Current Affairs Quiz 25 September 2026

SEBI was set up as a non-statutory body in 1988 and given statutory powers by the SEBI Act, 1992, which charges it with protecting investors and developing and regulating the securities market. Its enforcement toolkit includes directions under Sections 11 and 11B (such as market bans and disgorgement), monetary penalties imposed by adjudicating officers under Chapter VIA, and prosecution before special courts.

Settlement is a middle path: the person facing proceedings applies, an internal committee and a High Powered Advisory Committee consider the terms, and a settlement order closes the case on payment and compliance with conditions. SEBI first allowed such “consent orders” through circulars in 2007; Parliament gave settlement statutory footing through Section 15JB in 2014, with effect from 20 April 2007, followed by regulations in 2014 and 2018.

Appeals against SEBI orders lie to the Securities Appellate Tribunal and then to the Supreme Court. Critics argue that settlement lets large violators pay a price without findings; supporters say it frees enforcement capacity and brings faster relief.

The 2026 Regulations try to answer both by reducing discretion and separating disgorgement from the settlement amount.

The POCSO Act was enacted because the Indian Penal Code did not adequately cover sexual offences against children, particularly boys, and a 2007 study by the Ministry of Women and Child Development found abuse widespread and largely unreported. The Act defines penetrative and aggravated penetrative sexual assault, sexual assault, sexual harassment and the use of a child for pornography, and makes failure to report an offence punishable (Section 19 read with Section 21).

It prescribes child-friendly procedures: the statement recorded where the child chooses, by a woman officer where possible, no exposure to the accused, and trial completed within a year as far as possible. Section 29 presumes the guilt of the accused in certain offences once the prosecution is instituted.

The 2019 amendment raised punishments, including the death penalty for aggravated penetrative sexual assault. The National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights monitor implementation.

Courts have repeatedly warned about misuse, as in consensual adolescent relationships and custody disputes, while insisting that the Act’s protective core must not be diluted.

The Energy Conservation Act, 2001 created the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the Ministry of Power and empowered it to set energy consumption norms for designated consumers. The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme, launched in 2012 under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, one of the eight missions of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008), let units that beat their norms earn Energy Saving Certificates and sell them to units that fell short.

The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022 empowered the Centre to specify a carbon credit trading scheme, and the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme was notified in 2023 with a compliance mechanism for obligated entities and an offset mechanism for voluntary projects; the sector targets are notified by the Environment Ministry under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and now cover 490 entities in eight sectors. A National Steering Committee for the Indian Carbon Market oversees it, BEE administers it, and Grid Controller of India acts as the registry.

India’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (2022) committed to a 45 per cent cut in the emissions intensity of GDP by 2030 from 2005 levels; the NDC for 2031-35, approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2026, raises this to 47 per cent by 2035 and targets 60 per cent non-fossil power capacity by 2035, in line with the long-term goal of net zero by 2070.

India’s engagement with ASEAN began as a sectoral dialogue partnership in 1992, under the Look East Policy of the Narasimha Rao government, and became a full dialogue partnership in 1995 and a summit-level partnership in 2002. It was raised to a Strategic Partnership in 2012 and a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2022.

In 2014 the government recast Look East as the Act East Policy, adding connectivity, security and culture to trade. The ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement removed or reduced tariffs on most goods, but India’s trade deficit with ASEAN widened after it, and Indian industry complained of weak rules of origin that let third-country goods enter through ASEAN.

The two sides later agreed to review the agreement. The East Asia Summit, founded in 2005 with India as a founding participant, is a leaders-led forum on strategic issues, while the ASEAN Regional Forum (1994) handles security dialogue.

India’s physical links with the region include the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project.

The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 replaced a patchwork of laws and orders, including the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, the Fruit Products Order, 1955 and the Milk and Milk Products Order, 1992, with a single science-based regulator. FSSAI, headquartered in New Delhi, lays down standards for articles of food, regulates their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import, and licenses and registers food businesses.

Its standards are notified as regulations, such as the Food Products Standards and Food Additives Regulations, 2011 and the Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020. State Commissioners of Food Safety and designated officers enforce the law on the ground.

FSSAI also publishes the State Food Safety Index and runs the Eat Right India movement. Misleading labelling harms consumers even when a product is safe: it denies them an informed choice and lets cheaper substitutes compete unfairly with genuine products.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 adds another layer, through the Central Consumer Protection Authority, which can act against misleading advertisements.

