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.
Which novel won Arundhati Roy the Booker Prize in 1997?
Arundhati Roy's first novel, set in Ayemenem in Kerala and built around the twins Rahel and Estha, won the Booker Prize in 1997, the fiftieth year of Indian independence.
Read the full explanation →The poetry collection The Golden Threshold was written by which Indian writer?
The Golden Threshold, published in 1905, was her first collection of poems in English, and it was followed by The Bird of Time in 1912 and The Broken Wing in 1917.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first woman to be awarded the Jnanpith Award?
She received the Jnanpith Award in 1976 for the Bengali novel Pratham Pratishruti, the first part of a trilogy that follows three generations of women in a Bengali household, and she was the first woman to receive the award in its history.
Read the full explanation →Nelson Mandela was conferred the Bharat Ratna in which year?
Nelson Mandela, the leader of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and later its President, received the Bharat Ratna in 1990, the same year in which Dr B. R. Ambedkar was honoured posthumously.
Read the full explanation →The Bharat Ratna medallion is in the shape of which leaf?
The Bharat Ratna is a medallion shaped like a peepal leaf, about an inch and three-eighths wide, bearing a sun on the front with the words Bharat Ratna below it in Devanagari, and the State Emblem with the motto Satyameva Jayate on the reverse.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna?
The Carnatic vocalist M. S. Subbulakshmi received the Bharat Ratna in 1998 and was the first musician in the list.
Read the full explanation →The Bharat Ratna cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient's name because of which Article of the Constitution?
Article 18 abolishes titles and forbids the State from conferring any title except a military or academic distinction. The civilian awards survive because they are treated as decorations and not as titles, and for the same reason a recipient may not write Bharat Ratna before or after a name.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first sportsperson to be awarded the Bharat Ratna?
Until December 2011 the Bharat Ratna could be given only for art, literature, science and public service. The rules were then widened to cover any field of human endeavour, and in 2014 Sachin Tendulkar became the first sportsperson to receive the award, along with the scientist C. N. R. Rao.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first person who was not an Indian citizen to be awarded the Bharat Ratna?
The Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, called the Frontier Gandhi and the founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement, received the Bharat Ratna in 1987 and was the first recipient who was not an Indian citizen.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first woman to receive the Bharat Ratna?
Indira Gandhi received the Bharat Ratna in 1971, while she was Prime Minister, and she is the first woman in the list.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first person to be awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously?
The original rules of 1954 did not allow a posthumous award; the provision was added in 1955, and the first person honoured after his death was Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India, in 1966, the year he died at Tashkent.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following was NOT one of the first three recipients of the Bharat Ratna in 1954?
The first three recipients of the Bharat Ratna, all in 1954, were C. Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General of India, the physicist C. V. Raman and the philosopher S. Radhakrishnan, who later became President.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Bharat Ratna instituted?
The Bharat Ratna was instituted on 2 January 1954 by President Dr Rajendra Prasad, on the same day as the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, and the first awards were conferred later the same year on C. Rajagopalachari, C. V. Raman and S. Radhakrishnan.
Read the full explanation →Bhand Pather, a folk theatre form that mixes satire and mime and is accompanied by the surnai, belongs to:
Bhand Pather is the traditional folk theatre of Kashmir, performed by hereditary players called bhands.
Read the full explanation →Bhaona, the traditional theatre of Assam, is performed on plays called Ankiya Naat written by:
Srimanta Sankardeva, the fifteenth and sixteenth century Vaishnava saint and reformer of Assam, wrote the one-act plays called Ankiya Naat, and their performance in the namghar or the satra is called Bhaona.
Read the full explanation →The Bhojpuri folk theatre form Bidesia was created by:
Bidesia is the Bhojpuri folk theatre of Bihar created by Bhikhari Thakur in the early twentieth century.
Read the full explanation →Bhavai, a folk theatre form performed in the open with a long copper pipe called the bhungal, belongs to:
Bhavai is the folk theatre of Gujarat, also seen in parts of Rajasthan. It is played in open ground before a standing audience, its accompanying instrument is the bhungal, a long copper pipe, and its sketches, called veshas, are short and satirical, often aimed at caste and social custom.
Read the full explanation →Yakshagana, a night-long folk theatre form combining dance, music and dialogue, belongs to which state?
Yakshagana is the folk theatre of coastal Karnataka, performed through the night in the open with towering head-dresses, heavy make-up and loud percussion, and its episodes are drawn from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas; the singer who narrates and controls the performance is the Bhagavata.
Read the full explanation →Pavakathakali, also called Pavakoothu, is a glove puppet tradition of which state?
Pavakathakali, also known as Pavakoothu, is the glove puppet tradition of Kerala, and it borrows its costume, make-up and gesture from Kathakali, so the puppet heads carry the same towering head-dress and painted faces.
Read the full explanation →Yampuri, a rod puppet tradition in which the puppets are carved from wood in a single piece, is found in:
Yampuri is the rod puppet tradition of Bihar. Its puppets are carved from wood in one piece, without the joints that rod puppets elsewhere have, which makes them harder to handle and demands greater skill of the puppeteer.
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