1. Which Uttarakhand river basin was found to hold 219 hanging glaciers in a recent study?
Answer: D. Researchers counted 219 such glaciers in the Alaknanda basin and cautioned that rising temperatures and thawing permafrost make ice detachment more likely, with avalanches and floods as possible downstream results.
2. A hanging glacier is best defined as which one of the following?
Answer: E. Hanging glaciers start high on a slope and stop at a cliff edge, well above the valley bottom, shedding ice as icefalls and avalanches. They arise from snow piling up in high niches, from retreat that cuts tributaries off from shrinking main glaciers, and from thawing that destabilises the ice.
3. Which monsoon season does RAINCHNNAI, the second rainfall-linked weather derivative introduced by NCDEX in India, cover?
Answer: A. The contract spans the retreating North-East monsoon, September through December, and pays out depending on rainfall measured at Chennai's Meenambakkam and Nungambakkam IMD stations. Such instruments let farmers and insurers hedge rainfall risk directly, which suits Tamil Nadu, where that monsoon brings most of the rain.
4. Under which scheme will Puducherry see fisheries infrastructure works costing roughly Rs 36.49 crore?
Answer: D. The works worth Rs 36.49 crore fall under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, the main fisheries-sector scheme, which backs fisher livelihoods, modern infrastructure and efficient value chains. Landing and handling facilities are among the components that cut post-harvest losses.
5. What was India's real GDP growth rate for Q1 FY27, covering April to June 2026?
Answer: A. Real GDP expanded 7.8 per cent in the quarter, up from 6.9 per cent a year earlier but below the 8.6 per cent of January-March 2026. Nominal GDP rose 10.3 per cent and real GVA 8.2 per cent; the difference between nominal and real figures is explained by the deflator.
6. Real GVA growth of 8.2 per cent ran ahead of real GDP growth of 7.8 per cent in Q1 FY27. What does such a gap usually point to?
Answer: B. Since GDP is GVA plus product taxes less product subsidies, slower GDP growth than GVA means net product taxes pulled it down, usually because subsidies grew faster than taxes. That matched the overshoot in fertiliser subsidy during the quarter.
7. What share of the FY27 full-year Budget Estimate had the fiscal deficit reached by the end of July?
Answer: D. The deficit amounted to 26.8 per cent of the annual estimate, or Rs 4.55 lakh crore, with net tax revenue of Rs 8.45 lakh crore against total spending of Rs 17.62 lakh crore. Analysts follow this monthly ratio because heavy early spending or weak receipts can hint at slippage.
8. Cooperative-led cultivation of which crop, tied to the Blue Economy, was promoted at a Multi-Dimensional Capacity Building Conclave?
Answer: B. The conclave pushed cooperative-based seaweed farming, which needs little capital and no freshwater or fertiliser and gives coastal families, especially women's self-help groups, extra income. Cooperatives can pool output, strengthen bargaining power and connect growers with agar, carrageenan and biostimulant processors.
9. Which city, in which country, is the venue for the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit?
Answer: C. Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek hosts the summit as the bloc completes 25 years. The country is a landlocked, mountainous Central Asian state in the Tien Shan range, independent since 31 August 1991, and Bishkek sits in the Chu river valley.
10. The SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure has its headquarters in which city?
Answer: A. RATS is based in Tashkent, whereas the SCO Secretariat sits in Beijing. The grouping began in 2001 in Shanghai, growing out of the Shanghai Five; India and Pakistan joined in 2017, Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.
11. Which department notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, which make IST the sole time reference for official use?
Answer: C. The Department of Consumer Affairs issued these rules to ensure accurate time-stamping and to protect networks, financial systems and critical infrastructure from clock mismatches. They take effect 180 days after Gazette publication.
12. OIL Green Energy signed MoUs with the municipalities of Gurugram, Faridabad, Hisar and Ambala on waste-to-clean-energy projects. What quantity of municipal solid waste will they handle?
Answer: C. The plants are to handle 5,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a day and yield around 70 to 75 tonnes of compressed biogas daily plus about 50 MW of green power. This keeps waste out of landfills and supports domestic biofuels.
13. On what date is National Small Industry Day marked in India?
Answer: E. The day falls on 30 August and is tied to the policy package for Small Scale Industries announced in 2000, honouring the role of small units and MSMEs in jobs, exports and inclusive growth. Internationally, the same date marks the Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
14. From where will NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, newly lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, carry out its observations?
Answer: B. It will work near Lagrange Point 2, the region also used by the James Webb Space Telescope, which keeps the Sun, Earth and Moon behind it for steady infrared viewing. The roughly USD 4.3 billion mission will study dark energy and exoplanets and map the infrared sky widely.
15. Which pairing of C-DOT quantum product and its function is correct?
Answer: C. Q-DARSHAN is the quantum-safe video IP phone. C-SPD is the single-photon detector; Q-VAAYU secures wireless links.
16. Global hard coral cover is down by roughly what proportion against the 1980-2009 reference period, as per the 7th Status of Coral Reefs of the World report?
Answer: D. The coral monitoring network reports hard coral cover roughly 9.5 per cent below the 1980-2009 baseline, with the sharpest losses after 2010. A drop of 8.9 per cent in 2023-24 was the largest one-year relative fall, and gaps between bleaching events have narrowed to four to six years.
17. In 2024, the fourth global mass bleaching event of 2023-24 exposed what portion of the world's reefs to heat stress never seen before?
Answer: A. Roughly 87 per cent of reefs met record-breaking heat stress in 2024. Within that group 42.6 per cent saw 8 or more degree-Celsius-weeks, the level linked to widespread bleaching and death, compared with 27.4 per cent in 2025.
18. Which organism do heat-stressed corals expel, causing them to bleach?
Answer: D. In abnormally warm water corals push out their zooxanthellae, which removes their colour and main food supply and leaves a white skeleton open to disease and starvation. If the stress continues the coral dies.
19. A valuation put the Pichavaram mangroves at roughly Rs 2,485.38 crore in Total Economic Value. Blue carbon assets make up about what part of that figure?
Answer: B. Blue carbon assets were put at Rs 1,612.40 crore, which is about 65 per cent of the Rs 2,485.38 crore total. Pricing carbon storage next to fisheries, coastal protection and tourism strengthens the economic argument for conserving mangroves.
20. The Strategic Action Plan for Mission Rangeen Machhli 2031 was released at Agatti, Lakshadweep. Which sector does this mission aim to develop?
Answer: E. The mission is a plan for ornamental fisheries, covering the breeding, rearing and trade of decorative aquarium fish. The Fisheries Department under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying implements it, with value-chain SOPs, quarantine, traceability and cluster-based approaches under PMMSY.
21. In July 2026, UPI handled how many transactions, with a combined value close to Rs 30 lakh crore?
Answer: D. UPI recorded 2,366 crore transactions worth nearly Rs 30 lakh crore in July 2026. It is a real-time, interoperable payment system that maps bank accounts to a simple virtual payment address and settles person-to-person and person-to-merchant payments at once.
22. What function does the PSP Bank perform within UPI's three-layer set-up?
Answer: A. The app a user sees, such as Google Pay or PhonePe, is the TPAP, and the PSP Bank is the sponsor that connects that app to UPI. The central switch that routes payments between banks is run by NPCI.
23. NPCI developed UPI, which began as a pilot in April 2016 involving how many banks?
Answer: D. The April 2016 pilot, under RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, included 21 banks. Participation has since grown to more than 730 banks, supporting a seamless cashless system and wider digital finance access.
24. What revised FY27 GDP growth forecast did SBI Research issue for India?
Answer: B. After India posted real GDP growth of 7.8 per cent in the first quarter of FY27, SBI Research lifted its full-year projection from 6.6 to 7.3 per cent. Domestic demand and government capital spending are seen as the drivers.
25. UPI 123Pay from PhonePe lets feature-phone users pay without internet. What kind of architecture makes this possible?
Answer: E. The service relies on SMS, which suits weak or 2G networks, so feature-phone owners can pay and check balances without data. It also offers an AI voice helpline in English and 12 Indian languages.
26. The V-Dem Democracy Report put India's Electoral Democracy Index at its lowest since 1975. The institute that publishes it is based at which university?
Answer: C. The Varieties of Democracy Institute, housed at Sweden's University of Gothenburg, brings out the yearly report and its five indices. It characterises India as experiencing slow autocratisation, meaning gradual weakening of institutions.
27. Depalpur in Madhya Pradesh became the first city under Swachh Shehar Jodi to reach Zero Legacy Waste. Which city mentored it?
Answer: A. Depalpur's civic body was paired with the Indore Municipal Corporation, a city that regularly tops Swachh Survekshan rankings. Under the scheme's Each One Teach One approach, mentor cities pass on their methods to partner cities.
28. Which group of rivers did the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty assign to India as the Eastern Rivers?
Answer: D. The World Bank-brokered treaty gave India the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, while the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab went mainly to Pakistan, with India allowed limited non-consumptive hydropower use there.
29. MoSPI signed an MoU with the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology for an AI-based framework using HCES data. What is the framework meant to estimate?
Answer: B. Using Household Consumption Expenditure Survey data, the framework will produce MPCE estimates for the country and its States. MPCE feeds poverty measurement, consumer price index weights and planning, and the tool should cut dependence on infrequent survey rounds.
30. Which network released the 7th Status of Coral Reefs of the World report?
Answer: A. The notes state GCRMN published the 7th edition.
31. UNCCD COP17, the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, was held from 17-28 August 2026 in which city?
Answer: D. The session in Ulaanbaatar carried the theme "Restoring Land. Restoring Hope." and overlapped with the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026), fitting for a country built on pastoral grazing. Bhupender Yadav represented India, and Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh will host COP18 in 2028.
