Static GK for AP Exams: Important Days, Awards, Organisations, Firsts and National Symbols

Static GK is the part of General Studies that does not change with the news cycle: the date of an observance, the body that gives an award, the headquarters of an organisation, the first person to do something, the symbols of the nation. Paper setters like it because it is easy to frame as a one-line question with four close options. Candidates lose marks on it for the same reason: the options are close, and a single remembered year or city is the whole difference between right and wrong.

This guide collects the static facts that appear most often in APPSC, AP Police, Sachivalayam, DSC and similar State papers, and arranges them so that you can revise by pattern. Each important day is given with its date and the body that designated it. Each award is described by what it is and who gives it. Organisations come with a headquarters and a founding year. Firsts and records are limited to the ones we could verify. National symbols and key Indian institutions close the post. It is a companion to our notes on AP sports awards and firsts, personalities, freedom fighters, poets and reformers and the top 100 AP GK questions.

Two rules apply throughout. First, this post lists past award winners only where we could verify the year, and it deliberately does not state the results of any current-year announcement; check the official site of the awarding body for those. Second, items that depend on a notification or a current list are labelled "As on October 2026" or marked "check the latest source". The last section lists what we could not confirm.

1. How to revise static GK

Static facts are best learned in small groups with a hook. For a day, the hook is the pair of date and designating body. For an award, it is the triple of giver, field and year of start. For an organisation, it is headquarters and year. Write each group as a card and test the card from both sides: given the date, name the day; given the day, name the date. A fact you can only recall in one direction is a fact you will lose under exam pressure.

Questions in this block tend to follow five patterns:

1. Match the day with the date, or the date with the body that designated it.
2. Name the award for a field, or the body that presents it.
3. Give the headquarters or founding year of an organisation.
4. Identify the first Indian to do something, or the first holder of an office.
5. Select the national symbol, or the author of a book or composition.

The sections below follow this order.

2. Important days: national and international

Days are of two kinds, and the difference is itself a favourite question. An international day is proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, by a specialised agency such as UNESCO or the World Health Organization (WHO), or by another international body. A national day is designated by the Government of India, usually through a ministry or the Election Commission. Check which body is asked about before answering.

International days designated by the United Nations and its agencies

The dates and resolutions below are from the United Nations list of international days, except where the body is shown as WHO, in which case they are from WHO's list of global public health campaigns.

Date	Day	Designated by
13 February	World Radio Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 67/124
21 February	International Mother Language Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 56/262
8 March	International Women's Day	Observed since 1975; a UN General Assembly resolution of December 1977 invited Member States to proclaim a day for women's rights and peace
22 March	World Water Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 47/193
22 April	International Mother Earth Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 63/278
3 May	World Press Freedom Day	UNESCO (General Conference resolution)
5 June	World Environment Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 2994 (XXVII), linked to the 1972 Stockholm conference that led to UNEP
8 June	World Oceans Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 63/111
21 June	International Day of Yoga	UN General Assembly, resolution 69/131, adopted 11 December 2014 on a proposal by India
11 July	World Population Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 45/216
8 September	International Literacy Day	UNESCO
16 September	International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer	UN General Assembly, resolution 49/114
21 September	International Day of Peace	UN General Assembly, resolution 36/67
27 September	World Tourism Day	UN Tourism (formerly the World Tourism Organization)
5 October	World Teachers' Day	UNESCO
16 October	World Food Day	UN list gives resolution 35/70
24 October	United Nations Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 168 (II); date of the UN's founding in 1945
20 November	World Children's Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 836 (IX)
3 December	International Day of Persons with Disabilities	UN General Assembly, resolution 47/3
5 December	International Volunteer Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 40/212
9 December	International Anti-Corruption Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 58/4
10 December	Human Rights Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 423 (V)
18 December	International Migrants Day	UN General Assembly, resolution 55/93

International health days designated by WHO

Date	Day
30 January	World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day
24 March	World TB Day
7 April	World Health Day
24 to 30 April	World Immunization Week
25 April	World Malaria Day
31 May	World No Tobacco Day
14 June	World Blood Donor Day
28 July	World Hepatitis Day
17 September	World Patient Safety Day
1 December	World AIDS Day

WHO's list also includes 25 July for World Drowning Prevention Day, 15 November for World Prematurity Day, 17 November for World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day and 18 to 24 November for World AMR Awareness Week. World Diabetes Day (14 November) and World Mental Health Day (10 October) fall under "other days and events" on WHO's pages, rather than its core list of official campaigns, so a question that asks for "one of WHO's official global public health campaigns" has a narrower answer set than a question that asks for any health day.

