Current Affairs Quiz 11 June 2026

The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N. Kotiswar Singh ruled that the contribution of a homemaker extends far beyond routine housework and must form a separate component of compensation, not be folded into or ignored within other heads. The judgment builds on Kirti v. Oriental Insurance Co. (2021), which recognised the notional income of a homemaker, and goes further by making domestic care a distinct head with a minimum value.
The principle of “just compensation” under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 requires fair compensation reflecting the real loss suffered, and notional income is used for those without a measurable salary. The ruling resonates with the global goal of valuing unpaid care work, performed overwhelmingly by women, which India’s Time Use Survey (2019) documented in detail.
It could also inform maintenance, insurance and the measurement of unpaid work in national accounts.

UNRWA, established in 1949, provides relief, education, health and social services to Palestine refugees and is funded by voluntary contributions. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, made the announcement and reaffirmed support for a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine living alongside a secure Israel.
This reflects India’s “de-hyphenated” West Asia policy: building strong, independent relationships with all major actors rather than viewing them through one another. India has historical solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution (with East Jerusalem envisaged as the capital of a future Palestinian state), alongside deep defence and technology ties with Israel, membership of I2U2 (India, Israel, the UAE and the US), and close Gulf relations.
Do not confuse UNRWA (Palestine refugees) with UNHCR (the general UN Refugee Agency).

The LVM3 is ISRO’s most capable operational launch vehicle (technically a medium-to-heavy class vehicle: about 4 tonnes to GTO and 8 to 10 tonnes to LEO), used for Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3, the OneWeb commercial satellite launches, and planned for the Gaganyaan human-spaceflight mission. Its three stages are the S200 solid boosters, the L110 liquid core (Vikas engines) and the C25 cryogenic upper stage with the indigenous CE-20 engine.
IN-SPACe (the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre) is the regulator and promoter that authorises and enables private space activity, created as part of the 2020 space-sector reforms. ISRO’s commercial arm is NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
This LVM3 transfer follows the earlier PSLV transfer, and the government has approved 60-plus LVM3 rockets (about Rs 25,000 crore) for the private sector. The aim is to raise India’s share of the global space economy by letting private firms scale up routine launches.
Distinguish the LVM3 (heaviest) from the PSLV (workhorse) and SSLV (small-satellite launcher).

The “forcibly displaced” total combines refugees (who cross an international border), asylum seekers (whose claims are pending) and internally displaced persons (IDPs, displaced within their own country). The UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, was established in 1950; the core legal framework is the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, with non-refoulement (not returning refugees to danger) as the key principle.
India is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention or the 1967 Protocol and lacks a dedicated domestic refugee law; refugees are handled mainly under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and case-by-case executive policy, which leaves protection dependent on administrative discretion. World Refugee Day is observed on June 20.
A decline in displacement is welcome but does not by itself mean the underlying conflicts are resolved, since some returns are driven by hardship in host countries.

Measuring risk by hazard, vulnerability and coping capacity gives a fuller picture than raw temperature, since a moderately hot city with many poor, elderly or outdoor-working residents and weak response systems can face higher human risk than a hotter but better-prepared city. The Urban Heat Island effect makes cities hotter than surrounding areas because concrete, asphalt and buildings absorb and retain heat with little green cover; rapid, unplanned urbanisation, loss of green cover and water bodies, and climate change intensify it.
The key policy response is the Heat Action Plan (HAP); Ahmedabad pioneered India’s first HAP in 2013, a widely cited model. Other measures include cool (reflective) roofs, more trees, restored water bodies, early-warning systems, and treating heatwaves as a notified disaster under the National Disaster Management Authority’s guidelines.

Remittances are money sent home by Indians working abroad and are recorded as “private transfers” in the current account of the balance of payments. They are a stable, non-debt-creating source of foreign exchange (unlike loans or volatile portfolio capital) and cushion India’s external accounts, helping fund the goods trade deficit and supporting the rupee, especially when capital inflows are weak.
For decades the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, employing large numbers of Indian blue-collar workers, dominated remittance flows; the shift toward advanced economies reflects more high-skilled migration and higher remittance value per migrant. A diversified source base also reduces exposure to any single region.
The policy implications include skilling, migration and mobility agreements, and protecting migrant workers’ interests across both Gulf and Western destinations.

The GMRT is one of the world’s largest arrays of radio telescopes operating at metre wavelengths, with 30 large parabolic dish antennas (each 45 metres across) arranged in a Y-shape. Pulsars are rapidly rotating, highly magnetised neutron stars that emit beams of radiation; millisecond pulsars spin extraordinarily fast, completing a rotation in milliseconds, and are valuable for precise tests of physics.
Globular clusters are dense, spherical collections of old stars where such pulsars are often found. India’s radio-astronomy capability through the GMRT also positions it to contribute to the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.
Do not confuse the GMRT (radio astronomy, near Pune) with optical observatories like those at Nainital (ARIES) or the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) facilities.

The 1951 Refugee Convention defines who is a refugee and establishes the principle of non-refoulement, the rule that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats; the 1967 Protocol removed the Convention’s original geographic and time limits. India’s non-signatory status means refugee protection rests on administrative discretion rather than a single statute, a recurring subject of debate, especially in the context of the Citizenship Amendment Act and various refugee groups India hosts.
India is, however, a party to the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions and many human-rights instruments, and it sits on UNHCR’s executive committee. This question links to the June 2026 UNHCR Global Trends report, which recorded the first decline in global forced displacement (to about 117.8 million) in a decade.
World Refugee Day is June 20.

Non-refoulement protects against forced return to persecution, conflict or other serious harm. Because it is considered part of customary international law, it is often argued to apply to India even though India has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol.
India handles refugees under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and executive policy, and Indian courts have at times invoked Article 21 (the right to life and personal liberty, which the Supreme Court has held extends to non-citizens) in matters touching refugees. The June 2026 UNHCR Global Trends report cautioned that even as global forced displacement declined for the first time in a decade (to about 117.8 million), many returns occurred under adverse conditions, which is precisely the situation non-refoulement is meant to guard against.
The UNHCR (founded 1950) is the UN Refugee Agency.

Built surfaces (roads, roofs, pavements) absorb solar radiation during the day and release it slowly at night, keeping cities warm; vehicles, air-conditioning and industry add waste heat, while the loss of trees, parks and water bodies removes natural cooling. Rapid, unplanned urbanisation intensifies the effect, and climate change raises the baseline.
Mitigation includes cool (reflective) roofs, urban greening and tree cover, restoring water bodies, better urban design, and Heat Action Plans (HAPs) for early warning and emergency response; Ahmedabad pioneered India’s first HAP in 2013. Heat stress disproportionately harms the elderly, the poor, slum residents and outdoor workers.
The National Disaster Management Authority issues heatwave-management guidelines, and there is a growing case to treat severe heatwaves as a notified disaster.

Without the concept of notional income, the death or disability of a homemaker, a student, or others without a paid job could be undervalued in compensation, simply because no salary slip exists. The principle of “just compensation” under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 requires compensation that reflects the real loss suffered, and courts use notional income to capture the economic value of unpaid work.
The 2026 judgment, by Justices Sanjay Karol and N. Kotiswar Singh, builds on Kirti v. Oriental Insurance Co. (2021), which recognised the notional income of homemakers, and goes further by making domestic care a separate, additional head with a minimum value. It calls homemakers “nation builders,” recognising the unpaid care economy, work done overwhelmingly by women and documented in India’s Time Use Survey (2019).
The principle could extend to maintenance, insurance and national-accounts measurement.

For much of the Cold War, India’s West Asia policy was closely tied to its Palestine solidarity. The de-hyphenated approach, developed over the past two decades, lets India simultaneously deepen defence, technology and agricultural cooperation with Israel; maintain historical support for the Palestinian cause and a two-state solution (with East Jerusalem as the envisaged capital of a future Palestinian state); build strong energy and labour ties with the Gulf Cooperation Council; and engage Iran (for example via Chabahar port).
India is part of I2U2 (India, Israel, the UAE and the US) and supports connectivity initiatives like the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). The UNRWA contribution and humanitarian support for Palestine also reinforce India’s standing in the Global South.
The skill is balancing partners that are often at odds with one another.

India’s space ecosystem now has a clear division of roles. The Department of Space (DoS) is the apex body; ISRO is the national space agency focused on research, development and exploration.
IN-SPACe, created under the 2020 space-sector reforms and given shape by the Indian Space Policy 2023, is the single-window, independent body that authorises, regulates and promotes the activities of private (non-governmental) space players and enables their access to ISRO facilities. NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) is ISRO’s commercial arm, which takes technologies to market and runs commercial launches (Antrix was the earlier commercial arm).
DRDO is the defence research organisation, separate from the civilian space programme. The LVM3 transfer, with ISRO hand-holding over a defined window, lets a private firm build ISRO’s most capable rocket and scale up launches, helping India capture a larger share of the global space economy (targeted to grow from about $8.4 billion to $44 billion by 2033).
The reforms also allow up to 100% FDI in parts of the space sector.

The balance of payments has two main parts: the current account (trade in goods and services, primary income, and transfers such as remittances) and the capital and financial account (investment and borrowing). Remittances are unilateral transfers, money received without a corresponding outflow, so they are non-debt-creating, unlike external borrowing, and more stable than volatile portfolio (FPI) flows.
A large remittance inflow helps offset India’s goods trade deficit and reduces pressure on the current account and the rupee. In FY26 a structural shift was noted, with advanced economies (led by the US) overtaking the Gulf as the largest source, reflecting more high-skilled migration.
Distinguish remittances (current account, private transfers) from FDI and FPI, which sit in the capital and financial account.