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Static General Knowledge: Symbols, Firsts, Awards, Sports and Organisations: key facts and practice questions

Revise Static General Knowledge: Symbols, Firsts, Awards, Sports and Organisations for SSC, Railway, police and state PSC exams: the facts and distinctions that keep coming up, a one-glance revision list, and 10 practice questions with answers and explanations.

Drafted with AI assistance and fact-checked on 2026-10-15; not yet read line by line by a human editor. Spotted a mistake? Tell us. Editorial standards & corrections

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Key concepts and facts

National symbols: The National Anthem Jana Gana Mana was written by Rabindranath Tagore, first sung at the Calcutta Congress session on 27 December 1911 and adopted on 24 January 1950. The National Song Vande Mataram comes from Bankim Chandra's novel Anandamath (1882). The National Emblem is adapted from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath (adopted 26 January 1950); the motto Satyameva Jayate is from the Mundaka Upanishad. The flag, designed by Pingali Venkayya, was adopted on 22 July 1947, has a 2:3 width to length ratio and a navy blue Ashoka Chakra with 24 spokes. National animal: tiger (since 1972, replacing the lion); bird: peacock; flower: lotus; tree: banyan; fruit: mango; river: Ganga (2008); aquatic animal: Gangetic dolphin (2009); heritage animal: elephant (2010). The Saka calendar, adopted in 1957, begins with Chaitra. No game has been officially declared the national sport.
States, capitals and nicknames: Learn the north-eastern capitals as a set: Itanagar, Dispur, Imphal, Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima, Agartala and Gangtok. Statehood in order: Andhra Pradesh 1953 (first linguistic state), Gujarat and Maharashtra 1960, Nagaland 1963, Haryana 1966, Sikkim 1975, Goa 1987, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand 2000, Telangana 2014. Rajasthan is the largest state by area and Goa the smallest. Chandigarh, designed by Le Corbusier, is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. City nicknames are frequent one-mark questions: Pink City Jaipur, Manchester of India Ahmedabad, City of Joy Kolkata, Scotland of the East Shillong.
Firsts in India and the world: First President Rajendra Prasad, first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1966), first woman President Pratibha Patil (2007), first woman Chief Minister Sucheta Kripalani (1963), first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi (1972), first Indian in space Rakesh Sharma (1984), first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1913), first Indian woman Nobel laureate Mother Teresa (1979). First feature film Raja Harishchandra (1913), first talkie Alam Ara (1931), first newspaper Hicky's Bengal Gazette (1780), first railway Bombay to Thane (1853), first satellite Aryabhata (1975), first universities Calcutta, Bombay and Madras (1857). World: first in space Yuri Gagarin (1961), first on the Moon Neil Armstrong (1969), first woman Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1960).
Superlatives: Longest river of India Ganga; longest dam Hirakud (Mahanadi); highest dam Tehri (Bhagirathi); longest national highway NH 44, Srinagar to Kanyakumari; largest river island Majuli; largest freshwater lake Wular; largest lagoon Chilika; largest delta in the world the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta (the Sundarbans is its mangrove part). World: longest river Nile (about 6,650 km by the traditional measure; some recent measurements put the Amazon longer), largest ocean Pacific, smallest Arctic, deepest lake Baikal, largest lake Caspian Sea, highest waterfall Angel Falls, largest country Russia, smallest Vatican City.
Important days: 15 January Army Day, 25 January National Voters' Day, 28 February National Science Day (Raman Effect), 11 May National Technology Day (Pokhran-II), 5 June Environment Day, 21 June Yoga Day, 26 July Kargil Vijay Diwas, 29 August National Sports Day (Dhyan Chand), 5 September Teachers' Day, 8 October Air Force Day, 24 October UN Day, 26 November Constitution Day, 4 December Navy Day, 10 December Human Rights Day, 16 December Vijay Diwas.
Awards: Bharat Ratna (1954) is the highest civilian award; the first recipients were C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman, and the first posthumous award went to Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966). Padma awards in descending order: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri. Param Vir Chakra is the highest wartime gallantry award (first recipient Major Somnath Sharma) and Ashoka Chakra the highest peacetime award. Arjuna Award is for sportspersons, Dronacharya for coaches, Khel Ratna (first Viswanathan Anand) for the best sportsperson. Jnanpith (first G. Sankara Kurup, 1965) is for literature, Dadasaheb Phalke (first Devika Rani, 1969) for cinema, Ramon Magsaysay is from the Philippines. Nobel Prizes began in 1901 in five fields; Economics was added in 1969. The Peace Prize is given in Oslo, the rest in Stockholm. Booker is for English fiction; Pulitzer is an American award for journalism, literature and music.
Sports, organisations, defence and space: Team sizes: cricket, football and hockey 11, kabaddi 7, volleyball 6, basketball 5. Link cups to sports: Thomas and Uber to badminton, Davis to tennis, Ryder to golf, Durand and Santosh to football, Ranji to cricket, Beighton to hockey. India won its first hockey gold in 1928 and the cricket World Cup in 1983 and 2011; Abhinav Bindra won the first individual Olympic gold in 2008. The UN came into existence on 24 October 1945 (its Charter was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945; its headquarters is in New York); its Security Council has 15 members and the ICJ sits at The Hague. The service chiefs are General, Admiral and Air Chief Marshal; the IGMDP of 1983 produced Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag. Space milestones: Aryabhata 1975, SLV-3 with Rohini 1980, Chandrayaan-1 2008, Mangalyaan 2013; ISRO is headquartered at Bengaluru and launches from Sriharikota.
Traps: The flag was adopted in 1947, the emblem and anthem in 1950. The lion was the national animal before 1972. Alam Ara is the first talkie, not the first film. The Trusteeship Council, not ECOSOC, was suspended in 1994. Hirakud is the longest dam, Tehri the highest. Khorana's Nobel was in Medicine, not Chemistry. BrahMos is not an IGMDP missile.

