Daily Current Affairs Quiz for UPSC Prelims 2027 — 17 July 2026

The Supreme Court recently upheld the Election Commission's power under Article 324 to conduct the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, while noting that courts cannot interfere until the electoral process concludes. Which of the following correctly describes the position of judicial review over a Presiding Officer's decision on disqualification under the Tenth Schedule (Anti-Defection Law)?

Why this answer

The correct answer is that judicial review is available only after the Presiding Officer passes a final order, not before it — this is the settled position from Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu (1992), where the Supreme Court struck down the paragraph of the Tenth Schedule that had declared the Presiding Officer's decision final and beyond court jurisdiction, while also holding that courts cannot intervene at an interlocutory stage before the decision is made. The 'completely immune' option is wrong because the finality clause was struck down as unconstitutional. The 'President on advice of Council of Ministers' option is wrong — that route applies to disqualification of MPs/MLAs on OTHER grounds under Articles 103/192, not to Tenth Schedule defection cases, which are decided by the Presiding Officer of the House. The 'Election Commission has final authority' option is wrong — the ECI has no adjudicatory role in anti-defection disqualification; it advises the President only under Articles 103/192, a different track entirely.

The static concept

Tenth Schedule — Anti-Defection Law: disqualification is decided by the Presiding Officer of the House, subject to judicial review only after a final order (Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu, 1992).

The recent appointment of a new Special Representative to head the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has drawn attention to this UN field mission. Which one of the following statements about UNAMA is correct?

Why this answer

The correct statement is that UNAMA is a Special Political Mission established in 2002 by Security Council Resolution 1401, and has operated as an integrated mission since 2008. UNAMA is NOT a peacekeeping mission and does not deploy uniformed troops — it is a political mission focused on good offices, humanitarian coordination, and human rights, so the 'ceasefire enforcement by peacekeeping troops' claim is false. It was established by the Security Council, not the General Assembly, and its mandate has been periodically renewed through fresh Security Council resolutions (most recently Resolution 2822 (2026), extending it to June 2027) — not on an automatic five-year cycle. Finally, UNAMA's mandate did not lapse in 2021; it has continued to be renewed by the Security Council well beyond that year.

The static concept

United Nations peace and security architecture — Special Political Missions authorised by the UN Security Council, and the 2008 shift to 'integrated missions' coordinating all UN agencies, funds and programmes in a country.

The Union Cabinet has approved a new Rs 62,500 crore mobile phone manufacturing scheme, structured as a follow-on to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, aimed at pushing Indian firms beyond assembly into design, R&D, and component manufacturing. This PLI lineage reflects a deliberate post-1991 shift in India's industrial-policy toolkit. With reference to how a PLI scheme's incentive is actually disbursed to an eligible manufacturer, which of the following is correct?

Why this answer

The correct description is that PLI incentives are performance-linked: a fixed percentage of incremental sales of the notified product over a notified base year, paid out only after the manufacturer actually achieves that incremental sales growth — which is exactly why the new Rs 62,500 crore mobile-manufacturing scheme is being built as a PLI follow-on, rewarding real production and sales rather than mere intent to invest. The option describing an upfront capital subsidy paid before production begins describes the pre-liberalization protectionist model of industrial promotion, not PLI. The option describing a duty waiver 'irrespective of sales performance' fails on that very absolute — PLI is explicitly sales-contingent, and duty waivers are a separate instrument (customs/export-promotion schemes). The option describing an interest-free loan tied only to employment levels describes a different kind of scheme (employment-linked support), not PLI's sales-linked design.

The static concept

Post-1991 industrial policy — shift from a protectionist subsidy/licensing regime to performance-linked incentive instruments like the PLI scheme, promoting domestic manufacturing and value addition.

Iran has reportedly instructed the Houthi movement to prepare to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — the gateway to the Red Sea — if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which of the following best describes the legal position on any attempt to close this strait to international shipping?

Why this answer

The correct position is that transit passage through straits used for international navigation — which Bab el-Mandeb is, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean — cannot be suspended by the bordering coastal state (UNCLOS Article 44), unlike innocent passage through a territorial sea, which can be temporarily and non-discriminatorily suspended for security reasons. The statement claiming innocent passage (not transit passage) governs the strait, with a unilateral suspension right, mis-attributes the wrong regime to the wrong waters. The statement allowing suspension 'with prior notice to the IMO' invents an exception UNCLOS does not provide — transit passage has no notice-based suspension escape hatch. The statement limiting transit passage to merchant vessels is also wrong: UNCLOS Articles 37-38 extend the right to ships and aircraft of all states, including warships, without discrimination.

