Daily Current Affairs Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
- The BNSS replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, and came into force on 1 July 2024.
- Section 173(1) of the BNSS enables a cognisable offence to be reported through electronic communication to any police station, irrespective of the territorial jurisdiction of the offence.
- The Zero FIR concept was first introduced by the BNSS, 2023, as a new legislative provision.
Statements 1 and 2 are correct — BNSS replaced the CrPC, 1973, coming into force 1 July 2024, and Section 173(1) enables electronic, cross-jurisdictional FIR reporting. Statement 3 is incorrect — the Zero FIR concept was recommended by the Justice Verma Committee (2012) after the Nirbhaya case; BNSS codified it but did not originate it.
Assertion (A): "Police" and "Public Order" are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution; hence, the Central government provides the e-Zero FIR platform but State/UT agencies handle FIR conversion, investigation and prosecution.
Reason (R): The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and Helpline 1930 are initiatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, administered under the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
Both A and R are true, but R does not explain A. Police and Public Order are indeed State List subjects. NCRP and Helpline 1930 are indeed MHA/I4C initiatives. However, the reason the Centre only provides the platform while States handle investigation is the constitutional division under Article 246 and the Seventh Schedule, not simply the existence of the MHA/I4C portal — R describes what MHA operates, not why the division of labour exists.
REER is the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate adjusted for the inflation differential between a country and its trading partners. Option (A) is wrong — it's bilateral against the dollar with domestic CPI only, not multilateral. Option (B) actually describes NEER, which has no inflation adjustment. Option (D) describes intervention/managed float, unrelated to the REER definition.
- The RBI calculates the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) against a basket of 40 currencies, weighted by each country's share in India's total foreign trade, with a base year of 2015–16 = 100.
- A REER consistently above 100 (base year) indicates that the rupee is undervalued, making Indian exports more competitive.
Statement 1 is correct — RBI's NEER uses a 40-currency trade-weighted basket, base 2015-16 = 100. Statement 2 is incorrect — a REER above 100 actually indicates real appreciation (overvaluation), making exports less, not more, competitive; undervaluation corresponds to REER below 100. India's REER fell to around 91 by June 2026, approaching undervaluation for the first time in years.
- The legal basis for designating Ecologically Sensitive Areas lies in Section 3(2)(v) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- The Gadgil Committee (2011) recommended that approximately 37% of the Western Ghats be designated as ESA, excluding areas under active plantation and agriculture.
- The Western Ghats was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 under the criterion of outstanding universal value for biodiversity.
Statements 1 and 3 are correct. Section 3(2)(v) of the EPA, 1986, is the ESA legal basis, and the Western Ghats was inscribed by UNESCO in 2012 (39 sites across Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Goa). Statement 2 is incorrect — it was the Kasturirangan Committee (2013) that recommended about 37% (59,940 sq km); the Gadgil Committee (2011) recommended the entire 1,29,000 sq km with graded protection, a much larger area.
Option (B) is correct — Anamudi (2,695 m), in Kerala's Western Ghats, is the highest peak in peninsular India south of the Himalayas. Option (A) is wrong — the Western Ghats is actually older than the Himalayas, formed from the Gondwana breakup rather than Cenozoic Himalayan uplift. Option (C) is wrong — "Environment" is a Concurrent List subject (Entry 17A), not State; the friction stems from Land being a State subject. Option (D) is wrong — the Purple Frog was rediscovered/scientifically described in 2003 by Biju and Bossuyt, not 1990.
- Lead-acid batteries account for approximately 86% of global lead consumption and are the primary source of urban lead contamination in Low and Middle Income Countries.
- The CGD report found that New Delhi had the highest proportion of schools within 5 km of a documented toxic site among all world capital cities, at approximately 91%.
- In High Income Countries, polluting sites tend to cluster near urban private schools — the same pattern observed in India — making it a universal feature of industrial development.
Statements 1 and 2 are correct — lead-acid batteries account for 86% of global lead use and are the primary informal-recycling pollution source in LMICs, and Delhi had 91.2% of schools within 5 km of a toxic site, the highest among world capitals. Statement 3 is incorrect and inverts the report's key finding — in HICs, pollution clusters near poor/marginalised communities, while in LMICs urban private schools are 4–28 times more likely to be near toxic sites, an "LMIC paradox," not a universal pattern.
Assertion (A): Children are disproportionately vulnerable to lead poisoning compared to adults because they absorb 4–5 times more lead from the environment, primarily due to higher hand-to-mouth behaviour and greater gastrointestinal absorption rates.
Reason (R): Lead mimics calcium in the body and accumulates in bones, where it can remain for decades; in neural tissue, it degrades myelin — the protective outer coating of nerve fibres — causing permanent cognitive impairment.
Both A and R are true, and R explains A. Children absorb 4–5 times more lead due to hand-to-mouth behaviour and higher gut absorption. Lead's calcium-mimicking accumulation in bones and its myelin-degrading action in neural tissue are precisely the biological mechanisms that make children's active bone development and neural myelination especially susceptible — directly explaining their heightened vulnerability.
