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.
Who was the first President of the Sahitya Akademi?
The Prime Minister was the first President of the Sahitya Akademi, elected when the academy was set up in 1954, and he held the office until his death in 1964.
Read the full explanation →The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, was established in which year?
The Government of India set up the Sahitya Akademi on 12 March 1954 as the national academy for literature, and it works today as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture with its headquarters at Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first writer in the English language to be awarded the Jnanpith?
English was not an eligible language for the Jnanpith until 2013, when it was added to the languages of the Eighth Schedule for the purpose of this award.
Read the full explanation →A recipient of the Jnanpith Award is presented with a bronze statue of which figure?
Along with a citation and a cash prize, every Jnanpith laureate receives a bronze replica of Vagdevi, Saraswati as the goddess of speech and learning, which is a fitting emblem for a literary honour and a detail asked directly in objective papers.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first woman writer to receive the Jnanpith Award?
The Bengali novelist received the Jnanpith for the year 1976 for Pratham Pratishruti, the first book of a trilogy about three generations of women in a Bengali household, and she was the first woman to be honoured with the award.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award?
The Malayalam poet received the first Jnanpith Award, for the year 1965, for his collection of poems Odakkuzhal, meaning the reed flute.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Jnanpith Award instituted?
The Jnanpith Award was instituted in 1961 by Bharatiya Jnanpith, and it is regarded as the highest literary honour given in India.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following was awarded the 55th Jnanpith Award?
The Malayalam poet, known simply as Akkitham, received the 55th Jnanpith Award, given for the year 2019. He was the sixth Malayalam writer to be honoured, the language whose G. Sankara Kurup had won the very first Jnanpith for 1965.
Read the full explanation →The JCB Prize for Literature, instituted in 2018, is awarded for which category of writing?
The JCB Prize for Literature was instituted in 2018 for a work of fiction by an Indian writer, and a novel translated into English from an Indian language is eligible, with a separate sum going to the translator when a translated book wins.
Read the full explanation →Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000 for which work?
The collection of nine short stories, most of them about Indians and Indian Americans living between two countries, was Jhumpa Lahiri's first book and won her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000, an unusual honour for a debut collection of stories.
Read the full explanation →The Bihari Puraskar is awarded to writers from which Indian state?
The Bihari Puraskar was instituted in 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation and goes to a writer from Rajasthan for a work in Hindi or Rajasthani.
Read the full explanation →The Bhasha Samman, instituted in 1996, is given by which organisation?
The Akademi gives its annual award in the twenty-four languages it recognises, and it instituted the Bhasha Samman in 1996 to honour writers and scholars working in languages outside that list, as well as those who contribute to classical and medieval literature.
Read the full explanation →Which book became the first work written in an Indian language to win the International Booker Prize?
The International Booker Prize honours a book translated into English, and the award is shared between the author and the translator.
Read the full explanation →Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize in 1997 for which novel?
Arundhati Roy's first novel, set in Ayemenem in Kerala and built around a pair of twins, won the Booker Prize in 1997, and she was the first Indian woman and the first writer living in India to win it.
Read the full explanation →Who is the only Indian to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature?
He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, largely on the strength of Gitanjali in his own English rendering, and he was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in any field.
Read the full explanation →The Moortidevi Award is given by which organisation?
The trust that gives the Jnanpith Award instituted the Moortidevi Award in 1983 for a creative work that carries the spirit of Indian philosophy and culture, and the work may be in any of the languages of the Eighth Schedule or in English.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first recipient of the Saraswati Samman?
The Hindi poet of the Chhayavaad and Halavaad periods, best known for Madhushala, received the first Saraswati Samman in 1991 for his autobiography written in four volumes.
Read the full explanation →The Saraswati Samman is given by which of the following organisations?
The foundation instituted the Saraswati Samman in 1991 for an outstanding literary work in any of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, published in the previous ten years, and the award carries the largest cash prize of any Indian literary honour.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following was awarded the 55th Jnanpith Award?
The Malayalam poet, known simply as Akkitham, received the 55th Jnanpith Award, given for the year 2019. The Jnanpith is instituted by Bharatiya Jnanpith and is regarded as the highest literary award in India.
Read the full explanation →The Vyas Samman, started in 1991 is given for 'outstanding literary work' in ______.
The Vyas Samman was instituted in 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation and is given for an outstanding literary work in Hindi published in the previous ten years.
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