Current Affairs 24 October 2026: Top 20 Exam-Tagged Facts

The Asian Para Games closed in Japan today with India on 114 medals, and the Union Cabinet's social pension overhaul finally has a name you will see on question papers for the next two years. That is the shape of 24 October 2026: one sports number worth memorising, one scheme rename worth two marks, and a Bihar investment figure that BPSC and BSSC aspirants should write down immediately.

Everything below covers the last 24 hours. Each fact is one sentence with the exams it matters for. Figures come from PIB and Cabinet releases, RBI's October policy statement, ISRO updates and state government briefings, cross-checked against The Hindu, Economic Times and Hindustan Times reporting.

National

• 1. The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) has been renamed Pradhan Mantri Samajik Sahayata Yojana (PMSSY), with the Union Cabinet approving Rs 53,428 crore for 2026-27 to 2030-31 and coverage of about 3.20 crore beneficiaries across 36 States and UTs. Exam tag: All exams
• 2. Under PMSSY, the disability pension threshold drops from 80 per cent to the 40 per cent benchmark, the central share rises from Rs 300 to Rs 375 a month (below 80 years) and from Rs 500 to Rs 625 (80 and above), lifting beneficiaries from 8.33 lakh to 27.48 lakh. Exam tag: SSC / Railway / All exams
• 3. India's first Snow Leopard Population Assessment (SPAI) counted 718 snow leopards, with Ladakh at 477, Uttarakhand 124, Himachal Pradesh 51, Arunachal Pradesh 36, Sikkim 21 and Jammu and Kashmir 9, announced by Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh on 23 October. Exam tag: All exams

International

• 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk agreed to double bilateral trade, currently about USD 6 billion, by 2030, and set up a Defence Industry Dialogue plus a counter-terrorism dialogue. Exam tag: All exams
• 5. The 25th SCO Heads of Government Meeting was held on 19 and 20 October at Dushanbe, Tajikistan, chaired by Tajik PM Qohir Rasulzoda, with Rajnath Singh representing India and a joint communique adopted. Exam tag: BPSC / SSC / All exams
• 6. France reported the world's first human case of the Shamonda virus on 22 October, an Orthobunyavirus of the Peribunyaviridae family spread by biting midges and first identified in Nigeria in the mid-1960s. Exam tag: All exams

Economy & Banking

• 7. The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent and shifted its stance from neutral to calibrated tightening, with the Standing Deposit Facility at 5.25 per cent and the MSF and Bank Rate at 5.75 per cent. Exam tag: Banking / All exams
• 8. The RBI projects FY27 GDP growth at 7.1 per cent and CPI inflation at 5.2 per cent, with the policy signed off under Governor Sanjay Malhotra. Exam tag: Banking
• 9. The Jio Platforms IPO closed on 23 October at Rs 30,213 crore, making it India's largest ever, ahead of Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,870 crore in 2024, with a price band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 a share. Exam tag: Banking / SSC

One more banking line worth a highlighter: the India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement came into force on 20 October 2026 as India's 17th FTA, and a memorandum on electronic exchange of origin data was signed by CBIC Chairman Vivek Chaturvedi and New Zealand Customs CEO Christine Stevenson.

Sports

• 10. At the Asian Para Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan (18 to 24 October), India stood fourth with 114 medals, made up of 30 gold, 35 silver and 49 bronze after Day 5, while China led with 427 medals. Exam tag: All exams
• 11. Sheetal Devi and Toman Kumar won the compound mixed team archery gold, beating Indonesia 151-148, and Suvarna Raj took gold in the women's discus throw F54. Exam tag: All exams
• 12. England's Harry Brook scored 202 off 116 balls against Sri Lanka at Rawalpindi on 22 October, becoming the first England batter with a men's ODI double century and reaching 200 in 114 balls, past Shubman Gill's 117-ball mark. Exam tag: All exams

Sports results at a glance

Awards

• 13. The European Parliament awarded the 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the International Criminal Court and its senior officials, the Court having been set up under the Rome Statute of 1998 and made operational in 2002. Exam tag: All exams
• 14. Jaipur was named in National Geographic's Best of the World 2027 list announced on 20 October, one of 25 destinations picked across six continents. Exam tag: SSC / Railway / All exams

