1. Which minister brought the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 before the Lok Sabha on 27 July 2026?
Answer: D. Dr Jitendra Singh, Union MoS for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, introduced it. The Bill reworks the 2024 Act with much heavier penalties and tighter deadlines, including an optional Special Task Force with a 2-month probe limit and compulsory Special Fast Track Courts completing day-to-day trials within 3 months.
2. The 2026 Amendment Bill prescribes at least 7 years in prison and a ₹10 crore minimum fine for organised exam crimes. What is the new fine for individuals who use unfair means, up from ₹10 lakh under the 2024 Act?
Answer: A. Individuals now face ₹50 lakh and 5-10 years instead of ₹10 lakh and 3-5 years. Service providers go from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore plus recovery of exam costs, management persons face at least 5 years and ₹5 crore, and a service provider's debarment doubles from 4 to 8 years.
3. Under which Panchayati Raj Ministry scheme does the "Atmanirbhar Panchayat Programme", which helps Gram and Block Panchayats turn idle assets into revenue-earning projects, sit?
Answer: C. It is anchored in the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) and aims to build Own Sources of Revenue for panchayats so they depend less on central and state grants. MoPR also launched the SAMARTH Panchayat Portal and Model OSR Rules for stronger governance under Viksit Bharat @2047.
4. Which two states already run the SAMARTH Panchayat Portal, India's pioneering single digital platform for panchayat revenue, with over 51 lakh taxpayers on board?
Answer: E. Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh use it for taxpayer registration, auto-generated demand notices, digital payments and live tracking, with property tax, user charges and trade licences standardised. It has issued ₹95 crore of demand notices and gathered over ₹27 crore; Maharashtra, Mizoram, Assam, Haryana, West Bengal and UP come next in phases.
5. Which kind of material would NASA's "PRAXIS" concept, chosen under NIAC 2026 Phase I, be the first mission to physically collect?
Answer: B. PRAXIS (Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling), led at JPL by Dr B. Marco Quadrelli, aims to gather particles from planetary rings using bio-inspired robots, live AI and light sampling devices. NIAC supports risky early ideas via Phase I (roughly 9 months), Phase II (about 2 years) and Phase III; India's nearest parallel is Chandrayaan-3 landing with autonomous hazard detection.
6. Under the Samudra Manthan Mission, ONGC has started its first deepwater exploration well, "MN-DW18-1-H-D". Which offshore basin hosts it?
Answer: E. The Mahanadi Offshore Basin hosts the well, which Hardeep Singh Puri spudded by virtual means on 25 July 2026; it is the first of four planned deepwater wells. The programme answers the PM's 15 August 2025 call and frees roughly a million square km of previously restricted offshore acreage; ONGC's DeepX centre, opened 5 January 2026, and the Utkal and Konark finds underpin it.
7. The Mahanadi River originates in the Sihawa hill range of which district?
Answer: B. It rises in the Sihawa hills of Dhamtari district, Chhattisgarh, then flows north and east into Odisha, cuts through the Eastern Ghats at the Satkosia Gorge and reaches the Bay of Bengal at False Point near Paradip. Its heavy silt load built the thick offshore sediments that make the basin rich in hydrocarbons; Seonath is its longest tributary and Tel the largest on the right bank.
8. Training SHG women as "Solar Didis", the "DWEEPTI Yojana" is a first-of-its-kind women-led distributed renewable energy policy. Which state introduced it?
Answer: D. Chhattisgarh, via its Panchayat & Rural Development Department with Transform Rural India under the Green Economy Transition Mission. SHG women work as vendors, technicians, installers and entrepreneurs, Cluster Level Federations can register as authorised vendors under PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, and flexible loans flow through the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme; Kabirdham was the pilot.
9. The BIMCO-ICS Seafarer Workforce Report 2026 puts India second in supplying seafarers, with 12.16% of the world total. Which country is ahead?
