Daily Current Affairs Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
The WHO defines MDR-TB as TB resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful first-line drugs. Option (a) describes the next rung, pre-XDR-TB (MDR/RR-TB with added fluoroquinolone resistance), while option (b) names two Group A drugs — resistance to either, on top of pre-XDR, defines XDR-TB (WHO, 2021) — and option (c) lists older drugs whose resistance does not define MDR. Every distractor borrows drugs from a higher rung, so fix the ladder first: MDR = isoniazid + rifampicin → pre-XDR = + fluoroquinolone → XDR = + bedaquiline or linezolid. BPaLM stands for Bedaquiline, Pretomanid, Linezolid and Moxifloxacin — a six-month, all-oral regimen.
- Truenat — Indigenous chip-based molecular test for diagnosing TB
- BPaLM — Vaccine to prevent TB among household contacts of patients
- TB Preventive Treatment (TPT) — Treatment to stop latent infection from progressing to active disease
- Ni-kshay — Digital platform for TB patient management and direct benefit transfer
Pair 1 is correct — Truenat is a portable, battery-operated, chip-based RT-PCR test developed by Molbio Diagnostics, Goa, and endorsed by the WHO in 2020. Pair 2 is incorrect — BPaLM is a six-month, all-oral treatment regimen for drug-resistant TB, not a vaccine; BCG remains the only licensed TB vaccine. Pair 3 is correct — TPT treats latent TB infection so that it does not progress to active disease, and is given to household contacts, people living with HIV and other high-risk groups. Pair 4 is correct — Ni-kshay is NTEP's web-based patient-management platform, through which Nikshay Poshan Yojana support of ₹1,000 a month is paid by DBT. Sorting terms into the NSP pillars helps: Truenat (Detect), BPaLM (Treat), TPT (Prevent), Ni-kshay (Build).
- BIMSTEC was established in 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration to promote technical and economic cooperation.
- The permanent Secretariat of BIMSTEC, set up to coordinate the grouping’s activities, is located in Kathmandu.
- Nepal and Bhutan, the two landlocked members of BIMSTEC, have been part of the grouping since its founding.
- The BIMSTEC Charter was signed at the grouping’s Summit held in Colombo in 2022.
Statement 1 is correct — BIMSTEC was set up by the Bangkok Declaration of 6 June 1997 as BIST-EC, with Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Statement 2 is incorrect — the Secretariat is in Dhaka (established 2014), while Kathmandu hosts the SAARC Secretariat. Statement 3 is incorrect — Myanmar joined in December 1997, but Nepal and Bhutan joined only in 2004, when the grouping took its present name. Statement 4 is correct — the Charter was signed at the 5th Summit in Colombo (March 2022) and entered into force in 2024, giving BIMSTEC a legal personality. The setter borrows SAARC's headquarters and back-dates the 2004 entrants to 1997, so keep the two groupings side by side — SAARC: 1985, Kathmandu, eight members; BIMSTEC: 1997, Dhaka, seven members.
- Statement-I: Among the seven sectoral pillars of BIMSTEC cooperation, India is the lead country for the Security sector.
- Statement-II: Under the Delhi Declaration, security cooperation within BIMSTEC is intended to be a substitute for bilateral cooperation among member states.
Statement-I is correct — after BIMSTEC's sectors were rationalised into seven pillars, each led by one member, India leads Security, covering counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management and energy. Statement-II is incorrect — the Delhi Declaration reaffirms that security cooperation is complementary to, and not a substitute for, bilateral, sub-regional, regional or multilateral cooperation, resting on sovereign equality and non-interference. Treat words like ‘substitute’, ‘supersede’ and ‘replace’ as red flags in any statement on regional cooperation. The seven pillars are Bangladesh – trade, Bhutan – environment, India – security, Myanmar – agriculture, Nepal – people-to-people, Sri Lanka – S&T and Thailand – connectivity.
- It is located on the Arabian Sea coast in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.
- It has been developed under Project Varsha, the Navy’s new base for its nuclear submarine fleet.
Statement 1 is correct — Naval Base Karwar (INS Kadamba, commissioned in 2005) lies on the Arabian Sea coast in Uttara Kannada district, and the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya is based there. Statement 2 is incorrect — Karwar was developed under Project Seabird, whereas Project Varsha is a separate base being built at Rambilli, near Visakhapatnam, on the east coast, reported to be meant for nuclear submarines. Anchor each project to its coast: Seabird → west (Karwar, Karnataka); Varsha → east (Rambilli, Andhra Pradesh). Samarthak is to be commissioned at Karwar on 16 October 2026.
- ‘Polypharmacy’ is commonly defined as the concurrent use of five or more medicines by a patient.
