Current Affairs Quiz 13 October 2026

Statement 1 is correct — BISAG-N, Gandhinagar, an autonomous body under MeitY, built the GIS platform, and it also developed the Query-Based Analytics Mechanism that opened 230 datasets to private users in October 2025. Statement 2 is incorrect — the Cabinet Secretary chairs the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS), the top tier, whereas the Network Planning Group (NPG) brings together the heads of network-planning divisions of infrastructure ministries. Statement 3 is correct — the Logistics Division, DPIIT (Ministry of Commerce & Industry) is the Secretariat, assisted by a Technical Support Unit. The setter keeps every body real but moves the chair from tier 1 to tier 2, so rebuild the three tiers in order: EGoS (Cabinet Secretary), NPG (network-planning heads), TSU (experts). PM GatiShakti was launched on 13 October 2021, and the NPG screens projects above ₹500 crore.

Statement 1 is correct — Railways are Entry 22, List I. Statement 2 is incorrect — ports declared by Parliament to be major ports are in the Union List (Entry 27), and it is ports other than major ports that sit in the Concurrent List (Entry 31). Statement 3 is correct — acquisition and requisitioning of property is Entry 42, List III, which is why both the Centre and States legislate on land acquisition. Statement 4 is correct — Land is Entry 18, List II. "Ports" appears in two Lists, so whenever a subject is split by an adjective (major / non-major, national / other highways), test which half is being quoted. Remember: Union has Railways (22), National Highways (23), National Waterways (24), Major Ports (27) and Airways (29); State has roads (13) and land (18).

Option (d) is correct — cropping intensity = (Gross Cropped Area ÷ Net Sown Area) × 100, and since land sown twice in a year is counted twice in gross cropped area, a value near 100% means a single crop a year. Option (a) describes the share of net sown area in a region's geographical area, option (b) gives the share of cropped area under irrigation, and option (c) inverts the correct ratio and can never exceed 100%. Option (c) uses the right two terms in the wrong order, so sanity-check with a limit: intensity must rise when land is cropped more than once, and only (d) can exceed 100%. PMDDKY selects districts on low productivity, low cropping intensity and low credit.

Pair 1 is correct — Garuda is the India–France bilateral air exercise. Pair 2 is incorrect — Pitch Black is a multilateral exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force at Darwin, Australia. Pair 3 is correct — Eastern Bridge is the India–Oman air exercise. Pair 4 is incorrect — Indradhanush is the India–United Kingdom air exercise. Both wrong pairs use genuine IAF partners attached to the wrong exercise (the UK hosts Cobra Warrior; Japan holds Shinyuu Maitri with India), so anchor each exercise to one cue: Darwin for Pitch Black, the Gulf for Eastern Bridge. Also remember Cope India with the USA, Red Flag in the USA, and Tarang Shakti hosted by India.

Statement-I is correct — the IAF was constituted on 8 October 1932 under the Indian Air Force Act, 1932, and Air Force Day marks that date; Tarang Shakti 2026 coincided with its 94th anniversary. Statement-II is correct, but it does not explain Statement-I — the "Royal" prefix came in 1945 and was dropped in 1950 when India became a Republic, and the date of Air Force Day comes from the 1932 founding, not the 1945 honour. The "because" test fails: "Air Force Day is on 8 October because the IAF was made 'Royal' in 1945" has nothing connecting 1945 to an October date, and two true historical facts placed side by side are the setter's favourite route to option (b). The first flight was on 1 April 1933, and the motto is 'Nabhah Sprisham Deeptam' (Gita, Ch. 11).

Statement 1 is correct — HVDC avoids reactive-power and skin-effect losses, so it becomes cheaper and more efficient than AC beyond long distances, hence its use for the 480-km Pang–Kaithal line. Statement 2 is correct — because the link carries DC, it decouples the two AC systems and can join asynchronous grids. Statement 3 is incorrect — power is generated and consumed as AC, so HVDC needs converter terminals at both ends, and the project has 5 GW HVDC terminals at Pang and Kaithal. Statement 3 removes the very thing that makes HVDC expensive; a technology's advantages always come with a cost, and a statement that claims the cost away is the usual false one. The Ladakh–Haryana GEC carries 13 GW of renewable energy via Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, with a target of FY 2029–30.

Statement 1 is correct — the GEAC is the apex body for approving the environmental release of GM organisms and sits in the MoEFCC. Statement 2 is correct — the Rules, 1989 (Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous Microorganisms, Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells) were framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Statement 3 is incorrect — the RCGM functions under the Department of Biotechnology (Ministry of Science & Technology), and it oversees research and contained trials. GM crops "feel" like an agriculture subject, so the setter parks a biotech body in the Agriculture Ministry; remember the chain by function: research to DBT (RCGM), environmental release to MoEFCC (GEAC), and seed sale to Agriculture (Seeds Act). Bt cotton (2002) is the only GM crop in commercial cultivation.

