SSC CGL GK Questions 2026

The correct answer is C, Secondary consumers. In a food chain each step at which energy is transferred is a trophic level, and secondary consumers stand at the third step. The first trophic level is the producers, green plants that make food by photosynthesis; the second is the primary consumers, herbivores that eat plants; the third is the secondary consumers, carnivores that eat the herbivores; and the fourth is the tertiary or top consumers. In the chain grass, grasshopper, frog, snake, eagle, the frog is at the third level. Only about 10 percent of energy passes from one level to the next (Lindeman's ten percent law), so chains rarely go beyond four or five levels. A is wrong because primary consumers are the herbivores of the second level. B is wrong because top consumers sit at the fourth or final level. D is wrong because producers form the first level, the base of every chain. Exam tip: producers 1, herbivores 2, carnivores 3, top carnivores 4.

The correct answer is A, a police station at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh was set on fire by a mob. Gandhi withdrew the movement because it had turned violent, against his principle of non-violence. On 5 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district, a crowd of protesters set fire to a police station after the police fired on them, and 22 policemen died. Gandhi called the incident a warning from God, went on a five-day fast, and the Congress Working Committee at Bardoli on 12 February 1922 suspended the movement that had been launched in 1920 on the Khilafat and Punjab wrongs. Leaders such as Motilal Nehru and C. R. Das disagreed and later formed the Swaraj Party. B is wrong because Gandhi was not ill; the decision was a moral one. C is wrong because Swaraj had not been achieved when the movement was stopped. D is wrong because Gandhi was arrested only in March 1922, after the movement had already been called off. Exam tip: Chauri Chaura 5 February 1922, Bardoli resolution 12 February 1922, Non-Cooperation ended.

The correct answer is A, Philippines. The Asian Development Bank has its headquarters in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, in the Philippines. It was set up in 1966 to fund development in Asia and the Pacific, and India was one of its founding members. Japan and the United States are its two largest shareholders, and by tradition its president has always been Japanese. The ADB lends for roads, power, water and urban projects, and India is among its biggest borrowers. B is wrong because South Korea hosts the Green Climate Fund at Songdo, not the ADB. C is wrong because China is the home of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (Beijing) and the New Development Bank of BRICS (Shanghai). D is wrong because Japan is only the largest shareholder; the bank was deliberately located in Manila rather than Tokyo. Exam tip: ADB in Manila (1966), AIIB in Beijing (2016), New Development Bank in Shanghai (2015).

The correct answer is A, Brihadisvara Temple. The Brihadisvara (Brihadeeswarar) Temple at Thanjavur was built by Rajaraja Chola I and completed around 1010 CE, which is why it is also called Rajarajeswaram or the Big Temple. It is the finest example of Dravidian temple architecture: a granite vimana about 66 metres high, a single-stone capstone said to weigh around 80 tonnes, and a huge monolithic Nandi facing the shrine of Shiva. Along with Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram, it forms the UNESCO World Heritage listing called the Great Living Chola Temples. B is wrong because the Naganathaswamy Temple is at Thirunageswaram near Kumbakonam and is famous as the Ketu shrine among the Navagraha temples. C is wrong because the Thirumananjeri Temple is a wedding-blessing shrine near Kumbakonam, not Rajaraja's temple. D is wrong because the Murugan temples such as Palani and Swamimalai are not Chola royal temples in Thanjavur. Exam tip: Rajaraja I built Thanjavur's Brihadisvara; his son Rajendra I built Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

The correct answer is B, April 1935. The Reserve Bank of India started working on 1 April 1935 under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, following the recommendation of the Hilton Young Commission of 1926. It began as a privately owned shareholders' bank with its central office in Calcutta, which moved permanently to Bombay (Mumbai) in 1937. Its first Governor was Sir Osborne Smith, and C. D. Deshmukh became the first Indian Governor in 1943. The bank was nationalised on 1 January 1949, after which it has been fully owned by the Government of India. A is wrong because nothing about the RBI's founding happened in April 1948; 1949 is the nationalisation year. C is wrong because April 1945 was still wartime and the bank had already existed for ten years. D is wrong because April 1936 is a year too late; the bank had already completed its first year. Exam tip: RBI Act 1934, RBI born 1 April 1935, nationalised 1 January 1949.

The correct answer is A, Indira point. Indira Point on Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the southernmost point of Indian territory, at about 6 degrees 45 minutes north latitude. It was earlier called Pygmalion Point and was renamed after Indira Gandhi in 1985. It lies only about 150 km from Indonesia's Sumatra, and its lighthouse area was partly submerged by the 2004 tsunami. The question asks about the whole territory, which includes the islands, so the mainland tip is not the answer. B is wrong because Kanyakumari is the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, not of the entire territory. D is wrong because Cape Comorin is simply the old English name of Kanyakumari, so it is the same mainland point. C is wrong because Karondi is not a recognised geographical extremity of India. Exam tip: southernmost point of India is Indira Point (Great Nicobar); southernmost point of the mainland is Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin).

