Daily Current Affairs Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
- The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline and confers full sovereignty on the coastal state over that area.
- The Contiguous Zone lies between 12 and 24 nautical miles from the baseline, within which the coastal state has limited control over customs, fiscal, immigration, and sanitary matters.
- India ratified the UNCLOS in 1985, becoming one of the first signatories to the Convention.
- A naval blockade, to be lawful under the law of naval warfare, must be publicly declared, applied impartially to vessels of all states including neutrals, and be genuinely effective rather than a "paper blockade."
Only Statements 2 and 4 are correct. Statement 1 is a category-conflation trap: the EEZ grants sovereign rights over resources (fishing, minerals, energy) up to 200 nm but does not confer "full sovereignty" — that applies only to the territorial sea (up to 12 nm), even there subject to the right of innocent passage. Statement 3 is a date-inversion trap: India ratified UNCLOS in 1995, not 1985 — a ten-year shift. Statement 2 correctly describes the Contiguous Zone (12–24 nm) with limited regulatory control, and Statement 4 correctly lists the three lawful-blockade criteria: public declaration, impartial application, and genuine effectiveness.
Option B is correct because jus in bello (conduct-of-war rules, including technical blockade requirements) and jus ad bellum (legality of resorting to force under the UN Charter) are separate, independently-binding legal tracks — a blockade can be technically compliant yet still violate Article 2(4) if it lacks Security Council authorisation under Article 42 or a valid self-defence basis under Article 51. Option A is a false-premise trap: the law of naval warfare is explicitly the IHL branch governing maritime conduct, not land warfare. Option C is an overstatement trap: UNCLOS does not blanket-prohibit blockades, and Article 42 of the UN Charter explicitly permits Security-Council-authorised blockades. Option D invents a rule — no such automatic forfeiture of neutral status exists in the law of naval warfare.
- C-295 transport aircraft — Final Assembly Line at Vadodara, Gujarat, operated by Tata Advanced Systems Limited with Airbus
- LRLACM — Evolved from the Nirbhay missile programme; nodal laboratory is the Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bengaluru
- LRLACM — Powered by the indigenous Agni turbofan engine
- C-295 — All 56 aircraft are being manufactured domestically in India, with none delivered directly from Spain
Pairs 1 and 2 are correctly matched — the C-295's Final Assembly Line is at Vadodara, Gujarat, run by TASL with Airbus, and the LRLACM is an evolution of the Nirbhay programme with ADE, Bengaluru as the nodal laboratory. Pair 3 is a name-misattribution trap: the LRLACM is powered by the indigenous Manik turbofan engine, not "Agni" — the distractor borrows India's well-known missile family name and misapplies it to an engine. Pair 4 is a numerical-inversion trap: of the 56 C-295 aircraft, 16 were delivered in fly-away condition from Seville, Spain, with only the remaining 40 being made in India — not all 56 domestically.
- List-I — 1. Perseverance rover | List-II — A. Operates in Gale Crater
- List-I — 2. Curiosity rover | List-II — B. Detected macromolecular carbon at Jezero Crater's Bright Angel outcrop
- List-I — 3. SHERLOC | List-II — C. Uses Raman and luminescence spectroscopy to detect organics and minerals
- List-I — 4. Neretva Vallis | List-II — D. An ancient river channel that fed Jezero Crater's western delta
Perseverance (1-B) detected macromolecular carbon at the Bright Angel outcrop in Jezero Crater — not Curiosity, making this a classic rover-swap trap. Curiosity (2-A) operates in Gale Crater, more than 3,500 km from Jezero, a key Prelims distinguishing fact. SHERLOC (3-C) is the Raman and luminescence spectroscopy instrument aboard Perseverance used to detect organics and minerals — distinct from WATSON (imaging) and PIXL (elemental composition). Neretva Vallis (4-D) is the ancient river channel that fed Jezero Crater's western delta, where the Bright Angel outcrop is located.
- Signing of the U.S.–Iran Memorandum of Understanding at the Palace of Versailles
- Maiden test flight of the first India-assembled C-295 transport aircraft at Vadodara
- Flight-test of the indigenous LRLACM from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha
- Commissioning of INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak, and INS Agray into the Indian Navy at Kolkata
The correct sequence is: C-295 maiden test flight at Vadodara (2) on 10 June 2026 → LRLACM flight-test from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha (3) on 15 June → U.S.–Iran MoU signed at Versailles (1) on 17 June → commissioning of INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak, and INS Agray at Kolkata (4) on 21 June 2026, coinciding with International Yoga Day and World Hydrography Day. The most common trap is placing the U.S.–Iran MoU first (Option A/D) due to its geopolitical prominence, when it was actually the third of the four events chronologically.
