Kerala PSC Degree Level cheat sheet

Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023; the Vikram lander carried the Pragyan rover.

India hosted the G20 New Delhi Summit on 9-10 September 2023 under the theme Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (One Earth, One Family, One Future).

Aditya-L1, India's first solar observatory mission, was launched on 2 September 2023 and placed near the Sun-Earth L1 point.

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize went to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organisation of atomic bomb survivors.

Bharat Ratna 2024 was announced for Karpoori Thakur, L. K. Advani, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh and M. S. Swaminathan.

The song 'Naatu Naatu' from RRR won the 2023 Academy Award for Best Original Song, the first for an Indian film.

The 2024 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, France; Los Angeles will host in 2028.

UPI, launched in 2016 and operated by NPCI, enables instant bank-to-bank payments through mobile devices.

Alphabet position: A=1, B=2 ... Z=26; opposite-letter pairs sum to 27 (A-Z, B-Y).

Number series: test successive differences, ratios, squares, cubes and alternating operations before assuming a pattern.

Calendar odd days: ordinary year = 1, leap year = 2, 100 years = 5, 400 years = 0.

Clock: minute hand moves 6° per minute, hour hand 0.5° per minute, so relative gain is 5.5° per minute.

Direction sense: draw north-up; use Pythagoras for net displacement after right-angle turns.

Syllogism: 'All A are B' does not imply 'All B are A'; use Venn diagrams to test conclusions.

Ranking: total = rank from top + rank from bottom - 1 when the same person is counted in both ranks.

Blood relations: draw a family tree, mark gender explicitly, and do not assume gender from names or roles.

Percentage: x% of N = N × x/100; successive changes a% and b% give net a + b + ab/100.

Profit/loss: SP = CP × (100 + profit%)/100; discount = marked price - selling price.

Simple interest = P × R × T/100; compound amount = P(1 + R/100)^T.

Speed = distance/time; convert km/h to m/s by multiplying by 5/18.

Average = sum of values/count; weighted average uses each value multiplied by its weight.

Time and work: if A finishes in a days, A's one-day work = 1/a; combined rate = 1/a + 1/b.

Ratio a:b = x:y means a = kx and b = ky for some positive k.

Area and volume: circle = πr²; triangle = ½ × base × height; cylinder = πr²h.

Subject-verb agreement: each, every, either, neither and everyone take singular verbs.

Articles: use 'a' before consonant sounds and 'an' before vowel sounds; use 'the' for unique or superlative nouns.

Present perfect: has/have + past participle; use with since (point of time) and for (duration).

Prepositions: on for days/dates, in for months/years, at for clock times; since with a point, for with a period.

Passive voice: object becomes subject; use be verb + past participle (The letter was written).

Reported speech: present tense usually shifts to past; change pronouns and time words such as now to then.

Conditionals: if + present, will; if + past, would; if + had + past participle, would have + past participle.

Idioms: once in a blue moon = very rarely; break the ice = start a conversation.

Spelling rule: i before e except after c, but note exceptions such as receive and seize.

Malayalam is a Dravidian language with agglutinative morphology and a usual subject-object-verb word order.

The Malayalam script evolved from the Grantha script; it is written left to right and uses distinct vowel signs.

Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan is called the father of modern Malayalam literature; his Adhyathmaramayanam is a major devotional work.

Kundalatha (1887) by Appu Nedungadi is generally regarded as the first Malayalam novel.

Rajyasamacharam, started in 1847 by Hermann Gundert, is regarded as the first Malayalam newspaper.

Malayalam was declared a classical language by the Government of India in 2013.

Sandhi is the phonetic combination of adjacent sounds; samasa is compounding of words to form a compound noun.

Malayalam shows diglossia: formal written Malayalam differs markedly from colloquial spoken varieties.

CPU components: arithmetic logic unit, control unit and registers; it executes instructions fetched from memory.

RAM is volatile working memory; ROM is non-volatile and retains firmware when power is off.

1 byte = 8 bits; 1 KB = 1024 bytes; 1 MB = 1024 KB; 1 GB = 1024 MB.

IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses; IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses and provides a vastly larger address space.

HTTPS is HTTP over TLS, providing encryption and server authentication.

Primary key uniquely identifies a table row; foreign key references a primary key in another table.

Malware categories include virus, worm, Trojan and ransomware; a firewall filters network traffic by rules.

In spreadsheets, a formula begins with =; $ creates an absolute reference when copied.

The Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949; it came into force on 26 January 1950.

The Preamble declares India a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic; socialist and secular were added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976.

