PIB Current Affairs 31 August 2026

EconomyMediumquizQuiz

Raipur Roadshow on 8th Tranche: 20 Critical Mineral Blocks Offered, Five in Chhattisgarh

•The Ministry of Mines held a roadshow in Raipur on the 8th Tranche of the auction of Critical and Strategic Mineral Blocks, with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai as chief guest and Minister of State for Coal and Mines Satish Chandra Dubey in attendance.
•Mines Secretary Keshav Chandra said 56 of the 88 critical and strategic mineral blocks offered so far have been successfully auctioned.
•The 8th Tranche comprises 20 blocks across nine states - 17 Composite Licences and 3 Mining Leases - of which five are in Chhattisgarh.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Polity & GovernanceMediumquizQuiz

DoT Warns IMEI Tampering Draws Up to 3 Years Jail and Rs 50 Lakh Fine

•The Department of Telecommunications issued a public advisory that tampering with the IMEI number of a mobile device, or using a device with a tampered telecommunication identifier, is a punishable offence.
•The governing law is the Telecommunications Act, 2023: Section 42(3)(c) bars tampering with telecommunication identifiers and Section 42(3)(e) bars obtaining SIMs or identifiers by fraud, cheating or impersonation.
•Punishment extends to three years' imprisonment, a fine up to Rs 50 lakh, or both; under Section 42(7) the offences are cognizable and non-bailable, and under Section 42(6) abettors face the same punishment.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

C-DOT Unveils 14 Indigenous Quantum Products on Its 43rd Foundation Day

•The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the telecom R&D arm of the Department of Telecommunications, unveiled 14 indigenous quantum products in New Delhi on its 43rd Foundation Day.
•The Quantum Product Series spans two distinct technology families: Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems and components, and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) encryptors built on NIST's PQC algorithms.
•Throughput ranges from 80 Mbps (Q-SETU, Layer 3) to 200 Gbps (Q-AMOGH, Layer 1 optical), with the defence-grade encryptors Q-VIKRAM and Q-PARAKRAM at up to 1 Gbps.

UPSCSSCBankingRailwayDefence

Read Analysisarrow_forward

EconomyLowquizQuiz

Kharif sowing to 28 August 2026: rice area down 14.36 lakh ha, pulses up

•All-India kharif sowing as on 28 August 2026 stood at 1,071.10 lakh hectares, against 1,090.01 lakh hectares in the corresponding period of 2025-26 - a fall of 18.91 lakh hectares - and against a normal area of 1,104.25 lakh hectares.
•Rice accounted for almost the entire decline: 414.10 lakh ha against 428.46 lakh ha a year earlier, down 14.36 lakh ha, with the biggest reductions in Karnataka, Telangana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
•Pulses were the one major group to gain, rising 1.39 lakh ha to 115.05 lakh ha on the back of Uttar Pradesh (+3.97 lakh ha), Jharkhand, Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, offsetting declines in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Odisha.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

NationalLowquizQuiz

Nepalganj Road-Nanpara-Bahraich line converted to broad gauge and electrified

•Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated the gauge conversion and electrification of the 56.15-km Nepalganj Road-Nanpara-Bahraich rail section, completed at a cost of about Rs 730 crore.
•The section, originally built as a metre-gauge line in 1886, is now part of the broad-gauge network, serving Bahraich, Risiya, Matera, Nanpara, Babaganj and Nepalganj Road stations.
•Four existing train services have been extended up to Nepalganj Road: the 14213/14214 Varanasi-Bahraich Express, the 15132/15131 Varanasi City-Gorakhpur Express and two pairs of Gonda-Bahraich services (75109/75110 and 75111/75112).

UPSCSSCRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Polity & GovernanceHighquizQuiz

Bihar and Jharkhand sign Sone river water-sharing MoU, ending 25-year dispute

•Bihar and Jharkhand signed a Memorandum of Understanding on sharing the waters of the Sone river, in the presence of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah, resolving a dispute the release describes as nearly 25 years old.
•Also present were Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil, the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and the Union Home Secretary.
•The agreement is expected to secure irrigation and drinking water for the Bihar districts of Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas, Kaimur, Aurangabad, Arwal, Gaya and Patna, and for Palamu, Garhwa and adjoining areas of Jharkhand.

