UPSC Civil Services Current Affairs Quiz: 30 September 2026

The correct answer is the Ministry of Power. The new CAFE norms for passenger vehicles were notified by the Ministry of Power, which handles energy efficiency in the country and works through the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the body that will administer the credit buyout window under the framework. The norms come into force on 1 April 2027 and run till 31 March 2032. Option A, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, frames vehicle safety and registration rules but did not issue this notification. Option B, the Ministry of Heavy Industries, deals with the automobile industry and electric mobility schemes, yet the fuel-economy norms are not notified by it. Option D, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, looks after fuel supply and blending programmes such as ethanol in petrol, and although the new framework recognises ethanol-blended petrol through the Carbon Neutrality Factor, the notification itself came from the Ministry of Power. Aspirants should link CAFE norms with the Ministry of Power and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

The correct answer is 1926. India’s first Public Service Commission was constituted on 1 October 1926 as an advisory body, and the Commission therefore dates its own history from that year and completes a hundred years on 1 October 2026. Option A, 1919, is the year of the Government of India Act that merely provided for such a Commission; it created the legal opening, not the body itself. Option B, 1924, is the year the Lee Commission recommended that a statutory Public Service Commission be established at once, which is again a recommendation and not the establishment. Option D, 1935, is the year of the Government of India Act that transferred the power of appointment to the Governor-General and provided for a Federal Public Service Commission with Provincial Commissions, a later stage in the same story. Only 1926 marks the actual constitution of the body.

The correct answer is Nausena Bhawan, New Delhi. The Ministry of Defence stated that the second edition of the conference commenced there, bringing together the senior leadership of the Indian Navy, including Operational and Area Commanders, for deliberations on operational preparedness, maritime security and future capability development. Options B, C and D name naval commands at Kochi, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam. Those are headquarters of the Navy’s commands and their commanders attended the conference, but none of them hosted this edition. The venue matters for the examination because the conference was held at the Navy’s headquarters building in the capital, where the Raksha Mantri, the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Chief of the Army Staff could address and interact with the naval leadership during the same three-day sitting.

The correct answer is Rs 35.72 crore. The Accelerator Programme gave this amount as grant-in-aid for ten technologies, with the stated objective of moving them from Technology Readiness Level 3 to Level 9, that is, from an early laboratory stage to a product ready for the market. Options A, C and D are not the figure attached to the Accelerator. The larger number to keep separate in your mind is the outlay of the parent scheme, the Scheme for Enhancement of Competitiveness in the Indian Capital Goods Sector Phase II, which stands at a far higher level and supports common technology development and services infrastructure across many projects. Examination questions often pair these two figures as distractors, so link the smaller one to the Accelerator and the larger one to the capital goods scheme.

The correct answer is Indore. The city set out to keep untreated wastewater out of the environment altogether, and that approach made it the first to be given Water+ certification; today no untreated wastewater flows through its rivers or its natural and man-made stormwater drains. Option A, Surat, took a different route, treating used water as a resource with economic value through tertiary treatment plants and large-scale non-potable reuse. Option C, Navi Mumbai, is notable as the only city in Maharashtra to hold a five-star rating together with Water+ certification, but it was not the first in the country. Option D, Tirupati, has also been declared Water Plus and is known for a revenue-earning plant, again not for being first. Indore’s model went on to encourage several smaller cities.

The correct answer is Reliance Jio, whose average download speed on the tested routes was 221.18 Mbps, the highest of the four operators. Option A, Airtel, came second at 116.11 Mbps, roughly half of that figure, though Airtel did lead on uploads with 21.09 Mbps against Reliance Jio’s 15.98 Mbps. Option D, Vodafone Idea, averaged 20.04 Mbps on downloads and 6.69 Mbps on uploads. Option B, BSNL, was last at 11.72 Mbps for downloads and 4.32 Mbps for uploads, and it also showed the weakest voice performance, dropping 301 of 476 established calls. The lesson for the examination is to separate the download leader from the upload leader, because the drive test put two different operators at the top of those two columns.

