UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

The Gujral Doctrine was set out by Inder Kumar Gujral in 1996, when he was Minister of External Affairs and later Prime Minister.

The Look East Policy was launched in 1991 under Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, when the collapse of the Soviet Union removed India's closest partner and economic liberalisation created a reason to seek markets in South East Asia.

The Tashkent Declaration was signed on 10 January 1966 by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and President Ayub Khan of Pakistan to settle the war of 1965, with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin as host and mediator at Tashkent, then in the Soviet Union.

Article 51, among the Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV, asks the State to promote international peace and security, to maintain just and honourable relations between nations, to foster respect for international law and treaty obligations, and to encourage the settlement of international disputes by arbitration.

The first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement met at Belgrade, then the capital of Yugoslavia, in 1961, with Josip Broz Tito as host and Jawaharlal Nehru, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Sukarno and Kwame Nkrumah among the leading figures.

The five principles of Panchsheel appear in the preamble to the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet region of China and India, signed on 29 April 1954 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

The commission appointed in 1953 had Fazl Ali as chairman, with K. M. Panikkar and Hriday Nath Kunzru as members, and its report of 1955 was the basis of the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, which redrew the map into states and union territories on broadly linguistic lines.

It was carved out of the Telugu-speaking districts of Madras after the death of Potti Sriramulu, who fasted for the demand, and its creation forced the government to set up the States Reorganisation Commission under Fazl Ali, whose report of 1955 led to the Act of 1956.

It divided the old Punjab, created Haryana, transferred the hill areas to Himachal Pradesh and made Chandigarh a union territory serving as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, an arrangement that is itself the subject of long dispute along with the transfer of Hindi and Punjabi speaking villages.

Mizoram's case rests on the inner line notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, which it says marked out a wider belt for the Lushai Hills, while Assam relies on the boundary demarcated in 1933; the strip between the two lines is what both claim, and it is…

The Kotia cluster lies in the hilly tract where the two states meet, and both run schools, ration shops and panchayat elections there on the strength of their own records, which is why the claim has stayed before the Supreme Court for decades.

The correct answer is A, the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, which set up five Zonal Councils as standing forums where neighbouring states and the Centre could discuss matters of common concern, including border frictions, law and order and inter-state transport.

It allows the President, if it appears to be in the public interest, to establish a council charged with inquiring into and advising on disputes between states, investigating subjects in which some or all states and the Union have a common interest, and making recommendations for better coordination of policy.

It allows Parliament to provide by law for the adjudication of disputes about the use, distribution or control of the waters of inter-state rivers and river valleys, and to bar the jurisdiction of the courts in such matters; Parliament did both through the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act of 1956…

Original jurisdiction means the case begins in the Supreme Court itself, and Article 131 covers disputes between the Government of India and one or more states and between two or more states, which is the route by which land boundary suits such as the Belagavi and Kotia matters reach the…

Belagavi, earlier written Belgaum, lies in Karnataka but has a large Marathi-speaking population, and Maharashtra has claimed it along with Nippani and the Karwar area since the reorganisation of 1956; Karnataka has answered by building a second legislature complex there, the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, and by holding a winter session…

The commission under former Chief Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan was appointed in 1966 after Maharashtra pressed its claim to Belagavi, Nippani and Karwar, areas with large Marathi-speaking populations placed in Mysore State by the reorganisation of 1956.

It allows Parliament by law to form a new state, increase or diminish the area of any state, alter its boundaries and change its name, by a simple majority; the Bill needs the President's recommendation, and the President must refer it to the legislature of the state affected for its…

The London Convention of 1972, formally the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, controls the deliberate disposal of waste at sea from ships, aircraft and platforms, prohibiting the most hazardous categories outright and allowing others only under permit; its later Protocol tightened…

A containment boom is a floating barrier with a skirt below the waterline and floats above it, towed or anchored around a slick to hold the oil in a smaller area so that it can be recovered and kept away from beaches, mangroves and water intakes.