*TODAYS TOP NEWS*
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🙏🏻💐 *Happy Dussehra! May your home be filled with peace, health, and happiness.* 💐
*Dussehra (Vijayadashami* ) in 2026 is celebrated on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 across most of India, while parts of the eastern region (such as West Bengal and Odisha) observe Bijoya Dashami on Wednesday, 21 October 2026.
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completed 25 years in public service, a journey defined by the mantra of Jan Seva Se Desh Seva, and a relentless commitment that continues. Guided by this vision for Seva and Sushasan, the Government has been ceaselessly working towards achieving the goal of a Viksit Bharat by 2047. Through inclusive development and social empowerment, this dedication is transforming lives. *Mission Karamyogi.*
It was launched in September 2020 envisioning a future-ready civil service rooted in Indian ethos, with a global perspective.
Mission Karmayogi is aimed at strengthening the capacity and skills of government officials and making civil services more citizen-centric. with the objective of placing the right person in the right role at the right time. The iGot platform under Mission Karmayogi has over 1.70 crore registered users and it hosts over 6500 courses across domain, functional and behavioural competencies.
The Department of Financial Services will run a nationwide saturation campaign for financial inclusion schemes from 21 October to 31 December 2026, covering 2.70 lakh Gram Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies. Banks will hold camps for enrolment under PMJJBY, PMSBY and APY, opening of PMJDY accounts, re-KYC, and KCC applications for PM-Kisan beneficiaries.
2. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the upgraded Agri Welfare Portal, a single-window gateway for farmers to access schemes such as PM-KISAN, AgriStack and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana on their mobile phones. Krishi Vigyan Kendras will run a special training campaign to help farmers use the portal.
3. Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr Virendra Kumar reviewed the functioning of the Ministry’s divisions, bureaus and institutions in New Delhi and directed officials to adopt a 360-degree approach so that welfare schemes reach all eligible beneficiaries. He stressed coordination with State and UT social welfare departments and wider publicity of scheme benefits.
4. Under the Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat Abhiyan, MY Bharat held 1,174 programmes across 36 States and UTs in the fifth week of the 100-week campaign on 17 October, with 3,43,288 participants. The week focused on yoga and meditation for drug-free youth, along with neighbourhood youth parliaments.
5. Fisheries Secretary Dr Abhilaksh Likhi reviewed the Pithoragarh Coldwater Fisheries Cluster in Uttarakhand on 19 October. The Ministry said Uttarakhand is the first Himalayan State to export trout to Nepal and the first to supply trout to the ITBP.
6. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta inaugurated a 200-tonne-per-day biogas plant at Goyla Dairy under the Seva Sankalp Abhiyan, to process cattle dung and biodegradable waste from dairy colonies. Delhi’s first such 200-TPD plant began operating at Nangli Dairy, Najafgarh, in September 2025.
7. Dr Dhal Singh Bisen took oath as the Governor of Uttarakhand at Lok Bhavan, Dehradun, in the presence of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. He succeeds Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retd).
8. The Election Commission said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls aims to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out while removing deceased, duplicate and shifted electors. It noted that the last intensive revision was held in 2002–04 and that EVMs cannot be hacked.
9. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, replying to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s letter to the Prime Minister, said there is no constitutional deadline to prorogue a House after it is adjourned sine die. He said the 64-day gap since the Lok Sabha was adjourned on 13 August is no irregularity.
10. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has acted against unauthorised online listing and sale of explosives such as ammonium nitrate, gunpowder, picric acid and PETN, which are regulated under the Explosives Act, 1884. Over 3,900 sellers have been delisted from e-commerce platforms; violations can be reported on helpline 1915.
11. India has crossed 300 GW of installed non-fossil fuel power capacity after adding over 55 GW in 2025-26, against a target of 500 GW by 2030. The Central Electricity Authority projects a need for about 74 GW of energy storage by 2031-32, including about 27 GW of pumped storage and over 47 GW of battery storage.
12. India will host the 61st meeting of the International Committee of Legal Metrology (CIML) for the first time, in New Delhi from 26 October. The three-day meeting, organised by the Department of Consumer Affairs with the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML), will bring together over 100 international delegates.
13. Home Minister Amit Shah will pay homage to police martyrs at the National Police Memorial in New Delhi on Police Commemoration Day, 21 October, and flag off a ‘Fight Against Drugs’ motorcycle rally to Ekta Nagar, Gujarat, for the Ekta Parade on 31 October. The day marks the 1959 Hot Springs (Ladakh) ambush.
14. The 135th Raising Day of Manipur Police was celebrated yesterday at 1st Battalion Manipur Rifles Parade Ground in Imphal. The celebration was attended by Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh.
15. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) warned that fraudsters are using deepfake videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and State Chief Ministers in Facebook and Instagram ads promoting fake government schemes. Victims are lured to phone numbers, WhatsApp chats or fake websites and made to pay repeated ‘fees’.
16. Telangana Governor Shiva Pratap Shukla attends Saddula Bathukamma celebrations in Hyderabad. He has said Telangana is the birthplace of dreams. The Governor and his wife attended the Saddula Bathukamma celebrations on Tank Bund on Sunday as chief guests. He extended heartfelt greetings to Telangana people at home and abroad. He described Bathukamma as a living symbol of Telangana’s rich cultural heritage, women’s strength and deep reverence for nature.
