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 was the first Indian state to be formed on a linguistic basis?
It was created as Andhra State on 1 October 1953 by separating the Telugu-speaking districts of the old Madras State.
Read the full explanation →Which type of electric motor is most commonly used in modern electric cars?
Because the rotor carries permanent magnets instead of windings that must be energised, the motor is compact, light and highly efficient over a wide range of speeds, and it gives the strong torque from rest that makes electric cars quick off the mark.
Read the full explanation →A fuel cell electric vehicle, or FCEV, generates electricity on board from:
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device, not an engine: hydrogen fed to the anode is split into protons and electrons, the protons cross a membrane, the electrons travel through the external circuit and do work, and at the cathode they recombine with oxygen from the air to form water.
Read the full explanation →The Battery Waste Management Rules, which place extended producer responsibility on battery producers in India, were notified in which year?
The Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 were notified under the Environment (Protection) Act and replaced the Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules of 2001.
Read the full explanation →In an electric vehicle, BMS stands for:
The BMS is the electronic brain of the pack. It measures the voltage, current and temperature of individual cells or groups of cells, balances their charge so that no cell is overworked, estimates the state of charge and state of health that the dashboard displays, and disconnects the pack when…
Read the full explanation →In February 2023 the Geological Survey of India announced an estimated lithium resource in which district?
The Geological Survey of India reported an inferred lithium resource in the Salal and Haimana area of that district, the first lithium find of real consequence in the country and a significant one because India had been importing virtually all its lithium and its cells.
Read the full explanation →The second phase of the FAME scheme came into effect from:
The second phase shifted the emphasis from private cars to public and shared transport, concentrating its incentives on electric buses, two wheelers, three wheelers and commercial four wheelers, and tying them to conditions on battery type and on the share of parts made in India, while also funding charging stations.
Read the full explanation →The FAME scheme for electric and hybrid vehicles in India is implemented by which ministry?
The scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles is a demand and manufacturing support scheme, offering incentives that reduce the purchase price of eligible vehicles and funding charging infrastructure, and it sits with the ministry responsible for the automobile and capital goods industries.
Read the full explanation →Regenerative braking in an electric vehicle:
When the driver lifts off or brakes, the electric motor is made to work backwards: the turning wheels drive it, it generates electricity, and that current is fed back into the pack.
Read the full explanation →In battery technology, LFP refers to a cathode chemistry based on:
LFP cells are prized for safety, long cycle life and the absence of cobalt, which makes them cheaper and less exposed to supply disruption; their weakness is a lower energy density, so a pack of the same range weighs more.
Read the full explanation →In a conventional lithium-ion cell, the negative electrode or anode is usually made of:
The layered structure of graphite can accept lithium ions between its sheets, a process called intercalation, and release them again without breaking down, which is what makes the cell rechargeable over hundreds of cycles.
Read the full explanation →The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the development of lithium-ion batteries to:
Whittingham built the first working lithium cell in the 1970s, Goodenough found that a lithium cobalt oxide cathode could give a far higher voltage, and Yoshino replaced the dangerous metallic lithium anode with a carbon material, producing the safe, rechargeable cell that was commercialised in 1991.
Read the full explanation →In the context of electric mobility, BEV stands for:
A BEV carries no engine at all; it runs entirely on a traction battery that is charged from an external electricity supply, and it has no tailpipe emissions.
Read the full explanation →A positron emission tomography scan most commonly uses which radiopharmaceutical?
This is a glucose analogue in which fluorine-18 replaces a hydroxyl group.
Read the full explanation →In India, the use of diagnostic techniques such as ultrasonography for determining the sex of a foetus is prohibited by which law?
It regulates the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques, requires every ultrasound clinic to be registered and to keep records, and prohibits sex selection before or after conception as well as the communication of the sex of the foetus to anyone.
Read the full explanation →Which substance is used as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging?
Gadolinium is a rare earth element whose ion is strongly paramagnetic, so it shortens the relaxation time of nearby hydrogen nuclei and brightens the tissue it reaches.
Read the full explanation →The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of computer-assisted tomography was shared by:
Hounsfield, an engineer at EMI in Britain, built the first clinical CT scanner, and Cormack, a physicist, had independently worked out the mathematics of reconstructing a cross-section from measurements taken along many directions.
Read the full explanation →Measurement of the speed and direction of blood flow by an ultrasound machine depends on which physical effect?
When sound is reflected from a moving target, the frequency of the echo is shifted: higher when the blood is moving towards the probe and lower when it is moving away.
Read the full explanation →The transducer of a medical ultrasound machine works on which effect?
Certain crystals develop a voltage across their faces when they are mechanically squeezed, and conversely change shape when a voltage is applied.
Read the full explanation →The strength of the static magnetic field of an MRI scanner is measured in which unit?
The tesla is the SI unit of magnetic flux density, and clinical MRI scanners commonly work at one and a half or three tesla, produced by a superconducting coil kept cold by liquid helium.
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