Current Affairs One-liners — 08 January 2026

Thu, 08 Jan 2026

• The Union Government notified the National Sports Board (Search-cum-Selection Committee) Rules, 2026 under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 on 8 January 2026, setting up a Cabinet Secretary-led committee to recommend the Board's Chairperson and two Members.
• Women and Child Development Minister Annpurna Devi launched PANKHUDI on 8 January 2026, a single-window digital portal for CSR and voluntary partnerships with individuals, NRIs, NGOs, companies and government agencies working for women and children.
• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) launched 'Udai' (उदय), a mascot to simplify communication about Aadhaar services, at a function in Thiruvananthapuram on 8 January 2026; the design and name were chosen from 875 entries in national contests on MyGov.
• Project Veer Gatha 5.0, a joint initiative of the Defence and Education ministries for Republic Day, drew a record 1.92 crore students from about 1.90 lakh schools, the Defence Ministry said on 8 January 2026, with 100 national 'Super-100' winners to attend the parade on Kartavya Path as special guests.
• The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) released ₹68 lakh on 8 January 2026 to Biodiversity Management Committees in Wada tehsil (Palghar) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation under the Access and Benefit Sharing framework, for commercial use of Bacillus soil bacteria in probiotic products.
• Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal rolled out port infrastructure and digital projects worth ₹235 crore at Chennai Port Authority and Kamarajar Port Limited in Tamil Nadu on 8 January 2026, including a ₹105 crore rehabilitated Northern Breakwater Head at Kamarajar Port.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a roundtable at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg on 8 January 2026 with 12 Indian AI start-ups that qualified under the Foundation Model Pillar of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, urging that Indian AI models promote local content and regional languages.
• The Ministry of Textiles unveiled the District-Led Textiles Transformation (DLTT) initiative at the National Textiles Ministers' Conference in Guwahati on 8 January 2026, aiming to turn 100 high-potential districts into global export champions and lift 100 aspirational districts into self-reliant hubs.
• The Ministry of Tourism's year-end review on 8 January 2026 said 75 of 76 projects sanctioned under the Swadesh Darshan scheme (launched January 2015) are complete, and reported 20.57 million international tourist arrivals and ₹2,93,033 crore in foreign exchange earnings in 2024.
• The Finance Ministry said on 8 January 2026 that the SWAMIH Investment Fund, launched in November 2019 for last-mile financing of stalled housing projects, had delivered about 61,000 homes across 110 projects and fully committed its corpus before its investment period ended on 5 December 2025.
• South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) signed an MoU with the Sri Sathya Sai Health & Education Trust on 8 January 2026 to set up a ₹35.04 crore Healthcare Skill Development Centre at Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh, under CSR, offering free job-oriented healthcare training to youth from coal belt areas.