25th June 2026 Current Affairs MCQ

The Emergency was proclaimed under Article 352, citing "internal disturbance" as the ground — a phrase so broad it later became the exact thing lawmakers tightened up. It lasted 21 months, until March 1977, with fundamental rights suspended and press freedom crushed. That's precisely why the 44th Constitutional Amendment (1978) rewrote the rules afterward: the ground was narrowed to "armed rebellion," Cabinet's written recommendation became mandatory, and Lok Sabha approval was required within a month. Think of Article 352 as the door, and the 44th Amendment as the much stronger lock installed after someone walked through it the wrong way.

India holds about 32% of global ship recycling by Gross Tonnage, with the Alang Ship Recycling Yard in Bhavnagar, Gujarat — the world's largest such facility — doing the heavy lifting. Alang's edge comes from a natural tidal advantage that lets ships be beached directly onshore for dismantling, combined with lower labour costs and strong domestic steel demand from re-rolling mills. Safety and environmental standards have improved significantly too, thanks to the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019, which aligned India with the Hong Kong International Convention (2009). It's a good example of an unglamorous industry where India quietly dominates the world.

Under Miniratna Category I, GRSE could approve investments only up to ₹500 crore without government sign-off — Navratna status doubles that to ₹1,000 crore. It's worth locking in the PSU hierarchy here: Maharatna sits at the top (turnover above ₹25,000 crore), then Navratna, then Miniratna I and II below that — each tier unlocking more financial autonomy. GRSE, headquartered in Kolkata, builds frigates and corvettes for the Navy, including the P17A Stealth Frigate programme. This upgrade essentially means less red tape standing between GRSE and its next big shipbuilding decision.

TReDS exists to fix a very specific pain point — a large company might take 60-90 days to pay a small supplier, but that MSME needs cash immediately to keep running. TReDS lets them auction their trade receivables to banks and NBFCs for instant cash instead of waiting it out. The 2026 directions go further by enabling credit guarantees on these transactions, likely through CGTMSE, meaning financiers now bear less risk and can participate more freely. Three platforms — M1xchange, Invoicemart, and RXIL — currently run this system, though smaller MSME penetration still has room to grow.

India's trade hit $1.84 trillion in FY26 — a 5.4% growth over FY25 — placing it among the world's top ten trading nations by volume. The report specifically spotlighted the pharmaceutical sector, and for good reason: India supplies roughly 20% of global generic medicines by volume, earning its "pharmacy of the world" reputation. The report wasn't all good news though — it flagged how the West Asian energy disruption has pushed up import costs and widened the trade deficit. It's a solid reminder that headline growth numbers often carry underlying pressure points worth knowing for exams.

S&P cut its forecast from 6.9% to 6.6%, citing the West Asian energy crisis, elevated commodity prices, and El Niño-driven monsoon concerns. Even at 6.6%, though, India stays well ahead of China (projected around 4.5-4.8%) and the US (2.1%) for the same period — still one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. Interestingly, the "weak monsoon concerns" note comes despite the monsoon actually making its earliest onset since 2009 back on 24 May — the worry isn't the onset date but whether El Niño suppresses rainfall distribution over central and northwest India later in the season. It's a good example of how one number (GDP) can be shaped by a completely different one (rainfall) hundreds of kilometres away.

Englert and Higgs independently proposed the mechanism explaining how elementary particles get mass, through what's now called the Higgs field — a concept first put forward back in 1964. It took until 2012 for CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Geneva to experimentally confirm it, one of the most celebrated results in modern physics. The particle itself picked up the nickname "God Particle" in pop science, a label physicists themselves aren't fond of. Englert spent his career at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and this discovery alone reshaped how we understand the basic structure of matter.

ICJS links Police, Courts, Prosecution, Prison, and Forensics into one shared digital system, so case information flows automatically instead of requiring physical paper transfers between departments — the old process that caused enormous delays. The four new apps push this down to field-level policing, letting officers file FIRs, check suspect databases, and update case status directly from mobile devices — a genuinely useful upgrade for rural policing where stations can be far apart. ICJS sits under the Ministry of Home Affairs and is managed through the NCRB, the same body behind the annual Crime in India report. This is a classic GS Paper II governance topic, so it's worth remembering the five pillars by name

The discovery came from the Western Ghats of Kerala — a mountain range recognised as one of the world's eight hottest biodiversity hotspots and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's home to thousands of endemic species found nowhere else, and new discoveries here happen fairly regularly, each adding useful data on how biodiversity is distributed. ZSI, headquartered in Kolkata, operates 16 regional stations under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and functions as India's primary body for documenting animal diversity. It's a nice reminder that biodiversity hotspots aren't static — new species keep turning up even in well-studied regions.

India's position rests on the Simla Agreement (1972), which both countries signed and which commits them to resolving disputes bilaterally, not at multilateral forums. Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish exercised India's right of reply to reject Pakistan's framing of Kashmir as an "internationally recognised dispute." This objection landed against the backdrop of heightened tension since the Pahalgam terror attack (April 2025), after which India placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance and has been consistently raising Pakistan's terrorism record at the UNSC. It's a good example of how one bilateral treaty from over 50 years ago still anchors India's diplomatic position today.