SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 22 of 100

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 singer from Assam was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2019?

(a)Rameshwar Pathak
(b)Padmanav Bordoloi
(c)Archana Mahanta
(d)Bhupen Hazarika

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Bhupen Hazarika is the singer from Assam awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2019, and the award was posthumous — he died in 2011 — which is what option (d) says.

He was a singer, lyricist, composer and film-maker who worked mainly in Assamese, and whose songs carried the Brahmaputra and the life along it into the national imagination.

The 2019 Bharat Ratna went to three people: Bhupen Hazarika, Nanaji Deshmukh — also posthumously — and Pranab Mukherjee.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Rameshwar Pathak — The name is not on the Bharat Ratna roll. The 2019 award went to Bhupen Hazarika, Nanaji Deshmukh and Pranab Mukherjee, and no fourth name was announced that year.
(b)
Padmanav Bordoloi — The Bordoloi with a Bharat Ratna is Gopinath Bordoloi, Assam's first Chief Minister, honoured in 1999. He is a different person, and he was not a singer.
(c)
Archana Mahanta — Not a Bharat Ratna recipient either. The stem sets three filters at once — from Assam, a singer, and posthumous in 2019 — and only Bhupen Hazarika meets all three.

Concept

The Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award, given for exceptional service in any field. It carries no cash grant and no title; the recipient receives a sanad signed by the President and a medallion shaped like a peepal leaf.

It may be conferred posthumously — the rules were amended in 1955 to allow that — and Hazarika's 2019 award is one such conferment.

Hazarika had already received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his work in cinema before the Bharat Ratna.

All four options are Assamese-sounding names, so the biography will not separate them quickly. Work from the award year instead: the 2019 Bharat Ratna list has three names and is easy to hold.

Key facts

Bhupen Hazarika was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2019, posthumously.
The 2019 Bharat Ratna also went to Nanaji Deshmukh, posthumously, and to Pranab Mukherjee.
Gopinath Bordoloi, Assam's first Chief Minister, received the Bharat Ratna in 1999.
The Bharat Ratna medal is shaped like a peepal leaf and carries no cash award.

Study next

Bharat Ratna recipients by year, and which were conferred posthumouslyThe civilian honours in order: Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma ShriThe Dadasaheb Phalke Award as India's highest honour in cinema

Common traps

Picking a familiar-sounding Assamese name without checking against the award year.
Confusing Bhupen Hazarika with Gopinath Bordoloi, who received the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

SSC asks award-to-artist pairings straight. Lata Mangeshkar's Bharat Ratna year is asked at 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.1, and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi as the vocalist honoured in 2008 at 18 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.2.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.