The static concept

UNCLOS Part III — Straits Used for International Navigation, Articles 37-44 (non-suspendable transit passage), contrasted with Part II Article 25 (suspendable innocent passage in the territorial sea).

The Enforcement Directorate's recent attachment of Rs 158.37 crore in assets belonging to Rockland Hospitals and its promoters, invoking the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 over alleged fake-implant and inflated-cost billing, has renewed attention on the ED's statutory powers. With reference to the PMLA framework, consider the following statements:

1. 1.The Directorate of Enforcement, which administers the PMLA, functions under the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance.
2. 2.A provisional attachment order under Section 5 of the PMLA can be issued by an officer not below the rank of Deputy Director and remains valid for up to 180 days.
3. 3.The Supreme Court has held that officials of the Enforcement Directorate are police officers, and hence statements recorded by them under Section 50 of the PMLA cannot be used as evidence in court.
4. 4.The Enforcement Directorate is required to file a complaint before the Adjudicating Authority within 60 days of issuing a provisional attachment order.

How many of the above statements are correct?

Why this answer

The answer is 'Only two' — statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 1 is right: the Enforcement Directorate, the agency that administers the PMLA, functions under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance — the same institutional route behind the Rs 158.37-crore Rockland Hospitals attachment. Statement 2 is right: under Section 5 of the PMLA, an officer not below the rank of Deputy Director can issue a provisional attachment order, valid for up to 180 days. Statement 3 is wrong — the Supreme Court has clarified that ED officials are NOT equivalent to police officers, which is precisely why statements recorded under Section 50 ARE admissible in court, the opposite of what the statement claims. Statement 4 is wrong on the numbers — the ED must file a complaint before the Adjudicating Authority within 30 days of a provisional attachment order, not 60 days.

The static concept

Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 — powers of the Enforcement Directorate: investigation, provisional attachment (Section 5), and adjudication (Section 6).

Backward Classes leaders in Andhra Pradesh have demanded restoration of 34% reservation in local self-government institutions, reviving attention on the constitutional architecture governing reservation in employment and in Panchayats. With reference to this architecture, consider the following pairs:

1. 1.Article 16(4A) — Reservation in matters of promotion, with consequential seniority, for SCs and STs inadequately represented in State services
2. 2.Article 243D(3) — Reservation of not less than one-third of directly elected Panchayat seats for women
3. 3.Article 243D(6) — Mandatory reservation of Panchayat seats for Other Backward Classes in every State
4. 4.Article 16(4B) — Treatment of a year's unfilled reserved vacancies as a separate class exempt from the 50% ceiling for that year
5. 5.Article 15(4) — Reservation of not less than one-third of Chairperson offices in Panchayats for women

How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?

Why this answer

The answer is 'Only three pairs' — pairs 1, 2, and 4 are correctly matched. Pair 1 is correct: Article 16(4A), inserted by the 77th Amendment Act (1995), covers reservation in promotion with consequential seniority for SCs/STs. Pair 2 is correct: Article 243D(3) mandates that not less than one-third of directly elected Panchayat seats be reserved for women. Pair 4 is correct: Article 16(4B), added by the 81st Amendment Act (2000), lets a year's unfilled reserved vacancies carry over as a separate class outside that year's 50% ceiling. Pair 3 is wrong: Article 243D(6) only ENABLES a State Legislature to reserve Panchayat seats for backward classes — it is not mandatory, unlike the SC/ST and women's reservations under 243D(1) and 243D(3). Pair 5 is wrong: the one-third reservation of Chairperson offices for women is under Article 243D(4), not Article 15(4), which deals with special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes generally.

The static concept

Article 243D — reservation of seats and Chairperson offices in Panchayats (SC/ST, women, and the enabling OBC clause), read alongside Articles 16(4A) and 16(4B) on reservation in public employment.

With reference to India's engagement in multilateral maritime security architecture, in the context of the Indian Navy hosting 'Operation Southern Readiness 26-2' at Kochi from July 20, consider the following statements:

1. 1.Operation Southern Readiness 26-2, hosted by the Indian Navy at Kochi, brings together Indian personnel with counterparts from partner nations of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a multinational naval partnership headquartered in Manama, Bahrain.
2. 2.India assumed command of CTF 154, the CMF task force mandated with counter-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden, in February 2026.
3. 3.The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) held its inaugural edition in India in 2015, marking the first instance of India chairing a multilateral Indian Ocean naval forum.
4. 4.MILAN, the Indian Navy's flagship multilateral naval exercise, is conducted exclusively with navies of Indian Ocean Rim littoral states, excluding any extra-regional participation.

