National Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Statements (iii) and (iv) are correct, so the answer is (iii) and (iv).

Parliament passed the three new criminal laws in December 2023 (iv), and they received the President's assent on 25 December 2023. All three, including the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (printed Abhinayam), which replaced the Indian Evidence Act, came into force on 1 July 2024 (iii).

Statement (i) is wrong: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita came into force on 1 July 2024, not 1 April 2023. Statement (ii) is wrong: the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, while the Indian Penal Code was replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Answer: B

The first city to run on 100% renewable energy in the daytime is Diu.

Diu, in the union territory then called Daman and Diu, built solar power capacity, including a large solar park and rooftop systems, sufficient to meet all of its daytime electricity demand, making it the first city in India to do so.

Daman is the other part of the same union territory but did not achieve this. Kochi is known for a different first, its fully solar-powered airport, which is not a city running on renewable energy. Puducherry did not reach this target.

Answer: B

The first Vande Bharat Express ran between New Delhi and Varanasi.

The Vande Bharat Express, India's first indigenously built semi-high-speed train (earlier called Train 18), made at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, was flagged off on 15 February 2019 on the New Delhi-Varanasi route, stopping at Kanpur and Prayagraj.

Prayagraj is a stop on that route, not a terminus. The Ahmedabad-Mumbai and New Delhi-Bhopal routes are served by other trains, such as the Shatabdi Express to Bhopal.

Answer: B

The first Union Territory to record zero maternal deaths in 2024-25 is Puducherry.

Puducherry reported no maternal deaths during childbirth in 2024-25 and received the Union government's platinum certificate for the quality of its maternity services. Its health department credited the result to a dense network of primary health centres, wide screening and treatment of young women for anaemia, and support schemes for mothers and girls.

Andaman and Nicobar, Chandigarh and Delhi were not the Union Territory credited with this first; the milestone was reported for Puducherry.

Answer: C

The Bairabi-Sairang line connected Aizawl (Mizoram) to the national railway network.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 51 km Bairabi-Sairang line in September 2025. Built through difficult hill terrain with many tunnels and tall bridges, it carries the railway to Sairang, close to Aizawl, making Mizoram's capital the fourth north-eastern capital on the rail map after Guwahati, Agartala and Itanagar.

Itanagar was already connected through Naharlagun in 2014. Imphal and Kohima are on lines still being built, and neither is served by the Bairabi-Sairang line.

Answer: D

India had no UNESCO Global Geopark by April 2025, so the answer is None of these.

UNESCO Global Geoparks are areas of international geological significance managed for conservation, education and sustainable development. Although India has proposed sites, none had been designated a UNESCO Global Geopark by April 2025, when UNESCO announced its latest additions to the network, and none of them was in India.

Since the true number was zero, 2, 3 and 4 are all wrong.

Answer: C

The chief guest was Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (printed 'Sinzo Abe').

Abe was the chief guest at the Republic Day parade of 26 January 2014, the first Japanese Prime Minister to receive the honour, during a visit that strengthened India-Japan economic ties.

Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was the chief guest in 2013. British Prime Minister David Cameron, Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi and Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina were not the guests in 2014.

Answer: C

The Srikrishna Committee of 2010 dealt with the Telangana issue.

The Committee for Consultations on the Situation in Andhra Pradesh, headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishna, was set up in February 2010 after the agitation for a separate Telangana state. It reported in December 2010, setting out six options for the state's future.

Justice Srikrishna had earlier headed the commission on the 1992-93 Bombay riots, not the Godhra riots, which were inquired into by the Nanavati-Mehta Commission. The committee had nothing to do with oil prices or the Kaveri waters.

Answer: D

The 100th airport is in Sikkim.

Pakyong Airport near Gangtok, Sikkim's first airport, was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 24 September 2018 as India's 100th operational airport. It is built on a hilltop at about 4,500 feet.

Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland already had airports, but none of them was the 100th.

Before it opened, the nearest airport for Sikkim was Bagdogra in West Bengal, several hours away by road.

Answer: C

The visit took place in June, 2018.

President Ram Nath Kovind visited Tripura on 7 and 8 June 2018. It was his first visit to the state as President, according to the President's Secretariat release at the time. He inaugurated the Matabari to Sabroom national highway, laid the foundation of the Matabari temple complex redevelopment, and attended the declaration of the Queen Pineapple as the state fruit.

April, May and July 2018 are therefore wrong. The Commission's final key gives C.