Current affairs — 14 August 2026

Prelims pointers

• The fifth National Council for Senior Citizens meeting reviewed the Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana.
• The Council discussed AB-PMJAY health-insurance coverage for all senior citizens aged 60 years and above.
• JEEVAN expands to Joint Elderly Empowerment & Virtual Assistance Network and offers unified access to schemes and services.
• SHATAYU is a platform for trained geriatric-caregiver services and emphasises the principle of ageing at place.
• The SNEHA e-book covers 21 months of departmental work, from October 2024 through June 2026.

Prelims pointers

• The approximate value of the Loiter Munition System procurement contracts is ₹1,577 crore.
• The Ministry of Defence signed the contracts with TATA Advanced Systems Limited and NIBE Private Limited.
• The procurement covers Loiter Munition Systems, along with munitions and other accessories, for the Indian Army.
• The acquisition is being undertaken under the Buy (Indian) category through the Fast Track Procedure.
• The systems are intended to enhance Artillery Regiment capability and strengthen the Army’s operational effectiveness.

Prelims pointers

• WPI inflation on the 2022-23 base was 9.78% year-on-year in July 2026, compared with 9.87% in June 2026.
• July inflation was 8.52% for Primary Articles, 20.05% for Fuel and Power and 8.29% for Manufactured Products.
• The WPI Food Index has a weight of about 24.99% and recorded 6.65% year-on-year inflation in July 2026.
• The final May 2026 WPI index was revised from 109.9 to 110.1, and inflation was revised from 9.68% to 9.88%.
• The July 2026 Output PPI was 109.9, while the trial Input PPI for manufacturing was 105.9.

Prelims pointers

• India’s defence budget rose from ₹2.53 lakh crore in 2013-14 to ₹7.85 lakh crore in 2026-27.
• Defence production reached ₹1.78 lakh crore in FY 2025-26, with a 76% public-sector and 24% private-sector split.
• Defence exports increased from ₹686 crore in FY 2013-14 to ₹38,424 crore in FY 2025-26.
• By May 2026, ten Positive Indigenisation Lists covering 5,521 items had been notified.
• Defence FDI is permitted up to 74% through the automatic route and up to 100% through the government route.

Prelims pointers

• The 12-minute television advertisement-duration cap was introduced in 2006 under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.
• The number of television channels increased from 62 in 2006 to more than 900 at the time of the decision.
• The release identifies DTH, Cable TV, HITS and IPTV as television distribution platforms that are now digital.
• The Government cited competition within television and with digital media while deciding to remove the advertisement cap.
• Removal of the cap takes effect from Gazette notification of the amendment to the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.

Prelims pointers

• The President approved 78 gallantry awards, of which 13 were posthumous, for Defence Forces and Central Armed Police Forces personnel.
• The awards included nine Kirti Chakras, seven of them posthumous, and 19 Shaurya Chakras, one of them posthumous.
• The list included five Bars to Sena Medal (Gallantry), 36 Sena Medals (Gallantry), three Nao Sena Medals and five Vayu Sena Medals.
• The President also approved 89 Mention-in-Despatches: 75 for Indian Army personnel, four for Indian Navy personnel and ten for Indian Air Force personnel.
• The detailed Army Mention-in-Despatches list included personnel under Operation Rakshak, Operation Hifazat, Operation Orchid and Operation Meghdoot.

Prelims pointers

• Jal Jeevan Mission was launched on 15 August 2019 to provide regular, long-term safe drinking water through Functional Household Tap Connections.
• Rural household tap coverage rose from 3.23 crore households, or 16.72%, to more than 15.91 crore households, or 82.24%.
• A total of 188 districts, 1,090 blocks, 1.01 lakh Gram Panchayats and 2.04 lakh villages were certified Har Ghar Jal.
• JJM’s service norm cited in the release is 55 litres per capita per day of prescribed BIS 10500 quality on a regular and long-term basis.
• The Union Government extended Jal Jeevan Mission till December 2028, with source sustainability and community ownership receiving greater emphasis.

