Monthly current affairs for May 2026

Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda and his Japanese counterpart Kimi Onoda have co-chaired the 3rd Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) on Healthcare between India and Japan at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The meeting focused on deepening the bilateral partnership through strategic cooperation in innovation, technology, and research.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has proposed the introduction of a new Index of Service Production (ISP) to monitor the performance of the formal services sector in India.

The index will use FY25 as its base year and aims to cover at least 70% of the service sector at the 2-digit National Industrial Classification (NIC) level. It is to be noted that MoSPI intends to use Producer Price Indices (PPI) or sector specific Consumer Price Indices (CPI) as a deflation strategy to convert nominal turnover into real volume terms.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the 27th edition of the publication titled “Women and Men in India 2025: Selected Indicators and Data” during the National Deliberative Summit on “Data for Development” in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The report incorporates metadata for 50 key indicators.

According to the report, the sex ratio at birth in India improved to 917 during 2021-23, compared to 904 during 2017-19. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in 2023 was recorded at 1.5 for urban regions and 2.1 for rural areas.

In the education sector, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education rose from 28.5 to 30.2 for females and from 28.3 to 28.9 for males between 2021-22 and 2022-23. The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for the population aged 15 and above increased from 37.5% to 45.9% for rural females between 2022 and 2025.

Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) has delivered the advanced stealth frigate ‘Mahendragiri (Y-12654)’ to the Indian Navy (IN) under Project 17A (Nilgiri-class). It is the 6th ship delivered under the project and the 4th frigate built by MDL, marking the completion of all warships assigned to the shipyard under this initiative. The frigate, named after the Mahendragiri mountain peak in the Eastern Ghats of Odisha, features 75% indigenous content.

It measures 149 metres in length, has a displacement of 6,670 tonnes, and can reach a maximum speed of 28 knots using a Combined Diesel or Gas (CODOG) propulsion system. The vessel was designed by the Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and overseen by the Warship Overseeing Team (WOT) Mumbai. Notably, this marks the 100th vessel designed and delivered by the WDB.

L&T Energy Hydrocarbon Onshore, a division of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has secured a contract valued between ₹2,500 crore and ₹5,000 crore from Bharat Coal Gasification and Chemicals Ltd (BCGCL) to develop a coal-to-ammonium nitrate project in Odisha.

BCGCL is a Joint Venture (JV) between Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). The project is designed to produce 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate per day, aiming to reduce import dependence and conserve foreign exchange.

Bengaluru-based GalaxEye has launched “Mission Drishti”, the largest and heaviest privately developed Earth observation satellite (EOS) of India to date. The 190 kg satellite was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX from California, USA. It is the world’s first operational “OptoSAR” satellite, which combines Electro-Optical (EO) sensors and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on a single platform. This allows for 24/7 all-weather surveillance through clouds, rain, and darkness, providing high-resolution imagery at 1.5-meter.

It is to be noted that the EOS uses the NVIDIA Jetson Orin platform for onboard AI to process data in orbit for faster results. This mission is the first step toward a planned constellation of 8 to 12 satellites by 2029 to 2030 for real-time global coverage.

Sikkim has become the first fully paperless state judiciary in India, marking a milestone that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the statehood of Sikkim. The declaration was made by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant during a two-day national conclave on technology and judicial education held in Gangtok. The transition to a digital system incorporates AI tools to assist judicial officers. These include the Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court’s Efficiency (SUPACE) for legal research and the Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software (SUVAS) for language translation.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Justice (Retd.) Anupinder Singh Grewal as the President of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for a period of 5 years. He succeeds Justice (Retd.) Ramalingam Sudhakar.

Lt Gen Madhavan Unnikrishnan Nair (Retd.) has been appointed as the Strategic Defence Advisor to Synergy Quantum. Prior to the appointment, he served as the 3rd National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) at the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).

The winners of the 110th edition of the Pulitzer Prizes (2026) have been announced across 23 categories. Administered by Columbia University, the awards carry a certificate and a cash prize of $15,000 for each winner. In the Journalism section, The Washington Post won the award for Public Service, while the staff of The New York Times received the prize for Investigative Reporting. The Associated Press (AP) team, which included Aniruddha Ghosal, was honoured in the International Reporting category.

