Daily Current Affairs 26 May 2026

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in collaboration with the Vertis Foundation, has launched “Project Saksham” to empower rural women through skill development and employment opportunities.

The initiative aims to provide industry-relevant skills, promote financial independence, and facilitate access to formal employment opportunities for rural women. Project Saksham operates through a network of 12 training centres established across India.

The UK-based British International Investment (BII) has partnered with Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to launch “North Star”, a $300 million Renewable Energy (RE) platform to support the clean energy transition of India.

Under the partnership, BII and CIP, through the Growth Markets Fund II (GMF II), will each invest up to $150 million in the platform to support solar, wind, hybrid, and storage RE projects in India. The platform is projected to generate over 4 million Megawatt-hours (MWh) of clean energy annually while preventing 4 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

Union Minister S Jaishankar has co-chaired the 9th Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) with the Foreign Minister of Suriname, Melvin Bouva. During the visit, he also met with the President of Suriname, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, and the National Assembly Chairman Ashwin Adhin.

During the trip, India handed over a passion fruit processing facility completed under Indian grant assistance and offered soft loans to Suriname for infrastructure and strategic sectors.

Additionally, During his visit to Trinidad & Tobago, Union Minister S Jaishankar held a bilateral meeting with the PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to discuss bilateral collaboration. A total of 8 MoUs were signed between India and T&T to strengthen cooperation across various sectors.

Under the BRICS 2026 Chairship of India, the inaugural BRICS Tourism Working Group (TWG) Meeting was held virtually to advance the tourism cooperation agenda under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”.

The second TWG Meeting is scheduled to be held in August 2026 in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom has passed the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill”, introducing a rolling, lifelong ban on tobacco purchases.

The ban targets any individual born on or after January 2009, effectively prohibiting them from ever legally purchasing tobacco products. The legislation is scheduled to officially take effect in January 2027.

The aerospace division of Bharat Forge Ltd (BFL) has signed an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to establish the first private-sector Marine Gas Turbine (MGT) Repair, Overhaul, and Indigenous Development Complex of India in Visakhapatnam.

The facility will span 80 acres within the AP Defence Manufacturing Corridor developed by the aerospace division of BFL. The complex will be co-located with the Naval Dockyard, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Eksila, and the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) Headquarters in Visakhapatnam.

Tonbo Imaging has secured a contract from the Indian Navy under the ADITI 3.0 innovation framework to integrate and commission a High Power Microwave (HPM) system for naval platforms.

The project aims to develop and integrate HPM-based directed-energy capabilities for maritime warfare to effectively counter electronic and unmanned threats.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has organised the largest biomedical innovation and technology transfer event of India, titled “Medical Innovations Patent Mitra: Innovators-to-Industry (I2I) Connect”, in New Delhi.

The event was inaugurated by Union Minister of State Prataprao Jadhav to launch a collaborative platform for the development and commercialisation of public health technologies.

During the event, a total of 41 public health technologies, including vaccines and diagnostics, were transferred to industry partners. The ICMR also transferred inactivated Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) and Chandipura virus biomaterials to support vaccine development and research.

Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia has virtually launched the ‘Coffee of Nagaland’ mission worth ₹175 crore at Sanchar Bhavan, New Delhi, to promote coffee cultivation and strengthen the livelihoods of farmers.

Under the initiative, two pilot coffee clusters have been identified: Tuophema village in Kohima district (for Arabica coffee) and Ghotovi village in Niuland district (for Robusta coffee).

Additionally, a pilot project worth ₹49.48 crore, titled ‘Cluster-Based Coffee Value Chain Development in Nagaland’, was launched to establish an end-to-end coffee value chain from cultivation to marketing.

The Maharashtra government has signed MoUs with four key companies, namely NTPC Ltd (NTPC), Adani Power Ltd (APL), Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), and Lalitpur Power Generation Company Ltd (LPGCL), in Mumbai to attract investments worth ₹6.5 lakh crore for the development of nuclear energy projects.

These projects are projected to establish a total power generation capacity of 25,400 megawatts (MW).

Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has been appointed as the Chairman of the reconstituted Committee on Petitions of the Upper House.

A total of 10 members have been nominated to the panel. The other members are Harsh Mahajan, Gulam Ali, Shambhu Sharan Patel, Mayankkumar Nayak, Masthan Rao Yadav Beedha, Jebi Mather Hisham, Subhasish Khuntia, Rwngwra Narzary, and Sandosh Kumar P.

The RBI has appointed Gunveer Singh as the Executive Director with immediate effect, assigning him the charge of the Department of Payment and Settlement Systems (DPSS).

The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has secured a position among the top five global water utilities across three major categories at the 2026 Global Water Awards. The awards were presented during the Global Water Summit 2026 in Madrid, Spain.

It is to be noted that BWSSB is the sole Indian water utility to achieve top-five global recognition in three distinct categories, namely “Utility of the Year 2026”, “Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG-6) Champion of the year 2026”, and “Water Project of the Year 2026”.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission of the ISRO has received the 2026 Goddard Astronautics Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

The award was presented at the Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery (ASCEND) 2026 Conference held in Washington DC, USA. Vinay Kwatra, the Ambassador of India to the USA, accepted the award on behalf of ISRO.

Bharat Singh Chauhan has been re-elected as the Chairman of the Commonwealth Chess Association (CCA) for the 2026–2030 term. The re-election took place during the Annual General Body Meeting of the organization held in Wasakaduwa, Sri Lanka.

It is to be noted that the CCA has announced the launch of a new tournament, the “Commonwealth School Chess Championship”, with its inaugural edition scheduled to be hosted in Malaysia in October 2026.

Shyam Srinivasan, the former MD and CEO of Federal Bank, has released his debut book titled “Better Never Stops”.

The book, published by Wyzr Content Pvt Ltd, is a leadership-focused memoir drawing from his experience of more than 30 years in the Indian banking and financial services sector.