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.
The Kalinga War, fought in about 261 BCE, was waged by which ruler?
The Mauryan emperor Ashoka invaded Kalinga in about the eighth year of his reign, around 261 BCE, and the slaughter it caused turned him to Buddhism and to the policy of dhamma.
Read the full explanation →Which lake of Odisha is the largest brackish water lagoon in India?
Chilika, spread along the coast of the Puri, Khordha and Ganjam districts, is the largest brackish water lagoon in India, cut off from the Bay of Bengal by a long sandbar.
Read the full explanation →Odisha came into being as a separate province on which date, observed in the state as Utkal Divas?
Orissa was separated from the Bihar and Orissa Province and made a province in its own right on 1 April 1936, and the day is kept every year as Utkal Divas.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT one of the four thematic areas of the National Quantum Mission?
The four thematic areas, each with its own hub, are quantum computing at the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, quantum communication at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, quantum sensing and metrology at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and quantum materials and devices at the Indian Institute of Technology…
Read the full explanation →Which country launched Micius, the world’s first dedicated quantum communication satellite?
Micius was launched in 2016 and was used to demonstrate quantum key distribution between a satellite and ground stations, and entanglement distribution over distances far greater than optical fibre allows, since fibre loses photons rapidly over long runs.
Read the full explanation →The BB84 protocol, a foundation of quantum cryptography, was proposed in which year?
Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard proposed the protocol in that year, and the name BB84 combines their initials with the year.
Read the full explanation →What is the total outlay approved for the National Quantum Mission?
The Union Cabinet approved this amount on 19 April 2023 for the period 2023-24 to 2030-31, that is an eight year span, and the Department of Science and Technology implements the mission within it.
Read the full explanation →Quantum key distribution is considered secure mainly because of which principle?
The no cloning theorem forbids an exact copy of an unknown state, and any measurement changes the state, so an eavesdropper on the channel inevitably leaves statistical traces that the two legitimate parties detect when they compare a sample of their key.
Read the full explanation →Shor’s algorithm is significant for quantum computing because it can efficiently perform which task?
Peter Shor published the algorithm in 1994, and it would let a sufficiently large quantum computer break the large number factorisation on which public key encryption such as the RSA system depends.
Read the full explanation →Which property allows a qubit to hold the values zero and one at the same time?
A classical bit must be either zero or one, but a qubit can occupy a combination of both states until it is measured, and this is what allows a register of n qubits to represent two raised to the power n states together.
Read the full explanation →Under the National Quantum Mission, the thematic hub for quantum computing has been set up at which institution?
The mission divides the field among four thematic hubs, and quantum computing was assigned to the Indian Institute of Science.
Read the full explanation →The National Quantum Mission aims to build intermediate scale quantum computers of how many physical qubits in eight years?
This is the headline target stated when the Cabinet approved the mission, and it is to be achieved on more than one hardware platform, including superconducting and photonic technology, rather than on a single design.
Read the full explanation →The National Quantum Mission of India is implemented by which department?
The Union Cabinet approved the mission on 19 April 2023 and placed its implementation with that department, which runs it through four thematic hubs at leading academic institutions.
Read the full explanation →The Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1897, has its headquarters at which place in West Bengal?
Situated on the west bank of the Hooghly near Howrah, Belur Math is the headquarters of both the Ramakrishna Mission and the Ramakrishna Math, and its main temple is built in a style that deliberately blends Hindu, Islamic and Christian architectural elements.
Read the full explanation →Which was the first Indian product to receive a geographical indication tag?
Grown on the slopes of the Darjeeling hills in northern West Bengal, it was the first product in India to be registered under the geographical indications system, which protects a name that identifies goods as coming from a particular place and having qualities owing to that origin.
Read the full explanation →Santiniketan, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, is associated with which person?
Santiniketan in Birbhum district grew around the school and later the university Visva Bharati that Tagore founded there, teaching in the open air and joining Indian and world traditions, and it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2023.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Plassey, which opened Bengal to the East India Company, was fought in which year?
The battle was fought on 23 June 1757 at Palashi in the Nadia region, where Robert Clive defeated Siraj ud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, largely through the defection of Mir Jafar, and the victory made the Company the real power in Bengal.
Read the full explanation →The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, is famous as the habitat of which animal?
The Sundarbans, shared between India and Bangladesh, is the one place where tigers have adapted to a tidal mangrove habitat and are known to swim between islands.
Read the full explanation →The Farakka Barrage, commissioned in 1975, was built mainly for what purpose?
The Ganga splits in West Bengal, with the main stream going into Bangladesh as the Padma and the Bhagirathi and Hooghly running south past Kolkata.
Read the full explanation →Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for which work?
The collection of devotional poems, which Tagore himself rendered into English, won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, making him the first Indian and the first non European to receive the award.
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