18 November 2025 · Shift 1

Operation Brahma India launched Operation Brahma in March 2025 to rush Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) to Myanmar after a powerful earthquake struck that country. Relief material, medicines, tents, a field hospital and NDRF search-and-rescue teams were flown in within hours, keeping up India's record as a first responder in its neighbourhood. India habitually names such missions: Operation Dost went to Turkey and Syria in 2023, and Operation Karuna went to Myanmar after Cyclone Mocha in 2023. So option (c) is correct.

Srinivasa Ramanujan Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 at Erode, Tamil Nadu, and died on 26 April 1920, so he was about 32 years old. Almost entirely self-taught, he produced remarkable results in number theory, infinite series, continued fractions and partitions, and worked at Cambridge with G. H. Hardy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918, among the youngest ever to receive that honour. His birthday, 22 December, is observed in India as National Mathematics Day. So option (c) is correct.

ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan took charge as Chairman of ISRO in January 2025, succeeding S. Somanath. He is also Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission. Before this he headed the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) and led the work on cryogenic and semi-cryogenic engines used by the GSLV and LVM3 launchers. G. Madhavan Nair, A. S. Kiran Kumar and U. R. Rao are all earlier ISRO Chairmen, not the 2025 appointee. So option (b) is correct.

BrahMos Aerospace Dr. Jaiteerth Raghavendra Joshi assumed charge as CEO and Managing Director of BrahMos Aerospace in November 2024, succeeding Atul Dinkar Rane. He is a DRDO missile scientist known for his work on navigation, guidance and control systems. BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture set up in 1998 by India's DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya; the name joins the Brahmaputra and the Moskva. The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile of about Mach 2.8 that can be launched from land, sea, air and submarine platforms. So option (a) is correct.

Coal Secretary appointment Vikram Dev Dutt, a senior IAS officer, was appointed Secretary, Ministry of Coal in October 2024. He moved to the post from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), where he was Director General, and had earlier served as CMD of Air India. The Ministry of Coal administers Coal India Limited, NLC India Limited and the commercial auction of coal blocks. So option (b) is correct.

Union Budget 2025 announcements The Union Budget 2025-26 announced that 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) will be set up in government schools over the next 5 years. An Atal Tinkering Lab is an innovation workspace under the Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog, equipped with robotics kits, 3D printers, sensors and electronics so that school children can build and test their own ideas. More than 10,000 ATLs had already been sanctioned before this announcement, so the new target expands the network several times over and takes it deeper into rural and government schools. Hence the correct option is (b).

SATAT and compressed bio-gas SATAT — Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation — is an initiative of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. It was launched in October 2018 with the public sector oil marketing companies (IOCL, BPCL, HPCL) as the buyers, so that entrepreneurs can set up Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) plants and sell the gas at an assured price for use as an automotive fuel. The scheme turns agricultural residue, cattle dung, press mud and municipal solid waste into fuel, which cuts crude oil imports, checks stubble burning and gives farmers an extra income. The petroleum ministry, and not the renewable energy or power ministry, owns SATAT because CBG is sold through the fuel-retailing network. Hence the correct option is (c).

Cricket terminology A delivery that the umpire judges to be out of the batter's reach — so far off the line or over the height limit that the batter had no fair chance of playing a normal stroke — is signalled a wide ball. The umpire signals it by stretching both arms out horizontally. The other options describe legal or differently illegal deliveries: a bouncer is a short-pitched ball rising towards the batter, a no ball is illegal for reasons such as overstepping the crease, and a full toss reaches the batter without pitching. Hence the correct option is (c).

Track event categories In athletics the 800 m and the 1500 m are the two classic middle-distance races. Track races are grouped by distance: up to 400 m the race is run almost entirely at top speed (sprints); from 800 m to 1500 m the runner must balance speed with endurance (middle distance); 3000 m and beyond is long distance. Marathon (42.195 km) is a road race and the 3000 m steeplechase is a barrier-and-water-jump event, so neither covers the 800 m and 1500 m. Hence the correct option is (b).

