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.
Under the rule of which king was the Sun Temple at Konark built?
The Sun temple at Konark in Odisha was built in the thirteenth century by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty.
Read the full explanation →Presence of which phenomenon leads to weakening of trade winds in a region?
El Nino is the warming of the surface water of the central and eastern Pacific, and it weakens the trade winds that normally blow from east to west across that ocean.
Read the full explanation →Ramappa Temple is dedicated to which God?
The Ramappa temple is dedicated to Shiva, worshipped there as Ramalingeswara. It stands at Palampet in the Mulugu district of Telangana and was built in the thirteenth century under the Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva by his general Recharla Rudra.
Read the full explanation →In which year did Amartya Sen receive the Nobel Prize for Economics?
Amartya Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his contributions to welfare economics.
Read the full explanation →The First Buddhist Council is said to have been patronised by:
The First Buddhist Council was held under the patronage of Ajatashatru, the Haryanka ruler of Magadha. It met at Rajgir, in the Sattapanni cave, soon after the Buddha's death, and was presided over by Mahakassapa.
Read the full explanation →Which among the following countries was the earliest to give women the right to vote?
Of the four countries listed, Australia gave women the vote first, in 1902. Its Commonwealth Franchise Act of that year let women vote in and stand for the federal Parliament, following the colony of South Australia, which had already granted it in 1894.
Read the full explanation →The 'Amrita Devi Bishnoi National Award' is given for:
The Amrita Devi Bishnoi National Award is given for outstanding courage and devotion in protecting wildlife. It was instituted by the Union environment ministry in 1994 and carries a cash prize with a citation.
Read the full explanation →Which Veda depicts the information about the most ancient Vedic age culture?
The Rig Veda is the oldest of the four Vedas, so it describes the earliest Vedic culture. It is a collection of 1,028 hymns arranged in ten books called mandalas, composed in the land of the seven rivers in the north-west.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is NOT a major tribe of South India?
Dang is not a South Indian tribe. The name belongs to the Dangs district of southern Gujarat, whose tribal people are mainly Bhil, Warli and Konkana, all of western India.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following Anglo-Maratha wars resulted in merging the Peshwas' territories with the Bombay Presidency?
The Third Anglo-Maratha War, fought in 1817-18 under Lord Hastings, ended Maratha power. Peshwa Baji Rao II was beaten at Khadki, Koregaon and Ashti, the office of Peshwa was abolished, and his lands around Poona were taken over and joined to the Bombay Presidency.
Read the full explanation →In which language were the Mughal court chronicles written?
Persian was the language of the Mughal court and of its records, and Akbar made it the official language of administration in 1582.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following dynasties' genealogy was found in the Bijolia inscription?
The Bijolia rock inscription, at Bijolia in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, is dated to 1170 CE, in the reign of Someshvara, and it sets out the family line of the Chahamanas, the Chauhans of Shakambhari.
Read the full explanation →The last Mauryan ruler to be killed by Pushyamitra Shunga was:
Brihadratha was the last Mauryan emperor, and about 185 BCE his own commander-in-chief Pushyamitra Shunga killed him while the army was being reviewed, ending the dynasty Chandragupta Maurya had founded around 322 BCE.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following headed the nine-judge constitutional bench that declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right?
Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar was the Chief Justice of India when the nine-judge bench delivered its verdict in Justice K.S.
Read the full explanation →Ashokan Minor Rock Edicts are found in different parts of India. Which of the following is NOT a find spot of Ashokan Minor Rock Edicts in Karnataka?
Rupnath lies in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, not in Karnataka, and it bears Minor Rock Edict I. Karnataka holds the largest cluster of Ashokan Minor Rock Edicts, in the Raichur, Ballari and Chitradurga belt — at Maski, Gavimath, Palkigundu, Brahmagiri, Siddapura, Jatinga-Rameshwara, Nittur and Udegolam.
Read the full explanation →The total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in the Council of Ministers in a State shall NOT exceed __________ of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of that State.
Article 164(1A) lays down that the total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in a State's Council of Ministers shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of that State's Legislative Assembly, and the same clause fixes a floor of twelve Ministers so that small…
Read the full explanation →Who among the following was a contributor to the subject of medicine in ancient India?
Charaka is the physician of ancient India whose name is attached to the Charaka Samhita, the great text on medicine, and tradition makes him a court physician of the Kushana king Kanishka.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements about the Vice President of India is INCORRECT?
The Vice-President is not removed by the President. Article 67(b) says he may be removed by a resolution of the Rajya Sabha passed by a majority of all its then members and agreed to by the Lok Sabha, and at least fourteen days' notice of such a resolution must be…
Read the full explanation →The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in the year _______.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York, with the agreement of the Philippine government, in memory of Ramon Magsaysay, the third President of the Philippines, who had died in an air crash in March that year.
Read the full explanation →At what latitude does the easterly jet stream blow over peninsular India during the summer months?
In the summer months the tropical easterly jet stream blows over peninsular India at about 14°N, some 15 km above the ground, and it moves from east to west.
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