RAS Prelims
996 key terms for this subject — each defined in plain language, with where it helps in the exam and a link to the study note it comes from.
- 10m air pistol
A precision shooting event; Manu Bhaker's Paris 2024 current-affairs identity is tied to shooting and two bronze medals.
Read the study note →- AB-PMJAY
A National Health Authority programme launched in 2018 to provide cashless secondary and tertiary hospital-care cover for eligible families.
Read the study note →- Abductive reasoning
Reasoning that chooses the best available explanation for a set of observations.
Read the study note →- ABHA
The 14-digit health account identity used under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission to link digital health records with consent.
Read the study note →- Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS)
The Nagoya Protocol mechanism under which users of genetic resources or associated traditional knowledge share monetary or non-monetary benefits fairly with provider countries and communities.
Read the study note →- Acheulian
The Acheulian is the Lower Palaeolithic biface tradition known for handaxes, cleavers and other large cutting tools. In Rajasthan, Didwana and related records provide a major lower-level anchor for this long sequence.
Read the study note →- Acid rain
Wet or dry deposition formed when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react in the atmosphere.
Read the study note →- Aditya-L1 (India's first solar observatory)
India's first dedicated solar observatory, launched by PSLV-C57 on September 2, 2023 and placed in halo orbit around Sun-Earth L1 on January 6, 2024, to study the corona, solar wind, X-rays and magnetic fields.
Read the study note →- Administrative continuity
The link between political formation, departments, orders and implementation.
Read the study note →- Administrative tribunal
A specialised adjudicatory body for service and administrative disputes under constitutional and statutory authority.
Read the study note →- Admission entitlement
A legal claim to school admission under specified conditions.
Read the study note →- Advisory jurisdiction
The Supreme Court's function of answering questions referred by the President under Article 143.
Read the study note →- Agglomeration
A concentration of related industries, workers, suppliers and services in one area, lowering costs and increasing interaction.
Read the study note →- Agglomeration economy
Agglomeration economy is the cost and productivity gain that firms receive by clustering near suppliers, labour, infrastructure and markets.
Read the study note →- Agricultural development
A policy process that raises farm productivity, stabilises income, reduces risk, improves market access and protects natural resources.
Read the study note →- AgriStack
A federated digital agriculture infrastructure using farmer, village-map and crop-sown registries.
Read the study note →- Agro-climatic region
Planning unit that groups land by rainfall, temperature, soil, terrain and water resources for crop and resource decisions.
Read the study note →- Agro-climatic zone
A farming region defined by climate, soil, topography and cropping pattern; Rajasthan's ten zones explain its desert, canal, plain, hill and Hadoti crop contrasts.
Read the study note →- Agro-processing
Agro-processing converts agricultural raw material into higher-value products through storage, grading, processing, packaging or branding.
Read the study note →- Ahar-Banas culture
A chalcolithic culture of south-eastern Rajasthan, especially Mewar, known for black-and-red ware, copper objects and sites such as Ahar, Gilund and Balathal.
Read the study note →- Aihole inscription
The Aihole inscription is the 634 CE Sanskrit prashasti of Pulakeshin II composed by the Jain poet Ravikirti at Aihole, and it is a key source for early Chalukya political history.
Read the study note →- Air pistol
A shooting event using an air pistol at a fixed distance such as 10 metres.
Read the study note →- Akbarnama / Ain-i-Akbari
The Akbarnama is Abul Fazl's three-volume official chronicle of Akbar's reign. Its third volume, the Ain-i-Akbari, functions as an administrative and ethnographic compendium, listing mansabdars, subhas, revenues, regulations and details of the imperial household. Historians therefore read the pair together as narrative history plus institutional handbook.
Read the study note →- All India States People's Conference (AISPC)
The All India States People's Conference (AISPC) was founded in December 1927 to coordinate democratic associations in princely states. Its 1939 Ludhiana leadership under Jawaharlal Nehru gave the movement greater national visibility.
Read the study note →- All-India Services cadre allocation
Cadre allocation is the process through which officers recruited centrally to the All-India Services are assigned to a State cadre such as Rajasthan and thereafter serve under national cadre rules along with state-level posting control.
Read the study note →- Alligation
Alligation is a practical ratio method for mixing two priced components to get a target mean price. If cheap price is c, dear price is d and mean is m, then cheap : dear equals (d - m):(m - c), which gives the exact contribution ratio.
Read the study note →- Alluvial fan
A fan-shaped deposit at a hill front where a stream loses energy and spreads sediment onto a plain.
Read the study note →- Alluvial plain
A lowland built by repeated river deposition of silt, sand and clay, typical of the Ganga plain.
Read the study note →- Alluvial soil
River-deposited fertile soil common in the Indo-Gangetic plain, able to support several crops when water and markets are favourable.
Read the study note →- Amara-nayaka
A Vijayanagara military-fiscal chiefship in which local commanders held revenue assignments and supplied troops.
Read the study note →- Andhi
Dust storm common in pre-monsoon Rajasthan when convective heating lifts loose sand and reduces visibility.
Read the study note →- Anekantavada
A Jain doctrine that reality has many aspects, so a single absolute statement rarely captures the whole truth.
Read the study note →- Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan
James Tod published this multi-volume Rajputana history between 1829 and 1832 after his service in western India. The work is foundational for the study of Rajput lineages, customs and regional memory, especially in Mewar and Marwar. At the same time, historians treat it cautiously because Tod often romanticised Rajput polity and martial virtue.
Read the study note →- ANRF
A national foundation established through the 2023 Act to seed and promote research across institutions.
Read the study note →- Anusandhan National Research Foundation
An apex research-funding architecture created by the 2023 Act to coordinate national R&D support, draw larger non-government participation, and replace the earlier SERB-centered framework under high-level governing institutions.
Read the study note →- Apprenticeship
Structured workplace learning in which an apprentice gains occupational skill under employer supervision.
Read the study note →- AQI
A category-based index that converts pollutant concentrations into a public air-quality status such as Moderate or Poor.
Read the study note →- Aravalli Axis
The diagonal mountain line that divides western Rajasthan from eastern and south-eastern belts.
Read the study note →- Arid soil
A dry-climate soil with sandy texture, low humus, high evaporation and frequent calcareous or saline features.
Read the study note →- Article 163 Council of Ministers
Article 163 creates a Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister to aid and advise the Governor, except in narrowly defined constitutional situations requiring discretion.
Read the study note →- Article 164(1A) cap on Council of Ministers
Inserted by the 91st Constitutional Amendment, 2003, Article 164(1A) limits the total number of ministers in a state, including the Chief Minister, to 15 percent of the strength of the Legislative Assembly, subject to a minimum of 12.
Read the study note →- Article 21A
The Fundamental Right inserted in 2002 guaranteeing free and compulsory education for children in the defined 6 to 14 age group.
Read the study note →- Article 243
The constitutional article group that defines Panchayat terms after the 73rd Amendment and anchors Part IX local-government vocabulary.
Read the study note →- Article 243K State Election Commission
Article 243K vests the superintendence, direction and control of panchayat elections in a State Election Commission headed by a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor.
Read the study note →- Article 263 Inter-State Council
Article 263 empowers the President to establish an Inter-State Council to inquire into disputes between States, discuss subjects of common interest, and recommend better coordination of policy and action.
Read the study note →- Article 315 State Public Service Commission
Article 315 creates a Public Service Commission for each State and gives the constitutional basis for a body such as the Rajasthan Public Service Commission to conduct recruitment and advise on state civil-service matters.
Read the study note →- Article 39A
Directive Principle requiring equal justice and free legal aid for citizens facing economic or other disabilities.
Read the study note →- Article 43B
Directive Principle supporting voluntary, autonomous, democratic and professionally managed co-operative societies.
Read the study note →- Article 48A
Environmental Directive Principle requiring the State to protect and improve environment, forests and wildlife.
Read the study note →- Article 51A(g)
Citizen duty to protect and improve the natural environment and show compassion for living creatures.
Read the study note →- Artificial Lake
A human-made lake formed by a dam, embankment or masonry work, often tied to royal or urban water systems.
Read the study note →- Aryabhatiya
Aryabhata's astronomical and mathematical treatise composed in 499 CE, notable for place-value notation, trigonometric ideas, and systematic calculation.
Read the study note →- Ashtadiggajas
The eight celebrated Telugu poets associated with Krishnadeva Raya's Vijayanagara court.
Read the study note →- Ashtapradhan
Ashtapradhan was the high council of eight principal officers associated with Shivaji's state. Its major offices included the Peshwa, Amatya, Sumant, Sachiv, Mantri, Senapati, Panditrao, and Nyayadhish. The body helped coordinate finance, correspondence, diplomacy, justice, religion, and war under the king's authority.
Read the study note →- Ashvamedha
A royal Vedic horse-sacrifice used to signal sovereign ambition, performed by kings to display ritual authority beyond local offerings and to align territory, ritual, and ideology.
Read the study note →- Asset monetisation
Use of operating public assets to raise resources while ownership can remain with the public authority.
Read the study note →- Assured pension
A pension promise linked to service length and average basic pay before retirement.
Read the study note →- Asvamedha
A Vedic horse sacrifice performed to proclaim sovereign authority; Pushyamitra is linked with it in the Ayodhya inscription, and later emperors also used it to project political supremacy.
Read the study note →- Atal Bhujal Yojana
A community-led groundwater-management scheme for water-stressed areas of seven states, including Rajasthan, with a ₹6,000 crore outlay and World Bank support.
Read the study note →- ATMP
Assembly, testing, marking and packaging of semiconductor chips after wafer fabrication.
Read the study note →- ATMP (Assembly, Testing, Marking, Packaging)
ATMP is the back-end segment of semiconductor manufacturing in which processed dies are assembled, tested, marked, and packaged into usable chips for automotive, telecom, computing, and consumer devices.
Read the study note →- ATMP-OSAT
ATMP-OSAT is the Assembly, Test, Mark, and Pack support pathway that complements, but is distinct from, front-end wafer fabrication. It reduces dependence on imported packaging layers and supports design-to-product conversion at lower risk and faster cycles. In India’s mission, ATMP-OSAT approvals are used to create depth in Sanand and allied assembly ecosystems.
Read the study note →- Atwater factor
A food-energy conversion convention assigning carbohydrate and protein 4 kcal/g, fat 9 kcal/g and alcohol 7 kcal/g.
Read the study note →- Average
Average is sum divided by count. If total marks or values add to S and there are n terms, then average = S/n. When one value is replaced, total sum changes and average shifts by the replacement rule while count remains fixed in replacement questions.
Read the study note →- Average speed
Average speed is total distance divided by total time for a complete trip. For equal distances traveled at speeds u and v, it becomes 2uv/(u+v), the harmonic mean. The arithmetic mean (u+v)/2 is valid only when equal time is taken at each speed, not equal distance.
Read the study note →- Azad Hind Sarkar
The Provisional Government of Free India proclaimed by Subhas Chandra Bose at Singapore on 21 October 1943. It provided a political sovereign claim for the INA campaign and received recognition from nine governments aligned with the Axis bloc.
Read the study note →- Baburnama
Baburnama was Babur's autobiographical work written in Chagatai Turkic and is one of the chief primary sources for the early 16th century. Under Akbar, Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khana supervised its Persian translation, which helped carry Babur's observations on war, landscape, gardens, and society into later Mughal court culture.
Read the study note →- Backwater wetland
A low-gradient coastal wetland of canals, lagoons and estuarine waters, represented by Kerala's Vembanad-Kol system.
Read the study note →- Bagar — Dungarpur-Banswara
Bagar denotes the southern Rajasthan zone of Dungarpur and Banswara, where junior Sisodia branches of Mewar ruled amid a strong Bhil demographic presence. It is the key tribal-Rajput frontier of the medieval south, linking lineage politics, river valleys, and hill country.
Read the study note →- Bakhar
Bakhar is a Marathi chronicle genre that records rulers, campaigns, battles and political memories in a strongly narrative style. It often preserves local vocabulary and martial detail that formal Persian chronicles omit. Sabhasad Bakhar of 1697 is usually treated as the earliest comprehensive bakhar on Shivaji.
Read the study note →- Banas Basin
The river catchment draining Mewar and eastern Rajasthan before the Banas joins the Chambal near Rameshwar.
Read the study note →- Baneshwar
A Dungarpur pilgrimage-fair site at the Mahi, Som and Jhakham confluence, described in Devasthan material as a major tribal fair location.
Read the study note →- Barchan
A crescent-shaped sand dune formed by wind action in arid regions with limited vegetation cover.
Read the study note →- Barrage
A gated river-control structure that raises and diverts flow without creating the large storage typical of a high dam reservoir.
Read the study note →- Basalt plateau
An elevated surface formed by repeated basaltic lava flows, often later dissected by rivers and weathering.
Read the study note →- Base year
The reference price year used to convert nominal values into real values and compare growth over time.
Read the study note →- Basic structure
A limitation on constitutional amendment power developed in Kesavananda. Parliament may amend widely but cannot destroy the Constitution's essential identity.
Read the study note →- Battle of Karnal
The Battle of Karnal was fought on 24 February 1739 between Nadir Shah of Persia and the Mughal forces of Muhammad Shah Rangila. The Mughal defeat exposed the empire's military disarray and opened the road to Delhi. Its immediate consequences included the sack of Delhi and the loss of the Peacock Throne and Koh-i-Noor.
Read the study note →- Battle of Khanwa
The Battle of Khanwa was fought on 16 March 1527 between Rana Sanga's Rajput confederacy and Babur near Agra. Babur's use of artillery and wagon-defence made it his second major victory in North India after Panipat and a turning point in Mughal consolidation.
Read the study note →- Battle of Palkhed 1728
The Battle of Palkhed, fought on 28 February 1728, was Baji Rao I's strategic victory over Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I. Its significance lay less in battlefield slaughter and more in the cutting of supplies and the forced recognition of Maratha claims in the Deccan. Historians often treat it as a classic example of mobile cavalry warfare.
Read the study note →- Battle of Sammel
The Battle of Sammel was fought on 5 January 1544 between Rao Maldev of Marwar and Sher Shah Suri near Sammel or Giri Sumel. Sher Shah won, but the battle was so costly that it entered memory as a pyrrhic victory linked with the famous bajra remark.
Read the study note →- Battle of Tunga
The Battle of Tunga was fought on 28 July 1787 near Lalsot between the Jaipur-Marwar alliance and the forces of Mahadji Scindia. It is remembered as a tactical Rajput success that temporarily checked Maratha pressure in eastern Rajputana, even though de Boigne later recovered the initiative at Patan and Merta in 1790.
Read the study note →- Battle of Tunga 1787
The Battle of Tunga was fought on 28 July 1787 between Jaipur under Sawai Pratap Singh, supported by Marwar allies, and the Maratha force of Mahadji Scindia. It checked immediate Maratha coercion over Jaipur but did not permanently end Sindhia influence in Rajputana.
Read the study note →- Battles of Tarain
The Battles of Tarain were the two major encounters of 1191 and 1192 between Prithviraja III and Muhammad Ghori near Taraori, the first ending in Chauhan victory and the second in Ghurid success.
Read the study note →- Begar
Forced unpaid labour imposed by authorities or landlords, a major grievance in many Rajasthan peasant struggles.
Read the study note →- Beneficiation
Processing that upgrades mined ore by removing waste and increasing useful mineral concentration before industrial use.
Read the study note →- Bhabar
A narrow gravelly belt near Shiwalik foothills where mountain streams deposit coarse material and may disappear.
Read the study note →- Bhabru edict
An Ashokan Minor Rock Edict from Bairat that uniquely names Buddhist scriptures recommended by the emperor to the sangha.
Read the study note →- Bhabru Minor Rock Edict
The Bhabru Minor Rock Edict is the Ashokan inscription associated with Bairat in present-day Viratnagar, Jaipur district. It is the best known Rajasthan Ashokan record and is now preserved at the Asiatic Society in Kolkata. In it Ashoka addresses the Buddhist Sangha and recommends seven texts for repeated study.
Read the study note →- Bhadla Solar Park
A large solar park at Bhadla in Jodhpur district, recorded with 2,245 MW commissioned capacity.
Read the study note →- Bhagat sampraday
A reform-oriented Bhil-linked movement shaped by Govind Guru through the Sampa Sabha in 1908, encouraging vegetarian living, temperance, and reduction of bonded dependence so that tribal households could resist coercive extraction and social disorder.
Read the study note →- Bhagavata cult
An early devotional and theological stream centred on Vasudeva-Krishna and linked deities, visible in early inscriptions through named worship structures and royal patronage patterns.
Read the study note →- Bhakra Nangal Project on Sutlej
A multipurpose Sutlej system with Bhakra storage, Nangal regulation, hydropower and irrigation links to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan through canal distribution.
Read the study note →- Bhakti
Personal devotion to a chosen deity, often expressed through song, pilgrimage, service and surrender rather than birth-based ritual privilege.
Read the study note →- Bharat Ratna
India's highest civilian honour, used in current affairs through recipient-year clusters rather than category counts.
Read the study note →- Bharatiya Antariksh Station
Bharatiya Antariksh Station is India's planned indigenous space-station programme linked to the expanded post-Gaganyaan roadmap. Official approvals connect BAS-1 and related precursor missions to the goal of an operational Indian space station by 2035.
Read the study note →- BharatNet
BharatNet is India’s flagship national programme to connect every gram panchayat to broadband using optical fibre. It began as NOFN in October 2011 and was renamed BharatNet in April 2015. Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), set up in February 2012, executes the project in phases, with the Cabinet-approved Phase 3 of 4 August 2023 carrying Rs 1.39 lakh crore to complete the remaining 2.64 lakh gram panchayats including last-mile extension.
Read the study note →- Bhati dynasty of Jaisalmer
The Rajput line associated with Jaisalmer’s 1156 foundation, desert frontier politics, caravan routes, and a remembered Yadava descent tradition around Rawal Jaisal.
Read the study note →- Bhili-Wagdi speech zone
A southern tribal speech belt that reinforces the Banswara-Dungarpur-Udaipur map and links language with tribe geography.
Read the study note →- Bhillamala school
The Bhillamala school refers to the mathematical and astronomical lineage centered on Bhinmal in western India. Brahmagupta composed the Brahmasphutasiddhanta here in 628 CE, giving systematic rules for zero and negative numbers. Through later Arabic transmission as Sindhind around 770 CE under Caliph al-Mansur, this knowledge moved into the wider Islamic world.
Read the study note →- Bhomat
A hilly Mewar zone associated with Bhil-Garasia mobilization and the Eki movement under Motilal Tejawat in 1921-22.
Read the study note →- Bijolia kisan andolan
A long agrarian uprising in the Bijolia thikana of Mewar from 1897 to 1941, combining petitions, tax resistance, and village committees against high dues, begar, and illegal cesses.
Read the study note →- Bijolia peasant movement
An agrarian movement that began in Bijolia, Mewar, in 1897 under Sadhu Sitaram Das and was revived in 1913 under Vijay Singh Pathik. It protested lag-bag, begar, and jagirdari burdens, and the 11 February 1922 agreement acknowledged core peasant grievances.
Read the study note →- Bikaner Rathore branch
The Bikaner Rathore branch emerged when Rao Bika founded Bikaner in 1488 after leaving the Marwar core. Its political rise deepened under Rao Kalyanmal's 1570 accommodation with Akbar and under Rai Singh, whose court and Junagarh Fort turned the desert principality into a durable dynastic center.
Read the study note →- Binding precedent
The law declared by the Supreme Court that all courts in India must follow.
Read the study note →- Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the overall variability of life, covering diversity within species, diversity among species, and diversity among ecosystems. In practice, this means conservation must track genes, community structure, and habitat processes together. A policy response that treats these as independent topics misses how ecological resilience is generated across levels.
Read the study note →- Biodiversity governance
Rules and institutions that regulate conservation, sustainable use, access and benefit sharing of biological resources.
Read the study note →- Biodiversity Heritage Site
An area of biodiversity importance notified by a State Government under the Biological Diversity Act after local consultation.
