Current Affairs PYQs topic-wise — UPSC Prelims

This pair is correctly matched: the CG Power–Renesas–STARS project is in Gujarat. The question asks for the incorrectly located project, so this correct state assignment should be eliminated.

Tata’s semiconductor assembly-and-test project is in Assam, making this a correct pair. Do not confuse it with Tata’s separate semiconductor fabrication project in Gujarat.

The SicSem project is in Odisha, so this is correctly matched. The mismatch in the list is the HCL–Foxconn project, which belongs in Uttar Pradesh.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct, but statement 2 assigns the wrong lead institute. The Central Zoo Authority participates in the research-and-management vertical; leadership belongs to ICFRE, Dehradun.

Statement 2 is the incorrect statement, not the only correct one. CZA is listed among participating institutions in that vertical, but the official NIRANTAR portal names ICFRE as its lead.

IIFM is correctly identified in statement 3, but statement 1 is also correct. BSI’s lead role concerns survey, assessment and analysis of natural resources, so it must be included with the capacity-development statement.

The first three terms are correct, but “better ocean” replaces the official fourth term, “better life.” Blue Transformation concerns aquatic food systems, yet its organising framework retains the broader human-development outcome used throughout FAO’s strategy.

“Better coral reefs” is not one of the four named pillars. Reef conservation can contribute to environmental objectives, but replacing “better production” with a single ecosystem would misstate FAO’s framework.

This choice replaces both the production and life pillars with particular coastal ecosystems. Estuaries and mangroves matter for aquatic systems, but the official framework is broader: production, nutrition, environment and life.

Both statements are incorrect. Maitri Setu links Sabroom in India with Ramgarh in Bangladesh, so statement 1 reverses the countries; Jhulaghat crosses the India–Nepal border, not the India–Myanmar border.

Statement 3 correctly matches the Mechi crossing, but statement 2 names the wrong neighbouring country. Jhulaghat’s suspension bridge over the Kali River connects India and Nepal, so it cannot be included.

Statement 1 has the river and bridge association right but swaps the endpoints’ countries. Sabroom is in Tripura, India, and Ramgarh is in Bangladesh; a matching statement fails when either side is reversed.

The market-access implication in statement 1 is part of the keyed reading, but statement 2 is also selected. “Chemical-free” needs qualification: textile certification tests compliance with harmful-substance limits, not the literal absence of chemicals.

Statement 2 captures buyer confidence and safety compliance, but the provisional key also accepts the premium-market implication in statement 1. These are related consequences rather than mutually exclusive choices.

Certification is commercially meaningful: it can give buyers evidence of textile-safety compliance and improve market acceptance. Rejecting both implications would miss that connection, even though the statements use broader wording than the certification’s precise technical scope.

Two is too many: UNHCR is the sole twice-awarded organisation in this list. Counting the two awards received by UNHCR as two organisations would confuse the number of prizes with the number of recipients.

Three organisations do not meet the condition. WFP, UNICEF and ILO each have one Nobel Peace Prize, while UNHCR has two.

All four have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but the question asks which received it twice. Only UNHCR satisfies that extra condition, so counting every prize-winning organisation gives the wrong result.

UNMIL and UNMISET are correctly placed, but MINURCAT and MINUSTAH have been interchanged. MINURCAT operated in the Central African Republic and Chad during 2007–2010; MINUSTAH operated in Haiti during 2004–2017.

MINURCAT and MINUSTAH are correctly matched here. The mistake is exchanging Liberia’s UNMIL period, 2003–2018, with East Timor’s UNMISET period, 2002–2005.

Every entry in this sequence is misplaced. Remember the geographic anchors: Liberia–UNMIL, Central African Republic/Chad–MINURCAT, Haiti–MINUSTAH, and East Timor–UNMISET, then match their periods.

Statement 1 incorrectly turns the Colombo Process into a binding decision-making body. Regional consultative processes facilitate informal cooperation; consensus does not by itself create a legally binding obligation.

The GFMD description in statement 3 is correct, but the Colombo Process description is not. This option also omits the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, which is a voluntary forum connecting Asian labour-origin and labour-destination countries.

Statement 2 is correct, but statement 3 is correct as well. The GFMD is a state-led, informal and non-binding forum, rather than a treaty organisation that imposes compulsory decisions.

