TISS GK
TISS GK Preparation Series: GK is a very important section for TISS especially since the verbal and the quant sections are relatively easy. Hence, getting a good score in GK can easily be the difference between getting a TISS call and not getting one. To help you ace this section, we are starting a series of articles devoted to topics commonly asked in the TISS GK section. We hope that this will help you in your preparation. Every article will also be available in PDF format. Here is our #9 article in this series: Civics and Politics.
This is another section from which you can expect a few questions in TISS GK section. Run through the lists given below noting the more important ones.
Prime Ministers of India
| Sr. No. | Name | Term of Office |
| 1 | Jawaharlal Nehru | 15 Aug, 1947 – 27 May, 1964 |
| – | Gulzarilal Nanda | 27 May, 1964 – 9 June, 1964 (acting) |
| 2 | Lal Bahadur Shastri | 9 June, 1964 – 11 January, 1966 |
| – | Gulzarilal Nanda | 11 January, 1966 – 24 January, 1966 (acting) |
| 3 | Indira Gandhi | 24 January, 1966 – 24 March, 1977 |
| 4 | Morarji Desai | 24 March, 1977 – 28 July, 1979 |
| 5 | Charan Singh | 28 July, 1979 – 14 January, 1980 |
| 6 | Indira Gandhi | 14 January, 1980 – 31 October, 1984 |
| 7 | Rajiv Gandhi | 31 October, 1984 – 2 December, 1989 |
| 8 | V.P.Singh | 2 December, 1989 – 10 November, 1990 |
| 9 | Chandra Shekhar | 10 November, 1990 – 21 June, 1991 |
| 10 | P.V. Narasimha Rao | 21 June, 1991 – 16 May, 1996 |
| 11 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 16 May, 1996 – 1 June, 1996 |
| 12 | H.D. Deve Gowda | 1 June, 1996 – 21 April, 1997 |
| 13 | I.K. Gujral | 21 April, 1997 – 19 March, 1998 |
| 14 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 19 March, 1998 – 22 May, 2004 |
| 15 | Manmohan Singh | 22 May, 2004 – 26 May, 2014 |
| 16 | Narendra Modi | 26 May, 2014 – present |
Presidents of India
| Sr. No. | Name | Term of Office |
| 1 | Rajendra Prasad | 26 January, 1950 – 12 May, 1962 |
| 2 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 13 May, 1962 – 13 May, 1967 |
| 3 | Zakir Husain | 13 May, 1967 – 3 May, 1969 |
| – | Varahagiri Venkata Giri | 3 May, 1969 – 20 July, 1969 (acting) |
| – | Mohammad Hidayatullah | 20 July, 1969 – 24 August, 1969 (acting) |
| 4 | Varahagiri Venkata Giri | 24 August, 1974 – 24 August, 1974 |
| 5 | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 24 August, 1974 – 11 February, 1977 |
| – | Basappa Danappa Jatti | 11 February, 1977 – 25 July, 1977 |
| 6 | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | 25 July, 1977 – 25 July, 1982 |
| 7 | Giani Zail Singh | 25 July, 1982 – 25 July, 1987 |
| 8 | Ramaswamy Venkataraman | 25 July, 1987 – 25 July, 1992 |
| 9 | Shankar Dayal Sharma | 25 July, 1992 – 25 July, 1997 |
| 10 | Kocheril Raman Narayanan | 25 July, 1997 – 25 July, 2002 |
| 11 | A.P.J. Abdul Kalam | 25 July, 2002 – 25 July, 2007 |
| 12 | Pratibha Patil | 25 July, 2007 – 25 July, 2012 |
| 13 | Pranab Mukherjee | 25 July, 2012 – present |
List of Cabinet Ministers
| Minister | Portfolio |
| Narendra Modi | Prime Minister |
| Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions | |
| Department of Atomic Energy | |
| Department of Space | |
| Rajnath Singh | Minister of Home Affairs |
| Sushma Swaraj | Minister of External Affairs |
| Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs | |
| Arun Jaitley | Minister of Finance |
| Manohar Parrikar | Minister of Defence |
| Arun Jaitley | Minister of Information and Broadcasting |
| Suresh Prabhu | Minister of Railways |
| Venkaiah Naidu | Minister of Urban Development |
| Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation | |
| Minister of Parliamentary Affairs | |
| Nitin Gadkari | Minister of Road Transport and Highways |