Read the study note →- Biodiversity hotspot
A biodiversity hotspot is a region with exceptionally high endemic richness that is also heavily threatened. The operational criterion uses two thresholds: at least 1,500 endemic vascular plant species and high habitat loss, often expressed as 70% primary vegetation loss (30% or less remaining). This combines irreplaceability with urgency, so hotspots become conservation triage units with high ecological return per investment.
Read the study note →- Biodiversity register
A local record of biological resources and associated knowledge prepared through community-level biodiversity institutions.
Read the study note →- Bioeconomy
Bioeconomy converts biological resources and processes into products, services and industrial value with environmental safeguards.
Read the study note →- Bioindicator
An organism or biological response used to infer environmental quality.
Read the study note →- Biomanufacturing
Industrial production using biological systems, organisms, enzymes or cells for chemicals, foods, fuels or therapies.
Read the study note →- Biosphere reserve
A landscape recognized under the UNESCO MAB framework with core, buffer and transition zones for conservation and sustainable use.
Read the study note →- Bishnoi
A religious community linked to Guru Jambhoji and 29 principles emphasizing compassion, tree protection and animal care.
Read the study note →- Black-and-Red Ware
A diagnostic ceramic of the Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic tradition, made with differential firing that produces a dark interior and red exterior, typically found in storage, cooking, and everyday household contexts.
Read the study note →- Blood group antigen
Surface marker on red blood cells that determines compatible or incompatible transfusion reactions.
Read the study note →- Blue Pottery
Jaipur glazed pottery tradition using quartz-rich material and blue decoration, different from ordinary clay terracotta.
Read the study note →- BODMAS
BODMAS is the operation hierarchy used in arithmetic and numerical simplification. The sequence is Brackets, Orders, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction. Solve the innermost brackets first, then powers and roots, then divide and multiply from left to right, then add or subtract from left to right. It stabilizes interpretation so expressions with the same text are answered consistently.
Read the study note →- Border infrastructure
Roads, bridges and logistics assets that improve frontier connectivity.
Read the study note →- Bourse
An organized exchange or trading centre; in this topic Surat Diamond Bourse is tied to diamond trading in Surat, Gujarat.
Read the study note →- Brackish lagoon
A coastal water body where sea water and freshwater mix behind a sand bar or ridge, as at Chilika.
Read the study note →- Brahmasphutasiddhanta
Brahmasphutasiddhanta is Brahmagupta's 628 CE mathematical and astronomical treatise, remembered especially for formal rules involving zero and negative numbers.
Read the study note →- Breed registry
An official listing that records recognised animal breeds, their home tracts and accession identities for conservation and improvement.
Read the study note →- Brihadeshwara temple
A monumental granite Shaiva temple at Tanjore completed under Rajaraja I in 1010 CE, famous for its tall Dravida vimana and long inscriptional records.
Read the study note →- Bt cotton
Bt cotton carries Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal protein technology to resist bollworm attack in cotton fields.
Read the study note →- Budget at a Glance
A summary budget document showing sector-wise highlights and provisions.
Read the study note →- Cabinet Mission Plan
The Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946, advanced by Pethick-Lawrence, Stafford Cripps, and A.V. Alexander, rejected immediate Pakistan, proposed a three-tier federal structure, and created the route to the Constituent Assembly and Interim Government.
Read the study note →- Camel belt
The western Rajasthan dry-zone cluster where camels historically support transport, milk, cart work and pastoral identity.
Read the study note →- Canal command
Area served by a canal network where irrigation changes crop choice, settlement, cropping intensity and salinity risk.
Read the study note →- Capital expenditure
Government spending that creates assets or long-term productive capacity such as roads, railways and public infrastructure.
Read the study note →- Capital Outlay
Budget spending that creates or improves assets such as roads, buildings, irrigation systems, power lines and public institutions.
Read the study note →- Carbon credit
A tradable certificate linked to verified greenhouse-gas reduction, removal or avoidance, depending on the rules of the carbon market.
Read the study note →- Carbon footprint
The greenhouse-gas load directly and indirectly associated with a person's, product's or activity's energy and material use.
Read the study note →- Carbon sink
A natural or managed reservoir, such as forest and tree cover, that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it releases over a period.
Read the study note →- Carpet wool
Coarser wool suitable for carpets and blankets, linked in Rajasthan with sheep breeds such as Chokla, Magra and Nali.
Read the study note →- Cash transfer
A payment made directly to an eligible beneficiary or caregiver under a welfare scheme.
Read the study note →- Cashless treatment
Treatment where the eligible beneficiary does not pay the approved package cost upfront.
Read the study note →- Caste enumeration
Collection of caste-related information during census-style enumeration for social statistics and policy use.
Read the study note →- Census Town
A settlement treated as urban by census criteria even when it does not have the same statutory municipal body.
Read the study note →- Central-sector scheme
A scheme funded and implemented by the Union government through its ministries or agencies.
Read the study note →- Centrally sponsored scheme
A programme funded jointly by Union and State governments with central guidelines, state share and implementation conditions.
Read the study note →- CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team)
CERT-In is India's national nodal incident-response agency, operational since January 2004 and backed by Section 70B of the Information Technology Act after the 2008 amendment. It coordinates reporting, advisories, vulnerability notes and institutional response to cyber security incidents.
Read the study note →- Cess
A tax imposed for a specific purpose, usually kept outside ordinary divisible-pool sharing unless the law provides otherwise.
Read the study note →- Chahalgani
The group of powerful Turkish nobles whose factional politics shaped succession after Iltutmish and weakened Razia.
Read the study note →- Chaitya-griha
Chaitya-griha is a Buddhist religious structure used for congregation, worship, and ritual circulation, often taking forms that support repeated collective observance.
Read the study note →- Chaityagriha
A chaityagriha is a Buddhist rock-cut prayer hall, usually apsidal in plan, with a central nave, side aisles, and a stupa at the terminal end. Karle, Bhaja, and Pitalkhora show how this form preserved timber-derived details in stone, including ribbed ceilings and prominent chaitya windows. The type is central to early Buddhist congregational architecture in western India.
Read the study note →- Chalcolithic
Chalcolithic means the copper-stone phase in which stone tools continue but copper artefacts also appear in regular use. In the Indian subcontinent it follows late Neolithic developments and, in Rajasthan, is especially linked with the Ahar-Banas zone and the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura copper tradition. The term does not mean a full bronze economy; it marks overlap, experimentation, and regional variation.
Read the study note →- Chalcolithic enclosure
A bounded structural feature of stone and rubble associated with Balathal in the 100 × 50 m range, interpreted as an early form of controlled internal spacing or early fortification-like planning rather than later royal masonry.
Read the study note →- Chalcopyrite
A copper-iron sulphide ore often associated with ancient and modern extraction zones in Rajasthan, especially around the Aravalli belt and Khetri. In metallurgical archaeology, chalcopyrite-bearing rocks matter because they can support repeated smelting traditions when ore quality and access conditions remain stable across periods.
Read the study note →- Chambal Trough
The south-eastern river valley and ravine system shaped by Chambal flow, dams and incision.
Read the study note →- Chamber of Princes (Narendra Mandal)
The Chamber of Princes was created as the top deliberative body of princely India, bringing major princely rulers into a consultative framework under the British Raj. It was inaugurated on 8 February 1921 by Lord Reading at Delhi, and Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner served as its first Chancellor, making him central to later inter-state princely coordination.
Read the study note →- Chandrayaan-3
India's third lunar mission, launched in 2023, designed to demonstrate safe soft-landing, rover deployment, and in-situ surface science near the Moon's south polar region.
Read the study note →- Chappania Akal
The worst drought-famine episode in Rajputana in 1899-1900 (VS 1956), marked by severe crop failure, high food inflation, cattle mortality and very high human deaths, which pushed princely administrations toward codified famine policy.
Read the study note →- Charbagh
A four-part garden layout used in Mughal tomb architecture to frame dynastic memory and paradise imagery.
Read the study note →- Chauhan dynasty of Sakambhari
The Chauhan dynasty of Sakambhari was the Rajasthan-rooted Chahamana line whose early base lay at Sambhar before the political centre shifted to Ajmer in the 11th-12th century.
Read the study note →- Chautara
A long-necked string instrument used in Rajasthan devotional singing, especially in Ramdevji-related bhajan performance.
Read the study note →- Chauth and sardeshmukhi
Chauth was a levy equal to one-fourth of assessed revenue demanded by the Marathas from territories outside their core homeland. Sardeshmukhi was an additional exaction usually taken as one-tenth and justified as an overlord's due. Together they became a major fiscal instrument for sustaining Maratha campaigning and later expansion.
Read the study note →- Chernozem
Black humus-rich grassland soil common in mid-latitude prairie and steppe regions.
Read the study note →- Chess Olympiad
A FIDE-organised team chess competition with separate open and women's team sections.
Read the study note →- Chetawani Ra Choongthya
A 13-couplet poem by Kesari Singh Barahath composed in 1903, warning Maharana Fateh Singh against attending Lord Curzon's Delhi Durbar. It is treated as an important political intervention in Rajasthani anti-colonial history.
Read the study note →- Chhandahsastra
Chhandahsastra is the foundational Sanskrit treatise on prosody associated with Pingala, usually placed around 200 BCE or earlier. In classifying metres through laghu and guru syllables, it uses a binary-style scheme of enumeration. Later tradition linked its Meru-prastara and matrameru procedures with recursive combinatorics and Fibonacci-like counting.
Read the study note →- Chhatri
A small domed pavilion used in Rajput and Mughal buildings as a roof marker or skyline accent.
Read the study note →- Chief Secretary of Rajasthan
The Chief Secretary is the highest civil servant in Rajasthan, coordinates the State Secretariat, advises the Chief Minister and oversees inter-departmental implementation under the Rules of Business.
Read the study note →- Child Sex Ratio
Number of girls per 1000 boys in the 0-6 age group; it captures gender imbalance among children.
Read the study note →- Chokepoint
A narrow passage where shipping or freight flow concentrates and disruption can raise route distance, cost or risk.
Read the study note →- Cire-perdue / lost-wax bronze
Cire-perdue is the lost-wax casting process used to create Chola bronzes such as Nataraja. A wax model is covered with clay, the wax is melted out, and molten metal fills the cavity, allowing refined yet durable sacred images.
Read the study note →- Citadel-and-lower-town plan
A settlement model in which one elevated citadel sector is spatially differentiated from a broader residential lower town, often with different activity zoning. At Kalibangan, KLB-1 and KLB-2 illustrate this structural split.
Read the study note →- Citizen Charter
A public declaration of service standards, responsible offices, time limits and grievance channels for a department.
Read the study note →- Class-I City
A census city category generally referring to settlements with population of one lakh or more, useful for Rajasthan's city ladder.
Read the study note →- Climate change
Long-term alteration in temperature, rainfall, extremes and climate-system behaviour, driven today mainly by human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
Read the study note →- Climate finance
Public or private finance used for emission reduction, adaptation, resilience, technology transfer, capacity building and loss-and-damage response.
Read the study note →- Climate normal
A multi-decadal baseline used to compare current rainfall or temperature with long-term average station conditions.
Read the study note →- Climate resilience
The capacity of people, ecosystems, infrastructure and institutions to withstand, recover from and adjust to climate-related shocks and stresses.
Read the study note →- Clock angle
The angular separation between hour and minute hands, calculated from their positions or their relative speed.
Read the study note →- Closed basin
A drainage area where water has no open-ocean outlet and mainly leaves through evaporation, seepage or human withdrawal.
Read the study note →- Cloud service models — IaaS / PaaS / SaaS
NIST SP 800-145 frames cloud service models as infrastructure, platform, and software layers: IaaS gives virtual compute, storage, and networking; PaaS adds managed runtimes and development services; SaaS delivers ready applications.
Read the study note →- Coalfield industry
Heavy industry located near coal seams because fuel weight and energy needs historically controlled plant location.
Read the study note →- Coding-decoding
A reasoning pattern where a word, number or symbol group changes by a discoverable rule, then the same rule is applied to a new input.
Read the study note →- Codon
A codon is a three-base sequence in messenger RNA that specifies an amino acid or stop signal during protein synthesis.
Read the study note →- Coking coal
Coking coal is a coal grade used to make coke for blast furnaces and iron-steel production.
Read the study note →- Collective responsibility
The rule that the Council of Ministers stands or falls together before the Lok Sabha.
Read the study note →- Collective responsibility doctrine
Under Article 164(2), the Council of Ministers is answerable to the Legislative Assembly as a single political executive, so loss of confidence in the House requires the ministry as a whole to resign.
Read the study note →- Collegium
The judge-led consultation structure for appointments to constitutional courts after the Judges Cases.
Read the study note →- Colonial compilation
Nineteenth-century work that collects local traditions and observations through colonial knowledge systems, useful but requiring source criticism.
Read the study note →- Combination
Combination means choosing items where order does not matter. It is written as nCr and uses the identity nCr = n!/(r!(n-r)!). This gives symmetry identities such as nC1 = n, nC0 = 1, and nCr = nC(n-r).
Read the study note →- Command area
The area planned to receive irrigation from a canal, reservoir or project distributary network; its actual performance depends on field channels, drainage and water scheduling.
Read the study note →- Command Area Development Programme
A programme launched in 1974-75 to improve utilisation of created irrigation potential through field channels, drains, land levelling and water-management works.
Read the study note →- Common cause
A third condition that explains two observed events without either causing the other.
Read the study note →- Community reserve
A protected-area category for community or private land voluntarily conserved for wildlife and habitat values.
Read the study note →- Compound interest
Compound interest is the interest earned after each period on the new accumulated amount, so the amount follows A = P(1 + r/100)^t under annual compounding and differs from simple interest.
Read the study note →- Concurrent List
The list where both Parliament and State legislatures may legislate, subject to conflict rules.
Read the study note →- Condition decision
A rule-application problem where selection, rejection or referral follows exactly from stated eligibility conditions and exceptions.
Read the study note →- Confluence
The place where two or more rivers or streams meet, such as Banas meeting Chambal near Rameshwaram.
Read the study note →- Conservation reserve
A category often used for government-owned buffers, connectors or corridors near established protected areas.
Read the study note →- Constitutional body
An institution whose existence or core protection is drawn directly from a constitutional article.
Read the study note →- Constitutional morality
A public-law idea requiring State action and social power to respect liberty, equality, dignity and constitutional limits.
Read the study note →- Continental divide
A high drainage boundary from which river systems flow toward different oceans or large basins.
Read the study note →- Continuing mandamus
A court-supervision method where compliance reports and directions continue after the initial order.
Read the study note →- Contrapositive
The valid not-Q to not-P form associated with an if-P-then-Q statement.
Read the study note →- Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The Convention on Biological Diversity, opened on 5 June 1992 and entering into force on 29 December 1993, is the umbrella biodiversity treaty. Its three objectives are conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources.
Read the study note →- Cooperative dairy
A producer-owned milk procurement and processing network; Rajasthan's Saras structure links rural livestock households with formal dairy markets.
Read the study note →- Coral deposit
Limestone-rich marine accumulation built by coral organisms, forming the base of Lakshadweep islands.
Read the study note →- Cordillera
A broad system of parallel mountain ranges, plateaus and valleys, especially along a continental margin such as western South America.
Read the study note →- Core-buffer strategy
A planning model that keeps the most sensitive habitat under stricter protection and manages surrounding areas for compatible use.
Read the study note →- Corn Belt
A United States maize-soybean-livestock region where corn dominates feed-grain production and processing.
Read the study note →- Corridor
A functional landscape passage that allows wildlife movement and genetic exchange between habitat blocks.
Read the study note →- Cotton textile belt
A cotton textile belt forms where cotton supply, mills, labour, power, markets and transport combine for spinning and weaving.
Read the study note →- Council of Ministers
The Chief Minister-led executive body that aids and advises the Governor and remains collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly.
Read the study note →- Courtly Culture
The palace-based patronage of music, painting, learning, ceremony, and craft within Rajasthan ruling centres.
Read the study note →- Crew Escape System
The Crew Escape System is the fast-acting abort assembly that pulls the crew module away from a failing launch vehicle. In TV-D1 it was validated in the transonic region, showing that separation, stabilisation and parachute-led recovery could begin even during an ascent emergency.
Read the study note →- Crew Escape System (CES)
The emergency escape arrangement in the Gaganyaan programme that rapidly pulls the crew module away from the launch vehicle during an abort, enabling safe separation, parachute descent and recovery.
Read the study note →- Critical Information Infrastructure (CII)
Critical Information Infrastructure means a computer resource whose incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or public safety. Under Section 70A of the IT Act, NCIIPC under NTRO is the national nodal body for its protection across critical sectors.
Read the study note →- Criticality
Nuclear-reactor state in which a controlled fission chain reaction sustains itself.
Read the study note →- Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List)
A Red List extinction-risk category for species facing an extremely high probability of extinction in the wild in the near future. It is used when population size, trends, and threats indicate severe vulnerability and the need for urgent, coordinated recovery planning.
Read the study note →- Crop diversification
Shift from a narrow crop base toward several crops suited to local soil, water, market and risk conditions.
Read the study note →- Cropping intensity
The ratio of gross cropped area to net sown area, rising when irrigation permits both kharif and rabi cultivation on the same field.
Read the study note →- CRR
Share of bank deposits that scheduled banks must keep as cash balance with RBI.
Read the study note →- Culturable Command Area
The cultivable land that can receive irrigation from a project under planned distribution and field channels.
Read the study note →- Cultural fair
A time-bound gathering where ritual, livestock, crafts, music or performance become a tourist attraction.
Read the study note →- Culture Working Group
A thematic G20 working group; Hampi in Karnataka is the 2023 place-event marker in this topic.
Read the study note →- Current affairs source hierarchy
Order of trust among official sources used to verify a recent Rajasthan fact.
Read the study note →- Cyber-physical system
A technology system where computing, sensors, networks and physical machines interact in real time.
Read the study note →- Dadasaheb Phalke Award
Government of India's official lifetime-achievement honour in cinema, conferred with National Film Awards.
Read the study note →- Dadupanth
The sect inspired by Dadu Dayal, centred on Nirguna devotion, ethical critique and Naraina near Jaipur.
Read the study note →- Dagh
Branding of horses in Alauddin Khilji's army to prevent fraud in military inspection and payment.
Read the study note →- Dairy cooperative
A farmer-owned institutional channel for milk procurement, processing and marketing, represented in Rajasthan by the SARAS network.
Read the study note →- Dairy farming
Milch-animal rearing organised around regular feeding, milking, health care, cooling and market access.
Read the study note →- Dargah
A shrine associated with a Sufi saint's tomb; Ajmer Sharif is the central Rajasthan example for this topic.
Read the study note →- Darshana
A systematic philosophical viewpoint or school, using methods such as logic, categories, metaphysics, ritual interpretation or Vedantic inquiry.
Read the study note →- Data fiduciary
An entity that determines the purpose and means of processing personal data under data-protection law.
Read the study note →- Data sufficiency
A reasoning format asking whether statements are adequate to answer a target question.
Read the study note →- Decadal Growth
Percentage increase in population over ten years; Rajasthan grew by 21.31 percent between 2001 and 2011.
Read the study note →- Dedicated freight corridor
A dedicated freight corridor is a railway route designed primarily for faster and heavier goods movement.
Read the study note →- Deductive reasoning
Reasoning where a valid form makes the conclusion unavoidable if the premises are true.
Read the study note →- Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
India's principal defence-research organisation, created in 1958 under the Ministry of Defence to design, develop, test, and support indigenous military technologies through a network of laboratories and technical clusters.
Read the study note →- Deficiency disease
Disease caused by insufficient intake or absorption of a required nutrient such as a vitamin.
Read the study note →- Delimitation
Redrawing of electoral constituency boundaries and seat allocation using population and legal criteria.
Read the study note →- Delta
A depositional landform at a river mouth where channels divide and sediment spreads into a sea or gulf.
Read the study note →- Delta manufacturing
Industrial clustering in river-delta cities where ports, flat land, labour, trade and urban markets reinforce manufacturing.
