Current Affairs 26 August 2026: Top 20 Facts and 15 MCQs
Current Affairs 26 August 2026: Top 20 Facts with Exam Tags and 15 MCQs
Between yesterday morning and today, three numbers matter most for your exam: Rs 62,500 crore (the mobile manufacturing scheme MeitY has now notified), 88.05 m (Neeraj Chopra's season best at Lausanne, still not enough for gold), and Rs 1 lakh (the per-video cap in Bihar's new creator incentive rules). Each of those has already shown up in coaching notes across Patna and Ranchi.
Below are 20 facts from the last 24 hours, sorted the way question papers sort them. Every point carries an exam tag so you know whether to memorise the figure or just the name. At the end you get 15 objective questions built only from these facts.
National
- 1. MeitY notified the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) with an outlay of Rs 62,500 crore, running five years from FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31. Incentives run 2.25% to 5% for the first target segment and 5% for the second, with an extra 3% for Indian design and R&D. Exam tag: SSC / Banking / All exams
- 2. The National Security Guard launched its first Mahila Commando Conversion Course at Manesar, Haryana, a 12-week residential course, with 25 Rajasthan women police personnel in the opening batch under the line "She who dares, leads". Exam tag: SSC / Bihar Police / All exams
- 3. The Ministry of Rural Development is running the National Campaign on Entrepreneurship-II under DAY-NRLM from 21 August to 21 November 2026, targeting 50,000 community cadres and 5 lakh Self-Help Group women. Exam tag: BPSC / SSC / All exams
International
- 4. India and Mauritius signed a government-to-government MoU on oil and gas plus a five-year petroleum supply agreement. Indian Oil Corporation will supply petrol, diesel and Aviation Turbine Fuel to Port Louis. Exam tag: All exams
- 5. The 4th India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable in Singapore produced a Green Lane Initiative for Semiconductors, and set the 4th Singapore-India Hackathon for 15 to 17 November 2026. Talks also covered digital payments, fintech and green hydrogen. Exam tag: Banking / SSC / All exams
- 6. The WHO Regional Office for Africa closed circulating poliovirus type 2 outbreaks in five countries: Burundi, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Congo and Uganda, after an Outbreak Response Assessment covering January to June 2026. Exam tag: All exams
Economy and Banking
- 7. The RBI Monetary Policy Committee held the repo rate at 5.25% in its August 2026 review, with SDF at 5.00% and MSF at 5.50%, stance stays neutral. FY27 GDP growth was raised to 6.7% and the CPI inflation projection trimmed to 5.0%. Governor: Sanjay Malhotra. Exam tag: Banking / SSC / Railway
- 8. Punjab National Bank signed an MoU with the Indian Army for two co-branded credit cards, PNB LUXURA Metal for officers and JCOs and PNB Parakram for other ranks, carrying 3% CSD cashback and zero forex markup. PNB was founded on 12 April 1895 at Lahore. Exam tag: Banking / SSC
- 9. The Asian Development Bank approved USD 230 million to modernise Chennai's water supply, making Chennai the first Indian city with a full ring-main water system. ADB separately gave Karnataka Rs 1,750 crore for government school upgrades through 2029-30. Exam tag: Banking / BPSC / All exams
Appointments in the news
The three RBI board appointments were cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on 22 August 2026 under Section 8(1)(c) of the RBI Act, 1934. That section number is the part examiners like. Annie George Mathew is a full-time member of the 16th Finance Commission, Janmejaya Kumar Sinha chairs BCG India, and Syed Akbaruddin is a former Permanent Representative of India to the UN.
Index and rankings
India's governance score rose for a second straight year and India stayed South Asia's best performer on this index. The India note went out on 18 August 2026.
