Current Affairs — 06 June 2026

📖 Explanation

Putin referred to the India-Russia relationship as a 'special privileged strategic partnership' at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. He noted that this partnership spans nearly 80 years, dating back to the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1947. This term is standard in India-Russia joint statements and distinguishes the relationship from ordinary bilateral ties. Exam aspirants should note this as a fixed phrase used in India's foreign policy context.

📖 Explanation

Balendra Shah, a former rapper, became Nepal's Prime Minister after the Gen Z-led protest movement brought down the earlier government in early 2026. The Rastriya Swatantrata Party (RSP), led by Rabi Lamichhane, emerged as the ruling party from the quick elections that followed. Shah set an unusual protocol of meeting only heads of state and avoiding foreign travel in his first year. Rabi Lamichhane is the RSP chief and visited India for high-level talks, but he was not the Prime Minister.

📖 Explanation

Sonogenetics involves using genetic engineering to introduce a gene that produces a pressure-sensitive protein in nerve cell membranes. Once this protein is present, the nerve cells can be activated in a controlled manner using ultrasound waves. The technique is particularly promising for eye conditions like glaucoma where the optic nerve is damaged, because ultrasound can easily reach the eye's components. Unlike X-rays, ultrasound is a mechanical wave that does not carry ionising energy and therefore does not damage DNA.

📖 Explanation

The Waqf Amendment Act mandates that at least two members of the State Waqf Board, apart from ex-officio members, must be non-Muslims. This requirement was introduced to ensure secular oversight, professional diversity and financial accountability in the Board's administration. A Kerala High Court petition challenged the State Waqf Board's functioning on the ground that an order appointing nine members had all of them as Muslims, with only a promise to appoint the remaining two non-Muslim members later. The petitioner argued that a promise of future compliance cannot make the Board's current functioning lawful.

📖 Explanation

The Joint Admission Board (JAB) confirmed that the minimum eligibility for general category candidates for IIT admission through JEE (Advanced) 2026 remains 75% aggregate marks in Class 12. For SC, ST and Persons with Disabilities candidates, the threshold is 65%, or alternatively being in the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective school board. JAB kept the rule unchanged because candidates from 36 different school boards participate, making any across-the-board relaxation administratively complex and potentially unfair.

📖 Explanation

The Provisional Government of India was established in Kabul on December 1, 1915. Raja Mahendra Pratap, a Hindu prince, served as its President, while Maulana Barkatullah became its Prime Minister. Islamic scholar Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi was another key member. This government is significant because it was one of the earliest independent political bodies set up by Indians outside British control, and it embodied the principle of Hindu-Muslim unity in the freedom struggle. Maulana Barkatullah is called the 'first prime minister of independent India' because of this role.

📖 Explanation

The Supreme Court held that survivors of trafficking for sexual exploitation have a constitutional right to rehabilitation flowing from Article 21, which guarantees the right to life with dignity, and Article 23, which explicitly prohibits trafficking in human beings, begar and other forms of forced labour. The bench drew an analogy with its earlier rulings on bonded labourers, reasoning that both bonded labourers and trafficking survivors are victims of exploitative structures covered by Article 23 and therefore equally entitled to rehabilitation. The directions will remain in force until Parliament enacts a dedicated law on the subject.

📖 Explanation

Andhra Pradesh has set a minimum connected load of 300 megawatts (MW) for a data centre to qualify for a deemed distribution licence. Investors may combine the loads of several facilities to reach this threshold. A DDL allows the holder to procure power at a relatively lower cost and distribute it within its own campus, bypassing some of the cross-subsidy structure embedded in standard industrial tariffs. Earlier, such licences were granted mainly to entities like SEZs, ports, airports, and the Railways — not private firms.

📖 Explanation

The USTR proposed the new tariffs under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, citing what it called unfair trade practices — specifically, the failure of countries such as India to legally prohibit imports of goods made using forced labour. India was placed in the higher 12.5% tariff bracket, while some other nations were assigned a lower 10% rate. This move came after US courts struck down earlier 'reciprocal' tariffs based on emergency economic powers, giving the administration a new legal route to keep duties in place.

📖 Explanation

Andhra Pradesh accounts for about 66 per cent of India's shrimp exports and is the country's largest fish-producing and seafood-exporting state. In 2025-26, it recorded aquaculture production of 55.39 lakh tonnes. Frozen shrimp is India's single largest seafood export product. A regional office of the National Fisheries Board is likely to be set up in the state to support this sector further.

📖 Explanation

The government realised approximately Rs 18,454.42 crore against its Rs 80,000-crore FY27 disinvestment and asset monetisation target, which works out to more than 23 per cent. This included Rs 6,366.93 crore from land monetisation through Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), Rs 7,808.49 crore from stake sales in Central Bank of India and Coal India, and about Rs 4,279 crore from a 6 per cent stake sale in NHPC via the offer-for-sale route. These early collections are significant because the April 2026 fiscal deficit had already reached 21.4 per cent of the full-year budget target.

📖 Explanation

The new framework specifically targets large financial investors — private equity (PE) firms, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) — enabling them to invest at the earliest, riskiest stage of greenfield infrastructure projects. Until now, such investors could generally enter only after a project was built and operational. The revised approach would widen access beyond highways to power, railways, airports, ports, urban infrastructure, and water supply, while allowing investors without construction experience to bid provided they fulfil separate technical criteria through partnerships or independent engineering arrangements.

📖 Explanation

The price of the Indian crude basket — the weighted average of all the crude oil grades India imports — stood at $100.13 per barrel on 3 June 2026. This is different from the global benchmarks: Brent crude (the international benchmark) was near $95.64 per barrel and WTI (the US benchmark) was near $93.37 per barrel on 6 June 2026. The monthly average for India's crude basket in June 2026 so far was $98.12 per barrel, lower than the May average of $106.23 per barrel.