UPSC Quiz – 2026 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 17th October 2026

Solution (c)
Explanation: The World Health Summit (WHS) 2026 was held from 11–13 October 2026 in Berlin, Germany, and online, with the theme “From Crisis to Resilience: Innovating for Health.” It is organised by the WHS Foundation GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and was established in 2009 as an international, multi-stakeholder forum bringing together policymakers, scientists, health professionals, civil society and the private sector; the 2026 edition drew over 4,000 in-person participants from 130 countries and more than 50,000 livestream views. Statement 2 is incorrect on a critical institutional point: the World Health Summit does not elect the WHO Director-General — it is a dialogue and collaboration forum, whereas the World Health Assembly is WHO’s principal decision-making body that meets under WHO’s framework, generally in Geneva, where Member States decide on WHO policies and key institutional matters. Statement 3 is correct: a major highlight was the first public discussion featuring prospective candidates for the next WHO Director-General, focusing on reforming global health governance, pandemic preparedness, health equity, digital health, and conflict and climate impacts.
Why this question? The Summit-vs.-Assembly institutional confusion is a high-value trap; conflating a dialogue forum with WHO’s decision-making body is precisely what UPSC tests.
Why important for UPSC? Global health governance, WHO institutional architecture and international organisations are recurring IR-health prelims themes.
PYQ Pattern Link: Similar to questions distinguishing international forums from the formal decision-making bodies of UN agencies.

Solution (b)
Explanation: WINDS (Weather Information Network and Data System) is a scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, implemented by the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC). Its purpose is to establish a nationwide network of weather sensors providing hyperlocal weather data for agricultural advisories, crop insurance and disaster-risk management, and it is linked to the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Its technical components are Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) — measuring temperature, humidity, rainfall and wind — and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG), with proposed coverage of AWS at Block/Tehsil/Taluk level and ARG at Gram Panchayat level. Option (a) misattributes it to the Ministry of Earth Sciences and describes satellites rather than ground sensors. Option (c) misdescribes it as an irrigation advisory platform. Option (d) misattributes it to IMD radar networks. The rollout has been delayed due to a shortage of suitable land and disagreements over rooftop versus ground-level placement; as of July 2026, seven States/UTs had adopted WINDS with 16,843 sites approved, civil works complete at 1,188 sites and 892 AWS/ARG units installed — meaning over 96% of planned units remained uninstalled per an October 2026 report.
Why this question? The ministry-implementing agency linkage and the AWS/ARG component structure are the primary discriminators, with IMD/MoES systems as distractors.
Why important for UPSC? Agricultural technology, crop insurance and weather infrastructure are recurring agriculture-governance prelims themes.
PYQ Pattern Link: Similar to one-liner questions identifying schemes by their nodal ministry, implementing agency and component structure.

Solution (a)
Explanation: Varunastra is a ship-launched, heavy-weight, electrically propelled anti-submarine torpedo developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam, under DRDO, and manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad. It detects, tracks and engages enemy submarines in shallow and deep waters, including challenging countermeasure environments, using active-passive acoustic homing, wire guidance and advanced autonomous navigation, with contra-rotating propellers. Its specifications include length 7.78 m, diameter 533.4 mm, maximum speed about 40 knots, operating depth 8–600 m, combat weight approximately 1,850 kg and a high-explosive warhead. On 15 October 2026, the Ministry of Defence signed a ₹1,543 crore contract with BDL for Varunastra torpedoes, as part of a broader ₹4,106 crore procurement package that also includes the GSAT-7C communication satellite for the Indian Air Force. JWALA is a short-range surface-to-air micro-missile developed by IG Defence, an Indian private-sector defence technology company, primarily for Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) against hostile drones, with a range of 2–5 km and engagement altitude of approximately 50 m to 5,000 m, powered by a dual-pulse solid rocket motor. Statement 3 is incorrect: JWALA is preparing for its maiden experimental flight trial following successful tests of two solid rocket motors in October 2026 — successful rocket-motor tests do not mean the complete missile has passed flight trials or entered operational service. JWALA is being developed as the hard-kill interceptor within IG Defence’s GRID Defend AI-enabled battle-management architecture, alongside the T-SHUL BEAM soft-kill electronic countermeasure system.
Why this question? The “entered operational service” trap is the key discriminator, testing the distinction between component tests and full weapon-system qualification.
Why important for UPSC? Indigenous defence systems, private-sector defence development and procurement contracts are recurring defence prelims themes.
PYQ Pattern Link: Similar to questions distinguishing DRDO-developed systems from private-sector developments and testing stages from induction.

