The Green Highways Excellence Awards were instituted by NHAI as mandated in which policy?

The correct answer is 86. The release calls the response encouraging and puts the number of nominations received from across the country at that figure. The split by category is worth carrying with it, since a question may ask for any one of the three: 27 nominations came in for Avenue Plantations, 36 for Median Plantations and 23 for Plantation in Land Parcels. After an initial screening, 15 nominations were shortlisted for the final assessment, five in each category. Options A, C and D are invented figures that appear nowhere in the release. Candidates should also note who could apply, because that too has been asked: NHAI field offices, concessionaires, contractors, government agencies, non-government organisations and private agencies working on plantation projects along National Highway projects, all through the NHAI online portal.

The correct answer is the survival rate of plantations. The release states that the evaluation used a comprehensive assessment framework in which the survival rate carried the highest weightage. The other parameters were counted too but not weighted as heavily: site-specific plantation action plans, the timing of plantation operations, the size of pits, the quality of planting material, protection measures, implementation as per the approved design, species diversity, suitability and the use of native species. Options A and B therefore name real parameters, which is exactly why they mislead; the question asks which one stood highest. Option D is not a parameter at all in this framework. Special emphasis was also laid on quality, sustainability, effectiveness and whether a practice could be replicated more widely across the National Highway network, and each entry had to supply geo-tagged photographs, drone videos and survival-rate data.

The correct answer is the Geological Society of India. The release explains that the Earth Science Olympiad journey begins with an all-India test facilitated by this body, in which roughly 17,800 students appeared across 500 centres nationwide. The top 25 meritorious students then underwent an intensive three-week training camp in June 2026 at M.S. University, Vadodara, Gujarat, the location having been chosen because the Minister wanted camp venues rotated across different regions of the country. The whole effort is supported by the Ministry of Earth Sciences under its Outreach and Awareness programme. Option A, the National Centre for Earth Science Studies, and option B, the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, are genuine institutions in the earth sciences family and therefore plausible, but neither is named here. Option D, the Survey of India, is the national mapping agency and also does not figure in this selection. Remember the chain: all-India test, then the camp, then the Olympiad.

The correct answer is Turin, Italy. The release records that Indian student delegates delivered their best-ever performance at the 19th International Earth Science Olympiad, held under the aegis of the International Geoscience Organisation in Turin, Italy, from 20 to 27 August 2026. Competing against participants from 39 countries, the Indian team took nine medals in all. Option A, Rome, and option C, Milan, are the two Italian cities students name first when they remember only the country and not the city, which makes them the natural traps in a question of this kind. Neither hosted this edition. Option D, Vienna, is in Austria and has no connection with this Olympiad. The safe method here is to tie three details together in one line: the nineteenth edition, the city of Turin and the year 2026. The felicitation of the winning team in New Delhi is what brought the achievement back into the news.

The correct answer is four gold, three silver and two bronze, which adds up to the nine medals that made this India's highest-ever haul at the competition. The medals were won across the Written and Practical examinations, the International Team Field Investigation and the Earth Science Project categories. Every one of the wrong options also totals nine, which is deliberate: an examiner will rarely change the total, because the total is the headline and the break-up is what separates a careful student from a hurried one. Option A simply swaps the gold and silver counts. Option C inflates the gold to five and cuts the silver to two. Option D swaps the silver and bronze counts. The easiest way to lock the correct sequence is to notice that the numbers fall in order from four down to two as the medals descend from gold to bronze. Dr T. Srinivasa Kumar, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, joined in commending the contingent.