- The Beers Criteria are used to identify potentially inappropriate medications for older adults.
- ‘Deprescribing’ refers to the practice of replacing branded medicines in a prescription with their cheaper generic equivalents.
Statement 1 is correct — polypharmacy conventionally means the concurrent use of five or more medicines, and Indian studies cited in the op-ed found it in about 49% of older adults. Statement 2 is correct — the American Geriatrics Society's Beers Criteria list potentially inappropriate medications for older adults, with STOPP/START as their European counterparts. Statement 3 is incorrect — deprescribing is the planned, supervised reduction or withdrawal of medicines whose risks now outweigh their benefits, while generic substitution is a cost measure, not deprescribing. Read the prefix literally: de-prescribing removes a prescription; it does not change the brand.
- Statement-I: Health insurance can increase the use of costly medical procedures even where their additional clinical benefit to the patient is small.
- Statement-II: Ex-post moral hazard arises when an insured person uses more health care after falling ill because the insurer bears most of the marginal cost.
Statement-I is correct — insurance lowers the price a patient faces at the point of care, so costlier interventions with small added benefit get used more, a concern the op-ed raises about procedures and surgeries. Statement-II is correct and explains Statement-I — ex-post moral hazard is the extra use of care after illness because the insurer, not the patient, bears the marginal cost, which is exactly the mechanism behind Statement-I. Apply the ‘because’ test: insurance raises the use of costly, low-benefit procedures because the insured patient no longer bears their marginal cost, and the sentence holds. Ex-ante moral hazard, by contrast, is reduced prevention before illness, and had Statement-II described it, it would be true but would not explain Statement-I.
- The CSR obligation applies to a company with a net worth of ₹500 crore or more in the preceding financial year.
- A qualifying company must spend at least two per cent of its average net profits of the three immediately preceding financial years on CSR.
- Unspent CSR amounts relating to ongoing projects must be transferred to a fund specified in Schedule VII within thirty days.
- Every company to which the CSR provisions apply must constitute a CSR Committee of its Board, irrespective of the amount of its obligation.
Statement 1 is correct — under Section 135(1), CSR applies to a company with net worth ≥ ₹500 crore, turnover ≥ ₹1,000 crore or net profit ≥ ₹5 crore in the preceding financial year, and any one criterion suffices. Statement 2 is correct — the mandated spend is at least 2% of the average net profits of the three immediately preceding financial years. Statement 3 is incorrect — unspent amounts for ongoing projects go to a special Unspent CSR Account within 30 days of the year's end and must be spent within three years; only amounts not tied to ongoing projects go to a Schedule VII fund (e.g., PM CARES Fund), within six months. Statement 4 is incorrect — since the 2020 amendment (effective 2021), a company whose CSR obligation does not exceed ₹50 lakh need not constitute a CSR Committee, and its Board discharges the functions. Absolutes like ‘irrespective of the amount’ in a statutory statement usually hide a threshold.
Under SEBI's Social Stock Exchange (SSE) framework (2022), not-for-profit organisations registered on the SSE segment of a stock exchange (NSE and BSE) can raise funds through ZCZP instruments. Investors receive neither interest nor principal — in effect a listed donation, backed by social-impact disclosure. Options (a), (c) and (d) describe borrowers who must repay: the RBI absorbs liquidity through tools such as the Standing Deposit Facility and reverse repo, and States borrow through State Development Loans. ‘Zero coupon’ evokes an ordinary bond, but the second ‘zero’ — no principal — rules out every borrower that must repay.
- The right to assemble peaceably and without arms is guaranteed under Article 19(1)(b) of the Constitution.
- Under Article 19(3), reasonable restrictions on the right to assemble may be imposed in the interests of the security of the State.
- In the National Capital Territory of Delhi, ‘public order’ and ‘police’ lie outside the legislative competence of its Legislative Assembly.
Statement 1 is correct — Article 19(1)(b) guarantees the right ‘to assemble peaceably and without arms’, and peaceful demonstrations are also protected expression under 19(1)(a) (Kameshwar Prasad, 1962). Statement 2 is incorrect — Article 19(3) permits restrictions on assembly only in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India or public order; ‘security of the State’ is a ground in Article 19(2), which governs speech. Statement 3 is correct — Article 239AA(3)(a) excludes Entries 1 (public order), 2 (police) and 18 (land) of the State List from the Delhi Assembly's competence, and the Delhi Police reports to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Learn the grounds clause by clause: 19(2) speech has eight grounds, 19(3) assembly has two, and 19(4) association has the same two plus morality.
- Under Article 22(4), a preventive detention law generally cannot authorise detention beyond three months unless an Advisory Board reports sufficient cause.
- The right to be produced before a magistrate within twenty-four hours of arrest applies to persons held under preventive detention laws.