Prelims pointers

• Ken–Betwa is India’s first major river-linking initiative under the National Perspective Plan and is being implemented by a dedicated project authority.
• The project will transfer surplus water from the Ken River to the Betwa River for Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• Planned benefits include irrigation for 10.62 lakh hectares, drinking water for nearly 62 lakh people and 103 MW of hydropower.
• The project’s estimated cost is ₹44,604.99 crore, of which ₹12,445.85 crore had been spent up to July 2026.
• Land acquisition and rehabilitation follow the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 and Madhya Pradesh’s Special Rehabilitation Package approved on 13 September 2023.

Prelims pointers

• The Tiranga flew from Mandi Head Post Office to Rehardhar Branch Post Office in Himachal Pradesh.
• This was described as the first-ever drone delivery of the Tiranga by India Post.
• The parcel was received by postal staff at Rehardhar and formally handed to an army veteran.
• The Department of Posts plans drone-based mail transmission across 150 routes in Himachal Pradesh and Assam.
• India Post is supporting Har Ghar Tiranga by making the National Flag available for delivery across the country.

Prelims pointers

• The consultation sought to advance an India-Japan human-resource Action Plan jointly released at the 15th annual summit in 2025.
• The pathways discussed included TITP, Specified Skilled Worker and the upcoming Employment for Skill Development Programme.
• Participants identified Japanese-language training and assessment infrastructure as implementation priorities.
• The roadmap is to cover mobilisation, domain training, cultural preparation, assessment, employer engagement and pre-departure readiness.
• The proposed roadmap will assign responsibilities and use measurable milestones with a governance and review mechanism.

Prelims pointers

• The publication is the third report released under NITI Aayog’s Services Thematic Series.
• It was launched on 10 August 2026 at the High-Powered Education to Employment and Enterprise Standing Committee forum.
• Professional services account for nearly one-quarter of India’s total services exports, according to the release.
• The report assesses Indian regulation and benchmarks the framework against selected foreign jurisdictions.
• Its strategy includes emerging trends, value-chain elevation, best practices and continuous professional development.

Prelims pointers

• Manufacturing contributes about 16-17% of GDP and employs more than 27 million workers, according to the backgrounder.
• Semicon 2.0 was approved in July 2026 with a total budget outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore.
• By July 2026, twelve semiconductor manufacturing units had been approved with investment exceeding ₹1.64 lakh crore.
• The Container Manufacturing Assistance Scheme targets annual domestic capacity of up to 7.5 lakh TEUs.
• ALMM-listed solar-module capacity reached 100 GW in August 2025, up from nearly 2.3 GW in 2014.

Prelims pointers

• Adopt a Heritage 2.0 was launched in September 2023 for amenities at protected Monuments of National Importance.
• PRASHAD had sanctioned 54 projects across 28 States and Union Territories as of February 2026.
• The Archaeological Survey of India safeguards 3,686 centrally protected monuments through around 38 circles.
• The National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities had documented 1.84 lakh monuments and 17.20 lakh antiquities by March 2026.
• India has 45 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and hosted the 46th World Heritage Committee session in 2024.

Prelims pointers

• NIIMH in Hyderabad is a specialised institute under CCRAS and the Ministry of Ayush for Indian medical heritage research and preservation.
• SEMIRI at Kumaranalloor, Kottayam, is managed by the Kumaranalloor Ooranma Devaswom and holds more than 30,000 manuscripts.
• The MoU covers digitisation and preparation of a descriptive catalogue for hundreds of medical manuscripts.
• Catalogue fields include title, author, subject, script, language, material, dimensions, folio details, condition and provenance, where available.
• The documentation will follow the Ayush Manuscripts Advanced Repository format and is linked to the Gyan Bharatam Mission.

