PIB Current Affairs 3 August 2026

History & CultureLowquizQuiz

Commemorative stamp released on birth centenary of artist-architect Satish Gujral

•The Department of Posts released a commemorative postage stamp marking the birth centenary of the painter, sculptor, muralist, architect and writer Satish Gujral, at a ceremony at Bikaner House, New Delhi.
•The stamp was released by the Union Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia; it was designed by Shri Anuj Kumar on the proposal of Ms. Raseel Gujral Ansal.
•Gujral, a Padma Vibhushan recipient whose career spanned over seven decades, had himself designed stamps for the Department of Posts, including the issue on the 125th anniversary of VSNL and the Financial Inclusion stamp.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

Centre of Excellence for Handloom Technology launched at IIT Delhi with five initiatives

•The Union Minister of Textiles, Shri Giriraj Singh, inaugurated the Centre of Excellence for Handloom Technology (CoE-HT) at IIT Delhi, an academia-government facility for research into loom modernisation and digital tools for weavers.
•Five initiatives were launched at the event: the Handloom 4.0 Mobile App, Handloom e-Vidya, HandloomX, the Kalagriha Handloom Studio (GenZ Design Studio) and Threads of Valour.
•The Centre will build a national repository of handloom knowledge, create AI-enabled tools, facilitate technology transfer and train at least 1,000 weavers, faculty members and handloom professionals over the next five years.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

47,328 villages selected under PM-AJAY Adarsh Gram component; 47.59 lakh beneficiaries saturated

•The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment told the Rajya Sabha on 3 August 2026 that 47,328 villages have been selected across the country under the Adarsh Gram component of Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY), including 435 villages in Telangana.
•The component works towards saturation of 50 monitorable socio-economic indicators across 10 development sectors, with a Need Assessment Survey establishing the baseline and gaps closed through convergence with Central and State schemes or through PM-AJAY itself.
•Nationally, 3,28,131 development works and 1,10,51,213 beneficiaries have been identified; 46,642 works are complete and 47,59,399 beneficiaries have been saturated.

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History & CultureMediumquizQuiz

Museums of India repository crosses 3.36 lakh digitised artefacts; Gyan Bharatam surveys 1.19 crore manuscripts

•The Ministry of Culture told the Lok Sabha on 3 August 2026 that eight national-level museums have transferred 4,78,971 artefact records to C-DAC, Pune through JATAN software, of which 3,36,359 — 70.23% — are live on the Museums of India portal.
•JATAN is the collection-management and digitisation software developed by C-DAC, Pune; the Museums of India portal is the national digital repository built on it, carrying the collections of eight national museums, two ASI site museums and the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Museum, Pune.
•Under the Gyan Bharatam Mission, announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, the Standing Finance Committee has sanctioned ₹491.66 crore for 2025-2031; a National Manuscript Survey launched in March 2026 has reported more than 1.19 crore manuscripts.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

UGC issues 16 Letters of Intent to 15 foreign universities for campuses in India

•The Ministry of Education told the Lok Sabha on 3 August 2026 that the University Grants Commission has issued 16 Letters of Intent to 15 Foreign Higher Educational Institutions from Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States to set up branch campuses in India.
•The campuses are proposed at locations including Bengaluru, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai and Chennai, offering programmes in business, economics, accounting, finance, software engineering, data science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, game design, entrepreneurship, innovation and biomedical sciences.
•Applications come under the UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023, which restrict eligibility to institutions ranked within the top 500 globally and require the latest accreditation or quality assurance reports.

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Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

NITI Aayog evaluation puts Smart Cities Mission at 93% project completion and 100% ICCCs

•NITI Aayog's report 'Evaluation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes in Package 4 — Urban Transformation and Skill Development', published in September 2025, found the Smart Cities Mission strongly aligned with national urban priorities and contributing to several UN Sustainable Development Goals.
•The evaluation recorded a 93% completion rate across 8,063 projects and 100% completion of Integrated Command and Control Centres.
•As reported by States and UTs on 31 March 2026, 8,064 projects worth ₹1,64,811 crore were taken up under the Mission and 7,790 of them — 97% — worth ₹1,56,257 crore have been completed.

