International Events of 2026 — India & Rajasthan's Global Engagements

If you're new to this topic, start by separating three things that get conflated constantly: BRICS, SCO, and WEF are not three names for the same kind of thing.

BRICS is a bloc of major emerging economies — originally Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, now expanded with partner countries — that holds an annual Leaders' Summit under a rotating Chairship. A member's "Chairship" (or "Presidency") means it hosts that year's Summit and sets the year's theme and ministerial calendar.
SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) is a separate Eurasian security and political bloc. India joined as a full member in 2017. It has nothing to do with BRICS beyond sharing some member countries (Russia, China, and the Central Asian states).
WEF (World Economic Forum) is not an intergovernmental bloc at all — it's an annual private-sector and government networking event held in Davos, Switzerland, where Indian states send delegations to pitch for investment.

Confusing these three costs marks in exactly the way RPSC likes to test: a prelims question naming "the bloc India chaired in 2026" or "the organisation India joined in 2017" is really just checking whether you kept these three apart. India held the BRICS Chairship in 2012, 2016 and 2021 before 2026 — this is its fourth turn.

Overview

The organising fact behind almost everything in this note is India's fourth BRICS Chairship, running through calendar-year 2026 and culminating in the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12–13 September. What makes 2026 different from a typical Chairship year — and what makes it genuinely useful for Rajasthan-focused current affairs — is that India spread the BRICS ministerial calendar across five cities in four states instead of running everything out of Delhi. Rajasthan hosted two of those meetings, in Jaipur and Udaipur, which sit alongside the state's own pre-existing international calendar: the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Rajasthan DigiFest × TiE Global Summit, and the Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit. Beyond BRICS, India also hosted the India–AI Impact Summit — the first global AI summit held in the Global South — and, for the first time, welcomed the European Union's top leadership as Republic Day Chief Guests.

Note: Sports and Games events (the 2026 Winter Olympics, the 2026 Commonwealth Games) are tracked separately under Sports & Games current affairs and are not repeated here, to keep this note focused on diplomatic, economic and political events.

India's BRICS Chairship 2026

Why the Chairship matters this year

Holding the BRICS Chairship isn't just a ceremonial label — the chairing country sets the year's overarching theme, runs a full calendar of ministerial and working-group meetings across its own territory in the run-up to the Leaders' Summit, and uses the platform for economic diplomacy. India's theme for 2026, "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability," was unveiled by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on 13 January 2026, alongside the logo and the official website (brics2026.gov.in). The first BRICS Sherpa Meeting — the preparatory track where each leader's personal representative negotiates the agenda ahead of the main Summit — began in New Delhi on 9 February 2026.

The Chairship calendar culminates in the 18th BRICS Summit, to be held in New Delhi on 12–13 September 2026. This is India's fourth time chairing BRICS, after 2012, 2016 and 2021 — a fact worth holding onto, because RPSC's current-affairs questions frequently test not just "what happened" but "how many times has this happened before," and a fourth Chairship is a materially different claim from a first one.

Jaipur — the 10th BRICS Industry Ministers' Meeting

Rajasthan's first BRICS moment of 2026 came on 6–7 August, when Jaipur hosted the 10th BRICS Industry Ministers' Meeting, chaired by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal, with Minister of State Jitin Prasada and Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal also present. The meeting brought together industry and commerce ministers from BRICS member states to discuss industrial cooperation and — reflecting a running theme across nearly every BRICS meeting this year — resilient supply chains. Delegates adopted a Joint Declaration on these two subjects at the meeting's close.

For a state government, hosting a ministerial meeting of this kind is as much about optics and infrastructure demonstration as it is about the meeting's formal agenda: it puts Jaipur's convention capacity, hospitality sector and heritage sites in front of a room of visiting trade officials from every BRICS economy, which is precisely the audience Rajasthan is separately courting through the Rising Rajasthan investment summit.