Option (D) is correct — Andromeda, the nearest large galaxy at about 2.537 million light-years, is a spiral galaxy roughly 2–2.5 times wider than the Milky Way with about a trillion stars. Option (A) is wrong — Andromeda is a spiral, not elliptical, galaxy with more stars than the Milky Way. Option (B) is wrong — the collision timeline is roughly 10 billion years at about 50% probability, not 1 billion years with near certainty. Option (C) is wrong — Hubble orbits in low Earth orbit (~547 km), not geostationary, and JWST succeeds it specifically for infrared, not all, wavelengths.
- Stars form from the gravitational collapse of dense molecular gas clouds composed primarily of hydrogen and helium.
- "Galaxy quenching" refers to the process by which a galaxy transitions from active star formation (characterised by blue colour) to a quiescent state (characterised by red colour) when its gas supply is exhausted or disrupted.
- The 2026 Hubble study found that the satellite galaxy M32's gravitational interaction with Andromeda has significantly increased star formation rates in Andromeda's inner disc.
Statements 1 and 2 are correct — stars form from gravitational collapse of hydrogen/helium molecular clouds, and galaxy quenching describes the transition from active blue star formation to a red, gas-depleted quiescent state, which Andromeda is entering. Statement 3 is incorrect and inverts the finding — M32's interaction actually disrupted Andromeda's gas clouds, creating a "dead zone" where star formation has almost ceased, not increased.
- Classical Realism, associated with Hans Morgenthau, argues that states are compelled to pursue national interest defined in terms of power in an anarchic international system.
- Neorealism (Structural Realism), developed by Kenneth Waltz, shifted focus from human nature to the structure of the international system, arguing that anarchy itself drives security competition among states.
- Constructivism, associated with Alexander Wendt, argues that international structures are determined primarily by the material distribution of military and economic power rather than by shared ideas and norms.
Statements 1 and 2 are correct — Morgenthau's Classical Realism centres on anarchy and power-defined national interest, while Waltz's Neorealism shifts focus to the international system's structure, not human nature, as the driver of security competition. Statement 3 is incorrect — it actually describes Realism, not Constructivism; Wendt's Constructivism ("Anarchy is What States Make of It," 1992) argues international structures are socially constructed through shared ideas, identities, and norms, the opposite of material determinism.
Assertion (A): India's military intervention in East Pakistan in 1971 was widely accepted internationally, despite being an intervention in another sovereign state's internal affairs.
Reason (R): The Non-Aligned Movement was co-founded by India at the Belgrade Conference in 1961, alongside Yugoslavia and Egypt, as a normative vision of sovereign equality, anti-colonialism and peaceful coexistence.
Both A and R are true, but R does not explain A. NAM was indeed founded at Belgrade in 1961 with Nehru, Tito, and Nasser. However, India's 1971 acceptance rested on the overwhelming humanitarian case posed by massive atrocities in East Pakistan, not on NAM membership — in fact, NAM's principle of non-interference would argue against, not for, such an intervention. R accompanies A temporally but does not causally explain it.
Option (C) is correct — quota protests led to Hasina fleeing to India in August 2024, followed by Nobel laureate Yunus's appointment as interim leader, then elections in February 2026 that brought BNP's Tarique Rahman to power as PM; Hasina was convicted by the ICT and sentenced to death in November 2025 while already in India. Option (A) is wrong — Hasina fled to India, not Saudi Arabia. Option (B) is wrong — the conviction came after the flight, not before. Option (D) is wrong — Hasina did not go to the UK, and Yunus was an appointed interim, not an elected PM.
- Kumamoto is located on Japan's Kyushu Island, which lies at the junction of the Pacific, Philippine and Eurasian tectonic plates — making it one of the world's most seismically active zones.
- A tsunami advisory was issued for the Ariake and Yatsushiro Seas following the July 2026 earthquake, because submarine earthquakes always generate tsunamis when they exceed magnitude 6.0.
- Kumamoto Castle, which sustained damage in the July 2026 earthquake, was built in the 16th century by the daimyo Kato Kiyomasa.
Statements 1 and 3 are correct — Kumamoto on Kyushu sits at the Pacific/Philippine/Eurasian plate junction, one of the world's most seismically active zones, and Kumamoto Castle was built in the 16th century by daimyo Kato Kiyomasa. Statement 2 is incorrect — the advisory was precautionary and lifted within two hours since the fault movement wasn't predominantly vertical; tsunamis require vertical seafloor displacement, not merely high magnitude, so the "always above 6.0" claim is false.
Option (A) is correct — India imports about 85% of its crude oil; rising Brent prices widen the current account deficit and pressure the rupee to depreciate, as seen when the rupee hit its all-time low of ₹96.96 on 20 May 2026 amid Brent crossing $126 during US–Iran tensions. Option (B) is wrong — rupee depreciation actually raises import costs (oil, electronics, fertiliser), increasing inflation, not reducing it. Option (C) is wrong on both the date (May, not January) and cause (oil prices, not equity market falls). Option (D) is wrong — the RBI Governor stated appreciation is likely once West Asia stabilises, the opposite of a permanent undervaluation claim.