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Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

Draft rules propose mandatory V2V communication from October 2028 and a new two-wheeled ambulance category

•The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued draft notifications on 3 August 2026 proposing amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 for the phased introduction of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems, and separately for a regulatory framework for two-wheeled road ambulances.
•V2V will use the 5.875–5.925 GHz band, which the Department of Telecommunications exempted from licensing through G.S.R. 466(E) dated 10 June 2026.
•Vehicles of categories L, M and N made on or after 1 October 2027 must comply with AIS-230 if they are fitted with V2V systems; from 1 October 2028 such vehicles must be fitted with V2V systems conforming to AIS-230.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

eShram crosses 31.82 crore unorganised workers; PM-SYM enrolment passes 54 lakh

•The Ministry of Labour & Employment told the Lok Sabha on 3 August 2026 that over 31.82 crore unorganised workers have been registered on the eShram portal, launched on 26 August 2021 to build the National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW).
•Fifteen schemes of different Central Ministries and Departments have been integrated with the eShram 'One-Stop-Solution', launched on 21 October 2024 following the Budget Announcement 2024-25, so a registered worker can see and access benefits from one place.
•Registration happens only after Aadhaar-based eKYC, with name, gender, date of birth, permanent address and photograph pulled directly from UIDAI to prevent duplicate or fraudulent entries.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

AT&C losses fall to 15.04% as power distribution utilities post first collective profit since 2003

•The Ministry of Power told the Rajya Sabha on 3 August 2026 that all-India AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses have fallen from 21.91% in FY21 to 15.04% in FY25, and that distribution utilities in the aggregate posted a profit after tax of ₹2,701 crore in FY25 — the first time since the Electricity Act, 2003 came into force.
•Rural power supply availability rose from 12.5 hours a day in FY 2015 to 22.6 hours in FY 2025; urban supply reached 23.6 hours in FY 2025.
•Under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme, loss-reduction works worth ₹1.53 lakh crore and smart metering worth ₹1.31 lakh crore have been sanctioned, covering 20.33 crore smart meters; 5.73 crore have been installed under the scheme and 7.24 crore across all schemes.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

Atal Bhujal Yojana pilot ends after covering 8,203 gram panchayats in seven states

•The Ministry of Jal Shakti told the Rajya Sabha on 3 August 2026 that Atal Bhujal Yojana ran as a pilot from 1 April 2020 to 15 October 2025 across 8,203 water-stressed gram panchayats in 229 blocks of 80 districts in seven states — Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — and its learnings have been shared with other states for replication.
•A national water body census identified, enumerated and geo-tagged over 24.2 lakh water bodies; under Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari more than 1.55 crore recharge and storage structures had been reported built as on 31 May 2026.
•Groundwater monitoring now runs on 5,260 digital water level recorders installed by the Central Ground Water Board under the National Hydrology Project, plus 12,764 installed by states and 6,266 under Atal Bhujal Yojana.

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Banking & FinanceMediumquizQuiz

99.92% of inhabited villages now have a banking outlet within 5 km

•The Ministry of Finance told the Lok Sabha on 3 August 2026 that 99.92% of India's inhabited villages — 6,00,868 out of 6,01,328 — now have a banking outlet within a 5 km radius, based on data banks upload to the Jan Dhan Darshak (JDD) app.
•The network behind that figure, as on 17 July 2026, is over 1.81 lakh bank branches, 17.36 lakh Business Correspondents and 1.65 lakh India Post Payments Bank centres; a 'banking outlet' means any one of these three.
•PMJDY accounts stood at 58.77 crore holding a balance of ₹3,12,414 crore on the same date.

