Static general knowledge is six of the seven lines of the General Studies Paper-I syllabus in the UPSC CSE notice: History of India and the Indian National Movement; Indian and World Geography; Indian Polity and Governance; Economic and Social Development; Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change; and General Science. The Commission tests understanding rather than recall, through statements to be judged correct or incorrect, pairs to be matched and assertion-reason items, and it likes the edges of a topic: a lesser-known provision of the Constitution, a river's tributary, a species' conservation status, the mandate of a statutory body. This page holds GK24's topic-wise GK notes for UPSC, written as short facts and tables, in English and Hindi, with each note linked to the current affairs and previous-year questions on the same topic. Start with Polity and Modern History, which carry the most questions, then Geography, the Economy, Environment, Ancient and Medieval culture and Science. Read a note, solve its PYQs, take its quiz, and come back to it in your monthly revision. A candidate who knows these notes and reads the daily current affairs has covered the syllabus the notice prescribes for Paper-I.
In which one of the following States has the President's Rule been imposed most number of times?
Manipur has been placed under President's Rule more often than any other state, more than ten times since 1967.
Read the full explanation →Which one among the following is not a part of the SWAYAM programme?
SWAYAM is an online learning platform, so live classroom lectures are not one of its parts.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. A price index captures the change in the average price of a constant basket of commodities.
2. If the price index takes values 100, 110 and 121 in three consecutive years respectively, then the inflation rates in the 2nd and 3rd years are 10% and 21% respectively.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Statement 1 defines a price index correctly, but statement 2 gets the third year's inflation wrong. A price index such as the Consumer Price Index tracks the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services over time, compared with a base year whose value is set at 100.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following pairs of Himalayan Glaciers and their location is/are correctly matched?
1. Siachen - Nubra Valley Region
2. Chungphar - Kumaon-Garhwal Region
3. Zemu - Central Nepal Region
4. Gasherbrum - Pir Panjal Range
Select the answer using the code given below :
Only the Siachen pair is correct. The Siachen Glacier, about 76 km long, lies in the eastern Karakoram, and its meltwater gives rise to the Nubra river, which joins the Shyok; the Nubra Valley of Ladakh lies below its snout, so the glacier belongs to the Nubra Valley region.
Read the full explanation →Indore city in Madhya Pradesh is situated in which one of the following regions ?
Indore stands on the Malwa Plateau in western Madhya Pradesh. Malwa is a volcanic upland of basalt rock, part of the Deccan Traps, lying north of the Vindhya Range; its black soil supports soybean, wheat and cotton, and the region also takes in Ujjain, Dewas, Ratlam and Mandsaur.
Read the full explanation →With regard to water transportation in India, which of the following statements are correct?
1. Headquarters of Central Inland Water Transport Corporation is located at Delhi.
2. Headquarters of Inland Waterways Authority of India is located at Noida.
3. National Inland Navigation Institute is located at Kolkata.
4. First National Inland Waterway was between Haldia and Allahabad.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Statements 2 and 4 are correct, while statements 1 and 3 name the wrong city. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), set up in 1986, has its headquarters at Noida in Uttar Pradesh and develops and regulates the national waterways.
Read the full explanation →Statement I : The interior part of Maharashtra does not receive adequate rain in the summer season.
Statement II : The interior part of Maharashtra lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats.
Both statements are true, and the rain shadow of the Western Ghats is exactly why interior Maharashtra gets little rain.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not a change brought about by the Indian Independence Act of 1947?
The Indian Independence Act did not keep the Crown as the source of authority; it ended British authority over India from 15 August 1947.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not a fluvial landform?
A cirque is carved by a glacier, not by a river, so it is not a fluvial landform. Fluvial landforms are those shaped by running water.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is/are social security scheme(s) ?
1. Atal Pension Yojana
2. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana
3. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
All three are social security schemes, launched together by the Government of India on 9 May 2015 to give pension and insurance cover to ordinary people, especially in the unorganised sector.
Read the full explanation →The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of speech and expression. But the freedom is subject to certain reasonable restrictions imposed by the State. These restrictions may relate to which of the following ?
1. Defamation
2. Decency or morality
3. Incitement to an offence
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
All three are grounds listed in Article 19(2) on which the State may place reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following variable(s) is/are displayed in population pyramids ?
1. Age-groups
2. Sex indicators (male and female)
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
A population pyramid shows the age and sex structure of a population in a single diagram. The vertical axis is divided into age groups, usually of five years each, with the youngest at the bottom and the oldest at the top.
Read the full explanation →The terms 'Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot and Tether', sometimes mentioned in the news, refer to
Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot and Tether are all names from the world of blockchain-based digital currencies. A cryptocurrency is a digital asset recorded on a blockchain, a shared ledger kept by many computers, and secured by cryptography rather than issued by a central bank.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements about the Vaishnava saint of Assam, Shankardeva, is/are correct ?
1. His teachings are often known as the Bhagavati dharma.
2. He encouraged the establishment of satras or monasteries and namghars or prayer halls for the transmission of spiritual knowledge.
3. His major compositions include the Kirtana-ghosha.
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
All three statements about Shankardeva are correct. Shankardeva (Sankaradeva) was the leading Vaishnava saint of Assam in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. GDP deflator captures the average price of an unchanging basket of commodities that constitutes the GDP of the country.
2. GDP deflator can be used to measure the real GDP of the economy but not the inflation rate.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Both statements misdescribe the GDP deflator. The deflator is the ratio of nominal GDP to real GDP, multiplied by 100.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following pairs :
1. Gajapati - Name of a powerful Dynasty in Orissa
2. Ashvapati - Deccan Sultans
3. Narapati - Rayas of Vijayanagara
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched ?
All three titles were in use in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century India, and each pair is matched correctly. Gajapati means 'lord of elephants' and was the title of a powerful ruling family of Orissa, the Gajapatis who succeeded the Eastern Gangas.
Read the full explanation →Which one among the following established the first Global Capability Centre in India ?
The American chip maker opened India's first such centre in Bengaluru in 1985, the start of what is now called the Global Capability Centre (GCC) model.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following statements with reference to the Cotton textile industry in India :
1. Cotton textile industry has, over time, spread to other parts of the country, beyond Gujarat and Maharashtra.
2. Raw cotton is not a weight-losing raw material.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Both statements describe the industry correctly. The modern cotton mill industry began in Mumbai in 1854 and grew first in Maharashtra and Gujarat, close to the black cotton soil, the ports and a ready market.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following statements regarding the Northwestern Himalayas :
1. Karewa formations in Kashmir consist of thick deposits of glacial clay and other materials embedded with moraines.
2. Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri in Ladakh are freshwater lakes.
3. River Jhelum exhibits meanders in the Kashmir Valley.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Statements 1 and 3 describe the Kashmir Himalayas correctly, but Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri are salt-water lakes. The Karewas are thick deposits of glacial clay and other materials embedded with moraines, laid down on the floor of the Kashmir Valley; they are famous for the cultivation of saffron (zafran).
Read the full explanation →During which period does the implementation phase of Special Campaign 6 run?
The first option names the preparatory phase instead, which ran from 15 to 30 September 2026 and was used to map targets across units, regional offices and joint ventures, so it is a close distractor rather than the answer.
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