Sports
- 10. Neeraj Chopra finished second in the men's javelin at the Lausanne Diamond League 2026 with a season-best 88.05 m. Sri Lanka's Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage won with 88.14 m, a gap of just 9 cm. Anderson Peters of Grenada took third at 86.69 m. Chopra's national record stays 90.23 m (Doha, 2025). Exam tag: All exams
- 11. The 30th BWF World Championships were held at the Indira Gandhi Arena, New Delhi from 17 to 23 August 2026, only the second time India hosted after Hyderabad 2009. Alex Lanier of France won men's singles, An Se-young of South Korea took women's singles, and Treesa Jolly with Gayatri Gopichand won India's bronze in women's doubles. Exam tag: All exams
- 12. East Bengal FC won the 135th Durand Cup, beating Mohun Bagan Super Giant 4-1 at Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata. It was their first Durand title since 2004 and their 17th overall, level with Mohun Bagan. Exam tag: All exams
Awards
- 13. Odia poet and essayist Ashutosh Parida won the 47th Sarala Puraskar for his 2024 work Bishwas De Pruthwi. The award carries Rs 7 lakh, a citation and a copper plaque, and will be presented at Bhubaneswar on 25 October 2026. It was instituted in 1980 by IMPaCT. Exam tag: SSC / All exams
- 14. The Ila-Bansidhar Panda Kala Samman 2026 went to Odissi maestro Guru Durga Charan Ranbir and sculptor Damodar Behera, Rs 2.5 lakh each with a citation and copper plaque. Exam tag: All exams
Science and Defence
- 15. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the transfer of DRDO conventional missile technologies to Indian industry. In a linked move, DRDO's Naval Science and Technological Laboratory at Visakhapatnam handed the submarine-fired decoy Mohini to Bharat Dynamics Limited and LM2500 gas turbine fabrication to Vertex Engineering Systems, Hyderabad. Exam tag: SSC / Railway / All exams
- 16. Cochin Shipyard Limited delivered INS Mangrol to the Indian Navy, the third of eight indigenously built Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft, with close to 80% indigenous content, lightweight torpedoes and shallow-water sonar. Exam tag: All exams
- 17. French astronaut Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency became the first French woman to walk in space, spending 6 hours 23 minutes outside the ISS replacing a Space-to-Ground Antenna alongside NASA's Anil Menon. She is the second European woman to do so after Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022. Exam tag: All exams
One more for defence notes: startup D-Propulse demonstrated India's first indigenous 5 kilo-Newton air-breathing Rotating Detonation Engine at a DRDO facility in Hyderabad, reaching Technology Readiness Level 5.
Bihar and Jharkhand Special
This is the section BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police, JSSC, JPSC and TET aspirants should read twice. State questions carry the same marks as national ones and far fewer people prepare them properly.
- 18. The Bihar Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, cleared amendments to the Bihar Social Media and Other Online Media Rules, 2026. Empanelled creators promoting government schemes get Rs 10,000 per one lakh views, capped at Rs 1 lakh per video, with views counted for 30 days from publication. The Information and Public Relations Department is the nodal body. Exam tag: BPSC / BSSC / Bihar Police
- 19. Bihar's cabinet also approved 11,000 private borewells under the Mukhyamantri Niji Nalkoop Yojana at Rs 305.6 crore for FY 2026-27, expected to irrigate 2.3 lakh hectares, along with a 336 km six-lane greenfield Buxar to Bhagalpur expressway on the DBFOT model through Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited. Exam tag: BPSC / BSSC / All Bihar exams
- 20. The Jharkhand High Court stayed the state government's cancellation of recruitment exams while hearing petitions on the 11th to 13th JPSC examinations and the Food Safety Officer exam, giving the state 15 days to file a counter-affidavit. The JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch had suspended a 26-day agitation on 19 August 2026. Around 2,700 candidates were affected, roughly 2,000 of them from the JSSC Combined Graduate Level exam. Exam tag: JPSC / JSSC / All Jharkhand exams
Also worth a line in your Jharkhand notebook: the Palamu Tiger Reserve has started an AI Builder Bootcamp at NIC Betla for rural and tribal youth, with hands-on projects and certification. Palamu appears in JSSC and JPSC papers often enough that the reserve's name plus district (Latehar and Palamu) is worth revising.
A caveat you should take seriously. Bihar and Jharkhand cabinet decisions get reported with slightly different figures across outlets in the first 24 hours. Before you write these numbers into a revision sheet, cross-check the Rs 305.6 crore and Rs 1 lakh figures against the state cabinet release once it is uploaded.
Important Days
National Space Day marks the Chandrayaan-3 landing and the Pragyan rover rollout in 2023, and it was first observed in 2024. If a paper asks who announced the day and where, the answer is Prime Minister Narendra Modi at ISRO's ISTRAC facility in Bengaluru.
