UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Climate change reshaping disease patterns, straining health systems: report
Q1. The 2026 report 'Under the Weather: India's Climate-Health Intersections and Pathways to Resilience' was released primarily by which organisation, in association with the ClimateRISE Alliance?
- A. Dasra
- B. National Centre for Disease Control
- C. NITI Aayog
- D. World Health Organization, India office
Q2. The 'Under the Weather' report characterises climate change as a 'health-risk multiplier'. In this context, the term most precisely means that climate change:
- A. Amplifies and compounds existing health risks and disease burdens rather than acting as a single new disease
- B. Is itself formally classified as a notifiable communicable disease
- C. Only affects non-communicable diseases while leaving infectious diseases unchanged
- D. Multiplies healthcare spending but has no direct effect on disease patterns
Q3. Under the NPCCHH/SAPCCHH framework, the term 'Climate Sensitive Diseases' (CSDs) is best defined as:
- A. Illnesses whose incidence or transmission is influenced by climate variables, including heat-related, air-pollution-related, water-borne and vector-borne conditions
- B. Only vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria and no other category
- C. Diseases that can be completely eliminated solely by reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- D. Genetic disorders that become more common exclusively in colder climates
Q4. State Action Plans on Climate Change and Human Health (SAPCCHH) are typically structured around thematic health action-plan areas. How many such core thematic areas are commonly identified (heat & health; air pollution & health; extreme weather events; climate-resilient healthcare infrastructure; and vector-borne diseases)?
- A. Three
- B. Five
- C. Seven
- D. Nine
Q5. Adaptation planning for the spread of vector-borne diseases into new high-altitude regions such as Shimla and the Himalayan foothills is carried out through State Action Plans drawn up under which national programme?
- A. National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH)
- B. National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, as its sole mandate
- C. National Solar Mission
- D. National Rural Livelihoods Mission
Q6. According to recent climate-dengue research, India accounts for approximately what share of the global dengue disease burden?
- A. About one-tenth
- B. About one-fifth
- C. About one-third
- D. About one-half
Q7. Which mosquito species is the main (primary) vector of dengue fever in India?
- A. Aedes aegypti
- B. Aedes albopictus
- C. Anopheles culicifacies
- D. Culex quinquefasciatus
Q8. In India, the umbrella programme for prevention and control of dengue and other vector-borne diseases (NVBDCP) is administered by which body?
- A. National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC)
- B. National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
- C. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
- D. NITI Aayog
Q9. According to the Lancet Countdown 2025 analysis for India, women constitute nearly 60% of the agricultural workforce but own only about what percentage of agricultural land?
Q10. India's National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), released in 2008, originally identified how many core national missions?
- A. Four
- B. Six
- C. Eight
- D. Ten