Current Affairs Quiz 1 October 2026

The MSP is a price at which the government is prepared to buy a crop, announced before sowing so that farmers can plan. The CACP recommends MSPs for 22 mandated crops (14 Kharif, 6 Rabi and 2 commercial crops, copra and raw jute), weighing cost of production, demand and supply, domestic and international prices, inter-crop parity and the effect on consumers; the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decides.

Costs are estimated at three levels: A2 (paid-out costs), A2+FL (adding imputed family labour) and C2 (adding rent on owned land and interest on owned capital). Since the Union Budget 2018-19, MSPs are fixed at least 1.5 times A2+FL.

MSP has no statutory backing; effective support depends on procurement by the Food Corporation of India and State agencies for wheat and paddy, and by NAFED and NCCF under PM-AASHA for pulses and oilseeds. The Shanta Kumar Committee (2015) estimated that only about 6 per cent of farm households sold to a procurement agency at MSP.

India’s binding constraint in the energy transition has moved from building solar and wind plants to integrating them. About 21 GW of renewable capacity has been connected through temporary access while dedicated lines are built, and in April-June 2026 grid operators curtailed 8,133 GWh of solar power.

The Green Energy Corridor began with Phase I in eight renewable-rich States, followed by Phase II in seven States; delays have mostly come from right-of-way compensation. Phase III adds a Rs 50,000 crore component for 50 GWh of battery energy storage at generator sites or important grid locations, to absorb midday solar surplus and supply power after sunset, reducing both curtailment and the need for extra lines.

Greenfield lines will be awarded through Tariff Based Competitive Bidding on a Build-Own-Operate-Maintain model, while brownfield upgrades follow cost-plus. Central Financial Assistance of Rs 54,082 crore offsets intra-State transmission charges so that consumers in renewable-rich States do not bear the full cost of national climate goals.

Fuel-efficiency regulation in India has two separate tracks. Bharat Stage norms, notified by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, limit tailpipe pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter for each vehicle model; India moved directly from BS-IV to BS-VI in April 2020.

CAFE norms, notified by the Ministry of Power under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, limit average fuel consumption and therefore carbon dioxide across a manufacturer’s fleet; they began in 2017, with a second phase from 2022-23. CAFE-III uses a weight-based formula with a reference weight of 1,229 kg, so a heavier fleet gets a slightly higher target.

Manufacturers earn credits for over-achievement, which they can carry forward within a compliance block or trade; a firm in deficit can buy credits from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency at Rs 2,500 per g CO2/km in 2027-28, rising to Rs 4,500. Super credits, a carbon neutrality factor for ethanol and biofuels, and limited credits for efficiency technologies give carmakers several compliance pathways.

IMD issues its first seasonal forecast in April and an update at the end of May, with regional and monthly outlooks. In 2026 it forecast 92 per cent of LPA in April and 90 per cent in May, and the final figure fell within those ranges, though monthly forecasts missed (June received only about 65 per cent of normal).

Regional distribution mattered more than the national total: north-west and central India ended near normal, helped by 77 days of low-pressure systems against a normal of 57, while the south peninsula was 24 per cent short and east and north-east India 25.6 per cent short. El Niño, the warm phase of ENSO, weakened the monsoon; the Madden-Julian Oscillation, an eastward-moving band of clouds with a 30-60 day cycle, stayed unfavourable over the south.

For districts, rainfall within 19 per cent of normal is “normal”, 20-59 per cent below is “deficient” and 60-99 per cent below is “large deficient”. After a drought declaration by a State, central assistance for severe drought comes from the National Disaster Response Fund after an inter-ministerial central team’s assessment.

Part XIV of the Constitution (Articles 315 to 323) secures the independence of Public Service Commissions in several ways. The Chairman and Members of the UPSC are appointed by the President for six years or until 65 (62 for a State PSC).

They can be removed only on the grounds and in the manner in Article 317, including a Supreme Court inquiry for misbehaviour. Their conditions of service cannot be varied to their disadvantage after appointment (Article 318).

The UPSC Chairman cannot take any further employment under the Union or a State, though a Member may become Chairman of the UPSC or a State PSC (Article 319). Expenses are charged on the Consolidated Fund and not voted (Article 322).

The Commission’s role is largely advisory: the Government can depart from its advice, but must explain non-acceptance in a memorandum laid before Parliament with the annual report (Article 323). In State of U.P. v. Manbodhan Lal Srivastava (1957), the Supreme Court held that consultation under Article 320(3) is directory, not mandatory.

Parliament can extend the UPSC’s functions by law (Article 321).

The Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891 was written for paper ledgers. Its core idea, that the contents of bank records can be proved by certified copies instead of producing the original books, saved banks from carting ledgers to courts.

The 2026 Act keeps that framework but makes it technology-neutral: “bankers’ books” include records kept in any form of data storage, and electronic copies are admissible subject to integrity conditions. It applies to court proceedings, arbitrations, and investigations or inquiries under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 or any other law.

It protects bank staff from routine summons where the bank is not a party, listing the special causes for which a court may still require them. The general law of evidence is now the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, which replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872; the Bankers’ Books Act is a special law for banking records.

The Bill was introduced and passed by the Lok Sabha in August 2026 and later by the Rajya Sabha.

The ASI is the principal source of structural statistics on India’s registered manufacturing sector. It feeds the compilation of National Accounts, State-level industrial analysis and policy by ministries.

The unit of enumeration is the factory for manufacturing (an establishment approach, not an enterprise approach), with a frame maintained from the lists of the Chief Inspector of Factories in each State. ASI 2024-25, released on 30 September 2026, showed factories up 2.64 per cent to 2.67 lakh, invested capital up 11.10 per cent, output up 7.81 per cent, GVA up 9.59 per cent, employment up 7.19 per cent and emoluments up 12.08 per cent.

Tamil Nadu had the most factories (41,221), Maharashtra the largest share of GVA, and five States (Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana) about 56 per cent of employment. Basic metals, motor vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food products contributed more than 45 per cent of manufacturing GVA.

The IIP, by contrast, is a monthly volume index with a new base year of 2022-23, useful for short-term trends but not for levels of employment or value added.

Under the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, subsidies contingent on export performance are prohibited, but the remission of indirect taxes on exported goods, up to the amount actually levied, is not treated as a subsidy. That distinction underlies “zero-rating”: goods should be exported, not domestic taxes.

Taxes such as GST and customs duty are refunded through drawback and refund mechanisms, but some levies remain embedded in costs, for example duties on fuel used in transport, electricity duty and mandi tax. RoDTEP refunds such embedded central, State and local levies as a percentage of the export value through transferable electronic scrips.

RoSCTL, operational since 7 March 2019, does the same for apparel and made-ups, benefiting more than 15,400 exporters in 2025-26, mostly MSMEs. India’s earlier MEIS gave rewards as a percentage of export value to boost competitiveness, which is why it fell foul of WTO rules.

Extensions in short tranches give exporters continuity while rates are reviewed.

India’s Biological Diversity Act, 2002 implements the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) through a three-tier structure: the National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Boards and UT Biodiversity Councils, and Biodiversity Management Committees at the local body level. Access and Benefit Sharing requires users of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge, such as seed, pharmaceutical, AYUSH and cosmetics companies, to obtain approval and share benefits with the communities that conserved them.

The NBA has received 11,273 ABS applications and signed or approved 6,074. Its releases have supported more than 10,500 BMCs, and around Rs 100 crore went to protect Red Sanders in Andhra Pradesh.

The Act was amended in 2023 to ease compliance for AYUSH practitioners and research and to decriminalise some offences, followed by the Biological Diversity Rules, 2024 and ABS Regulations, 2025. ABS gives effect to the Nagoya Protocol and to Target 13 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022).

The Cartagena Protocol, also under the CBD, deals with biosafety and living modified organisms.

India’s maritime zones follow UNCLOS: territorial sea up to 12 nautical miles, contiguous zone up to 24, exclusive economic zone up to 200 nautical miles and the continental shelf as defined by the Convention; these are set out in India’s Maritime Zones Act, 1976. Within them, the Union owns seabed minerals under Article 297.

The Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002 was amended in 2023 to make auction the mode of allocating production leases and composite licences (atomic minerals apart), to cap the area a single entity can hold and to create an offshore mineral trust. The Offshore Areas Mineral (Auction) Rules, 2024 govern the process.

Offshore resources include construction sand, lime mud, phosphorite and polymetallic nodules or crusts containing cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper, which matter for batteries and clean energy. Beyond 200 nautical miles, India holds an exploration contract from the International Seabed Authority for polymetallic nodules in the Central Indian Ocean Basin, pursued through the Deep Ocean Mission.

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands grouped into Luzon in the north, the Visayas in the centre and Mindanao in the south. Subic Bay, in Zambales province on Luzon’s west coast, faces the South China Sea, where the Philippines has maritime disputes with China, including over Scarborough Shoal and the Second Thomas Shoal.

In 2016, an arbitral tribunal under UNCLOS ruled in the Philippines’ favour against China’s “nine-dash line” claims, a ruling China rejects. India supports freedom of navigation and the peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with UNCLOS.

