UPSC Current Affairs Quiz, 7 August 2026

Explanation

Both statements reflect core features of India's MSME regulatory architecture under the MSMED Act, 2006. MSEFCs — Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Councils — are quasi-judicial bodies established under the Act specifically to adjudicate delayed payment disputes between Micro and Small Enterprise suppliers and their buyers (notably, Medium Enterprises and Large Enterprises are not covered as claimants under this mechanism). TReDS is a Reserve Bank of India-regulated digital platform that enables MSMEs to discount their trade receivables — essentially, sell their unpaid invoices at a discount to financiers — thereby receiving liquidity before the buyer actually pays, which addresses the perennial problem of delayed payments. Both these mechanisms are central static-syllabus MSME concepts that UPSC frequently tests.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. The IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 are subordinate legislation — they are Rules framed by the executive under the parent Information Technology Act, 2000. Because they are delegated legislation (not an Act of Parliament), they can be amended by the executive through a notification process without requiring a fresh Bill to be passed by Parliament. This is the classic parent-Act-versus-subordinate-legislation distinction: the parent Act (IT Act, 2000) creates the enabling framework and grants rule-making power; the Rules operationalise it. Statement 2 is correct. The IT Rules, 2021 include provisions under Rules 3(2) and 3A that prescribe grievance redressal obligations for intermediaries, including prescribed timelines for disposal of complaints and the establishment of Grievance Appellate Committees — a three-tier structure for escalation of unresolved grievances. Statement 3 is incorrect. The IT Rules, 2021 are not a standalone parent Act. They derive their legal authority entirely from the Information Technology Act, 2000, which is the parent legislation. The Rules cannot independently create statutory obligations — they are subordinate instruments that operationalise the parent Act's mandate. Calling them a 'standalone parent Act' fundamentally mischaracterises their constitutional and legal status.

Explanation

Pair 1 is correctly matched: the Price Stabilisation Fund is a Central Government instrument designed to intervene in markets for perishable commodities — especially onions, tomatoes, and pulses — to check price spikes and prevent distress sales, which is precisely the role Tamil Nadu's proposed price-stabilisation revolving fund mirrors at the state level. Pair 2 is correctly matched: e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) is indeed a pan-India electronic trading portal launched by the Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) under the Ministry of Agriculture that links APMC-regulated mandis to enable competitive, transparent price discovery for farmers across state boundaries. Pair 3 is incorrectly matched: PMFBY is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare — not jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance. Under PMFBY, the premium subsidy is shared between the Central Government and State Governments (not the Ministry of Finance as a separate actor), while the farmer pays a capped actuarial premium (e.g., 2% for kharif, 1.5% for rabi food crops). The Ministry of Finance does not co-administer the scheme; it is purely an Agriculture Ministry programme. The confusion between PSF-type intervention and PMFBY administration is a common conceptual error aspirants make when studying agricultural risk management tools.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct: FCRA, 2010 makes it mandatory for associations and persons to register with the Central Government before receiving foreign contributions, and the Act empowers the government to cancel or suspend such registration for violations. Statement 2 is correct: a key provision of the FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026 proposes a 'designated authority' with civil-court powers to take over, manage, or dispose of assets built from foreign funds when an NGO's registration is cancelled, suspended, or not renewed — this is precisely the provision that drew strong objections from minority and civil-society organisations. Statement 3 is false: FCRA, 2010 is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), not the Ministry of External Affairs. The MHA is the nodal ministry for granting, renewing, and cancelling FCRA registrations; the Ministry of External Affairs handles diplomatic and consular functions but has no role in NGO registration under FCRA. This is a common conceptual confusion because 'foreign' in the Act's name suggests external affairs jurisdiction.

Explanation

SIM boxes are hardware devices that route calls through multiple SIM cards to disguise the true geographic origin of a call, making overseas fraud calls appear as local Indian numbers — correctly matched. Deepfakes (AI-generated synthetic video/audio) are deployed by scammers during video calls to impersonate authority figures such as police or government officials, thereby deceiving victims into compliance — correctly matched. Mule account networks, however, are not used for intercepting or decrypting communications; they are bank accounts (opened using real people's credentials, often without their knowledge) that are used to rapidly move and layer illicitly obtained funds across multiple states and jurisdictions, obscuring the money trail. Intercepting communications is a function associated with different cyber-attack tools such as man-in-the-middle attacks or spyware — not mule accounts. Therefore, pair 3 is incorrectly matched.