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.
Which Indian State has the longest coastline?
Its coast runs along the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat and around the Kathiawar peninsula, which gives it a far longer shoreline than any other State, and it is followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Read the full explanation →What is the total length of India's coastline, counting the island groups?
The figure usually quoted is 7,516.6 kilometres, which counts the coast of the mainland together with that of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
Read the full explanation →The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass of which stellar remnant?
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar showed that a white dwarf, which is supported against gravity by the pressure of degenerate electrons, cannot have a mass greater than about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun; beyond that limit the star collapses further, and the work brought him the Nobel Prize in Physics in…
Read the full explanation →Which was the first Indian satellite, launched in 1975?
India's first satellite was named after the ancient astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata, was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation and was launched in April 1975 from the Soviet Union, since India had no launch vehicle of its own at the time; it carried experiments in X-ray astronomy and solar…
Read the full explanation →The solar system is a part of which galaxy?
It is a spiral galaxy of a few hundred billion stars, and the solar system lies in one of its spiral arms, far from the centre, which is why we see the galaxy edge on as a milky band across the night sky.
Read the full explanation →Which is the brightest star in the night sky as seen from the earth?
It appears brightest because it is both luminous and close, about 8.6 light years away, and it is in fact a binary system with a white dwarf companion.
Read the full explanation →A geostationary satellite completes one revolution around the earth in
A geostationary satellite is placed in a circular orbit about 35,786 kilometres above the equator, where its period of revolution equals the period of rotation of the earth about its axis, and it moves from west to east like the earth, so it appears to stay over the same point…
Read the full explanation →Which is the nearest star to the earth after the Sun?
Being a red dwarf it cannot be seen with the naked eye, although it is the closest star to us after the Sun.
Read the full explanation →A light year is a unit of
A light year is the distance travelled by light in vacuum in one year, which is about 9.46 times ten to the power twelve kilometres, or roughly nine and a half trillion kilometres.
Read the full explanation →Once a satellite has been launched into orbit, the only force governing its motion is the force of ______.
A satellite is given the required height and speed by its launch vehicle, and after that no engine is needed: the gravitational pull of the earth alone acts on it and provides the centripetal force that keeps it in a curved path, so the satellite keeps falling towards the earth…
Read the full explanation →What is the reason behind the twinkling of stars?
A star is so far away that it is a point source of light.
Read the full explanation →The source of the Sun's energy is
In the core of the Sun, at a temperature of about fifteen million kelvin, four hydrogen nuclei combine through the proton-proton chain to form one helium nucleus.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements about the Inter-State Council is correct?
A Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council was constituted in 1996 for continuous consultation between the Centre and the States, and it is chaired by the Union Home Minister while the Council itself is chaired by the Prime Minister.
Read the full explanation →Trade, commerce and intercourse throughout the territory of India shall be free. This is declared by which article?
It opens Part XIII of the Constitution and makes India a single economic unit by declaring the freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse throughout the territory of India, subject to the restrictions permitted by Articles 302 to 305.
Read the full explanation →Which article of the Constitution empowers Parliament to provide for the adjudication of disputes relating to the waters of inter-State rivers?
It allows Parliament to provide by law for the adjudication of disputes over the waters of inter-State rivers and river valleys, and its second clause allows Parliament to bar the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and of every other court in such a dispute.
Read the full explanation →Under which Act was the North Eastern Council constituted?
The north-eastern States were not placed in any of the five Zonal Councils, so Parliament gave them their own body by this Act, with headquarters at Shillong; Sikkim was added as a member in 2002.
Read the full explanation →The Inter-State Council set up in 1990 followed the recommendation of which commission?
Appointed in 1983 under Justice R. S. Sarkaria to review Centre-State relations, it submitted its report in 1988 and pressed for a permanent Inter-State Council under Article 263; the Council was created by a presidential order in 1990.
Read the full explanation →Full faith and credit is to be given throughout the territory of India to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of the Union and the States under which article?
This article makes the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of the Union and of every State valid and provable everywhere in India, and it declares that the final judgments and orders of civil courts in any part of India may be executed anywhere in the country.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT a member of the Southern Zonal Council?
The Southern Zonal Council consists of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu along with the Union Territory of Puducherry, and its headquarters is at Chennai.
Read the full explanation →Who acts as the chairman of each of the five Zonal Councils?
The States Reorganisation Act makes the Union Home Minister the common chairman of all five Zonal Councils, so that the Centre and the States of a zone meet under one presiding officer.
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