Monthly current affairs for June 2026

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (MoPP&P), has launched the portal for the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) 2025.

NeSDA is a biennial assessment framework developed by the DARPG to measure the depth and effectiveness of existing e-Governance (electronic governance) service delivery mechanisms from the perspective of citizens.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme, which is India’s first indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft project.

The government-funded programme has an estimated prototype development cost of ₹15,000 crore, covering the development of 5 flying prototypes and 1 structural test aircraft.

For the first time, the MoD has excluded Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) from the manufacturing process and invited private sector participation. A 650-acre greenfield manufacturing facility and the Core Integration and Flight Testing Centre of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) are being developed at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, in collaboration with the selected private partner.

Union Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated the private defence manufacturing complex of the NIBE Group in Shirdi, Maharashtra. The project involved an investment of over ₹5,000 crore.

Additionally, the Minister has approved the establishment of four defence corridors in Pune, Nashik, Ahmednagar, and Nagpur to strengthen the indigenous defence manufacturing ecosystem of India.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the first Global Systems Integrator (GSI) to partner with the France-based Mistral AI, an AI startup.

The collaboration aims to deliver advanced enterprise generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) solutions for clients worldwide. The former will use ‘Mistral Forge’ to develop custom enterprise AI models, allowing clients to integrate their specific data and context for better decision-making.

IIT Madras has launched an advanced hydrodynamic testing facility named “Circulating Water Tunnel Facility” at its Thaiyur campus in Chennai.

The facility is designed to strengthen indigenous ship design, ocean engineering research, and hydrodynamic testing capabilities in India. It was constructed with ₹4.5 crore in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding provided by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL).

An international team of researchers led by Dr. Ronaldo Laishram from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has discovered an ancient cosmic structure named the “Loktak Protocluster”.

Located 12.6 billion light-years away in the constellation Sextans, the structure allows astronomers to observe the universe as it existed when it was only 1.2 billion years old (9% of its current age).

It is named after Loktak Lake in Manipur, the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India, famous for its “phumdis” (floating masses of vegetation). The discovery was made by integrating data from the Japan-based Subaru Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of NASA.

The Andhra Pradesh government, in collaboration with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), has announced the launch of an angel fund through the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub (RTIH) in New Delhi.

The initiative aims to make the state a hub for deep-tech innovation by providing startups with early-stage funding, industry access, ecosystem support, and global scaling opportunities.

Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo has been appointed as the Prime Minister (PM) of Senegal. He succeeds Ousmane Sonko.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, an Italian national racing for Mercedes, has won the Formula One (F1) Canadian Grand Prix (GP) 2026.

Dr. Bashir Badr, a renowned Urdu poet, passed away at the age of 91. He was a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Sahitya Akademi Award (Urdu) in 1999 for his collection of 69 ghazals.

Suman Kalyanpur, a legendary Indian playback singer, passed away at the age of 89. She was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 2023.

Shyam Lal Meena, a veteran Indian Olympian archer, passed away at the age of 61. He was a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 1989.

Commonwealth Day in India:

Day – 24 May

Commemorating – The birth anniversary of Queen Victoria in 1819

National Anti-Terrorism Day:

Day – May 21

Commemorating – Death anniversary of former PM Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu in 1991

Google has announced the ‘Google for Education Schoolers (GES)’, a free AI training programme for teachers, at the Education World Forum 2026 in London. Launched in collaboration with the UNICEF, the initiative aims to provide mobile-first AI training to school and higher education teachers on the responsible use of AI tools.

In its initial phase, the programme will be implemented in partnership with the governments of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Punjab, and the UT of Ladakh. During the first year, the programme will be accessible in 6 Indian languages namely Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Odia, and Punjabi.

Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma have launched Mission ‘Senehjori’ to transform the Assam Muga Silk sector into a globally competitive luxury textile ecosystem.

Muga silk is the world’s only naturally golden silk and India’s first GI-tagged silk. The total budget for the revitalization of this sector is ₹396-411 crore, with a contribution of ₹136-151 crore from the Ministry. The initiative is structured as a 3-year roadmap with milestones to be completed by 2028.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) has notified the ‘National Sports Governance (National Sports Board (NSB)) Rules, 2026’ and the ‘National Sports Governance (National Sports Tribunal (NST)) Rules, 2026’ under the provisions of the ‘National Sports Governance Act, 2025’.

Under the NSB Rules 2026, the National Sports Board (NSB) shall consist of a Chairperson and 2 members. As per the NST Rules 2026, the Chairperson of the National Sports Tribunal (NST) will hold office for a term of 5 years or until attaining the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier. Members of the NST will hold office for a term of 5 years or until they attain the age of 67 years, whichever is earlier.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has released the Third Advance Estimates of Production of Major Agricultural Crops for the 2025–26 crop year. India’s total foodgrain production is estimated at a record 376.56 million tonnes (MT) for 2025–26, marking a 5.3% increase over the previous year’s production of 357.73 MT.

Rice production is estimated at a record 154.02 MT, while wheat production is projected to increase by 2.29% to reach 120.65 MT. Total oilseeds production is estimated at 43.05 MT, which includes 13.07 MT of groundnut, 12.59 MT of soyabean, and 13.76 MT of rapeseed and mustard.

Bank of Baroda (BoB) has introduced biometric payment authentication and Internet of Things (IoT)-based payment capabilities on its UPI application, ‘bob इ Pay’.

The biometric feature uses Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)-based face authentication to secure transactions, allowing users to authorize UPI transactions up to ₹5,000 using fingerprint or facial recognition.

One Mobikwik Systems Ltd, the parent company of Mobikwik, has received in-principle approval from the RBI for a Payment Aggregator-Physical (PA-P) licence. This licence will enable the firm to facilitate offline merchant payments across India.