UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

Dhanush is the ship-launched variant of the Prithvi short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile, fired from a stabilised platform on a naval vessel, and it can be used against targets on land or at sea.

Mission Shakti was conducted on 27 March 2019, when a DRDO interceptor launched from Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Island destroyed a satellite of India's own in a low earth orbit.

The Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, on the Odisha coast near Balasore, is the main missile testing facility of the DRDO, and many launches are also made from Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Island off the same coast, which was earlier called Wheeler Island.

Nirbhay is a long-range cruise missile that flies below the speed of sound, which is what subsonic means, and it is powered by a small turbofan engine that keeps it flying throughout its journey.

K-15, called Sagarika, is the first of the K series of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, developed for the Arihant class of nuclear powered submarines, and the longer-ranged K-4 follows it in the same family.

Agni-V is a three-stage solid-fuelled missile with a range beyond five thousand kilometres, which places it in the intercontinental ballistic missile class.

Astra is fired from a fighter aircraft at another aircraft that is still beyond the pilot's sight, which is what beyond visual range means, and it uses an active radar seeker in its final phase.

Akash was one of the five missiles of the IGMDP and is meant to destroy aircraft and helicopters at medium range.

Nag is a third generation anti-tank guided missile of the fire and forget kind, which means the operator can leave cover once the missile has locked on to the target.

BrahMos is built by a joint venture of India and Russia, and its name joins the Brahmaputra of India with the Moskva of Russia to mark the partnership.

The five missiles of the IGMDP were Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag. BrahMos came later and from a different route altogether, as a joint venture between India and Russia, and it is a supersonic cruise missile, while the IGMDP produced ballistic and guided missiles of Indian design.

The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, usually written IGMDP, was approved in 1983 and placed under the Defence Research and Development Organisation, with A. P. J. Abdul Kalam as its head.

Maharashtra has five of the twelve Jyotirlingas, which is more than any other state: Bhimashankar in Pune district, Trimbakeshwar near Nashik, Grishneshwar near the Ellora caves, Aundha Nagnath in Hingoli and Parli Vaijnath in Beed.

The island in Mumbai harbour that holds the Elephanta Caves is called Gharapuri locally, and the Portuguese named it Elephanta after a stone elephant found there.

Melghat lies in the Satpura hills of the Amravati district in Vidarbha, and it was among the first group of tiger reserves notified when Project Tiger began in 1973.

Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, the society of seekers of truth, at Pune in 1873, to work against caste discrimination and priestly authority and for the education of the lower castes and of women.

Shivaji was crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad in 1674, and the fort served as the capital of the Maratha kingdom, with its market street, the Jagadishwar temple and his samadhi still standing on the hill.

The Godavari rises at Trimbakeshwar in the Nashik district of Maharashtra, in the Sahyadri, and flows east across the Deccan to the Bay of Bengal, which makes it the longest river of peninsular India and the second longest river in the country after the Ganga.

The Kailasa temple, cave sixteen at Ellora, was carved out of a single mass of rock from the top downwards under the Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I, and it is dedicated to Shiva.

The Ajanta Caves were cut into a steep scarp above a horseshoe bend of the Waghora river, a small stream in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.