Answer: A. The Philippines is first. India's 311,936 maritime professionals outnumber those of China, Russia and Indonesia, and its share more than doubled over a decade from 5.2% (2015) and 6% (2021). Sarbananda Sonowal announced "Mission 20%" to lift the share to 20%, in line with Maritime India Vision 2030 and Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047.
10. Which state was first to become eligible for the second instalment under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) after using over 75% of its first?
Answer: C. Maharashtra qualified first, having utilised nearly ₹260 crore of the ₹335 crore released, and gets another ₹335 crore. RKVY is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme backing state-specific agricultural development.
11. To mark the Ministry of Earth Sciences' 20th Foundation Day on 27 July 2026, how many IMD Centres of Excellence were inaugurated?
Answer: A. The count was 13, launched alongside IMD NOVA, the WINGS app, a national Doppler radar reflectivity mosaic and the Strong Motion Atlas of India. The Cyclone Warning Centre at Thiruvananthapuram also became an Area Cyclone Warning Centre, helping weather prediction, seismology and ocean science.
12. Under the revised GDP series with 2022-23 base, which index will MoSPI use as GDP deflator in place of WPI where applicable?
Answer: C. MoSPI will use the Producer Price Index (PPI) instead of WPI where applicable, since the new series with 2022-23 as base follows double deflation for more accurate real GDP. It applies from the April-June quarter of 2026-27.
13. Piyush Goyal set up a Task Force to help India capture what portion of the global toy market by 2032?
Answer: E. Five percent by 2032 is the goal, pursued via manufacturing, innovation, exports, skilling and global value chains. A Toy Sector Playbook for MSMEs and startups was released, and the industry already counts over 21,000 MSMEs, about 770 startups, 50 clusters and more than 1,800 BIS licensees.
14. What is the minimum nitrogen content of "Anhydrous Ammonia", which the Agriculture Ministry allowed for farm use for three years under the Fertiliser Control Order, 1985?
Answer: B. At least 82% nitrogen, far above urea's 46%, so it improves nutrient-use efficiency and trims urea imports. NETRA is to build a Green Urea pilot of 150 TPD in Andhra Pradesh, and Tourism signed a two-year deal with Air India to promote Incredible India abroad.
15. What kind of platform is "Drishti", the in-house digital tool Axis Finance launched for retail and MSME lending?
Answer: D. Drishti is a Business Rules Engine that automates credit assessment through analytics, underwriting workflows and statistical scorecards, used for Personal Loans, Business Loans, Loan Against Property and Home Loans to speed up lending and improve consistency and risk control.
16. OmniCard's "Flexi Benefits Basket", India's first on UPI for tax-efficient employee benefits, runs on which RBI-licensed instrument?
Answer: B. It is built on a Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) licensed by the RBI, covering spend on meals, fuel, telecom, books and gadgets at nearly 60 million UPI merchants controlled via Merchant Category Codes.
17. Edelweiss Mutual Fund launched India's first REIT-focused passive index fund tracking the Nifty REITs & Realty TRI. From when did SEBI treat REITs as equity instruments?
Answer: D. SEBI's reclassification of REITs as equity took effect on 1 January 2026. The Edelweiss fund holds roughly 60% REITs and 40% real estate companies to give diversified exposure to listed Indian real estate.
18. The CRPF celebrated its 88th Foundation Day on 27 July 2026. What was it originally called when raised in 1939?
Answer: A. Its first name was the Crown Representative's Police; it became the Central Reserve Police Force in 1949. Today it is the biggest of India's Central Armed Police Forces, serving in internal security, disaster response and counter-insurgency.
19. What was the theme for World Hepatitis Day on 28 July 2026?
Answer: C. The theme was "Hepatitis: Let's Break It Down", with a goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030. The date is Dr. Baruch Samuel Blumberg's birth anniversary (he found the Hepatitis B Virus), and the World Health Assembly recognised the day in 2010.