32. Up to what sum is the Drought Resilience Investment Facility (DRIF), unveiled at UNCCD COP17, meant to raise?
Answer: D. DRIF aims for USD 400 million and was one of three drought launches, the others being IDRO Phase-II and the AI-powered Drought Resilience Index. Together they move the convention's emphasis from tracking land degradation toward funding preparedness.
33. India Post Payments Bank celebrated its 9th Foundation Day on 1 September 2026. What proportion of its customers, as of 31 March 2026, lived in rural areas?
Answer: B. Rural customers made up 77 per cent of the base, reflecting a bank built on the postal network, while women are 49 per cent of its 13.25 crore customers. On the day, it introduced the DakPay Sound Box plus digital insurance and mutual fund platforms, extending into third-party product distribution.
34. How much did India Post Payments Bank hold in customer deposits at 31 March 2026?
Answer: A. Deposits of Rs 29,104 crore spread over 13.25 crore customers imply very small average balances, typical of last-mile inclusion accounts. Because payments banks cannot lend, the money sits in government securities and bank deposits, and income comes mainly from fees and commissions.
35. Two insurance plans were introduced by LIC on 1 September 2026. Which plan number belongs to LIC Jeevan Raksha, the pure protection one?
Answer: B. Jeevan Raksha is Plan 894, with Basic Sum Assured from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 24 lakh and no savings component; the other launch, LIC Bima Platinum (Plan 770), blends savings with cover from Rs 3 lakh. Both are non-linked and non-participating, so returns do not depend on markets or on LIC's surplus.
36. After InsuranceDekho and RenewBuy merged, what is the premium book of the combined firm?
Answer: E. The merged entity, trading as InsuranceDekho under CEO Ankit Agrawal, has a premium book above Rs 6,600 crore and lists over 750 products from 52 insurers across motor, health, life, travel and commercial cover. Aggregator consolidation continues as IRDAI encourages reach into smaller cities.
37. In early September 2026, Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) lifted India's sovereign rating by a single notch. Which rating did India receive?
Answer: B. JCR raised India from BBB+ to A- and lifted the country ceiling to A, pointing to growth near 7 per cent, GST reforms, Digital Public Infrastructure and stronger bank balance sheets. A higher ceiling limits the best rating domestic borrowers can get, so it eases their overseas borrowing costs.
38. Which base year does the new national accounts series in MoSPI's National Accounts Statistics 2026 use?
Answer: C. The 2022-23 base underlies NAS 2026, which has 60 statistical statements spanning GDP, income, consumption, savings, capital formation and public-sector and external transactions. The revision also brings new or refreshed indices such as the Producer Price Index, IIP and a Banking Services Price Index.
39. What real GDP growth rate for Q1 FY27 does the 2022-23 base-year series, as clarified by MoSPI, show for India?
Answer: A. The figure is 7.8 per cent; MoSPI clarified it after a negative manufacturing deflator raised doubts. When input and output prices fall, a deflator can turn negative, which makes real growth in that segment exceed nominal growth.
40. The Gender Parity Index in higher education was what value according to AISHE 2023-24, released by the Ministry of Education?
Answer: A. The GPI stood at 1.08, meaning female enrolment exceeds male relative to the eligible population, and it has stayed above 1.0 for a seventh year running. Over the ten years between the 13th and 14th AISHE editions, total enrolment grew from 3.42 crore to 4.50 crore, with women rising faster from 1.57 crore to 2.24 crore.
41. An MoU between the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission launches "Creating Intergenerational Bonding". In how many schools will it be piloted?
Answer: E. The pilot covers 200 schools and uses co-learning games, school activities, a bilingual resource platform and teacher certification to bring children, parents and grandparents closer. It sits alongside AVYAY and Elderline, run by the same department for senior citizens.
42. According to UNEP's "Limiting Overshoot" report, what would peak warming be if all countries fulfil their national climate plans and net-zero targets?
Answer: C. The report puts it near 1.8 degrees Celsius. It is UNEP's first detailed overshoot, peak and decline pathway, accepting that 1.5 degrees will be crossed soon and aiming to return below it by 2100 through net-negative emissions, while current policies lead to about 2.6 degrees. UNEP is headquartered in Nairobi.
43. The Foundation for Quantum Computing Innovation, a thematic hub under the National Quantum Mission, was set up at IISc Bengaluru. What is the total outlay of the mission?
Answer: C. The mission's outlay is Rs 6,003.65 crore for 2023-24 to 2030-31, aiming at quantum computers of 50 to 1,000 qubits. FQCI will cover photonic, superconducting, semiconductor, neutral-atom and trapped-ion approaches instead of backing one technology.
44. Suman Ray assumed office as Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India on 1 September 2026. Which responsibility will she hold?
Answer: D. She will look after the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation and the Premises Department. Previously Regional Director for Maharashtra, she has over 30 years at the RBI, and DICGC, its wholly owned subsidiary, insures deposits up to Rs 5 lakh per depositor per bank.
45. Which bodies form the special purpose vehicle for the NSHIPOL project?
Answer: A. Sources say the project will be developed through an SPV involving the Odisha Maritime Board and the Paradip Port Authority.
46. NABARD and the India Meteorological Department signed an MoU to supply agro-meteorological data to the DiCRA platform. What does the acronym DiCRA expand to?
Answer: C. DiCRA stands for Data in Climate Resilient Agriculture. Under the MoU, IMD feeds forecasts, crop advisories, station readings and extreme-event alerts into a weather portal on it, available through APIs that banks, insurers and agri-tech firms can plug into.
47. NABARD backs the open-source DiCRA platform together with which international organisation?
Answer: A. DiCRA, supported by NABARD and the UNDP, already underpinned the National Climate Stack Innovation Challenge, where firms built village-level climate risk tools. IMD data makes it a live weather service useful for crop insurance pricing and resilient lending.
48. Which ministry runs the 5th edition of Swachh Sagar, Surakshit Sagar, the campaign that added a National Ocean Olympiad?
Answer: E. Dr Jitendra Singh launched the fifth edition of this ocean conservation drive, which now lasts a week. It started in 2022 as a 75-day clean-up across 75 beaches linked to Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
49. The Public Insurance Registry proposed by IRDAI is envisaged as Digital Public Infrastructure under which law?
Answer: B. The consultation paper describes the registry as a large-scale, interoperable exchange layer instead of a central data warehouse. Data stays with the institution that holds it and moves only on authorised request, similar to the Account Aggregator idea.
50. To put the Public Insurance Registry into practice, which existing body is proposed to become a wholly owned, not-for-profit IRDAI subsidiary?
Answer: E. The Insurance Information Bureau would be converted into the IRDAI subsidiary running the registry. Insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, policyholders and government departments would take part, linked to vehicle, health, weather and court databases.
51. Zerodha Corporate Advisors received a Category-I merchant banking licence from SEBI. What minimum net worth must a Category-I merchant banker hold?
Answer: C. SEBI sharply raised the Category-I requirement from Rs 5 crore to Rs 50 crore, while Category-II bankers need Rs 10 crore. Only Category-I bankers can manage and underwrite main-board IPOs, so this licence lets Zerodha enter equity capital markets.
52. SEBI's norms limit a Category-I merchant banker's business to how many multiples of its liquid net worth?
Answer: A. The limit of 20 times liquid net worth keeps underwriting exposure in line with capital available to absorb losses. Zerodha's advisory arm plans to start with IPOs, follow-on public offers and issuer advisory.
53. For which bank did the RBI approve Carol Kripanayana Furtado as interim MD and CEO?
Answer: D. She will serve for three months or until a permanent chief is chosen, after Sanjeev Nautiyal resigned on 31 August 2026. Banks need prior RBI approval for interim CEOs, and Furtado had earlier led Ujjivan Financial Services.
54. At the 26th SCO Council of Heads of State meeting in Bishkek, which country took over the SCO presidency for 2026-2027?
Answer: B. Pakistan received the rotating presidency at the Bishkek summit, which Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov chaired. The Bishkek Declaration condemned cross-border terrorism and backed national-currency trade and talks on an SCO Development Bank.
55. In which city is the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) headquartered?
Answer: E. RATS operates from Tashkent, while the SCO Secretariat is in Beijing, a pairing often mixed up. The SCO was founded in 2001 at Shanghai and now has ten members after India and Pakistan (2017), Iran (2023) and Belarus (2024) joined.
56. MeitY notified the operational framework for Semicon 2.0. How large is the programme's total outlay?
Answer: D. The outlay of Rs 1,27,500 crore, about Rs 1.27 lakh crore, is well above that of the first semiconductor mission. It spans chip design, wafer fabrication, packaging, equipment, materials and talent, aiming at Indian-owned intellectual property.
57. Into how many pillars and categories is Semicon 2.0 organised, respectively?
Answer: A. The scheme has 6 pillars and 10 categories, run by the India Semiconductor Mission under MeitY with C-DAC as technical partner. Category-wise incentives let the government support weak links like specialty chemicals and materials, not only fabrication.
58. Which launch vehicle will carry ISRO's EOS-05 earth observation satellite, earlier called GISAT-1A?
Answer: D. EOS-05 will go up on GSLV-F17 from the Second Launch Pad at Sriharikota and sit in geosynchronous orbit near 35,786 km. That orbit gives near-continuous coverage for disasters, farming and border monitoring, and the satellite replaces the lost GISAT-1.
59. The 4th Indo-German Environment Forum saw India and Germany sign a Joint Declaration of Intent on wetland conservation. In which year was the IGEF set up?
Answer: B. The forum, established in 2008, is the top bilateral environmental policy platform between the two countries. The new declaration widens cooperation to biodiversity, forests, mountains, climate resilience, circular economy and green skills.
60. The September 2026 NABARD-IMD MoU adds weather data to which platform?
Answer: B. The MoU integrates agro-meteorological data into DiCRA.