One-glance revision list

First three Bharat Ratna awardees (1954): C. Rajagopalachari, S. Radhakrishnan and C.V. Raman; first posthumous award: Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966); first sportsperson: Sachin Tendulkar (2014).
Mnemonic for the five IGMDP missiles: PATNA = Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Nag, Akash. BrahMos is a separate Indo-Russian joint venture.
Service days: Army Day 15 January, Air Force Day 8 October, Navy Day 4 December (Operation Trident, 1971), Armed Forces Flag Day 7 December.
Indian Nobel laureates by field: Tagore 1913 Literature, Raman 1930 Physics, Khorana 1968 Medicine, Mother Teresa 1979 Peace, Chandrasekhar 1983 Physics, Amartya Sen 1998 Economics, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan 2009 Chemistry, Kailash Satyarthi 2014 Peace, Abhijit Banerjee 2019 Economics.
Cups by sport: Thomas, Uber and Sudirman = badminton; Davis and Billie Jean King (formerly Fed) = tennis; Ryder and Walker = golf; Swaythling and Corbillon = table tennis; Durand and Santosh = football; Ranji, Duleep and Irani = cricket; Agha Khan and Beighton = hockey.
Headquarters by city: New York = UN, UNICEF; Geneva = WHO, ILO, WTO, UNHCR, Red Cross; Paris = UNESCO; Rome = FAO; Vienna = IAEA, OPEC; Washington DC = IMF, World Bank; The Hague = ICJ; Lyon = Interpol; Nairobi = UNEP; Kathmandu = SAARC; Jakarta = ASEAN.
City nicknames: Jaipur Pink City; Udaipur City of Lakes; Ahmedabad Manchester of India; Kolkata City of Joy; Bengaluru Silicon Valley of India; Mumbai City of Seven Islands; Jamshedpur Pittsburgh of India; Coimbatore Manchester of South India; Shillong Scotland of the East.
Nicknames of persons: Frontier Gandhi = Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan; Nightingale of India = Sarojini Naidu; Missile Man = A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Iron Man = Sardar Patel; Grand Old Man of India = Dadabhai Naoroji; Flying Sikh = Milkha Singh; Payyoli Express = P.T. Usha.
Women firsts: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi 1966; President Pratibha Patil 2007; Governor Sarojini Naidu 1947; Chief Minister Sucheta Kripalani 1963; IPS Kiran Bedi 1972; Supreme Court judge Fathima Beevi 1989; Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar 2009; Everest climber Bachendri Pal 1984.
India's eight Olympic hockey golds: 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1980. Cricket World Cups: 1983 (Kapil Dev, Lord's) and 2011 (M.S. Dhoni, Wankhede); first T20 World Cup 2007 (Dhoni).
Currencies: Japan yen, China yuan, Russia rouble, UK pound, Bangladesh taka, Myanmar kyat, Bhutan ngultrum, Maldives rufiyaa, South Africa rand, Kuwait dinar. Parliaments: Japan Diet, Israel Knesset, Iran Majlis, Russia Duma, USA Congress, Germany Bundestag.
Books: Discovery of India (Nehru), Wings of Fire (Kalam), My Experiments with Truth (Gandhi, written in Gujarati), India Wins Freedom (Azad), Godan (Premchand), Arthashastra (Kautilya), Rajatarangini (Kalhana), Long Walk to Freedom (Mandela).