Solution (a)
Explanation: Sukhna Wetland is located in Chandigarh, at the foothills of the Outer Himalayas, and is a peri-urban reservoir that helps regulate sediment and water flows from its catchment. Its habitats include open water, littoral vegetation, scrub and forest, and it supports resident and migratory waterbirds along the Central Asian Flyway. Its important species include the Common pochard (Aythya ferina) — Vulnerable, Pallas’s fish eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus) — Endangered and Black pond turtle (Geoclemys hamiltonii) — Endangered. Sauj Jheel is located in Uttar Pradesh, in the Ganga River floodplain, as a shallow lake surrounded by agricultural land that forms part of a wider wetland network and is located near Saman Bird Sanctuary. Its vegetation includes sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) and wild sugarcane (Saccharum spontaneum), and its important bird species include the Sarus crane (Grus antigone) — Vulnerable and Greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga) — Vulnerable. On 15 October 2026, India added both sites to the Ramsar List, taking India’s total to 103 Ramsar sites. Statement 3 is incorrect on its second claim — and this is the explicit exam trap: a Ramsar designation recognises a wetland’s international importance; it does not automatically make the site a national park or wildlife sanctuary. The Ramsar Convention was adopted in 1971 at Ramsar, Iran, entered into force in 1975, concerns the conservation and wise use of wetlands, has its Secretariat in Gland, Switzerland, and India became a Contracting Party in 1982.
Why this question? The “Ramsar = national park” trap is flagged explicitly in the source and is a classic UPSC legal-status conflation; the species-IUCN pairing adds precision.
Why important for UPSC? Wetland conservation, Ramsar Convention and protected area categories are recurring environment prelims themes.
PYQ Pattern Link: Similar to questions on Ramsar sites, their numbers and the legal implications of international designations.

Solution (b)
Explanation: The Yenisei River is located in Central Siberia, Russia, and is formed at Kyzyl, Russia, by the confluence of the Great Yenisei (Biy-Khem) and Little Yenisei (Kaa-Khem). It flows predominantly from south to north through Siberia and empties into the Kara Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. Its major tributary is the Angara River, which drains Lake Baikal. The Yenisei–Angara river system is important for Siberia’s hydropower, transport and ecosystems, with its basin including extensive boreal forests known as the Siberian taiga. Option (a) misstates the flow direction and the receiving sea. Option (c) confuses the Yenisei with the Angara (which drains Lake Baikal) and misstates the mouth. Option (d) misidentifies it as a tributary of the Lena and misstates the receiving sea. Key prelims map pointers: Yenisei → Kara Sea → Arctic Ocean; Ob River → Gulf of Ob → Kara Sea; Lena River → Laptev Sea → Arctic Ocean. The river came into the news after deadly brown bear attacks near Podtesovo, a settlement on its banks in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, prompting local hunters to hunt bears, with reports linking increased human–bear encounters to food shortages and milder winters — highlighting how changing seasonal conditions, food availability and human waste management can influence wildlife movement and human–wildlife conflict.
Why this question? The source-mouth-flow direction triad is the primary discriminator, with the Arctic-draining river cluster (Yenisei, Ob, Lena) as a high-value elimination framework.
Why important for UPSC? World rivers, Arctic drainage systems and human-wildlife conflict are recurring geography-environment prelims themes.
PYQ Pattern Link: Similar to one-liner questions on major world rivers, their sources, mouths and drainage into specific seas.