Daily Current Affairs Quiz | NABARD Grade A & RBI Grade B | Economy, Banking & Agriculture
Daily Current Affairs for NABARD Grade A and RBI Grade B 2026 covering the most important developments in Indian Economy, Banking, RBI, Agriculture, Rural Development, Government Schemes, Financial Markets, Reports & Indices, International Relations, Environment and Science & Technology.
NABARD CURRENT AFFAIRS
1. Schemes in News
1. Reform Utsav: Citizen-Driven Governance Reform Campaign
Source: Indian Express
Context: The Union Government plans to launch a three-month “Reform Utsav” campaign, likely from 2 October 2026, to systematically capture citizens’ suggestions and turn them into actionable governance reforms.
What is Reform Utsav?
- A citizen-driven governance reform campaign that aims to create an institutional mechanism through which citizen feedback is identified, deliberated upon and converted into implementable reforms.
- The core idea: establish a continuous pipeline connecting
- Citizen voice → actionable reform → implementation or committed roadmap
- Aim: to institutionalise citizen participation in governance and create a responsive mechanism for identifying, prioritising and implementing administrative and structural reforms.
The Three Stages
- Jan Manthan – Discover
- Citizens submit reform suggestions through a portal, meetings, webinars and outreach.
- AI will classify and organise suggestions.
- A multilingual call centre may improve accessibility.
- Vimarsh – Deliberate
- Evaluate suggestions to identify quick-win reforms.
- Prepare roadmaps for structural reforms.
- Samadhan & Sankalp Siddhi – Resolution
- A coordination committee will conduct bi-weekly reviews.
- Track implementation and progress of reforms.
2. Gaj Gaurav Awards 2026
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) conferred the Gaj Gaurav Awards 2026 during World Elephant Day celebrations in Visakhapatnam.
- 7 mahouts and elephant handlers from Jaldapara National Park, West Bengal were honoured.
- They rescued six stranded captive elephants and helped move 13 wild one-horned rhinoceroses to safer areas during severe floods.
3. Karnataka Approves Sandhya Kiran Scheme
- The Karnataka Cabinet approved the Sandhya Kiran Scheme for state pensioners below 70 years and their families.
- It is a contributory cashless healthcare scheme under Ayushman Bharat–Arogya Karnataka (AB-ArK).
- Around 4.93 lakh beneficiaries will be covered.
- The scheme provides ₹5 lakh annual family health cover.
- It covers secondary, tertiary and emergency treatment at empanelled hospitals.
2. Reports / Articles in News
1. Green India Mission
Source: The Hindu
Context: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has flagged major shortcomings in the Green India Mission (GIM) — inadequate funding, weak coordination between government schemes, poor monitoring, and failure to meet key targets for improving forest cover and its quality.
What is the Green India Mission?
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Launched | 2014, by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change |
| Conceived | 2010, as part of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) |
| Status | One of the eight missions under the NAPCC |
| Aim | Protect, restore and enhance India’s forest cover |
Objectives:
- Improve ecosystem services — biodiversity, water and carbon sequestration
- Increase forest-based livelihoods
Targets:
- Increase forest and tree cover over 5 million hectares
- Improve the quality of forest and tree cover over another 5 million hectares
RBI Current Affairs
1. Banking and Finance
1. FAST-DS: Foreign Assets Disclosure Scheme for Small Taxpayers
Source: IE
Context: The Income Tax Department has notified a new voluntary disclosure scheme allowing small taxpayers to declare certain undisclosed foreign assets and income by paying an effective 60% tax. The scheme lets eligible individuals come clean without facing further penalties or prosecution.
What is FAST-DS?
A limited-period voluntary disclosure scheme allowing eligible taxpayers to declare undisclosed foreign assets, undisclosed foreign income or undeclared foreign assets by paying a prescribed tax or fee — and receive immunity from further tax, penalty and prosecution under the Black Money Act.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Announced in | Union Budget 2026-27 |
| Legal basis | Chapter IV of the Finance Act, 2026 |
| Notified by | Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) |
| In force from | 16 August 2026 |
| Closes on | 31 December 2026 |
| Valuation date | 31 March 2026 |
| Filing | Electronically, in Form 1 |
Who Is Eligible
An assessee is eligible if he is resident in India in the relevant previous year.