National days designated by the Government of India

Date	Day	Designated by and background
12 January	National Youth Day	Government of India; birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda (born 1863); observed since 1985 with the week from that day as National Youth Week
25 January	National Voters' Day	Election Commission of India, from 2011; marks the Commission's foundation day in 1950
28 February	National Science Day	Government of India designated it in 1986; marks the announcement of the Raman Effect; Department of Science and Technology (NCSTC) is the nodal agency
29 June	Statistics Day	Government of India designated it in 2007 to honour P. C. Mahalanobis; Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
23 August	National Space Day	Government of India, notified after the Chandrayaan-3 landing of 23 August 2023; first observed in 2024
31 October	Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day)	Government of India; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's birth anniversary; first observed in 2014
26 November	Constitution Day (Samvidhan Divas)	Government of India; announced on 19 November 2015 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; first observed 26 November 2015
7 December	Armed Forces Flag Day	Observed since 1949 to honour the armed forces and raise funds for ex-servicemen, war widows and dependants
23 December	National Farmers' Day (Kisan Diwas)	Marks the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh, India's fifth Prime Minister

Reading the tables as a puzzle. Notice how the two lists differ in kind. The international list always begins with a resolution or an agency; the national list begins with a government decision. A typical question asks "Which body declared 25 January as National Voters' Day?" The answer is the Election Commission of India, not the Ministry of Law and Justice. Another asks "The International Day of Yoga was proclaimed by which body, on whose proposal?" The answer is the UN General Assembly, on India's proposal, by resolution 69/131 of 11 December 2014.

Days that cause confusion

• International Women's Day is 8 March; there is no separate Indian "Women's Day" in the national list above.
• World Environment Day is 5 June (the Stockholm conference of 1972), while International Mother Earth Day is 22 April.
• World Water Day is 22 March; World Oceans Day is 8 June.
• World Health Day (7 April) marks the date on which WHO's Constitution came into force in 1948.
• United Nations Day (24 October) marks the founding of the UN in 1945; World Food Day is 16 October.
• India's own observances of Teachers' Day on 5 September and Children's Day on 14 November are birth-anniversary observances of national figures. They differ from the international World Teachers' Day on 5 October and the UN's World Children's Day on 20 November. A question that says "international" means the UN or UNESCO date.
• National Space Day (23 August) is not the date of the founding of ISRO. ISRO was formed on 15 August 1969.

3. Major awards: what they are and who gives them

For each award, learn who gives it, what it is for, and when it began. Do not memorise winners for exams unless the year is firm, because year-versus-winner questions invite mistakes.

Bharat Ratna

The Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award. It was instituted on 2 January 1954. The first three recipients, honoured in 1954, were C. Rajagopalachari, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman, with Rajagopalachari the first named. The award is conferred by the President of India and is published in the Gazette of India. For the present list of recipients and the year of each, use the Ministry of Home Affairs list; this post does not state a count or any current-year honour.

Padma awards

The Padma awards were instituted in 1954. They are announced on Republic Day (26 January) in most years, with brief interruptions in 1978 and 1979 and from 1993 to 1997, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs scheme. There are three categories:

• Padma Vibhushan: exceptional and distinguished service.
• Padma Bhushan: distinguished service of a high order.
• Padma Shri: distinguished service.

