UPSC Current Affairs Quiz: 26 September 2026

The correct answer is Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism. The day falls on 27 September and the theme chosen for this edition asks how digital innovation and artificial intelligence can change the way destinations are planned, promoted, managed and experienced by travellers. The global observance is hosted by El Salvador. Option A, on green investments, names a concern of the tourism debate but is not the theme picked for this year. Option C, built around rural growth, echoes the kind of destination work India does through its own schemes, yet it is not the theme of the day either. Option D, on peace, is a slogan of an older kind and again does not match this edition. Candidates should tie the year to the exact wording of the theme, because question setters ask for the theme verbatim and place near misses among the options.

The correct answer is Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, who spoke for India at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 25 September and reaffirmed the commitment of the country to global health security. Option A is wrong because the address was delivered by the Health Secretary, the senior civil servant of the ministry, and not by the minister. Option C names the envoy who leads the mission of India at the world body, but the health intervention at this meeting came from the ministry itself. Option D names the head of the apex medical research body, which had a large role during the pandemic yet did not speak here. Such questions test whether an aspirant reads the designation carefully, so the pairing of the meeting, the venue and the exact office of the speaker should be memorised together.

The correct answer is 2 October to 31 October 2026, the month long implementation phase of the campaign across ministries, departments, their undertakings and field offices. Option A is the preparatory phase, when nodal officers were appointed and trained, pending references were listed, offices were chosen for the cleanliness drive and targets were uploaded on the campaign portal, so it is a tempting but wrong choice. Option C shifts the drive to the following month and has no basis. Option D cuts the window to a fortnight, while the campaign is run through the whole of October. Aspirants should keep both dates in mind, because a question may ask for either phase, and should also note that the drive is in its sixth year with the administrative reforms department in charge.

The correct answer is Swachhta Mein Sahbhag - Swachh Bharat, Viksit Bharat. The theme joins two ideas, participation in cleanliness and the goal of a developed India, and every activity held under the campaign is expected to reflect it. The Swachhata Samvad at the Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes at Hisar was organised under exactly this theme, which is why the release names it. Option A reads like a slogan built from the campaign's own title but is not the theme announced for this edition. Option C is invented and merely strings together familiar words about complete cleanliness. Option D names a well-known call for a shared hour of voluntary cleaning work, which is a separate initiative rather than the theme of this campaign. Aspirants should keep the theme and such campaign slogans apart, since both appear in question papers.

The correct answer is 668 metres. The road over bridge whose foundation stone was laid between the Guntur and Nambur railway stations in Andhra Pradesh will run 668 metres and carry four lanes of traffic. It has been sanctioned at a cost of 108 crore rupees, the whole of which is being paid by the Ministry of Railways, and it requires 2.9 acres of land. Option A, 468 metres, option B, 568 metres, and option D, 768 metres, are all wrong because none of them is the figure announced for this bridge; only the 668-metre length is correct. Candidates should link the length with the other numbers of the project, because a question paper may ask for the cost or the land instead of the length.

The correct answer is the 85th Foundation Day of CSIR. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research observed its 85th Foundation Day, and on that day the Minister of State for Science and Technology released five popular science magazines published by CSIR-NIScPR. The same occasion marks 84 years of the body's contribution to science, technology and national development. Options A, B and D name anniversaries that do not match the celebration at which these magazines were launched. Aspirants should tie the anniversary to the other details of the event, namely the five languages, the names of the magazines and the institute that publishes them, because examiners often frame the question around the occasion rather than the publication itself. The magazines were launched in New Delhi and the editors of all five titles were present, which makes the event as much about science communication as about the anniversary itself.

The correct answer is El Salvador, which hosts the global observance of the day on 27 September for this edition. The host country changes from year to year, and the venue of the official observance is one of the facts most often asked about the day. Option A is wrong as a host, though India is holding a nationwide celebration of its own, with the central function at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi where the National Digital Tourism Stack and Dekho Apna Desh 2.0 are unveiled. Option B is a plausible distractor because the tourism body has long had its seat in Spain, but hosting the observance is a separate matter. Option D has no link with this edition. Aspirants should hold three things together for such questions: the date, the theme and the host country of the year.

The correct answer is Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing. India argued that the agreement will be judged by whether this system is fair, so that a country which shares pathogens or biological resources receives vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and other technologies in return, within a reasonable time and with its sovereignty intact. Options A, B and D are invented expansions that sound plausible because each borrows a word from the vocabulary of health emergencies, but none is the term used in the agreement. Aspirants should also remember that the annex on this system was still being negotiated, that India asked the political declaration not to pre-judge those talks, and that the head of the world health body pressed for the negotiations to be concluded quickly.

The correct answer is the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, which runs the campaign and monitors it on a dedicated portal. Its Secretary, Nivedita Shukla Verma, chaired the second meeting of nodal officers, where Additional Secretary Puneet Yadav presented the progress of the drive. Option A handles public expenditure and budgetary matters and has no such role. Option B is a plausible distractor because it sits in the same ministry and deals with service matters, but the cleanliness and pending matters campaign is not its charge. Option D promotes industry and trade and is unrelated. A useful memory hook is that the same department also brings out the collection of best practices during Good Governance Week.

The correct answer is buffaloes, at Hisar. The abbreviation expands to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research - Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, and the institute works under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. It was this institute that held the Swachhata Samvad for its contractual staff and Young Professionals as part of the campaign's Day-VIII action plan. Option A names an institute devoted to goat research at a different station, option C a body working on camels, and option D one working on poultry; all three are of the same family of council institutes, which is precisely why they make good distractors. For examinations it helps to remember the animal, the station and the parent ministry as a single unit, because questions on such institutes usually ask for the pairing of a research subject with its headquarters.

