Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: The report is a joint initiative developed by NITI Aayog in collaboration with CRISIL Intelligence to map out growth strategies for global integration.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Volume-I exclusively covers four foundational sectors—Chemicals, Textiles, Solar PV Manufacturing, and Telecom & Networking Products. The remaining eight sectors will be reviewed in subsequent volumes.

Statement 3 is incorrect: The textile sector is the second-largest employer in India, coming right after agriculture, providing livelihoods to over 45 million people.

Answer: C

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: Cascade frogs belong to the genus Amolops, comprising stream-dwelling frogs that thrive around fast-flowing hill streams, waterfalls, and rocky cascades.

Statement 2 is correct: Amolops ammachi (Ammachi's Cascade Frog) was found in the Jampui Hills of Tripura and named to honor late Kerala philanthropist Padmini Varkey, affectionately known as 'Ammachi'.

Answer: C

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: The creamy layer exclusion principle was created in the 1992 Indra Sawhney v. Union of India judgment specifically for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to filter out financially or socially advanced individuals.

Statement 2 is correct: Under Articles 341 and 342 of the Indian Constitution, the authority to notify, modify, include, or delete communities from the SC and ST lists vests with Parliament and the President, rather than through executive or judicial policy-making.

Answer: C

Explanation:

Assertion (A) is true: The Union Ministry's stand before the Supreme Court emphasizes that the constitutional intent of affirmative action for SCs and STs is to remedy centuries of structural and historical marginalization, spatial isolation, and untouchability, which cannot be measured or nullified strictly by income criteria.

Reason (R) is false: Economic progress or a high-income status does not automatically eliminate or wash away the deep-seated social prejudices, caste identities, and behavioral stigma attached to scheduled communities in hierarchical social structures. Hence, (R) is an incorrect statement.

Answer: C

Explanation:

Statement 1 is incorrect: On January 24, 1950, President of the Constituent Assembly Dr. Rajendra Prasad stated that Vande Mataram should be honored equally with the National Anthem (Jana Gana Mana). However, the Constituent Assembly officially adopted only the first two stanzas of the poem as the National Song. The remaining stanzas were left out due to historical objections regarding heavy religious imagery.

Statement 2 is correct: Traditionally, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 explicitly penalized desecration or disrespect directed toward the National Flag and the National Anthem. However, subsequent legislative corrections (including the recent Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act, 2026) extended statutory criminal protection to the National Song alongside the national anthem, making intentional insults to Vande Mataram a punishable offense.

Statement 3 is correct: Article 51A(a) of the Constitution states that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India "to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem." The text does not explicitly mention the National Song (Vande Mataram). The Supreme Court has also clarified in past judgments that while the National Song deserves equal respect, it lacks the explicit constitutional mandate of Article 51A(a) that applies to the National Anthem.

Answer: D

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the 1870s. It was written primarily in Sanskrit with certain Bengali phrases. It was later integrated into his famous 1882 novel, Anandamath, which was set against the backdrop of the Sannyasi Rebellion.

Statement 2 is correct: The song entered the active political sphere of the freedom movement in 1896, when Rabindranath Tagore set the poem to music and sang it publicly during the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress (INC).

Statement 3 is correct: The song transformed into a massive national slogan of resistance during the Swadeshi Movement (1905), triggered by Lord Curzon's decision to partition Bengal. It served as a powerful rallying cry across India, symbolizing the anti-colonial struggle and national unity, which ultimately prompted the British authorities to temporarily ban the public chanting of the slogan.