India-Philippines ties have grown in defence, including the sale of BrahMos missiles. The first ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise was held in 2023.

India’s Act East Policy and its maritime vision, MAHASAGAR, frame these engagements with South-East Asian navies, alongside exercises with individual ASEAN members.

India signed TEPA with the four EFTA states in March 2024, and it took effect on 1 October 2025. EFTA offers concessions on 92.2 per cent of its tariff lines, covering 99.6 per cent of the value of India’s exports, while India offers concessions on 82.7 per cent of its lines, covering 95.3 per cent of EFTA’s exports, with sensitive sectors such as dairy protected.

TEPA is separate from the India-EU free trade agreement, concluded in January 2026, since EFTA states are not EU members. The agreement also opens technology cooperation, which Iceland pitches in geothermal direct use (drying fruit in Kinnaur), carbon storage by mineralising CO2 in basalt, as Iceland’s CarbFix does and as India’s Deccan Trap basalts might allow, and value addition in fisheries.

India has been an observer in the Arctic Council since 2013, released its Arctic Policy in 2022 and runs the Himadri research station at Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway.

Household debt in India is moderate compared with many emerging economies, but its composition has shifted towards unsecured credit: personal loans, credit cards, consumer durable loans, buy-now-pay-later and app-based digital lending. Housing and education loans build assets and future incomes, while consumption borrowing brings future income under commitment, which is riskier for self-employed, informal and casual workers with uneven earnings.

Household net financial savings fell sharply after the pandemic and have since recovered somewhat, though estimates differ with the measure used. When households borrow for health care, schooling, rent or old age, debt substitutes for missing social protection.

At the macro level, credit-led consumption can lift demand briefly but raises debt service and makes consumption sensitive to interest rates and job losses. The RBI watches these risks through the half-yearly Financial Stability Report and has used macroprudential tools such as higher risk weights; its digital lending rules require loans to be disbursed directly to borrowers’ accounts and fees to be disclosed in a Key Fact Statement.

India’s agricultural credit architecture was built for production: nationalisation of 14 banks in 1969, Regional Rural Banks from 1975, NABARD as the apex development bank from 1982, the Kisan Credit Card from 1998 and priority sector lending targets (18 per cent of adjusted net bank credit for agriculture). Post-harvest activities, such as aggregation, storage, processing and logistics, remain under-financed, which is one reason only about 10-12 per cent of produce is processed in India.

Seasonal crops force processors to buy a year’s raw material within weeks, needing large working capital. Instruments exist but are scattered: warehouse receipt finance backed by e-NWRs from WDRA-registered warehouses, receivables and supply-chain finance, the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (2020) for post-harvest infrastructure, and credit guarantees.

Farmer Producer Organisations allow small farmers to aggregate, store and bargain, so that more of the value added stays with them. The sugar sector shows how inventory and warehouse-backed finance can overcome seasonality.

The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 gave urban local bodies constitutional status in Part IXA (Articles 243P to 243ZG). It provides for three types of municipalities (Nagar Panchayats for areas in transition, Municipal Councils and Municipal Corporations), five-year terms with elections by the State Election Commission, reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women, and the Twelfth Schedule listing 18 functions, including urban planning, roads, water supply, public health and slum improvement.

Devolution of functions, funds and functionaries depends on State legislation, and in practice it remains partial: municipal revenues are a small share of GDP and many bodies depend on grants. Planning bodies such as District and Metropolitan Planning Committees exist on paper in many places but meet irregularly.

The Smart Cities Mission (2015) routed projects through special purpose vehicles registered under the Companies Act, 2013, which critics say worked around rather than through elected councils. Part IXA does not automatically apply to Scheduled Areas; Parliament may extend it by law.

Recruitment to the Indian Civil Service by open competitive examination began after the Charter Act of 1853 ended East India Company patronage, with the first examination held in London in 1855 on the recommendations of the Macaulay Committee. Demands for simultaneous examinations in India and for Indianisation of the services grew through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and the Government of India Act, 1919 provided for a Public Service Commission, and the Lee Commission on the Superior Civil Services in India (1923-24) recommended both its early establishment and faster Indianisation. The Commission set up on 1 October 1926 had a Chairman and four Members, with functions laid down in rules framed in 1926, largely advisory.

Under the Government of India Act, 1935, it became the Federal Public Service Commission in 1937. On 26 January 1950, it became the Union Public Service Commission under Articles 315 to 323 of the Constitution, which guarantee its independence through security of tenure, charged expenditure and restrictions on future employment.