Sports, Games & Awards — National & International Recognition

Why This Chapter Matters

Current affairs typically carries the single largest weight in the General Awareness section of IBPS and SBI Clerk prelims, often 15 to 20 questions out of the 40-50 GA marks on offer, and banking-linked current affairs (RBI policy, government financial schemes, appointments) is the section examiners lean on hardest because it tests whether you actually read the news rather than just memorised a static GK PDF. This chapter is different from every other chapter in this book in one important way: it will age. A fact that is accurate in early 2026 may be one policy announcement out of date by the time you sit for your exam. Read this chapter as your foundation, not your final word, and update it with one focused current affairs source in the last six to eight weeks before your exam.

The single biggest mistake aspirants make with banking current affairs is memorising numbers (a repo rate, a scheme's rupee outlay) without understanding the direction and reason behind the change. Examiners love asking "why" a rate moved or "what changed" about a scheme, not just "what is the current number," precisely because numbers become outdated fast while directions stay conceptually testable. This chapter gives you the framework, the confirmed appointments and structural changes through 2025-2026, and a clear list of what to verify freshly before your exam date.

1. RBI Leadership and Monetary Policy Committee

Sanjay Malhotra took charge as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in December 2024, succeeding Shaktikanta Das, whose six-year tenure (2018-2024) had spanned the pandemic, high inflation years, and the digital payments boom. Malhotra came from the Indian Administrative Service background and had previously served as Revenue Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, a detail worth noting because RBI Governors have historically come from a mix of economist and bureaucrat backgrounds, and examiners occasionally test a Governor's prior post.

Exam trap: Do not confuse the RBI Governor with the Finance Secretary or Finance Minister. The Governor heads the RBI, an autonomous statutory body; the Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman, holding the post continuously since 2019) is a political office within the Union Cabinet, presenting the Union Budget. RBI's monetary policy and the government's fiscal policy are distinct arms working in coordination, not the same authority.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), a six-member body chaired by the RBI Governor, meets bi-monthly to decide the repo rate, the rate at which RBI lends short-term funds to commercial banks, which anchors the entire interest rate structure in the economy. The MPC's mandate is to maintain Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation at 4%, with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2% (so a 2% to 6% range), a target framework that has been in place since 2016 and was renewed for another five-year period through the RBI Act amendment review process.

Through 2025, as inflation eased from the elevated levels seen in preceding years, the RBI's MPC moved into a rate-easing cycle, cutting the repo rate across multiple consecutive meetings from its earlier peak level, a shift examiners describe as moving from a "restrictive" stance toward supporting growth. Exam trap: whenever a question asks for "the current repo rate," treat it as the single most time-sensitive number in this entire book — verify it against the RBI's own website or a fresh current affairs digest within a week or two of your exam, because it can move at each bi-monthly MPC meeting.

Memory hook: Think of the repo rate as the price of borrowed water at a common village well (the RBI). When the well charges banks less to draw water (a rate cut), banks pass cheaper loans to you; when it charges more (a rate hike), your EMIs rise. The MPC's job is deciding, every two months, how much the well should charge, based on how "thirsty" (inflation-hit) or "dry" (growth-starved) the economy currently is.

2. Union Budget 2025-26 and Tax Reform

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2025-26 on 1 February 2025, her eighth consecutive budget presentation, a personal record surpassing the previous record held by Morarji Desai. The budget's headline announcement for the salaried and middle class was a significant revision to the new income tax regime, raising the income level up to which individuals pay no income tax to ₹12 lakh annually (₹12.75 lakh for salaried taxpayers after factoring in the standard deduction), a move framed as boosting disposable income and consumption.

Alongside the budget, the government pursued a broader legislative overhaul: a new Income Tax Act, 2025 was introduced to replace the Income Tax Act of 1961, simplifying language and structure without altering the fundamental tax slabs already announced, intended to take effect from the assessment year following its passage. Exam trap: the new Act is a simplification and consolidation exercise, not a wholesale change in tax policy; do not assume every number in the old Act changed just because the Act itself was replaced.

Exam trap: Budget documents distinguish fiscal deficit (total borrowing needed to meet expenditure) from revenue deficit (shortfall in revenue receipts against revenue expenditure) from primary deficit (fiscal deficit minus interest payments). Questions frequently swap these definitions among answer options; anchor yourself with the reminder that "primary" deficit strips out the interest burden, since interest is a legacy cost from past borrowing, not current-year overspending.

