Current Affairs Quiz 01 September 2026

All three statements are correct. NADCP targets 100% biannual FMD vaccination of all susceptible livestock, female bovine calves aged 4-8 months receive a one-time Brucellosis vaccination, and NADCP has been integrated into the umbrella LHDCP scheme, alongside LH&DC and Pashu Aushadhi, with a 2026-27 budget of ₹2,010 crore. When all three statements are true, it is worth verifying each independently rather than assuming at least one must be wrong, and it helps to remember LHDCP as NADCP plus LH&DC plus Pashu Aushadhi under one umbrella, with ₹2,010 crore as the specific figure to retain.

Both statements are factually correct, but R does not fully explain A. Bovine productivity did rise from 1,640 kg to 2,250 kg per animal per year, a 36.63% increase, and FMD outbreaks did fall from 132 to 40, yet productivity is also driven by improved genetics through cross-breeding and AI via MAITRIs, better feed and nutrition, improved veterinary care, and breed improvement programmes under DAHD. Disease control is one contributing factor rather than the sole explanation, so R does not fully explain A even though both statements are independently true. In assertion-reason questions, it is worth checking not just whether A and R are true but whether R is the correct and complete explanation of A, rather than merely a related fact.

Statement 1 is correct, while Statement 2 is wrong. Seroconversion rates in 2025 were 75.63% in cattle calves and 67.17% in buffalo calves, with cattle calves showing the higher rate. There is actually no curative treatment for bovines with Brucellosis, and vaccination, a one-time dose for 4-8 month female calves, is the only effective and sustainable control measure, not a merely supplementary one. Statement 2 inverts the facts by inserting a plausible-sounding treatment option for a disease whose key exam-fact is that no cure exists, and it is worth remembering that Brucellosis affects reproductive organs, has no cure for bovines, and is also zoonotic, meaning humans can contract it from infected animals.

Only two pairs, 1 and 3, are correctly matched. White Rabbit Technology does achieve sub-nanosecond precision timing over Ethernet, demonstrated at RRSL Bengaluru for the IST dissemination network, and IMPS, Immediate Payment Service, is indeed the 24×7 real-time interbank payment system on which UPI was built as an interoperable layer. NavIC is actually a regional system covering India and roughly 1,500 km beyond, not a global system like GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, or BeiDou, and TPAP, Third-Party Application Provider, is actually the company providing the UPI app itself, such as PhonePe or Google Pay, rather than the bank connecting it to NPCI, which is instead the role of the PSP, or Payment Service Provider. It helps to fix that TPAP is the app while PSP is the bank linking the app to NPCI, and that NavIC has 7 satellites and is regional while GPS has 24-plus satellites and is global.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct, while Statement 2 is wrong. UPI is operated by NPCI, which provides switching and routing infrastructure for roughly 730 participating banks, and Bhutan was the first foreign country to adopt UPI in 2021, through NPCI International Payments Ltd, a wholly-owned NPCI subsidiary. UPI IDs are actually created and maintained by individual banks rather than centrally by NPCI, since each bank sets its own ID format and users can customise their IDs within the bank's rules, making this the most common UPI misconception. It is worth remembering NPCI as the operator, RBI as the regulator, and NIPL as the international expansion arm, with UPI launched in April 2016 by then-RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct and direct explanation of A. The 180-day implementation window was explicitly provided because banking, telecom, railways, power systems, and other critical infrastructure currently rely on foreign GPS-based timing, and the window allows these systems to review their infrastructure, make technical changes, and migrate to NavIC or other Indian-approved timing sources before the Rules become legally mandatory. The PIB release explicitly states the 180-day window is meant to allow government departments, businesses, and institutions to make required changes, making R the stated rationale rather than merely a related fact. It is worth remembering IST as UTC +5:30, the parent Act as the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, the initiative as "One Nation, One Time," and RRSL Bengaluru as the demo site.

Hydrogen nuclei, or protons, are similar in mass to the incoming energetic protons from solar particle events, and this mass similarity maximises energy transfer in collisions, analogous to billiard balls of similar mass, slowing radiation particles efficiently while keeping the shielding lightweight, a critical advantage given the prohibitive cost of extra launch mass. Option (a) inverts the density comparison, since lead is actually denser than the polymers, option (c) attributes a property AstroRad explicitly lacks, since it does not protect against galactic cosmic rays, a key limitation and an unsolved shielding challenge, and option (d) is irrelevant, since optical transparency has no bearing on radiation physics. It helps to remember that Solar Particle Events originate from the Sun and are periodic, while Galactic Cosmic Rays originate from outside the solar system, are constant, and remain harder to block.

Statement 1 is correct, while Statement 2 is wrong. India's V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index score was 0.38 in 2025, below the 0.39 recorded in 1975 during the Emergency. V-Dem actually classifies India specifically as an "autocratising" country, one experiencing a systematic dismantling of democratic institutions, whereas "backsliding democracy" is the term used by other indices such as Freedom House and represents a different, less severe classification. Using "backsliding" in a V-Dem context is a precision-of-language trap, since both terms describe democratic decline but V-Dem's specific vocabulary is "autocratisation." It is worth remembering V-Dem as the Varieties of Democracy Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with India ranking 106th of 179 countries and Denmark topping the index at 0.9.