Absolute zero, 0 kelvin or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, is the lowest possible temperature, at which a system has minimum thermal energy. Superconducting qubits, one of the leading approaches to quantum computing, must be cooled to around 10 to 20 millikelvin so that thermal noise does not destroy their fragile quantum states.

A dilution refrigerator reaches these temperatures using a mixture of two helium isotopes, helium-3 and helium-4, and is a critical, largely imported piece of equipment. The National Quantum Mission, with an outlay of about Rs 6,003.65 crore, aims to build intermediate-scale quantum computers with 50 to 1,000 physical qubits over eight years, along with satellite-based quantum communication, quantum sensing and quantum materials, through four Thematic Hubs at leading institutions.

The Technology Development Fund funds a large part of a project’s cost as a grant to encourage indigenous design in defence, while the iDEX scheme of the Department of Defence Production supports start-ups through innovation challenges. Indigenous cryogenic equipment also reduces dependence on imports that export controls can restrict.

Nidhis are among India’s oldest mutual-benefit financial institutions, especially common in southern India, formed to cultivate thrift and savings among their members. Although they are notified as non-banking financial companies, the Reserve Bank of India has exempted them from most of its core provisions, leaving regulation to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs under the Companies Act.

The Nidhi Rules, 2014 require a Nidhi to be a public company with “Nidhi Limited” in its name, to have at least 200 members and net owned funds of Rs 20 lakh within 120 days of incorporation (after a 2022 amendment), and to deal only with its members. It cannot issue preference shares or debentures, open current accounts, or carry on chit fund, hire-purchase, insurance or securities business.

The 2019 amendments introduced declaration through Form NDH-4 after complaints that many companies posed as Nidhis to collect public deposits. Separately, the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 prohibits unregulated deposit-taking.

Deposit insurance by DICGC, now up to Rs 5 lakh per depositor per bank, applies only to banks, which is why savers chasing high returns in Nidhis carry the full risk.

The UN Charter was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and came into force on 24 October 1945, now observed as United Nations Day. Its enemy-state clauses reflect the moment of drafting: Article 53 allowed regional enforcement action against a renewal of aggressive policy by an enemy state without Security Council authorisation, Article 77 allowed territories detached from enemy states to be placed under trusteeship, and Article 107 protected action taken by the Allies against those states.

Japan and Germany have since been among the largest contributors to the UN budget, and in 2004 both joined India and Brazil in the G4 to seek permanent seats. The Charter has been amended only a few times: to enlarge the Security Council from 11 to 15 members (in force 1965), to enlarge the Economic and Social Council from 18 to 27 and later 54 members, and to change the vote needed to call a review conference.

Because every amendment needs the concurrence of all five permanent members, even deleting obsolete language has not happened, which shows how hard wider Security Council reform will be.

Make in India was launched on 25 September 2014 on four pillars: new processes (ease of doing business), new infrastructure (industrial corridors and smart cities), new sectors (opening defence, railways and insurance to more foreign investment) and a new mindset (government as facilitator rather than regulator). It built on the National Manufacturing Policy, 2011, which had proposed National Investment and Manufacturing Zones.

Its main instruments since 2020 have been the Production Linked Incentive schemes across 14 sectors, with an approved outlay of about Rs 1.97 lakh crore, which pay incentives on incremental sales; the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme; PM GatiShakti (2021) for integrated infrastructure planning; the National Logistics Policy (2022); and the National Single Window System for approvals. Mobile phones and electronics are the clearest success, turning India from an importer into a major exporter of smartphones.

Critics note that manufacturing’s share of gross value added has stayed in the mid-teens, that much of the growth is in assembly with low domestic value addition, and that manufacturing jobs have grown slowly. Phased manufacturing programmes aim to deepen local supply chains.

The Security Council has primary responsibility for international peace and security under Article 24, and its decisions under Chapter VII bind all members. Procedural matters need any nine of fifteen votes; all other matters need nine votes including those of the five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The veto was the price of great-power participation in 1945. Russia (and before it the Soviet Union) and the United States have cast the most vetoes, often on Syria, Ukraine and Israel-Palestine.

The French-Mexican initiative of 2015 asks the permanent members to refrain voluntarily from the veto in cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and large-scale war crimes, and the ACT group’s Code of Conduct asks all Council members not to vote against credible action to prevent such crimes. India, as a G4 member, holds that new permanent members should have the same responsibilities and privileges as existing ones, though the G4 has offered not to exercise the veto until a review.

