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Daily Current Affairs: 16 & 17 January 2026

Current affairs of 16 & 17 January 2026: Global Risks Report 2026: Geo-economic Confrontation Tops WEF List; NITI Aayog MSME Scheme Convergence Report: Key Findings; Forest Conservation Guidelines 2026: Private Role in Restoration, and 14 more topics. Key facts for every exam, with a quiz.

Take the quiz (15 questions)January 2026

In this issue: 17 topics

National Affairs

Lokpal of India Marks Foundation Day: Composition and Powers
CVC: New Vigilance Commissioner and Commission Basics
Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara: Tribal Festival of Medaram
NHAI Pilots Real-Time Stray Cattle Alerts on Highways
India Energy Week 2026: Goa, 27-30 January

Government Schemes

IndiaAI Mission: Pillars and Compliance Challenge
StartUp India Turns 10: Plan, DPIIT Role and Fund

International Affairs

India-Israel Declaration on Fisheries and Aquaculture
WEF Annual Meeting 2026: Davos Dates, Theme and Basics

Science & Technology

CSIR-NIScPR Foundation Day and SVASTIK Portal
Project Suncatcher: Google’s Solar-Powered Space AI Datacentres

Environment & Ecology

Forest Conservation Guidelines 2026: Private Role in Restoration
Kruger National Park: Floods and Key Facts
Dugong Conservation Centre at Manora: EAC Wants Design Revised

Reports & Indexes

Global Risks Report 2026: Geo-economic Confrontation Tops WEF List
NITI Aayog MSME Scheme Convergence Report: Key Findings
Export Preparedness Index 2024: NITI Aayog Rankings

National Affairs

Polity & Governance

1. Lokpal of India Marks Foundation Day: Composition and Powers

Lokpal marked Foundation Day on 16 January 2026; Section 3 took effect on 16 January 2014.
Chairperson plus up to 8 members, half judicial; term is 5 years or age 70.
Only Lokpal can sanction prosecution in cases before it.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Polity & Governance

2. CVC: New Vigilance Commissioner and Commission Basics

Praveen Vashista, IPS (Bihar, 1991), was sworn in as Vigilance Commissioner on 16 January 2026.
CVC began in 1964 by executive resolution; statutory since 2003.
CVC has up to two Vigilance Commissioners.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

History, Art & Culture

3. Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara: Tribal Festival of Medaram

Telangana prepared for the biennial Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara beginning 28 January 2026.
The festival honours Sammakka and Saralamma, ancestral goddesses of the Koya Adivasi community.
It is held at Medaram in Mulugu district, inside the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary.
It is regarded as Asia's largest tribal festival.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Government Schemes

4. NHAI Pilots Real-Time Stray Cattle Alerts on Highways

NHAI started a pilot to send real-time safety alerts to road users nearing stray cattle-prone stretches.
It was launched as part of Road Safety Month 2026.
The aim is to cut accidents caused by sudden cattle movement, especially in fog and low visibility.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

5. India Energy Week 2026: Goa, 27-30 January

India Energy Week 2026 will be held in Goa from 27 to 30 January 2026.
Patron: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas; hosts: FIPI and dmg events; 120+ countries take part.
Focus areas are energy security, investment and decarbonisation.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Government Schemes

Government Schemes

6. IndiaAI Mission: Pillars and Compliance Challenge

IndiaAI and NFRA launched the IndiaAI Financial Reporting Compliance Challenge.
IndiaAI Mission, under MeitY, aims at a robust, inclusive and responsible AI ecosystem.
Six pillars: Compute Capacity, Innovation Centre, Datasets Platform, Application Development, FutureSkills, Responsible AI Framework.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

7. StartUp India Turns 10: Plan, DPIIT Role and Fund

StartUp India was launched on 16 January 2016, the date now observed as National StartUp Day.
A StartUp India Team under DPIIT runs it through a 19-point action plan.
The Fund of Funds for Startups holds ₹10,000 crore, managed by SIDBI.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

International Affairs

Agriculture & Rural Development

8. India-Israel Declaration on Fisheries and Aquaculture

India and Israel signed a ministerial declaration of intent on fisheries and aquaculture.
The signing took place at a blue food security summit in Eilat.
It covers technology transfer, research, innovation and capacity building.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

International Relations

9. WEF Annual Meeting 2026: Davos Dates, Theme and Basics

The 56th WEF Annual Meeting was set for 19-23 January 2026 at Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.
Its theme was A Spirit of Dialogue.
WEF was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab and is headquartered at Cologny, Switzerland.
Larry Fink is Chairman; Børge Brende is President and CEO.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Science & Technology

Science & Technology

10. CSIR-NIScPR Foundation Day and SVASTIK Portal

CSIR-NIScPR held its 5th Foundation Day on 14 January 2026.
SVASTIK is Scientifically Validated Societal Traditional Knowledge, a national initiative.
The portal offers English, 19 Indian and 5 foreign languages.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Environment & Ecology

11. Project Suncatcher: Google’s Solar-Powered Space AI Datacentres

Google Research unveiled Project Suncatcher, exploring solar-powered AI datacentres in low-Earth orbit.
Satellites would sit in sun-synchronous LEO orbits with continuous sunlight.
It uses radiation-tolerant TPUs and thermal designs needing no water cooling.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Environment & Ecology

Polity & Governance

12. Forest Conservation Guidelines 2026: Private Role in Restoration

MoEFCC amended the Van Adhiniyam forest guidelines in January 2026.
Plantation on forest land counts as forestry activity; no Compensatory Afforestation or NPV for degraded land restoration.
States may engage private entities under approved plans and Forest Department supervision.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Environment & Ecology

13. Kruger National Park: Floods and Key Facts

Kruger National Park was temporarily shut to day visitors after severe flooding from prolonged heavy rain and overflowing rivers.
It is South Africa's largest and oldest national park.
It lies in northeastern South Africa across Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.
Mozambique borders it to the east, and Zimbabwe lies close to the north.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Environment & Ecology

14. Dugong Conservation Centre at Manora: EAC Wants Design Revised

The Expert Appraisal Committee under MoEFCC asked Tamil Nadu to revise the design of the proposed centre at Manora, Thanjavur.
The dugong is a large, slow-moving marine mammal known as the sea cow.
It feeds exclusively on seagrass and is a keystone species.
Its IUCN Red List status is Vulnerable.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Reports & Indexes

15. Global Risks Report 2026: Geo-economic Confrontation Tops WEF List

WEF's Global Risks Report 2026 ranks geo-economic confrontation as the top 2-year risk, ahead of armed conflict.
Extreme weather slipped from 2nd to 4th and pollution from 6th to 9th in short-term rankings.
Adverse outcomes of AI rank 30th in the short term but 5th over ten years.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

16. NITI Aayog MSME Scheme Convergence Report: Key Findings

NITI Aayog's report, prepared by ASCI, reviews 18 centrally administered MSME schemes and urges convergence.
MSMEs contribute about 29-30% of GDP and employ over 28.7 crore people.
Budget outlay for MSMEs grew from ₹6,717 crore in 2019-20 to ₹22,094 crore in 2023-24.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

17. Export Preparedness Index 2024: NITI Aayog Rankings

NITI Aayog released the 4th Export Preparedness Index, EPI 2024, on 14 January 2026; first edition August 2020.
It uses 4 pillars, 13 sub-pillars and 70 indicators.
Maharashtra leads large states; Uttarakhand leads small states, North-East and UTs.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Test yourself

15 questions from the news of 16 & 17 January 2026, with answers and explanations.