Weekly Current Affairs: August 17–23, 2026 — MMDR Amendment Act Comes Into Force, ₹62,500 Crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme Notified, 31st Southern Zonal Council at Mahabalipuram, Sixth Positive Indigenisation List, India Hosts BWF World Championships & Third National Space Day
Your verified, exam-ready digest for the week
📌Key Points at a Glance
- 1The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026 came into force on August 23. Its new Section 9D bars State Governments from imposing any tax, cess or levy on mineral rights or mineral-bearing lands except as prescribed by the Centre, and deems uncollected State levies invalid at all material times while barring refunds of levies already paid.
- 2The Act responds to the Supreme Court’s July 2024 nine-judge ruling in Mineral Area Development Authority v. Steel Authority of India. Union Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy said the Centre would regulate major minerals such as coal, limestone, iron ore, copper and manganese while States retain powers over 49 minor minerals. Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren wrote to the President on federal implications and the Congress has said it will challenge the law in court.
- 3Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the 31st Southern Zonal Council meeting at Kovalam near Mahabalipuram on August 20. Zonal Councils are statutory bodies under Sections 15–22 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956; the Home Minister is Chairman and Tamil Nadu CM C. Joseph Vijay is Vice-Chairman. Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Keralam attended, with Telangana represented by its Deputy Chief Minister.
- 4The Health Ministry on August 22 restricted the manufacture, sale and distribution of all Fixed Dose Combinations containing Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Phenylephrine Hydrochloride, mandating the warning that they must not be used in children below four years. The notification was issued under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 on the recommendations of an Expert Committee and the DTAB, extending an April 15, 2025 order to all such formulations.
- 5MeitY notified the ₹62,500 crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme on August 21, running FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31 and replacing the PLI-LSEM scheme that ended on March 31, 2026. Target Segment 1 offers 2.25–5% to large manufacturers with ₹10,000 crore turnover in 2025-26; Target Segment 2 offers Indian brands 5% plus 3% for design and R&D, with up to 1.5% more for domestic component sourcing.
- 6The CCEA approved five transport projects worth about ₹13,041 crore on August 19 — four railway multi-tracking projects costing ₹9,450 crore and adding roughly 410 km (Kharagpur–Bhadrak 4th line, Bhadrak–Haridaspur 4th line, Gummidipundi–Gudur 3rd and 4th line, Cuttack–Paradeep 3rd and 4th line), plus the 82.57 km four-laning of NH-22 from Muzaffarpur to Sonbarsa in Bihar at over ₹3,590 crore under the Hybrid Annuity Mode.
- 7The Ministry of Defence signed a ₹1,943 crore contract on August 17 with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to lease two MQ-9B Sea Guardian HALE Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems for the Indian Navy for 30 months, strengthening Maritime Domain Awareness across the Indian Ocean Region.
- 8The Department of Defence Production notified the sixth Positive Indigenisation List on August 18 — 405 items with an estimated business potential of ₹3,070 crore, comprising 389 DPSU items and 16 Indian Coast Guard items, covering platforms from the ALH and Su-30MKI to the T-72, T-90, BMP-II and MRSAM. The first five lists notified 5,012 items and over 15,700 items have been indigenised.
- 9Cochin Shipyard Limited delivered Mangrol, the third of eight Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts, to the Indian Navy at Kochi on August 21. The vessel has over 80% indigenous content, is waterjet-propelled and is named after a coastal town in Junagadh district, Gujarat.
- 10Nepal President Ram Chandra Paudel conferred the Honorary Rank of General of the Nepali Army on Indian Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth at Sheetal Niwas, Kathmandu on August 17. The reciprocal tradition dates to 1950, when K.M. Cariappa first received it; General Seth’s visit concluded on August 19.
- 11India launched its first-ever Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems on August 17 at a UNCCD COP17 side event in Ulaanbaatar. Published by ATREE under the aegis of the MoEF&CC with IUCN, it covers Himalayan and Terai grasslands, the Thar and Banni landscapes, Deccan savannas, Aravalli scrublands and more, and challenges the classification of such landscapes as “wasteland”.
- 12UNCCD COP17 opened at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on August 17 and runs to August 28 under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.” The Convention has 197 Parties, and this edition features the first-ever Indigenous Peoples Caucus alongside the Gender Caucus, Youth Forum and Business4Land Forum.
- 13India observed its third National Space Day on August 23 with the theme “Towards Viksit Bharat: Innovating, Collaborating and Aspiring to Global Space Leadership”, hosted by the Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad. The day marks Chandrayaan-3’s landing at Shiv Shakti Point on August 23, 2023.
- 14ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk on August 18, spending 6 hours 23 minutes outside the ISS on U.S. Spacewalk 97 with NASA astronaut Anil Menon. She is also the second European woman to do so, after Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022.
- 15India hosted the 30th BWF World Championships at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi from August 17–23 — the first time since Hyderabad 2009. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won bronze, India’s only medal, extending India’s streak of a medal at every edition since 2011. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost in the quarter-finals. Alex Lanier of France and An Se Young of Korea took the singles titles.
- 16India beat Pakistan 5-3 in their final Pool D match at the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in Amstelveen on August 19 to reach the second round. Harmanpreet Singh and Abhishek scored twice each and Hardik Singh converted a penalty stroke; India finished second in the pool behind England.
- 17The Sports Ministry approved a 492-member Indian contingent — 265 men and 227 women — for the Asian Games at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan from September 19 to October 4, 2026. Athletics has the largest share at 73 participants.
