Static GK is the part of general knowledge that does not change from year to year, and it gives quick marks to anyone who has revised it well. The NDA General Ability Test, the CDS General Knowledge paper, AFCAT general awareness, the UPSC Civil Services preliminary exam, SSC and state PSC exams regularly ask about national awards and gallantry medals, famous books and their authors, sports trophies and terms, important days and the headquarters of international organisations.
This article brings together 100 of the most important Static GK questions on these high-frequency themes. The set is divided into four parts: Awards and Honours (questions 1 to 25), Books and Authors (26 to 50), Sports and Games (51 to 75), and Important Days, National Symbols and Headquarters (76 to 100). It follows our Indian History, Indian Geography, Indian Polity, Indian Economy, General Science, Environment and Ecology, and Indian Art and Culture sets, so you can revise all eight subjects in the same way.
The questions use standard facts from official award lists, the NCERT history books and well-established sports records. Read each question, try to recall the answer, and only then read the short explanation, which adds the related fact that examiners often turn into a second question.
Awards and Honours (Questions 1 to 25)
1. Which is the highest civilian award of India?
Answer: The Bharat Ratna. It was instituted in 1954. The first recipients were C. Rajagopalachari, Dr S. Radhakrishnan and Dr C.V. Raman.
2. What is the correct descending order of the Padma awards?
Answer: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Padma awards were also instituted in 1954 and are announced every year on the eve of Republic Day.
3. Who was the first sportsperson to receive the Bharat Ratna?
Answer: Sachin Tendulkar. He received it in 2014 at the age of 40, which also makes him the youngest recipient of the award.
4. Who was the first woman to receive the Bharat Ratna?
Answer: Indira Gandhi. She was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1971, while she was serving as Prime Minister.
5. Which is the highest wartime gallantry award of India?
Answer: The Param Vir Chakra. It is followed by the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra. The first Param Vir Chakra was awarded posthumously to Major Somnath Sharma for the Battle of Badgam in Kashmir in November 1947.
6. Which is the highest peacetime gallantry award of India?
Answer: The Ashoka Chakra. It is followed by the Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra. These awards are given for bravery away from the battlefield.
7. Who designed the Param Vir Chakra medal?
Answer: Savitri Khanolkar. The design shows four replicas of Indra’s vajra, a weapon linked with the sage Dadhichi, around the State Emblem.
8. Which is the highest literary award of India, given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith?
Answer: The Jnanpith Award. The first Jnanpith Award was given in 1965 to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup for his collection Odakkuzhal.
9. Which is the highest award in Indian cinema?
Answer: The Dadasaheb Phalke Award. It was instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema. The actress Devika Rani was its first recipient.
10. Which is the highest sporting honour of India?
Answer: The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. It was earlier called the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and was renamed in 2021. The chess player Viswanathan Anand was its first recipient, for 1991–92.
11. Which award is given to outstanding sports coaches in India?
Answer: The Dronacharya Award. It was instituted in 1985 and is named after the guru of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata.
12. Which award, instituted in 1961, is given to sportspersons for consistent outstanding performance?
Answer: The Arjuna Award. It is one of the oldest National Sports Awards. The awardees receive a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a cash prize.
13. Who was the first recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize?
Answer: Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania. The Government of India instituted the prize in 1995, the 125th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi.
14. Who was the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Rabindranath Tagore. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali and was the first Asian to win any Nobel Prize.
15. Which Indian won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930?
Answer: Dr C.V. Raman. He was awarded for the discovery of the Raman Effect, the scattering of light. He was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in science.
16. Which Indian shared the Nobel Peace Prize of 2014 with Malala Yousafzai?
Answer: Kailash Satyarthi. He was honoured for his work against child labour and for the right of all children to education.
17. Which Indian economist won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998?
Answer: Amartya Sen. He was awarded for his contributions to welfare economics and received the Bharat Ratna in 1999.
18. In which year did Mother Teresa receive the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: 1979. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950 and received the Bharat Ratna in 1980.
19. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is presented by an organisation based in which country?
