Current affairs — 20 August 2026

Prelims pointers

• The Supreme Court order was passed on August 18 and released on August 19, 2026 by a Bench headed by Justice S.V.N. Bhatti.
• Rule 4 of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 places segregation, safe storage and handover duties on every waste generator.
• The Court listed biodegradable, non-biodegradable, hazardous, electronic and construction waste among the streams that infrastructure must handle.
• District Collectors were directed to engage with households and educational institutions on implementation of solid-waste responsibilities.
• The Department of School and Higher Education was directed to integrate theoretical and practical waste-management learning and train teachers as trainers.

Prelims pointers

• South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back cited private estimates of 80–120 North Korean warheads but said the military could not officially confirm them.
• U.S. President Donald Trump referred on August 19, 2026 to North Korea possessing 57 nuclear weapons.
• South Korea does not officially recognise North Korea as a nuclear-weapons state and maintains a policy supporting denuclearisation.
• Ahn said South Korea would rely on the U.S. nuclear umbrella rather than develop nuclear weapons or accept U.S. tactical nuclear weapons.
• U.S.-North Korea summits in 2018 and 2019 collapsed over disagreements on sanctions relief and North Korea's nuclear programme.

Prelims pointers

• Harjit Singh Grewal chaired the reconstituted National Commission for Minorities’ first meeting of 2026.
• S. Munawari Begum attended the meeting in her capacity as Vice Chairperson of the Commission.
• Berjis Desai and Glenn E Souza Ticlo attended as members of the National Commission for Minorities.
• Suchindra Misra and Atya Nand were identified respectively as Secretary and Joint Secretary of NCM.
• The stated NCM mandate includes minority development and monitoring safeguards for minority interests.

Prelims pointers

• GATCs are recognised under the Legal Metrology (Government Approved Test Centre) Rules, 2013.
• The release records 51 recognised GATCs and an expanded verification scope of 23 categories.
• Eligible applicants include industries, laboratories, engineering colleges, polytechnics, ITIs and testing facilities.
• The expanded categories include petrol, diesel, CNG, LPG, LNG and hydrogen dispensers.
• Applications were open from 17 to 31 August 2026, with a 5 p.m. deadline on the final day.

Prelims pointers

• The BRICS ICT Track began in 2016, according to the keynote delivered at the Digital BRICS Forum.
• Connectivity in the five founding BRICS members rose by 1.3 billion internet users, from about 45% to about 82%.
• The address cited about 1.4 billion Aadhaar holders and more than 170 billion Aadhaar authentications.
• The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 prohibits tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising directed at children.
• Grievance Appellate Committees had disposed of more than 10,000 appeals since 2023.

Prelims pointers

• The scheme supports eligible Scheduled Caste students in post-matriculation and post-secondary education.
• Actual expenditure rose from ₹5,475.42 crore in 2023–24 to ₹6,208.08 crore in 2025–26.
• Direct Benefit Transfer of the Central share began under the scheme in 2021–22.
• The Central share is paid directly into beneficiaries’ Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts.
• States and Union Territories implement the open-ended, demand-driven scheme using verified National Scholarship Portal data.

Prelims pointers

• Bihar received approval for 11,18,937 pucca houses with an allocation of ₹13,427 crore.
• The release records 24,30,327 houses approved in Bihar over two years and expenditure of ₹29,164 crore.
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is to be implemented in Bihar for protection against crop losses from natural calamities.
• She-Marts were proposed in every district as market platforms for Jeevika Didis and women’s Self-Help Groups.
• Bihar had created 53,83,000 Farmer IDs to support beneficiary identification and delivery of schemes.

Prelims pointers

• The Krishi Jan Kalyan Samvad was held in Patna with farmers, experts and Bihar government representatives.
• The cited ICAR Eastern Campus integrated-farming model operates on a holding of about two to three bighas.
• After paddy, the model divides fields among wheat, gram, mustard and maize.
• Fish ponds, poultry, ducks, vine vegetables, fruit trees and fodder provide additional income streams.
• The release says the integrated model can generate annual family income of up to ₹2 lakh.

Prelims pointers

• The MSME Development and Facilitation Office, Chennai, organised the seminar at IIT Madras.
• The event was held on August 18 in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Madras.
• DGFT, EXIM Bank and ECGC experts contributed to the technical sessions on export readiness.
• Sessions covered trade finance, export-risk mitigation, international payments, compliance and digital onboarding.
• The seminar formed part of the Procurement and Marketing Support Scheme’s workshops and seminars component.

