Who launched the auction of the two offshore mineral blocks?

The correct answer is the Andaman Sea. The Ministry of Mines offered Sewell Rise-01, in the southern part of Sewell Rise, and West Sewell Ridge-01, which lies off Great Nicobar Island, and both blocks sit in the Andaman Sea. Option A is wrong because no block in this auction was placed in the Arabian Sea, on the western side of the country. Option C is wrong for the same reason; the Laccadive Sea lies to the south-west and does not figure in this launch at all. Option D is wrong because, although the blocks are on the eastern side, they are not off the Odisha coast; the location is tied to the Andaman and Nicobar group, and West Sewell Ridge-01 is identified specifically as lying off Great Nicobar Island. The two blocks together cover more than 1,632 square kilometres.

The correct answer is polymetallic nodules and crusts. Both blocks are described as holding deposits of this kind, and they host cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper and rare earth elements, which are needed for advanced manufacturing, clean energy technology, electric mobility and electronics. Option A is wrong because bauxite and laterite are weathered deposits found on land and are not what these offshore blocks offer. Option C is wrong because coal is a sedimentary fuel mineral and does not form the nodules and crusts that lie on the deep sea floor. Option D is wrong because placer gold is concentrated by rivers and in coastal sands rather than occurring as polymetallic nodules. The licence on offer for both blocks is a Composite Licence, and the metals listed are the examinable part of this story.

The correct answer is the Collection of Statistics Act, passed in two thousand eight, which gives the statistical system the authority to gather information from enterprises and also obliges it to protect what it gathers. That protection is why unit-level data from this survey are never released and why care is taken that published results cannot identify the firm that supplied a figure. Option A is wrong because the company law governs incorporation, accounts and governance; the ministry that administers it supplies the list of active companies from which the survey frame is drawn, but the survey itself does not run under it. Option C is wrong because the transparency law lets citizens seek information from public authorities and has nothing to do with collecting enterprise statistics. Option D is wrong because that older industrial licensing law regulates industrial undertakings rather than statistical collection.

The correct answer is manufacturing. In the second round of the survey it took slightly more than half of the provisional aggregate capital expenditure for that year, a share of 50.17 per cent, worth Rs 5,73,900 crore, which is far ahead of every other activity category. Option A is wrong because information and communication came second with 16.38 per cent, or Rs 1,87,395 crore. Option D is wrong because electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply stood third at 8.96 per cent, or Rs 1,02,448 crore. Option B is wrong because transportation and storage was fourth, at 5.55 per cent or Rs 63,517 crore. It is worth noting that in the first round, manufacturing also led, but with a smaller share of 43.80 per cent, so its lead has widened between the two rounds.

The correct answer is the National Statistics Office, which works under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and is running this round as CAPEX 2026, its third such exercise, between October and December. Option A is wrong; the central bank does run its own enterprise and industry surveys, which makes it a tempting choice, but this particular survey of private capital spending intentions belongs to the statistics ministry. Option C is wrong because the policy think tank does not collect primary statistics of this kind, and the survey here is a statutory collection carried out under the Collection of Statistics Act of two thousand eight. Option D is wrong because the markets regulator oversees securities markets and listed company disclosure, not economy-wide statistical surveys. The frame of firms for the survey is built from active companies registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.