UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Nepal flood reconstruction Bill to be $4.78 billion: Foreign Ministry
Q1. The central share of assistance for the National Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Risk Mitigation Project (NGRMP), sanctioned for four Himalayan States, is drawn from which one of the following?
- A. The National Disaster Response Fund constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005
- B. The National Disaster Mitigation Fund constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005
- C. The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change of the environment ministry
- D. The State Disaster Risk Management Fund window of the Finance Commission award
Q2. In the classification of Himalayan glacial lakes, a 'moraine-dammed' lake is best described as one that is:
- A. impounded behind a ridge of loose rock, boulders and sediment left behind by a retreating glacier
- B. impounded directly behind a barrier of glacier ice that blocks a tributary or trunk valley
- C. ponded in shallow depressions on the upper surface of a debris-covered glacier tongue
- D. held in a rock basin scoured out of bedrock by the erosive action of a former glacier
Q3. Consider the following statements about the Langtang region and the river system affected by the 2026 Nepal disaster:
1. The Lhende (Lendey) Khola is a tributary of the Bhote Koshi.
2. Langtang Lirung, from whose flanks the collapse originated, stands on the Nepal-Tibet border.
3. The surge passed down the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor, the Trishuli lying downstream of the Bhote Koshi.
4. The Kosi rises wholly within Nepal and drains the western third of the country.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- The Lhende (Lendey) Khola is a tributary of the Bhote Koshi.
- Langtang Lirung, from whose flanks the collapse originated, stands on the Nepal-Tibet border.
- The surge passed down the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor, the Trishuli lying downstream of the Bhote Koshi.
- The Kosi rises wholly within Nepal and drains the western third of the country.
- A. 1 and 4
- B. 4 only
- C. 2 and 3
- D. 1, 3 and 4
Q4. The Kosi, which drains the eastern third of Nepal, takes its Nepali name from the number of major rivers whose merger forms it. That number is:
- A. Five
- B. Seven
- C. Nine
- D. Eleven
Q5. After the mass of bedrock and glacier ice fell into the valley on 26 August 2026, the debris surge covered the 22 km down to the inhabited corridor in approximately how many minutes?
- A. About 7 minutes
- B. About 25 minutes
- C. About 90 minutes
- D. About 4 hours
Q6. Scientists described the August 2026 Nepal disaster not as a textbook glacial lake outburst but as an ice-rock avalanche that produced a landslide-dam outburst flood. In that mechanism, the flood wave is generated when:
- A. a collapsed mass of ice and rock blocks a river channel and the temporary debris barrier subsequently breaches
- B. the unconsolidated debris ridge impounding a proglacial lake is overtopped and rapidly incised
- C. water stored in cavities within and beneath a glacier drains suddenly through subglacial conduits
- D. an intense high-altitude cloudburst falls on saturated slopes and is routed straight into a steep channel
Q7. In Nepal's September 2026 reconstruction estimate, the component of about $57.67 million within the total of $4.78 billion denotes:
- A. the short-term recovery requirement for the first six months, distinct from long-term reconstruction
- B. the entire external assistance Nepal is permitted to seek before a needs assessment is completed
- C. the whole cost of replacing all damaged transport infrastructure along the affected corridor
- D. the total already collected in the domestic relief fund and therefore fully met from home resources
Q8. The consolidated estimate of $4.78 billion for rebuilding after the August 2026 flood was placed on record in September 2026 by which one of the following?
- A. Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its regular spokesman's briefing
- B. Nepal's Ministry of Finance, through the minister's post-budget statement
- C. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority of Nepal
- D. The National Reconstruction Authority set up to oversee post-disaster rebuilding
Q9. Under its Neighbourhood First approach India has mounted repeated relief missions abroad. Its largest such operation in Nepal, launched within hours of the April 2015 earthquake, was code-named:
- A. Operation Rahat
- B. Operation Dost
- C. Operation Maitri
- D. Operation Sankat Mochan
Q10. With reference to the financing of Nepal's recovery after the 2015 earthquake, consider the following:
1. An International Conference on Nepal's Reconstruction was convened in Kathmandu in June 2015, two months after the first quake.
2. Fifty-six governments and international organisations pledged about US$4.1 billion at that conference.
3. Nepal created a National Reconstruction Authority in December 2015 to coordinate recovery across government, non-government and development partners.
4. Housing, at about US$3.27 billion, was the smallest single component of the assessed reconstruction needs.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- An International Conference on Nepal's Reconstruction was convened in Kathmandu in June 2015, two months after the first quake.
- Fifty-six governments and international organisations pledged about US$4.1 billion at that conference.
- Nepal created a National Reconstruction Authority in December 2015 to coordinate recovery across government, non-government and development partners.
- Housing, at about US$3.27 billion, was the smallest single component of the assessed reconstruction needs.
- A. 1, 2 and 3
- B. 2 and 4 only
- C. 1 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2, 3 and 4
Q11. In Nepal's 2026 general election, the Rastriya Swatantra Party won how many of the 153 directly elected seats in the House of Representatives?
Q12. India's standing bilateral machinery with Nepal on shared rivers — including the Joint Committee on Inundation and Flood Management and the Joint Committee on Kosi and Gandak Projects — is operationalised on the Indian side by:
- A. the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti
- B. the National Disaster Management Authority, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, as nodal agency
- C. the Development Partnership Administration division of the Ministry of External Affairs
- D. the Central Water Commission, functioning under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change