UPSC Prelims Practice
Current Affairs Quiz 6 November 2026
Test Your Knowledge
11 questions based on today’s current affairs & editorials
Choose number of questions
Question 1 of 11
1 Clause (1) requires that a person arrested be told the grounds of arrest as soon as may be, and allows that person to consult a lawyer of choice.
2 In Sujit Das v. Union of India, the Court held that the 24 hours under clause (2) commence when a person’s liberty stands curtailed, not at the formal arrest.
3 In the same case, the Court held that time spent on search, seizure and weighing may be excluded from the 24 hours, along with the journey to the magistrate’s court.
4 Under clause (3), clauses (1) and (2) do not apply to an enemy alien or to a person held under a preventive detention law.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Facts
Statement 1Correct
Clause (1) gives the arrested person the grounds of arrest ‘as soon as may be’ and the right to consult, and be defended by, a lawyer of choice.
Statement 2Correct
The Bench held that the 24 hours ‘would commence from the date and time of detention of the person detained when his liberty stands curtailed and not from the time of his formal arrest’.
Statement 3Incorrect
The Bench held that ‘no other time period is permitted to be excluded therefrom except the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the magistrate’.
Statement 4Correct
Clause (3) takes enemy aliens and preventive detention laws outside clauses (1) and (2).
Analysis
In the judgment of 5 November 2026, the interception was at 2:00 pm on 29 September 2025 and the 24 hours ended at 2:00 pm on 30 September. Production at 4:45 pm that day was ‘a clear breach’, although the formal arrest had been recorded only that morning.
Concept note
Article 22 is in Part III, under the heading ‘Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases’, and its first three clauses work as a set: grounds and counsel, production within 24 hours, and the exclusions. Section 58 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the counterpart of Section 57 of the old Code of Criminal Procedure, says the same for the police.
Sujit Das (2026 INSC 1195) turns on clause (2). The Bench read ‘arrested and detained’ as ‘conjunctive and not disjunctive’, said ‘the Constitution does not recognize any detention dehors arrest’, and called a buffer zone for investigation unconstitutional.
It drew on Niranjan Singh, Khatri and D.K. Basu, among others. It sets two limits: 24 hours as the outer deadline, and inside it a test of reasonableness.
The magistrate ‘is duty bound to record the actual date and time of detention’ and ‘may decline remand’ even within 24 hours. Rulings of the Orissa, Madras and Kerala High Courts on clause (2) were held not to lay down the correct law.
The case arose under the NDPS Act, but the holding is on Article 22(2).
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS2 Fundamental Rights (Articles 21 and 22), the judiciary, police and criminal procedure. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** buffer zone, informal custody, conjunctive reading, reasonable period. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** treating a touch as the Bench’s test; its test is curtailment of liberty, and the touching words are in Section 43(1) BNSS and a Bombay High Court passage it quotes. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** clause (1) is grounds and a lawyer; clause (2) is 24-hour production; clause (3) is the exclusions. Journey time is the only deduction. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** will this ruling hamper drug investigations, when search and weighing take real time in the field? |
Question 2 of 11
Scheme : What it is
1. Viability Gap Funding Scheme for Grid-Scale Energy Storage Systems : Support covering hydro pumped storage, battery storage and alternative technologies
2. Green Energy Corridor Phase-III : Inter-State transmission scheme with a battery component
3. Production Linked Incentive scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cells : Viability gap funding for battery storage projects
4. First Viability Gap Funding round for storage, before the grid-scale scheme : Support for batteries alone
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Facts
Pair 1Correct
The scheme aims at 60 GWh of Hydro PSP, 30 GWh of BESS and 2 GWh of alternative technologies.
Pair 2Incorrect
Green Energy Corridor Phase-III is an intra-State transmission scheme with a battery component.
Pair 3Incorrect
The PLI for Advanced Chemistry Cells is a manufacturing incentive, not VGF; its Rs 18,100 crore is for 50 GWh of cell manufacturing.
Pair 4Correct
Both earlier VGF rounds were for batteries alone, and the new scheme adds pumped storage and alternative technologies.
