UPSC GK Questions 2026

Calcium chloride is an ionic compound, so the sum of the atomic masses in its formula is called the formula unit mass rather than the molecular mass.

The formula of ammonia is NH3, so its molecular mass is the atomic mass of one nitrogen atom added to the atomic masses of three hydrogen atoms, that is fourteen plus three times one, which equals seventeen unified atomic mass units; one mole of ammonia therefore weighs seventeen grams.

Water drawn from a river, from rain or made in a laboratory always has hydrogen and oxygen in the mass ratio of one to eight, and ammonia always has nitrogen and hydrogen in the ratio of fourteen to three.

The correct answer is B, Antoine Lavoisier, the French chemist who showed by careful weighing in closed vessels that the total mass of the products of a reaction is exactly equal to the total mass of the reactants, so that matter is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical change.

According to the Supreme Court of India, Justice Surya Kant was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court on 24 May 2019 and was sworn in as the fifty-third Chief Justice of India on 24 November 2025, with retirement due on 9 February 2027.

Justice Y. V. Chandrachud was Chief Justice of India from 1978 to 1985 and his son, Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, became the fiftieth Chief Justice of India in November 2022, the only instance of a father and a son both holding the office.

Article 126 provides that when the office of Chief Justice of India is vacant, or when the Chief Justice is by reason of absence or otherwise unable to perform the duties of the office, the duties shall be performed by such one of the other judges of the Court as…

Article 124(2) provides that a judge of the Supreme Court holds office until he attains the age of sixty-five years, and the Chief Justice of India is a judge of that Court, so the same limit applies to him.

Article 60 lays down the form of oath for the President and provides that it is made in the presence of the Chief Justice of India, or in his absence the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court available.

Justice Kamal Narain Singh was Chief Justice of India for only seventeen days, from 25 November to 12 December 1991, the shortest tenure in the history of the office.

Justice Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud was Chief Justice of India from 22 February 1978 to 11 July 1985, a tenure of about seven years and four months, by far the longest any holder of the office has had.

Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah, who was Chief Justice of India from 1968 to 1970, officiated as President of India from 20 July to 24 August 1969, in the gap between the death of President Zakir Husain and the election of V. V. Giri.

Article 124 establishes the Supreme Court of India and lays down that every judge of the Court, including the Chief Justice of India, is appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal; Article 124(2) fixes the retirement age at sixty-five years and Article 124(4) prescribes the procedure…

When the Federal Court of India became the Supreme Court of India on 26 January 1950, Justice H. J. Kania, who had been Chief Justice of the Federal Court, became the first Chief Justice of India.

The Satavahanas of the Deccan issued coins mainly in lead and in potin, an alloy of copper with tin, lead and zinc, and some of their issues carry a two-masted ship, which historians read as evidence of their sea-borne trade on the eastern coast.

With effect from 1 April 1957 the rupee ceased to be divided into sixteen annas and sixty-four pice and was divided instead into one hundred units, called naye paise at first and, from 1964, simply paise.

The Arthashastra of Kautilya describes a large body of superintendents, and the Lakshanadhyaksha was the superintendent of the mint, responsible for striking coins of the prescribed weight and alloy.

These coins show a king with the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi on one face and a seated goddess with the legend Lichchhavayah on the other, and they are conventionally attributed to Chandragupta I, whose marriage to her strengthened the early Gupta state; some scholars believe his son struck them in his…

Gupta gold coins, called dinara, survive in greater numbers than those of any other ancient Indian dynasty, and their types form a gallery of royal images: the King and Queen type, the Ashvamedha and Lyrist types of Samudragupta, and the Archer and Chakravikrama types of Chandragupta II.

Jahangir struck a celebrated series of gold and silver coins showing the twelve signs of the zodiac, and another series carrying his own portrait, which is unusual in Islamic coinage; he also issued coins in the name of Nur Jahan.