UPSC GK Questions 2026

Haji Muhammad Arif Qandahari, a noble who served under Bairam Khan and later Akbar, wrote the Persian chronicle Tarikh-i-Akbari. Akbar's reign is one of the best recorded in Indian history because many writers of his court left Persian accounts.

A gully plug is a small check structure built across a natural gully or stream channel in hilly and rural land, so it has no place in a city.

The projection quoted at the consultation shows demand rising from about 1.25 billion tonnes in 2025 to more than 2.6 billion tonnes by 2050 if present policies continue, and staying above 1.8 billion tonnes even along a net zero path, because steel, cement and power, the three largest consumers, are…

This was the output quoted at the consultation, where officials also pointed out that coal still generates more than 70 per cent of the country's electricity, which is why idle blocks matter so much.

The ministry said at its consultation in Goa that of the commercial mines allotted since the reform framework came in, only a small fraction has reached production, and the Coal Secretary described an allotted but idle block as capacity the country has set aside yet cannot use.

Total expenditure in the first six months of the financial year was Rs 25,49,835 crore, and that is 47.7 per cent of the corresponding budget estimate.

The monthly accounts record that this sum was transferred to the state governments as devolution of their share of central taxes during the first half of the financial year, and that it was Rs 67,658 crore higher than the amount devolved in the corresponding period of the previous year.

This amount is made up of tax revenue net to the Centre, non-tax revenue and non-debt capital receipts.

The minister explained that the centre works on this principle, bringing data from many agencies onto a common platform for real-time and historical study of pollution levels, identification of sources, assessment of trends and tracking of compliance in the field against prescribed standards.

The platform integrates readings from 111 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations that are operational across Delhi and the national capital region, installed by the Central Pollution Control Board, the India Meteorological Department and the state pollution control boards.

The Commission for Air Quality Management built this Integrated Command and Control Centre in New Delhi as a single-window digital nerve centre for the capital region, and the Union Environment Minister reviewed its technological framework and operational readiness.

Infrared Focal Plane Arrays were described as the eyes of tactical missiles: working through an imaging infrared seeker, they allow the missile to find and follow its target during the terminal phase of flight, and the exhibits covered the short-wave, mid-wave and long-wave infrared bands.

At the thematic exhibition on semiconductors, DRDO showed its achievements in two critical areas, both developed at this laboratory.

The conclave was held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi from 27 to 29 October 2026 and was inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

The event was organised by the Defence Research and Development Organisation in collaboration with CENJOWS at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi, and featured a seminar on DRDO defence solutions for partner nations, moving from technology to strategic partnerships.

The Minister of State for Defence released a foreign-language compendium of DRDO products in these three languages so that partner nations which do not work in English can follow India's defence offerings and engage with Indian agencies more easily.

The Minister of State for Defence described these as the four pillars of the event while inaugurating it at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi.

In both interceptions, the one outside Aizawl on 29 October 2026 and the one at Dholai on 30 October 2026, officers of the revenue intelligence wing worked with the Assam Rifles, which is the force deployed along the stretch of the international boundary through which these consignments move.

In the first operation, near Aizawl on the Aizawl-Champhai road, officers recovered 30 brick-shaped packets of pinkish-orange tablets weighing 30 kg from a cavity built inside an office table with a storage cabinet.

The agency, which functions under the Ministry of Finance, carried out two intelligence-led operations one after the other in Mizoram and Assam and recovered 50 kg of methamphetamine, partly as tablets and partly as crystal meth, with the operational help of the Assam Rifles.