Who has written the book titled “faces and places” which was release by The Vice President of India in March, 2015?

The answer is B) Deepak Nayyar. The question tests current affairs on book releases by constitutional functionaries, and the option set is a useful clue. Three of the four names are famous fiction writers, so a non-fiction or memoir-style title from an academic or public figure stands out.

• Jhumpa Lahiri (A) is a fiction writer known for Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake and The Lowland, so a travel-type title is unlikely from her.
• Chetan Bhagat (C) writes commercial English fiction such as Five Point Someone and 2 States, not this kind of work.
• Aravind Adiga (D) is the Booker-winning author of The White Tiger, again a novelist.
• Deepak Nayyar (B) is an economist and former Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University, with a record of public and academic writing. This fits a book released by the Vice President.

The concept here is the Vice President's role as Chairman of Rajya Sabha and a public intellectual, and questions like this are usually answered by matching the author's profile to the book's nature. For Mains, this links to the role of academics in public discourse.

Trap: Candidates pick the most famous name, usually Chetan Bhagat or Jhumpa Lahiri, because they recognise it, and ignore the question's focus on a book release by a dignitary.