The correct answer is 2 to 31 October 2026. The Department of Food and Public Distribution stated that it is monitoring preparatory activities for the effective implementation of Special Campaign 6 during exactly this month-long window. Option A names the preparatory phase, not the campaign: during those two weeks the Department and its offices reviewed physical and electronic files and identified e-waste, scrap and unserviceable items for disposal. Options B and D give a shorter window and a later month, neither of which matches the announcement. For the examination, keep the two dates apart in your memory, because questions are often set on whether a given span is the preparation period or the campaign itself, and the campaign is the longer one that begins in the first week of October.

The correct answer is Rs 5,547.99 crore. This is the full amount sanctioned for buying pulses and oilseeds at minimum support price in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana together for the kharif marketing season of 2026-27. Option A, Rs 3,992.57 crore, is only the share set aside for Uttar Pradesh; it is the largest of the three state shares, which makes it a tempting but partial answer. Option D, Rs 1,107 crore, is likewise only the Karnataka share, covering soybean, moong and sunflower in that state. Option C is simply a higher figure with no basis in the approval. Adding the three state shares of Rs 3,992.57 crore, Rs 1,107 crore and Rs 448.42 crore gives the sanctioned total, so only option B names the whole approval rather than a part of it.

The correct answer is US$36.92 billion, the estimated economic contribution of the Ayush services sector in FY2024-25, growing at a compound annual rate of 16.91 per cent since FY2022-23. Option A, US$17.73 billion, is the revenue of Ayurveda alone, the largest of the six Ayush systems, which is close to 48 per cent of the sector rather than all of it. Option C, US$1.77 billion, is the Medical Value Travel revenue earned in FY25, a narrow slice built on foreign patients who make up only about 5 per cent of patient numbers. Option D, US$216 billion, is the lower end of the projection for 2047, not a present figure at all. Only option B states what the sector was worth in the year the study measured.

The correct answer is Neeru and Kynan Chenai, who took the top place in the Trap Mixed Team event at the Asian Games 2026 and set an Asian Record in the final while doing it. The other three options name pairs from other shooting disciplines, which is exactly the confusion a paper setter would build in. Option A pairs two pistol shooters, so it cannot be a trap result. Option C names two rifle shooters, again a different weapon family altogether: rifle and pistol events are fired at fixed paper or electronic targets, while trap is a shotgun event fired at moving clay targets. Option D likewise belongs to pistol shooting. Only trap shooters can win a trap event, and the pair that did it here, taking India’s first Asian Games gold in this event, is Neeru and Kynan Chenai.

The correct answer is Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Prithika Pradeep and Chikitha Taniparthi, the trio whose shooting won the women’s compound team gold at the Asian Games 2026 and equalled the World Record in the process. Option A names recurve archers, and recurve is a different division from compound, with a different bow and different scoring, so that team cannot win a compound event. Option C is the trap most likely to catch a hurried candidate, because it keeps the one famous name, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, and replaces her two team-mates with archers who were not in this team. Option D mixes divisions in the same way. The safest approach is to learn the three names as a set, since a question can drop any one of them and ask which archer does not belong to the gold-winning team.

The correct answer is Yashobhoomi, New Delhi, from 15 to 17 November 2026. The venue and the three dates were both stated at the India Mining: Global Connect outreach meeting, where the Minister of State invited dignitaries to the opening on 15 November. Option A keeps the right venue city and dates but shifts the month to October, and also swaps in Bharat Mandapam, which is a different convention centre in the capital. Option C keeps the venue but pushes the event to December, a month later than announced. Option D keeps the correct dates but names Pragati Maidan, the older exhibition ground in New Delhi, instead of Yashobhoomi, which is the convention centre at Dwarka. Candidates should hold venue and month together, since questions usually change only one of the two.

