UPSC Current Affairs Quiz: October 2026

Silvio Erkens, the Dutch Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature, held bilateral talks with the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in New Delhi, and the discussions covered the Centres of Excellence being set up in agriculture and horticulture, cooperation in the seed sector, market access and…

The multi-institutional campaign on the blazar OJ 287 was coordinated by scientists of this institute, which is an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology, and the study was led by Dr Alok C. Gupta of the same institute.

The Indian parliamentary delegation led by Harivansh, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, is taking part in the assembly at Arusha, and the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania organised the formal inaugural ceremony there.

The curtain raiser for its ocean theme was hosted by the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology at Kochi, an attached office of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and the theme being previewed was Ocean Sciences and Maritime Technologies.

The correct answer is the World Bank Group, which brings out the World Development Report every year; the latest edition carries the subtitle "The Promise of Artificial Intelligence" and was launched in India by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The document brought out by the National Highways Authority of India records that this amount has gone into wildlife mitigation infrastructure and related environmental protection measures across National Highway projects over the past five years.

The Ministry of Jal Shakti review records that compliance among grossly polluting industries in the Ganga basin climbed from 39% in 2017 to 86% in 2025, a steady gain produced by annual inspection, independent technical assessment and sector charters.

The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav, announced on 15 October 2026 that the national tally of Ramsar sites had reached 103 once Sukhna Wetland in Chandigarh and Sauj Jheel in Uttar Pradesh were taken into the list.

This is the statutory body that reviewed enforcement action, inspection findings and compliance across the National Capital Region at the 141st meeting of its Enforcement Task Force.

The court set up the High Powered Enquiry Committee to enquire into all aspects of the incidents of violence at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and at places outside Delhi during July 2026, and the Committee has now opened a portal so that affected persons, including affected police personnel, can send…

The four notified coldwater fisheries clusters are Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, and Kargil in Ladakh.

The memorandum concerning the electronic exchange of origin data on trade in goods was signed by the CBIC on behalf of India and by the New Zealand Customs Service on the other side, with CBIC Chairman Vivek Chaturvedi and NZCS Comptroller and Chief Executive Christine Stevenson putting their names to…

Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan inaugurated the conference at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on 22 October 2026, and in his address he asked States to clear outdated laws from their statute books and described legal reform as a condition for Viksit Bharat @2047.

He is Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and he addressed the roundtable virtually, speaking in his capacity as President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India.

Stage-I of the Graded Response Action Plan is the stage meant for poor air, and it was invoked across the National Capital Region after Delhi's daily average index was recorded at 244 at 2 PM and then at 245 by 4 PM, both of which sit inside that band.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs convened the third and concluding conference of the regional review series in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, where senior officials of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Rajasthan and the host Union Territory reviewed progress under the Act.

The correct answer is Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, who completed a two-day official visit to Germany with a series of engagements in Berlin on 23 October 2026.

India’s access and benefit-sharing framework is governed by this Act, as amended in 2023, along with the Biological Diversity Rules, 2024, and the Access and Benefit-Sharing Regulations, 2025.

Addressing the closing session of the 2nd National Urban Conclave, Rajiv Gauba, Member of NITI Aayog, said that nearly half of all Indians are expected to be living in urban areas by 2050, and that the urban population would therefore climb from roughly 50 crore at present to 85 crore.

The Used Water Marketplace opened on the concluding day of the conclave is a digital platform set up under AMRUT 2.0, and it connects urban local bodies with users and investors in the treated used water ecosystem.

The workshop on Government and Industry Synergy for Geospatial Transformation, held in New Delhi on the theme of co-creating the geospatial economy for Viksit Bharat 2047, was organised by the Survey of India under that department.

This is the theme under which the Swachhata Hi Seva 2026 campaign is being run across the country, and the spirit of joint action it stands for was what the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare echoed when its officers and staff joined a shramdaan in New Delhi on…

He has taken over as Secretary of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the ministry that handles forests, wildlife, pollution control and climate policy for the country.

This is the dedicated provision set aside under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 for closing drinking water gaps in the tribal villages covered by the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan and the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan.

It runs this government-wide drive, in which ministries and their attached, subordinate and autonomous bodies clean their premises, weed out old files and clear pending references.

