1. The report "Her Harvest 2026: The Hidden Cost of Women's Invisible Work in Indian Agriculture" says women operate what share of India's farmed area?
Answer: B. Published by the grain commerce platform Arya.ag, the report shows women operating only 11.72 per cent of farmed area even though 64.4 per cent of working women are in agriculture. That mismatch between who works the land and who is recorded as operator is its main point.
2. According to Her Harvest 2026, women agricultural workers receive how many rupees for every Rs 100 men earn?
Answer: C. Women's wages for similar work run 20 to 30 per cent below men's, and 50.5 per cent of women farm workers are unpaid helpers compared with 21.7 per cent of men. The report estimates a yearly output loss of Rs 1.2 to 2 lakh crore.
3. Which of these has the United Nations declared 2026 the International Year of?
Answer: D. The UN designation adds weight to the Her Harvest findings. The report urges recognising women as farmers whatever their land ownership, publishing gender-wise credit data and widening collateral-light credit and women-held Kisan Credit Cards.
4. Digital Bharat Nidhi, which signed the Amended BharatNet agreement with Chhattisgarh, used to be known by what earlier name?
Answer: E. The USOF was created by the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 and renamed under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, from 31 August 2024. It is funded by a levy on telecom operators' adjusted gross revenue and pays for infrastructure in remote and tribal areas.
5. The 140-year-old Parichha Weir in Jhansi has been named a World Heritage Irrigation Structure. Which canal system does it feed as its headworks?
Answer: A. The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage gave the recognition to a 2,654-km network that waters 4,28,360 hectares in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Three more Indian structures were chosen too, with awards due in Marseille in October 2026.
6. A new Incentive Scheme for Domestic PNG Connections gives City Gas Distribution companies cheaper domestic APM gas for each extra billed connection above the threshold. How much gas per connection?
Answer: B. Each additional billed connection earns 200 SCM of lower-priced gas, with a separate threshold for each Geographical Area and payment in two tranches over six months. The scheme starts 1 September 2026, and India has about 1.74 crore domestic PNG connections.
7. To what annual amount did Tamil Nadu increase the cover under its Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme?
Answer: C. The cover rose five times, from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh, to protect families from the huge costs of serious illness.
8. Public-sector banks have suggested what size of sub-target for climate and transition finance within Priority Sector Lending?
Answer: D. No separate climate or transition sub-target exists inside the 40 per cent of ANBC that banks must lend to priority sectors. The existing ones are 18 per cent for agriculture, 7.5 per cent for micro enterprises and 12 per cent for weaker sections.
9. Which statement best distinguishes transition finance from green finance?
Answer: E. Green finance supports activity that is already clean, whereas transition finance helps hard-to-abate sectors like steel, chemicals, fertilisers and construction cut emissions. India's climate finance taxonomy is still in draft, and the net-zero target is 2070.
10. What was the all-India unemployment rate (Current Weekly Status, age 15 and above) for July 2026, according to the 16th monthly PLFS bulletin?
Answer: A. The National Statistics Office bulletin showed the rate easing to 5.1 per cent from 5.5 per cent in June. The Labour Force Participation Rate rose to 55.4 per cent and the Worker Population Ratio to 52.5 per cent.
11. About what value did India's combined merchandise and services exports reach in July 2026?
Answer: B. Total exports rose 13.31 per cent from USD 70.72 billion a year earlier. Merchandise shipments hit a record USD 44.24 billion and services USD 35.89 billion, while imports of USD 95.16 billion widened the deficit to USD 15.03 billion.
12. Under which scheme did MeitY clear 31 more projects worth Rs 7,877 crore?
Answer: C. With this round, sanctioned projects under the scheme number 106, covering 30 products in 15 states. The new batch spans 20 target products across 10 states, and Ashwini Vaishnaw and Jitin Prasada handed over the approvals.
13. In which city is the headquarters of the BRICS New Development Bank, which Iran is moving to join?
Answer: D. The bank is based in Shanghai. India first proposed a South-South development bank in 2012, the agreement was signed at Fortaleza in 2014, and Dilma Rousseff leads it now, with Uzbekistan its tenth member from 5 June 2026.
14. SEBI barred two entities for placing huge orders and cancelling them within seconds in the Closing Auction Session, a practice called spoofing. Under which SEBI regulations is it prohibited?
Answer: E. The Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices rules ban it. Since the closing price settles derivatives, nudging it can make an option profitable, and SEBI acted against Copthall Mauritius Investment and Mansi Share and Stock Broking.
15. Which platform published the report 'Her Harvest 2026' on women in Indian agriculture?
Answer: B. The report is by grain commerce platform Arya.ag.