Saher Alghorra, a contributor to The New York Times, won for Breaking News Photography for documenting the situation in Gaza. Notably, freelance journalists Anand RK and Suparna Sharma, along with Natalie Obiko Pearson of Bloomberg, won the Illustrated Reporting & Commentary award for “trAPPed”, a graphic investigation into digital arrest scams in India.

Winners in the Arts and Books categories include Daniel Kraus for Fiction (“Angel Down”), Bess Wohl for Drama (“Liberation”), Jill Lepore for History (“We the People”), and Amanda Vaill for Biography (“Pride and Pleasure”).

Other recipients are Yiyun Li for Memoir (“Things in Nature Merely Grow”), Brian Goldstone for General Nonfiction (“There Is No Place for Us”), Juliana Spahr for Poetry (“Ars Poeticas”), and Gabriela Lena Frank for Music (“Picaflor: A Future Myth”). Julie K. Brown, a reporter for the Miami Herald, received a Special Citation for her reporting on Jeffrey Epstein.

Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has attended the 75th anniversary celebrations of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) in New Delhi. A commemorative logo was unveiled to mark 75 years of competitive shooting in India.

The NRAI launched the “MyNRAI Athlete App”, making it the first fully digitised sports federation in India. Additionally, a nationwide grassroots programme was announced to introduce 7.5 lakh school and college students to shooting through a “10-shot experience” before the 2028 Olympics.

International Mother Earth Day:

Day – April 22

Theme 2026 – “Our Power, Our Planet”

Observed by – UN

Observed since – 2009

Proposed by – John McConnell (American peace activist)

World Immunization Week:

Day – Last week of April (April 24-30 in 2026)

Theme 2026 – “For Every Generation, Vaccines Work”

Observed since – 2012

Initiated by – World Health Assembly

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is set to launch a digital platform named ‘E-PRAAPTI’ (EPF Aadhaar-based Access Portal for Tracking Inoperative Accounts). The portal is designed to facilitate the identification, tracking, Universal Account Number (UAN) linking, and activation of legacy EPF accounts.

The initial phase of the implementation will be member Identification (ID)-based. The EPFO plans to later expand the scope of the portal to include members who are unable to recall or access their historical member IDs. It is to be noted that the organization settled 8.31 crore claims in the FY26, representing an increase from the 6.01 crore claims settled during FY25.

The Ministry of Mines has approved 58 companies as eligible participants under the “Incentive Scheme for Promotion of Critical Mineral Recycling” (IS-PCMR).

The scheme is a key initiative under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) with a total financial outlay of ₹1,500 crore. The initiative has attracted pledged investments worth ₹5,000 crore and aims to achieve a recycling capacity of 850 Kilo Tonnes Per Annum (KTPA).

PM Narendra Modi has visited Sikkim to attend the closing ceremony of the Golden Jubilee (50th year) of the statehood of Sikkim at Paljor Stadium in Gangtok.

During the visit, the PM inaugurated and laid foundation stones for more than 30 development projects worth over ₹4,000 crore across various sectors. He also visited the Swarnajayanti Maitri Manjari Park in Gangtok, which serves as a world-class Orchid Experience Centre showcasing the floral heritage of the state.

SkyHop Aviation Pvt Ltd has received the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to launch the first-ever commercial seaplane services of India.

The initial flight operations are scheduled in Lakshadweep. The service will utilize a 19-seater De Havilland Canada (DHC)-6 Twin Otter aircraft, which has been indigenously converted into a seaplane using float attachments to facilitate take-offs and landings on both water and short runways.

NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd (NBBL), a subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has partnered with the fintech firm Juspay Technologies Pvt Ltd to launch a unified switch and software development kit (SDK) for the ‘Banking Connect’ platform.

The initiative is designed to improve the net banking experience in India by providing seamless technological integration for financial institutions.

Tata AIA Life Insurance has launched a unit-linked life insurance plan (ULIP) named “Shubh Health Criti” to create a market-linked health fund for long-term medical needs. The plan provides coverage for over 60 critical illnesses and is available for individuals aged 18-65 years.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I) has signed an MoU with Chamber India to enhance the Indian startup ecosystem and promote innovation-led development.

The partnership aims to increase interaction between startups, corporate bodies, investors, and global stakeholders, while facilitating international linkages and cross-border collaboration.