Another straightforward question from Constitution. This is Art 17. The only takeway from this is to have the first 51 articles of the constitution on your tips. It helps in more ways than one eg. You can use FR, DPSP, FD as way forwards in Mains.

Similar takeaway as the last question. This is Art 50 which is a part of DPSP.
Moreover, memorising Preamble also comes in handy, as you would be certain in that case of this provision not featuring in the Preamble.
Knowing about all the 12 schedules also has been helpful in the past to solve certain PYQs. 7th schedule is about Union, State and Concurrent list, acting as the edifice of federalism in India.
Option 'd' is generic and vague.
Usually it has been observed that in most of the topics(barring S&T), specific and exact options are more likely to be correct than vague and generic ones.

Budget forms a part of the study on legislature, so you can already see the benefit of focussing on that chapter.
Ideally you should know this as FRBM needs to be read in conjunction with Budget and this act mandates the discussion on the macro economic framework statement.

But options also hint towards the correct answer.
Option 'a' is vague and generic as discussed in the previous question.
If you've read that chapter on legislature well, you would recognise that Art 112 is about Annual Financial statement( formal name of Budget) and Art 110(1) is about Money bill.

The key takeaway is to read the chapter on Parliament and state legislature really well and also be able to differentiate bw 'vague & generic' statements from 'specific and exact' ones.

Another one from constitution. In such conceptual questions, it is always helpful to think of ways to negate the given options. For instance, anybody who has read NCERT would know that constitution is basically a rule book for governing the nation. Once you have that conceptual understanding in mind, you can start going over the options one at a time and try to counter them.

Option a: could be countered by thinking of a constitutional monarchy, where legislature is not a requirement.

Option b: Similar to the above logic, a constitutional monarchy need not be a 'popular govt'.

Option c: Constitution can specify only 'single party state' with only members of that party to be eligible for becoming a part of 'govt'.

Option d: A rulebook would essentially put a 'limit' on the powers of the govt. So 'd' looks most appropriate. It is in absence of a rulebook, that a govt could operate with unrestrained powers.

The key directive of the question is 'reflects'. With a generic directive, a generic correlation could always be established bw the context(UDHR) and the options(Preamble, DPSP,FD). So 'All of the above' is more likely to be correct.

In my attempt, I ended up marking 'a' as I was not able to establish a one to one correlation bw HR & FD. But since then I've come to accept the heuristic that a 'generic' directive calls for a 'generic' correlation, not a concrete one.

Another question which I believe cannot be prepped in advance. Such minute details even if available in certain compilations, are hard to memorise and retain.

I quickly eliminated 'b' and 'd' as '4' looks less logical. This is because 'all' sound extreme & govt ideally would not provide a free legal service to a rich industrialist just because he/she is a senior citizen now.

Now I'm left to choose bw '1' or '3'.

A quick calculation of monthly income gave me a choice bw a person with a monthly income of around 8k and a member of OBC community with a monthly income of 24k. The 3x(times) diff was too much even considering the need for affirmative action so I went with 'a' which again fortunately was the right answer.

People who've read climate change well would instantly recognise '3' to be correct. That eliminates 'a' and 'b'.

It is difficult to be aware of Alma Ata as it is not as famous as some other international agreements.

There are a bunch of Vienna and Hague conventions, so again, it is difficult to memorise each and recall in the exam hall pressure.

'4' looked illogical for two simple reasons.
One, if the '2' in 'Under2' denoted the age of the 'kid', 'toddler rights' would have been a more apt context in my understanding, than 'child' rights, which are usually given in the context of Under 18.
Also having read climate change well, I was aware of the targets of Under2 and Under 1.5 really well. So I backed my peripheral knowledge and common sense and preferred 'c' over 'd' which again fortunately was correct.

Given that I was stuck in 50-50, I would have preferred to attempt it even without the insight I had in the exam hall.

Even in that case, I would have pickled 'c' over 'd' as in absence of any other useful context, possibility of a single statement to be correct is more than that of two statements being correct at the same time.

Key takeaways: Look up these 4 agreements well, locate these places on a map(Alma Ata, Hague), prepare all the CoPs(Under UNFCCC) thoroughly, and be open to using these agreements in Mains way forward eg. In a question on Global warming, you can speak about the need to stick to Under2 coalition's agenda,use of the concept of “talanoa” - storytelling that leads to consensus-building and decision-making.

Another question from Constitution. This just shows that utility of Preamble+first 51 articles+chapter on legislature cannot be overstated.

As basic as it could get, ideally. But in exam hall pressure, sometimes brain fog takes charge, so it's always desirable to still once go over all the other options too.

We know India follows a Parliamentary system, and we have no guaranteed representation to all parties, we don't have direct democracy (rather we have representative democracy), and no confidence bill ensures that govt. could be removed by Parliament.

This leaves no doubt as to the fact that 'b' is the correct option.

Despite 2020 Prelims being arguably one of the toughest paper in recent years, you do see how basic the polity questions have been so far. That's why I encourage people to focus more on the basic subjects i.e. Polity, Modern History, Geography, Economics and Environment than on obscure current affairs & trivia.

Also notice how options are similar to Q5, so don't be surprised if you have a direct question on 7th schedule or on the language of Preamble soon (The kind of questions which have unsurprisingly been asked in the past).

While going over the chapter on Basic Structure in Laxmikanth, we read about the fact that 'basic structure' doctrine is a judicial construct and keeps evolving over time.

So that renders 'Statement 1' incorrect.
Additionally you should glance over the judgments that proclaimed certain ideas to be a part of basic structure. For eg. SR Bommai case: Federalism, Secularism constituting a part of basic structure.

Now this is one of those questions where I still don't understand why the answer is 'd' and not 'b'.

Logically statement '2' makes complete sense.

I've come to accept over the past few attempts that one could always expect some collateral damage in a couple of questions. Again brings me to my initial assessment about prelims being an exam of odds than of certainties.