Daily Challenge
Tuesday, 13 October 2026
Daily Challenge — 13 October 2026
Three UPSC Prelims-pattern questions — one each from the GS I, GS II and GS III subject areas. Attempt all three before checking your answers.
Prehistory and the Indus Valley Civilisation
With reference to Mehrgarh, consider the following statements:
- It is located near the Bolan Pass in Baluchistan.
- It provides the earliest evidence of farming in the Indian subcontinent.
- It was a Mature Harappan city with a citadel and a Great Bath.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Correct answer: B
Statements 1 and 2 are correct: Mehrgarh, near the Bolan Pass in Baluchistan (Pakistan), shows wheat and barley farming and herding from about 7000 BCE. Statement 3 is wrong: Mehrgarh is a Neolithic site that predates the Harappan cities; the Great Bath is at Mohenjo-daro.Constitutional Framework
Consider the following pairs of features of the Indian Constitution and their sources:
- Concurrent List - Australia
- Fundamental Duties - USSR
- Procedure established by law - Japan
- Suspension of Fundamental Rights during emergency - Weimar Germany.
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Correct answer: D
All four are correctly matched: the Concurrent List came from Australia, Fundamental Duties from the USSR, procedure established by law from Japan, and suspension of Fundamental Rights during emergency from the Weimar Constitution of Germany.Space Technology
The Lagrange point L1, around which Aditya-L1 is placed, lies approximately how far from the Earth?
Correct answer: C
L1 lies about 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction of the Sun, about one per cent of the Earth-Sun distance. 384,000 km is the average Earth-Moon distance, 35,786 km is the altitude of geostationary orbit, and about 150 million km is the Earth-Sun distance.