The correct answer is B, 10. The UN Security Council has 15 members: 5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members. The permanent five are the USA, the UK, France, Russia and China, and only they hold the veto. The 10 non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, five seats falling vacant every year, and a retiring member cannot be re-elected immediately. Seats are shared by region: five for Africa and Asia-Pacific, one for Eastern Europe, two for Latin America and the Caribbean, and two for Western Europe and others. India has served eight terms, the latest in 2021–22. A is wrong because 15 is the total strength of the Council, not the non-permanent count. C is wrong because 12 has never been the number of elected seats. D is wrong because 14 is also incorrect; before the 1965 enlargement there were only 6 non-permanent members. Exam tip: Security Council means 5 permanent plus 10 non-permanent equals 15, with two-year elected terms.

The correct answer is A, 1951. The Constitution (First Amendment) Act was passed by the provisional Parliament in June 1951, barely seventeen months after the Constitution came into force. Nehru's government brought it mainly to protect land-reform laws from court challenges and to allow reasonable restrictions on free speech. It added the Ninth Schedule along with Articles 31A and 31B, put new grounds such as public order in Article 19(2), and inserted Article 15(4) so the state could make special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes after the Champakam Dorairajan case. D is wrong because in 1950 the Constitution had only just come into force on 26 January and no amendment had been made. C is wrong because 1952 is the year of the first general elections and the first Lok Sabha. B is wrong because 1953 saw the creation of Andhra State, not the first amendment. Exam tip: Constitution enforced 1950, first amended 1951 (Ninth Schedule), first elections 1952.

The correct answer is A, vitamin B1. Beriberi is caused by a lack of thiamine, which is vitamin B1. Thiamine helps the body turn carbohydrates into energy and keeps nerves and the heart working, so its shortage weakens muscles and nerves (dry beriberi) or causes swelling and heart failure (wet beriberi). The disease was common in Asia among people living mainly on polished white rice, because milling strips away the thiamine-rich outer layer of the grain; whole grains, pulses, nuts and eggs supply it. Vitamin B1 is water-soluble, so the body stores little of it and needs a regular intake. B is wrong because vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness and xerophthalmia. C is wrong because vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, with bleeding gums. D is wrong because vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Exam tip: B1 beriberi, B3 pellagra, B12 pernicious anaemia, C scurvy, D rickets.

The correct answer is C, AB+. A person with AB positive blood can receive red cells from every ABO and Rh group, so AB+ is called the universal recipient. The reason is simple: AB+ red cells carry the A antigen, the B antigen and the Rh (D) antigen, so the plasma has no anti-A, anti-B or anti-Rh antibodies to attack donated blood. The opposite case is O negative, whose red cells have none of these antigens, which makes O− the universal donor. Karl Landsteiner discovered the ABO groups in 1900 and received the Nobel Prize in 1930. A is wrong because O+ plasma has both anti-A and anti-B antibodies, so it accepts only O blood. B is wrong because A+ has anti-B antibodies and cannot take B or AB blood. D is wrong because B+ has anti-A antibodies and cannot take A or AB blood. Exam tip: AB+ receives from all, O− gives to all.

The correct answer is C, Lord Chelmsford. Chelmsford was Viceroy from 1916 to 1921, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre happened on 13 April 1919, the day of Baisakhi, in Amritsar. A peaceful crowd protesting the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal was fired upon on the orders of General Dyer, with Michael O'Dwyer as Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab. Rabindranath Tagore returned his knighthood in protest, and the Hunter Commission was set up to inquire into the firing. The Montagu–Chelmsford reforms of the same year and the Government of India Act 1919 are also from his term. A is wrong because Lord Irwin (1926–31) is linked with the Simon Commission boycott, the Dandi March and the Gandhi–Irwin Pact. B is wrong because Dalhousie (1848–56) was a Governor-General famous for the Doctrine of Lapse. D is wrong because Ripon (1880–84) is remembered for local self-government and the Ilbert Bill. Exam tip: 1919 means Rowlatt Act, Jallianwala Bagh and Montagu–Chelmsford reforms, all under Chelmsford.

The correct answer is D, air pollution. Lichens are used as bio-indicators of air quality because they are extremely sensitive to sulphur dioxide and other gases in the air. A lichen is a partnership of a fungus and an alga (or cyanobacterium) living together; it has no roots and takes water and minerals straight from the air, so pollutants build up in it quickly. That is why lichens grow well on trees and rocks in clean hill areas but disappear from the centres of polluted cities, and scientists map their presence to judge how clean the air is. A is wrong because gas pollution is not a separate category; the gases concerned are part of air pollution. B is wrong because water pollution is judged with indicators such as coliform bacteria, BOD and algal blooms. C is wrong because soil pollution is tracked through earthworms and soil tests, not lichens. Exam tip: lichen equals sulphur dioxide equals air pollution indicator.

