Daily Current Affairs - 14 August 2026

India emerged overall champions at the Commonwealth Fencing Championship in Lagos, Nigeria, winning 35 medals—13 gold, 8 silver and 14 bronze—and won the Wilkinson Sword Trophy for best overall results for the first time.

President Droupadi Murmu presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for the years 2024 and 2025 in New Delhi; Akademi Fellow carries ₹3 lakh and Akademi Award carries ₹1 lakh along with Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the 80th Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort on August 15, 2026, marking 150 years of the National Song 'Vande Mataram'; 'Vande Mataram' will be rendered for the first time at the Red Fort Independence Day ceremony; the 21-Gun Salute will be fired by 1721 Field Battery using indigenous 105mm Light Field Guns; Captain Sonia Singh Chauhan will assist the PM in hoisting the national flag.

President Droupadi Murmu will address the nation on August 14, 2026, the eve of the 80th Independence Day; the address will be broadcast at 7 pm on Akashvani and Doordarshan; regional-language versions will be broadcast at 9:30 pm.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament 2026 commenced on July 20, 2026 and adjourned sine die on August 13, 2026; it provided 19 sittings over 25 days and both Houses passed 12 Bills; Rajya Sabha productivity was 39.17% (37 hours 49 minutes); AI-based language translation 'Vani Setu' was introduced for the first time.

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 was passed; it mandates completion of investigations within two months and trials within three months.

The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was passed; it brings Vande Mataram within Section 3 of the 1971 Act and makes prevention of its singing punishable.

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 was passed; it restricts State Governments from imposing new taxes on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands without Central conditions.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan held talks with Kenya's National Assembly Speaker Dr Moses M. Wetang'ula; Kenya agreed to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in its Parliament, recognised the Indian diaspora as the 44th tribe of Kenya, supports India's candidature for the non-permanent UNSC seat for 2028-29 and permanent membership; India offers around 400 scholarships to Kenya and has increased ICCR long-term course scholarships from 80 to 100 annually.

Liberia's Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti visited New Delhi and inaugurated the Embassy of Liberia; she met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

India is chairing BRICS for the fourth time in 2026 under the theme 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability'; BRICS now comprises 11 members: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE.

India assumed the Chairship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) for 2025–2027 under the theme 'Innovation, Openness, Resilience & Adaptability in the Indian Ocean Region'; India hosted IORA's flagship Indian Ocean Dialogue in New Delhi on 07–08 May 2026.

During the Third India-Australia Annual Summit, India and Australia signed an Administrative Arrangement enabling long-term Australian uranium exports to India; agreed on the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains (PACTS); finalised an MoU for a Centre of Excellence on Mining at NSTI Bhubaneswar; and Flinders University received a Letter of Intent for a campus in Bengaluru.

ISRO has been a member of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) since 1996; IADC was formed in 1993; ISRO's Debris Free Space Mission will use Active Debris Removal to limit space debris.

SPADEX (Space Docking Experiment), launched on 30 December 2024, made India the 4th country to demonstrate space docking technology.

NISAR, launched on 30 July 2025, is the first dual-frequency (L & S Band) radar Earth observation satellite jointly developed by NASA and ISRO.

Chandrayaan-3, launched on 14 July 2023, achieved the first-ever soft landing near the Moon's south polar region on 23 August 2023.

RAPP-7, a 700 MW indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor at Rawatbhata, Rajasthan, commenced commercial operation on 15 April 2026.

India Optel Limited launched the indigenous 'GARUD' High Resolution Binoculars developed by Ordnance Factory Dehradun; it offers 8x magnification, a 7.6-degree field of view and weighs about 610 grams.

Mission Mausam was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 14 January 2025 as a Central Sector umbrella scheme of MoES; its Budget Estimate is Rs 1,342.29 crore for 2026-27 and it has six verticals including OBSERVE_ALL and Weather_MOD.

IMD has a network of 50 Doppler Weather Radars, 1,008 Automatic Weather Stations and 6,885 rain gauge stations across India.

World Elephant Day 2026 national celebrations were held at Visakhapatnam; India has 33 Elephant Reserves, 150 identified elephant corridors and nearly 60% of the world's wild Asian elephant population.

India achieved a 37.38% reduction in emissions intensity of GDP in 2022 from 2005 levels; non-fossil fuel capacity was 54.18% of total installed power capacity as on 30 June 2026 and additional carbon sink was 2.44 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent during 2005-2022.