Prelims pointers

• PMMVY provides ₹5,000 for the first living child and ₹6,000 for a second child when the second child is a girl.
• PMSMA offers free antenatal check-ups at government facilities on the ninth day of every month.
• Lakhpati Didi seeks to enable women in Self Help Groups to earn at least ₹1 lakh annually.
• NaMo Drone Didi targets 15,000 drones for women SHGs with a ₹1,261 crore outlay for 2023-24 to 2025-26.
• The 106th Constitutional Amendment provides 33% reservation in the Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and Delhi Assembly after delimitation.

Prelims pointers

• Registered Indian space start-ups increased from one in 2014 to around 440 by August 2026.
• The Indian Space Policy 2023 defined the roles and responsibilities of NSIL and IN-SPACe.
• Automatic-route space FDI limits are 74% for satellites and 49% for launch vehicles and spaceports.
• Gaganyaan aims to carry three Indian astronauts to a 400-km orbit for a three-day mission.
• Bharatiya Antariksh Station is planned as a five-module station targeted for operationalisation by 2035.

Prelims pointers

• Both Houses passed the MMDR Amendment Bill, 2026 on 13 August 2026; it amends the MMDR Act, 1957.
• The amendment leaves State rights over land, minerals and mineral taxes, and State powers over minor minerals, unaffected.
• Around 90% of total taxes and statutory payments in mining accrue to the States, according to the release.
• Major mining States collected more than ₹96,000 crore as auction premium between 2020-21 and 2025-26.
• India imported minerals worth ₹10,12,529 crore in FY 2025-26, according to the PIB release.

Prelims pointers

• Food subsidy is transferred into a beneficiary’s Digital Rupee wallet and spent with empanelled foodgrain merchants.
• Smartphone users can pay through QR codes, while feature-phone users can access the system through OTP-based mechanisms.
• Gujarat launched an earlier food-subsidy CBDC pilot on 15 February 2026, followed by Puducherry on 26 February 2026.
• Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli are the first to operationalise programmable CBDC transfers for all eligible PMGKAY beneficiaries.
• The model builds on ration-card digitisation, Aadhaar verification, ePoS, online supply-chain management and ONORC portability.

Prelims pointers

• The Chips to Start-ups Programme targets 85,000 industry-ready personnel at B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD levels in semiconductor chip design.
• More than 68,000 students had been trained under C2S, and 332 academic institutions received access to advanced EDA tools.
• Participating institutions taped out 254 chip designs: 175 at the 180 nm node at SCL Mohali and 79 at overseas foundries.
• In Andhra Pradesh, 23 academic institutions received EDA-tool access, with cumulative utilisation exceeding 4.34 lakh tool-hours.
• Supported Andhra Pradesh projects include a secure RISC-V processor, a hardware accelerator, a neuromorphic processor and an edge-AI co-processing unit.

Prelims pointers

• The address placed the goal of building Viksit Bharat in the centenary year of independence, 2047, under the guiding spirit of Antyodaya.
• Vibhajan Vibheeshika Smriti Divas is observed on 14 August to remember those killed or displaced during Partition.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was credited with integrating more than 550 princely states into independent India’s democracy.
• Nearly 59 crore Jan Dhan account holders have joined the banking system, and more than 32 crore of them are women.
• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY provides free healthcare coverage of up to ₹5 lakh per year to 60 crore people, according to the address.

Prelims pointers

• Regulation 36(y) of the 2022 professional-conduct regulations bars a homoeopathic practitioner from practising another medical system.
• The proviso permits practice under a National Health Programme or another Central or State Government programme.
• Use of the proviso requires training or a course recognised or prescribed by the competent authority.
• The NCH also cited Sub-regulation (7) of Regulation 14 of the 2022 BHMS graduate-degree regulations.
• The cited BHMS provision recognises roles for homoeopathic graduates in government health facilities and National Health Programmes.

