UPSC Civil Services GK Questions 2026

The National Medical Library, which functions under the Directorate General of Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, organised the one-day conference on this theme in New Delhi, drawing attention to the place of digital knowledge resources in healthcare delivery, medical education and evidence-based clinical practice.

The ministry said the Central Sliver Plants of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission are being modernised and that these two have completed the work and become operational, with the Chittadurga plant meeting half of its energy requirement from solar power while wind power is under study.

The ministry said that women make up roughly four fifths of the approximately half a million Khadi artisans, and that their participation has been especially strong in agarbatti, handmade paper, the Honey Mission and the service industries, giving them a route to financial independence.

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises stated that the Centre of Excellence for Khadi at NIFT, Delhi has developed that many Khadi design collections across multiple categories, as part of the effort to place Khadi in contemporary fashion and lifestyle.

That sitting of the Drugs Technical Advisory Board took up the question of whether the rules needed an express provision covering advertisements issued by firms holding licences to sell and distribute medicines, and the draft amendment follows its recommendation.

861(E) dated 28 September 2026. The ministry notified the draft amendment through that notification after consulting the Drugs Technical Advisory Board, and it has invited objections and suggestions from stakeholders and from the public within thirty days of the date on which copies of the Gazette carrying the draft rules…

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has proposed an amendment to these rules so that the requirement of prior Central Government sanction for advertising drugs listed in Schedule H, Schedule H1 and Schedule X extends to entities licensed to sell and distribute medicines, and not only to manufacturers.

At the close of the Jakarta round the two sides fixed the next Joint Committee sitting for January 2027, to be held in India and again in hybrid mode.

The Joint Committee has eight sub-committees, and three of them held hybrid meetings on the margins of the 15th round in Jakarta.

ASEAN hosted the 15th Joint Committee of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement there from 6 to 9 October 2026, along with meetings of sub-committees, and the round was conducted in hybrid format.

The Ministry of Coal reported that the rate at which coal stocks at power stations were being drawn down slowed sharply, with the daily drawdown dropping by more than half from 0.243 MT a day in September to 0.116 MT a day in October.

Rail loading of coal has averaged more than 465 rakes a day during October, and the ministry noted that the 470-rake target was met on three days running, which it treated as a sign that logistics had strengthened alongside production.

The Ministry of Coal said that daily supplies of coal to the power sector have climbed roughly 36% from the low point reached in September, and that the October average is around 9% higher than the September average.

GIC, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, and Temasek Holdings are the two Singaporean institutional investors named as having significant investments spread across the Indian economy, and the Union Finance Minister is to hold separate meetings with the chief executives of both.

During her official visit the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs is to call on him as part of a set of high level engagements with the country’s leadership.

That is the cumulative figure for foreign direct investment flowing from Singapore into India over the period from April 2000 to March 2026, and it is the number behind the description of Singapore as India’s single largest source of such investment.

The city state is India’s largest source of foreign direct investment, with cumulative inflows of roughly USD 194.68 billion between April 2000 and March 2026, and its institutional investors, among them GIC and Temasek, hold significant positions across the Indian economy.

Padmini Singla, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, named these two while explaining how India is working on better yields, better fibre quality and traceability of the crop, and she set them beside investment in textile infrastructure and support for artisans and small firms.

The correct answer is Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who opened the event, recalled Mahatma Gandhi’s linking of cotton and the spinning wheel with self-reliance and the freedom struggle, and set out four priorities: the livelihoods of growers, value addition and market access, sustainability, and…

It is by this resolution that the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 7 October as World Cotton Day, giving the observance its formal standing in the United Nations calendar and tying it to the role of the crop in trade, in development and in reducing poverty in the poorest cotton-growing…