Statement 3 is contradicted by the rulebook’s no-limitation provision for wild cards received by an individual player. This option also omits the correctly described shared governance in statement 1.

Shared governance is correct, and this answer has a literal-wording concern in its favour: current entry rules are narrower than “all internationally ranked” players. Nevertheless, UPSC’s provisional answer is A, accepting statement 2; keep that scoring decision distinct from the ranking, age and acceptance conditions in the rulebook.

This incorrectly accepts statement 3. Limits on wild-card places in a tournament draw are different from a general cap on how many wild cards a particular player may receive across Grand Slams.

Michel H. Devoret shared the 2025 Physics Nobel and held US academic affiliations, but he was born in Paris, France. He therefore fails the question’s UK-birth condition.

Richard Robson was born in Glusburn, United Kingdom, and received the 2025 Chemistry Nobel. His award-time affiliation was the University of Melbourne in Australia, so he fails the American-university condition.

Joel Mokyr received the 2025 Economic Sciences prize and was affiliated with Northwestern University in the United States. He was born in Leiden in the Netherlands, not the UK.

This is a correct match, so it cannot answer a question asking for the incorrect pair. The Ministry of Defence identifies HQ 3 Corps at Rangapahar Military Station, Dimapur, in Nagaland.

This is a correct match: 4 Corps is based at Tezpur in Assam. Do not confuse this northeastern headquarters with the northern formations based in Ladakh or Kashmir.

This is a correct match: 14 Corps, also known as Fire and Fury Corps, is headquartered at Leh. The question requires the mismatch, not a headquarters that is correctly located in the Himalayan region.

The two Indian locations are correct, but the cultural observatory and technology facility have been exchanged. The cultural observatory is associated with Thimphu, Bhutan, whereas the Technology Transfer Facility belongs in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

This code interchanges both pairs. The energy centre is in Bengaluru and weather centre in Noida; the cultural observatory and technology facility match Thimphu and Colombo respectively.

The first and last matches are correct, but the Indian centres are swapped. Bengaluru hosts the Energy Centre; Noida hosts the Centre for Weather and Climate, so the middle codes must be 2, 1.

The IMT highway correctly belongs here, but Agartala–Akhaura is an India–Bangladesh link. Bangladesh’s location east of India and the project’s regional value do not make it an ASEAN-member-country project; Kaladan should be included instead.

Kaladan is correctly included because Myanmar is an ASEAN member. Agartala–Akhaura involves Bangladesh, however, and this choice omits the India–Myanmar–Thailand highway, which directly meets the question’s condition.

The IMT highway is correct but not the only qualifying project. Kaladan also involves Myanmar and is explicitly discussed by the Ministry of External Affairs in India–ASEAN connectivity cooperation.

The Su-30MKI qualifies because HAL has a production line in India. Akula-class submarines do not: India acquired their use through a Russian lease, while the T-90 should have been included.

HAL manufacture makes statement 1 correct, but it is not the only qualifying item. T-90 tanks are also produced in India; the question asks about manufacture, not whether the original design was wholly Indian.

T-90 manufacture at Avadi makes statement 2 correct, but this option omits the HAL-built Su-30MKI. Licensed manufacture of a foreign-origin design still meets the wording “manufactured in India”.

Statements 1 and 2 are accepted, but the key also accepts statement 3. Its broad wording has an official basis: PIB’s summary uses “all public places” with a 2035 target, while the fuller speech names important civilian and strategic locations. Do not treat a target as an accomplished capability.

Statements 2 and 3 are accepted, but this option omits statement 1. The announced initiative is a defence and response mission, not merely a civil-protection programme; its public-place coverage is a future policy aim.

Statement 1 is accepted but is not the only accepted statement. The mission’s official announcement also stresses stronger, faster responses and an expanded security shield by 2035, including the public-place ambition stated in PIB’s summary.

Mangdechhu is in Bhutan, not the Maldives, and Stor Palace is in Kabul, Afghanistan, not Sri Lanka. The other two assignments are also reversed: Dickoya is in Sri Lanka and the police-training institute is in the Maldives.

This sequence correctly identifies Mangdechhu and the Maldivian institute, but interchanges the two middle countries. Stor Palace is an Afghan restoration project, whereas the hospital at Dickoya is in Sri Lanka.

