30th June 2026 Current Affairs MCQ

The policy aims to push defence exports from the current ₹39,000 crore (FY26) up to ₹50,000 crore by 2029 — a target built on real momentum, given that June 2026 alone saw 40 Su-30MKI jets integrated with BrahMos missiles and the Netra AEW&C achieving Final Operational Clearance. Beyond the export number, the policy rests on three thrusts: deeper private-sector integration into core weapons R&D (moving past the iDEX startup model), a technology absorption roadmap for import-dependent areas like jet engines and nuclear submarine propulsion, and continued indigenisation momentum. Think of it as India consolidating a decade of defence self-reliance work into one forward-looking blueprint.

Thewa originates from Pratapgarh district, Rajasthan, practised for over 400 years by a single community, the Raj Soni family. The technique itself is remarkable — intricate designs crafted in 23-carat gold are fused onto multicoloured Belgian glass using heat and precision alone, with no glue, solder, or adhesive involved anywhere in the process. The imagery typically draws from royal court life — durbar scenes, hunting expeditions, and Mughal-Rajput floral motifs. The 2014 GI tag legally protects the Thewa name, ensuring only authentic Pratapgarh-origin pieces can carry it — a good anchor point for understanding how GI tags differ from trademarks and patents, a distinction that shows up across economics, polity, and law sections.

Ancy Sojan, a long jumper from Kerala, broke Anju Bobby George's 22-year-old national record — a record that had stood since 2003, the year George also won bronze at the World Athletics Championships in Paris, India's only World Athletics medal in a track and field event for two decades. A record standing that long says a lot about how rare the combination of talent and opportunity needed to break it actually is. Ancy Sojan's achievement signals a new generation of field athletics talent emerging in India, arriving alongside growing momentum from Neeraj Chopra's Olympic gold and investment through the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). For SSC and IBPS GK sections, both names — the record-holder and the record-breaker — are worth remembering together.

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) deliberately crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos and successfully altered its orbit — humanity's first demonstrated proof that asteroid deflection is technically achievable, not just theoretical. This matters directly for planetary defence: an object as small as the one behind the Tunguska Event (just 50-80 metres wide) can devastate a region without ever being spotted in time by conventional telescopes. Agencies like NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office and ESA's Space Safety Programme now treat DART's success as a foundational proof-of-concept for future deflection missions. India's own contribution here runs through ISRO's participation in international near-Earth-object tracking networks.

India follows the well-established convention of elevating the senior-most General to the post of Army Chief, a practice that provides continuity and clarity in military succession rather than opening the process up to competition or lobbying. General Seth arrives with a background in counterterrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir, strategic planning, and corps-level command — the standard résumé for the country's top military job. His appointment lands at a genuinely loaded moment: ongoing LAC management with China, a post-Operation Sindoor posture with Pakistan, and an expanding defence modernisation and export agenda all land on his desk from day one. For defence-exam aspirants (NDA, CDS) and UPSC candidates alike, the Army Chief's name, appointment date, and predecessor are near-guaranteed exam fodder.

The day marks the anniversary of the Tunguska Event of 30 June 1908, when an asteroid exploded 5-10 km above Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River with energy equivalent to 10-15 megatons of TNT — roughly 1,000 times the Hiroshima bomb — flattening around 2,000 square kilometres of forest. The UN General Assembly proclaimed the day in December 2016 through Resolution A/RES/71/90, and it was co-founded by Queen guitarist-turned-astrophysicist Dr. Brian May along with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart. What makes Tunguska genuinely chilling in hindsight: the object was only 50-80 metres wide, invisible to most telescopes until very close, yet capable of levelling an area larger than London. It's exactly why NASA's DART mission — which successfully redirected the asteroid Dimorphos in 2022 — matters so much for planetary defence.

Cricket was last played at the Olympics in 1900 in Paris, with only two teams — Great Britain and France — taking part. It returns at LA 2028 in T20 format, with six men's and six women's teams competing in a schedule built to fit the Games' compressed timeline. Qualification is being worked out by the ICC, in coordination with the IOC, likely combining rankings-based automatic spots for top teams with regional qualifiers for geographic diversity. India, as the dominant force in T20 cricket, is virtually certain to qualify — though the inclusion itself required resolving longstanding governance tensions between BCCI/ICC and IOC standards, including acceptance of WADA oversight.

Sanjay Jaju was appointed Chief Secretary of Telangana, succeeding K. Ramakrishna Rao, who retired the same day. He also holds Full Additional Charge of Industries, Commerce, and IT, Electronics & Communications departments, plus the role of CEO of the Industry and Investment Cell in Hyderabad. His background is notable — he's been on Central Deputation since 2014, having served as Secretary in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. His combined charge over industries and IT departments fits neatly with Telangana's economic identity, built heavily around Hyderabad's IT sector and its ambitions for a defence manufacturing corridor.

Rajiv Kumar served as India's 25th Chief Election Commissioner from May 2022 to February 2025, overseeing the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — arguably the world's largest democratic exercise. His move to HDFC Bank, India's largest private bank by assets, is a Part-Time Chairman role for three years — meaning governance oversight and board leadership, not day-to-day management, which stays with the MD and CEO. This kind of cross-sector transition, from top public office into private financial governance, is becoming a recognisable pattern in Indian institutional leadership. Worth remembering for polity sections too: CECs are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee comprising the PM, the Leader of Opposition, and the CJI, under the CEC Act, 2023.

The ISP will lean primarily on GST data, supplemented by corporate filings and sector-specific administrative records, with 2024-25 as its proposed base year. This fills a real statistical gap: India already has a monthly Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for manufacturing, mining, and electricity, but services — which make up roughly 55% of India's GDP — have had no equivalent high-frequency indicator until now. Since nearly every meaningful services transaction generates a GST return, this data source gives near-real-time visibility into sectors from IT to hospitality to healthcare. For RBI Grade B and SEBI Grade A aspirants especially, understanding why ISP complements rather than duplicates the IIP is the kind of distinction that separates a strong descriptive answer from an average one.