61. Under which ministry was BIO-NIVESH, a platform that links biotechnology startups with investors, introduced?
Answer: E. Dr Jitendra Singh launched it at a New Delhi roundtable under the Ministry of Science and Technology. It works as a two-way channel: founders learn investor expectations while investors understand the lengthy scientific, regulatory and clinical path of biotech, a reason private funding is hard to attract.
62. On which card network or networks was the co-branded Scapia Axis Bank Credit Card introduced?
Answer: A. It is issued on Mastercard and RuPay, with no joining fee, no annual fee and no forex mark-up, aimed at digital-first travellers. The RuPay version matters because such cards can be tied to UPI, a big distribution edge for co-branded cards.
63. ICICI Bank bought a further 2 per cent of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Roughly what was the deal worth?
Answer: D. The deal was worth about Rs 1,470 crore, done via the stock exchange, and took ICICI Bank to roughly 52.8 per cent. Regulatory needs linked to Prudential's planned takeover of Bharti Life Insurance drove it, since a promoter cannot control two rival life insurers.
64. UNEP's "Limiting Overshoot" report says how much carbon budget is left for a 50 per cent chance of holding warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius?
Answer: C. About 130 GtCO2 remains, which current emission rates would use up in around three years, so the report treats overshoot as certain rather than possible. A carbon budget is the total CO2 that can still be emitted for a chosen chance of staying under a temperature limit.
65. What does the UNEP report give as the present level of human-induced warming and its pace of rise?
Answer: A. Warming is about 1.4 degrees Celsius, climbing by 0.25 degrees each decade, so the gap to 1.5 degrees will close within a few years. Human-induced warming excludes natural swings like El Nino, whereas a single hot year can top 1.5 degrees without the long-term limit being broken.
66. What chance does the WMO give that the average temperature for 2026-2030 will go above 1.5 degrees Celsius?
Answer: C. The WMO, the UN agency for weather, climate and water with its seat in Geneva, puts the likelihood at 75 per cent. A five-year average passing the threshold says more than one hot year because averaging removes short natural swings and signals a structural breach of the Paris goal.
67. Which is the right order of the four stages in the climate overshoot pathway described by UNEP?
Answer: D. The stages run Exceedance, Plateau/Peak, Decline, Stabilization, as set out in the report "Limiting Overshoot: Navigating Exceedance of 1.5 degrees Celsius and Pathways Towards Return". Decline is the demanding phase since it needs net-negative emissions, with more CO2 removed than released.
68. The report cautions that each five years of continued high emissions might add about 0.1 degrees Celsius to peak warming. Roughly how much CO2 would then need removing to bring temperatures back down?
Answer: B. Around 220 GtCO2 would have to be removed, showing that delay makes the later clean-up bigger than the emissions saved. Engineered removal such as DACCS and BECCS needs lots of energy, water and land, and nature-based removal risks saturation and wildfire, so removal should add to cuts, not replace them.
69. Without proper adaptation, food production could fall by how much by 2050, as per the UNEP report?
Answer: B. Output could drop by up to 14 per cent. The report also notes mountain glaciers may lose over 25 per cent of mass by 2100 and about 40 cm of extra sea-level rise by 2300 for every century above 1.5 degrees, while humid heat cuts outdoor farm labour productivity.
70. For how long a period does the RAKSHA document, released by the Defence Minister, lay out India's defence diplomacy vision?
Answer: A. The document covers a 10-year horizon. Released at Kartavya Bhawan and prepared by the Defence Ministry with the External Affairs Ministry and the NSCS, it stands on four pillars: Strategic Partnerships, Capacity Building, Indigenous Exports and Maritime Security, and casts India as a Net Security Provider and First Responder in the Indian Ocean Region.
71. In an MoU signed with the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority, UNDP will carry out a Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment covering how many districts?
Answer: C. The assessment spans 30 districts, and a separate MoU with CivicDataLab covers the IDS-DRR platform; both target floods, coastal flooding and heatwaves. This supports Odisha's Zero Casualty approach, which replaced reactive relief with anticipatory evacuation.
72. ISRO sent up EOS-05 on GSLV-F17 on 4 September 2026. About how heavy is this satellite?
Answer: E. EOS-05, also called GISAT-1A, weighs about 2,367 kg, the heaviest payload a GSLV has carried so far. It is India's first Earth-imaging satellite in geosynchronous orbit at roughly 36,000 km, so it can watch one region continuously rather than revisiting every few days like LEO satellites.
73. A UN General Assembly resolution of 4 September 2026 named which date as the International Day for the Elimination of Child Marriage?
Answer: B. The day is 27 November and aims to curb child, early and forced marriage through stronger laws, awareness and joint action. It should not be confused with the International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October or the day against violence against women on 25 November.
74. The MoU between the Government e-Marketplace and the Textiles Committee seeks to create which kind of ecosystem?
Answer: D. The goal is a Waste-to-Value-to-Market ecosystem: the Textiles Committee will identify and certify producers and support standardisation, and GeM will handle onboarding, market access and buying of recycled and upcycled goods. Public procurement gives assured demand that helps circular products become viable.
75. BIO-NIVESH is a platform to connect which two groups?
Answer: B. It links biotechnology startups with investors.
76. 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.
77. 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.
78. 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.
79. 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.
80. 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.
81. 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.
82. 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.
83. 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.
84. 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.
85. 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.
86. 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.
87. 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.
88. 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.
89. 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.
90. In which state was Ophiopogon japonicus recorded in India for the first time?
Answer: B. It was found in West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh.
91. A meeting chaired by the Union Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister reviewed the Action Plan to strengthen Krishi Vigyan Kendras. Where, and in which year, did India's very first KVK come up?
Answer: E. The pioneering centre opened at Puducherry in 1974 and set the pattern for carrying lab research to the farmer's field. KVKs are district-level farm science centres funded by ICAR and hosted by agricultural universities, ICAR institutes, NGOs and state departments; the review seeks more State participation per the 5th Chief Secretaries' Conference 2025.
92. Through which institutional arrangement are Krishi Vigyan Kendras coordinated at the regional level?
Answer: A. ATARIs are placed between ICAR nationally and the district-level KVKs, overseeing and monitoring the KVKs in their zone. A KVK's remit includes on-farm testing, frontline demonstrations, training for farmers and extension staff, and acting as the district's knowledge and resource centre.
93. About what share of its water can a Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS), promoted under PMMSY, reuse?
Answer: B. A RAS recycles roughly 90-95 per cent of its water by continuously filtering, treating and reusing it in a controlled setting, sharply lowering freshwater use. That makes intensive fish farming workable in dry and landlocked areas, and PMMSY supports it within the Blue Economy drive.
94. Based on the PIB feature on next-generation aquaculture, which statement correctly describes India's place in global fisheries?
Answer: D. India ranks second in overall fish output, with about 8 per cent of the world's production, and first in shrimp, which dominates its seafood exports. Nearly three crore fishers and fish farmers depend on the sector, so aquaculture technology is a livelihood matter as well as an export one.
95. What is the key difference between Biofloc technology and a Recirculatory Aquaculture System?
Answer: B. Biofloc depends on a managed community of microbes that turn fish waste and surplus nutrients into biomass, which fish can also eat, lowering feed cost and water exchange. RAS saves water as well, but through engineered filtration rather than microbes.
96. The Botanical Survey of India recently described Osbeckia ulotricha. To which family does it belong, and in which biosphere reserve was it found?
Answer: D. The plant is in the Melastomataceae family and was found in the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve, in shola grasslands and montane habitats of Kerala and Tamil Nadu at about 1,200-1,500 metres. Such mosaics are among the rarest habitats of the Western Ghats, so new finds strengthen conservation arguments for the hotspot.
97. The IMF's latest report on Strong, Sustainable, Balanced and Inclusive Growth (SSBIG) estimates medium-term G20 growth at roughly what rate?
Answer: E. The estimate is about 3 per cent, near the lowest since the SSBIG framework started in 2009. The IMF blames regulatory drag: around half of advanced G20 economies and almost three-fourths of emerging members have restrictive labour, product or consumer-market rules that discourage private investment.
98. The 5th e-FAST India Summit 2026 saw the launch of the Platform for Aggregating Clean Transport (PACT). A Member of which body launched it, and what does it chiefly do?
Answer: C. NITI Aayog Member Rajiv Gauba launched PACT, which pools freight demand to open up deployment opportunities for zero-emission trucks; individual shippers seldom have enough volume to justify electric fleets or corridor charging. The summit also introduced a ZET Marketplace connecting manufacturers, financiers, charging operators and freight stakeholders.
99. The FATF's report on underground banking found new technologies in use within hawala-type networks in what share of surveyed jurisdictions, leading to the label "digital hawala"?
Answer: B. Nearly 70 per cent of jurisdictions reported this. The FATF, the global standard-setter against money laundering and terror financing, warns that combining virtual assets with traditional hawala settlement speeds up transfers and makes tracing harder, and it urges better investigation, supervision and international cooperation.
100. The RBI cleared LIC to acquire up to what percentage of the paid-up capital or voting rights of ICICI Bank, and within what time must it be done?
Answer: D. LIC may go up to 9.99 per cent within one year of September 4, 2026. It held about 4.35 per cent as of Q1 FY27, so the nod allows the stake to roughly double; approval is required because holding 5 per cent or more in a private bank crosses the major-shareholding line, and it lapses after the time limit.
101. Ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, a 'POWER' framework was proposed for Greater BRICS. What does its pillar 'O - Openness' mainly address?
Answer: A. Openness covers defending WTO rules and MFN treatment while resisting protectionist tariff barriers. The five pillars are Principle, Openness, Win-Win, Engine and Responsibility, and the plan spans India's 2026 chairship and China's 2027 presidency; Greater BRICS holds nearly half of humanity and about 30 per cent of global GDP.
