Today’s important current affairs, which are essential for students preparing for government jobs-
INTERNATIONAL
1. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri arrives on Sri Lanka visit
- On 5 August, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri arrived in Sri Lanka for a one-day visit.
- During this visit, Misri met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, PM Harini Amarasuriya, and Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath.
- Misri discussed energy, connectivity, and economic projects with the leaders during the visit.
- Along with this, discussions were also held on the proposed grid connectivity project between India and Sri Lanka.
- The visit was organised to strengthen bilateral relations and increase mutual cooperation.
- During the visit, discussions were also held on regional security and cooperation in the Indian Ocean.
SPORTS
2. PV Sindhu ranked 9th in BWF World Badminton Championship
- On 5 August, Indian shuttler PV Sindhu received the 9th seeding in the Women’s Singles category at the BWF World Badminton Championship 2026.
- The World Badminton Championship will be held from 17 to 23 August at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.
- Sindhu is a two-time Olympic medal winner. Meanwhile, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have received the 5th seeding.
- Apart from Sindhu and the Satwik-Chirag pair, former World Championship bronze medallist in men’s singles has been given the 14th seeding.
- China’s men’s singles world champion Shi Yuqi and South Korea’s women’s singles star An Se Young are at the top in their respective categories.
BWF World Badminton Championship Rankings
- In the BWF World Badminton Championship, seeding is given to top players/pairs based on world rankings.
- Players included in the BWF World Badminton Championship rankings do not have to play against top players in the initial (first and second) rounds of the tournament.
- These rankings determine how players should be placed in knockout or group matches, so that top players are not eliminated in early matches.
This time from India, two people each will participate in all five competitions of the championship.
DEATH
3. Actor Pradeep Rawat passed away
- Actor Pradeep Rawat passed away on 4 August. He was 74 years old.
- Pradeep started his acting career with B.R. Chopra’s TV show Mahabharat. He played the role of Ashwatthama.
- After this, Pradeep worked in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, and Bhojpuri films.
- In Hindi cinema, he appeared in films like Lagaan, Sarfarosh, Ghajini, and Grand Masti.
- He entered South Indian cinema with the Telugu film Sye and played many memorable villain characters.
- Besides this, he also acted in the Kannada film Parody, Malayalam film China Town, Bengali film Hero 420, and Bhojpuri film Crack Fighter.
RETIREMENT
4. WWE Champion Brock Lesnar retires
- On 5 August, 10-time WWE Champion and ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar announced his retirement.
- Lesnar has retired from professional wrestling after a spectacular 24-year career inside the squared circle.
- He concluded his iconic career as one of the greatest and most influential superstars in WWE history.
- Lesnar has been a seven-time WWE Champion, three-time Universal Champion, two-time Royal Rumble winner, and Money in the Bank winner.
- Lesnar has been the King of the Ring and the wrestler who broke The Undertaker’s historic undefeated streak at WrestleMania.
- Lesnar has had several titanic clashes with John Cena, The Undertaker, Roman Reigns, Kurt Angle, and most recently, Oba Femi.
Lesnar became WWE Champion at the youngest age of just 25 years during his time.
5. Direct airline service to start between India and Taiwan
- On 5 August, Taiwan’s leading airline EVA Air announced direct flights between Taipei and India.
- Direct (non-stop) passenger flights will begin between Taipei and New Delhi from December 1, 2026.
- EVA Air has partnered with Air India for this service. Due to this, easy connecting flight facilities will also be available from Delhi to other major cities in India.
- For the first time, a Taiwanese airline will operate regular non-stop passenger services to India.
- This decision has been taken to promote trade and tourism between the two countries.
- Until now, passengers travelling to Taiwan had to rely on connecting flights. Now, with direct flights, travel time will be reduced.
- Trade between India and Taiwan takes place in sectors like semiconductors, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and technology. This will promote cooperation between the two countries.
- Indian travellers will also get better connectivity to America and Canada through flights to Taipei.
These flights will operate from Taipei to New Delhi 5 days a week.
6. No petrol will be available now without third-party insurance
- On 5 August, the Supreme Court directed the central government not to provide petrol and diesel to vehicles without third-party insurance.
- Along with this, the court has also extended the time limit for mandatory third-party insurance.
- Now, the mandatory third-party insurance period for new cars has been increased from 3 years to 4 years.
- For new two-wheelers (bikes/scooters), this timeline has been increased from 5 years to 6 years.
- The directions to the central government to work on a pilot project have been given by a bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra.
- Along with this, instructions have been given to identify uninsured vehicles through cameras installed on highways and roads and issue e-challans.
- State police will also be provided with handheld devices or mobile apps to check vehicle insurance.
- These devices will be directly connected to the VAHAN portal and the Insurance Information Bureau (IIB) database.
- This will enable police to immediately check the real-time insurance status of vehicles and issue challans.
- According to the court, approximately 56% of vehicles in India are running without valid insurance. Around 16.54 crore vehicles have been reported to be outside insurance coverage.
Today in History
- The Madras High Court was established in 1862.
- In 1945, America dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.
- In 1991, the World Wide Web (WWW) was made available to the public on the internet for the first time