The correct answer is the Indian Coast Guard acting in coordination with the Anti-Terrorism Squad of Gujarat. The Coast Guard put its ships and aircraft on the suspected boat, tracked it and boarded it on the high seas, while the state unit carried the case into arrest and investigation. Option A names the Navy and the Narcotics Control Bureau, both plausible in a drug case at sea, but neither is the force that made this interception. Option C names the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, which handles customs and smuggling intelligence, paired with the wrong state police; the dhow and its crew were taken to Mumbai but the partner unit was from Gujarat. Option D names the Border Security Force, which guards land borders and has no role on the high seas. The pairing of a maritime force with a state anti-terrorism squad is the point of the case.

The correct answer is 3.3273 litres per 100 km. Under the new framework the fleet benchmark for fuel consumption begins at 3.996 litres per 100 km in 2027-28 and is tightened year after year until it reaches 3.3273 litres per 100 km in 2031-32. Taken together, that is an improvement of roughly 16.7 per cent in fuel efficiency across the five-year block. Option A, 3.996 litres per 100 km, is the starting figure for the first year of the block and not the end point, so it is wrong. Option C is higher than the opening benchmark, which would mean vehicles burning more fuel rather than less, the opposite of what the norms intend. Option D is far below the notified figure and does not appear in the framework. The safe way to remember it is the pair of figures: the block opens at 3.996 and closes at 3.3273 litres per 100 km.

The correct answer is Part XIV, Articles 315 to 323. Dr B. R. Ambedkar moved these draft articles in the Constituent Assembly in 1949, and they became the constitutional charter of the Public Service Commissions. Article 315 provides for a Commission for the Union and one for each State, Article 316 leaves the appointment of the chairman and members to the President, Article 317 allows removal only by the President after an inquiry by the Supreme Court, Article 320 lists the functions, and Article 322 charges the expenses on the Consolidated Fund of India. Option A, Part XII with Articles 264 to 300, covers finance, property and contracts. Option B, Part XIII with Articles 301 to 307, covers trade, commerce and intercourse within India. Option D, Part XV with Articles 324 to 329, covers elections and the Election Commission, not the service commissions.

The correct answer is Operation Urja Suraksha. Referring to the situation in West Asia, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh highlighted the Navy’s conduct of this operation and its contribution to safeguarding India’s energy security, in an address that also stressed Aatmanirbharta, indigenous capability development and technology absorption. Option A, Operation Sankalp, and option D, Operation Sagar Rakshak, were not named in this address. Option B, Operation Samudra Setu, is associated with the evacuation of Indian citizens by sea and not with energy security. For the examination, the point to carry away is the pairing of the operation’s name with its purpose: protecting the sea lanes that carry India’s energy supplies, which the Raksha Mantri tied to his wider argument that secure seas are integral to a secure and developed nation.

The correct answer is TRL-3 to TRL-9. The objective of the grant-in-aid was to support the progression of ten technologies from Technology Readiness Level 3, an early stage where a concept has been proved in the laboratory, to Level 9, where a technology is proven in its operating environment and can be sold. The Minister described this in plain terms as a movement from early-stage prototypes towards commercially viable products, in fields such as electric powertrains, high-voltage motor control and energy storage. Options A, B and D describe shorter journeys that stop well short of a market-ready product, and none of them matches the stated design of the programme. The full span up to the highest level is what made the Accelerator notable.

The correct answer is 4,900 MLD, or million litres per day. Projects approved under Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 for setting up sewage treatment plants in small cities are expected to add exactly this much capacity, and the money behind them runs into several thousand crore rupees. Options A, B and D do not match the approved figure. For the examination, keep the pair together: the amount of money approved and the capacity it buys, both of which relate to small cities rather than the metros. Note also that this capacity sits alongside the Water Plus certification framework and the ODF++ protocols, which judge whether sewage, faecal sludge and septage are safely managed, so capacity alone is not the whole measure of a city’s performance.