102. Which body administers India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), now accepted by the UK for CBAM pricing relief, and under which law?
Answer: C. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Power runs it under the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022. Notified in 2023 as the successor to PAT, it has a compliance mechanism for obligated entities and a voluntary offset mechanism; UK recognition means carbon already priced in India is deducted from CBAM liability, so exporters avoid paying twice.
103. A UN General Assembly resolution named which date as the International Day for the Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriage?
Answer: A. The date is 27 November, with the first observance in 2026. India was among 70 co-sponsors and the resolution passed without a vote, showing broad consensus, and member states are urged to adopt multisectoral national strategies, action plans, laws and policies.
104. Through which network does WhatsApp's newly introduced native Bill Payments service in India run, and how many billers does it include?
Answer: C. It runs on Bharat Connect, the renamed Bharat Bill Payment System under NPCI, with 22,722 billers in 30 categories. People can pay electricity, gas, water, FASTag, insurance, credit-card and loan bills through UPI, debit or credit cards, taking recurring payments deeper into semi-urban and rural users.
105. Where was the first Krishi Vigyan Kendra set up?
Answer: B. The first KVK was established at Puducherry in 1974.
106. Under the Union Budget 2026-27 drive for high-productivity crop diversification, what share of the crop sub-sector's gross value output comes from horticulture, and how much horticulture was produced in 2024-25?
Answer: E. Horticulture contributes 37 per cent, with 370.74 million tonnes produced, made up of vegetables at 217.80 mt, fruits at 117.65 mt and other categories at 35.29 mt. It anchors the diversification case because it earns more gross value added per unit of land and uses water better than the paddy-wheat cycle; decadal agricultural growth is 4.45 per cent.
107. Which statement about India's horticulture standing is right?
Answer: C. India is second worldwide in fruits and vegetables and first in onions and shallots, holding a 22.42 per cent share of the latter, and horticulture has been ahead of foodgrains since 2012-13. That long lead is why schemes like MIDH, the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, carry heavy policy weight.
108. Which set of leading states is correct for coconut in India?
Answer: B. Kerala has the largest area, Tamil Nadu the highest production and Andhra Pradesh the highest yield, because Kerala's ageing palms pull its yield down. National output is 13.97 mt from 2.19 million hectares at 6.36 tonnes per hectare, placing India second in production with 22.44 per cent and third in area, with the Coconut Development Board at Kochi.
109. Agarwood, flagged as a valuable plantation crop, comes from which genus, and under which CITES appendix is it controlled?
Answer: A. It comes from the genus Aquilaria and sits in CITES Appendix II, which covers species not necessarily facing extinction but whose trade needs control. Agarwood gives oud oil, a very costly perfume ingredient, and India has nearly 150 million trees, over 90 per cent in the Northeast, offering agroforestry income there.
110. A second phase of PM-KUSUM is likely to be announced. Which pairing correctly describes the scheme's three components?
Answer: E. Component A is decentralised ground-mounted grid-connected solar plants of up to 2 MW on barren or fallow land, B is standalone solar pumps replacing diesel ones, and C is solarisation of existing grid-connected agriculture pumps. Launched in 2019 under MNRE as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan, it cuts both subsidy burden and diesel use, and C also includes feeder-level solarisation.
111. What does agrivoltaics, to be added as a separate component in PM-KUSUM 2.0, mean?
Answer: A. It means farming and solar power generation on one piece of land, with panels raised or spaced so crops can grow under or between them, which avoids the food-versus-energy land trade-off. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi announced it at the curtain raiser for the 7th Agrivoltaics World Conference 2026; India's solar capacity grew from around 3 GW in 2016 to over 160 GW by mid-2026.
112. The 9th AIMMAF took place in New Delhi on 9 September 2026. India meets which grouping at this ministerial meeting, and on what subjects?
Answer: A. AIMMAF is the ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry, concentrating on food security. Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, the Philippines' Secretary of Agriculture, co-chaired the 2026 round with India's representative, and such forums help coordinate sustainable farming and regional food buffers.
113. The 5th National Steering Committee under PM-SETU cleared Rs 735.70 crore for three ITI clusters. Where are they, and what is the total sanctioned investment under PM-SETU so far?
Answer: B. The clusters are at Bhiwadi, Medchal and Meerut, in Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, getting Rs 241 crore, Rs 254.30 crore and Rs 240.40 crore respectively; cumulative sanctions are Rs 2,171 crore across 9 ITI clusters. The hub-and-spoke model upgrades training capacity near existing manufacturing centres instead of spreading funds thin.
114. For FY 2026-27, the MoU between the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the Food Corporation of India chiefly sets performance targets in which areas?
Answer: D. The targets concern storage, logistics, quality control and technology adoption, plus capacity building for FCI staff, aiming to trim storage losses and improve supply chains. Grain lost in storage or transit directly inflates the food subsidy bill, so such agreements focus on physical handling rather than prices.
115. The RBI cleared ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company to acquire up to what percentage of paid-up capital or voting rights of which bank?
Answer: B. The approval allows up to 9.95 per cent of CSB Bank. Private-bank stakes of 5 per cent or more need prior RBI consent under major-shareholding norms, and the same batch of approvals gave RNFI Services in-principle authorisation as a Payment Aggregator-Physical while PB Pay, a PB Fintech arm, began operating as a Payment Aggregator.
116. Which regulator granted fintech platform Niyo a Payment Service Provider licence to work from GIFT City?
Answer: C. IFSCA granted it; the International Financial Services Centres Authority is GIFT City's unified regulator, using powers that RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA exercise domestically. The licence gives Niyo a regulated base for cross-border services such as overseas education, employment, global spending and money transfers, mixing digital delivery with physical branches.
117. The Secretary-General of the Asian-Pacific Postal Union was re-elected for 2027-2030. Which description fits this organisation best?
Answer: D. APPU is a Restricted Union of 32 member countries under Article 8 of the UPU Constitution, based in Bangkok. It was set up on 1 April 1962 as the Asian-Oceanic Postal Union, renamed in 1981 at Yogyakarta, and moved its seat from Manila in 2002; the parent UPU dates from the 1874 Treaty of Bern and became a UN specialised agency in 1948.
118. Mount Anak Krakatau, whose eruptions disrupted flights at Jakarta, lies in which strait, and rose from the caldera of which eruption?
Answer: D. It lies in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra and emerged from the caldera of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, rated VEI-6, standing permanently above sea level from 11 August 1930. Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire where the Indo-Australian Plate subducts under the Sunda Plate, its 2018 flank collapse triggered a tsunami with no earthquake warning.
119. What is the estimated cost of the eight railway multitracking projects approved by the Union Cabinet, and how many States do they span?
Answer: C. The projects cost Rs 20,804 crore and span nine States, adding lines and doubling existing ones, including Arakkonam-Renigunta, Whitefield-Bangarapet, Hosur-Omalur and Salem-Karur-Dindigul. More tracks ease congested corridors where passenger and freight trains share paths, and should support freight movement, jobs and regional growth.
120. What was India's horticulture production in 2024-25, according to the notes?
Answer: C. Total horticulture output was 370.74 mt.
121. Where did UNCCD COP17 take place, and what was its theme?
Answer: C. COP17 met in Mongolia and dealt with rangeland conservation, drought finance and restoration led by communities, but delegates could not agree on a binding global drought treaty. The venue was fitting since 77 per cent of Mongolian land is degraded, compared with 40 per cent worldwide.
122. Which statement about the UNCCD is accurate?
Answer: A. The Convention grew out of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and today has 197 Parties, with the Global Mechanism as its finance arm. Its main aim, Land Degradation Neutrality, matches SDG target 15.3.
123. Which of these statements about UNCCD COP17 outcomes is correct?
Answer: D. With no agreement on a binding drought protocol, making drought its own agenda item was the compromise. The Drought Resilience Index and the DRIF act as the working tools, and COP17 fell in the 2026 International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
124. The 9th Rashtriya Poshan Maah 2026 began at Varanasi. For what dates does it run, and what is its main theme?
Answer: C. Annapurna Devi, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development, launched it at the Rudraksh International Cooperation and Convention Centre. The theme stresses community ownership of Anganwadi centres, with attention to diverse diets, protein, hot fresh meals and early childhood development.
125. The proposed Article 371(K) for Ladakh would be added under which Part of the Constitution, and what would it set up?
Answer: E. Since the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, Ladakh has been a UT with no legislative assembly, so the Lieutenant Governor and officials largely run it. The Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance sought statehood and Sixth Schedule status, and this proposal is a unique middle option.
126. NIT Rourkela, ISRO-NRSC and the Tea Board of India signed an MoU on Project CHAYANKAN. What is it about?
Answer: C. CHAYANKAN is short for Comprehensive AI-based Geospatial Data Analytics for Tea Plantation Monitoring and lasts from April 2026 to March 2029. It uses satellite pictures, UAV hyperspectral data, field observations and AI, with early pest warnings protecting tea quality and prices.
127. Bihar signed an MoU to set up a dedicated food processing park with which foreign body?
Answer: A. The tie-up aims to bring UAE and Gulf investment into Bihar's agro-food sector and boost processing, exports and jobs. Bihar grows a lot but has little processing capacity, so linking farmers to global food chains is a key benefit.
128. The CCEA cleared eight railway multitracking projects worth Rs 20,804 crore. Which detail is accurate?
Answer: D. Five southern projects worth Rs 10,021 crore cover Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, while three eastern and central ones cover West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Eastern lines move heavy mineral and coal freight, so extra capacity cuts logistics costs.
129. Which ministry launched the Quarterly Progress Report (QPR) Portal on Data Harmonisation, and what is its purpose?
Answer: C. Administrative data from routine governance can be richer and more frequent than surveys, but only if departments use consistent definitions and formats. The portal offers automated validation, dashboards and cross-checks with the National Metadata Structures portal.
