Why GA can make or break your Mains
General/Financial Awareness is a Mains-only section with 50 questions, 50 marks and 35 minutes. SBI's booklet says it gives "an index of your awareness of people and events past and present in different walks of life", and its sample questions cover banking, the economy and well-known personalities.
Two things make GA special. First, it is quick: if you know a fact, you answer in seconds. Second, it rewards consistency, not talent. Twenty minutes of reading every day for four months beats any last-week crash course.
The three blocks to cover
| Block | What to cover | Typical share in recent papers |
|---|---|---|
| Current affairs | National and international news, government schemes, appointments, awards, sports, summits, reports and indices, defence exercises | Largest share |
| Banking and financial awareness | RBI functions and policy, banking terms, recent RBI and banking news, regulators, financial inclusion, payments, the Union Budget and Economic Survey basics | Large share |
| Static GK | Headquarters, capitals and currencies, national parks and sanctuaries, dams, important days | Smaller share |
SBI does not publish a fixed split and it varies by shift. Prepare all three.
Static banking: the must-know list
- RBI: established on 1 April 1935; nationalised on 1 January 1949; headquarters in Mumbai.
- SBI: constituted on 1 July 1955, taking over the Imperial Bank of India.
- Bank nationalisation: 14 banks in 1969 and 6 more in 1980.
- Development finance institutions: NABARD (1982) for agriculture and rural development, SIDBI (1990) for MSMEs, EXIM Bank (1982) for foreign trade.
- Regulators: RBI (banks and payments), SEBI (securities markets), IRDAI (insurance), PFRDA (pensions, including NPS).
- Deposit insurance: DICGC insures bank deposits up to ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank, the limit in force since 4 February 2020. The government has said it is considering a higher limit, so check DICGC's website before your exam.
- Payments: NPCI runs UPI, RuPay, IMPS and NACH. NEFT and RTGS are run by RBI.
RBI and monetary policy basics
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Repo rate | Rate at which RBI lends short-term funds to banks against government securities |
| Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) | Rate at which RBI absorbs surplus funds from banks without collateral; the floor of the policy corridor |
| Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) | Emergency overnight borrowing for banks at a rate above repo; the ceiling of the corridor |
| CRR | Share of a bank's net demand and time liabilities kept as cash with RBI |
| SLR | Share of net demand and time liabilities a bank must hold in liquid assets such as government securities |
| Monetary Policy Committee | Six members; sets the repo rate to keep CPI inflation at 4% within a band of 2% either side |
A system for current affairs
- Daily (20 to 30 minutes): read one newspaper's national, business and banking pages, or a reliable daily current affairs digest. Note only exam-type facts: who, what, where, how much.
- Weekly (1 hour): take a 50-question quiz on the week's news and revise your notes.
- Monthly (2 to 3 hours): go through one monthly compilation and merge it with your notes into one or two pages per month.
- Final month: revise the last six months, newest first.
Go to primary sources for banking and government news: RBI press releases and monetary policy statements on rbi.org.in, and ministry releases on pib.gov.in. For budget questions, the Budget speech and highlights on indiabudget.gov.in are the original documents.
What to note and what to skip
| Note it | Skip it |
|---|---|
| New schemes: name, ministry, launch date, target group | Long political debates and opinions |
| Appointments to RBI, SEBI, major banks, international bodies | State-level transfers of officials |
| Awards, sports winners and venues of major events | Match-by-match details |
| RBI policy decisions and new rules for banks | Market movements from day to day |
| Reports and indices with India's rank | Full methodology of reports |
| MoUs and agreements involving banks and financial institutions | Routine company results |
Exam technique for GA
- Do one fast pass: answer every question you know for sure. This often takes under 15 minutes.
- In the second pass, attempt questions where you can confidently rule out two or more options.
- Leave questions where you have no idea at all. With five options, a blind guess gains nothing on average.
- Read option traps carefully: similar scheme names, close dates and organisations with similar abbreviations.
A four-month GA calendar
| Month | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Static banking and RBI basics; start daily news notes |
| 2 | Regulators, financial inclusion, payments; monthly summary of current affairs |
| 3 | Budget and economy basics, government schemes; static GK lists |
| 4 | Revise six months of current affairs; weekly full GA quizzes |
Questions about this
How many months of current affairs should I cover for SBI Clerk Mains?
Cover at least the last 6 months before the exam, with the most attention on the last 3 to 4 months. Banking and RBI news from the past year is also worth knowing.
Is General Awareness asked in SBI Clerk Prelims?
No. Prelims has English, Numerical Ability and Reasoning only. General/Financial Awareness is a 50-mark section in Mains.
Where should I read RBI updates?
RBI's own website, rbi.org.in, has press releases and the monetary policy statement after each MPC meeting. Use those to confirm facts you see in digests.
Should I memorise the current repo rate?
Yes, but only from RBI's latest monetary policy statement just before your exam. Rates change, so figures in older books may be wrong.
How do I remember so many current affairs facts?
Revise in layers: the same fact on the day you read it, at the weekly quiz and in the monthly summary. Facts you meet three or four times in different formats stay much longer than facts read once.