| Minister of Shipping | |
| D.V. Sadananda Gowda | Minister of Law and Justice |
| Uma Bharati | Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation |
| Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi | Minister of Minority Affairs |
| Birender Singh | Minister of Rural Development |
| Minister of Panchayati Raj | |
| Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation | |
| Ram Vilas Paswan | Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution |
| Kalraj Mishra | Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises |
| Maneka Gandhi | Minister of Women and Child Development |
| Ananth Kumar | Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers |
| Ravi Shankar Prasad | Minister of Communications and Information Technology |
| Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati | Minister of Civil Aviation |
| Anant Geete | Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises |
| Harsimrat Kaur Badal | Minister of Food Processing Industries |
| Narendra Singh Tomar | Minister of Mines |
| Minister of Steel | |
| Bandaru Dattatreya | Minister of Labour and Employment |
| Jual Oram | Minister of Tribal Affairs |
| Radha Mohan Singh | Minister of Agriculture |
| Thawar Chand Gehlot | Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment |
| Smriti Irani | Minister of Human Resource Development |
| Harsh Vardhan | Minister of Science and Technology |
| Jagat Prakash Nadda | Minister Of Health and Family Welfare |
List of current Indian Chief Ministers and Governors
| Sr. No. | Name | Chief Minister | Governor |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh | N Chandrababu Naidu | ESL Narasimhan |
| 2 | Arunachal Pradesh | Nabam Tuki | Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa |
| 3 | Assam | Tarun Gogoi | P B Acharya |
| 4 | Bihar | Nitish Kumar | Ram Nath Kovind |
| 5 | Chhattisgarh | Raman Singh | Balramji Das Tandon |
| 6 | Goa | Laxmikant Parsekar | Mridula Sinha |
| 7 | Gujarat | Anandiben Patel | OP Kohli |
| 8 | Haryana | Manohar Lal Khattar | Kaptan Singh Solanki |
| 9 | Himachal Pradesh | Virbhadra Singh | Acharya Dev Vrat |
| 10 | Jammu and Kashmir | Mufti Mohammad Sayeed | N N Vohra |
| 11 | Jharkhand | Raghuvar Das | Droupadi Murmu |
| 12 | Karnataka | Siddaramaiah | Vajubhai R. Vala |
| 13 | Kerala | Oommen Chandy | P. Sathasivam |
| 14 | Madhya Pradesh | Shivraj Singh Chouhan | Ram Naresh Yadav |
| 15 | Maharashtra | Devendra Fadnavis | C Vidyasagar Rao |
| 16 | Manipur | Okram Ibobi Singh | Syed Ahmed |
| 17 | Meghalaya | Mukul Sangma | V. Shanmuganathan |
| 18 | Mizoram | Lal Thanhawla | Nirbhay Sharma |
| 19 | Nagaland | T R Zeliang | Balkrishna Acharya |
| 20 | Odisha | Naveen Patnaik | S.C. Jamir |
| 21 | Punjab | Parkash Singh Badal | Kaptan Singh Solanki |
| 22 | Rajasthan | Vasundhara Raje | Kalyan Singh |
| 23 | Sikkim | Pawan Kumar Chamling | Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil |
| 24 | Tamil Nadu | Jayalalithaa | Konijeti Rosaiah |
| 25 | Telangana | K Chandrasekhar Rao | ESL Narasimhan |
| 26 | Tripura | Manik Sarkar | Tathagata Roy |
| 27 | Uttar Pradesh | Akhilesh Yadav | Shri Ram Naik |
| 28 | Uttarakhand | Harish Rawat | Krishna Kant |
| 29 | West Bengal | Mamata Banerjee | Keshari Nath Tripathi |
Important World Leaders
| Sr. No. | Country | Post | Name |
| 1 | Australia | Prime Minister | Malcolm Turnbull |
| 2 | Bangladesh | Prime Minister | Sheikh Hasina |
| 3 | Brazil | President | Dilma Rousseff |
| 4 | Canada | Prime Minister | Justin Trudeau |
| 5 | China | President | Xi Jinping |
| 6 | France | President | Francois Holland |
| 7 | Germany | Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| 8 | Greece | Prime Minister | Alexis Tsipras |
