UPSC Current Affairs Quiz : 1 July 2026

Solution: D

• The SUMAN (Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan) Roadmap 2030 is a specialized, multi-dimensional, data-driven national strategy formulated to eliminate preventable maternal and newborn deaths. This framework marks a major shift from a uniform, “one-size-fits-all” governance design to a localized, tech-enabled public health paradigm.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, is the nodal ministry steering this operational matrix. The framework aligns its core targets directly with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing heavily on pushing India’s Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) down to below 70 per 100,000 live births by the year 2030.
• While other organizations work alongside it on wider social development goals, the structural implementation, policy rollout, and district-level operational control remain under the MoHFW.

Solution: A

• The Ayushman Sarathi Chatbot functions as a key digital interface for the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
• Statement-I is correct because it highlights a major practical benefit: giving citizens a way to handle card management tasks from home without traveling to administrative centers.
• Statement-II is also correct and provides the direct technical explanation for Statement-I. Because the platform is built as an API-based system operating on WhatsApp, citizens can interact with PM-JAY records through simple automated text messages on their mobile phones.
• Operating within an app that millions already use removes tech barriers, bridging the digital divide across rural and senior demographics and directly explaining how the tool reduces the need for physical office visits.

Solution: D

• Statement 1 is incorrect because it is an Old World scavenger native to South and Southeast Asia, thriving across India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, rather than South America.
• Statement 2 is correct because the species has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2000, following a catastrophic population crash driven by veterinary drugs.
• Statement 3 is incorrect because these birds build massive nests averaging 1 meter in length high up in tall, mature canopy trees (such as Banyan, Peepul, and Neem), often near human habitations or gallery forests.

Solution: B

• Project BRAHMANK is a specialized, forward-deployed engineering and infrastructure development unit operating under the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Raised on June 29, 2011, at Ranaghat, Arunachal Pradesh, its main objective is to build, upgrade, and maintain heavy-duty roads, multi-ton tactical bridges, and military-grade aviation assets along India’s northeastern frontier lines.
• Its geographical area of responsibility covers five districts of Arunachal Pradesh and adjoining border areas of Assam. By building all-weather strategic roads, it ensures the rapid movement of troops, artillery, and equipment toward the Line of Actual Control (LAC). It also links remote indigenous border villages with the national mainstream. Other options like Himank or Dantek operate in entirely different sectors like Ladakh or Bhutan.

Solution: C

• The structural integration of the Improvement Notice mechanism modifies existing statutory pathways.
• Statement 1 is correct because the reform specifically updates sections of the parent Legal Metrology Act, 2009, adding formal definitions and operational rules for improvement notices.
• Statement 2 is correct because the amendment was passed by Parliament and mainstreamed through the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026, as part of the state’s broader agenda to decriminalize minor commercial lapses.
• Statement 3 is incorrect because the reform does not dilute consumer protection or weaken core enforcement standards; the Department has clarified that strict legal actions, prosecutions, and severe penalties remain fully active against wilful fraud, tampering, and repeated violations that hurt consumer interests.

Solution: C

• Statement 1 is correct because more than 80% of Bangladesh is made up of fertile alluvial plains shaped by the massive Padma, Jamuna, and Meghna river networks. This makes it one of the largest delta systems in the world.
• Statement 2 is incorrect because the Chittagong Hill Tracts are located in the southeastern part of the country along the border with Myanmar and Mizoram/Tripura, not along the western border with West Bengal.
• Statement 3 is correct because the shared Sundarbans mangrove forest acts as a crucial barrier that absorbs the impact of frequent cyclones, tidal surges, and coastal erosion along the Bay of Bengal.

Solution: A

• Royal Bengal Tiger → 3. Sundarbans Mangrove Forest → X. Restricted population of around 125 wild individuals
  The Royal Bengal Tiger is primarily found in the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem shared by Bangladesh and India. Bangladesh is estimated to have around 125 wild tigers, making the Sundarbans the country’s most important tiger habitat.
• Indian Leopard → 2. Chittagong Hill Tracts & Sylhet → Z. Extremely rare near the Indian frontier lines
  The Indian Leopard survives in very small numbers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet regions. Its populations are concentrated near the Indian border, making it an extremely rare species in Bangladesh.
• Clouded Leopard → 1. Dense Forested & Wetland Track Ecosystems → Y. Protected wild cat variety within localized zones
  The Clouded Leopard inhabits dense evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, including forest corridors and wetland-associated wooded landscapes. It occurs in localized protected areas and is one of Bangladesh’s protected wild cat species.

Solution: C

• The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 significantly strengthened India’s consumer rights framework by expanding protection against deceptive trade practices, misleading advertisements, and unfair conduct in both offline and online markets.
• Statement 1 is correct. Section 2(47) defines an unfair trade practice to include any false or misleading representation concerning the standard, quality, grade, composition, style, or model of goods or services. Therefore, deceptive claims about a product’s purity or composition fall within the scope of an unfair trade practice, enabling consumers to seek legal remedies against misleading product representations.
• Statement 2 is correct. The Act extends consumer protection to e-commerce transactions, while the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 and the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023 issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority regulate manipulative online practices. These measures prohibit deceptive digital interfaces, such as false urgency, disguised advertisements, subscription traps, and other dark patterns that impair informed consumer choice, thereby strengthening accountability of online marketplaces and digital platforms.
• Statement 3 is incorrect. Mere compliance with standards prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India does not provide immunity from action under the Consumer Protection Act. The Central Consumer Protection Authority has clarified that front-label claims must not mislead consumers, and technically compliant products may still attract penalties if advertisements or package labels create false or deceptive impressions.

Solution: B

• The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) was originally launched by the governments of Sweden and India at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019, with support from the World Economic Forum. LeadIT gathers countries and companies that are committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions from heavy industries by 2050.
• The expanded LeadIT 2.0 platform focuses heavily on the low-carbon transition of hard-to-abate heavy industrial sectors like steel, cement, aluminum, and petrochemicals through technology co-development, financial institutional setups, and industrial de-carbonization roadmaps. During the India-Nordic framework summits, regional participation was expanded with Iceland formally induction as a Nordic member to explicitly strengthen heavy industrial de-carbonization.
• Option (a) refers to AI governance frameworks; option (c) describes cross-border power transmission frameworks; option (d) describes maritime security initiatives such as ‘MAHASAGAR’.

Solution: B

• Statement 1 is incorrect because the PM-E-DRIVE scheme intentionally shifts fiscal allocations away from private luxury passenger vehicles, explicitly prioritizing high-impact mass public transport and commercial segments like e-buses, ambulances, and commercial freight trucks to maximize de-carbonization returns.
• Statement 2 is correct because the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has notified a global-first, India-centric Dual Plugin Charging Standard for e-buses to resolve heavy vehicle charging interoperability challenges, which was successfully piloted at the Ahmedabad Ranip Depot.

Statement 3 is incorrect because the massive rollout of 4.05 crore smart meters, which enables digital real-time consumption mapping and advanced demand-side management, is executing under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), not the National Green Hydrogen Mission.