Daily Current Affairs - 23 August 2026

Neeraj Chopra finished second at Lausanne Diamond League with a season-best throw of 88.05 metres; Sri Lanka's Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage won with 88.14 metres.

At the U20 World Wrestling Championships 2026 in Slovakia, Kajal Dhochak won gold in women's 76kg; Mansi Lather (68kg), Tanu Sharma (72kg) and Savita (62kg) won silver; Tanvi Gundesh Magdum (57kg) and Komal (59kg) won bronze.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won the women's doubles bronze medal at the BWF Badminton World Championships in New Delhi, becoming only the second Indian women's doubles pair to win a World Championship medal after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa.

The Sports Ministry approved a 492-member Indian contingent for the Asian Games to be held in Japan, comprising 265 male and 227 female athletes; athletics has the largest share with 73 participants.

India lost 0-2 to defending champions the Netherlands in the FIH Women's Hockey World Cup 2026 at Wagener Stadium, Amstelveen; Yibbi Jansen and Frederique Matla scored for the Netherlands.

President Droupadi Murmu will confer National Teachers' Awards on 48 school teachers at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on September 5, 2026; the awardees include 26 male and 22 female teachers from 27 States, 7 Union Territories and 6 Central Government organisations.

Mohd Ayaz Raina, a Botany lecturer from Rajouri, is the only awardee from Jammu and Kashmir for the National Award to Teachers 2026; Sushma Tamang, a PGT Chemistry teacher at PM SHRI Government Senior Secondary School Dikling, has also been selected.

The Indian Air Force concluded Exercise Pitch Black 2026 in Australia, hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force, with over 20 participating nations and IAF Rafale aircraft.

The Indian Air Force concluded Exercise Udara Shakti 2026 at Subang, Malaysia, with the Royal Malaysian Air Force, flying alongside Su-30MKM and F/A-18 Hornet aircraft.

Cochin Shipyard Limited delivered 'Mangrol', the third Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft, to the Indian Navy on 21 August 2026; it has over 80% indigenous content.

The Indian Army raised its first Baaz Battalion of sophisticated drones in Punjab under the Vajra Corps (11 Corps).

The 25th India-UK Defence Consultative Group meeting was co-chaired in Delhi by Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and UK Permanent Under Secretary Jeremy Pocklington.

India raised with Somali authorities the hijacking of MT Sibu 1 and MV Lutuf, which together carried 22 Indian sailors; MT Sibu 1 was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on August 20 and MV Lutuf off Somalia on August 17.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority commenced its first long-haul double-stack Dedicated Freight Corridor rake operation, carrying 360 TEUs of import cargo.

The 14th BRICS Science Ministerial Meet chaired by India adopted the 'Chennai Declaration' unanimously; it was announced by Dr Jitendra Singh.

The BRICS Youth Ministers' Meeting 2026 concluded in Visakhapatnam with a Joint Statement; the MY Bharat platform has over 25 million registered youth.

The BRICS Tourism Ministers' Meeting in Jaipur adopted the Jaipur Declaration under India's Chairship; its theme was Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.

During Hardeep Singh Puri's Mauritius visit, India and Mauritius signed an MoU on oil and gas cooperation; IOCL signed a five-year agreement with STC Mauritius to supply its entire import requirement of Motor Spirit, High Speed Diesel and Aviation Turbine Fuel.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will visit Russia on 23-24 August 2026 to co-chair the 27th IRIGC-TEC; he will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The 14th India-Nepal Joint Working Group meeting on border management concluded in Dehradun.

Maharashtra and the German state of Hesse signed an MoU in Mumbai for cooperation in investment, industry, innovation, employment and skill development.

Manoj Sinha is Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir as of 22 August 2026.

Suvendu Adhikari is Chief Minister of West Bengal as of 22 August 2026.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was sworn in as the 23rd President of Bangladesh after winning 255 votes; it was the first contested Bangladeshi presidential election in 35 years.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant addressed the 11th BRICS Legal Forum in New Delhi, noting that India moved from the bottom quarter of the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings to the top 100.

Amit Shah announced a committee under Interlocutor Pankaj Kumar Singh to resolve the Gorkha issue after a Siliguri meeting with Gorkha leaders.

EPFO notified the Employees' Enrolment Campaign 2026, effective 29 June 2026 and open till 31 October 2026, for eligible employees left out of EPF during 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2026.

A national workshop on 'Mission Zero – Ending Fatalities in Sanitation Work' was held in Bhubaneswar; the NAMASTE scheme has been extended till 2031 and the GARIMA scheme promotes occupational safety.

The government restricted manufacture, sale and distribution of all fixed dose combinations containing Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Phenylephrine Hydrochloride for use in children below four years under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

The National Animal Disease Control Programme has administered 147.16 crore FMD vaccine doses and benefited 8.04 crore farmers; FMD outbreaks declined from 132 in 2019 to 40 by 2025.

At the third IIMA Healthcare Summit 2026 themed 'Advancing AI in Healthcare', Anupriya Patel highlighted the ₹5,000 crore PRIP scheme and ₹10,000 crore Biopharma SHAKTI mission.

Centres of Excellence for AI in healthcare have been established at AIIMS New Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh and AIIMS Rishikesh.

Telangana hosted the PM GatiShakti and LEADS 2025 Dissemination Workshop for Southern States in Hyderabad; the state has been rated a High Performer among landlocked states in LEADS.

The Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Rural Development reviewed four incubator proposals under DAY-NRLM from Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, with IIT Patna, IIM Jammu, IIM Lucknow and IIT Gandhinagar as incubator partners.

The Central Government removed the 12-minute advertisement duration cap for television channels by amending the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.

The government imposed a stock limit of 400 tonnes on sugar dealers from 1 August to 30 November 2026.

NTA issued a show-cause notice to Eduquity Career Technologies Private Limited and suspended its empanelment over lapses in the AIAPGET exam; re-examination for 49 affected candidates will be held on 1 September 2026 in Jaipur.

The Supreme Court settled more than 400 cases on the first day of the three-day Special Lok Adalat under the Samadhan Samaroh initiative.

Tripura recorded an Infant Mortality Rate of 15 per 1,000 live births, the lowest ever in the state, according to the Sample Registration System Bulletin published in September 2025.

The National Biodiversity Authority released ₹2.82 crore under the Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanism, including ₹2.80 crore to 27 State Biodiversity Boards and 3 Union Territory Biodiversity Councils.

RBI said its special USD-INR forex swap facility received inflows of 72.85 billion dollars till 21 August 2026, with FCNR-B deposits accounting for 65.4 billion dollars.

As of 20 August 2026, 29 FDI proposals worth over ₹4,800 crore were reported under the revised FDI framework notified on 1 May 2026 for non-controlling ownership by land bordering countries up to 10 per cent.

Odisha's floods affected more than 13.44 lakh people in seven districts, with nearly 4.87 lakh evacuated and 13 deaths reported.

CSIR-NIScPR organised the Platinum Jubilee Ceremony of the Hindi science magazine 'Vigyan Pragati', completing 75 years.