A non-resident or RNOR (Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident) may also be eligible if he was resident in India:
- In the year to which the undisclosed income relates, or
- In the year in which the undisclosed asset was acquired
Situations covered:
- Failure to disclose the asset or income in a return filed before the scheme commenced
- Where such asset or income has escaped assessment within the meaning of Section 147 of the Income-tax Act, 1961
Target group: students, young professionals, technology employees and relocated non-resident Indians — cases where overseas assets went unreported because of inadvertence, lack of awareness or a change in residential status.
The Two Categories
| Category A | Category B | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Undisclosed foreign asset or foreign income never offered to tax | Foreign asset already offered to tax, or acquired when the assessee was a non-resident, but not declared in the relevant ITR schedule |
| Value ceiling | ₹1 crore (as on 31 March 2026) | ₹5 crore |
| Payable | 30% tax + an additional amount equal to the tax = effective 60% | Flat fee of ₹1 lakh |
| Above the ceiling | Not eligible | Not eligible if assets exceed ₹5 crore |
2. SEBI Proposes Colour-Coded Credit Risk-o-Meter
- SEBI proposed a mandatory colour-coded Credit Risk-o-Meter for debt securities.
- The aim is to make credit risk easier for investors to understand and compare.
- Existing credit ratings such as AAA, AA+ and BBB- would be converted into 6 visual risk levels.
- The levels range from lowest credit risk to high to very high risk of default.
3. IFSCA Grants Investment Banking Licence to Nexent Capital
- IFSCA granted an Investment Banking licence to Nexent Capital IFSC Pvt. Ltd.
- The company will operate from GIFT City, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
- It can undertake activities such as IPOs, FPOs, SPAC listings, secondary listings, debt capital market transactions and advisory services.
- The registration was granted under the IFSCA (Capital Market Intermediaries) Regulations, 2025.
RBI AND NABARD CURRENT AFFAIRS
1. Economy in News
1. MMDR Amendment Bill 2026
Source: PIB
Context: The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 was introduced in Parliament to establish a uniform, Centre-directed fiscal framework for mining and restrict state-level taxes on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands.
What the Bill Does
It amends the principal MMDR Act, 1957 to:
- Curb multiple, cascading state levies
- Establish central conditions on mineral taxation
Why now: it responds to the Supreme Court’s 2024 nine-judge Constitution Bench ruling in Mineral Area Development Authority (MADA) v. SAIL, which recognised the constitutional power of states to tax mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands, while holding that royalty is not a tax.
Key Features of the Bill
| Provision | What it does |
|---|---|
| Amendment to Section 2 | Explicitly extends the Central Government’s regulatory control over “mineral-bearing lands” as per prescribed parameters |
| New Section 9D | Prohibits states from imposing any tax, cess or levy on mineral rights or mineral-bearing lands — whether based on quantity, value or royalty — except in accordance with conditions or restrictions prescribed by the Centre |
| Retrospective invalidation | All unpaid or unrecovered dues of state levies from before the amendment are deemed invalid |
| No refunds | State taxes or cesses already collected or deposited by mining companies before the amendment will not be refunded |
| Section 13 — delegated rule-making | Empowers the Centre to frame executive rules specifying the exact parameters, conditions and ceilings under which states may levy mineral taxes |
The two clauses that matter most:
- Section 9D does not abolish the state’s power to tax — it makes that power conditional on central permission. The state may still levy, but only within limits the Centre sets.
- Section 13 is where those limits will actually be written. The Bill itself does not specify ceilings; it delegates that to executive rules. So the real extent of the restriction will emerge later, through rules rather than legislation.
2. India–Nepal Sign MoUs for 8 Development Projects
- India and Nepal signed MoUs for 8 High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs).
- Total estimated cost: NPR 803 million.
- The projects will receive grant assistance from India.
- Focus areas include education, health, agriculture and digital transformation.
- The projects will be implemented across 7 districts in 4 provinces of Nepal.
3. JSW Neo Energy–Bhutan Pact for 920 MW Hydroelectric Project
- JSW Neo Energy and Bhutan’s Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC) signed an agreement to develop the 920 MW Punatsangchhu-III Hydroelectric Project.
- The project is located on the Punatsangchhu River in Bhutan.
- DGPC will hold 51% and JSW Neo Energy 49% in the joint venture.
- The project will be developed on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis.
