General Knowledge and Current Affairs
General Knowledge and Current Affairs is a high-weight domain of the Kerala PSC Degree Level examination. Part of the paper is permanent static knowledge - firsts, institutions and headquarters, national parks, classical arts, books and authors, observances - and part is current affairs from roughly the twelve to eighteen months before the exam: state and central schemes, budget highlights, appointments, awards, sports and space missions. Kerala government programmes, Kerala Legislative Assembly business and state-level appointments appear far more often than purely international trivia, so the state section of any monthly compilation deserves double weight.
How to build stable answers
- Store facts as a who–what–where–when chain. Example: G20 Leaders’ Summit 2023 - host India - venue New Delhi - theme Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.
- Learn firsts in pairs. First in India and first in Kerala are different lists, and PSC regularly sets the Kerala one (first Chief Minister, first woman judge of the Kerala High Court, first Malayalam novel).
- Keep one line per scheme: launching government, year, department, beneficiary group and one distinctive feature.
- For observances and rankings, retain the date plus the single theme or rank figure that was announced before the notification date.
Worked example
Question: Which country hosted the 2023 G20 Leaders’ Summit and what was its theme? Reasoning: the G20 is a forum of 19 major economies plus the African Union and the European Union; India held the presidency from December 2022 to November 2023; the Leaders’ Summit met at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, in September 2023 under the Sanskrit theme Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, glossed as One Earth, One Family, One Future. Answer: India, with that theme. Note how the anchor chain fixes three possible question stems at once - host, venue, theme.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing a scheme’s launch year with its later expansion year.
- Mixing near-identical names: PM Jan Dhan Yojana, PM Suraksha Bima Yojana and PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana are three different schemes.
- Ignoring NOT and EXCEPT in the stem.
- Quoting an appointment that has since changed - verify incumbents before the exam.