Defence GK Questions 2026

Quinine is an alkaloid extracted from the bark of trees of the genus Cinchona, native to South America and grown in India in the Nilgiris and in Darjeeling, and it was the standard treatment for malaria before synthetic drugs appeared.

Saffron is made from the stigmas of the flower of Crocus sativus, and since each flower carries only three stigmas which must be picked by hand, the spice is the most expensive in the world; in India it is grown mainly in the Kashmir valley.

2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid is a synthetic auxin, and when it is sprayed in a heavy dose it throws broad-leaved dicot weeds into uncontrolled growth that kills them, while narrow-leaved cereals such as wheat and rice are far less affected, so it clears weeds from a standing crop.

Auxin made at the shoot tip moves downwards and keeps the lateral buds below it inactive, which is why a gardener who nips off the tip of a hedge plant gets a bushy growth of side branches.

Japanese rice plants attacked by this fungus grew abnormally tall and spindly, a condition called the foolish seedling or bakanae disease, and the substance responsible was isolated from the fungus and named gibberellin; gibberellic acid is the best known member of the group.

It is produced when a plant faces drought, salinity or extreme temperature; it closes the stomata so that water is not lost, for which reason it is called an antitranspirant, and it induces dormancy in seeds and buds so that growth waits for better conditions.

Ethylene is the only gaseous plant hormone, and it raises the rate of respiration in climacteric fruits such as banana, mango and tomato, so a single ripe fruit speeds up the ripening of those around it; the compound ethephon releases ethylene and is used in orchards for uniform ripening.

The Telugu film-maker K. Viswanath received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2016, presented in May 2017. Kasinadhuni Viswanath was known for films built around Indian classical music and dance, above all Sankarabharanam (1980), as well as Sagara Sangamam and Swathi Muthyam.

Excavations at these two localities of modern Patna have uncovered the main remains of Mauryan Pataliputra. At Bulandibagh, digging in the early twentieth century exposed long lines of heavy wooden palisade, matching the Greek envoy Megasthenes' description of a city surrounded by a timber wall with towers and gates.

The OSCE has 57 participating states and works as a forum for dialogue on early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation, but it is neither a military body nor a maker of binding law.

Both statements are true, and black soil suits rain-fed farming precisely because it holds moisture for a long time. Black soil, or regur, formed from the weathering of Deccan basalt and is rich in clay, iron, lime and magnesium.

Vithalbhai Patel was a pro-changer: he backed entry into the legislative councils and joined the Swaraj Party. After the Non-Cooperation Movement was called off in 1922, Congress split over council entry.

Each description belongs to a different term or says the opposite of the real rule, so no pair is correct.

Earthquakes start deep in the Earth's crust, and a reef in shallow water can do nothing to stop or soften the ground shaking.

The prose romance Vasavadatta was written by Subandhu, not Kalidasa, so this pair is wrong. Subandhu's Vasavadatta, of about the sixth or seventh century, is famous for its ornate style full of puns and long compounds.

Krishnadevaraya (ruled 1509-1529) of the Tuluva dynasty wrote the Amuktamalyada in Telugu.

The Descent of the Ganga is a huge open-air rock relief carved under the Pallavas at Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) in Tamil Nadu.

Article 30(1) says that all minorities, whether based on religion or language, have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

Temperature falls with height through the mesosphere and reaches the coldest values in the whole atmosphere, about minus 90 to minus 100 degrees Celsius, at its top.

The Deccan Traps, the vast lava plateau of the north-western peninsula, were laid down by eruptions at the close of the Cretaceous, about 66 million years ago.