DAILY GK 17-18 MAR 2026
1.
FORBES WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES
LIST 2026
·
Forbes released
its 40th annual World’s Billionaires List 2026, the definitive
ranking of the world’s richest people featuring a record 3,428 billionaires,
with Elon Musk retaining the
top spot for the second consecutive year with a net worth of about USD
839 billion, while Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and
Managing Director (CMD) of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), ranked as India’s richest with USD
99.7 billion.
·
Larry Page of
Alphabet (Google) ranked second with
a net worth of USD 257 billion, followed by Sergey Brin of
Alphabet Inc.(Google) in third place with USD 237 billion.
·
The list includes 3,428 billionaires with a
combined net worth of USD 20.1 trillion, up from USD 16.1 trillion
in 2025. The 2026 list includes 390 new entrants, reflecting a rise in younger
billionaires.
·
USA
leads with 989 billionaires, followed by Mainland
China with 539 billionaires and India
ranking third with 229 billionaires.
·
In 2026, a total of 481 women featured on the list,
accounting for 14% of all billionaires, up from 13.4% in 2025.
·
Walmart heir Alice
Walton remains the world’s
richest woman for the second consecutive year, with USD 134 billion.
2.
98TH ACADEMY AWARDS -
OSCARS 2026
·
The 98th Edition of
the Academy Awards (Oscars 2026), organized by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), was held at the Dolby Theatre in
Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA, honoring the best films released in 2025
across 24 categories.
·
The film “One Battle
After Another,” directed by Paul
Thomas Anderson, emerged as the biggest winner at the 98th Academy Awards
(Oscars 2026), winning six Oscars- Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting
Actor (Sean Penn), Best Adapted Screenplay,
Best Film Editing, and Best Casting.
·
The film “Sinners” received 16 nominations, the highest among all films at the 98th
Academy Awards.
·
The Academy introduced a
new category – Achievement in Casting, with ‘Cassandra Kulukundis’ winning the inaugural
award for the film “One Battle After
Another.”
·
Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor in a
Leading Role for the film “Sinners.”
·
Best Actress: Jessie Buckley
became the first Irish actress to
win Best Actress for the film “Hamnet.”
·
Priyanka Chopra presented
the Best International Feature Film
award along with Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
3.
JNANPITH AWARD 2025
·
Renowned Tamil poet and
lyricist R. Vairamuthu (VairamuthuRamasamy) was selected for
the 60th Jnanpith Award for the year 2025, India’s highest literary honour.
·
He became the third
Tamil writer to receive the prestigious award after P. V. Akilandam (Akilan) in 1975 and Jayakanthanin 2002.
·
The Jnanpith Award is
presented annually by Bharatiya Jnanpith, instituted in 1961 and
first awarded in 1965, for
outstanding contribution to Indian
literature.
·
The Jnanpith Award is
conferred for outstanding literary works
written in any of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
·
The award carries a cash
prize of Rs 11 lakh, a bronze statue of Vagdevi (Goddess Saraswati), and a citation.
4.
BCCI NAMAN AWARDS
2026
·
Roger Binny and Rahul Dravid were
conferred with the highest honour of
BCCI, Colonel (Col.) C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award,
while Mithali Raj received the Lifetime
Achievement Award (Women) for her contribution to women’s cricket.
·
Polly Umrigar: Shubman
Gill won the Polly Umrigar Award for Best
International Cricketer (Men) after scoring 983 runs in Tests and 490 runs
in One Day Internationals (ODIs).
·
Women Award: Smriti Mandhana was
named Best International Cricketer (IC) (Women)
for the fifth time, scoring 434 runs in the Women’s ODI World Cup (WWC) and
setting a record with five ODI centuries in 2025.
·
Domestic: Shafali Verma won the
Jagmohan Dalmiya Trophy (JDT) for Best Woman Cricketer in Senior
Domestic One Day (SDOD) cricket for 2024–25.
·
Debut: Harshit Rana (Men) and N Sree Charani (Women) received
awards for Best International Debut.
·
Bowling: Deepti Sharma emerged as the highest wicket-taker in Women’s One Day
Internationals (WODIs).
5.
2025 SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARDS
·
The SahityaAkademi, India’s
National Academy of Letters under the Ministry of Culture, announced the
winners of the SahityaAkademi Awards 2025, recognising
literary excellence in 24 Indian languages.
·
The 2025 awardees include 8
books of Poetry, 6 Short Stories, 4
Novels, 2 Essays, 2 Memoirs, 1
Autobiography, and 1 Literary
Criticism.
·
Each winner receives a
casket containing an engraved copper plaque, a shawl, and a cash
prize of Rs 1 lakh. The plaque was originally designed by the
legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
·
English:NavtejSarna
(Former Ambassador) for his novel “Crimson Spring”.
·
Hindi:MamtaKalia
for her memoir “JeeteJee Allahabad”.
·
Tamil: Sa
Tamilselvan for his work of literary criticism “ThamizSirukathaiyinThadangal”.
·
Bengali:
PrasunBandyopadhyay for the poetry collection “Shrestha Kabita”.
·
Sanskrit:
Sadhu Bhadreshdas (Mahamahopadhyay) for “PrasthanacatustayeBrahmaghosah”.
6. RBI WINS ‘INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR’ AWARD
·
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) won
the ‘Initiative of the Year’ award by the London based Central Banking at
the 13th annual Central Banking Awards for
its innovative ‘. bank. in’ domain rollout
initiative designed to combat rising
cyber frauds in the digital financial ecosystem.