Prelims pointers

• The seminar’s theme was ‘The Partition of India - A Saga of Displacement, Separation and Resettlement’ and it focused on Partition in 1947.
• The University of Delhi established its Centre for Independence and Partition Studies in 2023.
• The centre has recorded oral testimonies of more than a hundred Partition survivors and engages students through archives, lectures and public events.
• The Vice-President said Partition affected India’s defence policy, national security and relations with neighbouring countries.
• Fifteen Partition survivors were felicitated for their courage, resilience and contribution to preserving lived memories.

Prelims pointers

• The CBDC-based DBT system was launched at Tagore Theatre in Chandigarh and the event was chaired by Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria.
• Technological safeguards restrict use of the transferred benefit to foodgrains and other essential food items.
• Beneficiaries may choose pulses or other essential food commodities in addition to wheat and rice.
• The Chandigarh pilot is intended to serve as a model for gradual adoption across the country if successful.
• The release states that PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana provides free foodgrains to more than 800 million people.

Prelims pointers

• APEDA functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and co-organised the meet with Tripura state bodies.
• Around 200 participants included more than 20 international buyers, 27 exporters and 96 farmers from 22 FPOs or FPCs.
• International buyers came from countries including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Greece and Argentina.
• Twelve stalls showcased products such as Queen Pineapple, GI-tagged Kalikhasa Rice, ginger, turmeric, black sesame and scented lemon.
• APEDA supports the organic export ecosystem through certification, capacity building, infrastructure, market promotion and buyer linkages.

Prelims pointers

• The Logistics Data Bank has tracked 10 crore EXIM containers since its launch in 2016.
• LDB provides 100% visibility of India’s EXIM container movement using RFID-based technology across 19 ports and 32 container terminals.
• Its network covers 103 Inland Container Depots, 439 Container Freight Stations, 5,569 railway stations and 269 toll plazas.
• LDB 2.0 was launched in September 2025 and added high-seas export-container tracking and multimodal shipment visibility.
• NLDSL was established on 30 December 2015 as a joint venture involving NICDIT and Japan’s NEC Corporation.

Prelims pointers

• Handloom Haat was inaugurated at Janpath, New Delhi, as a combined heritage, design, enterprise and retail centre.
• The opening showcase included 24 award-winning weavers and more than 30 curated brands in Weave The Future 5.0.
• The ground-floor Odisha exhibition highlighted Ganjam Bomkai, Dhalapathar Tapestry, Ikat, Jaala and Phoda weaving.
• The Visvakarma Gallery displays textiles from the Visvakarma exhibition series conducted between 1981 and 1991.
• The opening exhibition of award-winning weavers was organised by the National Handloom Development Corporation.

Prelims pointers

• Every office of an insurer must designate an official as its Grievance Redressal Officer for policyholder complaints.
• Every insurer constitutes a board-level Policyholder Protection, Grievance Redressal and Claims Monitoring Committee.
• Insurers must acknowledge a grievance immediately and provide a resolution within 14 days.
• A policyholder must first approach the insurer before escalating an unresolved or unsatisfactory complaint to IRDAI.
• Bima Bharosa integrates insurance-industry grievance monitoring, while IRDAI’s complaint call centre provides support in 12 languages.

Prelims pointers

• FutureSkills PRIME was jointly initiated by MeitY and NASSCOM for skilling, reskilling and upskilling in new and emerging technologies.
• The FutureSkills PRIME portal hosts more than 500 industry-aligned courses and permits online anytime-anywhere access.
• More than 34 lakh candidates registered, over 23 lakh enrolled or trained, and over 13 lakh completed or were certified.
• Women formed 41% of participants, while more than 86% of candidates came from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
• FutureSkills PRIME is a Central Sector Scheme; its funds are allocated centrally and are not apportioned State-wise.

