Geothermal Energy: India's First Two Wells at Puga Valley, Ladakh

The correct answer is Puga Valley in Ladakh. The backgrounder records that the ONGC Energy Centre commissioned the country's first two geothermal wells there in July 2026. The valley lies at over 14,000 feet above sea level, is known for its hot springs and underground heat reserves, and is among India's most promising geothermal sites. Each well goes down about 1,000 metres, and together they pave the way for India's first 1 megawatt demonstration geothermal power project. Option A, Tattapani, and option C, Manikaran, are genuine and well known Indian geothermal fields, which makes them the strongest distractors in any question of this kind, but neither is the site of these first wells. Option D, Ankleshwar in Gujarat, does appear in the same backgrounder, but in a different role: it hosts a pilot project evaluating electricity generation by retrofitting unproductive oil and gas wells. Attach the words first two wells firmly to Puga Valley.

The correct answer is 381. The backgrounder states that the Geological Survey of India has mapped 381 hot springs and identified 10 geothermal provinces across the country, and that India's theoretical geothermal prospect stands at nearly 10.6 GW, of which 42 sites have been recognised as promising for power generation and direct heat use. Option A simply reverses the digits of the correct figure, which is the oldest trick in a numbers question and catches anyone who recalls the digits but not their order. Option C is built from the count of promising sites, forty-two, and option D from the theoretical prospect of 10.6 GW, so both are made of real numbers from the same passage placed under the wrong heading. Keep the four figures of this paragraph in a line and in order: 381 hot springs, 10 provinces, 10.6 GW of prospect, 42 promising sites. The ten provinces include the Himalayan Geothermal Province and the Cambay Graben.

The correct answer is the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The backgrounder states that the Government notified the National Policy on Geothermal Energy in September 2025 and that this ministry is the nodal ministry for its implementation. The same ministry runs the Renewable Energy Research and Technology Development Programme and sanctioned five research and development projects between July and August 2025 covering resource assessment, indigenous technology development and field demonstration. Option A, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is tempting because the first wells were commissioned by the ONGC Energy Centre and because the policy allows abandoned oil and gas wells to be repurposed, but the nodal role is not with it. Option B, the Ministry of Earth Sciences, deals with the earth system sciences and is a natural but wrong guess for anything involving the Earth's interior. Option D, the Ministry of Power, handles conventional electricity and is not named here. Geothermal energy is treated as a renewable source, and the ministry follows from that.