The point of putting Current Affairs in the curriculum of most examinations is a quite simple one: the objective is to test how much the participant is up-to-date on recent events, and also to test the information gathering ability of the participant (which can be seen in the level of difficulty of questions one is able to answer, and how far back one’s knowledge of Current Affairs go. It displays the level of preparation done for the exam).
Current Affairs is also included in exams needed for jobs, like Banking Exams. The happenings in a country can have sudden and varied effects on the market, with prices of stocks rising or falling and the prices of commodities sky rocketing or going dirt cheap. Most Trade or Finance related exams include a Current Affairs portion, both to observe whether their future employees keep updated on the recent news and often feature reaction based questions to gauge how well a particular person responds to a situation.