Read the study note →- Demographic dividend
Potential economic gain when the working-age share is high, provided health, skills and jobs improve.
Read the study note →- Deputy Chief Minister
A senior state executive office below the Chief Minister; Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa held this office in the December 2023 Rajasthan cluster.
Read the study note →- Desert Triangle
The western Rajasthan circuit usually built around Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner, often extended to dunes and border tourism.
Read the study note →- Desertification
Land degradation in dryland regions caused by climatic variation and human pressure on soil, water and vegetation.
Read the study note →- Designated officer
The officer made responsible by law or notification for delivering a specified public service within a time limit.
Read the study note →- Designated services under the RTS Act
These are services formally notified by the State Government under the Rajasthan Guaranteed Delivery of Public Services Act, 2011, each linked to a designated officer, a stipulated time limit, and an appellate route in case of denial or delay.
Read the study note →- Devanampiya Piyadasi
Devanampiya Piyadasi is the formal title used in the main Ashokan epigraphic corpus and is commonly translated as 'Beloved of the Gods, of gracious mien.' It is the titulary found across the 14 Major Rock Edicts and the 7 Pillar Edicts, which is why these inscriptions were not immediately identified with Ashoka by early readers. The emperor's personal name Ashoka appears only in 4 Minor Rock Edicts, notably at Maski, Gujarra, Nettur and Udegolam.
Read the study note →- Dhamma
Dhamma in Ashoka's inscriptions was an ethical programme of governance, not a simple synonym for Buddhism. It included non-cruelty, restraint, respect within family and society, concern for servants, and support for concord among sects. Its political value lay in turning royal authority toward moral regulation and welfare.
Read the study note →- Dhrupad
A grave north Indian classical vocal style associated with temple, court and Mughal-period musical patronage.
Read the study note →- Digital India
Digital India is the Government of India's umbrella digital-governance programme launched on 1 July 2015. It is organised around three pillars: digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. The programme absorbed earlier e-governance efforts into a single policy frame and is steered by MeitY.
Read the study note →- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is Act No. 22 of 2023 and received presidential assent on 11 August 2023. It defines the roles of Data Fiduciary, Data Principal, Consent Manager, and Significant Data Fiduciary, and creates the Data Protection Board of India under Chapter V. The law establishes a consent-led framework for processing digital personal data.
Read the study note →- Digital public infrastructure
Shared digital rails such as identity, payments, data exchange, and service platforms that allow government and private services to scale with interoperability, consent, and public-interest safeguards.
Read the study note →- Din-i-Ilahi
Din-i-Ilahi was Akbar's 1582 discipleship circle, not a mass religion for the empire. It drew eclectically on Islamic, Hindu, Jain and Zoroastrian ideas and is usually associated with only about 18 or 19 close nobles. Its importance lies more in imperial ideology than in social spread.
Read the study note →- Dingal
A western Rajasthani literary register used for heroic, genealogical and courtly compositions.
Read the study note →- Direction sense
Spatial reasoning that tracks turns, distance and compass orientation to find final direction, displacement or shortest distance.
Read the study note →- Directive Principles
Non-justiciable constitutional directions that guide State policy, legislation and welfare governance.
Read the study note →- Director General of Police
The Director General of Police is the head of the state police force, responsible for statewide command, policy direction, senior supervision and coordination across ranges, districts and specialised wings.
Read the study note →- Disaster Management Act 2005 Section 14
Section 14 requires every State Government to establish a State Disaster Management Authority by notification in the Official Gazette, creating the statutory apex disaster body at the State level.
Read the study note →- DISCOM
A power distribution company that buys electricity and supplies it to final consumers within a licensed area.
Read the study note →- District Collector
The apex district officer who combines the roles of District Magistrate, revenue head, and development coordinator in Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- District Mineral Foundation
A district-level institution for applying mining-linked contributions to welfare and development in mining-affected areas.
Read the study note →- District Planning Committee
Article 243ZD body that consolidates Panchayat and Municipal plans into a district development plan.
Read the study note →- District SDG Index
A development ranking that compares districts on selected goal indicators.
Read the study note →- Divisibility rule
Divisibility rules are compact checks for quick screening without full division. They include last-digit checks for 2, 5 and 10, digit sum checks for 3 and 9, specific checks for 4 and 8, and alternating digit methods for 11-style checks. For many tests, using the rule first and confirming by a short operation reduces careless mistakes.
Read the study note →- Divisible pool
The net proceeds of specified Union taxes that are distributed between the Union and States under constitutional rules.
Read the study note →- Diwani
Revenue-collection right granted by the Mughal emperor to the Company for Bengal, Bihar and Orissa after Buxar.
Read the study note →- DNA ligase
DNA ligase seals breaks in the sugar-phosphate backbone and joins DNA fragments in cloning experiments.
Read the study note →- Doctrine of Lapse
Dalhousie's annexation doctrine rejecting some adopted heirs in dependent princely states under British paramountcy.
Read the study note →- Drain Theory
Dadabhai Naoroji's economic critique that British rule transferred Indian wealth abroad through remittances, pensions, home charges, and official expenditure. In Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901), he argued that this recurring outflow helped explain persistent poverty in India and gave the Congress a measurable case against empire.
Read the study note →- Drainage basin
A land area drained by a river and its tributaries, bounded by divides that separate it from neighbouring basins.
Read the study note →- Drainage Divide
A ridge or highland that separates river flow into different drainage basins, such as the Aravalli divide in Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- Dry deciduous forest
Seasonally leaf-shedding forest adapted to dry conditions, common in eastern and south-eastern Rajasthan hills.
Read the study note →- Dryland farming
Farming under low and uncertain rainfall using hardy crops, soil-moisture conservation and mixed crop-livestock systems, common in western Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- Dual-purpose breed
A breed valued for more than one economic use, such as milk plus draught work or meat plus milk.
Read the study note →- Dukkha
The Buddhist diagnosis that ordinary existence contains suffering, uneasiness and dissatisfaction caused by craving and attachment.
Read the study note →- Dune stabilisation
Use of grasses, shrubs, shelterbelts and surface protection to reduce sand movement on dunes.
Read the study note →- Durgadas Rathore
Durgadas Rathore was the Rathore noble who became the central defender of Marwar after Jaswant Singh died in 1678. In 1679 he helped secure the escape of the infant Ajit Singh from Delhi and transformed a succession dispute into a prolonged Rajput resistance against Aurangzeb. Because that struggle lasted about 30 years and ended with Rathore restoration after 1707, Durgadas occupies a permanent place in Rajasthan's memory of anti-imperial politics.
Read the study note →- E-mobility
Transport based on electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and related manufacturing support.
Read the study note →- Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project
A canal and water-transfer project planned for drinking water, industrial water and irrigation needs in eastern Rajasthan districts.
Read the study note →- Eco-Sensitive Zone
A notified regulatory buffer around a protected area to control activities that could harm ecological integrity.
Read the study note →- Ecological character
The combined living, non-living and process features that make a wetland or ecosystem function in a particular way.
Read the study note →- Economic Review
The annual official state document that compiles macro indicators, sector performance and scheme progress.
Read the study note →- Economic Sciences Prize
The Sveriges Riksbank prize in Alfred Nobel's memory, tested through laureates and research theme.
Read the study note →- Efficiency
Efficiency is a rate ratio that compares useful output with input under the same unit of time, not just speed. In time and work calculations, if two rates are different, higher efficiency means closer to full productive output, while lower efficiency means more loss to drag. Inverse-per-day expressions such as 1/n preserve the same conceptual unit across examples.
Read the study note →- Eki movement
Motilal Tejawat's 1921-1922 mobilisation among Bhils and peasants in southern Mewar demanding relief from lag-bag and begar through collective oath-based village unions that crossed clan and hamlet boundaries.
Read the study note →- Eklingji
The Shiva form central to Mewar's sacred kingship, where rulers presented themselves as servants of the deity.
Read the study note →- Electoral college
A constitutionally specified body of voters for an indirect election, such as the President's election.
Read the study note →- Electric mobility
Transport using electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, batteries and supporting power-distribution systems.
Read the study note →- Eleventh Schedule
The Schedule containing 29 subjects that can be devolved to Panchayats, including agriculture, water, roads, housing and welfare services.
Read the study note →- Embedded figure
A target shape hidden inside a larger drawing, identified by matching its sides, angles and intersections even after rotation.
Read the study note →- Empanelled hospital
A public or private hospital approved to provide services under a government health scheme.
Read the study note →- Environmental performance indicator
A measurable signal such as air quality, climate policy or biodiversity protection used to compare environmental outcomes.
Read the study note →- Ephemeral River
A river that carries water mainly after rainfall or seasonal flood and remains dry or weak for much of the year.
Read the study note →- Epigraphy
Study of inscriptions on stone, metal, pillars, slabs, or other durable material to recover dates, names, language, and public claims.
Read the study note →- Equality before law
A rule-of-law idea under Article 14 that denies special privilege and requires public power to operate through legal standards, not arbitrary preference.
Read the study note →- Escarpment
A steep slope or long cliff-like edge separating two relief levels, as along the Western Ghats.
Read the study note →- Essential religious practices
A doctrine separating protected religious essentials from secular, administrative or reformable activities linked with religious institutions.
Read the study note →- Eutrophication
Nutrient enrichment of water that promotes algal growth and oxygen depletion.
Read the study note →- Evaporite deposit
A mineral deposit formed when water evaporates from an enclosed basin and leaves salts such as halite, gypsum or selenite.
Read the study note →- Expected years of schooling
The number of years of schooling a child entering school can expect under current enrolment patterns.
Read the study note →- Export manufacturing
Production organised for overseas markets, usually relying on ports, global supply chains, labour and foreign investment.
Read the study note →- Extended producer responsibility
A regulatory approach that makes producers responsible for collection, recycling or disposal after the product's use phase.
Read the study note →- Family tree
A diagram that places persons by generation, gender and marriage so that relationship names come from structure, not guesswork.
Read the study note →- Farman
Royal order or directive, often Persianate in administrative usage, useful for reconstructing permissions, grants, rights, and state authority.
Read the study note →- Fast breeder reactor
A nuclear reactor using fast neutrons to generate more fissile material from fertile material while producing energy, central to India's second-stage nuclear strategy and PFBR Kalpakkam.
Read the study note →- Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR)
A fast breeder reactor works in a fast-neutron spectrum and is designed to create more fissile material than it consumes. In the PFBR case, sodium coolant, MOX fuel, and a uranium-238 blanket together enable breeding of plutonium-239.
Read the study note →- Feeder Canal
A canal reach that brings water from the headworks to the main canal or distribution network.
Read the study note →- Finality clause
A provision saying a decision is final, though constitutional review may still survive.
Read the study note →- Financial Bill
A broader fiscal Bill under Article 117, divided into two categories with different procedures.
Read the study note →- Fire altar
A repeatedly fired, often platform-based ritual installation interpreted through excavated rows and associated burning residues. In Kalibangan these have been found in both fortified and non-fortified sectors.
Read the study note →- Fiscal deficit
The gap between total government expenditure and total receipts excluding borrowings.
Read the study note →- Fiscal devolution
The transfer or sharing of financial resources so local bodies can perform public functions with predictable funds.
Read the study note →- Fiscal federalism
The system for assigning revenue powers, expenditure responsibilities and transfers among Union, State and local governments.
Read the study note →- Flexed burial
A flexed burial places the body in a bent posture and is usually interpreted as intentional funerary design. The Bagor set of 5 flexed burials is important because it indicates patterned mortuary behaviour and possibly inherited group memory practices.
Read the study note →- Flood pulse
Seasonal expansion and contraction of river-lake water that controls fish breeding, wetlands and floodplain farming.
Read the study note →- Floor test
A legislative vote that proves whether a ministry has majority support in the Assembly.
Read the study note →- Folk festival curation
Modern selection and staging of folk performers in fort, desert or pilgrimage settings for cultural tourism.
Read the study note →- Forest diversion
Use of forest land for a non-forest purpose, controlled in India through central approval under forest law.
Read the study note →- Forest Rights Act
The 2006 law recognizing individual, community and habitat-related rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.
Read the study note →- FPO
A farmer producer organisation that aggregates small farmers for input purchase, grading, marketing, finance and value addition.
Read the study note →- FRBM
The legal framework for fiscal discipline, medium-term budgeting, deficit limits, debt management and transparent budget reporting.
Read the study note →- Free diagnostics
Public provision of selected medical tests without user payment at service point.
Read the study note →- Free medicines
Essential medicines supplied through public health facilities without patient payment.
Read the study note →- Freestyle wrestling
A wrestling style where athletes can attack and defend using upper body and legs under event rules.
Read the study note →- Freight corridor
A high-capacity land route designed mainly for goods movement with planned terminals, junctions and logistics links.
Read the study note →- Fresco
Wall-painting work associated with Shekhawati havelis, where facade and interior surfaces carry narrative decoration.
Read the study note →- FSSAI
India's food regulator created under the 2006 food-safety statute to set standards, licensing and enforcement rules.
Read the study note →- Functional Household Tap Connection
A household tap connection intended to provide regular potable water supply under rural drinking-water programmes.
Read the study note →- Fundamental Duties
Citizen duties listed in Article 51A. They usually require statutory support for enforcement but influence constitutional interpretation, civic education, and reasonableness of restrictions.
Read the study note →- Fundamental Rights
Justiciable constitutional guarantees in Part III that restrain State action and, in selected provisions, social conduct. They protect liberty, equality, dignity, religion, culture, and remedies.
Read the study note →- Gana-sangha
A political form in which power was shared by clan chiefs or oligarchic groups rather than concentrated in a single hereditary monarch.
Read the study note →- Gandhara school
The Gandhara school was a Greco-Buddhist sculptural tradition active mainly between 1-5 CE in the Peshawar, Taxila, Swat and adjoining Afghan zones under Kushan patronage. It is known for blue-grey schist, later stucco, wavy hair, heavy drapery and naturalistic Buddha and Bodhisattva figures. Its workshop idiom strongly influenced the spread of Buddha imagery across north-western India and Central Asia.
Read the study note →- Ganga Canal (Bikaner)
The Ganga Canal, fed by Sutlej waters, was opened on 26 October 1927 as a major Bikaner irrigation intervention, improving agricultural reliability and helping stabilise drought-prone northern Rajasthan through a large public works programme.
Read the study note →- Ganga Canal (Gang Canal)
A Sutlej-fed permanent irrigation canal opened in 1927 in Bikaner, bringing water from Ferozepur through Hindumalkot into northern districts and creating about 310,000 acres of early command area, later linked in memory to Indira Gandhi Canal planning.
Read the study note →- Gangaikonda Cholapuram
The capital founded by Rajendra I after his northern Ganga campaign, symbolising imperial expansion and victory prestige.
Read the study note →- Garden tomb
A tomb placed within a planned garden enclosure, seen in Lodi and Mughal funerary architecture.
Read the study note →- Gene editing
Gene editing changes a DNA sequence at a chosen site, with CRISPR-Cas9 as the best-known modern tool.
Read the study note →- Genome India Project
A DBT-funded national genomics initiative launched in 2020 to build an Indian reference dataset; its first phase completed whole-genome sequencing for 10074 samples and public archiving around the 10000-genome milestone.
Read the study note →- Genome sequencing
Genome sequencing reads the order of bases across a genome and reveals variants, ancestry signals and disease-associated changes.
Read the study note →- Geometric mean
An averaging method that multiplies dimension indices and takes the root, penalising imbalance more than an arithmetic average.
Read the study note →- GFCF
Investment in fixed assets such as buildings, machines and infrastructure that expands productive capacity.
Read the study note →- Ghoonghat
Veiling practice associated with purdah in many Rajasthan households and visible in women's spatial customs.
Read the study note →- Gini coefficient
A statistical measure of inequality in income or consumption distribution; lower values indicate less inequality.
Read the study note →- Giri Fort
A hill fort type where altitude and surrounding terrain become part of the defensive architecture.
Read the study note →- Global stocktake
A Paris Agreement process that periodically assesses collective progress on mitigation, adaptation and support against long-term climate goals.
Read the study note →- Globalisation
Integration of domestic production, trade, capital, technology, and services with international markets.
Read the study note →- GNI per capita PPP
Gross national income divided by population and adjusted for purchasing power differences across countries.
Read the study note →- Godawan
The Great Indian Bustard, Rajasthan's state bird, associated with open desert grassland and severe conservation concern.
Read the study note →- Godwar circuit
A tourism belt linking Mount Abu and Ranakpur in the Sirohi-Pali-Aravalli zone, important for hill and Jain temple tourism.
Read the study note →- Government of India Act 1858
Government of India Act 1858 ended the East India Company's rule after the revolt and transferred authority to the British Crown. It created the office of the Secretary of State for India, assisted by a 15-member Council of India, and made the Governor-General also the Viceroy. The statute marked the start of direct Crown rule in India.
Read the study note →- Government of India Act 1935
The Government of India Act 1935 was the longest pre-Independence constitutional statute, proposing an All-India Federation, granting provincial autonomy from 1937, and providing the framework within which institutions such as the RBI and Federal Court emerged.
Read the study note →- Governor
The constitutional head of a State under Article 153, exercising executive functions according to the Constitution and normally on ministerial aid and advice.
Read the study note →- Gram Sabha
The body of registered voters in a village area; it approves local priorities and has stronger powers in Scheduled Areas under PESA.
Read the study note →- Gram Sabha under PESA
The village assembly in Scheduled Areas that receives strengthened authority over local resources, beneficiary identification, and community approval functions.
Read the study note →- Grants-in-aid
Constitutional or statutory transfers given to states for revenue gaps, local bodies, health, disaster management or specific needs.
Read the study note →- Grassland habitat
An open habitat dominated by grasses, supporting species such as blackbuck, bustards and raptors.
Read the study note →- Great Bath
A brick-lined public tank in the citadel area of Mohenjo-daro, waterproofed with gypsum mortar and bitumen and linked with ritual bathing.
Read the study note →- Greater Rajasthan
Greater Rajasthan was the fourth major stage of integration, inaugurated on 30 March 1949 when Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer joined the earlier union. This phase transformed a cluster of smaller unions into a politically and administratively larger Rajasthan under a common executive structure.
Read the study note →- Green credit
A credit generated for voluntary positive environmental action under notified rules.
Read the study note →- Green Energy Corridor
Transmission infrastructure built to evacuate renewable electricity from solar and wind generation areas to the grid.
Read the study note →- Green hydrogen
Hydrogen produced through processes powered by renewable energy, mainly electrolysis of water using clean electricity.
Read the study note →- Green Revolution
Agricultural transformation using high-yield seeds, irrigation, fertiliser, procurement and research support.
Read the study note →- Greenfield enterprise
A first-time business activity not based on taking over or expanding an existing unit.
Read the study note →- Greenhouse gases
Atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and HFCs that absorb outgoing infrared radiation and warm the lower atmosphere.
Read the study note →- Grievance redressal
The administrative or judicial process by which a citizen complaint receives registration, hearing, decision and remedy.
Read the study note →- Gross Storage
The total reservoir capacity measured before separating live storage, dead storage and operational limits.
Read the study note →- Gross Value Added
The value of output minus intermediate consumption, used to measure sectoral contribution in national accounts.
Read the study note →- GSDP
Gross State Domestic Product measures the value of goods and services produced within Rajasthan during a given period.
Read the study note →- GST
A destination-based indirect tax introduced in 2017 that reshaped the state's indirect tax structure and revenue composition.
Read the study note →- GST Council
A constitutional body that recommends GST rates, exemptions and compliance changes through Centre-State participation.
Read the study note →- GSVA
Gross State Value Added records sector-wise value addition before product taxes and subsidies are fully adjusted.
Read the study note →- Guhila
An early ruling lineage of Mewar through which the Bappa Rawal origin memory is usually introduced in Rajasthan history.
Read the study note →- Guhila dynasty
The Guhila dynasty was the early Mewar ruling line traced from Guhadatta to Hammir Singh, with political centres moving through Nagda, Aharad or Ahar, and finally Chittor before the Sisodia consolidation.