Udaipur — BRICS Heads of Competition Authorities

Two days later, on 8 August 2026, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) hosted the Meeting of Heads of BRICS Competition Authorities in Udaipur, at the Taj Fateh Prakash Palace, chaired by CCI Chairperson Ravneet Kaur. Delegates — heads and senior officials of competition-law authorities from BRICS member and partner countries — adopted a Joint Statement titled "Strengthening Cooperation to Promote Fair Competition, including in Renewable Energy Markets." Alongside the meeting, the CCI steered a collaborative BRICS study on the emerging competition landscape in the renewable-energy sector — an attempt to understand how competition dynamics are playing out across BRICS jurisdictions as they all scale up clean-energy capacity simultaneously.

The delegation departed Udaipur on 9 August. This is a different, narrower body than the biennial BRICS International Competition Conference that CCI hosted in New Delhi in 2023 — worth noting only because RPSC-style questions sometimes hinge on exactly this kind of "same host body, different named meeting" distinction.

Common mistake: Don't merge the Jaipur and Udaipur meetings into one "BRICS meeting in Rajasthan." They are two separate ministerial-track events — Industry (Jaipur, Ministry of Commerce & Industry) and Competition (Udaipur, Competition Commission of India) — held two days apart, with different chairs and different subject matter. RPSC's question style tends to reward exactly this level of precision.

The other three BRICS cities — Delhi, Varanasi, Bhopal

Rajasthan's two meetings sit inside a larger pattern: India used its Chairship to distribute the BRICS ministerial calendar across the country rather than running it all from Delhi. Culture-track meetings, in particular, went to two cities that are not Rajasthan — a distinction worth being deliberate about, since it's exactly the kind of city-matching detail a Prelims question would test.

The BRICS Culture Working Group met in Varanasi on 4–5 June 2026 — a preparatory session ahead of the main ministerial meeting. That main meeting, the XI BRICS Culture Ministers' Meeting, along with a two-day BRICS Cultural Festival, was held in Bhopal on 5–8 August 2026 — overlapping almost exactly with Rajasthan's own Jaipur and Udaipur meetings that same week. Fourteen countries participated (ten BRICS member states plus Belarus, Cuba, Kazakhstan and Thailand as partner countries, with Indonesia, South Africa and the UAE's culture ministers also attending), and delegates adopted the "Bhopal Declaration," covering cultural and creative industries, heritage protection, and — reflecting how thoroughly AI has entered every 2026 policy conversation — AI-enabled tools for tracing and repatriating cultural property. The Cultural Festival itself, built around the theme "Harmony and Peace to All," featured performances from Belarus, Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and the UAE.

New Delhi, meanwhile, hosted the Chairship's bookend events: the theme launch (13 January), the first Sherpa Meeting (9 February), and the Summit itself (12–13 September).

RPSC "match the city" trap. Five different cities hosted BRICS meetings under one Chairship in 2026 — New Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Varanasi and Bhopal — spread across four states (Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh). A well-set Prelims question could plausibly ask which meeting was held where, or which of these cities is not in Rajasthan. Memorise the pairing, not just the fact that "BRICS meetings happened in India."

City	State	Meeting(s)
New Delhi	Delhi	Theme launch (13 Jan) · 1st Sherpa Meeting (9 Feb) · 18th Summit (12–13 Sep)
Jaipur	Rajasthan	10th BRICS Industry Ministers' Meeting (6–7 Aug)
Udaipur	Rajasthan	BRICS Heads of Competition Authorities (8 Aug)
Varanasi	Uttar Pradesh	BRICS Culture Working Group (4–5 Jun)
Bhopal	Madhya Pradesh	XI BRICS Culture Ministers' Meeting + Cultural Festival (5–8 Aug)

Rajasthan's Own International Calendar

Independent of BRICS, Rajasthan runs its own recurring calendar of internationally-attended events — and 2026 packed an unusual number of them into January alone.

