Current Affairs 31 October 2026: 20 Exam-Ready Facts for SSC, BPSC and Railway

This is your current affairs round-up for 31 October 2026, built only from news of the last 24 hours that actually turns up in question papers. Twenty facts, each carrying the exam it matters for, plus four quick-reference tables for appointments, sports, important days and index rankings.

One honest caveat before you start. The official portals did not load during this compile, so three figures (the CMPS outlay, the Q2 GDP nowcast and the National Startup Awards prize money) come from current-affairs aggregators rather than a PIB or RBI release. Two Bihar exam updates are flagged (verify) in the state section for the same reason: the BPSC 72nd CCE Prelims postponement and the JSSC Para Teacher merit list. Check pib.gov.in, bpsc.bihar.gov.in and jssc.nic.in before you write those four into your register.

National

• 1. PM-KISAN 24th instalment released. The Prime Minister released the 24th instalment on 30 October 2026 during a Gujarat visit, sending ₹18,680 crore to about 9.34 crore farmer families through DBT. Each eligible family gets ₹2,000 per instalment and three instalments a year, under a scheme running since February 2019. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.
• 2. Census 2027 schedule notified. The Centre notified the schedule on 30 October 2026. House-to-house enumeration runs from 25 January to 28 February 2027, with digital self-enumeration opening on 10 January 2027. Five poll-bound states and some snow-hit areas stay out of this phase. This is India's 16th Census and the first to offer a self-enumeration option. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.
• 3. Container Manufacturing Promotion Scheme cleared. The Union Cabinet approved the CMPS with a ₹10,000 crore outlay to build a domestic container manufacturing base. Capacity is targeted to rise from roughly 70,000 TEU to 7.5 lakh TEU. The scheme sits with the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and runs from FY28 to FY40. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, Banking.

International

• 4. 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum held in New Delhi. The forum ran on 26 and 27 October 2026 under India's BRICS presidency, on the theme "Fostering Parliaments For People-Centric Development". Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla inaugurated it and the forum closed with a Joint Declaration. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.
• 5. UNGA again votes against the US embargo on Cuba. The resolution was adopted on 28 October 2026 with 130 votes in favour, 17 against and 25 abstentions, and India voted in favour. General Assembly resolutions of this kind carry political weight but are not legally binding. Exam tag: BPSC, SSC, Banking.

Economy & Banking

• 6. Q2 FY27 growth estimated at 7.35%. The Finance Ministry's monthly economic report, released on 29 October 2026, puts real GDP growth for July to September 2026 at 7.35% using a nowcasting model, after 7.8% in Q1 FY27. A nowcast is an estimate and not the NSO's official figure, so read it as directional. Exam tag: Banking, SSC, All exams.
• 7. Dearness Allowance raised to 63%. DA for central government employees and Dearness Relief for pensioners went up 3 percentage points, from 60% to 63%, effective 1 July 2026. DA is revised against the All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, Banking, All exams.
• 8. Christine Lagarde to leave the European Central Bank. She announced on 29 October 2026 that she will step down as ECB President with effect from 7 February 2027. Lagarde took charge in November 2019 and was Managing Director of the IMF before that. Exam tag: Banking, BPSC, All exams.

Appointments in the news (Person and Post)

Sports

• 9. Arshdeep Singh reaches 150 T20I wickets. In the fourth T20I against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland on 30 October 2026, he became the first Indian bowler to take 150 wickets in T20 Internationals. The milestone came in his 103rd match, when he dismissed New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, All exams.
• 10. India wins four medals at the World Boxing U19 Championships. At Budva, Montenegro, Aditya took gold in the men's 55 kg by beating Russia's Islam Magomedov 4-1. Megha Sheokand won silver in the women's 80 kg, with bronze for Harshika and Prachi Tokas. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, All exams.

Sports results (Event and Winner)

Awards

• 11. Sunil Bharti Mittal conferred France's Legion of Honour. The Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises received the Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, presented by French Ambassador Thierry Mathou. The Legion of Honour is France's highest civilian distinction and was instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. Exam tag: SSC, Banking, All exams.
• 12. 6th National Startup Awards announced. DPIIT, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, opened NSA 6.0 with 20 sectoral and 3 special categories, including 12 newly added sectors. The cash prize is ₹25 lakh for each winning category. Special categories cover Women-Led Startup of the Year, North-East Startup Excellence and the Student Innovator award. Exam tag: SSC, Banking, BPSC.