- 18Neeraj Chopra finished second at the Lausanne Diamond League on August 21 with a season-best 88.05 m, nine centimetres behind Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (88.14 m). Anderson Peters was third with 86.69 m.
- 19Kajal Dhochak won her second consecutive U20 World Wrestling Championship title, taking the women’s 76 kg gold with a 7-0 win over China’s Jingru Sun.
- 20India won the inaugural FIFAe Continental Championship Asia 2026 eFootball Mobile title on August 22, beating Japan 1-0 on aggregate in Kuala Lumpur through Danial Patel and Mujtaba Husaini, securing a third successive FIFAe World Cup qualification.
- 21The National Teachers Awards 2026 were announced for 48 school teachers — 26 male and 22 female — drawn from 27 States, seven Union Territories and six Central Government organisations. President Droupadi Murmu will confer them at Vigyan Bhawan on September 5.
- 22Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, convicted in cases arising from the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died at Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi on August 20 at the age of 80 while serving a life sentence.
- 23The Iran–United States standoff over the Strait of Hormuz sharpened, with new US sanctions on Hezbollah on August 20 and crude oil touching nearly $94 a barrel, its highest since late July. Iran allowed a number of Iraqi tankers through the strait on August 22, which it has largely blocked since February 28, 2026.
🏛️ National & Polity
MMDR Amendment Act, 2026 Comes Into Force, Barring State Taxes on Minerals
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026 came into force on 23 August 2026. It inserts a new Section 9D barring State Governments from levying any tax, cess or other levy on mineral rights or mineral-bearing lands except in accordance with conditions prescribed by the Central Government.
Key Facts
- The new Section 9D provides that no tax, cess or other levy shall be imposed by a State Government on mineral rights or mineral-bearing lands — whether based on mineral quantity, mineral value, royalty payable or otherwise — except as prescribed by the Central Government.
- Any such State levy not deposited with or recovered by the State Government before the Act commenced is deemed invalid at all material times; any levy already collected is not liable to be refunded.
- The Act also extends Union control from the regulation of mines and mineral development to the regulation of mineral-bearing lands.
- The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on 12 August 2026 and the Rajya Sabha on 13 August 2026; Presidential assent followed in mid-August 2026.
- It responds to the Supreme Court’s July 2024 nine-judge Constitution Bench ruling in Mineral Area Development Authority v. Steel Authority of India, which held that royalty is not a tax and that States may tax mineral rights unless Parliament restricts them.
- Union Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy told the Rajya Sabha that the Centre would regulate major minerals such as coal, limestone, iron ore, copper and manganese, while States continue to exercise powers over 49 minor minerals.
- Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren wrote to President Droupadi Murmu on the federal implications, and Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has said the law is unconstitutional and will be challenged in court.
📌 Why It Matters
This is the clearest federalism question of the year — Parliament legislating to limit a State taxing power that the Supreme Court had affirmed two years earlier. Section 9D, the MADA judgment and the Union List / State List entries involved are all standard Prelims and Mains material.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Under the Constitution, Entry 54 of the Union List lets Parliament regulate mines and mineral development to the extent it declares expedient in the public interest. Entry 23 of the State List gives States the same power subject to the Union List, and Entry 50 of the State List gives States the power to tax mineral rights subject to limitations imposed by Parliament by law relating to mineral development. The parent law is the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
Amit Shah Chairs 31st Southern Zonal Council Meeting at Mahabalipuram
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah chaired the 31st meeting of the Southern Zonal Council at Kovalam near Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu on 20 August 2026. Participants discussed inter-State river water sharing, parliamentary delimitation, tax devolution, healthcare funding, infrastructure and regional security.
Key Facts
- Zonal Councils are statutory bodies constituted under Sections 15 to 22 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.
- The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of every Zonal Council; the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay is the Vice-Chairman of the Southern Zonal Council, a post held by member State Chief Ministers by rotation.
- Members are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Keralam, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, along with the Union Territories of Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
- Chief Ministers C. Joseph Vijay (Tamil Nadu), N. Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), D.K. Shivakumar (Karnataka) and V.D. Satheesan (Keralam) attended; Telangana was represented by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.
- The meeting was organised by the Inter-State Council Secretariat, Ministry of Home Affairs, with the Government of Tamil Nadu as host.
- Several southern Chief Ministers pressed for parliamentary delimitation to continue to be based on the 1971 Census.
📌 Why It Matters
Zonal Councils are a favourite Prelims topic because they are statutory, not constitutional — a distinction that is regularly tested against the Inter-State Council, which is constitutional. The composition of the Southern Zonal Council and the identity of its Chairman are direct one-mark facts.
🧠 Static GK Connect
India has five Zonal Councils — Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern — created under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, an idea mooted by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956. They are statutory advisory bodies. The North Eastern Council is separate and was established under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972. The Inter-State Council is different again: it is a constitutional body set up under Article 263.
Government Restricts Two-Ingredient Cold Medicine Combinations for Under-Fours
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare restricted the manufacture, sale and distribution of all Fixed Dose Combinations containing Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Phenylephrine Hydrochloride, making it mandatory to warn that these medicines must not be used in children below four years of age.
Key Facts
- The notification was issued under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, in the interest of public health.
- Manufacturers must display the warning “Fixed Dose Combination shall not be used in children below four years of age” on the label, package insert and promotional literature.
- The order follows the recommendations of an Expert Committee and the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB).
- It extends an earlier notification of 15 April 2025, which had covered only certain formulations, to all formulations containing the two ingredients.
