India Current Affairs One-liners — Last 6 months

Wed, 29 Apr 2026

• 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.
• Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in Visakhapatnam on 28 April 2026 that the gazette notification creating the South Coastal Railway zone will be issued with 1 June 2026 as the effective date, and announced 100% electrification of Andhra Pradesh's rail network.
• The Narcotics Control Bureau on 28 April 2026 secured the return of wanted drug trafficker Mohammad Salim Dola from Türkiye under 'Operation Global-Hunt'; he was taken into custody on arrival at IGI Airport, New Delhi.
• India's Index of Industrial Production grew 4.1% year-on-year in March 2026, as per MoSPI's quick estimate released on 28 April 2026, with mining up 5.5%, manufacturing 4.3% and electricity 0.8%.
• Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on 28 April 2026 announced that all sports-related intellectual property registrations — trademarks, copyrights, patents, designs, traditional knowledge and GIs — will be fee-exempt for three years, at World IP Day celebrations themed 'IP and Sports: Ready, Set, Innovate!'.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28 April 2026 addressed a Mahila Sammelan in Varanasi, inaugurated and laid foundation stones for projects worth around ₹6,350 crore and flagged off the Banaras–Pune (Hadapsar) and Ayodhya–Mumbai (LTT) Amrit Bharat Express trains.
• Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on 28 April 2026 handed J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah the sanction letter for ₹3,566 crore of PMGSY-IV (Batch-II) road projects at SKICC, Srinagar, and released a DAY-NRLM Mother Sanction of over ₹4,568 crore for 24 States/UTs.
• The Ministry of Coal on 28 April 2026 signed Coal Mine Development and Production Agreements for four mines from the 14th round of commercial auctions — the first in India with embedded Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) provisions.

Mon, 27 Apr 2026

• India and New Zealand signed a Free Trade Agreement at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on 27 April 2026, giving zero-duty access to 100% of India's exports, a USD 20 billion investment commitment and post-study work visas, while excluding dairy and key farm products.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs said on 27 April 2026 that online nominations for the Padma Awards 2027, which opened on 15 March 2026 on the Rashtriya Puraskar Portal, will close on 31 July 2026; the awards were instituted in 1954.
• NITI Aayog on 27 April 2026 launched 'DPI@2047 for Viksit Bharat', a roadmap developed with EkStep Foundation and Deloitte that sets out DPI 2.0 (2025–2035) and DPI 3.0 (2035–2047) with eight sectoral transformations.
• The Election Commission of India said on 27 April 2026 that seizures of cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals and freebies in West Bengal since 26 February had reached ₹510.10 crore, higher than the ₹339 crore seized in the 2021 Assembly election.
• Indian Railways said on 27 April 2026 that Train No. 22961/22962 Mumbai Central–Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express will run permanently with 20 coaches instead of 16 from journeys commencing 28 April 2026.
• NHAI has opened one side of the new Khambatki Ghat twin-tube six-lane tunnel on NH-48 (old NH-4) on the Pune–Satara highway in Maharashtra for trial operations, with the project 86% complete, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said on 27 April 2026.
• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on 27 April 2026 released a consultation paper on 'Proliferation of Public Wi-Fi Networks in India', inviting comments by 25 May 2026 and counter-comments by 8 June 2026.
• Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan attended the centenary celebrations of Andhra University in Visakhapatnam on 27 April 2026, recalling the legacy of former Vice-Chancellor Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on 27 April 2026 released an approach paper on compiling an Index of Service Production (ISP) for the formal sector, drawing on GST data, and invited stakeholder comments.
• The Shrimati Manekba Vinay Vihar Educational Complex near Adalaj, Gandhinagar, cooks over 500 meals a day using two biogas plants of 90 cubic metres per day fed by dung from 222 cows, the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said on 27 April 2026.
• The Department of Posts and DTDC Express Limited signed an MoU in New Delhi on 27 April 2026 that lets DTDC use India Post's network of 1.64 lakh post offices for nationwide parcel delivery, including Cash on Delivery.

Sun, 26 Apr 2026

• The Environment Ministry and the National Biodiversity Authority launched a five-year project, 'Strengthening Institutional Capacities for Securing Biodiversity Conservation Commitments', with a USD 4.88 million GEF–UNDP grant for 2025–2030, covering the Sathyamangalam landscape in Tamil Nadu and the Garo Hills in Meghalaya.
• Raghu Rai, one of India's foremost photojournalists and the first Indian photographer invited to join Magnum Photos in 1977 on the nomination of Henri Cartier-Bresson, died in Delhi on 26 April 2026 at the age of 83; Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled his death.
• Union Minister Jitendra Singh on 26 April 2026 reviewed plans to set up space laboratories in universities and colleges, with seven labs in the first phase, as private investment in India's space sector crossed USD 600 million in five years and startups passed 400.