Lonar Crater Lake is a unique natural formation in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra, and it attracts visitors because of its distinctive geological and environmental features.

The hundredth-year celebrations of the Union Public Service Commission were held there, and the Prime Minister took part along with chairpersons of the Public Service Commissions of the states.

Varuna is the annual bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and the French Navy, and in its twenty-fourth edition the Indian warship Trishul sailed to the French port of Toulon to take part.

The correct answer is Resilience in an Age of Flux, the theme announced by the Ministry of Finance for the fifth edition of the Conclave, to be held in New Delhi from 3 to 5 October 2026.

The day is observed on this date every year to spread awareness about voluntary blood donation and to encourage healthy, eligible people to donate regularly and without payment.

Under the revised norms a dealer may not hold more than this quantity at any time or at any place in the country, and the rule runs from 15 October 2026 to 30 November 2026.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment stated that this amount was released to States and Union Territories across three financial years under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the two Acts.

It lies on the Tambaram-Tindivanam section of NH-179B and has become the first location in Tamil Nadu where the National Highways Authority of India charges toll without a boom barrier, letting vehicles roll through while cameras and FASTag settle the fee.

A student selected under the scheme receives that amount every year, and the money is credited straight into the student's own bank account through Direct Benefit Transfer, which removes middlemen from the payment chain.

The correct answer is the National Statistics Office, which works under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and is running this round as CAPEX 2026, its third such exercise, between October and December.

That is how the ship has been described in the announcement of her visit to the Kenyan port, and a frigate of this class is a general purpose warship built with a reduced radar signature so that it is harder to detect at sea.

That is the title under which the People's Plan Campaign for the year is launched when Special Gram Sabhas assemble on the second of October, and under it every Gram Panchayat draws up its development plan for the next financial year through participatory, evidence-based planning.

The Indian women's team in squash finished third in its event at the Games and so took the bronze medal, a result the Prime Minister described as a richly deserved place on the podium while congratulating the players for a spirited effort and for the resolve they showed.

The two of them finished second in the Men’s Skiff event at the Asian Games 2026 and took the silver medal, and the Prime Minister congratulated them on a result he said was built on skill and determination, adding that they had bettered their previous performances to reach the podium…

The revised framework of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways ties the validity of an exempted FASTag to the percentage of disability on record, and the higher slab of 70 to 100 per cent carries a validity of five years.

The Ministry of Mines offered Sewell Rise-01, in the southern part of Sewell Rise, and West Sewell Ridge-01, which lies off Great Nicobar Island, and both blocks sit in the Andaman Sea.

HQ IDS was established in New Delhi on that date, and the day is observed every year as Tri-Service Day; the organisation therefore completed 25 years and celebrated its Silver Jubilee under the theme of future readiness through jointness and integration.

The correct answer is ICAR-CIPHET, Ludhiana, the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, which will carry out the two-year Phase-I of the project on alternatives to chemical fumigation in wheat and rice.

The app carries this name together with the National Scholarship Portal and belongs to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, serving beneficiaries of the Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarships for Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes.

The Union Cabinet cleared GOBARdhan on 6 August 2026 with this outlay, and the scheme gives the compressed biogas sector a ten-year framework running from FY 2026-27 to FY 2035-36.

That is the financial support the Government of India has approved for running the Amended BharatNet Programme in Maharashtra under the state-led model, and the agreement signed at Sanchar Bhawan puts it into effect through MahaNet Digital Infrastructure Limited.

The correct answer is Milwaukee, in the state of Wisconsin, and the meeting is hosted under the United States G20 Presidency.

The Indian quartet of Dharmveer Chaudhary, Manu TS, Jay Kumar and Vishal TK finished on the podium in third place in the men’s 4x400m relay, and the Prime Minister congratulated them on the bronze, praising the timing they clocked.

The Raksha Mantri launched the department’s publications and digital initiatives at this celebration held at DRDO Bhawan in New Delhi, and he congratulated the department on nearly three centuries of service to the nation, which fits an edition in the high two hundreds.

Every other option is a real figure from the same Shivir attached to the wrong service, which is exactly how such a question is set.