Rajasthan DigiFest × TiE Global Summit — the "first non-metro" milestone

The Rajasthan DigiFest × TiE Global Summit 2026 ran at the Jaipur Exhibition & Convention Centre (JECC) from 4–6 January, inaugurated by Rajasthan's IT & Communications Minister Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore. Its significance is less about the theme — "Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the Age of AI" — and more about a specific claim worth remembering precisely: this was the 10th edition of the summit, and the first ever held outside a metro city. TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Global Summits have historically anchored themselves in India's largest cities; choosing Jaipur for the milestone tenth edition was a deliberate statement about Tier-2-city capacity, drawing 10,000+ participants, 100+ speakers, 500+ investors and 300+ exhibitors across sessions in AI, deep tech, fintech, agritech and more.

Jaipur Literature Festival — the soft-power anchor

The 19th Jaipur Literature Festival followed almost immediately, running 15–19 January at Hotel Clarks Amer. JLF is India's best-known literary event internationally, and the 2026 edition drew 500+ speakers from more than 25 countries across 300+ sessions — including Booker Prize winners Kiran Desai and Banu Mushtaq. For RAS purposes, JLF is worth knowing less as a current-affairs date and more as a recurring interview and Mains-essay reference point: it's a genuine example of Rajasthan projecting cultural soft power on a scale most states don't attempt.

A Commonwealth delegation, straight from Delhi

Immediately after JLF, Jaipur hosted a different kind of international visit. A 120-member Commonwealth parliamentary delegation, representing 40 Commonwealth countries, visited on 17–18 January as a post-conference tour attached to the 28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC), which had been held in New Delhi on 14–16 January. Rajasthan Legislative Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani welcomed the delegation with a traditional reception at Amer Fort, where visitors were shown the Diwan-i-Aam, Diwan-i-Khas, the 27 Kachhari and the Mughal Garden.

This is a useful one to hold onto for two reasons. First, it shows that Jaipur's international hosting in January 2026 wasn't limited to BRICS or trade events — parliamentary diplomacy landed there too. Second, it's a plausible Interview-panel reference: it directly illustrates Rajasthan's cultural-heritage assets being deployed as a diplomatic tool, not just a tourism asset.

Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit — the sequel

Rajasthan's flagship investment event, the Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit, is scheduled to return for a second edition in December 2026, again in Jaipur. The first edition (December 2024) is the benchmark to know: it drew Memoranda of Understanding worth ₹35 lakh crore from 32 countries — 16 partner countries and 20 international organisations — across 12 thematic sessions, described by the state government as the highest investment commitment in Rajasthan's history. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma announced at the close of the 2024 edition that the 2026 edition would run 9–11 December, positioning it as a progress-review moment for the 2024 commitments as much as a fresh pitch to investors.

Verification note: As of this check (13 August 2026), the exact December 2026 dates had not yet been confirmed on the summit's own official site (rising.rajasthan.gov.in) — only reported via the Chief Minister's 2024 closing remarks. Treat "9–11 December" as reported, not gazetted, until closer to the date.

India's Other Major 2026 International Engagements

Not every major international event of 2026 was BRICS-linked or Rajasthan-hosted. A handful of national-level events matter for the same "current affairs and international issues" bucket, either because they set up comparisons with the Rajasthan-hosted events above or because they're simply high-probability Prelims fodder in their own right.

India–AI Impact Summit 2026 — a first for the Global South

India hosted the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, from 16–20 February — described by its organisers as the first global AI summit held in the Global South, following the pattern of earlier AI summits in Bletchley Park (UK), Seoul, and Paris. The summit was structured around three "Sutras" — People, Planet and Progress — and its accompanying Expo featured 300-plus exhibitors from 30 countries. Prime Minister Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron both addressed the summit on 19 February, a pairing worth remembering since France co-hosted the previous AI summit in Paris.

The "first in the Global South" framing is the detail most likely to be tested — it positions the summit as a geopolitical statement about who gets to set global AI governance norms, not merely a technology showcase.

