16 October 2026 Current Affairs: Headlines, GK & MCQs

When light enters a denser medium, its wavelength is divided by the refractive index of that medium. The frequency of light is fixed by its source and does not change on refraction.

A liquid boils when its vapour pressure rises to match the pressure of the air above it. As a liquid is heated, more molecules escape as vapour and its vapour pressure climbs.

As Viceroy, he issued the Resolution on Local Self-Government of 18 May 1882, remembered as its Magna Carta. Ripon, Viceroy from 1880 to 1884, wanted local boards and municipalities with a majority of elected, non-official members and an elected chairman where possible.

Two vanadium atoms must balance five oxide ions, each of charge −2, so each vanadium carries +5. In a neutral compound the oxidation states add up to zero.

Meiosis halves them in the gametes, and fertilisation restores them in the offspring. Each parent makes gametes by meiosis, so a human egg or sperm carries 23 chromosomes instead of 46.

Bacteria have peptidoglycan walls and animal cells have no wall, but fungal walls are made of chitin, not cellulose. Statement 1 is correct: peptidoglycan, also called murein, is a mesh of sugars cross-linked by short peptides; penicillin works by blocking its formation.

Its density is about 0.86 g/cm³, less than that of water, so it floats while it reacts. Potassium is an alkali metal, soft enough to cut with a knife.

Electric power equals voltage times current, so the current is 60 W ÷ 240 V = 0.25 A. The relation P = VI comes straight from the definitions: voltage is energy per unit charge and current is charge per second, so their product is energy per second, or power.

The lithosphere is the rigid outer shell of the Earth, made of the crust and the uppermost, solid part of the mantle.

A plane mirror forms an image behind the mirror where light only seems to come from, with left and right swapped.

A nanometre is 10⁻⁹ m and an ångström is 10⁻¹⁰ m, so one nanometre holds ten ångströms.

It contains hydrochloric acid and has a pH of about 1.5 to 2, the lowest of the four, so it has the most hydrogen ions.

These low-pressure systems travel east from the Mediterranean region and bring winter rain and snow to Kashmir and north-west India.

The stinging hairs of the nettle plant inject methanoic acid, also called formic acid, into the skin. Each nettle hair is a fine, brittle tube that breaks on touch and pushes its contents into the skin like a tiny needle.

A metal filament's resistance rises as it heats up, so the current falls and the resistor gets a smaller share of the voltage.

For any real object, a convex mirror forms a virtual, erect and smaller image behind the mirror, between the pole and the focus.

Heating weakens the attraction between the molecules of a liquid, so its surface pulls less tightly. Surface tension arises because molecules at the surface are pulled inward by their neighbours, making the surface behave like a stretched skin.

In Sufism a murid is the disciple who follows a spiritual master, called the pir or shaikh. Sufi orders, or silsilas, such as the Chishti and Suhrawardi, grew around a master and his disciples living in a khanqah (hospice).

The date just east of the line is one day behind the date just west of it, but the line runs through the Pacific Ocean, not the Atlantic.

While collecting nectar, a honey-bee carries pollen from one flower to the stigma of another, which lets the plant form seeds.

Naseem-Al-Bahr, Arabic for "sea breeze", is the bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman.

Prokaryotic cells, such as bacteria, have no true nucleus; their DNA lies free in the cytoplasm in a region called the nucleoid.

Sugar dissolves in water as whole, neutral molecules and releases no ions, so its solution does not conduct electricity. A solution conducts only when it contains free ions that can carry charge between the electrodes.

Outside a long straight wire, the field is B = μ₀I/(2πr), so doubling the distance halves the field. This result follows from Ampère's circuital law, or from the Biot–Savart law applied to a long wire.

The Constitution makes itself supreme, not any one organ; it balances parliamentary sovereignty with judicial review. India took a middle path between the British idea of parliamentary sovereignty and the American idea of judicial supremacy.

When red and green light are added together, the eye sees yellow. Red, green and blue are the primary colours of light.

Koneru Humpy, from Andhra Pradesh, is one of India's greatest chess players and among the strongest women players in the world.

Average velocity is total displacement divided by time, and the car ends where it started, so its displacement is zero.

Air masses form under calm, stable, anticyclonic (high-pressure) conditions, not in cyclones. An air mass is a huge body of air with nearly uniform temperature and humidity across it.

An LED is a semiconductor p–n junction diode that gives out light when current flows through it in the forward direction.

Brine is a concentrated solution of sodium chloride, common salt, in water. Brine is the starting point of the chlor-alkali process: passing electricity through it gives sodium hydroxide, chlorine gas and hydrogen gas, which is why the process is named after chlorine and alkali.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct, but NOTA does not apply to the presidential election. The Election Commission conducts the election under Article 324 and the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952.

An alloy is made by melting and mixing its components, which keep their own properties and are not joined in a fixed ratio by chemical bonds.

The Public Accounts Committee is constituted afresh every year, so each member's term is one year. The PAC was first set up in 1921 under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.

Weber's ideal type describes bureaucracy through its structure and the conduct of its officials, not through class domination. Max Weber, the German sociologist, described the ideal type of bureaucracy as the most rational form of administration under legal-rational authority.

Quartz is a crystalline solid, and crystals show different physical properties in different directions, which is called anisotropy. In a crystalline solid the particles are arranged in a regular, repeating pattern, so the arrangement looks different along different directions.

The budget is presented first, examined by the departmental committees, voted through the Appropriation Bill and finally completed with the Finance Bill.

The Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare is not under the Ministry of Finance; it is part of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

Pairs 2 and 3 are correct; pairs 1 and 4 are wrongly matched. Lakshmikarna, also called Karna, was an eleventh-century Kalachuri ruler of Tripuri, not a Pala king, though he fought the Palas of Bengal.

Graphite, fullerene, diamond and graphene are all allotropes of carbon, made only of carbon atoms arranged in different ways. Allotropes are different structural forms of the same element.

Article 124(3) allows such a person to be appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court.

Steatite seals and bricks of a standard ratio are the hallmarks of the Harappan Civilisation. Harappan seals were usually carved from steatite, a soft stone, and carry animal motifs such as the unicorn together with signs of the undeciphered script.

Directive Principles do not have precedence over Fundamental Rights; in a conflict, the Fundamental Rights generally prevail. Directive Principles are in Part IV, Articles 36 to 51.

Polythene is an addition polymer: ethene molecules join through their double bonds without losing any small molecule. Polymers form in two main ways.

The DMK government of Tamil Nadu set up the Rajamannar Committee in 1969 to study Centre-State relations. The three-member committee was headed by Dr P.V.

This Act has never been added to the Ninth Schedule; the other three were placed in it by constitutional amendments.

Zinc reacts with dilute sulphuric acid to form zinc sulphate and hydrogen gas: Zn + H2SO4 gives ZnSO4 + H2.

Kalinga does not appear in the list of sixteen mahajanapadas given in the Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya. The sixteen mahajanapadas of the sixth century BCE were Anga, Magadha, Kashi, Kosala, Vajji, Malla, Chedi, Vatsa, Kuru, Panchala, Matsya, Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara and Kamboja.

Liberal democracy rests on constitutional, rule-bound government and on guaranteed civil liberties; it limits political power rather than making it unlimited.

Spring tides rise about 20 percent higher than normal tides because the Sun and the Moon pull along the same line.