Asian Games records PT Usha holds the record for the most Asian Games medals won by an Indian athlete — 11 in all, 4 gold and 7 silver. She took 2 silver at New Delhi 1982, a remarkable 4 gold and 1 silver at Seoul 1986, 3 silver at Beijing 1990 and 1 silver at Hiroshima 1994. Called the 'Queen of Indian Track and Field' (Payyoli Express), she narrowly missed a 400 m hurdles bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by 1/100th of a second, and became President of the Indian Olympic Association in 2022. KD Jadhav (Olympic wrestling bronze, 1952) and Sachin Nag (swimming gold, 1951 Asian Games) won far fewer medals, and Dutee Chand is a sprinter with only a couple of Asian Games silvers. Hence the correct option is (c).

Extras in cricket When the umpire calls a wide, 1 penalty run is added automatically to the batting side's total as an extra. The delivery is also not counted as one of the six legal balls of the over, so the bowler must bowl it again. Any runs the batters actually run, or four overthrows, are added on top of that single penalty run, and the batters may still be stumped or run out off a wide. Hence the correct option is (c).

Ranji Trophy titles Karnataka stands second in the list of most Ranji Trophy titles with 8 championships. Mumbai is far ahead at the top with 42 titles, followed by Karnataka (8), Delhi (7) and Baroda (5). Karnataka, playing as Mysore till 1973, won its first title in 1973-74 and its most recent in 2014-15. The Ranji Trophy, India's premier first-class domestic tournament, began in 1934-35 and is named after Ranjitsinhji, the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar. Hence the correct option is (b).

AI in wildlife protection The TrailGuard AI anti-poaching system has been deployed in the Similipal Tiger Reserve of Odisha. It is a camera-and-sensor device, developed by the NGO RESOLVE, whose on-board artificial intelligence recognises a human, a vehicle or an animal in the frame and sends the image to forest officials within about 30 seconds. Because the alert is instant, patrol teams can intercept intruders before a kill takes place; Similipal reported a sharp fall in poaching after the system was installed. Similipal, in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, is also a biosphere reserve and is famous for its melanistic (black) tigers. Hence the correct option is (c).

Operation Falcon, Assam Operation Falcon is the Assam government's anti-poaching drive whose primary objective is to protect the one-horned rhinoceros from poachers. Run jointly by the state police and the forest department, it works on intelligence about the poaching and horn-trafficking network — tracking couriers, financiers and cross-border links — rather than only guarding the animals inside the park. The results were announced in August 2025: dozens of arrests, several poaching bids foiled and a stretch of zero rhino poaching in the state. Assam holds the largest share of the world's greater one-horned rhino population, chiefly in Kaziranga (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Orang, Pobitora and Manas. Hence the correct option is (c).

Olympic debut of sports Table tennis became an official Olympic sport in 1988, at the Seoul Games. Four events were held there — men's and women's singles and doubles; mixed doubles was added much later, at Tokyo 2020. The sport's world body, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), was founded in 1926 in London, with India among its nine founding members. Badminton, the other option students often confuse with it, made its Olympic debut in 1992 at Barcelona. Hence the correct option is (b).

ICC World Cup hosts The ICC Men's ODI Cricket World Cup 2027 is to be hosted in Africa — jointly by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. It will be the first ODI World Cup for Namibia as a host, and the first in Africa since the 2003 edition, which South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya staged together. The 2027 tournament returns to a 14-team format played in two groups of seven, with a Super Six stage. Hence the correct option is (d).

Folk dances of Tamil Nadu Kummi is the Tamil Nadu folk dance in which women stand in a circle and clap their hands rhythmically as they sing. It needs no musical instrument at all — the clapping itself keeps the beat — and it is performed at harvest festivals such as Pongal and at temple celebrations. Karagattam is danced with a decorated pot balanced on the head and Oyilattam is a men's dance with colourful kerchiefs, while Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form, not a folk dance. Hence the correct option is (b).