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SportsMediumquizQuiz

India Finishes Fourth at Glasgow 2026 With 39 Medals; Best-Ever Para Games Show

•India finished fourth in the medal tally at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland, winning 39 medals — 13 gold, 17 silver and 9 bronze — as the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha placed a felicitation on record in the House on 3 August 2026.
•Indian para-athletes recorded their best-ever performance at the Commonwealth Para Games with 7 medals: 3 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze.
•Women won 8 of India's 13 gold medals, across boxing, weightlifting, judo and para athletics, with five Indian women boxers taking gold.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

India's Forest and Tree Cover at 25.17 Per Cent; Protected Areas Rise to 1,134

•A Lok Sabha reply on 3 August 2026 set out the machinery of participatory forest management — Joint Forest Management Committees and Eco-Development Committees around Protected Areas, constituted by State Governments — and the schemes supporting forest and tree cover.
•As per the India State of Forest Report 2023, India's forest and tree cover stands at 8,27,356.95 square kilometres, or 25.17 per cent of the country's geographical area, an increase of 1,445.81 square kilometres over the 2021 assessment.
•The number of Protected Areas has risen to 1,134, alongside 58 Tiger Reserves and 33 Elephant Reserves, with 32 tiger corridors and 150 elephant corridors identified for ecological connectivity.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

Green Credits Need Five Years of Restoration and 40 Per Cent Canopy Density

•A Lok Sabha reply on 3 August 2026 set out how the Green Credit Programme works: a market-linked mechanism to incentivise voluntary environmentally positive action, framed as an instrument of the Mission LiFE movement.
•The Green Credit Rules, 2023 were notified on 12 October 2023 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; the modality for tree plantation and eco-restoration of degraded forest lands was notified on 22 February 2024 and revised on 29 August 2025.
•The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun is the Administrator of the Programme, responsible for its management, operation and the issuance of green credits.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

Glaw Lake Becomes India's 101st Ramsar Site and Arunachal Pradesh's First

•Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Bhupender Yadav announced on 3 August 2026 the designation of Glaw Lake in Arunachal Pradesh as India's 101st Ramsar Site.
•It is Arunachal Pradesh's first Ramsar Site — a high-altitude freshwater lake in the Wakro Circle of Lohit district, lying within the Kamlang Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in the Eastern Himalayas.
•India's Ramsar network has grown from 26 sites in 2014 to 101, the Minister said, describing the designation as a step for biodiversity conservation, water and climate security and sustainable livelihoods.

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Schemes & CommitteesHighquizQuiz

Skill India: 1.65 Crore Trained Under PMKVY as LFPR Holds at 59.3 Per Cent

•Four Lok Sabha replies tabled on 3 August 2026 by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship set out the state of the Skill India Mission's training network, its ITI curriculum reform and its healthcare skilling.
•The Periodic Labour Force Survey shows India's Labour Force Participation Rate for persons aged 15 and above easing marginally from 59.6 per cent in 2024 to 59.3 per cent in 2025.
•Cumulative training numbers to 30 June 2026: 1,65,41,679 under PMKVY, 1,07,42,151 under the Craftsmen Training Scheme through ITIs, 52,98,397 under NAPS and 36,58,020 under Jan Shikshan Sansthan.

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Banking & FinanceHighquizQuiz

ISEC Assessment: Every Rupee Under KCC-MISS Adds Rs 2.30 to Farm Value Addition

•A third-party assessment of the Kisan Credit Card-Modified Interest Subvention Scheme conducted through the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, finds that every Rs 1 invested under KCC-MISS contributes Rs 2.30 to net value addition in the agriculture and allied sector.
•The estimated subsidy outlay under MISS since inception up to 2024-25 stands at Rs 1.87 lakh crore.
•The assessment reports higher cropping intensity, more diversified crop portfolios, better timeliness of input use, and improved credit discipline among farmers receiving the Prompt Repayment Incentive.

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NationalHighquizQuiz

India Records 20,138 Organ Transplants in 2025; NOTTO Launches e-Pratyaropan Platform

•The 16th Indian Organ Donation Day was observed on 3 August 2026 at a national event organised by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi.
•The NOTTO Annual Report 2025-26 records 20,138 organ transplants in 2025 — the highest ever in a single year, a fourfold rise from 4,990 in 2013 and 6.5 per cent above the 18,911 recorded in 2024.
•India ranks third worldwide in total organ transplants after the United States and China, and retains first position globally in living donor transplants; deceased donor transplants rose more than fourfold from 837 in 2013 to 3,526 in 2025.

