17th-19th January 2026

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone for the ₹6,957 crore Kaziranga Elevated Corridor project
2. Kokborok Day observed to celebrate the Tripuri language, its history, and cultural significance
3. Finke River recognised as the world’s oldest continuously flowing river
4. Google launches TranslateGemma, open translation models supporting 55 languages
5. Union Minister Jitendra Singh releases the books Gen V Bano and Mahatma at India’s first NAMO Book Fest
6. Praveen Vashista appointed as Vigilance Commissioner in the Central Vigilance Commission
7. Lokpal of India marks its foundation day, reiterating commitment to clean and accountable governance
8. India and Germany sign a joint declaration to strengthen cooperation in telecommunications
9. Aaryan Varshney becomes India’s 92nd chess Grandmaster
10. Bharat Electricity Summit announced as a major global power sector meet to be hosted by India

National News

1. Bharat Electricity Summit 2026 to be held in New Delhi

• What
  • Bharat Electricity Summit 2026, a global conference-cum-exhibition for the power and electricity sector, will be held from 19–22 March 2026 at Yashobhoomi, New Delhi.
• Why
  • The Summit aims to showcase India’s role in global energy transition and promote cooperation in electricity and clean energy systems.
• Tell me more
  • The theme of the Summit is “Electrifying Growth. Empowering Sustainability. Connecting Globally”.
  • Organiser – Ministry of Power, with collaborative efforts from its Central Public Sector Enterprises and support from other ministries, States and Union Territories, and industry bodies

Source: PIB

2. Books ‘Gen V Bano’ and ‘Mahatma’ released at first NAMO Book Fest

• What
  • Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh released the books ‘Gen V Bano’ and ‘Mahatma’ in New Delhi during the first edition of India’s NAMO Book Fest focused on writings related to Narendra Modi.
• Tell me more
  • India’s NAMO Book Fest is being held over two days and features a curated exhibition of books on Narendra Modi.

Source: NOA

3. Foundation Day of Lokpal of India observed on 16 January

• What
  • The Foundation Day of the Lokpal of India was observed on 16 January in New Delhi, marking its establishment under Section 3 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.
• Tell me more
  • The Lokpal of India came into force on 16 January 2014 with the commencement of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013.
  • A. M. Khanwilkar is the Chairperson of the Lokpal of India.
  • Lokpal Day 2025 was commemorated for the first time as a large public event at the Maneckshaw Centre, New Delhi.

Source: PIB

State News

1. Foundation Stone Laid for Kaziranga Elevated Corridor and Amrit Bharat Trains Flagged Off in Assam

• What
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the ₹6,957-crore Kaziranga Elevated Corridor in Nagaon district, Assam, and virtually flagged off two Amrit Bharat Express trains.
• Why
  • The corridor aims to ensure safe wildlife movement across Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, reduce road accidents on National Highway-715, boost ecotourism, and generate local employment.
  • The two Amrit Bharat Express trains will improve long-distance rail connectivity between Assam and West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Haryana, while reducing travel time and providing modern passenger amenities.
• Tell me more
  • Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve is located in the Brahmaputra River floodplains and has grasslands, forests, and wetlands.
  • The park has the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses and also supports tigers, elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.

Source: TH

2. Kokborok Day Celebrated in Tripura

• What
  • Kokborok received recognition as a state language on January 19, 1979, and the 2026 observance marked the 48th anniversary of this recognition.
• Tell me more
  • Kokborok is the mother tongue of Debbarma (Tripuri), Reang, Tripura, Jamatia, Noatia, Kalai, Rupini, Murasing, and Uchoi communities.
  • Kokborok is recognised as one of the state languages of Tripura.
  • As per the 2011 Census, Kokborok speakers number 8,80,537, forming 23.97% of Tripura’s total population.

Source: ANI

International News

1. Finke River identified as the world’s oldest continuously existing river system

• What
  • Scientists identify the Finke River in Australia as the world’s oldest river system still in existence.
• Tell me more
  • The Finke River, also called Larapinta by the Arrernte people, began flowing around 300–400 million years ago, flows for over 640 km through Northern Territory and South Australia.
  • The river rises south of Mount Ziel in the MacDonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, Australia.
  • The river reaches Lake Eyre in South Australia only during times of flood, through the Macumba Channel.
  • The Palmer River and the Hugh River are tributaries of Finke River.
  • Finke River is an intermittent river, meaning it flows only seasonally or after significant rainfall.

Source: IT Brit

Banking and Economy

1. Google releases TranslateGemma open translation models

• What
  • Google announced TranslateGemma, a new family of open translation models built on Gemma 3 to support multilingual communication across multiple devices and deployment environments.
• Tell me more
  • The models aim to deliver high-quality machine translation with lower computational requirements, supporting both high-resource and low-resource language pairs worldwide.
  • TranslateGemma models are released as open models on Kaggle, Hugging Face, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI.

Source: ET

Sports

1. Aaryan Varshney becomes India’s 92nd Grandmaster after Armenia tournament win

• What
  • Aaryan Varshney, aged 21, became India’s 92nd Grandmaster after securing his final Grandmaster norm at the Andranik Margaryan Memorial in Armenia.
• Tell me more
  • He became the seventh chess player from Delhi to achieve the Grandmaster title, adding to India’s presence in global chess.
  • The Andranik Margaryan Memorial is a recognised international chess tournament held in Armenia.
• Knowledge Nuggets
  • The Elo system is the standard used by FIDE to measure player strength.
  • A norm shows that a player has played at the strength of a specific title level, such as Grandmaster or International Master, in a real tournament.

Source: TOI FIDE Chess

Memorandum of Understanding

1. India and Germany sign Joint Declaration on telecommunications cooperation

• What
  • India and Germany signed a Joint Declaration of Intent to strengthen cooperation in telecommunications and Information and Communication Technologies.
• Tell me more
  • The declaration was signed during the official visit of German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz to India in January.

Source: NOA

Appointments

1. Praveen Vashista appointed as Vigilance Commissioner

• What
  • President Droupadi Murmu appointed Praveen Vashista as Vigilance Commissioner in the Central Vigilance Commission.
• Tell me more
  • Praveen Kumar Srivastava is the Central Vigilance Commissioner.
  • Shri A S Rajeev, former Managing Director and CEO, Bank of Maharashtra, is the other Vigilance Commissioner.

Source: CVC NOA

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