Read the study note →- Habeas corpus
A writ requiring production of a detained person before court so the legality of detention can be tested immediately and effectively.
Read the study note →- Hada Chauhan branch
A Chauhan offshoot that built the Hadoti line through Bundi in 1241 and separate Kota in 1631, later shaping fort architecture and painting traditions.
Read the study note →- Hadauti
The south-eastern Rajasthan region associated with Hada Chauhan rule, especially Bundi and Kota, and often tested through the Bundi-Kota relationship.
Read the study note →- Hadoti
South-eastern Rajasthan region around Bundi-Kota, important for Kajli Teej and Jhumar references.
Read the study note →- Hadoti Plateau
The Kota-Bundi-Baran-Jhalawar plateau region linked with black soil, Chambal command and south-eastern relief.
Read the study note →- Halo orbit
Three-dimensional periodic orbit around a Lagrange point used by observatory spacecraft.
Read the study note →- Harmony and balance
The constitutional principle that Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles must be read as mutually sustaining.
Read the study note →- Harshacharita
Harshacharita is Banabhatta's Sanskrit prose biography of Harsha, and it is the foundational literary source for the politics, court culture, and chronology of the Vardhana reign.
Read the study note →- Hazardous waste
Waste that can harm health or environment because of toxicity, reactivity or persistence.
Read the study note →- HCF
HCF is the greatest positive integer that divides every selected number exactly, leaving no remainder. It can be found from common prime factors or from Euclidean division steps that preserve all common divisors and end at zero remainder.
Read the study note →- HDI
UNDP index combining life expectancy, schooling indicators and GNI per capita to measure human capability.
Read the study note →- Heat wave
An official high-temperature condition based on station category, maximum temperature threshold and departure from normal temperature.
Read the study note →- Hematite
Hematite is a major iron ore rich in iron oxide and common in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh belts.
Read the study note →- Heritage hotel
An adapted historic building used for hospitality; Rajasthan's palaces and havelis made this a major tourism product.
Read the study note →- HFC
Hydrofluorocarbons are industrial gases used in cooling and other sectors; many have high global-warming potential and are targeted by Kigali.
Read the study note →- Hidden assumption
An unstated premise needed for a statement or argument to hold its force.
Read the study note →- High-performance computing
Use of supercomputers and parallel systems for modelling weather, materials, drugs and complex engineering problems.
Read the study note →- High-technology cluster
A knowledge-centred industrial area built on skilled labour, research institutions, finance, patents and specialised suppliers.
Read the study note →- Himadri
The inner and highest Greater Himalayan belt, forming the central axial snowy range of the Himalayan system.
Read the study note →- Hindavi
A north Indian vernacular associated with Amir Khusrau's literary-cultural memory and later Hindi-Urdu development.
Read the study note →- Hinterland
The inland area served by a port or city, supplying raw materials and receiving manufactured or imported goods.
Read the study note →- Home tract
The geographical area where a breed is traditionally found, selected and maintained by farmers or pastoral communities.
Read the study note →- Horizontal devolution
The formula distributing the States' aggregate share among individual States using criteria such as income distance and area.
Read the study note →- Household survey baseline
A measured starting point for comparing health and nutrition outcomes.
Read the study note →- HSRA
The organisation formed at the Feroz Shah Kotla meeting of September 1928 by reorganising the HRA under Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, with a declared socialist revolutionary programme.
Read the study note →- Human capital
Education, health and skill capacities that raise productivity and resilience.
Read the study note →- Human Capital Index
A World Bank index estimating the future productivity of a child given current health and education outcomes.
Read the study note →- Human Development Index
A UNDP composite index that measures average achievement in health, education and standard of living through normalized dimension indices.
Read the study note →- Hydrocarbon basin
A sedimentary basin capable of holding petroleum or natural gas, such as Barmer-Sanchore and Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- Iconic place-event pair
A current-affairs unit in which a place is remembered with the event that made it newsworthy, such as Rajgir with Nalanda University's new campus.
Read the study note →- ICOR
A ratio showing how much extra capital is needed to generate one extra unit of output.
Read the study note →- IMEC
A proposed connectivity corridor linking India, the Arabian Gulf and Europe through rail, shipping, energy and digital routes.
Read the study note →- IN-SPACe
IN-SPACe is the single-window agency for promotion and authorisation of private space activity; after the 2020 reform push, Indian Space Policy on 6 April 2023 clarified its role alongside ISRO and NSIL.
Read the study note →- INA Trials
The Red Fort court-martial proceedings held from November 1945 to May 1946 against INA officers such as Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal, and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. The trials triggered a broad wave of nationalist sympathy and weakened the moral authority of British rule.
Read the study note →- Inactivated vaccine
An inactivated vaccine uses a killed pathogen form that cannot replicate but can train immune response.
Read the study note →- Index of Industrial Production
A monthly physical-production index covering mining, manufacturing, and electricity with base year 2011-12.
Read the study note →- India Stack
India Stack is a layered digital public infrastructure architecture of interoperable APIs across identity, payments, documents, and data ecosystems. The model uses reusable standards so the same identity or consent artifact can support multiple public service outcomes without recreating systems each time.
Read the study note →- IndiaAI Mission
IndiaAI Mission is a MeitY programme approved on 7 March 2024 with Rs 10,371.92 crore over five years. It follows seven pillars, including IndiaAI Compute Capacity, datasets, innovation, skills, startup financing and safety governance. The IndiaAI Compute portal launched in August 2024 is intended to provide structured cloud compute access for approved users and institutions.
Read the study note →- Indian National Satellite System (INSAT)
INSAT is India's long-running domestic satellite system for telecommunications, television broadcasting, meteorology, disaster warning, and search-and-rescue support, operationally consolidated after INSAT-1B in 1983.
Read the study note →- Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe)
An autonomous single-window agency under the Department of Space that promotes, authorizes and supervises private and non-governmental space activities in India.
Read the study note →- Indian Ocean Dipole
A sea-surface temperature contrast between western and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean that can influence Indian monsoon rainfall.
Read the study note →- Indian Remote Sensing programme
The Indian Remote Sensing programme is India's operational Earth-observation satellite framework that supplies recurring data for agriculture, water, forestry, land use, disaster response and planning.
Read the study note →- Indian Space Policy 2023
Indian Space Policy 2023 defines the roles of ISRO, NewSpace India Limited and IN-SPACe in a more open Indian space ecosystem. It allows non-governmental entities to undertake end-to-end space activities, while ISRO focuses more sharply on research, advanced technology and national missions. The policy works alongside the 2019 creation of NSIL and the 2020 creation of IN-SPACe to separate commercial, promotional and regulatory functions from core programme execution.
Read the study note →- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was established on August 15, 1969, in place of INCOSPAR, the earlier space-research committee set up in 1962. Founded under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai, it became the core executing agency of India's space programme. Since 1972 it has functioned under the Department of Space, with programme coordination centred at ISRO Headquarters in Bengaluru.
Read the study note →- Indigo Revolt
The 1859-60 Bengal peasant protest against coercive indigo planters and forced commercial cultivation.
Read the study note →- Indira Gandhi Canal Project
The former Rajasthan Canal that carries river water into the Thar command and transformed farming patterns while also creating waterlogging and salinity concerns.
Read the study note →- Inductive reasoning
Reasoning from observed cases toward a probable rule, pattern or next case.
Read the study note →- Indus script
The short sign system found on Harappan seals and objects; it remains undeciphered because no secure bilingual inscription is available.
Read the study note →- Industrial area
An industrial area is developed land with infrastructure such as roads, power, water and drainage for enterprise use.
Read the study note →- Industrial corridor
A planned infrastructure belt that links industrial land, freight movement, markets and employment nodes.
Read the study note →- Industrial investment region
A planned industrial area linked with land, trunk infrastructure, approvals and transport access for firms and workers.
Read the study note →- Industrial licensing
A permission system under which firms needed official approval before entering or expanding many industries.
Read the study note →- Industrial region
An industrial region is a spatial concentration of factories, services and transport links formed by favourable location factors and inter-industry linkages.
Read the study note →- Industry status
Industry status allows a service or activity to receive selected benefits or treatment normally linked with industrial enterprises.
Read the study note →- Inelastic scattering
Scattering in which the outgoing radiation changes energy or wavelength after interacting with matter.
Read the study note →- Inertia
Resistance of a body to change in its state of rest or uniform straight-line motion.
Read the study note →- Information Commission
A transparency body under the RTI framework that hears appeals and complaints about access to information.
Read the study note →- Information Technology Act, 2000
The Information Technology Act, 2000 is Act No. 21 of 2000, enacted on 9 June 2000 and brought into force on 17 October 2000. It gives legal recognition to electronic records, digital signatures, electronic contracts, and e-governance procedures. The IT (Amendment) Act 2008 expanded the same statutory framework with additional provisions on intermediary responsibility and investigation powers.
Read the study note →- Inland drainage
Drainage in which water does not reach the sea through a normal river mouth, common in arid closed basins.
Read the study note →- Inland saline wetland
A saline wetland not directly connected to the open sea, where evaporation, local geology, and seasonal water movement create habitat suitable for salt-tolerant organisms and specialised birds.
Read the study note →- Inland sea
A very large enclosed waterbody surrounded by land, commonly saline, with no natural open-ocean outlet.
Read the study note →- Inland waterway
A navigable river, canal, lake or seaway used for domestic or international cargo movement inside a landmass.
Read the study note →- INS Vikrant (IAC-1)
India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, commissioned on September 2, 2022 at Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi, with a displacement of about 45000 tonnes and an air wing of roughly 30 aircraft.
Read the study note →- Insolvency resolution
A legal process to reorganise, transfer, or liquidate a distressed debtor under creditor and tribunal oversight.
Read the study note →- Instrument of Accession
The legal document through which a princely state accepted the authority of India or Pakistan over specified subjects, especially defence, external affairs and communications, and thereby entered one of the new dominions after 1947.
Read the study note →- Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)
A DRDO-led missile development framework approved in 1983 that organised indigenous work on the Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag missile families and formally concluded in 2008 after establishing a domestic missile ecosystem.
Read the study note →- Integrated school education
A programme frame covering school stages and support components together.
Read the study note →- Inter-basin Transfer
Movement of water from one river basin or sub-basin to another through canals, tunnels or pipelines.
Read the study note →- Inter-State Council
A consultative institution under Article 263 for discussing disputes and common interests among governments.
Read the study note →- Internal Drainage
A drainage pattern where streams end within a basin or saline depression instead of reaching the sea as a through river.
Read the study note →- International Booker Prize
A translated-fiction prize where the author and translator are both essential to the answer.
Read the study note →- Investment region
An investment region is a planned economic area with industrial, residential, commercial and infrastructure components.
Read the study note →- Investment summit
A state event designed to attract investors and sector commitments.
Read the study note →- Ionization
Process in which an atom or molecule gains or loses electrons and becomes charged.
Read the study note →- Iqta
A revenue-assignment system in which military or administrative holders collected income from specified territories while owing service to the Sultan.
Read the study note →- Isohyet
Map line joining places with equal rainfall, useful for showing Rajasthan's west-east rainfall divide.
Read the study note →- IUCN Red List
A global extinction-risk assessment system often called a barometer of life, categorising assessed species into nine status levels from Extinct to Not Evaluated.
Read the study note →- Jagamohana
Jagamohana is the audience or assembly hall placed in front of the sanctum in the Kalinga deul tradition. It is usually broader and more pyramidal than the soaring sanctum tower behind it. At Konark, the Jagamohana is the most intact surviving mass after the principal deul lost its upper structure.
Read the study note →- Jagir
A revenue assignment or landed grant linked to service and status; in Rajputana it helped organise nobles, chiefs, and military obligations.
Read the study note →- Jagirdari crisis
Jagirdari crisis refers to the late-seventeenth-century mismatch between the growing number of mansabdars and the limited supply of revenue-yielding jagirs. As rank assignments rose during the Deccan wars, the empire found it harder to reward service with productive land revenues. This weakened imperial finance, sharpened factional struggles, and reduced military efficiency.
Read the study note →- Janata Transition
Post-Emergency shift in which the Janata Party formed the first non-Congress Union government.
Read the study note →- Jantar Mantar
Jantar Mantar refers to the series of astronomical observatories built by Sawai Jai Singh II between 1724 and 1734. The five sites at Delhi, Jaipur, Mathura, Ujjain, and Varanasi culminated in the Jaipur observatory, later recognised by UNESCO.
Read the study note →- Jantar Mantar Jaipur
Jantar Mantar Jaipur is the astronomical observatory built in 1734 under Sawai Jai Singh II. It belongs to the network of five observatories associated with his scientific programme, and instruments such as the Samrat Yantra, Jai Prakash Yantra and Ram Yantra were designed for direct observation. The site later received UNESCO World Heritage recognition in 2010, but its historical importance begins with early-18th-century statecraft and astronomy.
Read the study note →- Jauhar
Jauhar refers to the collective self-immolation of Rajput women during a catastrophic siege to avoid capture, and the first Chittor horizon is conventionally linked in memory with the 1303 crisis.
Read the study note →- Javelin throw
An athletics event in which competitors throw a spear-like implement for distance; Neeraj Chopra's Paris 2024 silver is linked with 89.45 m.
Read the study note →- Jaziya
Jaziya was a poll tax levied on non-Muslim subjects in several Islamic polities. Akbar abolished it in 1564 as part of a wider accommodationist policy, Aurangzeb restored it in 1679, and Bahadur Shah I ended it again in 1712. In Mughal history, the tax became a political symbol of changing state priorities.
Read the study note →- Jharokha
A projecting window or balcony feature common in Rajasthan palace and haveli facades, especially in sandstone towns.
Read the study note →- Jnanpith Award
A major Indian literary honour generally recalled through edition number and recipient-language association.
Read the study note →- Kachhwaha dynasty
The Kachhwaha dynasty ruled from Amber and later Jaipur. Its political rise is tied to Bharmal's 1562 accommodation with Akbar, the imperial career of Man Singh I, and the planned urban vision of Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727.
Read the study note →- Kachwaha
The Rajput house of Amber and Jaipur, linked with Bharmal's Mughal alliance, Raja Man Singh's imperial service, and Sawai Jai Singh II's 1727 Jaipur foundation.
Read the study note →- Kailasa temple
Kailasa temple is Cave 16 at Ellora and is widely regarded as the world's largest monolithic rock-cut structure. About 7000 sq m of floor area and roughly 80000 tons of basalt were cut top-down to create the temple. It was commissioned by Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I in the period around 756-774 CE and models Mount Kailasa in stone.
Read the study note →- Kailasanatha temple, Ellora
The Kailasanatha temple at Ellora is the great monolithic rock-cut temple attributed to Krishna I of the Rashtrakutas in the 8th century CE.
Read the study note →- Kakori Conspiracy
The HRA action of 9 August 1925 in which revolutionaries stopped the 8 Down train carrying government treasury cash near Kakori, leading to a major conspiracy trial and executions in December 1927.
Read the study note →- Kartik Purnima
Full-moon day in Kartik that anchors Pushkar's pilgrimage and camel-livestock fair at Ajmer.
Read the study note →- Kavirajamarga
Kavirajamarga is the Kannada work associated with Amoghavarsha I, dated around 850 CE, and treated as the earliest major extant text of Kannada poetics.
Read the study note →- Khadar
New floodplain alluvium renewed by river flooding and commonly contrasted with older Bhangar alluvium.
Read the study note →- Khalsa
Land or revenue kept more directly under the ruler's authority, contrasted with assignments held through chiefs or service-linked intermediaries.
Read the study note →- Khanqah
A Sufi hospice or institutional space where disciples, travellers and seekers gathered for instruction, service and devotional practice.
Read the study note →- Kharif
Monsoon-season cropping window in which rainfall-dependent crops such as rice, cotton, bajra and jowar are sown across different regions of India.
Read the study note →- Khejri
A drought-resistant dryland tree valued for fodder, soil fertility, sangri and Bishnoi conservation traditions.
Read the study note →- Khel Ratna
India's top sports honour, commonly tested through recipient and discipline pairs in current affairs.
Read the study note →- Khelo India
A national programme for sports participation, infrastructure, talent identification and excellence pathways.
Read the study note →- Kho Kho World Cup
An international competition for the indigenous Indian sport kho-kho, first held in 2025.
Read the study note →- Khyat
A chronicle tradition preserving regional histories, genealogies, and political memories; such texts are useful but must be read with source criticism.
Read the study note →- Kinship care
Support that helps children stay with family caregivers rather than institutions.
Read the study note →- Kirtana
Collective singing of divine names or hymns, especially important in Chaitanya's Gaudiya Vaishnava movement.
Read the study note →- Kudavolai
The pot-ticket method used in the Uttiramerur Sabha to choose committee members from eligible names written on palm leaves.
Read the study note →- Kumbhalgarh
A Mewar hill fort linked with Rana Kumbha and a long defensive-wall tradition.
Read the study note →- KVK
A district-level agricultural extension institution that demonstrates technologies and trains farmers under local conditions.
Read the study note →- L1 Lagrange point
The L1 Lagrange point is a gravitationally useful region in the Sun-Earth system where a spacecraft can maintain a stable observing geometry relative to both bodies. Aditya-L1 uses a halo orbit around this point at about 1.5 million km from Earth. That location supports near-continuous solar viewing and improves space-weather observation.
Read the study note →- Labour Force Participation Rate
Share of people working or seeking work in the reference population; PLFS tables must be read with the correct age group.
Read the study note →- Lacustrine sediment
Lacustrine sediment is lake or lake-margin deposition used as environmental evidence. In this topic, such deposits help connect tool horizons with changing moisture and lake dynamics.
Read the study note →- Lag-bag (illegal cesses)
A cluster of illegal cesses in princely Mewar including local exactions such as chari kunwar bai, naata, and talwar bandhai added to statutory dues.
Read the study note →- Lagrange Point 1 (L1)
A gravitationally useful location on the Sun-Earth line about 1.5 million km from Earth where a spacecraft in halo orbit can observe the Sun continuously with minimal eclipse interruption.
Read the study note →- Land degradation neutrality
A policy target where new land degradation is balanced by restoration or recovery of degraded land elsewhere.
Read the study note →- Laterite soil
Leached soil formed under high rainfall and temperature, linked to Western Ghats and eastern hill plantation landscapes.
Read the study note →- Lateritic bauxite
Lateritic bauxite forms when intense weathering removes silica and concentrates aluminium minerals on humid plateaus.
Read the study note →- LCM
LCM is the smallest positive number divisible by all terms. In practice, use highest prime powers from each decomposition. For two numbers, identity with HCF is a consistency check: HCF(a,b)×LCM(a,b)=a×b.
Read the study note →- Lead-zinc ore
Lead-zinc ore supplies two non-ferrous metals and makes Rajasthan's Zawar-Rampura Agucha belt nationally important.
Read the study note →- Liberalisation
Reduction of state controls over entry, capacity, imports, prices, or investment decisions in the economy.
Read the study note →- Life expectancy at birth
The expected number of years a newborn would live if current age-specific mortality patterns continued.
Read the study note →- Lift Irrigation
A system where water is pumped upward to reach fields or towns above natural flow level.
Read the study note →- Lignite
A low-rank brown coal formed in younger sedimentary basins, used mainly near pit-head power and industrial fuel locations.
Read the study note →- Linguistic Federalism
Federal arrangement that recognises language as a basis for state boundaries without weakening the Union.
Read the study note →- Lithosol
A shallow stony soil over hard rock, common on hills and steep Aravalli slopes.
Read the study note →- Livestock Census
A periodic official enumeration of domesticated animals and poultry used for planning, breed conservation and livestock-sector policy.
Read the study note →- Living fort
A fort that still contains resident communities and everyday activity; Jaisalmer Fort is the standard Rajasthan example.
Read the study note →- Local body
An elected institution at village, intermediate, district or urban level that performs local public functions.
Read the study note →- Location factor
A condition such as coal, water, labour, market, transport or policy that helps explain where an industry develops.
Read the study note →- Lock canal
A canal using enclosed chambers to raise or lower ships across elevation differences along the route.