17. Indian Railways warned passengers against playing music or videos on speaker mode in trains and on railway premises, with fines of up to ₹1,000. Repeat violators can face imprisonment of up to six months, a fine of up to ₹5,000, or both.
18. The CISF will switch to a domain-based, sector-specific command structure from 1 November with the approval of the Home Ministry, realigning eight of its 11 sectors. New sectors include Coal (Ranchi), Steel (Bhilai), Petroleum and Natural Gas (Guwahati), Power-I (New Delhi), Power-II (Kolkata), and West Coast (Mumbai) and East Coast (Chennai) port sectors.
19. The Telangana government constituted a six-member Cabinet sub-committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka to oversee measures against drought and El Niño conditions, with priority on drinking water. About 315 of the State’s 621 mandals are facing drought conditions of varying degrees.
20. The Bengaluru–Mumbai Vande Bharat sleeper train, South India’s first, is set to be flagged off on 1 November, coinciding with Kannada Rajyotsava, railway sources said; the Railway Board notification is awaited. The train will run between SMVT Bengaluru and CSMT Mumbai via the Guntakal route.
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*NEW APPOINTMENTS*
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1. Dr. Dhal Singh Bisen yesterday took oath as the new Governor of Uttarakhand at Lok Bhawan in Dehradun. The Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court administered the oath of office and secrecy to him. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and several dignitaries were present at the ceremony.
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*LEGAL REPORT*
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1. The Supreme Court expressed surprise at the ‘quiet’ rollout of the Compensation to Victims (Interim Relief) Scheme, 2026, for motor accident victims, calling it an ‘unannounced law’. A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan ordered wide publicity for the scheme, framed under Section 164A of the Motor Vehicles Act.
2. A Supreme Court vacation Bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana will hear on Wednesday (21 October) former Keralam Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s plea against a Kerala High Court order directing registration of an FIR in the ₹278-crore CMRL bribery case.
3. The West Bengal government has written to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice seeking a sitting judge to head a high-powered committee to probe the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja stampede. The panel will examine the causes and administrative and safety lapses; Kolkata Police, Fire Services and KMC officials will not be part of it.
4. Rajbir Singh Ghuman, OSD to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, appeared before the CBI in Chandigarh for a second round of questioning in an alleged corruption and influence-peddling case. The FIR followed a 5 October order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; the Supreme Court declined to stay it but barred coercive action.
5. A Patiala court sentenced former Ludhiana MLA and Congress leader Simarjit Singh Bains to one year’s rigorous imprisonment for defaming former Punjab minister Brahm Mohindra, convicting him under Section 500 of the IPC. Bains was briefly taken into custody and released after furnishing a bail bond.
6. Mumbai Police said all three accused arrested for firing at actor Tiger Shroff’s car in Juhu are adults — two from Haryana and one from Bihar. They were caught on a train in Kota, Rajasthan, within 15 hours by 20 crime branch teams; no weapon has been recovered and the motive is being probed.
7. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) dismantled a gold smuggling syndicate operating through Ahmedabad and Surat airports with a Dubai-based financier, seizing 13.017 kg of foreign-origin gold worth about ₹19.41 crore. Three persons were arrested under the Customs Act, 1962; the gold was melted at an illegal unit in Vadodara.
In separate operations, the DRI seized 591.3 kg of ganja smuggled from Nepal in a truck intercepted on the Gorakhpur–Kushinagar road, and 43.2 lakh foreign-origin cigarettes worth ₹8.64 crore in Mizoram.
—— *MISHAPS*———-
1. In Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh — Four Killed as Truck Rams SUV on Overbridge
Four youths were killed and three seriously injured when a speeding truck rammed their Scorpio from behind and ran over those standing nearby on an overbridge near Rupapur on the Prayagraj–Varanasi highway early on Monday. The friends, returning from the Vindhyachal temple, had stopped to take selfies.
2. In Beed, Maharashtra — Five Killed in Car–Bus Collision: Five people, including an 11-year-old, were killed when their car, swerving to avoid potholes, collided with an MSRTC bus at Shindewadi Cross Road on the Khamgaon–Pandharpur highway in Majalgaon tehsil on Sunday. Locals blocked the road in protest against its poor condition.
3. Three persons were killed and four injured when a vehicle plunged into the Chenab river near Tindi in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul-Spiti district on Sunday. The deceased, Shiv Kumar, Ajay and Kartik, were residents of Salgran village; the injured were taken to the Community Health Centre at Udaipur.
4. Three Meitei villagers collecting firewood were shot dead by suspected militants in the Sunurok hills, on the border of Imphal East and Kangpokpi districts in Manipur, on Monday; three others were injured. Angry locals placed two of the bodies outside Chief Minister Y. Khemchand Singh’s residence in Imphal, police fired tear gas, and a combing operation has been launched.
