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Modern history questions like Moderates, rural economy in British times, women issues of 19th century, new vision that got added in freedom struggle were all straight questions that can be answered based on an analytical reading of NCERTs and Spectrum/Bipin Chandra.
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Juno mission - Was unexpected but people must have surely prepared this for science and tech during prelims. That info can be combined with the static knowledge from Physical Geography chapter about evolution of earth to write a decent answer.
Gupta coinage - Bouncer but still one knowing about the political history of India after Gupta and aware of the fact that Islam avoided human representations in architecture etc can write something relevant and get some marks.
There were several current affairs questions like Pulses, IT cities, coal mining, cryosphere, petroleum refinery, , floods converted into sustainable sources, etc : These set of questions were all doable for one who had thoroughly read The Hindu and analysed and connected different issues. According to me, these questions required connecting static with the current affairs and this is what an aspirant must be able to do.