Read the study note →- Locus standi
The legal standing required to approach a court, liberalised in Indian public-interest cases.
Read the study note →- Loess
Fine wind-blown silt that forms thick deposits and gives the Yellow River its heavy sediment character.
Read the study note →- Logistics cost
The total cost of moving, storing, handling and coordinating goods across transport and supply-chain networks.
Read the study note →- Lok-Devata
Folk deity worshipped through regional shrines, songs and fairs such as Ramdevra and Gogamedi.
Read the study note →- Lokayukta
A State ombudsman authority that investigates specified allegations against Ministers and public servants under Rajasthan's 1973 law.
Read the study note →- Loo
Hot dry wind of the summer season over north-west India, increasing heat stress and moisture loss.
Read the study note →- Lorenz curve
A curve that compares cumulative population share with cumulative income or consumption share to show inequality.
Read the study note →- Loss and damage
Climate impacts that cannot be fully avoided through mitigation or adaptation, including irreversible losses and disaster-linked damages.
Read the study note →- MADA
A planning approach used for smaller tribal concentration pockets outside large scheduled areas, often mentioned with Sahariya and dispersed tribal areas.
Read the study note →- Madhya-rekha (Ujjain prime meridian)
Madhya-rekha refers to the reference meridian used by Indian astronomers for longitude calculations, with Ujjain treated as the principal line in siddhantic astronomy. Because Ujjain lay near the tropic of cancer, it became a convenient computational anchor in several astronomical traditions. The idea links the intellectual geography of Ujjain with later centres such as Bhinmal.
Read the study note →- Madhyamaka
The Mahayana philosophical school associated with Nagarjuna, known for articulating the doctrine of emptiness.
Read the study note →- Magnetite
Magnetite is an iron ore with magnetic properties, associated in this topic with the Kudremukh belt of Karnataka.
Read the study note →- Mahajanapada
Mahajanapada refers to the list of major early Indian polities in early historic texts, including a set of 16 in the Anguttara Nikaya tradition. For Rajasthan, Matsya is usually linked to the eastern sector with Viratnagar/Bairat as its capital reference in many teaching frameworks.
Read the study note →- MAHASAGAR
A 2025 Indian Ocean regional formulation announced in Mauritius, expanded here as Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions.
Read the study note →- Mahavihara
A large Buddhist monastic learning institution combining residence, instruction, debate, scripture, commentary and international intellectual movement.
Read the study note →- Mahzar-nama
The Mahzar-nama of 1579 elevated Akbar as the final arbiter in disputed questions of Islamic law when leading jurists differed. It did not proclaim him a prophet and it was not the same event as Din-i-Ilahi. The document matters because it shifted interpretive authority toward the sovereign.
Read the study note →- Major Rock Edict
The Major Rock Edicts are a set of 14 inscriptions issued under Ashoka and engraved at multiple sites across the subcontinent. They discuss governance, Dhamma, treatment of subjects, inter-sect tolerance, and in the case of Edict XIII, the consequences of the Kalinga War. Their geographical spread makes them central evidence for Mauryan imperial communication.
Read the study note →- Mandamus
A writ commanding a public authority to perform a legal public duty. It is not a normal device for enforcing purely private contracts.
Read the study note →- Mangarh
The Banswara hill site where Govind Giri's Bhil gathering was fired upon on 17 November 1913, producing a major tribal martyrdom memory.
Read the study note →- Mangrove
Salt-tolerant tidal wetland vegetation with specialised roots that stabilise mud and exchange gases in waterlogged soils.
Read the study note →- Manifest arbitrariness
A constitutional standard used to invalidate State action or legislation that is capricious, irrational or without adequate determining principle.
Read the study note →- Mansabdari
Mansabdari was the Mughal rank system that combined military obligation with civil office. A noble's zat marked personal status, while sawar indicated the cavalry quota he was expected to maintain. Rank, pay, transfer and imperial service were therefore tied together in one administrative mechanism.
Read the study note →- Manufactured sand
Crushed-stone sand promoted as a substitute for river sand where construction demand and river-bed pressure are high.
Read the study note →- Maratha confederacy (5 houses)
The Maratha confederacy after 1761 referred to a loose political order dominated by five houses: Peshwa, Scindia, Holkar, Gaekwad, and Bhonsle. Each maintained its own army, treasury, and regional ambitions, even while recognizing the prestige of the Peshwa. This decentralized structure allowed rapid expansion but also created internal fragmentation during the Anglo-Maratha struggles.
Read the study note →- Mariam-uz-Zamani
Mariam-uz-Zamani was the title later associated with Harkha Bai of Amer, the daughter of Raja Bharmal who entered Akbar's household in 1562. She became the mother of Jahangir, so the alliance joined Amer to the imperial succession as well as to the Mughal court. The later popular label Jodha Bai is widespread, but the contemporary political significance lay in the Bharmal-Akbar marriage and the Rajput integration it initiated.
Read the study note →- Marine heatwave
A sustained period of unusually high ocean temperature that can damage corals, fisheries and marine ecosystems.
Read the study note →- Marked price
Marked price is the listed price shown before any discount is applied, so it must be separated from both cost price and selling price while solving profit-loss questions.
Read the study note →- Market-led manufacturing
Market-led manufacturing locates near large consumers, skilled services, vendors, airports and highways rather than only near mineral resources.
Read the study note →- Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan)
Mars Orbiter Mission was India's first interplanetary mission to Mars, launched by PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013 and inserted into Mars orbit on September 24, 2014. It made India the fourth space agency to reach Mars orbit and the first to do so on its first attempt, with a mission cost of about ₹450 crore.
Read the study note →- Maru-Gurjara style
Maru-Gurjara style is the Rajasthan-Gujarat regional refinement of the broader Northern temple idiom, especially visible under the Solanki milieu. It combines dense surface carving, sharply articulated mandapas, and a love of ornamental precision. Modhera Sun Temple, Dilwara Vimal Vasahi and Luna Vasahi on Mount Abu, and later Ranakpur Adinatha show how this western branch carried the Nagara vocabulary into the Rajasthan frame.
Read the study note →- Maru-Gurjara temple style
Maru-Gurjara temple style is the western Indian regional Nagara idiom associated especially with Rajasthan and Gujarat. Its marble articulation is seen at the Dilwara complex on Mount Abu, especially Vimal Vasahi of 1031 CE and Luna Vasahi of 1230 CE. Closely related western idioms also appear at the Modhera Sun Temple in Gujarat.
Read the study note →- Marusthali
The western sandy desert tract of Rajasthan marked by dunes, low rainfall and sparse drainage.
Read the study note →- Marwar
The Rathore state around Jodhpur and Mehrangarh, with Rao Jodha, Rao Maldeo, Jaswant Singh, Ajit Singh, and Durgadas Rathore as major exam anchors.
Read the study note →- Material evidence
Evidence from forts, temples, tanks, inscriptions, sculptures, coins, walls, gateways, or excavated remains tied to historical questions.
Read the study note →- Mathura school
The Mathura school was an indigenous sculptural tradition using red sandstone for Buddha, Jina and royal images under Kushan patronage.
Read the study note →- Matrix progression
A non-verbal pattern where each row and column changes by rotation, count, position, shading or size.
Read the study note →- Matsya Union
The earliest post-independence union in eastern Rajputana, comprising Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur, and Karauli. It became an important transitional stage before merger into the larger Rajasthan structure and is central to the chronology of integration.
Read the study note →- Mature Harappan
The urban phase of the Harappan civilization, usually dated about 2600-1900 BCE, marked by planned towns, seals, drains and standardised material culture.
Read the study note →- Mauryan polish
Mauryan polish refers to the exceptionally smooth, high-gloss finish seen on select Mauryan sandstone monuments, especially those carved from Chunar sandstone. On the Sarnath capital and pillars such as Lauriya-Nandangarh, this finish makes the surface appear almost metallic. It is treated as a hallmark of elite Mauryan stone working because later workshops did not reproduce the same effect with comparable consistency.
Read the study note →- Mawat
Winter rainfall in Rajasthan associated with western disturbances, valuable for rabi crops but sometimes damaging through hail.
Read the study note →- Mean
The arithmetic mean is the sum of values divided by the number of observations. It is the primary measure of central location and is sensitive to extreme large or small observations.
Read the study note →- Mechanised sanitation
Cleaning of sewers or septic tanks using equipment and trained workers instead of hazardous manual entry.
Read the study note →- Median
The median is the middle value after sorting observations. For odd n, it is the (n+1)/2-th term, and for even n, it is the average of the two middle values.
Read the study note →- Mediterranean agriculture
Commercial farming of olives, grapes, citrus and vegetables in winter-rain and dry-summer climates.
Read the study note →- Mehrangarh
The dominant Jodhpur fort associated with Rao Jodha's 1459 capital foundation.
Read the study note →- Mehrauli iron pillar
An iron pillar inscription honouring King Chandra, usually identified with Chandragupta II, and celebrated for its remarkable corrosion resistance over about 1600 years.
Read the study note →- Metallogenetic province
A belt where geological history concentrates related metallic ores, such as the Khetri copper tract in the Aravalli-Delhi fold system.
Read the study note →- Mewar
The Sisodia-ruled state centred successively on Chittor, Kumbhalgarh, and Udaipur, remembered for Rana Kumbha, Rana Sanga, Maharana Pratap, Haldighati, and Dewair.
Read the study note →- MGNREGA
The demand-driven rural wage employment programme that creates labour-intensive public assets such as ponds, roads and land works.
Read the study note →- Micro-irrigation
Drip or sprinkler application that supplies water more precisely at field scale and is especially useful in arid orchards, vegetables and sandy soils.
Read the study note →- Microlith
A microlith is a small lithic implement, often geometric and light in size, used as part of a composite hunting or cutting system. In Bagor, microliths remain frequent from phase to phase, including in the transition stage, so they become a marker of technological continuity despite changing material additions.
Read the study note →- Millet value chain
The millet value chain includes seed, cultivation, procurement, processing, nutrition demand, branding and retail consumption.
Read the study note →- Mineral belt
A mineral belt is a zone where related deposits occur across a recognisable rock province, basin or structural trend.
Read the study note →- Mineral-based industry
A mineral-based industry depends on ores, coal, limestone or other minerals as its main raw material or energy base.
Read the study note →- Minor rock edict
A minor rock edict is a shorter Ashokan inscriptional category focused on moral or religious guidance, often addressing a specific audience or doctrinal point rather than the broader imperial statements of the major rock edicts.
Read the study note →- Minority rights
Cultural and educational protections, especially Articles 29 and 30, for preserving language, script, culture, and minority educational institutions.
Read the study note →- Mira Bai
Mira Bai was a Bhakti poet-saint usually dated to c. 1498-1547 and linked with the Mewar Sisodia house through marriage to Bhojraj. Her Krishna devotion, pilgrimages to Vrindavan and Dwarka, and the circulation of roughly 1300 padas made her the best-known medieval devotional personality associated with Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- MIRV (Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicle)
A MIRV system lets one ballistic missile carry multiple re-entry vehicles that can be released on separate trajectories against different targets, making interception and deterrence calculations far more complex.
Read the study note →- Mission Mode Project (MMP)
A Mission Mode Project is a focused e-governance project placed inside the National e-Governance Plan approved on 18 May 2006. Later official documents describe NeGP as comprising 31 MMPs. These projects combined service-delivery systems such as passports, e-District and Common Service Centres with supporting digital infrastructure.
Read the study note →- Mixed farming
An agricultural system combining crop cultivation with livestock rearing, often using fodder and manure cycles.
Read the study note →- Mobile Veterinary Unit
A vehicle-based veterinary service designed to take treatment and basic animal-health support to livestock owners' locations.
Read the study note →- Modal integration
The coordinated use of rail, road, water, air and pipeline systems so cargo changes mode with less delay.
Read the study note →- Moderate phase
The early phase of the Indian National Congress from 1885 to 1905, associated with leaders such as Naoroji, Gokhale, Mehta, and Banerjea. It relied on constitutional methods, petitions, speeches, the press, and annual resolutions to demand representation, administrative reform, and Indianisation of services.
Read the study note →- Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjo-Daro was one of the largest cities of the Indus civilization, planned with a citadel, a lower town, drainage, and monumental structures such as the Great Bath. Its artefacts include the bronze Dancing Girl and the steatite Priest-King, making the site central to discussions of Harappan urban art and social hierarchy.
Read the study note →- Moisture index
Water-balance measure comparing precipitation and potential evapotranspiration to classify aridity or humidity.
Read the study note →- Monazite sands
Monazite sands are coastal placer deposits containing rare-earth and thorium-bearing minerals, notably along Kerala's coast.
Read the study note →- Money Bill
A Bill containing only the fiscal matters listed in Article 110, certified by the Speaker.
Read the study note →- Monsoon branch
Major pathway of southwest monsoon flow, especially Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal routes affecting Rajasthan unevenly.
Read the study note →- Monsoon trough
A seasonal low-pressure zone across north India that guides active-break rainfall and Bay of Bengal low-pressure systems.
Read the study note →- Mountbatten Plan
The 3 June 1947 plan announced under Lord Mountbatten that accepted partition, provided for the transfer of power to two dominions, and set the framework within which British India and the princely states had to choose their constitutional future.
Read the study note →- MPCE
Monthly household consumption expenditure divided by household members, used to compare living standards and poverty thresholds.
Read the study note →- MSF
Overnight borrowing window for banks, normally placed above the policy repo rate.
Read the study note →- MSME
Micro, small, and medium enterprises classified by investment and turnover thresholds after the 2020 revision.
Read the study note →- MSP
A government-announced minimum price for selected crops, backed by procurement capacity that varies by crop and region.
Read the study note →- Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan
A Rajasthan water-conservation programme using local harvesting and recharge structures to improve village-level water security.
Read the study note →- Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV)
A missile payload arrangement in which one ballistic missile carries multiple re-entry vehicles that can be released toward separate targets after the boost phase.
Read the study note →- Multipurpose Project
A river project designed for more than one purpose, commonly irrigation, hydropower, flood moderation and drinking water.
Read the study note →- Municipal Board
The municipal body for transitional urban areas under Rajasthan's municipal law, headed by a Chairman.
Read the study note →- Municipal Corporation
Municipal body for a larger urban area with elected representation, municipal fund and statutory service functions.
Read the study note →- Municipal Council
Municipal body for a smaller urban area, placed between Nagar Panchayat and Municipal Corporation categories.
Read the study note →- Nagar Panchayat
Urban local body for an area transitioning from rural character to urban character under Article 243Q.
Read the study note →- Nagara-Dravida-Vesara
This threefold classification describes north Indian Nagara, south Indian Dravida, and hybrid Deccan Vesara temple forms, a synthesis clearly visible at Pattadakal under the Chalukyas.
Read the study note →- Nagaur Panchayati Raj launch
Nagaur was the launch point of India’s first operational three-tier Panchayati Raj model on 2 October 1959. The launch followed the Balwantrai Mehta Committee 1957 recommendations and introduced Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, and Zila Parishad institutions. Andhra Pradesh followed on 1 November 1959.
Read the study note →- Nalanda Mahavihara
Nalanda Mahavihara was a Buddhist monastic university founded under Kumaragupta I around 427 CE in present-day Bihar. Hiuen Tsang studied there during 635-640 CE, and the institution later became the best-known centre in an eastern Indian network that included Vikramashila, Odantapuri and Somapura. At its peak it is associated with about 10000 students and 2000 teachers, before destruction around 1193 CE under Bakhtiyar Khilji and UNESCO inscription in 2016.
Read the study note →- Nanoparticle
A nanoparticle has at least one external dimension near the nanoscale, usually below about 100 nanometres.
Read the study note →- Nari Shakti Puraskar
A national women-recognition award; Ruma Devi received the 2018 award for craft livelihood work.
Read the study note →- National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)
The National Biodiversity Authority is the statutory national body under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, headquartered at Chennai, with key roles in access regulation, approvals and benefit-sharing governance.
Read the study note →- National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP)
India's CBD-implementation planning document released in 2024 by MoEFCC that converts global biodiversity commitments into national targets, institutions, financing pathways and monitoring architecture.
Read the study note →- National Emergency
A proclamation under Article 352 based on war, external aggression, or armed rebellion.
Read the study note →- National MPI
NITI Aayog's measure of overlapping household deprivations across health, education and living-standard indicators.
Read the study note →- National park
A strong statutory protected-area category where ecological and faunal importance justifies strict restrictions on ordinary human activity.
Read the study note →- National Quantum Mission
A Union Cabinet-approved mission launched on 19 April 2023 with an outlay of Rs 6,003.65 crore for 2023-24 to 2030-31 to build quantum computing, communication, sensing, and materials capacity through national hubs.
Read the study note →- National Quantum Mission (NQM)
National Quantum Mission is a DST-led frontier program approved on 19 April 2023 with Rs 6,003.65 crore for 2023-24 to 2030-31. It organizes development through four thematic hubs and uses IISc Bengaluru as the lead coordinator with IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi as hub anchors. The mission links quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing and metrology, and quantum materials/devices through measurable milestones.
Read the study note →- National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
NSM is a Government of India programme approved on 25 March 2015 with Rs 4,500 crore to build distributed supercomputing capacity, with DST and MeitY leadership and C-DAC and IISc Bengaluru execution support.
Read the study note →- Natural farming
A chemical-free farming approach using local livestock-based inputs and diversified crop systems.
Read the study note →- Natural justice
Procedural fairness principles such as hearing and absence of bias. In rights analysis, it supports non-arbitrary and fair decision-making.
Read the study note →- Natural vegetation
Plant cover that develops mainly from climate, soil, relief, drainage and biological pressure without deliberate cultivation.
Read the study note →- Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC)
NavIC is India's regional satellite navigation system, built from the IRNSS constellation to provide positioning, navigation, and timing services over India and roughly 1500 km beyond its boundary.
Read the study note →- Navratri fair
Nine-night goddess festival cycle; Karni Mata at Deshnoke is tied to Chaitra and Ashwin Navratri.
Read the study note →- NDC
A nationally determined contribution is a country's Paris Agreement climate pledge covering mitigation, adaptation or support, updated through repeated cycles.
Read the study note →- Net rate
Net rate is the signed sum of all individual rates acting on the same system. For pipes and cisterns, inlets contribute positive terms and outlets contribute negative terms, so the combined effect can be either fill or empty.
Read the study note →- Net sown area
The land cultivated at least once in an agricultural year; in Rajasthan it forms more than half of the reporting area despite large arid tracts.
Read the study note →- Net Zero
A state where remaining greenhouse-gas emissions are balanced by removals after major reductions.
Read the study note →- NFSA
A 2013 law that gives subsidised foodgrain entitlement to priority and Antyodaya households through the public distribution system.
Read the study note →- Ninth Schedule review
Judicial review of protected-schedule laws, especially post-24 April 1973 insertions damaging basic structure through rights violations.
Read the study note →- Nirgun
A devotional idea of a formless divine without visible attributes, strongly associated with Kabir, Guru Nanak and several north Indian saint traditions.
Read the study note →- Nirguna Sant
A devotional current that stresses formless divinity, ethical practice and critique of caste or external ritual.
Read the study note →- Niyati
The Ajivika doctrine of strict determinism, where a cosmic rule fixes events and limits personal spiritual effort.
Read the study note →- Nobel Peace Prize
A Nobel category often tested through organisation, country and cause rather than an individual-only recall.
Read the study note →- Noble Eightfold Path
The Buddhist path of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.
Read the study note →- Nomadic herding
Mobile pastoralism in which herders move livestock according to seasonal pasture and water availability.
Read the study note →- Nominal GDP
GDP measured at current market prices, used for fiscal ratios and global economy-size comparisons.
Read the study note →- Non-Alignment
Foreign-policy approach of retaining independent judgment rather than joining Cold War military blocs.
Read the study note →- Non-Cooperation Movement
A mass anti-colonial campaign formally adopted at the Nagpur Congress in December 1920, it called for surrender of titles, boycott of legislatures, courts, schools and foreign cloth, and expansion of Congress on a wider popular base.
