IBPS GK Questions 2026

The Minister said a limit of 72 days has been fixed between sanction and the start of construction, that some states are breaching it, and that a full account would be prepared for those states.

The two-day National Chintan Shivir on the rural roads scheme was held at Bharat Mandapam, was addressed by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and of Rural Development, and was attended by secretaries and chief engineers from every state and union territory.

At the National Chintan Shivir the Union Rural Development Minister said the fourth phase of the scheme carries a target of 62 thousand kilometres of new rural roads, of which 20 thousand kilometres have already been sanctioned.

The survey reported that buses carry 55.8% of household overnight trips and inter-city railways another 17.7%, which together make up roughly three-quarters of such travel.

The survey put the average monthly outlay on commuting to a fixed workplace at ₹785 for each worker, and the figure hides a sharp divide: urban workers spend ₹1,044 a month while rural workers spend ₹612.

The survey found the two-wheeler to be the single largest primary mode for work trips across the country, with a share of 52.3% in urban areas and 37.1% in rural areas.

The NSO, which works under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, carried out the first all-India National Household Travel Survey between July 2025 and June 2026 and released its key indicators through a factsheet.

The Sanchar Saathi mobile application is offered in English, Hindi and 21 regional languages, so that a user anywhere in the country can reach the same services in a language of their own, and its total downloads have crossed 2.8 crore.

The Sanchar Saathi dashboard shows that 60.96 lakh lost or stolen handsets have been blocked across the networks of all telecom operators, that 37.85 lakh of them were traced, and that more than 14 lakh have actually been recovered and returned to their owners.

It is the reporting facility on Sanchar Saathi through which a citizen can flag suspicious calls, SMS or WhatsApp messages, including fake KYC and bill-payment alerts, people impersonating government, police or bank officials, and fraudulent investment, job or loan offers.

The Financial Fraud Risk Indicator, built partly from what citizens report on Sanchar Saathi, provides risk-based intelligence on mobile numbers that may be linked to financial fraud, and the ministry credits it with preventing suspected losses of more than 5,000 crore rupees.

The ministry statement records that 46 CHP-silos give Coal India 432 MT of mechanised closed-loop evacuation capacity, and that the company is considering more such silos at greenfield mines about to be opened.

Generation from domestic coal rose to 640.05 billion units in the first half of the financial year 2026-27 from 582.5 billion units in the corresponding period a year earlier, an increase of roughly 57.5 billion units or 9.9 per cent.

Of the coal Coal India lifted in the first half of the financial year 2026-27, nearly 79 per cent was directed to the power sector, which confirms how central electricity generation is to the company’s distribution strategy.

Coal India lifted 384.2 MT in the first six months of the financial year 2026-27, an increase of 27.2 MT or 7.6 per cent over the same months of the previous year.

India noted that it had hosted the world’s largest artificial intelligence summit in February this year, and said Switzerland would carry that journey forward through the Geneva AI Summit next year, with both countries committed to making artificial intelligence responsible, inclusive and human-centric.

The summit produced an agreement on transport, mobility and infrastructure, which builds on Swiss involvement in the Varanasi ropeway, the Jewar airport at Noida and railway and tunnelling work in hill areas, so option C was indeed signed.

The agreement is described as an ambitious blueprint for investment, innovation, jobs and shared prosperity, and the two sides expect it to deliver investment of 100 billion dollars in India together with 10 lakh direct jobs across a span of 15 years.

The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement that took effect in October of the previous year was concluded between India and the EFTA countries, and it is the first free trade agreement India has with any economic bloc in Europe.

The Technology Development Board, the body that signed the agreement with BigEndian Semiconductors and that administers the Research Development and Innovation Fund, works under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.