1. Which state ranked first across the country in the third phase of Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari (JSJB 3.0)?
Answer: D. Chhattisgarh finished 77,719 of 79,775 registered water conservation structures and rose from second place in the earlier two phases. The ranking rewards how many works are completed, not just how many are registered.
2. Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari works under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain campaign. In what year did that campaign begin?
Answer: A. The Jal Shakti Ministry started the campaign in 2019 under the motto of catching rain where and when it falls, with focus on water-stressed districts. Its community-participation part, Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari, was started separately in Gujarat in 2024.
3. Which body created the Offline Verification Seeking Entity (OVSE) framework, which PSEB and MDU Rohtak have recently joined?
Answer: D. UIDAI, which functions under MeitY, set up the OVSE framework. The Punjab School Education Board and Maharishi Dayanand University were the first board and first university to join, and it checks locally held digital credentials instead of querying central databases.
4. RBI recently gave Life Insurance Corporation of India approval to take a stake in which bank?
Answer: B. Anyone acquiring a significant holding in a private bank needs prior RBI approval, and LIC received it for ICICI Bank. The approval lets LIC increase its holding within permitted limits and subject to RBI conditions.
5. The new SEBI-ESMA MoU on Central Counterparties supersedes an earlier agreement from which year?
Answer: E. The fresh MoU with the European Securities and Markets Authority brings back supervisory cooperation and information sharing and lets Indian CCPs apply again for recognition under EMIR. A CCP stands between buyer and seller and absorbs counterparty risk.
6. What is 'RAY', launched jointly by Razorpay and IndusInd Bank?
Answer: C. RAY lets MSMEs manage payments, settlements and refunds through chat and gives insights and alerts without a dashboard. It has already handled over 20,000 conversations, which helps small merchants who work wholly from a phone.
7. Canada's new CAD 20 banknote carries King Charles III on its front. What is shown on the back?
Answer: A. The back of the note shows the Vimy Ridge Memorial in France. Charles III is the first British monarch on Canadian money in over seventy years, and the vertically oriented note should circulate widely in early 2027.
8. In which state was Ophiopogon japonicus, a medicinal plant, recorded in India for the first time?
Answer: D. Researchers found the plant at 2,185 metres in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. Also called dwarf lilyturf or mondo grass, it belongs to Asparagaceae, is valued for its tuberous roots, and is native to China, Japan, Korea, Nepal and Vietnam.
9. The Northern Goshawk, known as Baaj, was in the news recently. Of which state is it the state bird?
Answer: B. The Northern Goshawk is Punjab's state bird. It is a medium-to-large raptor of the Accipitridae family, prized in falconry for its speed, found in temperate and boreal woods, and rated Least Concern by the IUCN.
10. From which city did the Ministry of Women and Child Development launch the 9th Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2026?
Answer: E. The 9th edition was launched from Varanasi. It is tied to Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 and carried out through Anganwadis, and it takes place in September after National Nutrition Week of 1 to 7 September.
11. Gegeneophis chandgadi is a new species from Buzawade village in Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. To which group of animals does it belong?
Answer: C. Caecilians are limbless amphibians that live in soil, forming a third amphibian order beside frogs and salamanders, and in India mostly occur in the Western Ghats. New ones keep turning up because they stay underground, underlining the region's hotspot status.
12. The NHAI Green Highways Excellence Awards were instituted in 2025, and the 2026 winners were declared. Under which policy were they set up?
Answer: A. The awards fall under the Green Highways Policy of 2015 and honour good practice in avenue, median and land-parcel plantations. Roadside planting also cuts dust and noise, steadies embankments and helps carbon sequestration goals.
13. In which year did the UN General Assembly designate 5 September as the International Day of Charity?
Answer: E. The UN General Assembly chose 2012 for this designation, and the date is Mother Teresa's death anniversary. In India the same day is Teachers' Day for Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birth anniversary, first marked in 1962.
14. Under which framework did Birkbeck, University of London get UGC approval for a campus in Bengaluru?
Answer: B. Approval came under the 2023 regulations, which put into effect an NEP 2020 promise to let reputed foreign universities open full campuses. The Bengaluru campus will begin with business programmes, with degrees from the University of London.
15. In which state was Ophiopogon japonicus recorded in India for the first time?
Answer: B. It was found in West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh.