Daily Current Affairs 17 August 2026

Union Minister Amit Shah has inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 944 development projects worth ₹5,755 crore across 15 districts of Rajasthan.

On the occasion of the 8th death anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he unveiled a 21-foot-tall statue of Vajpayee in Chittorgarh district installed at a cost of over ₹1.5 crore.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi has launched a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)-based Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) pilot initiative under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) in the Union Territories (UTs) of Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Under the new mechanism, food subsidies will be transferred directly into the Digital Rupee wallets of beneficiaries instead of conventional bank accounts.

The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has approved the proposal to establish Asia’s first desert zoological park and desert-themed night safari at Juna Deesa in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

The project, with an estimated budget of ₹542.14 crore, spans across 103 hectares of contiguous government land. It will be developed as a 100% eco-friendly space utilizing solar energy, rainwater harvesting, and advanced sewage treatment systems.

PM Narendra Modi has inaugurated ‘Param Pragya’, an AI-enabled high-performance supercomputing facility at the Sonipat (Haryana) campus of the IIT Delhi. The inauguration took place during the 57th convocation of IIT Delhi, where he attended as the Chief Guest.

The 140-year-old ‘Parichha Weir’ in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, has been designated as a World Heritage Irrigation Structure (WHIS) by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).

It is to be noted that the weir was originally proposed in 1855 by Captain Strachey to serve the Bundelkhand region.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) has amended the Prime Minister’s Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) Scheme. Under the amendment, the incentive for electric two-wheelers (e-2Ws) has been reduced to ₹2,500 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (capped at ₹5,000 per vehicle) for the period from April 2025 to March 2028.

Notified in 2024, the PM E-DRIVE Scheme was initially launched for a 2-year period, with its implementation subsequently extended up to March 31, 2028. The scheme has a total financial outlay of ₹11,900 crore.

Chennai-based Aheesa Digital Innovations, a fabless semiconductor startup, has achieved first-pass silicon success with ‘VIHAAN’, the first domestically designed broadband networking System-on-Chip (SoC) in India.

The development of ‘VIHAAN’ is supported under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme of the central government. It is built using the indigenous 64-bit VEGA microprocessor developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), offering a royalty-free RISC-V architecture.

According to the 101st Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) released by the RBI, the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of India is projected at 6.6% for FY27 (up from 6.5% estimated in the 100th SPF) and 7.0% for FY28.

The panellists placed the overall real GDP growth forecasts in the range of 6.0-7.2% for FY27 and 6.5-7.8% for FY28. The quarterly real GDP growth is projected at 6.8% (year-on-year) during Q1 FY27, and is expected to remain within the range of 6.4-7.0% over the subsequent four quarters.

The National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage (NIIMH), Hyderabad, under the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) of the Ministry of Ayush, has signed an MoU with the Kottayam (Kerala)-based Sevadhi Museum & Indological Research Institute (SEMIRI) for the systematic digitization and preparation of a descriptive catalogue for the medical manuscript collection of the latter.

Skyroot Aerospace Pvt Ltd has signed a Multi-Launch Agreement (MLA) with HEX20 for 3 dedicated Vikram-series missions.

The launches will support the Earth Observation constellation, in-orbit payload demonstration missions, and rideshare capacity for third-party spacecraft of the latter.

According to the 3rd edition of the “2026 Barclays Private Clients Hurun India Most Valuable Family Businesses List” released by Hurun India, in partnership with Barclays Private Bank India, the Ambani family, led by Mukesh Ambani, emerged as the richest business family in India for the 3rd consecutive year with a net worth of ₹25.8 lakh crore.

The 1st-generation category was led by the Adani family, headed by Gautam Adani, with a total valuation of ₹19.6 lakh crore. Hindustan Zinc, led by Priya Agarwal Hebbar, emerged as the most-valuable women-led business in India.

Gautam Rangarajan, an Indian-origin strategist and media executive, has been appointed to the newly created role of ‘Expert Adviser on Structure and Process’ by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

The Government of India (GoI), through its Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN), has donated 5 peacocks to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The peacocks were officially handed over to Tatiana Valovaya, the Director-General of UNOG. This initiative revives a historic tradition associated with Ariana Park and UN heritage.

Russia has appointed DY Chandrachud, a former Chief Justice of India (CJI), as its designated arbitrator in an investment treaty dispute initiated by Oschadbank, a state-owned bank of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defence has signed contracts worth ₹1,577 crore with TATA Advanced Systems Ltd and NIBE Pvt Ltd for the procurement of Loiter Munition Systems, along with munitions and accessories, for the Indian Army. The system is developed to enhance the operational capabilities of the Artillery Regiments.

International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation and Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) Bengaluru have inaugurated the ‘IBM-MIT AI Lab-MAHE’ at the Bengaluru campus.

Additionally, IBM Corporation and CHRIST University have announced the establishment of the ‘IBM Innovation Center for AI’ to promote AI education, research, and innovation.

Indian researchers led by Dr Shubhasis Haldar have developed a deep-learning AI framework named “ACSCeND” to identify hidden cancer stem-like cells (CSCs).

The framework was developed through a collaboration between the SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS) and Ashoka University.

Astrobase Space Technologies Pvt Ltd has unveiled “EVEREST”, the first privately developed 800 kilonewton (kN) Full-Flow Staged Combustion (FFSC) rocket engine of India, in Bengaluru. The engine is specifically designed for reusable medium-lift launch vehicles and advanced orbital missions.

It is to be noted that Astrobase completed sub-scale and turbopump tests during 2025 and 2026, with plans to produce around 20 engines and conduct full-scale hot-fire testing in 2026.