General and Financial Awareness with Madhya Pradesh Focus
General and Financial Awareness is the highest-scoring section per minute, provided you revise the right list. The paper blends Madhya Pradesh state facts, recent state and central schemes, and financial-institution basics.
Madhya Pradesh facts that repeat
- Capital Bhopal; the state was formed on 1 November 1956 and is the second largest state by area after Rajasthan.
- State animal barasingha (swamp deer), state bird dudhraj (Indian paradise flycatcher), state tree banyan, state sport mallakhamb.
- Rivers: Narmada, which flows west through a rift valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges, plus the Tapti, Chambal, Betwa and Sone.
- UNESCO sites: Khajuraho, Sanchi and the Bhimbetka rock shelters. National parks include Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench, Panna, Satpura and Kuno, where cheetahs were reintroduced from 2022.
- Economy: soybean and gram production, Panna diamonds, Malanjkhand copper, Chanderi and Maheshwari handloom.
Financial awareness
RBI (1935, nationalised 1949), SEBI (1988, statutory 1992), NABARD (1982), SIDBI (1990), IRDAI (1999), PFRDA. Know repo and reverse repo, CRR and SLR directions, major bank mergers, PMJDY, MUDRA and DBT.
Worked example
'Which institution refinances the short-term cooperative credit structure?' NABARD refinances state cooperative banks and district central cooperative banks; RBI regulates the banks themselves. Confusing the refinancer with the regulator is the classic error here.
Traps
- Stale current affairs: check the chief minister, governor and scheme names against the cut-off date printed in the notification.
- Mixing state scheme names with central schemes.
- Guessing on dates instead of eliminating two options first.