Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is incorrect: The Karnataka Cabinet decided to grant Tulu the status of a second additional administrative/official language strictly restricted to the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, rather than across the entire state.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Tulu is recognized as an independent, non-scheduled language by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. However, it is not included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution (which currently contains 22 scheduled languages). Inclusion in the Eighth Schedule requires a formal constitutional/parliamentary amendment.

Statement 3 is correct: Article 345 of the Indian Constitution empowers the Legislature of a State to adopt by law one or more languages in use in the State (or Hindi) for any or all of the official purposes of that State.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: Article 347 grants special power to the President. If a substantial proportion of a state's population demands the recognition of any language they speak, the President can direct that such a language shall be officially recognized throughout the state or in any specific part of it.

Statement 2 is incorrect: According to legal experts, an executive Cabinet decision serves as a policy approval or intent; however, to fully implement and legally alter an existing statutory framework (such as the Karnataka Official Language Act, 1963), a formal legislative amendment must be passed by the State Legislature, receive the Governor's assent, and be notified officially.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: The Himalayan Monal is a striking Himalayan pheasant and a ground-dwelling bird. It occupies high-altitude ecosystems like sub-alpine and alpine areas, oak-mixed forests, coniferous forests, rhododendron scrub, and mountain grasslands. Research confirms it can occur at elevations ranging from approximately 2,400 to 4,500 meters and shows a pattern of changing its altitude seasonally.

Statement 2 is incorrect: While the Himalayan Monal is indeed the official state bird of Uttarakhand, its conservation status on the IUCN Red List is Least Concern, not Endangered. Despite facing challenges like climate-driven habitat changes, it is not currently classified as threatened globally.

Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is incorrect: The India-China trade deficit is not driven by Indian consumer demand for Chinese finished retail goods. Nearly 70% of India's imports from China comprise intermediate goods (semi-processed goods and raw components), and another 22% are capital goods. Thus, the trade deficit is heavily built on manufacturing inputs required by Indian factories.

Statement 2 is correct: India has successfully scaled up final downstream assembly lines (such as smartphones and consumer electronics) under missions like Atmanirbhar Bharat and the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes. However, because this growth lacks a deeply rooted domestic precision-component ecosystem, every surge in domestic final assembly requires a matching parallel surge in imported intermediate parts from China—creating the structural phenomenon known as the "assembly trap".

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: Species like orangutans are heavily protected under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which places them under Appendix I, strictly prohibiting commercial international trade.

Statement 2 is incorrect: TRAFFIC is a leading non-governmental organization working globally on trade monitoring. However, it is not a bureau under UNEP; rather, it is a joint strategic initiative of the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: The Indian Army is setting up six AASHVAST labs to perform hardware and firmware security audits on UAVs and CCTV cameras to detect malicious codes and hidden bugs.

Statement 2 is correct: AASHVAST stands for Assessment and Analysis of Electronic Systems Hardware for Vulnerabilities and Security Threats under DG EME.

Statement 3 is incorrect: The initiative promotes self-reliance and guards against disguised foreign components rather than increasing reliance on foreign OEMs.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: R&AW was established in September 1968 under the leadership of RN Kao to handle external intelligence, as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was primarily tasked with domestic intelligence post-independence.

Statement 2 is correct: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi tasked RN Kao, a veteran Intelligence Bureau officer, with building the country's first separate external intelligence organization from scratch.

Statement 3 is incorrect: Kao did not inherit a ready-made external spy network. He built the agency completely from scratch, rapidly sourcing personnel, establishing specialized skills, and shaping an institutional security culture within a remarkably short period.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: Under the Charter of the United Nations, the UNGA acts as the primary deliberative, policymaking organ composed of all member states, providing a universal forum for multilateral discussion on the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter.

Statement 2 is correct: According to Article 18 of the UN Charter, decisions on important questions—including recommendations relating to the maintenance of international peace and security, the election of non-permanent members to the Security Council, and budgetary questions—require a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting.

Statement 3 is incorrect: Unlike the decisions of the UN Security Council taken under Chapter VII, the resolutions and recommendations adopted by the UNGA are not legally binding on the member states. They carry immense moral, political, and persuasive weight representing global consensus, but do not possess direct enforcement power under international law.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in the Mandsaur and Neemuch districts of western Madhya Pradesh and sits right on the boundary dividing Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Statement 2 is correct: The perennial Chambal River flows right through the middle of the sanctuary, splitting the protected area into two separate segments.

Statement 3 is incorrect: Gandhi Sagar is India's second cheetah habitat (established as a habitat in April 2025 via relocations from Kuno). Kuno National Park (located in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh) holds the distinction of being India's first cheetah release site under Project Cheetah, where the initial batch of Namibian cheetahs arrived in September 2022.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct: India lost its last known wild Asiatic cheetah in the 1950s (specifically recorded around 1952), following which the species was declared extinct in the country.

Statement 2 is correct: Project Cheetah is widely recognized globally as the world’s first intercontinental large wild carnivore translocation project, attempting to restore a surrogate population of the African cheetah.

Statement 3 is incorrect: India has sourced cheetahs from multiple southern African nations, including Namibia (south-west Africa), South Africa, and Botswana—all of which are situated south of the equator, not north. The recent addition of female cheetah CCB-2 from Botswana into Gandhi Sagar marks an ongoing effort to expand genetic lines and establish a self-sustaining population across multiple habitats.