Current affairs — 26 August 2026

Prelims pointers

• RBI issued notification RBI/2026-27/248 for Rural Co-operative Banks on August 25, 2026.
• The underlying Interest Rate on Deposits Directions, 2025 were dated November 28, 2025 and updated on June 17, 2026.
• The temporary measure covered fresh FCNR(B) deposits of three-to-five-year tenors and NRE deposits of three years and above.
• RBI advanced the end-date of the temporary relaxation from September 30, 2026 to August 31, 2026.
• The amendment altered paragraphs 24(4) and 29(7) of the applicable 2025 directions and took effect immediately.

Prelims pointers

• Karnataka's draft electoral rolls were published after a Special Intensive Revision.
• D.K. Shivakumar's August 25, 2026 letter was addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
• The letter said more than 1.08 crore names were marked as ASDDO.
• About 43 lakh voters were expected to receive notices for logical discrepancies.
• The Chief Minister sought at least three to four weeks for every voter facing notices for logical discrepancies and absence of a link to the 2002 roll.

Prelims pointers

• Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot suspended KPSC Chairman Shivashankarappa S. Sahukar for the second time.
• The second suspension order cited Article 317(2) of the Constitution and a Karnataka High Court order dated August 18.
• B. Prabhudev, the senior-most KPSC member, was directed to act as Chairman until further orders.
• Mr. Sahukar challenged the July 10 suspension as lacking the Cabinet’s aid and advice; the High Court quashed the order.
• The Enforcement Directorate had searched more than 20 premises while investigating alleged corruption in Veterinary Officer recruitment.

Prelims pointers

• Kirana Hills was described as about 10 kilometres north of Sargodha and as an area containing nuclear-related facilities.
• India sent loitering missions around Sargodha to search for radars, according to former CDS General Anil Chauhan.
• The loitering munitions had an endurance of around two hours before they would eventually descend if no target was found.
• General Chauhan credited tri-service networking with better situational awareness and battlefield transparency.
• He said the Operation Sindoor ceasefire was decided directly between the two Directors General of Military Operations.

Prelims pointers

• The National Security Strategy Conference was organised by the Intelligence Bureau, and agencies were asked to study trends 15-20 years ahead.
• State police were asked to implement the Narcotics Control Vision Document 2026-2029 through “Detect, Disrupt and Destroy.”
• The Home Minister said integrated policing databases linked CCTNS, ICJS, NatGrid and NAFIS.
• He said the three new criminal laws would be fully implemented within one year and claimed conviction rates would rise by 25%.
• Around 274 fugitives were brought back to India from abroad between 2019 and 2026, according to the Home Minister.

Prelims pointers

• Iran and Oman are located on opposite sides of the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
• Badr al-Busaid and Abbas Araghchi met in Tehran on August 25, 2026 to discuss managing ship traffic.
• The joint proposal included a temporary navigational corridor and joint work to clear mines.
• Technical talks were to continue on a permanent shipping corridor and the strait's future administration.
• About one-fifth of the world's traded oil passed through Hormuz before the February 28 attacks on Iran.

Prelims pointers

• A NITI Aayog report found that close to 80% of ANRF funding is concentrated in the IITs.
• The companion survey included inputs from more than 400 institutional leaders and 850 scientists.
• NITI Aayog proposed UPMS to streamline the planning, funding, monitoring and evaluation of public R&D projects.
• Crossref has included a grant DOI in its system since 2020, allowing grants to be linked with papers, patents and data.
• More than two lakh grants have been registered worldwide on the Grant Linking System described in the article.

Prelims pointers

• The IMF chief characterised the outlook as a contest between a negative West Asian energy-supply shock and a positive AI-led demand shock.
• Oil and gas reserve drawdowns and increases in non-Gulf supply helped the world economy weather the Strait of Hormuz closure better than feared.
• Country-level effects depend on exposure to energy disruption, macroeconomic vulnerabilities, and each economy's position in the AI chain.
• A renewed oil-price rise could fuel inflation, prolong restrictive monetary policy, and affect debt service and economic activity.
• The IMF lowered its 2026 global growth forecast to 3% in July, citing West Asian conflict, trade fragmentation, and AI uncertainty.