- Chlorpheniramine Maleate is an antihistamine used for allergy symptoms; Phenylephrine Hydrochloride is a decongestant used for nasal congestion.
- The Government said such combinations may pose risks to children below four years and that safer alternatives are available.
📌 Why It Matters
Drug regulation questions turn on the enabling section and the advisory body. Section 26A and DTAB are the two names to remember here, and both appear regularly in UPSC Prelims and State PSC general studies papers.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 governs the import, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs in India. Section 26A empowers the Central Government to prohibit or restrict a drug in the public interest. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), headed by the Drugs Controller General of India, is the national regulator, and the Drugs Technical Advisory Board is the statutory technical advisory body under the Act.
🌐 International
Iran-United States Standoff Over Strait of Hormuz Sharpens
The confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz intensified during the week. The United States imposed new sanctions on Hezbollah on 20 August and threatened wider economic pressure on Iran, which Tehran rejected. On 22 August Iran permitted a number of Iraqi oil tankers to transit the strait, continuing a pattern of selective access.
Key Facts
- Global crude oil prices reached nearly 94 dollars a barrel on 20 August 2026, the highest level since late July.
- Shipping traffic through the strait remains well below pre-war levels, though the number of crossings rose about 27 per cent over the preceding week.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the threatened United States sanctions.
- Iran has largely blocked the Strait of Hormuz to foreign shipping since 28 February 2026.
📌 Why It Matters
India imports a large share of its crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz, so the crisis feeds directly into questions on energy security, the current account deficit and inflation — a link tested in both UPSC and Banking papers.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and onward to the Arabian Sea. It lies between Iran to the north and Oman’s Musandam exclave and the United Arab Emirates to the south, and is about 21 nautical miles wide at its narrowest. It is the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint. Other major maritime chokepoints include the Strait of Malacca, the Bab-el-Mandeb, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.
💰 Economy & Banking
Centre Notifies ₹62,500 Crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme with a budgetary outlay of ₹62,500 crore. It replaces the Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing, whose tenure ended on 31 March 2026.
Key Facts
- The scheme runs for five years, from financial year 2026-27 to financial year 2030-31.
- Target Segment 1 covers large-scale mobile phone manufacturers, including contract manufacturers, with a minimum turnover of ₹10,000 crore in 2025-26, and offers incentives of 2.25 per cent to 5 per cent on eligible sales.
- Target Segment 2 is reserved for Indian-owned brands and offers a 5 per cent incentive plus an additional 3 per cent for product design and research and development carried out in India.
- An additional incentive of up to 1.5 per cent is available for domestic sourcing of specified components and sub-assemblies such as display and camera modules, enclosures, batteries and USB cables.
- The Union Cabinet had approved the scheme on 15 July 2026. It will be implemented through a Project Management Agency.
- Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said genuine Indian ownership of the brand, design and intellectual property would be an essential requirement for supported companies.
📌 Why It Matters
Outlay figures, scheme periods and incentive slabs are among the most frequently asked economy facts in Banking and SSC general awareness. The shift from the PLI-LSEM scheme to MPMS also marks a change in policy direction from assembly volume to domestic value addition.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The Production Linked Incentive scheme was launched in 2020 and now covers 14 sectors. In electronics, related schemes include the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme notified in April 2025 with an outlay of ₹22,919 crore, and the Semicon programme. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is the nodal ministry.
Cabinet Clears Rail and Highway Projects Worth ₹13,041 Crore
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved five transport infrastructure projects with a combined outlay of about ₹13,041 crore — four railway multi-tracking projects and one national highway four-laning project.
Key Facts
- The four railway multi-tracking projects cost about ₹9,450 crore and will add roughly 410 km to the Indian Railways network across eight districts in West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
- They are the Kharagpur–Bhadrak 4th line, the Bhadrak–Haridaspur 4th line, the Gummidipundi–Gudur 3rd and 4th line, and the Cuttack–Paradeep 3rd and 4th line, all scheduled for completion by 2030-31.
- The projects target congestion on the Howrah–Chennai main trunk route, one of the country’s busiest freight corridors.
- The highway component is the 82.57 km four-laning of the Muzaffarpur–Sitamarhi–Sonbarsa section of National Highway-22 in Bihar, costing over ₹3,590 crore under the Hybrid Annuity Mode.
- The NH-22 stretch connects Muzaffarpur to the Nepal border via Sitamarhi and is expected to support cross-border trade.
- The decisions were announced by Union Minister for Railways, Electronics and Information Technology and Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw.
📌 Why It Matters
RRB NTPC and Group D papers ask directly about newly sanctioned railway lines, the states they cross and the corridors they decongest. The project names and the ₹13,041 crore headline figure are the exact form these questions take.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Multi-tracking projects are planned under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, launched in October 2021 for multi-modal connectivity. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is chaired by the Prime Minister. Under the Hybrid Annuity Model for highways, the government funds 40 per cent of project cost during construction and the balance is paid as annuities over the operations period.
🚀 Science & Tech
India Observes Third National Space Day on 23 August
India observed its third National Space Day on 23 August 2026, commemorating the soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Vikram Lander on the Moon on 23 August 2023. The national event was hosted by the Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad.
Key Facts
- The theme for 2026 is “Towards Viksit Bharat: Innovating, Collaborating and Aspiring to Global Space Leadership”.
- The Government of India declared 23 August as National Space Day after Chandrayaan-3’s landing in 2023.