How many of the above statements are correct?

Why this answer

The answer is 'Only one' — only the first statement is correct. Operation Southern Readiness 26-2 at Kochi does bring together the Indian Navy with CMF partner nations, and CMF is indeed a multinational naval partnership headquartered in Manama, Bahrain. The second statement is wrong: CTF 154, which India took command of in February 2026, is the CMF task force focused on training and capacity building — counter-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden are the mandate of CTF 151, not CTF 154. The third statement is wrong: the inaugural IONS was held in New Delhi in 2008, not 2015, with the Indian Navy chairing it for 2008-10. The fourth statement is wrong: MILAN has broadened well beyond Indian Ocean Rim littoral states in recent editions, drawing extra-regional navies such as the United States, France, Japan, and Australia — it is not an IOR-exclusive exercise.

The static concept

India's multilateral maritime security engagement — Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) task forces, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), and Indian Ocean Region naval diplomacy.

A recent report of a female crab found trapped inside a discarded plastic bottle off Okinawa, Japan — having entered as a juvenile and outgrown its plastic prison — has renewed focus on how anthropogenic marine debris harms ocean life. With reference to terms and phenomena associated with marine plastic pollution, consider the following pairs (List-I: Term — List-II: Correct description):

1. 1.Ghost fishing — Entanglement or death of marine organisms in abandoned or lost fishing gear
2. 2.Microplastics — Plastic particles larger than 5 millimetres formed by fragmentation of larger debris
3. 3.Bioaccumulation — Progressive increase in a pollutant's concentration at each successive trophic level
4. 4.Great Pacific Garbage Patch — A concentration of floating marine debris trapped by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre
5. 5.Endocrine disruption — Interference with an organism's hormonal system caused by chemical additives leaching from plastic debris

How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?

Why this answer

The answer is 'Only three pairs' — the Ghost fishing, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and Endocrine disruption pairs are correctly matched; the Microplastics and Bioaccumulation pairs are not. Ghost fishing correctly describes entanglement in lost/abandoned fishing gear — the mechanism that traps and kills marine animals like the Okinawa crab. Microplastics are conventionally defined as plastic particles SMALLER than 5 mm (not larger), so that pairing inverts the threshold. Bioaccumulation refers to a pollutant building up WITHIN a single organism over its lifetime from its environment/diet — the trophic-level increase described in that pair is actually biomagnification, a related but distinct process, so the pairing misattributes the term. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is correctly described as debris concentrated by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre's rotating currents. Endocrine disruption correctly describes how chemical additives (e.g., plasticisers) leaching from plastic debris interfere with marine organisms' hormonal systems.

The static concept

Marine & Coastal Ecosystems — anthropogenic plastic pollution (entanglement, microplastic ingestion, bioaccumulation/biomagnification, chemical leaching) degrading marine biodiversity and ecosystem integrity

Why this answer

Both statements are factually true, but R does not explain A. Assertion A is true: Iran has administered Greater Tunb Island since seizing it in 1971 as Britain withdrew from the Gulf, and the UAE (via Ras Al Khaimah) continues to dispute this. Reason R is also true: the Strait of Hormuz is the only sea route linking the Persian Gulf's oil exporters to the open ocean, which is exactly why it draws global attention, as seen in the recent U.S. strikes on Greater Tunb. However, R explains why the STRAIT is strategically important in general, not why IRAN specifically holds administrative control over the island rather than the UAE — that outcome is a matter of 1971 political history (the British withdrawal and Iran's unilateral occupation), not a consequence of the strait's role in energy transit. So the two statements are independently true without one causing the other.

The static concept

Strait of Hormuz — strategic chokepoint linking the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea; the Greater and Lesser Tunb Islands and Abu Musa as disputed Iran-UAE territories near its mouth.

Why this answer

Assertion (A) is true: the Supreme Court's December 2023 judgment in the Article 370 abrogation case recorded the Solicitor General's assurance that Statehood would be restored and directed Assembly elections 'at the earliest'. Reason (R) is false: converting a Union Territory into a full State under Article 3 does not require a Constitutional Amendment Bill under Article 368 — it requires only an ordinary law of Parliament, passed by simple majority, on the President's prior recommendation (the same Article 3 route used in reverse to demote J&K to Union Territory status in 2019). Since R is a false explanation of a true A, the correct choice is 'A is true but R is false'.

The static concept

Article 370 (abrogation) and Article 3 — Reorganisation of States, Federalism, and Union Territory Administration