1. India hosted the First Session of its Joint Trade Committee with Rwanda in New Delhi. Which city is Rwanda's capital?
Answer: B. Kigali is the capital of Rwanda, a landlocked, hilly country in east-central Africa bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the DRC. India supplies roughly 24.5% of Rwanda's pharmaceutical imports.
2. For how many weeks is the "Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan", launched by the Prime Minister, planned to run, with events held each Sunday?
Answer: C. This anti-drug drive lasts 100 weeks, with Sunday activities at over 28,000 locations backed by more than 125 organisations. Over a crore young people have taken the pledge, and the focus includes rehabilitation and a second chance for those recovering.
3. Glaw Lake (also written Glow Lake) became India's 101st Ramsar Site. For which state is it the first such site?
Answer: D. The high-altitude freshwater lake lies in Lohit district near Wakro, inside Kamlang Tiger Reserve, and is Arunachal Pradesh's first Ramsar listing. It formed through tectonic movement in the Eastern Himalayan fold belt.
4. Name the two Indian Ramsar sites that appear on the Montreux Record, the list of wetlands whose ecological character has changed or is under threat.
Answer: E. Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan and Loktak Lake in Manipur are India's two Montreux Record entries. The Ramsar Convention dates from 2 February 1971, and India, which joined in 1982, now has the most sites in Asia with 101.
5. The e-Pratyaropan platform was unveiled on the 16th Indian Organ Donation Day to digitise the organ donation system. Which body is responsible for implementing it?
Answer: A. The Health Ministry is the nodal department, and NOTTO runs the platform, which offers national registries, auto-built waitlists and live organ tracking over green corridors. Indian Organ Donation Day falls on 3 August.
6. What is the name of the chariot used for Lord Jagannath at the Puri Rath Yatra?
Answer: B. Jagannath rides Nandighosha, while Balabhadra's chariot is Taladhwaja and Subhadra's is Darpadalana. All three are made afresh each year by hereditary Maharana carpenters, and the deities are drawn to the Gundicha Temple.
7. The Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 lengthened the tax holiday for foreign firms doing contract manufacturing of specified electronics such as mobiles, laptops, servers and wearables. It was previously 5 years; what is it now?
Answer: C. The holiday for contract electronics manufacturing now runs 15 years, up to 2040-41. The wide-ranging Bill also covers rough diamonds, cloud and data centres, and fund management, and raises the SPV surcharge for REITs and InvITs from 10% to 25%.
8. Regarding UPI and merchant discount rate (MDR), what does the Taxation Bill 2026 really do?
Answer: D. The Bill changes the PSS Act, 2007 to give the government an enabling power, but does not levy any charge itself. The present bar on charges works through Section 269SU of the Income-tax Act with the PSS Act, and a tiered MDR is floated as an alternative.
9. What did the RBI Monetary Policy Committee decide on 5 August 2026, by a 6-0 vote, about the policy repo rate?
Answer: E. The committee held the repo at 5.25% unanimously, with the SDF at 5.00% and the MSF and Bank Rate at 5.50%, and stayed neutral. FY27 inflation was trimmed to 5.0% and FY27 growth raised to 6.7%.
10. Within RBI's liquidity adjustment facility corridor, which window serves as the floor, letting banks park surplus funds with RBI without giving collateral?
Answer: A. The SDF at 5.00% is the lower bound; it needs no collateral and took over from the fixed reverse repo as the effective floor in April 2022. The repo at 5.25% is the policy rate, and the MSF at 5.50% forms the upper limit.
11. RBI said it would again grant Urban Cooperative Bank licences on an "on tap" basis. In which year had new UCB licensing been put on hold?
Answer: B. New UCB licences stopped in 2004 following governance lapses, and Governor Sanjay Malhotra's August 2026 policy announced the restart after a discussion paper in January 2026. "On tap" means applications are accepted at any time; there are 1,457 UCBs today.
12. Which indicative minimum deposit base and net worth appear in the draft licensing criteria for credit cooperative societies wishing to convert into UCBs?
Answer: C. The draft expects at least ₹10,000 crore of deposits and ₹300 crore of net worth, plus a decade of existence, CRAR of 12% or more and net NPA of at most 3%. Multi-state societies are first in line, and applications go through RBI's PRAVAAH portal.
13. Where is the pilot Framework for Fertilizer Sale (FFS), a QR-token based fertiliser distribution system for farmers, now in operation?
Answer: D. The pilot now spans 56 districts in 23 states, up from 40 districts in 20 states at the end of July. Farmers register, pre-book, receive a QR token, and are verified by Aadhaar biometrics at the retailer's PoS.
14. Along with Nuernberg Messe India, which organisation staged BIOFACH INDIA 2026, the organic trade fair held 6-8 August at Greater Noida?
