Current Affairs — 23 April 2026

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Polling in Tamil Nadu (all 234 seats) and West Bengal Phase-I (152 seats) was held on 23 April 2026. West Bengal Phase-II is scheduled for 29 April 2026 and counting for all phases is on 4 May 2026.

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The April 2026 RBI Bulletin warned that supply shocks from the West Asia conflict could transform into broader demand-side pressures (second-round effects) and require continuous careful assessment.

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The Bulletin formally adopts a new CPI base year of 2024 (2024 = 100). Table 19 has been revised in line with the new base, and a fresh core-inflation series (CPI excluding food and fuel) has been added.

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The CERC Power Market (Draft Second Amendment) Regulations, 2026 propose Grid Controller of India Limited (Grid India) as the Market Coupling Operator. It will pool bids from all power exchanges and discover a uniform clearing price.

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The market-coupling reform is being marketed under the slogan "One Nation, One Grid, One Price." It seeks to discover a uniform power-clearing price across all exchanges.

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APY crossed 9 crore gross enrolments on 21 April 2026, with FY 2025-26 alone adding 1.35 crore subscribers — the highest annual addition since the scheme was launched in May 2015.

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Atal Pension Yojana is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). It offers a guaranteed monthly pension of 1,000 to 5,000 rupees from age 60 to subscribers in the unorganised sector.

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INS Nireekshak, the Indian Navy's diving support vessel, arrived at Colombo for the 4th edition of the India-Sri Lanka Diving Exercise (IN-SLN DIVEX 2026), which focuses on harbour and open-sea diving, search-and-rescue, salvage and mine-countermeasure drills.

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The BHISHM (Bhārat Health Initiative for Sahyog Hita and Maitri) cubes are developed under Project Aarogya Maitri. Each cube is a self-contained emergency-response unit capable of providing trauma care for up to 200 casualties.

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The RBI Digital Payments E-Mandate Framework, 2026 sets the maximum auto-debit value without an Additional Factor of Authentication at 15,000 rupees per transaction. Debits above that ceiling require explicit authentication.