Current Affairs — 03 June 2026

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The reference appeared in a joint communique released after a strategic dialogue between the EU's foreign and security policy chief and Pakistan's foreign minister in Islamabad. India holds that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter and objects to such third-party references.

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The article stresses that gene numbers do not match complexity: a human has roughly 22,000 genes, only modestly more than a fruit fly (about 17,000) or mouse (about 21,000). What matters is how, when and where genes are switched on and off.

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After Nepal's March 2026 general election, Balendra Shah, a former rapper turned politician, became Prime Minister as the country's youngest head of government. Lamichhane, a senior RSP leader, was the first major leader to visit India after this change.

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Under a Town Planning scheme, owners typically contribute about 25 to 40 per cent of their land for public infrastructure and housing for weaker sections, and get back the remaining 60 to 75 per cent as well-shaped, reconstituted, more valuable plots. This is voluntary pooling rather than compulsory acquisition.

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The poll projects about 7.3% growth (down from 7.8% in the prior quarter), but these are forecasts. The binding official quarterly and annual GDP data is scheduled for release on 5 June 2026 by the National Statistical Office.

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The Court held that online gaming companies supply a taxable 'actionable claim', and GST is charged on the value of the taxable supply, not on profits. So tax applies to the full amount staked, whether a player wins or loses, rejecting the companies' argument that only the platform fee should be taxed.

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The share of savings deposits fell to 28.7% in March 2026 from 34.6% in March 2022, while term (fixed) deposits rose from 55.2% to 61.6%. Savers moved to FDs as savings rates (about 2.5%) lagged FD rates (about 6.25%) and fell below retail inflation.

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The Tana Bhagats belong to the Oraon tribe of the Chotanagpur region in Jharkhand. Their movement began in 1914 under Jatra Bhagat against British rule, zamindars and heavy taxation, and later embraced Gandhian ideals of non-violence.

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Venezuela became India's third largest crude supplier in the latest month, after Russia and the United Arab Emirates. The renewed flows, after a nine-month gap, reflect India's strategy of diversifying its energy sources amid disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz.

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The waiver was created to cushion global oil supply when the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, amid a wider West Asian conflict, disrupted flows. Since the strait carries about a fifth of global oil and gas, the waiver gave import-dependent India room to keep buying discounted Russian crude. The latest extension lapses on June 17, with the final call resting with the US Treasury.

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A major fabrication facility is planned at Dholera in Gujarat, envisioned as part of a greenfield semiconductor city, with assembly, testing and packaging units in states such as Assam and Uttar Pradesh. The ISM offers up to 50% fiscal support for approved fab projects.

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Cheap urea absorbs nearly two-thirds of the subsidy and has skewed the N:P:K (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) ratio to about 10.9:4.4:1 against the recommended 4:2:1, with too much nitrogen crowding out other nutrients. The structural fix suggested is bringing urea under the Nutrient-Based Subsidy framework.

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A large share of the April mobilisation came from small savings, with the National Small Savings Fund contributing about Rs 83,464 crore (PPF alone around Rs 38,787 crore). The government took no ways and means advances from the central bank, keeping that figure at zero, signalling a comfortable cash position; market borrowings actually saw a net outflow.

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The study found that fine particulate matter (PM2.5/PM10) crosses the placental barrier and sets off inflammation, which switches off a protein essential for foetal growth, causing harm that can last into late childhood. This links air pollution to health risks that begin even before birth.

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The Union Cabinet approved a Rs 10,000 crore Price Stabilisation Fund in June 2026 to stabilise ATF prices for Indian airlines. The government set a benchmark of Rs 75.6 per litre for domestic flights — whenever international ATF prices exceed this level, oil marketing companies are compensated for the difference. This protects airlines from sudden fuel cost spikes and prevents those costs from being passed to passengers as higher airfares. The fund is drawn from the Economic Stabilisation Fund set up in March 2026 with a corpus of Rs 57,381 crore.

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On June 2, 2026, the USTR proposed a 12.5 percent tariff on imports from 54 economies — including India — after investigations under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974. These economies were cited for failing to enforce a ban on goods made using forced labour. India was placed in the same bracket as Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. India was given until July 6, 2026 to file written objections and could also participate in a public hearing on July 7, 2026.

