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.
Which Article of the Constitution of India abolishes titles?
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.
Read the full explanation →The Pampa Award, the highest literary honour of a state, is given by which state government?
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.
Read the full explanation →The Yash Bharti Samman is the highest civilian honour of which state?
The Yash Bharti Samman was instituted by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 1994 and is given for distinguished work in art, literature, music, sport, journalism and social service by people connected with the state.
Read the full explanation →The Tansen Samman of the Madhya Pradesh government is given in which field?
The Tansen Samman is given by the Government of Madhya Pradesh for Hindustani classical music and is announced in connection with the Tansen Samaroh, the music festival held every year at Behat near Gwalior, the birthplace of Tansen, the great singer of Akbar's court and one of the nine jewels…
Read the full explanation →The Kalidas Samman, given for the classical arts, is an award of which state government?
The Kalidas Samman was instituted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1980 and is given by rotation in four fields of the classical arts: classical music, classical dance, theatre and the plastic arts.
Read the full explanation →Banga Bibhushan and Banga Bhushan are civilian awards conferred by which state government?
The Government of West Bengal instituted Banga Bibhushan and Banga Bhushan in 2011 to honour people from the state in fields such as literature, music, cinema, sport, science and social service, with Banga Bibhushan ranked above Banga Bhushan.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is the highest among Kerala's three state civilian honours?
Kerala instituted three civilian honours in 2021, modelled on the idea of a graded set: Kerala Jyothi at the top, Kerala Prabha next and Kerala Sree third.
Read the full explanation →Assam Baibhav, Assam Saurav and Assam Gaurav were instituted by the Government of Assam in which year?
The Government of Assam created a three-step set of state honours in 2021: Assam Baibhav at the top for exceptional service to the state, Assam Saurav next, and Assam Gaurav for distinguished work in specific fields.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Maharashtra Bhushan, the highest civilian award of Maharashtra, instituted?
The Government of Maharashtra instituted the Maharashtra Bhushan in 1996 as the highest civilian award of the state, open to work in literature, art, sport, science, social service, medicine and public administration, and the first award went to the Marathi writer and humorist Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, remembered as Pu La…
Read the full explanation →The Karnataka Ratna, the highest civilian honour of Karnataka, was first conferred on which person?
The Karnataka Ratna was instituted by the Government of Karnataka in 1992 as the highest civilian honour of the state, and the first person to receive it was Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa, the Kannada poet known by his pen name Kuvempu, who had also written the state song of Karnataka.
Read the full explanation →In the architecture of a stupa, the hemispherical dome raised over the relic is called
The anda, meaning the egg, is the solid hemispherical dome of a stupa, raised over the relic chamber, and it is the part that gives the stupa its shape.
Read the full explanation →Sammed Shikharji, the holiest Jain pilgrimage centre, is situated on which hill?
Sammed Shikharji stands on Parasnath hill in the Giridih district of Jharkhand, the highest hill in the state, and is held to be the place where twenty of the twenty-four tirthankaras attained liberation, which makes it the holiest of all Jain tirthas.
Read the full explanation →At Ellora, which group of caves belongs to Jainism?
The thirty-four caves at Ellora in Maharashtra are grouped by faith: caves 1 to 12 are Buddhist, caves 13 to 29 are Hindu, and caves 30 to 34 are Jain, the finest of the Jain group being Cave 32, the Indra Sabha, with its carved mandapa and the image of…
Read the full explanation →The Hathigumpha inscription of the Chedi king Kharavela is found in which caves?
The Hathigumpha or elephant cave at Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar carries the long Prakrit inscription of Kharavela, the Chedi or Mahameghavahana king of Kalinga, which records his campaigns and his patronage of Jainism; Udayagiri and the neighbouring Khandagiri form a Jain cave group.
Read the full explanation →The Dilwara Jain temples, famous for their marble carving, are located at which place?
The Dilwara group of five marble temples stands on Mount Abu in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan, in the Aravalli range, and belongs to the Solanki period; the Vimal Vasahi is dedicated to Adinath and the Luna Vasahi to Neminath, and both are famous for ceilings and pillars carved as…
Read the full explanation →The monolithic Gommateshwara statue of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola was raised by which patron?
The Gommateshwara image of the Jain saint Bahubali at Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, about fifty-seven feet high and cut from a single block of granite on the Vindhyagiri hill, was raised by Chavundaraya, a minister and general of the Western Ganga kingdom.
Read the full explanation →The Ajanta caves, famous for their Buddhist paintings, are located in which state?
The twenty-nine Ajanta caves are cut into a horseshoe-shaped cliff above the Waghora stream in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra and are a World Heritage Site.
Read the full explanation →The sculptures of the Gandhara school were carved chiefly in which stone?
The Gandhara school worked in the north-west, around Taxila and Peshawar, and used the bluish-grey schist of that region; its figures show Greco-Roman influence in the wavy hair, the heavy folds of the drapery and the muscular, realistic modelling.
Read the full explanation →The Great Stupa at Sanchi was originally built during the reign of which ruler?
The core of the Great Stupa at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, also called Stupa Number One, was raised in the reign of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the third century before the common era; the Shungas later enlarged the dome and added the railing, and the four carved gateways or…
Read the full explanation →The Buddha delivered his first sermon, the Dhammachakkappavattana, at which place?
After attaining enlightenment the Buddha walked to the deer park at Sarnath, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and preached to his first five disciples; the event is called the Dhammachakkappavattana, the turning of the wheel of law.
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