The correct answer is the Ministry of Railways. The bridge has been approved at an estimated cost of 108 crore rupees and the entire amount is being met by the Ministry of Railways, so the state exchequer pays nothing towards it. Option A is wrong because the Government of Andhra Pradesh is not sharing the cost, even though the bridge serves Guntur city. Option C is wrong because the National Highways Authority of India has no role in this project, which replaces a level crossing on a railway line. Option D is wrong because the bridge is a fully funded railway work and no private developer or toll arrangement has been announced for it. Aspirants should remember that road over bridges on railway lines are often shared between the railways and the state, which makes this fully railway-funded case worth noting.

The correct answer is Telugu. Of the five magazines released, Vigyan Velugu is the Telugu title. Option A is wrong because the Tamil magazine is named Ariviyal Arikkaiyalar. Option C is wrong because the Marathi magazine is Vidnyan Kshitij. Option D is wrong because the Assamese magazine is Bigyan Lahar; the Bengali one, not listed here, is Bigyan Brittanto. All five are published by the CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research and carry both translated articles and original writing from their own regions. Matching each magazine with its language is the most likely way this news will be tested, so the five pairs should be learnt together rather than one by one. Remember also that the five new titles sit alongside three older ones, taking the institute's popular science publishing from three languages to eight in all, a point that can be asked directly.

The correct answer is 5.22%. The weight of tourism in the economy is measured through the Tourism Satellite Account, the official accounting framework that captures both the direct and the indirect contribution of the sector, and by that measure tourism adds 5.22% of national GDP. The same set of estimates shows employment linked to tourism rising from 6.94 crore in 2019-20 to 8.46 crore in 2023-24. Option A understates the share and matches no published estimate for the sector. Option C and option D are both too high for the current estimate, even though tourism worldwide is a larger share of output, having contributed about a tenth of global GDP in 2024. Remember the framework by name as well, since a question may ask which account is used to measure the contribution of tourism rather than the number itself.

The correct answer is 300 million doses to about 100 countries and two United Nations entities. India cited this supply, along with medical assistance to more than 150 countries, as proof of the principle of One Earth, One Health and of its commitment to the Global South. Option A halves the number of doses and shrinks the list of recipients. Option C and option D inflate the supply well beyond what was stated at the meeting. The figures are usually asked as a pair, so hold the number of doses with the number of recipient countries, and keep the two United Nations entities in mind, because a question may turn on that small addition alone. The wider point India made was that access to essential health products must rest on solidarity rather than on the ability to pay.

The correct answer is the effective collection, segregation and disposal of electronic waste. The campaign this year gives special weight to identifying and clearing e-waste in keeping with the E-Waste (Management) Rules of 2022, alongside the optimisation of office space, the disposal of scrap and redundant items, record management and the timely settlement of public grievances. Option B names a reform direction the government pursues in other ways but not the theme announced for this edition. Option C and option D describe environmental measures that sound close to the drive yet are not what the campaign has been built around this year. For exams, pair the theme with the rules that govern it, since a question often asks which rules apply to the disposal of electronic waste in government offices.

The correct answer is a platform for dialogue and discussion to widen participation in cleanliness work. The action plan for the day envisages the Samvad in exactly these terms, so that awareness about hygiene and sustainable waste management spreads through conversation. That is why the organisers set aside the usual lecture format and instead invited participants to describe practical problems at home, at work and in the areas around them, and to offer suggestions. Option B turns the exercise into a ranking contest, which is not its purpose. Option C describes an external inspection, whereas the Samvad was an internal and voluntary discussion. Option D is the very method the organisers deliberately avoided, since a one-sided lecture would not have drawn out the experiences of those present. The session closed with a collective commitment rather than an assessment.

The correct answer is Gate No. 3. The four-lane road over bridge is being built in place of Level Crossing Gate No. 3, which lies on the Guntur-Krishna Canal stretch of the Guntur-Nambur line. Removing the gate ends the halts that road users face whenever a train passes, and it also helps trains keep time. Options A, C and D name gates that are not connected with this project; the gate being closed is numbered three. The bridge stands close to the Inner Ring Road of Guntur city and will connect Bus Stand Road with Gorantla village. Students should also recall that the same ceremony highlighted the wider plan to remove level crossings across Andhra Pradesh through bridges built over and under the tracks.

The correct answer is Dr N. Kalaiselvi, who is Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and also Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. She was present at the launch of the five magazines. Option A is wrong because Dr Geetha Vani Rayasam is the Director of CSIR-NIScPR, the institute that publishes them. Option C is wrong because Dr Meher Wan is one of the two officials who coordinated the publication work, along with Mukesh Ambadas Pund. Option D is wrong because Dr Jitendra Singh is the Union Minister of State with independent charge of the Ministry of Science and Technology, who released the magazines rather than heading CSIR. Knowing who holds each post is useful, as such pairings are asked frequently.

The correct answer is 3500 crore rupees. While laying the foundation stone of the Guntur road over bridge, the Minister of State for Railways said that apart from bridges over and under the tracks, 74 railway stations in Andhra Pradesh are being rebuilt with modern, world-class facilities at an investment of 3500 crore rupees. Option A, option B and option D give amounts that were not announced for this station upgrade programme in the state. The figure is worth remembering along with the details of the bridge itself, namely its length of 668 metres, its sanctioned cost of 108 crore rupees and the 2.9 acres of land it needs, because station modernisation in a named state is a common question in railway and staff selection examinations.