Kerala PSC Degree Level key terms

India's highest civilian honour, instituted in 1954 and awarded for exceptional service or performance of the highest order in any field; it is a decoration, not a title, and cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to a name.

A form of reasoning in which two or more premises are given and a conclusion is drawn using rules of distribution and validity; exams ask whether conclusions follow, follow only as a possibility, or do not follow.

A reasoning question type in which words, letters or numbers are converted into a code using a fixed pattern; the candidate identifies the rule and applies it to a new word or number to find the answer.

Comparison of two quantities of the same kind by division, while proportion states the equality of two ratios; these ideas solve partnership, mixture and scaling problems quickly by comparing parts of a whole.

The least common multiple is the smallest number divisible by each given number, while the highest common factor is the largest number dividing each; for two numbers their product equals the product of the numbers.

Grammatical voice showing whether the subject performs the action or receives it; passive forms use a form of 'be' plus the past participle and suit sentences where the doer is unknown or unimportant.

A verb combined with a preposition or adverb to carry a meaning different from the base verb, such as 'give up' or 'put off'; transformation and usage questions test correct choice and placement of the particle.

A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from its individual words, such as 'a blessing in disguise'; examination items ask for the meaning or the best one-word substitute for it.

In Malayalam grammar, the rule-governed joining of two letters or words in which the final and initial sounds change, as when 'maram' plus 'il' becomes 'marathil'; questions ask candidates to split or combine such forms.

A Malayalam compound formed by joining two or more words that then take a single case ending, classified into types such as tatpurusha and dvandva; grammar questions ask the candidate to identify the type of a given compound.

The study of poetic metre in Malayalam, describing patterns of short and long syllables and the ganas they form; metres such as kakali and keka are used, and questions ask which metre a given line follows.

System software that manages hardware, memory, files and running processes and provides a user interface, examples being Windows, Linux, Android and macOS; it lets applications run without dealing directly with the hardware.

Uniform Resource Locator, the address identifying the location of a resource on the internet, including scheme, domain name and path, such as https://example.com/page; browsers use it to request and display web pages.

Any software written to damage, disrupt or gain unauthorised access to a system, including viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware and spyware; antivirus tools, updates and careful browsing are the main defences against it.

Delivery of computing resources such as storage, servers and software over the internet on demand and paid by use; providers include AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, with service models IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.

Judicial principle from the Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973 holding that Parliament may amend the Constitution but cannot alter or destroy its essential features, such as supremacy of the Constitution, secularism, federalism and judicial review.

Provision under which the President can take over a state's administration on the Governor's report that constitutional machinery has failed; parliamentary approval is needed within two months and each approval lasts six months.

Non-justiciable guidelines in Part IV of the Constitution directing the state towards social and economic democracy, including living wage, compulsory education, nutrition and protection of the environment; courts cannot enforce them directly.

Eleven moral obligations listed in Article 51A, added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, asking citizens to respect the Constitution, protect sovereignty, promote harmony and safeguard public property; they are not enforceable by courts.

Tenth Schedule provisions, added in 1985, disqualifying a legislator who voluntarily gives up party membership or votes against the party whip, aimed at curbing floor-crossing; the presiding officer decides such cases.

The 1946 uprising of agricultural labourers and workers around Alappuzha against the Travancore government's American Model labour policy, suppressed by police firing; it became a symbol of Kerala's working-class radicalism.

The 1921 uprising of Mappila peasants in Malabar against British rule and landlord oppression, also called the Malabar Rebellion; it was brutally suppressed and many participants were imprisoned or deported.

Nineteenth-century Kerala reformer and philosopher who preached one caste, one religion and one god for man, founded the SNDP Yogam, and led temple-entry and education movements against caste discrimination.

Non-violent agitation from 1924 to 1925 demanding access for avarnas to the roads around Vaikom temple in Travancore; leaders such as K. Kelappan and Mannathu Padmanabhan took part, and it became a landmark temple-entry struggle.

A mountain range running parallel to India's west coast from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu, older than the Himalayas and a global biodiversity hotspot; it feeds major peninsular rivers and influences southwest monsoon rainfall.

The highest peak in South India, at 2,695 metres, located in Idukki district inside Eravikulam National Park; its name means elephant's forehead and its slopes host the rare Neelakurinji flowering cycle.

A tropical evergreen forest national park in Palakkad district, Kerala, saved from a proposed hydroelectric project by a 1970s environmental campaign; it shelters the lion-tailed macaque and many other endangered species.

A logarithmic scale from 0 to 14 expressing the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, where 7 is neutral, below 7 acidic and above 7 basic; each unit step means a tenfold change in hydrogen ion concentration.

The relationship stating that current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference across it when temperature stays constant; written as V = IR, with resistance measured in ohms.

The process by which green plants, algae and some bacteria use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make glucose and release oxygen, with chlorophyll in chloroplasts absorbing the light energy needed.

The mass movement launched by Gandhi on 8 August 1942 demanding immediate British withdrawal from India; the national leadership was jailed overnight, while strikes, protests and parallel governments continued until 1944.

Gandhi's 1930 walk from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi to make salt illegally, launching the Civil Disobedience Movement; it drew worldwide attention to colonial monopolies and led to mass arrests across India.

The 1919 law permitting detention and trial of Indians without ordinary trial rights, aimed at revolutionary activity; widespread opposition led to Gandhi's first nationwide satyagraha and to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The June 1947 proposal for partition of British India into India and Pakistan with an early transfer of power; it formed the basis of the Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament.

Policy think tank created in 2015 to replace the Planning Commission; it advises central and state governments on development strategy through cooperative and competitive federalism, publishing indices and reports rather than allocating plan funds.

The interest rate at which the Reserve Bank of India lends short-term funds to commercial banks against government securities; raising it usually cools inflation, while lowering it encourages credit and growth.

The market value of all final goods and services produced within a country during a given period, usually a year; it is the standard headline measure of the size and growth rate of an economy.

Goods and Services Tax, a destination-based indirect tax launched on 1 July 2017 that replaced many central and state levies with a single tax on supply, administered through the GST Council.

Kerala's women-centred poverty eradication mission launched in 1998, built on neighbourhood groups and community development societies that organise thrift, micro-enterprise and local welfare delivery across the state.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, which legally guarantees at least 100 days of unskilled wage employment per rural household a year, with an unemployment allowance if work is not provided.