TISS GK Preparation | Civics and Politics #9 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) Visit us for more TISS GK Material on: www.learningroots.in - 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 Visit us for more TISS GK Material on: www.learningroots.in 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 Minister of Civil Aviation Pusapati 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. Name Chief Minister Governor No. 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 Visit us for more TISS GK Material on: www.learningroots.in 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. Country Post Name No. 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 Visit us for more TISS GK Material on: www.learningroots.in Constitution of India 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. 1. Right to equality 2. Right to freedom 3. Right against exploitation 4. Right to freedom of religion 5. Cultural and Educational rights 6. Right to constitutional remedies The ‘right to property’ was originally a fundamental right but was deleted by the 44th Amendment Act, 1978. Visit us for more TISS GK Material on: www.learningroots.in 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: 1. Respect the Constitution, the national flag and the national anthem; 2. Cherish the noble ideals of the freedom struggle; 3. Uphold and project the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India; 4. Defend the country and render national service when called; 5. Promote the common brotherhood of all the people of India and renounce any practice derogatory to the dignity of women; 6. Preserve the rich heritage of the national composite culture; 7. Protect the natural environment and have compassion for living creatures; 8. Develop scientific temper, humanism and spirit of inquiry and reform; 9.