31st October 2025

Explanation - The Samriddh Gram Phygital Services Pilot Project integrates physical and digital services to empower rural citizens. It leverages BharatNet connectivity (not specifically NOFN) to deliver essential services. Each selected village hosts a Samriddhi Kendra serving as an integrated digital service hub. The services offered include AR/VR-based learning, IoT-based soil testing, drone support for agriculture, and integration with ONDC for e-commerce. 

Explanation - India is a member of the East Asia Summit and an associate member of the International Energy Agency. However, India is not a member of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)—China is blocking India's membership. ASEAN+3 includes the 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan, and South Korea, excluding India. 

Explanation - AmazonFACE is the first experiment in a natural forest of this size in the tropics. It uses Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) technology to expose mature tropical trees to projected future CO2 concentrations. The experiment involves six rings of steel towers, with scientists fumigating trees in only three of the rings with carbon dioxide, while the rest serve as control samples—not all trees are fumigated. The project is supported by Brazil's federal government and the United Kingdom, not solely by Brazil. 

Explanation - Model Youth Gram Sabha is a simulated forum for school children to participate in mock Gram Sabha sessions, designed to strengthen participatory local governance. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (not Ministry of Education as nodal agency), in collaboration with Ministry of Education and Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Students from classes 9-12 play roles and hold mock meetings to discuss issues and prepare village budgets and development plans. The initiative is rolled out across more than 1,000 schools nationwide, including Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, Eklavya Model Residential Schools, and State Government Schools—not exclusively in JNVs. 

Explanation - Under WTO law, countries have the sovereign right to provide subsidies for industrial development. However, the SCM Agreement ensures that such subsidies do not cause unfair trade distortions. The SCM Agreement classifies subsidies into prohibited, actionable, and non-actionable categories. Prohibited subsidies include those contingent upon export performance or on the use of domestic goods over imported goods (import substitution subsidies). Environmental protection subsidies were previously classified as non-actionable but this provision lapsed in 1999 under Article 31 of the SCM Agreement—they are now subject to actionable subsidy rules. The National Treatment Principle under Article III.4 of GATT prohibits countries from treating imported goods less favourably than domestic goods.