Current Affairs One-liners — Last 12 months

Fri, 01 May 2026

• The North Eastern Handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation, a CPSE under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, on 1 May 2026 launched 'Padma Doree', a textile initiative blending Northeast India's Eri (Ahimsa) silk with Madhya Pradesh's Chanderi weaving.
• The open-field observatory of the Coastal Atmospheric Research Testbed (C-ART), set up by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, under Mission Mausam, was inaugurated on 1 May 2026 by Earth Sciences Secretary M. Ravichandran.
• Bharat Khera, a 1995-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, assumed charge as Secretary of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the Ministry said on 1 May 2026.

Thu, 30 Apr 2026

• Health Minister J.P. Nadda on 30 April 2026 inaugurated the 10th National Summit on Innovation and Inclusivity: Best Practices Shaping India's Health Future, hosted by Haryana, where RBSK 2.0 guidelines and a guidance document on diabetes in children were released.
• The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched by NPCI on 11 April 2016, completed 10 years with over 24,162 crore transactions worth about ₹314 lakh crore in FY 2025–26, 700+ banks onboard and nearly 49% of global real-time payments.
• Mahendragiri, the sixth Nilgiri-class (Project 17A) stealth frigate and the fourth built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, was delivered to the Indian Navy on 30 April 2026 in Mumbai, less than 17 months after the first P17A ship.
• Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on 30 April 2026 flagged off the Srinagar–Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Vande Bharat Express extended up to Jammu Tawi, directly linking Jammu and Kashmir by passenger train for the first time, with the train expanded from 8 to 20 coaches.
• The Ministry of Mines said on 30 April 2026 that 58 companies, with pledged capacity of about 850 KTPA and investment of about ₹5,000 crore, have been approved as eligible under the ₹1,500-crore Incentive Scheme for Promotion of Critical Mineral Recycling under the National Critical Mineral Mission.
• The Department of Commerce issued Notification No. 15/2026–27 on 30 April 2026 revising RoDTEP schedules across 194 tariff lines to align with Customs Tariff changes made by the Finance Act, 2026, effective 1 May 2026.
• The 5th India–Tanzania Joint Trade Committee met in Dar es Salaam on 29–30 April 2026, co-chaired by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal, and noted bilateral trade of USD 9.02 billion in 2025–26, up from USD 8.64 billion.
• The Election Commission of India on 30 April 2026 introduced a QR code-based Photo Identity Card module on ECINET for counting centres, starting with the 4 May 2026 counting for five Assembly elections and seven bye-elections.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development convened the first preparatory meeting of the BRICS Women's Working Group virtually on 30 April 2026 under India's BRICS Presidency, setting four priority areas.
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held talks with Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto at the Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi, on 30 April 2026, where the India–Italy Bilateral Military Cooperation Plan for 2026–27 was exchanged.
• A Madhya Pradesh tourism department cruise boat capsized in a storm in the Bargi Dam reservoir near Jabalpur on 30 April 2026; of 41 identified people on board, 28 were rescued and 13 died, and the Prime Minister announced PMNRF ex-gratia.
• The Indian Army's four-day 'Op Netra 1.0' advanced surgical eye camp at 153 General Hospital, Leh, concluded on 30 April 2026 after screening 950 patients from seven districts of Ladakh and performing 214 procedures, including 197 cataract surgeries.
• The 4th meeting of the Live Events Development Cell, chaired by I&B Secretary Chanchal Kumar at Vigyan Bhavan on 30 April 2026, urged states and UTs to adopt a model executive order for live-event permissions by 31 May 2026.
• India Post Payments Bank on 30 April 2026 launched a zero-balance, zero-charge Self Help Group (SHG) Savings Account with no minimum deposit and a maximum balance limit of ₹2 lakh, delivered through post offices and Gramin Dak Sevaks.
• TRAI on 30 April 2026 released a consultation paper on the regulatory framework for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication, following a DoT reference of 1 December 2025, with comments due by 28 May 2026.

Wed, 29 Apr 2026

• DRDO and the Indian Navy on 29 April 2026 conducted the maiden salvo launch of the Naval Anti-ship Missile–Short Range (NASM-SR), firing two missiles in quick succession from the same Navy helicopter off the Odisha coast.
• Findings of the NSO 80th Round Household Social Consumption: Health survey, highlighted by the Health Ministry on 29 April 2026, show government health insurance coverage rising from 12.9% to 45.5% in rural areas and institutional deliveries at 95.6% (rural) and 97.8% (urban).
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 29 April 2026 inaugurated the 594-km access-controlled greenfield Ganga Expressway at Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh; the six-lane Meerut–Prayagraj corridor, built at about ₹36,230 crore, passes through 12 districts.
• West Bengal held the second and final phase of its 2026 Assembly election on 29 April across 142 constituencies in 8 districts; ECI's final statistical reports (PN/085/2026) put the state's polling percentage at 93.71%, the highest ever for the state.
• The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation on 29 April 2026 signed reform-linked MoUs under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 with Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Tripura, mandating a Gram Panchayat-led, service-based model of rural water governance.
• Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on 29 April 2026 that India's Doppler Weather Radar network has grown from 14 units in 2014 to 50, covering over 87% of the country, with 50 more radars planned under Mission Mausam.
• CERT-In's three-day national annual conference 'CERT-In SAMVAAD 2026', held at BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus from 27 to 29 April 2026, focused on cybersecurity audits and saw the launch of AMBAK.
• The Ministry of Coal on 29 April 2026 issued a Letter of Award under Category III of Round II of the ₹8,500-crore coal/lignite gasification incentive scheme to Kartikay Vayunandana Pvt Ltd for a ₹793-crore coal-to-acetic acid plant in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra.
• Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on 29 April 2026 that India plans to add 62 vessels in FY 2026–27 with an investment of ₹51,383 crore, creating 2.85 million gross tonnage of additional capacity.
• MoSPI released the 27th edition of 'Women and Men in India 2025: Selected Indicators and Data' on 29 April 2026 at its National Deliberative Summit on 'Data for Development' in Bhubaneswar; the sex ratio at birth rose from 904 (2017–19) to 917 (2021–23).
• Seven people were killed when a compound wall near Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in Shivajinagar, Bengaluru, collapsed during heavy rain and hail on 29 April 2026; the Prime Minister announced PMNRF ex-gratia.

Tue, 28 Apr 2026

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28 April 2026 attended the closing ceremony of Sikkim's 50th Year of Statehood celebrations at Paljor Stadium, Gangtok, and launched and inaugurated over 30 development projects; Sikkim became a full state through the Constitution (Thirty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1975.