Current affairs — 24 October 2026

Prelims pointers

• The agreement reduces Mosqivac’s price from €9.30 to €5.50 per dose, a cut of about 40%.
• The reduced price is expected to take effect in early 2027 through an IFFIm-enabled advance payment.
• Estimated savings of around $50 million during 2027-2029 could help fully vaccinate up to one million more children.
• RTS,S/AS01 was developed by GSK, PATH and partners and is manufactured by Bharat Biotech as Mosqivac.
• More than 74 million malaria-vaccine doses have been procured and delivered by UNICEF since rollout began in 2024.

Prelims pointers

• Taiwan identified the suspected maritime militia fishing vessel as Minfudingyu 07902 and placed it on a priority watchlist.
• The vessel reportedly came to about 2.7 nautical miles outside Taiwan’s restricted waters on August 16.
• Exclusive economic zones extend 200 nautical miles from a coast and confer rights over natural-resource exploitation, conservation and management.
• Taiwan described coordinated law-enforcement, scientific and civilian activity below open conflict as complex grey-zone operations.
• China’s maritime militia dates to the 1950s and uses fishing vessels with trained, state-supported crews in disputed waters.

Prelims pointers

• The RBI scheduled the Variable Rate Repo auction for Monday, October 26, 2026, under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility.
• The notified amount for the auction is ₹1,50,000 crore.
• The Variable Rate Repo auction has a tenor of four days.
• The auction window is 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., with reversal scheduled for Friday, October 30, 2026.
• The operational guidelines remain those in RBI Press Release 2021-2022/1572 dated January 20, 2022.

Prelims pointers

• Madhya Pradesh reported investment opportunities of more than ₹15,400 crore at a two-day semiconductor summit in Indore.
• Five companies received letters of intent for land for projects worth ₹9,625 crore and more than 4,450 direct jobs.
• CyTac RE proposed a 50 MW hyperscale data centre at Ganga Malanpur in Gwalior with an investment of ₹6,415 crore.
• A proposed Semiconductor Centre of Excellence would cover chip design, VLSI, research and development, prototyping and skills.
• The State proposed a separate centre for quantum computing, quantum communication, photonics, advanced materials and deep-tech research.

Prelims pointers

• The low-pressure area formed over the east-central and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal at 5.30 a.m. on Friday.
• IMD expected the system to become a depression, then a deep depression, and subsequently a cyclonic storm by Monday morning.
• The weather system was expected to cross the north Andhra Pradesh coast in the early hours of October 28.
• The forecast included a storm surge of one to two metres, while some models indicated winds reaching up to 145 kmph.
• IMD's sea warning for October 27 projected winds of 120 to 165 kmph, gusting to 185 kmph, off north Andhra Pradesh.

Prelims pointers

• Energy Secretary Chris Wright designated helium a critical material under the U.S. Energy Act of 2020 on October 23, 2026.
• The designation is intended to strengthen U.S. manufacturing and supply-chain security and reduce reliance on foreign critical minerals.
• The Energy Department said helium qualifies because of its essential manufacturing role and growing exposure to supply-chain risks.
• Helium is essential to semiconductor manufacturing, and the department said many critical applications have no viable substitute.
• The U.S. has substantial helium-rich natural-gas resources, but limited refining capacity and long permitting timelines constrain production.

Prelims pointers

• Two anonymous senior Iranian security officials told Reuters that Tehran had plans to target Gulf undersea cables if the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran again.
• One official said Iran would seek to obstruct repairs after an attack to prolong disruptions to communications and internet connections.
• IRGC political-affairs deputy Yadollah Javani said Iran could target seven major internet cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz if its infrastructure were attacked.
• The ITU says undersea cables carry about 99% of global internet traffic, while TeleGeography says less than 1% of international bandwidth crosses Hormuz.
• The Red Sea carries about 3% of global international demand and roughly 10% of traffic travelling between regions, according to TeleGeography.

Prelims pointers

• The protest took place outside Mumbai University’s Kalina campus on October 23, 2026.
• Disha Students’ Organisation and Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra organised the demonstration.
• Form 6 is identified in the report as the form used for new voter registrations.
• On May 27, 2026, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Special Intensive Revision conducted in Bihar.
• The Supreme Court said the Election Commission’s citizenship scrutiny concerned electoral eligibility and was not a final citizenship determination.

Prelims pointers

• Diamondiyne is a newly synthesised three-dimensional carbon allotrope with a diamond-like but more open, cage-like structure.
• Researchers from three Swedish universities formed the material at a boundary between water and chloroform.
• The ‘y’ in diamondiyne’s name refers to the presence of carbon-carbon triple bonds in the material.
• The process took about a week and produced films around five square centimetres in area and up to 60 nanometres thick.
• Spectroscopy and electron microscopy confirmed small diamondiyne crystals, but they constituted only 1% of the reaction yield.

