1. GANGA, India's first cloned cattle, was produced in 2025 at ICAR-NDRI. Which native breed is it?
Answer: C. GANGA is a Gir female calf created through Ovum Pick-Up and Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Cloning helps multiply elite native animals whose genes might otherwise be lost, as ordinary breeding needs many generations to spread good traits.
2. Which world first in animal biotechnology did ICAR-NDRI, Karnal achieve in 2009?
Answer: A. The hand-guided method needs no costly micromanipulators, so cloning is cheaper and easier to use in the field. NDRI has since moved on to cattle and to cloned Badri embryos, exploring elite Badri cows for Himalayan breed conservation.
3. In which year was the Rashtriya Gokul Mission, which aims to develop and conserve native bovine breeds, launched?
Answer: D. RGM began in December 2014, and the February 2014 scheme was NPBBDD. For 2021-22 to 2025-26 it was realigned with Rs 2,400 crore, raised by Rs 1,000 crore in March 2025 to Rs 3,400 crore, and covers artificial insemination, sex-sorted semen and IVF.
4. Badri cattle, whose elite high-yielding animals are being considered for cloning, are native to and the state animal of which State?
Answer: C. Badri cattle matter for Himalayan breed diversity and hill farming, where hardy low-input animals count more than high yield. India has over 50 recognised native cattle breeds, valued for climate adaptability, disease resistance and A2 beta-casein milk.
5. ICAR-IVRI, Izatnagar produced calves of a native breed through OPU-IVF-ET at the institute for the first time. Which breed was it?
Answer: E. The effort started in 2022-23 to standardise OPU-IVF-ET under farm and field conditions, aimed at Sahiwal, Tharparkar and Murrah. The process runs from an elite female through ovum pick-up and in vitro fertilisation to transfer of the embryo into a synchronised recipient.
6. What is the botanical name of moth bean, the drought-tolerant pulse in the news?
Answer: C. Moth bean, also known as mat bean or Turkish gram, is a short-day annual legume of Fabaceae. Moong, urad and cowpea share the genus Vigna but are different species, and root-nodule Rhizobium fixes nitrogen from the air.
7. The moth bean varieties CAZRI Moth-4, 5, 6 and 7 showed resilience in Kharif 2026 by withstanding a dry spell of how long?
Answer: A. The dry stretch lasted from 3 August to 7 September 2026 during an El Nino year, whereas usual dry spells there last only 20 to 30 days. The crop copes by flowering around day 30 and adjusting its maturity to the moisture it gets.
8. In which part of India is moth bean grown most widely?
Answer: D. Western Rajasthan's Thar leads, with some crop in Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab, on nearly 10 lakh hectares yielding about 350 kg per hectare. It tolerates poor sandy soil, 150 to 250 mm rain and heat above 40 degrees Celsius, and its dry fodder Pala feeds desert livestock.
9. In which water body was the fish Schizopygopsis waddellii recorded in India for the first time?
Answer: B. The lake, at 12,800 feet in Arunachal Pradesh, yielded the cold-adapted snowtrout of the Cyprinidae family, identified by ICAR-CIFRI-Coldwater with morphology and mitochondrial DNA. Tibet's Yamdok Lake is the type locality, not the Indian record.
10. The Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 2026, to take effect on 1 October 2026, replaces an earlier law from which year?
Answer: E. The new Act received Presidential assent on 13 August 2026 and succeeds a statute 135 years old. It sets rules for admissibility and certification of bank records as prima facie evidence without original registers, in a regime neutral to technology.
11. Which of these is a feature of the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 2026?
Answer: C. The Act continues to cover commercial banks and Post Office Savings Banks and lets the Centre widen its reach by notification. It also accepts manual, digital or electronic signatures and defines a statutory special cause so bank staff are not routinely summoned when the bank is not a party.
12. SEBI's consultation paper on the Closing Auction Session (CAS) framework proposed what about order cancellation?
Answer: A. The curbs aim to stop people placing orders just to sway the indicative equilibrium price and then pulling them. SEBI's seven proposals, open for comment until 3 October 2026, also deal with expiry-day settlement price, market timings and the Indicative Index Value.
13. The Government of India says the 11 full BRICS members together make up about what share of global GDP?
Answer: D. The grouping holds around 49.5 per cent of world population, 40 per cent of global GDP and 26 per cent of trade. The New Delhi Declaration at the 18th Summit urged more say for emerging economies in the UN, IMF and World Bank, in India's fourth chairship after 2012, 2016 and 2021.
14. Which organisation is building the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail line, which just reached its 41st tunnel breakthrough?
Answer: C. The 125-km line recorded this breakthrough on 11 September 2026 with Escape Tunnel-1. Tunnelling dominates because of the tough Himalayan terrain, and the link should improve access in Uttarakhand's hill districts, including for pilgrims and in disasters.
15. Ben Shelton's 2026 US Open final defeat extended the American men's Grand Slam title drought to how many years?
Answer: D. Shelton's defeat extended the American men's major drought to 23 years, since Roddick in 2003.