UPSC Current Affairs Quiz, 25 October 2026

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct: the Northern Sea Route is geographically defined as the coastal Arctic passage running from the Kara Strait (western entry, near the Barents/Kara Sea boundary) to the Bering Strait (eastern terminus at Cape Dezhnev), and is recognised as the shortest sea route connecting Western Eurasia to the Asia-Pacific — a significant advantage over the Suez Canal route. Statement 2 is correct: the defining constraint of the NSR is that the Arctic Ocean is frozen for most of the year, making icebreaker escort mandatory for vessels. Russia holds a unique position as the only nation operating nuclear-powered icebreakers, managed through Rosatom's subsidiary Atomflot. Statement 3 is false and reflects a common misconception: the NSR does NOT offer distance savings because of warm or ice-free waters — quite the opposite. Its navigability is severely constrained by ice, requiring icebreaker support. The distance advantage over the Suez route is purely geometric (a higher-latitude great-circle path is shorter between two points), not because the Arctic is an open, navigable sea. The ice-navigation challenge is the route's defining difficulty, not a feature that has been eliminated.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. Stubble burning spikes during the kharif-rabi transition because paddy harvest leaves behind residue that must be cleared before wheat can be sown, and the tight inter-crop window pushes farmers toward burning as the fastest method. This is a well-established driver recognised in crop-residue management literature. Statement 2 is correct. Short-duration paddy varieties (such as PR 126 or Pusa 1509-type Basmati) mature and are harvested earlier than full-duration varieties. This early harvest opens a window for a third crop — vegetables such as peas or potatoes — but it also means the paddy–vegetable–wheat sequence must all fit within the same calendar, making each transition tighter and increasing the pressure to burn rather than use slower mechanical alternatives. Statement 3 is incorrect. Availability of crop-residue management machinery is a necessary but not sufficient condition for ending stubble burning. Farmers may still choose to burn because: (a) arranging machinery on short notice has transaction costs (time lost, hiring charges); (b) burning is effectively free and almost instantaneous; and (c) awareness of health and environmental hazards may be limited. Moreover, there is no blanket legal prohibition that automatically kicks in once machines are present — enforcement is patchy and penalties are often not deterrent enough. The gap between 'infrastructure in place' and 'behaviour change' is a recognised challenge in residue management policy.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. The near-collapse of India's vulture populations — a decline exceeding 90% — is well-established to have been caused by the widespread use of diclofenac as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in livestock. When treated animals died and vultures scavenged their carcasses, the drug caused fatal visceral gout in the birds. This causal chain is the central fact of Indian vulture conservation policy, and led to a government ban on veterinary diclofenac in 2006. Statement 2 is incorrect. In India, livestock carcass dumpsites — including the famous Jorbeer dumpsite in Bikaner — were never purpose-built for vultures. They are traditional livestock disposal sites that vultures began using as de facto feeding grounds because of the large, predictable supply of carrion. This is structurally different from the 'vulture restaurants' of Europe and Africa, which are explicitly managed, drug-free feeding stations designed with vulture conservation as the primary goal. Conflating the two misrepresents the origin and intent of these Indian sites. Statement 3 is correct. Research has drawn a correlation between India's vulture collapse and increased human deaths: as vultures disappeared, feral dog populations expanded (because dogs faced less competition for carcasses), which in turn amplified the spread of rabies to humans. This 'cascading ecosystem service loss' argument — that vultures, as keystone scavengers, suppressed both feral dog numbers and disease transmission — is a core ecological justification for vulture conservation programmes in India.

Explanation

Pair 1 is correct: the Election Commission of India, as a constitutional body under Article 324, ordinarily exercises disciplinary control over officers serving within it, and individual Election Commissioners also participate in reviewing the performance of such officers. The executive government is insulated from interfering in the ECI's functioning by constitutional design. Pair 2 is also correct: while the ECI controls officers once they are serving within it, the initial appointment of such officers is made by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) — the Cabinet Secretariat itself noted this distinction when it declined to take disciplinary action, emphasising that the officer in question was an 'ACC appointee.' Pair 3 is incorrect: under constitutional and institutional practice, a letter written by individual Election Commissioners in their personal capacity does not amount to a formal communication of the Commission as a whole. For a communication to carry the institutional authority of the ECI, it must reflect the Commission's collective decision — a distinction that is constitutionally significant because Article 324 vests superintendence, direction, and control in 'the Election Commission,' not in its individual members acting independently.

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct. The ALMM framework requires that solar modules used in government-linked projects be sourced from manufacturers on an approved list. ALMM-II extends this logic upstream to cells, mandating that cells used in such modules also be domestically manufactured and listed — a tool to stimulate investment in cell capacity, which is the weakest link in India's solar value chain. Statement 2 is correct. India's solar manufacturing capacity follows a steep upstream deficit: module capacity is large (over 250 GW as of mid-2026), while cell capacity is a fraction of that, ingot-wafer capacity is minimal (approximately 2 GW), and polysilicon manufacturing is effectively absent. This pyramidal gap forces India to import the most technology-intensive upstream inputs, predominantly from China, making the country vulnerable to any supply disruption or export restriction from China. Statement 3 is incorrect. PLI schemes across sectors — including the solar PV PLI — disburse incentives linked to incremental sales or production output above a defined baseline, not on the basis of installed capacity. This output-linked structure is the defining feature of PLI schemes (as opposed to capital subsidies, which are disbursed on investment or capacity creation). The industry demand for a dedicated 'capital subsidy' for solar equipment manufacturing is precisely because PLI's output-linked nature may not sufficiently de-risk the upfront investment needed to build cell, wafer, and polysilicon capacity.