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.
Khetri in Rajasthan is famous for the mining of which mineral?
The Khetri belt in the Jhunjhunu region of Rajasthan is one of India's main copper mining areas, the other being Malanjkhand in Madhya Pradesh, with Singhbhum in Jharkhand as the third.
Read the full explanation →The Panchpatmali deposits, among India's best known bauxite reserves, lie in which state?
The Panchpatmali plateau in the Koraput region of Odisha carries thick beds of bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is obtained, and the refinery and smelter complexes of the region were built to use it.
Read the full explanation →Which type of iron ore has the highest iron content and is magnetic in nature?
Magnetite is the finest quality of iron ore, black in colour, with excellent magnetic properties, which is why it is valued in the electrical industry as well as in steel making.
Read the full explanation →The Bailadila iron ore mines are located in which state?
The Bailadila range in the Dantewada region of southern Chhattisgarh holds high grade haematite, and its ore has long been carried by a dedicated line to the port of Visakhapatnam for export as well as to the steel plants of the region.
Read the full explanation →Neyveli, an important mining centre of Tamil Nadu, is known for which mineral?
The Neyveli field in the Cuddalore region of Tamil Nadu is the country's best known lignite mine, worked by open cast methods, and the thermal stations built beside it burn the lignite where it is dug because this soft brown coal is not worth carrying far.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is the highest grade of coal, with the greatest carbon content?
It is the hardest and most lustrous coal, holds the highest percentage of carbon, gives the greatest heat and burns almost without smoke.
Read the full explanation →During the 1990–91 balance of payments crisis, India's foreign exchange reserves were sufficient to finance imports for only:
By the middle of 1991 India's foreign exchange reserves had fallen to about one billion dollars, enough to pay for only about two weeks of imports, and the country stood close to default on its external payments.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following countries is NOT a member of BIMSTEC?
BIMSTEC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, has seven members: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Read the full explanation →Article 350B of the Indian Constitution provides for the appointment of which of the following?
Article 350-B provides that there shall be a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President, and the post is known in practice as the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities.
Read the full explanation →Which Constitutional Article established the office of Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities?
The Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act, 1956 inserted this article on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission and created the office of the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities, known in practice as the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities.
Read the full explanation →The term 'Bhukti' in post-Gupta polity referred to:
In the Gupta and post-Gupta period the empire was divided into bhuktis, which were provinces, and inscriptions call the governor of a bhukti an uparika or uparika-maharaja, usually a prince or a trusted noble.
Read the full explanation →Under the Fifth Schedule, the Governor's regulations in Scheduled Areas can prohibit or restrict which of the following?
The Fifth Schedule lets the Governor make regulations for the peace and good government of a Scheduled Area, and it names three matters such a regulation may cover: it may prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of the Scheduled Tribes, regulate the allotment of land…
Read the full explanation →Alexander and Porus fought on the banks of which of the following rivers?
Alexander and Porus fought the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BCE on the banks of the Jhelum, the river the Greeks called Hydaspes and the Rig Veda calls Vitasta.
Read the full explanation →Who was the founder of Pala Dynasty?
Gopala founded the Pala dynasty in Bengal in the middle of the eighth century, and the Khalimpur copper plate records that he was raised to the throne by the chiefs to end a long spell of disorder known as matsyanyaya, the rule of the fish.
Read the full explanation →Who was the ruler of Delhi sultanate when Ibn Batuta came in India?
Ibn Batuta, the Moroccan traveller, reached Delhi in the fourteenth century during the reign of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, who appointed him the qazi of Delhi and later sent him as an envoy to China.
Read the full explanation →The famous Chinese traveller Hieun Tsang visited India during which Emperor's reign?
Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, travelled in India in the seventh century, when Harshavardhana of the Pushyabhuti dynasty ruled from Kannauj.
Read the full explanation →When did Ibrahim Lodi become the Sultan of Delhi?
Ibrahim Lodi came to the throne of Delhi in 1517 after the death of his father Sikandar Lodi. He was the third and last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, which was the final dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.
Read the full explanation →Where was the first Cotton Mill in India established?
India's first cotton mill was set up in 1818 at Fort Gloster near Calcutta, at Bauria in present-day Howrah district, so Kolkata holds the first place in the story of the Indian cotton industry.
Read the full explanation →Consider the Statements (A) and (B) about Mathura and choose the correct answer. (A) Mathura was important for travel and trade connecting north to east and south to west. (B) Mathura was centre for producing fine sculpture.
Mathura did stand on major trade routes, but those routes ran from the north-west to the east and from the north to the south, not from north to east and south to west as statement (A) puts it, so (A) is wrong as worded.
Read the full explanation →The concept of Intelligence Quotient or IQ was developed by ____
The German psychologist William Stern gave the term Intelligence Quotient in 1912, proposing that a child's mental age be divided by the actual age to express intelligence as a single number.
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