Current Affairs Quiz 24 October 2026

All three statements are correct. Under Section 6(1), the Gram Sabha initiates the process by receiving and consolidating claims and passing a resolution, assisted by a Forest Rights Committee. Claims then move through the Sub-Divisional Level Committee to the District Level Committee, whose decision on the record of rights is final and binding under Section 6(6), while a State Level Monitoring Committee under the Chief Secretary oversees implementation. Under Section 4(6), land recognised for an individual or family cannot exceed the area actually occupied and is capped at 4 hectares.

Statement 1 is correct — OTFDs must prove residence for three generations (75 years) before 13 December 2005, whereas forest-dwelling STs need only have resided before that date. Statement 2 is correct — Section 3(1)(i) gives communities the right to protect, regenerate, conserve and manage customary forest resources, and Statement 3 is correct — Section 3(1)(e) provides habitat rights for PVTGs and pre-agricultural communities, though these have been recognised for only 11 of 75 PVTGs so far. Statement 4 is incorrect — the nodal ministry is the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, with the Environment Ministry only a key partner on forest management.

Statement 1 is correct — PVTGs are identified by a pre-agricultural level of technology, low literacy, economic backwardness and a declining or stagnant population. Statement 2 is correct — Odisha has the largest number (13) of the 75 PVTGs, which are spread across 18 States and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Statement 3 is incorrect — the Dhebar Commission (1960–61) highlighted inequality among tribes and led to the category of “Primitive Tribal Groups”, which was renamed PVTGs only in 2006.

Cropping intensity = Gross Cropped Area ÷ Net Sown Area × 100 = 217.88 ÷ 138.99 × 100 ≈ 157%, meaning cropped land carries about 1.6 crops a year on average. Option (a) inverts the ratio (NSA ÷ GCA), option (c) is the difference GCA − NSA, which is the area sown more than once rather than an intensity, and option (d) wrongly adds 200 per cent. Any intensity below 100% signals the ratio has been flipped.

Statement-I is correct — PESA requires States to give Gram Sabhas and Panchayats ownership of minor forest produce, along with powers over land alienation, local markets and money-lending. Statement-II is also correct and explains Statement-I — Part IX did not apply automatically to Scheduled Areas (Article 243M), and PESA extended it to Fifth Schedule areas in 10 States with Gram Sabha-centred modifications, which are the source of these powers. Note that PESA covers Fifth Schedule areas, not the Sixth Schedule areas of the North-East, which have Autonomous District Councils.

Saudi Arabia borders Yemen to the north and Oman to the east — Yemen’s only two land neighbours. The UAE does not touch Yemen, as Oman lies between them. Djibouti, only about 30 km away, faces Yemen across the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden — a sea boundary, not a land border.

All four pairs are correctly matched. Operation Rahat evacuated Indians and many foreign nationals from Yemen in 2015 by sea and air via Djibouti, and Operation Ganga brought Indian students home from Ukraine in 2022 through Poland, Romania and other neighbours. Operation Kaveri evacuated Indians from conflict-hit Sudan in 2023, and Operation Ajay facilitated the return of Indians from Israel the same year. The editorial urges similar contingency planning as Indians in Saudi Arabia face Houthi attacks.

Statement 1 is correct — GPUs perform thousands of operations at once, suiting the matrix calculations at the heart of AI training, and the IndiaAI Mission (2024) provides subsidised shared GPU compute. Statement 2 is incorrect — training builds a model from data, while inference is the use of a trained model to produce outputs such as answering a query. Statement 3 is correct — OSAT/ATMP units handle assembly, testing, marking and packaging while fabs make chips on wafers, and Statement 4 is correct — the India Semiconductor Mission (2021) functions under MeitY within the Digital India Corporation.

Statement 1 is correct — under Article 169, Parliament may create or abolish a Council if the Assembly so resolves by a majority of its total membership and two-thirds of members present and voting. Statement 2 is incorrect — Article 169(3) expressly says such a law shall not be deemed an amendment of the Constitution for Article 368, so it is passed by a simple majority in Parliament. Statement 3 is correct — under Article 171(1), a Council is capped at one-third of the Assembly’s strength and must have at least 40 members; six States (AP, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, UP) now have Councils.

Statement 1 is correct — unlike Parliament (Article 108), a State legislature has no joint sitting; under Article 197 the Council can only delay an ordinary Bill for up to three months and then one month, after which the Assembly’s will prevails. Statement 2 is incorrect — under Article 198, a Money Bill can be introduced only in the Legislative Assembly, and the Council must return it within 14 days with mere recommendations. In both Parliament and the States, Money Bills begin in the directly elected House.

Statement 1 is correct — Article 231 permits a common High Court, and one High Court serves the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, whose new Ladakh bench in Leh (about 3,500 m) began sitting in October 2026. Statement 2 is correct — Article 39A on equal justice and free legal aid was added by the 42nd Amendment (1976), and the Supreme Court has also read access to justice into Article 21. In two-statement questions, test each independently — ‘Both’ is a legitimate answer.

Statement 1 is incorrect — Current Weekly Status uses the preceding seven days, while the Usual Status approach uses the preceding 365 days. Statement 2 is correct — the PLFS began in April 2017, and from January 2027 it will add a separate stratum for households with platform workers and questions on unpaid care, volunteer and trainee work. Statement 3 is correct — the Code on Social Security, 2020 defines “gig worker” and “platform worker” and provides for social security schemes for them.

Statement-I is correct — the 19th ICLS (2013), convened by the ILO, broadened “work” beyond employment into five forms: own-use production work, employment, unpaid trainee work, volunteer work and other work. Statement-II is correct and explains Statement-I — because own-use production work covers household services such as cooking, cleaning, childcare and elderly care, unpaid care is counted as work even though it is not employment. The revised PLFS will begin capturing it from 2027.

Statement 1 is incorrect — Shamonda virus is an Orthobunyavirus in the family Peribunyaviridae, in the Simbu group with Schmallenberg, Akabane and Oropouche viruses, and is spread by Culicoides midges, which also transmit bluetongue. Statement 2 is incorrect — the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), founded as the OIE in 1924, is headquartered in Paris, while Geneva hosts the WHO and Rome the FAO.

Statement 1 is incorrect — the Emissions Gap Report is published by UNEP (annually since 2010), while the IPCC publishes multi-year Assessment Reports such as AR6 (2021–23); the 2026 edition concludes that keeping to 1.5°C without significant overshoot is no longer possible. Statement 2 is correct — Article 2 of the Paris Agreement (2015) sets the “well below 2°C” goal and the 1.5°C aspiration. Statement 3 is correct — UNEP, created after the 1972 Stockholm Conference, is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.