Three of the four pairs are correctly matched. Olga Tellis v Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985) held that the right to livelihood is implied in Article 21, the right to life, Article 41 as a Directive Principle states that the State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity, make effective provision for securing the right to work, and Sanjit Roy v State of Rajasthan (1983) held that wages below minimum wages violate Article 23, the prohibition of forced labour. Article 32 is actually the Right to Constitutional Remedies, a fundamental right to approach the Supreme Court, and has nothing to do with conditions of work, since Articles 42 and 43 relate to just working conditions and living wages respectively. The Right to Work constitutional chain is worth fixing as Article 21 (life) leading to Article 41 (work, DPSP) leading to Article 42 (conditions) leading to Article 43 (living wage), alongside Article 23 (no forced labour).

Statements 2, 3 and 4 are correct, while Statement 1 attributes a desirable feature to the new Act that it does not have. VB-GRAM G contains denotification provisions that remove MGNREGA's universal coverage, the Non-Retrogression Doctrine, which holds that the State cannot roll back a right once progressively achieved, affirmed in Navtej Singh Johar, is cited by critics against the replacement, and person-days fell from roughly 44 crore, the five-year average, to 14.94 crore in July-August 2026, approximately a 68% decline. The VB-GRAM G Act actually does not link wages to the Minimum Wages Act, which is precisely a key criticism of the new law, since it was MGNREGA that was delinked from minimum wages in 2009, and the new Act continues this gap without correction. It is worth remembering the trap of attributing minimum-wage linkage, the most demanded reform, to the new Act when the opposite is true, alongside the fact that under VB-GRAM G, demand is not a right, the fund is capped, and areas can be denotified.

The name "Ontario" derives from the Wendat, also called Huron, indigenous people, and predates both Canadian Confederation of 1867 and American Independence of 1776 by well over a century, with Canadian PM Mark Carney noting it is more than 400 years old. Options A, B, and C are fabricated distractors with no basis in the source material or standard geography, and indigenous place-name origins are frequently overshadowed by colonial-era names in popular perception, which is precisely what this question tests. It helps to remember the HOMES mnemonic for the Great Lakes, Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, and that Lake Ontario borders Ontario province in Canada and New York state in the USA, draining via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean.

Both A and R are true, and R directly explains A. The Tawang model explicitly avoided door-to-door collection because scattered mountain settlements make it operationally and financially unviable, and Majuli's challenge was similarly logistics and cost across a flood-prone island, with a CSE report confirming that primary collection accounts for roughly 50% of SWM costs even in Indian cities, making community self-collection, the Swachchata Divas model, the economically rational alternative in remote areas. The cost-of-collection reason is explicitly stated in the source material as the rationale for the community model, so when R is both true and the stated reason for A, the answer is A rather than B. It is worth remembering Swachchata Divas as the monthly community collection day, MRF as Material Recovery Facility, and Majuli as the world's largest river island.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct, while Statement 3 doubles a figure. MPD-2047 proposes restoration of roughly 1,700 ha of Yamuna floodplain, with drains treated through upgraded sewage infrastructure, constructed wetlands, and bioremediation, and a 52-km cycling corridor along the Yamuna with walking trails and recreational areas is proposed. Cultural Resource Management Plans are actually proposed for approximately 1,500 heritage assets, not 3,000, a classic numerical doubling trap. Four MPD-2047 numbers worth memorising together are 1,700 ha for the Yamuna floodplain, 7,784 ha for the Ridge, 52 km for the cycling corridor, and 1,500 heritage assets under CRMPs, alongside Transferable Development Rights and adaptive reuse as the financial tools proposed for heritage conservation.

Three of the four pairs, 1, 2 and 4, are correctly matched. The Bharat Pashudhan Portal assigns a 12-digit unique Tag ID per animal with 39-plus crore registered by July 2026, MAITRIs provide doorstep veterinary services with 39,810 trained under NADCP financial support, and the Pandemic Fund Project is a US$25 million initiative backed by the G20 Pandemic Fund and implemented with ADB, FAO, and the World Bank. MVUs are actually accessible via toll-free number 1962, not 1800, since 1800 has no relevance here and is instead used by other schemes such as the Kisan Call Centre. Toll-free and helpline numbers are specific, testable facts and a known UPSC trap, so it is worth fixing 1962 as the MVU helpline alongside 4,019 operational MVUs, 136 lakh farmers benefited, and 276 lakh animals treated.

Statements 1, 2 and 3 are correct, while Statement 4 is wrong. One Health explicitly recognises the interdependence of human, animal, and environmental health as its core principle, the PM-STIAC's 21st meeting on 7 July 2022 approved setting up the National One Health Mission as a cross-ministerial effort, and NADCP's disease control reduces zoonotic spillover, promotes rational antimicrobial use, and builds pandemic preparedness. The One Health Mission is actually specifically designed as a cross-ministerial coordination mechanism, the opposite of sitting exclusively under a single ministry, meant to fill gaps and integrate existing One Health activities across the Health, Agriculture, and Environment ministries. Any statement claiming One Health sits exclusively under one ministry is by definition wrong, since its defining feature is cross-sectoral coordination, and it is worth remembering PM-STIAC as the Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council.