Today's 15 Objective Questions
These are pitched a notch above the real paper. If you clear 11, your current affairs base is solid.
- Q1. What is the outlay of the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme notified by MeitY?
A) Rs 42,500 crore B) Rs 52,500 crore C) Rs 62,500 crore D) Rs 76,000 crore
Answer: C. MPMS carries Rs 62,500 crore over five years, FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31. - Q2. Where did the NSG launch its first Mahila Commando Conversion Course?
A) Manesar, Haryana B) Hyderabad, Telangana C) Dehradun, Uttarakhand D) Nashik, Maharashtra
Answer: A. The 12-week residential course began at the NSG campus in Manesar. - Q3. The five-year petroleum supply agreement signed by India covers supply to which capital?
A) Colombo B) Port Louis C) Male D) Victoria
Answer: B. Indian Oil will supply petrol, diesel and ATF to Port Louis, Mauritius. - Q4. WHO's Africa office closed circulating poliovirus type 2 outbreaks in how many countries?
A) Three B) Four C) Five D) Seven
Answer: C. Burundi, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Congo and Uganda. - Q5. What is the repo rate after the RBI's August 2026 policy review?
A) 5.00% B) 5.25% C) 5.50% D) 6.00%
Answer: B. The MPC held it at 5.25% with a neutral stance; SDF 5.00%, MSF 5.50%. - Q6. Part-time non-official directors are appointed to the RBI Central Board under which provision?
A) Section 7(2) B) Section 8(1)(c) C) Section 17 D) Section 45-IA
Answer: B. Section 8(1)(c) of the RBI Act, 1934. - Q7. ADB approved USD 230 million for water supply modernisation in which city?
A) Bengaluru B) Pune C) Chennai D) Surat
Answer: C. Chennai becomes the first Indian city with a complete ring-main water supply system. - Q8. Who won the men's javelin at the Lausanne Diamond League 2026?
A) Neeraj Chopra B) Anderson Peters C) Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage D) Julian Weber
Answer: C. The Sri Lankan threw 88.14 m; Chopra took silver with 88.05 m. - Q9. Who won the men's singles title at the 30th BWF World Championships in New Delhi?
A) Kodai Naraoka B) Alex Lanier C) Viktor Axelsen D) Lakshya Sen
Answer: B. Lanier became the first French world singles champion. - Q10. Which club won the 135th Durand Cup?
A) Mohun Bagan Super Giant B) East Bengal FC C) Mohammedan SC D) NorthEast United FC
Answer: B. East Bengal won 4-1, their first Durand title since 2004 and 17th overall. - Q11. Ashutosh Parida received the 47th Sarala Puraskar for a work in which language?
A) Bengali B) Assamese C) Odia D) Maithili
Answer: C. The prize is for Odia literature and carries Rs 7 lakh. - Q12. INS Mangrol, handed over recently, was built by which yard?
A) Garden Reach Shipbuilders B) Mazagon Dock C) Cochin Shipyard Limited D) Goa Shipyard
Answer: C. It is the third ASW Shallow Water Craft, close to 80% indigenous. - Q13. Under Bihar's amended social media rules, what is the maximum incentive per video?
A) Rs 50,000 B) Rs 75,000 C) Rs 1 lakh D) Rs 2 lakh
Answer: C. Rs 10,000 per lakh views, capped at Rs 1 lakh per video. - Q14. The Jharkhand High Court stay covered petitions relating to which JPSC examinations?
A) 7th to 9th B) 9th to 11th C) 11th to 13th D) 13th to 15th
Answer: C. The stay also covered the Food Safety Officer exam, with 15 days given for a counter-affidavit. - Q15. What is India's rank in the Chandler Good Government Index 2026?
A) 66 of 133 B) 70 of 120 C) 76 of 133 D) 84 of 140
Answer: C. India ranked 76th of 133 and stayed South Asia's top performer, with Singapore at number one.
Before You Close This Page
Pick five facts from this list and write them on the back of your notebook, not in a fresh page you will never open. The five worth choosing today: Rs 62,500 crore for MPMS, repo rate 5.25%, Section 8(1)(c) of the RBI Act, East Bengal's 17th Durand Cup, and the Rs 305.6 crore borewell approval in Bihar.