Analysis
The Cabinet approved the new scheme on 4 November 2026, with Rs 14,500 crore of support for FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31. Each scheme has its own figure, so the numbers should not be mixed in an answer.
Concept note
Viability Gap Funding is a grant that closes the gap for a project that is economically desirable but commercially unviable; the Department of Economic Affairs describes its own scheme for public-private partnerships in these terms. Energy storage holds surplus power from periods of high renewable generation and supplies it later, and can also provide frequency regulation, voltage control and black start capability.
A pumped storage project, often called a water battery, pumps water to an upper reservoir when generation is in surplus and releases it through turbines when demand rises. Under the new scheme, capacity will be allocated by tariff-based competitive bidding.
Public and private electricity distribution companies get VGF for BESS and Hydro PSP, and BESS projects carry a minimum Domestic Content Requirement of 40 per cent. The Cabinet release names no nodal body and no commissioning date.
The requirement is 411 GWh by 2031-32. The caution from the first round: Letters of Award for 12.7 GWh against 0.5 GWh commissioned, as told to the Rajya Sabha on 27 July 2026.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS3 infrastructure (energy), investment models, renewable integration and energy security. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** firm renewable power, long-duration storage, tariff-based bidding, domestic content. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** reading Rs 18,100 crore as VGF for storage; it is the PLI for Advanced Chemistry Cells. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** the Domestic Content Requirement applies to BESS projects; the release does not state it for pumped storage. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** why subsidise storage when battery prices are falling, and what does award against commissioning tell you? |
Question 3 of 11
1 Agniveers are enrolled under the respective Service Acts for a period of four years.
2 Under the scheme as first approved, up to 25 per cent of each specific batch are enrolled in the regular cadre for a further engagement of at least 15 years.
3 A share of 30 per cent of an Agniveer’s monthly package goes into the Seva Nidhi corpus, and the Government adds a matching amount.
4 The offer of regular employment on merit to 25 per cent of Agniveers at four years was not part of the scheme as first approved and was added only by its later revision.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Facts
Statement 1Correct
The scheme as approved in 2022 enrols Agniveers under the respective Service Acts for four years.
Statement 2Correct
PIB’s 2022 release gives ‘up to 25%’ of each specific batch moving to the regular cadre, for a further minimum of 15 years.
Statement 3Correct
30 per cent of the monthly package goes to the corpus and the Government matches it.
Statement 4Incorrect
The release of 2026 says the 25 per cent is ‘As envisaged earlier’; the new element is another two-year engagement for the remaining 75 per cent.
Analysis
The Cabinet decision was released on 4 November 2026. After the second engagement, the willing are to be ‘offered enrollment as regular soldiers subject to their willingness and their meeting selection criteria’, so ‘all Agniveers will be absorbed’ overstates it.
Concept note
The Union Cabinet approved Agnipath in 2022. PIB’s release gives one stated aim: it was ‘designed to enable a youthful profile of the Armed Forces’.
The eligible age is 17.5 to 21 years. An Agniveer who exits after four years receives a Seva Nidhi package of about Rs 11.71 lakh, exempt from income tax, with no gratuity or pension for the Agniveer term, and non-contributory life cover of Rs 48 lakh applies during the engagement.
The change released by PIB in 2026 keeps the scheme and adds a second gate: for the remaining 75 per cent, if willing, another engagement of two years, with ‘higher remuneration, enhanced Seva Nidhi package and seniority benefits’, followed by an offer of regular enrolment on conditions. The release says this came ‘on the recommendations of the Indian Defence Forces’.
It gives no new pay figure, no new Seva Nidhi amount, no effective date and no number for those who will take up the second engagement. Figures for any of these from other reports should not be treated as official.