India ranks third globally in renewable energy installed capacity; total installed power capacity was around 552 GW in July 2026, with non-fossil capacity at 300.50 GW as on 31 July 2026.

India's installed solar capacity reached 164.59 GW as on 31 July 2026; under PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, 51.58 lakh households are benefiting, with total outlay of Rs 75,021 crore.

Semicon 2.0 was approved in July 2026 with an outlay of Rs 1,27,500 crore; 12 semiconductor projects have been approved across six states with investment commitments exceeding Rs 1.64 lakh crore, and three facilities have commenced commercial production.

The IndiaAI Mission, approved with an outlay of about Rs 10,372 crore, expanded shared AI computing capacity to more than 45,000 GPUs by June 2026 and selected 20 indigenous foundation model proposals from 506 applications.

The national workshop on Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan concluded; revised AMB Operational Guidelines were launched by Health Minister J.P. Nadda on June 29, 2026 with the 7x7x7 strategy; the Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan Application and Portal was launched for beneficiary-level tracking and management.

The Government launched a three-month HPV vaccination campaign in February 2026 targeting 1.2 crore girls aged 14 years; over 52.10 lakh girls had received the vaccine as of July 15, 2026.

Maternal mortality in India declined from 130 per one lakh live births in 2014-16 to 87 in 2022-24.

NITI Aayog's report 'Key Sectors to Position India as a Global Manufacturing Hub' identifies 12 priority sectors, including chemicals, textiles, telecom & networking equipment and solar photovoltaic manufacturing.

Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal launched the revamped India Code Portal at Kartavya Bhavan 2, New Delhi with AI-powered search, semantic and speech-based search, and multilingual access in all 22 Eighth Schedule languages.

The National Single Window System integrates approvals across 32 Central ministries and 34 States/UTs and has granted over 8.29 lakh approvals since 2021; DPIIT-recognized startups reached over 2.47 lakh as on 12 August 2026.

India's cumulative exports (merchandise and services) during April-July 2026-27 are estimated at US$316.42 billion, a growth of 13.16%; total exports in July 2026 were US$80.14 billion, with merchandise exports of US$44.24 billion up 19.6%.

The Government approved a Rs 37,500 crore scheme in May 2026 to promote surface coal/lignite gasification, targeting 100 MT of coal/lignite gasification by 2030 and about 50,000 jobs across 25 projects.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries received 20 bids under the scheme to promote manufacturing of sintered rare earth permanent magnets; the scheme was approved in November 2025 with an outlay of Rs 7,280 crore and an integrated capacity of 6,000 MTPA.

PM JANMAN was launched for socio-economic development of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in 18 states and one UT, implemented through 11 interventions by 9 line Ministries.

India retrieved 662 antiquities from USA (589), Australia (51), UK (21) and Netherlands (01) till June 2026.

The Indian Culture Portal (ICP) Version 2.0 was launched in March 2026; it offers content in 22 Indian languages through BHASHINI and has an AI-powered chatbot named 'Bharti'.

India has 3,688 ancient monuments and archaeological sites of national importance; 414 have reported encroachments, with Uttar Pradesh (78), Tamil Nadu (72) and Karnataka (60) having the most.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party nominated its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as its presidential candidate for the 20 August 2026 presidential election; former president Mohammed Shahabuddin resigned on 24 July 2026.

A UN Security Council monitoring team report attributed the November 2025 Red Fort attack in Delhi to Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

The Rajasthan Cabinet approved the draft Rajasthan Uniform Civil Code Bill 2026, covering marriage, divorce, inheritance, maintenance and live-in relationships while keeping tribal rituals and customs outside its purview.

Manipur observed Patriots' Day on 13 August 2026 in memory of Bir Tikendrajit and Thangal General, who were hanged by the British in 1891 after the Anglo-Manipuri War.

Afghanistan will host India for a three-match T20 International series at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in Delhi from 13 to 17 September 2026.

PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana provides free foodgrains to over 81.35 crore beneficiaries; over 221 crore portability transactions were recorded under One Nation One Ration Card as on 29 July 2026.

Under Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase II, 5,63,809 out of 5,86,944 villages are covered with liquid waste management arrangements as on 07 August 2026.

Under Jal Jeevan Mission, Sujal Gaon IDs have been issued to 12,67,808 habitations, which is 75% of 16,96,213 habitations, as on 10 August 2026.