Prelims pointers

• CSIR-CRRI and CSIR-AMPRI jointly held the one-day sustainable-infrastructure workshop in Bhopal.
• The event was part of CSIR-CRRI’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations from July 2026 to July 2027.
• Around 300 delegates from government, research, academic and industry organisations attended the workshop.
• Technical topics included fly-ash geopolymer concrete, natural-fibre geosynthetics and sisal-reinforced asphalt.
• The adoption panel focused on moving research outcomes and field demonstrations into highway projects.

Prelims pointers

• DPIIT belongs to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and signed both MoUs on 19 August 2026.
• PhonePe will provide transaction credits through its Payment Gateway and access to the Indus AppStore.
• PhonePe’s proposed masterclasses include fintech, sales, go-to-market strategies and business scaling.
• Shell India’s MoU focuses on startups working in the energy and climate-tech sectors.
• Shell India will offer investor and incubator connections and opportunities in the Shell E4 Smart Energy Track.

Prelims pointers

• Piyush Goyal’s Singapore engagements described in the release took place on 20 August 2026.
• He attended the fourth India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable and the fourth India-Singapore Business Roundtable.
• Government-to-Business meetings included the Global Finance & Technology Network and Keppel Infrastructure.
• Discussion areas included agri-exports, GCC-based commercial parks, fintech and sustainable infrastructure.
• An APEDA-FairPrice initiative was visited at City Square Mall to highlight agricultural trade and market linkages.

Prelims pointers

• The Digital BRICS Forum was institutionalised at the seventh BRICS Communications Ministers’ Meeting hosted by India in 2021.
• The Pune forum is described as the multi-stakeholder platform of the BRICS ICT Track.
• One panel covered cybersecurity, trustworthy ICTs and child online protection.
• The second panel covered affordable connectivity, resilient ICT infrastructure and satellite or non-terrestrial systems.
• The twelfth BRICS Communications Ministers’ Meeting was scheduled in Pune for 21 August 2026.

Prelims pointers

• The address said UPI connects 720 banks and processes 85% of India’s digital transactions.
• UPI was credited with nearly 49% of global real-time payment volumes and expansion to nine partner nations.
• The Direct Benefit Transfer portal integrates 318 schemes across 56 ministries.
• DigiLocker was reported to have more than 700 million users and nine billion issued verifiable credentials.
• Green energy supplied 12.4% of mobile-tower needs against a 30% renewable-power mandate for telecom infrastructure by 2030.

Prelims pointers

• India’s Exclusive Economic Zone is stated to cover 2.37 million square kilometres.
• More than 400 oceanographic cruises have been conducted since the early 1990s under the Marine Living Resources Programme.
• FORV Sagar Sampada serves as the principal fishery and oceanographic research vessel described in the report.
• The mesopelagic zone extends from 200 to 1,000 metres and contains lanternfishes, shrimps and cephalopods.
• The report’s technology set includes fisheries acoustics, environmental DNA, autonomous platforms, satellites, AI and ecosystem modelling.

Prelims pointers

• NCPOR hosted the eighth BRICS ocean and polar working-group meeting in Goa from 12–14 August 2026.
• Participants came from Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
• The meeting discussed collaborative strengthening of the Global Ocean Observing System.
• Members agreed to pursue a joint polar-ocean biodiversity study and milestones for International Polar Year–5.
• India is to coordinate finalisation of the working-group roadmap and its short-term implementation action plan.

Prelims pointers

• AIKosh is the national datasets and models platform under the IndiaAI Mission.
• AIKosh hosted more than 15,000 datasets, 300 AI models and 30 toolkits at the time of the workshop.
• Sector roundtables covered health, agriculture and livelihoods, and education, science and technology.
• IndiaAI, NeGD and CDPI through IIIT-B signed an MoU for AI and digital-public-infrastructure cooperation.
• Follow-up priorities included data harmonisation, privacy-preserving exchange and onboarding high-value datasets.

Prelims pointers

• The Raipur meeting on 20 August 2026 reviewed Chhattisgarh’s Tilapia Cluster notified under PMMSY.
• The government’s cluster-based approach covers 34 fisheries production and processing clusters.
• India’s record fish production was stated as 198 lakh tonnes and seafood exports as ₹73,890.46 crore.
• India exported 22,601 MT of Tilapia worth ₹189.73 crore in FY 2025–26.
• Chhattisgarh had exported 382 tonnes of Tilapia to the United States.

Prelims pointers

• DDWS functions under the Ministry of Jal Shakti and organised the national consultation.
• The workshop covered Gram Panchayats, Village Water and Sanitation Committees and Sujalam Shakti Groups.
• The National Jal Jeevan Mission developed eight training and capacity-building modules for review.
• Training themes included source sustainability, water quality, operation and maintenance and financial management.
• JJM 2.0 envisages digital tools for task tracking, monitoring, accountability and informed decisions.

