Tuesday, 21 April 2026

Daily Current Affairs

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All (34)Appointment · 5 Environment · 5 Policy · 5 Scheme · 4 Economy · 3 Legal · 3 Culture · 2 Bilateral · 2 Science · 2 Defence · 1 Obituary · 1 Award · 1

CULTUREHIGH PRIORITYTop story

India's first Petroglyph Conservation Park foundation stone laid at Sindhu Ghat, Ladakh.

भारत के पहले पेट्रोग्लिफ़ संरक्षण पार्क की आधारशिला लद्दाख के सिंधु घाट में रखी गई।

On 18 April 2026, coinciding with World Heritage Day, the foundation stone for India's first dedicated Petroglyph Conservation Park was laid at Sindhu Ghat, Ladakh. The Ladakh Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ar…

Daily Current Affairs

India's first Petroglyph Conservation Park foundation stone laid at Sindhu Ghat, Ladakh.

defence

India and Russia operationalise RELOS, a reciprocal military logistics agreement.

bilateral

India and South Korea target $50 billion in bilateral trade by 2030; Digital Bridge and Korean industrial townships announced.

UK and France launch the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative; around 40 countries including India participate.

economy

Jonnagiri in Andhra Pradesh to become India's first large-scale private gold mine since Independence.

India defends trade practices as the US launches Section 301 investigations on 'structural excess capacity' and 'forced labour' in supply chains.

IMF April 2026 World Economic Outlook places India as the 6th-largest economy in nominal terms (per source), behind the UK — attributed to GDP base-year revision and rupee depreciation.

appointment

Former Union Minister Dinesh Trivedi appointed India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh.

Asit Tripathy elected President of the Odisha Steel Producers' Association (OSPA).

FICCI appoints Anant Swarup — 1992-batch IRPS officer — as Secretary General, effective 14 April 2026.

Sunil Bajpai assumes charge as Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Infosys appoints tennis player Carlos Alcaraz as global brand ambassador and will deploy its Topaz AI platform for match analytics.

science

Blue Origin achieves first successful landing of a reused New Glenn first-stage booster.

CBI to launch AI chatbot 'Abhay' to help citizens verify official notices and counter digital arrest scams.

scheme

Union Cabinet approves the Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool with a ₹12,980 crore sovereign guarantee corpus.

India recognises over 55,200 startups in FY26 — the highest-ever single-year count under the Startup India initiative.

Textiles Ministry launches 'Vishwa Sutra — Weaves of India for the World' to take handlooms global.

Poshan Pakhwada 2026 — the 8th edition — runs 9-23 April with a theme focused on maximising brain development in the first six years of life.

legal

Women's Reservation Bill, 2026 fails in the Lok Sabha despite a simple-majority favourable vote — could not reach the two-thirds special-majority threshold.

Three-bill package on Lok Sabha expansion, delimitation, and women's reservation advances in Parliament with a target of implementation by the 2029 general elections.

India's judicial system faces a pendency crisis — over five crore cases pending, with approximately 4.5 crore in subordinate courts.

environment

Sijimali Hill bauxite mining in Odisha triggers fresh conflict with Kondh tribal community over land and forest rights.

India's CAFE-3 fuel-efficiency norms finalised for passenger vehicles — to tighten fleet CO₂ limits from April 2027 through March 2032.

Pouring of 11,000 litres of milk into the Narmada at a Madhya Pradesh temple reignites the debate on environmental impact of large-scale ritual offerings.

Ahmedabad's Kankaria Coaching Depot becomes India's first 'water neutral' railway depot.

State of India's Bats (SoIbats) 2024-25 — India's first comprehensive national bat assessment records 135 species.

policy

Evacuations from West Asia in 2026 expose structural gaps in India's migration governance; calls grow for a full-cycle policy architecture.

Labour protests in Noida and Manesar prompt interim wage hikes; four Labour Codes' implementation remains patchy across states.

Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Election 2026 scheduled for 23 April in a single phase; counting on 4 May.

CPI-IW data shows India's wage growth trailing industrial-region inflation by wide margins — sharpening the wage crisis behind the 2026 Noida and Manesar protests.

Delhi government begins drafting a dedicated Semiconductor Policy focused on design, R&D, and advanced packaging.

obituary

Brazilian basketball legend Oscar Schmidt, the all-time leading Olympic scorer, passes away at 68.

award

Dr Ch. Srinivasa Rao receives the 9th Prof. M.S. Swaminathan Award for climate-resilient agriculture.

culture

World Heritage Day 2026 observed on 18 April with the theme 'Emergency Response for Living Heritage in Contexts of Conflicts and Disasters'.

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