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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

Q3241.GeographyEasy

The density of population is usually expressed as

  1. A.Persons per square kilometre
  2. B.Square kilometres per person
  3. C.Persons per thousand births
  4. D.Births per thousand persons
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Persons per square kilometre

Density of population is a ratio between the number of people and the area they occupy, and the standard unit is the number of persons living in one square kilometre; it is the simplest way of measuring the pressure of people on land.

Q3243.General ScienceHard

The expulsion of magnetic flux from the interior of a superconductor is known as

  1. A.The Hall effect
  2. B.The Meissner effect
  3. C.The Zeeman effect
  4. D.The Seebeck effect
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The Meissner effect

When a material becomes superconducting it pushes the magnetic field out of its interior and behaves as a perfect diamagnet, an effect reported by Meissner and Ochsenfeld in 1933; it is the reason a small magnet can be made to hover above a cooled superconductor, as in magnetic levitation demonstrations.

Q3244.General ScienceMedium

Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 in mercury cooled to about 4.2 kelvin by

  1. A.Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
  2. B.Walther Meissner
  3. C.John Bardeen
  4. D.Georg Bednorz
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

The Dutch physicist Kamerlingh Onnes, who had already succeeded in liquefying helium, cooled mercury with it in 1911 and found that its electrical resistance disappeared completely below about 4.2 kelvin, the first observation of superconductivity.

Q3245.General ScienceMedium

The property of laser light by which all its waves are in the same phase is called

  1. A.Monochromaticity
  2. B.Coherence
  3. C.Divergence
  4. D.Polarisation
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Coherence

Coherence means that the waves in the beam keep a constant phase relationship, so crest marches with crest; this is a direct result of stimulated emission, since each new photon is emitted in phase with the photon that caused it, and it is what makes holography and interference work with…

Q3247.General ScienceEasy

The word LASER is an abbreviation for

  1. A.Light Absorption by Spontaneous Emission of Radiation
  2. B.Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
  3. C.Linear Amplification of Stored Energy by Radiation
  4. D.Light Alignment by Statistical Emission of Rays
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

The device works by stimulated emission, in which a photon passing an excited atom makes it fall to a lower level and emit a second photon identical in frequency, phase and direction, so one photon becomes two and the light is amplified.

Q3248.General ScienceEasy

The minimum energy required to eject an electron from the surface of a metal is called its

  1. A.Work function
  2. B.Stopping potential
  3. C.Ionisation energy
  4. D.Binding energy
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Work function

The work function of a metal is the least energy needed to free an electron from its surface, and it is equal to Planck's constant multiplied by the threshold frequency of that metal; caesium and potassium have low work functions, which is why they respond to visible light.

Q3249.General ScienceMedium

The maximum kinetic energy of the photoelectrons emitted from a metal surface depends on

  1. A.The intensity of the incident light
  2. B.The frequency of the incident light
  3. C.The area of the illuminated surface
  4. D.The time for which light falls
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The frequency of the incident light

By Einstein's photoelectric equation, the photon gives energy equal to Planck's constant times the frequency, part of which is spent as the work function, so the maximum kinetic energy left with the electron rises with frequency and is independent of how bright the light is.

Q3250.General ScienceMedium

Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1921 mainly for

  1. A.The special theory of relativity
  2. B.The general theory of relativity
  3. C.His explanation of the photoelectric effect
  4. D.The discovery of the photon rest mass
Show answer
Correct answer: C. His explanation of the photoelectric effect

The citation for the prize refers to his services to theoretical physics and especially to his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, the equation in which the energy of a photon equals the work function plus the maximum kinetic energy of the emitted electron.

Q3251.General ScienceMedium

The photoelectric effect was first observed by which scientist?

  1. A.Albert Einstein
  2. B.Heinrich Hertz
  3. C.Max Planck
  4. D.Robert Millikan
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Heinrich Hertz

In 1887, while studying the sparks produced across a gap between two electrodes, Hertz noticed that the spark passed more easily when ultraviolet light fell on the electrodes, which was the first observation of the photoelectric effect; Hallwachs and Lenard then studied it systematically.

Q3252.Environment & EcologyAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2018, GS Paper IMedium

With reference to organic farming in India, consider the following statements :

1. 'The National Programme for Organic Production' (NPOP) is operated under the guidelines and directions of the Union Ministry of Rural Development.

