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 battle is called the foundation of British political power in India?
Bengal, the richest province of India, passed under the Company's political control.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Talikota in 1565 resulted in the defeat of which kingdom?
In 1565 the allied Deccan sultanates of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda and Bidar defeated the Vijayanagara army led by Rama Raya at Talikota, a battle also called Rakshasa-Tangadi or Bannihatti; the capital city of Vijayanagara, today's Hampi, was plundered and the empire never recovered.
Read the full explanation →At the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556, the Mughal army was led by
Akbar was only about thirteen years old in 1556, and his regent Bairam Khan commanded the army that defeated Hemu, the able general of the Sur side who had captured Delhi and crowned himself Hemchandra Vikramaditya.
Read the full explanation →In which battle did Sher Shah Suri defeat Humayun in 1539?
The following year Sher Shah defeated him again at Kannauj, also called Bilgram, and Humayun left India for about fifteen years while the Sur dynasty ruled Delhi.
Read the full explanation →The First Battle of Panipat in 1526 was fought between
Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi, the last Sultan of the Lodi dynasty, on the field of Panipat in 1526, using the tulughma flanking division and field guns served by Ustad Ali Quli and Mustafa Rumi, and founded the Mughal Empire.
Read the full explanation →Who won the Second Battle of Tarain fought in 1192?
Ghori had been defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan at the First Battle of Tarain in 1191 and returned the next year with a better organised army of mounted archers; the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192 ended in the defeat and death of Prithviraj and opened north India to Turkish rule.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BCE was fought between Alexander and which Indian ruler?
Porus ruled the Paurava kingdom between the Jhelum and the Chenab and fought Alexander on the Hydaspes, the Greek name for the Jhelum.
Read the full explanation →Which was the first integrated programme of rural development in independent India?
Its weaknesses led to the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957, whose recommendation of democratic decentralisation gave India panchayati raj.
Read the full explanation →Which rural development mission organises rural women into self help groups for livelihood support?
It organises poor rural women into self help groups, federates them at the village and block level, and supports them with a revolving fund, a community investment fund and interest subvention on bank loans.
Read the full explanation →The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, meant for all weather rural roads, was launched in which year?
The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana was launched on 25 December 2000 to connect unconnected habitations with all weather roads, generally those with a population above five hundred in the plains and above two hundred and fifty in hill, tribal and desert areas, and it later added the upgradation of…
Read the full explanation →What wage to material ratio has to be maintained in works taken up under MGNREGA?
At least sixty per cent of the cost of the works must go on wages and not more than forty per cent on material, so that the scheme remains an employment programme rather than a construction programme.
Read the full explanation →Under which section of MGNREGA does the Gram Sabha conduct the social audit of works?
The correct answer is C, Section 17, which makes the Gram Sabha responsible for monitoring the execution of works within the panchayat and for conducting a regular social audit of all the projects taken up under the scheme, with every record open to public inspection.
Read the full explanation →What is the minimum share of women among MGNREGA beneficiaries required by the Act?
Priority has to be given to women in such a way that at least one third of the beneficiaries are women who have registered and asked for work, and the Act also requires equal wages for women and men for the same work.
Read the full explanation →Under MGNREGA, work has to be provided within what distance of the applicant's village?
The Act requires that work be provided ordinarily within five kilometres of the village of the applicant, and if the worksite is farther away, the worker is paid an extra ten per cent of the wage rate to meet the cost of travel and living.
Read the full explanation →Under MGNREGA, an unemployment allowance becomes payable if work is not provided within
If employment is not provided within fifteen days of the application, or of the date from which work is sought, whichever is later, the applicant becomes entitled to an unemployment allowance, which the State Government pays from its own funds.
Read the full explanation →On which date was the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act renamed after Mahatma Gandhi?
The Act was renamed on Gandhi Jayanti in 2009, and from then it has been known as MGNREGA, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Read the full explanation →The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act came into force on which date?
The correct answer is B, 2 February 2006, when the Act came into force in 200 of the poorest districts of the country, the first launch taking place at Bandlapalli in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Read the full explanation →Enacted on 7 September 2005, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India entitles, by demand, every rural household to a minimum of _______ of paid work each year at minimum wage.
Section 3 of the Act obliges the State Government to provide at least one hundred days of unskilled manual wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for such work, and the guarantee belongs to the household, not to each member.
Read the full explanation →The Masai are a pastoral people of which region?
The Masai are a cattle-keeping people of the East African savanna, moving their herds with the seasonal rains; their life is the standard textbook example of pastoral nomadism in the tropical grasslands.
Read the full explanation →Which mountain range is taken as the boundary between Europe and Asia?
The Ural mountains, an old worn range running north to south across Russia, together with the Ural river, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, form the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia, which is why the two are often treated as one land mass called Eurasia.
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