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 of the following is a secondary pollutant?
A primary pollutant is released directly from a source, while a secondary pollutant is formed in the atmosphere when primary pollutants react.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements about ozone is true?
Each of the other three statements is correct on its own, which is exactly why the combined option is the answer.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following was NOT one of the five Deccan sultanates that emerged from the break-up of the Bahmani kingdom?
Khandesh was ruled by the Faruqi dynasty, which set itself up in the Tapi valley in the late fourteenth century independently of the Bahmanis, and it was annexed by Akbar in 1601; it never formed part of the Bahmani kingdom and so did not emerge from its break-up.
Read the full explanation →Mahmud Gawan built his famous three-storeyed madrasa at which city?
Mahmud Gawan, the Persian-born wazir of Muhammad Shah III who held the title Malik-ut-Tujjar, built a madrasa at Bidar in 1472.
Read the full explanation →The Persian envoy Abdur Razzaq visited Vijayanagara during the reign of which ruler?
Abdur Razzaq was sent by Shah Rukh, the Timurid ruler of Herat, and reached Vijayanagara in 1443, when Deva Raya II of the Sangama dynasty was on the throne.
Read the full explanation →The Telugu work Amuktamalyada was written by which ruler?
Amuktamalyada is a Telugu poem on the life of the Tamil saint Andal that also sets out the duties of a king, and it was composed by Krishnadevaraya himself, which is why he is remembered as a poet-king with the title Andhra Bhoja.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Battle of Talikota, also called Rakshasi-Tangadi, fought?
On 26 January 1565 the combined armies of the Deccan sultanates of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda and Bidar defeated the Vijayanagara forces led by Aliya Rama Raya at Talikota, a battle also named Rakshasi-Tangadi after two nearby villages.
Read the full explanation →Which Bahmani ruler shifted the capital from Gulbarga to Bidar?
In 1425 Ahmad Shah Wali moved the Bahmani capital from Gulbarga to Bidar, which he renamed Muhammadabad, and Bidar remained the seat of the kingdom until it broke up.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following Bahmani sultans was noted for cruelty and hence got the title as ‘Zalim’?
Humayun Shah Bahmani ruled from 1458 to 1461 and the chronicles of the Deccan record his punishments as so savage that he was nicknamed Zalim, the cruel or the tyrant.
Read the full explanation →The Vijayanagara empire was considered the golden period during whose rule?
Krishnadevaraya of the Tuluva dynasty ruled from 1509 to 1529 and his reign is treated as the golden age of Vijayanagara: the Raichur doab was won back, Odisha's Gajapati ruler was humbled, Telugu literature flourished under the eight court poets called the Ashtadiggajas, and the Vitthalaswamy and Hazara Rama temples…
Read the full explanation →Vijayanagara empire was founded in which of the following years?
Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the sons of Sangama, founded the city and the empire of Vijayanagara in 1336 on the southern bank of the Tungabhadra, at the site now known as Hampi in Karnataka.
Read the full explanation →The Bahmani Sultanate was founded by which of the following leaders?
In 1347 the centurion nobles of Daulatabad, the Amiran-i-Sadah, rebelled against the Delhi Sultan and raised one of their own, Hasan Gangu, to the throne of the Deccan.
Read the full explanation →In which year did India face the severe balance of payments crisis that led to the reforms of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation?
By the middle of 1991 India's foreign exchange reserves had fallen to roughly a fortnight of imports, gold was pledged abroad to raise funds, the country borrowed from the International Monetary Fund and the rupee was devalued in two steps in July.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is recorded in the capital account of the balance of payments?
The capital account records transactions that change the ownership of assets and liabilities between residents and non-residents, and foreign direct investment, along with portfolio investment, external commercial borrowings and deposits of non-resident Indians, falls squarely in that group.
Read the full explanation →Which authority administers India’s Foreign Trade Policy and issues the importer-exporter code?
The DGFT works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act of 1992 it frames and administers the Foreign Trade Policy, issues the importer-exporter code without which no one may trade across the border, and runs the export promotion schemes.
Read the full explanation →The World Trade Organization, established on 1 January 1995, replaced which body?
GATT was signed in 1947 as a provisional agreement on tariff reduction, and after the Uruguay Round it was replaced on 1 January 1995 by the World Trade Organization, a permanent body with headquarters at Geneva and a binding dispute settlement system.
Read the full explanation →In which year did India adopt full convertibility of the rupee on the current account?
In August 1994 India accepted the obligations of Article VIII of the International Monetary Fund and made the rupee fully convertible on the current account, so that foreign exchange for trade, travel, education and remittances could be obtained freely at the market rate.
Read the full explanation →The balance of trade of a country includes which of the following?
The balance of trade, also called the merchandise or visible balance, is the difference between the value of goods exported and goods imported; nothing else enters it.
Read the full explanation →What is an indicator of self-reliance?
Self-reliance, the goal set out in India's early plans, means building the capacity to produce at home what the country would otherwise have to buy abroad, so the true indicator is that imports of such goods are avoided.
Read the full explanation →What are the two main forms of protection used to shield domestic industries from foreign competition in an inward looking trade strategy?
An inward-looking trade strategy, better known as import substitution, was the policy India followed from the Second Five Year Plan until 1991, and it rested on two instruments.
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