3. Pension and Social Security Reform

The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), notified by the government, came into effect from 1 April 2025, offering central government employees an option to shift from the market-linked National Pension System (NPS) to a scheme guaranteeing an assured pension, calculated as 50% of the average basic pay drawn over the last 12 months of service, provided a minimum qualifying service period is met. This addressed years of employee-union pressure for a return to defined-benefit-style security while stopping short of fully reviving the older, more expensive Old Pension Scheme (OPS).

Memory hook: Line up India's pension evolution as three stops on one line: OPS (Old Pension Scheme), the pre-2004 defined-benefit system for government employees; NPS (National Pension System), introduced for employees joining government service from 2004 onward, market-linked and contribution-based; and UPS (Unified Pension Scheme), effective 2025, a hybrid offering NPS-style structure with an OPS-style assured payout option. Three letters, three eras: Old, New, Unified.

4. Digital Payments and the RBI's Digital Push

India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI), developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched in 2016, has continued to set global records in transaction volume, regularly crossing fifteen to sixteen billion transactions a month through 2025, figures that dwarf most other countries' digital payment systems combined. UPI's international footprint expanded further through 2025, with acceptance live or being piloted in additional countries beyond the earlier group (UAE, Singapore, France, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and others), part of RBI and NPCI's push to make UPI-linked payments usable by Indian travellers abroad and, reciprocally, to let certain foreign nationals use UPI within India.

The RBI's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), branded the Digital Rupee (e₹), has continued its phased pilot across both wholesale (interbank settlement) and retail (consumer-facing) segments, with the retail pilot gradually expanding to more banks and cities, though it remained a pilot rather than a full public rollout through this period. Exam trap: the Digital Rupee is a direct RBI liability, distinct from UPI, which is merely a payment rail moving money between existing bank accounts. A CBDC unit held in your digital wallet is functionally cash issued by the central bank; a UPI transaction just moves regular bank deposit money faster. Do not describe UPI as "India's digital currency" — that description belongs to the e₹ alone.

The RBI also continued tightening its regulatory framework around digital lending, co-lending arrangements between banks and NBFCs, and expected credit loss-based provisioning norms for banks, moving Indian banking gradually toward globally aligned, forward-looking risk provisioning rather than the older incurred-loss model. Keep an eye on the exact implementation date of the Expected Credit Loss (ECL) framework for banks closer to your exam, since RBI extended its rollout timeline more than once during consultation with the banking industry.

5. Financial Inclusion Milestones

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), launched on 28 August 2014, crossed its eleventh anniversary in August 2025, with total accounts opened well past 55 crore, and total deposit balances in these accounts crossing ₹2.5 lakh crore, figures that examiners like to test as "which financial inclusion scheme's deposits crossed X lakh crore" style questions. PMJDY remains the base layer of India's JAM trinity (Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar identity, Mobile connectivity), the architecture underlying most Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) programmes.

Exam trap: Do not confuse PMJDY (a bank account access scheme) with PM Vishwakarma Yojana (support for traditional artisans and craftspeople) or PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana (rooftop solar subsidy scheme), both of which are separate government schemes that also generated substantial news through 2024-2025 and are frequently listed together in "match the scheme to its purpose" questions.

The RBI's Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index), a composite index measuring access, usage, and quality of financial services across the country on a scale of 0 to 100, has shown a steady year-on-year rise, reflecting improving inclusion, though the exact latest score is worth checking freshly rather than memorising a number likely to be revised by the time you sit your exam.

6. Banking Structure and Ownership Changes

The long-pending privatisation of IDBI Bank, where the government and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) together hold a majority stake, continued to progress through the strategic disinvestment process during 2025, with the government working through due diligence and bidder evaluation stages. Exam trap: IDBI Bank is not currently classified as a Public Sector Bank (PSB) in RBI's own categorisation, despite majority government-linked ownership through LIC and the government together, because of its unique origin as a development financial institution converted into a bank — a nuance examiners occasionally probe.

India's Public Sector Bank count has stood at 12 since the last round of mergers completed in April 2020 (when several associate banks merged into larger anchor banks, for example Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India merging into Punjab National Bank, and Syndicate Bank merging into Canara Bank), and this number remained unchanged through the 2025-26 period, though ownership stake reduction (government paring down its holding below 100% in select PSBs through market offerings) continued as a distinct process from any further merger.

Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) continued their own consolidation process under the "One State, One RRB" approach, reducing the total number of RRBs nationally through mergers of RRBs sponsored by the same bank within a state, a structural reform aimed at improving RRB capital strength and operational efficiency.

7. Key Appointments Worth Knowing

Banking exams regularly test the top leadership of major financial institutions. Beyond the RBI Governor covered above, keep track of the Chairman of SBI, the Managing Directors of major public sector banks, the Chairperson of SEBI (Madhabi Puri Buch completed her term and Tuhin Kanta Pandey took charge as SEBI Chairperson in 2025), the Chairman of IRDAI (the insurance regulator), and the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.

Exam trap: These leadership posts change more often than the institutions themselves, so a name-based question is inherently higher-risk than an institution-based question. If you can only revise one layer thoroughly, prioritise knowing what each regulator does (RBI for banking, SEBI for securities markets, IRDAI for insurance, PFRDA for pensions) over memorising every current officeholder's name, then top up officeholder names in your final-weeks revision.

Memory hook: India's financial regulatory family has one regulator per major financial product, easy to remember as "Banks-RBI, Shares-SEBI, Insurance-IRDAI, Retirement-PFRDA" — four sectors, four regulators, each with a completely separate legal mandate, so a scam or reform in the insurance sector is IRDAI's problem to address, not SEBI's, even if it involves market-linked insurance products.

8. National Events and Recognitions

India's G20 Presidency, held through 2023, passed the presidency baton onward under the G20's annual rotation, with Brazil holding the presidency through 2024 and South Africa holding it through 2025, before the presidency was due to move onward again — the G20 rotates annually among member nations by design, so do not assume India's presidency year continues indefinitely in your answer choices.

India's economy crossed key milestones during this period worth noting directionally: India has been consistently described in official government and international commentary as the fastest-growing major economy in the world through the mid-2020s, and discussions around India's GDP ranking among the world's largest economies (competing closely with Japan and Germany for the third and fourth positions globally, behind the USA and China) featured prominently in financial news through 2025. Exam trap: treat any specific GDP ranking claim as a number to verify freshly, since rankings shift with exchange rate movements and revised estimates from multiple agencies (IMF, World Bank, and India's own National Statistical Office) that do not always agree in a given quarter.

The Reserve Bank of India's own balance sheet and dividend transfer to the government is tested almost every year: RBI transfers a surplus (dividend) to the central government from its annual accounts, and this transfer has run into the multiple lakh crore rupee range in recent years, forming a meaningful, closely watched, non-tax revenue source for the Union government's budget math. The exact figure changes every year with RBI's board-approved transfer, declared typically around May, so revise the latest figure specifically in the weeks before your exam rather than relying on any number printed here.

9. RBI Regulatory and Policy Developments

Through 2025, the RBI continued refining its regulatory toolkit across several fronts that regularly surface in Banking Awareness questions. It maintained its focus on Priority Sector Lending (PSL) targets, requiring banks to direct a defined percentage of adjusted net bank credit toward sectors like agriculture, micro and small enterprises, export credit, education, housing, and weaker sections, with the overall PSL target remaining at 40% of Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) for domestic scheduled commercial banks, a figure that has held steady for years and is worth knowing cold rather than treating as time-sensitive.

RBI also continued strengthening cybersecurity and fraud risk management frameworks for banks and NBFCs, given the rise in digital payment fraud complaints, including expanded use of tools like the positive pay system for high-value cheques and continued rollout of frameworks to curb "mule accounts" used to launder fraud proceeds. On the NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company) front, RBI's scale-based regulatory framework, which classifies NBFCs into Base, Middle, Upper, and Top layers with tiered regulatory intensity, remained the operating structure, with periodic updates to which NBFCs fall into the tightly regulated Upper Layer.

Exam trap: Do not describe an NBFC as a "bank." NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits (like savings or current account deposits) and are not part of the payment and settlement system in the way banks are, even though they lend money and are regulated by RBI — a foundational distinction candidates get wrong under exam pressure.

