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Exam Encyclopedia — 190 terms
The amendment that capped the Council of Ministers at 15% of the House and barred defectors from ministerial and remunerative political posts.
The amendment that added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali to the Eighth Schedule, raising its languages to 22.
A tiger reserve in Chhattisgarh's Maikal hills, forming the core of the Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve and the source of the Maniyari river.
A 42.5-km river rising near Chembarambakkam Lake and draining into the Bay of Bengal at Chennai, carrying the surplus of some 200 tanks and much of the city's waste.
A UNESCO-listed group of 30 rock-cut Buddhist caves in Maharashtra, holding the finest surviving paintings of ancient India.
A great Buddhist stupa on the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh, centre of the distinctive Amaravati school of sculpture.
A 'friend of the court' — a non-party expert appointed by the court to provide unbiased legal assistance in complex cases.
A two-handled ancient ceramic jar used across the Mediterranean to store and ship wine, oil and grain, and a key archaeological marker of ancient trade.
The Anaimalai (Elephant) Hills are a southern Western Ghats range on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, home to Anamudi, the highest peak in South India.
A paneer-like product in which non-dairy ingredients such as vegetable oil and starch replace milk constituents; it cannot legally be sold as paneer.
A Western Ghats national park in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district which, with Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary, forms the Kali Tiger Reserve.
The set of agreements built on the 1959 Antarctic Treaty that reserves the continent south of 60 degrees South for peace and science and freezes all territorial claims.
India's oldest fold mountain range, running from Delhi to Gujarat and acting as a natural barrier against the eastward spread of the Thar Desert.
An intergovernmental forum of eight Arctic states established by the Ottawa Declaration of 1996, with India as an observer since 2013.
The provision empowering the Supreme Court to frame its own rules of practice and procedure, and requiring at least five judges for constitutional questions.
The popular name for experimental reactors that fuse light nuclei at extreme temperatures, recreating the process that powers the Sun.
India's law regulating IVF and other fertility clinics and gamete banks, setting age limits, donor rules and penalties for unethical practice.
India's former nuclear law, which reserved atomic energy entirely to the state for over six decades before being repealed by the SHANTI Act, 2025.
A Shiva temple at Deoghar in Jharkhand that is both one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and one of the fifty-one Shakti Peethas.
A 900 MW run-of-the-river project on the Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir, and the first Indus Waters Treaty dispute sent to a Neutral Expert.
A national park on a windswept plateau in the South Garo Hills of Meghalaya, revered by the Garo people as the 'Land of Spirits'.
A cable-stayed bridge over Mumbai's Mahim Bay connecting Bandra to Worli, officially named the Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link.
The 1764 battle in which the East India Company defeated a combined Indian army and won the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa through the Treaty of Allahabad.
The 1757 battle in which Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah through conspiracy rather than combat, beginning the East India Company's political rule in Bengal.
A 590-km right-bank tributary of the Yamuna rising in the Vindhya Hills of Madhya Pradesh, central to the Ken-Betwa Link Project.
India's criminal procedure code, which replaced the CrPC of 1973 from 1 July 2024 with 531 sections in 39 chapters.
The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 is India's new law of evidence that replaced the colonial-era Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
Bhargavastra is an indigenous, low-cost, multi-layered counter-drone system designed to destroy hostile drone swarms using micro-rockets and micro-missiles.
An agreement between two countries to promote and protect each other's investments, allowing an investor to sue the host government directly through international arbitration.
A protected oak-forest sanctuary in Almora district of Uttarakhand, once the summer capital of the Chand rulers of Kumaon.
A gravity dam on the Banas River in Tonk district, Rajasthan, that supplies drinking water to Jaipur and Ajmer and irrigation to surrounding areas.
India's longest rail-cum-road bridge, spanning the Brahmaputra in Assam and opened in December 2018.
Three separate permit regimes controlling entry into India's sensitive border regions — the ILP for Indian citizens, and the PAP and RAP for foreign nationals.
An intergovernmental grouping of major emerging economies — originally Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — that works by consensus without a charter or permanent secretariat.
The world's 12th highest mountain at 8,051 metres, in the Karakoram range on the Pakistan-China border.
Elections held to fill a casual vacancy in a legislature before the end of its term, normally within six months of the seat falling vacant.
