UPSC Civil Services Current Affairs Quiz: 13 September 2026

The correct answer is the Delhi Declaration on Drylands. The three-day Congress ended in New Delhi and its closing plenary endorsed this document, which is written in short as 3D. Participating governments, institutions, partners and delegates backed it. The declaration sets out a shared agenda for changing dryland agriculture across the Global South through collaboration, knowledge exchange, innovation and collective action. Option A is wrong because the release names drylands and not food security in the title of the document, even though food security was discussed at the Congress. Option C is wrong because no charter of that name was adopted; the outcome was a declaration and not a charter. Option D is wrong because the document carries the name of the host city, Delhi, and not the word Bharat. Candidates should link the host city of a summit with the declaration named after it.

The correct answer is the BRICS Health Track. A key outcome of the New Delhi Declaration adopted at the 18th BRICS Summit is the welcome given to the proposed establishment of an Expert Working Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine under this track. The group is planned as a structured mechanism for dialogue, collaboration and exchange among member states in the field of traditional medicine. Option A is wrong because the release places the group with health cooperation and not with science and technology cooperation, even though research is a part of its work. Option C is wrong because the finance track deals with economic and financial matters and not with medicine. Option D is wrong because the Sherpa track handles the overall preparation of summits rather than a specialised subject. Link the subject of a working group to the track that matches it.

The correct answer is 137.9 million tonnes. Indian Railways loaded that quantity during August 2026 and recorded a year-on-year growth of 5.4 per cent. Freight revenue in the same month rose by 6.27 per cent over the corresponding month of the previous year, which shows that the freight business strengthened in value as well as in volume. The loading was driven by demand from coal, iron ore, steel, fertilizers and other commodity groups. Option A, 130.9 million tonnes, is the figure for August 2025 and is therefore the base year figure rather than the answer. Option C and option D carry tonnages that do not appear in the release at all. Questions of this type usually place the current year figure and the base year figure side by side, so learn both numbers and keep them in the right order.

The correct answer is Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Its Board and Investors Council met in New Delhi, and the Department of Biotechnology and CEPI jointly hosted a high-level evening reception at the India International Centre. The meeting brought the organisation's governance back to India after a decade. India is a founding member of the coalition and a long-standing strategic partner. The Department of Biotechnology and BIRAC work with CEPI under a tripartite engagement strategy that was first executed in October 2019 and renewed in September 2025 for another five years. Options A, C and D are invented expansions and none of them appears in the release. Abbreviations of international health bodies are asked very often, so learn the exact words behind each letter rather than a rough sense of what the body does.

The correct answer is Gandhinagar, Gujarat. India is hosting the forum there from 15 to 18 September 2026, and this is the first time that the World Circular Economy Forum is being held in South Asia. The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Chief Minister of Gujarat will jointly inaugurate it on the opening day. Option A is wrong because New Delhi is not the venue, although the announcement came from the Union Ministry based there. Option C is wrong because Finland is a partner through the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Government of Finland, but the host city for this edition is in India. Option D is wrong because Bhuj in Kachchh hosted a separate environment review meeting and not this forum. Venue questions are common, so fix the host city firmly in mind.

The correct answer is 3,428 sq km. The Union Environment Minister said that protected habitat for cheetahs has expanded to this area through the integrated management of Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar. He also said that India has built a growing population from twenty-nine founder cheetahs, that the population has now reached fifty-two individuals, and that forty-nine cubs were born in India. The cub survival rate at Kuno is around sixty-eight per cent, which shows that a population can establish itself where ecological conditions are right. The Banni Grasslands in Gujarat and the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh have been identified as future release sites. Options A, C and D give areas that do not match the release, and each is close enough to the correct figure to mislead a candidate who has only skimmed the news.

The correct answer is 170 nominations from 34 countries. The ISSCA Global Awards are an annual flagship initiative that recognises proven agricultural innovations from institutions across the Global South, chosen for their potential to be scaled up and adapted across countries. Its first edition, presented at the Dryland Congress 2026, drew nominations from Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, West Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The Mega Award, formally the ISSCA Global Award for Transformative Excellence, went to ICARDA of Lebanon, CIMMYT of Mexico and the Odisha Livelihoods Mission of India. Options A, C and D carry figures that do not match the release, and each pairs the wrong count of nominations with the wrong count of countries. In examinations such paired figures are a common trap, so remember both numbers together rather than only one of them.

The correct answer is Chandigarh, on 21 July 2026. The release records that the development in the New Delhi Declaration follows the BRICS meeting on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine held in that city under India's BRICS Chairship. Senior government officials, technical experts and delegates from member states attended, and the meeting advanced cooperation on research, education, knowledge exchange and regulatory frameworks. It also produced consensus on the Terms of Reference for the proposed working group. Option A is wrong because New Delhi is where the Summit and the declaration came later, not where the Terms of Reference were settled. Options C and D name cities and dates that do not appear in the release at all. In examinations the city and the date of a preparatory meeting are asked as often as the summit itself, so remember both.

The correct answer is 149. Five new Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals were commissioned during August 2026, which took the cumulative count to this figure at the end of the month. The five new terminals are at Shivlakha in Gujarat, Nalli in Tamil Nadu, Shaktinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Deoragram in Madhya Pradesh and Brajrajnagar in Odisha. These terminals bring freight handling closer to production and consumption centres, improve last-mile connectivity for industry and speed up the evacuation of goods from industrial locations. Option A and option D are close but wrong counts, and option B repeats the number of Rakshabandhan special trips run between 25 and 31 August 2026. Figures from the same release are often used as distractors in this way, so tie each number firmly to the thing it measures.

