UPSC Current Affairs Quiz, 24 October 2026

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct: El Niño — a warming of the Central Pacific — is well-established as a driver of weakened southwest monsoon rainfall over India; this is a foundational teleconnection in Indian climate science. Statement 2 is incorrect: the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) correlates *negatively* with Indian monsoon rainfall, much like the El Niño–La Niña cycle. A warm (positive) phase of the PDO tends to suppress Indian monsoon rainfall, not reinforce it. Statement 3 is correct: studies have shown that when El Niño and the PDO are 'in phase' (i.e., both in their warm, monsoon-suppressing phases), their effects on the Indian monsoon reinforce each other, producing a stronger suppression than either would alone; when they are out of phase, their effects partially offset one another.

Explanation

All three pairs are correctly matched. First, solar and wind power output varies with weather conditions and time of day — a fundamental characteristic of renewable generation known as intermittency — making battery storage and grid upgrades essential to manage fluctuations in supply and demand. Second, lithium is a critical raw material for most rechargeable battery technologies, including those used in grid-scale electricity storage; this is why access to lithium-rich countries (such as Australia, which produces a dominant share of the world's lithium) is strategically important for India's clean energy ambitions. Third, experts and policymakers consistently emphasise that expanding renewable generation capacity alone is insufficient — grid modernisation (transmission infrastructure, smart grids, load balancing mechanisms) must scale in parallel to absorb and reliably deliver variable renewable power. The principle here is that the 500 GW target has two indispensable pillars beyond generation: energy storage and grid infrastructure.

Explanation

Under the Digital Agriculture Mission's Farmer ID (AgriStack) framework, each major agricultural service has a specific delivery problem the digital identity is meant to solve. For Kisan Credit Card and bank loans, the key problem is repeated document verification — banks demand the same documents repeatedly, and Farmer ID creates a verified, reusable digital profile that simplifies this process (Pair 1: correctly matched). For Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the critical issue is crop-loss assessment and compensation disbursement: the Farmer ID enables transparent, verifiable assessment of crop damage and routes compensation directly to the farmer's bank account, cutting out opaque intermediary processes (Pair 2: correctly matched). For MSP procurement, however, the core problem is the role of intermediaries in the procurement chain who siphon value away from farmers — Farmer ID is designed to eliminate these intermediaries and ensure farmers receive the full market support price for their produce. Pair 3 incorrectly describes the MSP function as 'direct payment of insurance premia,' which conflates it with PMFBY's insurance disbursement mechanism. MSP procurement and PMFBY each solve a structurally different delivery failure, and a sound understanding of AgriStack requires distinguishing them.

Explanation

Article 23(1) of the Constitution prohibits begar and other forms of forced labour. Article 23(2), however, expressly permits the State to impose compulsory service for public purposes, provided it does not discriminate on the grounds specified in Article 15. Indian law has used this exception in two well-known ways. First, the Police Act, 1861 allows residents of a locality to be appointed as special police officers during public-order emergencies; the Calcutta High Court in Dulal Samanta v District Magistrate, Howrah (1958) recognised this as compulsory public service shielded by Article 23(2) — so Pair 1 is correctly matched. Second, the National Service Act, 1972 permitted the compulsory call-up of qualified doctors and engineers for national service, but Parliament backed it with an elaborate protective framework: identification of those liable, registration and notice procedures, postponement on hardship grounds, prescribed remuneration, and obligations on private employers to both release and later reinstate called-up employees — so Pair 2 is correctly matched. The Census Act, 1948, by contrast, contains no such elaborate statutory safeguards for private citizens. Section 4(2) does use the broad word 'persons' and says those appointed 'shall be bound to serve accordingly', but the Act lacks the registration, remuneration, hardship-exemption, and reinstatement machinery that the National Service Act provides. Courts have repeatedly found that the Census Act does not clearly confer authority to compulsorily requisition private employees for general door-to-door enumeration. Pair 3 is therefore incorrectly matched.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. The MTP Amendment Act, 2021 raised the gestational limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks for specific categories of vulnerable women — including survivors of rape, minors, women with disabilities, and women whose marital status changes during pregnancy — requiring the opinion of two registered medical practitioners for such cases. Statement 2 is also correct. The 2021 amendment established State-level Medical Boards empowered to authorise termination of pregnancies with substantial foetal abnormalities beyond 24 weeks; there is no upper gestational ceiling for such Board-approved cases, making this a notable departure from the standard gestational limits. Statement 3 is incorrect. Under the MTP Act framework, the woman undergoing the termination is not held criminally liable — the penal exposure falls on the person who performs the procedure outside the Act's provisions. This is analogous to Poland's current law (noted as comparative context), where the woman undergoing an unlawful abortion is similarly exempt from criminal liability. The distinction between provider liability and patient immunity is a core feature of the MTP regime and reflects the Act's public-health, rather than purely punitive, orientation.