UPSC GK Questions 2026

Indian tradition, and the Bhagavad Gita in particular, sets out three classical paths by which a seeker may reach the spirit: jnana yoga, the path of knowledge and discrimination; bhakti yoga, the path of devotion and surrender; and karma yoga, the path of selfless action performed without attachment to its…

Samatvam means equanimity or evenness, the steadiness of mind that is not shaken by success or failure, and the Bhagavad Gita uses the expression samatvam yoga uchyate, evenness of mind is called yoga.

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, to join or to yoke, and the classical tradition treats it as a discipline that unites the individual self with the higher self.

Milan is the multinational naval exercise hosted by the Indian Navy. It began in 1995 at Port Blair with a few navies of the Bay of Bengal and South East Asia and later moved to Visakhapatnam, growing into a large gathering with a harbour phase of seminars and a sea…

SIMBEX stands for Singapore India Maritime Bilateral Exercise, the longest running naval exercise India holds with any country, begun in 1994 and conducted in the South China Sea, the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Mitra Shakti is the army exercise between India and Sri Lanka, held alternately in the two countries, with training in counter-terrorism and in operations under a United Nations mandate.

Garuda is the bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force and the French Air and Space Force, held alternately at Indian and French bases, with fighter, transport and refuelling aircraft taking part.

Ekuverin means friends in Dhivehi, the language of the Maldives, and the exercise is held alternately in India and the Maldives between the Indian Army and the Maldives National Defence Force.

Indra is the joint exercise between India and Russia; it began as separate army and naval exercises and has also been held as a tri-service exercise, while Aviaindra is the exercise between the two air forces.

Hand-in-Hand is the counter-terrorism army exercise between India and China, in which small contingents of the two armies train together in cordon and search operations and in joint tactical drills.

Malabar started in 1992 as a bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the United States Navy. Japan took part in some editions and became a permanent participant in 2015, and Australia joined in 2020, so Malabar is now held among the four Quad navies.

Surya Kiran is the battalion-level army exercise between India and Nepal, held alternately in the two countries, in which the Indian Army and the Nepali Army train in jungle warfare, counter-insurgency and disaster relief.

Varuna is the bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the French Navy, held in the Arabian Sea, the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, with surface ships, submarines and maritime patrol aircraft taking part.

Ajeya Warrior is the bilateral army exercise between India and the United Kingdom, held alternately in the two countries, in which the two armies train together in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in a built-up and semi-urban setting.

The amendment of 1986 changed the rule of citizenship by birth with effect from 1 July 1987: a person born in India on or after that date is a citizen by birth only if one of the parents was an Indian citizen at the time of the birth.

India follows the British practice of single citizenship: there is only citizenship of India and no separate citizenship of a state, so every citizen carries the same rights in every part of the country.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 provides that Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014 shall not be treated as illegal migrants and are eligible for citizenship, with the qualifying period for naturalisation reduced from eleven years…

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2015 merged the older Person of Indian Origin card scheme into the Overseas Citizen of India scheme, so that holders of PIO cards were treated as OCI cardholders and only one category remained.

Citizenship, naturalisation and aliens form an entry in the Union List of the Seventh Schedule, so only Parliament can make law on them, which matches Article 11 and explains why there is a single central Citizenship Act and no state citizenship law.

Article 9 lays down that a person who has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign state is not a citizen of India, and Section 9 of the Citizenship Act gives the same rule the name termination of citizenship.