Daily Current Affairs 13 November 2026: 20 Exam-Ready Facts

Retail inflation touched 6.09% in October 2026 and crossed the RBI's 6% upper tolerance limit for the first time in two years. If one number from this week walks into your next paper, it is that one.

Below are 20 facts from the last 24 hours, each written as a single sentence with the exam it serves. Every date and figure was checked against the PIB, MoSPI, RBI or ISRO release rather than a coaching PDF. The handful of items that only news aggregators carried are flagged where they appear.

National

• The 45th India International Trade Fair (IITF) runs at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi from 14 to 27 November 2026 on the theme "Vikas aur Virasat", inaugurated by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on 13 November, with ITPO as the organiser and 11 partner countries taking part. [SSC / Railway]
• The MoSPI quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) bulletin for July to September 2026 put the unemployment rate for ages 15 and above at 5.1%, down from 5.4%, with the Labour Force Participation Rate at 55.5% and the Worker Population Ratio at 52.7%. [SSC / Banking]
• The Union Cabinet extended the Stand-Up India Scheme by five years to 31 March 2031 with a credit guarantee corpus of ₹4,111 crore, aiming to fund at least 2.5 lakh more women, SC and ST entrepreneurs. [SSC / Banking]
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) rates worth ₹62,370 crore on phosphatic and potassic fertilisers for Rabi 2026-27, covering 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, roughly 64% above the previous Rabi season, and held DAP at ₹1,350 per 50 kg bag. [All exams]

Two more decisions deserve a line. The Home Ministry's visa rationalisation cuts the main visa categories from 13 to 9 and sub-categories from 49 to 23, renames the Tourist Visa as the Visitor Visa, and keeps e-Visa access open to nationals of 172 countries. President Droupadi Murmu met meritorious Eklavya Model Residential School students at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 12 November, part of Janjatiya Gaurav Pakhwada running from 1 to 15 November.

On the fertiliser item, note what the NBS scheme actually does, because that is where the question usually sits. Introduced in 2010, it fixes a per-kilogram subsidy on nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and sulphur in P and K fertilisers, leaving urea outside its scope. The purpose is balanced nutrient use rather than cheap bags of a single nutrient.

Appointments and people in today's news

International

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to Manila from 16 to 18 November 2026 for the 23rd ASEAN-India Summit and the 21st East Asia Summit, with India-ASEAN trade standing at about US$122 billion. [SSC / All exams]
• India was re-elected President of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) for 2026-28, a third consecutive term, with France re-elected Co-President at the 9th ISA Assembly in New Delhi. [All exams]
• India and Saudi Arabia signed the Bilateral Haj Agreement 2027 at Jeddah, fixing India's pilgrim quota at 1,75,025, unchanged since 2025. [SSC / Railway]

Two diplomatic engagements closed in the same window. The 12th India-South Africa Foreign Office Consultations were held at Pretoria on 11 November, with 2027 marking 30 years of the two countries' Strategic Partnership. At the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha, India set out its digital connectivity record, including BharatNet investment of roughly US$15 billion and 100 laboratories working on 5G use cases.

Economy & Banking

• CPI retail inflation rose to 6.09% in October 2026 from 5.54% in September, a 24-month high that breached the RBI's 6% upper tolerance limit, with rural inflation at 6.63%, urban at 5.41% and food inflation (CFPI) at 8.94%. [Banking / SSC]
• Net direct tax collection reached ₹14.42 lakh crore between 1 April and 10 November 2026, up 11.76% year on year, with corporate tax at ₹6.32 lakh crore and refunds of ₹3.08 lakh crore. [Banking]
• The RBI issued Master Directions on cyber resilience and digital payment security for non-bank Payment System Operators under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, requiring cyber incidents to be reported to the RBI and CERT-In within six hours, with small operators given until 1 April 2028 to comply. [Banking]

Remember how the inflation target is framed, because examiners test the structure more often than the monthly number. The RBI's flexible inflation targeting mandate sets a 4% target with a 2 percentage point band on either side, so 2% to 6% is the tolerance range. October's reading sits just outside the ceiling, which is why market economists are now arguing about the December meeting rather than the October print itself.

Two further banking items came from news aggregators rather than a circular we could open directly, so treat the exact caps as indicative (verify): the RBI has consolidated its domestic money transfer directions, with walk-in cash remittance through NEFT reportedly capped at ₹50,000 and business correspondent or ATM channels at ₹5,000 per transaction and ₹25,000 per month. IRDAI also set up two working groups on 10 November to design a risk-based capital framework aligned with Ind AS, one for life insurers and one for non-life.

