UPSC GK Questions 2026

Courts can review a pardon on limited grounds, but the President always acts on the advice of the Union Council of Ministers.

Carborundum, or silicon carbide (SiC), is one of the hardest substances known, so it can grind, cut and polish other materials, which is what an abrasive must do.

The huge open-air rock relief at Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) in Tamil Nadu, known as the Descent of the Ganga or Arjuna's Penance, shows the river coming down from heaven to the earth.

Under the Rules of Procedure of the Lok Sabha, a member who wants to move a resolution to remove the Speaker must give notice of it in writing to the Secretary General.

Too little fluoride in drinking water leaves tooth enamel weak, so teeth decay more easily and develop cavities, called dental caries.

Bodhisattas were seen as deeply compassionate beings who gathered merit by their efforts, but they used that merit to help others rather than to attain nibbana for themselves.

The inner planets are the four that orbit the Sun inside the asteroid belt: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter divides the solar system into two groups.

Sangam literature describes Tamilakam as the land stretching from the Venkatam hills, around Tirupati, in the north to Kumari, the southern tip of the peninsula.

Disinvestment, small savings and market borrowing either create a liability for the government or reduce its assets, so they are capital receipts; interest received is a revenue receipt.

Siddhartha's mother, Queen Maya, died a few days after his birth, and her younger sister Mahapajapati Gotami brought him up as her own son.

The Congress Socialist Party was formed in 1934 by Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Minoo Masani, not by M. N. Roy.

The Paramahansa Mandali was a Maharashtra body, founded in Bombay, not in Bengal by Swami Vivekananda, while the Prarthana Samaj was indeed a Maharashtra reform movement.

At spring tide the pulls of the Sun and the Moon add up, so the tidal range is at its greatest.

Retail core inflation is the rise in the Consumer Price Index after leaving out its two most volatile groups, food and beverages and fuel and light.

Potassium carbonate comes from a strong base and a weak acid, so statement 1 is wrong, while statements 2 and 3 are right.

When water is short, leaves make more abscisic acid (ABA), which makes the guard cells lose water and close the stomata, so the plant loses less water through transpiration.

Nekton are animals large enough to be seen with the naked eye that swim actively and can move against water currents.

These four early communists were convicted in the Cawnpore (Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy Case of 1924 and sentenced to four years in jail.

The Harappan script has never been deciphered, so no one can say what it refers to; the name Meluhha comes from Mesopotamian texts, not from Harappan writing.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu worshipped God in a personal form, as Krishna, so he belonged to the Saguna school of Bhakti, not the Nirguna school.