Static GK decides most of the General Awareness score in SSC exams. The CGL, CHSL and CPO notices describe it in almost the same words: questions on India and its neighbouring countries in History, Culture, Geography, the Economic Scene, General Policy and Scientific Research, and on everyday observation in its scientific aspect. The GD notice adds Sports, General Polity and the Indian Constitution, and the MTS notice lists Social Studies, General Science and Environmental Studies up to the 10th Standard. This page brings together GK24's GK notes and practice questions tagged for all five SSC exams. The notes follow a subject-wise syllabus, one topic per note in English and Hindi: Indian Polity, Indian History, Geography, Indian Economy, General Science, Environment and Ecology, Art and Culture, Computer, Sports, Awards and Honours, Books and Authors, Days and Dates, and Static GK. Each note is written as short facts and tables so that a topic can be revised in one sitting, and each ends with multiple-choice questions and explanations. The level is what changes between exams: read MTS and GD topics at Class 10 depth, CHSL at Class 12 depth, and CGL and CPO at graduate depth, where questions ask for the article number or the year rather than the broad idea. Start with Polity, History and Geography, which fill the most questions in past papers in GK24's reading, then move to the Economy and Science. After each note, solve its questions here and your exam's previous-year questions on its own page.
Which Indian export was known in Tamil sources as yavanapriya, the favourite of the Yavanas?
The Sangam poems and later Sanskrit texts call pepper yavanapriya, literally dear to the Yavanas, the word used for the Greeks and Romans who crowded the Malabar ports for it.
Read the full explanation →Which Greek pilot is credited with using the south west monsoon winds to sail directly across the Arabian Sea to India?
Around the middle of the first century of the Christian era this pilot is said to have worked out the rhythm of the south west monsoon, after which ships ran straight from the mouth of the Red Sea to the Malabar coast instead of hugging the shore, cutting the voyage…
Read the full explanation →The ancient port of Tamralipti, from which Fa-Hien sailed for Sri Lanka, is in which present day state?
Tamralipti is modern Tamluk in Purba Medinipur district, on the Rupnarayan river near its meeting with the Hooghly.
Read the full explanation →The site of Arikamedu, where Roman amphorae and rouletted ware were excavated, appears in the Periplus under which name?
Arikamedu, on the Ariyankuppam river near Puducherry, is identified with the Poduke of the Periplus and the Poduke emporion of Ptolemy.
Read the full explanation →The ancient port of Muziris, the chief pepper market of the Indo-Roman trade, lay on the coast of which present day state?
Muziris, called Muchiri in Tamil sources, stood near Kodungallur on the Periyar, and the excavations at Pattanam in Ernakulam district have yielded Roman amphora sherds, glass beads and brick structures that fit its description in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
Read the full explanation →Barygaza, the busiest western port in Greek and Roman accounts of India, is identified with which modern town?
It drained the trade of the Satavahana and Kshatrapa lands through the Narmada and Tapti valleys and sent out cotton cloth, long pepper, spikenard and gems.
Read the full explanation →The Harappan site of Lothal, known for the earliest dockyard in the subcontinent, is located in which present day state?
Lothal lies in the Bhal region of Gujarat, near the head of the Gulf of Khambhat, and was excavated by S. R. Rao.
Read the full explanation →Which town stands on the water divide between the Indus and the Ganga river systems?
The divide between the two great northern systems does not run along a mountain here but across the almost flat plain of Haryana, and Ambala sits on it, so water falling a little to its west goes to the Ghaggar and the Indus side while water falling to its east…
Read the full explanation →The Tapi river originates near which place in Madhya Pradesh?
It is the second of the two large west flowing peninsular rivers and runs almost parallel to the Narmada, with the Satpura range between them.
Read the full explanation →The Narmada river rises from which of the following?
The correct answer is A, the Amarkantak plateau in Madhya Pradesh, where the Narmada rises at about one thousand metres and begins its westward journey of some thirteen hundred kilometres through Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to the Gulf of Khambhat; on the way it makes the Dhuandhar falls and the…
Read the full explanation →Which of the following Indian rivers does not form a delta at its mouth?
It flows west through the narrow rift between the Vindhya and the Satpura ranges and opens into the Gulf of Khambhat, where strong tides sweep away the silt, so the river ends in a funnel shaped estuary and not a delta; the Tapi, which also flows west in a rift…
Read the full explanation →The Indus, the Satluj and the Brahmaputra cut deep gorges across the Himalaya because they are older than the present mountains. Such drainage is called
These rivers were flowing when the Himalaya was still rising, and instead of being turned aside they cut downward as fast as the land rose, leaving the gorges of the Indus near Gilgit, of the Satluj at Shipki and of the Brahmaputra at the great bend in the Dihang.
Read the full explanation →Centripetal drainage, in which streams flow inward from all sides, is best illustrated in India by the streams draining into
Loktak lies in the floor of the Manipur valley, which is ringed by hills, so the streams of the valley run inward into it from every side, the classic shape of a centripetal pattern; the lake is also known for its floating phumdis and for Keibul Lamjao, the only floating…
Read the full explanation →Which river of peninsular India is known as the Dakshin Ganga and has the largest basin in the peninsula?
It rises at Trimbakeshwar in Nashik district of Maharashtra, runs about one thousand four hundred kilometres across Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to the Bay of Bengal, and drains about 3.1 lakh square kilometres, the largest catchment in the peninsula, which is why it is called the Ganga of the…
Read the full explanation →Which is the largest river basin of India by area?
The correct answer is C, the Ganga basin, which covers about 8.6 lakh square kilometres inside India, close to a quarter of the country, and takes in parts of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Read the full explanation →The Narmada, the Son and the Mahanadi flowing out in different directions from the Amarkantak plateau is an example of which drainage pattern?
In a radial pattern the streams start from a dome, a volcanic cone or a high plateau and run outward in all directions like the spokes of a wheel.
Read the full explanation →The drainage pattern in which the tributaries of a river look like the branches of a tree is called
The word comes from the Greek for tree, and the pattern develops where the underlying rock is of uniform hardness and the slope is gentle, so the streams branch freely without being guided by lines of weakness; the tributaries of the Ganga in the northern plain are the standard Indian…
Read the full explanation →Equal volumes of all gases, under the same conditions of temperature and pressure, contain an equal number of molecules. This statement is known as
It is the reason one mole of every gas occupies the same 22.4 litres at standard temperature and pressure, and it allowed chemists to settle the formulae of gases such as hydrogen and oxygen as having two atoms each.
Read the full explanation →Carbon forms two oxides, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, in which twelve grams of carbon combines with sixteen grams and thirty two grams of oxygen respectively. This illustrates
When two elements form more than one compound, the masses of one element that combine with a fixed mass of the other bear a simple whole number ratio, and here the oxygen masses of sixteen and thirty two grams for the same twelve grams of carbon are in the ratio…
Read the full explanation →How many moles are present in 36 grams of water?
The molecular mass of water is eighteen unified atomic mass units, two hydrogen atoms of 1 u each and one oxygen atom of 16 u, so one mole of water weighs eighteen grams.
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