130. The Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited released the first sector-specific CSR Framework for coal firms. Who developed it?
Answer: E. The framework wants coal-sector CSR to be transparent, measurable and focused on outcomes instead of scattered one-off activities. Coal districts carry concentrated environmental and displacement costs, so spending is meant to reach those host communities.
131. SEBI's Demat 2.0, unveiled at the Global Fintech Fest, is a pilot for what?
Answer: C. Demat 1.0 of 1996 turned paper shares into electronic records, while Demat 2.0 turns digital bonds into tokens on a shared ledger kept by depositories and run by market infrastructure institutions. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey launched it jointly.
132. With which firm did NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) team up to allow UPI QR payments at merchants in Singapore?
Answer: A. Indian travellers pay in rupees through their UPI apps and Singapore merchants are settled in Singapore dollars, with conversion done behind the scenes. Resorts World Sentosa is an early merchant partner, showing how acceptance deals help UPI grow abroad.
133. For the ChipIN Centre initiative, which state is in the lead, and which body launched the centre?
Answer: D. Karnataka also logged about 88 lakh hours of EDA tool use, ahead of Tamil Nadu (79 organisations, 33 tape-outs) and Telangana (42 organisations, 28 tape-outs). Pooling costly EDA licences lowers the entry barrier for startups, and a tape-out is when a finished design is sent for fabrication.
134. ONGC announced an Alternative Investment Fund for deep-tech energy startups. What is the fund's size and the maximum per startup?
Answer: C. Funding in milestone-linked tranches helps a public-sector investor manage the risk of early deep tech, where failures are common. Priority areas include AI-driven subsurface intelligence, drilling, hydrogen, mobility, bioenergy and refinery technology, and SINE is IIT Bombay's incubator.
135. UNCCD COP17 was held in which city?
Answer: C. COP17 concluded in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
136. What outlay for 2026-2031 do the Operational Guidelines for DILRMP 3.0, issued by the Ministry of Rural Development, set for the Central Sector Scheme?
Answer: A. The scheme has an outlay of Rs 565.50 crore, borne wholly by the Centre because it is a Central Sector Scheme. Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched DILRMP 3.0 at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi, aiming for a GIS-based integrated digital land records system that makes land services easier for citizens.
137. Every land parcel under DILRMP 3.0 gets a Bhu-Aadhaar, the Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN). How many digits does it have?
Answer: B. The identifier has 14 digits. Acting as a permanent address for a plot, it lets a parcel be followed through sale, partition and mutation, and lets records from revenue, registration and survey maps be tied together.
138. Under the Registration Seva Kendras component of DILRMP 3.0, 75 busy Sub-Registrar Offices are to be upgraded in the style of which existing service facility?
Answer: C. Modelling them on Passport Seva Kendras introduces appointments, queue handling and a split between front and back office in these crowded property registration offices. The scheme's remaining components are NAKSHA and a Revenue Court Case Management System.
139. What does the NAKSHA component of DILRMP 3.0 deal with?
Answer: B. Urban land records have long been weaker than rural revenue records, so this component, which maps towns through a GIS-based survey and issues Urban Property Cards (UrPro Cards), is being accelerated as a pilot.
140. Which organisation brought out the ASUSE 2025 district-level report on the unincorporated sector?
Answer: E. The National Statistical Office, part of MoSPI, produced it, marking India's first district-wise estimates for non-agricultural unincorporated enterprises. Covering January to December 2025, ASUSE captures street vendors, small shops, repair units and household enterprises that are not registered as companies.
141. In the district-wise estimates from ASUSE 2025, which district of Telangana had the largest share?
Answer: D. Rangareddy was ahead with 23.53 per cent, the biggest share for any one district among those States. Surat (Gujarat) at 19.43 per cent, North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) at 15.99 per cent and Ludhiana (Punjab) at 14.74 per cent also led their States, indicating clustering in industrial and peri-urban areas.
142. Shalimar Sugandh, known as Kashur Basmat, is a newly bred variety of which crop?
Answer: B. Bred under SKUAST-Kashmir at Khudwani's Mountain Research Centre for Field Crops, this fine-grain aromatic rice was begun in 2021 and its certified seed reached farmers in 2024. Such a variety lets Valley growers shift out of plain paddy into a more valuable crop.
143. Which body holds the Geographical Indication registration for Basmati rice, granted in 2016?
Answer: C. APEDA, which regulates Basmati exports, holds the GI. The protected zone includes Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi, along with 30 western UP districts and Jammu, Kathua and Samba in J&K; Pakistan has contested India's claim in the EU.
144. In the Ladakh glacial water project at Chuchot and neighbouring villages, which glacier feeds the nallah used for irrigation?
Answer: D. The Stok village nallah, fed by the Stok Kangri Glacier, carries nearly 90 million litres a day that used to run unused into the Indus. Simple earthwork joined it to existing canals, so it now waters over 1,000 acres across 12 villages without costly new infrastructure.
145. Project CHAYANKAN, a collaboration of NIT Rourkela, ISRO-NRSC and the Tea Board, applies AI and geospatial tools to do what?
Answer: C. The aim is tea plantation monitoring, using satellite images, hyperspectral data from UAVs and field observations for mapping, yield estimates, crop health assessment and forecasting of pests and diseases. Running from April 2026 to March 2029, it spans three years.
146. How many Gram Panchayats does the Digital Bharat Nidhi's Jharkhand agreement cover under the Amended BharatNet Programme?
Answer: A. The agreement covers 4,395 Gram Panchayats, backed by Rs 1,684 crore approved for the state-led model, with demand-based connectivity to about 26,777 villages. Rural broadband supports e-governance, online learning, telemedicine and digital payments, so BharatNet counts as rural development infrastructure.
147. The RBI recently gave Pluxee India authorisation to function as what?
Answer: A. It is authorised as a Payment Aggregator for both online and physical transactions, allowing it to onboard merchants, collect payments, settle funds and handle refunds across cards, QR, NFC and online channels. With a Prepaid Payment Instrument licence since 2009, Pluxee now extends from issuing instruments to acquiring merchants.
148. India hosted the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12-13 September 2026. What was its theme?
Answer: D. The theme was "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability", in India's fourth Chairship, which ran over 350 meetings in 25 cities. BRICS has 11 full members after Indonesia joined in January 2025, plus 10 partner countries, and discusses IMF and World Bank quota reform, the NDB, the CRA and local-currency settlement.
149. What bilateral trade target have India and Russia set to be reached by 2030?
Answer: E. The goal is $100 billion, against current trade near $60 billion, so it requires a big expansion this decade. Trade leans heavily on Indian crude oil imports, which makes broadening the basket and sorting out payment settlement central to success.
150. What is the outlay of DILRMP 3.0 for 2026–2031?
Answer: A. The scheme has an outlay of ₹565.50 crore for 2026–2031.
151. 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.
152. 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.
153. 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.
154. 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.
155. 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.
156. 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.
157. 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.
158. 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.
159. 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.
160. 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.
161. 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.
162. 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.
163. 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.
164. 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.
165. 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.
166. 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.
167. 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.
168. 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.
169. 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.
170. 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.
171. 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.
172. 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.
173. 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.
174. 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.
175. 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.
176. 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.
177. 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.
178. 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.
179. 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.
180. 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).
181. India's first Badri calf born through OPU-IVF at Pantnagar came from a surrogate of which breed?
Answer: C. Born on 11 September 2026, the calf was a joint product of two institutes, NDRI Karnal and Pantnagar's GBPUAT, with money from Haldi's state biotechnology council. Using a surrogate of another breed lets a rare native breed be multiplied without relying on its own small herd of females.
182. Badri cattle, known locally as Pahadi, are notable for which distinction?
Answer: B. The breed takes its name from Badrinath, serves both milk and draught needs, and is Uttarakhand's state animal. It lives in Garhwal and Kumaon districts on steep, cold slopes where exotic cattle struggle, and NBAGR at Karnal is the registering body.
183. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana completed seven years on 12 September 2026. What fixed monthly pension does it promise at age 60?
Answer: D. This is an optional, contribution-based scheme begun in 2019 by the Agriculture Ministry, with LIC managing the pension fund. Farmers pay Rs 55 to Rs 200 monthly depending on joining age, and the Centre adds an equal amount.
184. What is the correct eligibility condition for joining PM-KMY?
Answer: C. Land records of the State or UT must carry the applicant's name as on 1 August 2019. A spouse gets 50 per cent as family pension after the pensioner dies, and contributions can be deducted straight from PM-KISAN payments.
185. What financial outlay accompanies the newly notified operational guidelines of the GOBARdhan scheme?
Answer: E. GOBARdhan, short for Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan, began in 2018 under the Jal Shakti Ministry, first inside Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen. The guidelines promise full purchase of compressed biogas and set a pricing mechanism, easing investor risk.
186. What was the value of India-ASEAN goods trade in FY2025-26, as stated at the ninth AIMMAF ministerial meeting on agriculture and forestry?
Answer: C. Held in New Delhi on 9 September 2026, the session renewed cooperation on climate-resilient farming, low-emission rice, water productivity, digital agriculture, soil health and agroforestry. Both regions' monsoon rice systems face similar climate stress.
187. ICAR co-organised Dryland Congress 2026, whose outcome was the Delhi Declaration on Drylands. Which institution was its partner?
Answer: A. With South-South cooperation for transforming dryland farming as its theme, the gathering celebrated five decades of working together by ICAR and ICRISAT. Rainfed areas are crucial to India since they hold much cultivated land and most pulse and coarse cereal output.
188. Gujarat launched a Mangrove GIS Portal. Under MISHTI, how much mangrove area has it brought back so far, against a 2023-27 goal of 29,250 hectares?
