Gujarat Gram Sevak cheat sheet

Gujarat was formed on 1 May 1960 by splitting the bilingual Bombay State under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960; 1 May is celebrated as Gujarat Day (Gujarat Sthapana Divas).

Gujarat shares borders with Rajasthan (north), Madhya Pradesh (east), Maharashtra (south and southeast), and the union territories of Diu, Daman, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (south); the Arabian Sea lies to the west.

Gujarat districts: 33 districts after the 2013 reorganisation (e.g., Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Kutch, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Panchmahal, Dang, Tapi, Narmada, Chhota Udepur, Morbi, Botad, Gir Somnath, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Mahisagar, Aravalli, Kheda, Anand, Bharuch, Valsad, Navsari, Mehsana, Patan, Surendranagar, Amreli, Dahod, Gandhinagar).

Gujarat's state symbols: state bird - greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus); state animal - Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica); state tree - banyan (Ficus benghalensis); state flower - marigold (Tagetes); state fish - black pomfret (Halva).

Major rivers of Gujarat: Narmada and Tapi (perennial, flow west into the Arabian Sea); Sabarmati, Mahi, Banas, Saraswati, Rupen, and Damanganga are seasonal; the Narmada is the longest river flowing through Gujarat.

Gujarat coastline is about 1,600 km - the longest among Indian states; the Gulf of Kutch and Gulf of Khambhat are major inlets; the Gulf of Kutch hosts India's first Marine National Park (established 1982).

Gir National Park in Junagadh district is the last natural habitat of the Asiatic lion; the 2015 census counted 523 lions, and the 2020 census counted 674 lions.

Statue of Unity at Kevadia (Narmada district), a 182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was inaugurated on 31 October 2018 and is the world's tallest statue; it is located near the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Rann of Kutch: the Great Rann is a salt marsh in Kutch district; the White Rann Desert is the site of the annual Rann Utsav (typically November–February); the Little Rann of Kutch is home to the Indian wild ass (khur).

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language written in the Gujarati script, a descendant of the Brahmi script via Devanagari; it is written left to right and has 34 consonants (vyanjan), 12 vowels (swar), and 2 semivowels/diphthongs in the traditional varnamala.

The Gujarati alphabet order: vowels (અ આ ઇ ઈ ઉ ઊ ઋ એ ઐ ઓ ઔ) followed by consonants (ક ખ ગ ઘ ઙ ચ છ જ ઝ ઞ ટ ઠ ડ ઢ ણ ત થ દ ધ ન પ ફ બ ભ મ ય ર લ વ શ ષ સ હ ળ); each consonant has an inherent 'a' sound unless a matra or halant is applied.

Matras (vowel signs) attach to consonants: ા (aa), િ (i), ી (ii), ુ (u), ૂ (uu), ૃ (ru), ે (e), ૈ (ai), ો (o), ૌ (au); the halant/khodo (્) suppresses the inherent vowel (e.g., ક્ + ષ = ક્ષ).

Noun gender in Gujarati: masculine (પુલ્લિંગ), feminine (સ્ત્રીલિંગ), and neuter (નપુંસકલિંગ); number: singular (એકવચન) and plural (બહુવચન). Example: છોકરો (boy, masc. sing.), છોકરી (girl, fem. sing.), છોકરું (child, neut. sing.).

Cases (vibhakti) in Gujarati are typically expressed by postpositions rather than inflection: ને (dative/accusative), નો/ની/નું (genitive, agreeing with the possessed noun), થી (ablative/instrumental), માં (locative), પર (locative 'on'), સાથે (comitative 'with').

Verb agreement: Gujarati verbs agree with the subject in person, number, and gender in perfective tenses; in ergative constructions with transitive perfective verbs, the verb agrees with the object. Example: તેણે પુસ્તક વાંચ્યું (He read the book - neuter agreement with પુસ્તક).

Common sandhi and word-formation rules: vowel coalescence (અ + આ = આ), consonant assimilation; compound verbs use a light verb (કરવું, થવું, જવું, લેવું, દેવું) after a verbal noun or participle (e.g., જોઈ લેવું = to take a look).

