26th January 2026 Current Affairs MCQ Quiz

India's 77th Republic Day welcomed two European Union leaders as Chief Guests - Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission - reflecting the deepening India-EU strategic partnership.

Sanjay Malhotra took charge as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in December 2024 and continues to head the central bank, having succeeded Shaktikanta Das.

The Padma Awards 2026, announced on 25 January, honoured veteran actor Dharmendra (Dharmendra Singh Deol) with the Padma Vibhushan posthumously, among 131 awardees comprising 5 Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri.

The World Economic Forum's 56th Annual Meeting was held in Davos from 19-23 January 2026 under the theme 'A Spirit of Dialogue', convening nearly 3,000 leaders from government, business and civil society.

The 6th Khelo India Winter Games 2026 opened in Leh, Ladakh, with the ice-sports leg (ice hockey and ice skating) running up to 26 January; the snow-sports leg was later held in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir.

Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in the 2026 Australian Open men's singles final to claim his first Australian Open title and complete the career Grand Slam, becoming the youngest man to achieve the feat.

The 77th Republic Day parade on Kartavya Path commemorated 150 years of 'Vande Mataram', the national song composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875.

ISRO opened its 2026 launch campaign in January with the PSLV-C62 mission, which placed the Anvesha (EOS-N1) hyperspectral satellite, developed with the DRDO, into orbit.

Gyanesh Kumar is the 26th Chief Election Commissioner of India, having taken charge in 2025 following the retirement of Rajiv Kumar.

Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran continues as the Chief Economic Advisor, with his tenure extended up to March 2027. He has been the architect of recent Economic Surveys and Union Budget growth projections.

Vikram Misri is the Foreign Secretary of India, having assumed charge in July 2024 as the senior-most career diplomat in the Ministry of External Affairs.

In its January 2026 World Economic Outlook update, titled 'Steady amid Divergent Forces', the IMF projected global growth at 3.3% for 2026 - a slight upward revision from its October 2025 estimate.

The Namo Drone Didi scheme equips women self-help groups with agricultural drones to provide rental services to farmers, primarily for the precision aerial spraying of liquid fertilizers and pesticides.

The 'Maratha Military Landscapes of India' - a network of 12 forts across Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu - was inscribed at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2025 as India's 44th UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Viksit Bharat @2047 is the government's vision to transform India into a developed nation by 2047, the centenary year of its Independence (1947-2047), targeting an economy of USD 30-40 trillion.

Bharat Parv 2026 was organised at the Red Fort in New Delhi from 26 to 31 January 2026, showcasing India's cultural diversity, cuisine, handicrafts and government initiatives as part of the Republic Day celebrations.

India's steel-sector decarbonisation is aligned with the country's overall net-zero target of 2070, announced by India at COP26 in Glasgow. The National Green Steel Mission supports this transition toward low-carbon steel.

Graca Machel, a renowned humanitarian and women's rights champion from Mozambique who served as the country's first Minister of Education, was selected for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2026.

Maharashtra has identified ten cities for a pilot project under the Centre's urban land records digitisation initiative, creating spatially enabled records to resolve overlapping ownership claims and boundary disputes.

The EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR, EU 2025/40) applies from 12 August 2026, requiring all packaging on the EU market to be recyclable; Indian exporters must align their packaging materials to retain access to the European market.