- With that landing India became the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon and the first to land near the lunar south polar region.
- The landing site was named Shiv Shakti Point, and the Pragyan Rover was deployed from the Vikram Lander.
- The 2025 theme was “Aryabhatta to Gaganyaan: Ancient Wisdom to Infinite Possibilities” and the 2024 theme was “Touching Lives while Touching the Moon: India’s Space Saga”.
📌 Why It Matters
National Space Day, its date, its origin and the current year’s theme form a near-guaranteed question set every August across SSC, Railway and Teaching examinations.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008 and confirmed water molecules on the Moon. Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 placed an orbiter successfully but its lander crashed. Chandrayaan-3 launched on 14 July 2023 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on an LVM3 rocket, and landed on 23 August 2023. The Space Applications Centre at Ahmedabad is a major ISRO centre. ISRO was founded in 1969 and its headquarters are at Bengaluru.
Sophie Adenot Becomes First French Woman to Perform a Spacewalk
European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk, working outside the International Space Station alongside NASA astronaut Anil Menon on U.S. Spacewalk 97.
Key Facts
- The spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 23 minutes and concluded at 2:52 p.m. EDT on 18 August 2026.
- Adenot and Menon removed a failed Space-to-Ground antenna from the station’s truss; installation of the replacement was deferred to a later spacewalk after cable disconnection took longer than expected.
- She is also the second European woman to perform a spacewalk, after Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy in 2022.
- It was the 282nd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades.
- Adenot was selected as part of the European Space Agency’s 2022 astronaut class and is a colonel in the French Air and Space Force.
📌 Why It Matters
“Firsts” in space are among the highest-frequency science and technology questions in SSC and Banking general awareness, and the ISS itself is standard static material.
🧠 Static GK Connect
A spacewalk is formally called an Extravehicular Activity (EVA). Alexei Leonov of the Soviet Union performed the first spacewalk in 1965 and Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to do so in 1984. The International Space Station is a joint project of NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and CSA. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian in space in 1984, and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to visit the ISS in 2025.
🛡️ Defence
Defence Ministry Signs ₹1,943 Crore Lease for Two MQ-9B Sea Guardian Drones
The Ministry of Defence signed a contract with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. to lease two MQ-9B Sea Guardian High-Altitude Long-Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems for the Indian Navy for a period of 30 months.
Key Facts
- The contract is valued at approximately ₹1,943 crore and runs for 30 months.
- It was signed in the presence of A. Anbarasu, Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition), Department of Defence.
- The systems carry advanced sensors and payloads and will provide persistent Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance coverage across the Indian Ocean Region, strengthening Maritime Domain Awareness.
- The Indian Navy has operated leased MQ-9 series drones since 2020.
- India separately contracted 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardian and Sea Guardian aircraft for the three services in October 2024.
📌 Why It Matters
Defence procurement contracts with a named vendor, a value and a duration are converted almost verbatim into one-mark questions for NDA, CDS, AFCAT and SSC general awareness.
🧠 Static GK Connect
MQ-9B is a High-Altitude Long-Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System made by the United States firm General Atomics. The Sea Guardian is the maritime variant and the Sky Guardian the land variant. The Indian Ocean Region is central to India’s maritime doctrine, supported by initiatives such as SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region at Gurugram.
Defence Ministry Notifies Sixth Positive Indigenisation List of 405 Items
The Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence notified the sixth Positive Indigenisation List, covering 405 strategically important defence items with an estimated business potential of ₹3,070 crore.
Key Facts
- Of the 405 items, 389 relate to Defence Public Sector Undertakings and 16 to the Indian Coast Guard.
- The list covers Line Replaceable Units, sub-systems, sub-assemblies, spares, components and raw materials.
- Platforms covered include the Advanced Light Helicopter, the Light Utility Helicopter, the Su-30MKI, the Light Combat Aircraft, the AL-31FP engine, the T-72 and T-90 tanks, the BMP-II, warships, and missile systems such as Konkurs-M, Invar and MRSAM.
- The first five Positive Indigenisation Lists together notified 5,012 items; more than 15,700 defence items have been indigenised so far.
- The SRIJAN Defence Portal, launched in August 2020, had carried more than 33,000 defence items offered for indigenisation up to June 2026.
- Indigenisation so far is estimated to have produced import substitution of around ₹9,000 crore over five years.
📌 Why It Matters
The number of items, the business potential and the split between DPSUs and the Coast Guard are exactly the figures Defence and SSC papers test. The mechanism — an item cannot be imported after its notified deadline — is also a common conceptual question.
🧠 Static GK Connect
A Positive Indigenisation List, earlier called a Negative Import List, is a notified list of defence items that can be procured only from Indian industry after a stated deadline. The first list was notified in August 2020. The Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence issues these lists, and the SRIJAN portal is the platform through which DPSUs and Service Headquarters offer items to industry.
Cochin Shipyard Delivers Third Anti-Submarine Warfare Craft Mangrol to Navy
Cochin Shipyard Limited delivered Mangrol, the third of eight indigenously designed and constructed Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts, to the Indian Navy at its Kochi facility.
Key Facts
- The vessel has more than 80 per cent indigenous content.
- It is designed for underwater surveillance, anti-submarine warfare in coastal waters, Low Intensity Maritime Operations and mine warfare.
- The ship is propelled by waterjets and is fitted with torpedoes, anti-submarine rockets, and advanced radars and sonars.
- It was designed and built to the classification rules of Det Norske Veritas (DNV).