Answer: E. The portal, opened in Bhuj by Bhupender Yadav, supports habitat tracking, conservation planning and technology-driven restoration. Guneri's inland mangroves were showcased as a community-led effort, and MISHTI is an acronym for a shoreline habitat and income programme.
189. Which agency has partnered, through an MoU with the Department of Rural Development, on Pension Sakhi to extend rural pension coverage?
Answer: C. The effort works through women-run DAY-NRLM structures, including BC Sakhis and local resource persons, to approach self-help group members, Lakhpati Didis and others left out. Enrolment will be followed on digital dashboards and LoKoS, relying on a field cadre that already exists.
190. Under Uttar Pradesh's Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi Yojana, small and marginal farmers can get concessional long-term loans up to what sum and at what interest rate?
Answer: E. The state's Sahkari Gram Vikas Bank, a cooperative lender for long tenures, will disburse them. This kind of credit pays for lasting farm assets such as wells, machinery and land improvement, whereas seasonal crop loans only buy a single season's inputs.
191. What was the unemployment rate for people aged 15 and above in August 2026, as per the NSO's 17th PLFS Monthly Bulletin?
Answer: C. The rate eased from 5.1 per cent the previous month. At the same time participation climbed to 55.6 per cent from 55.4, and the share of the population in work to 52.8 from 52.5. Falling joblessness with rising participation shows more people entering the workforce and finding jobs.
192. What MDR will be levied from 15 October 2026 under the new UPI framework when a person pays a merchant more than Rs 2,000?
Answer: A. The charge is limited to Rs 300 for payments over Rs 75,000. Essential sectors pay a flat Rs 5 on larger payments, capital markets pay 0.02 per cent, and person-to-person transfers, small P2M payments and tiny merchants stay free. A 5 per cent share of collections will promote UPI among small merchants.
193. The Union Cabinet raised the EPFO monthly wage ceiling from Rs 15,000, effective 17 September 2026. What is the new ceiling?
Answer: D. Over 51 lakh more employees should come under mandatory cover, costing about Rs 11,339 crore a year and Rs 56,696 crore across five years. EPF, the Employees' Pension Scheme and EDLI now reach workers whose pay had outgrown the earlier limit.
194. The India Electric Mobility Index 2025 from NITI Aayog was topped by which State or UT?
Answer: B. Delhi scored 84, followed by Maharashtra (78), Karnataka (73), Chandigarh (71) and Goa (65) among 36 States and UTs. NITI Aayog and WRI India weight transport electrification 50 per cent, charging readiness 30 per cent and research and innovation 20 per cent.
195. Which technology produced India's first Badri calf at Pantnagar?
196. Kuno National Park's review of Project Cheetah after four years puts India's cheetah population at what number?
Answer: B. The count is 52, of which 49 live at Kuno and 3 at Gandhi Sagar, with 32 cubs born in India and 17 animals roaming free at Kuno. Four years after its launch on 17 September 2022, the programme has entered a consolidation phase.
197. In which year was the cheetah declared extinct in India?
Answer: A. Cheetahs vanished from India in 1952, the last reportedly shot in Koriya, present-day Chhattisgarh. As the only big carnivore lost since Independence, the species gives Project Cheetah, the first transcontinental translocation of a large carnivore, its importance. IUCN lists it as Vulnerable (the Asiatic subspecies Critically Endangered) and CITES places it in Appendix I.
198. The newly described Gegeneophis chandgadi from the Western Ghats falls in which amphibian order?
Answer: D. Caecilians constitute the order Gymnophiona, the third of the amphibian orders alongside Anura (frogs, toads) and Caudata or Urodela (newts and salamanders). These legless, burrowing creatures have degenerate eyes and sensory tentacles, while Squamata is a reptilian order.
199. In which district was Gegeneophis chandgadi found in leaf litter of a backyard?
Answer: C. Named from Buzawade village in Chandgad taluka, in the northern Western Ghats, it was described by scientists at the Zoological Survey of India with Savitribai Phule Pune University. The habitat was a human-modified rural backyard without synthetic pesticides rather than pristine forest, so farmland can still conceal unknown species. ZSI, founded in 1916, works under the MoEFCC from Kolkata.
200. FY2023-24 to FY2027-28 is the period covered by the PM Vishwakarma Scheme. What is its total outlay?
Answer: B. The outlay is ₹13,000 crore. It is a Central Sector Scheme funded fully by the Centre and run jointly by MoMSME, MSDE and DFS, started on 17 September 2023 (Vishwakarma Jayanti), covering 18 traditional trades, and it reached 30 lakh registrations in three years.
201. Under PM Vishwakarma, artisans get collateral-free loans of ₹1 lakh and then ₹2 lakh. What interest rate do they pay?
Answer: E. Artisans pay 5 per cent, with the government bearing an 8 per cent interest subvention; the two figures are easy to swap. The first ₹1 lakh tranche lasts 18 months and the second ₹2 lakh tranche 30 months. Other benefits are a ₹500 daily training stipend, a ₹15,000 toolkit e-voucher, and ₹1 credited for each of up to 100 digital payments monthly.
202. A 232.6-metre concrete gravity dam is planned on which river under the Kishau Multipurpose Project agreed by six states?
Answer: A. The dam is on the Tons, the Yamuna's biggest tributary, so the 422 MW project is linked to Yamuna rejuvenation along with storage (1,562 MCM) and irrigation. Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh signed, and as a National Project it gets 90 per cent central funding with 10 per cent from the state.
203. NIELIT and Infineon Technologies opened a semiconductor manufacturing Centre of Excellence in which city?
Answer: D. Located in Ahmedabad, it provides training in ATMP, OSAT and semiconductor backend manufacturing using 8 equipment units from Infineon. Bhubaneswar is the other city in the news, where MeitY separately gave a provisional go-ahead that very day for an AI Centre of Excellence under the IndiaAI Mission.
204. What purpose lay behind the RBI's ₹50,000 crore Open Market Operation of mid-September 2026?
Answer: C. Selling securities in this OMO draws rupees out of the system, thereby absorbing durable liquidity. It began a ₹1 trillion programme, with ₹25,000 crore planned for each of 21 and 28 September 2026. Liquidity was in surplus: net surplus of ₹7.37 trillion, durable liquidity about ₹14 trillion and WACR at 5.05 per cent, below the 5.25 per cent repo rate, a classic sign of excess liquidity.
205. For which two articles do central laws on land and customary practice require the State Legislative Assembly's concurrence?
Answer: D. Article 371A applies to Nagaland, stemming from the 1960 16-Point Agreement, and 371G to Mizoram, stemming from the 1986 Mizo Peace Accord; both are the strongest asymmetric provisions in Part XXI (Articles 369 to 392). Separately, Article 371K has been proposed for Ladakh after an in-principle understanding with Apex Body Leh and the Kargil Democratic Alliance; it would give a directly elected UT-level legislative body, without statehood or Sixth Schedule status.
206. Which State is set to be the first in India to require a computer-based Hazard Perception Test from driving licence applicants?
Answer: B. Kerala will start the test in December 2026. It gauges anticipation rather than rule knowledge, the gap between knowing a rule and reacting in time. The provision already exists in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and the UK pioneered the format in 2002; road crashes in 2024 totalled 4,87,707, killing 1,77,175, roughly 485 each day.
207. What was the combined value of India's merchandise and services exports in April-August 2026?
Answer: E. Growth was 15.5 per cent, and merchandise exports made up USD 215.91 billion of the total. Imports totalled USD 459.65 billion, 18.01 per cent higher, so imports outpaced exports. For August 2026 alone, USD 82.68 billion of exports trailed the USD 92.09 billion of purchases from abroad.
208. Who has been selected for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2024?
Answer: C. Anant Nag becomes the 56th awardee, only the second from Kannada cinema after Rajkumar. The 72nd National Film Awards function on 22 September 2026 will present it. In another development, the CBFC has 18 members again for three years, led by Shashi Shekhar Vempati.
209. Which force got its first woman chief officer in Sanjukta Parashar?
Answer: A. As an IPS officer she assumed charge as Inspector General of CoBRA, the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, a CRPF specialist formation of 10 battalions drilled for guerrilla warfare, deep operations and counter-insurgency.
210. Who was re-elected unopposed as ICA President for 2026-2030 at the same assembly?
Answer: B. Dr Ariel Guarco of Argentina was re-elected ICA President without opposition.
211. With which partner did the FAO publish the report "Forests for Food: Nourishing People, Sustaining the Planet"?
Answer: C. CIFOR-ICRAF, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry, worked on it through the Landscape Alliance under the Collaborative Partnership on Forests Joint Initiative. FAO dates from 1945 and is based in Rome.
212. The report says pollinators that live in forests underpin what proportion of global crop production?
Answer: A. The 85 per cent figure belongs to a different finding, that forested watersheds supply freshwater to over 85 per cent of major world cities. The report also notes farmland in 155 countries relies on forests elsewhere for up to 40 per cent of yearly rainfall.
213. According to the report, how many people mainly used woodfuel for cooking in 2022?
Answer: D. That number equals 23 per cent of the world's people. A further 410 million needed wood energy just to boil and sterilise drinking water, over 1 billion use forest medicinal plants for basic healthcare, and over 5 billion rely on forests somewhat for livelihoods.
214. What was the average yearly deforestation from 2015 to 2025?
Answer: B. Deforestation and net forest loss are separate measures. Gross deforestation stayed at 10.9 million hectares a year, while net loss dropped from 10.7 to 4.12 million hectares because forest expansion offsets part of the loss.
215. India's first soil carbon payments to individual farms were made under whose 'Aadi' programme?
Answer: E. Grow Indigo is an agri-tech venture of Mahyco and US-based Indigo Ag. More than 2,550 small farmers in Punjab and Haryana got over ₹2.9 crore by DBT for verified regenerative practices, in an effort begun in 2019 against stubble burning and groundwater depletion.