Prelims pointers

• Indian Railways prioritised 238 AC EMU rakes for the Mumbai suburban railway network.
• ICF Chennai has an indicative allocation of 120 rakes, the largest share among the three units.
• RCF Kapurthala and MCF Raebareli are assigned 71 and 47 AC EMU rakes respectively.
• The Railway Board approved existing and proven RDSO/ICF specifications for the procurement.
• Supply is planned to begin in 2027 and the complete sanctioned quantity is scheduled by 2030.

Prelims pointers

• The MMDR Amendment Act, 2026 was notified by the Central Government on August 17, 2026.
• The amendment seeks greater clarity and uniformity in mineral taxation and levies.
• It addresses pending retrospective levies to provide greater policy certainty to the mining industry.
• SAIL has substantial captive iron-ore and coal operations whose viability may improve under the reform.
• Additional captive-mine iron ore may be sold domestically subject to the applicable regulatory framework.

Prelims pointers

• PMJVM was launched in 2021–22 and many Scheduled Tribes derive 20–40% of annual income from MFP.
• A VDVK clusters 15 self-help groups comprising about 300 people, with at least 60% Scheduled Tribe members.
• Government has notified minimum support prices for 87 Minor Forest Produce items under PMJVM.
• The Forest Rights Act, 2006 defines MFP and recognises forest communities’ rights to procure and sell it.
• By July 31, 2026, 2,911 of 4,172 sanctioned VDVKs were functional, with around ₹168 crore in reported sales.

Prelims pointers

• GDCBA is an initiative of the Capacity Building Commission of the Government of India.
• The Alliance was launched on February 20, 2026 at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
• GDCBA builds on Mission Karmayogi’s competency-based, digital and whole-of-government approach.
• Its first six months included engagement across 10 countries and direct participation by more than 250 officials.
• An annual summit and a State of Capacity Building Report are planned for the Alliance’s next phase.

Prelims pointers

• The Technology Development Board operates under the Department of Science and Technology.
• TDB entered an agreement with Delhi-based One2X Tech to support commercialisation of its Fixit platform.
• Fixit combines multi-agent orchestration, contextual memory, reasoning, reinforcement learning and secure tool execution.
• Its control architecture includes guardrails, observability and human oversight for auditable enterprise deployment.
• Initial use cases include market intelligence, qualification, follow-ups, appointment scheduling and sales handover.

Prelims pointers

• The Index of Core Industries uses 2022–23 as the base year in this release.
• ICI grew provisionally by 5.4% year-on-year in July 2026, against final growth of 6.0% in June.
• July growth was 29.5% for iron ore, 13.1% for cement, 9% for electricity and 7.6% for coal.
• Natural gas, crude oil and fertilisers recorded negative year-on-year growth in July 2026.
• The June 2026 index was revised from 119.6 to 120.7 and its growth rate from 5.0% to 6.0%.

Prelims pointers

• DDWS issued the Sujalam Bharat policy as a rural drinking-water digital public infrastructure framework.
• The policy covers DDWS, States and Union Territories, Gram Panchayats and authorised stakeholders.
• Common identifiers, standardised metadata and interoperable registries are core elements of the framework.
• Purpose-based access may support water-quality monitoring, predictive maintenance, geospatial planning and Digital Twins.
• The policy adopts tiered data access along with privacy, personal-data protection and cybersecurity safeguards.

Prelims pointers

• MPD-2047 envisages around 40 lakh new affordable housing units for Delhi’s future needs.
• Around 18 lakh affordable houses are proposed in Transit-Oriented Development zones along Metro corridors.
• Nearly 1,700 hectares of Yamuna floodplains are slated for ecological restoration through 13 major projects.
• The plan calls for Cultural Resource Management Plans covering around 1,500 heritage assets.
• Land pooling covers nearly 200 square kilometres and is expected to create around 12 lakh homes.

Prelims pointers

• The decision was taken by the Union Cabinet and welcomed publicly by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
• The decision enables a sitting of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir in Ladakh.
• The stated purpose is to improve access to justice for citizens living in remote areas of Ladakh.
• The release says the sitting should reduce the time required by Ladakh residents to obtain legal services.
• The announcement links the decision with Ladakh’s all-round development and constitutional safeguards.

Prelims pointers

• The Aadhaar App crossed 50 million, equivalent to five crore, downloads.
• More than 60 lakh mobile-number updates were completed through the Aadhaar App.
• The App recorded over 15 lakh address updates and more than 23 lakh email updates.
• UIDAI had onboarded more than 200 Offline Verification Seeking Entities since the January rollout.
• Offline verification can use QR codes and digitally signed documents without real-time connection to UIDAI’s central database.