The scheme says the award recognises achievement in any field, including art, literature and education, sports, medicine, social work, science and engineering, public affairs, civil service, and trade and industry, and that there should be an element of public service. Government servants, including those in public sector undertakings, are generally not eligible, except doctors and scientists. The award is normally not given posthumously, except in highly deserving cases where the demise is recent. A higher Padma award normally needs a gap of at least five years from the earlier one. Recommendations are examined by the Padma Awards Committee constituted by the Prime Minister every year, and submitted to the Prime Minister and the President for approval. The number of awards in a year, excluding posthumous awards and awards to foreigners, should not exceed 120. The President presents the awards at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, generally in March or April. The decoration is a Sanad and a medallion. The scheme states that the award is not a title and cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to a name, and carries no cash allowance or travel concession.

Common trap. Because the Padma Shri is the lowest of the three, students sometimes assume it needs the least qualification. In the scheme's own words all three require "distinguished" or "exceptional" service. The ranking is by degree, not by category of field.

Jnanpith Award

The Jnanpith Award is given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust, for outstanding literary work. According to the organisation's own pages, the scheme was conceived on 22 May 1961, the fiftieth birthday of Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, its founder, after which a large symposium of writers was convened in Delhi on 2 April 1962. The first award was made for 1965. Viswanatha Satyanarayana received the award for 1970 for his Telugu work Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu, which makes him the first Telugu writer honoured. The Jnanpith is a literary award for a body of work across the languages of India, not the work of a single year, and it is not the same as the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Sahitya Akademi

The Sahitya Akademi is India's national academy of letters. It was formally inaugurated on 12 March 1954, and its headquarters is Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi. It recognises 24 languages, which are the 22 languages of the Constitution's Eighth Schedule together with English and Rajasthani. It gives an annual award in each of the 24 languages and an equal number of translation prizes, and also gives the Bhasha Samman, the Yuva Puraskar, the Bal Sahitya Puraskar, and fellowships. Its first awards were for 1955. A Sahitya Akademi Award goes to an individual work published in the preceding years in a particular language, whereas the Jnanpith recognises overall contribution. Remember this contrast and you will answer most "Jnanpith or Sahitya Akademi?" questions.

Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prizes are international prizes created by the will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor. The prizes are in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. The prize in economic sciences, formally the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is a later addition and is named differently for a reason: it was not part of the original will. NobelPrize.org lists the laureates and the citation of each. Indian-linked laureates and years, as given on NobelPrize.org:

Laureate	Field	Year
Rabindranath Tagore	Literature	1913
C. V. Raman	Physics	1930
H. Gobind Khorana	Physiology or Medicine	1968
Mother Teresa	Peace	1979
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar	Physics	1983
Amartya Sen	Economic Sciences	1998
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan	Chemistry	2009
Kailash Satyarthi	Peace (shared with Malala Yousafzai)	2014
Abhijit Banerjee	Economic Sciences (shared with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer)	2019

Note that several of these laureates held another nationality at the time of the award, or were based abroad, so a question that asks for "Indians who won the Nobel Prize" should be read carefully. A reliable approach is to learn the field and year pairs and treat nationality questions with caution. The citations are useful: Tagore's was for his "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse"; Raman's for his work on the scattering of light and the effect named after him; Mother Teresa's for her work in bringing help to suffering humanity.

National sports awards

The national sports awards are administered by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The ministry's backgrounder gives these facts.

Award	Started	Key facts
Khel Ratna	1991-92	Originally the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna; renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna on 6 August 2021; given for outstanding performance over four years; first awarded to Viswanathan Anand and Geet Sethi
Arjuna Award	1961	Named after the Mahabharata hero; for consistent performance over four years; statuette, certificate and cash; 20 recipients in the first year, including P. K. Banerjee
Dronacharya Award	1985	For coaches; bronze statue of Dronacharya
Major Dhyan Chand Award	2002	For lifetime achievement; first recipients Shahuraj Birajdar, Ashok Diwan and Aparna Ghosh
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy	1956-57	Oldest national sports award; for the top-performing university in inter-university sport
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar	2009	For organisations and individuals promoting sport
Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award	1993-94	For adventure sports

Three further details are well suited to questions. The backgrounder states that Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian woman to receive the Khel Ratna, in 1994-95. Abhinav Bindra, who won India's first individual Olympic gold at Beijing in 2008, is described as the youngest Khel Ratna winner, at 18, in 2001. The first woman Arjuna Award winner was the hockey player Anna Lumsden, and the first woman Dronacharya winner, in 2002, was the athletics coach Renu Kohli. The backgrounder also notes that the Arjuna Award was India's highest sporting honour before the Khel Ratna came into being, which explains why both exist.

