Current Affairs Quiz 17 September 2026

Statement 1 is correct — the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme dates to 1952, the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) Scheme to 1976, and the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) to 1995. Statement 2 is correct, since of the employer's 12% contribution, 8.33% goes to EPS, and the Centre adds 1.16% of wages up to the ceiling. Statement 3 is incorrect — the EPFO is a statutory body created under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, now consolidated in the Code on Social Security, 2020, functioning under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, while Article 43 is merely a Directive Principle on a living wage and establishes no body. Directive Principles (Articles 36–51) create no institutions, so a body that "flows from" a DPSP is almost always created by a statute rather than the Constitution itself.

Statement 1 is correct — BLC provides up to ₹2.5 lakh to EWS families for a new pucca house of up to 45 sq m on their own land. Statement 2 is incorrect, since the Interest Subsidy Scheme covers EWS, LIG, and Middle Income Group (MIG) households with annual income up to ₹9 lakh, for home loans sanctioned on or after 1 September 2024. Statement 3 is correct — Affordable Rental Housing targets EWS/LIG urban residents including migrants, industrial and construction workers, working women and street vendors. Statement 4 is incorrect, since the four verticals of PMAY-U 2.0 are BLC, Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP), Affordable Rental Housing (ARH), and ISS — In-situ Slum Redevelopment was a vertical of the original PMAY-U (2015), not of 2.0. Whenever a scheme is revamped as "2.0," it's worth checking which components were dropped, renamed, or upgraded, since here ISSR and CLSS went out while ISS and ARH came in, and MIG was silently dropped from ISS's stated coverage.

The Assertion is true — PM Vishwakarma, launched on 17 September 2023 for artisans in 18 family-based traditional trades, is a Central Sector Scheme implemented by the Ministry of MSME with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the Department of Financial Services. The Reason is true and explains the Assertion, since Central Sector Schemes are 100% funded and implemented by the Union Government, whereas Centrally Sponsored Schemes share costs with States — the scheme's ₹13,000 crore outlay is borne entirely by the Centre, with States participating only by onboarding for verification and outreach. Here the Reason states the very criterion that defines the category in the Assertion, making it the correct explanation: Central Sector means the Centre funds and implements, while Centrally Sponsored means the Centre and States share the cost.

Statement 1 is incorrect — the India Electric Mobility Index (IEMI) is released by NITI Aayog, not the Bureau of Energy Efficiency; its first edition (August 2025) scored States and UTs out of 100 across three themes covering transport electrification, charging infrastructure, and EV research. Statement 2 is correct — FAME India Phase I began in 2015 under NEMMP 2020 (launched in 2013), followed by FAME II (2019) and later PM E-DRIVE (2024). State-ranking thematic indices such as the SDG India Index, the Export Preparedness Index, and the IEMI are NITI Aayog's tools of competitive federalism, while BEE instead runs efficiency programmes such as Star Labelling and the State Energy Efficiency Index, so the two institutions shouldn't be confused.

Pair 1 is correctly matched — the nuclear installations agreement was signed on 31 December 1988. Pair 2 is correctly matched — the Advance Notice agreement was signed on 6 April 1991, and its Article 10 bars naval ships and submarines from closing within 3 nautical miles of each other in international waters, a provision India invoked after a Pakistani ship collision in September 2026. Pair 3 is incorrectly matched, since the Simla Agreement was signed on 2 July 1972, after the 1971 war, not 1974. Pair 4 is incorrectly matched, since the Lahore Declaration was signed in February 1999, not 2005. Genuine agreements have been paired with years near other landmarks here, since 1974 is the year of India's first nuclear test and 2005 saw a separate ballistic-missile pre-notification agreement — anchoring India-Pakistan confidence-building measures to their triggering crises helps: the 1971 war led to Simla in 1972, Operation Brass Tacks (1987) led to the 1988/1991 pacts, and the 1998 tests led to Lahore in 1999.

Sohar lies on Oman's Batinah coast along the Gulf of Oman, between Muscat and the UAE border, and therefore outside the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, bordered by Iran to the north and Oman's Musandam exclave to the south, and Sohar's proximity to UAE and eastern Saudi energy routes gives it an advantage over Oman's other offered ports, Duqm and Salalah, which lie on the Arabian Sea coast. The Persian Gulf is the most tempting option here simply because the port is discussed in the context of Gulf energy, but tracing the actual sea route, Persian Gulf → Strait of Hormuz → Gulf of Oman → Arabian Sea, shows that a port meant to bypass Hormuz must lie beyond it.

Statement 1 is correct — the pygmy hog (Porcula salvania), the world's smallest wild suid, is the sole species of its genus, listed as Endangered and included in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, with its last natural population surviving in the Manas National Park grasslands. Statement 2 is incorrect, since Orang National Park lies on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in Assam, not the south bank. Statement 3 is correct — the Sumatran elephant was uplisted to Critically Endangered in 2011, with only about 2,400–2,800 remaining. The correct river is retained here but the bank is reversed, so it's worth remembering that Manas, Orang, and Sonai Rupai lie on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in western/central Assam, while Kaziranga lies on the south bank.

Statement 1 is incorrect — the award was instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, but its first recipient was actress Devika Rani, not Prithviraj Kapoor, who received it posthumously for 1971. Statement 2 is incorrect, since India's highest honour in cinema is presented by the President of India at the National Film Awards, administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, not by the Prime Minister. National honours and awards, including the Bharat Ratna, Padma awards, and National Film Awards such as the Phalke Award, are conferred by the President, so a well-known but wrong "first" recipient combined with the wrong conferring authority is a double trap here.

Statement 1 is correct — the World Economic Forum has published the index since 2006. Statement 2 is correct, as the four sub-indices are Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. Statement 3 is incorrect — the 106th Amendment (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam) reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, and the Delhi Legislative Assembly, not the Rajya Sabha, and it will operate only after delimitation based on the next Census. A reservation that applies to directly elected Houses has been stretched here to an indirectly elected House, so it's worth remembering that seat reservations under Articles 330/332 (SC/ST) and 330A/332A (women) apply to the Lok Sabha and Assemblies, while the Rajya Sabha has no reserved seats.

Statement 1 is correct — the Acts of Union of 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, with Wales having been annexed to England by an Act of Union in 1536, and Ireland joining in 1801 before most of it became independent in 1922. Statement 2 is correct — Great Britain is the island nations of England, Scotland, and Wales, while the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland adds the six counties of Northern Ireland. Statement 3 is correct — in November 2022, the UK Supreme Court ruled that holding a referendum is a reserved matter for the UK Parliament, with the 2014 referendum having been held only after a Section 30 order under the Scotland Act, 1998. When every statement in a set survives a factual check like this one, it's worth trusting that check rather than assuming at least one statement must be false and eliminating a correct one.