Daily Current Affairs — 28 July 2026: Nilekani Panel, CWG Medals, MP's UCC Bill & Kargil Vijay Diwas

The Centre constituted a six-member task force led by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani — with S. Somanath, Tapan Deka, V. Kamakoti, Anita Karwal and Amrit Lal Meena — to recommend reforms to India's examination system following the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.

The Supreme Court flagged 'enormous issues' with the anti-defection law and issued notice to the Centre on Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal's plea challenging the Tenth Schedule provision that lets two-thirds of a legislature party avoid disqualification by claiming a 'deemed merger' with another party.

The Bombay High Court permitted Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to file a civil suit against Meta, X and Google over AI-generated deepfake content falsely linking him to the E20 ethanol-blended petrol policy, seeking Rs 11 crore in damages and content takedowns.

The government approved the RBI's proposal to issue 200 crore polymer banknotes — 100 crore each of Rs 10 and Rs 20 denominations — worth about Rs 3,000 crore, for field trials to test durability under Indian conditions, with no plan yet to replace paper currency.

Bank of Baroda confirmed a data breach after the Triple X ransomware group published about 1 TB of customer and internal data — including Aadhaar and loan records — on the dark web, tracing the compromise to a hacked employee email account; the bank said core banking systems remain secure.

The National Stock Exchange launched 'Indian Natural Gas Futures' (symbol NATGASIND) from 27 July 2026, a cash-settled contract of 250 mmBtu linked to the Indian Gas Exchange's Dahej, Gujarat hub price.

India hosted the 2nd BRICS Science Academies Forum at IIT Hyderabad (22-23 July 2026) on 'Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development', alongside the BRICS Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction chaired by MoS Nityanand Rai.

India and Bangladesh are being urged to renegotiate the India-Bangladesh Ganga Water Treaty as its current 30-year term, signed in 1996, nears expiry in 2026.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes issued a 198-page guidance note aligning India with the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, under which automatic cross-border exchange of virtual-digital-asset information between tax authorities will begin in 2027.

A Wood Mackenzie report projects India's data-centre capacity will grow nearly six-fold from 2.2 GW in 2025 to 12 GW by 2030, with AI-dedicated capacity rising 24-fold from 275 MW to 6,546 MW, backed by the Rs 10,371.92-crore IndiaAI Mission.

DRDO is drawing up a strategic roadmap to use ISRO's upcoming spaceport at Kulasekharapatnam, Tamil Nadu, deepening convergence between India's military and civilian aerospace and space-launch capabilities.

Prime Minister Modi flagged off India's first hydrogen-powered train from Jind, Haryana on 17 July 2026, a Green Hydrogen Mission initiative aimed at cutting emissions on non-electrified rail routes.

India observed the 27th Kargil Vijay Diwas on 26 July 2026, commemorating the Indian Army's 1999 victory in Operation Vijay that reclaimed the Kargil heights from Pakistani intrusion along the Line of Control.

Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh felicitated the nine-member all-women tri-service crew of IASV Triveni for completing 'Samudra Pradakshina' — a 314-day, nearly 25,500-nautical-mile circumnavigation across four oceans — praising their courage and tri-service spirit.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh set targets of Rs 3 lakh crore in annual defence production and Rs 50,000 crore in defence exports by 2029, and released the DFP-2026 framework to speed up DRDO's R&D projects, after exports hit a record Rs 38,000 crore in FY2025-26.

The Centre extended by one more year the expert panel's term for finalising Western Ghats eco-sensitive area boundaries, with the demarcation deadlock among six states still unresolved.

Assam's flood death toll held at 68 with the situation improving marginally, as 4.45 lakh people remained affected across six districts — worst-hit Charaideo, Sivasagar and Jorhat — with 90 relief camps sheltering 28,695 displaced people.

Gujarat's Banni Grasslands near the Great Rann of Kutch — Asia's largest grassland — is now ready to host cheetahs under Project Cheetah, with a 600-hectare enclosure and rising herbivore populations, as India's cheetah count between Kuno and Gandhisagar reaches 27.

At the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow, India's Gulveer Singh chased his maiden CWG medal in the men's 10,000m final on Day 5 (28 July), while five Indian boxers — Preeti Pawar, Priya Ghanghas, Parveen Hooda, Jadumani Singh Mandengbam and Kapil Pokhariya — advanced to quarter-finals.

India's weightlifters continued their strong CWG 2026 campaign with Nirupama Devi Seram (women's 63kg) and Birmingham 2022 bronze medallist Harjinder Kaur (women's 69kg) competing on Day 5 in Glasgow.

Para-athlete Sharmila Dhankar won gold in the women's shot put F57 at CWG 2026, taking India's medal tally to 10 (2 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze) as of Day 4 in Glasgow, with Sarvesh Kushare (silver, high jump) and Shilpa K Shyla (bronze) also among recent medallists.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi was given additional charge as India's Education Minister after Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation over the NEET-UG paper leak; Naresh Pal Gangwar and T.K. Anil Kumar were named Secretaries of Higher Education and School Education respectively.

Chinese-born mathematician Hong Wang of NYU and France's IHES was among four winners of the 2026 Fields Medal announced at ICM Philadelphia, becoming only the third woman to win the honour after Maryam Mirzakhani (2014) and Maryna Viazovska (2022).

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman honoured the winners of the NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2026 in Mumbai, with Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi named India Business Icon and Mahindra Group's Anish Shah named Business Leader of the Year.

India's National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme has screened around 21.06 crore beneficiaries and treated about 6.12 lakh Hepatitis B and C patients across 1,153 treatment sites since its 2018 launch, per data updated to March 2026.

Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu launched the 'Mukhyamantri Machhuara Samman Nidhi Yojana', giving Rs 3,500 lump-sum grants to about 3,700 fishing families during the annual fishing ban across reservoirs like Gobind Sagar, Pong Dam and Kol Dam.

Maharashtra became the first state to qualify for the second RKVY (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana) installment of Rs 335 crore after utilising over 75% of its first tranche, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs notified Kerala's Vizhinjam International Seaport as a Customs Port, enabling direct EXIM operations from 18 August 2026 and reducing India's reliance on foreign transshipment hubs; the port was developed via a PPP with Adani Ports.

The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet approved the Madhya Pradesh Uniform Civil Code (UCC) 2026 Bill along with eight other bills for the upcoming Assembly session, also sanctioning Rs 898.96 crore to upgrade 73 health institutions across the state.

The Bihar Cabinet approved 25 decisions including Panchayat delimitation and Rs 829 crore worth of water-supply projects, part of a wider package of rural-infrastructure and tax-reform measures.