1. Which description fits the Integrated Fertilizer Management System (iFMS) that has been in the news?
Answer: A. iFMS is a government web portal that follows fertilizer from makers and importers through wholesalers and retailers to the farmer. Linking sales to farmer, land and crop records helps spot supply gaps and odd buying early, curbing diversion and black marketing.
2. Regarding the shift of MGNREGA workers to VB-G RAM G, which statement is accurate?
Answer: B. Every worker registered under MGNREGA has been moved over, even where e-KYC is still pending. The move shapes beneficiary identification, wage payment and digital records for the country's biggest rural wage programme.
3. India's forex reserves hit a record in the week ended 21 August 2026. What level was reported?
Answer: C. Reserves touched USD 729.3 billion, enough to cover roughly 11 months of imports. Such a cushion strengthens external resilience and lets the RBI smooth currency swings.
4. About how much was added to India's forex reserves after the RBI's swap scheme announced on 5 June?
Answer: D. Roughly USD 47 billion came in after the scheme, in which banks sell dollars to the central bank for rupees for a fixed period. This helped lift reserves to the record USD 729.3 billion.
5. Approximately what was India's current account deficit in 2025-26?
Answer: E. The deficit was about 0.6 per cent of GDP. The current account covers trade in goods and services, primary income and transfers like remittances, and a small gap means modest external financing needs and less pressure on the rupee.
6. Which ministry runs the PARIVARTAN Scheme and which agency funds it?
Answer: A. The Road Transport Ministry implements it with money from the NCR Planning Board, which sits under the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. It is a scrappage and fleet renewal programme replacing pre-BS-IV and BS-IV trucks and buses with BS-VI or electric ones.
7. How many old, high-emission commercial trucks and buses does the PARIVARTAN Scheme intend to retire and replace across the NCR?
Answer: B. The target is more than 2 lakh older commercial vehicles in the National Capital Region, to reduce vehicular pollution. So far it has over 1,300 beneficiaries, 42 lending banks and NBFCs and 15 automobile OEMs on board.
8. India and Canada pledged to wrap up CEPA talks by the end of 2026. What bilateral trade goal did they set for 2030?
Answer: C. Under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement they want trade to reach about CAD 70 billion by 2030. They also agreed to start Bilateral Investment Treaty talks and to cooperate on UPI payments, fintech and critical minerals.
9. NITI Aayog's report on Ease of Doing R&D in India says almost 80 per cent of ANRF funding goes to which group of institutions?
Answer: D. The report points out that nearly 80 per cent of Anusandhan National Research Foundation money is concentrated in the IITs, indicating a narrow research base. It also notes there is no standard system to track who gets R&D funds and proposes a Unified Project Management System.
10. A Neelakurinji-like bloom was seen in the Kudremukh hills. To which family does Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) belong, and under which Schedule of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 was it protected in 2024?
Answer: E. The plant is in the family Acanthaceae and joined Schedule III of the Act in 2024. It flowers once every 12 years in Western Ghats shola grasslands, and the Munnar region last saw a major bloom in 2018.
11. The rare bloom was reported from Kudremukh in Karnataka. Which set of rivers originates in this region?
Answer: A. Kudremukh, in Chikkamagaluru district, gives rise to the Tunga, Bhadra and Nethravathi. Its national park is the second largest protected area of tropical wet evergreen forest in the Western Ghats, and the name means horse face in Kannada.
12. For vulture conservation in India, which veterinary drug was banned in 2006 and which one is its recognised safe alternative?
Answer: B. The ban in 2006 covered veterinary diclofenac, with meloxicam as the safe replacement. A Journal of Threatened Taxa study also found that moving a carcass dump near Dehradun 2.4 km away from high-tension lines may have saved vultures from electrocution.
13. Gangaichthys indonepalicus was found in West Champaran district of Bihar near the Nepal border. Why is it notable?
Answer: C. It is a newly described groundwater-dwelling fish and the first of its kind recorded in the Indo-Gangetic Basin. Such fishes are rare and serve as indicators of aquifer health.
14. The International Day Against Nuclear Tests, held on 29 August, recalls the closure of which nuclear test site?
Answer: D. The UN General Assembly set the day through Resolution A/RES/64/35 in 2009, marking the 1991 shutdown of the Semipalatinsk test site. It is used to raise awareness of testing's human and environmental harm and press for a test ban treaty.
15. Which mineral resource was a key focus of the India-Uzbekistan talks on long-term supply?
Answer: D. The two sides are close to a long-term uranium supply contract for India's civil nuclear programme.