UPSC Prelims Practice
Current Affairs Quiz 28 April 2026
Test Your Knowledge
15 questions based on today’s current affairs & editorials
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Question 1 of 15
Morbi Municipal Corporation recorded a BJP clean sweep, all 52 of 52 seats won by BJP. Morbi was particularly significant because it was the site of the October 30, 2022 suspension bridge collapse that killed 141 people, raising political questions about local administration. The clean sweep suggests full political recovery for BJP in the constituency.
Porbandar also recorded an all-seats sweep.
Concept note
Gujarat had 15 municipal corporations in the April 26, 2026 elections. Municipal corporation voter turnout was 55.1%, lower than district panchayats (66.64%) and taluka panchayats (67.26%), consistent with urban-rural participation patterns.
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Question 2 of 15
7 of 34 District Panchayat President posts were reserved for OBC candidates in Gujarat’s 2026 local body elections, the first time the state fulfilled the Supreme Court’s triple test before holding elections. The triple test requires empirical inquiry into OBC backwardness, proportional reservation, and an aggregate SC+ST+OBC cap not exceeding 50%.
Concept note
The triple test for OBC reservation in local bodies was established by the Supreme Court in Vikram Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2021). Gujarat conducted the required empirical survey and determined 7/34 posts (about 20.6%) were proportionally reservable for OBCs.
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Question 3 of 15
West Bengal Phase 2 covers 176 constituencies (out of 294 total). Phase 1 (April 23) covered 118 constituencies, primarily in North Bengal and tribal regions. Phase 2 covers the more politically contested terrain of Kolkata suburbs, Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan, and Birbhum, where the TMC-BJP contest is most intense.
Results for all phases are declared together on May 4.
Concept note
West Bengal has 294 assembly constituencies with 68 reserved for SC and 16 for ST under Article 332. In 2021, TMC won 213 seats and BJP won 77.
The 2026 contest is between TMC (Mamata Banerjee, Bhawanipur), BJP (Suvendu Adhikari, Nandigram), and Left-Congress-ISF alliance.
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Question 4 of 15
All 2026 state assembly election results will be declared on May 4, 2026, a single unified counting day for five elections. Together they involve 824 legislative seats across Tamil Nadu (234), West Bengal (294), Kerala (140), Assam (126), and Puducherry (30 elected seats). This is one of India’s largest simultaneous election result days since the 2021 cycle.
Concept note
The pattern of simultaneous state elections in the same cycle follows the Election Commission’s scheduling of states whose terms expire around the same period. Kerala, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry were all scheduled for the same election cycle in both 2016 and 2021.
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Question 5 of 15
PM Modi participated in the closing ceremony of Sikkim’s 50th Year of Statehood at Paljor Stadium in Gangtok on April 28, 2026. On the same day, he also visited the Orchidarium, a world-class Orchid Experience Centre, with Sikkim Governor Om Prakash Mathur and CM Prem Singh Tamang. Paljor Stadium is the principal stadium in Gangtok.
Concept note
Sikkim’s 50th statehood marks the anniversary of the 36th Constitutional Amendment (April 26, 1975), making it India’s 22nd state. Sikkim has special constitutional protection under Article 371F.
The state has 532 orchid species, highest in India.
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Question 6 of 15
The ISP will rely primarily on the GST Network (GSTN), which contains monthly e-filing data on sales, purchases, and turnover for approximately 14 crore registered businesses. GSTN is the most comprehensive real-time dataset on India’s formal economy and allows the ISP to be compiled with a 6-8 week lag comparable to the IIP’s turnaround time. This is a methodological advance over survey-based approaches.
Concept note
The ISP is being designed by MoSPI with base year 2024-25. It will cover approximately 67% of services GVA (formal sector only, excluding informal services and GST-exempt sectors like health and education).
The PMI Services index (by S&P Global) currently serves as the best monthly proxy for services activity but is a private survey.
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Question 7 of 15
The ISP is designed to be the services sector equivalent of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which measures monthly output in manufacturing, mining, and electricity. Just as the IIP tracks short-term movements in industrial output, the ISP will track short-term movements in the formal services sector, filling a critical gap since services contribute over 50% of India’s GDP but currently lack any high-frequency monthly output index.
Concept note
IIP is published by MoSPI with a 6-week lag; current base year is 2011-12. The ISP will use base year 2024-25.
PMI Services (Purchasing Managers’ Index) is a private monthly survey by S&P Global, widely used but not an official government index. GDP services data is available only quarterly through GVA estimates.
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Question 8 of 15
The SBS-3 programme was fast-tracked following Operation Sindoor (May 7-10, 2025), India’s precision strike on 9 terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Operation Sindoor exposed that India’s real-time satellite surveillance of Pakistan’s interior partly depended on allied satellites and commercial imagery providers. The SBS-3 constellation of 52 military satellites by 2029 aims to achieve indigenous, persistent surveillance capability.