Prelims pointers

• The STP Scheme is a 100% export-oriented scheme promoting software and IT-enabled services exports from India.
• STP units numbered 2,059 in FY 2023-24, 2,042 in FY 2024-25 and 2,125 in FY 2025-26.
• STP-unit exports were estimated at ₹7,73,898.97 crore in FY 2025-26, up from ₹6,88,194.11 crore in FY 2024-25.
• STPI integrated its online exporter system with RBI’s EDPMS for near-real-time transmission of export declaration data.
• Prior permission for DTA sales was replaced by self-declaration, except for advance DTA sales in a unit’s first year.

Prelims pointers

• CERT-In is designated the national agency for cyber-security incident response under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• NCIIPC was established under Section 70A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to protect critical information infrastructure.
• The National Cyber Coordination Centre is implemented by CERT-In to detect threats and share cyber-threat intelligence.
• Cyber Swachhta Kendra is CERT-In’s Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre and provides free tools to remove malicious programs.
• CERT-In tracked 15,92,917 cyber-security incidents in 2023, 20,41,360 in 2024 and 29,44,248 in 2025.

Prelims pointers

• The EHTP Scheme is a 100% export-oriented scheme intended to promote exports of electronic hardware from India.
• STPI provides statutory services through a single-window clearance system under the EHTP Scheme, which has no fund allocation.
• The number of EHTP units rose from 70 in FY 2023-24 to 73 in FY 2024-25 and 79 in FY 2025-26.
• Exports by EHTP units were estimated at ₹11,101.81 crore in FY 2025-26, compared with ₹11,442.66 crore in FY 2024-25.
• Fiscal and operational benefits for eligible EHTP units are governed by Foreign Trade Policy 2023.

Prelims pointers

• Domestic defence production increased from ₹46,000 crore in 2014 to a record ₹1.78 lakh crore in FY 2025-26.
• Public-sector entities accounted for about 76% of defence production in FY 2025-26, while the private sector contributed 24%.
• Defence exports rose from ₹686 crore in FY 2013-14 to ₹38,424 crore in FY 2025-26, with exports reaching over 80 countries.
• The defence budget rose from ₹2.53 lakh crore in FY 2013-14 to ₹7.85 lakh crore in FY 2026-27.
• An active-cooled full-scale scramjet combustor was successfully tested for over 1,200 seconds, a milestone linked to hypersonic missile technology.

Prelims pointers

• The New Delhi interaction included 86 PMIS interns representing more than 24 partner companies.
• PMIS was designed after industry consultations to bridge the gap between classroom learning and workplace expectations.
• The scheme is not restricted to a candidate’s academic qualification and allows internships in areas of interest.
• PMIS is part of a package of five initiatives for youth employment, skills and other opportunities over five years.
• The scheme provides paid internships in leading companies across India to improve employability through practical industry experience.

Prelims pointers

• WPI inflation eased from 9.87% in June 2026 to 9.78% in July 2026.
• July marked the first month-on-month decline under the WPI series with base year 2022-23.
• Fuel and power inflation fell from 27.41% in June to 20.05% in July.
• Manufactured-products inflation rose from 7.48% in June to 8.29% in July.
• The RBI MPC kept the benchmark policy rate at 5.25% and projected FY27 retail inflation at 5%.

Prelims pointers

• The floods affected eastern Assam and hill catchments in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, and killed at least 103 people.
• The study found rainfall totals were not exceptional and expected rainfall of this scale at least once every two years.
• No clear evidence linked climate change to altered rainfall intensity or likelihood, though the study stressed high uncertainty.
• Hard embankments can trap silt, raise riverbeds and block runoff, thereby worsening floods and breach risk.
• Recommendations included floodplain restoration, wetland conservation, local early warnings and anticipatory risk management.

Prelims pointers

• PM Surya Ghar has an outlay of ₹75,000 crore and targets one crore rooftop-solar households by March 2027.
• Participating households are allotted 300 units of free power per month under the scheme.
• Only grid-connected households with suitable rooftops are eligible, and storage batteries are not subsidised.
• As of 13 August 2026, 52 lakh households had installed rooftop solar under Surya Ghar.
• Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala accounted for over 71% of installed capacity.