) 90th Constitutional Amendment Act provided for maintaining the erstwhile representation of the Scheduled Tribes in the Assam legislative assembly from the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (Article-332 (6))
In June 1945, Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India, proposed the Wavell Plan at the Simla Conference to reconstitute the Viceroy’s Executive Council. The plan’s key features included: 1. All members of the Executive Council would be Indian except the governor general and commander-in-chief. 2. Equal representation for Caste Hindus and Muslims. 3. All portfolios, including that of War Members were to be held by the Indians. 4. The Viceroy/Governor-General would retain veto power, but its use would be minimal.
In the 1936-37 elections, the Indian National Congress formed a ministry in 8 out of 11 provinces under the Government of India Act, 1935. Congress ministries were formed, focusing on education, economic reform, and civil liberties. Assertion (A) is true: In 1939, all Congress ministries resigned from their positions in the provinces. The resignations marked the end of Congress-led governance under the Government of India Act, 1935, intensifying the freedom struggle. Reason (R) is true: Congress ministries resigned in 1939 because the Viceroy declared India a belligerent in WWII without consulting Indian leaders. While Congress believed India should decide independently, they also opposed supporting Britain’s war against Germany under colonial rule. This lack of consultation was the direct cause of their resignation. Therefore Reason (R) correctly explains the Assertion (A).
| Q | UPSC year | Correct answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2008 | (b) Jupiter and Saturn |
| 2 | 2008 | (b) Bombay |
| 3 | 2008 | (a) 1 only |
| 4 | 2008 | (b) Jahangir |
| 5 | 2008 | (c) Lord Chelmsford |
| 6 | 2008 | (b) 2 only |
| 7 | 2008 | (a) Lengths of sides of a right-angled triangle |
| 8 | 2008 | (c) Constitution (Ninety-second Amendment) Act |
| 9 | 2008 | (b) Shimla Conference |
| 10 | 2008 | (a) Both A and R are true but R is the correct explanation of A |
This page covers 52 previous year UPSC Prelims GS Paper-I questions on the UPSC 2008 Prelims, asked between 1995 to 2024. Each has the correct answer and an explanation.
Attempt each question first, then open the answer and read the explanation for every option. Repeat by chapter, and track which statements UPSC reuses across years. Previous year questions show the exam pattern and difficulty level.
Questions on the UPSC 2008 Prelims are available for 30 years, from 1995 to 2024. Use the Year filter to practise a single paper.