Answer: The Philippines. It is named after a former President of the Philippines and is often called Asia’s Nobel Prize. Vinoba Bhave was the first Indian to receive it, in 1958.
20. The Pulitzer Prize is mainly associated with which fields?
Answer: Journalism, literature and music. It is an American award administered by Columbia University in New York. It was first given in 1917.
21. The Booker Prize is given for which kind of work?
Answer: The best novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. Salman Rushdie won it in 1981 for Midnight’s Children, which was later named the Booker of Bookers.
22. Which organisation presents the Oscars (Academy Awards)?
Answer: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, USA. Bhanu Athaiya became the first Indian to win an Oscar, in 1983, for the costume design of the film Gandhi.
23. The Fields Medal is awarded for outstanding work in which subject?
Answer: Mathematics. It is given every four years by the International Mathematical Union to mathematicians under the age of 40.
24. Who was the first recipient of the Saraswati Samman, instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation in 1991?
Answer: Harivansh Rai Bachchan. He received it for his autobiography. The award is given for an outstanding literary work in any language listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
25. Which award is often called the Nobel Prize of computing?
Answer: The Turing Award. It is given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and is named after the British mathematician Alan Turing.
Books and Authors (Questions 26 to 50)
26. Who wrote The Discovery of India?
Answer: Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru wrote it in 1944 while imprisoned in Ahmednagar Fort, and it was published in 1946. His other books include Glimpses of World History.
27. Wings of Fire is the autobiography of which person?
Answer: Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. It was written with Arun Tiwari and published in 1999. Kalam was the 11th President of India and is known as the Missile Man of India.
28. The Story of My Experiments with Truth is the autobiography of whom?
Answer: Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi wrote it in Gujarati, and it was translated into English by his secretary Mahadev Desai.
29. Who wrote Gitanjali?
Answer: Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore’s own English version, Gitanjali: Song Offerings, was published in 1912 and won him the Nobel Prize the next year.
30. Vande Mataram is taken from which novel?
Answer: Anandamath by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. The novel was published in 1882 against the background of the Sanyasi rebellion. Vande Mataram is the National Song of India.
31. Who wrote the Sanskrit play Mudrarakshasa, about the rise of Chandragupta Maurya?
Answer: Vishakhadatta. The play shows how Chanakya outwitted Rakshasa, the minister of the Nanda king, to secure the throne for Chandragupta.
32. Harshacharita, the biography of King Harshavardhana, was written by whom?
Answer: Banabhatta. Banabhatta was the court poet of Harsha. He also wrote the Sanskrit prose romance Kadambari.
33. Who wrote Prithviraj Raso?
Answer: Chand Bardai. Chand Bardai was the court poet of Prithviraj Chauhan. The poem describes the life and battles of the Chauhan king.
34. In which language did Babur write his memoirs, the Baburnama?
Answer: Chagatai Turkic (Turki). The Baburnama, also called Tuzuk-i-Baburi, was translated into Persian under Akbar by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan.
35. Who wrote the Humayun-nama?
Answer: Gulbadan Begum. She was the daughter of Babur and the half-sister of Humayun. She wrote the book at the request of Akbar.
36. Rajatarangini, a 12th-century history of Kashmir, was written by whom?
Answer: Kalhana. It was written in Sanskrit verse and is regarded as one of the earliest historical chronicles of India.
37. Which play by Dinabandhu Mitra exposed the cruelty of indigo planters in Bengal?
Answer: Neel Darpan. It was published in 1860. Rev. James Long, who published its English translation, was fined and jailed for it.
38. Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote Gita Rahasya while imprisoned in which jail?
Answer: Mandalay jail in Burma (Myanmar). Tilak was jailed there from 1908 to 1914. Gita Rahasya is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita that stresses selfless action (karma yoga).
39. Who wrote Annihilation of Caste?
Answer: Dr B.R. Ambedkar. It was written in 1936 as a speech for a conference in Lahore, but the speech was never delivered, so Ambedkar published it himself.
40. Godan, the famous Hindi novel about the life of a poor peasant, was written by whom?
Answer: Munshi Premchand. It was published in 1936. Premchand’s real name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastava, and his other works include Gaban and Nirmala.
