President Droupadi Murmu honoured India's cleanest cities at the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025-26 held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, convened by the Department of Urban Development under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Mentor city Ahmedabad with mentee city Sanand, mentor Indore with mentee Depalpur, and mentor Tirupati with mentee Kuppam were declared the top-ranked jodis under the Swachh Shehar Jodi award.
The cleanest city of India is among the most reliably asked facts in the whole paper, and this release gives a winner for each of five categories rather than one name. Three of the categories are new this year, so the River Front, Coastal Town and Himalayan City winners have no earlier edition to confuse them with.
Linked static GK: Swachh Survekshan is the annual cleanliness survey of urban India conducted under the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The Super Swachh League is a separate tier for cities that have repeatedly ranked at the top, so they compete with each other rather than with the rest of the field.
Urban waste processing has risen from 16 per cent to 80 per cent since 2014 and door-to-door waste collection from 44 per cent to over 96 per cent, the Swachh Survekshan award ceremony was told.
Since 2014, urban waste processing has increased from 16 per cent to 80 per cent, while door-to-door waste collection coverage has risen from 44 per cent to over 96 per cent.
Under the PRAGATI-50 initiative, 50 cities are to be developed as Model Clean Cities through technology-driven interventions and continuous monitoring.
Nearly 2.10 crore citizens participated in Swachhata Hi Seva 2026, around 17 lakh SafaiMitras benefited through over 33,000 special camps, and nearly 4 lakh children took part in Gyan Yatras.
A before-and-after pair of percentages is the easiest thing in a release to build a question on, and the 11,000 acres freed from legacy dumpsites is the figure a candidate is least likely to have seen elsewhere. PRAGATI-50 is a named initiative with a number inside its own name.
Linked static GK: Legacy waste is the accumulated mixed waste in old dumpsites, and remediation means processing it and reclaiming the land rather than capping it in place. The Swachh Bharat Mission Urban began in 2014.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum at the North and South Block Complex, New Delhi, at an estimated cost of Rs 3,230 crore.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the development of the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum at the North and South Block Complex, New Delhi, at an estimated total project cost of Rs 3,230 crore, as appraised by the Public Investment Board.
A superlative with a number attached is the most askable kind of fact there is, and this release carries two of them: the project cost and the claim to the largest display area in the world. The building being reused is itself the answer to a separate question.
Linked static GK: The North and South Blocks on Raisina Hill were designed by Herbert Baker and have housed central government ministries since the 1930s. Their offices are being relocated under the Central Vista redevelopment, which is what frees the buildings for reuse.
The Union Cabinet approved the extension of the Aqua Line metro corridor from Noida Sector-51 to Greater Noida Sector-04, a length of 8.449 km with 5 elevated stations.
The Union Cabinet approved the extension of the Aqua Line Metro Rail Corridor from Noida Sector-51 to Greater Noida Sector-04 of the Noida Metro Rail Project, for a length of 8.449 km with 5 elevated stations.
The corridor is intended to reduce travel times and improve access to transportation hubs including Delhi's airport, Delhi's railway stations and various bus depots.
A metro approval is asked on its length, its station count and the network total it produces, and this release states all three. The corridor length to three decimal places is the kind of figure that is either known or guessed.
Linked static GK: The Noida Metro Rail Corporation runs the Aqua Line, which is separate from the Delhi Metro's Blue Line but interchanges with it. A metro extension of this kind is approved by the Union Cabinet because the Centre shares the project cost with the state.
The Union Cabinet approved Nutrient Based Subsidy rates for the Rabi season 2026-27 on phosphatic and potassic fertilizers, at a tentative budgetary requirement of about Rs 62,370.02 crore.
The Government makes available 28 grades of P&K fertilizers including DAP to farmers at subsidized prices through fertilizer manufacturers and importers.
The subsidy figure and the year the NBS Scheme began are both single-number questions, and the jump of over Rs 24,000 crore against the previous Rabi season is the comparison a paper would use to ask which way the subsidy requirement moved.
Linked static GK: Nutrient Based Subsidy fixes a per-kilogram subsidy on each nutrient, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur, rather than on the fertilizer product, so the retail price moves with international input costs. Urea is outside the NBS scheme and remains under statutory price control.
The Union Cabinet approved the continuation of the Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units for five years up to 31.03.2031, with the guarantee fee cut from 1 per cent to 0.75 per cent a year.
The scheme provides credit guarantee coverage to lending institutions through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited against default risk.
As on September 2026, more than 60.36 crore loans amounting to Rs 43.34 lakh crore had been sanctioned by lending institutions since the launch of the PM Mudra Scheme.