Prelims pointers

• Basic customs duty on sodium antimonate, used in solar-glass manufacturing, was reduced from 7.5% to zero in the Union Budget.
• Specified capital goods for manufacturing lithium-ion cells used in Battery Energy Storage Systems were exempted from customs duty.
• The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy allocation rose from ₹26,549 crore to nearly ₹32,914 crore.
• PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana aims to solar-electrify one crore households by 2026-27; about 24 lakh had benefited by December 2025.
• The ₹20,000-crore Nuclear Energy Mission targets at least five indigenously designed and operational Small Modular Reactors by 2033.

Prelims pointers

• Equatorial-origin tropical cyclones were 43% fewer in 1981-2010 than in 1951-1980, a reduction linked to a positive PDO phase.
• The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is a Pacific climate cycle operating over roughly 20-30 years, longer than the two-to-seven-year ENSO cycle.
• The PDO entered a cooler, negative phase in 2019; persistence of this phase could favour more post-monsoon equatorial-origin cyclones.
• El Niño denotes warming in the central equatorial Pacific and often corresponds to reduced rainfall over India; La Niña is associated with excess rain.
• Cyclone Ockhi in 2017 was cited as the last major equatorial-origin cyclone in India's neighbourhood, affecting Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka.

Prelims pointers

• Gross FDI into India was $30.7 billion in April-June 2026, the highest in the RBI series covering 60 quarters since September 2011.
• April-June 2026 gross inflows were nearly 46% above the March 2026 quarter and about 15% above the June 2025 quarter.
• Quarterly direct-investment outflows were $22.8 billion, leaving net FDI of $7.8 billion, the highest quarterly level since June 2022.
• Singapore, the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada together accounted for around 74% of the inflows reported for June 2026.
• Manufacturing received the highest share of FDI inflows, followed by electricity generation, computer services, and communication services.

Prelims pointers

• Rom and Zai Whitaker and fellow conservationists formally established the Madras Crocodile Bank on August 26, 1976.
• Its 8.5-acre campus houses 395 crocodilians, including more than 47 gharials, along with 32 other reptile species.
• India's three crocodilians named in the article are the mugger crocodile, saltwater crocodile, and gharial.
• The founders established the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team in 1990 and pioneered the Snake Bite Mitigation Project.
• The Irula Snake Catchers' Industrial Cooperative Society supports livelihoods through extracting snake venom used for antivenom production.

Prelims pointers

• The 25th round of India-China Special Representatives talks was held in Beijing on August 25, 2026.
• Ajit Doval and Wang Yi represented India and China respectively in the reported Special Representatives talks.
• Two additional military-hotline channels were agreed for the Eastern and Middle Sectors of the border.
• The next expert-level mechanism meeting on trans-border rivers was scheduled for September, with hydrological-data communication to continue.
• Both sides referred to the 2005 Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for settling the boundary question.

Prelims pointers

• The IMD treated the western disturbance as a possible contributor to the rainfall environment, not as the established direct cause of the flood.
• Orographic lifting occurs when a moving air mass meets a mountain barrier and rises, supporting precipitation along the Himalayan foothills.
• Nepal experienced about ten days of persistent rain, with heavy to intense accumulations at some sites between August 16 and 25.
• The flash flooding struck the Bhotekoshi river area in Nepal's Rasuwa district near the Tibet border.
• India and Nepal have mechanisms to share both hydrological information and weather-forecast information.

Prelims pointers

• Progressive Supranuclear Palsy causes balance loss and difficulty with walking, swallowing, speaking and eye movements.
• PSP may be misdiagnosed in early stages because several of its initial symptoms overlap with Parkinson’s disease.
• The NIMHANS team examined the NLRP3 inflammasome, NF-kB pathway and Th17 pathway.
• Researchers combined peripheral blood and cerebrospinal-fluid markers with PET-MRI assessment of brain inflammation.
• PSP is associated with degeneration in brain regions controlling movement and cognition and abnormal tau-protein accumulation.

Prelims pointers

• CERD is an independent expert panel that monitors States parties’ implementation of the racial discrimination convention.
• India’s periodic review under ICERD was conducted in Geneva on August 11-12, 2026.
• Solicitor General Tushar Mehta headed the inter-ministerial Indian delegation for the treaty-body review.
• The review covered India’s 12th to 21st combined periodic reports, which were submitted to CERD in 2023.
• India said it highlighted constitutional safeguards, affirmative action, judicial remedies and targeted public policy during the review.

