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.
The conventional boundary between Asia and Europe passes through which of the following mountain ranges?
Asia and Europe lie on one landmass, and geographers mark the dividing line along the Ural mountains and the Ural river, then the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus and the Black Sea.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following neighbouring countries of India shares its borders with the maximum number of Indian states?
Nepal touches five Indian states, namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim, which is the largest number of States for any neighbour of India.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is a mountain between India and Nepal?
It stands on the border of Sikkim in India and the Taplejung district of eastern Nepal, and is the highest peak within India as well as the third highest in the world.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is the longest strait in the world?
It runs for about eight hundred kilometres between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, joining the Andaman Sea with the South China Sea, and is the longest strait in the world as well as one of the busiest shipping lanes, carrying a large share of the oil…
Read the full explanation →Which one among the following biotechnologies is applied to manufacture pharmaceutical products such as insulin, antibiotics and vaccines?
Red biotechnology is the branch applied to medicine and health care, including the making of insulin, antibiotics and vaccines. Biotechnology is often divided by colour according to its field of use.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the Treaty of Allahabad is NOT correct ?
The districts taken from Awadh and given to Shah Alam II were Kora and Allahabad, not Banaras. After the Battle of Buxar (1764), Robert Clive signed two treaties at Allahabad in August 1765.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about Cripps Mission is NOT correct?
Congress was represented by Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, its president, not by Sardar Patel. With Japan advancing in South-East Asia, the British War Cabinet sent Sir Stafford Cripps to India in March 1942, after he had persuaded it to accept a draft declaration.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following cases in the Supreme Court of India dealt with the issue of 'creamy layer' among the backward classes ?
In this 1992 case, also called the Mandal case, the Supreme Court held that the creamy layer must be kept out of OBC reservation.
Read the full explanation →Springs are common in which of the following areas? 1. Well jointed rocks 2. Arid areas with underlying rocks 3. Karst topography 4. Tilted strata Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Springs appear where groundwater meets a barrier or a surface outlet, which happens in jointed rocks, karst areas and tilted strata, but not commonly in dry regions.
Read the full explanation →What is the real interest rate on a Credit Card loan bearing 24% interest per year, if the rate of inflation is 10% ?
The real interest rate is the nominal rate minus the rate of inflation: 24 minus 10 gives 14 percent. The nominal interest rate is the rate written on the loan, here 24 percent a year.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following activities was not a part of the daily time-table for a King as prescribed in Arthashastra ?
Kautilya's daily time-table for the king does not include moving through the town in disguise; he learns about his people through spies instead.
Read the full explanation →Which one among the following elements is not a part of the 'Panchamrit' of India's climate action presented at COP-26?
India's net zero target announced at COP-26 is the year 2070, not 2047. At COP-26 in Glasgow in November 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced five commitments called the Panchamrit (five nectar elements).
Read the full explanation →'The Sasakawa Award' of United Nations is given in recognition of the work done in the field of
The United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction honours people and institutions that work to reduce the risk of disasters.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not a property of the X-rays?
X-rays are electromagnetic waves with no electric charge, so electric fields cannot deflect them. X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, who won the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for it.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following Indian places receives minimum rainfall in a year?
Leh lies in the rain shadow of the Great Himalaya and gets only about 100 mm of precipitation a year, making it one of the driest places in India.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following founded the Bhil Seva Mandal in 1922 ?
A. V. Thakkar, known as Thakkar Bapa, founded the Bhil Seva Mandal in 1922 to work for the Bhil tribals of the Panchmahal district of Gujarat.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following limits the number of trophic levels in a food chain ?
Energy shrinks sharply at each step of a food chain, so after a few levels too little is left to support another level of consumers.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not an example of an oxidation reaction ?
This is a double displacement (precipitation) reaction, in which no element gains oxygen or loses electrons. When the two solutions are mixed, the ions swap partners: BaCl2 + Na2SO4 → BaSO4 + 2NaCl.
Read the full explanation →The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has revised the base year index of Eight Core Industries having a combined weight of about 40.27 percent in the Index of Industrial Production. Which one of the following is not one of the Eight Core Industries ?
Rubber products are not among the Eight Core Industries tracked by the Index of Eight Core Industries.
Read the full explanation →A person burned a firecracker in front of a cliff and heard its echo 5 s after it burst. The distance of the cliff from the person, if the speed of the sound is 340 m/s, is close to
The sound travels to the cliff and back in 5 s, so it covers 340 × 5 = 1,700 m in all, and the cliff is half of that, 850 m away.
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