SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 12 of 99

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which of the following playback singers is the recipient of the Karnataka Ratna Award 2005?

(a)Ravindra Jain
(b)Pandit Jasraj
(c)Sistla Janaki
(d)Bhimsen Joshi

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The Karnataka Ratna for 2005 went to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.

Karnataka Ratna is a state honour, and it is conferred on people of Karnataka. Bhimsen Joshi was born in Gadag district in Karnataka and sang in the Kirana gharana of Hindustani classical music, which is what places him in that list rather than in a purely national one.

He went on to receive the Bharat Ratna in 2008. The recipient this question wants is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Ravindra Jain — Ravindra Jain was a Hindi film composer and lyricist, honoured with the Padma Shri. He is not among the Karnataka Ratna recipients.
(b)
Pandit Jasraj — Pandit Jasraj sang in the Mewati gharana and came from Haryana. Karnataka Ratna is conferred by the Government of Karnataka on its own, which rules him out.
(c)
Sistla Janaki — Sistla Janaki — S Janaki — is the one genuine playback singer among the four and a major South Indian voice, but the 2005 Karnataka Ratna was not hers.

Concept

Karnataka Ratna is the highest civilian honour conferred by the Government of Karnataka, and it is separate from the national Padma awards and the Bharat Ratna.

Its recipients are drawn from Karnataka's own public life — the poet Kuvempu and the actor Dr Rajkumar among them, and Bhimsen Joshi in 2005.

Bhimsen Joshi himself is a recurring name in this paper. A Hindustani vocalist of the Kirana gharana, he received the Bharat Ratna in 2008.

The stem calls all four options playback singers. Bhimsen Joshi was a Hindustani classical vocalist rather than a playback singer, so the category word in the question is loose.

Read the item as an award-and-year question. The award and the year are what actually decide it.

Key facts

Karnataka Ratna is the highest civilian honour conferred by the Government of Karnataka.
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi received the Karnataka Ratna in 2005.
He received the Bharat Ratna in 2008.
He sang in the Kirana gharana of Hindustani classical music.

Study next

State civilian honours and how they differ from the Padma awardsGharanas of Hindustani vocal music and the singers identified with eachMusicians who have received the Bharat Ratna

Common traps

Choosing the option that really is a playback singer, because the stem uses that phrase.
Treating a state honour like Karnataka Ratna as though it were a national award.

Music awards are asked as a triple — the artist, the award and the year — and dropping any one of the three loses the mark.

Bhimsen Joshi's Bharat Ratna and his khyal gayaki are asked on 18 Sep 2024, 16:00 at General Awareness Q.2, and Bhupen Hazarika's posthumous Bharat Ratna of 2019 on 26 Sep 2024, 12:30 at General Awareness Q.22.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.