Current affairs — 2 July 2026

Prelims pointers

• Nine members of the Sangno clan translocated 52 fingerlings of Schizothorax pelzami on June 28.
• Schizothorax pelzami is commonly known as the Transcaspian marinka and is called Ngarsing in the Nyishi language.
• The fingerlings were moved from the Lapabung stream at Talo village to the Richaso stream at Weshi village.
• Talo and Weshi are in East Kameng district, about 20 km apart and at an average elevation of 3,400 feet above sea level.
• Village headman Gajali Sangno suggested a blanket ban on fishing in Richaso for five years after the translocation.

Prelims pointers

• Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit assumed charge as Vice-Chief of the Air Staff, succeeding Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor.
• Air Marshal Dixit was commissioned into the IAF fighter stream in December 1986 and has more than 3,500 flying hours.
• Before becoming VCAS, Dixit served as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee.
• Air Marshal Tejinder Singh took over as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee.
• Lieutenant General Sandeep Jain assumed charge as Vice-Chief of the Army Staff after serving as GOC-in-C Southern Command.

Prelims pointers

• The Houselisting and Housing Census phase of Census 2027 began in Ernakulam with building numbering and boundary mapping.
• An enumerator at Thevara was assigned to cover around 250 buildings and said every roofed structure had to be counted.
• Self-enumeration was open between June 16 and June 30, with IDs to be used at the next data-collection stage.
• The house-listing phase in the report is scheduled to continue until July 30.
• Ernakulam Census operations involved 23 in-charge officers, 1,117 supervisors, four master trainers and 118 field trainers.

Prelims pointers

• CRS 2024 was released on July 1, 2026 and reported India’s sex ratio at birth as 917 females per 1,000 males.
• Birth registration reached 99.1% in 2024, while death registration reached 99.4%, according to the CRS report.
• Registered births rose from 252.1 lakh in 2023 to 254.7 lakh in 2024; registered deaths rose from 86.6 lakh to 89.4 lakh.
• CRS 2024 recorded 81,117 stillbirths, with 69% of stillbirths occurring in urban centres.
• Registration of births and deaths is mandatory in India under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.

Prelims pointers

• The PIL challenges the Kerala State Waqf Board’s upload of disputed Munambam land details to the UMEED portal.
• UMEED is described as a Union Ministry of Minority Affairs platform for registration, verification and monitoring of Waqf properties.
• The Assembly of Christian Services Trust alleged that the Waqf Board was improperly constituted and lacked mandated member representation.
• The petition said over 600 Latin Catholic Christian and Hindu families faced potential displacement due to the Munambam dispute.
• The article states that the 1995 law requires an 11-member Board with two non-Muslim members.

Prelims pointers

• The submissions were filed before a Supreme Court-appointed committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice S. Ravindra Bhat.
• Section 7 of the RPwD Act was cited for the State obligation to protect persons with disabilities from violence, abuse or exploitation.
• Section 55(B) of the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023 was cited for prison records and reasonable adjustments.
• The petitioner said NCRB does not recognise seven out of the eight categories of disabilities under the RPwD Act in prisoner data.
• Rule 11 of the Mental Healthcare Rules, 2018 was cited for one psychiatrist, four counsellors and 20-bedded psychiatric wards per 500 prisoners.

Prelims pointers

• VB-G RAM G was rolled out in West Bengal on July 1, 2026 as a 125-day government job guarantee scheme.
• The Union Government had stopped releasing MGNREGA funds to West Bengal in March 2022, alleging financial irregularities.
• The 2026-27 West Bengal Budget allocated ₹14,000 crore for VB-G RAM G employment, with a 60:40 Centre-State expenditure share.
• The Union Government allotted ₹8,508 crore and West Bengal allotted ₹5,672 crore for the new scheme.
• PBKMS estimated that 75.97 lakh active job cards and ₹313.30 average person-day cost would require ₹29,752 crore for 125 days of work.