- It is JSW Neo Energy’s first power generation venture outside India.
4. Andhra Pradesh–CSIR-NGRI Pact for Critical Mineral Exploration
- The Andhra Pradesh Government and CSIR-NGRI signed an agreement to explore lithium and gallium deposits in the Kadapa Basin.
- Exploration will focus on the Vempalle region.
- Earlier studies indicated lithium concentrations of up to 1,000 ppm and gallium up to 250 ppm.
- The project has an estimated cost of ₹140 crore and will be fully funded by the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET).
- AP also signed an agreement with IIT (ISM) Dhanbad–TEXMiN to establish a Centre of Excellence for mining.
2. Social Issue in News
1. Mahadayi (Mandovi) River: Origin, Course and Tributaries
Source: The Hindu
Context: The Environment Ministry informed the Lok Sabha that no Karnataka proposal for environmental clearance of the Mahadayi diversion is under consideration, and that the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has not approved forest diversion for the Kalasa Nala scheme in the Kali–Sahyadri tiger corridor.
What is the Mahadayi River?
A west-flowing inter-state river in peninsular India, known as the Mandovi River in Goa. It is the primary lifeline of Goa, flowing through the rugged Western Ghats before discharging into the Arabian Sea.
Origin and Course
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Origin | A cluster of 30 springs in the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary, near Degao/Khanapur in Belagavi (Belgaum) district, Karnataka, in the Western Ghats |
| Total length | About 117 km |
| Mouth | Drains into the Arabian Sea at Panaji (North Goa), through the Mormugao and Aguada bays |
| States | Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa |
Major Tributaries
In Karnataka:
- Kalasa Nala and Banduri Nala — the key streams in Karnataka’s Kalasa-Banduri drinking water project
In Goa:
- Bail Nala
- Pansheer Nala
- Andher Nala
- Khandepar River
- Ragada River
- Mapusa River
3. Misc GA in News
1. VIHAAN: India’s First Indigenous Broadband Networking Chip
Source: PIB
Context: Chennai-based fabless semiconductor startup Aheesa Digital Innovations, supported under MeitY’s Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme, has achieved first-pass silicon success for its indigenous broadband networking System-on-Chip (SoC) named ‘VIHAAN’.
What is VIHAAN?
India’s first domestically designed broadband networking System-on-Chip (SoC).
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Designed by | Aheesa Digital Innovations, Chennai, Tamil Nadu |
| Architecture | Open-standard RISC-V |
| Processor | Indigenous VEGA processor, developed by C-DAC |
| Government backing | Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme — India Semiconductor Mission / MeitY |
| Purpose | High-throughput, secure and sovereign semiconductor solutions for optical fibre and broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) |
Aim: deliver high-performance, domestically designed telecom silicon for Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployments and broadband routers across Indian households and businesses, reducing reliance on imported foreign networking chips.
Key Terms
- System-on-Chip (SoC) — a single chip that carries the processor, memory controller, networking and security functions together, instead of separate components on a board
- Fabless — a company that designs chips but does not own a fabrication plant; manufacturing is outsourced to a foundry
- First-pass silicon success — the chip worked on its very first fabrication attempt, without needing a redesign
- RISC-V — an open-standard instruction set architecture, free to use, unlike proprietary architectures such as ARM or x86
- CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) — the router or modem installed in a home or office
2. N. Chandrasekaran to Step Down as Tata Sons Chairman
- Natarajan Chandrasekaran will step down as Executive Chairman of Tata Sons after completing his current term on 20 February 2027.
- He became Chairman of Tata Sons in February 2017 and was reappointed in 2022.
- Before becoming Tata Sons Chairman, he served as CEO and MD of TCS from 2009.
- He played a major role in the Tata Group’s expansion into areas including aviation, electronics and digital businesses.
3. Kirti Chakra Awardee Major General Sunil Kumar Razdan Passes Away
- He received the Kirti Chakra, India’s second-highest peacetime gallantry award.
- Major General Sunil Kumar Razdan (Retd.) passed away on 13 August 2026 at the age of 70.
- He was a Kirti Chakra and Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) awardee.
- He became the Indian Army’s first wheelchair-borne General.
- In a 1994 counter-terrorist operation in Jammu & Kashmir, he led an operation that rescued hostages despite suffering severe injuries.
