UPSC Current Affairs Quiz, 16 October 2026

Explanation

Pair 1 is correctly matched: CAQM is a statutory body established under the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021. A defining feature of CAQM is that its directions override those of any State Government, SPCB, or other statutory body operating in the NCR and adjoining areas — giving it hierarchical supremacy over pollution-control institutions within its jurisdiction. Pair 2 is correctly matched: CPCB was constituted under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. It also discharges functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. CPCB is the apex central body for pollution monitoring and standard-setting across India. Pair 3 is incorrectly matched: The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) is the pollution-control body for the National Capital Territory of Delhi only. It does not have jurisdiction over Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, or Rajasthan. Those states have their own State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs). CAQM's directions require the respective SPCBs (for Haryana, UP, Rajasthan) and DPCC (for Delhi) to monitor compliance each within their own jurisdictions — confirming that DPCC's writ runs only within Delhi.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. Paddy stubble burning — the practice of burning leftover straw after paddy harvest to quickly clear fields before rabi (wheat) sowing — is a well-established driver of seasonal air pollution in northern India. The window between paddy harvest and wheat sowing is narrow, particularly in Punjab and Haryana, making farmers resort to burning for speed and cost savings. Smoke from these fires combines with winter conditions (low mixing height, temperature inversions) to sharply worsen air quality across the Indo-Gangetic Plain, including Delhi. Statement 2 is incorrect. The Crop Residue Management (CRM) scheme is a scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (not CAQM), which provides subsidised machinery (happy seeders, balers, mulchers, etc.) to farmers and custom hiring centres to mechanically manage residue instead of burning it. The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) is a statutory body that coordinates and enforces air-quality directives (including directions against farm fires) in the NCR region, but it does not administer the CRM scheme, nor does it set binding numerical limits on farm-fire incidents for each state — those are distinct functions. Conflating CAQM's regulatory role with the CRM scheme's subsidy-delivery role reflects a common confusion between the enforcement body and the financial assistance programme.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct: VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) is the primary payload of Aditya-L1 and functions as a coronagraph — an instrument that blocks the bright solar disk to observe the dimmer surrounding corona. It operates in spectroscopic mode, measuring emission lines to derive plasma properties such as density and temperature. Statement 2 is incorrect: Coronal mass ejections originate from the Sun's corona (the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere), not from the photosphere (the visible surface). The corona is the source of the plasma and magnetic field expelled in these events; confusing the photosphere with the corona is a common misconception because the corona is far less visible under normal conditions. Statement 3 is correct: Aditya-L1 is placed in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1, located approximately 1.5 million km from Earth toward the Sun. This placement ensures that the spacecraft is never in Earth's shadow and can maintain an uninterrupted, continuous view of the Sun — a key advantage for monitoring solar events like CMEs in real time.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. Section 21(2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, provides a dual trigger for electoral roll revision: first, mandatorily before each general election to Parliament or a State Assembly, and second, in any year by reference to a qualifying date if the Election Commission directs such a revision. This is the statutory basis for the annual Special Summary Revision. Statement 2 is correct. The defining procedural feature of the SSR is that all existing registered electors are automatically included in the draft roll — there is no requirement for them to re-establish eligibility. Electoral officials can delete deceased or duplicate voters, but must follow the statutory process, which includes issuing notices and holding hearings before any deletion. Statement 3 is incorrect. In a Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the methodology is the opposite of what is described: all existing electors are NOT automatically carried forward. Instead, every elector is required to fill an enumeration form and submit documents to establish eligibility in order to appear in the draft roll at all. The SIR is thus a fresh preparation of the roll, not a forward-carry with subsequent verification only for flagged cases. This fundamental distinction — SSR as an incremental update versus SIR as a ground-up reconstruction — is the core procedural difference between the two modes of electoral roll revision.

Explanation

All three pairs are correctly matched. First, the RBI's Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework is a supervisory tool applied to banks that breach certain risk thresholds — such as high non-performing asset (NPA) ratios, inadequate capital, or negative return on assets. Banks placed under PCA face strict restrictions on business activities including lending, dividend distribution, and branch expansion, as illustrated by IDBI Bank's four-year stint under the framework from 2017 to 2021. Second, strategic disinvestment refers to the government selling a majority or controlling stake in a public sector undertaking (PSU) to a strategic partner who takes over management control — exemplified by the Air India sale to Tata Sons and the IDBI Bank sale to Fairfax. Third, minority stake sales (also called disinvestment or OFS/IPO-route stake dilution) involve the government offloading a portion of its equity while retaining majority ownership and management control — the more common and less contentious form of disinvestment used in most years. Understanding the distinction between these two types of disinvestment is fundamental to India's fiscal and privatisation policy debate.