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.
Nisarga, Gati, Nivar, Tauktae and Yaas are names of
All five are tropical cyclones of the North Indian Ocean, named from the list kept by the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is found in the innermost part of the Earth ?
It separates the liquid outer core from the solid inner core at a depth of about 5,150 km, making it the deepest of the four boundaries.
Read the full explanation →Which among the following statements regarding the election of non-permanent members to the United Nations Security Council is/are correct ?
1. Five members coming from Africa and Asia, one from Eastern Europe, two from Latin America and two from Western Europe and other states
2. Six members are elected each year by the General Assembly for two year term
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
The ten non-permanent seats are shared by region as statement 1 says, but only five of them are filled each year, not six.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following statements about the arrival of tobacco in India :
1. Tobacco plant arrived first in the Deccan.
2. Tobacco spread to northern India in the early years of the seventeenth century.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
Tobacco, a New World plant brought to India by the Portuguese, first reached the Deccan and then spread to northern India in the early seventeenth century.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following tributaries is/are correctly matched with the Deccan Rivers ?
Tributary — River
1. Bhavani — Krishna
2. Kabini — Kaveri
3. Manjra — Godavari
4. Bhima — Mahanadi
Select the answer using the code given below:
The Kabini is a tributary of the Kaveri and the Manjra is a tributary of the Godavari, so only pairs 2 and 3 are correct.
Read the full explanation →The large well supplying water to the Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro was located
The Great Bath was surrounded by rooms, and a large well in one of the rooms on its eastern side supplied the water for the tank.
Read the full explanation →The College of Military Engineering affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru University is situated at
The College of Military Engineering stands at Dapodi in Pune, Maharashtra, and is the main training institution of the Indian Army's Corps of Engineers.
Read the full explanation →The terms 'Pinaka and Smerch' mentioned in news recently refer to
Pinaka and Smerch are both multi-barrel rocket launchers used by the Indian Army's artillery. Pinaka was developed by DRDO, with the Armament Research and Development Establishment at Pune as the lead laboratory, and is named after the bow of Lord Shiva.
Read the full explanation →P-75I (or P-75 India) project refers to manufacture of
Project 75 India, or P-75I, is the Indian Navy's plan to build six advanced conventional diesel-electric submarines in India. Its key requirement is Air Independent Propulsion, which lets a conventional submarine stay submerged for much longer without surfacing to charge its batteries.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following amendments to the Constitution of India has introduced reservations in education and in public employment for people from the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of society ?
The 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 allowed reservation of up to 10 percent for the Economically Weaker Sections in educational institutions and in government jobs.
Read the full explanation →How can one determine the relative humidity on a particular day at a given place?
Relative humidity compares the water vapour actually present in the air with the most the air could hold at that temperature, so both figures are needed.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following states is/are part of the Ganga Basin ? 1. Chhattisgarh 2. Himachal Pradesh 3. Rajasthan Select the answer using the code given below :
Parts of all three states drain into the Ganga through its tributaries. The Ganga basin is the largest river basin of India, covering about a quarter of the country's area.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following Indian States has the highest percentage of Scheduled Tribe population to its total population?
In Census 2011, Scheduled Tribes made up about 94.4 percent of Mizoram's population, the highest share among all the states.
Read the full explanation →The Eight Degree Channel separates which of the following?
The Eight Degree Channel runs roughly along the 8 degree north latitude in the Arabian Sea and separates Minicoy, the southernmost island of Lakshadweep, from the Maldives.
Read the full explanation →According to John Maynard Keynes, employment depends upon
In Keynes's theory the level of employment in an economy is fixed by effective demand, the level of total spending at which aggregate demand equals aggregate supply.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following was the first to arrive in Africa as traders that eventually led to European colonization of Africa?
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Africa's coasts as traders, and their trading posts began the long story of European colonisation of the continent.
Read the full explanation →The Citizenship (Amendment) Act falls under which one of the following Parts of the Constitution of India?
Citizenship is dealt with in Part II of the Constitution, Articles 5 to 11, and any citizenship law, including the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, falls under it.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not a correct statement with reference to the Constitution of India ?
Article 21A, the right to education, was inserted by the Constitution (Eighty-sixth) Amendment Act, 2002, not by the Eighty-fifth.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following characteristics of a soil type : 1. These soils consist of various proportions of sand, silt and clay. 2. These soils contain adequate proportions of potash, phosphoric acid and lime. 3. These soils can be further classified on the basis of their age. Identify the type of soil on the basis of the given characteristics.
All three features describe alluvial soil, the most widespread soil of India. Alluvial soil is deposited by rivers such as the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, and also lines the eastern coastal deltas.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about Mission Indradhanush, launched by the Government of India in 2014, is correct ?
Mission Indradhanush aims to raise full immunisation coverage among children, and it also covers pregnant women. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched it on 25 December 2014 to reach children who had been left out or only partly vaccinated under the routine Universal Immunisation Programme.
Read the full explanation →