Which of these agencies did NOT upgrade India's sovereign rating during the year before the JCR decision?

The correct answer is A-. The agency moved both the long-term foreign currency issuer rating and the long-term local currency issuer rating up by exactly one notch, from BBB+ to A-, and kept the outlook at stable. Option A, A+, is two notches above the new rating and was not awarded; a single-notch move from BBB+ cannot reach it. Option C, AA-, is higher still and belongs to a different rating band altogether. Option D, BBB, is below the rating India already held, so it would have been a downgrade rather than an upgrade. Note also that the country ceiling, which is a separate measure, was raised by one notch to A, one step above the new sovereign rating. Candidates should hold the two apart: A- is the issuer rating and A is the ceiling that applies to borrowers inside the country.

The correct answer is 4.4 per cent. JCR noted that the Centre's fiscal deficit came down from 4.7 per cent in FY25 to 4.4 per cent in FY26, and that this happened while capital spending was kept high, with infrastructure investment given particular weight. That combination, a smaller deficit without cutting productive spending, is what the agency described as an improvement in the quality of fiscal expenditure. Option C, 4.7 per cent, is the figure for the earlier year, FY25, and is the most common trap in this question. Options A and B do not appear in the release at all. It is worth remembering the growth figure alongside the deficit: real GDP grew 7.8 per cent in FY26 and held the same pace in the first quarter of FY27, so the deficit fell in a year when the economy was also expanding strongly.

The correct answer is the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. JCR pointed to three things behind the better asset quality of Indian banks: the establishment of this Code, the capital the Government infused into banks, and stronger supervision by the Reserve Bank of India. It added that capital adequacy and profitability in banking have stayed sound, and that asset quality and capital adequacy in the non-banking financial sector have improved as well, which strengthens the financial system as a whole. Option B, the Companies Act, governs how companies are incorporated and run and was not cited here. Option C, the Competition Act, deals with anti-competitive conduct and combinations, a different subject entirely. Option D, the Foreign Trade Policy, concerns exports and imports. Only the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is named in the release in connection with bank asset quality.

The correct answer is 86. During August 2026 fourteen Amrit Bharat services were converted from special trains into regular trains, and that conversion took the total number of Amrit Bharat services to this figure. The services connect Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and other important regions of the country. Among the routes named are Subedarganj to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Gorakhpur to Bandra Terminus, Gorakhpur to Delhi Junction, Ahmedabad to Bhagalpur, Prayagraj Junction to Udhna Junction and Dhanbad to Coimbatore. The Ahmedabad to Bhagalpur link joins Gujarat with Bihar, while the Dhanbad to Coimbatore service links eastern India with southern India. Options A, B and D give totals that the release does not support. Remember the count of services added and the running total together.

The correct answer is 149. Five new Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals were commissioned during August 2026, which took the cumulative count to this figure at the end of the month. The five new terminals are at Shivlakha in Gujarat, Nalli in Tamil Nadu, Shaktinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Deoragram in Madhya Pradesh and Brajrajnagar in Odisha. These terminals bring freight handling closer to production and consumption centres, improve last-mile connectivity for industry and speed up the evacuation of goods from industrial locations. Option A and option D are close but wrong counts, and option B repeats the number of Rakshabandhan special trips run between 25 and 31 August 2026. Figures from the same release are often used as distractors in this way, so tie each number firmly to the thing it measures.