Current Affairs — 21 April 2026

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At the Modi-Lee Jae Myung summit in New Delhi, both countries set a target of $50 billion in bilateral trade by 2030, up from about $27 billion at present, and agreed to fast-track the CEPA upgrade.

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Civil Services Day is observed on 21 April each year. The date marks Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's 1947 address to the first batch of civil-service probationers in which he described them as the 'steel frame of India'.

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The Union Cabinet approved the Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool with a sovereign guarantee of Rs 12,980 crore, to give Indian shipping affordable hull, cargo, P&I and war-risk cover and reduce dependence on foreign reinsurers.

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Prajna was developed by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), a Bengaluru-based DRDO laboratory. It analyses high-resolution satellite imagery using AI to support counter-terrorism, border management, anti-Naxal operations and disaster response.

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Samriddh Gram is run by the Department of Telecommunications. It rides on the BharatNet rural broadband backbone and sets up Samriddhi Kendras as 'phygital' hubs offering telemedicine, smart classrooms, IoT agriculture, and e-governance.

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India's first advanced 3D glass-substrate semiconductor packaging unit is being set up in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The Rs 1,943-crore project has a planned annual capacity of 70,000 glass panels and 50 million assembled units, with commercial production targeted by August 2028.

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Under a high-emission scenario the study projects an increase of about 97 per cent in vegetation carbon biomass by 2100. The corresponding numbers are about 35 per cent for low-emission and 62 per cent for medium-emission scenarios. Drivers include CO2 fertilisation, higher rainfall and better water-use efficiency.

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Dr Ch Srinivasa Rao, Director and Vice-Chancellor of IARI, received the 9th Prof M S Swaminathan Award for his contributions to climate-resilient agriculture and district-level contingency planning. The biennial award includes a gold medal, citation and cash component.

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The Ministry of Finance explicitly framed the BMI Pool around three goals — strengthening self-reliance in critical maritime services, building sanctions resilience for Indian trade, and ensuring sovereign control over a core enabler of foreign trade. It supplements rather than replaces private insurers.

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KIND-X stands for Korea-India Defence Accelerator. It was launched as part of the third phase of India-Korea defence-industry cooperation, alongside continued work on the K9 Vajra howitzer programme. KIND-X aims to connect defence-tech start-ups and researchers across the two countries.