- Mangrol is named after a coastal town and minor port in Junagadh district, Gujarat, and carries forward the name of the earlier INS Mangrol, a minesweeper that served until 2004.
- The delivery protocol was signed by CSL Director (Operations) Harikrishnan S. and Commander U. Sharan Kumar, Commanding Officer (Designate).
📌 Why It Matters
Warship names, their builders and their home significance are standard Defence and SSC questions. The eight-ship ASW SWC programme with Cochin Shipyard recurs across editions.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Cochin Shipyard Limited, a public sector shipyard at Kochi, also built INS Vikrant, India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, commissioned in September 2022. Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders in Mumbai, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers in Kolkata and Goa Shipyard are the other major defence shipyards. A ship is “delivered” to the Navy first and “commissioned” as an INS later.
Nepal Confers Honorary Rank of General on Indian Army Chief Dhiraj Seth
Nepal President Ram Chandra Paudel conferred the Honorary Rank of General of the Nepali Army on General Dhiraj Seth, Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army, at an investiture ceremony in Kathmandu.
Key Facts
- India and Nepal have reciprocally conferred the honorary rank of General on each other’s army chiefs since 1950.
- Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa, then Commander-in-Chief, was the first Indian Army chief to receive the title, in 1950.
- General Seth’s official visit to Nepal concluded on 19 August 2026, undertaken at the invitation of Nepali Army Chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel.
- He laid a wreath at the Army Pavilion, Tundikhel, and received a ceremonial Guard of Honour at Nepali Army Headquarters.
- General Ashok Raj Sigdel was conferred the Honorary Rank of General of the Indian Army by President Droupadi Murmu in December 2024.
📌 Why It Matters
This tradition, the year it began and the first recipient are recurring Defence and UPSC questions. The current Indian Army Chief’s name is itself a high-frequency one-mark fact.
🧠 Static GK Connect
India–Nepal ties are often described as a “Roti-Beti ka Rishta”. The relationship is governed by the India–Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950. Gorkha regiments of the Indian Army recruit heavily from Nepal. The two armies also conduct the annual joint exercise Surya Kiran.
🌳 Environment
India Launches First Guide to Grasslands and Open Natural Ecosystems at COP17
India launched its first-ever Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems of India at a side event of the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Key Facts
- The launch was preceded by a special video message from Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav.
- The Guide was published by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
- It documents ecosystems including Himalayan and Terai grasslands, the Thar and Banni landscapes, Deccan savannas, Aravalli scrublands, Yamuna–Chambal ravines, Western Ghats rocky plateaus, central Nicobar grasslands and Tamil Nadu’s Theri Kaadu.
- It contains thematic sections on pastoralism, fire ecology and carbon sequestration.
- The Guide argues that grasslands, scrublands and ravines should not be judged merely by the absence of tree cover, challenging their long-standing classification as “wasteland”.
📌 Why It Matters
Open Natural Ecosystems are an emerging UPSC environment theme, and the “wasteland” misclassification debate is directly relevant to afforestation policy and grazing rights. The publishing institution and the venue are both askable facts.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Banni grassland in Kachchh, Gujarat is Asia’s largest tropical grassland and home to the Maldhari pastoralists. The Great Indian Bustard, critically endangered, is a grassland species found in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park. The Terai grasslands support the one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga and Dudhwa. ATREE is a Bengaluru-based research institution.
🏆 Sports
India Hosts 30th BWF World Championships, Treesa and Gayatri Win Bronze
The 30th BWF World Championships were held in New Delhi from 17 to 23 August 2026, the first time India hosted the event since 2009. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won a women’s doubles bronze, India’s only medal at the tournament.
Key Facts
- Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand became only the second Indian women’s doubles pair to win a World Championships medal, after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa.
- Their quarter-final win over Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian of China, 16-21, 21-15, 21-13, extended India’s streak of winning at least one medal at every edition of the World Championships since 2011.
- Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost their men’s doubles quarter-final 18-21, 9-21 to Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of China on 21 August; PV Sindhu and Ayush Shetty had exited earlier.
- Alex Lanier of France won the men’s singles title and An Se Young of South Korea won the women’s singles, her second World Championships gold.
- Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue of France won the mixed doubles, beating top seeds Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping of China 22-20, 19-21, 21-15 — France’s first gold of the championships.
- India had previously hosted the World Championships at Hyderabad in 2009.
📌 Why It Matters
A world championship hosted in India produces a cluster of questions — the venue, the edition number, the Indian medallist and the champions. Badminton is among the most heavily tested sports in SSC and Railway general awareness.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The Badminton World Federation was founded in 1934 and is headquartered at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. PV Sindhu is India’s most successful athlete at the World Championships with five medals, including gold in 2019. Prakash Padukone won India’s first World Championships medal, a bronze in 1983. The Thomas Cup is the men’s team event and the Uber Cup the women’s; India won the Thomas Cup in 2022.
India Beat Pakistan 5-3 at Hockey World Cup to Reach Second Round
India defeated Pakistan 5-3 in their final Pool D match of the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2026, finishing second in the pool and advancing to the second round.
Key Facts
- Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored twice and Abhishek scored twice; Hardik Singh converted a penalty stroke.
- Hannan Shahid scored twice for Pakistan and Sufyan Khan added one.
- India finished second in Pool D with six points while England topped the pool with nine points from three wins.
- Pakistan and Wales were relegated to the classification phase.
- The FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 is co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands, with the men’s final scheduled at the Stade Justin Peeters in Wavre, Belgium.
