General Awareness (including current affairs)
General Awareness in FCI AG-III is 20 questions in Phase I (25 in Phase II), mixing static GK with current affairs from roughly the last 6–12 months. Static areas: Indian polity and Constitution, geography, economy, general science, history, sports, awards and books. Current areas: government schemes, appointments, summits, defence exercises, and food-corporation news. FCI-specific facts are fair game: FCI was set up in 1965 under the Food Corporations Act, 1964; it procures food grains at MSP, maintains buffer stocks, and supplies grains for the PDS and other welfare schemes.
Core rules
- Link economic terms to institutions: MSP is recommended by the CACP, approved by the CCEA, and operated by FCI/state agencies.
- For polity, anchor articles: Article 14 equality, 19 freedoms, 21 life and personal liberty, 32 writs, 324 Election Commission.
- For geography, remember crop belts: wheat in Punjab-Haryana-UP, rice in West Bengal-UP-Punjab, cotton in Gujarat-Maharashtra.
- For science, separate units and laws: Newton's second law F=ma; Ohm's law V=IR; pH below 7 acidic.
Worked example
'Who recommends the minimum support price for wheat in India?' Reasoning: FCI does not set MSP; it procures at MSP. The recommending body is the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approves it. Answer: CACP.
Traps
- Confusing FCI with CACP, NAFED or NABARD.
- Using stale current-affairs data; check the exam's cutoff date.
- Choosing a familiar name over the exact constitutional article or scheme year.