CDS (II) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 61 of 120

Correct — C, Panaji. Closeness to the Equator is simply a question of which place has the lowest latitude, and Panaji is the southernmost of the four. Goa's capital sits at roughly 15.5 degrees North. Hyderabad, the next lowest, is near 17.4 degrees North; Mumbai is near 19.1; Bhubaneswar, on the Odisha coast, is the farthest north of the four at about 20.3 degrees. So the order from the Equator outwards is Panaji, then Hyderabad, then Mumbai, then Bhubaneswar. A useful check that needs no numbers at all: three of these four cities lie on or near the west coast, and going down that coast from Bhubaneswar's latitude through Mumbai and past Goa you are moving steadily south, with Goa the last of the four before Karnataka and Kerala begin.

• (a)Hyderabad — The runner-up, at about 17.4 degrees North. It is well south of Mumbai and Bhubaneswar but still nearly two degrees, roughly 210 km, north of Panaji.
• (b)Bhubaneswar — The farthest north of the four, at about 20.3 degrees. Its position on the eastern coast rather than the western one makes it easy to misplace mentally, but Odisha lies well north of Goa.
• (d)Mumbai — About 19.1 degrees North. Mumbai and Goa are both on the Konkan coast, which is why this is a tempting choice, but Goa is roughly 3.5 degrees — some 400 km — further south.

Latitude measures angular distance north or south of the Equator, so 'closest to the Equator' means lowest latitude, regardless of which coast or which direction a place lies in. India spans roughly 8 degrees 4 minutes North at Kanyakumari to 37 degrees 6 minutes North in the far north, and the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees North cuts the country roughly in half, passing through eight states.

Questions of this shape are answered by mental map rather than by remembering coordinates. Order the four states from south to north — Goa, then Telangana, then Maharashtra, then Odisha — and the answer follows, because each capital sits inside its own state. The trap is that Hyderabad feels like a deep-south city because it is in peninsular India and speaks a Dravidian language, while Goa feels like a western beach state rather than a southern one; in latitude terms Goa wins. Note also that the list is confined to state capitals, so the genuinely southern capitals — Thiruvananthapuram at about 8.5 degrees North, Chennai at about 13 degrees — are simply not on offer.

• Panaji, capital of Goa, lies at about 15.5 degrees North.
• Hyderabad is at about 17.4 degrees North, Mumbai at about 19.1 and Bhubaneswar at about 20.3.
• Thiruvananthapuram, at about 8.5 degrees North, is the southernmost state capital in India, though it is not among these options.
• The Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees North, lies north of all four of these cities.
• India's mainland runs from about 8 degrees 4 minutes North to about 37 degrees 6 minutes North.

• Judging by which region feels southern rather than by latitude. Hyderabad is culturally southern but sits north of Goa.
• Forgetting that the question is restricted to state capitals, and looking for Chennai or Thiruvananthapuram.
• Assuming an eastern coastal city must be further south because the coastline bends — Bhubaneswar is the northernmost of these four.

As a nearest-to-the-Equator or nearest-to-the-Tropic-of-Cancer comparison among four cities, Indian or foreign.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following state capitals lies closest to the Equator?

  • (a)Bengaluru
  • (b)Thiruvananthapuram
  • (c)Chennai
  • (d)Panaji

  Answer(b) Thiruvananthapuram — at about 8.5 degrees North it is the southernmost state capital in India, well south of Chennai, Bengaluru and Panaji.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Tropic of Cancer passes through which one of the following Indian states?

  • (a)Goa
  • (b)Odisha
  • (c)Jharkhand
  • (d)Telangana

  Answer(c) Jharkhand — the Tropic runs at 23.5 degrees North, far to the north of Goa, Telangana and the Odisha coast.