41. Who wrote The God of Small Things?
Answer: Arundhati Roy. The novel won the Booker Prize in 1997, making her the first Indian woman to win it.
42. The White Tiger, winner of the Booker Prize in 2008, was written by whom?
Answer: Aravind Adiga. It was his first novel. It tells the story of a poor village boy who becomes a driver and later an entrepreneur.
43. Malgudi Days was written by which author?
Answer: R.K. Narayan. His stories are set in the fictional town of Malgudi. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel The Guide.
44. Train to Pakistan, a novel about the Partition, was written by whom?
Answer: Khushwant Singh. It was published in 1956 and is set in a fictional border village called Mano Majra.
45. Who wrote India Wins Freedom?
Answer: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. It was published in 1959, after his death. About thirty pages that were kept sealed were released only in 1988.
46. Lala Lajpat Rai wrote Unhappy India as a reply to which book?
Answer: Mother India by Katherine Mayo. Mother India, by an American writer, painted a very negative picture of Indian society. Lajpat Rai’s reply was published in 1928.
47. Who wrote the novel A Suitable Boy?
Answer: Vikram Seth. It was published in 1993 and is one of the longest single-volume novels in the English language.
48. Kamayani, a classic Hindi epic poem, was written by whom?
Answer: Jaishankar Prasad. Jaishankar Prasad was a leading poet of the Chhayavad movement in Hindi literature. Kamayani tells the story of Manu after the great flood.
49. Who wrote Das Kapital?
Answer: Karl Marx. The first volume was published in 1867. Marx also wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1848.
50. Who wrote the novel War and Peace?
Answer: Leo Tolstoy. The Russian novel is set during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. Tolstoy also wrote Anna Karenina.
Sports and Games (Questions 51 to 75)
51. Has India officially declared a national game?
Answer: No, India has not officially declared any national game. Hockey is popularly regarded as the national game because of India’s great Olympic record, but the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has stated that no sport has been given that status.
52. How many players does a field hockey team have on the field?
Answer: Eleven. Each side has ten field players and one goalkeeper. A match has four quarters of 15 minutes each.
53. The Durand Cup, Asia’s oldest football tournament, was first played in which year?
Answer: 1888. It was started by Sir Mortimer Durand, then Foreign Secretary of British India, and was first played at Dagshai near Shimla.
54. The Ranji Trophy is associated with which sport?
Answer: Cricket. It is India’s premier domestic first-class cricket championship. It began in 1934 and is named after K.S. Ranjitsinhji.
55. The Santosh Trophy is associated with which sport?
Answer: Football. It is the national football championship for state teams in India and was first held in 1941.
56. The Thomas Cup is associated with which sport?
Answer: Badminton. It is the men’s world team championship. India won the Thomas Cup for the first time in 2022. The women’s equivalent is the Uber Cup.
57. The Davis Cup is associated with which sport?
Answer: Tennis. It is the main international team competition in men’s tennis and was first held in 1900. The women’s equivalent is the Billie Jean King Cup.
58. The Ryder Cup is associated with which sport?
Answer: Golf. It is a team competition between the United States and Europe, held every two years.
59. On which surface is the Wimbledon Championships played?
Answer: Grass. Wimbledon is held in London and is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, first played in 1877.
60. On which surface is the French Open played?
Answer: Clay. It is held at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris. The Australian Open and the US Open are played on hard courts.
61. Where were the first Asian Games held in 1951?
Answer: New Delhi. India hosted the Asian Games again in 1982, also in New Delhi. The Games are held every four years.
62. The term googly is associated with which sport?
Answer: Cricket. A googly is a ball bowled by a leg-spinner that turns the opposite way from a normal leg break.
63. How many players does a volleyball team have on the court?
Answer: Six. Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in the USA in 1895.
64. How many players of a kabaddi team are on the court at a time?
Answer: Seven. A kabaddi squad usually has twelve players, of whom seven take the court. Kabaddi is an indigenous Indian sport.
65. How many players does a polo team have?
Answer: Four. Polo is played on horseback. Modern polo spread from Manipur, where the British first saw the game in the 19th century.
