SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 25 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 6 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 Indian among the following has his name in Time Magazine’s list of ‘100 most influential people of 2021’?

(a)Amit Shah
(b)Narendra Modi
(c)Neeraj Chopra
(d)Virat Kohli

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Narendra Modi was one of three Indians on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2021.

The other two were Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, and Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of the Serum Institute of India.

The 2021 edition was shaped by the pandemic, which is why a vaccine manufacturer stands on it beside two political leaders.

The list appears every year, so the exam always pins the question to a year.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Amit Shah — Amit Shah was Union Home Minister at the time but was not among the three Indians named in the 2021 list. High office is not what the list records.
(c)
Neeraj Chopra — Neeraj Chopra won Olympic javelin gold at Tokyo in 2021 and became a household name, which makes him a natural guess, but he was not one of the three Indians on this list.
(d)
Virat Kohli — Virat Kohli captained India in 2021 and is the reflex answer whenever a global list mentions Indians. The three names on this one were Modi, Banerjee and Poonawalla.

Concept

The Time 100 is an annual list of the hundred people the magazine judges most influential in that year.

It is a selection, not a ranking and not an award. Entries are grouped under headings such as Leaders, Icons, Titans, Pioneers, Artists and Innovators, and each one is written by another well-known figure.

Because it is annual, the exam always dates the stem. Learn the Indian names year by year rather than as one undated list.

For 2021 those names were Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee and Adar Poonawalla.

Time also runs a separate Time100 Next list for rising figures, and the two are easy to confuse when a name is remembered without the list it came from.

Key facts

Three Indians featured on the Time 100 most influential people list for 2021.
They were Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee and Adar Poonawalla.
Adar Poonawalla heads the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker by doses produced.
The Time 100 is published annually and is a selection rather than a ranking.

Study next

Indians on the Time 100 in other years and the category each entry was placed underInternational lists that carry Indian names, and the year each entry belongs to

Common traps

Picking a sportsperson because 2021 was an Olympic year, when the list is not a sports honour.
Answering from memory of a later year's list, since the names change every edition.

The same list is asked from the other side - also asked 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.20, which offers Mamata Banerjee, Amitabh Bachchan, Narendra Modi and Adar Poonawalla and asks which name was NOT included.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.