National Affairs Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Vande Bharat Express is an indigenously developed locomotive-less train developed under 'Make in India'.

Train 18, later named Vande Bharat Express, was designed and built by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. It is a self-propelled, semi-high-speed train set with motors distributed under the coaches, so it needs no separate engine. Its first service, between New Delhi and Varanasi, was flagged off in February 2019.

It is a passenger train, not a freight service, not a tourist circuit train under the Swadesh Darshan scheme, and not a sanitation-awareness train.

Answer: C

The report was released by NITI Aayog.

In February 2026 NITI Aayog published Revitalising Apprenticeship Ecosystem: Insights, Challenges, Recommendations and Best Practices, released in New Delhi by its Member Arvind Virmani and CEO B. V. R. Subrahmanyam. It makes 20 recommendations, among them a National Apprenticeship Mission and an Apprenticeship Engagement Index, after noting low completion rates and low participation by MSMEs and women.

The Ministry of Skill Development and the NSDC run apprenticeship schemes but did not issue this report, and the Environment Ministry has no role in it.

Answer: A

Cyclone Phailin lashed the coast of Odisha.

Phailin, a very severe cyclonic storm from the Bay of Bengal, made landfall near Gopalpur in Odisha on 12 October 2013. Large-scale evacuation of coastal villages beforehand kept the death toll low compared with the 1999 Odisha super cyclone. The name Phailin, meaning sapphire, was contributed by Thailand to the regional list of cyclone names.

Kerala, Goa and Gujarat are on the west coast, facing the Arabian Sea, so a Bay of Bengal cyclone did not strike them.

Answer: B

MHRD has been renamed the Ministry of Education.

The Union Cabinet approved the change in July 2020, along with the National Education Policy 2020, which recommended restoring the earlier name. The ministry had been called the Ministry of Human Resource Development since 1985.

Ministry of Human Development, Human Rights and Human Capital are not names that were adopted.

The minister heading it is now styled the Union Minister of Education.

Answer: B

The restrictions were lifted on Paracetamol formulations.

In March 2020, as COVID-19 spread, the government restricted exports of paracetamol and several other drugs to protect domestic supply. In April 2020 the DGFT lifted the restriction on exports of formulations made from paracetamol, while keeping it on the active ingredient for a time.

Amoxicillin, ibuprofen and cetirizine were not the subject of that notification.

Answer: B

The commission is headed by G Rohini.

Justice G. Rohini, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, heads the commission set up in 2017 under Article 340 to examine the sub-categorisation of the Other Backward Classes so that the benefits of reservation are shared more fairly among them.

The other names are not associated with heading this commission.

Article 340 empowers the President to appoint a commission to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes.

Answer: A

The first state to enact a UCC after independence is Uttarakhand.

The Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code Act, 2024 was passed by the state assembly in February 2024 and the code came into force on 27 January 2025. It provides common rules on marriage, divorce, succession and live-in relationships for all residents except Scheduled Tribes.

Goa's common civil code dates from Portuguese rule, so it was not enacted after independence. Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram and Assam have not enacted a uniform civil code.

Answer: B

07 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes.

After the delimitation of 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir assembly has 90 elected seats, of which 7 are reserved for Scheduled Castes (all in the Jammu division) and 9 for Scheduled Tribes. The 2024 election, the first since the region became a union territory, was held on this basis.

9 is the number of ST seats, not SC seats, and the other figures do not match the delimitation order.

Answer: B

The institute is AIIMS, Rishikesh.

In October 2024 AIIMS Rishikesh launched India's first heli-ambulance service, under the Centre's Sanjeevani scheme, to carry patients from remote hill areas of Uttarakhand to hospital.

AIIMS New Delhi, Bhubaneswar and Bhopal have not launched such a service, so they are wrong.

Answer: B

The key focus was Enhancing transparency and ensuring better governance of Waqf properties.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, passed by Parliament in April 2025 and renamed the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (UMEED) Act, amended the Waqf Act, 1995 to require online registration of waqf properties, revise the composition of waqf boards and the Central Waqf Council, and strengthen auditing and dispute processes.

It did not privatise waqf property, abolish waqf boards, or nationalise religious institutions.