UPSCSSCRailwayBanking

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

Green Forge simulation complex inaugurated at BRIC-NABI Mohali under BioE3 push

•Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated the 'Green Forge' complex at the BRIC-National Agri-Food Biomanufacturing Institute (BRIC-NABI), Mohali, describing it as a milestone for genetically modified crop research.
•Green Forge provides controlled simulation chambers in which the quantity and quality of light, humidity and temperature can be varied, letting researchers grow and test GM crops under recreated environmental conditions and judge which locations a new variety suits before it goes to the field.
•The inauguration took place alongside the National Conclave on BioE3 (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment) held at BRIC-NABI.

UPSCSSCRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

EconomyLowquizQuiz

Union Government accounts to July 2026: receipts at 35.8% of Budget Estimates

•The Union Government's monthly accounts up to July 2026, covering the first four months of FY 2026-27, have been consolidated and published: total receipts of Rs 13,06,709 crore, or 35.8% of the corresponding Budget Estimates for 2026-27.
•Total expenditure over the same period was Rs 17,61,853 crore, or 32.9% of the corresponding Budget Estimates, of which Rs 13,11,218 crore was on revenue account and Rs 4,50,635 crore on capital account.
•Devolution of the share of taxes to State Governments came to Rs 3,72,354 crore - Rs 56,190 crore LOWER than in the corresponding period of the previous year. FY 2026-27 is the first year of the 16th Finance Commission's award period.

UPSCBankingSSCRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

JNCASR team breaks textbook Seebeck limit in scandium nitride films

•A team led by Prof. Bivas Saha at JNCASR, Bengaluru, working with the University of Sydney and IISc Bengaluru, has reported a thermoelectric voltage in a crystalline solid nearly a thousand times larger than the accepted ceiling for such materials.
•The material is scandium nitride (ScN), grown as epitaxial thin films on magnesium oxide substrates by ultrahigh-vacuum magnetron sputtering and deliberately doped with magnesium to produce a heavily doped, highly compensated (HDHC) semiconductor.
•The measured Seebeck coefficient exceeded -124.6 millivolts per kelvin near room temperature in a roughly 200-nanometre-thick film - a range previously seen only in liquid electrolytes and ionic gels, never in single-crystalline solids.

UPSCSSCRailwayBanking

Read Analysisarrow_forward

DefenceMediumquizQuiz

INS Nipun, Second Nistar-Class Diving Support Vessel, Commissioned at Mumbai

•The Indian Navy commissioned INS Nipun, the second Diving Support Vessel of the Nistar class, at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, on 31 August 2026.
•The ceremony was presided over by Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, Chief of the Naval Staff, in the presence of Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command.
•The ship was indigenously designed and built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam, and supports saturation, air and heliox diving, remotely operated underwater systems, dynamic positioning, and an onboard life-support and medical complex.

UPSCSSCDefenceRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Banking & FinanceMediumquizQuiz

NIPL and Uzbekistan's NIPC Agree to Enable UPI Payments on the UZQR Network

•NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India, signed a commercial agreement on 30 August 2026 with the National Interbank Processing Centre JSC (NIPC), which operates Uzbekistan's national payment system HUMO.
•The agreement lets Indian travellers scan Uzbekistan's national interoperable QR code, UZQR, using their existing UPI apps to make instant person-to-merchant payments across the country.
•It was announced during the Prime Minister of India's bilateral visit to Uzbekistan, and follows formal approvals from the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, which designated HUMO as NIPL's authorised partner for cross-border merchant acceptance.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Science & TechHighquizQuiz

Notifications Issued for All Six Pillars of the Semicon 2.0 Scheme

•Notifications for all six pillars of the Semicon 2.0 Scheme were issued, with Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw setting out the government's plan for the next phase of India's semiconductor ecosystem.
•The six pillars — Design; Machines and Materials; Setting up more Fabs; Strengthening the ATMP/OSAT industry; Research and Development; and Talent Development — cover 10 categories in all and extend fiscal and infrastructure support across the whole value chain.
•The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) is the nodal agency: it will invite applications, carry out technical and financial appraisal, recommend applicants and oversee implementation, with C-DAC assisting on the design and deployment categories.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

1,338 Panch Sammelans Orient 5.26 Lakh Panchayat Representatives on the VB-G RAM G Act

