National Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The tunnel is the Atal Tunnel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the Atal Tunnel on 3 October 2020. About 9 km long, it runs under the Rohtang Pass and links Manali with the Lahaul-Spiti valley all year round. It is the world's longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet, and it is named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

There is no Shyamaprasad, Sardar Patel or Modi tunnel at Manali. The Rohtang tunnel was renamed after Vajpayee in 2019.

Answer: D

The Finance Minister was Nirmala Sitaraman (Sitharaman).

Nirmala Sitharaman has been Union Minister of Finance since May 2019, so she is the only Finance Minister among the four names.

Dharmendra Pradhan (printed 'Dhamendra') became Minister of Education in July 2021, Harsh Vardhan was Minister of Health until July 2021, and Pratima Bhoumik, an MP from Tripura West, became Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in July 2021.

Answer: A

The expedition is known as Operation Blue Freedom.

Operation Blue Freedom was organised by Team CLAW, a group of Indian armed forces veterans, to take a team of persons with disabilities (divyangjans) to the Siachen Glacier. Flagged off on 15 August 2021, the team went on to reach the Kumar Post on the glacier, a record for a team of persons with disabilities.

'Disabled Adventure', 'Operation Uplands' and 'Operation Snow rope' are not the name of this expedition.

Answer: C

India's first metro rail began in Kolkata.

The Kolkata Metro opened on 24 October 1984 between Esplanade and Bhowanipur (now Netaji Bhavan), making it the first metro in India.

The Delhi Metro opened only in December 2002, the Mumbai Metro in 2014 and the Chennai Metro in 2015. Delhi has the largest network today, which is why it is a common wrong answer.

Answer: C

India's first underwater metro runs in Kolkata.

The East-West Metro corridor of the Kolkata Metro runs in twin tunnels beneath the Hooghly river between Howrah and Esplanade. The underwater stretch was inaugurated in March 2024, and Howrah Maidan station is the deepest metro station in India.

Kochi has India's first Water Metro, a ferry service, which is the likely trap. The Mumbai and Chennai metros have no stretch running under a river.

Answer: A

The first state to implement a Uniform Civil Code is Uttarakhand.

The Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand Act, 2024 was passed by the state Assembly in February 2024 and brought into force on 27 January 2025. It sets common rules on marriage, divorce, succession and live-in relationships for residents other than Scheduled Tribes.

Goa already had a common civil code inherited from Portuguese rule, but it is not among the options. Manipur, Assam and Karnataka have not implemented a UCC.

Answer: D

The river is the Hoogly (Hooghly).

The East-West corridor of the Kolkata Metro runs in twin tunnels bored beneath the bed of the Hooghly between Howrah and Kolkata. They were the first tunnels in India dug under a river to carry train tracks; the boring under the river was done in 2017, and the stretch later opened to passengers.

No rail tunnel had been dug beneath the Jhelum, the Teesta or the Chambal, so those options are wrong.

Answer: C

The Act received the President's assent on 9th August, 2019.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 5 August 2019 and passed by the Lok Sabha on 6 August. The President gave his assent on 9 August 2019, and the two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and of Ladakh came into being on 31 October 2019.

5 and 6 August are the dates of the Bill's passage through Parliament, which is the usual trap, and 7 August is not linked to the Act.

Answer: D

The village is Bancha village, Betul district, Madhya Pradesh.

Bancha, a tribal village in Betul district, became the first village in India where every household cooks on solar-powered stoves, giving up both wood-burning chulhas and LPG. Solar cooking units were installed in every home of the village.

Marayoor, Rasra and Anandpura are not the village known for this.

Answer: C

The Taj Mahal declaration was a pledge to fight plastic pollution near Taj Mahal.

India hosted World Environment Day on 5 June 2018 under the theme 'Beat Plastic Pollution'. On that occasion the Taj Mahal Declaration was adopted in Agra, committing the authorities and stakeholders to make the area around the monument free of single-use plastic.

It was not a heritage-conservation charter, a tourism target or a security plan; the other three options borrow the monument's name for unrelated goals.