IRMA Overview

IRMA Overview

IRMA Year	Total No. of Questions	Number of GK questions	Marks per Question	Comments
2008	200	60	1	¼th negative marks
2007	200	60	1	¼th negative marks
2006	200	60	1	¼th negative marks

Topic-wise break-up of questions –

The distinctive feature of IRMA GK section is that almost all the questions relate to the rural scenario in India. The questions in this section test the candidate’s basic understanding of all relevant issues of present day India, and ability to analyze and take a view on conflicting socio-economic goals, objectives and demands.

Topic	No. of Questions in 2008	No. of Questions in 2007	No. of Questions in 2006
Awards and prizes	1	0	1
Famous Personalities	1	2	0
Arts and Literature	1	2	1
Business and Economy	12	11	13
Technology and IT	0	1	0
Government and Politics	39	36	38
History	1	1	1
Geography	0	3	2
Science	4	3	4
Sports	1	1	0
Mythology	0	0	0
Quotation	0	0	0

	According to IRMA’s brochure the GK questions are mainly asked from:
	1.	The Indian economy and Issues relating to India’s national income and its composition; per capita income, etc.
	2.	Millennium Development Goals, human development, HDI and its achievement by India.
	3.	Issues in demography: rural and urban population, sex ratio etc.
	4.	Issues arising from the social and economic exclusion of large sections from the benefits of development such as poverty and inequality: poverty levels, poverty line, disparities in income, employment and literacy by rural-urban background, and gender and social groups like caste and religion.
	5.	Right to information; issues relating to good governance and accountability to the citizens including the maintenance of human rights, and of probity in public life.
	6.	Planning in India, 11th Five Year Plan-goal, targets and strategies.
	7.	Agriculture in India, crop and livestock production systems.
	8.	Approaches to rural development: basic features of target based approach, area based approach; participatory development etc.
	9.	Rural poverty alleviation and development programmes – goals, features and major achievements: green revolution, operation flood, land reforms, NREGA, ICDA, IAY, SSA and NRHM.
	10.	Institutions in rural development-policy, role and characteristics; rural banks, NGO’s, co-operatives, PRIs, corporate social responsibility.
	11.	Health issues including the management of public health, health education, and ethical concerns regarding health care.
	12.	Primary education, regional variation in the level of education, educational status of different social groups.
	13.	Social movements, recent legislations on social issues.
	14.	Internal security, naxalism, and related issues such as the preservation of communal harmony.
	15.	Environmental issues, ecological preservation, conservation of natural resources.
	This section is usually quite difficult to solve with many of the questions being based on comprehensive understanding of the recent economic and social development issues.
	The GK Section of IRMA is important for scoring good marks in the test as it carries 60 marks.