The correct answer is A, The Hague. The International Court of Justice sits in the Peace Palace at The Hague in the Netherlands. The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, set up in 1945 by the UN Charter, and it settles legal disputes between countries and gives advisory opinions to UN bodies. It has 15 judges elected for nine-year terms by the General Assembly and the Security Council, and it is the only one of the six principal UN organs that is not based in New York. Justice Dalveer Bhandari of India is one of its judges. B is wrong because Paris hosts UNESCO, not the court. C is wrong because Washington D.C. is home to the IMF and the World Bank. D is wrong because New York houses the UN headquarters, the General Assembly and the Security Council. Exam tip: ICJ at The Hague, UNESCO in Paris, IMF and World Bank in Washington, UN headquarters in New York.

The correct answer is D, Zoji La. Zoji La is the pass on the Srinagar–Leh highway (NH 1) that joins the Kashmir valley with Dras and Ladakh. It sits at about 3,528 metres in the Great Himalayan range and stays snowbound for months every winter, which is why the Zojila tunnel is being built to keep Ladakh connected all year. Kargil and Dras lie just beyond it, so the pass mattered a great deal during the 1999 Kargil conflict. A is wrong because Nathu La is in Sikkim on the border with Tibet (China) and is used for the Kailash Mansarovar route and border trade. B is wrong because Bara-lacha La is in Himachal Pradesh on the Manali–Leh road, not the Srinagar road. C is wrong because Jelep La is also a Sikkim–Tibet pass, close to Nathu La. Exam tip: Srinagar–Leh means Zoji La; Manali–Leh means Rohtang and Bara-lacha La; Sikkim means Nathu La and Jelep La.

The correct answer is G. Kishan Reddy, the Union Minister of Coal and Mines, who was the Chief Guest at the function. This question is hard precisely because every option names a person who was actually present, so each must be tied to the right role. Dr Sukanta Majumdar, the Minister of State for Education and for the Development of the North Eastern Region, graced the occasion as the Special Guest, which is a different designation from Chief Guest. Hansraj Ahir, former Chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes, presided over the ceremony rather than attending as its guest. Former Chief Justice B. R. Gavai was present on the occasion but is not described as holding either of the guest roles. Reading the roles carefully is the whole skill being tested here, and the same care pays off in questions about any award ceremony.

The correct answer is the Sansad Ratna Awards 2026. The release states that the award was presented during the sixteenth edition of the Sansad Ratna Awards, held at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre in the national capital, and it adds that the jury of the Sansad Ratna Awards Committee recognised the service of the Commission to the nation and to the cause of social justice. The same committee, along with the Prime Point Foundation, also nominated him for the honour. The other three names in the options have been built to sound like plausible award ceremonies, but none of them appears in the release. Candidates should carry the surrounding details as well, since questions are often framed around them: the Chief Guest was Union Minister of Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy, and former Chief Justice B. R. Gavai was present on the occasion.

The correct answer is the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. The release identifies Kishor Makwana as the Chairman of the NCSC and says the award recognises his dedicated service to that Commission and his contribution to advancing social justice, adding that the Commission has strengthened its role in safeguarding the constitutional rights of the Scheduled Castes under his leadership. Option A is the sharpest distractor, because the National Commission for Backward Classes does appear in the release, but in a different role: the ceremony was presided over by Hansraj Ahir, a former Chairman of that Commission. Option C and option D are national bodies that a candidate may confuse with the right one, yet neither is mentioned here. It is worth fixing the pairing in memory as a set, namely the recipient, the Commission he heads, and the award named after the former President of India.

The correct answer is the National Overseas Scholarship Scheme. The release says that to strengthen the authenticity of documents and prevent fraudulent claims, a system for verifying income and caste certificates on the spot, directly with the authorities that issued them, was introduced under this scheme from the academic year 2024-25, and that the measure helps ensure the benefit reaches genuine candidates aspiring to study abroad. Each of the other options is a real scheme named in the same release but carries a different reform, so they must be kept apart. SHRESHTA is where the entrance test was advanced from May to December. The National Fellowship for SC Students is where a mandatory seven-day grievance window was introduced from the academic year 2025-26, following the declaration of the UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC NET results. The Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme is where the disbursement figures come from.

The correct answer is from May to December. Under the Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas, the annual examination schedule of the National Entrance Test for SHRESHTA has been advanced from May to December. The purpose given in the release is practical: an earlier test lets counselling and admission be completed in time, keeps the process aligned with the academic calendar, and reduces both delay and the number of students who drop out while waiting. Option D reverses the two months and is the classic trap in questions of this kind, so read the direction of the change carefully; the test now happens earlier in the cycle, not later. Options A and C name months that do not appear in the release at all. Candidates should also note the full form of SHRESHTA, since examiners ask for it as often as they ask for the reform itself.

The correct answer is Rs 12,773 crore. The release states that more than 1.44 crore Scheduled Caste students have benefited under the Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship Schemes and that scholarships amounting to Rs 12,773 crore have been disbursed to support their education. Option A is the most dangerous distractor because that amount does appear in the release, but it belongs to a different group: more than 1.01 crore students of the Other Backward Classes and the Economically Backward Classes received assistance of Rs 2,445.05 crore under the same pre-matric and post-matric schemes. The two pairs should be memorised together as pairs, so that the beneficiary count and the amount are never separated. Options B and D are figures close enough to the correct one to catch a candidate working from a hazy memory, but neither appears in the release.