10. How to Update This Chapter Before Your Exam

Treat everything above as your structural base, not your final answer sheet. In the six to eight weeks before your actual IBPS or SBI Clerk exam date, specifically verify: the current repo rate and CRR (as decided in the most recent MPC meeting), the current RBI Governor and Deputy Governors, the current Finance Minister and Chief Economic Adviser, the latest RBI dividend transfer figure, any new government scheme launched in the preceding six months, the current G20 presidency holder, and any newly announced banking merger, licence, or major RBI penalty on a bank reported in financial newspapers. A focused 30-minute weekly habit of reading one reliable financial newspaper's front page and business section, maintained consistently from now until your exam, will cover this updating requirement far better than any static book chapter ever could, including this one.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• Sanjay Malhotra became the 26th RBI Governor in December 2024, succeeding Shaktikanta Das.
• The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee targets CPI inflation at 4%, within a 2%-6% tolerance band.
• The MPC is a six-member, bi-monthly body chaired by the RBI Governor.
• Nirmala Sitharaman presented her eighth consecutive Union Budget on 1 February 2025, a personal record.
• Budget 2025-26 raised the no-tax income threshold to ₹12 lakh under the new tax regime.
• A new Income Tax Act, 2025 was introduced to replace and simplify the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) took effect from 1 April 2025 for central government employees.
• UPS offers an assured pension of 50% of average last-12-months basic pay, subject to conditions.
• UPI, run by NPCI, regularly crosses 15-16 billion monthly transactions.
• The Digital Rupee (e₹) is RBI's Central Bank Digital Currency, a direct RBI liability, distinct from UPI.
• PMJDY, launched 28 August 2014, crossed 55 crore-plus accounts by its 2025 anniversary.
• The JAM trinity stands for Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile.
• India's Public Sector Bank count has stood at 12 since the April 2020 mega-merger round.
• IDBI Bank is not classified as a Public Sector Bank despite majority government-and-LIC ownership.
• RRBs are consolidating under the "One State, One RRB" approach.
• SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA are India's securities, insurance, and pension regulators respectively.
• G20 presidency rotates annually; India held it in 2023, followed by Brazil (2024) and South Africa (2025).
• Priority Sector Lending target for domestic banks remains 40% of Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC).
• NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits, unlike banks, despite both being RBI-regulated lenders.
• RBI's scale-based regulation classifies NBFCs into Base, Middle, Upper, and Top layers.
• RBI transfers an annual dividend/surplus to the central government, typically declared around May.
• The old Old Pension Scheme (OPS), NPS, and UPS represent three successive stages of India's pension architecture.
• Fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, and primary deficit are three distinct budget deficit measures.
• Primary deficit equals fiscal deficit minus interest payments on past borrowing.
• The RBI Governor is a statutory appointment; the Finance Minister is a political Cabinet post.
• Positive pay system and mule-account monitoring are RBI tools to curb digital and cheque fraud.
• India has been widely described as the fastest-growing major economy through the mid-2020s.
• Always verify time-sensitive figures like repo rate and GDP ranking close to your actual exam date.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Key 2025-2026 Banking and National Developments

Development	Date/Period	Key Detail
Sanjay Malhotra becomes RBI Governor	December 2024	26th Governor, succeeded Shaktikanta Das
Union Budget 2025-26 presented	1 February 2025	₹12 lakh no-tax threshold under new regime
New Income Tax Act, 2025	2025	Simplifies and replaces the 1961 Act
Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) effective	1 April 2025	Assured pension option for central govt employees
PMJDY 11th anniversary	August 2025	55 crore-plus accounts opened cumulatively
G20 Presidency (post-India)	2024-2025	Brazil (2024), then South Africa (2025)

Table 2: India's Financial Regulators at a Glance

Regulator	Sector Regulated	Governs
RBI (Reserve Bank of India)	Banking and monetary policy	Banks, NBFCs, payment systems, currency
SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)	Securities markets	Stock exchanges, mutual funds, listed companies
IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India)	Insurance	Life, health, and general insurance companies
PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority)	Pensions	NPS and related pension products

Table 3: Pension Scheme Evolution

Scheme	Applicable To	Nature
Old Pension Scheme (OPS)	Government employees joining before 2004	Defined-benefit, government-funded
National Pension System (NPS)	Employees joining government service from 2004	Market-linked, contribution-based
Unified Pension Scheme (UPS)	Central govt employees, effective April 2025	Hybrid, assured-payout option within NPS structure

