At a glance
PaperPaper ISubjectGeneral ScienceSyllabusGeneral Science: general awareness, scientific temper, comprehension and appreciation of scientific phenomena of everyday observation, including new areas such as Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Environmental ScienceImportanceHigh
IndexGeneral SciencePaper 1
This module covers the General Science portion of CAPF Paper I. The official clause asks for "general awareness, scientific temper, comprehension and appreciation of scientific phenomena of everyday observation, including new areas of importance such as Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Environmental Science." Notes are calibrated to the CAPF level: clean static facts, correct definitions, SI units, the right value, discoverer and year, plus the defence and security technology angle that CAPF rewards.
The depth target is NCERT Class VI to X science, not deeper. Favour breadth, recognition of the correct fact, and everyday applications over derivations.
For the official clause mapping see syllabus index. For the approved booklist and source policy see sources index.
- physics everyday, motion and Newton's laws, work, energy and power, gravitation, light and optics, sound, heat, electricity and magnetism, with everyday applications.
- chemistry everyday, states of matter, atomic structure, the periodic table, acids, bases and salts, pH, metals and non-metals, and common compounds and their uses.
- biology cell and classification, the cell and its organelles, plant versus animal cells, the five kingdoms of classification, and basic genetics vocabulary.
- human body and systems, the digestive, respiratory, circulatory, nervous, excretory, endocrine and skeletal systems, key organs and their functions.
- nutrition diseases and health, nutrients and balanced diet, vitamins and deficiency diseases, communicable versus non-communicable diseases, vaccines and common pathogens.
- diseases and public health, the disease-to-organism match, vectors and transmission, immunity and vaccines, antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, and India's public-health programmes.
- biotechnology and genetics, DNA and RNA basics, genetic engineering, GM crops, cloning, and applications in medicine and agriculture.
- agriculture and food technology, the colour-coded revolutions, NPK and fertilisers, GM crops (Bt cotton), food preservation (pasteurisation, irradiation), and fortification.
- environment and ecology, ecosystems and food chains, biodiversity, pollution types, climate change, and key environmental conventions and Indian laws.
- space and defence technology, ISRO milestones and launch vehicles, key satellites, DRDO and major missiles, and nuclear technology basics with the CAPF defence angle.
- strategic and defence technology, indigenous platforms (Tejas, INS Vikrant, Arihant), RADAR and SONAR, AWACS, drones and counter-drone, electronic and cyber warfare, and the border-security angle.
- emerging technologies ai nanotech robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, generative AI, robotics, nanotechnology, quantum computing, 5G and IoT, with the security and ethics angle.
- information technology and computing, computer fundamentals, the internet, AI, IoT and blockchain basics, cyber-security and e-governance.
- science everyday phenomena and quick facts, everyday phenomena (why the sky is blue), instruments and their uses, SI units, and scientific terms with their discoverers.
Paper I general-science questions are objective and reward recognition of the correct fact. The common formats are:
- Single-fact recall (the SI unit of force, the vitamin that prevents scurvy, the organ that produces insulin).
- Matching (instrument to use, scientist to discovery, disease to causative organism).
- Statement-type ("Which of the following statements about the human heart is correct").
- Everyday-phenomenon reasoning (why a swimming pool looks shallower than it is).
New-area questions on Information Technology, Biotechnology and Environmental Science are explicitly in the syllabus and now appear most years, so do not skip those three notes.