1. Which chemical is used most often for cloud seeding in India?
Answer: B. Particles of silver iodide or sodium chloride serve as condensation nuclei around which droplets form, producing artificial rain.
2. India was represented by EAM S. Jaishankar at the 2025 ASEAN and East Asia Summit hosted by which country?
Answer: D. The 2025 ASEAN Summit was held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, where PM Modi spoke to the gathering by virtual means.
3. What share of ownership-based emissions does the global top 1% account for, according to the Climate Inequality Report 2025?
Answer: C. The report found that the wealthiest 1% worldwide is responsible for 41% of emissions based on ownership, much more than its share on a consumption basis.
4. Who heads the 8th Central Pay Commission?
Answer: E. Retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai chairs the commission, whose other members include Prof. Pulak Ghosh and Pankaj Jain.
5. In which year was MCX, which recently suffered a four-hour trading outage, founded?
Answer: A. The Multi Commodity Exchange of India began in 2003 and has its headquarters in Mumbai.
6. Small Finance Banks must direct what percentage of adjusted net bank credit to the priority sector?
Answer: A. RBI regulations require SFBs to lend three-fourths of their adjusted net bank credit to priority sectors.
7. SEBI's proposed reforms would bring the brokerage cap on cash market trades down to what level?
Answer: C. For mutual funds, the proposal is to cut the cash market brokerage ceiling from 12 basis points (0.12%) to just 2 basis points (0.02%).
8. Which benchmark rate has mostly taken LIBOR's place in ECB calculations?
Answer: D. The Secured Overnight Financing Rate is the new global reference rate that substitutes LIBOR for dollar loans, ECBs included.
9. Under RBI's nomination rules effective 1 November 2025, how many nominees may a customer name for a single account?
Answer: E. Account holders can now appoint as many as four nominees and state each one's percentage share in the account or locker.
10. Which of these agricultural commodities is traded on MCX?
Answer: B. The exchange lists several agri-commodities, among them cotton, mentha oil and cardamom, but wheat and rice are not traded there.
11. The India Meteorological Department tracks Montha as one of how many Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres worldwide?
Answer: D. IMD is one of six RSMCs under the WMO framework.
12. Which institute partnered with the Delhi Government for cloud-seeding trials?
Answer: A. The Delhi Government worked with IIT Kanpur.
13. Where is the headquarters of ASEAN located?
Answer: B. ASEAN is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia.
14. Which organisation's researchers authored the Climate Inequality Report 2025?
Answer: B. Lucas Chancel and Cornelia Mohren are from the World Inequality Lab.
15. Who chairs the 8th Central Pay Commission?
Answer: B. Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (Retd.) is the Chairperson.