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.
Itai-itai disease, reported from the Jinzu river basin of Japan, results from poisoning by:
Mining waste carrying cadmium entered the Jinzu river in Toyama Prefecture and reached people through irrigated rice and drinking water.
Read the full explanation →Minamata disease, first identified in Japan in 1956, is caused by poisoning from which element?
The Chisso Corporation discharged methylmercury compounds into Minamata Bay in Kumamoto Prefecture; the mercury accumulated through fish and shellfish into the people who ate them and attacked the central nervous system, producing numbness, loss of coordination, blindness and congenital deformity.
Read the full explanation →The Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 took place at a plant located in which present-day country?
Reactor Number 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the town of Pripyat, exploded on 26 April 1986. The site then lay in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR and lies in independent Ukraine today, which is why the question is usually framed as present-day country.
Read the full explanation →The Bhopal Gas Tragedy occurred on the night of:
The leak at the Union Carbide India Limited plant in Bhopal began late on 2 December 1984 and the gas spread through the early hours of 3 December, which is why India observes 2 December as National Pollution Control Day.
Read the full explanation →The gas that leaked from the Union Carbide plant in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984 was:
Methyl isocyanate, or MIC, was stored at the Union Carbide India Limited plant in Bhopal as an intermediate for making the pesticide carbaryl.
Read the full explanation →The manuscripts of the Bhagavadgita and the Natyashastra were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register in:
The two manuscripts were inscribed on the International Register in April 2025 on a nomination made by the Ministry of Culture, and both are in the custody of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune.
Read the full explanation →Manuscripts of the Rigveda were inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register in which year?
The Rigveda manuscripts, preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, were inscribed on the International Register in 2007 as a record of one of the oldest surviving bodies of religious poetry anywhere.
Read the full explanation →The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme was established in:
UNESCO set up the Memory of the World Programme in 1992, after recognising that war, neglect, damp, insects and illegal trade were destroying archives and manuscript collections across the world.
Read the full explanation →Which UNESCO programme is concerned with the protection of documentary heritage such as manuscripts and archives?
The Memory of the World Programme protects documentary heritage, which means manuscripts, archives, maps, printed material, photographs and sound and film recordings, and it keeps an International Register, regional registers and national registers.
Read the full explanation →Kozhikode, designated a UNESCO Creative City in 2023, holds which creative field?
Kozhikode in Kerala became India's first UNESCO City of Literature in 2023, recognised for a dense network of publishing houses, libraries and reading rooms, for Malayalam writing and for literary festivals held in the city.
Read the full explanation →Hyderabad was added to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2019 as a city of:
Hyderabad was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2019 for a cuisine that grew in the kitchens of the Deccan courts, with Hyderabadi biryani, haleem, qubani ka meetha and the Irani chai of the city's cafes as its best known dishes.
Read the full explanation →Mumbai is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of:
Mumbai was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Film in 2019, on the strength of the country's oldest and largest film industry, which grew from Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra of 1913 and now produces films in Hindi, Marathi and several other languages from one city.
Read the full explanation →Which Indian city was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Music in 2023?
Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh joined the network as a City of Music in 2023, recognised for the Gwalior gharana, the oldest surviving gharana of khayal singing, and for its association with Tansen, the musician of Akbar's court, whose tomb and annual Tansen Samaroh are in the city.
Read the full explanation →Jaipur was included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2015 under which creative field?
Jaipur joined the network in 2015 on the strength of its craft traditions, among them blue pottery, hand blockprinting, gem cutting, lac bangles, meenakari enamel and stone carving, and it was one of India's first two members along with Varanasi.
Read the full explanation →The UNESCO Creative Cities Network was created in which year?
UNESCO created the Creative Cities Network in 2004 to link cities that place their creative industries at the centre of local development, and a city joins in one of seven fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts or Music.
Read the full explanation →In Government of NCT of Delhi versus Union of India (2018), the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi
The five-judge Bench read Article 239AA as a scheme of representative government and held that the Lieutenant Governor has no independent decision-making power; he must act on the aid and advice of the elected Council of Ministers except on public order, police and land, and where a law requires him…
Read the full explanation →The Union Territory of Lakshadweep falls under the jurisdiction of which High Court?
Lakshadweep lies off the Malabar coast and is within the jurisdiction of the High Court of Kerala, whose seat is at Ernakulam.
Read the full explanation →Which Article of the Constitution deals with High Courts for Union Territories?
It provides that Parliament may by law constitute a High Court for a Union Territory or declare any court in such a territory to be a High Court, and it is under this article that the Delhi High Court Act, 1966 set up the only High Court a Union Territory…
Read the full explanation →The category of Union Territories was created, and the classification of states into Parts A, B, C and D abolished, by which amendment?
Acting on the report of the States Reorganisation Commission, Parliament passed the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, which ended the four-fold classification of Part A, B, C and D states and left a single class of states together with a new class called Union…
Read the full explanation →Which of the following Union Territories is not covered by the President's power to make regulations under Article 240?
Article 240(1) names the territories for which the President may make regulations for peace, progress and good government: the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry, the last only while its assembly stands dissolved or suspended.
Read the full explanation →