UPSC GK Questions 2026

Plant breeding is the deliberate improvement of crops by choosing parents with desirable characters, crossing them, selecting among the progeny and multiplying the best lines; the high yielding wheat and rice varieties of the Green Revolution came from it, and modern breeding is often combined with tissue culture and marker…

Working under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, it is the apex committee under the rules of 1989 framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and no genetically engineered organism may be released into the environment or used on a large scale without its clearance.

Golden rice was engineered to make beta carotene, the precursor from which the body forms vitamin A, in the edible part of the grain, and the pigment gives the rice its golden colour; the aim was to reduce night blindness among populations living mainly on rice.

He devised the polymerase chain reaction, which copies a selected stretch of DNA millions of times through repeated cycles of heating and cooling, using the heat resistant Taq polymerase, and he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it.

Approved in 2002, it is the only genetically modified crop cleared for commercial cultivation by Indian farmers, and it is grown for fibre rather than as food.

The cry genes of Bt cotton come from Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium that forms crystal protein during sporulation; the protein is inactive as eaten but becomes a toxin in the alkaline gut of the bollworm, which is why the plant resists the pest.

Dholavira stands on Khadir island in the Rann of Kachchh and is known for its careful division into citadel, middle town and lower town, its series of stone water reservoirs and the so called signboard of large Harappan letters.

The Sardar Sarovar Dam stands on the Narmada in Narmada district of Gujarat, is the largest irrigation and power project of the state and carries canals into Saurashtra and Kachchh; the Statue of Unity was built nearby at Kevadia.

The correct answer is B, the Solankis, also called the Chalukyas of Gujarat, who ruled from Anhilwad Patan and built the temple to Surya at Modhera with its stepped tank, assembly hall and sanctum aligned so that light falls within it.

Rani ki Vav, the queen's step well, was built in the Solanki period on the bank of the Saraswati at Patan, is carved in seven descending storeys with hundreds of sculptures, and appears on the hundred rupee note.

The correct answer is A, the Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat, where the Marine National Park was the first of its kind in India, protecting coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, sponges and a rich bird life across a group of islands.

Gir lies in the Junagadh region of the Saurashtra peninsula and is the last place where the Asiatic lion survives in the wild; the lion is the state animal of Gujarat.

The statue stands 182 metres tall at Kevadia, now Ekta Nagar, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada, and it was unveiled on 31 October 2018, the leader's birth anniversary; the name recalls his work in integrating the princely states.

Its coast runs for about 1,600 km, longer than that of any other state, because the Saurashtra peninsula and the Kachchh region give it two deep gulfs, the Gulf of Kachchh in the north west and the Gulf of Khambhat in the south east.

It is a planned city laid out in numbered sectors on the bank of the Sabarmati and named after Mahatma Gandhi, and it took over as capital after the state was formed.

On that day the bilingual State of Bombay was divided under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 into a Gujarati speaking Gujarat and a Marathi speaking Maharashtra, so both states share their formation day.

Under the Act of 1999 a registered geographical indication, and the entry of an authorised user, is valid for ten years and may be renewed for further periods of ten years without limit, so a GI can last for ever if renewal is applied for in time.

Muga is reared on som and soalu trees in the Brahmaputra valley, and its thread has a natural golden sheen that grows brighter with washing; it is used for the mekhela chador and holds a GI in the name of Assam.

Madhubani, also called Mithila painting, comes from the Mithila region of northern Bihar, where women painted the walls and floors of the marriage chamber with natural colours, gods, fish, bamboo and the sun and moon, filling every gap with pattern.

Channapatna, a town between Bengaluru and Mysuru, is called the toy town of India; its artisans turn soft ivory wood on a lathe and finish it with lac and vegetable colours, and the toys carry a GI.