Current Affairs 29 October 2026: 20 Exam-Ready Facts for SSC, BPSC and Railway

This is your current affairs round-up for 29 October 2026, built only from news of the last 24 hours that actually turns up in question papers. Twenty facts, each carrying the exam it matters for, plus four quick-reference tables for appointments, sports, important days and index rankings.

One honest caveat before you start. Three of today's biggest stories (Cyclone Arnab, the Jio Platforms listing and the Bihar Cabinet decisions) are still moving, so a few figures may be revised in official bulletins over the next 48 hours. Every number below is what the official or primary source reported as of this morning.

National

• 1. ESTIC 2026 opened at Bharat Mandapam. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave on 27 October 2026, a three-day event running to 29 October at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. The theme is "Creative Minds, Catalyzing Science, Empowering Technologies", CSIR is the organiser under the Principal Scientific Adviser, and the programme covers 12 thematic areas with 13 participating ministries and three Nobel Laureates. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.
• 2. Cyclone Arnab crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast. The storm completed landfall on 28 October 2026 with sustained winds of 125 to 135 km/h gusting to 150 km/h, then weakened into a severe cyclonic storm by 8:30 am. More than 1.8 lakh people were moved out before it hit. Visakhapatnam recorded 315 mm of rain. The name Arnab was contributed by Bangladesh from the WMO and UNESCAP naming list. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.
• 3. Sirpur joined India's UNESCO Tentative List. The historic Buddhist and temple town of Sirpur in Chhattisgarh's Mahasamund district has been added to India's Tentative List for World Heritage status. Sirpur sits on the Mahanadi and is known for the Laxman Temple, a seventh-century brick structure. A Tentative List entry is the first mandatory step before any formal nomination. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, State PSC.

International

• 4. 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum closed with a Joint Declaration. The forum was held at Samvidhan Sadan in the Parliament House Complex, New Delhi, on 26 and 27 October 2026, inaugurated by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The theme was "Strengthening Parliaments for People-Centric Development". The declaration opposed unilateral and secondary sanctions, backed UN Security Council reform, condemned terrorism in all forms and supported a two-State solution. Exam tag: SSC, Banking, BPSC, All exams.
• 5. WMO reported record greenhouse gas levels. The World Meteorological Organization's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin put atmospheric carbon dioxide at a record 426.8 parts per million in 2025. The WMO is headquartered in Geneva and the Bulletin is its annual reading of long-lived greenhouse gases. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, JSSC.

Economy & Banking

• 6. Jio Platforms made its market debut. Shares listed on the NSE and BSE on 28 October 2026 after an IPO of Rs 30,213 crore, the largest public issue in Indian market history, priced at Rs 1,119 per share at the top of the Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 band. The stock closed its debut session well above the issue price, with reported listing-day gains above 20 percent. Exam tag: Banking, SSC, All exams.
• 7. Anup Bagchi took charge at HDFC Bank. He became Managing Director and CEO of HDFC Bank with effect from 27 October 2026 for a three-year term, after RBI approval. HDFC Bank is India's largest private sector bank by assets and is headquartered in Mumbai. Exam tag: Banking, SSC, All exams.
• 8. Sunil Kumar named ONGC Chairman. He has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation for a three-year tenure, cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. ONGC is a Maharatna PSU under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, headquartered in New Delhi. Exam tag: SSC, Banking, All exams.

Appointments in the news (Person and Post)

Sports

• 9. Abhishek Sharma smashed 113 off 38 balls. In the third T20I against New Zealand on 27 October 2026, the opener hit 113 runs from just 38 deliveries, and India sealed the T20I series. He also holds the top spot in the ICC men's T20I batting rankings. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, All exams.
• 10. India finished the Asian Para Games with 114 medals. At the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, India took 30 gold, 35 silver and 49 bronze for a best-ever total of 114 and placed fourth overall. The previous edition in Hangzhou had given India 111 medals. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.
• 11. An Se-young beat P. V. Sindhu in the French Open final. The 93rd Yonex French Open was held from 20 to 25 October 2026 at Arena Grand Paris. South Korea's An Se-young won the women's singles 16-21, 21-11, 21-12, with Sindhu as runner-up. Christo Popov of France took the men's singles title. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, All exams.

