1. The NSO's 'Labour Market Dynamics in Million-Plus Cities' report says roughly what share of women in India's 46 biggest cities stay out of the workforce because of childcare and housework?
Answer: B. Drawing on PLFS 2024-25, the report found 68.7% of women in these cities cite care and household duties for staying outside the labour force, against only about 1% of men. Salaried women also earn 23% less, at ₹23,700 a month versus ₹30,700.
2. Which city had the top share, 83%, of women giving care work as the reason for not being in the labour force, in the NSO report?
Answer: E. Howrah in West Bengal led at 83%, with Surat next at 81% and Pimpri-Chinchwad and Bhopal at 78%. Coimbatore (38%) and Agra (41%) were lowest, and female LFPR in these cities rose from 19.8% in 2017-18 to 27.2% in 2025.
3. The Periodic Labour Force Survey, begun in 2017-18, followed the advice of which committee?
Answer: C. The NSO under MoSPI began PLFS in 2017-18 on the 2010 Amitabh Kundu Committee's recommendation, replacing the older five-yearly employment-unemployment surveys. Urban households are visited four times a year in a rotating panel and rural households once a year.
4. Which body launched 'Medical Innovations Patent Mitra', a platform giving fully government-funded patent help to biomedical innovators?
Answer: D. ICMR started it under NITI Aayog's guidance with the Department of Pharmaceuticals, and DPIIT backs it. Health Minister JP Nadda launched it at the ISHTA symposium; it covers filing, prosecution and technology transfer, and ICMR DG Dr Rajiv Bahl wants life-science patents to grow tenfold in two years.
5. India's first undersea cable designed for AI workloads, the I-2SEA Submarine Cable System, will come ashore at which two Indian locations?
Answer: A. The roughly 3,600 km cable connects Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to the east coast. Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh gives the shortest subsea route to Hyderabad's AI data centres, and South Chennai adds a second landing; Lightstorm, Microsoft, Singtel and Tata Communications form the consortium, NEC is the supplier and service is planned for Q4 2029.
6. What fraction of intercontinental data traffic worldwide is carried by submarine cables?
Answer: C. More than 550 working undersea cables spanning around 1.4 million km handle nearly all such traffic, leaving only about 1% to satellites. India has around 17 international cables and Mumbai takes roughly 75% of its international bandwidth, which explains the push for east-coast landings.
7. Where was the 5th Foundation Day of the Ministry of Cooperation held on 6 July 2026?
Answer: A. The ministry, formed on 6 July 2021, held the event under the theme 'Sahakar Se Samriddhi' with Amit Shah as Chief Guest. He laid foundation stones for 47 grain godowns, opened 85, announced the conversion of 50,000 PACS to e-PACS, a Cooperative Life Insurance Company and Bharat Taxi's growth to 500 cities.
8. Sahakar CBS and Sahakar Sahyogi, introduced on the Ministry of Cooperation's 5th Foundation Day, are digital tools made for which type of institution?
Answer: B. Sahakar CBS is a shared core banking platform and Sahakar Sahyogi is an AI conversational platform, both built for UCBs by NUCFDC, their umbrella body, and not by the RBI itself. NCD 3.0 (National Cooperative Database) and a geo-tagging mobile app were launched too.
9. Under which entry of the Constitution's lists does the subject 'Cooperation' fall?
Answer: E. Cooperation is a state subject in Entry 32 of List II in the Seventh Schedule. The 97th Amendment of 2011 inserted Part IX-B (Articles 243-ZH to 243-ZT) and made forming cooperatives a Fundamental Right under Article 19(1)(c), while multi-state societies fall under the MSCS Act, 2002.
10. White Revolution 2.0 sets the Ministry of Cooperation a goal of raising milk procurement by how much over five years?
Answer: D. The plan relies on 25,282 newly registered dairy cooperative societies across 31 States and UTs, with the Sardar Patel Cooperative Dairy Federation connecting over 20 lakh farmers. India already produces about 22-23% of the world's milk.
11. ISRO's SOLVE motor had its first ground test, SOLVE-ST01, at Sriharikota on 3 July 2026. What does SOLVE stand for?
Answer: A. SOLVE is a sub-orbital test vehicle for the Gaganyaan Crew Module's Integrated Parachute Tests. It lifts the module to 10-17 km, after which 10 parachutes open before splashdown; its solid stage derives from the PSLV strap-on motor with a slow-burning propellant and SITVC nozzle.
12. ISRO's 'Mission MITRA' in Leh, which involved the four designated Gaganyaan astronauts, examined what?
Answer: D. MITRA, short for Mapping of Interoperable Traits and Response Assessment, was a week-long Ladakh exercise simulating spaceflight stresses on the crew. India's first crewed flight, Gaganyaan-4/H1, is aimed for Q1 2027, which would make India the fourth country with crewed spaceflight.
13. NSE has asked the RBI for permission to launch Quanto Cross-Currency Derivatives. What is the key feature of a Quanto contract?
Answer: E. A quantity-adjusted contract lets an investor take a view on a foreign pair such as EUR/USD while profit and loss are paid in a preset currency at a fixed conversion rate, removing settlement-currency FX risk. NSE disclosed the plan in its DRHP filed with SEBI on 17 June 2026 for its IPO.
14. Which of these currency pairs cannot currently be traded on Indian exchanges?
Answer: C. Only the four rupee pairs, USD/INR, EUR/INR, GBP/INR and JPY/INR, trade at present, so pairs without the rupee are unavailable, a gap Quanto contracts target. SEBI and RBI jointly regulate currency derivatives, and after RBI's April 2024 underlying-exposure rule ADTV slid from over ₹35,000 crore to around ₹5,000 crore.
