MPSC 2024 Prelims Paper-I · Question 92 of 100

Correct — option (3), 'Only (a), (c)'. The Padma Awards announced for 2024 numbered 132 in all, counting two duo cases, and they broke down into 5 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 110 Padma Shri. Set the three printed statements against that. Statement (a) is correct: 30 of the awardees were women. Statement (c) is correct in both its figures: 17 Padma Bhushan and 110 Padma Shri awards were declared. Statement (b) is wrong by one: the Padma Vibhushan awards announced were 5, not 6. That single-digit error is the whole question, and since only three statements are printed there is nowhere else for the item to turn. It is worth adding the two other figures the government released with the list, because MPSC has asked for them in other years: 8 of the awardees were in the foreigner, non-resident Indian, person of Indian origin or overseas citizen of India category, and 9 of the awards were posthumous. Anyone who can reconstruct the breakdown 5 plus 17 plus 110 also has the total, since those three numbers sum to the announced 132. Two further points make the arithmetic of this question easier to hold. First, the three grade counts sum exactly to the announced total: 5 plus 17 plus 110 is 132, so a candidate who remembers the total and any two of the grades can recover the third, and a candidate who accepts statement (b)'s figure of 6 would produce a total of 133, which no announcement carried. Second, the total of 132 counts two 'duo' cases — awards conferred jointly on a pair working together — as single awards, which is why the government's own press note gives the figure as 132 including two duo cases rather than as a plain headcount of recipients. Keep the Bharat Ratna out of this arithmetic altogether: it is announced separately and is not a Padma grade.

• (1)Only (a), (b) — Statement (a) is right — 30 of the 2024 awardees were women — but statement (b) inflates the Padma Vibhushan count from 5 to 6. This option also rejects statement (c), which correctly gives 17 Padma Bhushan and 110 Padma Shri. A candidate who remembers the highest grade as 'about half a dozen' and does not hold the exact figure will find this option comfortable, which is precisely why it is offered: the smallest of the three numbers is the one most often carried loosely.
• (2)Only (b), (c) — Statement (c) is correct, but this option again admits the wrong Padma Vibhushan figure and simultaneously discards statement (a), the count of 30 women, which is accurate. Notice how the three options other than the answer are constructed: two of them differ from the answer by one statement each, and the third takes everything. When a three-statement list is offered with these four choices, settling the truth of each statement individually is faster than comparing options, because the options are only combinations of the same three judgments.
• (4)All of these — 'All of these' cannot stand because statement (b) is false: 5 Padma Vibhushan awards were announced for 2024, not 6. This is the standard shape of an escape option in a short statement list — attractive when two of three statements have been verified and the third looks harmless. The discipline is the same as anywhere else: a blanket option is only as strong as the weakest statement it commits you to, and a numerical statement should be the last one accepted.

The Padma Awards are civilian honours instituted in 1954, in the same year as the Bharat Ratna, and given in three grades: Padma Vibhushan for exceptional and distinguished service, Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of a high order, and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field. They are announced each year on the eve of Republic Day and conferred by the President at ceremonies at Rashtrapati Bhavan, usually in the following months. The awards cover art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service and other fields. Government guidelines cap the number given in a year at 120, excluding posthumous awards and awards to foreigners, non-resident Indians, persons of Indian origin and overseas citizens of India — which is why the announced total of 132 for 2024 was larger than the cap. Two constitutional points regularly attach to this topic. The awards are not titles within the meaning of Article 18, which abolishes titles, and so cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient's name; and their validity was tested in the courts, the Supreme Court upholding them in Balaji Raghavan v. Union of India in 1995 after a period in which the awards had been suspended. They had earlier been discontinued between 1977 and 1980 as well.

Awards are among the most predictable current-affairs topics in state services, and MPSC asks them numerically as often as it asks them by name. The numbers to carry for any given year are four: the total, and the count in each of the three grades. The commonest examiner's trick is the one used here — shifting the smallest number by one, because the Padma Vibhushan count is a single digit and a candidate is far more likely to remember 'five or six' than to remember five. Two further habits pay off. First, learn the composition figures the government publishes alongside the list — women, posthumous awards, and the foreigner and overseas Indian category — since those appear in statement lists exactly as here. Second, keep the Padma Awards separate from the Bharat Ratna, which is announced separately and is not one of the three Padma grades; in the same season as these awards, the Bharat Ratna was announced for several recipients, and questions in this paper draw on both.

• For 2024 the President approved 132 Padma Awards, including two duo cases: 5 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 110 Padma Shri.
• Of the 2024 awardees, 30 were women, 8 belonged to the foreigner, NRI, PIO or OCI category, and 9 awards were posthumous.
• The Padma Awards were instituted in 1954 and are announced on the eve of Republic Day each year.
• The three grades are Padma Vibhushan for exceptional and distinguished service, Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of a high order and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field.
• Government guidelines limit the awards to 120 in a year, excluding posthumous awards and those to foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and OCIs.
• The awards are not titles under Article 18 and cannot be used as prefixes or suffixes to a name; the Supreme Court upheld them in Balaji Raghavan v. Union of India (1995).

• Carrying the smallest figure loosely — 5 Padma Vibhushan awards were announced for 2024, not 6
• Confusing the announced total with the guideline cap of 120, which excludes posthumous and overseas-category awards
• Treating the Bharat Ratna as one of the Padma grades; it is a separate honour
• Accepting an 'all of these' option on a three-statement list without testing the numerical statement

MPSC asks the Padma Awards in two forms: the numerical breakdown for a given year, as here, and matching a named awardee to a field or a state. The numerical form is the more common, and the distractor is almost always a count shifted by one in the smallest category. Preparation is straightforward — for each year note the total, the three grade counts, the number of women, the posthumous count and the overseas category count, and separately note two or three recipients from Maharashtra, since a state commission is likely to ask about its own.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under government guidelines, the number of Padma Awards conferred in a year should not exceed which figure, excluding posthumous awards and awards to foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and OCIs ?

  • (a)100
  • (b)120
  • (c)132
  • (d)150

  Answer(b) 120 — the cap applies to awards other than posthumous ones and those in the foreigner, non-resident Indian, person of Indian origin and overseas citizen categories, which is why announced totals such as the 132 of 2024 can exceed it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following statements about the Padma Awards is correct ?

  • (a)They are titles within the meaning of Article 18 and may be used as a prefix to the recipient's name
  • (b)They are not titles under Article 18 and may not be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient's name
  • (c)They are conferred by the Prime Minister on Independence Day
  • (d)The Bharat Ratna is the highest of the three Padma grades

  Answer(b) They are not titles under Article 18 and may not be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient's name — this was the basis on which the Supreme Court upheld the awards in Balaji Raghavan v. Union of India (1995). They are announced on the eve of Republic Day and conferred by the President, and the Bharat Ratna is a separate honour, not a Padma grade.