1. Kuno National Park's review of Project Cheetah after four years puts India's cheetah population at what number?
Answer: B. The count is 52, of which 49 live at Kuno and 3 at Gandhi Sagar, with 32 cubs born in India and 17 animals roaming free at Kuno. Four years after its launch on 17 September 2022, the programme has entered a consolidation phase.
2. In which year was the cheetah declared extinct in India?
Answer: A. Cheetahs vanished from India in 1952, the last reportedly shot in Koriya, present-day Chhattisgarh. As the only big carnivore lost since Independence, the species gives Project Cheetah, the first transcontinental translocation of a large carnivore, its importance. IUCN lists it as Vulnerable (the Asiatic subspecies Critically Endangered) and CITES places it in Appendix I.
3. The newly described Gegeneophis chandgadi from the Western Ghats falls in which amphibian order?
Answer: D. Caecilians constitute the order Gymnophiona, the third of the amphibian orders alongside Anura (frogs, toads) and Caudata or Urodela (newts and salamanders). These legless, burrowing creatures have degenerate eyes and sensory tentacles, while Squamata is a reptilian order.
4. In which district was Gegeneophis chandgadi found in leaf litter of a backyard?
Answer: C. Named from Buzawade village in Chandgad taluka, in the northern Western Ghats, it was described by scientists at the Zoological Survey of India with Savitribai Phule Pune University. The habitat was a human-modified rural backyard without synthetic pesticides rather than pristine forest, so farmland can still conceal unknown species. ZSI, founded in 1916, works under the MoEFCC from Kolkata.
5. FY2023-24 to FY2027-28 is the period covered by the PM Vishwakarma Scheme. What is its total outlay?
Answer: B. The outlay is ₹13,000 crore. It is a Central Sector Scheme funded fully by the Centre and run jointly by MoMSME, MSDE and DFS, started on 17 September 2023 (Vishwakarma Jayanti), covering 18 traditional trades, and it reached 30 lakh registrations in three years.
6. Under PM Vishwakarma, artisans get collateral-free loans of ₹1 lakh and then ₹2 lakh. What interest rate do they pay?
Answer: E. Artisans pay 5 per cent, with the government bearing an 8 per cent interest subvention; the two figures are easy to swap. The first ₹1 lakh tranche lasts 18 months and the second ₹2 lakh tranche 30 months. Other benefits are a ₹500 daily training stipend, a ₹15,000 toolkit e-voucher, and ₹1 credited for each of up to 100 digital payments monthly.
7. A 232.6-metre concrete gravity dam is planned on which river under the Kishau Multipurpose Project agreed by six states?
Answer: A. The dam is on the Tons, the Yamuna's biggest tributary, so the 422 MW project is linked to Yamuna rejuvenation along with storage (1,562 MCM) and irrigation. Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh signed, and as a National Project it gets 90 per cent central funding with 10 per cent from the state.
8. NIELIT and Infineon Technologies opened a semiconductor manufacturing Centre of Excellence in which city?
Answer: D. Located in Ahmedabad, it provides training in ATMP, OSAT and semiconductor backend manufacturing using 8 equipment units from Infineon. Bhubaneswar is the other city in the news, where MeitY separately gave a provisional go-ahead that very day for an AI Centre of Excellence under the IndiaAI Mission.
9. What purpose lay behind the RBI's ₹50,000 crore Open Market Operation of mid-September 2026?
Answer: C. Selling securities in this OMO draws rupees out of the system, thereby absorbing durable liquidity. It began a ₹1 trillion programme, with ₹25,000 crore planned for each of 21 and 28 September 2026. Liquidity was in surplus: net surplus of ₹7.37 trillion, durable liquidity about ₹14 trillion and WACR at 5.05 per cent, below the 5.25 per cent repo rate, a classic sign of excess liquidity.
10. For which two articles do central laws on land and customary practice require the State Legislative Assembly's concurrence?
Answer: D. Article 371A applies to Nagaland, stemming from the 1960 16-Point Agreement, and 371G to Mizoram, stemming from the 1986 Mizo Peace Accord; both are the strongest asymmetric provisions in Part XXI (Articles 369 to 392). Separately, Article 371K has been proposed for Ladakh after an in-principle understanding with Apex Body Leh and the Kargil Democratic Alliance; it would give a directly elected UT-level legislative body, without statehood or Sixth Schedule status.
11. Which State is set to be the first in India to require a computer-based Hazard Perception Test from driving licence applicants?
Answer: B. Kerala will start the test in December 2026. It gauges anticipation rather than rule knowledge, the gap between knowing a rule and reacting in time. The provision already exists in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and the UK pioneered the format in 2002; road crashes in 2024 totalled 4,87,707, killing 1,77,175, roughly 485 each day.
12. What was the combined value of India's merchandise and services exports in April-August 2026?
Answer: E. Growth was 15.5 per cent, and merchandise exports made up USD 215.91 billion of the total. Imports totalled USD 459.65 billion, 18.01 per cent higher, so imports outpaced exports. For August 2026 alone, USD 82.68 billion of exports trailed the USD 92.09 billion of purchases from abroad.
13. Who has been selected for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2024?
Answer: C. Anant Nag becomes the 56th awardee, only the second from Kannada cinema after Rajkumar. The 72nd National Film Awards function on 22 September 2026 will present it. In another development, the CBFC has 18 members again for three years, led by Shashi Shekhar Vempati.
14. Which force got its first woman chief officer in Sanjukta Parashar?
Answer: A. As an IPS officer she assumed charge as Inspector General of CoBRA, the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, a CRPF specialist formation of 10 battalions drilled for guerrilla warfare, deep operations and counter-insurgency.
15. Who was re-elected unopposed as ICA President for 2026-2030 at the same assembly?
Answer: B. Dr Ariel Guarco of Argentina was re-elected ICA President without opposition.