Prelims pointers

• Andhra Pradesh released 2,000 cusecs from Nagarjunasagar into the Right Canal on August 26, 2026.
• Telangana responded by releasing water into the Left Canal after objecting to the unilateral Andhra Pradesh release.
• A three-member KRMB committee met on August 24 without deciding water sharing and was to meet again on September 4.
• Nagarjunasagar held 181.3 tmc ft of water against its full capacity of 312 tmc ft on the evening reported.
• Andhra Pradesh had sought 47 tmc ft from Nagarjunasagar, according to BRS leader T. Harish Rao.

Prelims pointers

• U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined an ‘economic asphyxiation’ campaign against Iran on August 24, 2026.
• Iran has faced sanctions since shortly after the country’s 1979 revolution.
• The Strait of Hormuz normally carries around one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports.
• Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained largely paralysed, disrupting global energy markets.
• Iran has sought to impose fees on vessels transiting Hormuz since exercising control after the war began on February 28.

Prelims pointers

• Sugarcane production reached 500 MMT in 2025–26, about 43.5% above the 348.44 MMT recorded in 2015–16.
• The 2026–27 Fair and Remunerative Price is ₹365 per quintal at a basic recovery rate of 10.25%.
• Sugar diversion to ethanol fell from about 12% in 2022–23 to about 9% in 2025–26; nearly three-fourths of ethanol now comes from grains.
• Current sugar production is estimated at 306 LMT versus an initial 343 LMT estimate, with Red Rot, Top Borer and waterlogging cited.
• A 400-tonne stock limit applies to sugar dealers from 1 August to 30 November 2026, alongside a planned duty-free raw-sugar import of 10 LMT.

Prelims pointers

• India’s Department of Fisheries hosted the Seychelles delegation for a bilateral meeting on 25 August 2026.
• India reported fish production of 19.7 million tonnes and seafood exports valued at USD 8.46 billion.
• Technical areas included mariculture, hatcheries, tuna optimisation, stock assessment, post-harvest engineering and marine conservation.
• Digital cooperation discussed fisheries data systems, monitoring-control-surveillance infrastructure and artificial intelligence for harvest management.
• Seychelles sought accelerated work on a bilateral fisheries and aquaculture MoU with an advanced work plan.

Prelims pointers

• SIDBI held the RRB heads’ conclave in New Delhi on 25 August 2026 under the chairmanship of the DFS Secretary.
• Chairpersons of all 28 Regional Rural Banks attended along with officials from DFS, SIDBI and NABARD.
• The co-lending model combines SIDBI’s MSME-credit expertise with the rural and semi-urban reach of RRBs.
• SIDBI’s Co-Lending Origination Platform supports paperless application, in-principle sanction, digital documentation and direct disbursement.
• Pilot implementation had produced encouraging outcomes at three RRBs before the proposal to expand the arrangement.

Prelims pointers

• India addressed rangeland restoration at UNCCD CoP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with pastoralist stewardship as the central principle.
• India’s rangelands include Himalayan pastures, Central Indian savannas, the Thar and Kachchh regions, and southern sholas.
• About 25,000 community-protected sacred groves cover roughly 0.6 million hectares and include Great Indian Bustard habitat.
• Satellite-based Desertification and Land Degradation Atlases are used to map grasslands and plan restoration.
• India has about 10 million hectares of permanent pastures and grazing lands, where deep-rooted grasses support carbon storage and groundwater recharge.

Prelims pointers

• CAQM conducted the Loni inspection on 25 August 2026 under Operation Clean Air in the National Capital Region.
• Seven flying squads inspected 28 premises with magistrates, police and Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board officials.
• All 28 inspected premises were non-compliant; 21 were operating without a valid Consent to Operate.
• Inspectors found unapproved fuel use in 14 cases and furnaces without required pollution-control devices in eight cases.
• UPPCB and partner authorities sealed 16 premises, served six preliminary reports or notices, and pasted notices in six other cases.

Prelims pointers

• The seventh Indian Coast Guard–Vietnam Coast Guard High-Level Meeting was held in Chennai on 25 August 2026.
• The bilateral coast guard meeting operated under a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2015.
• Cooperation covers search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, marine-pollution response and capacity building.
• Indian Coast Guard Director General Paramesh Sivamani and Vietnam Coast Guard Vice Commandant Luong Dinh Hung co-chaired the meeting.
• The joint exercise SAHYOG-HOPTAC was scheduled to be conducted at sea on 27 August 2026.

