Maharashtra HSC General Knowledge cheat sheet

G20 New Delhi Summit (September 2023): India hosted the Leaders' Summit; the African Union was admitted as a permanent G20 member, raising membership to 21.

Chandrayaan-3 soft-landed near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023; India became the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon and the first near the south pole.

Aditya-L1, India's first solar observatory mission, was launched on 2 September 2023 and inserted into a halo orbit around Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1 in January 2024.

Paris 2024 Olympics: India won six medals (one silver, five bronze); Neeraj Chopra took silver in men's javelin throw.

India's Presidency of the G20 ran from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023, with the theme 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'.

BRICS expansion announced at the Johannesburg summit (2023): Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Argentina were invited; Argentina declined.

ISRO's SpaDeX mission (December 2024) demonstrated autonomous docking of two small satellites, a capability needed for space stations and sample-return missions.

16th Finance Commission was constituted in December 2023 under Arvind Panagariya, with recommendations covering 2026-27 to 2030-31.

Indus Valley Civilisation: Harappa and Mohenjo-daro on the Indus; Lothal (Gujarat) had a dockyard; Dholavira (Kutch) is known for its water reservoirs and signboard.

Buddha: born Siddhartha Gautama at Lumbini, attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, first sermon at Sarnath, died at Kushinagar.

Mauryan administration: Arthashastra attributed to Kautilya; Ashoka's Dhamma edicts inscribed on rock and pillar; Kalinga war c. 261 BCE.

Gupta period (c. 320-550 CE) is called the Golden Age; Aryabhata wrote the Aryabhatiya; Kalidasa composed Abhijnanashakuntalam.

Delhi Sultanate order: Slave (1206-1290), Khilji (1290-1320), Tughlaq (1320-1414), Sayyid (1414-1451), Lodi (1451-1526).

Battle of Plassey (1757) gave the East India Company control of Bengal; Battle of Buxar (1764) confirmed it; Treaty of Allahabad (1765) granted Diwani rights.

Indian National Congress founded 1885 in Bombay; Partition of Bengal 1905 triggered the Swadeshi movement; Jallianwala Bagh massacre 13 April 1919.

Quit India Movement launched 8 August 1942 at Gowalia Tank, Bombay; slogan 'Do or Die'; Indian independence 15 August 1947.

Classical dance map: Bharatanatyam (Tamil Nadu), Kathak (Uttar Pradesh), Kathakali and Mohiniyattam (Kerala), Kuchipudi (Andhra Pradesh), Odissi (Odisha), Manipuri (Manipur), Sattriya (Assam).

Eight classical dance forms are recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi; Sattriya was added in 2000.

Hindustani vs Carnatic: Hindustani emphasises improvisation over raga with instruments like sitar and tabla; Carnatic is composition-centred with veena, mridangam and violin.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India include Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Taj Mahal, Sun Temple Konark, Kaziranga and Sundarbans National Parks.

Folk theatre examples: Tamasha (Maharashtra), Yakshagana (Karnataka), Bhavai (Gujarat), Nautanki (Uttar Pradesh), Jatra (West Bengal).

Bharatanatyam's codified repertoire: alarippu, jatiswaram, shabdam, varnam, padam and tillana; arangetram is the debut performance.

Madhubani painting (Bihar), Warli (Maharashtra), Pattachitra (Odisha), Kalamkari (Andhra Pradesh) and Phad (Rajasthan) are recognised folk painting traditions.

Sangeet Natak Akademi, Sahitya Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi are the national academies for performing arts, letters and fine arts respectively.

Constitution adopted 26 November 1949, came into force 26 January 1950; Constituent Assembly drafting committee chaired by B. R. Ambedkar.

Fundamental Rights are in Part III (Articles 12-35); Article 32 gives the right to constitutional remedies and is called the 'heart and soul' of the Constitution by Ambedkar.

Directive Principles of State Policy are in Part IV (Articles 36-51); they are non-justiciable but fundamental in governance.

Fundamental Duties were added by the 42nd Amendment (1976) on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee; Article 51A lists eleven duties.

President is elected indirectly by an electoral college using a single transferable vote and proportional representation; term five years; impeachment under Article 61.