Worked example. "How many years after the Arjuna Award began did the Khel Ratna begin?" The Arjuna started in 1961 and the Khel Ratna in 1991-92, so about 30 years. A similar chronology is Arjuna (1961), Dronacharya (1985), Khel Ratna (1991-92), Dhyan Chand Award (2002). Chronological order is a regular question.

4. International organisations: headquarters and founding year

Learn each organisation as a pair, then add one distinguishing fact.

Organisation	Founded	Headquarters	One-line note
United Nations (UN)	24 October 1945	New York	Founded after the Second World War to prevent another such conflict
UNESCO	Constitution signed 16 November 1945; in force 4 November 1946	Paris	Education, science and culture
World Health Organization (WHO)	Constitution in force 7 April 1948	Geneva	Marked by World Health Day
IMF and World Bank	Bretton Woods conference 1944; came into existence 27 December 1945	Washington, D.C.	Created at Bretton Woods
International Labour Organization (ILO)	11 April 1919	Geneva	Constitution part of the Treaty of Versailles
World Trade Organization (WTO)	1 January 1995	Geneva	Succeeded the GATT
SAARC	Charter signed in Dhaka, 8 December 1985	Secretariat in Kathmandu, set up 17 January 1987	Eight member states
ASEAN	8 August 1967	Secretariat in Jakarta	Bangkok Declaration; five founding states
NATO	4 April 1949	Brussels	Twelve founding members
OPEC	September 1960, Baghdad	Vienna since 1965	Five founding states
BRICS	BRIC formed 2006; South Africa joined 2011	No permanent headquarters	Forum of major emerging economies

Details worth keeping. SAARC's eight member states in the sources we opened are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. ASEAN's five founding states were Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. NATO's twelve founders were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. OPEC's five founders were Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and its first five years were spent in Geneva before the move to Vienna. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was created as a result of the 1972 Stockholm conference.

Traps. First, the date of the founding of the UN (24 October 1945) is not the same as the date of the signing of the UN Charter. Second, several bodies are headquartered in Geneva (WHO, ILO, WTO), and the UN itself is in New York, so a common error is to put the UN in Geneva. Third, the IMF and World Bank share a Bretton Woods origin but are separate institutions. Fourth, SAARC was founded in Dhaka but is headquartered in Kathmandu; ASEAN was founded in Bangkok but is headquartered in Jakarta. Questions often ask for the place of founding and the place of the secretariat in the same item, so always read the wording.

5. Firsts in India and records

We have limited this list to items that appeared in official or reference pages we opened, or in ISRO and PIB releases.

Space and science

• India's first satellite: Aryabhata, launched 19 April 1975 on a Soviet rocket from Kapustin Yar.
• First Indian citizen in space: Rakesh Sharma, launched on 3 April 1984 and flew to the Salyut 7 space station.
• First Indian-born woman in space: Kalpana Chawla, whose first flight was in 1997 aboard the space shuttle Columbia; she was also the first woman of Indian origin to go to space.
• First Indian to journey to the International Space Station: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, on the Axiom-4 mission launched 25 June 2025.
• Chandrayaan-3 soft-landed on the Moon on 23 August 2023. It is widely reported that India became the fourth country to land on the Moon and the first to land near the southern polar region; ISRO's own page confirms the soft landing and the date.
• India's first interplanetary mission: the Mars Orbiter Mission, which entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014 on its first attempt.

