Which of the following was NOT among the areas the council deliberated upon at its first meeting?

The correct answer is the Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Neelam Shami Rao. The council met for the first time at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi under her chairpersonship, and in her address she stressed that textiles and apparel are among the largest employment generators and export earners for the country and called for a whole-of-value-chain approach to production, innovation and global market access. Option A is wrong because the meeting was chaired by the Secretary and not by the minister, a distinction question setters like to test. Option C is wrong because the head of a public sector cotton agency has no role in chairing this council. Option D is wrong because the policy think tank of the government is a separate institution altogether and does not chair sectoral development councils of a ministry. Remember both the office and the name, and note that senior officers, industry associations, export promotion councils, research associations, state governments and sector experts attended.

The correct answer is Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The Development Council for Textile Industry held its first meeting there on 6 October 2026, chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Textiles, with senior officers of the ministry, industry associations, export promotion councils, research associations, state governments and sector experts in attendance. Options A and D are wrong because, although both are well-known Delhi venues for large exhibitions and conferences, neither hosted this meeting. Option B is wrong because, while it is the seat of several economic ministries and therefore a plausible guess, the council did not meet there. Venue questions are common in current affairs papers because they are easy to set and easy to get wrong, so the venue should be learnt along with the date, the chair and the decision to constitute working groups and sub committees on priority themes.

The correct answer is Bharat Coking Coal Limited. The agreement covers the joint development and operation of two blocks in West Bengal, the Indikatta Ramnagore coal block held by SAIL and the East of Damagoria or Kalyaneshwari block held by BCCL. Both are central public sector enterprises, and the tie up is meant to deepen cooperation between them and widen domestic sources of coking coal, which Indian steel plants otherwise import in large quantity. Option A names the parent coal producer, not the partner named in this memorandum. Option C names the iron ore miner that commissioned the pellet plant at Nagarnar in the same review, so it is a distractor drawn from a neighbouring item. Option D, Damodar Valley Corporation, does appear in the review, but in the green hydrogen Centre of Excellence with Jadavpur University, SAIL and HURL, not in this coal block agreement.

The correct answer is 101. Under the Green Steel Initiative of the Ministry of Steel, Green Steel Certificates have been issued to 101 distinct producers across the lists brought out up to September 2026. The certification spans TMT bars, hot rolled and cold rolled coils, plates, wire rods, pipes and other steel products, and a large majority of the certified products have earned a five star rating, which the ministry treats as a sign that lower emission steelmaking is spreading through the industry. The other three options are near figures of the kind a paper setter uses to check whether the exact number has been learnt. Aspirants should link this with the second green item in the same review, the Centre of Excellence for green hydrogen research that Jadavpur University is setting up with SAIL, DVC and HURL at a cost of Rs 8.18 crore.

The correct answer is Chhattisgarh. The pellet plant of 2 MTPA capacity has been commissioned at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh, and with it NMDC has completed an integrated project costing Rs 5,427 crore. The same project contains an iron ore processing plant at Bacheli and a slurry pipeline 135 km long with a throughput of 15 MTPA, while the pellet plant itself runs on Straight Grate Induration technology. Its purpose is to add value to the fines and slimes of Bailadila iron ore and to reduce the carriage of ore by road. Options A and B name two other states rich in minerals and steel capacity, but neither hosts this plant. Option D, West Bengal, is the state where SAIL and Bharat Coking Coal Limited agreed to jointly develop two coal blocks, so it belongs to a separate item in the same review.