15. In CMFRI's 'Marine Fish Stock Status of India, 2022' report, what share of the 135 stocks assessed was rated sustainable?
Answer: B. The claim released on 11 February 2026 listed 91.1% as sustainable, 8.2% as overfished and 0.7% as rebuilding, with landings valued at ₹58,247 crore for 2022. Critics point out that CMFRI relies on landing data instead of at-sea surveys, and the FAO calls Indian marine fisheries plateaued and fully exploited.
16. Along which state's coast is India's continental shelf the widest?
Answer: A. The shelf is widest off Gujarat and part of Maharashtra. The territorial sea reaches 12 nautical miles and the EEZ 200 nautical miles (about 371 km, around 2 million sq km); India ranks third in fish output and second in aquaculture, and ICAR's CMFRI, set up in 1947 and based in Kochi, runs the stock assessments.
17. Under the reworked PGS-India certification framework, within what area must Regional Councils now operate?
Answer: B. The Agriculture Ministry limited RCs to one state for both organic and natural farming certification. Multi-state RCs have until 30 April 2027 to hand local groups to state-based RCs; MoUs signed before 31 March 2026 remain valid, but fresh inter-state registrations are not allowed.
18. Which description best fits PGS-India, started on 7 April 2011?
Answer: E. Run by the Agriculture Ministry, it is a cheap peer-review system for small and marginal farmers issuing PGS-Green (in-conversion) and PGS-Organic certificates. Exports use APEDA's third-party NPOP, both share the Jaivik Bharat logo, and the PGS Secretariat is at NCONF, Ghaziabad.
19. Which tea estate became the first in India to produce Matcha tea on a commercial basis?
Answer: C. Chota Tingrai in Tinsukia district reached the milestone on 3 July 2026 after almost ten years working with Japanese experts and using a fully automated Japanese-style unit. Its first 5-kg lot fetched ₹3,000/kg at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre.
20. The processed leaves from shade-grown Camellia sinensis that are ground to make Matcha go by what name?
Answer: D. Plants are covered for 3-4 weeks before harvest, blocking about 90% of sunlight, which raises chlorophyll and keeps L-theanine for umami flavour. The steamed, de-stemmed, de-veined, dried leaf is tencha, and it is stone-ground into powder; the practice began in Song Dynasty China and monk Eisai brought it to Japan in 1191 CE.
21. Established in 1970, the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre ranks where among India's tea auction centres by size?
Answer: E. GTAC began on 25 September 1970 and sits behind Kolkata (1861), handling about half of Assam's auction volume. Assam produces around half of India's tea, and India is second in production, third in exports and first in consumption worldwide.
22. VB-G RAM G, which took over from MGNREGA from 1 July 2026, received a first installment of ₹25,863 crore. What does the name stand for?
Answer: A. The Centre released ₹25,863 crore as the first tranche under the scheme that succeeded MGNREGA on 1 July 2026. Uttar Pradesh received the largest allocation, then Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
23. Egypt opened the largest defence headquarters in the world. By what popular name is it known?
Answer: B. The State Strategic Command Headquarters, nicknamed the Octagon, covers about 22,000 acres and serves as the central command of Egypt's armed forces.
24. Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth revealed the 'VIJAY' transformation roadmap. Which set of priorities does it stand for?
Answer: C. The roadmap seeks a technology-driven, future-ready Indian Army built on those five pillars, and was announced by General Dhiraj Seth, the COAS.
25. India reached its best-ever position in the Sustainable Development Report 2026. What was the rank?
Answer: D. India stood 94th, its best placing so far, helped by gains in digital connectivity and electricity access. Finland headed the table with Sweden and Denmark behind it.
26. Which trio of Indian business figures joined the ITU 'AI for Good' Global Commission as founding members?
Answer: A. These three are among the 44 global leaders on the commission, which advocates responsible AI governance and digital inclusion.
27. Modernisation of water and sanitation in which Indian city will be supported by a USD 230 million ADB loan?
Answer: C. The loan funds new pipelines, pumping stations and a ring-main distribution network, and Chennai becomes the first Indian city to adopt this approach.
28. Paytm Europe obtained a Payment Institution licence, allowing services across the European Economic Area, from the financial regulator of which country?
Answer: B. The Luxembourg regulator's licence lets Paytm Europe offer regulated payments throughout the EEA, extending Paytm into European financial services. Separately, the RBI fined Bank of Baroda and GIC Housing Finance a combined ₹66.7 lakh for KYC and lending lapses.
29. Who won Peru's 2026 presidential election and is due to take office on 28 July 2026?
Answer: D. She won a tight runoff and has led the Popular Force Party for more than ten years before this victory.
30. Which Finland-based company has teamed up with Agnikul Cosmos to build India's SAR satellite ecosystem?
Answer: E. The tie-up covers making Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites and indigenous launch services for defence, disaster management and environmental monitoring. Also in the news, ICAR-CMFRI used DNA analysis to identify a new Arabian Sea deep-sea fish, Cyttopsis indica.
31. What was the theme for the International Day of Cooperatives 2026, observed on 4 July?
Answer: C. The day fell on 4 July 2026 and its theme stressed how cooperatives support sustainable development and inclusive growth.
32. Adani Enterprises and International Resources Holding signed an MoU for a USD 11.5 billion integrated aluminium project with the government of which state?
Answer: A. The project spans mining, refining, smelting and downstream manufacturing, and is expected to be India's biggest FDI in metallurgy.