SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 5 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.

Who among the following was the youngest instrumentalist to be awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award of India in 2002?

(a)Ustad Zakir Hussain
(b)Pandit Ravi Shankar
(c)Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
(d)Ustad Bismillah Khan

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Ustad Zakir Hussain, the tabla player, received the Padma Bhushan in 2002. Born in 1951, he was then in his early fifties.

The other three names belong to an earlier generation — Bismillah Khan born 1916, Ravi Shankar 1920, Bhimsen Joshi 1922 — so on the question's own test of youth, none of them can displace option (a).

He had already taken the Padma Shri in 1988, and the Padma Vibhushan followed in 2023.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Pandit Ravi Shankar — Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro born in 1920, was three decades senior to Zakir Hussain and had received the Bharat Ratna in 1999 — the wrong end of a 'youngest' question.
(c)
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi — Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, born 1922, was a Hindustani vocalist rather than an instrumentalist, and the question asks for an instrumentalist. He received the Bharat Ratna in 2008.
(d)
Ustad Bismillah Khan — Ustad Bismillah Khan, the shehnai player born in 1916, was the oldest of the four and had received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.

Concept

India's civilian honours run Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri in descending order, which is why the question describes the Padma Bhushan as the third highest.

Zakir Hussain is the tabla player who carried the instrument onto concert stages worldwide, accompanying Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and playing fusion with John McLaughlin in Shakti.

SSC's music questions usually reduce to one pairing — performer to instrument, or performer to award and year.

The 'youngest instrumentalist' framing is the paper's own. What is checkable is the award and its year, and the birth years that make Zakir Hussain by far the youngest of the four names offered.

Key facts

Zakir Hussain received the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2023.
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award, below the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan.
Zakir Hussain was born in 1951, the son of the tabla player Ustad Allah Rakha.

Study next

Padma awards to Indian musicians, by year and instrumentThe order and eligibility of the four civilian honoursPerformer-to-instrument pairings in Hindustani classical music

Common traps

Choosing Bhimsen Joshi, who is a vocalist, when the question specifies an instrumentalist.
Treating the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Bhushan as interchangeable when the question names one.

Padma pairings recur through the 2024 shifts.
The 13 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper asks which instrument the Padma Bhushan awardee Ustad Sabri Khan played (GA Q.11), and 26 Sep 2024, 09:00 asks the same of Arvind Parikh (GA Q.12).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.