Current Affairs 1 November 2026: Top 20 Facts for SSC, Railway, Banking, BPSC, BSSC and JSSC

Yesterday was a heavy news day for anyone writing a government exam. GSLV-F18 put NVS-03 into orbit at 11:51 pm, Manisha Bhanwala became the first Indian woman to win a world wrestling title, and the Indian Air Force got its 29th chief. Three facts, three different sections of your GK paper.

This digest covers the 24 hours to the morning of 1 November 2026. Twenty facts, each with the exams it actually shows up in, plus a Bihar and Jharkhand block that most national CA pages skip. The matching 15-question quiz is live on ExamAtlas, built only from these same facts, so read this page first and then attempt it cold.

National

• 1. The Varanasi to New Delhi Vande Bharat Sleeper was flagged off from Varanasi on 31 October 2026, the country's second Vande Bharat Sleeper service. Train numbers are 27421/27422 under Northern Railway, with 16 coaches running six days a week over roughly 760 km. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw were both present. Exam tag: Railway, SSC
• 2. The Union Cabinet cleared the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Gram Swaraj Yojana (PM-VGSY), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a total outlay of ₹7,395.55 crore for five years (FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31). The Central share is ₹4,869.48 crore and the State share ₹2,526.07 crore. It runs under the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and covers more than 2.55 lakh Panchayats and Traditional Local Bodies. Exam tag: BPSC, BSSC, All exams
• 3. House-to-house Census enumeration will run from 25 January to 28 February, as reported on the front page of The Hindu. This is the population enumeration phase, the one where the actual headcount happens. Exam tag: All exams

International

• 4. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar addressed the first plenary session of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Atlanta, United States, held on 30 and 31 October 2026 and hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He pressed for freedom of navigation under UNCLOS and an end to the weaponisation of supply chains. The United States holds the G20 Presidency, and the Leaders' Summit is set for Miami on 14 and 15 December 2026. Exam tag: All exams
• 5. The first-ever BIMSTEC Maritime Security Exercise began on 30 October 2026 and runs to 3 November, with all seven members taking part: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The motto is "Shared Seas, Shared Security and Shared Prosperity", and the Andaman and Nicobar Command has a central role. Exam tag: SSC, Banking, All exams

Economy & Banking

• 6. India's foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 719,748 million (about USD 719.75 billion) as on 23 October 2026, down USD 1,269 million for the week, per the RBI Weekly Statistical Supplement. Foreign currency assets were USD 593,205 million and gold USD 103,150 million. Exam tag: Banking
• 7. As on 15 October 2026, bank credit was ₹2,27,42,777 crore, up 18.2 per cent, while deposits were ₹2,78,75,910 crore, up 16.7 per cent. Broad money M3 grew 16.0 per cent. Credit growing faster than deposits is the detail interviewers pick up on. Exam tag: Banking, SSC
• 8. The World Bank said India has made remarkable progress on poverty, with extreme poverty halved to 2.6 per cent in 2023. The figure is for 2023, not 2026, so read the year carefully in any question. Exam tag: Banking, BPSC, All exams

Sports

• 9. Manisha Bhanwala won 59 kg gold at the World Wrestling Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 30 October 2026, becoming the first Indian woman world wrestling champion. She trailed 0-6 before beating Abigail Nette of the United States 8-6. She is only the second Indian with a senior world title after Sushil Kumar (66 kg freestyle, Moscow 2010). The 29-year-old is from Haryana. Exam tag: All exams
• 10. India beat Japan 4-1 in the Men's Asian Champions Trophy at the Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium, Jalandhar, on 30 October 2026, sealing a semi-final place. Abhishek scored twice (11th and 51st minute, his 150th international), captain Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner in the 47th and Vishnu Kant Singh scored in the 56th. Shota Yamada got Japan's goal from a penalty stroke. India are the defending and five-time champions, unbeaten with nine points. Exam tag: All exams
• 11. Former cricket captain Rahul Dravid and Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal were nominated to the Organising Company Board for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, announced on 30 October 2026. Exam tag: All exams

Awards

• 12. The Ministry of Home Affairs announced on 31 October 2026 that 490 police personnel will receive the Kendriya Grihmantri Dakshata Padak for 2026. The medal was instituted by an MHA notification dated 1 February 2024 and is announced every year on 31 October, Sardar Patel's birth anniversary. Exam tag: SSC, Bihar Police, All exams
• 13. Soumyashree Thanapati of Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya, Jharmunda, won the National Science Seminar 2026 at the National Science Centre, Delhi. The theme was "Indian Energy Basket 2047: Prospects and Challenges", students from 34 States and UTs competed, and the winner's prize was ₹48,000. The seminar has been run by NCSM since 1982. Exam tag: SSC, All exams