Prelims pointers

• The 2026–27 Price Stabilization Fund buffer target is 2 LMT of Rabi onion, with about 1.21 LMT procured.
• NAFED and NCCF began onion procurement on 15 May 2026, while CWC became the buffer’s storage agency for the first time.
• Retail onion sales are planned at ₹35 per kg through NCCF, NAFED, Safal and Kendriya Bhandar channels.
• Kanda Express operations expanded from 14 rakes carrying nearly 12,000 MT in 2024–25 to 86 rakes carrying around 88,000 MT in 2025–26.
• The Department of Consumer Affairs monitors prices of 41 essential commodities across 579 centres every day.

Prelims pointers

• India was described as the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, with nearly 250,000 startups established over the previous decade.
• The India–Japan Pitching Series connected 65 Indian startups with about 100 Japanese corporations and enabled more than 30 tie-ups.
• The proposed Japan–India Deep-Tech Capital Corridor would mobilise patient capital for research, innovation and commercialisation.
• The Two-Way Innovation Bridge would connect universities, incubators, research institutions, laboratories and testing facilities.
• A proposed second Government of India Fund of Funds of about USD 1 billion would focus on supporting deep-tech enterprises.

Prelims pointers

• ICAT issued its first compliance certificate for a 15-metre multi-axle sleeper bus to Synaty Automotive Private Limited.
• The certification was granted under AIS-119 and AIS-153 with applicable Central Motor Vehicles Rules provisions.
• The fully sleeper configuration has 42 berths, while the hybrid configuration has 21 berths and 42 seats.
• The bus was assessed for structural integrity, emergency and fire safety, passenger movement, accommodation and comfort.
• ICAT provides automotive testing, certification and homologation services and handed over this certificate at Manesar, Haryana.

Prelims pointers

• Bilateral India–Morocco trade reached about USD 4 billion in 2025, and both sides aim to double it over five years.
• A joint working group will study a preferential trade agreement, tariff and non-tariff barriers, market access and trade facilitation.
• Morocco’s National Office of Food Safety and India’s FSSAI signed an MoU on cooperation in food safety.
• India and Morocco signed a Cultural Exchange Programme covering 2026–2030 at the seventh Joint Commission meeting.
• The countries will mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2027, and the eighth Joint Commission is planned in New Delhi.

Prelims pointers

• Sarnath was inscribed on 25 July 2026 at the 48th World Heritage Committee session in Busan, South Korea.
• India’s 45 World Heritage properties comprise 37 cultural, seven natural and one mixed property.
• The inscription has two components: Chaukhandi Stupa and the Archaeological Remains of Sarnath.
• Sarnath was nominated under criteria (iii) and (vi) for spiritual significance and association with events in Buddha’s life.
• Sarnath entered India’s Tentative List in 1998, was nominated in January 2025 and was evaluated by ICOMOS.

Prelims pointers

• The PMFME Scheme was launched on 29 June 2020 to support the establishment or strengthening of micro food enterprises.
• Its credit-linked capital subsidy equals 35% of total project cost, subject to a ceiling of ₹10 lakh per unit.
• The 24–25 August 2026 PMFME Bazaar at India Habitat Centre included exhibitors from 25 States and Union Territories.
• The Bazaar platform included micro enterprises, self-help groups, farmer-producer organisations, cooperatives and entrepreneurs.
• SHHE Foods increased makhana-processing capacity from 100 kilograms to at least 1,000 kilograms per day after upgrading its unit.

Prelims pointers

• Patradevi in Goa was an entry point for peaceful satyagrahis opposing Portuguese rule on 15 August 1955.
• Portuguese machine-gun fire killed several flag-carrying satyagrahis at Patradevi during the 1955 protest.
• Operation Vijay was the 1961 military action through which Indian defence forces liberated Goa.
• The Goa government redeveloped Hutatma Smruti Smarak through the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation.
• The approximately ₹9.50-crore memorial project includes sculptures, information hubs, murals and a redesigned central monument.

Prelims pointers

• Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing group comprising Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
• The group’s August 26, 2026 homeland-security talks were held in Sydney, Australia.
• Ministers discussed using AI against terrorism, drug smuggling, scams and scam centres, and organised crime.
• Participants watched aerial and maritime drones used to improve surveillance along Australia’s remote northern coast.
• Under Australia’s boat-arrival policy, asylum seekers arriving by boat are deported to the Pacific island of Nauru.