Stor Palace–Afghanistan and Dickoya–Sri Lanka are correct here. However, the hydropower project belongs to Bhutan and the security-training institute to the Maldives, so the first and last codes must be 3 and 1.

Statement 2 names the wrong institution. IITM means Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune; it must not be confused with the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

The local-scale objective in statement 1 is correct, but the developer named in statement 2 is not. The government identifies IITM, Pune, with NCMRWF and IMD support, as the development team.

This rejects a genuine objective of the higher-resolution model. Panchayat-cluster forecasting is consistent with the improved spatial resolution, even though the IIT Delhi attribution is incorrect.

The director and first-Indian-winner descriptions are correct, but the award-category statement is also correct. Excluding statement 1 would deny the very category in which Boong won.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct, but this combination omits the category’s first Indian winner milestone. Statement 3 must also be included.

Statement 3 is correct but cannot stand alone. The film’s director is Lakshmipriya Devi and its 2026 award was in the Children’s and Family Film category, so statements 1 and 2 also qualify.

Statement 1 is correct but not sufficient. The official announcement also identifies DHRUV64 as India’s first homegrown 1.0 GHz, 64-bit, dual-core microprocessor, making statement 2 correct.

The processor specification in statement 2 is correct, but statement 1 should also be selected. PIB describes DHRUV64 as the third chip fabricated under DIR-V, following THEJAS32 and THEJAS64.

Neither statement needs to be rejected. The official DHRUV64 release expressly confirms both its DIR-V sequence and the specified clock speed, word size and dual-core configuration.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct, but the claimed Russian co-development in statement 3 is not the account given in the official release. BIS formulated the standard following a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs and TBRL, DRDO.

The interoperability benefit is correctly included, but the Russian-institute claim should be excluded. This option also wrongly omits statement 1, which gives the standard’s correct identifier, IS 19445:2025.

The identifier is correct, but the standard also supports coordination across agencies through uniform performance benchmarks. Therefore statement 2 must be included alongside statement 1.

Statements 1 and 2 are false. The three Sutras are People, Planet and Progress, not Planning; the Charter for Democratic Diffusion of AI is expressly voluntary and non-binding. Only the seven-pillar description in statement 3 is accepted.

Both selected statements contain keyword substitutions. “Planning” replaces “Planet” in statement 1, while “binding” reverses the declaration’s description of the charter in statement 2. The correct statement is the omitted statement 3.

Statement 3 is correct, but statement 2 changes a voluntary, non-binding framework into a binding one. International cooperation language does not by itself create a binding legal instrument, so the distinction is decisive.

This code confuses all four functions. Silver concerns criminal assets, Blue gathers information about a person, Black concerns unidentified bodies, and Green communicates public-safety warnings about criminal activity.

Blue and Black are matched correctly, but Silver and Green are exchanged. Silver traces assets associated with crime, whereas Green warns about people whose criminal activities may threaten public safety.

Silver and Green are correct in this sequence, but Blue and Black are reversed. Blue concerns information about a person in a criminal investigation; Black seeks information that can identify an unknown body.

Poland belongs to the EU, but Belarus and Switzerland do not. This option also omits Germany, which is an EU member, so it combines both false inclusions and a missing correct country.

Neither Belarus nor Switzerland is an EU member. Switzerland’s participation in European arrangements such as Schengen should not be confused with membership of the European Union.

This option correctly includes Poland but wrongly includes Switzerland and omits Germany. EU membership and Schengen participation are different legal arrangements, and Switzerland illustrates that distinction.

Both statements 2 and 3 are genuine outcomes, while the question asks for outcomes that are incorrectly stated. The official list includes a youth-hockey MoU and a bilateral Indo-Pacific dialogue mechanism.

Statement 4 is wrong because the announcement concerned Ahmedabad, but statement 3 is correct. This option also misses statement 1, whose university should be Charité rather than Hamburg.

Statement 1 is indeed wrong: the official counterpart was Charité. However, statement 4 is also wrong because the consular location announced was Ahmedabad rather than Lucknow, so selecting statement 1 alone is incomplete.

Statement 2 is incorrect. IBRD is part of the wider World Bank Group and does not work single-handedly.

Statement 2 is incorrect as IBRD operates alongside IDA, IFC, MIGA and ICSID within the World Bank Group.

Statement 2 is wrong because IBRD functions as part of the World Bank Group, not independently.