Answer: E. APEDA, set up under a 1985 Act and part of the Commerce Ministry, organised the fair, with over 200 exhibitors and buyers from 13 countries. It is also the National Accreditation Body under NPOP, which handles organic export certification.
15. Which holding company did RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra say would stay classified as an Upper-Layer NBFC?
Answer: A. Governor Malhotra indicated that Tata Sons, the Tata Group's holding company, remains an NBFC-UL under RBI's scale-based regulatory framework.
16. "DSC A24", the fifth and last Diving Support Craft, a catamaran with around 70% indigenous content, was launched at Titagarh in Kolkata. Which firm built it?
Answer: B. Titagarh Rail Systems built this twin-hull craft of about 300-400 tonnes, which backs diving, salvage and coastal tasks. It is a different class from the bigger Nistar-class DSVs such as Nipun, which HSL built.
17. Giriraj Singh released the "Kapas Darshan" bulletin on the 56th Foundation Day of the Cotton Corporation of India. Which Cotton Productivity Mission was also spotlighted?
Answer: C. The occasion featured the ₹5,659-crore Kapas Kanti mission. Four MoUs were also signed on cotton quality, traceability and market access.
18. REC and PFC agreed a ₹26,850-crore joint loan with Meja Urja Nigam for enlarging the Meja Thermal Power Project in Uttar Pradesh. What capacity addition does this fund?
Answer: D. The loan pays for three ultra-supercritical units of 800 MW each, totalling 2,400 MW. In a separate event, PM Modi opened projects worth over ₹17,900 crore in Andhra Pradesh on 1 August.
19. SEBI moved the digital accessibility audit deadline for regulated entities to 31 October 2026. What framework did it also bring in for AIF placement memorandums?
Answer: E. GARUDA is meant to speed up the handling of Alternative Investment Fund placement memorandums. Separately, SBI Research expects about 7% GDP growth in Q1 FY27, higher than RBI's 6.6% projection.
20. Which communities are linked with Gujarat's GI-tagged tribal art form, Pithora Painting?
Answer: A. Pithora is a ritual art of the Rathwa, Bhil, Bhilala and Nayaka people of Gujarat. It typically uses natural colours and shows horses standing for gods, ancestors and nature.
21. Who received an extension as IFSCA Chairperson until 24 October 2028?
Answer: B. K. Rajaraman, a retired IAS officer of the 1989 batch who became IFSCA's first full-time head in 2023, has been given the extension. The same week, Vice Admiral A.N. Pramod became Deputy Chief of Naval Staff.
22. A new freshwater catfish, Pseudolaguvia khairii, was found in Odisha's Budhabalanga River. Who or what is "Khairi", the name it honours?
Answer: C. The fish, discovered in Mayurbhanj district, carries the name of Khairi, the well-known Royal Bengal tigress of Similipal Tiger Reserve.
23. India placed fourth at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games with 39 medals. How were these divided into gold, silver and bronze?
Answer: D. India's 39 medals came as 13 golds, 17 silvers and 9 bronzes. Australia led with 171, and India, which receives the baton from Glasgow, will stage the 2030 Games in Ahmedabad.
24. Nirmal Purja, the mountaineer who died in an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan, became famous under Project Possible 14/7 in 2019 for scaling all 14 eight-thousanders in what time?
Answer: E. The Nepali-British climber known as Nims finished all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks in 6 months and 6 days in 2019. He later lost his life in an avalanche on Broad Peak.
25. What outlay did the Union Cabinet clear for the GOBARdhan – National Circular Bioenergy Scheme, which should generate about 1.5 lakh jobs?
Answer: A. The scheme, at ₹23,731 crore, turns organic waste into bioenergy to support clean power and the rural economy, with around 1.5 lakh jobs expected.
26. Which medium-range ballistic missile did India successfully test-fire from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Odisha?
Answer: B. The Defence Ministry said the Agni-4 launch from ITR Chandipur confirmed its operational and technical parameters. Elsewhere, General Dhiraj Seth launched indigenous Xtreme Weather Grade diesel for military vehicles.
27. The Bankers' Books Evidence Bill, 2026 cleared by the Lok Sabha mainly deals with what?
Answer: C. The Bill updates the law on bankers' books as evidence so that electronic and digital banking records are accepted. Separately, India launched a Clouded Leopard Conservation Action Plan on International Clouded Leopard Day.
28. What was the theme of World Breastfeeding Week 2026, held 1-7 August?
Answer: D. The 2026 week carried the theme "Breastfeeding for a sustainable start in life: strengthen what works". Also, Andhra Pradesh and Australia signed four MoUs, including a Centre of Excellence for Solar Manufacturing at IIT Tirupati.