77th Republic Day — a first for the European Union

At the 77th Republic Day Parade, held on 26 January 2026 at Kartavya Path, New Delhi, the Chief Guests were European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — the first time the European Union's own top leadership, rather than a single head of state, held the Chief Guest role. Republic Day chief-guest identity is one of RPSC's most reliable annual current-affairs questions, and the "first for an institution, not a country" framing here is exactly the kind of nuance that separates a well-prepared answer from a guess.

World Economic Forum, Davos — the investment-pitch circuit

At the 56th WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland (19–23 January 2026), India's national delegation included Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Pralhad Joshi, among others, with an "India Pavilion" inaugurated with participation from state Chief Ministers and Ministers. Minister Joshi's remarks at Davos focused on India's renewable-energy transition and were aimed squarely at global investors. Worth noting for a Rajasthan-focused reader: Rajasthan's Chief Minister was not reported among the state delegations at Davos 2026 — a useful negative fact, since it's easy to wrongly assume every major state sent its CM.

SCO — a confirmed meeting and a reported one

Two separate SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) events touch 2026, and they carry different levels of certainty, which is itself worth understanding as a study habit — not every "expected" event should be memorised with the same confidence as a confirmed one.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh led the Indian delegation to the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 28 April 2026 — a meeting confirmed through official PIB releases, where member states discussed regional security, counter-terrorism and defence cooperation, and Singh held bilateral meetings with his Kyrgyz, Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts on the sidelines.

Separately, the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit — the leaders'-level meeting, distinct from the Defence Ministers' track above — is reported for 31 August–1 September 2026, also in Bishkek. Media reports indicate Prime Minister Modi is expected to attend, following a bilateral visit to Uzbekistan around 28 August, but as of this check, official confirmation of the Prime Minister's attendance had not been issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. Keep the two SCO events distinct in your notes: one is confirmed and PIB-sourced (the April Defence Ministers' Meeting), the other is media-reported and pending confirmation (the August–September Leaders' Summit).

Exercise Pitch Black 2026 — a first for India's Rafales

Between 20 July and 7 August 2026, four Indian Air Force Rafale fighters, two C-17 transport aircraft and 120-plus air warriors deployed to Australia for Exercise Pitch Black 2026, the Royal Australian Air Force's biennial multinational air-combat exercise, flown out of RAAF bases Darwin, Tindal and Amberley. This marked the first time India's Rafale fleet participated in this exercise, flying alongside contingents from 18 other nations, including the United States, Japan, France and Germany — one of the largest military aviation exercises in the Indo-Pacific, involving more than 100 aircraft and 2,500 personnel in total.

The Quad — a chairmanship without a Leaders' Summit

The Quad (India, the USA, Japan and Australia) offers the sharpest contrast to India's BRICS year, and it's worth understanding precisely because it cuts against the "India hosted everything in 2026" impression the rest of this note might leave. India has held the Quad chairmanship since 2024 — but that chairmanship has not produced a Leaders' Summit hosted by India even once. The 2024 Leaders' Summit was actually held in the United States despite India holding the chair that year; no Leaders' Summit took place in 2025 at all, a gap widely attributed to Operation Sindoor and friction with the Trump administration over tariffs; and by May 2026, reports indicated India had passed the hosting baton for the Leaders' Summit to Australia, citing the growing difficulty of aligning all four leaders' schedules.

What India did host in 2026 was a ministerial-track meeting: the 11th Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting, held in New Delhi on 26 May 2026, bringing together the Foreign Ministers of Australia, India and Japan alongside the US Secretary of State. Hold the distinction firmly: a Foreign Ministers' Meeting is not a Leaders' Summit, and "India chairs the Quad" is not the same claim as "India hosted the Quad's biggest event of 2026."

Exam angle. This is a genuinely interesting Mains/Interview point precisely because it complicates the tidy "India as diplomatic host" narrative built by BRICS. A sophisticated answer notices that holding a chairmanship is not the same as successfully convening a summit, and that scheduling friction between democracies with very different domestic political calendars is itself a real constraint on multilateral diplomacy — not just a logistics footnote.

