Current Affairs Quiz 13 August 2026

Statement 1 is correct — NPCI was set up jointly by the RBI and the Indian Banks' Association in 2008 as a not-for-profit umbrella organisation. Statement 2 is incorrect because the zero-MDR subsidy is capped at 0.15% of transaction value on payments up to ₹2,000 and covers only about 11% of the ecosystem's actual operational cost (roughly ₹2,000 crore against an estimated ₹20,700 crore annually) — the absolute phrase "fully covers" is the trap here. Statement 3 is correct, as UPI's share in retail digital payments rose from about 40% in November 2019 to 87.6% in July 2026 per RBI data.

The Assertion is true — the BNSS, in force from 1 July 2024, allows up to 15 days of police custody in aggregate within the first 40 days for offences punishable up to 10 years, or within 60 days for serious offences, a position upheld by the Supreme Court in State of Andhra Pradesh v. Suda Suresh Veera Venkata Naga Raju (2026). The Reason is also true, since Section 167 of the CrPC limited police custody to the first 15 days only, after which just judicial custody was permissible. However, the Reason merely describes the old law as background contrast and does not explain why the BNSS created its flexible window — the actual justification is the legislative intent to permit custody when fresh evidence emerges during investigation. This is a classic Assertion–Reason trap where both facts are individually true but the causal link fails.

Statement 1 is correct — the National Biofuels Policy, 2018 set the E20 target of 20% ethanol blending in petrol, and the 2022 revision advanced the deadline from 2030 to 2025, with India reaching the 10% milestone in 2022. Statement 2 is also correct, since the 2025–26 feedstock composition shows maize at roughly 45% of the total mix, ahead of FCI rice at 22%, sugarcane juice at 16% and B-heavy molasses at 10%. The trap lies in assuming sugarcane and molasses still dominate as they historically did — maize overtook them following a 45% rise in output over three years.

Option (a) is correct because GPS displays coordinates in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984) while Survey of India maps were built on the Everest Spheroid of 1830, and the datum shift between these two reference ellipsoids can produce positional errors of several hundred metres in parts of India — critical for precision targeting. Option (b) is a reversal trap that swaps the two datums. Option (c) is wrong on the figure, as Selective Availability degraded accuracy to about 100 metres rather than 50, and it was switched off on 2 May 2000, after the war. Option (d) fails because the Time Arc-6 sets fitted on MiG-21 and MiG-23 BN aircraft could be configured to display Indian Everest coordinates, eliminating the datum shift on those platforms.

All three statements are correct. Project Elephant was launched in 1992 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, and India today has 33 Elephant Reserves across 14 major elephant-range states. Per Elephant Corridors of India (2023) by the Wildlife Institute of India, the East-Central region has the highest count with 52 of the 150 identified corridors, ahead of the North-East with 48 — a common point of confusion. The SAIEE 2021–25 estimates 22,446 wild elephants in India, roughly 60% of the global wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population of about 48,000–52,000.

The Assertion is true — Kazakhstan is using aircraft-based flares carrying sodium chloride and potassium chloride, both hygroscopic agents, over the Turkestan region in collaboration with UAE meteorological expertise. The Reason is false because cloud seeding cannot manufacture rain from clear skies; it requires pre-existing clouds with sufficient moisture and merely enhances precipitation by supplying additional condensation nuclei, a limitation recognised by the World Meteorological Organization. The trap is the plausible-sounding claim that the technology creates precipitation independent of atmospheric moisture — it is an enhancement technology, not a rain-creation one.

Statement 1 is correct — the BNSS came into force on 1 July 2024 alongside the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replacing the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replacing the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Statement 2 is incorrect because Section 187(3) of the BNSS makes default bail available after 90 days for serious offences punishable with death, life imprisonment or ten years or more, and after 60 days for lesser offences. The 40-day figure is the window within which police custody may be sought for lesser offences, not the default bail trigger — memorise police custody as 40/60 days and default bail as 60/90 days.

Statement 1 is incorrect on a single detail — the 75 notified PVTGs are spread across 18 States and only ONE Union Territory, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, not two. Statement 2 is correct, as PM JANMAN was launched in November 2023 with a ₹24,000 crore outlay over three years covering housing, roads, drinking water, mobile medical units and Anganwadi centres for all 75 PVTGs. Statement 3 is correct too, since the Baiga practise bewar or shifting cultivation and hold the belief that they are custodians of the earth, traditionally refusing to plough it — they are concentrated in Balaghat, Mandla, Dindori and Umaria districts of Madhya Pradesh and in Chhattisgarh.

Option (c) is correct — the NTC Chairperson must be a former Supreme Court Judge or a former Chief Justice of a High Court, appointed by the Central Government only after mandatory consultation with the Chief Justice of India, holding office for five years or until the age of 70, whichever is earlier. Option (a) fails on three counts: it says sitting rather than former judge, describes appointment by the President on the Prime Minister's advice, and restricts eligibility to Supreme Court judges alone. Option (b) is wrong because the CJI is consulted but does not appoint, and option (d) invents an election by Judicial Members that the Bill does not provide for.

All three pairs are correctly matched. SACU, established in 1910, is the world's oldest customs union with Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa as members, and India signed the Terms of Reference for PTA negotiations with it on 12 August 2026. The RBI launched the retail Digital Rupee (e₹-R) pilot on 1 December 2022, with the CBDC issued under the RBI Act, 1934 as amended in 2022 to create the legal basis. The CDS office was created in January 2020 with General Bipin Rawat as the first incumbent, following the recommendation of the Kargil Review Committee (2000) chaired by K. Subrahmanyam; the CDS heads the Department of Military Affairs and is the single-point military adviser to the Defence Minister on tri-service matters.