17th March 2026

Explanation - GIBs are the largest among the four bustard species found in India, the other three being MacQueen's bustard, lesser florican and the Bengal florican. GIBs' historic range included much of the Indian sub-continent but it has now shrunken to just 10 per cent of it. Among the heaviest birds with flight, GIBs prefer grasslands as their habitats. Being terrestrial birds, they spend most of their time on the ground with occasional flights to go from one part of their habitat to the other. They feed on insects, lizards, grass seeds etc. GIBs are considered the flagship bird species of grassland and hence barometers of the health of grassland ecosystems. Due to the species' smaller population size, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has categorised GIBs as critically endangered, thus on the brink of extinction from the wild.

Explanation - CARA is an apex body of Government of India for promoting and facilitating In country Adoption and is the designated Central Authority for regulating Inter-country Adoption. CARA was designated as a Statutory Body on 15 Jan 2016, under the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

Explanation - Jnanpith Award is a literary award presented by the Bharatiya Jnanpith organisation to Indian writers every year. This was instituted in 1961 and is given only to Indian writers who write in Indian languages and English. The winner is given a cash prize of Rs. 11 lakh and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning. The first recipient of the award was Malayalam writer G Sankara Kurup in 1965 for his novel 'Odakkuzhal' (The Bamboo Flute). The first woman writer to be awarded this award was Ashapoorna Devi, a Bengali writer, in 1976. The organisation which presents this award was founded in 1944 by industrialist and philanthropist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain. The President of India conferred the 58th Jnanpith Award on Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Ji at a function held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi recently.

Explanation - Statements 1 and 3 are correct. It is a 120 MW run-of-river hydropower project planned on the Kopili River basin in Assam. The project is situated in the West Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao (also known as North Cachar Hills) Autonomous District Council (ADC) areas of Central Assam. The project is being developed and currently owned by Assam Power Generation Corporation Limited (APGCL). It is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under its Assam Power Sector Investment Program.

Explanation - The Indian nuclear power programme, launched in 1954, envisaged a three-stage development of nuclear power generation from the country's uranium and thorium resources. The first stage programme consists of setting up of pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). PHWRs are natural uranium-fuelled, heavy water moderated and cooled. The uranium reserves in the country are adequate to support the first stage nuclear power programme of 10,000 MWe through PHWRs. In addition to generating power, PHWRs progressively make available plutonium as a by-product. The technologies for the reprocessing of plutonium from spent PHWR fuel and for fabrication of plutonium bearing fuels have been systematically established in India through research and development over the past several years. The second stage of the nuclear power programme consists of effective utilisation of plutonium in Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) which will provide the key to full utilisation of the country's uranium resources and prepare the way for the long-term utilisation of the more abundant thorium reserves. FBRs enable generation of more fresh fissile material than is consumed for power production. With the deployment of FBRs, the depleted uranium and plutonium generated in the first stage will permit an additional power potential to the extent of 3,50,000 MWe. During the later part of the second stage programme, it is proposed to use thorium as blanket material in FBRs to generate U-233, another fissile material for use in the third stage programme based on U-233 fuelled reactor systems.