Any change to defence recruitment moves youth, experience and cost together.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS3 security and defence manpower; GS2 government policies, youth and employment. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** youthful profile, retention, second gate, selection criteria. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** writing that all Agniveers will be absorbed; the offer is subject to willingness and selection criteria. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** keep the two stages apart: 25 per cent on merit at four years, and two more years for the willing among the remaining 75 per cent. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** if every willing Agniveer who meets the criteria can become a regular soldier after six years, what is left of the Agnipath scheme? |
Question 4 of 11
Statement-I: Under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, manual cleaning of a sewer by a worker whose employer has fulfilled the obligations to provide protective gear and cleaning devices and ensure safety precautions, as prescribed, falls outside the term 'hazardous cleaning'.
Statement-II: Section 2(1)(d) of the Act makes the employer’s failure to fulfil those obligations part of the meaning of 'hazardous cleaning'.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
Facts
Statement ICorrect
A worker whose employer has met those prescribed obligations is outside that term, though still in the sewer.
Statement IICorrectExplains Statement I
Section 2(1)(d) defines hazardous cleaning as manual cleaning of a sewer or septic tank without the employer fulfilling the obligations to provide protective gear and other cleaning devices and ensure safety precautions, as may be prescribed, so the definition itself produces the exclusion.
Analysis
A change of legal label does not remove the exposure, and a kit alone does not show that the prescribed obligations were met. The Hindu’s editorial of 6 November 2026 argues that the state has preferred assistance, such as distributing kits, to reducing the situations that could lead to worker deaths. That reading is the editorial’s argument; the definition is the statute’s.
Concept note
The 2013 Act treats two kinds of work separately. A manual scavenger, under section 2(1)(g), is a person engaged to clean, carry, dispose of or handle human excreta by hand in an insanitary latrine, in an open drain or pit receiving it, on a railway track or in other notified spaces; section 5 bars engaging one.
Section 7 bars engaging anyone for hazardous cleaning. Behind the Act stands Article 17, which abolishes untouchability and forbids its practice in any form.
In Dr Balram Singh v. Union of India (2023 INSC 950), the Supreme Court directed phased eradication of manual sewer cleaning and said outsourced work must not require anyone to enter a sewer. It set Rs 30 lakh for a sewer death, up from the Rs 10 lakh fixed in Safai Karamchari Andolan (2014), and held that a contract for hazardous cleaning without gear would violate Article 23 even if voluntary.
Balram Singh is not a flat ban on all sewer cleaning. The table of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis records 1,350 sewer and septic tank deaths from 1993 to 31 December 2025, with 104 cases of compensation pending.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS2 welfare of vulnerable sections and the role of the Supreme Court; GS1 caste and social structure; GS4 dignity of labour. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** hazardous cleaning, mechanisation, contract liability, assistance and prevention. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** counting a sewer death as a manual scavenging death; the government classifies them separately. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** pair each section with its subject: 2(1)(g) defines manual scavenger, 2(1)(d) hazardous cleaning, 5 bars the first, 7 bars the second. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** as a municipal commissioner, what do you change when a contractor stands between the state and the worker at risk? |
Question 5 of 11
1 The text of Article 23 names the Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics among the five permanent members.
2 A retiring non-permanent member is eligible for immediate re-election.
3 Under Article 27, decisions on non-procedural matters need nine votes, including the concurring votes of the permanent members.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Facts
Statement 1Correct
The text names the Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Statement 2Incorrect
Article 23 says a retiring non-permanent member is not eligible for immediate re-election.
Statement 3Correct
Article 27 requires nine votes, including the concurring votes of the permanent members, on non-procedural matters.
Analysis
Shashi Tharoor’s column in The Hindu of 6 November 2026 argues that post-war institutions have not kept up with the distribution of power, and that this gives countries with capacity room to convene, mediate and shape norms. That is the author’s argument; the Charter text is the record.
Concept note
Article 23 sets the Council at fifteen members, and the Charter text records an increase from eleven to fifteen. The General Assembly elects the ten non-permanent members for two-year terms.
The term ‘middle power’ has no agreed list or definition and is not a formal grouping. India’s stated line, given by the External Affairs Minister on 14 October 2026 as reported by AIR News, is that ‘India does not identify itself as a middle power, but rather as a power in the middle’.
Groupings that come up in this debate should be known by membership. BRICS has eleven members as the Government of India counts them: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
The Quad is India, Australia, Japan and the United States. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor rests on an MoU of India, the USA, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the European Union, Italy, France and Germany, signed on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September 2023; it should not be written as a built corridor.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS2 important international institutions and groupings, India and the world; Essay and Interview on the world order. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** multi-alignment, agenda-based cooperation, issue-based coalitions, representative reform. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** treating the column’s list of middle powers as India’s position; India’s line is 'a power in the middle'. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** Article 23 is composition and Article 27 is voting; the Charter text still names the Republic of China and the USSR. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** is 'a power in the middle' more than wordplay when explained to a foreign audience? |
Question 6 of 11
Statement-I: In the Arjun Flour Mills reference, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court struck down Odisha’s additional tax as beyond the States' taxation power under Entry 54 of the Seventh Schedule.
Statement-II: The order treated the question referred as being of no prospective significance, because the constitutional entry and the State enactments concerned had been substituted or replaced.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
Facts
Statement IIncorrect
The Bench did not strike down the levy. The reference was ‘answered as having been rendered infructuous’, and LiveLaw reported that the Court clarified that such an additional tax remains a tax on the sale or purchase of goods within the then Entry 54 of List II.
Statement IICorrect
The order, as quoted by LiveLaw, said ‘The constitutional entry and the state enactments under which the impugned levies were imposed have since been substituted or replaced, and the question referred to is of no prospective significance’.
Analysis
The Bench held on 4 November 2026 that the reference had become academic after the introduction of GST. A reference can be closed as academic while the Court still states its understanding of the law.
Concept note
The reference had been pending since the late 1990s. Arjun Flour Mills v. State of Odisha challenged Section 5A of the Odisha Sales Tax Act, 1947, introduced in 1997, which imposed an additional tax of 10 per cent on dealers with an annual turnover between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, and 15 per cent above Rs 1 crore.
The question was whether such a levy fell within the States’ taxation powers under Entry 54 of List II, as it then stood, or encroached on Parliament’s power to tax income. The Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, had reserved its verdict on 22 September 2026.
In a separate opinion, Justice K.V. Viswanathan held that S. Kodar v. State of Kerala was correctly decided and continues to be good law, and found no conflict between Kodar and Hoechst Pharmaceuticals. For an answer on fiscal federalism, this shows how GST took a long-pending question on State taxation power out of prospective significance.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS2 federal structure and distribution of legislative powers; GS3 taxation. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** Seventh Schedule, Entry 54, fiscal federalism, infructuous reference. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** writing that the Bench upheld or struck down the levy; it held the reference academic. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** note the words 'as it then stood': the question concerned Entry 54 of List II before GST. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** why did a seven-judge Bench not answer the question referred to it? |
Question 7 of 11
1 It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, with both a Central share and a State/UT share.
2 The Central share for its continuation is to be funded from the Nirbhaya Fund.
3 The Supreme Court’s directions behind the exclusive Special Courts applied to every district, irrespective of the number of pending cases under the POCSO Act.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Facts
Statement 1Correct
The outlay of Rs 3,788.04 crore has a Central share of Rs 2,353.15 crore and a State/UT share of Rs 1,434.89 crore.
Statement 2Correct
PIB says the Central share will be funded from the Nirbhaya Fund.
Statement 3Incorrect
The Court directed exclusive Special Courts in districts with more than 100 pending cases under the POCSO Act, 2012.
Analysis
The Cabinet on 4 November 2026 approved continuing the scheme until 31 March 2031. This continues a scheme running since 2 October 2019 and does not create a new one.
Concept note
The scheme was launched on 2 October 2019 in pursuance of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, and in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions of 25 July 2019 in Suo Motu Writ (Criminal) No. 1/2019. Each court has one Judicial Officer and six support staff.
Courts are to expand from the current 779, which include 399 exclusive POCSO Courts, to 850. PIB’s release lists 29 participating States and UTs and 4,02,457 cases disposed of since the scheme began.
