GK for Competitive Exams

Which is the smallest state of India by area?

• Goa
• Sikkim
• Tripura
• Nagaland

Answer: Goa. Goa covers about 3,702 sq km. Sikkim is the second smallest state; Rajasthan is the largest.

Kaziranga National Park, famous for the one-horned rhinoceros, is in which state?

• West Bengal
• Assam
• Meghalaya
• Arunachal Pradesh

Answer: Assam. Kaziranga lies on the Brahmaputra floodplains in Assam and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to most of the world's one-horned rhinos.

Which strait separates India from Sri Lanka?

• Strait of Malacca
• Bab-el-Mandeb
• Palk Strait
• Strait of Hormuz

Answer: Palk Strait. The Palk Strait lies between Tamil Nadu and northern Sri Lanka. Malacca separates Malaysia and Sumatra; Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

The Tropic of Capricorn passes through which of these countries?

• India
• Egypt
• Mexico
• Brazil

Answer: Brazil. The Tropic of Capricorn (about 23.4 degrees South) crosses Brazil near Sao Paulo. India, Egypt and Mexico lie on the Tropic of Cancer instead.

Which is the longest river of peninsular India?

• Godavari
• Krishna
• Narmada
• Kaveri

Answer: Godavari. The Godavari runs about 1,465 km from near Nashik in Maharashtra to the Bay of Bengal, which is why it is called the 'Dakshin Ganga'.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is headquartered in which city?

• New York
• Geneva
• Paris
• Vienna

Answer: Geneva. WHO, set up in 1948, is based in Geneva, Switzerland. New York hosts the UN headquarters and Paris hosts UNESCO.

Which Article of the Constitution gives the Right to Constitutional Remedies, which Dr B. R. Ambedkar called its 'heart and soul'?

• Article 14
• Article 21
• Article 32
• Article 51A

Answer: Article 32. Article 32 lets citizens move the Supreme Court directly to enforce Fundamental Rights through writs such as habeas corpus and mandamus.

The great stupa at Sanchi was originally commissioned by which ruler?

• Kanishka
• Harshavardhana
• Chandragupta II
• Ashoka

Answer: Ashoka. Emperor Ashoka commissioned the original brick stupa at Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh) in the 3rd century BCE; it was enlarged in stone later.

The Rand is the currency of which country?

• South Africa
• Botswana
• Kenya
• Nigeria

Answer: South Africa. The Rand is South Africa's currency, named after the Witwatersrand gold reef. Botswana uses the Pula, Kenya the Shilling and Nigeria the Naira.

Who was the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize?

• C. V. Raman
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Har Gobind Khorana
• Mother Teresa

Answer: Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, largely for 'Gitanjali'. C. V. Raman followed in 1930 with the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Which of these is NOT a Harappan (Indus Valley) site?

• Kalibangan
• Dholavira
• Pataliputra
• Rakhigarhi

Answer: Pataliputra. Pataliputra (modern Patna) was the capital of Magadha and the Mauryas, much later. The other three are Harappan sites in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana.

The 'Raman Effect', for which C. V. Raman won the Nobel Prize, describes the scattering of what?

• Sound
• Electrons
• Heat
• Light

Answer: Light. Raman showed that some light changes wavelength when scattered by molecules. Its discovery on 28 February 1928 is marked as National Science Day.

Which is the largest gland in the human body?

• Liver
• Pancreas
• Thyroid
• Pituitary

Answer: Liver. The liver is the largest gland and the largest internal organ. It makes bile, stores glycogen and breaks down toxins.

Who was the first Chief Justice of India?

• M. Patanjali Sastri
• H. J. Kania
• B. K. Mukherjea
• Fazl Ali

Answer: H. J. Kania. Justice Harilal J. Kania became the first Chief Justice when the Supreme Court was set up on 26 January 1950. Patanjali Sastri succeeded him in 1951.

The meridian of 82.5 degrees East, used for Indian Standard Time, passes near which city?

• Nagpur
• Bhopal
• Mirzapur
• Kolkata

Answer: Mirzapur. The IST meridian passes near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. Being 82.5 degrees east of Greenwich puts IST 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT.