2 June 2026

• Economy: IIP rebased to 2022-23. April 2026 industrial production grew 4.9 per cent. The Centre hit its 4.4 per cent fiscal deficit target for 2025-26.
• Polity: Supreme Court strength raised to 37 after five new judges were sworn in following a 2026 ordinance raising the sanctioned strength to 38.
• Health: PCOS renamed PMOS in the Lancet. NFHS-6 data flagged obesity surge alongside stunting.
• Defence and space: China's counter-space capabilities and India's Mission Shakti context.

GS area: Economy

The Index of Industrial Production was rebased from 2011-12 to 2022-23. The revision matters for prelims because the old base had become stale and no longer reflected the economy's structure:

• April 2026 growth: 4.9 per cent year-on-year under the new series. Under the old base, the same period showed 5.8 per cent.
• New sectors added: water supply, sewerage management and gas supply now have a weight in the index. These were absent in the old series.
• Expanded product basket: 1,042 items are now tracked against 839 earlier.
• Sectoral signals from the data: mining contracted 5.1 per cent. Manufacturing expanded 6.2 per cent. Capital goods surged 16 per cent.

The capital-versus-consumer divergence is a reading of the economy's shape. Strong capital goods output suggests investment activity. Consumer durable growth at only 4.3 per cent raises questions about household demand.

Static linkage: Economic statistics, national accounts.

GS area: International Relations, Infrastructure

The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway entered discussion in the context of Min Aung Hlaing's recent visit. The connectivity map:

• Route: Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand. Total distance approximately 1,360 kilometres.
• Original deadline: 2019. The road remains incomplete.
• Kaladan Multi-Modal Project: a parallel connectivity corridor. The sea route from Kolkata to Sittwe port in Myanmar is operational. The river segment to Paletwa functions. The 109-kilometre road component from Paletwa to Zorinpui in Mizoram is targeted for 2027.
• Border length: India and Myanmar share 1,643 kilometres of border across four northeastern states.
• Assam Rifles: India's border guarding force along the Myanmar border. It is a central armed police force that operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs for administrative purposes and the Ministry of Defence for operational deployment.

The Trilateral Highway matters on two counts: it is India's Act East Policy made concrete, and its delay is a measure of how difficult connectivity in the northeast remains.

Static linkage: Act East Policy, infrastructure, northeast India.

GS area: Polity (Judiciary), Governance

The tension between privacy in criminal records and the principle of open justice emerged on this day as a doctrinal question the courts are working through:

• Puttaswamy 2017: the nine-judge bench held privacy to be a fundamental right under Article 21. The judgment listed informational privacy as one dimension.
• DPDP Act, 2023: grants the right to erase personal data from data fiduciaries in certain conditions.
• Open justice principle: court records are public. That openness enables accountability, press reporting and historical documentation.
• The specific problem: digitisation and search-engine indexing have turned old court records into permanently accessible documents attached to a person's name. Acquittals surface alongside charges. The court is balancing two legitimate principles.

Static linkage: Fundamental rights, data protection, judiciary.

GS area: Science and Technology (Health)

The Lancet published a consensus recommending renaming Polycystic Ovary Syndrome to Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome. The change is substantive, not just cosmetic:

• What the old name missed: PCOS focused on cysts on the ovaries. The new name frames the condition as endocrine, metabolic, reproductive and psychological. Many women with the condition do not have polycystic ovaries. Many with polycystic ovaries do not have the syndrome.
• India's FemTech market: approximately 1.48 billion US dollars. The renaming redirects research and product development toward the full metabolic picture.

Static linkage: Women's health, science communication.

GS area: Society, Health

The National Family Health Survey 2023-24 numbers present a double burden:

• Stunting decline: down 17 per cent from NFHS-5.
• Severe wasting reduction: down 32 per cent.
• Institutional deliveries: above 90 per cent.
• Immunisation: 87-plus per cent full coverage.
• Total Fertility Rate: 2.0, below the replacement level of 2.1.
• Obesity surge: overweight or obese women rose from 24 per cent (NFHS-5) to 30.7 per cent. Men rose from 22.9 to 27.3 per cent.
• Exclusive breastfeeding decline: fell from 63.7 to 55.8 per cent.

India is now managing undernutrition and overnutrition simultaneously. Stunted children are developing chronic diseases associated with excess weight by adolescence. This is the double burden of malnutrition examiners write about.

Static linkage: NFHS, nutrition, public health.

GS area: Economy, International Relations

India remained the world's largest remittance recipient in 2024:

• Inflows: 138 billion US dollars.
• Share of GDP: approximately 3 per cent.
• Current account significance: remittances are recorded under Net Secondary Income in the current account. They have exceeded the entire trade deficit in financing since mid-2013.

Remittances are a stable, counter-cyclical source of foreign exchange. They tend to rise when conditions deteriorate in India because migrants send more during crises. That is the opposite of FDI and FPI, which tend to fall during economic stress.

Static linkage: Balance of payments, current account, Indian diaspora.

GS area: Polity, Governance

Ladakh has been a Union Territory without a legislature since 2019. Elected leaders and civil society groups are pressing for either statehood or Sixth Schedule protection:

• Current status: Union Territory under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. No elected legislature. Administration runs through a Lieutenant Governor.
• Sixth Schedule: applies to tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. It creates Autonomous District Councils with legislative, executive and judicial powers over tribal matters.
• What Ladakh leaders seek: job reservation for local residents, land protections and meaningful representation through elected bodies.
• The concern: civil society leaders allege that a draft agreement reached on 22 May 2026 was watered down before any formal adoption.

Static linkage: Union Territories, Sixth Schedule, tribal areas, Centre-State relations.

GS area: Science and Technology, Security

India operates approximately 60 satellites. China has over 400 military satellites and plans to deploy more than 36,000 satellites in low earth orbit by 2030. The specific systems China has fielded:

• Anti-satellite missiles: DN-3 and SC-19, capable of targeting satellites in higher orbits.
• Co-orbital mechanisms: objects placed alongside target satellites that can disable or destroy them.
• Directed energy: laser systems for blinding or damaging satellite sensors.
• Jammers: electromagnetic interference against satellite communications and GPS signals.

India's response so far is Mission Shakti, the ASAT test conducted on 27 March 2019. India demonstrated a kinetic kill capability against a low earth orbit target. The test put India in a club with the US, Russia and China.

Static linkage: Space policy, defence, ASAT.

GS area: Polity (Judiciary)

Five new Supreme Court judges were sworn in after a Presidential Ordinance raised the sanctioned strength from 34 to 38. One vacancy remains. Among those sworn in was senior advocate V. Mohana, the first woman judge from Tamil Nadu to be elevated to the Supreme Court.

• Ordinance route: the President issues ordinances under Article 123 when Parliament is not in session. The Supreme Court's judge strength is set by Parliament under Article 124(1).
• Madras zone: had the highest number of IIT-JEE qualifiers (56,880 total for 2026, including 46,773 male and 10,107 female candidates).

Static linkage: Supreme Court composition, Article 123, Article 124.

GS area: International Relations, Defence

The two countries held their second Defence Ministers' Dialogue and announced a Joint Maritime Security Collaboration Road Map.

• Partnership level: Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed in 2020.
• Shared framework: both are Quad members. They conduct bilateral naval exercises (AUSINDEX).
• Pending MoU: on defence articles and services provision.

Static linkage: Quad, Indo-Pacific, India-Australia relations.

GS area: Economy

The Controller General of Accounts confirmed that India's fiscal deficit for 2025-26 came in at 4.4 per cent of GDP, meeting the Budget target. GST revenue for May 2026 grew 3.2 per cent to 1.94 lakh crore rupees.

• Fiscal deficit: the gap between government receipts and expenditures expressed as a share of GDP. The FRBM Act sets a glide path toward consolidation.
• CGA: the Controller General of Accounts under the Ministry of Finance compiles the Union Government's accounts. This is distinct from the CAG, which audits them.

Static linkage: Fiscal policy, FRBM, GST.

• Vizag hyperscale data centre: Google Cloud's India AI Hub in Visakhapatnam is projected to draw approximately 1 GW of power and 20 million litres of water daily.
• Illicit liquor deaths: a tragedy in Pune-Pimpri-Chinchwad. About 40 per cent of alcohol consumed in India is illicit. The primary toxin is methanol diverted from industrial supply chains. Liquor is a State List subject.
• India-Australia AUSINDEX exercises: scheduled for later in 2026.
• Synthetic biology: J. Craig Venter's team created the first synthetic bacterial genome in 2010. CRISPR and affordable sequencing have since democratised the field. The Cartagena Protocol and the Biological Weapons Convention are the main governance frameworks.