Current Affairs — 04 June 2026

📖 Explanation

The Union Cabinet approved a Rs 10,000-crore Price Stabilisation Fund to back the ATF price-freeze scheme. When international prices exceed the fixed price, OMCs are compensated from this fund so they can continue selling jet fuel at the capped rate. When prices fall, gains are used to recover the support already given, and any surplus is returned to the Consolidated Fund of India, which is the government's main account for revenues and expenditure, not the compensation mechanism itself.

📖 Explanation

The India-Oman Free Trade Agreement came into force on 1 June 2026, making Oman the first of India's nine recently signed FTA partners to reach full operationalisation. India has signed FTAs with nine partners over the past three years, including UAE, Australia, Mauritius, Oman, the UK, and the four EFTA nations (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein). An FTA becomes truly operational only after both countries finish their domestic approval processes, which is when lower import duties actually apply to traders.

📖 Explanation

India's Manufacturing PMI for May 2026 came in at 55.0, its highest level in three months. The PMI is a survey-based indicator where any reading above 50 signals expansion in economic activity, while below 50 indicates contraction. A reading of 55.0 therefore points to solid growth in factory output. PMI data is considered a leading indicator, meaning it signals the direction of the economy before official GDP figures are released, making it a key metric for government-exam current affairs.

📖 Explanation

The RBI officially confirmed that its physical gold holdings stand at 880.52 tonnes. Gold is a key component of India's foreign exchange reserves, which the RBI manages on behalf of the country. It provides stability because its value is not tied to any single foreign currency such as the US dollar. This figure is a commonly tested statistic in economy sections of SSC, Banking, and UPSC exams.

📖 Explanation

India's total installed solar capacity reached 154.24 GW as of April 30, 2026, up sharply from just 2.8 GW in 2014. Within this total, ground-mounted solar projects account for 117.36 GW and rooftop systems for 26.75 GW. The figure of 279.25 GW refers to India's total renewable energy capacity (solar plus wind plus others), while 52 GW is the installed wind power capacity. These numbers are frequently tested in SSC, Banking, and UPSC prelims under the Economy and Environment sections.

📖 Explanation

Coal gasification is a process that breaks down coal into synthesis gas (syngas), a flexible mixture usable as a feedstock for fertilisers, chemicals, hydrogen, ethanol, and dimethyl ether (a diesel substitute). India imports about 90% of its oil and roughly half of its natural gas, making the economy vulnerable to global price shocks. By converting its abundant domestic coal reserves into syngas, India aims to reduce this import dependence and strengthen energy security, a goal central to the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision. This is distinct from direct combustion of coal for electricity generation.

📖 Explanation

NPCI International Payments Limited is the overseas arm of NPCI set up specifically to take UPI and RuPay to foreign markets. While NPCI built and governs UPI domestically, it is NPCI International that signs agreements with foreign banks and payment networks for cross-border deployment. The Reserve Bank of India plays an oversight role but does not directly implement these linkages. The Ministry of External Affairs is a diplomatic body, not a payments infrastructure entity.

📖 Explanation

RCP8.5 was the high-emission worst-case pathway that projected warming of roughly 5 degrees Celsius by 2100 under conditions of no climate policy and runaway fossil-fuel use. Scientists retired it because it was judged unrealistic: renewable energy has spread rapidly, and the United States, Europe and China have adopted or are implementing meaningful climate policies. The new highest emission scenario now points to about 3.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100. RCP stands for Representative Concentration Pathway, and these are scenario labels used in IPCC assessment reports to model possible futures.

📖 Explanation

The Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes (MISHTI) targets restoration of 540 square kilometres of mangroves across nine coastal States. It was launched as part of India's climate and biodiversity commitments. The initiative focuses on areas where mangroves have been degraded or lost due to development and climate pressures. For exam purposes, remember MISHTI as an acronym, the nine-State coverage, and the 540 sq km target, as these details are frequently tested in environment and government scheme questions.

📖 Explanation

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) follows strict scientific criteria before declaring the southwest monsoon's onset over Kerala. After May 10, at least 60 percent of 14 specially chosen weather stations along Kerala and the nearby coast must register 2.5 millimetres or more of rainfall on two consecutive days. Alongside this rainfall test, moist westerly winds must blow to a depth of about 4.5 km and at 20 to 25 knots, and sufficient convective cloudiness must be present over the southeast Arabian Sea. These multi-parameter checks prevent a premature declaration triggered by pre-monsoon showers.

📖 Explanation

Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 allows the US government to impose tariffs on countries whose trade practices it considers unfair. In June 2026, the US invoked this provision against India citing concerns over forced-labour supply chains. Section 301 tariffs are investigation-based and harder to remove, unlike Section 122 tariffs, which are temporary and capped at 150 days. Section 232 is a separate provision used for national-security-based tariffs.

📖 Explanation

Strategic autonomy is a long-standing principle of Indian foreign policy, meaning India reserves the right to make decisions based on its own national interests rather than under external pressure or permanent alliance with any bloc. In the energy context, India buys discounted Russian crude while simultaneously deepening trade and defence ties with the United States, demonstrating this balance. This concept links directly to India's Non-Aligned Movement heritage and continues to shape its diplomatic posture today. Exam questions on strategic autonomy often test whether aspirants understand it as independent decision-making, not isolation or permanent partnership with any one power.

📖 Explanation

The total estimated cost of Census 2027 for the entire country is approximately Rs 11,718 crore. This large outlay reflects the massive scale of the exercise, which involves visiting every household in India across multiple phases, starting with the Houselisting and Housing Census. Understanding the scale and cost of the Census is relevant for GS Paper II (polity and governance) and for questions on public expenditure on data collection.

📖 Explanation

The planar unit distance problem belongs to a large set of puzzles known as 'Erdos problems', named after the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos who posed it in 1946. The problem asks how dots can be arranged on a flat surface to maximise the number of pairs that are exactly the same distance apart. The AI's breakthrough was notable because it did not prove the long-standing guess; it disproved it and discovered a better arrangement. Gauss, Nash, and Ramanujan are all famous mathematicians but none of them posed this specific problem.