UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

Under the minimum reserve system adopted in 1957 the Bank keeps assets of at least two hundred crore rupees against the notes it issues, of which gold must be worth at least one hundred and fifteen crore rupees and the rest is held in foreign securities.

The one rupee note is not a Reserve Bank note at all: it is issued by the Government of India through the Ministry of Finance, is a legal tender note of the government and carries the signature of the Finance Secretary.

A margin requirement is the part of the value of a security that the borrower must fund from his own resources; by raising it for loans against a particular commodity the Bank can discourage credit flowing into speculation in that commodity without touching the total supply of credit.

It requires every scheduled bank to keep with the Reserve Bank a cash balance calculated on its net demand and time liabilities, and this proportion is the cash reserve ratio.

It amended the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 to insert the provisions on the inflation target and on the Monetary Policy Committee, so that the policy rate is now set by a committee and not by the Governor alone, and the framework of flexible inflation targeting became law.

Three of them come from the Reserve Bank, the Governor as chairperson, the Deputy Governor in charge of monetary policy and an officer of the Bank nominated by the Central Board, and three are appointed by the central government from among persons of ability and integrity with knowledge of economics…

In a repurchase agreement a bank sells government securities to the Reserve Bank and agrees to buy them back the next day at a fixed price; the difference is the interest, and the rate is the repo rate.

The Bank began as a shareholders' institution, and the Reserve Bank (Transfer to Public Ownership) Act, 1948 transferred its shares to the central government with effect from the first day of 1949, since when it has been fully owned by the Government of India.

This body, formally the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance, reported in 1926 and recommended the creation of a central bank separated from the government.

In summer, as the subtropical westerly jet withdraws to the north of the plateau of Tibet, an easterly jet stream forms in the upper air over peninsular India and blows from east to west.

Strong heating at the equator makes the air expand and rise, so surface pressure is low and horizontal winds are weak; sailing ships were often becalmed there.

It is a cold, dry and often violent wind that blows from the north down the Rhone valley of southern France to the Gulf of Lion, chilling the coast and damaging crops, which is why orchards there are protected by lines of trees and walls.

It states the deflection produced by the rotation of the earth, the Coriolis effect, which turns every freely moving body to the right of its path in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern.

It is a strong, hot and dry wind that blows during the day over the plains of north India and Pakistan in the peak of summer, raising temperatures sharply and causing heat stroke, and it dies down after sunset.

The wind is the Chinook. It descends the leeward slope, is compressed and warmed as it sinks, and can raise the temperature sharply in a few hours; it melts or evaporates the snow cover, which is why herders call it the snow eater and why it is valued for exposing…

It is comparatively inert, so it dilutes oxygen and slows combustion, and it enters living things mainly through the nitrogen cycle in which bacteria fix it in a usable form.

Although the air there is thin, it is dense enough to heat a body moving at cosmic speed by friction, so most meteors glow and are destroyed in this layer and are seen from the ground as shooting stars.

This is the average rate at which air temperature falls as one rises through the troposphere, and it explains why hill stations are cooler than the plains and why high peaks carry snow even in the tropics.

Ozone is concentrated in the lower and middle stratosphere, and because it absorbs ultraviolet radiation the temperature of this layer rises with height instead of falling.

This schedule carries the species given the highest degree of protection, for which hunting is barred throughout India and the penalties are the severest the Act provides, with the offence being cognizable and non bailable.