Daily Challenge
Thursday, 22 October 2026
Daily Challenge — 22 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.
Vedic and Later Vedic Age
The phrase ‘Satyameva Jayate’, the national motto of India, is taken from which one of the following texts?
Correct answer: B
Satyameva Jayate (‘Truth alone triumphs’) comes from the Mundaka Upanishad. The Katha Upanishad contains the dialogue of Nachiketa and Yama; the Brihadaranyaka has the debates of Yajnavalkya with Gargi and Maitreyi; the Chandogya is another early prose Upanishad.Regional and Global Groupings
The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a forum of navies of the Indian Ocean littoral states, was launched in 2008 at the initiative of which country?
Correct answer: A
IONS was conceived and launched by the Indian Navy in 2008. Mauritius hosts the secretariat of a different body, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA); Australia and South Africa are IONS members but did not launch it.Internal Security Challenges
In the context of internal security, the Supreme Court judgment in Nandini Sundar v. State of Chhattisgarh (2011) is associated with:
Correct answer: A
In Nandini Sundar (2011) the Court held that appointing poorly trained tribal youth as armed Special Police Officers against Maoists (in the Salwa Judum context) violated Articles 14 and 21. The Niyamgiri mining decision is Orissa Mining Corporation v. MoEF (2013); the CPI (Maoist) ban was an executive notification under UAPA (2009).