Daily Current Affairs — 14 August 2026: Mines & Minerals Bill Passed, RBI Holds Repo Rate, India Tops Fencing & Zhu Rongji Dies

Parliament passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 — the Rajya Sabha cleared it on 13 August 2026, a day after the Lok Sabha — restricting states' power to tax mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands to ensure uniform mineral rates nationally; the Centre will regulate major minerals like coal, limestone, iron ore, copper and manganese, leaving states in charge of 49 minor minerals.

Parliament passed the Bankers' Books Evidence Bill, 2026 (Lok Sabha on 5 August, Rajya Sabha on 10 August 2026), repealing the 135-year-old Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891, to formally recognise physical, electronic, digital and cloud-based banking records as admissible evidence in courts.

Assam floods: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said relief teams have distributed over 48.5 lakh kg of rice, along with roughly 10.16 lakh kg of dal, 4.01 lakh kg of salt and 1.64 lakh litres of mustard oil, to flood-affected families since relief operations began.

MY Bharat platform crossed 2.22 crore youth registrations, as the government pushes to engage and empower young people under the initiative.

RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (met 3-5 August 2026) kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.25% for a fourth straight meeting, by a unanimous 6-0 vote, retaining its 'neutral' stance; it raised the FY27 GDP growth forecast to 6.7% (from 6.6%) and lowered the CPI inflation projection to 5% (from 5.1%). Next MPC meeting: 5-7 October 2026.

India's combined goods-and-services exports rose about 13.3% year-on-year to $80.14 billion in July 2026, driven by a record-high July merchandise export figure of $44.24 billion; the overall trade deficit widened 31.5% to $15.03 billion as imports grew faster than exports.

Bank of America agreed to acquire up to 49.9% of Jio Credit Limited, Jio Financial Services' NBFC lending arm, for about Rs 18,268 crore (~$1.9 billion) via equity and warrants — starting with an initial 26.5% stake — with Jio Credit's AUM at Rs 30,667 crore as of 30 June 2026.

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) signed an MoU to set up the MCX-NISM Centre for Commodity Markets at NISM, focused on research, professional training and investor awareness in commodity derivatives.

India and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU — South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini) signed Terms of Reference at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi, to begin negotiations on a Preferential Trade Agreement — India's first PTA talks with an African regional bloc; India's trade with SACU stood at $7.5 billion in exports and $9.2 billion in imports in 2025-26.

India told China that peace along their disputed border is a prerequisite for normal bilateral ties — MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal's second such statement in a week — amid reports of fresh troop tensions in the eastern Himalayas, ahead of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12-13 September 2026, which Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend.

Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji — architect of China's 1990s state-enterprise and housing reforms who led the country into the WTO — died in Beijing on 12 August 2026, aged 97; he served as Premier from 1998 to 2003.

The Digital India BHASHINI Division and NITI Aayog signed a Statement of Intent (12 August 2026) to jointly develop multilingual, voice-first AI solutions for inclusive governance, spanning five sub-programmes — BHASHINI Udyat, Mitra, AppMitra, Sahayogi and Pravakta.

Cochin Shipyard Limited delivered 'MS Maria', the second of an eight-vessel HS EcoFreighter series of ice-class multi-purpose vessels, to Germany's HS Schiffahrts on 12 August 2026 — a 7,000 DWT vessel designed by Groot Ship Design, Netherlands, and built to DNV classification rules.

The 8th edition of the India-US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Exercise 2026 is being held at the Southern Naval Command, Kochi (10-14 August 2026), with specialist diving and EOD teams from both navies conducting subject-matter-expert exchanges and scenario-based drills — the exercise series began in 2005.

Exercise Udara Shakti 2026, the biennial IAF-Royal Malaysian Air Force exercise, is underway at Subang Air Base (10-14 August 2026) — India's four Rafale fighters (101 Squadron) are taking part for the first time since the aircraft's 2020 induction, alongside two C-17s, against RMAF's Su-30MKMs, F/A-18Ds and an A400M; it follows Exercise Pitch Black 2026 in Australia, which concluded on 7 August.