Appointments at a glance

Science & Defence

• 14. ISRO's GSLV-F18 launched the 2,250 kg NVS-03 navigation satellite from the Second Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 11:51 pm on 30 October 2026. The satellite was placed in geosynchronous transfer orbit about 18 minutes after lift-off. NVS-03 belongs to the NavIC constellation, carries an indigenous atomic clock, and transmits in the L1, L5 and S bands. NavIC covers India and about 1,500 km beyond its borders, and at least four working satellites are needed for core service. Exam tag: All exams
• 15. Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, PVSM AVSM VM VSM, assumed charge as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff on 31 October 2026, succeeding Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh. He was commissioned into the fighter stream on 6 December 1986, has over 3,500 flying hours, and has flown the Mirage-2000, MiG variants and the Jaguar. He was Chief of Integrated Defence Staff during Operation Sindoor and Vice Chief of the Air Staff immediately before this. Exam tag: All exams
• 16. The Defence Acquisition Council cleared capital acquisition proposals worth ₹2.12 lakh crore for the armed forces. Separately, the Centre approved a project worth about ₹40,000 crore for eight next-generation stealth warships. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, All exams

Bihar-Jharkhand Special

This block is where BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police, JSSC, JPSC and the TET papers actually differ from a national GK sheet. Learn these with the same seriousness you give the national list.

• 17. At the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas programme in Patna on 31 October 2026, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary announced that the state will install its tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He took office on 15 April 2026 as Bihar's 24th Chief Minister, succeeding Nitish Kumar, and he also restated targets of 1 crore jobs by 2030. The statue's height and site were not announced. Exam tag: BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police
• 18. Bihar has removed physical verification for new electricity connections up to 150 kW. A consumer now pays a standard load-based fee, and the power company lays the service wire and fits the meter up to the premises. Exam tag: BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police
• 19. In the Bihar Police Constable Recruitment Exam 2023 paper leak case, the Enforcement Directorate's Patna zonal office provisionally attached five immovable properties worth ₹2.01 crore under the PMLA. The properties are registered to NC Print Private Limited, with control attributed to Kaushik Kumar Kar. Exam tag: Bihar Police, BSSC, BPSC
• 20. Jharkhand's biggest teaching recruitment of the year is JSSC JTAACCE-2026, the Prashikshit Sahayak Acharya (Para Category) exam, with 7,299 posts in all: 6,101 regular (Advt 04/2026) and 1,198 backlog (Advt 05/2026). Applications closed on 18 October 2026. Class 1-5 posts need D.El.Ed plus JTET Paper 1, and Class 6-8 posts need graduation with B.Ed plus JTET Paper 2. Separately, Ranchi was ranked 8th among fast-rising non-metro cities in LinkedIn's Cities on the Rise 2026 list, topped by Visakhapatnam. Exam tag: JSSC, JPSC, JTET

Index and rankings

Sports results at a glance

Important Days

Three observances fell on 31 October, and the Patel anniversary is the one with the heaviest question weight.

Number traps to revise before the quiz

Most CA questions from a day like this are decided by one digit. These are the pairs that get mixed up in the exam hall, so learn them side by side rather than one at a time.

• ₹7,395.55 crore vs ₹4,869.48 crore vs ₹2,526.07 crore. The first is the full PM-VGSY outlay, the second is only the Central share and the third only the State share. Question setters love handing you the Central share and calling it the total.
• 2,250 kg vs 1,500 km. The first is NVS-03's mass, the second is how far NavIC coverage reaches beyond India's borders. Both numbers sit in the same paragraph of every CA page, which is exactly why they get swapped.
• 29th vs 42 years vs 3,500 hours. Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit is the 29th Chief of the Air Staff, his predecessor served 42 years, and Dixit himself has over 3,500 flying hours. Three numbers, one appointment.
• 151st vs 1875 vs 1924. Rashtriya Ekta Diwas 2026 was Patel's 151st birth anniversary, he was born in 1875, and World Savings Day was first observed in 1924. All three attach to 31 October.
• 7,299 vs 6,101 vs 1,198. The JSSC JTAACCE-2026 total, its regular posts and its backlog posts. For a Jharkhand paper, the split is as examinable as the total.
• 2.6 per cent in 2023, not 2026. The World Bank extreme-poverty figure carries a year that is three years behind the news date. Read the year in the stem before you pick.

What to do with this before tomorrow

Pick the five facts you got wrong in the quiz and write them on one line each in your CA notebook. Five a day beats twenty you forget by Thursday.

One honest caveat. Several economic and scheme figures here were taken from daily CA aggregators because the PIB release pages were serving a cached copy from 26 October when we checked at 7 am IST on 1 November. The appointment of Air Chief Marshal Dixit, the wrestling gold and the hockey result were each confirmed against an official release or multiple independent reports. If a scheme number is going into your final revision notes, open the PIB release yourself once it refreshes.

Aaj ka full CA quiz: ExamAtlas.com