Parliament: Lok Sabha maximum strength 552 (530 states, 20 UTs, 2 Anglo-Indians nominated, the latter provision lapsed in 2020); Rajya Sabha maximum 250.

Emergency provisions: national emergency (Article 352), President's rule (Article 356), financial emergency (Article 360).

Anti-defection is governed by the Tenth Schedule, inserted by the 52nd Amendment (1985); the Speaker decides disqualification.

India's latitudinal extent is roughly 8°4'N to 37°6'N and longitudinal extent 68°7'E to 97°25'E; the Tropic of Cancer passes through eight states.

Standard Meridian of India is 82°30'E, giving IST = UTC+5:30; it passes near Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh.

Highest peak in India is Kangchenjunga (8,586 m); K2 lies in Pakistan-administered territory; Mount Everest is 8,849 m.

Major rivers: Ganga (longest in India), Godavari (longest peninsular river, called Dakshin Ganga), Narmada and Tapi flow west into the Arabian Sea.

Soil types: alluvial (most extensive), black regur (cotton soil, Deccan trap), red, laterite, arid and mountain soil.

Monsoon: southwest monsoon June-September brings about 75% of annual rainfall; retreating monsoon October-November; Cherrapunji and Mawsynram record very high rainfall.

World geography: longest river Nile, largest desert Sahara, deepest ocean trench Mariana, largest island Greenland, largest freshwater lake by area Lake Superior.

Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats meet at the Nilgiri Hills; Palghat Gap is a major pass between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

GDP is the market value of final goods and services produced within a country's borders in a year; GNP = GDP + net factor income from abroad.

Five-Year Plans ran from 1951-52 to 2017; the NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission on 1 January 2015.

Green Revolution associated with M. S. Swaminathan and high-yielding wheat varieties; White Revolution (Operation Flood) with Verghese Kurien.

Repo rate is the rate at which RBI lends to banks against securities; reverse repo absorbs liquidity; CRR and SLR are reserve requirements.

Inflation measured by CPI (base 2012) and WPI (base 2011-12); RBI's flexible inflation targeting framework sets a 4% target with a ±2% band.

GST launched 1 July 2017; a destination-based value-added tax with slabs of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% plus cess on demerit goods.

Poverty and employment: NITI Aayog's Multidimensional Poverty Index uses three dimensions (health, education, standard of living); MGNREGA (2005) guarantees 100 days of wage employment per rural household.

Key institutions: RBI (1935, nationalised 1949), SEBI (1988, statutory 1992), NABARD (1982) for rural credit.

SI base units: metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, candela; Newton's second law F = ma; work W = Fd.

Speed of light in vacuum c ≈ 3 × 10^8 m/s; pH below 7 is acidic, 7 neutral, above 7 basic.

Human body: 206 bones in an adult, heart has four chambers, the liver is the largest internal organ, blood groups ABO and Rh.

Photosynthesis: 6CO2 + 6H2O + light → C6H12O6 + 6O2, occurring in chloroplasts using chlorophyll.

Vaccines and antibiotics: antibiotics act on bacteria, not viruses; insulin is a hormone produced by pancreatic beta cells.

AI and computing: machine learning is a subset of AI; supervised learning uses labelled data; semiconductors use silicon as the dominant material.

Space and defence: PSLV and GSLV are ISRO launch vehicles; BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile developed with Russia.

Renewable energy: solar photovoltaic converts light to electricity; wind power depends on the cube of wind speed; India targets 500 GW non-fossil capacity by 2030.

Biosphere reserves, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries are protected areas under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972; Project Tiger began in 1973.

Biodiversity hotspots in India: Western Ghats, Himalaya, Indo-Burma and Sundaland (Nicobar Islands).

Food chain: producers → primary consumers → secondary consumers; only about 10% of energy transfers between trophic levels.

Greenhouse gases: CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases; the Kyoto Protocol (1997) set binding targets for developed countries; the Paris Agreement (2015) aims to limit warming well below 2°C.

Ozone layer depletion is caused by CFCs; the Montreal Protocol (1987) phases out ozone-depleting substances.