A major east-flowing peninsular river rising at Talakaveri in Karnataka and draining into the Bay of Bengal after about 800 km.
India's longest-running inter-state river water dispute, over sharing the Cauvery between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
A 14-digit KYC Identification Number in CERSAI's central registry, letting any regulated financial institution reuse a customer's verified KYC instead of redoing it.
A sandfly-borne virus of the rabies family that causes acute encephalitis with high fatality, mainly in children, and recurs in outbreaks in western and central India.
Chang La is a high mountain pass in Ladakh (about 5,360 m) on the route from Leh to Pangong Tso, among the highest motorable passes in the world.
The statute that created the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and regulates the chartered accountancy profession in the country.
The law governing appointment, service conditions and tenure of the CEC and Election Commissioners, which replaced the Chief Justice of India on the selection panel with a Union Cabinet Minister.
The senior-most civil servant of a state government, who heads the state secretariat and acts as principal adviser to the Chief Minister.
The employment of children below 14 in any occupation, prohibited by the Constitution and by the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
An acute diarrhoeal infection caused by toxigenic Vibrio cholerae bacteria in contaminated water or food, which can kill within hours but is treatable with oral rehydration.
A voluntary, non-justiciable document in which a public organisation declares its service standards, timelines and grievance redress mechanism.
A short call auction at the end of the trading day that fixes a stock's official closing price at the single price matching the most shares.
One of India's four labour codes, consolidating nine central social security laws and extending coverage to gig and platform workers for the first time.
One of India's four Labour Codes, consolidating four wage laws into a uniform framework covering minimum wages, payment, bonus and equal remuneration.
Judge-made principles such as basic structure, severability, eclipse and pith and substance that the Supreme Court uses to interpret and test the validity of laws.
The law that replaced the 1986 consumer statute, created the Central Consumer Protection Authority, and brought e-commerce, product liability and celebrity endorsements into consumer law.
The post-Nirbhaya law that widened the definition of rape and created new offences such as stalking, voyeurism and acid attack.
Europe's second-longest river, flowing about 2,850 km from Germany's Black Forest to the Black Sea through ten countries.
A Neolithic archaeological site in Assam's Dima Hasao district, the first stratified Neolithic site excavated in Northeast India.
A flat, windswept coral island in the Palk Strait off northern Sri Lanka, also called Neduntheevu, and the largest of the region's seven inhabited islands.
The redrawing of constituency boundaries and reallocation of seats after a census, frozen in India on 1971 population figures until after 2026.
A 352-km transboundary river rising in Nagaland and joining the Brahmaputra in Assam, flowing between the Dhansiri Reserved Forest and Intanki National Park.
India's government-run digital document wallet, where issued certificates hold the same legal validity as the original physical documents.
India's first standalone data protection law, which regulates the processing of digital personal data through consent, fiduciary duties and penalties of up to Rs 250 crore.
India's framework law for disaster management, creating the NDMA, state and district authorities, and the statutory response and mitigation funds.
The constitutional body vested with superintendence, direction and control of elections to Parliament, state legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President.
A standalone, non-networked machine used by the Election Commission of India to record and count votes electronically instead of on paper ballots.
An unscheduled landing made in response to a situation that makes continuing the flight unsafe, classified as a forced, precautionary or ditching landing.
India's umbrella environmental law, enacted after the Bhopal gas tragedy, that gives the Centre sweeping powers to set standards, issue directions and make environmental rules.
An equal-area world map projection released in 2018 that shows every country at its true relative size, now endorsed by the UN General Assembly.
The programme mixing ethanol into petrol to cut oil imports and emissions, which reached the 20% E20 target five years early.
A family of American single-engine fifth-generation stealth fighters built by Lockheed Martin in three variants for different basing needs.
Two distinct constitutional regimes for tribal administration — the Fifth Schedule for Scheduled Areas in most states, the Sixth Schedule for tribal areas in four North Eastern states.
The IAF's combat fleet of imported and indigenous fighters, operating 29 squadrons against a sanctioned strength of 42 after the MiG-21's retirement.
The earliest amendment to the Constitution, which added the Ninth Schedule, created Article 15(4) and expanded the grounds for restricting free speech.
The practice of managing government revenue, spending and borrowing so that public debt remains sustainable over the long term.
The law that binds the Union Government to fiscal discipline targets and requires it to lay fiscal policy statements before Parliament each year.