Sports and adventure

• Norman Pritchard represented India at the 1900 Olympics, winning two silver medals in athletics; he was the first Asian-born athlete to win a medal at the Games, according to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
• India's first Olympic gold medal as a nation was in men's field hockey at the 1928 Games.
• Abhinav Bindra was the first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold, at Beijing 2008.
• Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian woman to win an Olympic weightlifting bronze medal.
• Anju Bobby George won a bronze medal in long jump at the 2003 World Athletics Championships, the first medal by an Indian at that event.
• Bachendri Pal was the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on 23 May 1984.

Constitutional and civil

• The first recipients of the Bharat Ratna in 1954 were C. Rajagopalachari, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman.
• The Supreme Court of India was inaugurated on 28 January 1950, and the Election Commission of India was established on 25 January 1950.

For firsts such as the first President, first Prime Minister and first woman Prime Minister, rely on standard reference books, and see our personalities note for the Andhra figures.

The Andhra link. Pingali Venkayya, who designed the earliest form of the national flag in 1921, belonged to the Telugu country, and the Press Information Bureau and the Ministry of Culture have observed his birth anniversary with programmes. The present form of the flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947. Karnam Malleswari, a Telugu weightlifter, features above in the Khel Ratna list. Viswanatha Satyanarayana is the Telugu Jnanpith link. These three connect national static GK with Andhra Pradesh and are strong candidates for State papers.

6. Books and authors

This is a block where the author-and-work pair is the whole question. Build a card for each pair.

Work	Author	Subject
Gitanjali	Rabindranath Tagore	Poetry; connected with his 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature
The Discovery of India	Jawaharlal Nehru	History and reflection
Arthashastra	Kautilya (Chanakya)	Statecraft and economy
Indica	Megasthenes	Account of Mauryan India
Rajatarangini	Kalhana	Chronicle of Kashmir
Harshacharita	Banabhatta	Biography of Harsha
Wings of Fire	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	Autobiography
Anandamath	Bankim Chandra Chatterji	Novel containing Vande Mataram
Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu	Viswanatha Satyanarayana	Telugu epic, Jnanpith for 1970
Amuktamalyada	Krishnadevaraya	Telugu prabandha

For Telugu literature specifically, such as Nannaya's Andhra Mahabharatam, the Kavitrayam and modern poets, see our Telugu language and literature note. The trap in this block is to pair a work with a famous author of a different period; "Indica" and "Arthashastra" are often swapped because both belong to the Mauryan context.

7. National symbols

The national symbols are covered in many papers and in the Prevention of Insults to National Honour framework. The facts below are from the Ministry of Home Affairs orders and from the national portal's description.

• National flag: a horizontal tricolour in a ratio of 3:2, with the Ashoka Chakra of 24 spokes in the centre. It was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947 and became the flag of the Dominion on 15 August 1947. It was designed in its earliest form by Pingali Venkayya in 1921. The Flag Code of 2002 and the Bureau of Indian Standards specifications govern its use and manufacture.
• State emblem: an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, showing three visible lions on an abacus with a Dharma Chakra in the centre, a bull on the right and a galloping horse on the left. The words "Satyameva Jayate" are placed below it.
• National anthem: Jana Gana Mana, originally composed in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950. The Ministry of Home Affairs order gives the full version a playing time of approximately 52 seconds and the short version about 20 seconds.
• National song: Vande Mataram, composed in Sanskrit by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, given equal status with the anthem on 24 January 1950 in the statement of the President of the Constituent Assembly.
• National animal: tiger (Panthera tigris). National bird: Indian peacock (Pavo cristatus). National flower: lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). National tree: banyan or Indian fig tree (Ficus bengalensis).

For other national symbols, such as the national fruit, river, aquatic animal and heritage animal, check the national portal's list rather than relying on memory, because the lists are sometimes extended.

Worked example. "Which of these was adopted on 24 January 1950: the anthem, the flag or the emblem?" The anthem and the song were adopted on 24 January 1950. The flag was adopted on 22 July 1947. The state emblem is tied to the date of the Republic, 26 January 1950, in many references; if a question gives both 24 January and 26 January as options, read the object carefully and choose the date linked to the symbol asked.

