UPPSC 2019 Prelims Q6: Central Institute of Indian Languages is located at which

Q: What is the answer to UPPSC 2019 Prelims Q6?

B. Correct — B, Mysore (Mysuru). The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) was set up on 17 July 1969 at Mysuru in Karnataka and has functioned from there ever since, today under the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education (the Ministry of Human Resource Development at the time of this 2019 exam). It is the Government of India's nodal body for coordinating the development of Indian languages — it runs the regional language centres that train teachers of second languages, carries out language documentation and materials production, and implements the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL) and language-outreach initiatives such as Bhasha Sangam. The name misleads candidates because it sounds like a Delhi head-office institution, but 'Central' here means centrally funded, not centrally located.

UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 6 of 150

Verified against the official question paper. Answer as per the official UPPSC answer key.

Central Institute of Indian Languages is located at which of the following places?

(a)Varanasi
(b)Mysore
(c)New Delhi
(d)Shimla

Answer

Why

Correct — B, Mysore (Mysuru). The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) was set up on 17 July 1969 at Mysuru in Karnataka and has functioned from there ever since, today under the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education (the Ministry of Human Resource Development at the time of this 2019 exam). It is the Government of India's nodal body for coordinating the development of Indian languages — it runs the regional language centres that train teachers of second languages, carries out language documentation and materials production, and implements the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL) and language-outreach initiatives such as Bhasha Sangam. The name misleads candidates because it sounds like a Delhi head-office institution, but 'Central' here means centrally funded, not centrally located.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Varanasi — Varanasi is a genuine centre of language and classical learning — the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies sits at Sarnath, Varanasi, and Sampurnanand Sanskrit University is in the city — which is exactly why the option is tempting. But CIIL is not there; no part of it is headquartered in Varanasi.
(c)New Delhi — New Delhi houses the language-policy machinery of the Union government — the Department of Official Language and the Central Hindi Directorate, for example — so candidates assume any 'Central Institute' must be based in the capital. CIIL is an exception: it was deliberately located in the south, at Mysuru.
(d)Shimla — Shimla is the home of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (housed in the former Viceregal Lodge), a research institute in the humanities and social sciences. That is a different body altogether and has no connection with CIIL.

Concept

CIIL is the Union government's apex institution for the coordinated development of Indian languages. Established at Mysuru in 1969, it works on language documentation, corpus and materials development, teacher training in second languages through its network of regional language centres, and the preservation of endangered languages under SPPEL. It reports to the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education, the same department that handles Hindi/official-language and modern Indian language schemes.

UPPSC and UPSC both like 'where is institution X located' questions because they are pure recall and cannot be reasoned out. The one usable trick is to remember that India's central institutes were deliberately dispersed: language study at Mysuru (CIIL), English and foreign languages at Hyderabad (EFLU), Tibetan studies at Sarnath/Varanasi (CIHTS), advanced study at Shimla (IIAS). Once you fix Mysuru to CIIL, the three distractors here fall away because each is already 'occupied' by a different, better-known institute.

Key facts

Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) — established 17 July 1969, Mysuru, Karnataka.
It functions under the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education (the MHRD at the time of the December 2019 exam).
CIIL implements the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL) and language-outreach work such as Bhasha Sangam.
Distractor anchors: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies is at Sarnath, Varanasi; the Indian Institute of Advanced Study is at Shimla.

The front facade of Mysore Palace, a long three-storeyed Indo-Saracenic building with grey arcaded verandahs, pink domes and a tall central tower, seen across its brick-paved forecourt — Mysuru is the Karnataka city where the Central Institute of Indian Languages has been located since 1969; the palace is the city's identifying landmark.Image: Ravihegde1 · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Study next

Eighth Schedule of the Constitution — the 22 scheduled languages and the amendments (71st, 92nd) that added to the listClassical Language status — criteria and the languages so declared, and the institutes created for themArticles 343-351 — official language provisions, the Official Language Act 1963 and the Committee of Parliament on Official LanguageCentral language institutions and their seats — EFLU Hyderabad, CIHTS Sarnath, Kendriya Hindi Sansthan Agra, NCPUL New DelhiLanguage censuses and endangered-language mapping in India (Census language data, SPPEL, PLSI)

Common traps

Assuming every body whose name starts with 'Central' or 'National' is headquartered in New Delhi.
Confusing CIIL (Indian languages, Mysuru) with EFLU, the English and Foreign Languages University at Hyderabad.
Mixing up CIIL with the Central Hindi Directorate/Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, which handle Hindi promotion and are not at Mysuru.

Both UPPSC and UPSC ask this as a one-line 'located at' recall or as a matching item pairing List-I institutes with List-II cities, so learn institutes in city-pairs rather than one at a time.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2000_GS1_Q162000Open & attempt →

Match List I with List II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the Lists: List I (Institute): I. Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies; II. Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; III. National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences; IV. Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages List II (Location): A) Hyderabad; B) Mumbai; C) Bangalore; D) Dharamshala; E) Varanasi

(a) I-E, II-C, III-D, IV-A
(b) I-E, II-B, III-C, IV-A
(c) I-C, II-B, III-D, IV-E
(d) I-D, II-E, III-A, IV-B

Answer(b) I-E, II-B, III-C, IV-A

Same concept — pairing central institutes with their host cities, and it settles two of this question's distractors: Tibetan studies at Varanasi (Sarnath) and English/foreign languages at Hyderabad, neither of which is CIIL.

UPPSC_2021_PRE_PaperI_Q742021Open & attempt →

Which of the following is NOT correctly matched? Institute - Location

(a) International Centre for Research on Agro-Forestry - Nairobi
(b) Indian Institute of Forest Management - Bhopal
(c) Central Agro-Forestry Research Institute - Banda
(d) Tata Energy Research Institute - New Delhi

Answer(c) Central Agro-Forestry Research Institute - Banda

Same institute-location recall, in UPPSC's favourite 'NOT correctly matched' wrapper — proof that the commission tests this pairing habit year after year.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Central Institute of Indian Languages was established in which year?
- (a)1961
- (b)1969
- (c)1975
- (d)1986
Answer(b) 1969 — CIIL was established on 17 July 1969 at Mysuru.
practice — not a real PYQ
The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies is located at
- (a)Dharamshala
- (b)Leh
- (c)Sarnath (Varanasi)
- (d)Gangtok
Answer(c) Sarnath (Varanasi) — the institute functions from Sarnath near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, though Tibetan exile institutions are popularly associated with Dharamshala.