• The Government of India, via a high-level committee chaired
by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has approved ₹2,006.40
crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to
support post-monsoon 2023 recovery in Himachal Pradesh
• Google inaugurated its first Safety Engineering Centre (GSEC) in
the Asia-Pacific region at Hyderabad, Telangana
• The Maharashtra government, aligning with the State Curriculum
Framework 2024 and NEP 2020, has issued a directive making Hindi
the default third language taught in Marathi and English medium
schools from Classes 1 to 5
• The Calcutta High Court, ordered the Central Government
to resume work under MGNREGA in West Bengal from August 1,
ending a nearly three-year suspension
• Veteran journalist and cultural intellectual Shri Ram Bahadur
Rai was presented the Padma Bhushan—India’s third-highest
civilian honour at a special ceremony held by the Ministry of Home
Affairs at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in
Delhi
• The Sahitya Akademi, India’s premier literary institution under the
Ministry of Culture, has declared the Bal Sahitya Puraskar
2025 recipients—24 distinguished authors honored for outstanding
children’s books first published between January 1,
2019 and December 31, 2023
• India has fallen to 71st place in the World Economic Forum’s
Energy Transition Index (ETI) 2025, down from 63rd in 2024,
despite making strides in energy efficiency and green investments
• The QS World University Rankings 2026 has been officially released,
listing over 1,500 universities across more than 100 countries.
• Published by Penguin Random House India, Singapore-based life
coach Sucheta Raj Khanna weaves a reflective tale of personal
transformation and ancestral wisdom in her first novel, “The Stars
Light the Way: A Journey Through Time and Beyond.”
• Veteran journalist A.K. Bhattacharya has published the third
installment of his acclaimed series on India’s finance ministers—
Different Strokes (1998–2014)—through Penguin Business.
• World Kidney Cancer Day, held every year on the second Thursday
of June, falls on June 12, 2025, and serves as a global platform to
spotlight kidney cancer—a disease that often progresses silently
• Every year on June 20th, World Refugee Day is commemorated to
raise awareness of the plight of refugees and the difficulties they face.
• The Supervisory Data Quality Index (sDQI) of Scheduled
Commercial Banks (SCBs) improved to 89.3 in March
2025 from 86.8 in March 2024, according to the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI).
• India’s top private banks have not fully migrated to the ISO 20022
SWIFT messaging standard ahead of the November 2025 deadline.
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India
(SEBI) has proposed that all KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs) be
allowed to function as accreditation agencies, expanding
eligibility beyond subsidiaries of stock
exchanges and depositories.
• Leading rating agency Icra projects India’s real GDP
growth for FY26 at 6.2%, down from 6.5% in FY25.
• Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has entered into a strategic
partnership with SBI Card to launch co-branded credit cards.
• India and Canada have agreed to resume negotiations on a free
trade agreement (FTA) that was suspended in September 2023, just
before New Delhi was to host the G-20 Summit.
• The first Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on
Agriculture between India and Ukraine was held virtually.
• Jio Financial Services Limited (JFSL) has acquired 7.9 crore
shares of Jio Payments Bank Ltd (JPBL) from the State Bank of
India (SBI) for ₹104.50 crore.
• The Indian Navy has commissioned INS Arnala, the country’s first
indigenously designed and built Anti-Submarine Warfare
Shallow Water Craft (ASW-SWC).
• Alfred Brendel, renowned pianist and poet, passed away at the age
of 94 at his home in London.
• Nellai S Muthu, aged 70, a former ISRO scientist and renowned
translator of APJ Abdul Kalam’s books, was found dead at his
residence in Thiruvananthapuram.