📌 Why It Matters
India–Pakistan results in major tournaments are among the most asked sports facts, and the scoreline plus the goal scorers are the standard question format.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Hockey is played by 11 players a side. India has won the Olympic hockey gold eight times, the most by any nation, and won the Hockey World Cup once, in 1975 at Kuala Lumpur. Major Dhyan Chand’s birthday, 29 August, is observed as National Sports Day. The FIH is the international governing body for hockey.
Sports Ministry Approves 492-Member Indian Contingent for Asian Games
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports approved a 492-member Indian contingent for the Asian Games to be held in Japan from 19 September to 4 October 2026.
Key Facts
- The contingent comprises 265 male and 227 female athletes.
- Athletics accounts for the largest share, with 73 participants.
- The Asian Games 2026 will be held at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from 19 September to 4 October 2026.
📌 Why It Matters
Contingent size, host city and dates for a major multi-sport Games are asked directly in SSC, Railway and Banking general awareness in the weeks before and after the event.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The Asian Games are held every four years and are organised by the Olympic Council of Asia. The first edition was held at New Delhi in 1951, and India hosted again in 1982. The 2022 edition was held at Hangzhou, China in 2023, where India won a record 107 medals.
Neeraj Chopra Finishes Second at Lausanne Diamond League with Season Best
Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra finished second at the Lausanne Diamond League with a season-best throw of 88.05 metres, nine centimetres behind the winner.
Key Facts
- Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage won the event with 88.14 metres; Anderson Peters of Grenada was third with 86.69 metres.
- Chopra opened with 83.54 metres and produced 88.05 metres on his second attempt.
- It was his best throw since the 88.16 metres with which he won the Paris Diamond League in June 2025.
- Pathirage has now finished ahead of Chopra in their last four meetings, including at the Commonwealth Games.
- The Lausanne Diamond League meeting is also known as Athletissima.
📌 Why It Matters
Neeraj Chopra’s results are tracked closely in every general awareness paper. The winning mark, his own mark and the winner’s name are the usual question points.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Neeraj Chopra won javelin gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, India’s first Olympic gold in athletics, and silver at Paris 2024. He won the World Athletics Championships gold at Budapest in 2023. The Diamond League is World Athletics’ elite one-day meeting series. In javelin, each athlete gets six attempts.
Kajal Dhochak Wins Second Consecutive U20 World Wrestling Title
India’s Kajal Dhochak won the women’s 76 kilogram gold medal at the U20 World Wrestling Championships, retaining the title she had won the previous year.
Key Facts
- She won the final 7-0 against Jingru Sun of China.
- It is her second consecutive U20 World Wrestling Championship title.
- India’s Tanu Sharma also competed, in the 72 kilogram category.
📌 Why It Matters
Indian world titles in wrestling, with the weight category and the opponent, appear regularly in SSC and Railway general awareness sections.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Wrestling is governed internationally by United World Wrestling. Sushil Kumar is the only Indian wrestler to win two individual Olympic medals. Sakshi Malik became the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal, a bronze at Rio 2016. The Wrestling Federation of India is the national body.
India Win Inaugural FIFAe Continental Championship Asia eFootball Title
The Indian eFootball national team won the inaugural FIFAe Continental Championship Asia 2026 featuring eFootball Mobile, beating Japan 1-0 on aggregate in the final at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Key Facts
- India was represented by Danial Patel and Mujtaba Husaini.
- The win secured India’s third successive qualification for the FIFAe World Cup, to be held in Saudi Arabia later in 2026.
- India also made a maiden appearance at the FIFAe Continental Championship Asia 2026 Rocket League event.
- The result was announced through an All India Football Federation release.
📌 Why It Matters
Inaugural editions and Indian titles are natural question material, and esports is an emerging category in general awareness papers.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The All India Football Federation, founded in 1937, governs football in India and is affiliated to FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation. FIFA was founded in 1904 and is headquartered at Zurich, Switzerland. Esports was included as a medal sport at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
🎖️ Awards & Honours
National Teachers Awards 2026 Announced for 48 School Teachers
The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, announced the National Teachers Awards 2026 for 48 school teachers. President Droupadi Murmu will confer the awards at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on 5 September 2026.
Key Facts
- The 48 awardees comprise 26 male and 22 female teachers.
- They were selected from 27 States, seven Union Territories and six organisations under the Central Government.
- Selection followed a three-stage process conducted at the district, State and national levels.
- Online self-nominations were invited through the Ministry of Education’s portal from 15 June to 20 July 2026.
- The awardees include teachers from Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, Eklavya Model Residential Schools, Sainik Schools and PM SHRI schools.
- The National Teachers Award was instituted in 1958 and is conferred every year on Teachers’ Day.
📌 Why It Matters
This is a core Teaching-exam fact and a standard SSC awards question. The number of awardees changes every year, so the 2026 figure of 48 is the one to memorise.
🧠 Static GK Connect
Teachers’ Day is observed on 5 September, the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India’s first Vice-President and second President. The National Teachers Awards are administered by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education. In 2025 the award went to 45 teachers.
🕊️ Obituaries
Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar Dies While Serving Life Sentence
Sajjan Kumar, a former Congress Member of Parliament convicted in cases relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, died at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi at the age of 80. He had been brought there from Tihar Jail; the hospital did not state a cause of death.
Key Facts
- Born on 23 September 1945, he was a three-time Lok Sabha member representing the Outer Delhi constituency.
