UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

Iodine is needed to make thyroxine, so when the diet is short of it the thyroid gland works harder and enlarges into a visible swelling of the neck called goitre; a severe shortage in a growing child causes cretinism and in an adult myxoedema, and iodised salt is the standard…

Insulin lowers the level of glucose in the blood by helping the cells take it in and by having the liver store it as glycogen, and a want of insulin or a failure of the body to respond to it causes diabetes mellitus.

It is called the master gland because its secretions control other glands: thyroid stimulating hormone drives the thyroid, adrenocorticotropic hormone the adrenal cortex, and the gonadotropins the testes and ovaries, besides its own growth hormone.

The correct answer is B, the cerebellum, which lies below and behind the cerebrum and coordinates the work of the muscles so that movement is smooth and the body stays balanced; this is why a person whose cerebellum is affected by alcohol staggers.

The correct answer is B, the thyroid gland, a butterfly-shaped gland in front of the windpipe in the neck, which is the largest purely endocrine gland in the body and secretes thyroxine, triiodothyronine and calcitonin.

The brain is the organ that interprets pain, but its own tissue has no pain receptors, so cutting or pricking it causes no sensation; the covering membranes, the blood vessels and the scalp do have receptors, which is why a headache hurts.

The Nyaya Sutra was composed by the sage Gautama, also called Akshapada Gautama, who founded the Nyaya school of Indian philosophy.

Puhar, also called Kaveripattinam, was the great port of the early Cholas of the Sangam age. The town stood where the Kaveri meets the Bay of Bengal, and Karikala, the best known early Chola ruler, is credited with developing it.

That is the wording of Sustainable Development Goal 6, the water and sanitation goal. The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda, and they replaced the eight Millennium Development Goals.

The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 redrew the map of India mainly on the basis of language. The demand for linguistic states grew strong after independence.

Under the putting out system the merchant handed the raw material to the weaver and took back the finished cloth at a price he himself fixed, which was low.

All three statements describe real features of the Indian Constitution, so all of them have to be counted. Universal adult suffrage was there from the first general election itself.

New oceanic crust is made at mid-ocean ridges, where magma rises, cools and is pushed outwards on both sides, and that process is called seafloor spreading.

Interest paid on the government's past borrowing is the classic non-plan expenditure, because it is a committed charge the Centre must meet whatever its plans are.

Section 16 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 extends the collective-fine provision of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 to atrocities, and the power to impose and recover a collective fine on the inhabitants of an area rests with the State Government.

The last election to the Central Legislative Assembly set up under the Government of India Act of 1919 was held in the winter of 1945, after the Second World War ended and the Labour government in Britain moved towards a settlement with Indian leaders.

Article 338 provides for the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, a constitutional body that investigates and monitors the safeguards given to Scheduled Castes, enquires into specific complaints and reports to the President, who places the report before Parliament.

A pyramid of energy is always upright because energy is lost as heat at every step of a food chain, so each higher trophic level holds less energy than the one below it.

The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone is the low-pressure belt near the equator where the north-east and the south-east trade winds meet.

The Indian Councils Act of 1909, known as the Morley-Minto Reforms, introduced separate electorates for Muslims and so gave communal representation legal shape for the first time in British India.