The African Union’s Ezulwini Consensus seeks two permanent seats with the veto for Africa. Reform is discussed in the Intergovernmental Negotiations in the General Assembly.

Parading or photographing arrested persons before the media engages three constitutional values: the accused’s dignity and reputation under Article 21, the public’s right to information under Article 19(1)(a), and the fairness of a trial that publicity may prejudge. In Prem Shankar Shukla v. Delhi Administration (1980) the Supreme Court held that handcuffing without justification violates Article 21, and in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal (1996) it laid down safeguards to be followed at arrest.

Courts have repeatedly held that reputation is part of the right to life. In 2023 the Supreme Court asked the Union Home Ministry to prepare a manual on police media briefings, and the Bureau of Police Research and Development drafted one.

The Law Commission’s 200th Report (2006) on trial by media recommended restrictions on publications that prejudice a fair trial. The law already protects specific groups: juveniles, victims of sexual offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and child victims under the POCSO Act.

The Prakash Singh v. Union of India (2006) directions on police reform address police accountability more broadly.

Political parties find mention in the Constitution only through the Tenth Schedule, added in 1985; their legal framework is the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. Section 29A, in force since 1989, provides for registration, and a party must declare allegiance to the Constitution and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy.

Recognition as a national or State party, which brings a reserved symbol and other benefits, depends on votes and seats won under the Symbols Order; most registered parties remain unrecognised. Section 29B allows parties to accept contributions from any person or company other than a government company, and Section 29C mandates reporting of larger contributions.

Party income is exempt from income tax if conditions on accounts, audit and reporting are met. In Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India (February 2024), a Constitution Bench struck down the electoral bond scheme as violating voters’ right to information under Article 19(1)(a).

The Election Commission has long sought powers to deregister parties and to regulate their finances more closely.

After the gang rape in Delhi on 16 December 2012, the government appointed a three-member committee headed by former Chief Justice J.S. Verma, with Justice Leila Seth and Gopal Subramanium, which reported within about a month. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 widened the definition of rape, added offences such as acid attack, sexual harassment, voyeurism and stalking, and enhanced punishments.

The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 then allowed children aged 16 to 18 accused of heinous offences to be tried as adults after a preliminary assessment. The Nirbhaya Fund has financed the Emergency Response Support System (112), One Stop Centres (Sakhi), the Women Helpline (181), Safe City projects in eight cities, fast-track special courts and forensic capacity, but audits and parliamentary committees have repeatedly flagged its under-utilisation.

The Mission Shakti umbrella scheme now brings together One Stop Centres, the Women Helpline, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and other programmes for women’s safety and empowerment. Gender-responsive urban planning, including lighting, public transport and more women in the police, addresses the everyday conditions that keep women out of public space.

The Indian summer monsoon, from June to September, brings about three-quarters of the country’s annual rainfall. It is driven by the differential heating of land and sea, the northward shift of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, and the Tibetan Plateau, which acts as an elevated heat source and helps set up the Tropical Easterly Jet.

Sea surface temperatures matter too: El Nino in the Pacific tends to weaken the monsoon, while a positive Indian Ocean Dipole tends to strengthen it. Within a season, the monsoon alternates between active spells and breaks, which matter greatly for sowing.

The India Meteorological Department, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, issues forecasts against a Long Period Average of 87 cm (1971-2020), with rainfall between 96 and 104 per cent of it classed as normal. Mission Mausam, approved in 2024, aims to improve observations and forecasts.

Aerosols from pollution can weaken the monsoon by cooling the land surface, and observed monsoon rainfall declined over the second half of the twentieth century. Adaptation needs denser observations, city drainage built for heavier extremes, and heat action plans such as Ahmedabad’s (2013).

The first synchronous census in India was held in 1881, and the Census Act, 1948 has governed every census since 1951. Census 2027 will be the sixteenth census and the eighth since Independence; it is the first to be conducted digitally, through a mobile application with a self-enumeration option, and the first since 1931 to enumerate caste beyond Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Its reference date is 1 March 2027, and 1 October 2026 for Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Census data matter for representation: Article 82 requires readjustment of Lok Sabha seats after each census, but the 42nd and 84th Amendments froze the allocation of seats among States until the first census after 2026, and Article 334A ties the one-third reservation for women to delimitation after the next census.

Individual census records are confidential under Section 15 of the Census Act and are not admissible in evidence. Electoral rolls are prepared separately by Electoral Registration Officers under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, under the superintendence of the Election Commission.