The law requiring prior Central Government approval before forest land is diverted to non-forest use, renamed Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam in 2023.
The 2006 law that recognises the forest rights of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers and makes the Gram Sabha the authority that determines them.
The western division of the Uttarakhand Himalaya, holding the sources of the Ganga and Yamuna and India's highest peaks.
The internationally agreed calendar of Earth's 4.6-billion-year history, divided into eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages by rock and fossil evidence.
A sudden, violent flood caused when a glacial lake breaches its natural dam and releases its water downstream in a matter of hours.
A destination-based indirect tax on the supply of goods and services that replaced most central and state indirect taxes from 1 July 2017.
The longest British statute on India, which introduced provincial autonomy, a three-list federal scheme and a Federal Court — and became the main model for the Indian Constitution.
The law that made 'Government' in Delhi mean the Lieutenant Governor and required his opinion before the elected government takes executive action.
The largest lake lying entirely within Canada, straddling the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories and draining into the Mackenzie River.
The Karnataka law that abolished the BBMP, replacing it with multiple city corporations under a Greater Bengaluru Authority chaired by the Chief Minister.
A United States non-immigrant visa allowing employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, of which Indian nationals have historically received around 70%.
India's traditional hand-weaving industry, supporting over 35 lakh weavers and allied workers and commemorated annually on National Handloom Day.
A persistent high-pressure system that traps hot air over a region for days or weeks, causing extreme and prolonged heat.
A measure combining air temperature and relative humidity to express how hot the weather actually feels to the human body.
A theoretical policy of financing government spending or direct transfers with permanently created central bank money rather than debt.
A serial UNESCO World Heritage Site of six Rajput forts — Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Ranthambore, Gagron, Amber and Jaisalmer — inscribed in 2013.
A political campaign led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant demanding self-government for India within the British Empire.
A vulnerable migratory bustard of Asian deserts and semi-deserts, heavily depleted by falconry hunting and now bred in captivity for release.
The first binding international treaty setting minimum labour rights and algorithmic-management standards for gig and platform workers, adopted by the ILO in June 2026.
The IMF's A-to-D rating of whether a member country's official statistics are good enough for the Fund to carry out economic surveillance.
The British statute that partitioned British India into the two independent dominions of India and Pakistan from 15 August 1947.
A 1,000 MW multipurpose concrete gravity dam on the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh, holding India's largest reservoir by water storage volume.
The 1960 India-Pakistan water-sharing treaty brokered by the World Bank that gives India the three eastern rivers and Pakistan the three western rivers.
The labour code consolidating India's laws on trade unions, standing orders and industrial disputes, and raising the retrenchment approval threshold to 300 workers.
India's central law regulating the import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and use of insecticides, in force since 1971 and proposed to be replaced by a wider pesticides law.
A long-running armed separatist conflict in Pakistan's largest and least populated province, driven by disputes over autonomy and control of natural resources.
Conflicts between states over sharing river waters, adjudicated by tribunals under Article 262 and the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
The mission portfolio of the Indian Space Research Organisation, spanning lunar and planetary exploration, solar science, astronomy, Earth observation and human spaceflight.
A hilltop fort in Karnataka built in the 12th century and later the capital of the Bahmani Sultanate, blending Hindu and Islamic architecture.
Freedom fighter, social reformer and institution-builder who revived India's handicrafts and theatre, and was the first Indian woman to contest a legislative election.
A hilly sanctuary of over 70 sq km on the Eastern Ghats near Visakhapatnam, protecting the rare dry evergreen forest type found only in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Australia's largest lake and lowest point, a normally dry salt pan in South Australia that fills completely only about twice a century.
The world's only floating national park, set on the phumdis of Manipur's Loktak Lake and the last natural home of the Sangai deer.
A Russian stealthy, air-launched subsonic cruise missile designed to be carried inside the Su-57's internal bay.
A strategically vital high-altitude pass in Ladakh connecting Leh to the Nubra Valley and Siachen Glacier, among the world's highest motorable roads.
A high Himalayan pass in Himachal Pradesh at about 4,551 m that is the gateway from the Lahaul valley into Spiti.
The 1997 climate treaty under the UNFCCC that set legally binding emission-cut targets for developed countries only, and was effectively succeeded by the Paris Agreement.
The largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, the deepest and northernmost of North America's Great Lakes, shared by Canada and the United States.
The world's largest subglacial lake, lying under about four kilometres of ice in East Antarctica and sealed from the atmosphere for millions of years.
The law giving effect to Article 39A, creating NALSA and the Lok Adalat system so that no citizen is denied justice for want of money.
The middle range of the Himalaya, lying between the Shivaliks and the Greater Himalaya, home to India's major hill stations.
A statutory forum for settling disputes by compromise, whose award has the force of a civil court decree and cannot be appealed against.
A central law that gives parents and senior citizens a cheap, quick right to claim maintenance from their children or heirs through a Maintenance Tribunal.
Manas is a UNESCO World Heritage tiger reserve in western Assam at the foothills of the Himalayas, famed for rare species like the pygmy hog.
The fee a merchant pays for accepting a digital payment, deducted from the transaction amount and shared among the parties that process it.
An Indian labour law empowering governments to fix and revise minimum wage rates, making payment below them legally compulsory to prevent exploitation.
A historic Red Sea port in Yemen's Taiz governorate that gave coffee its 'mocha' name and guards the northern approach to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
A nomadic maritime community of the Andaman Sea, known for exceptional underwater vision and for surviving the 2004 tsunami through oral knowledge.
The 2019 overhaul of India's Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 that raised traffic penalties sharply and created road-safety institutions and accident compensation funds.
A 19th-century masonry dam located in Kerala but operated by Tamil Nadu under an 1886 lease, and the subject of a long-running inter-state dispute over water level and dam safety.
The law that declares instant triple talaq void and illegal, and makes its pronouncement a punishable offence.
The long-running political movement in North East India seeking Naga autonomy and identity, now centred on a stalled peace process over a separate Naga flag and constitution.
Left-Wing Extremism is the Maoist armed insurgency in India, which the government declared ended when the count of LWE-affected districts fell from 126 in 2014 to zero by 2026.
CARF is an OECD global tax-transparency standard for the automatic exchange of information on crypto-asset transactions between countries.
Any entity registered with UIDAI to verify a person's Aadhaar details offline, with consent and without ever connecting to the CIDR.
The practice of defecating in fields, forests, water bodies or other open spaces rather than into a toilet — the lowest rung of the global sanitation ladder.
The Indian Air Force's 1999 air campaign supporting Operation Vijay in the Kargil War, fought at 16,000-18,000 feet without crossing the Line of Control.
A 1,000 MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric project under construction on the Marusudar river in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir.
A mountain pass at 1,136 m on the Patkai Hills marking the India-Myanmar border in Arunachal Pradesh's Changlang district.
The law that makes the RBI the designated authority for regulating and supervising all payment systems in India.
India's oldest and most stable landmass, a triangular tableland of ancient crystalline rock divided into the Central Highlands and the Deccan Plateau.
A high pass on the historic Mughal Road across the Pir Panjal Range, connecting the Kashmir Valley with the Rajouri-Poonch region.
The gender-neutral special law that protects every person below 18 from sexual assault, harassment and exploitative material, and tries such cases in designated Special Courts.
A national programme providing free dialysis to poor patients with kidney failure at district hospitals, funded through the National Health Mission.
A central law penalising intentional disrespect to India's National Flag, Constitution, and National Anthem — expanded in 2026 to also cover the National Song, Vande Mataram.
An anti-abuse rule in tax treaties that denies a treaty benefit when obtaining that benefit was one of the principal purposes of an arrangement.
India's law that treats marriage of a girl below 18 or a boy below 21 as child marriage, making it voidable and punishing those who arrange it.
A central law that criminalises organised cheating, paper leaks and impersonation in public examinations conducted by central recruitment and testing bodies.
Assam's sixth national park, declared in 2021 in Kokrajhar district, known for the golden langur and a transboundary landscape shared with Bhutan.
India's first 10-year defence diplomacy roadmap for 2026-2036, built on strategic partnerships, capacity building, indigenous defence exports and maritime security.
The largest natural lake in Himachal Pradesh, in Sirmaur district, a Ramsar site since 2005 and one of India's smallest designated wetlands.
The law governing the actual conduct of elections in India, including qualifications, disqualifications, corrupt practices and election disputes.