Prelims pointers

• Schizothorax pelzami, commonly known as the Transcaspian marinka, is the endangered Himalayan ray-finned fish translocated by the Sangno clan.
• On June 28, nine Sangno clan members moved 52 fingerlings from Lapabung stream at Talo to Richaso stream at Weshi.
• Talo and Weshi are in East Kameng district, about 20 km apart, at an average elevation of 3,400 feet above sea level.
• The fish is called Ngarsing in the Nyishi language and was introduced into a stretch of Richaso stream inaccessible to mahseer.
• Village headman Gajali Sangno suggested a blanket five-year ban on fishing in Richaso to help the introduced fish population recover.

Prelims pointers

• BW Loyalty is described as an Indian-flagged LPG carrier owned by BW India.
• The vessel was transiting the Strait of Hormuz late on July 1, 2026, according to marinetraffic.com.
• Government sources said BW Loyalty was among four Indian-flagged vessels that sought permission from both Iran and Oman.
• BW Loyalty was taking the northern, Iranian route through the Strait of Hormuz.
• The ship had loaded in Qatar and was carrying about 47,000 tonnes of LPG after leaving drydock in Dubai.

Prelims pointers

• The World Bank reclassified Sri Lanka from lower-middle income to upper-middle income in its July 1, 2026 update.
• Sri Lanka's economy expanded by 5% in 2025, according to the World Bank update cited in the article.
• The World Bank's income classifications are high, upper middle, lower middle and low.
• Sri Lanka's 2022 sovereign default followed the Easter Sunday attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic and a balance-of-payments crisis.
• The article attributes recovery partly to tourism revival, stronger worker remittances and external debt restructuring.

Prelims pointers

• Foreign Portfolio Investors withdrew ₹49,340 crore from Indian equities in June, according to the article.
• Total FPI withdrawals from Indian equities reached ₹2.7 lakh crore so far in 2026.
• FPIs were net sellers in every month of 2026 except February, when they invested ₹22,615 crore.
• March saw a record FPI equity outflow of ₹1.17 lakh crore, followed by continued outflows in April, May and June.
• In June, FPIs invested ₹21,652 crore in debt securities through the Fully Accessible Route.

Prelims pointers

• UNESCO warned that Taxila sites could be placed on the danger list if contested interventions were not reversed.
• The historical sites specifically mentioned in the report are Mohra Moradu and Sirkap at Taxila.
• The article says original walls were reportedly replaced with new construction or had their height raised.
• A joint technical visit involved UNESCO, the Department of Archaeology and Museums, and the heritage ministry division.
• Punjab archaeology official Malik Zaheer Abbas said the works were conservation interventions, not reconstruction.

Prelims pointers

• Skyroot Aerospace announced on July 2 that Vikram-1's Mission Aagaman launch window runs from July 12 to August 4.
• Mission Aagaman is described as Vikram-1's first test flight and India's first privately developed orbital-class rocket launch.
• Skyroot Aerospace said Vikram-S was the first private rocket to reach space from Indian soil on November 18, 2022.
• Vikram-1 is designed to carry small satellites weighing up to 350 kg to Low Earth Orbit.
• The maiden mission will target an orbit at 450 km altitude with a 60-degree orbital inclination.

Prelims pointers

• Judge Tabassum Khan faced online abuse and threats after sentencing cow vigilantes to life imprisonment on June 12.
• The life sentence related to the lynching of truck driver Sheikh Lala Nazir Ahmed in August 2022.
• The Supreme Court initiated a suo motu case after Judge Uttam Anand of Dhanbad was mowed down by a vehicle in 2021.
• SCAORA said judicial orders should be challenged in appellate courts, not through intimidation or threats against judges.
• The article cites a 1991 Supreme Court judgment holding that attacks on judicial officers can amount to criminal contempt.

Prelims pointers

• The Public Accounts Committee meeting was chaired by senior Congress leader K.C. Venugopal.
• Education Secretary Vineet Joshi argued that questions should not be directed to the CBSE during the meeting.
• The PAC was reviewing Centrally sponsored welfare schemes of the Union Education Ministry, including Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.
• Sources said BJP MPs K. Laxman and Aparajita Sarangi supported the PAC chairperson during the discussion.
• K.C. Venugopal later said the last audit of the Education Department had been conducted in 2017.

