Current Affairs Quiz — May 2, 2026

Cell Broadcast technology sends alerts simultaneously to every mobile phone in a designated cell tower’s range — without needing individual phone numbers, an internet connection, or SMS infrastructure. This makes it ideal for emergency alerts during natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods) where SMS networks may be overloaded or down.
SMS alerts, by contrast, must be sent to specific phone numbers individually, which is slower and dependent on network capacity. Internationally, CB is used by Japan’s J-Alert system, the US Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), and South Korea’s emergency system.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was established under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, with the Prime Minister as the ex-officio Chairperson. The Act created a three-tier structure — NDMA at the Centre, State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by Chief Ministers, and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) headed by District Magistrates.
The 2005 Act was passed in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which exposed major gaps in India’s disaster preparedness.

IMD declares a heatwave when maximum temperature reaches at least 40°C in plains AND the departure from normal is at least 4.5°C. A “severe heatwave” requires departure of 6.4°C or more. For coastal stations, the threshold is 37°C with similar departure criteria.
For hilly regions, the threshold is 30°C. The “departure from normal” criterion ensures that 40°C in already-hot regions like Rajasthan (where 40°C is normal in May) is treated differently from 40°C in cooler regions where it would be a genuine heatwave.

The Fragile Five was a 2013 grouping by Morgan Stanley analyst James Lord identifying five economies particularly vulnerable to capital flight during US Federal Reserve tightening — Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, India, and Turkey. China was NOT part of this group; it had its own dynamic (currency manipulation, capital controls) that insulated it from the same vulnerabilities.
The Fragile Five economies all had high current account deficits, dependence on foreign capital, and rupee/currency depreciation pressure.

IMD issued heavy rainfall warnings for India’s North-East — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura — for May 2-4, 2026. Isolated “very heavy rainfall” was forecast specifically for Assam and Meghalaya during May 2-3.
The North-East’s pre-monsoon (March-May) rainfall pattern is dominated by Bay of Bengal moisture interacting with the region’s complex topography, producing intense convective storms. This rainfall pattern is distinct from the South-West Monsoon (June-September) which brings rainfall to most of India.

The Mahagujarat Movement (1956-1960) for separate Gujarati-speaking statehood was led principally by Indulal Yagnik (1892-1972). Yagnik was a freedom fighter, journalist, and political leader who had been agitating for Gujarati linguistic identity since the 1920s.
His Mahagujarat Janata Parishad mobilised mass support after the 1956 States Reorganisation Act retained Bombay as a bilingual state. Sardar Patel had died in 1950 (before the movement); Morarji Desai was a Gujarat leader but his role in the linguistic movement was secondary.

824 assembly seats will be counted on May 4, 2026 — Tamil Nadu (234) + West Bengal (294) + Kerala (140) + Assam (126) + Puducherry (30 elected) = 824 seats. May 4 is one of India’s largest single-day election counting events, comparable to general election counting days.
Counting begins at 8 AM with postal ballots, EVM counting starts at approximately 8:30 AM, trends are usually clear by 11 AM-12 noon, and final results by evening.

India imports approximately 85% of its crude oil — making it acutely vulnerable to global oil price shocks and supply disruptions. India’s domestic crude production (around 30 million tonnes per year) covers only about 15% of the country’s total demand of approximately 230 million tonnes annually.
The rest comes from the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE), Russia, Africa (Nigeria, Angola), and the US. India is the world’s third-largest oil consumer after China and the US.

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 was passed primarily in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (December 26, 2004) — which killed over 230,000 people across 14 countries, including approximately 12,000 in India. The disaster exposed major gaps in India’s early warning systems, multi-state coordination, and emergency response capabilities.
The Act created NDMA, the NDRF, and the SDMA-DDMA structure. Earlier disasters (1999 Odisha Super Cyclone, 2001 Bhuj earthquake) had also highlighted the need for institutional reform, but the 2004 tsunami’s scale and the inadequacy of India’s response was the immediate trigger for the 2005 Act.

India’s three Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs) are located at Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Mangalore (Karnataka), and Padur (Karnataka). Together they have a combined capacity of approximately 5.33 million metric tonnes (MMT), equivalent to about 10 days of India’s total oil consumption.
These are managed by the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. India is constructing additional SPR phase-2 reserves at Chandikhol (Odisha) and Padur (expansion).