Match List - I with List - II and select the correct answer from the codes given below the lists :
List - I
A. Thomas Cook
B. Greta Thunberg
C. Dr. Usha Kiran
D. Carrie Lam
List - II
1. Recipient of B

Question

Match List - I with List - II and select the correct answer from the codes given below the lists :
List - I
A. Thomas Cook
B. Greta Thunberg
C. Dr. Usha Kiran
D. Carrie Lam
List - II
1. Recipient of Bharat-Bharati Award
2. Hong Kong Leader
3. Environmental Activist
4. British Tour and Travel Company
Codes :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2. Thomas Cook was the British tour-and-travel company — the world's oldest travel firm — which collapsed into compulsory liquidation on 23 September 2019, stranding roughly 600,000 travellers and forcing the UK's largest peacetime repatriation, 'Operation Matterhorn'. Greta Thunberg is the Swedish environmental activist whose school strike grew into the global Fridays for Future movement and who addressed the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in September 2019. Dr. Usha Kiran — the Hindi and Maithili writer Usha Kiran Khan of Patna — was announced in September 2019 as the recipient of the Bharat-Bharati Samman, the highest literary honour of the Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan, Lucknow. Carrie Lam was Hong Kong's Chief Executive, i.e. its leader, at the height of the 2019 protests. Present-day note: Lam did not seek another term; John Lee has been Hong Kong's Chief Executive since July 2022.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Gets every pair wrong: it makes Thomas Cook — a company — the recipient of a Hindi literary award, turns Greta Thunberg into the leader of Hong Kong, and makes Carrie Lam a British travel firm.  (b) Only the Thomas Cook pairing is right. It calls Greta Thunberg the Hong Kong leader, Dr. Usha Kiran an environmental activist, and Carrie Lam a British tour and travel company.  (c) Correct on Greta Thunberg and Carrie Lam, but it swaps the other two — Thomas Cook becomes the Bharat-Bharati awardee and Dr. Usha Kiran becomes a British travel company.

Concept: This is a current-affairs 'who's who' of 2019, pulling one name each from business, global climate activism, Hindi literature and international politics. The only entry with a local hook is the Bharat-Bharati Samman — the top award of the Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan, Lucknow, an autonomous body of the UP government set up to promote Hindi, carrying a cash prize of five lakh rupees. UPPSC routinely slips one such UP-specific item into an otherwise international list.

State PCS 2019 Q3 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q3 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer