Banking GK Questions 2026

The correct answer is 2015. In its appeal of 21 September 2026, the Ministry of Finance recalled that the Government, in the interest of bank employees, declared the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of every month as holidays for public sector banks in 2015. The remaining Saturdays are working days and, the Ministry said, an important opportunity for many citizens to use banking services.

The other years are distractors. This fact matters because the unions' pending demand, five-day banking, would turn every Saturday into a holiday. The Government's argument is that customers already lose two Saturdays a month, and that the planned strike from 28 to 30 September, next to a weekend and the half-yearly closing on 30 September, would mean an effective five-day shutdown of banking at a sensitive time of the financial year.

The correct answer is Implementation of five-day banking. The United Forum of Bank Unions and some other unions in public sector banks, supported by Regional Rural Banks, raised two principal demands: a five-day working week for banks and withdrawal of the Performance Linked Incentive scheme. The Finance Ministry says the strikes are now about the single demand of a five-day week, which is still being examined.

Withdrawal of the PLI scheme is the trap. It was one of the two original demands, but the Government met it by keeping the scheme in abeyance, so it is no longer pending. The Old Pension Scheme and the merger of Regional Rural Banks are not part of these strikes. A one-day strike was held on 11 September 2026; a three-day strike is set for 28 to 30 September and an indefinite one from 26 October 2026.

The correct answer is Dairy products. To safeguard farmers, India has excluded sensitive products from tariff concessions: dairy, animal meat except sheep meat, key agricultural commodities, sugar and edible oils. This matters because New Zealand is one of the world's largest dairy exporters, and dairy has long been India's most sensitive issue in trade talks.

The other three options are the opposite case. Wooden logs, coking coal and metal scrap are inputs that Indian manufacturers will now be able to import from New Zealand free of duty, which lowers their costs and helps them compete in global markets. For New Zealand's apples, kiwifruit and Manuka honey, the agreement offers only limited access through tariff rate quotas with a minimum import price and seasonal windows, backed by an Agriculture Productivity Partnership to help Indian growers.

The correct answer is 5,000. The agreement sets aside a dedicated quota of 5,000 Temporary Employment Entry visas for skilled Indian professionals, giving them a clear route to work in New Zealand.

The figure of 1,000 is also in the agreement, but for a different visa: it is the number of Working Holiday visas available each year to young Indians, which makes it the most tempting wrong answer. 3,000 and 10,000 are distractors. The services chapter also opens about 118 sectors, including IT, professional services, audio-visual, construction and tourism, with Most-Favoured Nation treatment in about 139 sub-sectors. For students, there is no cap, and STEM graduates get post-study work rights of up to three years, while doctoral scholars get up to four.

The correct answer is USD 20 billion. The agreement includes New Zealand's commitment to facilitate investment of this amount into India, and the Commerce Ministry says it is expected to benefit Indian agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and start-ups.

The other figures are distractors. Do not confuse the investment commitment with the trade target: under the Strategic Partnership "Roadmap to 2030", the two countries aim to double two-way trade in goods and services to NZ$7 billion, about ₹35,000 crore, by 2030. Bilateral merchandise trade was only about USD 1.1 billion in 2025-26, which shows how much room there is to grow. Investment commitments of this kind have become a feature of India's recent trade agreements with developed economies, alongside tariff cuts.

The correct answer is 20 October 2026. On 21 September 2026, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and New Zealand's Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay announced that the agreement would come into force on that day, which is Dussehra–Vijayadashami. Goyal said the auspicious day had been chosen on purpose.

The other dates are all connected with the agreement, which is why they mislead. 27 April 2026 is the date the FTA was signed at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. 16 September 2026 is the date New Zealand's Parliament passed the legislation needed to implement it. 1 January 2027 has no link with the agreement at all. Keep the three dates in order: signed in April, approved by New Zealand's Parliament in September, in force from October.

The correct answer is 2017. The PIB backgrounder says Swachhata Hi Seva was launched in 2017 as an annual campaign that brings government institutions, local bodies, organisations and citizens together around a shared responsibility for cleanliness. More than 18.06 crore citizens took part in its 2025 edition.

Option A, 2014, is the year the Swachh Bharat Mission itself began, when rural sanitation coverage stood at 39 percent; SHS came later. Option C, 2019, is the year rural India was declared Open Defecation Free. Option D, 2021, is not linked to the launch of the campaign in the release. Questions on sanitation often line up these years as options, so keep the sequence clear: SBM in 2014, SHS in 2017, rural India ODF in 2019. The 2026 edition of the campaign began on 17 September.