Read the study note →- Non-fossil capacity
Electricity capacity from sources other than fossil fuels, including renewables, hydro and nuclear power.
Read the study note →- Non-justiciability
A constitutional status where a provision guides governance but does not create a direct court remedy.
Read the study note →- Northern Black Polished Ware
Northern Black Polished Ware was a fine luxury ceramic associated with early historic urbanization from about 700-200 BCE. It is found at sites such as Hastinapur, Kausambi, Rajghat, Atranjikhera, and Bairat, and marks the technological and exchange networks that preceded and overlapped with Mauryan expansion.
Read the study note →- Nuclear triad
A nuclear triad combines land-based missiles, aircraft-delivered nuclear capability, and submarine-based missiles so that retaliation remains possible even if one leg is damaged first.
Read the study note →- Nutrient-status advice
Soil-test based recommendation that guides fertiliser use according to actual nutrient deficiency and crop need.
Read the study note →- Occupational disease relief
Support given when illness is linked to work exposure, such as certified silicosis among stone workers.
Read the study note →- Odd days
The remainder after converting elapsed calendar days into complete weeks, used to determine the weekday of a date.
Read the study note →- Offshore petroleum field
An offshore petroleum field is an oil or gas field below the sea floor, such as Mumbai High in the Arabian Sea.
Read the study note →- Olympic medal tally
The count and type of medals won by a country at a specific Olympic Games edition.
Read the study note →- Ombudsman
An independent complaint-investigation office that examines allegations against public functionaries and recommends action.
Read the study note →- Onset
The operational declaration that southwest monsoon conditions have reached a region after rainfall, wind and cloud criteria are met.
Read the study note →- Open Defecation Free
A sanitation status indicating that urban areas have systems intended to end open defecation through toilet access and monitoring.
Read the study note →- Open forest
A forest-cover class with lower canopy density; in Rajasthan it forms the largest share of recorded forest cover.
Read the study note →- Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC)
ONDC is a DPIIT-backed Section 8 company whose network model uses open protocol calls so buyer and seller applications can interoperate; its public beta expanded on 29 September 2022.
Read the study note →- Opposite face
In dice reasoning, the face that never appears adjacent to a given face across valid views of the same cube.
Read the study note →- Oran
A community-protected sacred grove or common land patch that can conserve trees, grass and local biodiversity.
Read the study note →- Ordinance
A temporary law-like instrument issued by the President when Parliament is not in session.
Read the study note →- Orographic rainfall
Rainfall caused when moist air is forced up a mountain slope, cools, condenses and rains on the windward side.
Read the study note →- OSAT
Outsourced semiconductor assembly and test activity covering assembly, testing, marking, and packaging after wafer fabrication, different from a full semiconductor wafer fab.
Read the study note →- OSI 7-layer model
OSI is a 7-layer reference framework standardized by ISO in 1984 to separate networking tasks into defined layers, from raw bit transmission up to user applications.
Read the study note →- Out-of-pocket expenditure
Money paid directly by households for services, medicines or tests.
Read the study note →- Overgeneralisation
A scope error where limited evidence is stretched into a much wider conclusion.
Read the study note →- Ozone-depleting substance
A substance controlled because it can damage the stratospheric ozone layer.
Read the study note →- Paddy field
A level and often flooded field used for rice cultivation in humid Asian regions.
Read the study note →- Padma Awards
Three-category civilian awards announced around Republic Day: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.
Read the study note →- Padmavat (Jayasi 1540)
Padmavat is the Awadhi Sufi epic written by Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540. It narrates the Padmini-Ratan Singh-Alauddin Khilji legend around the 1303 Chittor siege, so it is an important cultural source but not a straightforward court chronicle.
Read the study note →- Painted Grey Ware
A fine grey pottery horizon with black designs, associated with upper Ganga-Yamuna settlements and often used for later Vedic archaeology.
Read the study note →- Painted Grey Ware (PGW)
Painted Grey Ware (PGW) is a fine grey pottery tradition with painted geometric designs, associated in Rajasthan with Iron Age horizons around c.1100-500 BCE. In Rajasthan it appears at early eastern sites such as Noh (Bharatpur) and Jodhpura (Jaipur), where it occurs with iron tools and early agrarian indicators.
Read the study note →- Palaeolithic
Palaeolithic refers to the earliest and longest phase of the Stone Age, marked by chipped stone tools and hunter-forager lifeways. Archaeologists usually divide it into Lower, Middle, and Upper Palaeolithic on the basis of tool technology, manufacturing technique, and stratified context. In Rajasthan, this framework helps classify assemblages from lake margins, river valleys, and upland Aravalli zones.
Read the study note →- Palanhar
A caregiver recognised under the child-support scheme for bringing up a vulnerable child in a family setting.
Read the study note →- Paleochannel
An old river course preserved in sediments or landscape forms, used while discussing Ghaggar-Hakra and Saraswati traditions.
Read the study note →- Pancha Siddhantika
Pancha Siddhantika is Varahamihira's compendium of 5 astronomical schools: Surya, Romaka, Paulisha, Vasishtha, and Paitamaha. Its historical value lies in preserving both Indian and Greco-Roman strands of astronomy within one Sanskrit text. The inclusion of Romaka and Paulisha shows transmission through Alexandria rather than an isolated local tradition.
Read the study note →- Pancha-mahavrata
The Jain five great vows: non-injury, truth, non-stealing, non-possession and celibacy, central to ascetic conduct.
Read the study note →- Panchamrit
Five climate pledges announced by India at COP26, including 500 GW non-fossil capacity and Net Zero by 2070.
Read the study note →- Panchayat Samiti
The block-level Panchayati Raj institution that checks technical feasibility, consolidates Gram Panchayat proposals and supervises development staff.
Read the study note →- Paralympics
International multi-sport Games for athletes with disabilities, held in the Olympic cycle.
Read the study note →- PARAM
PARAM is the indigenous Indian supercomputing lineage that began with PARAM 8000 in 1991 and continued through PARAM 9000, PARAM 10000, PARAM Padma, and PARAM Yuva as institutional confidence in high-performance design grew.
Read the study note →- Paramountcy
British claim of superior authority over Indian princely states, especially in external relations and succession questions.
Read the study note →- Participatory certification
A local group-based assurance system used in organic farming, where farmers and institutions verify production practices for market confidence.
Read the study note →- Particulate matter
Tiny solid or liquid particles suspended in air, including dust, smoke and aerosols.
Read the study note →- Parwana
Administrative document or order used in princely-state record systems, useful for local governance, revenue, and rights questions.
Read the study note →- Pastoralism
A livelihood system based on herding animals across grazing landscapes, especially visible in Rajasthan's camel, sheep and goat belts.
Read the study note →- Pay Commission
A temporary commission that recommends changes in central government employee salaries, allowances and related benefits.
Read the study note →- Peacock Throne (Takht-i-Taus)
The Peacock Throne was Shah Jahan's gem-studded imperial throne, completed in 1635 for the ceremonial heart of the Mughal court. It was associated with the Diwan-i-Khas and became a visual statement of wealth, sovereignty, and cosmic kingship. Nadir Shah carried it away after the sack of Delhi in 1739.
Read the study note →- Peat bog
A cool wetland where slow decomposition allows partially decayed plant matter, often moss, to accumulate as peat.
Read the study note →- Pellagra
A deficiency disease caused by lack of niacin, classically associated with dermatitis, diarrhoea and dementia.
Read the study note →- People's Biodiversity Register (PBR)
A People's Biodiversity Register is a local document prepared by Biodiversity Management Committees to record biological resources, habitats, local varieties, breeds and associated traditional knowledge within their jurisdiction.
Read the study note →- Per Capita Income
An average income indicator derived from state income and population, useful for welfare comparison but not equal to household income.
Read the study note →- Percentage
Percentage is a way of expressing a ratio or share per hundred. A fraction or decimal is converted into percentage by multiplying by 100, and a percentage is converted back by dividing by 100, so all three forms describe the same quantity on different scales.
Read the study note →- Perennial river
A river that carries water through the year because snowmelt, rainfall or groundwater maintains flow beyond the monsoon.
Read the study note →- Peri-urban Fringe
The transition zone outside a city where rural land, commuting, industry and urban services begin to overlap.
Read the study note →- Permafrost
Ground that remains frozen for long periods and restricts rooting, drainage and tree growth in tundra regions.
Read the study note →- Permanent Settlement
Cornwallis's 1793 land-revenue arrangement that fixed revenue demand with zamindars and reshaped rural power in Bengal.
Read the study note →- Pernicious anaemia
A B12-related anaemia in which impaired absorption, often linked to intrinsic factor, affects blood and nerves.
Read the study note →- Persistent organic pollutant
A toxic carbon-based chemical that remains in the environment, travels long distances and accumulates through food chains.
Read the study note →- PESA
The 1996 law extending Panchayati Raj to Scheduled Areas and strengthening Gram Sabha authority over local resources and plans.
Read the study note →- Peshwa
The Peshwa was the chief ministerial office in the Maratha polity and gradually became the real centre of executive power. After Shahu appointed Balaji Vishwanath in 1713, the office became hereditary in the Bhat family and shifted effective authority toward Pune. Under Baji Rao I and his successors, the Peshwa directed diplomacy, war, and revenue claims over a large Maratha sphere.
Read the study note →- Petrochemical downstream
Downstream petrochemical activity uses refinery products as inputs for chemicals, plastics and related manufacturing.
Read the study note →- Petrochemical feedstock
Petrochemical feedstock includes refinery-derived materials such as ethylene and propylene used for polymers, fibres and plastics.
Read the study note →- Petroleum Mining Lease
A legal lease allowing production from petroleum fields after discovery and approval, distinct from exploration-stage licences.
Read the study note →- pH
Numerical measure of acidity or basicity linked with hydrogen-ion concentration in a solution.
Read the study note →- Pharmacogenomics
The study of how inherited genetic variation alters a person’s response to medicines, helping clinicians choose safer doses and more effective drugs for specific populations.
Read the study note →- Photovoltaic cell
Semiconductor device that converts incident light directly into electrical energy.
Read the study note →- Phreatophyte
A deep-rooted plant that obtains water from the water table and is common in arid or semi-arid environments.
Read the study note →- Physiography
The study of surface relief as the combined outcome of geological structure, geomorphic process and landform development stage.
Read the study note →- Pichwai
Cloth painting tradition associated with Nathdwara and Shrinathji worship, used behind the deity in devotional settings.
Read the study note →- Pie chart
A pie chart converts each category share into a sector of a full circle. Conversion uses proportion × 360 degrees; therefore 100% is always 360 degrees and 90 degrees equals 25%.
Read the study note →- Pietra dura
A decorative inlay technique using coloured stones set into marble, strongly associated with Shah Jahan's buildings.
Read the study note →- Pietra dura (parchin kari)
Pietra dura is the decorative inlay technique in which semi-precious stones are fitted into marble surfaces to create floral and geometric designs. In the Mughal context it matured between the Itimad-ud-Daulah tomb of 1622-28 and the Taj Mahal of 1632-1648. The technique became one of the clearest signatures of Shah Jahan's architectural style.
Read the study note →- Pindari
Pindaris were irregular mounted plunderers attached loosely to larger Maratha war networks and were often allowed to sustain themselves through loot. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, their raids disrupted agrarian production, grain movement, and state revenue across central India and Rajputana, making them a major factor behind the 1817 British campaign.
Read the study note →- Pingal
A poetic register used for refined literary composition, often contrasted with the harder heroic tone of Dingal.
Read the study note →- Place-value decimal system
The place-value decimal system assigns value to a digit according to its position, so the same numeral can mean units, tens or hundreds in different places. Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya in 499 CE worked within this positional logic, and Brahmagupta in 628 CE pushed it further by formalising arithmetic operations involving zero. Around 770 CE, these Indian computational ideas moved into Arabic translation under the name Sindhind and later entered Europe as Hindu-Arabic numerals.
Read the study note →- Planning Commission
Government resolution body created in 1950 to coordinate Five Year Plans and public investment priorities.
Read the study note →- Plantation agriculture
Capital-intensive commercial farming that specialises in one tropical export crop on estates.
Read the study note →- Plantation crop
Commercial crop grown in organised estates or hill tracts where climate, slope, labour and processing links are decisive.
Read the study note →- Playa
A flat dry lake bed or salt pan in an arid closed basin, produced after temporary water evaporates.
Read the study note →- Pleasure doctrine of the Governor
Under Article 156, the Governor formally holds office during the pleasure of the President, even though the Constitution also mentions a five-year term from entry into office.
Read the study note →- PM-AASHA
An umbrella price-assurance programme for notified pulses, oilseeds and copra through support and deficiency-payment components.
Read the study note →- PM-KISAN
A direct income-support scheme that gives eligible landholding farmer families Rs 6000 a year in three equal instalments.
Read the study note →- PM-STIAC
The Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser.
Read the study note →- PMFBY
A crop-insurance scheme with capped farmer premium shares for kharif, rabi and commercial or horticultural crops.
Read the study note →- Pokhran-II Operation Shakti
The May 11-13, 1998 series of five nuclear tests conducted at Pokhran in Jaisalmer district under the Vajpayee government, associated with A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, R. Chidambaram, and the later observance of National Technology Day on May 11.
Read the study note →- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
PSLV is India's four-stage launch vehicle for SSO, LEO and selected interplanetary missions. After the first successful PSLV-D2 flight on October 15, 1994, it became ISRO's most reliable launcher and later carried Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission and the record PSLV-C37 mission that deployed 104 satellites.
Read the study note →- Police Complaints Authority
An institutional forum recommended in police-reform jurisprudence for serious misconduct complaints against police.
Read the study note →- Population Density
Population per unit area; Rajasthan's low average density reflects large desert area and uneven water availability.
Read the study note →- Population genomics
Study of genetic variation across populations to support disease research, pharmacogenomics, ancestry understanding, and public-health planning using representative genomic datasets.
Read the study note →- Port access
The connection by road, rail, waterway or pipeline that lets an inland production area reach maritime trade.
Read the study note →- Port-based industry
A port-based industry uses harbour access to import bulky inputs, export finished goods or handle heavy raw materials efficiently.
Read the study note →- Port-industrial corridor
A factory and logistics belt connecting a seaport with inland industries through rail, road, river or pipeline systems.
Read the study note →- POSHAN Abhiyaan
A nutrition-convergence mission launched from Jhunjhunu in 2018 to reduce stunting, anaemia, undernutrition and low birth weight.
Read the study note →- Prairie
A temperate grassland plain of North America, historically tied to wheat, ranching and interior continental climate.
Read the study note →- Praja Mandal
A Praja Mandal was a state-level political association in a princely state that pressed for civil rights, wider representation and limits on arbitrary royal power. In Rajputana, these associations linked local grievances and legal claims through the larger AISPC framework.
Read the study note →- Pran Pratishtha
A consecration ceremony in which a deity's image is ritually installed for worship; in this topic it refers to the Ayodhya Ram Mandir event of 22 January 2024.
Read the study note →- Prashasti
A eulogistic inscription praising a ruler's lineage, victories, and benefactions; the Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman is treated as the earliest long Sanskrit prashasti.
Read the study note →- Pratihara dynasty
The Pratihara dynasty was the leading north Indian imperial power of the 8th to 10th centuries, with an early western Indian base and a major political centre at Kannauj. In Rajasthan memory, it matters through Mandore, resistance on the post-712 western frontier, temple patronage, and Adivaraha silver coinage associated especially with Mihir Bhoja.
Read the study note →- Prayag Prashasti
Prayag Prashasti is the Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta, composed in Sanskrit by the court poet Harisena around 360 CE. It records different modes of conquest, including grahana-moksha-anugraha for 12 southern rulers and harsher subjugation for 9 Aryavarta kings. Its location on a reused Ashokan pillar makes it a major document of Mauryan-Gupta continuity.
Read the study note →- Preamble
The introductory constitutional text stating India identity, governing values and interpretive goals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity.
Read the study note →- President's Rule
Article 356 rule that allows Union intervention when a State government cannot run constitutionally.
Read the study note →- Pressure Irrigation
Drip or sprinkler delivery that applies water under pressure and reduces conveyance loss.
Read the study note →- Price discovery
The process by which buyers and sellers reveal a market price through transparent bids, quality assessment and competition.
Read the study note →- Primary Census Abstract
The Census table that gives village, town, district, state and national totals for population, sex, age group, literacy and work categories.
Read the study note →- Primary deficit
Fiscal deficit after subtracting interest payments on past debt.
Read the study note →- Primary pollutant
A pollutant emitted directly from a source before atmospheric transformation.
Read the study note →- Principal seat
The main seat of a High Court; Rajasthan High Court's principal seat is associated with Jodhpur in the State judiciary structure.
Read the study note →- Prithviraj Raso
A heroic poem linked with Chand Bardai that preserves the literary memory of Prithviraj Chauhan, though its exact date and historical reliability remain debated.
Read the study note →- Privacy
An Article 21 liberty interest recognised in Puttaswamy as intrinsic to dignity, autonomy, bodily integrity, informational control, and constitutional personhood.
Read the study note →- Privatisation
Transfer of ownership, management, or equity control from the public sector toward private participants.
Read the study note →- Privy Purse
Payment promised to former rulers after accession, later abolished by the 26th Amendment.
Read the study note →- Probability
Probability is the ratio of favourable outcomes to total outcomes in a sample space, when outcomes are equally likely. The value is between 0 and 1, where 0 is impossible and 1 is certain. The complement relation `P(not E) = 1 - P(E)` is the fastest check for multi-step options.
Read the study note →- Procurement
The process through which a public authority obtains goods, works or services using public funds and prescribed procedures.
Read the study note →- Producer responsibility certificate
A compliance instrument used to track recycling obligations and credits under producer-responsibility waste systems.
Read the study note →- Production Linked Incentive
An incentive design where payment is linked to eligible incremental production, sales, or investment.
Read the study note →- Project Cheetah
A national reintroduction programme for cheetahs in India launched at Kuno NP, Madhya Pradesh. The first release on 17 September 2022 brought 8 cheetahs from Namibia, and the second on 18 February 2023 brought 12 from South Africa. Because the species was declared extinct in India in 1952, the programme is judged by habitat restoration, health monitoring, movement control, and conflict response over time rather than one-time release figures.
Read the study note →- Project package
A group of inaugurated and foundation-stone works announced together at one event.
Read the study note →- Proportionality
A rights-review test asking whether state restriction is suitable, necessary and balanced against the harm caused.
Read the study note →- Propriety audit
Audit that examines whether public spending is proper, economical and consistent with public purpose.
Read the study note →- Protected area
A legally or administratively recognized area managed mainly to conserve wildlife, habitats, ecosystems or biodiversity values.
Read the study note →- Public hearing day (Jan Sunwai)
A statutory or formally scheduled occasion under the grievance-hearing framework on which citizens present complaints before the notified Public Hearing Officer and the matter enters a recorded disposal and appeal process.
Read the study note →- Public Hearing Officer
The officer under Rajasthan's hearing law who provides a citizen an opportunity of hearing on a complaint within the stipulated time.
Read the study note →- Public Interest Litigation
A court action allowing public-spirited litigation for affected groups who cannot easily approach courts themselves.
Read the study note →- Purchasing Power Parity
A conversion rate that equalises the purchasing power of currencies by comparing prices of similar goods and services.
Read the study note →- Purna Swaraj
Purna Swaraj was the Congress demand for complete independence adopted at the Lahore session of December 1929, and it led to the nationwide observance of 26 January 1930 as the first Independence Day.
Read the study note →- Purusha Sukta
A hymn in Rig Veda Mandala X that later became important for social thought because of its imagery of four varnas.
Read the study note →- Purushartha
The four recognised aims of human life: dharma, artha, kama and moksha, joining ethical, material, social and liberating goals.
Read the study note →- Pushtimarga
Vallabhacharya's path of grace centred on Krishna devotion; Nathdwara gives it a major Rajasthan institutional home.
Read the study note →- PVTG
A category of tribal communities needing focused support because of isolation, vulnerability and weak development indicators.
