22 August 2026 — Current Affairs Quiz

Explanation

The 12th BRICS Communications Ministers Meeting was held at Pune on 21 August 2026 under India's BRICS Chairship, and was chaired by Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Communications. It was organised by the Department of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Communications as part of the BRICS ICT Track held from 17 to 21 August, themed Innovate, Cooperate and Transform (ICT) for a Resilient Future. The 11th meeting was held in 2025 under Brazil's Chairship.

Explanation

India assumed the BRICS Chairship on 1 January 2026, succeeding Brazil, under the theme Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability. The 11th BRICS Communications Ministers Meeting was held in 2025 under Brazil's Chairship, while the 12th was held at Pune on 21 August 2026. BRICS now has 11 members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Explanation

India's five Zonal Councils - Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern - are statutory advisory bodies set up under Sections 15 to 22 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. The idea was mooted by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956 during the debate on the States Reorganisation Commission report. The North Eastern Council is separate and functions under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972. The 31st Southern Zonal Council meeting was held on 20 August 2026 at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.

Explanation

The 31st meeting of the Southern Zonal Council was held on 20 August 2026 at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah is Chairman of the Council and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay is Vice-Chairman. It was organised by the Inter-State Council Secretariat, Ministry of Home Affairs, with Tamil Nadu as host. The Council covers Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, plus Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep.

Explanation

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved four-laning of the Muzaffarpur-Sitamarhi-Sonbarsa section of NH-22 in Bihar on 19 August 2026. The 82.578 km project will be built on Hybrid Annuity Mode at a capital cost of Rs 3,590.73 crore. It links the India-Nepal border at Sonbarsa with Muzaffarpur on NH-27, the East-West Corridor. It includes seven major bridges, among them a 340 m bridge over the Bagmati river, three ROBs and two flyovers.

Explanation

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology signed an MoU with PhonePe on 20 August 2026. Under it, metrics from PulsePro, the firm enterprise data intelligence platform, will be integrated into the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan portal, which is managed in collaboration with BISAG-N, the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics. It gives planners granular, hyperlocal transaction insights. S. Krishnan is MeitY Secretary.

Explanation

National Space Day is observed on 23 August, marking the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander soft landing near the lunar south pole in 2023 at the site named Shiv Shakti Point. India became the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon and the first to reach its southern polar region. The 2026 theme is Towards Viksit Bharat: Innovating, Collaborating and Aspiring to Global Space Leadership. The main event is hosted by the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. V. Narayanan is ISRO Chairman.

Explanation

Students of the Mahatma Gandhi Government School at Pachpahar in Rajasthan Jhalawar district, guided by their teacher Dr. Divyendu Sen, took part in the IASC-NASA asteroid search campaign and collectively found 12 main-belt asteroids. More than 100 students have joined the programme. IASC stands for International Astronomical Search Collaboration, a citizen-science effort. The main asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.