Concept note
Distinguish between the Pahalgam attack (April 22, 2025, the trigger for Operation Sindoor) and Operation Sindoor itself (May 7-10, 2025, the military response). The SBS-3 programme acceleration came as a policy response to lessons learned from the operation, not directly from Pahalgam.
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Question 9 of 15
India’s SBS-3 programme targets deployment of 52 military surveillance satellites by 2029 at an estimated cost of approximately $3 billion (around ₹25,000 crore). The satellites include electro-optical (EO), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR, all-weather), and SIGINT (signals intelligence) types in Low Earth Orbit and Medium Earth Orbit, targeting a revisit time of under 30 minutes for any border region.
Concept note
SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellites are critical because they can image through clouds, rain, and at night, unlike optical satellites. India’s existing RISAT series provides limited SAR capability.
The SBS-3 constellation would provide the persistent, all-weather surveillance capability that was partially missing during Operation Sindoor’s targeting phase.
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Question 10 of 15
Three private Indian defence-tech companies, Ananth Technologies, Centum Electronics, and Alpha Design Technologies, have been engaged to fast-track SBS-3 satellite development. Their timelines have been compressed from the standard 4 years to 12-18 months per satellite. Ananth Technologies is an ISRO sub-systems supplier; Centum Electronics specialises in satellite subsystems and avionics; Alpha Design Technologies specialises in electronic warfare systems and defence communications.
Concept note
The inclusion of private companies in military satellite development marks a significant policy shift from India’s traditional ISRO/DRDO-dominated space defence model. This follows the liberalisation of India’s space sector since 2020 under the Space Activities Act framework, which enabled private companies to build and launch satellites.
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Question 11 of 15
The ISP will exclude healthcare and education from its formal services coverage because these sectors are largely GST-exempt, meaning they do not generate GSTN data, which is the ISP’s primary data source. The ISP will cover approximately 67% of services GVA (formal sector), including wholesale/retail trade, transport, banking, insurance, hotels/restaurants, real estate, professional services, and communications, but not the GST-exempt segments.
Concept note
GST exemptions in healthcare and education are by design, the government chose not to tax essential services. But this creates a data gap for the ISP.
In practice, the excluded sectors are also highly informal, which further limits measurability through administrative data sources.
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Question 12 of 15
West Bengal is governed by Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, serving her third consecutive term after the 2021 election victory. She is contesting from the Bhawanipur constituency in the 2026 election. Her primary opponent is Suvendu Adhikari (BJP), who defeated her in Nandigram in 2021 and is contesting from the same constituency in 2026.
Concept note
M.K. Stalin is Tamil Nadu’s CM (DMK); Pinarayi Vijayan is Kerala’s CM (CPI-M); Hemant Soren is Jharkhand’s CM (JMM). All five states in the 2026 election cycle, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Puducherry, have different incumbents and political dynamics.
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Question 13 of 15
The triple test for OBC reservation in Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies was established by the Supreme Court in Vikram Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2021) and related cases. The three conditions, empirical inquiry into OBC backwardness at the local body level; proportionality based on OBC population data; and aggregate SC+ST+OBC reservation not exceeding 50%. States that failed this test, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, UP, and Gujarat, had their OBC reservation notifications struck down.
Concept note
Indra Sawhney (1992) established the 50% cap on reservations overall and upheld OBC reservation at the national level. M. Nagaraj (2006) dealt with SC/ST promotion reservation.
K. Krishna Murthy (2010) earlier addressed OBC reservation in local bodies but the triple test was formalized/hardened in Vikram Singh (2021).
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Question 14 of 15
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites transmit microwave pulses and measure the return signal, allowing them to image the ground in all weather conditions (through clouds, rain, smoke) and at night. This makes them operationally superior to electro-optical (EO/optical) satellites along India’s border areas where cloud cover (especially during monsoon), night operations, and smoke can render optical systems ineffective. SAR was critical in monitoring China’s border infrastructure in Depsang and Aksai Chin during the Galwan standoff period.
Concept note
SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) vs EO (Electro-Optical) is a standard technology distinction for UPSC. India’s RISAT-1 and RISAT-2 satellites are SAR-based.
Cartosat series is EO-based. Both types are in India’s current surveillance arsenal; SBS-3 will expand both, with a focus on SAR for persistent all-weather coverage.
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Question 15 of 15
The ISP will use 2024-25 as its base year, consistent with MoSPI’s recent shift to more current base years (MoSPI revised the GDP base year to 2022-23 in a separate exercise). The 2024-25 base year reflects the current structure of India’s formal services economy after the post-COVID stabilisation and the GST-era formalisation of services. Stakeholder comments on the approach paper are invited until May 5, 2026.
Concept note
Different Indian statistical indices use different base years, IIP uses 2011-12, WPI uses 2011-12, CPI uses 2012. The ISP at 2024-25 base year will be the most current of all Indian output indices.
This matters for UPSC because the base year determines which economic activities are given structural weight in the index.
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