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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

Q9721.Indian PolityEasy

Which of the following is the single largest source of the Constitution of India?

  1. A.Government of India Act, 1935
  2. B.Indian Councils Act, 1909
  3. C.Constitution of the United States
  4. D.Constitution of Ireland
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Government of India Act, 1935

About two-thirds of the provisions of the Constitution follow that Act, which supplied the federal scheme with its lists of subjects, the office of the Governor, the structure and powers of the judiciary, the public service commissions, the emergency provisions and most of the administrative detail.

Q9723.Indian HistoryHard

In the Mughal land system, khalisa referred to

  1. A.land whose revenue was reserved for the imperial treasury
  2. B.land granted to religious institutions free of revenue
  3. C.the hereditary homeland of a zamindar in Mughal service
  4. D.land on which no revenue could be assessed because it was barren
Show answer
Correct answer: A. land whose revenue was reserved for the imperial treasury

The territory of the empire was divided between khalisa and jagir: the revenue of khalisa land was collected by imperial officers and credited to the central treasury, while the revenue of jagir land was assigned to mansabdars in place of a cash salary.

Q9724.Indian HistoryEasy

Arrange the Mughal administrative units from the largest to the smallest.

  1. A.Sarkar, suba, pargana, mauza
  2. B.Suba, sarkar, pargana, mauza
  3. C.Pargana, suba, mauza, sarkar
  4. D.Suba, pargana, sarkar, mauza
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Suba, sarkar, pargana, mauza

The suba was the province, headed by a subedar with his own diwan, bakhshi, sadr and qazi; the sarkar was the district, where the faujdar held charge of law and order and the amalguzar of revenue; the pargana was a group of villages with its shiqdar, amil and qanungo; and…

Q9727.Indian HistoryMedium

What were dagh and chehra in the Mughal military system?

  1. A.Two kinds of jagir assigned to nobles
  2. B.The branding of horses and the descriptive roll of soldiers
  3. C.Two ranks in the provincial revenue service
  4. D.Two forms of land measurement
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The branding of horses and the descriptive roll of soldiers

Mansabdars were paid for the troopers they maintained, and the standing temptation was to hire horses and men for the day of inspection and send them away afterwards.

Q9728.Indian HistoryEasy

The dahsala or zabti system of revenue settlement, completed in 1580, is associated with

  1. A.Raja Todar Mal
  2. B.Raja Man Singh
  3. C.Abul Fazl
  4. D.Shah Mansur
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Raja Todar Mal

Under his settlement the average produce and the average price of the previous ten years were calculated for every crop in every locality, the demand was fixed at about one-third of that average produce and stated in cash per bigha, and land was measured with the bamboo jarib and the…

Q9729.Indian HistoryMedium

In the mansabdari system, the two numbers attached to a mansab, zat and sawar, stood respectively for

  1. A.personal pay and rank, and the number of horsemen to be maintained
  2. B.the area of the jagir, and the revenue assessed on it
  3. C.the years of service, and the number of elephants kept
  4. D.the amount of cash salary, and the rate of land revenue
Show answer
Correct answer: A. personal pay and rank, and the number of horsemen to be maintained

The zat number fixed the salary of the holder and his place in the order of precedence at court, while the sawar number fixed the contingent of cavalry he had to keep ready for the emperor.

Q9730.Indian HistoryAsked in: CTET · 24th Dec 2021Medium

Consider the following statements about the Ain-i-Akbari and choose the correct option. (A) It was written by Abul Fazl. (B) It has rich statistical details about crops, prices, revenues and wages. (C) It deals with the details of the ancestors of Akbar.

  1. A.(A) and (B) are true
  2. B.(B) and (C) are true
  3. C.(A) and (C) are true
  4. D.(A), (B) and (C) are true
Show answer
Correct answer: A. (A) and (B) are true

The Ain-i-Akbari was written by Abul Fazl, the courtier and friend of Akbar, and it forms the third volume of the Akbarnama; it is an administrative gazetteer, listing departments and officers, the subas with their sarkars and parganas, measured areas, revenue rates, prices and wages, which is why historians use…

Q9731.Indian HistoryAsked in: Delhi · 8 April 2022, Shift 2Easy

In the Mughal administration, which of the following departments was known as Mir Bakhshi?

