UPSC Current Affairs Quiz : 1 December 2025

Solution: B

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Madhvacharya (13th Century CE) was not a contemporary of Shankaracharya (8th Century CE). While Shankaracharya propounded Advaita (Non-dualism) or Kevaladvaita, Madhvacharya was the chief proponent of Dvaita (Dualism) or Tattvavāda.
• Statement 2 is correct: His philosophy is based on Realist Dualism. He propounded the concept of Pancha-Bheda (Five Eternal Distinctions), one of which is the difference between God and Soul. According to him, this difference is not illusory (Maya) but is natural, eternal, and real.
• Statement 3 is correct: Madhvacharya established the Udupi Krishna Mutt in Karnataka. He also instituted the Ashta Mathas (eight monasteries) to conduct daily worship of Lord Krishna by rotation, a tradition that continues to this day.

Solution: D

Statement 1 is incorrect: BSE is Asia’s oldest stock exchange (established in 1875). The BSE operated with an open-cry floor trading system for over a century. It launched BOLT (BSE On-Line Trading) only in 1995, following the competitive pressure from the NSE.

Statement 2 is incorrect: The indices are swapped in the statement. The S&P BSE Sensex tracks the performance of 30 large-cap stocks. The Nifty 50, which is the flagship index of the NSE, tracks 50 large-cap stocks.

Solution: B

• Statement 1 is correct: The revised code (IS 1893: 2025) has radically updated the zonation map. It has introduced a Zone VI (highest risk) for the first time and placed the entire Himalayan arc (from J&K-Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh) in this zone due to consistent and extreme tectonic stress.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: The new code prioritizes safety over cost. It stipulates that if a city or town lies on the border of two seismic zones, it defaults to the higher-risk zone. This auto-upgrade moves away from arbitrary administrative lines to reflect geological realities.
• Statement 3 is correct: The revised code incorporates scientific modeling of fault segments. It specifically acknowledges that ruptures from the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) may not be contained within the mountains but could propagate southwards to populated foothill regions (e.g., near Mohand/Dehradun), thereby expanding the risk area beyond what was previously estimated.

Solution: B

• Pair 1 is correctly matched: Operation Sagar Bandhu was launched by the Government of India to provide rapid Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) to Sri Lanka following the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.
• Pair 2 is incorrectly matched: The S-500 Prometey is not an indigenous DRDO system. It is Russia’s most advanced next-generation surface-to-air and anti-space defence system, developed by Almaz-Antey. India is discussing potential interest in it, but it is of Russian origin.
• Pair 3 is correctly matched: The relief efforts under Operation Sagar Bandhu align with India’s Vision MAHASAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), which is a maritime cooperation framework aimed at strengthening security and humanitarian ties in the Indian Ocean Region.

Solution: C

• Statement-I is correct: Paradip Port is a key deep-water port on the Eastern coast. It has achieved the fastest-ever 100 MMT cargo throughput and has crossed the 100 MMT mark for the 9th consecutive year. It is recognized as one of the top-performing Major Ports in India.
• Statement-II is incorrect: While Paradip Port is an artificial, deep-water port, it is located at the confluence of the Mahanadi River and the Bay of Bengal in the Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha, not the Godavari River (which is in Andhra Pradesh).

Solution: B

• Statement 1 is incorrect: The tournament was co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka. While matches were played in Delhi and Bengaluru (India), the final was held in Colombo (Sri Lanka).
• Statement 2 is correct: To accommodate visual impairment, the equipment is specialized. The ball is a white plastic ball containing metal bearings (ball bearings) that create a rattling sound, allowing players to track it audibly.
• Statement 3 is correct: The rules of blind cricket distinguish between categories. B1 players are fully blind. To level the playing field, B1 batters are permitted to use a runner, and to incentivize their contribution, every run they score off the bat is counted as double (e.g., a single counts as 2, a boundary counts as 8).

Solution: B

• Statement 1 is incorrect: While Madhvacharya established the Ashta Mathas, he did so to propagate Dvaita (Dualism), not Advaita. He was a staunch critic of Advaita.
• Statement 2 is correct: The Ashta Mathas (eight monasteries) share the responsibility of worshipping Lord Krishna at the Udupi Mutt in a cyclic rotation known as the Paryaya
• Statement 3 is correct: As a teenager, Madhvacharya (then named Vasudeva) was initiated into Sannyasa by his guru Achyutapreksha, who gave him the name Purna Prajna.

Solution: B

• Statement 1 is correct: Paradip was declared the 8th Major Port of India in 1966 and was the first Major Port on the East Coast to be commissioned after India gained Independence.
• Statement 2 is correct: It operates as an autonomous body under the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, governed by a Board of Trustees.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: The foundation stone of the port was laid by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 3 January 1962, not Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Solution: B

Their primary significance is that they are “India’s first successful gene-edited rice lines evaluated under a national protocol” (AICRPR blind-coded trials). Option (a) is incorrect because they are “gene-edited”. Option (c) is incorrect as they are developed using “advanced precision breeding techniques” by ICAR institutes, not just traditional preservation. Option (d) is incorrect as Pusa DST-1 is for southern states and DRR Dhan 100 is for yield improvement; export is not the primary context mentioned.

Solution: B

The sequence explicitly describes the integrated manufacturing covered under the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets (REPM). The scheme supports the “full rare-earth value chain under one roof,” enabling the conversion of raw rare-earth oxides into metals, processing them into alloys, and finally producing high-performance NdFeB sintered magnets. While other schemes relate to mobility or batteries, this specific metallurgical value chain is unique to the REPM scheme.