The fund guarantees loans to eligible micro enterprises under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana up to Rs 20 lakh, overdrafts of up to Rs 10,000 under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts, and loans to Self Help Groups where the portfolio is between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 20 lakh.
Banking papers ask the guarantee ceiling and the guaranteeing body by name, and both are stated here. The fee moving from 1 per cent to 0.75 per cent is the change this approval actually makes, as distinct from the continuation itself.
Linked static GK: A credit guarantee fund does not lend. It promises the lender partial compensation if the borrower defaults, which lets banks lend to borrowers who have no collateral. The National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company is the trustee that operates several such funds for the Department of Financial Services.
The scheme aims to promote entrepreneurship among women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and to provide financial assistance to an additional 2.5 lakh entrepreneurs in a span of five years.
The loan can be a composite loan or a term loan for amounts above Rs 10.00 lakh and up to Rs 1.00 crore, covering up to 85 per cent of the project cost.
The loan band from above Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore is the defining feature of Stand-Up India and the thing most often confused with Mudra's ceiling, so a paper asks it directly. The eligible borrower groups are the other standing question.
Linked static GK: Stand-Up India is distinct from the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana in both borrower and size: Mudra lends to any micro enterprise up to Rs 20 lakh, while Stand-Up India lends above Rs 10 lakh and only to women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs setting up a new enterprise.
Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India and ICAR-CMFRI identified a new deep-sea shark from the Indian Ocean, named Echinorhinus roinee and called the Indian Bramble Shark.
Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India and the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute identified a new species of deep-sea shark from the Indian Ocean.
The species has been formally named Echinorhinus roinee and is commonly known as the Indian Bramble Shark, having earlier been misidentified for several decades as the Atlantic bramble shark.
The specimens were collected from Sakthikulangara Fishing Harbour in Kollam district of Kerala, where they were landed as bycatch by deep-sea shrimp trawlers.
Genetic analysis confirmed that Echinorhinus roinee is a distinct Indian Ocean lineage, genetically separate from the Atlantic bramble shark Echinorhinus brucus and the Pacific prickly shark Echinorhinus cookei.
A newly described species is asked on its name, the body of water and the institution that described it. The Zoological Survey of India also described a new electric ray from the Arabian Sea on 27 October 2026, so a stem that says only a new ZSI species would be ambiguous and this one names the shark.
Linked static GK: The Zoological Survey of India, founded in 1916 and headquartered in Kolkata, is the body that surveys and documents India's faunal diversity. A species described from bycatch is one found in nets targeting something else, which is how most deep-sea discoveries reach science.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade prohibited the export of Lithium-Ion Battery Black Mass, moving the item from Free to Prohibited with immediate effect.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Department of Commerce, has prohibited the export of Lithium-Ion Battery Black Mass falling under ITC(HS) Code 85491400.
By Notification No. 49/2026-27 dated 10 November 2026, the export policy of the item was amended from Free to Prohibited with immediate effect and until further orders.
ITC(HS) Code 85491400 covers waste and scrap of primary cells, primary batteries and electric accumulators, as well as spent cells, batteries and accumulators which are unsorted and do not contain lead, cadmium or mercury.
An export policy change is asked by the item and the direction of the change, and the four critical minerals recoverable from black mass are a named set a paper would ask a candidate to complete.
Linked static GK: The ITC(HS) code is the eight-digit classification India uses for traded goods, and the Foreign Trade Policy assigns each code an export status of Free, Restricted, Prohibited or State Trading Enterprise. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry issues these notifications.
The Ministry of Defence signed a Rs 498.58 crore contract with Cochin Shipyard Limited for the refit and re-powering of INS Betwa, replacing its steam propulsion with diesel engines.
defence · upsc-prelims, ssc-cgl, cds, nda, afcat
The Ministry of Defence signed a contract worth Rs 498.58 crore with Cochin Shipyard Limited for the Normal Refit and Re-powering of Indian Naval Ship Betwa.
INS Betwa, a Brahmaputra-class frigate of the Indian Navy, will undergo a major propulsion system transformation involving the replacement of its existing steam-based propulsion system with a diesel-engine-based propulsion system.
The ship's class and the shipyard are the two askable names here, and a steam to diesel conversion is unusual enough to be the hook a question hangs on.
Linked static GK: A frigate is a mid-sized warship used mainly for escort and patrol. Cochin Shipyard Limited is a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and it built India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant.
The fifth edition of the pan-India coastal defence exercise Sea Vigil-26 is being held from 11 to 19 November 2026, coordinated by the Indian Navy.
defence · upsc-prelims, ssc-cgl, cds, nda, ssc-gd
The fifth edition of the Pan-India Coastal Defence Exercise Sea Vigil-26 is being held from 11 to 19 November 2026, coordinated by the Indian Navy as the lead agency.