8. Key Indian institutions: year and role

Institution	Year	Notes
Survey of India	1767	One of the oldest scientific departments in the country
Indian Council of Medical Research	1911 as Indian Research Fund Association; renamed 1950	Apex body for health research
Archaeological Survey of India	December 1861	First Archaeological Surveyor was Alexander Cunningham
Union Public Service Commission	Public Service Commission 1 October 1926; Federal Public Service Commission 1937; UPSC from 26 January 1950	Constitutional recruitment body (Article 315)
Reserve Bank of India	Began operations 1 April 1935; nationalised 1 January 1949	Set up on the recommendations of the Hilton Young Commission
CSIR	26 September 1942	Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
DRDO	1958	Defence research organisation
Election Commission of India	25 January 1950	National Voters' Day marks this date
Supreme Court of India	Inaugurated 28 January 1950	Apex court
SEBI	SEBI Act in force 30 January 1992	Statutory securities market regulator
ISRO	15 August 1969	Under the Department of Atomic Energy at its formation
Sahitya Akademi	12 March 1954	Academy of letters
NITI Aayog	1 January 2015	Replaced the Planning Commission
Department of Youth Affairs and Sports	1985; ministry from 2000	The ministry administers the national sports awards

Two traps. First, UPSC's origin in 1926 as the Public Service Commission is often mistaken for the date of its constitutional status in 1950. Second, SEBI was formed earlier as a non-statutory body; the 1992 date is the date of its statutory form. The RBI is another frequent trap: it began operations on 1 April 1935 but was nationalised on 1 January 1949, and a question can test either date.

9. Memory methods that work

1. Anchor by decade. Group items by the decade of origin, for example "1950: ECI, Supreme Court, UPSC's constitutional status, anthem, song" and "1954: Bharat Ratna, Padma, Sahitya Akademi". Several of the most asked static facts share the years 1950 and 1954.
2. Pair opposites. Learn Jnanpith with Sahitya Akademi, UN Day with World Food Day, and Cc with Bcc style contrasts in each topic.
3. Say it from both sides. Test the body from the day and the day from the body.
4. Underline the verb. "Designated", "proclaimed", "instituted", "founded", "adopted" and "notified" are different acts. A day is designated or proclaimed, an award instituted, an organisation founded, a symbol adopted, and a day notified by a government gazette.
5. Use a calendar wall. For a month of preparation, put one day per row and add its body. Reading two minutes each morning is enough.

10. Exam traps in one place

1. International and national days are designated by different bodies; read whether the question says "UN", "UNESCO", "WHO" or "Government of India".
2. National Voters' Day is 25 January (ECI foundation day); Republic Day is 26 January.
3. World Environment Day is 5 June; International Mother Earth Day is 22 April.
4. Bharat Ratna was instituted on 2 January 1954 and the Padma awards in 1954; the first Bharat Ratna recipients were announced in 1954.
5. Padma awards are announced on Republic Day; they do not carry a title and cannot be used as a prefix.
6. Jnanpith is an overall-contribution literary award, first awarded for 1965; Sahitya Akademi awards are for a particular work, with the first awards for 1955.
7. The economics prize is formally the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
8. Khel Ratna started in 1991-92; it was renamed on 6 August 2021; the Arjuna Award dates from 1961.
9. SAARC: founded in Dhaka, secretariat in Kathmandu. ASEAN: founded in Bangkok, secretariat in Jakarta.
10. The UN is headquartered in New York; WHO, ILO and WTO are in Geneva.
11. The flag was adopted on 22 July 1947; the anthem on 24 January 1950.
12. The IMF and World Bank are separate institutions from the Bretton Woods conference of 1944.