The correct answer is 5.69 lakh. According to the PIB backgrounder, India had attained 5.69 lakh ODF Plus villages as of 17 September 2026. An ODF Plus village sustains its Open Defecation Free status, manages solid and liquid waste and maintains visual cleanliness.

The other figures are close enough to confuse, and two of them come from the same release. Option A, 5.25 lakh, is the number of villages that have reached ODF Plus Model status, a subset of the total. Option B, 5.38 lakh, is the number of villages with solid waste management arrangements. Option D, 6.10 lakh, does not appear in the release. The release also gives 5.65 lakh villages with liquid waste management systems, so read such questions carefully and match each figure to what it measures.

The correct answer is Rising. The backgrounder explains that ODF Plus villages are classified into three progressive stages. Aspiring villages manage either solid or liquid waste. Rising villages manage both solid and liquid waste. Model villages manage both waste streams and, in addition, are visibly clean and display ODF Plus messaging.

Option A is wrong because an Aspiring village manages only one of the two kinds of waste. Option C is wrong because the question describes a village that has not reached the top stage, and Model is that top stage. Option D, Emerging, is not one of the three stages at all. The order to remember is Aspiring, then Rising, then Model. As of 17 September 2026, 5.25 lakh of India's 5.69 lakh ODF Plus villages had reached the Model stage.

The correct answer is Swachhata Mein Sahbhag; Swachh Bharat, Viksit Bharat. The PIB backgrounder of 20 September 2026 gives this as the theme of Swachhata Hi Seva 2026, which began on 17 September. The campaign places students and young people at the centre of lasting behaviour change.

Option D is the trap. 'Ek Din, Ek Ghanta, Ek Saath' is part of the same campaign, but it is the banner for the collective shramdaan that citizens will carry out on 1 October, not the campaign's theme. Options B and C are not given in the release as the 2026 theme, so they are wrong as well. Keep the campaign calendar straight: it began on 17 September, the shramdaan is on 1 October, and special Gram Sabhas are held in villages on 2 October.

The correct answer is about 170 acres. According to the Ministry of Communications, more than 90 acres in SADA and more than 70 acres in the IT Park, approximately 170 acres in all, have been identified for the proposed Telecom Manufacturing Zone. Investor interest is so strong that applications already exceed the land available, so additional land will be identified to expand the first phase.

Options A and B are the two parcels that make up the total, 70 acres in the IT Park and 90 acres in SADA, so each on its own is only part of the answer. Option D, 250 acres, is not mentioned in the release. As with the investment figure, this question tests whether you remember the total or only a piece of it, so learn the breakdown and the sum together.

The correct answer is ₹5,500 crore. The Ministry of Communications said the proposed TMZ will be established with an investment of approximately ₹5,500 crore, and that 24 companies have initiated the application process to set up units there.

Options A and B are the two parts of that total, which is why they are there to mislead. The investor roadshow in Delhi in August 2026 brought commitments of about ₹3,500 crore, with around 14,000 potential jobs, and the roadshow in Mumbai brought about ₹2,000 crore, with around 4,000 jobs. Together they make up the ₹5,500 crore figure. Option D, ₹6,500 crore, is not mentioned in the release. When a question gives several amounts from one story, check whether it asks for a part or for the total.

The correct answer is Gwalior. The Ministry of Communications said Asia's first Telecom Manufacturing Zone will be established in Gwalior, and Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inspected the identified site at the Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Counter Magnet City (SADA) on 20 September 2026. The zone is expected to attract about ₹5,500 crore of investment and to create more than 18,000 jobs.

Indore and Bhopal are also cities in Madhya Pradesh, which makes them tempting choices, but the release places the TMZ in Gwalior, so options A and D are wrong. Noida is not mentioned at all, so option C is wrong too. Remember the link with SADA: it was set up as a Counter Magnet City to develop Gwalior as a new industrial centre and a counter-magnet to Delhi, and the TMZ takes that plan forward.

The correct answer is Karnataka. Speaking at the Central Silk Board's 77th Foundation Day in Bengaluru, Shobha Karandlaje said Karnataka occupies the leading position in the country's total silk production. She added that the government is giving special attention to infrastructure and industrial growth to strengthen the sector further, and is encouraging silk of global export quality to cut reliance on imports.