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EconomyHighquizQuiz

Samudra Manthan: Rs 84,084 Crore National Offshore Exploration Scheme Targets 600 MMTOE

•Samudra Manthan, the National Offshore Exploration Scheme, was approved on 31 July 2026 with a Phase-I outlay of Rs 84,084 crore up to FY 2030-31 to open up India's deepwater and ultra-deepwater hydrocarbon basins.
•It works through four components: Rs 28,534 crore for 2D and 3D seismic data acquisition and AI-assisted reprocessing, Rs 43,200 crore to drill 60 deepwater and ultra-deepwater wells on a risk-sharing basis, Rs 10,000 crore for shared offshore infrastructure and Rs 2,000 crore for an Oil and Gas Manufacturing and Services Zone.
•The scheme targets an addition of over 600 MMTOE of reserves, taking the resource base from 1.6 billion to 2.2 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, and raising annual domestic production from about 62 MMTOE to 80 MMTOE.

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Schemes & CommitteesHighquizQuiz

Revamped Khelo India Scheme Gets Rs 36,441 Crore Outlay for 2026-27 to 2030-31

•The Union Cabinet has approved a revamped Khelo India Scheme which, together with an enhanced Assistance to National Sports Federations component, carries a combined outlay of Rs 36,441 crore for the period 2026-27 to 2030-31.
•The expanded design adds Khelo India Feeder Schools, Khelo India Utkrishta Vidyalayas, an Emerging Khelo India Athletes category that widens the structured athlete pool nearly ten-fold, a National Coach Accreditation Board and a unified digital platform for athlete, infrastructure and funding data.
•As of July 2026 the scheme had approved 349 sports infrastructure projects worth Rs 3,176 crore, set up 1,067 Khelo India Centres, supported 267 academies and backed 2,745 Khelo India Athletes.

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Current Affairs Pulse

PIB Current Affairs — 3 August 2026

Commemorative stamp released on birth centenary of artist-architect Satish Gujral

Centre of Excellence for Handloom Technology launched at IIT Delhi with five initiatives

47,328 villages selected under PM-AJAY Adarsh Gram component; 47.59 lakh beneficiaries saturated

Museums of India repository crosses 3.36 lakh digitised artefacts; Gyan Bharatam surveys 1.19 crore manuscripts

UGC issues 16 Letters of Intent to 15 foreign universities for campuses in India

NITI Aayog evaluation puts Smart Cities Mission at 93% project completion and 100% ICCCs

Draft rules propose mandatory V2V communication from October 2028 and a new two-wheeled ambulance category

eShram crosses 31.82 crore unorganised workers; PM-SYM enrolment passes 54 lakh

AT&C losses fall to 15.04% as power distribution utilities post first collective profit since 2003

Atal Bhujal Yojana pilot ends after covering 8,203 gram panchayats in seven states

99.92% of inhabited villages now have a banking outlet within 5 km

India Finishes Fourth at Glasgow 2026 With 39 Medals; Best-Ever Para Games Show

India's Forest and Tree Cover at 25.17 Per Cent; Protected Areas Rise to 1,134

Green Credits Need Five Years of Restoration and 40 Per Cent Canopy Density

Glaw Lake Becomes India's 101st Ramsar Site and Arunachal Pradesh's First

Skill India: 1.65 Crore Trained Under PMKVY as LFPR Holds at 59.3 Per Cent

ISEC Assessment: Every Rupee Under KCC-MISS Adds Rs 2.30 to Farm Value Addition

India Records 20,138 Organ Transplants in 2025; NOTTO Launches e-Pratyaropan Platform

Samudra Manthan: Rs 84,084 Crore National Offshore Exploration Scheme Targets 600 MMTOE

Revamped Khelo India Scheme Gets Rs 36,441 Crore Outlay for 2026-27 to 2030-31