Prelims pointers

• MeitY signed the MoU with PhonePe to support planning under the PM GatiShakti mission.
• PhonePe PulsePro is described as an enterprise data-intelligence platform using aggregated and anonymised transaction data.
• PulsePro metrics will be integrated into the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan portal.
• BISAG-N collaborates in managing the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan portal.
• The stated applications include infrastructure planning, economic analysis and holistic urban and rural development.

Prelims pointers

• India and Japan held their Defence Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi on 20 August 2026.
• The maritime arrangement covers Maritime Domain Awareness, Search and Rescue, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.
• Dharma Guardian is the bilateral Army exercise, while JAIMEX is the Japan–India maritime exercise.
• Veer Guardian 26 is to include the first visit to India by Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter aircraft for the exercise.
• UNICORN, a shipborne integrated communications antenna system, is identified as the first bilateral defence-equipment transfer project.

Prelims pointers

• WHO and UNICEF produced the first global estimates of basic sanitation services in healthcare settings using 2025 data.
• Only 40% of healthcare facilities met basic sanitation standards, while 11% had no sanitation service and served 936 million people.
• Basic sanitation requires a staff toilet, a sex-separated toilet with menstrual-hygiene facilities, and a toilet accessible to people with limited mobility.
• The sanitation estimate used 70 countries: coverage was 23% in sub-Saharan Africa and 55% in central and southern Asia.
• Globally, 85% of facilities had basic water, 72% basic hygiene, 71% basic healthcare-waste management and 59% basic environmental cleaning.

Prelims pointers

• The ICC is an independent intergovernmental organisation headquartered in The Hague and functions on the basis of the Rome Statute.
• The Rome Statute was adopted at a UN conference in Rome on July 1, 1998 and entered into force on July 1, 2002.
• The source reports 137 Rome Statute signatories and 125 members; the U.S. and Israel signed but did not ratify, while India, China and Russia are not members.
• The ICC investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, rather than prosecuting states.
• ICC action follows complementarity: it acts when the concerned state does not, cannot or is unwilling to prosecute; Security Council referrals allow more flexible jurisdiction.

Prelims pointers

• India’s population history includes ancestry linked to early South Asians, the Iranian plateau, Steppe groups and Tibeto-Burman speakers.
• If two carriers share the same recessive disease variant, each pregnancy has a 25% chance of an affected child.
• Founder effect can increase the frequency of a rare ancestral variant within a small genetically closed community.
• Sickle-cell disease is more common among several tribal populations in Central, Western and Southern India.
• A health-linked Indian biobank would require trust, consent, privacy protection, community engagement and ethical governance.

Prelims pointers

• A Supreme Court Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta sought a structured, time-bound and monitored framework for Agasthyamalai encroachments.
• In 2025, the Supreme Court directed the Central Empowered Committee to survey non-forestry activities contrary to the 1980 forest law and the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The CEC recorded 427.40 hectares of encroachment in Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary, including 237.09 hectares involved in litigation.
• Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve forms the Vaigai River's upper catchment; 2020 records listed about 4,595 encroachers over 5,071.27 hectares.
• The CEC reported 10.16 hectares occupied by 998 families in Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and identified 118 government employees among encroachers elsewhere in the landscape.

Prelims pointers

• Alphonse Laveran identified the malaria parasite in human blood in 1880.
• Ronald Ross observed malaria-parasite development in a mosquito at Secunderabad on August 20, 1897.
• Italian scientists subsequently established the human-malaria transmission cycle through Anopheles mosquitoes.
• Ronald Ross received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for malaria work.
• India recorded 233,917 malaria cases and 76 deaths in 2025 and targets elimination by 2030.

Prelims pointers

• Odisha notified the Satkosia village-relocation inquiry committee on August 17, 2026.
• The Revenue and Disaster Management Secretary heads the high-level village-wise inquiry.
• The inquiry covers compliance with the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Forest Rights Act, 2006 and NTCA guidelines.
• Satkosia’s tiger count fell from 12 in the 2007 State census to none in the 2022 census.
• The 2018 inter-State relocation brought a male tiger from Kanha and a tigress from Bandhavgarh.

Prelims pointers

• The Index of Core Industries grew 5.4% year-on-year in July 2026, down from 6% in June.
• Fertilisers contracted 8% in July 2026, compared with a 3.3% contraction in June.
• Natural gas and crude oil contracted 3.7% and 5.3% respectively in July 2026.
• Cement grew 13.1% and electricity grew 9% during July 2026.
• Refinery products grew 2.7%, ending a three-month run of contraction.