G20 and COP31 — blocs India does not chair in 2026

Two more major international engagements matter precisely because India is a participant, not the host — a distinction this note has stressed repeatedly, and one RPSC likes to test by naming the wrong host country as a distractor.

The United States, not India, holds the G20 Presidency for 2026 (assumed 1 December 2025) and will host the G20 Leaders' Summit on 14–15 December 2026 at Trump National Doral, Miami — a date that falls after the RAS 2026 Prelims exam (6 December), so it remains a "forthcoming event" rather than settled current affairs for this exam cycle. India, as a G20 member, already participated in the first G20 Sherpa Meeting of the US Presidency, held in Washington DC on 15–16 December 2025.

Similarly, Türkiye hosts and presides over COP31 (the 2026 UN Climate Change Conference) at the Antalya Expo Center from 9–20 November 2026 — a date that does fall inside the Prelims exam window. As of this check, India's confirmed attendance level (ministerial or otherwise) had not been established; at the preceding COP30 (Belém, Brazil, 2025), Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav led India's delegation, which is a reasonable expectation for COP31 but not yet a confirmed fact.

Common mistake: Don't assume every major 2026 summit was chaired or hosted by India just because India attended and this note discusses it. Three separate bodies — BRICS, the Quad, and now G20/COP31 — sit at three different points on the "who's actually in charge" spectrum: India chairs and fully hosts BRICS's calendar; India chairs the Quad but did not host its 2026 Leaders' Summit; and India merely participates in the G20 and COP31, which are chaired and hosted by the USA and Türkiye respectively.

Rajasthan's other international role: hosting joint military exercises

Away from BRICS and diplomacy, Rajasthan plays a quieter but structurally important international role: its Mahajan Field Firing Ranges, near Bikaner, function as India's designated hub for joint military exercises with foreign partner forces — a fact independent of any single year's headlines, but reinforced again in the run-up to 2026. Exercise Harimau Shakti (India–Malaysia, 5th edition) ran there from 5–18 December 2025, and Exercise AJEYA WARRIOR (India–UK, 8th edition) ran from 17–30 November 2025, both focused on counter-terrorism interoperability under a UN Chapter VII mandate. This durable, recurring role — distinct from any specific 2026 event — is worth remembering as a standing fact about Rajasthan's place in India's defence-diplomacy map, useful for both a direct Prelims question and an Interview probe about the state's strategic geography.

Events Held Abroad — India's Participation

Everything discussed so far happened on Indian soil. But a good current-affairs answer also needs the reverse list: 2026 events held in a foreign country where India (or an Indian delegation) participated. RPSC has a specific fondness for "which of the following was NOT held in India" as a question stem, so this table is worth memorising as its own unit, separate from the host-city tables above.

Event	Country	Date	India's role
56th WEF Annual Meeting	Switzerland (Davos)	19–23 Jan 2026	Union Ministers + 6 state CMs attended; India Pavilion
SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting	Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek)	28 Apr 2026	Rajnath Singh led the Indian delegation (confirmed)
Exercise Pitch Black 2026	Australia (Darwin/Tindal/Amberley)	20 Jul–7 Aug 2026	IAF Rafales' first participation, among 19 nations
SCO Council of Heads of State Summit	Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek)	31 Aug–1 Sep 2026	PM attendance reported, not yet officially confirmed
First G20 Sherpa Meeting (US Presidency)	USA (Washington DC)	15–16 Dec 2025	India attended as a G20 member
G20 Leaders' Summit	USA (Miami)	14–15 Dec 2026	Forthcoming; after the RAS Prelims exam date
COP31 (UN Climate Change Conference)	Türkiye (Antalya)	9–20 Nov 2026	India's confirmed attendance level not yet established

Notice what's not on this list: none of Rajasthan's own international engagements (JLF, DigiFest, Rising Rajasthan, the two Jaipur/Udaipur BRICS meetings) involved Indian delegations travelling abroad — they were all cases of the world coming to Rajasthan, not Rajasthan going to the world. That asymmetry is itself a fair Interview observation.

