Extracting a Fact from a Current-Affairs Passage
What This Skill Is
In CLAT, there is no standalone "General Knowledge" quiz with bare questions like "Who is the current RBI Governor?" Instead, the Current Affairs section hands you a roughly 174–379-word passage — usually adapted from editorial or news writing on a recent event (a policy change, a court judgment, an international summit, a scheme launch) — and then asks five or six questions off it — most often six in the current 120-question format.
"Fact from a current-affairs passage" is the most literal of these question types. It asks you to identify a specific piece of information that the passage explicitly states: a name, a date, a number, an institution, a place, or a sequence of events. It is NOT asking you to infer, judge, or evaluate — it is asking what does this passage say happened?
You'll usually recognise it by stems such as:
- "According to the passage, which of the following is true?"
- "As per the passage, who/what/when/where...?"
- "Which of the following statements is correct/incorrect as per the passage?"
Because CLAT gives you roughly one minute per question, and this question type looks deceptively easy, it is exactly where careless students lose marks — either by relying on outside GK knowledge instead of the text, or by rushing past a one-word difference between two options.
Step-by-Step Strategy
- Read the question stem first. Before reading the passage in full, glance at the questions attached to it. This tells you what kind of facts to hunt for (a name? a date? a numerical figure?) so your first read is targeted, not passive.
- Read the passage once, actively. Don't try to memorise it. As you read, mentally (or lightly, on rough sheet) flag proper nouns, numbers, dates, and cause-effect links — these are exactly what fact-based questions target.
- Locate the relevant sentence or two. Once you know which fact the question wants, scan back to the specific portion of the passage that discusses it. Do not answer from memory of "the gist" — find the exact line.
- Match option to text word-for-word. Compare each option against the passage's actual wording, not against what you assume the passage "probably" means. Watch for options that swap a name, invert a date, or change a number slightly.
- Eliminate options that add unstated information. If an option contains a fact that sounds plausible from real-world knowledge but is not actually written in the passage, it is wrong — for this question type, the passage is the only source of truth.
- Select the option that survives literal verification, then move on. Do not linger — if you've correctly located the line, confirming the fact takes seconds.
Common Traps
- The outside-knowledge trap: You may genuinely know (from real news) that a certain minister holds a certain portfolio — but if the passage names someone else or a different fact, the passage wins. CLAT tests reading comprehension of the given text, not your personal GK.
- The near-miss number/date trap: Options often shift a figure by a small margin (₹500 crore vs ₹5,000 crore; 2019 vs 2021) or swap a percentage with a count. Always re-check the exact figure in the passage, don't rely on your first-glance memory of it.
- The half-right, half-wrong trap: A statement may be correct on its first half and subtly wrong on its second half (e.g., correct institution, wrong function). Read every clause of the option, not just its opening words.
- The unstated-but-plausible trap: An option can be entirely reasonable and even true in the real world, yet never actually appear in the passage. Reject it — "not mentioned" is treated the same as "incorrect" for a pure fact-extraction question.
- The reversed-causation trap: The passage may say X caused Y; a distractor option quietly flips it to Y caused X. Always verify the direction of the relationship as written.
Worked Example
Passage (original, for practice only)
In March 2026, the fictional state of Meghpur launched the "Sahayata Setu" scheme to provide interest-free working-capital loans to street vendors who had completed at least two years of registered business activity. The scheme, administered jointly by the state's Department of Urban Livelihoods and a consortium of three regional cooperative banks, capped each loan at ₹40,000 per vendor and required no collateral. Within its first four months, the scheme disbursed loans to just over 60,000 vendors, though officials noted that nearly 15,000 applications were rejected for failing to meet the two-year registration requirement. The state government stated that the scheme's second phase, expected in early 2027, would extend eligibility to vendors registered for at least one year.
Question
According to the passage, which of the following statements is correct?
A. The Sahayata Setu scheme was launched in March 2026 and offered collateral-free loans capped at ₹40,000 per vendor.
B. The Sahayata Setu scheme was launched in March 2026 and offered loans of up to ₹60,000 per vendor.
C. The scheme's second phase, launched in early 2027, reduced the loan cap to ₹40,000.
D. Nearly 60,000 vendors were rejected for failing to meet the registration requirement.
Reasoning
- Option A matches the passage exactly: launched March 2026, no collateral required, loan capped at ₹40,000 per vendor. This is correct.
- Option B is the classic near-miss number trap — it swaps the loan cap (₹40,000) with the vendor count figure (60,000 disbursed), producing a plausible-sounding but factually wrong statement.
- Option C wrongly claims the second phase had "already launched" (the passage says it is only "expected" in early 2027) and wrongly attaches the ₹40,000 cap to phase two, which the passage never states.
- Option D swaps the two numbers from the passage: it was 15,000 applications rejected, not 60,000 — that figure refers to vendors who received loans.
Correct answer: A.
Notice that every wrong option here is built from real numbers and names lifted straight out of the passage — just reassembled incorrectly. This is exactly why Step 4 (match option to text word-for-word) is non-negotiable: skimming for "does this sound like the passage" will fool you, but checking each clause against the exact sentence will not.
What the exam tests here
Across the 3 papers we hold, this skill was asked 41 times, around 13.7 a paper.
What it actually asked:
- 2× detail from passage (2024)
- fact from passage — CDF purpose (2026)
- aim of Art 330A/332 amendment (2025)
- attribution — Bhowmick's view (2025)
- attribution — Heredia's view (2025)
- BRICS 16th summit outcome (2025)
- BRICS summit outcome (India-China) (2025)
- CDM — Congress's dilemma (2025)
- …and 32 further phrasings of the same skill.
Practise Extracting a Fact from a Current-Affairs Passage
This skill's 5 free questions are passage-based, the way the CLAT UG paper sets them, so they are practised in the app where the passage sits beside each question.
Practise free in the app