66. What is the length of a cricket pitch?
Answer: 22 yards (about 20.12 metres). The pitch is the strip between the two sets of stumps. Its width is 10 feet.
67. How many interlinked rings are there on the Olympic flag?
Answer: Five. The rings were designed by Pierre de Coubertin in 1913 and stand for the union of the continents. Coubertin is regarded as the founder of the modern Olympic Games.
68. Where were the first modern Olympic Games held in 1896?
Answer: Athens, Greece. The Summer Olympics are held every four years. India first took part in 1900 and sent a full team for the first time in 1920.
69. Who was the first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal?
Answer: Abhinav Bindra. He won gold in the men’s 10 metre air rifle shooting event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
70. Neeraj Chopra won India’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics in which event?
Answer: Javelin throw. He won gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which were held in 2021, with a throw of 87.58 metres. He won silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
71. In which year did India win its first Olympic gold medal in hockey?
Answer: 1928. India won it at the Amsterdam Olympics with Dhyan Chand as the star player. India has won eight Olympic gold medals in hockey.
72. India won its first Cricket World Cup in which year?
Answer: 1983. Under the captaincy of Kapil Dev, India beat the West Indies in the final at Lord’s. India won the World Cup again in 2011 under M.S. Dhoni.
73. Who was the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal?
Answer: Karnam Malleswari. She won a bronze medal in weightlifting at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
74. Who became India’s first chess Grandmaster in 1988?
Answer: Viswanathan Anand. Anand later went on to become a five-time world chess champion.
75. Where were the first Commonwealth Games held in 1930?
Answer: Hamilton, Canada. They were then called the British Empire Games. India hosted the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.
Important Days, National Symbols and Headquarters (Questions 76 to 100)
76. National Science Day is observed in India on which date?
Answer: 28 February. It marks the announcement of the Raman Effect by Dr C.V. Raman on 28 February 1928.
77. National Sports Day in India is observed on 29 August to mark the birth anniversary of whom?
Answer: Major Dhyan Chand. Dhyan Chand, the hockey legend, was born on 29 August 1905. He is often called the Wizard of hockey.
78. Teachers’ Day in India is observed on 5 September to honour whom?
Answer: Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was a philosopher and teacher who became the first Vice-President and the second President of India.
79. National Youth Day on 12 January marks the birth anniversary of whom?
Answer: Swami Vivekananda. It has been observed since 1985. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897.
80. Army Day is observed in India on which date?
Answer: 15 January. On this day in 1949, General K.M. Cariappa took over as the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Sir Francis Bucher.
81. Navy Day is observed in India on which date?
Answer: 4 December. It marks Operation Trident, the Indian Navy’s missile boat attack on Karachi harbour during the 1971 war.
82. Air Force Day is observed in India on which date?
Answer: 8 October. The Indian Air Force was established on 8 October 1932.
83. Armed Forces Flag Day is observed in India on which date?
Answer: 7 December. It has been observed since 1949. Funds are collected through the sale of flags for the welfare of serving soldiers, veterans and their families.
84. Kargil Vijay Diwas is observed on which date?
Answer: 26 July. It marks India’s victory in the Kargil War of 1999. The Army’s operation was called Operation Vijay.
85. World Health Day is observed on which date?
Answer: 7 April. It marks the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948.
86. Human Rights Day is observed every year on which date?
Answer: 10 December. It marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly in 1948.
87. International Women’s Day is observed on which date?
Answer: 8 March. The United Nations began observing it in 1975, which was International Women’s Year.
88. World Population Day is observed on which date?
Answer: 11 July. It grew out of the Day of Five Billion, 11 July 1987, when the world population was estimated to have reached five billion.
89. National Unity Day (Rashtriya Ekta Diwas) is observed on 31 October to mark the birth anniversary of whom?
Answer: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It has been observed since 2014. Patel played the leading role in integrating the princely states into India.
90. Children’s Day in India is observed on 14 November, the birth anniversary of whom?
Answer: Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was fondly called Chacha Nehru by children.
91. National Girl Child Day is observed in India on which date?
Answer: 24 January. It has been observed since 2008 to raise awareness about the rights, education and health of girls.