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The HSBC India Services PMI rose to 59.8 in May 2026, up from 58.8 in April 2026, and was the strongest pace of growth since November 2025. PMI stands for Purchasing Managers' Index — a survey-based indicator where any reading above 50 signals that business activity is expanding, and any reading below 50 signals contraction. At 59.8, the services sector was well into expansion territory. India's services PMI has remained above the 50-mark for more than four consecutive years, reflecting the sector's sustained momentum. The figure 58.8 was April's reading, 59.3 was the Composite PMI (services + manufacturing combined) for May, and 57.4 is a distractor.

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The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a six-member body. It is responsible for fixing the repo rate — the rate at which the RBI lends short-term money to commercial banks — and setting the policy stance. India follows a Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT) framework under which the MPC must keep CPI inflation at 4% within a band of 2% to 6%.

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The IIP is compiled and published monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO), which functions under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The April 2026 data was the first release under the new 2022-23 base year, showing industrial output growth of 4.9% year-on-year. RBI deals with monetary policy and banking data, not industrial production indices.

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Khalilur Rahman, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister, was elected President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) for its 81st session on 2 June 2026. He defeated Andreas Kakouris of Cyprus by 99 votes to 91, with 190 total ballots cast. His one-year term begins on 8 September 2026. The UNGA presidency is a separate post from the UN Secretary-General — it rotates annually among the UN's five regional groups, and the 81st session was assigned to the Asia-Pacific group. Antonio Guterres holds the Secretary-General post (a five-year term), not the Assembly presidency.

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Brent crude touched a four-year high of about $126 per barrel on April 30, 2026, after the US indicated its naval blockade of Iranian ports would continue. India imports nearly 90 per cent of its crude oil needs, so any sharp rise in global prices flows directly into domestic fuel costs and inflation. The Strait of Hormuz — the narrow chokepoint through which about one-fifth of the world's energy supply passes — was closed by Iran in response to attacks, which was the single biggest driver of the global energy squeeze. Higher oil costs pushed Indian petrol and diesel prices up by about Rs 7.5 per litre and lifted wholesale inflation (WPI) to a 42-month high of 8.3 per cent in April 2026.

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India's main objection to CPEC is based on sovereignty. The Karakoram Highway, a central route of CPEC, passes through Gilgit-Baltistan, which lies in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). India considers PoK to be its own territory under Pakistan's illegal occupation. Since CPEC runs through this land without India's consent, India says the project violates its territorial sovereignty.

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The Mega Science Vision-2035 (MSV) report on Climate Research was prepared by India's climate research community with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, acting as the lead institution. It was submitted to the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Union government and was made public in the first week of June 2026. The report warns that heavy dependence on imported, often uncalibrated equipment threatens the credibility of Indian science and sits uncomfortably with India's Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliance) goals.

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The southwest monsoon season in India runs from June to September. During these four months, the monsoon sets in over Kerala in early June, gradually advances northward to cover the entire country, and then withdraws by late September. This period brings the bulk of India's annual rainfall and is critical for kharif crop cultivation.

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Daraxonrasib works by blocking the overactive state caused by a mutated KRAS gene. KRAS, part of the RAS gene family, normally makes a protein that helps control cell growth. When KRAS is mutated it stays permanently switched ON, driving uncontrolled cell growth. About 80% of pancreatic cancers carry KRAS mutations, making it the key molecular target for daraxonrasib. The drug is notable as the first of its class able to suppress RAS activity across different subtypes.

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The order provides a 30-day pre-release window during which participating developers give chosen federal agencies access to test their advanced AI models for security. An earlier draft had proposed 90 days, but that was reduced to 30 days after the technology industry warned that a longer review could slow innovation and weaken US competitiveness, particularly against China.

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In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017), a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right protected under Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty). The judgment specifically recognised 'informational privacy', meaning individuals have some control over how their personal data is collected, used, and shared. The right to be forgotten in India flows directly from this informational privacy ruling. The other options — Kesavananda Bharati (basic structure doctrine), Maneka Gandhi (expanded personal liberty), and S.R. Bommai (federalism and President's Rule) — are landmark cases on different constitutional questions and did not establish privacy as a fundamental right.

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The Indian Independence Act, 1947 was passed by the British Parliament and received royal assent on 18 July 1947. It gave legal effect to the June 3 (Mountbatten) Plan by formally setting 15 August 1947 as the date for the creation of the two dominions of India and Pakistan, ending British paramountcy over princely states, and granting full law-making powers to each dominion's Constituent Assembly.