Current Affairs

Answer: R. Vairamuthu — Tamil poet and lyricist; third Tamil winner and first recognised primarily for Tamil poetry

R. Vairamuthu was named the recipient of the 60th Jnanpith Award for 2025, announced by Bharatiya Jnanpith in March 2026. He is the third Tamil writer to receive the award after Akilan (1975) and Jayakanthan (2002), and the first to be honoured primarily for poetry rather than prose. The selection committee was chaired by Pratibha Ray, who herself won the Jnanpith in 2011.

Answer: Cassandra Kulukundis

Cassandra Kulukundis won the inaugural Best Casting Oscar for One Battle After Another. The Academy had first announced this category in February 2024. It is the first new competitive Oscar category since Best Animated Feature was introduced in 2001.

Answer: Norway

Norway's Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier, won the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. The film also received acting and other nominations that night.

Answer: 16

Sinners received 16 nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, breaking the previous all-time record of 14, which had been held jointly by All About Eve (1951), Titanic (1998) and La La Land (2017). Despite 16 noms, Sinners won four awards.

Answer: Hamnet

Jessie Buckley won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Agnes, William Shakespeare's partner, in Hamnet. Her win made her the first Irish woman ever to take the Best Actress Oscar.

Answer: Sinners

Michael B. Jordan won the Best Actor Oscar for his dual performance as Smoke and Stack in Sinners, Ryan Coogler's supernatural thriller set in the Jim Crow-era South. It was his first Oscar nomination and first win.

Answer: One Battle After Another

One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, won the Best Picture Oscar at the 98th Academy Awards on 15 March 2026. The film won six awards in total that night — the most of any film at the ceremony.

Answer: Satyajit Ray

The copper plaque handed to every Sahitya Akademi winner was designed by Satyajit Ray — the celebrated Bengali filmmaker was also an accomplished graphic artist and designer.

Answer: 24

Sahitya Akademi awards are given in 24 languages — the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, plus English and Rajasthani, which the Akademi recognises separately.

Answer: Novel

Devabrat Das won for his Assamese novel Karhi Khelar Sadhu. His win represents the novel category among the four novels recognised in the 2025 Sahitya Akademi Awards.

Answer: Allahabad

Mamta Kalia's memoir Jeete Jee Allahabad centres on Allahabad (now Prayagraj), a city long associated with Hindi literary circles. The book won the 2025 Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi.

Answer: Crimson Spring

Navtej Sarna's novel Crimson Spring won the 2025 Sahitya Akademi Award for English. Sarna, a former IFS officer who served as India's Ambassador to the US, had been writing fiction alongside his diplomatic career.

Answer: 16 March 2026

The awards were announced on 16 March 2026, months after the Akademi had to cancel its original December 2025 press conference when the Ministry of Culture asked for a review of the awards process.

Answer: 4,992

India's mangrove cover is approximately 4,992 sq km as per the State of Forest Report 2023. The Sundarbans (West Bengal) has the largest mangrove cover in India.

Answer: India Stack

India Stack refers to India's open API-based Digital Public Infrastructure comprising Aadhaar (identity), UPI (payments), DigiLocker (documents), and other interoperable systems.

Answer: Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways

The Indian Coast Guard is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (not the Ministry of Defence), though it works closely with the Navy.

Answer: 2022

India-UAE CEPA was signed in February 2022 and came into force in May 2022 — India's first CEPA with a Gulf country, targeting bilateral trade of $100 billion.

Answer: NIFTY 50

NIFTY 50 is the benchmark index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India comprising 50 major stocks. SENSEX is BSE's benchmark index with 30 stocks.

Answer: 2015

NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog was established on January 1, 2015, replacing the Planning Commission which had existed since 1950.

Answer: True

India aims to increase nuclear power capacity from ~7 GW to 22 GW by 2031-32 as part of its clean energy mix, with new reactors at Gorakhpur, Jaitapur, and Kovvada.