Reports and indices

Sports

• Anuj Shrivatri, a 22-year-old from Madhya Pradesh, became India's 100th chess Grandmaster by winning the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open at Ozamiz City in the Philippines with 7/9. [All exams]
• India beat Afghanistan by 8 wickets in the second semi-final of the Under-19 Asia Cup in Oman, chasing 227/8 with 230/2 in 36.5 overs, and meet Pakistan in the final on 14 November. [All exams]
• India topped Group B of the SAFF Championship 2026 with six points after a 1-0 win over the Maldives in Dhaka, Suhail Bhat scoring, and face Bhutan in the semi-final on 14 November. [All exams]

Two results from the preceding week still circulate in question banks. At the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, boxers Gunjan in the women's 48 kg and Lairenlakpam Ambekar Meetei in the men's 50 kg reached their finals, with India on nine medals before those bouts. Lionel Messi became the first MLS player to win the Golden Boot in consecutive seasons, scoring 26 goals in 31 appearances for Inter Miami after 29 the previous year.

Awards

• M. John Harrison won the 2026 Booker Prize for his 13th novel "The End of Everything", taking GBP 50,000, and at 81 he is the oldest winner of the prize. [All exams]
• Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth launched the revamped gallantry awards portal at gallantryawards.gov.in, with the fifth edition of Veer Gatha drawing over 1.92 crore students from about 1.9 lakh schools. [Defence / SSC]

The gallantry award hierarchy is worth memorising once and keeping. The wartime awards are the Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra, instituted on 26 January 1950 with effect from 15 August 1947. The peacetime awards are the Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, created in 1952 as Ashoka Chakra Class I, II and III and given their present names in 1967. Major Somnath Sharma of 4 Kumaon was the first Param Vir Chakra recipient, for Badgam in Kashmir on 3 November 1947.

Science & Defence

• ISRO completed a 200-second flight acceptance test of the cryogenic engine for GSLV-F19 at the ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, with both the main engine and gas generator performing as predicted; the mission will launch NVS-04, the fourth second-generation NavIC satellite. [Defence / SSC]
• The Defence Ministry signed a ₹498.58 crore contract with Cochin Shipyard for the modernisation of INS Betwa, a Brahmaputra-class frigate, replacing its steam propulsion with a diesel-engine system. [Defence]
• The Indian Navy began coordinating Exercise Sea Vigil-26, the fifth edition of the pan-India coastal defence exercise, from 11 to 19 November 2026 across the entire coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone. [Defence]

Three more defence items round out the day. The Air Force Commanders' Conference in New Delhi, addressed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit present, ran on the theme "The Year of Empowerment: Maximising Efficiency Through Decentralisation". IMNEX-26, the 8th India-Myanmar naval exercise, was held at Visakhapatnam from 10 to 14 November with INS Rana and INS Sumedha. The Technology Development Board also cleared ₹64.05 crore for Astrome Technologies under the RDI Fund to build an AI-enabled ELINT satellite constellation of 50 kg-class microsatellites.

One caveat on Sea Vigil. The exercise is coordinated by the Navy but it is a multi-agency drill, so a question asking "which force conducts Sea Vigil" can be written loosely. If the options include both the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard, the Navy is the coordinating service and the Coast Guard is a participant.

Important Days

• World Kindness Day is observed on 13 November, promoted by the World Kindness Movement since its declaration at the Tokyo conference in 1998. [All exams]
• World Pneumonia Day fell on 12 November with the 2026 theme "A New Era of Pneumonia Control", against roughly 2.5 million deaths recorded in 2023. [All exams]

Three other observances clustered on 12 November. Public Service Broadcasting Day marks Mahatma Gandhi's only visit to the All India Radio studio in Delhi in 1947. National Bird Day fell on the 130th birth anniversary of Dr Salim Ali, the ornithologist known as the Birdman of India and co-author of the Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan with S. Dillon Ripley.

Obituary and books in the news

Pandit Manilal Nag, the sitar maestro of the Bishnupur Gharana, died in Kolkata at 87. He received the Padma Shri in 2020, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001 and Banga Bibhushan in 2015. In books, Sonia Gandhi's 544-page memoir "Belonging: A Journey of Love" was published by HarperCollins India.

Why today's 15 questions sit in a separate quiz file

You will not find a single MCQ in this post, and that is deliberate.

When the answer sits two lines under the fact, you are not recalling anything. You are recognising it, and recognition feels like knowledge right up to the moment the real paper asks you cold. Reading builds familiarity. A clean test, taken without the passage in front of you, is the only thing that measures retrieval.

So today's 15 questions are a separate quiz set on ExamAtlas. Read this page once, close it, then attempt the quiz. The gap between what you thought you knew and what you scored is the actual study material.

What to revise from today

If you have ten minutes, revise three things: the 2% to 6% inflation tolerance band with October's 6.09% reading, the NBS outlay of ₹62,370 crore with what the scheme covers, and the Stand-Up India extension to 31 March 2031 with its ₹4,111 crore corpus. Those three carry the highest chance of appearing in a December or January paper.

A fair warning about how to use any daily digest, including this one. A fact list is a revision tool, not a source. Before you write a figure into your notes as settled, open the PIB or RBI release behind it, because aggregator sites routinely carry a minister's portfolio or a scheme's start year wrongly, and a confidently wrong number is worse than a gap. The items marked (verify) above are exactly the ones we could not open at source today.

Aaj ka full CA quiz: ExamAtlas.com