Practice MCQs

Q1. Who became the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in December 2024? (a) Shaktikanta Das (b) Urjit Patel (c) Sanjay Malhotra (d) Raghuram Rajan

Q2. The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee is mandated to keep CPI inflation within which range? (a) 0% to 4% (b) 2% to 6% (c) 3% to 7% (d) 4% to 8%

Q3. Under Budget 2025-26, income up to what amount was made tax-free under the new income tax regime? (a) ₹7 lakh (b) ₹10 lakh (c) ₹12 lakh (d) ₹15 lakh

Q4. The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) became effective from which date? (a) 1 January 2025 (b) 1 April 2025 (c) 1 July 2025 (d) 28 August 2025

Q5. Which body operates the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India? (a) RBI (b) SEBI (c) NPCI (d) IRDAI

Q6. The Digital Rupee (e₹) issued by RBI is best described as: (a) A payment app similar to UPI (b) A direct liability of the RBI, a central bank digital currency (c) A cryptocurrency traded on private exchanges (d) A savings bond issued by the government

Q7. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched in which year? (a) 2014 (b) 2016 (c) 2019 (d) 2020

Q8. The "JAM trinity" refers to which combination? (a) Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile (b) Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, MSME (c) Jobs, Aadhaar, Mudra (d) Jan Dhan, ATM, Mobile

Q9. How many Public Sector Banks has India had since the mega-merger round completed in April 2020? (a) 8 (b) 10 (c) 12 (d) 15

Q10. Which regulator governs India's insurance sector? (a) SEBI (b) PFRDA (c) IRDAI (d) RBI

Q11. The Priority Sector Lending (PSL) target for domestic scheduled commercial banks is measured against: (a) Total deposits (b) Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) (c) Net profit (d) Capital adequacy ratio

Q12. Which of the following is a key difference between a bank and an NBFC? (a) NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits, unlike banks (b) Only NBFCs are regulated by RBI (c) Banks cannot lend money, only NBFCs can (d) NBFCs are always government-owned

Q13. Primary deficit is calculated as: (a) Fiscal deficit plus interest payments (b) Fiscal deficit minus interest payments (c) Revenue deficit minus capital expenditure (d) Total expenditure minus total receipts

Q14. Who took charge as SEBI Chairperson in 2025, succeeding Madhabi Puri Buch? (a) Uday Kotak (b) Tuhin Kanta Pandey (c) Ajay Banga (d) Shaktikanta Das

Q15. RBI's scale-based regulatory framework classifies NBFCs into how many layers? (a) Two (b) Three (c) Four (d) Five

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
1	(c)	Sanjay Malhotra took over as RBI Governor in December 2024, succeeding Shaktikanta Das after his six-year term.
2	(b)	The MPC's mandate is 4% CPI inflation with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2%, giving a 2%-6% range.
3	(c)	Budget 2025-26 raised the no-tax threshold to ₹12 lakh under the new income tax regime, easing the middle-class tax burden.
4	(b)	The Unified Pension Scheme became effective from 1 April 2025 for eligible central government employees.
5	(c)	NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) developed and operates UPI, distinct from RBI, which regulates the payment ecosystem.
6	(b)	The e₹ is a direct RBI liability functioning as digital cash, unlike UPI, which only moves existing bank deposits.
7	(a)	PMJDY was launched on 28 August 2014 as India's flagship financial inclusion scheme.
8	(a)	JAM stands for Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar identity, and Mobile connectivity, the backbone of Direct Benefit Transfer.
9	(c)	India has had 12 Public Sector Banks since the April 2020 merger round consolidated several associate banks into larger ones.
10	(c)	IRDAI regulates India's insurance sector, distinct from SEBI (securities) and PFRDA (pensions).
11	(b)	PSL targets, including the overall 40% target, are measured against Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC), not total deposits.
12	(a)	The defining structural difference is that NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits, while banks can, despite both being RBI-regulated.
13	(b)	Primary deficit strips out interest payments (a legacy cost) from the fiscal deficit, isolating current-year overspending.
14	(b)	Tuhin Kanta Pandey took charge as SEBI Chairperson in 2025 after Madhabi Puri Buch completed her term.
15	(c)	RBI's scale-based regulation for NBFCs uses four layers: Base, Middle, Upper, and Top.