UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

A barchan is a crescent-shaped sand dune built by wind from one steady direction, but its windward slope is gentle and its horns point downwind.

Kalakot lies in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, in the foothills of the Himalaya. India's coal is of two ages.

The Act of 1861 enlarged the Governor General's Executive Council for law-making by adding extra members, and it was the Governor General who nominated them.

Democracy rests on the consent of the people and their equal political rights, while accountability runs from the rulers to the ruled, not the other way round.

The Sahariya live in Sheopur, Shivpuri, Morena and Gwalior in the north of the state, a dry, ravine-cut forest country, and they also extend into the Baran district of Rajasthan.

In 2011 Scheduled Tribes were roughly a fifth of the state's people, and because Madhya Pradesh is large, that share gave it the biggest tribal population of any state in India in absolute numbers.

Jangarh Singh Shyam was a Pardhan Gond artist from Patangarh in Dindori district who moved his community's wall painting onto paper and canvas, filling animal, tree and spirit forms with fine dots and lines.

Indore, the commercial capital of the state, had the largest population of any district in 2011 and continues to be the largest urban centre, while Harda had the smallest district population.

The 2011 Census put the sex ratio of Madhya Pradesh at 931, below the all India figure of 943 for the same year, and the state's child sex ratio was lower still.

The Bhagoria is held in the Bhil and Bhilala areas of Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar and Barwani in the weeks leading up to Holi.

Gondi, spoken by the Gonds of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Telangana, is a Dravidian language, which is striking because it is spoken deep in central India far from the south.

Patalkot is a deep, almost hidden valley in Chhindwara district, sunk a few hundred metres below the surrounding plateau, and the Bharia live there as well as in parts of Jabalpur and Mandla.

The Baiga of Dindori, Mandla, Balaghat and Shahdol practised bewar, also called dahiya: a forest slope was cleared and burnt, seed was broadcast in the ash and the plot was abandoned after a crop or two.

These three communities of the state are classed as particularly vulnerable tribal groups, a category identified by pre-agricultural practices, very low literacy, small and stagnant or declining numbers and relative isolation.

These western districts, with Dhar, Khargone and Khandwa, form the Bhil country of the state, a hilly tract where the tribe makes up a very large share of the people; Alirajpur and Jhabua have the highest proportion of tribal population in Madhya Pradesh and also its lowest literacy.

The Bhil is the most numerous tribe of Madhya Pradesh and is concentrated in the western hills of Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Barwani, Khargone and Khandwa, with the Bhilala, Barela and Patelia counted among its groups.

The Government Opium and Alkaloid Works at Neemuch processes opium gum into alkaloids such as morphine and codeine for medical use, and it is one of only two such government works in India, the other being at Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh.

The National Fertilizers Limited plant at Vijaipur in Guna district makes urea from natural gas brought by the Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline, which is why the plant stands where the pipeline passes rather than near a mineral deposit.

The National Automotive Test Tracks were built at Pithampur in Dhar district as part of the country's automotive testing network, and the oval high-speed track there is the longest of its kind in Asia.

Jabalpur is the defence production centre of Madhya Pradesh. The Gun Carriage Factory, the Vehicle Factory, the Ordnance Factory at Khamaria and the Grey Iron Foundry all stand in or near the city, and they made it the ordnance town of central India.