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UPSC GK Questions 2026

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.

UPSC GK Questions with Answers

Q6541.Indian PolityAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2024, GKMedium

Which of the following statements with respect to the right to have a legal aid is/are correct? 1. Under the Constitution of India, it is given under the Directive Principles of State Policy. 2. It is the duty of the police to inform the nearest Legal Aid Committee immediately after the arrest of a person. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

  1. A.1 only
  2. B.2 only
  3. C.Both 1 and 2
  4. D.Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Both 1 and 2

Free legal aid is a Directive Principle under Article 39A, and the Supreme Court has made it the duty of the police to inform the nearest Legal Aid Committee as soon as a person is arrested.

Q6543.General ScienceAsked in: CDS · CDS-II 2025, GKHard

Which one of the following statements is not correct for benzene ?

  1. A.Each carbon atom forms sigma bonds with two other carbon atoms with a bond angle of 120°.
  2. B.Delocalized electrons create symmetrical 'cloud' of electrons above and below the plane.
  3. C.The length of C-C bonds is intermediate between single and double bonds.
  4. D.It has six isomers.
Show answer
Correct answer: D. It has six isomers.

This is the statement that is not correct; the other three describe the benzene molecule correctly, and UPSC's official key also gives D. Benzene, C6H6, is a flat ring of six carbon atoms.

Q6544.General ScienceAsked in: CDS · CDS-I 2026, GKMedium

Consider the following statements regarding matter : 1. Elements cannot be broken down into simpler substances. 2. A compound has variable composition and can be broken down into elements. 3. The solution of sulphur in carbon disulphide is an example of a homogeneous mixture. Which of the statements given above is/are not correct ?

  1. A.2 only
  2. B.1 and 3
  3. C.3 only
  4. D.1 and 2
Show answer
Correct answer: A. 2 only

Statement 2 is the only incorrect one, because a compound always has a fixed composition, not a variable one. An element is the simplest form of matter and cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical reactions, so statement 1 is correct.

Q6545.Indian EconomyAsked in: CDS · CDS-II 2026, GKMedium

Under the Ministry of Finance, which Department is responsible for giving advice on economic issues having a bearing on internal and external aspects of economy including foreign exchange management?

  1. A.Department of Economic Affairs
  2. B.Department of Expenditure
  3. C.Department of Investment and Public Asset Management
  4. D.Department of Financial Services
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Department of Economic Affairs

It is the Finance Ministry's nodal department for economic policy, at home and abroad, including the management of foreign exchange.

Q6546.Indian EconomyEasy

Which of the following is regarded as the most successful component of land reform in India?

  1. A.Abolition of intermediaries
  2. B.Imposition of ceilings on holdings
  3. C.Distribution of surplus land
  4. D.Voluntary land gifts under Bhoodan
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Abolition of intermediaries

The laws passed between 1948 and the middle of the nineteen fifties ended zamindari, jagirdari and similar tenures across the country and brought about twenty million cultivators into direct relation with the state, and the First Amendment of 1951 secured those laws, so the class of rent collecting intermediaries disappeared.

Q6547.Indian EconomyHard

The right to property ceased to be a fundamental right in India by which constitutional amendment?

  1. A.Twenty-fifth Amendment
  2. B.Forty-second Amendment
  3. C.Forty-fourth Amendment
  4. D.Seventy-third Amendment
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Forty-fourth Amendment

Passed in 1978, it deleted the right to property from Part III and re-enacted it as Article 300A, under which no person may be deprived of property except by authority of law, so the protection is now a legal right enforceable through the ordinary courts rather than a fundamental right.

