Current Affairs Quiz 29 September 2026

Statement 1 is correct — launched in FY 2021–22 as a 100% centrally sponsored scheme under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, PM-AJAY merged PMAGY, SCA to SCSP and BJRCY into one umbrella scheme. Statement 2 is incorrect — villages need only 40% or more SC population (with a total population of at least 500) to be eligible for Adarsh Gram grants, not 50%, and over 18,000 villages had already been declared Adarsh Grams by early September 2026. Statement 3 is correct, since Article 46, a Directive Principle, asks the State to promote the educational and economic interests of weaker sections, especially Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and protect them from social injustice.

Pair 1 is correct — under Article 341, the President specifies Scheduled Castes for a State or Union Territory (after consulting the Governor for a State), and only Parliament can thereafter change the list by law. Pair 2 is incorrect — Article 338 actually provides for the National Commission for Scheduled Castes; the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes was instead created under Article 338A, inserted by the 89th Amendment, 2003, a classic sibling-article swap. Pair 3 is incorrect — Article 17 abolishes untouchability, not titles; abolition of titles is covered under the separate Article 18.

Statement 1 is incorrect — the Green Highways Policy was actually framed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, which earmarked 1% of the civil cost of National Highway projects for plantation, and over 3.61 crore saplings have been planted along about 1.32 lakh km of highways in five years. Statement 2 is incorrect too, and is in fact the exact opposite — the Miyawaki method, developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, plants many native species very densely in layers to create a self-sustaining mini-forest, rather than a few exotic species spaced widely apart.

Statement-I is correct — a CSIR-CRRI and CSIR-IIP technology blends 20–30% bio-oil from post-harvest rice straw with conventional bitumen, and a 100-metre trial stretch was laid on the Jorabat–Shillong Expressway (NH-40). Statement-II is incorrect — pyrolysis is thermal decomposition in the absence of oxygen, yielding bio-oil, combustible gas and biochar; heating biomass in the presence of excess oxygen would simply cause combustion, not pyrolysis.

Statement 1 is correct — PM E-DRIVE, with an outlay of ₹10,900 crore up to 31 March 2028, is run by the Ministry of Heavy Industries, with ₹780 crore earmarked for upgrading testing agencies. Statement 2 is correct, since NATRiP created the Global Automotive Research Centre (Chennai), ICAT (Manesar) and NATRAX (Indore) as authorised testing agencies. Statement 3 is incorrect — AIS-156 actually sets safety requirements for EV traction batteries in L-category (two- and three-wheeler) vehicles, while Bharat NCAP's crash-safety star ratings are instead based on AIS-197, a case of two automotive standards being interchanged.

Statement 1 is correct — the proviso to Section 24 keeps information on corruption and human rights violations within reach even for excluded organisations, though human-rights information needs the Information Commission's approval. Statement 2 is correct, since Section 24(4) lets a State notify such organisations while Section 24(5) requires the notification to be laid before the State Legislature. Statement 3 is incorrect — under Section 7(1), the time limit for information concerning life or liberty is 48 hours, not 72 hours, against the normal 30-day limit.

Statement 1 is correct — SDG Target 12.3 seeks to halve per-capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030, while also reducing food losses along production and supply chains; the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste falls on 29 September. Statement 2 is incorrect — UNEP, not FAO, is the custodian of the Food Waste Index (covering retail, food service and households); FAO is instead the custodian of the separate Food Loss Index (covering post-harvest losses up to retail).

Statement 1 is correct — Article 244(2) read with the Sixth Schedule covers Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, mostly former "Excluded" areas of colonial Assam, and there are 10 Autonomous District Councils today. Statement 2 is correct, since a council has not more than 30 members, of whom up to four are nominated by the Governor and the rest are elected. Statement 3 is correct too — the Governor can create, merge, divide or alter autonomous districts by public notification, which is relevant since Ladakh has sought Sixth Schedule status while the Centre has instead proposed a new Article 371-K.

Pair 1 is correct — Article 239AA (69th Amendment, 1991) gives Delhi a Legislative Assembly and Council of Ministers. Pair 2 is correct, since Article 371A protects Naga religious and social practices, customary law and ownership of land. Pair 3 is correct too — Article 371J (98th Amendment, 2012) provides for a development board and reservation for the Hyderabad–Karnataka (Kalyana Karnataka) region. Pair 4 is incorrect — Article 239A (14th Amendment, 1962) actually enables a legislature for Puducherry, not Ladakh; Ladakh is a Union Territory without a legislature, and the Centre has instead proposed a new Article 371-K for it, a case of the UT in the news being attached to an existing article.

Statement-I is correct — Article 217(2) provides two eligibility streams for a High Court judge: 10 years in judicial office or 10 years as a High Court advocate; by convention about one-third of judges come from the service stream, though only 233 of 1,114 sanctioned posts are currently held by them. Statement-II is correct too, since Article 233 governs appointment of district judges by the Governor in consultation with the High Court. But Statement-II does NOT explain Statement-I — Statement-I concerns eligibility for the High Court, while Statement-II concerns appointment at the district level, so the two statements are related in theme but not causally linked.

Statement 1 is correct — Section 3 empowers the Governor or Administrator, and the Central Government (a power added in 1972), to declare an area disturbed; the MHA has now extended AFSPA in parts of Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh until 31 March 2027. Statement 2 is correct, since Section 6 bars prosecution without the Centre's sanction, though in EEVFAM v. Union of India (2016) the Supreme Court held there is no absolute immunity for excessive force. Statement 3 is correct too — AFSPA was withdrawn from Tripura in 2015 and Meghalaya in 2018, and recent news of extension elsewhere should not be confused with these earlier withdrawals.

Unmet need covers women who want to space or limit births but are using no method of contraception, and NFHS-6 (2023–24) shows a one-percentage-point decline from NFHS-5. Options (a), (b) and (c) describe incentives, supply gaps and wanted-versus-actual fertility — related family-planning ideas, but NOT the NFHS definition of unmet need, which turns on the two keywords "need" (wishing to avoid pregnancy) and "unmet" (using no method). This links to news of NFHS-6 showing female sterilisation at 36.5% against male sterilisation at just 0.5%, alongside WHO's first benchmarks for reversible male contraceptives.

Statement 1 is correct — Kavach, developed by RDSO with Indian industry and certified to SIL-4, applies brakes automatically to prevent collisions and over-speeding, and is being installed on 404 km in the Ahmedabad division. Statement 2 is incorrect and actually describes CNG; LNG is instead natural gas cooled to about −162°C, reducing its volume roughly 600 times — India's first LNG-powered train, flagged off at Sabarmati, uses a diesel–LNG dual-fuel system replacing about 40% of diesel.

Statement 1 is incorrect — India became only an Associate Member State of CERN in 2017, not a full Member State, though India's Department of Atomic Energy did gift a Shiva Nataraja statue to CERN in 2004, a status-upgrade trap common for bodies like CERN, the OECD and the IEA. Statement 2 is correct, since the 27-km LHC ring lies underground on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, where the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012. Statement 3 is correct too — Tim Berners-Lee proposed the Web at CERN in 1989 and built the first browser, server and website by 1990.

Statement 1 is correct — RISUG (Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance) was developed at IIT Kharagpur and has completed Phase III trials under the ICMR, with the WHO now issuing its first Target Product Profile for male contraceptives. Statement 2 is correct too, since UN Women was created in 2010 by a General Assembly resolution merging four UN bodies on gender equality and is headquartered in New York, and it has just launched a Digital, Innovation and AI Hub. An unfamiliar acronym like RISUG should not tempt aspirants into doubting an otherwise well-established Indian-origin technology.