KPSC KAS flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Aihole inscription

Sanskrit eulogy by court poet Ravikirti dated 634 CE, recording the victories of Badami Chalukya king Pulakeshin II, including his triumph over Harshavardhana on the Narmada.

Hoysala stellate plan

Signature Hoysala temple design in which the sanctum is built on a star-shaped platform with soapstone walls, lathe-turned pillars and bracket figures, seen at Belur and Halebidu.

Kavirajamarga

Earliest extant Kannada literary work, composed around 850 CE and attributed to the Rashtrakuta court; it is a poetics treatise describing the Kannada region and language.

Vachana literature

Twelfth-century Kannada devotional prose-poems of the Sharanas led by Basavanna, expressing social equality and direct devotion; a foundational body of Lingayat literature.

Article 32

Grants the right to move the Supreme Court for enforcement of Fundamental Rights; Ambedkar called it the heart and soul of the Constitution. It is itself a Fundamental Right.

Basic structure doctrine

Held in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) that Parliament cannot amend the Constitution so as to destroy its essential features such as secularism, federalism and judicial review.

Article 279A GST Council

Constitutional body created by the 101st Amendment to recommend GST rates and structure; chaired by the Union Finance Minister with state finance ministers as members.

73rd Amendment

Added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule to the Constitution, giving constitutional status to three-tier Panchayati Raj institutions with five-year terms and State Election Commissions.

Fiscal deficit

Total expenditure minus total receipts excluding borrowings; it measures the government's borrowing requirement in a year and is expressed as a percentage of GDP.

Flexible inflation targeting

Statutory monetary framework under the RBI Act amendment of 2016, setting CPI inflation at 4 percent with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2 percent.

Karnataka silk and coffee

Karnataka is India's leading mulberry silk producer and a major coffee grower, with coffee chiefly from Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan and silk from Ramanagara and Kolar.

Multidimensional Poverty Index

NITI Aayog's measure using three dimensions of health, education and standard of living across twelve indicators, following the Oxford MPI and Alkire-Foster methodology.

Mullayanagiri

At about 1,930 metres, the highest peak in Karnataka, located in the Baba Budan range of Chikkamagaluru district within the Western Ghats.

Jog Falls

India's highest plunge waterfall, formed by the Sharavathi river in Shivamogga district, dropping in four distinct segments over the Western Ghats escarpment.

Karnataka natural divisions

The state is divided into Karavali (coastal plain), Malnad (Western Ghats and high-rainfall hill belt) and Maidan (eastern plateau), differing in rainfall, soil and crops.

Project Tiger

Launched in 1973 to conserve tigers through protected reserves; the National Tiger Conservation Authority under the Wildlife (Protection) Act now administers it, including Bandipur and Nagarahole.

Sendai Framework

Global disaster risk reduction framework for 2015-2030 with four priorities, aiming to reduce disaster mortality and economic losses and strengthen preparedness and build-back-better recovery.

Article 48A and 51A(g)

Article 48A directs the State to protect and improve the environment, while Article 51A(g) makes it a fundamental duty of every citizen to protect nature and wildlife.

Chandrayaan-3

ISRO mission whose Vikram lander soft-landed near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023, making India the first country to land in that region; now marked as National Space Day.

CRISPR-Cas9

Gene-editing tool using a guide RNA to direct the Cas9 nuclease to a specific DNA sequence for cutting, enabling targeted modification of genes in organisms.

Green hydrogen

Hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity, emitting no carbon dioxide; India's National Green Hydrogen Mission promotes its production and export.

Women's Reservation Amendment

The 106th Constitutional Amendment, 2023, reserving one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and Delhi Assembly for women, to take effect after a delimitation exercise.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita

Criminal code enacted in 2023 to replace the Indian Penal Code 1860, in force from 1 July 2024 alongside the new procedural and evidence codes.

G20 New Delhi Summit

2023 summit under India's presidency with the theme Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam; it admitted the African Union as a permanent member and produced the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration.

Nolan principles

Seven principles of public life set out by the UK Nolan Committee: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership, widely cited in ethics answers.

Conflict of interest

A situation where a public servant's personal, family or financial interest could improperly influence official decisions; the standard remedy is disclosure and recusal from the decision.

Syllogism validity rule

A conclusion follows only if it is true in every possible Venn diagram consistent with the premises; 'all A are B' does not justify 'all B are A'.

Relative speed of trains

When two trains move in opposite directions their relative speed is the sum of speeds; in the same direction it is the difference; crossing time equals total length divided by relative speed.

Seven Cs of communication

Clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous; a checklist for administrative writing and correspondence to reduce ambiguity and delay.

Dangling modifier

A descriptive phrase that does not logically attach to the subject of the main clause, as in 'Walking down the road, the tree was seen'.

Halegannada

Old Kannada, the earliest literary phase from about the ninth to twelfth centuries, represented by Kavirajamarga, Pampa, Ranna and the early Vachana writers.

Kannada vibhakti

Case suffixes in Kannada marking grammatical relations such as subject, object, instrument and location; traditional grammar recognises eight cases in the language.