Idioms (રૂઢિપ્રયોગ) are fixed expressions whose meaning is not literal: e.g., આંખનો તારો (apple of one's eye), હાથ પર તાળી (instant agreement), ઘીના ઘડા (prosperity), દાંત ખાટા કરવા (to be envious).

Gujarati orthography uses the full stop (પૂર્ણવિરામ) '।' in traditional writing; modern print often uses '.'; the danda is standard in government and literary texts.

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 (effective 24 April 1993) inserted Part IX (Articles 243 to 243-O) and the Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects) into the Constitution, giving constitutional status to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).

Three-tier PRI structure: Gram Panchayat at the village level, Panchayat Samiti at the intermediate (block) level, and Zilla Panchayat at the district level; states with population below 20 lakh may not constitute the intermediate tier (Article 243B).

Mandatory reservations under Article 243D: Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to population; not less than one-third of total seats for women; state legislatures may provide reservation for backward classes.

Gram Sabha (Article 243A) consists of all persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village; it exercises powers and functions as provided by state legislature; it is the foundation of the PRI system.

Article 243G empowers state legislatures to endow Panchayats with powers and responsibilities for preparing plans for economic development and social justice, including implementation of schemes for the 29 subjects in the Eleventh Schedule (agriculture, land improvement, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, fisheries, rural housing, drinking water, education, health, etc.).

Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1993 (Gujarat Act No. 18 of 1993) governs PRIs in Gujarat; it provides for Gram Panchayat, Taluka Panchayat, and District Panchayat; the term of office is five years, and elections must be completed before expiry of the term (Article 243E).

Gujarat has 33 district panchayats, 248 taluka panchayats, and about 14,000 gram panchayats (numbers vary with reorganisation and elections); the State Election Commission (Article 243K) conducts PRI elections, and the State Finance Commission (Article 243I) reviews finances every five years.

Key rural development schemes: MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005) guarantees 100 days of unskilled wage employment per rural household per year; Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Gramin provides pucca houses; Swachh Bharat Mission–Gramin targets open defecation-free villages; National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) promotes self-help groups.

District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) at district level and the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) at the Centre administer rural development programmes; in Gujarat, the Panchayats, Rural Housing and Rural Development Department coordinates implementation.

Percentage: x% of N = (x/100) × N; a increase of x% followed by a decrease of x% results in a net decrease of (x²/100)%; successive percentage changes of a% and b% give a net change of a + b + (ab/100) %.

Profit and loss: Profit% = (SP − CP)/CP × 100; Loss% = (CP − SP)/CP × 100; if an article is sold at a gain of x% and another at a loss of x% at the same selling price, the overall loss is (x/10)² %.

Simple interest: SI = (P × R × T)/100; Compound interest: CI = P[(1 + R/100)^T − 1]; for two years, CI − SI = P(R/100)².

Time, speed, distance: Distance = Speed × Time; to convert km/h to m/s multiply by 5/18; to convert m/s to km/h multiply by 18/5; relative speed for trains moving in opposite directions is the sum of speeds, and in the same direction is the difference.

Average: Average = Sum of observations / Number of observations; if a person's average age is A and a new person of age x replaces one of age y, the new average changes by (x − y)/n.

Ratio and proportion: if a : b = c : d then ad = bc; to divide N in the ratio a : b : c, the shares are N·a/(a+b+c), N·b/(a+b+c), N·c/(a+b+c).

Number series and coding-decoding: in an alphabet series, positions A=1, B=2, …, Z=26; the reverse position of a letter = 27 − forward position; in coding-decoding, identify the shift pattern (e.g., +2, −1, +3) applied to each letter.

Blood relations and direction sense: in direction problems, use a coordinate diagram with North up, South down, East right, West left; the shortest distance between start and end is the hypotenuse of the right triangle formed by net displacements.

Syllogism and Venn diagrams: 'All A are B' means the A set is a subset of B; 'Some A are B' means at least one element is common; a conclusion follows only if it is true in every possible Venn diagram consistent with the premises.