State Exams GK Questions 2026

The Bank for International Settlements was set up in 1930 at Basel in Switzerland and still works from there, which is why the capital standards drafted under its roof are called the Basel norms.

The Paithani takes its name from Paithan on the Godavari, and it is also woven at Yeola in the Nashik district.

The date was chosen because the Swadeshi Movement was launched at the Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August 1905, calling on Indians to use cloth made in their own country, and the first National Handloom Day was observed at Chennai in 2015 to honour handloom weavers.

Kota Doria is woven at Kaithoon and the villages near Kota in Rajasthan, where cotton and silk yarns are alternated to make the small square checks called khat, giving a cloth so light and open that it suits the desert summer.

Phulkari, meaning flower work, is the embroidery of Punjab, in which bright untwisted silk thread is worked in darn stitch from the reverse of a coarse handspun khaddar cloth, so the pattern fills the surface with flowers.

Kalamkari is cloth decorated with vegetable dyes, and it has two schools, both in Andhra Pradesh. At Srikalahasti the work is drawn freehand with a pen like kalam and the subjects are taken from temple mythology, while at Machilipatnam the designs are printed with carved wooden blocks.

Bhoodan Pochampally in the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district of Telangana weaves the ikat saree known as Pochampally, in which the yarn is tied and dyed to produce geometric diamonds and squares with softly blurred edges.

Chikankari is the hand embroidery of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, worked in white untwisted thread on light cloth, with stitches that show the motif as a shadow through the fabric.

In Bandhani the cloth is pinched and tied with thread in thousands of tiny knots before it is dipped in dye, so the tied points resist the colour and appear as white or light dots in patterns of squares, waves and flowers.

The saree is named after the temple town of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, where it is woven from thick mulberry silk.

Muga is reared from the Assam silkworm in the Brahmaputra valley and is the only naturally golden silk in the world, used for the mekhela chador and for sarees woven at Sualkuchi near Guwahati.

Baluchari weaving takes its name from the village of Baluchar in Murshidabad and moved to Bishnupur in the Bankura district, which is its centre today.

Patola sarees are woven at Patan in Gujarat, where both the warp and the weft yarns are tied and dyed before weaving.

The Parthenon is the temple of the goddess Athena, built in the fifth century before the common era on the Acropolis, the rocky height above Athens in Greece, and it is the most famous monument of the classical Greek world.

The Colosseum is the vast amphitheatre of the Roman empire, standing in the heart of Rome in Italy, and it was chosen in 2007 as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

The Sydney Opera House, with its shells rising above the harbour, was designed by the Danish architect Jorn Utzon and is the best known building in Australia.

Borobudur stands on the island of Java in Indonesia and is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, built as a great stepped monument whose terraces carry hundreds of relief panels and stupas.

The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing, and for that reason it was given honorary standing alongside the New Seven Wonders chosen in 2007.

Christ the Redeemer stands on a peak above Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and was chosen in 2007 as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Petra is the city carved into rose-red rock in southern Jordan, built by the Nabataeans, and it was included among the New Seven Wonders of the World chosen in 2007.