Read the study note →- Qawwali
A devotional musical performance linked with Sufi assemblies and Indo-Persian poetic culture.
Read the study note →- Quantum dot
A quantum dot is a semiconductor nanocrystal whose optical and electronic behaviour can change with particle size.
Read the study note →- Quantum key distribution
A secure communication technique using quantum states to distribute encryption keys and reveal interception attempts, listed among National Quantum Mission communication deliverables.
Read the study note →- Rabi
Winter cropping season for wheat, gram and mustard, supported by cool temperatures, residual moisture, canals or tube-wells.
Read the study note →- Radcliffe Line
The 1947 boundary line associated with the India-Pakistan partition, forming Rajasthan's western international edge.
Read the study note →- Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is used for organic remains and compares carbon-14 content to produce calibrated age ranges, commonly helping Rajasthan archaeologists date charcoal and botanical fragments from secure contexts. For this region, it is especially useful when stratigraphic association is strong and contamination is controlled. In teaching terms, it is the method that can place a habitation layer on an absolute scale up to about 50,000 BP.
Read the study note →- Rain shadow
A dry leeward zone formed after moisture-bearing winds lose rain on a windward mountain slope.
Read the study note →- Rain-shadow desert
A dry region on the leeward side of mountains where moist air has already lost much of its rainfall.
Read the study note →- Rajasthan Information Commission
The State information authority that hears second appeals and complaints relating to access to information from public authorities.
Read the study note →- Rajasthan Tenancy Act 1955
The Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955 created a unified framework for tenant rights by classifying three categories—Khatedar, Maliki, and Gair Khatedar—and by standardising rent, transfer, and security norms. It strengthened cultivator protection after the jagirdari phase by limiting arbitrary eviction and clarifying occupancy and inheritance rights for protected tenancy classes.
Read the study note →- Rajatarangini
Rajatarangini is Kalhana's 1148 CE Sanskrit verse chronicle of Kashmir. It is notable for arranging rulers and events in a connected historical sequence, which makes it far more useful for chronology than a simple court panegyric.
Read the study note →- Rajeevika
Rajasthan's rural livelihood mission platform that organises women-led self-help groups, village organisations and federations.
Read the study note →- Rajpramukh
A transitional head-of-state office used in princely-state integration before reorganisation.
Read the study note →- Rajputana
A historical name for the region of Rajput-ruled states in present Rajasthan and adjoining areas, including Mewar, Marwar, Amber-Jaipur, Hadauti, Bikaner, and Jaisalmer.
Read the study note →- Rajputana Agency
The British political office formed in 1832 to supervise treaty compliance across Rajputana. Headed by the AGG, seated at Ajmer-Merwara with summer headquarters at Mount Abu from 1845, it coordinated 19 princely states and the chieftaincies of Lawa and Kushalgarh.
Read the study note →- Rakshasi-Tangadi
An alternate name for the Battle of Talikota, the 1565 defeat that shattered Vijayanagara's Hampi-centred dominance.
Read the study note →- Raman Effect
The Raman Effect is the inelastic scattering of light by matter, causing a shift in wavelength that became fundamental to spectroscopy and earned C.V. Raman the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Read the study note →- Ramon Magsaysay Award
An Asian recognition of public service and leadership that can include culture, health, environment and civic action.
Read the study note →- Ramsar site
A wetland recognized as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention, independent of whether it is a park or sanctuary.
Read the study note →- Rasa
The aesthetic relish experienced by a prepared audience through dramatic determinants, expressions and transitory emotional states.
Read the study note →- Raso
A bardic narrative genre that preserves heroic memory, clan prestige and ruler-centred stories in Rajasthan literature.
Read the study note →- Rathamusala
A war chariot with swinging spiked maces, remembered in connection with Ajatashatru's conflict against Vaishali and the Vajji confederacy.
Read the study note →- Rathore dynasty of Marwar
The Rathore dynasty of Marwar traces its ruling tradition to Rao Sihaji and developed its early seat at Mandore before Rao Jodha shifted the capital to Jodhpur in 1459. From Mehrangarh onward, the dynasty balanced regional state-building, Mughal alliance, and later resistance under Ajit Singh and Durgadas Rathore.
Read the study note →- Ratio
A ratio compares two quantities by placing them as parts of a single relationship. It is written as a:b or a/b and indicates relative size. In practice, it is the first step for checking whether two comparisons are equivalent, stronger, weaker, or unrelated.
Read the study note →- RDSS
Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme for power-distribution metering, feeder strengthening, loss reduction and financial improvement.
Read the study note →- Real GDP
Gross domestic product measured after removing price effects, used to track actual production growth over time.
Read the study note →- Reasonable classification
An Article 14 doctrine allowing unequal treatment only when a clear differentia rationally connects with the law objective.
Read the study note →- Red loam
A reddish, well-drained soil linked with iron-rich crystalline rocks and southern Rajasthan crops.
Read the study note →- Refinery-cum-petrochemical complex
An industrial complex that refines crude oil and supports petrochemical products, storage, utilities and downstream industries.
Read the study note →- Regulated mandi
A notified market structure under state law for sale, weighing, grading and payment of agricultural produce, linking farm geography to prices.
Read the study note →- Regulating Act
The 1773 parliamentary law that began formal British government regulation of the East India Company's territorial administration.
Read the study note →- Regur
Black clayey soil of basaltic Deccan areas that retains moisture and is classically associated with cotton cultivation.
Read the study note →- Rekha-shikhara
Rekha-shikhara is the curvilinear superstructure that rises above the garbhagriha in the Northern Nagara temple tradition. Its profile pulls the eye upward in one continuous sweep and is usually crowned by an amalaka and kalasha. In developed Nagara forms, Latina keeps the tower singular, Shekhari surrounds it with clustered mini-spires, and Bhumija arranges those mini-spires in a more ordered lattice.
Read the study note →- Relative speed
Relative speed is the effective speed between two moving objects when their motions are compared. It is used to find meeting or crossing times. If they move in the same direction, subtract the slower speed from the faster one; if they move opposite each other, add the speeds. Use this value as the denominator when computing time across a shared distance and always confirm direction before applying formulas.
Read the study note →- Renewable Purchase Obligation
A regulatory requirement that specified electricity buyers procure a minimum share from renewable energy sources.
Read the study note →- Repo rate
The rate at which RBI lends short-term funds to banks against eligible securities under the liquidity framework.
Read the study note →- Republic
Political order in which the head of state is constitutional and citizens form the sovereign body.
Read the study note →- Residuary power
Legislative power over matters not listed in the State List, given to Parliament through Article 248.
Read the study note →- Resistance
Property of a conductor that opposes electric charge flow and is measured in ohm.
Read the study note →- Restriction endonuclease
This enzyme cuts DNA at specific recognition sequences and is the molecular scissors of recombinant DNA technology.
Read the study note →- Retreating monsoon
The withdrawal phase after the southwest monsoon weakens, giving important October-November rain to the Tamil Nadu coast.
Read the study note →- Revenue Receipts
Government income from taxes, non-tax sources, central tax share and grants that does not create a repayment liability.
Read the study note →- Review jurisdiction
The Supreme Court's limited power to reconsider its own judgment or order under Article 137.
Read the study note →- Rift lake
A lake occupying a tectonic rift depression, often deep and elongated, with Baikal as a major example.
Read the study note →- Rift valley
A trough-like valley formed by block faulting, useful for understanding Narmada and Tapi drainage.
Read the study note →- Rift valley river
A river guided by a structural trough formed by crustal faulting, as with the west-flowing Narmada and Tapi.
Read the study note →- Right to Health
A Rajasthan legal entitlement under the 2023 Act that includes emergency treatment without prepayment at designated facilities.
Read the study note →- Right to service
The right to obtain notified public services within a stipulated time limit under the Rajasthan Guaranteed Delivery law.
Read the study note →- RIPS 2024
A state investment incentive framework that supports private capital formation through benefits linked with sectors and priorities.
Read the study note →- Rock phosphate
Rock phosphate is a phosphorite mineral used as a raw material for phosphate fertilizers.
Read the study note →- Rooftop solar
A household or institutional solar plant installed on a roof and connected to consumption or grid support.
Read the study note →- Route shortening
The reduction of travel distance or time by canals, tunnels, corridors or direct great-circle routes.
Read the study note →- Rowlatt Act
The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act passed on 18 March 1919, it authorised detention and trial restrictions that extended wartime emergency powers into peacetime and triggered Gandhi's nationwide satyagraha.
Read the study note →- RUIDP-III
Rajasthan Urban Sector Development Program Phase III, an urban water, sewerage and sanitation programme partly financed by ADB.
Read the study note →- Rules of Business under Article 166(3)
These are the Governor-framed rules that allocate state government business among departments and specify how files, proposals and approvals move inside the Rajasthan executive.
Read the study note →- Runoff Farming
Cultivation that depends on collected surface runoff rather than a continuous canal or well supply.
Read the study note →- Rupayan Sansthan
A Jodhpur-area institution linked with Vijaydan Detha and Komal Kothari's folklore work.
Read the study note →- Rupiya
The rupiya was Sher Shah Suri's standard silver coin and weighed about 178 grains. It became the monetary ancestor of the modern rupee, while the copper dam functioned as a smaller denomination in the same system.
Read the study note →- Rural credit
Rural credit provides working capital or investment finance for farm, livestock, dairy and allied household activities.
Read the study note →- Rurban Cluster
A cluster of villages planned for urban-like amenities while retaining rural social and economic character.
Read the study note →- Rust Belt
The older manufacturing heartland of the north-eastern and Great Lakes United States, marked by industrial decline in many cities.
Read the study note →- Sacred grove (oraan)
A community-protected biodiversity reservoir, usually linked to a deity or customary taboo, where local rules conserve native vegetation, water, grazing and wildlife habitat.
Read the study note →- Sadak-i-Azam (Grand Trunk Road)
Sadak-i-Azam was the great north Indian trunk route associated with Sher Shah's road reforms. Later memory called it the Grand Trunk Road and linked it with sarais, postal movement, and stronger integration between eastern and north-western India.
Read the study note →- Saguna
Devotion to a deity with personal form and attributes, such as Rama in Tulsidas or Krishna in Mira Bai and Surdas.
Read the study note →- Saguna Bhakti
Devotion to a deity with form; Mira Bai's Krishna songs are the clearest Rajasthan-linked example here.
Read the study note →- Sahitya Akademi Award
India's language-wise literary award list, where work title, language and genre stabilise the fact.
Read the study note →- Sajda
A prostration ceremony used by Balban to elevate the Sultan's courtly authority above ordinary nobles.
Read the study note →- Sakambhari
The Sambhar Lake region that formed the original power-base of the Chauhans before their expansion toward Ajmer.
Read the study note →- Saline Lake
A lake with high salt content, usually found in arid closed basins where evaporation exceeds inflow.
Read the study note →- Saline wetland
A wetland with high salt content, usually produced by evaporation, restricted outflow and seasonal inflow.
Read the study note →- Saline-alkaline soil
Salt-affected soil with high soluble salts or exchangeable sodium, often requiring drainage and gypsum treatment.
Read the study note →- Salinity
Salt concentration in water or soil, often rising in arid basins when evaporation exceeds flushing drainage.
Read the study note →- Salt Satyagraha
Salt Satyagraha was the Civil Disobedience action launched through Gandhi's march from Sabarmati on 12 March 1930; after a 241-mile journey with 78 volunteers, the salt law was broken at Dandi on 6 April 1930.
Read the study note →- Samhita
The mantra collection layer of a Veda, such as Rig Veda Samhita, before the explanatory Brahmana and philosophical Upanishad layers.
Read the study note →- Sampark 181 helpline
The telephone entry channel of Rajasthan Sampark through which citizens register and track public grievances, after which the complaint is digitally routed, auto-allocated, and monitored inside the state grievance platform.
Read the study note →- Santhal Hul
The 1855-56 Santhal uprising against exploitative moneylenders, landlords and Company revenue policies in eastern India.
Read the study note →- Sapera
Snake-charmer occupational identity associated with Kalbeliya performance traditions and nomadic social memory.
Read the study note →- Saptanga
Kautilya's seven-limb model of the state: ruler, minister, territory, fort, treasury, army and ally.
Read the study note →- Sati glorification
Public celebration or promotion of sati, prohibited under the Commission of Sati Prevention legal framework.
Read the study note →- Satyagraha
Gandhi's method of truth-force and non-violent resistance, linked to older values of satya and ahimsa but developed in modern politics.
Read the study note →- Savanna
A tropical wet-dry grassland with tall grasses and scattered trees, maintained by seasonal moisture, fire and grazing.
Read the study note →- Scheduled Tribe
A constitutionally notified community category used for reservation, welfare planning and demographic reporting; Rajasthan has 12 notified Scheduled Tribe entries.
Read the study note →- Scheduled Tribe Belt
A region with high tribal concentration; southern Rajasthan's Banswara-Dungarpur-Pratapgarh-Udaipur belt is the main example.
Read the study note →- Scientific temper
Public habit of inquiry, evidence, experimentation and reasoned questioning promoted through science centres.
Read the study note →- Sclerophyll
A drought-adapted plant form with tough leathery leaves common in Mediterranean scrub under dry-summer conditions.
Read the study note →- Scrub
Sparse woody or shrubby vegetation reported separately from forest cover, important in dry Rajasthan landscapes.
Read the study note →- SDF
Collateral-free facility through which RBI absorbs liquidity from banks below the repo rate.
Read the study note →- SDG India Index
NITI Aayog's state and Union Territory scoring framework for India's progress on Sustainable Development Goals.
Read the study note →- Sea-level canal
A canal where ships do not need lock lifting because connected waters are handled at similar navigation level.
Read the study note →- Seating arrangement
A constraint-placement problem where persons or objects occupy row, circle or table positions according to left-right and adjacency clues.
Read the study note →- Second appeal
A higher appeal under the transparency law after the first appellate authority has not resolved the information dispute.
Read the study note →- Secondary pollutant
A pollutant formed by reactions among emitted substances in the environment.
Read the study note →- Seed spice
A spice crop harvested mainly for its seed, such as cumin, coriander and fenugreek; Rajasthan's dry belts are major seed-spice regions.
Read the study note →- Self-help group
A small member-owned group that pools savings, accesses credit, and supports livelihood activities.
Read the study note →- Semicon India Programme
Semicon India Programme is India’s integrated semiconductor mission approved by the Cabinet on 15 December 2021 with Rs 76,000 crore. It combines four schemes: Semiconductor Fab, Display Fab, Compound Semiconductors/ Silicon Photonics/ Sensors/ ATMP-OSAT, and Design Linked Incentive (DLI). The implementation is routed through the India Semiconductor Mission to reduce project-level fragmentation.
Read the study note →- Semiconductor fab
A fabrication facility that manufactures semiconductor wafers under highly controlled clean-room, power, water, materials, tooling, and process conditions.
Read the study note →- SERB
The earlier Science and Engineering Research Board created under a 2008 Act and subsumed into ANRF.
Read the study note →- Serial World Heritage property
A World Heritage listing made of multiple related components; Hill Forts of Rajasthan includes six forts under one serial property.
Read the study note →- Service delivery tier
The facility or administrative level where a public service reaches users.
Read the study note →- Service voucher
A voucher that gives access to a specified service, such as sonography, instead of unrestricted cash.
Read the study note →- Sex Ratio
Number of females per 1000 males; Rajasthan's Census 2011 value is 928, below the Indian average.
Read the study note →- Shaka Samvat
The Shaka Samvat begins in 78 CE and later became the basis of India's national civil calendar adopted from 22 March 1957.
Read the study note →- Sheet mica
Sheet mica splits into thin sheets and is associated with Koderma-Gaya-Hazaribagh and parts of Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- Shifting cultivation
Forest-fallow cultivation in which a small patch is cleared, cropped for a few years and then left fallow.
Read the study note →- Shiv Shakti Point
The name given to the Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon after the successful soft landing of Vikram lander on August 23, 2023.
Read the study note →- Shiwalik
The outer Himalayan foothill belt made of younger sediments and located south of the Lesser Himalaya.
Read the study note →- Shramana
A renunciant and debate-oriented religious stream outside orthodox sacrificial ritual, active in the age of Buddha, Mahavira and Gosala.
Read the study note →- Shruti
The revealed and orally transmitted Vedic authority, including Vedas and associated layers such as Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads.
Read the study note →- Si-Yu-Ki
Si-Yu-Ki is Xuanzang's travel record on the Western Regions, preserving crucial observations on 7th-century Indian geography, monasteries, politics, and religious life.
Read the study note →- Silence zone
A noise-sensitive area around institutions such as hospitals, courts or schools.
Read the study note →- Silsila
A Sufi spiritual lineage linking a teacher, disciples, ritual practice and authority across generations and regions.
Read the study note →- Simla Agreement
1972 India-Pakistan agreement after the 1971 war, including respect for the Line of Control.
Read the study note →- Single citizenship
The Indian constitutional model under which citizens hold Indian citizenship rather than separate Union and State citizenships.
Read the study note →- Skill certification
Formal recognition that a learner has met defined occupational standards and assessment requirements.
Read the study note →- Slag and crucible
Slag and crucibles are primary archaeological traces of reduction and melting. Slag indicates waste left after smelting, while crucibles indicate controlled high-temperature shaping in a workshop context.
Read the study note →- SLR
Share of deposits maintained in approved liquid assets, mainly government securities.
Read the study note →- Small ruminants
Goats and sheep, especially important in Rajasthan because they suit dry grazing, shrubs and household-level livestock income.
Read the study note →- Smriti
Remembered and authored tradition, including Dharmashastra, Itihasa, Purana, ritual manuals and later legal or narrative works.
Read the study note →- Social assistance
Tax-funded support for vulnerable persons such as elderly, widows, disabled persons, or bereaved families.
Read the study note →- Social security pension
A monthly income-support payment for groups such as elderly persons, widows and persons with disabilities.
Read the study note →- Soil Health Card
A farmer report that records soil nutrient status and recommends crop-wise nutrient management.
Read the study note →- Source apportionment
A method that estimates the contribution of different sources to observed pollution.
Read the study note →- Special Court
Court designated for speedy trial of offences under protective legislation such as the SC/ST Act.
Read the study note →- Special Purpose Vehicle
A dedicated company or entity created to implement a defined urban project or mission component.
Read the study note →- Sports infrastructure
Stadiums, ranges, fields, hostels, equipment and support systems needed for athlete development.
Read the study note →- State Chief Information Commissioner
The presiding member of a State Information Commission under Section 15 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, responsible for leading the commission that hears second appeals and inquires into complaints against state public authorities.
Read the study note →- State Election Commission
A constitutional State-level institution that controls Panchayat and municipal elections under Articles 243K and 243ZA.
Read the study note →- State Finance Commission
A constitutional finance body that recommends how state resources should be devolved to Panchayati Raj institutions and municipalities.
Read the study note →- States Reorganisation Act 1956
The constitutional reorganisation law implemented from 1 November 1956 that finalized Rajasthan's boundaries, including merger of Ajmer-Merwara and transfer adjustments such as Sunel-Tappa and Abu Road taluka movements.
Read the study note →- States Reorganisation Act, 1956
This central law reorganised Indian states on the appointed day of 1 November 1956 and recast several inter-state boundaries. For Rajasthan, section 10 merged Ajmer, Abu Road taluka, and Sunel tappa into the reorganised state, giving present-day Rajasthan its constitutional map.
Read the study note →- Statutory body
An institution created by an Act of Parliament or State Legislature, with powers defined by that Act.
Read the study note →- Statutory Town
A settlement recognized as urban through a notified municipal body such as a corporation, council or board.
Read the study note →- Steel plant collaboration
Steel plant collaboration records the foreign or domestic support behind public-sector plants such as Bhilai, Rourkela and Bokaro.
Read the study note →- Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy studies the order of depositional layers and uses this sequence to infer relative age. It remains essential for Rajasthan because wind movement, reuse of mounds, and mixed deposits can otherwise distort chronology. In practice, a Harris matrix is used to record cuts, fills, and disturbances across excavation units.
