UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

INS Vikramaditya is a modified Kiev class ship of Soviet origin, formerly named Admiral Gorshkov, which was rebuilt in Russia and handed over to India, entering service as an aircraft carrier operating MiG-29K fighters.

It is the only command in which units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force work under a single commander-in-chief, an arrangement adopted because the islands lie far from the mainland and guard the approaches to the Malacca Strait.

Prachand is the Light Combat Helicopter developed and built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, designed to operate from high-altitude bases, which makes it suited to the Siachen and Ladakh sectors where few attack helicopters can carry a useful load.

Rafale is a twin-engine multirole fighter made by Dassault Aviation, the same French company that made the Mirage 2000 flown by India since the 1980s, and the first Indian Rafale squadron was raised at Ambala.

INS Arihant was built under the Advanced Technology Vessel programme and commissioned in 2016; because it carries ballistic missiles, the K-15 Sagarika among them, it completed India's nuclear triad, that is the ability to launch a nuclear weapon from land, from the air and from the sea.

The Kalvari class are conventional diesel-electric attack submarines built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders in Mumbai to the Scorpene design under a transfer of technology, and the class includes INS Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj, Vela, Vagir and Vagsheer.

Tejas is a single-engine multirole fighter designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the public sector company that also builds the Dhruv helicopter, the Prachand light combat helicopter and the Su-30MKI under licence at Nashik.

The indigenous aircraft carrier, commissioned in September 2022 as INS Vikrant, was designed by the Navy's own design organisation and built at Cochin Shipyard in Kerala, which made India one of the few countries able to build a carrier.

The committee chaired by A. Ghosh reported in 1992 on frauds and malpractices in banks and recommended systems of internal control, a separate vigilance machinery and rules for the prevention and early detection of fraud.

The committee to review governance of boards of banks in India, chaired by P. J. Nayak, reported in 2014 that public sector banks were handicapped by the manner of appointment of their directors and by the government's dual role as owner and policy maker, and it proposed transferring the government's…

The study group chaired by P. L. Tandon reported in 1974 on the norms for bank lending for working capital, fixing acceptable levels of inventory and receivables for each industry and setting out methods of lending that limited how much of a borrower's working capital gap a bank would finance…

The committee chaired by R. N. Malhotra, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank, reported in 1993 on the reform of the insurance sector; it recommended opening the sector to private companies and the creation of an independent regulator, from which the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority was set up…

The Committee to Review Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development, known by the short name CRAFICARD, recommended a single apex institution for rural and agricultural credit, and NABARD was established in July 1982.

The expert committee of 2014 chaired by Urjit Patel was asked to revise and strengthen the monetary policy framework; it recommended that consumer price inflation be made the nominal anchor, that a numerical inflation target be adopted, and that policy decisions be taken by a committee rather than by one…

The committee on comprehensive financial services for small businesses and low-income households, chaired by Nachiket Mor, reported in 2014 and proposed differentiated banking licences; from its work the Reserve Bank issued guidelines for payments banks, which may accept deposits but not lend, and for small finance banks, which lend mainly…

The committee chaired by S. S. Tarapore reported in 1997 and again in 2006 on capital account convertibility, that is the freedom to convert the rupee for capital transactions, and it set out preconditions such as fiscal consolidation, a low rate of inflation, a strengthened banking system and a low…

The Committee on the Financial System of 1991, chaired by M. Narasimham, came at the start of liberalisation and recommended lower statutory liquidity and cash reserve ratios, prudential norms for income recognition and provisioning, the classification of assets as standard, sub-standard, doubtful and loss, a capital adequacy requirement and a…

The Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance, known after its chairman as the Hilton Young Commission, reported in 1926 and recommended a central bank for India; the recommendation was carried out by the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934, and the Reserve Bank began its operations on 1…

Article 18 abolishes titles and forbids the State from conferring any title except a military or academic distinction; it also bars citizens from accepting a title from a foreign state.

The Pampa Award was instituted by the Government of Karnataka in 1987 as the highest literary honour of the state and is named after Pampa, the tenth-century poet regarded as the father of Kannada literature and the author of the Vikramarjuna Vijaya.