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 Zoji La Pass is in which mountain range?
Zoji La, or the Zojila pass, lies in the Zanskar range of the Himalayas at a height of about 3,528 metres.
Read the full explanation →Which latitude line passes through the middle of India influencing the climate of the country?
The Tropic of Cancer, at 23 degrees 30 minutes north, cuts India almost in half and divides it into a tropical south and a subtropical north.
Read the full explanation →APPLE, India's first experimental communication satellite, was launched in 1981 by which launch vehicle?
The full name of the satellite, Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment, contains the answer, since it flew as a passenger on an Ariane launch in 1981 to test the building of a geostationary communication satellite in India.
Read the full explanation →GAGAN, the satellite based augmentation system, is a joint project of ISRO and which organisation?
GAGAN stands for GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation and was developed by ISRO together with the Airports Authority so that civil aircraft in Indian airspace get position information accurate and reliable enough for approach and landing.
Read the full explanation →The satellite navigation system BeiDou belongs to which country?
BeiDou is the Chinese global navigation satellite system, built in phases and now offering worldwide coverage, and the name is the Chinese term for the constellation of the Big Dipper.
Read the full explanation →Which was India's first operational remote sensing satellite?
The correct answer is B, IRS-1A, launched in 1988, which began the Indian Remote Sensing series and was the first such satellite whose data was used routinely for crop assessment, forest mapping, water resources and land use rather than only for experiment.
Read the full explanation →India's solar mission Aditya-L1 has been placed in a halo orbit around which point?
A Lagrange point is a place where the gravitational pulls of the two bodies and the orbital motion balance, so a spacecraft can stay there with very little fuel, and from L1 the sun can be watched continuously without eclipse or occultation.
Read the full explanation →Astrosat, launched in September 2015, was India's first satellite of which kind?
Astrosat was launched on 28 September 2015 by a PSLV and carries instruments that observe the same cosmic source in the ultraviolet, the visible and the X-ray bands at the same time, which is what multi-wavelength means and what makes the mission unusual among space telescopes of its size.
Read the full explanation →Which was India's first satellite dedicated exclusively to meteorology?
Launched in 2002 as METSAT, it was the first Indian satellite built only for weather work, and it was renamed Kalpana-1 in memory of Kalpana Chawla, the India-born astronaut who died in the Columbia accident of 2003.
Read the full explanation →The NavIC constellation was designed with how many satellites?
The system was designed as a constellation of seven satellites, three of them in geostationary orbit and four in geosynchronous orbits inclined to the equatorial plane, a small number being enough because the service area is regional and not global.
Read the full explanation →What does NavIC stand for?
The name was given in 2016 to the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, IRNSS, when the seventh satellite of the constellation was placed in orbit, and the word navik also carries the sense of a sailor or navigator, which is why it was chosen.
Read the full explanation →Which was India's first satellite and in which year was it launched?
It was launched on 19 April 1975 by a Soviet launch vehicle, since India had no vehicle of its own at the time, and it carried experiments in X-ray astronomy, solar physics and the ionosphere.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is ISRO's smallest launch vehicle, designed for launching small satellites on demand?
It has three solid stages and a small liquid velocity trimming module, carries up to about 500 kg to a 500 km low earth orbit, and is designed to be assembled and launched by a small team within days so that a customer with one satellite need not wait for…
Read the full explanation →India's indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage flew successfully for the first time on which mission?
That flight carried the GSAT-14 communication satellite and was the first success of the indigenous cryogenic upper stage, which put India among the small group of countries able to build such an engine.
Read the full explanation →Which ISRO centre is responsible for the design and development of launch vehicles?
Its companion, the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, develops the liquid and cryogenic engines that those vehicles fly with.
Read the full explanation →On 15 February 2017 the flight PSLV-C37 set an Indian record by placing how many satellites in orbit in a single launch?
PSLV-C37 carried the Cartosat-2 series satellite as its main passenger along with two Indian nano-satellites and 101 small foreign satellites, releasing all of them one after another from its restartable liquid fourth stage.
Read the full explanation →Indian satellites are launched into orbit from which centre?
It is India's only orbital launch site, on the east coast, so vehicles can fly out eastwards over the Bay of Bengal and take the free gain from the earth's rotation while the spent stages fall harmlessly into the sea.
Read the full explanation →Chandrayaan-1 and the Mars Orbiter Mission were both launched by which vehicle?
Chandrayaan-1 went up on PSLV-C11 in October 2008 and the Mars Orbiter Mission on PSLV-C25 in November 2013, both in the extended PSLV-XL configuration with six long strap-on motors.
Read the full explanation →In the GSLV Mk II, which stage is the cryogenic stage?
The GSLV has three stages: a solid core first stage with four liquid strap-on motors, a liquid second stage using a Vikas engine, and a cryogenic upper stage that burns liquid hydrogen with liquid oxygen.
Read the full explanation →How many stages does the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) have?
The PSLV is unusual in alternating propellants between its stages: the first and third stages burn solid propellant and the second and fourth burn liquid propellant.
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