UPSC GK Questions 2026

The puanchei is the festive wrap of Mizo women, woven in bands of black, red, white and green, and it is the dress worn for the Cheraw or bamboo dance and at the Chapchar Kut festival, usually with the kawrchei blouse.

The jainsem is the dress of Khasi women, made of several pieces of cloth fastened at the shoulders so that it falls in a loose cylinder, and the dhara is the length of cloth draped over it; Garo women of the same state wear the dakmanda, and Jaintia women the…

The nauvari saree takes its name from the nine vars or yards of cloth it uses, and it is draped without a petticoat, the pleats passed between the legs in the kasta or sakachcha style that allows free movement.

Mundum Neriyathum is the oldest surviving form of dress of Keralite women: the mundu is the lower garment and the neriyathu the upper cloth, both usually in off-white cotton with a kara, the golden or coloured border.

Pano Bhaju is the traditional attire of Hindu women of Goa, the pano being the draped cloth and the bhaju the blouse worn with it, usually completed with ornaments at the neck and the hair.

The pheran is a long, loose woollen gown reaching below the knees, worn by both men and women in the Kashmir valley through the cold months, often with a kangri, the earthen firepot, held beneath it.

The phanek is the wrap-around lower garment of Manipuri women, woven in horizontal stripes, and the innaphi is the light shawl worn over it.

The Mekhela Chador is a two-piece dress of Assamese women: the mekhela is the lower garment wrapped like a sarong and pleated at the front, and the chador is the upper cloth draped over the shoulder and tucked into the mekhela.

Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University stands at Pusa in Samastipur district, on the campus where the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute was founded before it moved to New Delhi, and it was given the status of a central agricultural university in 2016.

The Sone canal system takes off at Dehri in Rohtas district, where a weir across the Sone feeds the eastern and western main canals that water Rohtas, Aurangabad, Gaya, Patna and Bhojpur; it is the oldest major canal work of the state and the mainstay of irrigation in south Bihar.

West Bengal grows far more jute than any other state, and Bihar comes next, its crop concentrated in the north-eastern districts of Purnia, Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj, where high rainfall, standing water for retting and alluvial soil suit the fibre.

The tal lands are low saucer shaped tracts of south Bihar that fill with water during the monsoon and cannot carry a kharif crop; as the water drains in October and November the moist soil gives an excellent rabi crop of gram, lentil, pea and khesari, and Mokama Tal is…

Magahi paan takes its name from the Magadh region and is grown in Gaya, Nawada, Aurangabad and Nalanda, where the soft leaf with its sweet taste and lack of sharpness has made it famous; it carries a geographical indication tag of its own.

The Shahi litchi of Muzaffarpur and the neighbouring districts of north Bihar is known for its thin skin, small stone and high juice content, it received a geographical indication tag in 2018, and Muzaffarpur is called the litchi capital of the country and houses the National Research Centre on Litchi.

Cotton is a kharif crop, sown with the onset of the monsoon in June and July and picked from October onwards, because it needs warmth and rainfall during growth and dry weather at picking.

The makhana research centre is at Darbhanga, in the heart of the Mithila makhana belt, and work there covers pond management, the harvesting and popping process and improved varieties such as Swarna Vaidehi.

Mithila Makhana was registered as a geographical indication in 2022, the tag going to a producers body of the Mithila region so that growers of Darbhanga, Madhubani and the neighbouring districts, rather than traders elsewhere, gain from the name.

Makhana is the seed of Euryale ferox, a thorny aquatic plant of still shallow water whose large round leaves cover the surface of ponds and chaurs; the seeds are gathered from the pond bed, dried, roasted and popped into the white kernels sold as makhana or phool makhana.

It needs tall wet grassland and will not survive in dry forest, so its fate is tied to the Terai, and the herds of Dudhwa and Kishanpur are among the largest anywhere; the Hastinapur sanctuary protects the separate population of the Ganga plain.

The TX2 award, named for the global goal of doubling wild tiger numbers, was given for the first time in 2020, and the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in the Terai of Uttar Pradesh received it after its tiger count rose sharply in the years following its notification as a tiger reserve.