Science & Defence

• 15. ISRO will launch the NVS-03 navigation satellite on 30 October 2026 aboard a GSLV Mk II from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, adding to the second generation NavIC constellation that serves India and up to 1,500 km beyond its borders. Exam tag: All exams
• 16. The Ministry of Defence signed a contract worth about Rs 770 crore with Bharat Electronics Limited on 21 October for the Improved Low-Level Light-Weight Radar (LLLR-I) to detect small drones for the Army, while ISRO completed IMAT-05, the fifth Integrated Main Parachute Airdrop Test for Gaganyaan, at ADRDE Sheopur. Exam tag: SSC / Railway / All exams

Two exercises are live right now and both are standard one-mark questions: SIMBEX-2026, the 33rd India Singapore maritime exercise at Visakhapatnam from 21 to 26 October, and AUSTRAHIND 2026, the 5th edition at Thiruvananthapuram from 19 October to 1 November with New Zealand observers for the first time.

Bihar-Jharkhand Special

• 17. Bihar has received 1,091 investment proposals worth Rs 1,21,863 crore with about 68,807 jobs expected, announced by Industries Minister Shreyasi Singh in Patna on 23 October, while BIADA allotted 727 acres to 521 units for an expected Rs 18,380 crore and 49,167 jobs. Exam tag: BPSC / BSSC / Bihar Police
• 18. Bihar Education Minister Mithilesh Tiwari said at a Patna review meeting on 23 October that computer education will be compulsory from Class 6 in the next academic session, with SCERT training teachers first, and 700 model schools set to get smart classes by 31 March. Exam tag: BTET / BPSC TRE / BSSC
• 19. The Jharkhand Cabinet will meet on 27 October at Project Bhawan, Ranchi under Chief Minister Hemant Soren after two postponements, with the appointment of the JPSC chairman and members on the likely agenda alongside mineral rule amendments. Exam tag: JPSC / JSSC / All Jharkhand exams

Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary was scheduled to launch the Bihar Integrated Manufacturing City Gaya Ltd portal on 24 October at Doboi in Gaya. He has held the Bihar Chief Minister's office since 15 April 2026, a static fact that keeps appearing in BSSC and Bihar Police papers.

Bihar and Jharkhand exam tracker

A caveat you should take seriously. The BPSC 72nd Prelims date is genuinely unsettled, and reports differ on whether the cancelled sitting was 25 or 26 October. Do not plan your last two revision weeks around any date that is not on the BPSC website itself.

Important Days

• 20. 24 October is observed as United Nations Day, marking the UN Charter coming into force on 24 October 1945, which makes 2026 the 81st anniversary, and the same date is World Polio Day. Exam tag: All exams

Appointments and who holds what

Index and ranking snapshot

Practice today's facts

Reading a fact and recalling it under a 40 second timer are two different skills. Today's 15 objective questions, built only from the facts above and set a notch harder than the real paper, are live as a separate quiz set on the platform with answers, one line explanations and topic wise accuracy tracking.

Attempt the quiz the same evening you read the digest. Next morning, revise only the questions you got wrong. That loop is worth more than re reading the whole list.

How to actually use today's list

Do not read all 20 facts and move on. Pick the five that carry numbers you are likely to forget: Rs 53,428 crore, 718 snow leopards, 5.50 per cent, Rs 30,213 crore and Rs 1,21,863 crore. Write those five on the back page of your notebook and revise only that page tonight.

If you are sitting for BPSC, BSSC or JSSC, the Bihar-Jharkhand section is worth more than the national section. State commissions ask about their own industry figures, education policy moves and commission appointments far more often than national aspirants expect. The Rs 1,21,863 crore number and the Class 6 computer education decision are both strong candidates for a BSSC general awareness slot.

One honest limitation: the Asian Para Games tally is a Day 5 figure and the Games closed on 24 October, so the final medal count may be higher than 114. Check the closing tally before you quote it in an interview.

ExamAtlas runs a free daily current affairs quiz with topic-wise accuracy tracking, so you can see whether your misses cluster in schemes, sports or banking rather than guessing.

Aaj ka full CA quiz: ExamAtlas.com