Science & Defence

• 13. Rafale Marine lands on INS Vikrant. On 30 October 2026 a Rafale M fighter made its first-ever landing on INS Vikrant, and it did so on the first attempt. INS Vikrant is India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier, commissioned in September 2022. The step feeds into the 26-aircraft Rafale M deal signed with France. DRDO separately held VISV-2026 with CENJOWS at the Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi, on the same day. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, Defence, All exams.
• 14. 100th United States spacewalk at the ISS. NASA astronaut Anil Menon, who is of Indian origin, completed his fourth spacewalk on 29 October 2026 with Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, installing a roll-out solar array. It was the 100th American spacewalk at the International Space Station. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, All exams.

Bihar-Jharkhand Special

• 15. Jharkhand Cabinet clears 62 proposals. The Hemant Soren cabinet met on 27 October 2026 and approved 62 items. The headline decision is the Neemdih-Kukru mega-lift irrigation scheme in Seraikela-Kharsawan district, worth ₹607.03 crore, lifting water from the Chandil reservoir through underground pipelines to the Neemdih and Kukru blocks. Exam tag: JSSC, JPSC, JTET.
• 16. Two large health projects approved for Jharkhand. The same cabinet cleared a revised sanction of about ₹545.38 crore for a new 500-bed hospital building at MGM Medical College, Jamshedpur, and about ₹284.17 crore for infrastructure at the planned Jharkhand Medico City in Ranchi. State universities and colleges must also set aside 2% of their annual budgets for health and well-being units. Exam tag: JSSC, JPSC.
• 17. Jharkhand Assembly to hold a special session on 25 and 26 November. Two days are set aside to debate the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the amended MMDR Act, which the state links to its mineral revenue. The cabinet also approved the Jharkhand Mineral Exploration and Block Development Policy, 2026. Exam tag: JSSC, JPSC.
• 18. Bihar: R.K. Sinha dies at 75, Bhagalpur tops flood relief. The former BJP Rajya Sabha MP and founder of the SIS Group died on 30 October 2026, with last rites at Digha Ghat, Patna. Separately, Bhagalpur stood first in Bihar for flood-relief disbursal, paying 1.65 lakh families ₹7,000 each and releasing a ₹27.37 crore crop grant to farmers. On the exam front the BPSC 72nd CCE Prelims stands postponed with no new date for its 1,186 vacancies (verify), and the JSSC Para Teacher merit list for 7,299 posts has reportedly been published (verify). Exam tag: BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police, JSSC.

Important Days

• 19. 31 October is Rashtriya Ekta Diwas. National Unity Day marks the 151st birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, born on 31 October 1875 at Nadiad, Gujarat. He was independent India's first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, the Statue of Unity at Kevadia stands 182 metres tall, and the day has been observed since 2014. Exam tag: SSC, Railway, BPSC, All exams.
• 20. 31 October is also World Cities Day. The 2026 theme is "Regenerating the City: Adequate Housing for All" and the global observance was hosted at Fuzhou, China. The day is coordinated by UN-Habitat and closes Urban October every year. Exam tag: SSC, BPSC, BSSC.

Important days this week (Day and Theme)

Index and ranking snapshot (Index, India's Rank, Topper)

No fresh global index was released in the last 24 hours, so the table above carries the standing figure examiners are still picking from this cycle.

How to actually use this page

Read the 20 facts once in the morning. Then take today's 15-question quiz on ExamAtlas without scrolling back to this page. Whatever you get wrong, write only that fact in your notebook, nothing else.

Most aspirants in Boring Road and Lalpur coaching batches read current affairs every day and still drop marks, because they read and never retrieve. Retrieval is the whole game. ExamAtlas runs a free daily current affairs quiz with topic-wise accuracy tracking, so you can see which of these eight sections is leaking your marks.

What to revise tonight

If you have ten minutes left before sleeping, revise three things only: the Jharkhand Cabinet figures with their districts attached, the rupee amounts in today's national schemes, and the two observances of 31 October. Those three carry the highest repeat value across BPSC, BSSC, JSSC, SSC and Railway papers.

A fair warning about aggregator current affairs. Any list that gives you a number without naming a ministry, a commission or a primary bulletin is a number you should not memorise. Four figures on this page carry that warning, and they are marked in the caveat at the top.

Aaj ka full CA quiz: ExamAtlas.com