Prelims pointers

• The NMC told the Kerala High Court that the Fee Regulatory Committee must fix fees according to the NMC-prescribed duration.
• The NMC said the Fee Regulatory Committee cannot alter or determine the duration of a medical course.
• Section 10(1)(i) of the NMC Act empowers the commission to frame fee guidelines for 50% of specified seats.
• The NMC said the MBBS course has four and a half years of academic study followed by one year of compulsory rotating internship.
• The commission submitted that collecting fees for five or five-and-a-half years from medical students amounts to unjust enrichment.

Prelims pointers

• Telangana decided to join the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Grameen under unavoidable circumstances.
• The State Cabinet resolved to take legal recourse, saying the Centre's decision could affect State rights.
• Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said Telangana would approach the Supreme Court to protect the State's rights.
• The article says the new law replaced the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act introduced by the Congress government in 2006.
• Telangana's Cabinet also approved the first phase of the Gandhi Sarovar project with an estimated cost of ₹7,345 crore.

Prelims pointers

• MV Golden Arsenal reported an attempted pirate attack on July 1 while transiting from Aden, Yemen, in the Gulf of Aden.
• The vessel was a St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged bulk carrier en route to Thoothukudi with 21 crew members.
• The incident was reported through the Information Fusion Centre–Indian Ocean Region, after which INS Trikand altered course.
• The crew took shelter in the ship's citadel, described as a fortified refuge with independent power, ventilation and supplies.
• On July 2, an INS Trikand boarding team searched MV Golden Arsenal and found no suspicious personnel onboard.

Prelims pointers

• The Digital India BHASHINI Division showcased multilingual AI at the National Conference on e-Governance 2026.
• BHASHINI demonstrated speech and text translation, voice-based AI services, Shrutlekh, BhashaDaan and Suno Sutra at its exhibition stall.
• The Rajasthan Language Model Training Hackathon aims to build datasets for Marwari, Mewari, Dhundhari, Hadoti, Mewati and Bagri.
• DIBD is under Digital India Corporation, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and works through the National Hub for Language Technology.
• BHASHINI powers over 800 government websites, processes more than 20 million AI inferences daily, and supports 36 Indian text languages.

Prelims pointers

• The 19th Empowered Task Force meeting on River Ganga was held on 2 July 2026 under C.R. Paatil.
• Under Namami Gange, 524 projects have been sanctioned at an estimated cost of ₹43,031 crore.
• The source says 363 projects have been completed under the Namami Gange Programme.
• Sewerage infrastructure includes 218 sanctioned projects with 6,610 MLD treatment capacity and 5,233 km sewer network.
• The number of Ramsar wetlands within the Ganga Basin has increased to 35, according to the meeting note.

Prelims pointers

• The Ministry of Panchayati Raj scheduled a national workshop in New Delhi on 3 July 2026.
• The workshop is to deliberate on Sixteenth Finance Commission recommendations for the 2026-31 award period.
• The Sixteenth Finance Commission recommended devolution of ₹4.35 lakh crore to Panchayati Raj Institutions.
• The Department of Expenditure issued Operational Guidelines for Sixteenth Finance Commission Rural Local Body Grants.
• The workshop agenda includes grant release, utilisation, compliance requirements and institutional preparedness for PRIs.

Prelims pointers

• The National Green Hydrogen Mission was approved in January 2023 with an outlay of ₹19,744 crore.
• ACME Group secured offtake deals with IHI Corporation for green ammonia and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical for green methanol.
• ACME Group was awarded 3,70,000 tonnes per annum production capacity under the SIGHT Programme.
• The IHI deal covers supply of 4,05,000 tonnes per annum of green ammonia.
• The Mitsubishi Gas Chemical agreement is a 10-year supply deal for 1,00,000 tonnes per annum of green methanol from Paradip.

Prelims pointers

• The Prime Ministers of India and Japan acknowledged AI as an era-defining general-purpose technology affecting economies, societies, governance and security.
• The two leaders agreed to strengthen AI cooperation in alignment with India’s MAHASAGAR and Japan’s updated Free and Open Indo-Pacific approach.
• The statement refers to the Hiroshima AI Process, the G20, OECD, GPAI and the United Nations as relevant AI governance forums.
• India and Japan decided to strengthen cooperation on secure digital infrastructure for AI, including data centres, GPU and other compute resources, and semiconductors.
• The leaders reaffirmed a January 2026 goal of inviting 500 highly skilled AI professionals from India to Japan by 2030 and promoting joint research.

