Skip to content
GK24
Prime

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

Q9041.Environment & EcologyMedium

Which of the following is the correct order of the stages of the environmental clearance process?

  1. A.Scoping, screening, appraisal, public consultation
  2. B.Screening, scoping, public consultation, appraisal
  3. C.Public consultation, screening, scoping, appraisal
  4. D.Screening, public consultation, scoping, appraisal
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Screening, scoping, public consultation, appraisal

Screening comes first and decides whether a Category B project needs a full assessment, making it B1, or does not, making it B2.

Q9042.Environment & EcologyMedium

Environmental clearance for a Category A project is granted by which authority?

  1. A.State Environment Impact Assessment Authority
  2. B.Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
  3. C.Central Pollution Control Board
  4. D.National Green Tribunal
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Under the notification of 2006, a Category A project is appraised by the Expert Appraisal Committee constituted at the centre, and the ministry grants or refuses the prior environmental clearance on that committee's recommendation.

Q9043.Environment & EcologyEasy

The Environmental Impact Assessment Notification currently in force in India was issued in which year?

  1. A.1986
  2. B.1994
  3. C.2006
  4. D.2010
Show answer
Correct answer: C. 2006

The EIA Notification of 2006 replaced the earlier notification of 1994 and reorganised the whole clearance process, chiefly by dividing projects into Category A, appraised and cleared at the central level, and Category B, appraised and cleared at the state level, and by laying down the four stages of screening…

Q9044.Environment & EcologyEasy

The Environmental Impact Assessment Notification in India is issued under which Act?

  1. A.Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972
  2. B.Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
  3. C.Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
  4. D.Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

Section 3 of that Act gives the central government power to take all measures it thinks necessary to protect and improve the quality of the environment, and the EIA Notifications of 1994 and 2006 were both issued under it.

Q9045.Environment & EcologyMedium

Which country was the first to make Environmental Impact Assessment a statutory requirement?

  1. A.United Kingdom
  2. B.United States of America
  3. C.Sweden
  4. D.India
Show answer
Correct answer: B. United States of America

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which came into force in 1970, required every agency of the American federal government to prepare a statement of the environmental effects of any major action it proposed, and that requirement is taken as the beginning of environmental impact assessment as a legal…

Q9046.Indian PolityEasy

What is the quorum required to constitute a sitting of either House of Parliament?

  1. A.One-fourth of the total number of members of the House
  2. B.One-tenth of the total number of members of the House
  3. C.One-third of the total number of members of the House
  4. D.Fifty members of the House
Show answer
Correct answer: B. One-tenth of the total number of members of the House

Article 100(3) of the Constitution lays down that the quorum to constitute a sitting of either House shall be one-tenth of the total number of members of that House, and the presiding officer is counted in that one-tenth.

Q9048.Indian PolityMedium

The calling attention motion, by which a member calls the attention of a minister to a matter of urgent public importance, has been in use in the Indian Parliament since

  1. A.1950
  2. B.1954
  3. C.1962
  4. D.1971
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 1954

The calling attention motion is an Indian innovation in parliamentary procedure and has been in use since 1954. A member calls the attention of a minister to a matter of urgent public importance and the minister makes a statement on it, after which members may seek clarifications.

Q9049.Indian PolityMedium

Which of the following is a distinguishing feature of a censure motion as against a no-confidence motion?

  1. A.It can be moved only in the Rajya Sabha
  2. B.It must state the reasons on which it is based
  3. C.It needs the support of one hundred members
  4. D.If it is passed the Council of Ministers must resign
Show answer
Correct answer: B. It must state the reasons on which it is based

A censure motion has to set out the specific charge against the minister or ministers it names, whereas a no-confidence motion need state no ground whatever.

Q9050.Indian PolityMedium

Who moved the first no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha after independence?

  1. A.Acharya J. B. Kripalani
  2. B.Ram Manohar Lohia
  3. C.Atal Bihari Vajpayee
  4. D.C. Rajagopalachari
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Acharya J. B. Kripalani

The first no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha after independence was moved in August 1963 by Acharya J. B. Kripalani against the government headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, in the atmosphere that followed the war of 1962, and the motion was defeated.

Q9052.Indian PolityHard

The discussion on an admitted adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha must last for not less than

  1. A.one hour
  2. B.two hours
  3. C.two hours and thirty minutes
  4. D.three hours
Show answer
Correct answer: C. two hours and thirty minutes

The rules provide that once the Speaker admits an adjournment motion, the House must give it not less than two hours and thirty minutes of discussion, so that a matter grave enough to set aside the listed business is actually examined.

Q9053.Indian PolityEasy

An adjournment motion in Parliament can be moved in which House?

  1. A.The Lok Sabha only
  2. B.The Rajya Sabha only
  3. C.Either House
  4. D.A joint sitting of both Houses
Show answer
Correct answer: A. The Lok Sabha only

The adjournment motion is admitted in the Lok Sabha alone, because it carries an element of censure against the government and only the Lok Sabha can censure the Council of Ministers under the collective responsibility laid down in Article 75.

Q9055.Indian PolityMedium

Which statement about a starred question in the Lok Sabha is correct?

  1. A.It is answered in writing and no supplementary questions are allowed
  2. B.It is answered orally and supplementary questions are allowed
  3. C.It is answered only by a private member
  4. D.It requires the support of fifty members before it can be admitted
Show answer
Correct answer: B. It is answered orally and supplementary questions are allowed

A starred question is distinguished by an asterisk, is answered on the floor of the House by the minister, and because the answer is oral, members may follow it with supplementary questions.

Q9057.Indian PolityEasy

Question Hour in the Indian Parliament is normally held during which part of a sitting?

  1. A.The last hour of the sitting
  2. B.The first hour of the sitting
  3. C.The hour immediately after the lunch recess
  4. D.The hour before the House is adjourned for the day
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The first hour of the sitting

Question Hour is the first hour of every sitting of each House, normally from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, and it is set out in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.

Q9058.Indian HistoryHard

The Pagri Sambhal Jatta movement of 1907 in Punjab was a protest against

  1. A.the Punjab Land Colonisation Act and the canal water rates
  2. B.the recruitment of peasants for the army
  3. C.the permanent settlement of land revenue
  4. D.the indigo contracts of European planters
Show answer
Correct answer: A. the Punjab Land Colonisation Act and the canal water rates

In 1907 the peasants of the Punjab canal colonies agitated against the restrictive terms of the Punjab Land Colonisation Act of 1906 and against increases in the water rate and the land revenue.

Q9059.Indian HistoryMedium

The Rampa rebellion of 1922 to 1924 in the agency tracts of Andhra was led by

  1. A.Alluri Sitarama Raju
  2. B.Tomma Sora
  3. C.Haipou Jadonang
  4. D.Madari Pasi
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Alluri Sitarama Raju

The Rampa or Manyam rebellion of 1922 to 1924 was led by Alluri Sitarama Raju, who organised the Koya and other hill people of the Godavari agency against the forest laws that stopped their shifting cultivation and against the forced labour exacted for road building.

Q9060.Indian HistoryMedium

The Tebhaga movement of 1946 in Bengal was a demand by sharecroppers for

  1. A.ownership of the land they tilled
  2. B.two-thirds of the produce instead of one-half
  3. C.the abolition of forced labour
  4. D.a reduction of the land revenue to one-third
Show answer
Correct answer: B. two-thirds of the produce instead of one-half

Tebhaga means three shares. The bargadars or sharecroppers of Bengal, organised by the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha in 1946, demanded that the crop be divided so that the cultivator who supplied the labour and the seed kept two of the three shares, leaving one for the jotedar; the Floud Commission…