- Parliament has exclusive power to enact preventive detention laws for reasons connected with the maintenance of public order.
- Under the National Security Act, 1980, the maximum period of detention is twelve months from the date of detention.
Statement 1 is correct — Article 22(4) caps detention at three months unless an Advisory Board (persons qualified to be High Court judges) reports sufficient cause, or a Parliamentary law under Article 22(7) provides otherwise. Statement 2 is incorrect — Article 22(3)(b) excludes preventive detainees from clauses (1) and (2), that is, the right to counsel and 24-hour production, and their safeguards lie in clauses (4) to (7). Statement 3 is incorrect — Parliament's exclusive power (Entry 9, List I) covers detention for defence, foreign affairs or the security of India, whereas public order, security of a State and essential supplies fall under Entry 3, List III, so States also legislate. Statement 4 is correct — under the NSA, detention may not exceed 12 months, and the case must reach the Advisory Board within 3 weeks, which reports within 7 weeks.
- Ram Manohar Lohia v. State of Bihar (1966) — Distinguished law and order, public order and security of the State as concentric circles
- Himat Lal K. Shah v. Commissioner of Police (1973) — The State may regulate assemblies on public streets but cannot arbitrarily refuse them
- Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978) — Upheld the validity of the Preventive Detention Act, 1950
- Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020) — Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC must satisfy the test of proportionality
Pair 1 is correct — in Ram Manohar Lohia the Court described law and order as the largest circle, public order the next, and security of the State the smallest. Pair 2 is correct — Himat Lal K. Shah held that streets serve many purposes, so assemblies may be regulated, but rules cannot confer an arbitrary power to refuse. Pair 3 is incorrect — the Preventive Detention Act, 1950 was upheld in A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras (1950), whereas Maneka Gandhi held that any procedure curtailing liberty must be ‘just, fair and reasonable’, linking Articles 14, 19 and 21. Pair 4 is correct — Anuradha Bhasin allowed orders against apprehended danger but required them to be proportionate and not used to suppress legitimate expression. Place each case on the timeline: 1950 (Gopalan, narrow reading) → 1978 (Maneka, due process) → 2020 (Bhasin, proportionality).
- Article 39A, which provides for equal justice and free legal aid, was inserted by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976.
- The Chief Justice of India is the Patron-in-Chief of the National Legal Services Authority.
- Under Section 479 of the BNSS, an undertrial who is a first-time offender may be released on bond after undergoing one-third of the maximum sentence for the offence.
Statement 1 is correct — Article 39A (a Directive Principle) was inserted by the 42nd Amendment, 1976, and the Court has read it with Article 21 in M.H. Hoskot (1978) and Hussainara Khatoon (1979). Statement 2 is correct — under Section 3 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, the CJI is Patron-in-Chief of NALSA, while a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge serves as Executive Chairman. Statement 3 is correct — Section 479, BNSS (formerly Section 436A, CrPC) allows release on bond after half the maximum sentence, and one-third for first-time offenders, except for offences punishable with death or life imprisonment. When each statement survives a check, resist inventing doubt and verify the anchors instead: the amendment (42nd, 1976), the office (Patron-in-Chief, not Executive Chairman) and the fraction (one-third for first-timers, half otherwise).
- Their persistence in the environment is mainly due to the strength of the carbon–fluorine bonds in their structure.
- Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) is listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
- The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as carcinogenic to humans.
Statement 1 is correct — the carbon–fluorine bond is among the strongest in organic chemistry, so PFAS resist heat, water, oil and microbial breakdown, hence ‘forever chemicals’. Statement 2 is correct — PFOS was listed in Annex B (restriction) of the Stockholm Convention in 2009, followed by PFOA (2019) and PFHxS (2022) in Annex A (elimination), though new listings bind India only after it ratifies the amendment. Statement 3 is correct — the IARC places PFOA in Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans) and PFOS in Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic); India still has no PFAS limit in IS 10500:2012, which the BIS is revising. Setters often swap the twin compounds, so fix one pairing each: PFOA = Group 1, Annex A; PFOS = Group 2B, Annex B.
- It is listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
- It has been declared the state animal of Madhya Pradesh, where Kanha Tiger Reserve is located.
Statement 1 is correct — Bubalus arnee is Endangered on the IUCN Red List and in Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and Kaziranga holds the world's largest population. Statement 2 is incorrect — the wild buffalo is the state animal of Chhattisgarh, which was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000 and holds the remnant central-Indian population (Udanti-Sitanadi, Indravati). Madhya Pradesh's state animal is the barasingha (hard-ground swamp deer), whose recovery Kanha is known for. The news is set in MP, so the setter attaches the species to MP. Eight buffaloes were released in Kanha, with a target of 50.