Prelims pointers

• India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry issued the joint statement on energy resilience.
• The statement highlighted India’s support for energy security in South Asia and Japan’s Partnership On Wide Energy and Resources Resilience.
• Strategic stockpiling cooperation will cover crude oil and petroleum-product reserves, producing-country arrangements, emergency response and market stabilisation.
• The two sides agreed to explore collaboration and joint investments across the maritime energy transport value chain for oil and gas.
• Institutions named for cooperation include Indian National Oil Companies, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited, JOGMEC and JBIC.

Prelims pointers

• The speech was delivered at the India-Japan Joint Economic Forum, according to the source.
• The Prime Minister cited Maruti Suzuki’s new manufacturing plant at Kharkhoda in Haryana.
• The source says nearly two-thirds of Suzuki’s cars worldwide are manufactured in India and exported to more than 100 countries.
• India recorded a GDP growth rate of 7.7 per cent in the last financial year, according to the speech.
• The speech sets a goal for Japanese investment in India to surpass 10 trillion yen over the next decade.

Prelims pointers

• Prime Minister Takaichi was welcomed on her first visit to India for the India-Japan Annual Summit.
• The statement says India and Japan issued a Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence and that Indian AI institutions entered agreements with Japanese partners.
• India and Japan signed an agreement for their first-ever defence co-development project, identified as the Naval Radio Antenna project.
• The Prime Minister said more than 100 new business agreements over the past year paved the way for over US$10 billion in Japanese investment in India.
• India’s stated objective is to attract 10 trillion yen in Japanese investment over ten years and to double the number of Japanese companies operating in India.

Prelims pointers

• The NRAA-funded project is titled In-situ Conservation and Management of Wild Rice (Oryza rufipogon) in Sonitpur District of Assam.
• The project has been implemented since 2022 by ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Assam State Biodiversity Board.
• The Borjuli site in Sonitpur district of Assam was notified as a Biodiversity Heritage Site by the National Biodiversity Authority.
• ICAR-NBPGR scientists briefed the NRAA CEO on exploration, conservation and characterization of wild rice germplasm.
• The NRAA CEO said wild rice species are sources of genes for climate-resilient, high-yielding and nutritionally superior rice varieties.

Prelims pointers

• India’s total coal imports fell to 21.13 MT in April 2026 from 24.27 MT in April 2025, a decline of about 12.95%.
• Coal imports by power plants fell from 4.67 MT in April 2025 to 3.51 MT in April 2026, a fall of 24.89%.
• Imports for Imported Coal-Based plants declined from 3.97 MT to 2.88 MT, the steepest reduction among categories tracked.
• Coal imported for blending by Domestic Coal-Based plants fell from 0.71 MT to 0.63 MT, a decline of 11.26%.
• Coking coal imports rose marginally from 5.93 MT to 6.01 MT because domestic coking coal reserves remain limited for the steel sector.

Prelims pointers

• The Coal Blocks Allocation (Amendment) Rules, 2026 allow Insurance Surety Bonds in place of Performance Bank Guarantees for MMDR coal blocks.
• The reform applies to coal blocks allocated under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
• Existing coal block allocates may replace Performance Bank Guarantees already furnished with Insurance Surety Bonds under prescribed conditions.
• The amendment was published in the Gazette of India as G.S.R. 508(E) dated 22 June 2026.
• The Ministry will process extension of the provision to coal blocks allocated under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015.

Prelims pointers

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved improved-quality rice supply under PMGKAY and Other Welfare Schemes.
• Raw rice supplied under PMGKAY will contain up to 10% broken grains instead of the existing specification of up to 25%.
• Parboiled rice supplied under PMGKAY will contain up to 5% broken grains instead of the existing specification of up to 16%.
• Procurement of improved-quality rice will be rolled out across all procuring States by Kharif Marketing Season 2027-28 in a phased manner.
• The reform envisages QR-code tagging of rice bags to enable end-to-end traceability in the Public Distribution System supply chain.