Wetlands: Ramsar Convention (1971) protects wetlands of international importance; India has over 80 Ramsar sites, including Chilika and Keoladeo.

Pollution standards: the National Green Tribunal was established in 2010; the Central Pollution Control Board enforces the Air and Water Acts of 1974 and 1981.

Ecological succession: primary succession starts on bare rock; climax community is the stable end stage; keystone species have disproportionate influence on the ecosystem.

Major football tournaments: FIFA World Cup every four years; India won the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008; the Durand Cup is Asia's oldest football tournament.

Cricket formats: Test, ODI and T20I; the Ranji Trophy is India's domestic first-class championship; the IPL is a T20 franchise league.

Hockey: India has eight Olympic gold medals in field hockey; the Beighton Cup and Aga Khan Cup are historic Indian hockey tournaments.

Arjuna Award recognises outstanding sportspersons; Dronacharya Award for coaches; Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna is the highest sporting honour of India.

Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award; Param Vir Chakra is the highest wartime military decoration; Ashoka Chakra is the highest peacetime gallantry award.

Nobel Prizes: Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913), C. V. Raman (Physics, 1930), Amartya Sen (Economics, 1998), Kailash Satyarthi (Peace, 2014).

Jnanpith Award is given for outstanding contribution to Indian literature; Sahitya Akademi Awards are annual literary awards in 24 languages.

Olympic facts: the modern Games began in Athens 1896; the rings represent five continents; the marathon distance is 42.195 km.

'Gitanjali' by Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913; 'Gora' and 'Ghare-Baire' are also Tagore novels.

M. K. Gandhi's autobiography is 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth'; 'Hind Swaraj' (1909) sets out his views on self-rule.

'Discovery of India' and 'Glimpses of World History' were written by Jawaharlal Nehru; 'Arthashastra' is attributed to Kautilya.

Indian English novels: 'Midnight's Children' (Salman Rushdie, Booker 1981), 'The God of Small Things' (Arundhati Roy, Booker 1997), 'The White Tiger' (Aravind Adiga, Booker 2008).

Maharashtra literary figures: P. L. Deshpande (Pu La), V. S. Khandekar (Jnanpith 1974), Kusumagraj, and Bhalchandra Nemade (Jnanpith 2014).

Press regulation: the Press Council of India was set up in 1966; the Right to Information Act (2005) supports access to official information.

Media terminology: editorial, op-ed, sting operation, embargo, byline, and yellow journalism.

Doordarshan began telecasting in 1959; All India Radio's predecessor Indian Broadcasting Company was founded in 1927.

Maharashtra was formed on 1 May 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act, splitting the bilingual Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat; Mumbai is the capital.

Maharashtra has 36 districts and 6 administrative divisions: Konkan, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Amravati and Nagpur.

State symbols: state animal Indian giant squirrel (shekru), state bird yellow-footed green pigeon (hariyal), state tree mango, state flower jarul (Lagerstroemia).

Longest river within Maharashtra is the Godavari, which rises at Trimbakeshwar in Nashik district; Krishna and Tapi also drain the state.

Ajanta and Ellora caves are in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district; Elephanta Caves are on Gharapuri island near Mumbai; all are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj founded the Maratha state and was crowned at Raigad in 1674; Ashta Pradhan was his council of eight ministers.

Maharashtra hill stations and peaks: Kalsubai (highest peak in Maharashtra, 1,646 m), Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Matheran and Lonavala.

Maharashtra economy: Mumbai is a major financial centre hosting the RBI, SEBI, BSE and NSE; the state leads in sugar and cotton production and has major industrial belts at Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad.

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Arjuna Award recognises outstanding sportspersons; Dronacharya Award for coaches; Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna is the highest sporting honour of India.

Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award; Param Vir Chakra is the highest wartime military decoration.

Olympic Games began in Athens in 1896; the marathon distance is 42.195 km.

India has eight Olympic gold medals in field hockey; the Durand Cup is Asia's oldest football tournament.

Nobel laureates from India include Tagore (1913), C. V. Raman (1930), Amartya Sen (1998) and Kailash Satyarthi (2014).