Sports results (Event and Winner)

Awards

• 12. Harry Kane won the 70th Ballon d'Or. The England and Bayern Munich striker took the men's award at the Palladium Theatre, London, becoming the first Englishman to win it in 25 years after Michael Owen in 2001. He also collected the Gerd Muller Trophy for 73 goals across all competitions. Alexia Putellas won the women's Ballon d'Or for a third time, and Lamine Yamal took the Kopa Trophy. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, All exams.
• 13. "The Story of Vande Mataram" released in English. The English translation was unveiled by Arif Mohammed Khan, former Governor of Bihar and Kerala, at the Constitutional Club of India, New Delhi. The book was written in Malayalam by Ranga Hari and translated by Dr Mercy Jill. Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875, appeared in Anandamath in 1882, and was adopted as the National Song in January 1950. Exam tag: SSC, BPSC, BSSC, TET.

Science & Defence

• 14. Defence Acquisition Council cleared Rs 2.12 lakh crore of proposals. Chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the DAC granted Acceptance of Necessity on 26 October 2026 for purchases worth about Rs 2.12 lakh crore, with roughly 82 percent sourced from Indian industry. The list includes High Mobility Vehicles, Self-Propelled Tracked Gun Systems, long-range kamikaze drones, Active Offboard Decoy Systems for the Navy and Mobile X-Band Doppler Weather Radars for the Air Force. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, Defence, All exams.
• 15. ISRO is targeting four launch pads by 2029. Chairman V. Narayanan said India will have four functional launch pads by 2029. Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota currently has two orbital pads, and a dedicated SSLV complex is coming up at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi district across about 2,000 acres. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.

Bihar-Jharkhand Special

This is the section BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police, JSSC, JPSC and BTET or JTET aspirants should not skip. State-level policy decisions carry more weight in state papers than most national headlines do.

• 16. Bihar Cabinet cleared a Rs 11,096.55 crore power plan. At its meeting on 28 October 2026, the Cabinet approved a scheme to strengthen the state's electricity distribution network over three years. The North Bihar Power Distribution Company and the South Bihar Power Distribution Company were authorised to raise loans, with Rs 6,066 crore cleared for NBPDCL. Additional Chief Secretary Arvind Chaudhary announced the decisions. Exam tag: BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police, BTET.
• 17. Bihar launched MSME Policy 2026 and a biofuel policy. The same Cabinet meeting, which approved 43 proposals in total, cleared the Bihar MSME Policy 2026, the Chief Minister's MSME Cluster Development Scheme 2026 and the Bihar Biofuel and Compressed Biogas Promotion Policy 2026. The stated aim is industrial investment and employment generation inside the state. Exam tag: BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police.
• 18. Jharkhand Cabinet cleared 62 proposals. Chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren on 27 October 2026, the Cabinet also fixed a special Assembly session for 25 and 26 November to debate the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and the amended MMDR Act, with a resolution to be sent to the Centre on the state's mineral revenue concerns. Exam tag: JSSC, JPSC, JTET.
• 19. Jharkhand approved big health infrastructure spending. The Cabinet sanctioned about Rs 545.38 crore for a new 500-bed hospital building at MGM Medical College, Jamshedpur, and about Rs 284.17 crore for infrastructure at Jharkhand Medico City in Ranchi, planned as a 5,000-bed hub. It also cleared the Jharkhand Mineral Exploration and Block Development Policy, 2026 and a surcharge of 10 percent of stamp duty on urban land and building transfers. Exam tag: JSSC, JPSC, JTET.

Important Days

• 20. Two observances fall on 29 October. World Stroke Day is marked every year on 29 October by the World Stroke Organization to push early recognition using the FAST test. The same date is International Internet Day, remembering the first message sent over ARPANET on 29 October 1969, between UCLA and Stanford Research Institute. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, Banking, All exams.

Important days this week (Day and Theme)

Index and ranking snapshot (Index, India's Rank, Topper)

How to actually use this page

Read the 20 facts once in the morning. Then take today's 15-question quiz on ExamAtlas without scrolling back to this page. Whatever you get wrong, write only that fact in your notebook, nothing else.

Most aspirants in Boring Road and Lalpur coaching batches read current affairs daily and still drop marks in the exam, because they read and never retrieve. Retrieval is the whole game. ExamAtlas runs a free daily current affairs quiz with topic-wise accuracy tracking, so you can see which of these eight sections is leaking your marks.

What to revise tonight

If you have ten minutes left before sleeping, revise three things only: the Bihar Cabinet figures, the Asian Para Games tally, and the two observances of 29 October. Those three carry the highest repeat value across BPSC, BSSC, SSC and Railway papers.

A fair warning about aggregator current affairs. Any list that gives you a number without naming a ministry, a commission or a primary bulletin is a number you should not memorise. Check the PIB release or the state Cabinet note before you write it in your register.

Aaj ka full CA quiz: ExamAtlas.com