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UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

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.

UPSC Civil Services GK Questions with Answers

Q8561.Indian EconomyEasy

In which of the following is Foreign Direct Investment prohibited in India?

  1. A.Insurance
  2. B.Lottery business
  3. C.Telecom services
  4. D.Single brand retail trading
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Lottery business

The FDI policy lists a small set of prohibited activities: the lottery business, gambling and betting including casinos, chit funds, Nidhi companies, trading in transferable development rights, real estate business and the construction of farm houses, the manufacture of cigars, cheroots and cigarettes, and activities closed to private investment such…

Q8562.Indian EconomyMedium

Under the automatic route of FDI

  1. A.prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India is needed
  2. B.prior approval of the administrative ministry is needed
  3. C.no prior approval of the government or the RBI is needed
  4. D.investment is capped at twenty-six per cent in every sector
Show answer
Correct answer: C. no prior approval of the government or the RBI is needed

Under the automatic route the foreign investor needs no prior permission from either the government or the Reserve Bank of India; the Indian company simply reports the inflow and the issue of shares to the Reserve Bank within the prescribed time.

Q8564.Indian EconomyMedium

The Consolidated FDI Policy of India is issued by

  1. A.the Reserve Bank of India
  2. B.the Securities and Exchange Board of India
  3. C.the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
  4. D.the Ministry of Finance
Show answer
Correct answer: C. the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

The correct answer is C, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, a department of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which was known as the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion until it was renamed in 2019.

Q8566.Indian EconomyEasy

Foreign Direct Investment differs from Foreign Portfolio Investment mainly because FDI

  1. A.is made only by governments
  2. B.gives the investor a lasting interest and a say in management
  3. C.is routed through the current account of the balance of payments
  4. D.can be withdrawn on any trading day
Show answer
Correct answer: B. gives the investor a lasting interest and a say in management

Foreign direct investment is made to acquire a lasting interest in an enterprise abroad, conventionally measured as ten per cent or more of the voting power, and with it comes a say in how the company is run; portfolio investment buys shares and bonds without any such control.

Q8569.General ScienceHard

The gum which coats the silk fibre and is removed by degumming is

  1. A.Fibroin
  2. B.Sericin
  3. C.Chitin
  4. D.Keratin
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Sericin

The silkworm's silk gland secretes a protein called fibroin, and over it a second protein, sericin, which acts as a gum and hardens the cocoon; boiling the cocoon softens the sericin so the filament can be reeled, and removing it afterwards is called degumming, which gives silk its lustre and…

Q8572.General ScienceMedium

Lac is secreted by which insect?

  1. A.Kerria lacca
  2. B.Bombyx mori
  3. C.Apis dorsata
  4. D.Antheraea proylei
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Kerria lacca

The correct answer is A, Kerria lacca, earlier named Laccifer lacca, a tiny scale insect whose female settles on the twigs of a host tree, sucks its sap and secretes the resin we call lac.

Q8573.General ScienceMedium

The waggle dance by which honey bees communicate the direction and distance of a food source was explained by

  1. A.Karl von Frisch
  2. B.Konrad Lorenz
  3. C.Charles Darwin
  4. D.Nikolaas Tinbergen
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Karl von Frisch

The correct answer is A, Karl von Frisch, who decoded the dance language of bees: a round dance for a source near the hive and a waggle or tail-wagging dance for a distant one, in which the angle of the straight run shows the direction of the food relative to…

Q8574.General ScienceHard

In a honey bee colony, drones develop from

  1. A.fertilised eggs laid by the queen
  2. B.unfertilised eggs laid by the queen
  3. C.eggs laid by the worker bees in all cases
  4. D.larvae fed on royal jelly throughout
Show answer
Correct answer: B. unfertilised eggs laid by the queen

The queen can lay both fertilised and unfertilised eggs; the unfertilised ones develop into haploid males called drones, a form of parthenogenesis, while fertilised eggs give rise to diploid females.

Q8579.Science & TechnologyMedium

On whose recommendation was the Science and Technology Clusters programme conceived in 2020?

  1. A.NITI Aayog
  2. B.The Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council
  3. C.The University Grants Commission
  4. D.The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council

The clusters programme of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser was conceived in 2020 after that council recommended it, and it brings academia, research institutions, industry, startups and government together to tackle regional challenges through science, technology and innovation.