The correct answer is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the sector regulator, which conducts Independent Drive Tests through an appointed agency and publishes the findings for the information of telecom consumers. The purpose is to verify in real time the quality of voice and data services supplied by the telecom service providers, and to push those providers to improve. Option B, the Bureau of Indian Standards, is the national standards body and does not test mobile networks. Option C, the Department of Posts, runs postal services. Option D, the Centre for Development of Telematics, is a telecom research and development organisation that designs technology rather than auditing operators. Under TRAI the tests cover coverage, call setup success, dropped calls, call silence, speech quality and data throughput on live networks.

The correct answer is the collection, segregation and disposal of e-waste. The Department said that this year special focus is being given to electronic waste, along with the standing objectives of cleanliness, disposal of pending matters and better use of office space, and it identified a specific number of e-waste items for disposal during the preparatory phase. Option B is wrong because nodal officers were not recruited for the drive; they already exist and are being used to review progress in regular meetings. Option C is wrong because building warehouses is not part of this administrative drive, even though warehousing organisations are participating in it. Option D concerns agricultural price policy, which has nothing to do with a campaign on pendency, record management and waste disposal.

The correct answer is Uttar Pradesh. It was allotted Rs 3,992.57 crore of the sanction, the largest of the three state shares, almost all of it for tur: 4,66,000 metric tonnes worth Rs 3,937.70 crore, along with 6,250 metric tonnes of moong worth Rs 54.87 crore. Option A, Karnataka, stands second with Rs 1,107 crore, spread across soybean, moong and sunflower, so it is covered by the approval but is not the largest. Option B, Telangana, is third with Rs 448.42 crore for soybean and moong. Option D, Madhya Pradesh, is a large producer of pulses and oilseeds and therefore a plausible guess, but it is not among the three states named in this particular sanction. Only Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana are covered.

The correct answer is the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, better known as RIS, whose Director General, Professor Sachin Kumar Sharma, presented the findings. RIS is a policy research institute that works on trade and development questions, which is why an economic measurement of a health sector fell to it rather than to a medical body. Option C, the Indian Council of Medical Research, is the apex body for biomedical research in India and plausible at first glance, but it studies health and disease, not the money value of a service industry. Option A, NITI Aayog, is the government think tank and does publish sector reports, yet it did not author this one. Option D, the National Statistical Office, compiles official statistics but did not conduct this establishment-level survey. The survey behind the study covered 15,914 establishments across all six Ayush systems.

The correct answer is that the pair set an Asian Record in the final and that the medal is India’s first ever Asian Games gold in the Trap Mixed Team event. Both firsts belong to the same result, which is why the Prime Minister described it as a memorable achievement for Indian shooting. Option A moves the record to the wrong level and the wrong round: it was an Asian Record, not a World Record, and it came in the final rather than in qualification. Option C overstates the claim badly, because Indian shooters have been winning medals at the Asian Games for decades; what was new here was a gold in this particular event. Option D describes a perfect score, which is not what was reported. So only option B states the two firsts correctly.

The correct answer is that the trio equalled the World Record. The Prime Minister specifically noted that their performance matched the world mark, and said this was what made the gold even more special. Option A, broke it, is the usual wrong choice, because a reader who remembers only that a record was involved will assume it fell; the record was levelled, not bettered. Option C, missed it by one point, describes the opposite of what happened and would not have drawn any mention of a record at all. Option D swaps the level of the record: an Asian Record is a continental mark, while what the team touched here was the World Record, the best score shot anywhere. The distinction between equalling and breaking a record is a favourite of paper setters, so it is worth fixing firmly.

The correct answer is 19. Representatives of diplomatic missions from nineteen countries joined the outreach interaction, among them Malawi, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Algeria, the United States of America, Chile, Bhutan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Russia, Iraq, Morocco, Venezuela, Spain, Poland, Mongolia, Zambia, France and Ghana, and the US Chamber of Commerce attended alongside them. Option D, fifty, is the figure that belongs to the main event: participation from more than fifty countries is expected at India Mining Week in November, which is a larger and later number than the missions at this preparatory meeting. Options A and C, twelve and twenty-five, have no basis in the outreach. The distinction worth remembering is that nineteen missions attended the build-up meeting while more than fifty countries are expected at the Week itself.