•The Ministry of Rural Development reported that 1,338 district-level Panch Sammelans have been organised across the country to orient Panchayati Raj representatives and functionaries on the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, Act, 2025.
•More than 5.26 lakh Panchayati Raj representatives, functionaries and officials have taken part, covering all three tiers of the Panchayati Raj system.
•Twenty-three States and Union Territories have completed their scheduled Sammelans; Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal went beyond the district level and held them at other administrative levels as well.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Polity & GovernanceLowquizQuiz

DARPG Releases 51st Central and 48th States CPGRAMS Reports for July 2026

•The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) released its 51st monthly CPGRAMS report for Central Ministries and Departments and its 48th monthly report for States and UTs, both for July 2026.
•Central Ministries and Departments received 2,20,909 grievances and redressed 2,16,827 in July 2026, leaving a pendency of 83,866; States and UTs received 1,01,047 and redressed 83,324, with pendency of 2,33,714 as on 31 July 2026.
•In the GRAI rankings for July 2026, the Department of Posts, the Department of Telecommunications and the Department of Financial Services (Insurance Division) topped Group A, while the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, the Department of Official Language and the Ministry of Textiles topped Group B.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

EconomyMediumquizQuiz

MoSPI Releases Sub-Sectoral Trial Index of Services Production for June 2026

•The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the sub-sectoral trial Index of Services Production (ISP) for June 2026, covering 19 broad service sub-sectors on the 2024-25 base year.
•Eighteen of the 19 sub-sectors grew over June 2025 and eight recorded double-digit growth; Real Estate led at 24.7 per cent, followed by Retail Trade (18.0 per cent), Wholesale Trade (15.1 per cent), Administrative and Support Services (14.4 per cent) and IT and Computer Related Services (13.5 per cent).
•Air Transport was the only sub-sector to contract, falling 6.0 per cent with an index level of 91.2 — below its 2024-25 base of 100.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

InternationalMediumquizQuiz

PM Holds Bilaterals with Iran, Russia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan on the Margins of the 26th SCO Summit

•On the margins of the 26th SCO Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, the Prime Minister held bilateral meetings with the Presidents of Iran, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation, and with the Prime Minister of Armenia.
•With Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, the discussion covered the West Asia conflict, with India stressing freedom of navigation and commerce and the protection of civilian shipping and seafarers.
•With President Vladimir Putin — their first meeting this year, after the 23rd Annual Summit in Delhi in December 2025 — the leaders welcomed the outcome of the 27th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission held in Moscow on 24 August 2026.

UPSCSSCBankingRailwayDefence

Read Analysisarrow_forward

EconomyHighquizQuiz

India's Real GDP Grows 7.8% in Q1 FY 2026-27; Nominal Growth at 10.3%

•MoSPI released the Quarterly Estimates of GDP for Q1 (April-June) of FY 2026-27, the first quarterly release compiled fully on the new base year 2022-23.
•Real GDP is estimated at Rs 81.36 lakh crore against Rs 75.46 lakh crore a year earlier — growth of 7.8%; nominal GDP is Rs 88.27 lakh crore against Rs 80.00 lakh crore, growth of 10.3%.
•Real Gross Value Added grew faster than GDP, at 8.2%, reaching Rs 73.82 lakh crore; nominal GVA grew 11.5% to Rs 80.53 lakh crore.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

EconomyMediumquizQuiz

MoSPI Releases National Accounts Statistics 2026 on the New 2022-23 Base, Revising GDP Back to 2022-23

•The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the 'National Accounts Statistics - 2026' publication, compiled on the new base year 2022-23.
•It presents a set of sixty statements covering updated Final Estimates for 2022-23 and 2023-24, First Revised Estimates for 2024-25, and updated Provisional Estimates and quarterly estimates for 2025-26.
•The estimates now use the new series of output Producer Price Index, Index of Industrial Production and Banking Services Price Index, all with base year 2022-23, released in June 2026.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

Mission Rangeen Machhli 2031 Released at Lakshadweep Fisheries Outreach; Tuna and Seaweed Push Announced