Prelims pointers

• Ashoke Sen became the first Indian physicist to receive the Oskar Klein Medal when he was selected for the 2026 honour.
• Sen’s cited research contributions include S-duality, precise counting of black-hole entropy and string field theory.
• He delivered the 2026 Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture at Stockholm University’s AlbaNova Centre on October 22.
• Established in 1988, the medal is named after Swedish theoretical physicist Oskar Klein and recognises distinguished contributions to physics.
• The medal is awarded annually by Stockholm University and the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Prelims pointers

• India and Uzbekistan upgraded their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and set a $5 billion bilateral-trade target.
• The two countries signed 11 agreements in sectors including mining and tourism during Prime Minister Modi’s August visit.
• India and Uzbekistan agreed to establish a framework for long-term supplies of uranium from Uzbekistan to India.
• The Ateshgah fire temple near Baku bears Sanskrit and Gurmukhi inscriptions and was used by Hindu and Sikh merchants.
• The roughly 7,200-km INSTC links India with Iran, the Caspian region, Russia, Central Asia and Europe through a multimodal freight network.

Prelims pointers

• The ESY 2026–27 tender prices surplus-foodgrain ethanol at ₹60.32 per litre, capped at 108 crore litres for the first three quarters.
• Damaged-foodgrain ethanol is priced at ₹64 per litre, while maize ethanol is ₹66 per litre plus another ₹2.79.
• Ethanol from sugarcane juice, sugar syrup and B-heavy molasses is excluded from the tender.
• C-heavy molasses-based ethanol remains eligible because it allows production without diverting recoverable sugar.
• Industry estimates put DFG allocation near 60 crore litres in ESY 2025–26 and anticipated more than 700 crore litres in ESY 2026–27.

Prelims pointers

• CERT-In was asked to forensically audit the VAHAN, SARATHI, e-Challan and PUCC transport portals.
• The National Transport Repository consolidates VAHAN and SARATHI records with e-Challan, eDAR and FASTag data.
• Private entities may access selected fields subject to daily search caps, while PII is masked except for law-enforcement and security agencies.
• An IFF RTI found 25,314 private-entity credentials through which 1.708 crore queries were made over 33 months.
• ULIP is managed by NICDC, and officials cited entities recording more than 50 lakh portal hits in a month.

Prelims pointers

• Pradhan Mantri Rahat is intended to provide timely medical treatment to victims of road accidents.
• A road-accident victim admitted during the golden hour can receive treatment worth up to ₹1.5 lakh under PM Rahat.
• Only 469 hospitals had enrolled under PM Rahat, while more than 1,000 were empanelled under Telangana’s Aarogyasri scheme.
• The Chief Secretary said PM Rahat could provide at least ₹100 crore annually toward medical treatment.
• Participating hospitals must meet prescribed requirements, including police investigation and procedural formalities for road accidents.

Prelims pointers

• A CEEW study found that only half of rooftop-solar adopters monitor daily performance and two-thirds clean panels at least monthly.
• Current policy mandates five years of free maintenance support for rooftop-solar systems, but the service scope is not clearly defined.
• Unclean panels can develop hotspots that overheat and damage solar cells, causing permanent degradation of modules.
• The article recommends basic panel cleaning once a month and a technician’s inspection once every three months.
• CEEW recommended that MNRE issue an SOP defining maintenance scope, visit frequency, service quality and damage responsibilities.

Prelims pointers

• Article 324(5) protects the Chief Election Commissioner against removal except in the manner and on the grounds applicable to a Supreme Court judge.
• The report identifies proved misbehaviour or incapacity as the grounds for removing the Chief Election Commissioner.
• Removal of the Chief Election Commissioner must follow the parliamentary procedure prescribed for removing a Supreme Court judge.
• K.C. Venugopal said the INDIA bloc would hold a ‘public impeachment proceeding’ on October 30, 2026.
• Venugopal announced a Dilli Chalo march culminating at Ramleela Maidan on November 1, 2026.

Prelims pointers

• ISRO is under the Government of India and will not be privatised, though some operations will be commercially performed by private firms.
• Under the Indian Space Policy, 2023, ISRO will handhold startups and private companies working in the space sector.
• V. Narayanan said 75% of ISRO’s budget is pumped into private industries when a PSLV or GSLV rocket lifts off.
• The NVS-03 navigation satellite was planned for launch on October 30, and its launch vehicle moved to the pad on October 24, 2026.
• Chandrayaan-4, planned for 2028, is intended to land on the Moon and return with a sample.