Keep the scheme categories apart: the Fast Track Special Courts scheme is Centrally Sponsored, with Central and State/UT shares, while VISTAR, the statistics scheme approved the same day, is a central sector scheme. For Mains, the theme is justice for women and children: dedicated courts, exclusive POCSO Courts and the Nirbhaya Fund as a funding line for faster trials.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS2 judiciary and vulnerable sections; GS1 issues of women and children. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** dedicated courts, POCSO Courts, Nirbhaya Fund, justice for children. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** reading the 2026 decision as a new scheme; it is a continuation of the 2019 scheme. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** Centrally Sponsored means shared Central and State/UT funding here; do not confuse it with a central sector scheme. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** does adding courts solve delay in POCSO trials, or does it only move the pressure elsewhere in the system? |
Question 8 of 11
1 They give a framework for recognising and reporting areas outside legally protected and conserved areas that deliver long-term in-situ conservation of biodiversity.
2 Recognition as an I-OECM makes an area a protected area and changes its ownership.
3 They support Target 3 (30x30) of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Facts
Statement 1Correct
This is the stated purpose of the Guidelines.
Statement 2Incorrect
I-OECM recognition does not make an area a protected area and does not change its ownership or legal status.
Statement 3Correct
The Guidelines support Target 3 (30x30) of the Framework.
Analysis
The Union Environment Minister released them on 3 November 2026 at a side event of CBD COP-17 in Yerevan, Armenia. The design reaches for area targets through community-managed and sacred sites while leaving their governance as it is.
Concept note
The Guidelines were prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change with the National Biodiversity Authority. Illustrative sites are biodiversity parks, sacred groves, community-managed irrigation tanks, seagrass and seaweed beds, and fisheries seasonal ban areas.
There are four mandatory criteria: the area is not legally protected or conserved; it is governed under Central or State frameworks or by government-recognised local institutions such as Panchayats and Biodiversity Management Committees; it has defined boundaries and no overlap with the World Database on Protected Areas; and recognition does not alter its existing activities, governance or regulatory regime. Applications go to the National Biodiversity Authority, which forwards them within 30 days to the State Biodiversity Board or UT Biodiversity Council; that body sends its recommendation within 30 days, and the Authority decides in coordination with the Ministry, which authorises recognition.
A GEF-8 project with total financing of USD 60.79 million aims to add 3 per cent of India’s land and marine area to the conservation estate, over and above the existing 27 per cent under protection.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS3 conservation and environmental agreements; GS2 local institutions in governance. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** other effective conservation, 30x30, in-situ conservation, community-managed sites. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** equating an OECM with a protected area; recognition leaves ownership and legal status unchanged. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** link the three levels: the Guidelines, Target 3 (30x30) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** how is an OECM different from a protected area, and what does recognition add if nothing on the ground changes? |
Question 9 of 11
1 It is a quasi-ballistic missile.
2 It was developed by Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad, with other DRDO laboratories.
3 Bharat Dynamics Limited, a Development-cum-Production-Partner, produced the system.
4 Its test site, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, lies off the coast of Odisha.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Facts
Statement 1Correct
PIB describes Pralay as a quasi-ballistic missile.
Statement 2Correct
Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad, with other DRDO laboratories, developed it.
Statement 3Correct
Bharat Dynamics Limited produced the system.
Statement 4Correct
The flight-test was conducted from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.
Analysis
The test of 5 November 2026 was part of user evaluation trials. PIB says ‘the induction of the system has become imminent’, which means the missile has not yet been inducted.
Concept note
All test objectives of the flight-test were met, as confirmed by range instruments of the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur. The test shows the usual Indian route from development to service: a DRDO laboratory develops the missile, a Development-cum-Production-Partner produces the system, and user evaluation trials come before induction.
