UPSC GK Questions 2026

The Ural mountains, an old worn range running north to south across Russia, together with the Ural river, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, form the conventional boundary between Europe and Asia, which is why the two are often treated as one land mass called Eurasia.

It also passes more capital cities than any other river, among them Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.

The Volga, about 3,530 kilometres long, is the longest river of Europe and flows entirely within Russia to end in the Caspian, which is a landlocked salt lake and the largest lake in the world, so the Volga never reaches an ocean.

The correct answer is B, Mount Elbrus, 5,642 metres, a dormant volcano in the Caucasus range in Russia and the highest point of the continent.

The Great Rift Valley runs for about six thousand kilometres from the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea, down the Red Sea, through Ethiopia and the lake region of East Africa to Mozambique, and it is the largest rift on the continents, formed where the crust is being pulled apart.

Its shape and depth come from the rift: the floor between two parallel faults sank, giving a trough rather than a shallow basin.

The Bedouin are its best known nomadic people, and oases such as those of the Nile and the Fezzan support its settled life.

The Victoria Falls lie on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, where the Zambezi drops into a narrow basalt gorge; the local name Mosi-oa-Tunya means the smoke that thunders.

Its enormous basin lies on both sides of the Equator, so the river cuts the line twice before reaching the Atlantic.

Its highest summit is Kibo, also called Uhuru peak, and it stands close to the Equator yet carries snow and shrinking glaciers, a favourite illustration of climate changing with altitude.

It is caused by a virus that stays latent in the nerve cells for life, so the attacks can be controlled with medicines but the infection cannot be completely cured; hepatitis B and HIV infection fall in the same group.

Colostrum is the thin yellowish milk secreted in the first days after delivery and is rich in antibodies, especially immunoglobulin A, which pass to the baby and protect it from infection at a stage when its own immune system is immature; this protection is called passive immunity.

The amendment of 2021 kept termination up to twenty weeks on the opinion of one registered medical practitioner, allowed it between twenty and twenty-four weeks for certain categories of women such as survivors of rape or incest on the opinion of two practitioners, and removed the upper limit where a…

Saheli contains centchroman and is a non-steroidal pill taken once a week after an initial daily course, which makes it different from the combined hormonal pills that have to be taken daily and carry hormonal side effects.

Rising oestrogen from the ripening follicle triggers a sharp rise in LH from the anterior pituitary in the middle of the cycle, and this surge bursts the mature Graafian follicle and releases the ovum.

After ovulation the ruptured Graafian follicle turns into the yellow body called the corpus luteum, which secretes large amounts of progesterone to thicken and maintain the endometrium for implantation.

It is secreted by the trophoblast of the implanted blastocyst and then by the placenta, appears in the blood and urine within a few weeks of conception, and is unique to pregnancy, so test kits use antibodies against it.

The acrosome is a cap-like structure over the sperm nucleus filled with enzymes that digest the layers around the egg so that one sperm can fuse with it.

Sertoli cells line the seminiferous tubules and provide nutrition and support to the germ cells as they divide and change into sperms, which is why they are called nurse cells; they are controlled mainly by follicle stimulating hormone.

The correct answer is B, the Leydig or interstitial cells, which lie in the spaces between the seminiferous tubules of the testis and secrete androgens, chiefly testosterone, under the influence of luteinising hormone from the anterior pituitary.