12 May 2026 Current Affairs MCQ Quiz — 10 Questions with Answers & Explanations

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was a British social reformer and statistician who is universally recognised as the founder of modern nursing. Her work during the Crimean War (1853–56) — where she dramatically cut mortality rates at British military hospitals through strict sanitation — transformed nursing into a trained profession. The International Council of Nurses (ICN), founded in 1899 and headquartered in Geneva, established May 12 as International Nurses Day in her honour. The 2026 theme is "Nurses: A Voice to Lead — Advancing Health for All." Nightingale was also a data pioneer — she invented the polar area (coxcomb) diagram to visualise mortality data.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved MSP hikes for all 14 Kharif crops for 2026–27, and Sunflower Seed topped the list with the highest increase of ₹622 per quintal. Cotton came second at ₹557/quintal and Sesamum third at ₹500/quintal. The Sunflower Seed hike is deliberate policy — India imports around 60–65% of its edible oil needs, with sunflower oil heavily sourced from Ukraine and Russia. A higher MSP incentivises domestic cultivation and directly reduces India's edible oil import vulnerability. This question is a near-certain pick for UPSC Prelims 2026.

The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) — an advisory body under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare — studies input costs and recommends MSP figures. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) then gives the formal approval. CACP uses three cost methodologies: A2 (actual paid-out costs), A2+FL (adding imputed family labour), and C2 (comprehensive, including land rental value). The government's policy commitment is to set MSP at a minimum of 1.5 times A2+FL cost — a recommendation originally made by the Swaminathan Commission in 2006.

VB-G RAM G expands to Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin). The Viksit Bharat-G RAM G Act was passed by Parliament in December 2025 and comes into force on July 1, 2026 — the same date MGNREGA 2005 stands formally repealed. The name itself signals the ideological shift: from a rights-based employment guarantee rooted in demand, to a mission-mode livelihood programme anchored in the Viksit Bharat (Developed India) vision. The full form is frequently tested in competitive exams, so memorise it carefully.

One of the headline improvements in VB-G RAM G is the increase of the employment guarantee from 100 days (under MGNREGA) to 125 days per household per year. Alongside this, the funding model has also shifted — from the Centre bearing 100% of wage costs under MGNREGA to a 60:40 Centre-to-State ratio under VB-G RAM G. While the extra 25 days is a genuine benefit for workers, the 60:40 funding split places greater fiscal pressure on poorer states like UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand, which have historically been the highest MGNREGA-utilising states.

India and Vietnam have progressively deepened their relationship over two decades. They first established a Strategic Partnership in 2007, upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016, and now in 2026 elevated it further to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The key driver of this latest upgrade is Vietnam's strategic value as the world's second largest holder of Rare Earth Element (REE) reserves after China — critical for India's EV, semiconductor, and defence supply chains. This partnership is a direct component of India's Act East Policy.

The railway connects Ahmedabad to Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) — India's first and largest greenfield smart city being developed under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). Dholera spans approximately 920 sq km in Gujarat's Ahmedabad district and is designed as a global manufacturing and services hub. Without a direct rail link, Dholera's connectivity was a significant bottleneck for investors. The semi high-speed designation means the corridor is designed for speeds of 160–200 km/hour — faster than conventional rail but not classified as true high-speed.

The "One Case One Data" initiative creates a single, unified case identifier that travels with every case from filing to final disposal — across all court information systems. The core problem it solves is data duplication: the same case appearing under different identifiers in different systems, inflating pendency statistics and making case tracking unreliable. India has over 5 crore cases pending across all courts, and accurate data is the foundation of any meaningful reform. The initiative complements existing tools like the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and the e-Courts Phase III programme worth ₹7,210 crore.

The MoU between RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and ECB President Christine Lagarde was signed on the sidelines of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) meetings in Basel, Switzerland. The BIS, founded in 1930, is the world's oldest international financial institution and is often called the "central bank for central banks." It hosts the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets the globally used Basel I, II, and III norms for capital adequacy and banking regulation. The updated MoU establishes a framework for policy dialogue, information exchange, and technical cooperation between the two central banks.

PM Modi inaugurated India's first functional PM MITRA Park in Warangal, Telangana on May 10, 2026. The PM MITRA scheme was approved by Cabinet in October 2021 with a plan to set up 7 mega textile parks across India — in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Each park covers around 1,000 acres and provides plug-and-play infrastructure for the entire textile value chain — from fibre to fabric to fashion, summed up in the government's 5F vision: Fibre → Fabric → Fashion → Foreign. Warangal becoming the first to go operational is the milestone here.