Monthly current affairs for July 2026

Dr UP Rajeev has been appointed as the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram. He succeeds Dr A Rajarajan.

Ethan Vaz from Goa has become India's 96th Chess Grandmaster (GM) after securing his final GM norm at the Sarajevo GM Mix Tournament in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Harshavardhan GB from Chennai has become India's 97th GM after earning his final GM norm at the 2nd Chola Chess GM Norm Round Robin Tournament held in Chennai.

The first Vande Mataram Camp 2026, organised by Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat) under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, has concluded at Brainware University in Kolkata.

The event commemorated the 150th anniversary of the National Song 'Vande Mataram'. It hosted 150 youth delegates from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands to promote national integration, cultural exchange, and youth leadership.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Ministry of Ayush have prohibited the use of leaves and leaf extracts of the Withania somnifera plant in food products and supplements.

It is to be noted that the roots and their extracts remain permitted and are considered safe for consumption.

IIT Bombay has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the State University of New York (SUNY) Old Westbury to collaborate in the fields of engineering, AI, multidisciplinary research, and higher education.

The IIT Madras has officially introduced OmegaBall to India by hosting a grand launch event and an inter-college tournament at its Chennai campus.

OmegaBall is a high-intensity, fast-paced variant of football that redefines traditional gameplay by featuring three teams on the pitch simultaneously.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has approved the first private Point-in-Space (PinS) Instrument Approach Procedure for helicopter operations in India at the Undavalli Heliport in Andhra Pradesh.

The procedure was developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The Indian women's cricket team has secured direct qualification for the Los Angeles (LA) 2028 Olympic Games, following the group stage of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women's T20 World Cup in England.

Other teams that have qualified for the tournament include Australia (representing Oceania), South Africa (representing Africa), and Great Britain (represented by England in ICC events). The USA is anticipated to receive the host quota for the Olympic tournament.

The Indian Navy has participated in the 30th edition of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2026), the world's largest multinational maritime warfare exercise.

Hosted by the US Navy, the exercise was conducted at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) in Hawaii, USA. The theme for the 30th edition of RIMPAC was 'Partners: Integrated and Prepared'.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has partnered with HSBC India and JPMorgan Payments to simplify the UPI transaction process for Indian travelers abroad.

These collaborations will introduce real-time foreign exchange (FX) conversion and settlement, allowing users to view the exact transaction amount in ₹ before finalizing their payments.

According to the 8th edition of the 'Trade Watch Quarterly (TWQ)' released by the NITI Aayog for Q4 FY26, the total merchandise and services trade of India expanded by 5.4% to $1.84 trillion.

The report states that the global pharmaceutical market recorded a demand of $1.3 trillion in 2025. India's pharmaceutical sector contributes over 1.7% to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 7.2% to the manufacturing Gross Value Added (GVA).

Union Minister Virendra Kumar has presided over the valedictory event of 'Nasha Mukt Bharat Saptah (Drug-Free India Week)' in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. The event was observed under the theme "Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan – Viksit Bharat Ki Pehchaan".

During the event, the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment (DoSJE) signed MoUs with the Akhil Vishwa Gayatri Pariwar to strengthen the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (NMBA) by focusing on awareness, community mobilisation, drug demand reduction, and senior citizen welfare.

Union Minister Amit Shah has launched the Prime Minister Family Care Tracker (PM-FCT) pilot project in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The initiative aims to strengthen beneficiary identification and ensure the timely delivery of government welfare schemes.

The PM-FCT serves as an integrated digital platform to monitor the health, nutrition, education, and welfare benefits of children from the prenatal stage up to 18 years of age.

Puviyarasu, a renowned Tamil poet, passed away at the age of 96. He was a two-time recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, receiving it for Translation in 2006-07 for "Puratchikaran" and for Original Poetry in 2009-10 for his collection "Kaiyoppam".

The 2nd Pax Silica Summit was held in Washington DC, USA. During the summit, 35 nations, including India, endorsed a Statement on AI, an initiative spearheaded by the USA to establish trusted and resilient supply chains for AI technologies.

The 2-day event was hosted by Jacob Helberg, Secretary of Economic Affairs at the US Department of State. The Indian delegation was headed by S Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The summit marked the expansion of the US-anchored tech security ecosystem, with new signatories including Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands (Europe); Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Panama (America); and Kazakhstan (Central Asia).

Shankh Mitra, CEO of Welltower Inc., has been ranked as the second-highest-paid CEO in the world for FY25.

According to The Wall Street Journal, he received a compensation package of $821 million (₹7,744 crore). Tesla chief Elon Musk topped the list with a compensation of $158 billion.

Bengaluru-based Skydo, a cross-border payments platform, has secured an international payment license in Canada. With this, it has become the first Indian cross-border company to obtain regulatory approval overseas.

Vijaya Mehta, a veteran Marathi filmmaker and actor, passed away at the age of 91. She was a recipient of the Padma Shri award in 1986.

The 8th Youth Co:Lab National Innovation Challenge 2026 was hosted at the Technology Hub (T-Hub) in Hyderabad. The challenge was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India in partnership with the Citi Foundation and the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), and implemented by the T-Hub Foundation.

The winners, NavaPrayoga Labs LLP (Grassip) from Hyderabad, UnBubble from Gurugram (Haryana), and Ecorenowa Solutions Pvt Ltd from Bengaluru were awarded a seed grant of Rs 3.5 lakh each.

The 67th edition of the TOP500 Supercomputer Rankings was released at the International Supercomputing (ISC) High Performance 2026 conference in Hamburg, Germany. China's 'LineShine' has emerged as the world's most powerful supercomputer, displacing the USA's 'El Capitan' from the top spot.

They are followed by 'Frontier' (USA), 'Aurora' (USA), and 'Jupiter' (Germany). The USA leads the list as the most represented country, with 161 systems featured.

India is ranked 16th globally, with 7 supercomputers included in the list, namely 'PARAM Siddhi-AI', 'Pratyush', 'Mihir', 'Aditya', 'SahasraT', 'Arka', and 'Param Bramha'. India's most powerful supercomputer, 'Shakti Cloud', secured the 32nd position on the list with a performance of 84.31 petaflops.