Daily Current Affairs 23 April 2026

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has constituted the Technology and Policy Expert Committee (TPEC) to serve as an advisory arm to the newly established AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG) in New Delhi.

S Krishnan, the Secretary of MeitY, has been appointed as the chairperson of the committee. The TPEC aims to translate complex technological concepts into practical policy insights and strengthen the participation of India in various global forums for AI governance.

According to a report by the State Bank of India (SBI), the GDP growth of India for FY26 is estimated at 7.6% and for FY27 it is projected to range between 6.8-7.1%. The report also estimated India’s average inflation at 4.5% and the fiscal deficit between 4.5-4.6%.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Department of Commerce (DoC) of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoC&I), has updated the list of banks authorized to import precious metals. The new authorization is effective from April 2026, to March 2029.

A total of 15 banks are permitted to import both gold and silver, including Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, RBL Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, Karur Vysya Bank Ltd, Yes Bank, Deutsche Bank, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. Futhermore, Union Bank of India and SBER Bank (a Russian state-publicly listed company) are authorized to import gold only.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has launched two digital initiatives named ‘LIC’s Customer Application (MyLIC)’ for policyholders and ‘Super Sales Saathi’ for sales intermediaries. The platforms were introduced at an event in Mumbai to enhance the digital experience for customers and streamline operations for sales personnel.

Razorpay has integrated with Google Pay to facilitate international payments for Indian businesses. It is the first domestic Payment Aggregator (PA) to offer a card-based wallet experience for cross-border transactions through the platform.

The Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) has partnered with the French Institute in India (IFI) to launch a 3-year initiative named “Para Elan” to promote inclusive education and empower youth through para-sports. The program aims to reach 10,000 students through activities such as awareness campaigns, specialized workshops, interactions with athletes, and adaptive sports engagements.

According to the April 2026 “World Economic Outlook” (WEO) report titled “Global Economy in the Shadow of War” released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India is ranked 6th in the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rankings.

The GDP of India is projected to grow from $3.5 trillion in 2024 to $3.92 trillion in 2025, and it is estimated to reach $6.17 trillion by 2030. In the global rankings, the USA is expected to lead with a GDP of $39 trillion, followed by China at $27.5 trillion and Germany at $5 trillion.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted that patent application filings in India increased by 30.2% to 1.44 lakh in FY26, compared to 1.1 lakh in FY25. India currently holds the 6th position globally in patent filings according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Domestic patent filings rose to 99,721 in FY26 from 68,201 in FY25, resulting in an increase in their share of overall filings from 61.8% to 69.4%. Among foreign applicants, the USA recorded the highest number of filings. The highest volume of patent filings in FY26 was recorded in computer-related sectors. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra were the top contributing states.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan has flagged off the second edition of the high-altitude endurance event named “Surya Devbhoomi Challenge 2.0” in Badrinath, Uttarakhand.

The 113 km long expedition is a five-day event traversing the Char Dham corridor and covering the three sacred Kedars of Kalpeshwar, Rudranath, and Tungnath. The Indian Army is organising the challenge in strategic partnership with IconMetrix, with support from the Tourism Department of the Uttarakhand Government.

The United States has launched a strategic plan to deploy nuclear reactors in space, including an in-space reactor in Earth orbit by 2028, a fission reactor on the lunar surface by 2030, and a military version by 2031.

It is to be noted that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is tasked to develop a mid-power 100 kilowatts (kWe) fission reactor to support lunar habitats, providing power equivalent to 80 homes on Earth.

Samrat Choudhary, belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party, has sworn in as the 24th Chief Minister (CM) of Bihar. He is the first leader from the BJP to hold the post. He succeeds Nitish Kumar as the CM. Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers (Dy CMs).

N Alim Yusuf, a botanist from Kerala, has been honoured with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) National Award. The award was presented during the National ECHO Youth Innovation Summit 2026, held as part of the International Youth Biodiversity Conference in Hyderabad.

He was recognised for developing ‘NeophyteID’, an AI powered mobile application that identifies 100 invasive plant species in Kerala. The application uses the YOLOv11 Machine Learning model for detection. WWF has also provided a seed grant of ₹1.5 lakh for the further development and scaling of the project.