Prelims pointers

• The Ministry of Culture invited applications for Kala Sanskriti Vikas Yojana components for the Grant Year 2026-27.
• Eligible applicants include cultural organisations, NGOs, artists, researchers and institutions across the country.
• KSVY aims to preserve, promote and strengthen India’s cultural heritage through financial assistance for arts and cultural activities.
• Mentioned components include Guru-Shishya Parampara, Cultural Function and Production Grant Scheme, and Tagore National Fellowship for Cultural Research.
• The notice says incomplete applications will not be considered and submissions close strictly on the last dates indicated.

Prelims pointers

• Digital India completed eleven years on 1 July 2026, according to the source body.
• The Academic Bank of Credits is a Ministry of Education initiative regulated by the University Grants Commission.
• ABC supports NEP 2020, the National Credit Framework and Multiple Entry-Multiple Exit learning pathways.
• The source says 2,963 higher education institutions have registered on the Academic Bank of Credits platform.
• More than 26.29 crore APAAR IDs have been created and over 110.65 crore academic records have been uploaded.

Prelims pointers

• The Central Government amended the Drugs Rules, 1945 to expand the CLAA framework.
• Cell or stem cell-derived products, gene therapeutic products and xenografts were brought under CLAA oversight.
• Vaccines, large volume parenterals and r-DNA based medicines are cited as existing jointly supervised categories.
• The source gives CAR-T cell therapies as an example of cell or stem cell-derived products used for blood cancers.
• Xenografts are described as animal tissue-derived products such as heart valves that can be transplanted into humans.

Prelims pointers

• Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command issued the Strait of Hormuz tanker-route warning on July 2, 2026.
• The article describes the Strait of Hormuz as the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf and crucial for international energy supplies.
• Iran warned that deviation from designated routes or disregard for its navigation protocols would draw an immediate and forceful response.
• An interim U.S.-Iran deal allowed ships to pass without paying charges for 60 days, according to the article.
• The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to Iran charging for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Prelims pointers

• NATO’s current fleet consists of 14 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft with distinctive nine-metre-wide radar domes.
• NATO’s AWACS aircraft have served since 1982 and are based at Geilenkirchen air base in Germany.
• The planned AWACS replacement decision is expected at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7-8.
• Saab’s GlobalEye entered service in 2018 and is designed to detect and track threats across air, land and sea.
• GlobalEye is based on the Global 6500 business jet built by Canada’s Bombardier and competes with Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail.

Prelims pointers

• The Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme 2026 was notified on June 29, 2026 by the Labour and Employment Ministry.
• EPF contributions above the ₹15,000 monthly wage ceiling, or beyond ₹1,800, were made voluntary under the new scheme.
• Under the earlier EPF Scheme, 1952, employees with basic wages up to ₹15,000 were mandatorily covered.
• The present EPF wage ceiling of ₹15,000 per month was notified in 2014.
• After the 2014 EPS amendment, employers’ 8.33% pension contribution was restricted to ₹15,000, i.e. ₹1,250 per month.

Prelims pointers

• Pakistan and Qatar mediated separate meetings with U.S. and Iranian negotiators in Doha on July 2, 2026.
• The meetings reported positive progress on aspects of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, according to Pakistan and Qatar.
• The U.S. and Iran signed the Islamabad MoU on June 18, aimed at restoring peace in West Asia.
• Technical-level talks in Switzerland followed on June 21, with Pakistan and Qatar serving as mediators.
• Further talks were to be set after funeral processions for former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Prelims pointers

• Hardeep Singh Puri said retail fuel prices would fall only after cheaper crude reaches Indian shores and refiners.
• Refiners usually seal crude oil purchases approximately two months before receiving physical deliveries.
• State-run OMCs incurred about ₹74,781 crore loss from LPG, petrol and diesel sales in the June-end quarter.
• Combined under-recoveries in the June-end quarter stood at about ₹1.89 lakh crore, according to Puri.
• India was holding crude stocks enough for 76 to 80 days, including stocks at ports, refineries, pipelines and strategic petroleum reserves.