Key facts for exams

• Bharat Ratna: instituted 2 January 1954; first recipients 1954 (Rajagopalachari, Radhakrishnan, Raman).
• Padma awards: instituted 1954; three categories (Vibhushan, Bhushan, Shri); announced on 26 January; presented by the President; no more than 120 a year excluding posthumous and foreign awards.
• Jnanpith: scheme conceived 22 May 1961; first award for 1965; Viswanatha Satyanarayana for 1970.
• Sahitya Akademi: inaugurated 12 March 1954; 24 languages.
• Khel Ratna: 1991-92, renamed 6 August 2021. Arjuna: 1961. Dronacharya: 1985. Dhyan Chand Award: 2002.
• UN Day 24 October (1945); Yoga Day 21 June (UNGA resolution 69/131 of 11 December 2014).
• National Science Day 28 February (designated 1986); Statistics Day 29 June (2007); National Voters' Day 25 January (2011); Constitution Day 26 November (announced 19 November 2015); National Space Day 23 August.
• UN: New York, 1945. WHO: Geneva, 1948. WTO: Geneva, 1 January 1995. SAARC Charter: Dhaka, 8 December 1985.
• Flag adopted 22 July 1947; anthem and national song accorded status on 24 January 1950.
• RBI: began 1 April 1935; nationalised 1 January 1949. NITI Aayog: 1 January 2015.

10 practice MCQs with answers

1. Which body proclaimed 21 June as the International Day of Yoga? A. UNESCO B. WHO C. UN General Assembly D. Ministry of AYUSH Answer: C. The UN General Assembly proclaimed the day by resolution 69/131 on 11 December 2014, on India's proposal.

2. National Voters' Day is observed on 25 January because it marks: A. Adoption of the Constitution B. Foundation day of the Election Commission of India C. First general election D. Republic Day eve Answer: B. The day was started in 2011 to mark the Commission's foundation on 25 January 1950.

3. The Padma awards are classified into which three categories? A. Ratna, Bhushan, Shri B. Vibhushan, Bhushan, Shri C. Vibhushan, Ratna, Shri D. Bhushan, Shri, Mitra Answer: B. The three categories are Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

4. Which of the following is the correct pair of headquarters? A. UN: Geneva B. WHO: Paris C. SAARC Secretariat: Kathmandu D. ASEAN Secretariat: Bangkok Answer: C. The UN is in New York, WHO in Geneva, UNESCO in Paris and the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

5. The Khel Ratna was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in: A. 1991-92 B. 2002 C. August 2021 D. 1985 Answer: C. The renaming took place on 6 August 2021. The award began in 1991-92.

6. The Jnanpith Award is given by: A. Sahitya Akademi B. Bharatiya Jnanpith C. Ministry of Culture D. UGC Answer: B. Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust, gives it. Sahitya Akademi is a separate body with its own awards.

7. Who among the following received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930? A. S. Chandrasekhar B. C. V. Raman C. H. G. Khorana D. Amartya Sen Answer: B. Raman received it in 1930 for his work on the scattering of light and the effect named after him. Chandrasekhar won in 1983.

8. Which day marks the date on which WHO's Constitution came into force in 1948? A. World Health Day, 7 April B. World Malaria Day, 25 April C. World AIDS Day, 1 December D. World TB Day, 24 March Answer: A. 7 April is World Health Day, celebrated each year on the date the Constitution came into force.

9. National Space Day is observed on 23 August to mark: A. The founding of ISRO B. The launch of Aryabhata C. The Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing D. The Mars Orbiter Mission orbit insertion Answer: C. The Government notified it after the Chandrayaan-3 landing of 23 August 2023. ISRO was formed on 15 August 1969, and Aryabhata was launched on 19 April 1975.

10. The national anthem was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly on: A. 22 July 1947 B. 15 August 1947 C. 24 January 1950 D. 26 January 1950 Answer: C. The anthem and the national song were given their status on 24 January 1950. The flag was adopted on 22 July 1947.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to memorise past award winners? Not in bulk. Learn the giver, the field and the year of start. Winners are asked rarely and are easy to confuse, so memorise only those with a firm year, such as the Nobel laureates in the table above.

How do I tell an international day from a national day? Ask who designated it. If a UN resolution or an agency such as UNESCO or WHO is behind it, it is international. If the Government of India or the Election Commission designated it, it is national.