Assam and West Bengal are not named in the release, so options B and C are wrong. Tamil Nadu is mentioned, but only as one of the states whose silk farmers and weavers attended the event, along with Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, not as the leading producer, so option D is also wrong. A question on the leading state is a common static-GK pairing with news on silk, so link Karnataka to it.

The correct answer is Central Silk Board. Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh and Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje inaugurated the 77th Foundation Day programme of the Central Silk Board, together with an exhibition of silk products and technologies, at the UAS-GKVK auditorium in Bengaluru on 20 September 2026. During the event the Board exchanged MoUs, gave appointment letters to 28 scientists and released its publications.

The Coir Board, the Tea Board and the Khadi and Village Industries Commission are other bodies connected with traditional industries and crops, but the release concerns none of them, so options A, C and D are wrong. When a foundation day is in the news, the questions usually ask for the body, the anniversary number and the city, so remember all three here: Central Silk Board, 77th, Bengaluru.

The correct answer is 2028-29. Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh said a resolve has been made to take India to the No. 1 rank in global silk production by 2028-29. He said the effort rests on raising mulberry leaf yields and the number of cocoon-rearing cycles, with the aim of lifting farmers' annual incomes to ₹10 lakh to ₹12 lakh.

Option C, 2030-31, is the year attached to a different goal: producing 60,000 metric tonnes of silk. Options A and D, 2026-27 and 2035-36, are not mentioned in the release. The two targets are easy to mix up because they were announced together, so keep them apart: world No. 1 by 2028-29, and 60,000 metric tonnes by 2030-31. The minister added that demand for Indian silk is rising abroad as China's production declines.

The correct answer is 42,000 metric tonnes. Speaking at the Central Silk Board's 77th Foundation Day in Bengaluru on 20 September 2026, the minister said India's silk production had grown from 26,000 metric tonnes in 2014 to 42,000 metric tonnes today. He linked that growth to the government's commitment to expanding sericulture and raising silk farmers' incomes.

Option D, 60,000 metric tonnes, is the trap: it is not today's output but the target the government has set for 2030-31. Options A and B, 32,000 and 38,000 metric tonnes, do not appear in the release at all. Questions like this often place the current figure next to the target, so memorise the series in order: 26,000 tonnes in 2014, 42,000 tonnes now, 60,000 tonnes by 2030-31, and the world No. 1 position by 2028-29.

The correct answer is Sundays on Cycle. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports said Dr Mansukh Mandaviya led the 91st edition of Sundays on Cycle at Meijō Park in Nagoya, Japan, on 20 September 2026, bringing the Indian diaspora together to cheer for the Indian contingent at the Asian Games. The ride is organised by the ministry with the Cycling Federation of India, the Raahgiri Foundation and MY Bharat, and more than 6000 NAMO Fit India clubs hold it every week across the country.

The Fit India Freedom Run and the Fit India Plogging Run are different fitness campaigns, and the Khelo India Youth Games is a sports competition rather than a weekly ride, so none of them matches the event described in the release. Options A, C and D are therefore wrong. Note the edition number too, the 91st, since questions sometimes ask for it.

The correct answer is Nagoya. Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, speaking in the city on 20 September 2026, said the Asian Games had begun in Nagoya, Japan, and that India had a contingent of more than 500 young athletes there. On the same day he led the 91st edition of the Fit India Sundays on Cycle ride at Meijō Park in Nagoya with members of the Indian diaspora.

Hangzhou, Jakarta and Incheon are all Asian cities, which is why they appear as distractors, but none of them is the venue named for the 2026 Games; the ministry's release places the Games in Nagoya, Japan. Host cities of major sporting events are a regular one-liner in general awareness papers, so learn the host city together with the host country, and note the size of India's contingent as well.

The correct answer is second. In his message on X, the Prime Minister congratulated Elavenil Valarivan on the silver in the women's 10m air rifle individual event and noted that it was her second medal of the day, which made it even more special. Her first medal that day was the silver she won in the women's 10m air rifle together with Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa K Vinod.

Option A is wrong because the team medal came first, so the individual silver could not be her first. Options C and D are wrong because the releases of 20 September mention only two medals for her that day, the team silver and the individual silver. Examiners like to turn a detail such as this into a question, so remember the full picture: two silvers, one team and one individual, both in the women's 10m air rifle.