Static general knowledge is the larger part of every UPSC general studies paper. The notices name the same areas again and again: the history of India and the national movement, Indian and world geography, polity and the Constitution, the economy and social development, and general science with environment and ecology. The balance shifts from exam to exam. NDA puts about half of its General Knowledge part on Physics, Chemistry and General Science. CSE favours polity, modern history, environment and the economy. CAPF adds security and human rights, and CDS spreads its questions across polity, history, geography, the economy and school science.
GK24's GK notes are written topic by topic in English and Hindi, as short, fact-first chapters that are easy to revise. They cover Indian Polity, Indian History, Geography, Indian Economy, General Science, Environment and Ecology, Art and Culture, Computer, and the fact lists of awards, sports, books and days. A new chapter is added in each subject as the series grows. Each note carries practice questions, and those that have appeared in an exam say which exam and year. Start with Polity and modern history, then Geography, the Economy and Science. Read a note, take its topic quiz, and come back to it in your monthly revision.
Which is the characteristic verse-song form of Haryana, sung within a Saang performance and also on its own?
The Ragini is the stanza song of Haryana, built on a fixed refrain to which the singer returns after every verse.
Read the full explanation →The Gugga dance of Haryana is performed in which month of the Hindu calendar?
The Gugga or Gugga Naumi observance falls in the month of Bhadon, when the followers of Gugga Pir, the folk deity associated with protection from snakes, carry the chhari, a tall staff decorated with peacock feathers and coloured cloth, from village to village, dancing and singing his ballad as they…
Read the full explanation →On which occasion is the Khoria dance of Haryana performed?
Khoria is danced by the women of the household among themselves once the men have set out with the wedding procession.
Read the full explanation →The Loor dance, in which two facing groups of women sing in question and answer, belongs to which tract of Haryana?
Loor belongs to the sandy Bagar country of the south-west of the state, around Bhiwani and Mahendragarh, and is danced by women and girls in the month of Phalgun and at Holi, when the spring crop is standing.
Read the full explanation →The Dhamal dance of Haryana is performed mainly by
Dhamal is counted the oldest dance of Haryana and belongs mainly to the Mahendragarh and Jhajjar belt, where the men of the village gather on the open ground on a full moon night of the Phalgun season, form a wide circle and dance to the beat of the dhamal drum…
Read the full explanation →Which poet of Haryana is honoured as the Surya Kavi and called the Shakespeare of Haryana?
Lakhmi Chand is the best known Saang poet of Haryana, honoured as the Surya Kavi or sun poet and commonly called the Shakespeare of Haryana for the range of his plays and the quality of his raginis.
Read the full explanation →Who gave the Saang folk theatre of Haryana its settled form in the eighteenth century?
Pandit Deepchand is the first great name in the history of Saang and is credited with turning a loose village entertainment into a sung play with a structure: an opening invocation, a story carried in verse, prose passages between the songs and a troupe built around the poet.
Read the full explanation →Which city of Bihar is known for its tussar silk weaving and is called the silk city?
Bhagalpur on the Ganga has woven tussar silk for centuries and is called the silk city of Bihar; its handloom weavers produce the coarse golden silk from cocoons reared on forest trees, and the city is a cluster for silk furnishing and sari weaving.
Read the full explanation →Manjusha art of Bihar is also known by which other name?
Manjusha is called snake painting because the serpent of the Bishahari legend is its ruling motif: snakes fill the panels, and the borders carry a continuous wavy line that reads as a serpent, one of the border patterns being named lahariya, the wave.
Read the full explanation →The Patna Kalam school of painting developed as an offshoot of
The Patna Kalam was made by families of painters trained in the Mughal manner who left Delhi and Murshidabad in the eighteenth century and settled at Patna.
Read the full explanation →The Sikki craft of the Mithila region is made from
Sikki is a reed grass of the wetlands of north Bihar whose stalks turn a bright golden colour when dried.
Read the full explanation →Sujni embroidery of Bihar is associated with which district?
Sujni is a quilted embroidery in which layers of old cloth are held together with rows of running stitch, and the stitches themselves build figures of women, animals, trees and village scenes.
Read the full explanation →Tikuli art of Patna originally decorated which object?
Tikuli takes its name from the tikuli or tikli, the decorated dot worn by women on the forehead, which was once made at Patna out of thin glass fused with gold foil and coloured enamel.
Read the full explanation →In Mithila tradition, the kohbar ghar on whose wall the painting is made is
The kohbar ghar is the room in which the bride and bridegroom are brought together after the wedding, and its wall carries the kohbar painting, a composition of the lotus with its ring of leaves, the bamboo grove, fish, parrots and the sun and moon, all of them symbols of…
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT a style of Madhubani painting?
Kalamkari is the pen and dye work on cloth of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, practised at Srikalahasti and Machilipatnam, and has nothing to do with Mithila.
Read the full explanation →Manjusha art, which narrates the legend of Bihula and Bishahari, belongs to which district of Bihar?
Manjusha art belongs to Bhagalpur and the Angika-speaking country around it. The paintings are made on the manjusha, a temple-shaped box built of bamboo strips and jute paper, which is carried in procession during the Bihula-Bishahari festival of the rainy season, and the panels tell the story of Bihula and…
Read the full explanation →Madhubani painting belongs to which region of Bihar?
Madhubani painting is also called Mithila painting because it grew in the Mithila region of northern Bihar, chiefly in the districts of Madhubani and Darbhanga, and the form takes its common name from the first of these districts.
Read the full explanation →The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 replaced which earlier law?
That law only restrained child marriage by punishing those who performed it; the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 goes further, making such a marriage voidable at the option of the contracting party who was a child, providing for Child Marriage Prohibition Officers and injunctions, and keeping the legal age…
Read the full explanation →The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was passed in which year?
The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 came into force on 30 January 1990. It defines a long list of specific atrocities, provides for Special Courts and Special Public Prosecutors, requires relief and rehabilitation for victims, and bars anticipatory bail for the offences it creates.
Read the full explanation →The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 raised paid maternity leave for the first two children to how many weeks?
The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 originally allowed twelve weeks of paid leave.
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