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.
By which treaty did Peshwa Baji Rao II accept the subsidiary alliance of the East India Company?
Signed in 1802, it bound Peshwa Baji Rao II to Lord Wellesley's subsidiary alliance after his defeat by the Holkars at Poona.
Read the full explanation →The Treaty of Salbai, signed in 1782, ended which war?
The Treaty of Salbai of 1782 closed the First Anglo-Maratha War, which had begun with the Company's attempt to place Raghunath Rao in power at Pune.
Read the full explanation →The Treaty of Allahabad of 1765 gave the English East India Company the diwani rights of which regions?
The Treaty of Allahabad was signed in 1765 by Robert Clive with the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II and Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh after the Company's victory at the Battle of Buxar in 1764.
Read the full explanation →India's second spaceport, meant for small satellite launch vehicles, is being built at Kulasekarapattinam in which state?
Kulasekarapattinam lies in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, on the southern coast, and is being developed as a spaceport for small satellite launch vehicles.
Read the full explanation →The Indian Space Policy, which allows non-government entities to carry out end-to-end space activities, was approved in which year?
The Indian Space Policy was approved in 2023 and set out in writing the division of work that the reforms of 2020 had begun: private companies, called non-government entities, may carry out the whole range of space activities; ISRO is to concentrate on research and advanced missions; NSIL is to…
Read the full explanation →In which space activity is foreign direct investment allowed up to 100 per cent through the automatic route?
Under the policy amended in 2024, the manufacture of components, systems and sub-systems for satellites and for the ground and user segment is open to foreign direct investment up to 100 per cent through the automatic route, the most liberal of the three groups, because it is a manufacturing activity…
Read the full explanation →Under the foreign direct investment policy amended in 2024, foreign investment in satellite manufacturing and operation is allowed up to what level through the automatic route?
The amendment approved by the Union Cabinet in February 2024 divides space activities into three groups with different automatic-route ceilings.
Read the full explanation →Which body is the single window for authorising the space activities of private companies in India?
Under the reforms of 2020 and the Indian Space Policy of 2023, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre is the single-window autonomous body that authorises, promotes, hand-holds and supervises the space activities of non-government entities, and that permits them to use the facilities of the Department of Space.
Read the full explanation →Antrix Corporation, the first commercial arm of the Department of Space, was established in which year?
Antrix Corporation Limited was set up in 1992 at Bengaluru as a wholly government-owned company under the Department of Space, to market the products and services of the Indian space programme abroad, including launch services, satellite capacity and remote sensing data.
Read the full explanation →Agnibaan SOrTeD, flown in 2024, is notable for which technological first?
Agnibaan SOrTeD, flown by Agnikul Cosmos of Chennai in 2024, carried the Agnilet engine, a semi-cryogenic engine printed as a single piece, and it lifted off from a launch pad the company had built for itself at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
Read the full explanation →The flight of Vikram-S in November 2022 was given which mission name?
Skyroot Aerospace named the maiden flight of Vikram-S Mission Prarambh, a Sanskrit word meaning beginning, because it was the first flight by a private Indian rocket.
Read the full explanation →Which was the first rocket built by an Indian private company to be launched?
Vikram-S was built by Skyroot Aerospace of Hyderabad and flew a sub-orbital mission from Sriharikota in November 2022 under the name Mission Prarambh, which means beginning.
Read the full explanation →NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Department of Space, was incorporated in which year?
NewSpace India Limited was incorporated in 2019 as a public sector undertaking under the Department of Space, with its registered office at Bengaluru.
Read the full explanation →Where is the headquarters of IN-SPACe, the single-window agency for India's private space activity, located?
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, IN-SPACe, is an autonomous body under the Department of Space with its headquarters at Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the city where India's space programme itself began at the Physical Research Laboratory founded by Vikram Sarabhai.
Read the full explanation →The Leopold matrix is a technique used in Environmental Impact Assessment for
The Leopold matrix is the best known of the matrix methods: the activities of a project are set along one axis and the components of the environment along the other, and each cell where an activity meets a component is marked for the magnitude and the importance of the impact.
Read the full explanation →In the practice of Environmental Impact Assessment, a Rapid EIA differs from a Comprehensive EIA mainly because it
A rapid assessment is based on baseline data collected over a single season other than the monsoon, which allows the study to be completed quickly, while a comprehensive assessment collects data over all the seasons of a full year and therefore captures seasonal variation in air quality, water flow and…
Read the full explanation →An appeal against the grant of environmental clearance lies before which forum?
The tribunal was created by the National Green Tribunal Act of 2010, its principal bench sits at New Delhi, and it hears appeals against the grant or refusal of environmental clearance as well as disputes under other environmental laws.
Read the full explanation →Which category of projects under the EIA Notification of 2006 does NOT require screening?
For a Category A project, prior environmental clearance from the central government is compulsory by the very fact of its listing in the schedule, so there is nothing for a screening stage to decide and the process begins at scoping.
Read the full explanation →Who conducts the public hearing during the public consultation stage of the EIA process?
The notification of 2006 makes the State Pollution Control Board, or the pollution control committee in a union territory, responsible for conducting the public hearing at or near the site of the project, for recording the proceedings and for sending that record to the appraisal committee.
Read the full explanation →At which stage of the EIA process are the Terms of Reference issued?
Scoping is the stage at which the Expert Appraisal Committee, or the state committee for a Category B1 project, determines the Terms of Reference: the detailed list of issues, study area, seasons of data and specific concerns that the assessment must address.
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