General Awareness
General Awareness in the THDC JE exam is static general knowledge with a strong Indian-public-sector and hydropower flavour. Expect Indian polity, geography (rivers, dams, national parks), modern history, basic economics, general science, and Uttarakhand-specific facts.
High-yield areas
- Polity: Fundamental Duties are Article 51A, added by the 42nd Amendment (1976); Fundamental Rights are in Part III; the President is elected indirectly by an electoral college.
- Geography: Tehri Dam is on the Bhagirathi in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand; Koteshwar is downstream; Bhakra Dam is on the Sutlej; Sardar Sarovar on the Narmada.
- Power sector: THDC India Limited operates the Tehri (1,000 MW) and Koteshwar (400 MW) hydro stations; NHPC is a major central hydro PSU.
- Science: the SI unit of power is the watt; speed of light is 3 × 10^8 m/s; pH below 7 is acidic.
- Uttarakhand: formed on 9 November 2000; capital Dehradun, with Gairsain as the summer capital; Nanda Devi is the highest peak entirely within India.
Worked example
Tehri Dam is built on which river? Locate Tehri in Uttarakhand, upstream of Devprayag. The river there is the Bhagirathi, which joins the Alaknanda at Devprayag to form the Ganga. Answer: Bhagirathi.
Traps
Swapping Bhagirathi and Alaknanda; mixing dam–river pairs such as Bhakra–Sutlej and Hirakud–Mahanadi; confusing Article 51A (duties) with Article 51; and confusing the 42nd and 44th Amendments.