- The Delhi High Court sentenced him to life imprisonment on 17 December 2018 in a case relating to the killing of five Sikhs and the burning of a gurdwara.
- A Delhi court sentenced him to a second life term in February 2025 for the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son on 1 November 1984.
- He entered public life as a Delhi municipal councillor in 1977 and resigned from the Congress after his 2018 conviction.
📌 Why It Matters
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the Special Investigation Team constituted in 2015 to reopen those cases are recurring topics in polity and internal security sections.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984. The Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission, appointed in 2000, examined the violence and submitted its report in 2005. A Special Investigation Team was constituted in February 2015 to re-investigate closed cases.
🤝 Summits & MoUs
UNCCD COP17 Opens in Ulaanbaatar Under Theme Restoring Land Restoring Hope
The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification opened in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on 17 August 2026 and runs until 28 August 2026, hosted by Mongolia.
Key Facts
- The theme of COP17 is “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.”
- The UNCCD has 197 Parties.
- The two-week conference includes a high-level segment, thematic dialogues, a Gender Caucus and the first-ever Indigenous Peoples Caucus.
- A Youth Forum and the Business4Land Forum engage young people and the private sector on sustainable land management.
- This is the first time Mongolia has hosted a UNCCD Conference of the Parties.
📌 Why It Matters
Host city, theme and edition number of major UN conferences are among the most reliably asked international-affairs facts across UPSC, SSC and Banking papers.
🧠 Static GK Connect
The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions that emerged from the 1992 Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, along with the UNFCCC on climate change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The UNCCD was adopted in 1994 and its secretariat is at Bonn, Germany. Its central goal is Land Degradation Neutrality, part of Sustainable Development Goal 15. India hosted UNCCD COP14 at Greater Noida in 2019.
🧠 Static GK Refresher
Connect this week's news with evergreen facts that exams love
| News Item | Static Fact to Remember |
|---|---|
| The MMDR Amendment Act, 2026 restricts State taxes on mineral rights. | Entry 54 of the Union List lets Parliament regulate mines and mineral development to the extent it declares expedient in the public interest. Entry 23 of the State List gives States the same power subject to the Union List. Entry 50 of the State List gives States the power to tax mineral rights, but subject to any limitations imposed by Parliament by law relating to mineral development — the exact opening the 2026 Act uses. |
| Amit Shah chaired the 31st Southern Zonal Council meeting. | India has five Zonal Councils — Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern — set up under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. They are statutory, not constitutional. The Union Home Minister chairs all of them. The North Eastern Council is separate, under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972. The Inter-State Council is constitutional, established under Article 263. |
| The Government restricted certain Fixed Dose Combinations for children under four. | Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 empowers the Central Government to prohibit or restrict a drug in the public interest. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, headed by the Drugs Controller General of India, is the national drug regulator, and the Drugs Technical Advisory Board is the statutory technical advisory body under the Act. |
| The Centre notified the ₹62,500 crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme. | The Production Linked Incentive scheme was launched in 2020 and now spans 14 sectors. In electronics, it is complemented by the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme notified in April 2025 with an outlay of ₹22,919 crore. The nodal ministry is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. |
| The CCEA approved four railway multi-tracking projects worth ₹9,450 crore. | Multi-tracking projects are planned under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, launched in October 2021 to improve multi-modal connectivity. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is chaired by the Prime Minister. Indian Railways is organised into 18 zones, and the Howrah–Chennai route is one of its highest-density freight corridors. |
| The Ministry of Defence notified the sixth Positive Indigenisation List. | A Positive Indigenisation List, earlier called a Negative Import List, names defence items that may be procured only from Indian industry after a stated deadline. The first was notified in August 2020, the same month the SRIJAN Defence Portal was launched. The Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence issues these lists. |
| Nepal conferred the Honorary Rank of General on Indian Army Chief Dhiraj Seth. | India and Nepal have exchanged the honorary rank of General between their army chiefs since 1950, when Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa first received it. Relations are governed by the India–Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950, and the two armies hold the annual joint exercise Surya Kiran. |
| India launched its first Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems. | Banni in Kachchh, Gujarat is Asia’s largest tropical grassland and home to the Maldhari pastoralists. The critically endangered Great Indian Bustard is a grassland species found in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park. Terai grasslands support the one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga and Dudhwa. |
| UNCCD COP17 opened at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. | The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions from the 1992 Earth Summit, alongside the UNFCCC and the Convention on Biological Diversity. It was adopted in 1994 and its secretariat is at Bonn, Germany. Its central goal is Land Degradation Neutrality under Sustainable Development Goal 15. India hosted UNCCD COP14 at Greater Noida in 2019. |
| India observed its third National Space Day on 23 August 2026. | Chandrayaan-3 launched on 14 July 2023 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, aboard an LVM3 rocket, and its Vikram Lander touched down on 23 August 2023 at a site named Shiv Shakti Point. Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 confirmed water molecules on the Moon. ISRO was founded in 1969 and is headquartered at Bengaluru. |
| India hosted the 30th BWF World Championships at New Delhi. | The Badminton World Federation was founded in 1934 and is headquartered at Kuala Lumpur. PV Sindhu is India’s most successful World Championships athlete with five medals, including gold in 2019. Prakash Padukone won India’s first medal at the event, a bronze in 1983. India won the Thomas Cup, the men’s team championship, in 2022. |
| India beat Pakistan 5-3 at the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup. | India has won eight Olympic gold medals in hockey, more than any other nation, and won the Hockey World Cup once, in 1975 at Kuala Lumpur. Major Dhyan Chand’s birthday, 29 August, is observed as National Sports Day. The FIH is the sport’s international governing body. |
| The Sports Ministry cleared a 492-member contingent for the Asian Games. | The Asian Games are held every four years under the Olympic Council of Asia. The first edition was at New Delhi in 1951, and India hosted again in 1982. At the 2022 edition, held at Hangzhou in 2023, India won a record 107 medals. |
| Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk. | A spacewalk is formally an Extravehicular Activity. Alexei Leonov performed the first in 1965 and Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to do so in 1984. Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian in space, in 1984, and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station in 2025. |
| The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed to foreign shipping. | The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, lying between Iran and Oman’s Musandam exclave. About 21 nautical miles wide at its narrowest, it is the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint. Other key chokepoints are the Strait of Malacca, the Bab-el-Mandeb, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. |
The MMDR Amendment Act, 2026 restricts State taxes on mineral rights.