92. Which bird is the National Bird of India?
Answer: The Indian peafowl (peacock). It was declared the National Bird in 1963. It is protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
93. Which tree is the National Tree of India?
Answer: The banyan tree. Its aerial roots grow down to form new trunks, and it is a symbol of long life and unity.
94. Which calendar was adopted as the National Calendar of India on 22 March 1957?
Answer: The Saka calendar. It is used along with the Gregorian calendar. Chaitra is its first month, and the Saka era began in 78 CE.
95. Which animal was declared the National Heritage Animal of India in 2010?
Answer: The elephant. The Bengal tiger is the National Animal. The elephant was given heritage status to strengthen its protection.
96. Where is the headquarters of the United Nations?
Answer: New York, USA. The UN was founded on 24 October 1945, which is observed as United Nations Day. It has 193 member states.
97. Where is the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO)?
Answer: Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a specialised agency of the United Nations and was set up on 7 April 1948.
98. Where is the International Court of Justice located?
Answer: The Hague, Netherlands. It is the main judicial organ of the United Nations and has 15 judges elected for nine-year terms. It sits in the Peace Palace.
99. Where is the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)?
Answer: Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC was founded in 1894 in Paris on the initiative of Pierre de Coubertin and later moved to Lausanne.
100. Where is the headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC)?
Answer: Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The ICC moved its headquarters from London to Dubai in 2005.
Quick Revision Tips
- Learn the order of awards as ladders: Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri for civilians; Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra for wartime bravery; and Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra for peacetime bravery.
- Keep a two-column list of books and authors, and group them by period: ancient (Vishakhadatta, Banabhatta, Kalhana), Mughal (Babur, Gulbadan Begum), the freedom struggle (Tilak, Lajpat Rai, Nehru, Azad, Ambedkar) and modern fiction (Premchand, R.K. Narayan, Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga).
- Revise trophies with their sports in one table: Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy (cricket), Durand Cup and Santosh Trophy (football), Thomas Cup and Uber Cup (badminton), Davis Cup (tennis) and Ryder Cup (golf).
- Make a month-wise calendar of important days and mark the defence days separately: Army Day (15 January), Kargil Vijay Diwas (26 July), Air Force Day (8 October), Navy Day (4 December) and Armed Forces Flag Day (7 December). Defence exams often ask about these.
- Link each international organisation to its city: UN (New York), WHO and WTO (Geneva), ICJ (The Hague), IOC (Lausanne) and ICC (Dubai). Add the year of founding where you can, because examiners sometimes ask both.
Conclusion
Static GK questions are short and direct, so they reward steady revision more than anything else. If you can recall these 100 questions, you will have covered a large share of the awards, books, sports and important days asked in NDA, CDS, AFCAT, UPSC, SSC and state PSC papers. Keep adding new award winners, sports results and appointments from current affairs to the same lists, revise them every week, and come back to the sections where you made mistakes.
FAQs
1. What is Static GK?
Static GK is general knowledge that does not change often, such as awards and their history, books and authors, sports trophies and terms, important days, national symbols and the headquarters of organisations. Current affairs, by contrast, covers recent events.
2. How many Static GK questions are asked in NDA, CDS and AFCAT?
The number changes from paper to paper, so it is better not to prepare for a fixed count. Static GK questions appear regularly in the NDA General Ability Test, the CDS General Knowledge paper and AFCAT general awareness, often mixed with current affairs.
3. Which Static GK topics are most important for defence exams?
Gallantry awards, defence days such as Army Day, Navy Day and Air Force Day, national awards, books and authors, sports trophies and Olympic records, national symbols and the headquarters of international organisations are the most frequently asked areas.
4. How should I remember books and authors?
Group books by period and theme, such as ancient Sanskrit works, Mughal memoirs, freedom-struggle books and modern novels. Revising them in groups is easier than memorising one long list, and it also helps with history questions.
5. How should I revise these 100 Static GK questions?
Read one section at a time, cover the answers and test yourself, then mark the questions you got wrong. Revise the marked questions again after two or three days, and use the Quick Revision Tips for last-minute revision before the exam.
