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UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

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.

UPSC Civil Services GK Questions with Answers

Q3062.Indian EconomyAsked in: CDS · CDS-II 2017, GKEasy

The phenomenon of 'demographic dividend' of a country relates to

  1. A.a sharp decline in total population
  2. B.an increase in working age population
  3. C.a decline in infant mortality rate
  4. D.an increase in sex ratio
Show answer
Correct answer: B. an increase in working age population

A demographic dividend is the boost to economic growth that a country can get when the share of people of working age, roughly 15 to 64 years, rises above the share of dependants, children and the elderly.

Q3063.Indian HistoryAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2019, GKHard

Which European traveller had observed, "A Hindu woman can go anywhere alone, even in the most crowded places, and she need never fear the impertinent looks and jokes of idle loungers"?

  1. A.Francois Bernier
  2. B.Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
  3. C.Thomas Roe
  4. D.Abbe J. A. Dubois
Show answer
Correct answer: D. Abbe J. A. Dubois

The remark comes from Abbé Jean-Antoine Dubois, a French Catholic missionary who lived in south India, mostly in Mysore, from 1792 to 1823.

Q3065.Indian HistoryAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2021, GKMedium

Which one of the following scholars of Akbar's court translated Bhaskaracharya's Lilavati into Persian?

  1. A.Abul Fazl
  2. B.Faizi
  3. C.Fathullah Shirazi
  4. D.Ataullah Rashidi
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Faizi

Faizi, Akbar's poet laureate and the elder brother of Abul Fazl, translated the Lilavati into Persian in 1587. The Lilavati is the arithmetic part of the Siddhanta Shiromani, written by the mathematician Bhaskaracharya (Bhaskara II) in the twelfth century, and it covers numbers, fractions, progressions and measurement.

Q3068.Books & AuthorsAsked in: CDS · CDS-II 2022, GKHard

Which one of the following is not the work of Ashvaghosha ?

  1. A.Sariputraprakarana
  2. B.Buddhacharita
  3. C.Saundarananda
  4. D.Manjushrimulakalpa
Show answer
Correct answer: D. Manjushrimulakalpa

It is a later Mahayana Buddhist text of ritual and prophecy, not a work of Ashvaghosha. Ashvaghosha was a Buddhist poet, dramatist and philosopher of the first–second century CE, linked by tradition to the court of the Kushana king Kanishka.

Q3070.Indian PolityAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2024, GKMedium

Consider the following statements :

1. In India, the Special Marriage Act protects an individual if one enters into an interreligious marriage.

2. Right to marry a person of one's choice is an integral aspect of one's Fundamental Rights under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

3. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also resonates marital rights of every adult consenting individuals.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. A.2 and 3 only
  2. B.1 and 3 only
  3. C.1,2 and 3
  4. D.1 only
Show answer
Correct answer: C. 1,2 and 3

All three statements are correct. The Special Marriage Act, 1954 lets any two Indians marry by civil registration whatever their religion, without either partner having to convert, so it is the law that covers inter-religious marriages.

Q3073.Indian HistoryAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2026, GKHard

Which of the pairs of Ashokan inscription and location is/are correctly matched ?

1. Jaugada : Karnataka

2. Bahapur : New Delhi

3. Rajula-Mandagiri : Andhra Pradesh

Select the answer using the codes given below :

  1. A.1 only
  2. B.1,2 and 3
  3. C.3 only
  4. D.2 and 3 only
Show answer
Correct answer: D. 2 and 3 only

Jaugada is in Odisha, not Karnataka, so only pairs 2 and 3 are right. Jaugada, in Ganjam district of Odisha, is one of the two places, with Dhauli, that carry Ashoka's Separate Kalinga Edicts.

Q3074.Madhya PradeshHard

Under Article 243E, a panchayat dissolved before the end of its five-year term is reconstituted for:

  1. A.A fresh term of five years
  2. B.Only the remainder of the term that the dissolved panchayat would have continued
  3. C.A fixed term of six months
  4. D.A fixed term of one year
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Only the remainder of the term that the dissolved panchayat would have continued

Article 243E gives every panchayat a term of five years from the date of its first meeting, allows it to be dissolved earlier under a law in force, and requires the election to be completed within six months of the dissolution; but a panchayat constituted at such an election continues…

Q3075.Madhya PradeshEasy

What is the minimum age fixed by Article 243F for a person to contest an election to a panchayat?

  1. A.18 years
  2. B.21 years
  3. C.25 years
  4. D.30 years
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 21 years

Article 243F says that a person who is not qualified to be a member of the legislature of the state is disqualified from a panchayat, but adds that no one shall be disqualified for being under twenty-five years of age if he has attained the age of twenty-one, so twenty-one…

Q3076.Madhya PradeshMedium

The Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, known as PESA, which applies to the Scheduled Areas of Madhya Pradesh, was passed in which year?

  1. A.1992
  2. B.1993
  3. C.1996
  4. D.2006
Show answer
Correct answer: C. 1996

Part IX of the Constitution does not apply on its own to the Fifth Schedule areas, so Parliament passed the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act in 1996 to extend it with changes that protect tribal custom.

Q3077.Madhya PradeshMedium

Municipal corporations in Madhya Pradesh are constituted under which Act?

  1. A.The Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palik Nigam Adhiniyam, 1956
  2. B.The Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palika Adhiniyam, 1961
  3. C.The Madhya Pradesh Municipal Act, 1993
  4. D.The Madhya Pradesh Municipal Act, 2007
Show answer
Correct answer: A. The Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palik Nigam Adhiniyam, 1956

A Nagar Palik Nigam, that is a municipal corporation, is constituted for a larger urban area under this Act of 1956, the same year in which the state of Madhya Pradesh was formed; its elected head is the Mayor and its executive head the Municipal Commissioner.

Q3078.Madhya PradeshEasy

Panchayati raj in Madhya Pradesh is governed today by which Act?

  1. A.The Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palik Nigam Adhiniyam, 1956
  2. B.The Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palika Adhiniyam, 1961
  3. C.The Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993
  4. D.The Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Adhiniyam, 2006
Show answer
Correct answer: C. The Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993

The state passed this law in 1993 to carry out the 73rd Amendment, held elections under it in 1994 and added the words Gram Swaraj to its name after the reform that made the Gram Sabha the centre of village government.

Q3079.Madhya PradeshHard

Which Article of the Constitution provides for a District Planning Committee, called the Zila Yojana Samiti in Madhya Pradesh?

  1. A.Article 243ZA
  2. B.Article 243ZD
  3. C.Article 243ZE
  4. D.Article 243Y
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Article 243ZD

Article 243ZD, inserted by the 74th Amendment, requires every state to constitute a District Planning Committee in each district to consolidate the plans prepared by the panchayats and the municipalities of the district and to prepare a draft development plan for the district as a whole; at least four-fifths of…

Q3080.Madhya PradeshMedium

The Gram Swaraj system, which made the Gram Sabha the centre of village decision-making, was introduced in Madhya Pradesh in which year?

  1. A.1994
  2. B.1997
  3. C.2001
  4. D.2006
Show answer
Correct answer: C. 2001

Madhya Pradesh brought in the Gram Swaraj system in 2001, giving the Gram Sabha committees of its own for development, education, health and agriculture and a Gram Kosh built from contributions of grain, labour, material and cash; the state Act was renamed the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj…