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.
The four planets closest to the Sun are called
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are called terrestrial planets because, like the earth, they are made of rock and metal.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following water bodies separates the Andaman and the Nicobar islands?
The Ten Degree Channel, which runs along roughly the 10° North parallel, separates the Andaman group from the Nicobar group.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not correct ?
. Insurance is in the Union List of the Seventh Schedule, so the statement that it is not there is incorrect.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following was not a part of Kautilya's Saptanga Theory of the State ?
Dhamma is Ashoka's moral code, not one of the seven limbs of the state listed in Kautilya's Arthashastra. Kautilya, the minister of Chandragupta Maurya, compared the state to a body with seven limbs, or angas.
Read the full explanation →The unemployment that occurs due to changes in the technology or in the demand for particular products is called
Structural unemployment arises when the structure of the economy changes, through new technology or a lasting shift in what people buy, and workers' skills no longer match the jobs available.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements is/are correct ? 1. During the Second Round Table Conference held in London in 1931, the British Government refused to accept the basic nationalist demand for freedom. 2. India was granted dominion status in 1932. 3. Viceroy Lord Willingdon adopted a policy of reconciliation with Congress. 4. The Civil Disobedience Movement was started with the breaking of salt laws. Select the answer using the code given below :
Statements 1 and 4 are true, while 2 and 3 are false. After the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931, Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference in London (September to December 1931) as the sole Congress representative.
Read the full explanation →The pattern of planetary winds largely depends upon which of the following factors ? 1. Latitudinal variation of atmospheric heating 2. The distribution of continents and oceans 3. The rotation of earth Which of the above is/are correct ?
All three factors shape the general circulation of the atmosphere, which is why UPSC's official key gives D. Planetary winds are the trade winds, the westerlies and the polar easterlies.
Read the full explanation →Which one among the following tasks is NOT carried out by an operating system?
Joining a program to the library routines it calls is the job of a linker, a separate system utility, not of the operating system.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following ocean currents is NOT a cold ocean current ?
The Kuroshio is a warm current that flows north-east along the east coast of Japan, carrying warm tropical water from the North Equatorial Current.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following sedimentary rocks is organically formed?
Chalk is a soft, white limestone built up from the tiny calcium carbonate shells of marine micro-organisms, so it is an organically formed sedimentary rock.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is the natural vegetation of South east China ?
South-east China has a warm, humid subtropical climate with rain in every season, and its natural vegetation is broadleaf evergreen forest of the subtropics.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements with respect to Global Positioning System (GPS) is not correct?
This statement is false: GPS was built by the United States for its military, but it has been open to civilian users worldwide for decades.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements regarding Earth's internal structure is/are correct ? 1. The oceanic crust is heavier than the continental crust. 2. Most of the Earth's internal heat is contained within the mantle. 3. Large convective cells in the crust circulate heat and drive plate-tectonic processes. Select the answer using the code given below :
Statements 1 and 2 are correct, but statement 3 is wrong because the convection cells that drive plate movement lie in the mantle, not in the crust.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following statements : I. At the equator, the Coriolis force is zero and here the winds blow perpendicular to the isobars. II. The Coriolis force is directly proportional to the angle of latitude. III. The Coriolis force and the resultant wind do not blow parallel to the isobars at higher latitudes. Which of the statements given above are correct?
Statements I and II describe the Coriolis force correctly; statement III is wrong, because away from the equator the wind ends up blowing parallel to the isobars.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following statements relating to Richter scale : 1. It was devised in 1935 by Charles F. Richter 2. It describes the quantity of energy released by a single earthquake 3. Richter Scale has no upper limit Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
All three statements about the Richter scale are correct. Statement 1 is correct: the American seismologist Charles F. Richter devised the scale in 1935 at the California Institute of Technology, working with Beno Gutenberg.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following land territories of Indonesia is not touched by the Equator ?
Java lies wholly in the Southern Hemisphere, roughly between 6° S and 9° S, so the Equator does not pass over it.
Read the full explanation →The duration of monsoon in India extends for an average period of
The south-west monsoon usually lasts about 100 to 120 days, from early June to about mid-September. The monsoon reaches the Kerala coast around 1 June and spreads over almost the whole country by early to mid-July.
Read the full explanation →At which one of the following places was a Shiva temple not constructed under the patronage of the Chola rulers?
Naneghat is a mountain pass in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, known for Satavahana cave inscriptions, not for a Chola Shiva temple.
Read the full explanation →While watching news, you hear about a place, of which you had never heard of earlier. You want to know more about the place and you want to locate it on the map. Which of the following is/are required for you to be able to locate the place on the map?
A point on a map is fixed where its line of latitude crosses its line of longitude, so both values are needed and enough.
Read the full explanation →Identify the Iron and Steel Plant on the basis of the given characteristics : 1. It receives coal from Jharia and iron-ore from Sundargarh and Kendujhar. 2. Power for the electric furnaces is procured from Hirakund. 3. Water is obtained from Koel and Sankh rivers. Select the correct Iron and Steel Plant from the options given below :
Rourkela in Sundargarh district of Odisha matches all three clues: Jharia coal, Sundargarh and Kendujhar iron ore, Hirakud power and water from the Koel and Sankh.
Read the full explanation →