Fundamental Rights are in Part III, Articles 12-35; Article 32 provides the right to constitutional remedies.

Directive Principles of State Policy are in Part IV, Articles 36-51, and are not directly enforceable in courts.

Fundamental Duties are in Article 51A; the original ten were added by the 42nd Amendment, and an eleventh was added in 2002.

Article 356 allows President's Rule in a state when constitutional machinery fails; Article 360 deals with financial emergency.

Article 368 governs constitutional amendments; the basic structure doctrine was established in Kesavananda Bharati (1973).

The 73rd Amendment (1992) gave constitutional status to Panchayati Raj; the 74th Amendment did so for urban local bodies.

Kerala was formed on 1 November 1956 by merging Travancore-Cochin with Malabar district; E. M. S. Namboodiripad became first Chief Minister.

The 1957 Kerala ministry led by E. M. S. Namboodiripad was the first democratically elected communist government in the world.

Sree Narayana Guru founded the SNDP and taught 'one caste, one religion, one God for man'.

The Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936 in Travancore opened Hindu temples to all Hindus regardless of caste.

The Malayali Memorial (1891) and Ezhava Memorial (1896) were early organised petitions for representation and rights in Travancore.

Ayyankali campaigned against caste oppression and for Dalit education and temple entry; he founded the Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham.

Vasco da Gama reached Kappad near Kozhikode in 1498, opening direct sea trade between Europe and Kerala.

Pazhassi Raja and Velu Thampi Dalawa led major armed resistances against British expansion in Kerala.

Kerala lies between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea; its capital is Thiruvananthapuram.

Anamudi in Idukki district is Kerala's highest peak, at about 2,695 metres.

The Periyar is Kerala's longest river; the Bharathappuzha is the second longest and the Pamba is third.

Vembanad is the largest lake in Kerala and the longest lake in India; Ashtamudi is a major backwater lake.

Kerala has a tropical monsoon climate: southwest monsoon from June to September and northeast monsoon from October to November.

The Tropic of Cancer passes through eight Indian states, including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.

India's highest peak is Kanchenjunga; its longest river is the Ganga; the Thar Desert lies mainly in Rajasthan.

Laterite and alluvial soils are common in Kerala; laterite forms under heavy rainfall and is used for building bricks.

Newton's second law: force = mass × acceleration (F = ma); the SI unit of force is the newton.

Work = force × displacement in the direction of force; power = work/time; the SI unit of power is the watt.

Ohm's law: V = IR at constant temperature; series resistance = R1 + R2; parallel resistance follows 1/R = 1/R1 + 1/R2.

pH below 7 is acidic, 7 is neutral, and above 7 is basic; litmus turns red in acid and blue in base.

Photosynthesis: carbon dioxide + water + light energy → glucose + oxygen, using chlorophyll in chloroplasts.

Mitochondria produce most cellular ATP through aerobic respiration and are called the powerhouses of the cell.

Human ABO blood groups: O negative is the universal donor and AB positive the universal recipient.

Common formulas: water H2O, common salt NaCl, carbon dioxide CO2, and glucose C6H12O6.

Speed of light in vacuum is about 3 × 10^8 m/s.

Indus Valley sites include Harappa and Mohenjo-daro; planned streets, drainage and the Great Bath are characteristic.

Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama; its core teachings include the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

Chandragupta Maurya founded the Mauryan Empire; Ashoka's Kalinga war in 261 BCE led to his policy of dhamma.

The Gupta period saw advances in mathematics and astronomy, including Aryabhata's work and early decimal place-value ideas.

The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885; W. C. Bonnerjee was its first president.

The 1857 revolt began at Meerut; Mangal Pandey and Rani Lakshmibai are associated with the uprising.

Gandhi led the Champaran satyagraha in 1917, the Dandi March in 1930 and the Quit India Movement in 1942.

The Partition of Bengal in 1905 triggered the Swadeshi and Boycott movements.

GDP is the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given year.

Inflation is a sustained rise in the general price level; in India it is commonly measured by CPI and WPI.

RBI monetary tools include repo rate, reverse repo rate, cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio.

Fiscal policy concerns government taxation and spending; monetary policy is managed by the central bank.

Direct taxes are levied on income or wealth; indirect taxes such as GST are levied on goods and services.

GST was launched on 1 July 2017 as a destination-based indirect tax replacing many central and state taxes.

MGNREGA guarantees at least 100 days of unskilled wage employment per rural household per year on demand.

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY provides health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for eligible beneficiaries.

Kudumbashree is Kerala's women-centred poverty reduction and community development programme.