Prelims pointers

• The Guwahati Shilp Samagam Mela was the second event in the Ministry's 2026–27 mela series.
• The mela had 75 participating artisans, including 31 women, displaying approximately 40 varieties of products.
• BHARAT-TULIP expands to Traditional Artisans’ Upliftment Livelihood Programme and supports physical and e-commerce marketing.
• The mela is linked to NSFDC, NSKFDC and NBCFDC, three national finance and development corporations under the initiative.
• Its target artisan groups include Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, Safai Mitras and Denotified Tribes.

Prelims pointers

• Shram Samvad was launched nationwide on 28 September 2026 as a 90-day labour-reform outreach campaign.
• The campaign covers 316 districts in all 36 States and Union Territories, with special attention to industrial clusters.
• The four Labour Codes included the Code on Wages and codes on industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health and working conditions.
• The Code on Wages dates to 2019, while the other three Labour Codes listed in the source date to 2020.
• Worker-welfare technology discussions named e-Shram, Shram Suvidha Portal, SAMADHAN and Labour Stack.

Prelims pointers

• The National Urban Conclave 2026 was organised by MoHUA, supported by Odisha, with NIUA as its knowledge partner.
• The conclave's theme was ‘Urban Rising - Rethinking Urban Systems, Solutions and Delivery’.
• HUDCO's Urban Invest Window supports States and urban local bodies with project development, capacity building and investment-ready projects.
• The Samarthya platform for CPHEEO was described as an integrated portal for knowledge management and capacity building in solid waste, used water and water sectors.
• The C&D waste advisory concerned 2025 rules that superseded the 2016 rules and incorporated extended producer responsibility and recycling targets.

Prelims pointers

• The 19th Urban Mobility India Conference was organised by MoHUA through the Institute of Urban Transport (India).
• Its three stated mobility principles were Integration, Inclusiveness and Intelligence, collectively described as 3-I.
• Since December 2025, nine Metro projects covering about 174 km and costing over ₹59,000 crore had been approved.
• India's operational Metro network was reported at 1,185 km across 26 cities, with another 102 km operationalised since December 2025.
• PM e-Bus Sewa had placed 1,100 electric buses in operation across 28 cities, carrying about 2.5 lakh passengers daily.

Prelims pointers

• The CAQM review covered Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts and examined both in-situ and ex-situ paddy-stubble management.
• CAQM called for maximum feasible use of paddy stubble as fuel in thermal power plants, brick kilns and industries.
• Sector-wise nodal officers are to ensure actual stubble utilisation and regularly monitor and report compliance.
• District administrations were directed to coordinate farmers, Custom Hiring Centres, machinery providers and other stakeholders for timely access to residue-management solutions.
• The review team inspected an industrial boiler in Amritsar where paddy-stubble pellets were being used as fuel.

Prelims pointers

• BIMCGL is the special-purpose vehicle for the Integrated Manufacturing Cluster at Gaya under the Amritsar–Kolkata Industrial Corridor and National Industrial Corridor Development Programme.
• The IMC Gaya project spans 1,670 acres in Dobhi block of Gaya district and was approved on 28 August 2024 at a cost of ₹1,339 crore including land.
• BIMCGL was incorporated on 6 January 2025 as an equal-equity joint venture between BIADA and NICDIT.
• Twelve MoUs signed at the event covered about 300 acres, proposed investment of ₹4,200 crore and estimated employment potential of 16,095.
• IMC Gaya is expected to attract approximately ₹16,500 crore and create around 1.10 lakh employment opportunities.

Prelims pointers

• AATAL stands for Integrated Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosol Toxicity Analysis Laboratory and was established at IITM’s Delhi branch under Mission Mausam.
• The laboratory analyses atmospheric gases and aerosols, including PM2.5, metals, toxic elements and other components.
• AATAL can distinguish sources including vehicles, industry, biomass and crop-residue burning, construction and road dust, and transported pollution.
• AATAL is integrated with AIRWISE, the Air Quality Warning and Integrated Decision Support System for Emissions.
• The associated forecasting system provides air-quality forecasts at 400-metre spatial resolution for the next 72 hours.

Prelims pointers

• The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 came into force on 1 July 2026 and replaced the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA framework.
• It guarantees 125 days of wage employment per financial year to rural households whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work.
• Its four themes are water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure and extreme-weather mitigation.
• Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans involve Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayat participation and use GIS, Yuktdhara and PM Gati Shakti.
• The VGPP framework identifies 318 permissible work types, and plans are consolidated from Block to National level.

Prelims pointers

• The Digital India BHASHINI Division functions under Digital India Corporation in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• BHASHINI reports more than 10 billion cumulative AI inferences and support for 36 Indian languages in text, 23 in voice and 35 international languages.
• BHASHINI’s website-translation plugin enables multilingual access across more than 800 government websites.
• Shrutlekh demonstrated real-time speech transcription with simultaneous translation for academic and conference settings.
• BHASHINI Pragati was developed for the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and supports documents of 100 to 500 pages with quality checks and data-security considerations.

Prelims pointers

• The target of creating 11 crore Farmer IDs was completed by the night of 23 October 2026, five months before the 31 March 2027 deadline.
• The Farmer ID milestone was achieved under the Digital Agriculture Mission implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
• The Digital Agriculture Mission followed Union Cabinet approval on 2 September 2024 and is developing Digital Public Infrastructure for agriculture.
• More than 6 crore farmers had received direct benefits through Farmer ID-based service delivery by the date of the release.
• Farmer IDs are linked in the release to Kisan Credit Cards, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, disaster relief and crop procurement at Minimum Support Price.

Prelims pointers

• The Air Force Day Aerial Display-2026 at Namo Ghat will commemorate the Indian Air Force’s 94th anniversary under the theme “Wings over Ganges”.
• The aerial display is to include Tejas, Light Combat Helicopter Prachand, SU-30MKI, Rafale and transport aircraft.
• The Reserve Bank of India’s new Bhubaneswar facility comprises four data centres intended to host mission-critical payment and settlement systems.
• The RBI data-centre facility is certified to the Uptime Institute Tier IV standard, described as the highest tier of operational resilience.
• The Cybersecurity Training Institute will focus on training and research involving quantum computing, artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies relevant to the BFSI sector.

Prelims pointers

• Swavlamban 2026 is the fifth Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Seminar and will be held at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi, on 26–27 October 2026.
• The seminar theme is “Strength & Power through Innovation and Indigenisation”, and the platform has existed since 2022.
• Exhibition areas include maritime surveillance, counter-UAS, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies, NBCD and safety, and efficiency enhancers.
• The seminar will discuss quantum technology, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and hypersonic technology for future warfare and naval operations.
• The event is organised by the Indian Navy in collaboration with the Defence Innovation Organisation and the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers.

Prelims pointers

• India Chem 2026 was the fourteenth edition and used the theme ‘Advantage Bharat: An Emerging Global Chemicals Hub’.
• Japan was the partner country for India Chem 2026, which also held India–USA and India–EU forums.
• The source placed the sector near USD 220 billion and stated ambitions of USD 1 trillion by 2040 and USD 1.6 trillion by 2047.
• The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals and FICCI jointly organised the Mumbai event.
• The first India Chem Youth Innovation Challenge awarded first prize to Soumya Bhole and Sarthak Kale of ICT Mumbai.

Prelims pointers

• The indigenous AIP Energy Module was developed by the Naval Materials Research Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
• Air Independent Propulsion increases diesel-electric submarine underwater endurance by reducing dependence on atmospheric oxygen.
• Setting to Work Phase-2 was inaugurated at L&T’s AM Naik Heavy Engineering Complex in Hazira, Gujarat, on 24 October 2026.
• The next phase will energise the module for power production and test it under Indian Navy protocols.
• The module is scheduled for handover to Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited for integration on a Kalvari-class submarine in early 2027.

Prelims pointers

• The village event formed week six of the Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat 100 Week Sankalp Abhiyan.
• The Directorate of NSS and 15 regional directorates covered more than 160 institutions and mobilised over 80,000 participants.
• Traditional tournaments in Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Tug of War and Kushti engaged more than 21,500 participants.
• Gram Seva activities engaged more than 19,800 people in cleaning, sanitation and sapling plantation work.
• More than 29,500 young women participated, while the campaign generated over 4,000 posts using #NashaMuktYuva.

Prelims pointers

• The Victoria Mode is a recurring warm-and-cool sea-surface pattern in the North Pacific and is distinct from the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
• North-west India’s hot semi-arid steppe rose from 25.7% of regional area in 1951–80 to 33.1% in 1991–2020.
• Over the same periods, north-west India’s temperate zone contracted from 25.8% to 18.7% of regional area.
• In peninsular India, hot semi-arid steppe fell from 30.3% to 16.4%, while tropical savannah rose from 61.6% to 75.7%.
• The study applied climate types to IMD records on 0.25-degree grid squares, roughly 25 km across, over five 30-year windows.