Statement-I is correct — HT cotton carries a gene such as cp4-epsps that lets the crop survive glyphosate, so farmers can spray the whole field, which is why the editorial cites ₹750–850 for 2–3 sprays against ₹12,000–15,000 per acre for manual weeding. Statement-II is incorrect — glyphosate is a non-selective, broad-spectrum herbicide that kills almost all green plants by blocking the EPSPS enzyme, and that is exactly why the crop itself must be engineered to tolerate it. If glyphosate were selective, no genetic modification would be needed, so HT traits exist only because the herbicide is indiscriminate. The cp4-epsps trait is unapproved in India, IARC (2015) classed glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic" (2A), and India restricted its use to pest-control operators in October 2022.

Statement 1 is correct — the 77th Amendment (1995) inserted Article 16(4A), in response to Indra Sawhney. Statement 2 is correct — the 81st Amendment (2000) inserted Article 16(4B), treating carried-forward vacancies as a separate class outside that year's 50% ceiling. Statement 3 is incorrect — Indra Sawhney held that Article 16(4) covers initial appointments only, not promotions, which is the very ruling the 77th Amendment set out to overcome. Statement 4 is incorrect — the proviso to Article 335 was added by the 82nd Amendment (2000), while the 85th Amendment (2001) extended Article 16(4A) to consequential seniority. The 77th, 81st, 82nd and 85th Amendments all deal with service reservation within six years, so tie each to one word: 77 = promotion, 81 = carry-forward, 82 = marks, 85 = seniority. Also recall Nagaraj (2006) and Jarnail Singh (2018).

Pair 1 is correct — the National Quantum Mission (2023, ₹6,003.65 crore) is implemented by the DST. Pair 2 is correct — the IndiaAI Mission (2024, ₹10,371.92 crore) is run by MeitY through the IndiaAI Independent Business Division. Pair 3 is correct — the Deep Ocean Mission (2021), including the manned submersible Matsya 6000, is under the MoES. Pair 4 is correct — Mission Mausam (2024, ₹2,000 crore) is also an MoES mission, implemented through the IMD, IITM Pune and NCMRWF. Seeing the same ministry twice tempts you to assume one pair must be wrong, but UPSC does not balance its lists; if each pair survives independent checking, trust "All four". Also recall ISM with MeitY, BioE3 with DBT, and ANRF with DST (chaired by the PM).

Statement 1 is incorrect — the target is defined on the Consumer Price Index (Combined), 4% ± 2%, because CPI reflects the prices households actually pay. Statement 2 is correct — the Finance Act, 2016 amended the RBI Act to insert Chapter IIIF, creating the six-member MPC (Section 45ZB). Statement 3 is correct — under Section 45ZA, the Central Government, in consultation with the RBI, fixes the target once every five years. WPI was India's headline inflation measure for decades, so it sounds official, but the logic of inflation targeting is that the target must track the cost of living, hence CPI. The MPC has 6 members (3 RBI + 3 external).

Option (c) is correct — the LPI is a weighted geometric mean of the rates of change of 35,803 monitored vertebrate populations, relative to 1970 = 1, and the 2026 figure shows an average decline of 73%. Options (a) and (d) concern species extinctions and threat status, which the index does not measure. Option (b) is the common misreading: only 50% of populations were declining, while 43% were increasing and 7% stable. "73% decline" is widely reported as "73% of wildlife lost" or "73% of species declining", but the index averages rates of change and counts neither species nor individuals. Regionally, Latin America and the Caribbean fell 95%, Africa 80%, Asia 49% and Europe 23%.

Statement 1 is correct — Article 326 guarantees adult suffrage to every citizen aged 18 or above (lowered from 21 by the 61st Amendment, 1988). Statement 2 is incorrect — Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 lets the ECI order a special revision, but its proviso keeps the existing roll in force until the revision is completed. The setter flips a safeguard; otherwise a constituency would have no valid roll during the revision and no election could be held, and law avoids such vacuums. Recall Art. 324 (ECI), Art. 325 (one roll, no exclusion on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex) and Lal Babu Hussein (1995).

Statement 1 is correct — Article 342(1) empowers the President, after consulting the Governor of a State, to notify its Scheduled Tribes by public notification. Statement 2 is incorrect — under Article 342(2), once notified, the list can be changed only by Parliament by law, not by another Presidential order. Because the President made the first list, it seems natural that the President can amend it, but the Constitution deliberately hands later changes to Parliament to prevent executive tinkering, the same design as Article 341 for SCs. Also recall Art. 338A (NCST, 89th Amendment, 2003) and the Lokur Committee (1965) criteria.

Statement 1 is correct — the DPCO, 2013 is issued under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. Statement 2 is correct — the NPPA, set up in 1997, is an attached office of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers), not the Health Ministry. Statement 3 is correct — scheduled formulations, those in the NLEM (384 medicines in NLEM 2022), carry ceiling prices, while non-scheduled drugs can raise MRP by at most 10% a year. Medicines suggest the Health Ministry, which makes statement 2 look wrong, but pricing sits with the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers; when every statement checks out independently, do not invent an error. Also recall the stent price caps of 2017 and the 30% cancer-drug margin cap (2019) under Para 19.