Lessons in depth

8 longer lessons on Static General Knowledge: Symbols, Firsts, Awards, Sports and Organisations, one per sub-topic, each with its key facts and a quick revision.

Practice questions

Try each question before opening the answer.

1. Who wrote 'Jana Gana Mana', the National Anthem of India? (A) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (B) Rabindranath Tagore (C) Sarojini Naidu (D) Subramania Bharati

Answer: (B) Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore wrote it in Bengali; it was first sung on 27 December 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Congress and adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950. Bankim Chandra wrote the National Song, Vande Mataram.

2. The Hirakud Dam, one of the longest dams in the world, is built on which river? (A) Mahanadi (B) Godavari (C) Krishna (D) Narmada

Answer: (A) Mahanadi. Hirakud Dam near Sambalpur in Odisha was completed in 1957 across the Mahanadi and is about 25.8 km long including dykes. Sardar Sarovar is on the Narmada and Nagarjuna Sagar on the Krishna.

3. Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' was originally written in which language? (A) Hindi (B) Gujarati (C) English (D) Marathi

Answer: (B) Gujarati. Gandhi wrote it in Gujarati as Satya na Prayogo, serialised in Navajivan between 1925 and 1929, and Mahadev Desai translated it into English. Hind Swaraj (1909) was also written in Gujarati.

4. Which of the following missiles was NOT developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)? (A) Agni (B) BrahMos (C) Nag (D) Trishul

Answer: (B) BrahMos. IGMDP, started in 1983 under A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, produced Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag. BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile made by an Indo-Russian joint venture formed in 1998.

5. On which date did the Constituent Assembly adopt 'Jana Gana Mana' as the National Anthem of India? (A) 26 January 1950 (B) 26 November 1949 (C) 15 August 1947 (D) 24 January 1950

Answer: (D) 24 January 1950. The Constituent Assembly adopted Jana Gana Mana as the National Anthem on 24 January 1950, two days before the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950. The Constitution itself had been adopted on 26 November 1949.

6. Good Governance Day, observed on 25 December since 2014, honours the birth anniversary of which former Prime Minister? (A) Atal Bihari Vajpayee (B) Charan Singh (C) Morarji Desai (D) P.V. Narasimha Rao

Answer: (A) Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on 25 December 1924. Charan Singh's birth anniversary, 23 December, is observed as Kisan Diwas (National Farmers' Day).

7. The headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is in: (A) Geneva (B) Washington, D.C. (C) Strasbourg (D) Brussels

Answer: (D) Brussels. NATO was founded by the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C. on 4 April 1949; its headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium. Strasbourg is the seat of the Council of Europe.

8. What is the full form of SONAR? (A) Sonic Navigation and Radar (B) Sound Oscillation and Navigation Ranging (C) Sound Navigation and Ranging (D) Signal Operated Navigation and Ranging

Answer: (C) Sound Navigation and Ranging. SONAR stands for Sound Navigation and Ranging. It uses sound waves, usually ultrasonic, to detect and locate objects under water, much as RADAR uses radio waves.

9. The Ranji Trophy, named after K.S. Ranjitsinhji, is a domestic championship in which sport? (A) Football (B) Hockey (C) Kabaddi (D) Cricket

Answer: (D) Cricket. The Ranji Trophy is India's premier domestic first-class cricket championship, first played in the 1934-35 season between teams of states and regional associations.

10. The final of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, won by India, was played at which stadium? (A) Eden Gardens, Kolkata (B) M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru (C) M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (D) Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Answer: (D) Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. India, led by M.S. Dhoni, beat Sri Lanka in the final at the Wankhede Stadium on 2 April 2011. The 1983 final, by contrast, was played at Lord's.

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Where this is tested

Static General Knowledge: Symbols, Firsts, Awards, Sports and Organisations is tested in SSC, Railway, police and state PSC exams. Check the current official notification and syllabus of the exam you are preparing for to see how it is covered.

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