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 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in which city?
Alfred Nobel's will placed the peace prize in the hands of a Norwegian body, so the winner is chosen by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the prize is presented at Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Read the full explanation →Chilika Lake, the largest brackish water lagoon in India, lies in which state?
Chilika is a shallow lagoon on the Bay of Bengal coast, separated from the sea by a sandy ridge and joined to it by a narrow mouth, which is why its water is brackish.
Read the full explanation →The Montreux Record under the Ramsar Convention is a register of:
The Montreux Record lists Ramsar sites where the ecological character has changed, is changing or is likely to change because of pollution, encroachment, siltation or other interference, so that the parties can direct attention and assistance there.
Read the full explanation →A ring shaped coral reef enclosing a central lagoon is known as:
Charles Darwin explained its formation: a fringing reef grows around a volcanic island, the island slowly subsides, the reef keeps growing upward towards the light, and in the end only a ring of reef and a lagoon are left where the island stood.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is not one of the four major coral reef areas of India?
Its water is muddy, its tidal range is among the highest in the country and several rivers empty into it, so the clear, silt-free conditions that corals need are absent; it is known instead for tidal energy potential.
Read the full explanation →The algae that live inside coral polyps and give reefs their colour are called:
These single-celled algae live within the tissue of the coral polyp, photosynthesise, hand most of the food they make to the polyp and give the reef its colour; the polyp in return offers shelter and nutrients, a textbook case of symbiosis.
Read the full explanation →The upward growing breathing roots of mangrove plants are called:
Mangrove mud is waterlogged and short of oxygen, so these roots grow vertically out of the soil and take in air through small pores called lenticels; they are the classic adaptation asked about in examinations, along with stilt roots and vivipary.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is the largest mangrove forest in the world?
It is named after the sundari tree, holds the only mangrove population of the Royal Bengal tiger, and the Indian portion is a national park, a biosphere reserve and a World Heritage Site.
Read the full explanation →Keibul Lamjao, the only floating national park in the world, lies on which lake?
Keibul Lamjao National Park rests on these mats and is the last natural home of the sangai, the brow-antlered deer of Manipur.
Read the full explanation →World Wetlands Day is observed every year on which date?
The correct answer is B, 2 February, the anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar Convention in 1971, which is why the day carries that date.
Read the full explanation →The Convention on Wetlands, known as the Ramsar Convention, was signed in 1971 in which country?
The convention takes its name from Ramsar, a town on the Caspian coast of Iran, where it was signed on 2 February 1971; it came into force in 1975 and is the oldest of the modern global environmental treaties.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following pairs of wetlands and the confluence of rivers they lie at:
Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
The Harike Wetland in Punjab was created by building a barrage just below the point where the Beas joins the Sutlej, so the first pair is correct and it is the only one.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following Ramsar sites is not situated in Uttar Pradesh?
These twin lakes lie near Jammu in the Jammu and Kashmir region, not in Uttar Pradesh, so they are the odd one out in this list.
Read the full explanation →Punjab was annexed to British India in 1849 by which Governor-General?
The Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848 to 1849 ended with the defeat of the Sikh army at Gujrat, and Dalhousie annexed Punjab in 1849, placing it under a board of administration and sending the boy Maharaja Duleep Singh into exile.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first Peshwa of the hereditary line under the Maratha state?
Appointed Peshwa by Shahu in 1713, he secured from the Mughal court the right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi in the Deccan, and the office became hereditary in his family, so that later Peshwas ruled from Poona while the Chhatrapati at Satara became a figurehead.
Read the full explanation →Chauth, as levied by the Marathas, was what share of the revenue?
Chauth, from the word for four, was one-fourth of the revenue of a territory outside the Maratha kingdom, paid so that Maratha armies would not raid it and would in principle defend it.
Read the full explanation →By which treaty did Maharaja Ranjit Singh accept the Sutlej as the limit of his expansion?
By it Ranjit Singh and the East India Company agreed that the river Sutlej would divide their spheres, so the cis-Sutlej Sikh chiefs passed under Company protection and Ranjit Singh turned his energy westwards towards Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar.
Read the full explanation →Who compiled the Adi Granth, the first authorised scripture of the Sikhs?
The fifth Guru gathered the hymns of his predecessors along with verses of saints such as Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas and Sheikh Farid, and completed the Adi Granth in 1604, installing it in the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar with Baba Buddha as the first granthi.
Read the full explanation →The Khalsa was founded by Guru Gobind Singh in which year?
On Baisakhi in 1699 at Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh initiated the first five volunteers, the Panj Pyare, with the ceremony of the double-edged sword and created the Khalsa, giving its members the five articles of faith and the names Singh and Kaur.
Read the full explanation →What was the function of Pandit Rao in Chhatrapati Shivaji's administration?
The Panditrao was the ecclesiastical head in the Ashta Pradhan, fixing the dates of religious ceremonies, supervising grants to temples and learned men, and punishing offences against religious custom.
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