1. Agri-tech startup Grow Indigo recently paid roughly 2,500 farmers for over 57,000 agricultural carbon credits. What stood out about this payout?
Answer: D. The company paid from its own funds before the credits were fully sold, with each farmer getting Rs 3,000 to Rs 15,000. Paying ahead of buyers moves market risk from farmers to the aggregator, which matters since unpredictable, late payouts are the chief reason smallholders hesitate over carbon-farming methods.
2. Direct-seeded rice grown with SAVA-134 FullPage lowered methane emissions by almost how much, according to a study by CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya together with Savannah Seeds?
Answer: C. Emissions fell by nearly 90 per cent. Flooded paddies create oxygen-poor conditions where methane-producing bacteria flourish, so avoiding continuous standing water cuts emissions sharply; the study also found improved water productivity and soil health, which is why DSR is India's chief origin of farm carbon credits.
3. How much greenhouse gas does a single carbon credit normally stand for in terms of reduction or removal?
Answer: B. One credit equals one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, the common unit that allows different gases to be compared and traded. Farm credits come from practices that cut emissions, like direct-seeded rice reducing methane, or that raise soil carbon storage, which is tougher to measure and verify.
4. Which raw material does the Grass Mache technique, developed by an artisan in Srinagar, use?
Answer: E. The craft adapts Kashmir's centuries-old papier-mache tradition: dried weeds are ground into a fine fibrous pulp, mixed, shaped and dried until it feels like natural stone. It shows circular economy thinking by turning lake de-weeding waste into a livelihood input.
5. Which authority is in charge of managing Dal Lake in Srinagar?
Answer: D. The Lakes Conservation and Management Authority, formerly called LAWDA, manages it. Dal is an urban lake troubled by eutrophication, encroachment and weeds such as Azolla, Salvinia, water hyacinth and Ceratophyllum, and unlike Wular, Hokersar, Surinsar-Mansar and Tsomoriri, it is not a Ramsar Site.
6. Ophiopogon japonicus was recorded for the first time in India. From which State was it reported?
Answer: A. The evergreen perennial herb of the Asparagaceae family, called dwarf lilyturf or mondo grass, was recorded in West Kameng district. Its native range is China, Japan and Korea, growing between 200 and 2,800 metres, and its roots, known as Maidong, serve in traditional East Asian medicine.
7. With what outlay was the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, which marked six years on 10 September 2026, started?
Answer: C. PMMSY began in 2020 with Rs 20,050 crore, for FY2020-21 to FY2024-25 and was later extended through FY2025-26. The Department of Fisheries in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying implements it, with both Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored components.
8. What outlay and time frame does the Chhattisgarh Cabinet's CM Startup and NIPUN Mission carry?
Answer: B. The mission will spend Rs 500 crore across five years. NIPUN is an acronym about preparing young people for new-age industry through up-skilling. It plans Entrepreneurship Development Centres in each of the 33 districts, five Centres of Excellence and 100 labs for emerging technology such as AI, IoT, Big Data and Blockchain, plus a NIPUN Job Engine matching trained youth with industry.
9. What total did India's foreign exchange reserves reach as a new record in the week to 4 September 2026?
Answer: A. Reserves touched $785.7 billion, helped by a record weekly increase of $44.9 billion; they have gained more than $100 billion since the concessional swap scheme was announced on 5 June. FCNR(B) inflows near $127 billion beat expectations, and India now has the world's fourth-largest reserves.
10. Which organisation did the RBI recognise as fintech's second Self-Regulatory Organisation during Global Fintech Fest 2026?
Answer: E. The Unified Fintech Forum was recognised. SROs set and enforce conduct norms for their industry and reduce the regulator's supervisory workload. Also at this 7th Mumbai edition, the RBI added EUR, GBP, CAD, CHF and AED to Bharat Connect forex services, while SEBI began a Demat 2.0 pilot to tokenise corporate bonds through DLT.
11. Which organisation initiated the World Circular Economy Forum, whose 2026 meeting India is hosting in Gandhinagar, back in 2017?
Answer: D. Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, started it to mark a hundred years of Finland's independence. The 2026 edition, the 10th, runs 15 to 18 September at Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre, its debut in South Asia, under the theme "Circular Economy: Transition for People and Prosperity", seeking a move from take-make-waste to regenerative thinking.
12. What is the combined investment in the 50:50 joint venture between Cochin Shipyard Limited and UAE-based Drydocks World to enlarge Kochi's International Ship Repair Facility?
Answer: B. Together the partners will invest Rs 1,800 crore, Rs 900 crore each. The venture combines CSL's ship construction and repair strengths with Drydocks World's knowledge of repair, maintenance, conversion and offshore EPC. CSL is a Miniratna company reporting to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and ship repair backs import substitution.
13. Tata Steel has commissioned the Coke Oven Gas Injection Project at its Meramandali plant, a first for India. Coke Oven Gas contains hydrogen above what share?
Answer: A. More than 55 per cent of it is hydrogen. This by-product of coke making is purified and injected via tuyeres at Blast Furnace 1, displacing part of the carbon-based reducing agents and cutting fossil-fuel use and emissions, in line with the company's Net Zero target for 2045 at the Odisha plant.
14. Which historical event does National Forest Martyrs Day, marked in India on 11 September, remember?
Answer: C. The Khejarli Massacre of 1730 took place in Rajasthan, where villagers died resisting the cutting of khejri trees. The environment ministry fixed the observance in 2013, and it is held at Dehradun's National Forest Martyrs Memorial in honour of those who died protecting forests and wildlife.
15. Which farming method generated many of the carbon credits for which Grow Indigo paid farmers?
Answer: B. Many credits came from Direct-Seeded Rice (DSR).