•The Department of Fisheries held a Fisheries Outreach Programme at Agatti, Lakshadweep, on 31 August 2026, where the Vice-President released 'Mission Rangeen Machhli 2031', a Strategic Action Plan for Ornamental Fisheries Development.
•Lakshadweep has an estimated fisheries potential of over 1 lakh tonnes including about 94,000 tonnes of tuna and tuna-like species, but current harvest stands at only about 15,000 metric tonnes.
•Fisheries development projects worth over Rs 62 crore have been approved for Lakshadweep under PMMSY; 16 deep-sea fishing vessels costing about Rs 1.2 crore each have been sanctioned with full financial assistance.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

InternationalMediumquizQuiz

India and Brazil Target USD 30 Billion Trade by 2030 at 8th Trade Monitoring Mechanism Meeting

•The 8th meeting of the India-Brazil Trade Monitoring Mechanism was held in Brasília, co-chaired by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and Brazil's Secretary of Foreign Trade Tatiana Lacerda Prazeres of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC).
•Bilateral trade reached USD 15.07 billion in 2025-26, and both sides reaffirmed the target of USD 30 billion by 2030, focusing on pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering goods and machinery.
•Progress was reviewed on the India-MERCOSUR Terms of Reference for expanding and modernising the existing Preferential Trade Agreement; India-MERCOSUR trade stood at USD 20.84 billion in 2025.

UPSCSSCBankingRailway

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Science & TechHighquizQuiz

NM-ICPS: 25 Innovation Hubs and 4 Translation Research Parks Power India's Cyber-Physical Systems Push

•A PIB Backgrounder set out the status of India's Cyber-Physical Systems ecosystem, built around the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), implemented by the Department of Science and Technology.
•The Union Cabinet approved NM-ICPS in 2018 with an outlay of Rs 3,660 crore; 25 Technology Innovation Hubs have been set up as Section 8 companies inside premier academic institutions.
•In 2025 four high-performing hubs were upgraded to Technology Translation Research Parks — IIT Kanpur (cybersecurity), IISc Bengaluru (robotics and AI systems), IIT (ISM) Dhanbad (mining technologies) and IIT Indore (digital healthcare).

UPSCSSCBankingRailwayDefence

Read Analysisarrow_forward

Current Affairs Pulse

PIB Current Affairs — 31 August 2026

Raipur Roadshow on 8th Tranche: 20 Critical Mineral Blocks Offered, Five in Chhattisgarh

DoT Warns IMEI Tampering Draws Up to 3 Years Jail and Rs 50 Lakh Fine

C-DOT Unveils 14 Indigenous Quantum Products on Its 43rd Foundation Day

Kharif sowing to 28 August 2026: rice area down 14.36 lakh ha, pulses up

Nepalganj Road-Nanpara-Bahraich line converted to broad gauge and electrified

Bihar and Jharkhand sign Sone river water-sharing MoU, ending 25-year dispute

Green Forge simulation complex inaugurated at BRIC-NABI Mohali under BioE3 push

Union Government accounts to July 2026: receipts at 35.8% of Budget Estimates

JNCASR team breaks textbook Seebeck limit in scandium nitride films

INS Nipun, Second Nistar-Class Diving Support Vessel, Commissioned at Mumbai

NIPL and Uzbekistan's NIPC Agree to Enable UPI Payments on the UZQR Network

Notifications Issued for All Six Pillars of the Semicon 2.0 Scheme

1,338 Panch Sammelans Orient 5.26 Lakh Panchayat Representatives on the VB-G RAM G Act

DARPG Releases 51st Central and 48th States CPGRAMS Reports for July 2026

MoSPI Releases Sub-Sectoral Trial Index of Services Production for June 2026

PM Holds Bilaterals with Iran, Russia, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan on the Margins of the 26th SCO Summit

India's Real GDP Grows 7.8% in Q1 FY 2026-27; Nominal Growth at 10.3%

MoSPI Releases National Accounts Statistics 2026 on the New 2022-23 Base, Revising GDP Back to 2022-23

Mission Rangeen Machhli 2031 Released at Lakshadweep Fisheries Outreach; Tuna and Seaweed Push Announced

India and Brazil Target USD 30 Billion Trade by 2030 at 8th Trade Monitoring Mechanism Meeting

NM-ICPS: 25 Innovation Hubs and 4 Translation Research Parks Power India's Cyber-Physical Systems Push