The Centre for Science and Environment's 'State of India's Environment 2026' report found that extreme weather events struck India on 99% of days in 2025, causing over 4,400 deaths and damaging 17.41 million hectares of crops.

The same report flagged rising tiger-human conflict, noting that although India's tiger population has more than doubled since 2006 to a record 3,682 (2022 estimation), roughly 40% of tiger territory in tiger-bearing states is now shared with about 60 million people, driving behavioural change in the animals.

Four Malabar pied hornbills were spotted near agricultural fields along the Muyyam river in Kannur district, Kerala — the first such sighting for the area, notable because the species is rarely seen outside dense forest.

India topped the medal table at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2026 in Lagos, Nigeria (9-14 August), winning a record 35 medals — 13 gold, 8 silver, 14 bronze — across U-23 and senior events, and lifted the Wilkinson Sword Trophy for the first time.

Indian weightlifter Titli Maji won silver in the women's 45kg category on Day 1 of the Asian Youth & Junior Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (7-14 August), lifting 65kg in snatch and 80kg in clean & jerk for a 145kg total.

Afghanistan secured automatic qualification for the 2027 Cricket World Cup after beating Ireland, joining Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England and Bangladesh among the top-eight ODI-ranked teams; two-time champions West Indies, ranked 10th, must go through the qualifiers for a third straight edition.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved a reshuffle of six senior IAS officers (order dated 10 August 2026): Pallavi Jain Govil takes over as Corporate Affairs Secretary from Deepti Gaur Mukerjee, who moves to Higher Education Secretary; Archana Varma becomes DoWR/Ganga Rejuvenation Secretary; and Sunil Paliwal becomes Youth Affairs Secretary.

The Ministry of Home Affairs appointed Gyanesh Bharti, a 1998-batch AGMUT-cadre IAS officer, as Chief Secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (order dated 10 August 2026), repatriating him from his post as Deputy Election Commissioner.

The West Bengal government withdrew the 'Banga Bibhushan' honour conferred on BJP MP Nagendra Ray ('Ananta Maharaj') on 13 August 2026, citing his remarks on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as inconsistent with the award's dignity.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the 'Gramin Gyan Setu' app on National Library Day (13 August, S R Ranganathan's birth anniversary) to connect 752 village libraries across the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, Gujarat, with four central hub libraries holding about 2.8 lakh books.

The Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H, Ministry of AYUSH) and the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC, Ministry of Health) renewed their MoU on 12 August 2026 for a three-year extension of the 'One Herb, One Standard' initiative, which had already produced 50 medicinal-plant monographs, to harmonise herbal-drug standards across Ayurveda, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, Unani and Homoeopathy.

Amit Shah launched the 'Sahkar Nav-Kranti' programme at NUCFDC's new Mumbai office (8 August 2026), unveiling the 'Bank in a Box' digital banking platform and a Security Operations Centre for Urban Cooperative Banks, and announcing that NUCFDC's headquarters will shift from Delhi to Mumbai.

The Delhi Cabinet, chaired by CM Rekha Gupta, cleared the draft Ease of Doing Business Bill, 2026, proposing self-certification for low-risk industries and no routine inspections for three years; the bill has been sent to the Union Home Ministry.

A statewide Karnataka bandh called by Kannada organisations under activist Vatal Nagaraj on 13 August 2026, protesting the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee's direction to release 12,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu, drew a mixed response after several groups withdrew support.

The Rajasthan Cabinet, chaired by CM Bhajan Lal Sharma, approved 'One State-One Election' for simultaneous Panchayati Raj and urban local body polls, accepted the state OBC Commission's quota recommendations for local bodies, and cleared the Rajasthan Agriculture and Food Processing Policy 2026.