Why do the answers for similar days differ across books? Some books give the date of a first observance and others the date of designation. For an exam, use the official source: the UN list for international days and the Press Information Bureau or the ministry for national days.

Are current-year award results part of static GK? No. They belong to current affairs. Check the awarding body's official site for them. Our current affairs study guide explains how to keep that part current.

How many days should I learn? The tables in this post cover the days asked most often. A reasonable target is the 30 or so days with dates and bodies, revised twice a week for a month.

Where do I check a fact I am unsure of? Use the United Nations list of observances, WHO's campaigns page, NobelPrize.org, padmaawards.gov.in, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and the Press Information Bureau.

Is Andhra Pradesh-specific static GK covered here? Only where it overlaps with national static GK. For State-specific material use our AP district fact sheet, the AP culture and festivals note and the top 100 AP GK questions.

Related reading

• AP sports awards and firsts notes
• AP personalities: freedom fighters, poets and reformers
• AP culture, festivals, art and dance notes
• Telugu language and literature: Kavitrayam to the modern era
• Top 100 AP GK questions
• How to study current affairs for AP exams
• Computer awareness and science and technology for AP exams
• Telugu version of this post
• Andhra Pradesh state guide: history, geography, government and every AP exam
• Telangana state guide (same syllabus for the general-studies sections)
• Telangana government exams 2026

Practise on pareeksha.in

Revise the cards in this post, then test yourself in timed conditions with a mock test on pareeksha.in, where the platform offers 10 Lakh+ MCQs, 100+ Exams and 5,000+ Full-Length Mocks. Confirm any current-status fact with the official source named in the relevant section.

Sources and verification

Pages opened:

• United Nations list of international days and weeks, un.org (dates and resolution numbers for the UN days).
• World Health Organization, global public health campaigns page, who.int.
• Ministry of Home Affairs, scheme document for the Padma awards, mha.gov.in (opened as the PDF).
• Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, backgrounder on the National Sports Awards, 17 November 2021 (PIB, static.pib.gov.in).
• Sahitya Akademi, About page, sahitya-akademi.gov.in.
• PIB factsheet on the evolution of the Indian national flag, 2022.
• Ministry of Home Affairs orders relating to the National Anthem of India (mha.gov.in), for the playing times.
• ISRO Timeline page, isro.gov.in (ISRO formation date and Aryabhata date).

Confirmed from official-site excerpts returned by search (full pages not opened): the Ministry of Home Affairs Bharat Ratna list and PIB text for the institution date of 2 January 1954 and the first recipients; Bharatiya Jnanpith pages for the 22 May 1961 conception and the 2 April 1962 symposium and the 1970 award for Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu; NobelPrize.org pages for Tagore, Raman, Khorana, Mother Teresa, Chandrasekhar, Sen, Ramakrishnan, Satyarthi and Banerjee; PIB and MHA pages for the Khel Ratna renaming of 6 August 2021; PIB and DST pages for National Science Day, National Youth Day, Statistics Day, Constitution Day, National Voters' Day, Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, Kisan Diwas, Armed Forces Flag Day and National Space Day; UN and UNEP pages for Yoga Day, Women's Day and World Environment Day; official pages of SAARC, ASEAN, NATO, OPEC, the WTO, WHO, UNESCO, the IMF, the World Bank and the ILO for the organisation facts; RBI, NITI Aayog, Supreme Court, UPSC, SEBI, DRDO, CSIR, ICMR, Survey of India and ASI pages for the institution facts; PIB and Britannica for Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Bachendri Pal.

Not verified and hedged: Alfred Nobel's will and the year the prizes began (standard knowledge; not opened); the authors-and-works table, the national fruit, river, aquatic animal and heritage animal, and the first President, first Prime Minister and first woman Prime Minister (standard reference knowledge; not opened); the components and amount of the Jnanpith Award and the Bharat Ratna recommendation procedure; the Indian Teachers' Day and Children's Day dates (standard; not opened); the date of the State emblem's adoption (stated in many references as 26 January 1950; not confirmed on an official page); and the present list of Bharat Ratna and Padma recipients, deliberately omitted.