2. 'The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority' (APEDA) functions as the Secretariat for the implementation of NPOP.

3. Sikkim has become India's first fully organic State.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

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

NPOP is run by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, not Rural Development, while the statements about APEDA and Sikkim are correct.

Q3253.General ScienceAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2018, GS Paper IEasy

Consider the following :

1. Birds

2. Dust blowing

3. Rain

4. Wind blowing

Which of the above spread plant diseases ?

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

Birds, blowing dust, rain and wind can all carry the agents of plant disease from one plant to another. Plant pathogens such as fungi, bacteria and viruses cannot move on their own over long distances, so they depend on carriers.

Q3254.Indian PolityAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2017, GS Paper IMedium

Which one of the following is not a feature of Indian federalism ?

  1. A.There is an independent judiciary in India.
  2. B.Powers have been clearly divided between the Centre and the States.
  3. C.The federating units have been given unequal representation in the Rajya Sabha.
  4. D.It is the result of an agreement among the federating units.
Show answer
Correct answer: D. It is the result of an agreement among the federating units.

Indian federation was not formed by States coming together under an agreement, which is why the Constitution calls India a 'Union of States'.

Q3255.Environment & EcologyAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2018, GS Paper IHard

Consider the following statements :

1. The definition of "Critical Wildlife Habitat" is incorporated in the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

2. For the first time in India, Baigas have been given Habitat Rights.

3. Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change officially decides and declares Habitat Rights for Primitive and Vulnerable Tribal Groups in any part of India.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?

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

The Forest Rights Act defines critical wildlife habitat, and the Baigas were the first community to receive habitat rights, but the Environment Ministry does not grant those rights.

Q3256.Indian PolityAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2017, GS Paper IEasy

Out of the following statements, choose the one that brings out the principle underlying the Cabinet form of Government :

  1. A.An arrangement for minimizing the criticism against the Government whose responsibilities are complex and hard to carry out to the satisfaction of all.
  2. B.A mechanism for speeding up the activities of the Government whose responsibilities are increasing day by day.
  3. C.A mechanism of parliamentary democracy for ensuring collective responsibility of the Government to the people.
  4. D.A device for strengthening the hands of the head of the Government whose hold over the people is in a state of decline.
Show answer
Correct answer: C. A mechanism of parliamentary democracy for ensuring collective responsibility of the Government to the people.

The heart of Cabinet government is collective responsibility: the ministers stand or fall together before the elected House. Article 75(3) of the Constitution says the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, and Article 164(2) says the same for State ministers and the Legislative Assembly.

Q3257.General ScienceAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2019, GS Paper IMedium

Which one of the following statements is not correct?

  1. A.Hepatitis B virus is transmitted much like HIV.
  2. B.Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.
  3. C.Globally, the number of people infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses are several times more than those infected with HIV.
  4. D.Some of those infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses do not show the symptoms for many years.
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.

The truth is the reverse: hepatitis B has a safe, effective vaccine, while hepatitis C has none. The hepatitis B vaccine has been in use since the 1980s and is given to newborns in India under the Universal Immunisation Programme, with the first dose soon after birth.

Q3259.Science & TechnologyAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2019, GS Paper IEasy

What is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news?

  1. A.A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing
  2. B.A biosensor used in the accurate detection of pathogens in patients
  3. C.A gene that makes plants pest-resistant
  4. D.A herbicidal substance synthesized in genetically modified crops
Show answer
Correct answer: A. A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing

Cas9 is the enzyme in the CRISPR-Cas9 system that cuts DNA at a chosen spot, which is why it is called molecular scissors.

Q3260.Indian PolityAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2017, GS Paper IEasy

Which of the following are envisaged by the Right against Exploitation in the Constitution of India ?

1. Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour

2. Abolition of untouchability

3. Protection of the interests of minorities

4. Prohibition of employment of children in factories and mines

Select the correct answer using the code given below :

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

The Right against Exploitation is made up of Articles 23 and 24, which cover exactly items 1 and 4. Article 23 prohibits traffic in human beings, begar and other similar forms of forced labour, and Parliament has backed it with laws such as the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.