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 rusting of iron is an example of which kind of chemical change?
Rusting is a slow oxidation in which iron combines with oxygen in the presence of moisture to form hydrated iron oxide, the reddish-brown flaky substance we call rust.
Read the full explanation →Which gas is released when zinc reacts with dilute hydrochloric acid?
Zinc is above hydrogen in the reactivity series, so it displaces hydrogen from a dilute acid: zinc and dilute hydrochloric acid give zinc chloride and hydrogen gas.
Read the full explanation →How many electron pairs are shared between the two atoms in a nitrogen molecule?
A nitrogen atom has five valence electrons and needs three more to complete its octet, so two nitrogen atoms share three pairs of electrons and form a triple bond, written N to N with three lines.
Read the full explanation →A chemical bond formed by the complete transfer of electrons from one atom to another is called a:
In an ionic or electrovalent bond a metal atom loses one or more electrons to a non-metal atom; the metal becomes a positive ion and the non-metal a negative ion, and the electrostatic attraction between the two holds the compound together, as in sodium chloride and magnesium oxide.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is used as a catalyst in the hydrogenation of vegetable oil?
Vegetable oils contain unsaturated fatty acids with carbon-carbon double bonds, and when hydrogen is passed through the oil at about 60 degrees Celsius in the presence of finely divided nickel, the double bonds add hydrogen and become saturated, turning the liquid oil into semi-solid vanaspati.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is an amphoteric oxide?
An amphoteric oxide reacts with both acids and bases to give a salt and water. Aluminium oxide dissolves in hydrochloric acid to give aluminium chloride and in sodium hydroxide to give sodium aluminate, so it behaves as a base in one case and as an acid in the other.
Read the full explanation →The number of sigma and pi bonds in benzene, respectively, is:
Benzene has the formula C6H6 and a ring of six carbon atoms, each carrying one hydrogen. Count the sigma bonds first: six carbon-carbon bonds around the ring and six carbon-hydrogen bonds give twelve sigma bonds.
Read the full explanation →Which among the following compounds has a double bond?
Ethylene, also called ethene, has the formula C2H4, and its two carbon atoms share two pairs of electrons, which is a carbon-carbon double bond made of one sigma and one pi bond; it is the simplest alkene.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT a double displacement reaction?
In a double displacement reaction two compounds exchange their ions, so both reactants must be compounds. Here hydrogen and oxygen are elements combining to form a single product, water, which makes it a combination reaction and also a combustion and redox reaction, but certainly not a double displacement.
Read the full explanation →Excess of which substance in drinking water causes fluorosis, a disease that mottles teeth and deforms bones?
A small quantity of fluoride in drinking water protects teeth against decay, but when the concentration rises above the permissible limit it causes fluorosis.
Read the full explanation →Water hyacinth, the floating weed that chokes nutrient-rich water bodies, is popularly known as:
Water hyacinth is an aquatic weed introduced into India from South America.
Read the full explanation →The Namami Gange Programme is implemented by which body?
The mission, working under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, is the implementing agency of the Namami Gange Programme launched in 2014, and it works through State Ganga Committees and district committees along the river.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Ganga Action Plan, India’s first major river cleaning programme, launched?
The Ganga Action Plan was launched in 1985 to intercept, divert and treat the sewage of the towns along the river, and it was the first programme of its kind in India.
Read the full explanation →The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, which set up the Central and State Pollution Control Boards, was enacted in which year?
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 was India’s first comprehensive law on pollution.
Read the full explanation →The excessive growth of algae in a water body due to enrichment with nitrates and phosphates is called:
When fertilisers, detergents and sewage add nitrates and phosphates to a lake or a slow-moving river, algae multiply into a bloom that covers the surface.
Read the full explanation →Blue baby syndrome, or methaemoglobinemia, in infants is caused by an excess of which substance in drinking water?
Nitrate from fertiliser run-off and from sewage seeps into groundwater; in an infant it is converted to nitrite, which binds to haemoglobin and forms methaemoglobin, a compound that cannot carry oxygen.
Read the full explanation →A high value of biochemical oxygen demand in a water sample indicates:
Biochemical oxygen demand measures the oxygen that micro-organisms need in order to break down the organic matter present in a sample.
Read the full explanation →Minamata disease is caused by the pollution of water with which metal?
Minamata disease takes its name from Minamata Bay in Japan, where a factory discharged mercury compounds that were converted by bacteria into methylmercury, concentrated in fish through biomagnification and then eaten by people.
Read the full explanation →Which pollution causes Itai-Itai disease in human beings?
Itai-Itai disease was first identified in Japan among people who ate rice grown with water polluted by cadmium from mining waste.
Read the full explanation →As of March 2022, the common High Court for the states of Punjab and Haryana is located at _____.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court sits at Chandigarh and serves the States of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
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