Static general knowledge makes up about 90% of Part B of the NDA General Ability Test, about 360 of its 400 marks. The NDA & NA (II) 2026 notice divides it into five sections: Physics (about 25%), Chemistry (about 15%), General Science (about 10%), History, Freedom Movement etc. (about 20%) and Geography (about 20%). Half of Part B is science. Physics covers matter, motion, gravitation, heat, sound, light, magnetism, electricity and the working of everyday devices such as the siphon, pressure cooker, periscope and safety fuse. Chemistry covers changes of matter, elements and compounds, common gases, acids, bases and salts, carbon, fertilizers and the materials used to make soap, glass, cement and gunpowder. General Science covers cells, the human body, diseases, diet, the solar system and eminent scientists. Section D spans Indian history and culture, the freedom movement, the Constitution, Five Year Plans, Panchayati Raj and world history from the Renaissance to the Russian Revolution. Geography covers the Earth, rocks, oceans, the atmosphere and climate, and India's resources, industries, ports and trade. This page holds GK24's topic-wise GK notes for NDA, in English and Hindi, written as short facts and tables. Read a topic, then solve its quiz and previous-year questions on this site.
The sculptures of the Mathura school were carved mainly in
The correct answer is B, spotted red sandstone, quarried near Sikri in the Mathura region, a deep red stone flecked with cream and black spots that makes a Mathura piece recognisable at a glance.
Read the full explanation →Which school of Indian sculpture shows a strong Greek and Roman influence?
Its Buddhas have wavy hair, sharp features, muscular bodies and robes with thick naturalistic folds.
Read the full explanation →Land Degradation Neutrality is a target under which Sustainable Development Goal?
Sustainable Development Goal 15 is Life on Land, and target 15.3 commits countries to combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation neutral world.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT one of the three Rio Conventions?
The Ramsar Convention was signed at Ramsar in Iran in 1971 and came into force in 1975, two decades before the Earth Summit, and its secretariat sits at Gland in Switzerland; it therefore has no connection with Rio.
Read the full explanation →The secretariat of the UNCCD is located in which city?
The permanent secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification has been based at Bonn in Germany since 1999, in the same United Nations campus that hosts the secretariat of the UNFCCC, which is a useful memory link because both are Rio Conventions with their secretariats in the same…
Read the full explanation →The badland topography of the Chambal valley is the result of which type of erosion?
Running water in the Chambal basin of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh has cut deep, steep-sided channels into soft alluvium, and when these channels multiply and widen the land becomes unfit for cultivation.
Read the full explanation →The ICAR institute that works on the reclamation of saline and alkaline soils is located at:
The ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute is at Karnal in Haryana and is the national institute for the reclamation of salt-affected soils, the use of poor quality water in irrigation, subsurface drainage in waterlogged land, and salt-tolerant crop varieties.
Read the full explanation →The Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) is located in which city?
The Central Arid Zone Research Institute was set up at Jodhpur in Rajasthan in 1959 and works under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
Read the full explanation →The fourteenth Conference of the Parties (COP14) to the UNCCD, held in India in 2019, adopted which declaration?
India hosted the fourteenth Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD at Greater Noida near New Delhi in 2019, and the meeting closed with the New Delhi Declaration, in which the parties committed themselves to restoring degraded land and to working towards Land Degradation Neutrality.
Read the full explanation →Itai-itai disease is caused by soil and water contaminated with which heavy metal?
Itai-itai, which means ouch-ouch in Japanese, was first recorded in the Jinzu river basin of Japan, where mine waste put cadmium into irrigation water and then into rice grown in the contaminated soil.
Read the full explanation →World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed on which date?
The day marks the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification at Paris on 17 June 1994, and the United Nations General Assembly declared it in the same year so that governments would review progress on land restoration annually.
Read the full explanation →The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was adopted in which year?
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was adopted at Paris on 17 June 1994 and it entered into force in December 1996.
Read the full explanation →Which one is not the major technique of soil conservation?
The question asks for the odd one out, and the heavy use of chemical fertilisers damages soil rather than conserving it: it acidifies the soil, kills soil microorganisms, leaves salt residues, and the surplus nitrate and phosphate wash into water bodies and cause eutrophication.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following soil-conservation methods is generally implemented in the coastal and dry regions?
A shelter belt is a row or a block of trees and shrubs planted across the direction of the prevailing wind.
Read the full explanation →Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in which year?
Sultan Mehmed the Second captured Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine or Eastern Roman empire, and the city became the Ottoman capital under the name Istanbul.
Read the full explanation →In which year did Apollo 11 land the first human beings on the Moon?
Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on 20 July 1969, and Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on its surface, followed by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins stayed in the command module in orbit.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Berlin Wall pulled down?
The Berlin Wall, built in 1961 to stop movement from East Berlin to West Berlin, was opened and then demolished by crowds on both sides from 9 November 1989, and its fall is the symbol of the collapse of communist rule in eastern Europe.
Read the full explanation →Who became the first human being to travel into space, and in which year?
The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth once aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961, becoming the first human being in space; the day is observed as the International Day of Human Space Flight.
Read the full explanation →The United Nations formally came into existence on:
The United Nations Charter came into force on 24 October 1945 once it had been ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of the other signatories, and that date is observed every year as United Nations Day.
Read the full explanation →The storming of the Bastille, which marks the beginning of the French Revolution, took place on:
A Paris crowd attacked and captured the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison that stood for the arbitrary power of the Bourbon monarchy, on 14 July 1789, and that day is taken as the start of the French Revolution; France keeps it as its national day, known as Bastille Day.
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