Important for RAS

Prelims Focus

India's 2026 BRICS Chairship is its fourth (after 2012, 2016, 2021); the 18th BRICS Summit is in New Delhi, 12–13 September 2026
Theme: "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" — unveiled 13 January 2026
Jaipur hosted the 10th BRICS Industry Ministers' Meeting (6–7 Aug); Udaipur hosted the BRICS Heads of Competition Authorities meeting (8 Aug) — don't swap these two
BRICS Culture track: Varanasi (Working Group, June) and Bhopal (Ministers' Meeting + Festival, August) — neither is in Rajasthan
77th Republic Day Chief Guests: António Costa (European Council) and Ursula von der Leyen (European Commission) — first EU institutional Chief Guests
India–AI Impact Summit 2026: Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, 16–20 February — first global AI summit in the Global South
Rajasthan DigiFest × TiE Global Summit: 10th edition, first held in a non-metro city (Jaipur, 4–6 Jan)
Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit 2024 edition: ₹35 lakh crore in MoUs from 32 countries
Mahajan Field Firing Ranges (Bikaner) — India's hub for joint military exercises with foreign partners
11th Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting — New Delhi, 26 May 2026; but no Quad Leaders' Summit was hosted by India in 2026 — hosting passed to Australia
G20 Presidency 2026 belongs to the USA, not India — G20 Leaders' Summit is 14–15 Dec 2026 in Miami (after the Prelims exam date)
COP31 is hosted by Türkiye (Antalya, 9–20 Nov 2026) — inside the Prelims exam window; India's confirmed attendance level not yet established
Events held abroad with Indian participation: WEF Davos (Switzerland), SCO meetings (Kyrgyzstan), Exercise Pitch Black (Australia), G20 Sherpa Meeting (USA) — don't assume every event in this note happened in India

Mains Dimensions

Cooperative and competitive federalism through foreign policy — how India distributed a national diplomatic Chairship (BRICS) across five cities in four states, turning it into a tool for showcasing non-metro India and individual state capacity, not just national prestige
Rajasthan's dual international identity — as both a diplomatic host (BRICS ministerials) and an independent global-engagement actor (JLF, DigiFest, Rising Rajasthan) operating on its own calendar
Economic diplomacy vs. cultural diplomacy — contrast the investment-pitch register of Davos/Rising Rajasthan with the soft-power register of JLF and the Bhopal Cultural Festival
Verification discipline in current affairs — the difference between a PIB-confirmed event (SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting) and a media-reported one pending confirmation (SCO Leaders' Summit), and why a Mains answer should reflect that distinction rather than presenting both with equal certainty
India's evolving role in global AI governance — hosting the first Global-South AI summit as a geopolitical, not just technological, statement
Chairing vs. hosting vs. merely participating — three distinct levels of engagement in one year: India fully chairs and hosts BRICS; India chairs the Quad but did not host its 2026 Leaders' Summit; India is a plain participant in the G20 and COP31, which it neither chairs nor hosts in 2026

Interview Angles

Rajasthan hosted two BRICS ministerial meetings in 2026 (Jaipur, Udaipur) — what does this signal about the state's readiness to host large international delegations, and how does it complement the Rising Rajasthan investment pitch?
Given India's fourth BRICS Chairship, does BRICS remain a coherent economic bloc as it has expanded — and how would you distinguish it from the SCO and the WEF if asked directly?
Rajasthan's heritage sites (Amer Fort, Taj Fateh Prakash Palace) were used as venues for diplomatic hospitality this year — is this primarily a tourism story or a diplomacy story, and does the distinction matter?

Cross-paper relevance
Prelims — Current Affairs & Issues (with special reference to Rajasthan) — dates, cities, and personalities across every event above are direct MCQ material
Mains Paper-III, Unit I — Indian Polity, Governance, India & International Affairs and Current Affairs — the federalism and diplomacy framing above is the analytical spine for a Mains answer
Interview / Personality Test — Rajasthan-hosted events (BRICS meetings, JLF, DigiFest) are natural material for state-specific current-affairs questions

Practice — Quick Self-Check

Try these before checking the answers. Each is written in RPSC's own four-option, single-correct format.