The correct answer is USD 195.3 billion. India's bioeconomy reached that size in 2025 and recorded eighteen per cent growth over the previous year. The country's biotech startup ecosystem expanded to 11,855 startups, of which 1,780 were added in that single year, and the biopharma sector accounts for nearly thirty per cent of the bioeconomy. The Minister used these figures to argue that India's capabilities can no longer be seen only through the prism of vaccine manufacturing, since the country has moved into advanced vaccine technologies and complex biological products. Options A, B and D give sizes that do not appear in the release. In examinations a figure like this is usually paired with its year and its growth rate, so remember the three together rather than the amount alone.

The correct answer is Circular Economy: Transition for People and Prosperity. The forum at Gandhinagar is being organised under this theme, and its objective is to showcase India's initiatives for promoting circularity and to strengthen international cooperation. Circularity itself means reusing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products so that they return to the economy as valuable resources. The forum aims to enable greater engagement with the Global South, to mobilise circular finance and private investment, to encourage policy dialogue and cross-sectoral partnerships, and to advance innovation, digitalisation and technology for circularity. Options B, C and D are plausible sounding slogans, but none of them is the theme named in the release. Themes of summits are among the most frequently asked facts in current affairs, so memorise the exact wording.

The correct answer is the Wildlife Institute of India, with the Gujarat Forest Department. The Union Minister released the plan at Bhuj and described it as a science-based roadmap. It aims to establish a minimum viable population of more than thirty birds and to secure between two hundred and five hundred square kilometres of safe and connected habitat. The immediate focus is the Lala-Rawa landscape of about two hundred square kilometres, where the work includes habitat restoration, grazing management, removal of invasive species, predator management and reduction of threats from infrastructure. Option B is wrong because officials of that authority attended the meeting but did not prepare the plan. Options A and D name bodies that are not credited with the document, although the Forest Survey of India is a partner in the proposed grassland assessment.

The correct answer is the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation. The final day of the Congress opened with a commemoration ceremony for this day. Messages were read from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, from the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization and from Ms Dima Al-Khatib, Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. The session that followed, convened with CGIAR, was on advancing South-South and triangular cooperation. The theme of the Congress itself was Transforming Dryland Agriculture with South-South Cooperation, so the observance and the theme fit together. Option A is wrong because World Food Day falls in October. Option B is wrong because World Soil Day falls in December. Option D is wrong because the day against desertification falls in June. Only the South-South Cooperation day is named in this release.

The correct answer is the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025-2034. The release says that international attention to the role of traditional medicine in health systems is growing, and that this strategy places emphasis on strengthening the evidence base, on ensuring safety and quality, and on supporting the appropriate integration of traditional medicine into health systems. The World Health Organization has also described the BRICS initiative as a significant development in advancing international cooperation in this field. Options B, C and D name documents that do not appear in the release and that do not exist under those titles. Candidates should note the exact period covered by the strategy, because a question may replace the years with a close but wrong span. The declaration itself ties traditional medicine to Universal Health Coverage.

The correct answer is 86. During August 2026 fourteen Amrit Bharat services were converted from special trains into regular trains, and that conversion took the total number of Amrit Bharat services to this figure. The services connect Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and other important regions of the country. Among the routes named are Subedarganj to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Gorakhpur to Bandra Terminus, Gorakhpur to Delhi Junction, Ahmedabad to Bhagalpur, Prayagraj Junction to Udhna Junction and Dhanbad to Coimbatore. The Ahmedabad to Bhagalpur link joins Gujarat with Bihar, while the Dhanbad to Coimbatore service links eastern India with southern India. Options A, B and D give totals that the release does not support. Remember the count of services added and the running total together.

The correct answer is GEMCOVAC-19. The India-centric CEPI mission, Ind-CEPI, is implemented by BRIC-THSTI and BIRAC, and this vaccine was among its important outcomes. It received Emergency Use Authorisation. Other results of the mission include an inactivated chikungunya vaccine candidate now in Phase II and Phase III trials, and candidates against monkeypox and pan-sarbecoviruses built on Multivalent Self-assembled Nanocage technology, which are at an advanced pre-clinical stage. The partnership also created shared infrastructure: the BRIC-THSTI Bioassay Laboratory is one of CEPI's 17 centralised network laboratories and has supported eight vaccine candidates. Options B, C and D are invented names that do not appear in the release. Candidates should keep the vaccine name, the platform used and the mission that produced it together in memory.

The correct answer is over 2,000 stakeholders from more than 65 countries. Those taking part include business leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers, policymakers, academicians and changemakers. An international expo alongside the forum will feature more than 125 national and international exhibitors showing practical circular solutions developed by startups and investment-ready innovations. On 15 and 16 September the forum will hold four plenaries and sixteen parallel thematic sessions, and on 17 and 18 September global collaborators will independently organise eighty accelerator sessions online, in hybrid form and in person. Options A, C and D pair participation counts and country counts that the release does not support. Since the release announces several figures at once, it is worth learning the participant count, the country count and the exhibitor count as a set.

The correct answer is nearly 24 per cent. The Union Environment Minister underlined the ecological importance of grasslands and said that although they cover close to this share of the country's land area, they remain among the most degraded and least conserved ecosystems in India. He informed the meeting that a five-year national assessment has been proposed in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India, the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and the Forest Survey of India, with support from National CAMPA. The assessment would give a scientific basis for a national framework on grassland management, covering mapping, ecological assessment, restoration and better management of Open Natural Ecosystems, including the Banni Grassland of Gujarat. Options A, B and D give shares that the release does not support.