Entry 54 of the Union List lets Parliament regulate mines and mineral development to the extent it declares expedient in the public interest. Entry 23 of the State List gives States the same power subject to the Union List. Entry 50 of the State List gives States the power to tax mineral rights, but subject to any limitations imposed by Parliament by law relating to mineral development — the exact opening the 2026 Act uses.
Amit Shah chaired the 31st Southern Zonal Council meeting.
India has five Zonal Councils — Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern — set up under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. They are statutory, not constitutional. The Union Home Minister chairs all of them. The North Eastern Council is separate, under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972. The Inter-State Council is constitutional, established under Article 263.
The Government restricted certain Fixed Dose Combinations for children under four.
Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 empowers the Central Government to prohibit or restrict a drug in the public interest. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, headed by the Drugs Controller General of India, is the national drug regulator, and the Drugs Technical Advisory Board is the statutory technical advisory body under the Act.
The Centre notified the ₹62,500 crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme.
The Production Linked Incentive scheme was launched in 2020 and now spans 14 sectors. In electronics, it is complemented by the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme notified in April 2025 with an outlay of ₹22,919 crore. The nodal ministry is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The CCEA approved four railway multi-tracking projects worth ₹9,450 crore.
Multi-tracking projects are planned under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, launched in October 2021 to improve multi-modal connectivity. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is chaired by the Prime Minister. Indian Railways is organised into 18 zones, and the Howrah–Chennai route is one of its highest-density freight corridors.
The Ministry of Defence notified the sixth Positive Indigenisation List.
A Positive Indigenisation List, earlier called a Negative Import List, names defence items that may be procured only from Indian industry after a stated deadline. The first was notified in August 2020, the same month the SRIJAN Defence Portal was launched. The Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence issues these lists.
Nepal conferred the Honorary Rank of General on Indian Army Chief Dhiraj Seth.
India and Nepal have exchanged the honorary rank of General between their army chiefs since 1950, when Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa first received it. Relations are governed by the India–Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950, and the two armies hold the annual joint exercise Surya Kiran.
India launched its first Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems.
Banni in Kachchh, Gujarat is Asia’s largest tropical grassland and home to the Maldhari pastoralists. The critically endangered Great Indian Bustard is a grassland species found in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park. Terai grasslands support the one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga and Dudhwa.
UNCCD COP17 opened at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions from the 1992 Earth Summit, alongside the UNFCCC and the Convention on Biological Diversity. It was adopted in 1994 and its secretariat is at Bonn, Germany. Its central goal is Land Degradation Neutrality under Sustainable Development Goal 15. India hosted UNCCD COP14 at Greater Noida in 2019.
India observed its third National Space Day on 23 August 2026.
Chandrayaan-3 launched on 14 July 2023 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, aboard an LVM3 rocket, and its Vikram Lander touched down on 23 August 2023 at a site named Shiv Shakti Point. Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 confirmed water molecules on the Moon. ISRO was founded in 1969 and is headquartered at Bengaluru.
India hosted the 30th BWF World Championships at New Delhi.
The Badminton World Federation was founded in 1934 and is headquartered at Kuala Lumpur. PV Sindhu is India’s most successful World Championships athlete with five medals, including gold in 2019. Prakash Padukone won India’s first medal at the event, a bronze in 1983. India won the Thomas Cup, the men’s team championship, in 2022.
India beat Pakistan 5-3 at the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup.
India has won eight Olympic gold medals in hockey, more than any other nation, and won the Hockey World Cup once, in 1975 at Kuala Lumpur. Major Dhyan Chand’s birthday, 29 August, is observed as National Sports Day. The FIH is the sport’s international governing body.
The Sports Ministry cleared a 492-member contingent for the Asian Games.
The Asian Games are held every four years under the Olympic Council of Asia. The first edition was at New Delhi in 1951, and India hosted again in 1982. At the 2022 edition, held at Hangzhou in 2023, India won a record 107 medals.
Sophie Adenot became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk.
A spacewalk is formally an Extravehicular Activity. Alexei Leonov performed the first in 1965 and Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to do so in 1984. Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian in space, in 1984, and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station in 2025.
The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed to foreign shipping.
The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, lying between Iran and Oman’s Musandam exclave. About 21 nautical miles wide at its narrowest, it is the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint. Other key chokepoints are the Strait of Malacca, the Bab-el-Mandeb, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.
🧠 Weekly Quiz
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⚠️ Accuracy Note: This summary is provided for reference and quick revision only. Mistakes are possible, so always cross-check important details — dates, names, figures, and notifications — with the official source before relying on them for your exam preparation.