The exercise is being conducted in two phases, the Coastal Defence and Security Readiness Evaluation phase from 11 to 17 November 2026, followed by the Sea Phase on 18 and 19 November 2026.
Exercise Sea Vigil was conceptualised in 2018 to validate the measures instituted to strengthen maritime security in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
The year Sea Vigil was conceptualised and the attack it responds to are the durable facts, and the exercise it builds up to is the pairing a paper tests.
Linked static GK: Sea Vigil is a coastal defence exercise, which means it tests the whole chain of coastal security including state police, customs and fishing communities, rather than only naval units. TROPEX is the Navy's own large-scale operational exercise at sea.
Myanmar Navy Ship UMS King Sin Phyu Shin arrived at Visakhapatnam on 10 November 2026 to participate in the exercise alongside INS Rana and INS Sumedha.
The Harbour Phase includes professional interactions, Subject Matter Expert Exchanges, cross-deck visits, sporting engagements and discussions on operational matters.
The archive now holds two India-Myanmar exercises from the same week, the inaugural tri-services HADR exercise Rahat Mitra at Chennai and this naval exercise at Visakhapatnam, so the edition number is only safe to ask when the stem names IMNEX. The visiting ship's name is the other askable fact.
Linked static GK: IMNEX is a bilateral naval exercise, which is a different thing from a tri-services humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise with the same two countries. A harbour phase is conducted in port before the ships put to sea for the sea phase.
Janjatiya Gaurav Pakhwada is being observed from 1 to 15 November 2026, culminating in Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas on 15 November, the birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs will observe Janjatiya Gaurav Pakhwada across the country from 1 to 15 November 2026, culminating in Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas on 15 November, the birth anniversary of Dharti Aaba Bhagwan Birsa Munda.
The Government of India designated 15 November as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas in 2021 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dharti Aaba Bhagwan Birsa Munda.
The 150th birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda was observed as Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh in 2024-25, with over 28 national-level events and more than 2 lakh activities that drew over 3.8 crore participants.
The date of Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas, the year it was designated and whose birth anniversary it marks are three separate standing questions, and this release states all three. The list of past host locations is the kind of sequence a paper asks a candidate to place.
Linked static GK: Birsa Munda led the Ulgulan or Great Tumult against colonial rule in the Chhotanagpur region and is known as Dharti Aaba, Father of the Earth. Eklavya Model Residential Schools are run for tribal students by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
In Punjab, Phase-II of Census 2027, the Population Enumeration, will be conducted from 1 December 2026 to 4 January 2027, with 5 January 2027 as the state's reference date.
Phase-II, Population Enumeration, in the State of Punjab will be conducted from 1 December 2026 to 4 January 2027, with the Reference Date as 00:00 hours of 5 January 2027.
The forthcoming Census activities in Punjab are the flag-off of Digital LED Vans on 11 November 2026, Self-Enumeration from 16 to 30 November 2026, Population Enumeration from 1 December 2026 to 4 January 2027, a Reference Date of 5 January 2027, and a Revision Round of 3 to 5 days after Population Enumeration to cover left-out persons.
The Digital LED Vans for the publicity and awareness campaign of Census 2027 Phase-II were flagged off on 11 November 2026 by the Director, Census Operations, Punjab.
Every fact here names Punjab, and that is deliberate rather than stylistic. Punjab's reference date of 5 January 2027 is NOT the all-India reference date of 1 March 2027 that the archive already publishes, so an unscoped fact would contradict a published day. For the same reason no question on this item asks a reference date.
Linked static GK: A census reference date is the instant to which every answer refers, so a person is counted where they were at that moment regardless of when the enumerator calls. States enumerated on an earlier schedule therefore have their own reference date, which is why Punjab's differs from the all-India one.
On 27 August 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs reduced the number of main visa categories from 13 to 9 and the number of sub-categories from 49 to 23.
This follows the earlier rationalisation undertaken in October 2025, when the main visa categories were reduced from 22 to 13 and sub-categories from 63 to 49.
For foreign students enrolled in Indian educational institutions through the Study in India portal, the e-S1 Visa may be granted for up to five years or for the duration of the academic course, whichever is less, with multiple entries.
The count of visa categories before and after is a clean pair, and the number of countries eligible for e-visa is a standing figure that changes rarely enough to be worth asking. The Tourist to Visitor renaming is the kind of change a paper tests by the new name.
Linked static GK: A visa category defines the purpose of travel permitted, while sub-categories set the duration and conditions. India's e-visa is an electronic travel authorization applied for online, as distinct from a visa stamped at an Indian embassy or consulate abroad.