  1. A.Factory department
  2. B.Revenue department
  3. C.Justice department
  4. D.Army department
Show answer
Correct answer: D. Army department

The Mir Bakhshi was the head of the military establishment: he kept the muster rolls of the mansabdars, verified the horses and men at inspection, recommended candidates for rank and countersigned their pay orders, and the news writers and intelligence reporters of the provinces also sent their reports through his…

Q9732.Indian EconomyHard

Which committee submitted a report in 2015 on revisiting and revitalising the public-private partnership model of infrastructure?

  1. A.Committee chaired by Vijay Kelkar
  2. B.Committee chaired by C. Rangarajan
  3. C.Committee chaired by Bimal Jalan
  4. D.Committee chaired by M. Narasimham
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Committee chaired by Vijay Kelkar

Set up by the Finance Ministry after a decade in which stalled road and power concessions turned into bad loans, the Kelkar Committee reported in 2015 that risk had been pushed on to whoever would accept it rather than on to the party best able to manage it.

Q9734.Indian EconomyEasy

The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, launched in October 2021, is best described as

  1. A.a GIS-based digital platform that brings the project layers of infrastructure ministries onto one map
  2. B.a concessional loan window for State road corporations
  3. C.a cess levied on freight carried by national highways
  4. D.a dedicated corridor for freight trains between Delhi and Mumbai
Show answer
Correct answer: A. a GIS-based digital platform that brings the project layers of infrastructure ministries onto one map

Launched on 13 October 2021, PM Gati Shakti is an institutional answer to the old complaint that a road is dug up soon after it is laid because a pipeline or a cable was planned separately.

Q9735.Indian EconomyEasy

The National Monetisation Pipeline, which lists operating central assets to be leased to private operators, was released by which organisation?

  1. A.Reserve Bank of India
  2. B.NITI Aayog
  3. C.Securities and Exchange Board of India
  4. D.Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Show answer
Correct answer: B. NITI Aayog

The National Monetisation Pipeline was released in August 2021 in two volumes, the second of which lists the assets ministry by ministry, with an aggregate monetisation potential of about six lakh crore rupees over four years from roads, power transmission, railways, pipelines, warehouses, stadiums and airports.

Q9736.Indian EconomyEasy

Which of the following is NOT a public-private partnership model?

  1. A.BOT (Annuity)
  2. B.Hybrid Annuity Model
  3. C.Engineering, Procurement and Construction
  4. D.Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Engineering, Procurement and Construction

In an EPC contract the government owns the project, funds it from its own budget and simply buys construction services; the contractor is paid for the work done, keeps no operating responsibility and takes no revenue risk, so none of the defining features of a partnership is present.

Q9737.Indian EconomyMedium

In the Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model, what exactly is handed over to the private operator?

  1. A.A greenfield expressway that is still under construction
  2. B.An operating national highway stretch that already collects toll
  3. C.A plot of land for building a logistics park
  4. D.A railway line owned by a State government
Show answer
Correct answer: B. An operating national highway stretch that already collects toll

Under TOT the authority bundles completed highway sections that have a proven traffic record and auctions the right to collect toll on them for a long concession, usually thirty years, against a single upfront payment.

Q9738.Indian EconomyHard

Which body appraises public-private partnership projects of the central sector and is chaired by the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs?

  1. A.Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee
  2. B.Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
  3. C.Governing Council of NITI Aayog
  4. D.Finance Commission of India
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee

It is the standing inter-ministerial committee that examines the concession agreement, the risk sharing and the financial structure of a central sector PPP proposal before approval, and its chair is the Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, with the secretaries of Expenditure, Legal Affairs, NITI Aayog and the sponsoring…

Q9739.Indian EconomyMedium

Under the Viability Gap Funding scheme, the capital grant from the Central Government is normally limited to what share of the total project cost?

  1. A.10 per cent
  2. B.20 per cent
  3. C.40 per cent
  4. D.50 per cent
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 20 per cent

Viability Gap Funding is a one-time or deferred capital grant for a project that is economically necessary but commercially unviable, such as a rural road or a water supply line whose user charges can never repay the capital.