A high pass in eastern Ladakh's Chushul sector where 114 soldiers of 13 Kumaon died holding the position against China on 18 November 1962.
The right to the highest attainable standard of health, read into Article 21 by the Supreme Court even though the Constitution does not name it as a Fundamental Right.
The law giving Indian citizens a legal right to obtain information held by public authorities, subject to specified exemptions.
A major fold mountain range of western North America, stretching about 4,800 km from Canada to the southwestern United States.
A high-altitude Himalayan pass in Himachal Pradesh connecting Kullu Valley with Lahaul-Spiti, now bypassed year-round by the Atal Tunnel.
The 2002 law that lets banks seize and sell a defaulter's secured assets without going to court, and created the market for asset reconstruction companies.
A US bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections; passed by the House but stalled in the Senate.
A special central law that defines and punishes atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and provides Special Courts, relief and rehabilitation for victims.
The theory that new oceanic crust forms at mid-ocean ridges and moves outward, providing the mechanism that made continental drift credible.
Section 163 BNSS empowers a magistrate to issue prohibitory orders in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger — the successor to Section 144 CrPC.
The Seventh Schedule divides law-making powers between the Union and the States through three lists — Union, State and Concurrent.
India's new nuclear law, which repeals the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the nuclear liability Act of 2010, opens nuclear power to private participation and makes the AERB a statutory regulator.
A major tributary of the Indus rising from the Rimo Glacier in the eastern Karakoram and flowing about 550 km through Ladakh.
A 175 sq km sanctuary in the Himalayan foothills of Sonitpur district, Assam, named after two of the four rivers that flow through it.
A petition seeking the Supreme Court's discretionary permission to appeal against almost any order of any court or tribunal in India.
The law that created the State Bank of India and transferred the Imperial Bank of India's undertaking to it, to expand rural and semi-urban banking.
The set of rules, plans and financial guarantees that require every Indian mine to be reclaimed and rehabilitated, not simply abandoned.
The nationwide movement launched against the Partition of Bengal in 1905, built on boycott of British goods, swadeshi enterprise, national education and self-reliance.
Tanglang La (about 5,328 m) is a high pass on the Leh-Manali Highway in Ladakh and the highest point on that entire route.
A classical Tamil work of 1,330 couplets by Thiruvalluvar on virtue, wealth and love, secular in outlook and translated into dozens of languages.
A century-old irrigation reservoir near Ahmedabad in Gujarat that is now a bird sanctuary and a Ramsar site on the Central Asian Flyway.
A seven-peaked range in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, home to the Venkateswara temple, the Eparchaean Unconformity and the Seshachalam forests.
India's first law giving trade unions legal recognition and immunity, repealed in 2025 and subsumed into the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.
The three-part test from Bangalore Water Supply (1978) for deciding whether an activity is an 'industry' under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
UGC regulations notified in January 2026 to curb discrimination in higher education institutions, whose implementation the Supreme Court has stayed.
A pass at 5,799 metres in eastern Ladakh whose BRO-built road held the record for the world's highest motorable road from 2021 until 2025.
The 18-member UN treaty body of independent experts that monitors how states implement the 1965 Convention against racial discrimination.
The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is the global treaty dividing the oceans into maritime zones and fixing each coastal state's rights within them.
UNCITRAL is the core legal body of the UN system that works to harmonise and modernise the law of international trade.
UNCAT is a 1984 UN treaty that prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; India has signed but not ratified it.
The only legally binding global treaty on desertification, land degradation and drought, adopted in 1994 with 197 parties.
The UN peacekeeping mission established in 2011 to protect civilians and support peacebuilding in South Sudan, where India is the largest troop contributor.
Article 17 abolishes untouchability and makes its practice punishable, enforced through the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the SC/ST Atrocities Act, 1989.
The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, which replaces MGNREGA and raises the rural employment guarantee to 125 days.
A fat-soluble vitamin essential for vision, immunity and epithelial health, whose deficiency is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness.
A NITI Aayog initiative under the Aspirational Blocks Programme that markets local products from 500 blocks through the Aakanksha brand on the GeM portal.
India's principal wildlife law, which protects listed species, creates protected areas and regulates hunting and wildlife trade.
A UN observance on 27 August each year, created in 2024, for the conservation and sustainable management of lakes and their ecosystems.
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