UPSC Current Affairs Quiz: 5 October 2026 (Daily Prelims MCQs)

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is incorrect: the missile is designed to carry different payloads over ranges greater than 1,500 km for the armed forces. In the news: the flight test was conducted from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is incorrect: the Great Indian Bustard is listed in Schedule I, the highest protection category, not Schedule IV. In the news: the release on 3 and 4 October was initiated by the Union Environment Minister and the Rajasthan Chief Minister under Wildlife Institute of India supervision; the breeding programme holds 97 birds across its Sam and Ramdevra centres.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct. Statement 2 is incorrect: free-space QKD sends signals through open air along a line of sight, whereas fibre-based QKD uses optical fibre. In the news: QNu Labs, BISAG-N and IIT Gandhinagar demonstrated a 5.56 km link with a Quantum Bit Error Rate below 5% and secure key generation at 230 to 260 bits per second, pairing QNu Labs’ QKD device with BISAG-N’s Vedic Kavach system.

The week marks the launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957 and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty on 10 October 1967, the foundational instrument of international space law administered by UNOOSA. In the news: World Space Week 2026 began on 4 October under the UN-endorsed theme “Rocket Revolution”, and India is marking it with student rocketry and space-education events.

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is incorrect: besides the head, the Commission has two judicial members and two technical members with over 25 years of domain experience. In the news: the rules shift tribunal appointments from executive control toward a judiciary-led body and operationalise the Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2026’s National Tribunals Commission.

Statements 2 and 3 are correct. Statement 1 is incorrect: JJM was launched in 2019, not 2014. In the news: Jal Arpan was observed in over 1,850 Gram Panchayats on 3 October during a Special Gram Sabha around Gandhi Jayanti to strengthen local ownership under JJM 2.0; over 15.96 crore rural households, more than 82% of the target, now have tap water connections.

All three statements are correct. The idea is that evasion below a serious scale should stay a civil and administrative matter, while genuine intentional fraud would still be prosecuted through the regular criminal process under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. In the news: GST was rolled out in July 2017, and the Centre and States have negotiated this change for about eight to nine months.

Personal liberty is protected by Article 21, which says that no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. Article 14 deals with equality, Article 19(1)(g) with the freedom to practise any profession, and Article 300A with the right to property. In the news: a court-order requirement before GST arrests would essentially codify this reasoning in the statute.

The Act decriminalised minor, technical offences across dozens of laws, replacing jail terms with lighter penalties to improve trust-based governance. In the news: the proposed GST changes fit the same pattern of replacing field-level discretionary coercion with judicial or institutional checks, though critics warn the higher ₹5 crore threshold could shelter structured, mid-sized evasion.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island was formerly known as Wheeler Island and is DRDO’s principal missile test range off the Odisha coast. Sagar Island is in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, Pamban Island lies between Rameswaram and the mainland in Tamil Nadu, and Car Nicobar is in the Nicobar group. In the news: the test missile is designed for ranges greater than 1,500 km.