1. The 10th BRICS Industry Ministers' Meeting, held under India's BRICS Chairship 2026, was hosted in which Rajasthan city? (click to reveal)

(a) Udaipur (b) Jodhpur (c) Jaipur (d) Kota

Answer: (c) Jaipur. The meeting was held in Jaipur (6–7 August 2026), chaired by Union Minister Piyush Goyal — don't confuse it with the separate BRICS Heads of Competition Authorities meeting, held in Udaipur (option a) the same month.

2. India's BRICS Chairship in 2026 is its ___ time holding the Chairship. (click to reveal)

(a) Second (b) Third (c) Fourth (d) Fifth

Answer: (c) Fourth. India previously chaired BRICS in 2012, 2016 and 2021 — 2026 is its fourth Chairship, culminating in the 18th BRICS Summit (New Delhi, 12–13 September).

3. The India–AI Impact Summit 2026 — the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South — was held at which venue? (click to reveal)

(a) Pragati Maidan, New Delhi (b) Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi (c) JECC, Jaipur (d) Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar

Answer: (b) Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. Held 16–20 February 2026, structured around three "Sutras" — People, Planet and Progress.

4. Who were the Chief Guests at India's 77th Republic Day (2026) — a first for their institution in that role? (click to reveal)

(a) UN Secretary-General & UNGA President (b) European Council President & European Commission President (c) US President & Vice President (d) G7 Chair & Deputy

Answer: (b). António Costa (European Council President) and Ursula von der Leyen (European Commission President) — the first time EU leadership held this role at India's Republic Day.

5. The Rajasthan DigiFest × TiE Global Summit 2026 (Jaipur, 4–6 January) was notable as the first edition of the summit held — (click to reveal)

(a) Outside India (b) In a non-metro city (c) With a female Chief Guest (d) Without government participation

Answer: (b) In a non-metro city. It was the summit's first edition hosted outside a metro city, inaugurated by Rajasthan IT Minister Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore.

6. In Exercise Pitch Black 2026 (Australia), the Indian Air Force's Rafale fighters took part in this multinational exercise for the — (click to reveal)

(a) First time (b) Second time (c) Third time (d) Fifth time

Answer: (a) First time. The IAF sent four Rafales, two C-17s and 120+ personnel to RAAF bases Darwin, Tindal and Amberley (20 Jul–7 Aug 2026) — the Rafales' first appearance at this exercise.

7. The 11th Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting (26 May 2026) was hosted in — (click to reveal)

(a) Washington DC (b) New Delhi (c) Canberra (d) Tokyo

Answer: (b) New Delhi. India hosted the ministerial-level meeting — but did not host a Quad Leaders' Summit in 2026; that hosting baton passed to Australia.

8. Which country holds the G20 Presidency for 2026, and will host the G20 Leaders' Summit in December 2026? (click to reveal)

(a) India (b) Türkiye (c) United States (d) South Africa

Answer: (c) United States. The G20 Leaders' Summit is on 14–15 December 2026 at Trump National Doral, Miami — India merely participates as a member, having attended the first G20 Sherpa Meeting in Washington DC (Dec 2025).

Practice — Statement-Based (RPSC/UPSC Style)

Direct-recall MCQs test whether you remember a fact. Statement-based questions test whether you can tell a true statement apart from a plausible but false one — RPSC's harder and more common format. Each of the false statements below is a realistic trap built from a genuine point of confusion in this topic, not a random distractor.

1. Consider the following statements regarding India's BRICS Chairship 2026: (click to reveal)

This is India's third time chairing BRICS, after 2016 and 2021.
The 18th BRICS Summit will be held in New Delhi on 12–13 September 2026.
The theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" was unveiled in January 2026.