Read the status words with care. A successful test in user evaluation trials is not induction, and a statement that induction is imminent is not a statement that it has happened.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation is the body to remember here, with Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad, as the developing laboratory and Bharat Dynamics Limited as the production partner.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS3 defence technology and indigenisation of technology; GS2 government policies on industry. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** user evaluation trials, Development-cum-Production-Partner, technology transfer, indigenous development. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** writing that Pralay has been inducted; PIB says induction has become imminent. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** keep the roles apart: Research Centre Imarat develops, Bharat Dynamics Limited produces, the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, tracks. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** should missile technologies developed by DRDO be transferred to private industry? |
Question 10 of 11
Facts
The key is the statement on the Secretariat, which is at Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, not at Paris. Paris is where the Alliance was launched, on 30 November 2015, on the sidelines of COP21. The tempting distractor is the statement on treaty status, which can look wrong because the Alliance began as a launch at a climate conference; it is correct, since the Alliance became a treaty-based intergovernmental organisation on 6 December 2017.
Analysis
The Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy announced on 3 November 2026 that India has been elected President for a third consecutive term, with France re-elected Co-President.
Concept note
The Minister made the announcement while addressing the media during the BRE Summit & Expo 2026, which the Prime Minister inaugurated on 2 November 2026. He put the Alliance at 130 Signatory and Member Countries; that is the Minister’s figure, and membership counts change, so check it close to the examination.
For the Prelims, the durable facts are the place and occasion of the launch (Paris, COP21), the date it became a treaty-based intergovernmental organisation (6 December 2017) and the seat of its Secretariat (Gwal Pahari, Gurugram). Note the pairing of India and France in the leadership, which goes with the launch at Paris.
In this edition, the Alliance appears alongside other solar and storage items, such as the Viability Gap Funding scheme for grid-scale energy storage, which supports capacity to hold surplus renewable power at home.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS2 bilateral and global groupings; GS3 renewable energy. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** solar diplomacy, treaty-based organisation, Global South leadership, climate cooperation. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** placing the Secretariat at Paris because the launch was there; it is at Gurugram. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** launch at Paris (COP21), treaty-based status later, Secretariat at Gurugram. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** what does a third term as President give India, beyond the title, in climate diplomacy? |
Question 11 of 11
1 It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
2 The Economic Census is one of its components.
3 The 8th Economic Census is to cover all non-farm establishments, down to Gram Panchayat and Ward level.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Facts
Statement 1Incorrect
VISTAR is a central sector scheme of the Ministry; the Centrally Sponsored label belongs to schemes such as Fast Track Special Courts, which have Central and State/UT shares.
Statement 2Correct
Its three components are Comprehensive Statistical Operations and Strengthening of Ecosystem; Support for Statistical Strengthening; and the Economic Census.
Statement 3Correct
The Ministry will undertake the 8th Economic Census with the States and UTs, covering all non-farm establishments down to Gram Panchayat and Ward level.
Analysis
The Cabinet approved VISTAR on 4 November 2026. The release gives no date for the census, so it should be written as a step to come.
Concept note
The Cabinet approved VISTAR for FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31 with an outlay of Rs 4,371.10 crore. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation proposes 59 surveys during the 16th Finance Commission cycle, against 43 major surveys earlier.
The release also says the Ministry is planning a Headline Index of Services Production and an Index of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises; these are plans and should not be written as indices already in use. Note the word ‘non-farm’ in the census: its coverage is of non-farm establishments, so it should not be confused with a count of farms.
Note also the working partnership: although the scheme is central sector, the census is to be undertaken with the States and UTs. For Mains, the theme is statistics as governance: more surveys, and a census reaching Gram Panchayat and Ward level, support evidence-based policy.
A question on this scheme can be paired with the Fast Track Special Courts scheme to test the difference between central sector and Centrally Sponsored.
🎯 Concept Kit tap to expand
| 🔗 Cross-Paper Links | ** GS3 economy and mobilisation of resources; GS2 government policies and evidence-based governance. ** |
| ✍️ Mains Keywords | ** official statistics, Economic Census, evidence-based policy, unincorporated sector. ** |
| ⚠️ Common Mistake | ** calling VISTAR Centrally Sponsored; it is a central sector scheme. ** |
| 📌 Exam Tip | ** planned is not done: the two new indices are still being planned, and the 8th Economic Census has no date in the release. ** |
| 🎤 Interview | ** why does a country need better official statistics before it needs more schemes? |
Performance
Question-wise Result
