Current Affairs Quiz 26 September 2026

Statements 2 and 4 are correct. Funding is shared 60:40 for most States, 90:10 for the North-Eastern States, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and J&K, and 100% central for UTs without a legislature; and "public health and sanitation; hospitals and dispensaries" is indeed Entry 6 of the State List, which is why health delivery rests with the States and PM-JAY runs as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. Statement 1 is incorrect — rural eligibility uses only six of the seven SECC deprivation criteria (D1–D5 and D7), excluding D6 (no literate adult above 25 years). Statement 3 is incorrect too — the National Health Authority was reconstituted in 2019 by an executive Cabinet decision, making it an attached office of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, NOT a statutory body. This combines a count-inflation trap (six stretched to "all seven") with a status-elevation trap (executive body passed off as statutory).

Statements 1, 3 and 4 are correct. Article 97 provides that the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council, so the P5 veto applies at the recommendation stage; Article 19 does allow the loss of vote for arrears equalling or exceeding two full years' contributions, though the Assembly may still permit a vote if the default is due to conditions beyond a member's control; and the Trusteeship Council did suspend operations on 1 November 1994, after Palau, the last trust territory, became independent. Statement 2 is incorrect — the Charter is actually silent on tenure; the five-year term comes from General Assembly resolution 11(I) of 1946, not from the Charter itself, with two terms having become convention. This is a source-displacement trap, attributing a genuine practice to the Charter when it actually comes from an Assembly resolution.

All three statements are correct. The CCS decision of 4 January 2003 made public the doctrine's core tenets: credible minimum deterrence; No First Use, with nuclear weapons used only in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian territory or Indian forces anywhere; massive retaliation designed to inflict unacceptable damage; authorisation only by the civilian political leadership through the Nuclear Command Authority; and no use against non-nuclear-weapon states. Statement 3 is the doctrine's one stated exception to strict NFU — the option of nuclear retaliation against a major biological or chemical attack. This is an exception-blindness trap, where many aspirants reject a true statement simply because it sounds inconsistent with No First Use.

Statement-I is correct — the renminbi entered the SDR basket on 1 October 2016, joining the US dollar, euro, yen and pound sterling, with a 2022-review weight of 12.28%, behind the dollar (43.38%) and the euro (29.31%). Statement-II is incorrect, since China maintains capital controls, and the yuan is not fully convertible on the capital account — SDR inclusion actually rests on the export criterion and being "freely usable," not on full convertibility. This is a false-criterion trap, offering a plausible-sounding but untrue reason for a true statement.

Pairs 1 and 2 are correctly matched — the Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, carrying roughly a fifth of global oil and gas supplies, and Bab-el-Mandeb links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Pair 3 is incorrect — the Bosphorus actually links the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, with the Dardanelles then linking Marmara to the Aegean, together forming the Turkish Straits under the Montreux Convention, 1936. Pair 4 is incorrect too, since the Kerch Strait links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, not the landlocked Caspian Sea, which has no natural outlet to the ocean at all. This combines a link-skipping trap in pair 3 with a neighbour-swap trap in pair 4.

Statement 1 is correct — in 2023, SEBI widened the definition of green debt securities to include blue bonds (water management and the marine sector) and yellow bonds (solar energy). Statement 2 is incorrect — the world's first sovereign blue bond was actually issued by Seychelles in 2018, with support from the World Bank, not Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank; India's own first blue bond is now planned by Sagarmala Finance Corporation for 28 September 2026. This is a pioneer-swap trap, replacing the real "first" with a larger, plausible-sounding issuer and lender.

Statements 2 and 3 are correct. The Telecommunications Act, 2023, which replaced the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, did rename the USOF as Digital Bharat Nidhi; and under the TRAI (Rating of Properties for Digital Connectivity) Regulations, 2024, registered Digital Connectivity Rating Agencies assess fibre readiness, mobile coverage, in-building solutions and Wi-Fi, with TRAI launching the DCR Platform on 25 September 2026. Statement 1 is incorrect — TDSAT was actually created by the TRAI (Amendment) Act, 2000, not the Telecommunications Act, 2023, to take over adjudicatory and appellate functions from TRAI, which itself was set up in 1997. This is a statute-swap trap, tying a real institution to the newest, most-discussed law instead of the amendment that actually created it.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Entry 17, List II covers water supplies, irrigation, canals, drainage, embankments and water power, subject to Entry 56, List I, which lets Parliament regulate and develop inter-State rivers; and the Eleventh Schedule, added by the 73rd Amendment (1992), does list minor irrigation, water management and watershed development, alongside drinking water. Statement 3 is incorrect — the CGWA was actually constituted under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, not the Water Act, 1974, which instead deals with the prevention and control of water pollution. This is a parent-law swap trap, since the Water Act sounds like the natural home for a groundwater regulator but the CGWA in fact draws its power from the umbrella EPA.

Option (d) is correct — the PWM (Amendment) Rules, 2021 raised the minimum thickness of plastic carry bags to 75 microns from 30 September 2021 and to 120 microns from 31 December 2022. Option (a) is wrong, since the PWM Rules, 2016 were actually framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Option (b) is wrong too — the ban on identified single-use plastic items took effect on 1 July 2022; 2 October instead marks the 2014 launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission. Option (c) is wrong, since the EPR Guidelines, 2022 treat multilayered plastic as its own distinct category (Category III) with its own obligations, rather than exempting it. This is a date-association trap in option (b), where a real cleanliness-story milestone is substituted for the actual ban date.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct. Prasar Bharati was created by the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990, which came into force in 1997, and runs Doordarshan and Akashvani; and in Secretary, Ministry of I&B v. Cricket Association of Bengal (1995), the Supreme Court did hold that airwaves are public property to be used in the public interest, falling within Article 19(1)(a). Statement 2 is incorrect — Doordarshan actually began as an experimental service in Delhi on 15 September 1959, not Mumbai. This is a location-swap trap, keeping the correct year but moving the city to India's media capital.