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*DEFENCE News*
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1. UPSC declared the written result of the Combined Defence Services Examination (II), 2026, held on 13 September; 8,956 candidates have qualified for SSB interviews. The courses are at the IMA Dehradun, INA Ezhimala and AFA Hyderabad from July 2027, and OTA Chennai from October 2027.
2. The fifth edition of the India–Australia joint military exercise AUSTRAHIND 2026 began at the Foreign Training Node in Thiruvananthapuram, Keralam, and will run till 1 November. About 120 personnel each from the two armies are taking part, including troops from the Garhwal Rifles and Australia’s 13th Brigade.
3. The Indian Navy has issued a Request for Proposal to shortlisted shipyards for four Landing Platform Docks (LPDs) of over 30,000 tonnes each — the largest warships to be built in India after INS Vikrant. The project is estimated at nearly ₹50,000 crore; the Navy’s only LPD at present is INS Jalashwa.
4. Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral Ajay Kochhar said the Navy is seeking directed-energy weapons, high-power microwaves, quantum positioning systems, autonomous underwater vehicles and indigenous ramjet engines from domestic industry. He was announcing Swavlamban 2026, the fifth edition of the Navy’s indigenisation seminar, to be held in New Delhi on 26–27 October.
5. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will represent India at the 25th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, today (20 October). The MEA said the meeting will focus on trade, economy, investment, connectivity, innovation and cultural-humanitarian cooperation among SCO members.
6. The Indian Army conducted Exercise Akhand Prahar-II in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, with the Black Mace Brigade and the Battle Axe Division, to validate combat readiness and integrated operations. Lt Gen AVS Rathi, General Officer Commanding of the Konark Corps, reviewed the exercise.
7. The Indian Air Force has issued a Request for Proposal to Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for maintenance of 46 ATCR-33S airfield surveillance radars deployed across its air bases. The radars were inducted in batches in 2003, 2007 and 2017.
*FINANCE*
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*INDIAN RUPEE VALUE*
💷 *GBP* ₹127(Approx)
€ *Euro* : ₹107(Approx)
*USD* ₹ 95(Approx)
🇨🇦 *Canada* :CAD ₹67
🇦🇺 *Australia* : ₹ 66
🇦🇪 *UAE Dirham* : ₹ 26
*🇨🇳 China Yuan ¥* : ₹ 14
🇲🇻 *Maldives Rufiya* : ₹ 6.15
🇧🇹 *Bhutan ngultrum* : ₹ 1.00
🇳🇵 *Nepal Rupee* : ₹ 0.63
🇧🇩 *B’desh Taka** : ₹ 0.77
🇵🇰 *Pak Rupee* : ₹ 0.34
🇱🇰 *Sri Lanka Rupee* : ₹ 0.29
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*BSE SENSEX*
73,852.90 -876.37 (1.17%)🔻
*NIFTY*
22,888.95 -257.20 (1.11%)🔻
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*Rates in Financial Capital Mumbai*
*GOLD* : ₹ 14,804/ 01gm (24 krt)
*SILVER* : ₹ 2,30,000/KG
1. HDFC Bank reported a 4.7% rise in September-quarter net profit to ₹19,510 crore, but its net interest margin narrowed to 3.16% from 3.30%. Axis Bank posted a profit of ₹7,003 crore; Axis shares fell 4.15% and HDFC Bank 2.72% on Monday, while the PSU Bank index rose 2.46%.
2. India’s power demand rose 11% in September to 162 billion units and peak demand rose 17% to 269 GW. Coal stocks at power plants fell 60% to 19 million tonnes from 47 million tonnes, as hydropower output fell 16% and thermal generation rose 16%.
3. Banks said IRDAI’s proposed caps on insurance commissions will have minimal impact on earnings. PNB estimated the hit at about ₹70 crore and Canara Bank at under ₹200 crore, while Central Bank of India said its fee income would fall to ₹49 crore from ₹76 crore.
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*ENTERTAINMENT NEWS*
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1. *Jailer 2 Leads Dasara Box Office*
Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 has earned a share of about ₹22 crore in the Telugu States, ahead of Vijay Deverakonda’s Ranabaali at about ₹14 crore, at the Dasara box office.
2. Ramayana: Telugu Rights to Dil Raju
Dil Raju’s Sri Venkateswara Creations has bagged the Telugu theatrical rights of Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Yash and Sai Pallavi. The film is slated for release on 5 November.
3. *Daler Mehndi Stage Row*
Uttarakhand minister Subodh Uniyal confronted singer Daler Mehndi on stage at the Kunjapuri fair in New Tehri over alleged lip-syncing during his performance.
*20 Oct (Tuesday)*
*Vedic Ritu/* Sharad
*Drik Ritu* : Sharad (Autumn)
पक्ष :: *Shuklapaksh*
*Samvatsara* : Parabhava Nama
(Purnimanta)
*Vikram Samvat – 2083*
*Month* : Ashvina 24
(In Amanta calendar)
*Shaka Samvat – 1948*
*Month* : Ashvina 9
*Tithi* : Navami (up to 12:50 pm)Dashami
*Nakshatra*:Shravan/
Dhanishta
*Rahu* : 03:02 PM – 04:28 PM
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Ms. Pooja, |
