Today's GK Questions

Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2026, is a jurist of Indian origin from which country?

• Mauritius
• Fiji
• South Africa
• Kenya

Answer: South Africa. Announced on 9 October 2026, the prize recognised her work for peace and international law. She was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.

Where did India finish on the medal table at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, which closed in early October?

• 2nd
• 3rd
• 4th
• 6th

Answer: 4th. India won 85 medals, 21 of them gold, and edged Uzbekistan for fourth place on silver medals (October 2026). China topped the table.

Francis Halzen won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for detecting high-energy neutrinos from space with the IceCube observatory. Where is IceCube?

• At the South Pole
• Under the Alps
• In a mine in Japan
• Beneath the Pacific Ocean

Answer: At the South Pole. Announced on 6 October 2026, the prize honoured the scientist who proposed this cubic-kilometre detector in the Antarctic ice. Neutrinos are nicknamed 'ghost particles'.

Canadian poet Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2026. Her work is famous for reworking the classics of which ancient culture?

• Ancient Egypt
• Ancient China
• Ancient India
• Ancient Greece

Answer: Ancient Greece. A classicist as well as a poet, Carson retold a Greek myth as a novel in verse in Autobiography of Red. She was named the winner on 8 October 2026.

In Brazil's presidential election on 4 October 2026, who finished first in the first round, ahead of President Lula?

• Tarcísio de Freitas
• Flávio Bolsonaro
• Ronaldo Caiado
• Jair Bolsonaro

Answer: Flávio Bolsonaro. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, took about 47% to Lula's 45%. The two meet in a runoff on 25 October 2026.

Sweden's Prime Minister resigned in September 2026 after the centre-left bloc narrowly won the general election. Who is he?

• Ulf Kristersson
• Stefan Löfven
• Magdalena Andersson
• Jimmie Åkesson

Answer: Ulf Kristersson. Ulf Kristersson tendered his resignation on 17 September 2026, after the centre-left won 176 of the Riksdag's 349 seats. Magdalena Andersson leads the Social Democrats.

The 2026 Chemistry Nobel, for Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai, involved molecules that exist as mirror images of each other. What is this property called?

• Isotopy
• Chirality
• Polymerisation
• Allotropy

Answer: Chirality. Announced on 7 October 2026, the prize was for non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric synthesis. Chirality matters for medicines, because the two mirror forms of a drug can act very differently.

Robert Hall and Michael Woodford won the economics Nobel in October 2026. Their prize-winning work was on the microeconomic foundations of what?

• Behavioural finance
• Macroeconomic stabilisation
• Development economics
• Auction design

Answer: Macroeconomic stabilisation. Announced on 12 October 2026, it was the last of the year's Nobel prizes. Each 2026 prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor.

Which historian chairs the judges of the 2026 Booker Prize, whose six-book shortlist was announced in September?

• Mary Beard
• Simon Schama
• William Dalrymple
• Antony Beevor

Answer: Mary Beard. The shortlist, announced on 22 September 2026, includes past winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart. The winner is due on 9 November 2026.

What was the theme of World Mental Health Day, observed on 10 October 2026?

• Mental Health is a Universal Human Right
• Mental Health at Work
• Access to Services: Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies
• Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change

Answer: Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change. The October 2026 theme was set by the World Federation for Mental Health. The other three were the themes for 2023, 2024 and 2025. India's free Tele-MANAS helpline is 14416.