216. Under the soil carbon payment mechanism, farmers get upfront payments or what part of the net earnings from carbon-credit sales?
Answer: C. Farmers adopt practices such as Direct Seeded Rice, minimum tillage, cover crops and residue retention, which are then verified with satellite data, crop models and soil samples before credits are sold. The first cycle, 2019 to 2022, covered about 30,000 acres and over 50,000 certified credits.
217. Which afforestation method does the 'Bharat Vann' green initiative at Lodhi Colony Park use?
Answer: A. The Miyawaki method packs multi-layered native plants densely to make self-sustaining micro-forests fast. The New Delhi Municipal Council implements the project with IIFCL CSR funds and the Enviro Creators Foundation, and Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated it to reduce particulate pollution and urban heat.
218. To what level did the Union Cabinet approve raising the mandatory EPFO wage ceiling?
Answer: E. The limit moves up from ₹15,000 and is the threshold of basic pay plus dearness allowance that decides compulsory coverage under the EPF and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. The Expenditure Finance Committee cleared the increase in June 2026.
219. What was the EPFO wage ceiling just before the 2014 revision?
Answer: B. The ₹6,500 limit held from 2004 until 1 September 2014, when it became ₹15,000. Rising state minimum wages in the next twelve years pushed starting earnings up to or past ₹15,000, leaving new workers outside automatic coverage.
220. To what level did Moody's Ratings lift its FY27 real GDP growth forecast for India?
Answer: E. The new 7.0 per cent, up from 6 per cent, is the highest among major agencies, ahead of RBI at 6.7, ADB and S&P at 6.6, Goldman Sachs at 6.5 and Fitch at 6.4. Moody's also sees FY27 inflation at 4.8 per cent against 2.4 per cent in FY26.
221. What is India's current sovereign rating from Moody's?
Answer: D. Baa3 is the lowest investment grade at Moody's, matching Fitch's BBB-, while S&P upgraded India to BBB last year, a notch above both. Constraints cited are high government debt, weak debt affordability and low per capita income.
222. At what year-on-year rate did India's real GDP grow in the first six months of 2026?
Answer: A. The growth compares with 7.3 per cent in 2025. It was supported by strong private consumption, firm gross fixed capital formation and steady services, with public infrastructure spending and a hoped-for revival in private investment.
223. Under which theme was SEMICON India 2026 held?
Answer: D. The Prime Minister inaugurated the 5th edition at Yashobhoomi, the India International Convention & Expo Centre in New Delhi, on Vishwakarma Diwas. The India Semiconductor Mission, MeitY and SEMI, the global electronics industry body, jointly organise it.
224. As per the FAO report, how many wild species are used worldwide for food, energy, medicine and materials?
Answer: B. At least 10,000 of these are eaten directly as food. In remote forest-dependent communities, wild forest foods can supply up to 80 per cent of daily protein and close to half of total food by weight.
225. Approximately how many appointment letters have been issued through all 20 Rozgar Mela editions?
Answer: D. Cumulative letters across 20 editions are about 12.75 lakh.
226. SPROUT, the facility opened at BRIC-NIPGR in New Delhi, is an abbreviation of what?
Answer: A. Dr Jitendra Singh opened it to build climate-resilient crops, with chickpea taken up first. Phenotyping means measuring observable traits such as height, yield and stress response, and high-throughput means doing so automatically at scale; NIPGR dates from 1998 and is led by Prof. Manoj Prasad.
227. Speed breeding at the SPROUT facility brings a crop cycle down to about how long?
Answer: A. It brings the cycle to around 40 days, allowing several generations a year rather than one or two, so a breeder testing drought or heat tolerance need not wait a whole season each time. Genotype is the genetic makeup and phenotype what is expressed under genes and environment.
228. In 2023, how many DBT institutes were merged to create BRIC, NIPGR's parent body?
Answer: C. Fourteen institutes were merged into BRIC, the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council, an autonomous Department of Biotechnology body. Associated facts: the 2024 BioE3 Policy for biomanufacturing; the 2025 release of India's first genome-edited rice, Pusa DST Rice 1 and DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala); and the exemption of SDN-1 and SDN-2 editing, which brings in no foreign DNA, from GM regulation.
229. What Compressed Biogas purchase obligation do the new GOBARdhan operational guidelines fix for City Gas Distribution companies?
Answer: B. MoPNG issued the guidelines, assuring full offtake of saleable CBG subject to technical and operational feasibility. The administered CBG price is ₹2,110 per MMBTU, about ₹98/kg, assured for a minimum of 10 years, through 31 March 2036. A guaranteed price plus a rising purchase obligation creates a market where none existed.
230. Which theme was chosen for the Swachhata Hi Seva 2026 campaign?
Answer: E. The campaign, launched on 17 September 2026 by MoHUA and DDWS, continues till 2 October, Gandhi Jayanti. It rests on five pillars: Jan Bhagidari, Swachhata Se Samriddhi, Clean Public Places, SafaiMitra Suraksha Evam Samman and Swachh Paathshala.
231. NSTFDC entered an MoU with which company for smart classrooms and computer labs at Eklavya Model Residential Schools (29 of them) in Rajasthan?
Answer: E. The partner is HPCL, in a ₹16.01 crore project across 11 districts expected to benefit over 10,000 Scheduled Tribe students every year. Every school gets four smart classrooms, a computer lab and 10 tablets with competitive-exam material, to be finished within six months.
232. Which sector did NITI Aayog's Trade Watch Quarterly concentrate on in its 9th edition?
Answer: D. The edition handles Q1 FY27. Merchandise and services trade of India reached USD 506.9 billion that quarter (up 15.5 per cent); merchandise exports rose 16 per cent to USD 129.5 billion and imports 19.8 per cent to USD 216.1 billion, leaving a merchandise deficit of USD 86.6 billion. Worldwide goods trade stood at USD 13.7 trillion in H1 2026, up 12.5 per cent.
233. NPCI's revised MDR framework takes effect on 15 October 2026. Up to what value do UPI P2M transactions stay free?
Answer: D. P2P transfers remain free irrespective of value. Past ₹2,000, categories like railways, telecom, insurance and fuel pay a flat ₹5 MDR, and capital-market payments pay 0.02 per cent subject to a ₹300 cap. The contrast between a flat fee and a percentage fee as ticket size grows is the thinking interviewers look for.
234. India's first tokenised corporate bonds, made possible by NSE, were issued within which framework?
Answer: C. Since SEBI, not the RBI, governs corporate bonds, they came under the SEBI Regulatory Sandbox Framework, 2020. Together the issues were ₹1,000 crore, REC and L&T each raising ₹500 crore, with DLT used to represent and manage the securities digitally for greater transparency, efficiency and settlement.
235. Kamlesh Chandra Varshney was reappointed to SEBI's board as a Whole-Time Member. Which service is he from?
Answer: C. He is from the 1990 batch of the Indian Revenue Service. Joining SEBI as WTM in September 2023, he now stays until 4 August 2029, the day he turns 65, or until further orders; his responsibilities have included market intermediaries, legal affairs, surveillance and IT.
236. Among 41 markets in the Global Business Climate Survey 2026, India placed first. Which two countries followed, in order?
Answer: A. Ireland and then Vietnam came next. The survey, prepared by Business Sweden along with the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in India, reflects how Swedish multinationals see their markets; India has stayed in the top three for four years, and 73 per cent of Swedish companies call its operating climate good or very good. The highest revenue and growth projections went to India, the Philippines and Poland. India and Sweden have been Strategic Partners since 2018 and jointly started LeadIT at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit.
237. Which large State ranked first in the 2025 India Electric Mobility Index?
Answer: B. Maharashtra topped the large States, with Karnataka second and Tamil Nadu third at 61; Delhi led UTs and city states and the overall ranking with 84 (up from 77), while Manipur at 46 led the hilly and northeastern group. This 2nd edition by NITI Aayog with WRI India uses 16 indicators weighted at 50 per cent for transport electrification, 30 per cent for charging infrastructure and 20 per cent for research and innovation.
238. What was India's electric vehicle penetration for 2025-26, as given in the IEMI 2025?
Answer: B. The figure was 8.25 per cent, compared with 0.5 per cent in 2018. In the same index Karnataka has the top charging readiness score, 97, and Delhi the top research and innovation score, 94; Madhya Pradesh moved up to 7th overall from 23rd, and Goa gained ten positions to reach fifth.
239. Where did GIFT City rank in the Global Financial Centres Index 40?
Answer: D. It placed 37th, nine places up from 46th in GFCI 39, and is the only Indian centre among the Asia-Pacific top 15; Mumbai was 49th and Delhi 56th. Z/Yen Partners and the China Development Institute publish the index twice yearly, with New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore on top.
240. SPROUT, inaugurated in September 2026, is located at which institute?
241. In the WMO's 2025 water resources assessment, what fraction of monitored groundwater stations reported levels that were lower than normal or far lower than normal?
Answer: D. The share rose from 25 per cent in 2024. A different 36 per cent statistic describes the catchment area that was drier than usual, which put river discharge among its lowest in 35 years. The report has also grown from 3 to 15 hydrological variables.
242. How much mass did glaciers lose worldwide in 2025, per the report?
Answer: A. That ice loss corresponds to roughly 1.1 ±0.4 mm added to sea level, and every large glaciated region has now lost ice for four years in a row. Land water storage, measured from space by gravimetry such as GRACE, has kept falling since 2014-16, and northern India was below normal in 2025.
243. What proportions of Indian irrigation and of rural drinking supply are met from groundwater?
Answer: D. India uses more groundwater than the United States and China together. The Central Ground Water Board grades blocks as Safe, Semi-critical, Critical or Over-exploited, with Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi holding the most over-exploited blocks, and over-abstraction drove deficits in 2022-2025.
