electronicity.space

USS · Paper II

GK & current affairs

Awards, sport, science news, and the year’s notable events.

3 of the 50 questionsWrite this topic →
What the paper asks

Three questions — small, but easy marks if the ground is covered. Awards, national symbols, days and observances, space and sport. Anything that changes each year needs refreshing before the exam; what follows is the part that stays true.

National symbols and facts
  • National anthem — Jana Gana Mana, by Rabindranath Tagore. National song — Vande Mataram, by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Two works, two authors.
  • National flag designed by Pingali Venkayya. The Ashoka Chakra is navy blue with 24 spokes, taken from the Lion Capital at Sarnath.
  • National animal — Bengal tiger. National bird — peacock. National flower — lotus. National fruit — mango.
  • Currency notes are issued by the Reserve Bank of India; the one-rupee note is the exception, issued by the Ministry of Finance.
Awards
  • Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award, then Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri.
  • Param Vir Chakra — highest wartime gallantry award. Ashoka Chakra — highest peacetime gallantry award. Both are 'highest', of different kinds.
  • Jnanpith — highest literary award in India. Nobel Prizes are given in six categories: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economic sciences.
  • Arjuna Award and Khel Ratna — sport. Dronacharya — coaching.
Indian Nobel laureateField / year
Rabindranath TagoreLiterature, 1913 — the first Indian
C. V. RamanPhysics, 1930
Mother TeresaPeace, 1979
Amartya SenEconomic Sciences, 1998
Kailash SatyarthiPeace, 2014
Days and observances
DateDay
26 JanuaryRepublic Day
28 FebruaryNational Science Day — the Raman effect
22 MarchWorld Water Day
22 AprilEarth Day
5 JuneWorld Environment Day
21 JuneInternational Yoga Day
15 AugustIndependence Day
5 SeptemberTeachers' Day — Dr S. Radhakrishnan
16 SeptemberWorld Ozone Day
2 OctoberGandhi Jayanti
1 NovemberKerala Piravi
14 NovemberChildren's Day — Nehru
Space and science
  • ISRO headquarters — Bengaluru. VSSC, where launch vehicles are built, is at Thiruvananthapuram.
  • Aryabhata, 1975 — India's first satellite.
  • Chandrayaan — Moon. Mangalyaan — Mars. Aditya — Sun.
  • C. V. Raman — Nobel in Physics, 1930, for the scattering of light. National Science Day marks the discovery.
Organisations and sport
  • UN headquarters — New York. WHO — Geneva. UNESCO — Paris. FAO — Rome.
  • Summer Olympics every four years. Abhinav Bindra — first Indian individual Olympic gold, shooting, Beijing 2008.
  • Refresh separately each year: current office-holders, this year's award winners, recent sporting results.
Worked through

Who wrote the national anthem and who wrote the national song?

  1. Jana Gana Mana — the anthem — is by Rabindranath Tagore.
  2. Vande Mataram — the song — is by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.
  3. The paper usually asks about one and offers the other's author as a distractor.
Where the marks go

These are the mistakes, not the rules — each one is something a student who knows the topic still does under time pressure.

  1. Swapping the national anthem and the national song, or their authors.
  2. Naming the Padma Vibhushan as the highest civilian award. The Bharat Ratna is above it.
  3. Confusing Param Vir Chakra with Ashoka Chakra — wartime versus peacetime gallantry.
  4. Saying five Nobel categories. Economic sciences was added in 1968, making six.
  5. Mixing 22 March, 22 April and 5 June — Water Day, Earth Day and Environment Day.
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Sit 10 questions on this topic

Read the explanation on every one you get wrong — that is where the revision above actually sticks.

 Or the whole paper

Sit Paper II against the clock

Fifty questions in ninety minutes, drawn to the real subject mix. The scorecard will tell you what to revise next.

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