Q6548.Indian EconomyHard

In the context of land ceiling laws, a benami transfer means

  1. A.the sale of land to a cooperative society
  2. B.the transfer of land in the name of another person to hide real ownership
  3. C.the lease of land to a sharecropper for a fixed share
  4. D.the exchange of scattered plots to form a compact field
Show answer
Correct answer: B. the transfer of land in the name of another person to hide real ownership

A benami transfer records land in the name of a relative, a servant or a fictitious person while the real owner keeps control, and it was the commonest device used to stay within the family ceiling on paper while holding far more land in fact, which is one reason so…

Q6549.Indian EconomyMedium

Consolidation of holdings in India has been most successful in which group of states?

  1. A.Kerala and Tamil Nadu
  2. B.Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh
  3. C.Odisha and West Bengal
  4. D.Assam and Tripura
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh

These states made consolidation compulsory and completed it over most of their cultivated area, exchanging a farmer's scattered strips for one compact block, which made tube wells, tractors and field channels worth installing and so fed into the green revolution.

Q6550.Indian EconomyMedium

Under the Constitution, land and land tenures fall in which legislative list?

  1. A.Union List
  2. B.State List
  3. C.Concurrent List
  4. D.Residuary powers of Parliament
Show answer
Correct answer: B. State List

Land, rights in and over land, land tenures, the relation of landlord and tenant, and the collection of rent are entries of List II of the Seventh Schedule, which is why zamindari abolition, tenancy law and ceilings were enacted state by state and why their record varies so much.

Q6551.Indian EconomyMedium

The Bhoodan movement was started in 1951 by whom and at which place?

  1. A.Jayaprakash Narayan at Sitabdiara
  2. B.Vinoba Bhave at Pochampally
  3. C.Mahatma Gandhi at Sevagram
  4. D.N.G. Ranga at Guntur
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Vinoba Bhave at Pochampally

Walking through the villages of the Telangana region in 1951 he asked landowners to treat the landless as their own kin and to gift a share of their land, and the first such gift at Pochampally began the Bhoodan or land gift movement, later extended as Gramdan, the gift of…

Q6552.Indian EconomyMedium

Operation Barga, the programme to record and protect sharecroppers, was carried out in which state?

  1. A.Kerala
  2. B.West Bengal
  3. C.Bihar
  4. D.Maharashtra
Show answer
Correct answer: B. West Bengal

From 1978 the state government ran a campaign to enter the names of sharecroppers, known there as bargadars, in official records, which gave them a permanent and heritable right to cultivate and a legally fixed share of the crop, and it is quoted as the most effective tenancy reform in…

Q6553.Indian EconomyMedium

Which amendment of the Constitution added the Ninth Schedule in order to protect land reform laws from challenge?

  1. A.First Amendment, 1951
  2. B.Fourth Amendment, 1955
  3. C.Seventeenth Amendment, 1964
  4. D.Forty-fourth Amendment, 1978
Show answer
Correct answer: A. First Amendment, 1951

Courts had begun to strike down zamindari abolition laws as a breach of the right to property, so Parliament inserted Articles 31A and 31B and created the Ninth Schedule, in which a law can be placed to put it beyond challenge on the ground that it takes away a fundamental…

Q6554.Indian EconomyMedium

The Ryotwari system of land revenue is associated chiefly with which official?

  1. A.Holt Mackenzie
  2. B.Thomas Munro
  3. C.John Shore
  4. D.Lord Cornwallis
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Thomas Munro

Working with Alexander Read in the ceded districts and later as Governor of Madras, Munro settled the revenue directly with each cultivator, the ryot, who was recognised as the owner of his field so long as he paid, with the demand revised every twenty or thirty years.

Q6557.GeographyHard

Which of the following statements about the green revolution in India is NOT correct?

  1. A.It began in the middle of the nineteen sixties.
  2. B.It depended on high yielding dwarf varieties, irrigation and fertiliser.
  3. C.Its gains were spread evenly across all states of India.
  4. D.It raised wheat output more than it raised rice output.
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Its gains were spread evenly across all states of India.

The correct answer is C, because the gains were not spread evenly: they were concentrated in the assured irrigation belt of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and later in parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, while the rain fed districts of central and eastern India gained far less.

GK Questions for sub-exams