UPSC Current Affairs Quiz : 10 April 2026

Solution: B

• Mission Mausam is a landmark multi-faceted initiative.
• Statement 1 is correct; the mission involves deploying next-generation Doppler radars, satellite systems, and high-performance supercomputers (like Mihir and Pratyush) to set new benchmarks in precision.
• Statement 2 is correct; the mission goes beyond forecasting to “weather management,” researching interventions like cloud seeding and fog suppression.

Statement 3 is incorrect; the mission is a collaborative effort. While the IMD is a primary player, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) are key implementing agencies, supported by other MoES institutes like INCOIS and NIOT. This multi-institutional approach ensures that research, modeling, and operational forecasting are seamlessly integrated to support sectors like agriculture, disaster management, and aviation.

Solution: B

• A “Bomb Cyclone” is a meteorological term for an extra-tropical cyclone that undergoes rapid pressure drop.
• Option (b) is the correct answer; specifically, it is defined by a drop in central pressure of at least 24 millibars within 24 hours, a process known as bombogenesis. This usually occurs when a cold air mass (often from a polar region) collides with a warm air mass (usually over oceanic waters like the Gulf Stream), creating a massive atmospheric instability.
• These storms behave like winter hurricanes, producing hurricane-force winds, heavy snow, and blizzard conditions, particularly affecting regions like the USA and Canada.
• Unlike tropical cyclones (a), they are fueled by temperature contrasts rather than just warm water. They are significant for disaster management as their rapid development often leaves little lead time for emergency services, and they can cause massive power outages and travel disruptions due to “bombogenesis”.

Solution: A

• Statement 1 is correct; the Bhagavad Gita is part of the sixth book (Bhishma Parva) of the Mahabharata, structured as a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna.
• Statement 2 is correct; the Natyashastra, attributed to sage Bharata, is a seminal Sanskrit treatise on performing arts, codified around the 2nd century BCE, and is sometimes referred to as the Gandharvaveda.
• Statement 3 is incorrect; while both texts have received UNESCO recognition, they were added to the Memory of the World Register (for documentary heritage), not the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Solution: C

Recent reports about the increase (“lengthening”) of India’s coastline are primarily due to improved measurement techniques rather than a physical expansion of land.

Under the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) prepared in accordance with the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, India’s coastline has been mapped using high-resolution satellite imagery, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and modern geospatial tools. Earlier coastline estimates were based on low-resolution maps and generalized measurements, which underestimated the actual length of the coast.

With the new mapping approach:

• Detailed mapping captures small inlets, estuaries, creeks, and irregular coastal features.
• This follows the geographical principle known as the Coastline Paradox, where the measured length of a coastline increases as the measurement scale becomes more precise.

Because of this improved mapping, India’s coastline length increased from about 7,516 km to around 11,098 km in recent official assessments.

Solution: A

• “Thermozymes” are heat-stable enzymes produced by thermophilic microorganisms, including thermophilic actinobacteria. These organisms thrive in high-temperature environments such as hot springs, geothermal soils, and compost piles. The enzymes they produce are specially adapted to function efficiently at elevated temperatures, often remaining stable and catalytically active at temperatures where ordinary enzymes would denature.
• Thermozymes possess structural adaptations such as stronger ionic bonds, increased hydrophobic interactions, and more compact protein folding, which help maintain enzyme stability under thermal stress. Because of these properties, thermozymes are highly valuable in industrial biotechnology. They are used in processes that require high temperatures, including biofuel production, waste degradation, food processing, paper and pulp industries, and molecular biology applications.

Thermophilic actinobacteria are particularly important sources of thermozymes because they produce enzymes like thermostable cellulases, amylases, proteases, and lipases, which are useful in industrial and environmental processes.

Solution: A

• Macroscopic Quantum Tunnelling (MQT) is a phenomenon in which an entire macroscopic system—containing a large number of particles—undergoes quantum tunnelling. Quantum tunnelling typically describes particles crossing an energy barrier that classical physics would forbid.
• Statement 1 is correct because MQT involves the collective behaviour of many particles acting as a single quantum system.
• Statement 2 is also correct. Experiments in superconducting circuits, especially those containing Josephson junctions, have demonstrated MQT. These systems behave like quantum objects when cooled to extremely low temperatures, enabling the quantum state of the entire circuit to tunnel between energy states.

Statement 3 is incorrect because MQT precisely shows that quantum phenomena are not restricted to microscopic particles. Under suitable conditions—such as extremely low temperatures and coherent quantum states—macroscopic systems can also exhibit quantum mechanical behaviour.

Solution: D

• Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a class of crystalline materials composed of metal ions or metal clusters coordinated with organic ligands to form a highly ordered three-dimensional network. They are often called “molecular sponges” because of their extremely high internal surface area and highly porous structure, which allows them to trap, store, and selectively absorb various molecules within their microscopic cavities.
• The pores in MOFs can be precisely tuned by altering the metal nodes or organic linkers, enabling scientists to design materials capable of selectively adsorbing gases or molecules of specific sizes. Because of this property, MOFs have important applications in gas storage (especially hydrogen and methane), carbon dioxide capture, catalysis, drug delivery, water purification, and chemical sensing. Some MOFs possess surface areas exceeding thousands of square meters per gram, making them among the most porous materials known.
• The term “molecular sponge” therefore refers specifically to the adsorptive capability resulting from their vast internal pore network, which can hold large quantities of gases or other molecules relative to their mass.

Solution: A

• Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GPS (United States), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (European Union), and BeiDou (China) primarily operate in the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) MEO typically ranges from about 2,000 km to 35,786 km above Earth, and GNSS satellites are usually placed at altitudes of around 20,000 km.

This orbital regime provides an optimal balance between global coverage, signal stability, and satellite constellation size. Satellites in MEO take roughly 12 hours to orbit the Earth, allowing a constellation of around 24–30 satellites to ensure that multiple satellites are always visible from any point on Earth. This continuous visibility is essential for accurate positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services used in smartphones, aviation, maritime navigation, disaster management, and military applications.

Solution: A

• Space-based solar power (SBSP) is a proposed technology in which solar panels placed in orbit collect solar energy and transmit it to Earth.
• Statement 1 is correct because satellites in high Earth orbit receive sunlight almost continuously without atmospheric absorption, weather interference, or day–night cycles, making solar generation potentially more efficient than terrestrial solar systems.
• Statement 2 is correct. The collected electricity would be converted into microwave or laser beams and transmitted to receiving stations on Earth. These receiving stations use rectifying antennas, commonly called “rectennas,” to convert the transmitted energy back into electricity.
• Statement 3 is incorrect. Ground-based rectennas are an essential component of SBSP systems because they receive and convert the transmitted microwave or laser energy into usable electrical power. Without these receiving stations, the energy transmitted from orbit could not be effectively captured.

Solution: C

• The Aarohan Programme is an initiative aimed at promoting national integration and awareness among tribal youth, particularly from remote and geographically isolated regions such as the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The programme organizes exposure visits for tribal students to different parts of mainland India so that they can experience the country’s cultural diversity, historical heritage, scientific institutions, and development initiatives.
• Through these educational tours, participants visit important cultural sites, universities, scientific establishments, and government institutions. The objective is to broaden their perspectives, encourage interaction with students from other regions, and strengthen their sense of belonging to the broader Indian nation.

The programme therefore functions as a confidence-building and integration initiative, helping bridge geographical and cultural gaps between remote tribal communities and the rest of the country.