17th January 2026 Current Affairs MCQ Quiz

On 17 January 2026, PM Modi flagged off India's first Vande Bharat Sleeper train, the Howrah-Guwahati service, from Malda Town in West Bengal. It brings overnight long-distance travel into the Vande Bharat family and is fitted with the indigenous Kavach safety system.

Rohit Sharma received the Padma Shri in 2026 after captaining India to the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy titles. Women's captain Harmanpreet Kaur was also honoured with the Padma Shri the same year.

While ISRO helps with the tech, it's actually the Ministry of Earth Sciences leading the charge here. They're trying to explore the deep ocean for precious minerals, which is quite the ambitious frontier for us.

In its January 2026 World Economic Outlook update, the IMF projected India's GDP growth for 2026-27 (FY27) at 6.5%, having raised the figure on the back of strong domestic demand, while keeping India the fastest-growing major economy.

At Davos 2026, India announced green hydrogen cooperation agreements with countries including Oman, Belgium, Kuwait, Jordan, Paraguay and Zimbabwe, building on frameworks such as the India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement to advance electrolyser technology and hydrogen hubs.

Under the RBI (Digital Lending) Directions, 2025, lenders must give borrowers a Key Fact Statement that clearly discloses the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and all charges upfront, so borrowers are not misled by hidden costs from lending apps.

Justice V. Ramasubramanian, a former Supreme Court judge, was appointed Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission in December 2024, filling a post that had been vacant since Justice Arun Mishra's term ended in June 2024.

Exercise Indra is a biennial India-Russia drill that resumed in October 2025 at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Bikaner, Rajasthan, focusing on counter-terrorism operations and interoperability between the two armies.

If you've noticed more public Wi-Fi hotspots popping up in your neighborhood lately, that's PM-VANI in action. The goal is simple: affordable internet access for every corner of the country.

The Venus Orbiter Mission (Shukrayaan) was approved in September 2024 with a planned launch in March 2028. It will study Venus's surface and atmosphere, carrying international instruments including a payload contributed by Sweden.

The International Buddhist Confederation, with the Ministry of Culture, organised the second Global Buddhist Summit on 24-25 January 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.

India's first Vande Metro, later renamed Namo Bharat Rapid Rail, was launched on the Ahmedabad-Bhuj route in Gujarat, covering about 359 km as a semi-high-speed intercity service.

The United States assumed the G20 presidency on 1 December 2025 and is hosting the 2026 G20 Summit, planned in Miami (Doral, Florida) in December 2026. South Africa had hosted the 2025 edition.

Think of it like an Aadhar card for cattle. It's essentially a database to keep track of health records and vaccination history to boost our dairy industry's productivity.

The 78th Army Day parade was held on Mahal Road in Jaipur, Rajasthan, the first time the parade was taken out of a military cantonment onto a public urban route. The 2026 theme was 'Year of Networking and Data Centricity'.

Kandla is taking the lead here by integrating renewable energy to power all port operations. It's a huge step toward making our logistics chain more environmentally friendly.

Uttarakhand became the first state in independent India to implement a Uniform Civil Code, which came into force on 27 January 2025, standardising laws on marriage, divorce, succession and live-in relationships.

The 6th Khelo India Winter Games 2026 were held at Leh in Ladakh and Gulmarg in Jammu & Kashmir, with the ice sports leg in Leh beginning on 20 January 2026.

The Bharat 6G Vision targets the rollout of 6G services by 2030. The project runs in two phases (2023-2025 and 2025-2030) and is supported by the Bharat 6G Alliance of industry, academia and research bodies.

Oh, Kavach is crucial! It's our indigenous automatic train protection system. We're seeing it being rolled out much faster now on all major high-density routes to prevent collisions.