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UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

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.

UPSC Civil Services GK Questions with Answers

Q13681.Environment & EcologyHard

The Global Tiger Forum, the only intergovernmental body devoted to tiger conservation, has its headquarters in

  1. A.New Delhi
  2. B.Kathmandu
  3. C.Geneva
  4. D.Gland
Show answer
Correct answer: A. New Delhi

The Global Tiger Forum was formed in the nineteen nineties as an international body of tiger range countries and others working for the conservation of the species, and its secretariat is in New Delhi, which reflects the share of the world's wild tigers that India holds.

Q13682.Environment & EcologyMedium

Global Tiger Day is observed every year on

  1. A.29 July
  2. B.12 August
  3. C.5 June
  4. D.3 March
Show answer
Correct answer: A. 29 July

The day was agreed upon at the tiger summit held at St Petersburg in 2010, where the thirteen tiger range countries adopted the goal of doubling the number of wild tigers, and it is marked every year to draw attention to the conservation of the species.

Q13684.Environment & EcologyMedium

The MIKE programme, in which India takes part, is concerned with

  1. A.Monitoring the illegal killing of elephants
  2. B.Counting tigers by camera traps
  3. C.Monitoring glacier melt in the Himalaya
  4. D.Measuring industrial emissions of methane
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Monitoring the illegal killing of elephants

MIKE was set up under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. At selected sites, officials record every elephant carcass found and the cause of death in a standard form, so that the share of deaths due to poaching can be tracked and compared between countries and over time.

Q13686.Environment & EcologyEasy

Project Elephant was launched in which year?

  1. A.1973
  2. B.1992
  3. C.2010
  4. D.1986
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 1992

Project Elephant was launched in February 1992 as a centrally sponsored scheme to help the states protect elephants, their habitats and their corridors, to reduce conflict between elephants and human beings and to improve the welfare of captive elephants.

Q13687.Environment & EcologyMedium

The National Tiger Conservation Authority was given statutory status by amending which law?

  1. A.The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972
  2. B.The Indian Forest Act, 1927
  3. C.The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
  4. D.The Biological Diversity Act, 2002
Show answer
Correct answer: A. The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972

The amending Act of 2006 inserted a new chapter into it, creating the National Tiger Conservation Authority and providing for tiger reserves with a critical tiger habitat and a buffer, as well as for the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.

Q13691.Indian HistoryMedium

Shravasti was the capital of which mahajanapada?

  1. A.Kosala
  2. B.Malla
  3. C.Chedi
  4. D.Magadha
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Kosala

Shravasti was the capital of Kosala in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Ayodhya and Saketa were its other important towns. Its king Prasenajit was a contemporary of the Buddha, who spent many rainy seasons at the Jetavana monastery in Shravasti, which is why the town appears so often in Buddhist literature.

Q13692.Indian HistoryHard

The war engines rathamusala and mahashilakantaka are associated with the campaigns of which ruler?

  1. A.Bimbisara
  2. B.Ajatashatru
  3. C.Prasenajit
  4. D.Pradyota
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Ajatashatru

Buddhist and Jain traditions credit him with two engines used in the long war against the Vajji confederacy: the rathamusala, a chariot fitted with a swinging mace that cut down men as it was driven through them, and the mahashilakantaka, a catapult that hurled heavy stones.

Q13700.Indian EconomyHard

Under the Minimum Reserve System followed in India since 1957, the Reserve Bank must maintain a minimum reserve of

  1. A.Two hundred crore rupees, of which one hundred and fifteen crore is in gold
  2. B.One hundred crore rupees, entirely in gold
  3. C.Five hundred crore rupees, entirely in foreign securities
  4. D.One thousand crore rupees in government bonds
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Two hundred crore rupees, of which one hundred and fifteen crore is in gold

Under the Minimum Reserve System, adopted in 1957 in place of the earlier proportional reserve system, the Reserve Bank has to hold assets worth at least two hundred crore rupees against the notes it issues, of which gold must account for one hundred and fifteen crore and the remaining eighty-five…