Medium Level – GK Questions

Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of Google DeepMind developed AlphaFold, which in 2020 solved the protein folding problem — predicting how a protein's amino acid sequence folds into its specific 3D shape. This 50-year-old challenge had been tested in the CASP competition since 1994. AlphaFold 2 achieved experimental-grade accuracy at CASP14 and later deposited structures for over 200 million proteins in a public database.

Hopfield and Hinton won the 2024 Physics Nobel for the theoretical foundations of artificial neural networks — specifically the Hopfield network (associative memory model) and the Boltzmann machine (a learning algorithm). These tools underpin modern machine learning. Note: this is 2024 Physics — quantum computing was Physics 2025.

Sen's 1981 book Poverty and Famines examined historical famines in Bengal (1943), Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and the Sahel and found that food supplies had not necessarily collapsed during these events. People starved because they lost the entitlements — wages, property, purchasing power — that allowed them to access food that was physically present. This entitlement framework changed how economists and aid agencies approach famine prevention.

Satyarthi founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) in 1980 to combat child labour in India. His organisation conducted raids to free children from bonded labour and helped draft the ILO's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999). He shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan.

Chandrasekhar moved to the United States as a young man and became a US citizen. He received the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics as an American, not an Indian citizen. The Indian-citizen laureates were Tagore, Raman, Mother Teresa, Amartya Sen, and Kailash Satyarthi.

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi won the 2025 Chemistry Nobel for developing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) — porous molecular structures with enormous internal surface areas. One gram of MOF can have a surface area larger than a football field, making them valuable for gas storage, separation, and removing environmental pollutants.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was established in 1968 by Sweden's central bank — 72 years after Nobel's death in 1896. The original five prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace) date from 1901. This distinction is a common exam trap in "which is NOT original" questions.

Norway's Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier, won the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. The film also received acting and other nominations that night.

Sinners received 16 nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, breaking the previous all-time record of 14, which had been held jointly by All About Eve (1951), Titanic (1998) and La La Land (2017). Despite 16 noms, Sinners won four awards.

The copper plaque handed to every Sahitya Akademi winner was designed by Satyajit Ray — the celebrated Bengali filmmaker was also an accomplished graphic artist and designer.

Sahitya Akademi awards are given in 24 languages — the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, plus English and Rajasthani, which the Akademi recognises separately.

Harmanpreet Kaur, who captained the Indian women's cricket team to a T20 World Cup title, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2026. She is among the sports awardees in the 2026 Padma Shri list.

Rohit Sharma, the World Cup-winning captain of the Indian men's cricket team, received the Padma Shri in 2026. He is among the 113 Padma Shri awardees. The Padma Shri is the fourth-highest civilian honour in India.

India has transitioned from largely adopting technologies developed elsewhere to increasingly participating in and shaping frontier technologies at the global level. This shift represents movement from follower to leader status in the global technological landscape.

The press release explicitly states that the Ministry of Jal Shakti will organize the National Workshop on R&D in Water on 1 June 2026 at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.

The press release explicitly states that PM SVANidhi has facilitated more than 1.05 crore (10.5 million) loan sanctions worth over ₹17,800 crore for street vendors nationwide.

PM SVANidhi was launched in June 2020 as a flagship micro-credit scheme by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs to empower street vendors with collateral-free credit and social security.

The Indian Air Force deployed an IL-76 strategic airlift aircraft named Gajraj for this mission. This aircraft is specifically designed for long-range strategic airlift operations.

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh and Australian Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Defence Mr Richard Marles co-chaired the second India-Australia Defence Ministers' Dialogue in New Delhi on June 1, 2026.

Admiral Krishna Swaminathan is the 27th Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy. He succeeded Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi who completed 41 years of service.