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.
An ox-bow lake is formed by which of the following?
In its middle and lower course a river swings from side to side, eroding the outer bank of each bend and depositing on the inner bank.
Read the full explanation →Stalactites, stalagmites and pillars inside a limestone cave are formed mainly by the action of which agent?
Rainwater charged with carbon dioxide becomes a weak carbonic acid, seeps along joints in limestone and dissolves calcium carbonate by carbonation.
Read the full explanation →Exfoliation, in which curved shells of rock peel away from a granite dome like the skin of an onion, is an example of which process?
Exfoliation is caused by repeated heating and cooling of the outer layer of a rock and by the release of pressure when overlying material is removed; the surface expands and contracts more than the interior and splits away as curved sheets.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following types of erosion and arrange them in the correct sequence in the increasing order of soil loss from a field: I. Gully erosion II. Splash erosion III. Rill erosion IV. Sheet erosion. Select the correct answer from the codes given below.
Water erosion passes through stages, and the soil lost grows at every stage. Splash erosion, numbered II, is the first and mildest: raindrops strike bare soil and knock single particles a few centimetres away.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT a method of soil conservation?
Overgrazing strips the protective cover of grass, loosens the surface with hooves and leaves bare soil exposed to rain and wind, so it is one of the leading causes of soil erosion in dry India, never a remedy.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is the main cause of 'bad lands'?
Bad lands are stretches of land cut into a close network of deep gullies and sharp ridges, so dissected that cultivation becomes impossible, and they are produced when running water removes the topsoil through sheet wash that concentrates first into rills and then into gullies.
Read the full explanation →The rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers over land and forest produce were recognised by which law?
Its full name is the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, and it recognises individual rights over land that such families were cultivating, community rights over grazing grounds and water bodies, and rights over minor forest produce, while making the gram sabha the authority…
Read the full explanation →In the classification used by the Forest Survey of India, a forest with canopy density above seventy per cent is called which of the following?
The Forest Survey of India divides forest cover by the proportion of ground shaded by the tree canopy.
Read the full explanation →The headquarters of the Forest Survey of India is located at which place?
The Forest Survey of India, set up in 1981, has its headquarters at Dehradun in Uttarakhand, the city that is also home to the Forest Research Institute and the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, which makes Dehradun the centre of forestry work in the country.
Read the full explanation →The experiment at Arabari, which led to the national policy of Joint Forest Management, was carried out in which state?
In the early 1970s, in the Arabari range of the Midnapore district of West Bengal, foresters stopped treating villagers as encroachers and instead gave them a share in the protection and in the produce of a degraded sal forest; the forest recovered remarkably, and the experiment became the model for…
Read the full explanation →According to the National Forest Policy, what proportion of India's geographical area should be under forest or tree cover?
The National Forest Policy of 1952 laid down that about thirty-three per cent of the country's geographical area should carry forest or tree cover, and it broke that national figure into about sixty per cent for the hill and mountain regions, where slopes must be held against erosion and landslides…
Read the full explanation →The Appiko movement for the protection of forests was led by whom?
The Appiko movement started in 1983 in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, in the Western Ghats, where villagers walked into the forest and hugged trees marked for felling by contractors; Panduranga Hegde organised it after studying the Chipko movement of the Himalaya.
Read the full explanation →Van Mahotsav, the national tree planting festival begun in 1950, is observed in which month?
Van Mahotsav is observed in the first week of July, which is chosen because the monsoon has arrived over most of the country by then and a newly planted sapling has the best chance of surviving.
Read the full explanation →The Chipko movement began in 1973 in a district of which present-day state?
The movement began in 1973 in the Chamoli district of the Garhwal Himalaya, which was then part of Uttar Pradesh and has been in the new State of Uttarakhand since 2000.
Read the full explanation →Which Indian state has the largest area under forest cover?
Successive assessments by the Forest Survey of India have placed Madhya Pradesh first among the States in the absolute area under forest cover, a position it owes to its very large size and to the extensive teak and sal forests of the Satpura, Vindhya and Baghelkhand tracts.
Read the full explanation →Which sect is known for protecting the green trees?
The Bishnoi community of western Rajasthan follows the twenty-nine tenets laid down by Guru Jambheshwar in the fifteenth century, several of which forbid the felling of green trees and the killing of animals, and it is for this reason that khejri groves and herds of blackbuck survive in the desert…
Read the full explanation →Forest Conservation Act was enacted in which year?
The Forest (Conservation) Act was passed in 1980 to stop the steady loss of forest land to mining, roads, dams and townships.
Read the full explanation →The Lokpal at the Union level was established under which Act?
The Act created the Lokpal, an anti-corruption ombudsman for the Union, consisting of a Chairperson and members of whom not more than half are judicial members, and it required the States to establish a Lokayukta.
Read the full explanation →Which article of the Constitution provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities?
The article, inserted by the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956, requires the President to appoint a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities, usually called the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities and to report to the President, who places the report…
Read the full explanation →Match the body with the Act that created it and choose the pair that is correctly matched.
The Central Information Commission was created by the Right to Information Act, 2005, and hears second appeals from the orders of public information officers and first appellate authorities of the Union.
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