| 9 | Iran | Supreme Leader | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei |
| 10 | Israel | Prime Minister | Benjamin Netanyahu |
| 11 | Italy | President | Sergio Mattarella |
| 12 | Japan | Prime Minister | Shinzo Abe |
| 13 | Nepal | President | Bidhya Bhandari |
| 14 | Nepal | Prime Minister | Khadga Prasad Oli |
| 15 | New Zealand | Prime Minister | John Key |
| 16 | North Korea | Supreme Leader | Kim Jong-un |
| 17 | Pakistan | President | Mamnoon Hussain |
| 18 | Pakistan | Prime Minister | Nawaz Sharif |
| 19 | Russia | President | Vladimir Putin |
| 20 | South Africa | President | Jacob Zuma |
| 21 | Sri Lanka | President | Maithripala Sirisena |
| 22 | Syria | President | Bashar al-Assad |
| 23 | Turkey | President | Recep Erdogan |
| 24 | United Kingdom | Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| 25 | United States | President | Barack Obama |
Constitution of India (TISS GK)
The Constitution which envisages parliamentary form of government is federal in structure with unitary features. The President of India is the constitutional head of executive of the Union. Article 74 (1) of the Constitution provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as head to aid and advise the President who shall exercise his functions and act in accordance with such advice. Real executive power thus vests with the Council of Ministers with Prime Minister as the head. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People (Lok Sabha). Similarly, in states, the Governor is the head of executive, but it is the Council of Ministers with Chief Minister as the head in whom the real executive power vests. Council of Ministers of a state is collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly.
Amended Preamble of the Constitution
We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and unity and integration of the Nation;
in our constituent assembly this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this constitution.
Fundamental Rights
The Constitution offers all citizens, individually and collectively, some basic freedoms. These are guaranteed in the Constitution in the form of six broad categories of Fundamental Rights. Articles 12 to 35 contained in Part III of the Constitution deal with Fundamental Rights.
- Right to equality
- Right to freedom
- Right against exploitation
- Right to freedom of religion
- Cultural and Educational rights
- Right to constitutional remedies
The ‘right to property’ was originally a fundamental right but was deleted by the 44th Amendment Act, 1978.
Fundamental Duties
By the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution, adopted in 1976, Fundamental Duties of the citizens have been enumerated.
The Fundamental Duties of Citizens:
- Respect the Constitution, the national flag and the national anthem;
- Cherish the noble ideals of the freedom struggle;
- Uphold and project the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;
- Defend the country and render national service when called;
- Promote the common brotherhood of all the people of India and renounce any practice derogatory to the dignity of women;
- Preserve the rich heritage of the national composite culture;
- Protect the natural environment and have compassion for living creatures;
- Develop scientific temper, humanism and spirit of inquiry and reform;
- Safeguard public property and abjure violence;
- Strive for excellence in all individual and collective activity.
- Provide opportunities for education to child/ward between the age of six and fourteen years.
Download PDF of this article here: TISS 2015 GK Preparation – Civics and Politics
Read the entire series here: TISS GK Preparation
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