244. InD Events Dubai, with which APEDA has just signed an MoU, is the organiser of which trade fair?
Answer: C. For the second year in a row India will be the Official Partner Country at the 2027 edition. The tie-up targets smaller exporters, including FPOs, startups and enterprises led by women or SC/ST entrepreneurs. APEDA itself dates from 1986, though its Act is of 1985, and it sits under the Commerce Ministry.
245. Roughly how many rural properties will be registered at no cost under the 2026 Swamitva Adhikar Abhilekh scheme of Madhya Pradesh?
Answer: E. Every one of the 55 districts is covered through house visits and camps at village and panchayat level, and no stamp duty or registration fee is charged. A legal ownership document turns a lived-in rural house into collateral that a bank will lend against.
246. The FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026 proposes that a District Judge hear an appeal on the vesting of assets if it is filed within what time?
Answer: C. If an NGO loses its registration through cancellation, surrender or expiry, leftover foreign money and assets bought with it temporarily pass to a Designated Authority and then permanently if registration is not revived in time. The Bill also lowers the maximum jail term for certain compliance lapses from five years to one.
247. In which year's FCRA amendment were the 20 per cent limit on administrative spending and the designated SBI account introduced?
Answer: A. The 2020 amendments added the 20 per cent administrative cap and the account at SBI's New Delhi Main Branch. FCRA was first enacted in 1976 and replaced in 2010, while the 2022 change raised the limit on relatives' contributions from ₹1 lakh to ₹10 lakh.
248. Indian Overseas Bank has a RuPay credit card co-branded with novio. Which company operates novio?
Answer: D. Select and Platinum RuPay versions are offered, and the card can be tied to UPI for credit-based payments. Its FD-backed facility lets someone without a credit history get a card against a fixed deposit and begin building a profile, a typical financial-inclusion route.
249. SLINEX-26, the bilateral naval exercise at Visakhapatnam, is conducted between India and which country?
Answer: C. This is the 13th edition of an exercise that started in 2005, run under the Eastern Naval Command, covering coordinated manoeuvres, tactical communication and maritime interdiction. India's SAGAR policy of 2015 was extended in 2025 as MAHASAGAR.
250. In which strait does Mayun (Perim) Island, captured by the Houthis, lie?
Answer: E. Known as the Gate of Tears, this narrow passage separates Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea and links two seas, with Perim Island dividing it into a pair of channels. Close to 12 per cent of global trade uses the route, and sailing around the Cape adds 10-14 days, a direct concern for India-Europe cargo and the proposed IMEC link.
251. How many countries have a land border with Ukraine?
Answer: D. Its neighbours on land are Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Belarus and Russia. Ukraine also has coasts on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, and its fertile chernozem soil makes it a big exporter of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, of which India is a large buyer.
252. India offered Bhutan a concessional credit line for energy projects while the External Affairs Minister was there. How large was it?
Answer: A. Between 16 and 18 September 2026 the minister, S. Jaishankar, was in Bhutan reviewing ties in energy, connectivity, health, agriculture, education and clean mobility. Work on the two Punatsangchhu hydropower plants, of 1,020 MW and 1,200 MW, was also looked at.
253. India's submission in the Oscars 2027 Best International Feature Film race is which film?
Answer: D. Directed by Santosh Davakhar, this Marathi thriller about psychology and culture in a rural Maharashtra setting was selected out of 33 entries. Shwaas, Harishchandrachi Factory and Court were the earlier Marathi picks, making it the fourth.
254. The homegrown drone 'KAL', a one-way attack type trialled at Pokhran's field firing range, is reported to fly up to what distance?
Answer: B. IG Defence built KAL as part of its GRID STRIKE family. It can stay airborne for 7-8 hours, carries 50 kg and navigates autonomously using GNSS and INS. That week HAL also handed over Tejas twin-seat trainers and HTT-40 trainers to the IAF, plus Dhruv NG helicopters to Pawan Hans.
255. Where is the World Meteorological Organization headquartered?
Answer: D. WMO, a UN specialised agency, is headquartered at Geneva.
256. A thorough checklist of the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve recorded how many species of flowering plants?
Answer: B. The checklist recorded 3,261 flowering species. The other figures belong to different facts: 1,868 metres is Agasthyarkoodam's elevation, the reserve's summit, and 3,500 sq km is its area. Notified in 2001, the reserve sits at the Western Ghats' southern tip, stretching over Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and UNESCO admitted it to the Man and the Biosphere network in 2016.
257. Which plant family had the most species in the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve?
Answer: C. Fabaceae, the legume family of beans, peas, lentils and chickpea, led with 349 taxa. Rubiaceae followed with 194, Poaceae with 193 and Orchidaceae with 168; the first is the coffee and quinine family, Poaceae the grasses including rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane and bamboo, and Orchidaceae the orchids.
258. Which reserve was the first biosphere reserve in India?
Answer: C. Nilgiri was notified in 1986 and is the earliest. Seshachalam Hills, Gulf of Mannar, Agasthyamala and Nilgiri make up the four in South India. Unlike a national park, a biosphere reserve protects biodiversity yet lets sustainable use continue, and Agasthyamala's Kani tribe and Arogyapacha plant formed India's first benefit-sharing arrangement under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
259. Under which theme was the 9th India International Water Week held?
Answer: D. The meeting took place in New Delhi under the theme "Climate Resilient Water Management". Constitutionally, States hold water under Entry 17 of List II, while the Union List's Entry 56 deals with inter-state rivers and Article 262 with disputes. Revision list: Namami Gange, Jal Jeevan Mission, PMKSY (Per Drop More Crop), Swachh Bharat Mission, Atal Bhujal Yojana, Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain and Mission Amrit Sarovar.
260. Which pair of veterinary NSAIDs did India ban in 2023 to protect vultures?
Answer: A. Aceclofenac and ketoprofen were barred in 2023. Diclofenac was already prohibited for animal use in 2006 and meloxicam is a safe substitute, so neither is the answer. Over 95 per cent of India's vultures vanished within thirty years; Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau, still holds roughly 400 to 450 birds in a 100-km radius, the State's only remaining wild stronghold.
261. Where are India's Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres located?
Answer: B. Pinjore lies in Haryana, Rajabhatkhawa in West Bengal and Rani in Assam. Red-headed, Slender-billed, Indian (long-billed) and White-rumped vultures are the four Critically Endangered Indian species. A Vulture Safe Zone is about a 100 km radius confirmed free of toxic NSAIDs, and the Action Plan for Vulture Conservation covered 2020-25.
262. What interest rate now applies to farm loans under Uttar Pradesh's Mukhyamantri Krishak Samriddhi Yojana?
Answer: D. The rate falls to 6 per cent from the earlier 11 per cent, for loans routed through the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Gramya Vikas Bank. Lower interest eases farmers' burden and nudges them toward formal credit instead of informal moneylenders; the State introduced the Bharat Taxi service at the same time.
263. Who validates the Gram Panchayat's self-assessment in Swachh Seva Aankalan, an initiative of the Ministry of Jal Shakti?
Answer: E. The Gram Sabha does the validation, so checking rests with the village assembly and not an external inspector. Part of Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen 2.0, SSA is a yearly online self-rating in which Gram Panchayats grade ODF sustainability, cleanliness, solid and liquid waste handling and sanitation infrastructure.
264. Which entity is raising India's first blue bond?
Answer: A. Sagarmala Finance Corporation, India's first maritime lender, plans the issue on 28 September. A blue bond funds sustainable water and marine projects, making it the ocean counterpart of a green bond; a greenshoe option lets an issuer keep oversubscription beyond base size, and a "greenium" is the yield discount thematic bonds earn.
265. Which country issued the first sovereign blue bond anywhere in the world?
Answer: E. Seychelles led the way in 2018 with World Bank support. India's own first Sovereign Green Bonds arrived in January 2023 under its Sovereign Green Bond Framework, whereas SEBI has put out a scheme for green debt securities and suggested rules against greenwashing. The wider family covers green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds.
266. Which agency now gives the highest FY27 GDP growth forecast for India, and what is it?
Answer: A. The OECD's 7.1 per cent, raised from 6.3, is the highest; ADB, S&P and Moody's now say 7.0 and Fitch 6.9, with Moody's moving up from 6.0. Every figure exceeds the RBI's 6.7 per cent estimate. The upgrades reflect the 7.8 per cent growth seen in April-June, backed by investment, consumption and industry, and the four institutions foresee an RBI rate hike later in the year.
267. What does the RBI action known as 'Operation Twist' involve?
Answer: D. Selling short-dated and buying long-dated securities in one go reshapes the yield curve while leaving the balance sheet unchanged; the opposite pairing would be the reverse trap. The related news was a ₹25,000 crore OMO sale by the RBI, second slice of a ₹1 trillion programme scheduled as ₹50,000 crore (17 September), then ₹25,000 crore each on 21 and 28 September. Bids go through e-Kuber; repo is 5.25 per cent and SDF 5.00 per cent, with WACR the operating target.
268. Jayanti Prasad has taken additional charge as IBBI Chairperson. Which service is he from?
Answer: B. Jayanti Prasad is a 1986-batch IA&AS officer and IBBI Whole-Time Member who succeeded Ravi Mital in the additional charge starting 13 September 2026, valid up to 20 November 2026. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 makes IBBI the statutory regulator.
269. Whose debut feature film is 'Angh', winner of the Platform Prize at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival?
Answer: C. Theja Rio directed it. Set in the early 1960s in a distant Nagaland village close to the Indo-Burma frontier, this period drama was co-written by Rajkumar Kandamudi and co-produced by Nancy Nisa Beso. Among the Konyak, Nagaland's biggest tribe famed for facial tattoos, 'Angh' denotes the village's hereditary chief.
270. How many flowering plant species did the checklist record in Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve?
Answer: B. The checklist documented 3,261 flowering plant species.