·
The Central Bank of Colombia was recognised
for Bre-B, its
federated retail payments system, while the National Bank of Ethiopia won for wholesale payment services
development and the Bank of Namibia for
its artificial intelligence initiative.
·
‘. bank.in’ Domain: launched in February 2025, is designed around exclusivity and stringent
control, with only RBI-licensed banks
allowed to use it.
·
With the launch of this
domain, India becomes the world’s 1st
country to mandate a secure and exclusive internet domain for the banking
system.
·
Sole Registrar: RBI had appointed the Institute for Development and Research on Banking
Technology (IDRBT) as the sole registrar for the
rollout of the domain.
·
Banks were mandated to
transition their net banking websites to the domain by October 31, 2025.
7.
FRANCE’S LEGION D’HONOUR
RANK OF ‘COMMANDEUR
·
Jawed Ashraf, former
Ambassador of India to France, was
conferred France’s Legion of Honour (Commandeur rank) for his
contribution to strengthening the India–France Strategic Partnership, becoming
the first Indian
Ambassador to receive this honour.
·
The Commander rank has been
conferred on a limited number of Indians, including: JehangirRatanjiDadabhoy(JRD) Tata, Ratan Tata, Amartya Sen, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Satyajit Ray, Syed Haider (S.H.) Raza, Manna Dey.
·
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi was awarded the Grand Cross (highest level) in July 2023.
8.
STOCKHOLM WATER PRIZE
LAUREATE
·
KavehMadani,
Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and
Health (UNU-INWEH), was named the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate at
a ceremony held at UNESCO (United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Headquarters in
Paris, France.
·
At 44, KavehMadani became
the youngest recipient in the prize’s
35-year history, and the first UN official as well as the first former
politician to receive the award.
·
He was honoured for his
contributions to water governance and crisis management.
9.
HONORARY KNIGHTHOOD OF
UK
·
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman
of Tata Sons, the holding company of the
Tata Group, was conferred the Honorary Knight Commander of the Most
Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) by the United Kingdom (UK) government
·
The KBE (Civil Division) is
an honorary knighthood awarded to
foreign nationals for pre‑eminent service in business, public life,
culture, and international relations.
·
UK nationals awarded
knighthood use the title ‘Sir’ or
‘Dame’, while non-UK recipientsadd ‘KBE’ as a suffix to their name.
·
Previous Indian Recipients
of KBE: JamshedIrani (1997), Ravi
Shankar (2001), Ratan Tata (2009, later elevated to GBE in 2014), Lakshmi Niwas
Mittal (2015), and Sunil Bharti Mittal (2025).
10.
WORLD PARA ATHLETICS GRAND
PRIX 2026
·
India topped the medal standings at the World
Para Athletics Grand Prix (WPAGP) 2026 – New Delhi leg,
the second stop of the 13th Grand Prix
season, winning 208 medals (75 gold, 69 silver, and 64 bronze) at the three-day event held at
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi.
·
Russia finished
second with 35 medals (15 gold, 14
silver, and 6 bronze).
·
Bosnia &
Herzegovina secured third place with 3 medals (1 gold, 2
silver, and 0 bronze).
·
It is organised by World Para Athletics (WPA), a
division of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) with support from the
Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).
·
The World Para Athletics
Grand Prix 2026, served as a key
qualifying event, offering classification and performance opportunities for
the 2026 World Para Athletics
Championships and the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
11.
INDIA’S 94TH
GRANDMASTER
·
Mayank Chakraborty, a
17-year-old International Master (IM)
from Guwahati (Assam), created history by becoming India’s 94th
Grandmaster (GM) and the first-ever
Grandmaster from the North East region of India.
·
He achieved this milestone
at the First Hotels Young Talents
Tournament held in Stockholm, Sweden.
·
Along with achieving three
GM norms, he also crossed the mandatory 2500 rating of FIDE.
12.
CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2026
·
Italy’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli,
driving for Mercedes-AMG Petronas,
won his first-ever 2026 Chinese Grand Prix (GP) (also known as
Formula 1 (F1) Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2026) held at the
Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai (China).
·
George Russell (United
Kingdom, UK) of Mercedes finished second,
while Lewis Hamilton (UK) of Ferrari secured third place.
13.
WORLD INDOOR ATHLETICS
CHAMPIONSHIPS 2028
·
The World Athletics Council (WAC) awarded India the
hosting rights for the 22nd edition of the World Indoor Athletics Championships (WIAC
2028), which will be held in Bhubaneswar (Odisha), during the meeting held in Toruń (Poland).
·
WIAC, organized by World
Athletics (WA), is a biennial track and
field event first held in 1985 in Paris, France, under international
athletics governance.
·
India
will host the WIAC 2028 for the first time,
becoming the fourth Asian nation after Japan, Qatar, and China.
·
21st
edition of WIAC is being held in Toruń, Poland in
March 2026, while the 23rd edition of
WIAC 2030 has been awarded to Astana, Kazakhstan.
14.
WTO GLOBAL TRADE OUTLOOK
2026
·
The World Trade
Organization (WTO) released its Global Trade Outlook and
Statistics- March 2026 report, projecting global merchandise
trade growth to slow sharply to 1.9% in 2026 from
4.6% in 2025 Global merchandise trade
growth is projected to recover to 2.6% in 2027.
·
Combined
goods and services trade is projected to grow by 2.7% in 2026, compared to 4.7% in 2025.
·
Commercial
services trade growth is expected to ease to 4.8% in 2026, down from 5.3% in 2025,
before accelerating again to 5.1% in 2027.
·
The Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is forecast to moderate
slightly from 2.9% in 2025 to 2.8% in both 2026
and 2027.
