Which sub-sector had the only index reading below hundred in July 2026?

The correct answer is 19. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the sub-sectoral trial Index of Services Production for the month in respect of nineteen broad sub-sectors, computed on the base year 2024-25. Those sub-sectors run from wholesale and retail trade through the transport modes, warehousing, postal and courier services, telecommunications, information and broadcasting, banking, insurance, real estate, information technology, professional and scientific services, administrative and support services and arts, entertainment and recreation. Options A, B and D are wrong because the release names nineteen sub-sectors, and the annexure carries month-wise indices for each of those same nineteen from July 2025 onwards. The ministry also stressed that the series is experimental for the present, published so that data quality and resilience can be examined and feedback gathered from users before it becomes a regular monthly release.

The correct answer is administrative and support services, which posted the fastest growth of the nineteen sub-sectors against the same month a year earlier. Option A is wrong because retail trade, though it grew strongly, came second in the month's growth ranking. Option C is wrong because real estate came after retail trade. Option D is wrong because banking grew more slowly than all three, and its index is in any case based on provisional monthly data that will be revised once a year, as is the case for the railways and insurance sub-sectors. Two ideas should be kept apart here: the fastest growth belonged to administrative and support services, while the highest index level in the month belonged to accommodation and food services, since a high index means a high level of activity relative to the base year rather than a large rise over last year.

The correct answer is Samagra Shiksha. The National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy, shortened to NIPUN Bharat, was begun in July 2021 under the aegis of Samagra Shiksha and works on the foundational stage covering children of 3 to 8 years, with the goal of universal foundational literacy and numeracy by 2026-27 so that every child gains the basic skills by Grade 2. Option A is wrong because PM POSHAN is the scheme that serves one hot cooked meal to school students and is about nutrition, not reading and numeracy. Option C is wrong because PM e-VIDYA brings together digital, online and on-air learning. Option D is wrong because PM SHRI is the scheme to develop exemplar schools. Samagra Shiksha itself subsumed Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher Education.

The correct answer is 81.1 per cent. The Periodic Labour Force Survey of 2025 puts the country's overall literacy rate at that level, and this is the headline figure quoted for India's literacy today. Option A, 74.04 per cent, is wrong because that was the literacy rate recorded in the 2011 Census, an older measurement and not the survey result. Option B, 77.4 per cent, is wrong because that is only the rural literacy rate for people aged seven years and above in the same survey, not the figure for the whole country. Option D, 89 per cent, is wrong because that is the urban literacy rate for the age group of seven years and above, again a part of the picture rather than the national average. Candidates should keep the three apart: 81.1 per cent for the nation, 89 per cent urban and 77.4 per cent rural.

The correct answer is ten. The States and Union Territories that declared full literacy in that period are Ladakh, Mizoram, Goa, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir, which comes to ten in all. Option A, five, is wrong because it counts only half the list. Option B, eight, is wrong for the same reason and leaves out two of the ten names. Option D, fourteen, is wrong because no such number of States or Union Territories has crossed the mark; the declaration rests on reaching 95 per cent literacy, which is the level the Department of School Education and Literacy treats as full literacy, and only ten have reported it so far. Remembering the list matters because questions often ask which State is not among them.