Read the study note →- Stupa
A mound or monument associated with relics, memory and worship, central to early Buddhist material culture.
Read the study note →- Subordinate legislation
Rules, regulations, orders or notifications made under authority delegated by a parent Act and reviewed for legal limits.
Read the study note →- Subsidiary alliance
Subsidiary alliance was Lord Wellesley's political device through which an Indian ruler accepted British troops within the state and paid for their maintenance. In return the ruler received British protection but lost freedom in external relations and war. The Treaty of Bassein in 1802 drew the Peshwa into this structure.
Read the study note →- Subsidiary alliance / paramountcy treaty 1818
The 1818 Rajputana agreements placed major states under British protection and accepted British supremacy in external affairs and defence, while allowing princes to retain internal rule. They are often described as subsidiary alliances, but in effect they created a wider structure of paramountcy over Rajputana.
Read the study note →- Subsidised meal
A meal provided below actual cost because the state pays part of the plate cost.
Read the study note →- Successive percentage change
Successive percentage change means each later increase or decrease is applied to the revised base, not to the original amount. For changes of a percent and b percent, the net change is a + b + ab/100 with the correct sign of each component preserved.
Read the study note →- Sudarshana Lake
Sudarshana Lake was an important irrigation reservoir near Junagadh in Saurashtra and is known through a long sequence of inscriptions. It was first built by the Mauryan governor Pushyagupta under Chandragupta Maurya, improved by the Yavana official Tushaspha under Ashoka, repaired by Rudradaman I in 150 CE, and restored again under Skanda Gupta around 457 CE. Because of this sequence, it is a major marker for hydraulic engineering and epigraphic continuity.
Read the study note →- Sufi romance
A narrative poem that uses love, quest and allegory to express spiritual movement and cultural contact.
Read the study note →- Supercomputing
High-performance computing using powerful parallel systems for simulation, modelling, weather forecasting, material science, drug discovery, and other research-intensive applications.
Read the study note →- Superintendence
A broad control term used in election provisions for oversight of electoral rolls and conduct.
Read the study note →- Surat Split
The breakdown of the Indian National Congress session in December 1907, when the Moderates and Extremists separated over leadership, methods, and the future direction of the nationalist struggle.
Read the study note →- Surcharge
An additional charge on a tax, constitutionally treated differently from shareable net proceeds under the revenue distribution chapter.
Read the study note →- Surface area
Surface area is the total outer covering of a solid. For a cylinder, CSA counts only the curved wall as 2πrh, while TSA adds both circular ends to give 2πr(r+h); the same distinction applies when a question asks for exposed metal sheet versus full outer area.
Read the study note →- Sushruta's rhinoplasty
Sushruta's rhinoplasty refers to the reconstructive nose surgery described in the Sushruta Samhita, usually linked to a forehead-flap technique in the long surgical tradition that grew from the text. The compilation of the text is usually placed between circa 6 BCE and 3 CE. Reports in The Madras Gazette in 1794 and Joseph Carpue's 1816 publication later carried the Indian method into European surgical discussion.
Read the study note →- SVAMITVA
A village property-card programme using drone survey to map inhabited rural land and reduce ownership disputes.
Read the study note →- Swadeshi Movement
The anti-partition mass agitation of 1905-1908 that combined boycott of British goods, promotion of indigenous industry, and national education in order to reverse the Partition of Bengal and widen anti-colonial politics.
Read the study note →- Syllogism
A two-premise class argument in which a conclusion follows through shared terms.
Read the study note →- Synthetic Aperture Radar
Synthetic Aperture Radar is an active microwave imaging system that sends radar pulses toward Earth and reconstructs high-resolution images from the returning signal. Using more than one band, as in NISAR, helps distinguish vegetation, soil, ice and deformation signatures because different wavelengths penetrate and scatter differently.
Read the study note →- Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
Synthetic Aperture Radar is an active microwave sensor that sends out its own signal and can image the Earth's surface through cloud cover and during night, making it valuable for flood mapping and moisture assessment.
Read the study note →- Tahqiq-i-Hind
Tahqiq-i-Hind is Al-Biruni's 1030 CE Arabic study of India, written after close observation of Indian learning, religion, astronomy and social practices. It is valued because it compares Sanskrit knowledge systems with other intellectual traditions rather than repeating court praise.
Read the study note →- Taiga
The boreal coniferous forest belt of cold subarctic regions, dominated by spruce, pine, fir and larch.
Read the study note →- Tank irrigation
Local storage of seasonal runoff in small reservoirs, especially suited to undulating hard-rock red-soil regions where continuous alluvial aquifers are absent.
Read the study note →- Tanka
The silver coin associated with Iltutmish's monetary standardisation in the early Delhi Sultanate.
Read the study note →- Tax buoyancy
A measure of how strongly tax revenue rises when nominal economic activity and the tax base expand.
Read the study note →- Tax devolution
Finance Commission-based sharing of the Union divisible tax pool with states.
Read the study note →- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is the sector regulator established under the TRAI Act 1997. It oversees competition, pricing concerns, service quality obligations and spectrum-linked market conduct. Its work has expanded with reforms such as NDCP 2018 and later the Telecommunications Act 2023 to align regulation with broadband-led and 5G-era services.
Read the study note →- Terai
A wet belt south of Bhabar where streams re-emerge and create marshy conditions with natural vegetation.
Read the study note →- Thematic Hub
A mission-funded institutional centre focused on a specific technology domain such as quantum communication.
Read the study note →- Thewa
Pratapgarh jewellery craft in which finely worked gold is fused or embossed on coloured glass surfaces.
Read the study note →- Thikana
An estate or seat of a subordinate Rajput chief, usually tied to military service, local prestige, revenue rights, and obligations to the larger ruling house.
Read the study note →- Third Battle of Panipat 1761
The Third Battle of Panipat was fought on 14 January 1761 between the Marathas and the coalition led by Ahmad Shah Abdali with Najib-ud-Daulah and Shuja-ud-Daulah. It ended in a decisive Maratha defeat. Around 40,000 Marathas are commonly associated with the slaughter connected to the battle, and the result broke Maratha pan-North-India dominance.
Read the study note →- Three-rail executive architecture
A practical description of state administration in which the Secretariat frames policy, directorates and heads of department implement programmes, and boards or PSUs handle specialised regulation, development, or commercial operations.
Read the study note →- Three-stage nuclear programme
This is Homi J. Bhabha's long-term nuclear strategy for India. It moves from natural-uranium PHWRs, to plutonium-based fast breeders, and then to thorium systems that produce uranium-233 for sustained fuel security.
Read the study note →- Three-tier Panchayati Raj
The rural local-government structure of Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, and Zila Parishad created under Part IX and state law.
Read the study note →- Tied grant
A local-body grant that must be spent on specified purposes such as drinking water and sanitation instead of any general activity.
Read the study note →- Tiger Reserve
A Project Tiger landscape managed under NTCA oversight, normally with a legally notified core or critical tiger habitat and a buffer for dispersal, coexistence and landscape-level management.
Read the study note →- Tirthankara
A Jain ford-maker who guides beings across worldly bondage; Parsvanatha is 23rd and Mahavira 24th in the tradition.
Read the study note →- Token currency
Muhammad bin Tughlaq's bronze-copper coin experiment, designed to substitute scarce silver but damaged by forgery.
Read the study note →- Torana
A torana is the sculpted gateway attached to the railing enclosure of a stupa. At Sanchi the four cardinal toranas were added in the Satavahana phase around 75-25 BCE and became carriers of Jataka scenes and symbolic Buddha imagery. They organize entry, direction, and narrative reading at the monument.
Read the study note →- Total Fertility Rate
Average number of children a woman would have under current fertility conditions; NFHS-5 reports 2.0 for Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- Tourist circuit
A route grouping nearby attractions by theme, distance and visitor movement, such as Dhundhar, Mewar or Hadoti.
Read the study note →- Trabeate
A post-and-lintel construction method common in many Indian buildings before and alongside arcuate forms.
Read the study note →- Transboundary movement
Movement of waste or pollutants from one national jurisdiction to another, especially important in hazardous-waste governance.
Read the study note →- Transcontinental railway
A railway crossing a continent or large landmass to connect opposite coastal or market regions.
Read the study note →- Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Unity
A treaty format used across Rajputana in 1817-1818 through which states retained internal governance while accepting external direction by the British. Under this model, dynastic continuity, military protection, regulated diplomacy, and tribute obligations were tied into one framework.
Read the study note →- Treaty of Purandar 1665
The Treaty of Purandar 1665 was concluded between Shivaji and the Mughal side led by Mirza Raja Jai Singh I after pressure on Purandar fort. Shivaji surrendered 23 of his 35 forts, retained 12, and accepted temporary cooperation with the Mughals. The settlement also sent Sambhaji into Mughal service and led toward Shivaji's Agra visit in 1666.
Read the study note →- Treaty of Salbai 1782
The Treaty of Salbai ended the First Anglo-Maratha War in 1782. It broadly restored the status quo and brought a long peace between the Marathas and the British. Mahadji Scindia emerged from this phase as a major mediator in north Indian affairs.
Read the study note →- Tree line
The climatic or altitudinal boundary beyond which trees cannot form a continuous forest because growth conditions are too severe.
Read the study note →- Tree Outside Forest
Plantation and tree-cover activity outside recorded forest land.
Read the study note →- Tribal Sub-Plan
A planning and fund-channelization strategy adopted in 1974-75 for Scheduled Tribes and areas with tribal concentration, now aligned with DAPST terminology.
Read the study note →- Tribunal
A specialized adjudicatory forum usually created by statute to decide a defined class of disputes.
Read the study note →- Tributary
A smaller river or stream that joins a larger river, such as Chambal joining the Yamuna system.
Read the study note →- Tridosha
Tridosha is the Ayurvedic doctrine that explains bodily regulation through three doshas: vata, pitta and kapha. The Charaka Samhita treats their balance as the basis of health and their disturbance as the basis of disease. Because it links constitution, digestion and therapy, the doctrine became central to classical clinical reasoning.
Read the study note →- Tripartite struggle
The Tripartite struggle was the long contest among the Gurjara-Pratiharas, Palas, and Rashtrakutas for control of Kannauj in the 8th and 9th centuries CE.
Read the study note →- Tripitaka
The Pali canon divided into Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma, preserving discipline, discourses and analytic doctrine.
Read the study note →- Triple test
Local-body OBC reservation test requiring a dedicated commission, empirical data and respect for the 50 percent ceiling.
Read the study note →- Tropical cyclone
A rotating low-pressure storm over warm ocean water that can bring destructive wind, heavy rain and storm surge.
Read the study note →- True arch
An arch built with wedge-shaped voussoirs so that weight moves through the curve into the supports.
Read the study note →- Tube-well irrigation
Groundwater-based lifting from aquifers through wells or bore wells; it gives flexible farm water but can deplete aquifers when extraction exceeds recharge.
Read the study note →- Tulghuma
A flanking tactic used by Babur with mobile cavalry at Panipat and Khanwa.
Read the study note →- Turbidity
Cloudiness of water caused by suspended particles scattering light.
Read the study note →- Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri
This is Jahangir's autobiographical memoir, composed in Persian and used as a major primary source for the Mughal court. It records events, imperial judgments, tastes, and observations from the reign, especially for the years 1605 to 1624. Because it comes from the emperor himself, historians use it carefully but extensively.
Read the study note →- U-WIN
A digital registry for routine immunisation that records beneficiaries, doses and follow-up under the Universal Immunisation Programme.
Read the study note →- Ulgulan
The Munda term associated with Birsa Munda's 1899 rebellion, carrying the sense of a great tumult.
Read the study note →- UNESCO Creative Cities Network
A UNESCO city network organized by creative fields; here Kozhikode is linked with Literature and Gwalior with Music in 2023.
Read the study note →- Unicameral legislature
A legislature with one House only; Rajasthan has the Legislative Assembly and does not have a Legislative Council.
Read the study note →- Unified Payments Interface (UPI)
UPI is India’s retail real-time account-to-account payments layer, launched on 11 April 2016, built on NPCI standards and a VPA abstraction over account and bank identifiers. It allows instant 24x7 interbank settlement workflows and supports interoperability between banks and apps.
Read the study note →- Union of States
A constitutional description showing that India has States inside one Union, without a State right of secession.
Read the study note →- Urban Agglomeration
A continuous urban spread made of a city or town and adjoining outgrowths that function as one urban unit.
Read the study note →- Urban Local Body
A municipal institution responsible for urban governance functions such as roads, drains, sanitation, lighting and local regulation.
Read the study note →- Urbanization Rate
Share of population living in urban areas; Rajasthan's Census 2011 urban share is 24.87 percent.
Read the study note →- Urs
Sufi death-anniversary congregation; in Rajasthan the strongest example is Ajmer Sharif in Rajab.
Read the study note →- Usual status
PLFS classification based on principal and subsidiary activity over a longer reference period.
Read the study note →- Vachanika
A compact narrative form associated with medieval heroic accounts and author-work recall in Rajasthan literature.
Read the study note →- Vagad
The southern Rajasthan cultural-geographic region around Banswara and Dungarpur, closely tied to Bhil, Wagdi and Baneshwar references.
Read the study note →- Value of vote
A weighted vote calculation that balances State population and parliamentary representation in presidential election.
Read the study note →- Vande Bharat Express
India's indigenous Train 18 semi-high-speed trainset, developed at ICF Chennai and launched into commercial service on 15 February 2019 with a 160 kmph design ceiling.
Read the study note →- Vanshavali
Genealogical list or lineage record used to connect rulers, houses, succession claims, and regional political identities.
Read the study note →- Vardhaman Pathshala
The school in Jaipur run by Arjun Lal Sethi from 1907 to 1914. It trained youth for nationalist purpose and provided the social foundation for several later revolutionary links in Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- Varkari
A Marathi Bhakti tradition centred on Vithoba of Pandharpur and the abhang poetry of Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram.
Read the study note →- Vatapikondan
Vatapikondan was the title adopted by Narasimhavarman I after he defeated the Chalukyas and captured Vatapi in 642 CE, signalling Pallava military resurgence.
Read the study note →- Venn diagram
A circle-region diagram used to show class overlap, separation and containment.
Read the study note →- Vertical devolution
The percentage split of shareable tax revenue between the Union and all States taken together.
Read the study note →- Vertisol
A clay-rich black soil that swells when wet, cracks when dry and stores substantial moisture.
Read the study note →- Very Dense Forest (VDF)
Very Dense Forest is recorded forest where canopy cover is greater than 70%. It has a near-closed upper canopy, higher biomass, and usually stronger moisture retention, making it the most structurally intact density class.
Read the study note →- Vesara
Vesara refers to the Chalukyan mode that blends northern Nagara and southern Dravida elements within one temple composition. At Pattadakal, the term is best understood through monuments such as Virupaksha, where plan, tower treatment, and decorative logic show deliberate synthesis rather than pure imitation.
Read the study note →- Viability gap
The funding gap that keeps a socially useful infrastructure project from becoming commercially bankable.
Read the study note →- Vijay Stambha
A Chittorgarh victory tower built in the Rana Kumbha tradition between 1440 and 1448, distinct from Kirti Stambha.
Read the study note →- Vijaya Stambha
The Vijaya Stambha is Rana Kumbha's nine-storey victory tower at Chittor, built between 1437 and 1448 to commemorate his success against Mahmud Khilji of Malwa. It stands about 37.2 metres high and remains one of the clearest architectural emblems of Sisodia triumph.
Read the study note →- Viksit Bharat 2047
A long-term national vision connecting India's centenary of Independence with higher income, capability and institutional outcomes.
Read the study note →- Vimana
In Dravida architecture, the vimana is the pyramidal superstructure rising directly above the garbhagriha. Brihadeshwara's vimana, about 66 m high, demonstrates how the tower became the visual and political core of the Chola temple.
Read the study note →- Vindhyan Scarpland
A sandstone-limestone escarpment belt in south-eastern Rajasthan associated with ravines and tabular hills.
Read the study note →- Visitor carrying capacity
The limit up to which a place can host visitors without damaging heritage, ecology, safety or local life.
Read the study note →- Volume
Volume measures the space occupied by a solid figure. In mensuration, cube volume a3, cylinder volume πr2h, cone volume (1/3)πr2h, and sphere volume (4/3)πr3 show how the same base or radius can produce different capacities because the height factor or prefactor changes.
Read the study note →- Wafer fabrication (fab)
A fab is the front-end semiconductor manufacturing facility where silicon wafers are processed across technology nodes to produce integrated circuits, and its scale is often measured by wafer starts per month.
Read the study note →- Water allocation
A quantified share of water assigned at a source point or system.
Read the study note →- Water User Association
A farmer-level institution responsible for local distribution, maintenance and water-charge coordination in command areas.
Read the study note →- Water-harvesting structure
A local work that stores rainwater or improves groundwater recharge.
Read the study note →- Waterlogging
A condition where excessive irrigation or poor drainage keeps the water table close to the surface and harms root aeration and soil health.
Read the study note →- Watershed development
Land and water treatment across a drainage unit using bunds, trenches, check dams and vegetation.
Read the study note →- Weight-losing raw material
A weight-losing raw material loses value, bulk or recoverable content during transport, pushing factories close to the source.
Read the study note →- West-flowing River
A river that flows toward the Arabian Sea side, including Mahi and Sabarmati in southern Rajasthan.
Read the study note →- Western Dedicated Freight Corridor
A dedicated rail-freight corridor from JNPT to Dadri, with a 567 km Rajasthan segment through key junctions.
Read the study note →- Western disturbance
An extra-tropical westerly weather system that brings winter rain or snowfall to north-west India and the western Himalaya.
Read the study note →- Wetland stress
Ecological pressure on a wetland through altered water regime, extraction, pollution, habitat loss or species mortality.
Read the study note →- Wetland tourism
Visitor activity based on marshes, lakes and bird habitats; Keoladeo at Bharatpur is Rajasthan's strongest wetland case.
Read the study note →- Wildlife corridor
A wildlife corridor is a habitat connector that links breeding, refuge, feeding, and movement zones so animals can move between areas for dispersal, migration, and genetic exchange.
Read the study note →- Wildlife sanctuary
A protected area declared for wildlife and habitat conservation, usually with regulated rights rather than full national-park closure.
Read the study note →- Wind erosion
Removal and movement of topsoil by wind, especially damaging on sandy and unvegetated desert surfaces.
Read the study note →- Wise use principle (Ramsar)
The Wise use principle under the Ramsar Convention requires wetland management that preserves ecological character while permitting sustainable use and community benefits. It is the doctrine against conversion that undermines ecological function.
Read the study note →- Worker-Population Ratio
Share of the population that is actually employed or working during the reference status.
Read the study note →- World Heritage Site
A place inscribed under the UNESCO World Heritage framework for outstanding cultural or natural value, such as Moidams in Assam in the 2024 current-affairs set.
Read the study note →- Writ
A constitutional judicial order used to enforce rights or control jurisdiction. Article 32 and Article 226 are the principal Indian constitutional writ routes.
Read the study note →- Writ jurisdiction
Constitutional court power to issue remedies such as habeas corpus, mandamus, certiorari, prohibition and quo warranto.
Read the study note →- X-ray polarimetry
X-ray polarimetry measures the orientation of incoming X-ray waves and adds information that ordinary brightness or spectral measurements cannot provide. It is especially valuable for studying magnetic-field geometry, scattering regions and emission mechanisms around compact objects such as pulsars, neutron stars and black holes.
Read the study note →- Xerophyte
A plant adapted to arid conditions through reduced leaves, waxy covering, water storage, deep roots or short life cycles.
Read the study note →- Yavana
An Indian term used for Greeks and Indo-Greeks in ancient texts; Patanjali's references in the Mahabhashya connect Yavana attacks with Saketa and Madhyamika.
Read the study note →- Young fold mountain
A high mountain belt produced by recent geological folding and uplift, usually linked to convergent plate margins and active earthquakes.
Read the study note →- Zila Parishad
The district-level Panchayati Raj institution responsible for district planning, supervision and convergence of rural-development programmes.
Read the study note →