Revenue expenditure Interest paid by the government on its borrowings is revenue expenditure. The test is twofold: an expenditure is revenue expenditure if it neither creates an asset for the government nor reduces its liabilities. Interest payment does neither — the loan amount stays outstanding after the interest is paid. Repayment of the principal, by contrast, reduces a liability and is therefore capital expenditure. Salaries, pensions, subsidies and grants-in-aid are the other standard examples of revenue expenditure, and interest payment is in fact the single largest item in the Union government's revenue expenditure. Hence the correct option is (c).

Currency printing in India Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNML) was set up in 1995 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India. It was created because the two government presses at Nashik and Dewas could not meet the country's growing demand for banknotes. Its corporate office is in Bengaluru and its two presses are at Mysuru (Karnataka) and Salboni (West Bengal). So India has four note presses in all — two of the Government of India (SPMCIL) and two of BRBNML. Hence the correct option is (b).

RBI liquidity instruments The fixed-rate repo in government securities was introduced by the Reserve Bank of India in 1997. In a repo the bank sells government securities to the RBI and agrees to buy them back later; making the rate fixed and pre-announced let banks park or raise short-term funds against G-secs at a known cost. This instrument was the forerunner of today's Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), which the RBI began in June 2000 on the recommendation of the Narasimham Committee II, and in which the repo rate is now the policy rate. Hence the correct option is (a).

Clearing Corporation of India The Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL) was incorporated in 2001 and began operations in February 2002 with the settlement of government securities trades. It works as the central counterparty: it steps in between the buyer and the seller and guarantees settlement, so a default by one member does not spread through the market. Set up under the Companies Act with the State Bank of India as chief promoter, it is regulated by the RBI and today clears G-secs, money market (repo, TREPS), forex and rupee derivative trades. It also runs NDS-OM, the RBI's anonymous order-matching platform for government securities. Hence the correct option is (a).

Census 2001 sex ratio The Census of India 2001 recorded a sex ratio of 933 females per 1,000 males. That was a gain of 6 points over 1991, when the figure stood at 927 — the lowest of the century. Census 2011 improved it further to 943, the best since independence; Kerala had the highest state sex ratio and Haryana the lowest in both counts. The child sex ratio (0-6 years) moved the other way, falling from 927 in 2001 to 919 in 2011. Hence the correct option is (c).

Gross and net value added Net Value Added is obtained by subtracting depreciation — the consumption of fixed capital — from Gross Value Added. In symbols, NVA = GVA - Depreciation. The word 'gross' in national income accounting always means 'before deducting depreciation'; machines, buildings and tools wear out while producing, and that loss of value must be made good before the output can be called a net addition to the economy's wealth. Net indirect taxes are what separate 'at market price' from 'at factor cost', not gross from net, and wages are a part of value added, not a deduction from it. Hence the correct option is (b).

Life of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama meditated under a pipal tree on the bank of the Niranjana (Phalgu) river at Bodh Gaya and attained enlightenment there, becoming the Buddha. The tree came to be called the Bodhi tree and the Mahabodhi Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bihar, stands at the spot today. The other options mark different episodes: he was born at Lumbini, gave his first sermon at Sarnath, and Nalanda was a Buddhist university of a much later age. Hence the correct option is (b).

Harappan sites and rivers Harappa, excavated between 1920 and 1922, stands on the left bank of the river Ravi in the Sahiwal district of Punjab, Pakistan. Daya Ram Sahni carried out the excavation under the Archaeological Survey of India, and because this was the first site of the civilisation to be dug, the whole culture is named the Harappan Civilisation. Mohenjodaro, excavated by R D Banerji in 1922, lies on the Indus, so a common error is to place Harappa on the Indus too — it is on the Ravi, a tributary of the Indus. Finds at Harappa include the granaries, the workmen's quarters and cemetery R-37. Hence the correct option is (a).