The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by PM Narendra Modi, approved the continuation of the ‘Scheme for Assistance in Ration Transport and Handling-Income with Automation in Public Distribution System’ (SARTHAK-PDS) as an umbrella programme for five years, with a central outlay of Rs 25,530 crore running through the 16th Finance Commission cycle up to 31 March 2031.

• Merger: Combines ‘Assistance to State Agencies for intra-State movement of foodgrains and FPS dealers’ margin under the NFSA’ with the ‘Scheme for Modernization and Reforms through Technology in PDS (SMART-PDS)’.
• Coverage: Aims to serve 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the NFSA, 2013, across all 36 States and UTs.
• Implementing Ministry: Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (MoCAF&PD).
• Technology Push: Deploys AI, ML, NLP and Blockchain to plug leakages, cut transport distances and strengthen grievance redressal.

The Government of India (GoI) constituted a High-Level Committee under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) to examine demographic shifts arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal factors, and to recommend corrective policy and legislative measures.

• Chairperson: Retired Supreme Court Judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar.
• Members: Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan; retired IAS officer Durga Shanker Mishra; retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava; and Dr Shamika Ravi (PM’s Economic Advisory Council).
• Member Secretary: Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I), MoHA, Sandeep Namdeo.
• Mandate: Identify causes such as illegal immigration, abnormal settlement patterns and orchestrated migration, and study structural population change across religious/social communities.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoAFW), released the Third Advance Estimates of Production of Major Agricultural Crops for 2025-26, validated using remote sensing, Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) and the Weekly Crop Weather Watch Group (WCWWG).

Union Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER), along with Tripura CM Dr Manik Saha, launched ‘Tripura Mission Queen Pineapple’, a Rs 236 crore convergence-led initiative for pineapple cultivation and value-chain development, at Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi.

• Objective: Boost farmer incomes by promoting Tripura’s GI-tagged Queen Pineapple as its Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
• Timeline: Implemented over a three-year roadmap from Q2 of FY26 to Q4 of FY28.
• Ecosystem: A ‘Hub and Spoke’ model with a central processing hub near Agartala airport and eight collection centres; includes cold storage, reefer logistics, IoT-enabled monitoring and digital traceability.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Japan-based Fourth Valley Concierge Corporation (FVCC) entered a strategic partnership to strengthen employment opportunities for Indian professionals in Japan amid that country’s labour shortage.

• Verification System: Uses NSDC Trust’s ‘Credibility Check’ framework for identity, education, employment, criminal-background and document checks.
• Target: Facilitate movement of at least 50,000 skilled Indian professionals to Japan over the next five years.

Indian Railways (IR) inaugurated the Centre of Excellence ‘CHIRAG’ (Centre for HR Information Systems, Research and Analytics in Governance) for HR management training and digital transformation. Its foundation stone was laid at South Central Railway (SCR) grounds in Moula-Ali, Secunderabad, Telangana.

• Administration: Functions under the Indian Railways Institute of Financial Management (IRIFM), the nodal training institute for the Indian Railways Personnel Service (IRPS) cadre.
• Technology: Integrates AI, ML and predictive analytics into HR systems; trains an HRMS-MITRA cadre nationwide; full completion expected by May 2028.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Programme, India’s first indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter project, with Rs 15,000 crore earmarked for developing five flying prototypes and one structural test aircraft.

• Implementing Agency: A ‘Make in India’ initiative led by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the DRDO.
• Industry Participation: For the first time, HAL was excluded; private contenders include Tata Advanced Systems (TASL), the L&T-BEL-Dynamatic consortium and the Bharat Forge-BEML-Data Patterns consortium.
• Infrastructure: A 650-acre greenfield manufacturing and Core Integration & Flight Testing Centre is being developed at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh.

The Asian Athletics Association (AAA) awarded India hosting rights for the 2027 Asian Relay Championships in Chandigarh and the 2028 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, announced at its council meeting chaired by AAA President Dahlan Al Hamad in Hong Kong, China.

• Bidding Body: Bids were submitted by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in 2025.
• Asian Relays 2027: Third edition — after Bangkok (2024) and Shaoxing, China (2025); events include 4x100m, 4x400m and mixed relays at the Sector 7 Sports Complex.
• Asian Indoor 2028: India’s first time hosting since the event began in 2004; held at Kalinga Stadium — India’s first permanent indoor track-and-field facility — which will also host the 2028 World Indoor Championships.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh (AP), with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), announced an angel fund through the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub (RTIH) to position the state as a deep-tech innovation hub.

• Focus Sectors: AI, electronics and semiconductors, quantum technologies, advanced manufacturing and clean energy.
• Roles: RTIH serves as the startup incubation platform while SIDBI provides angel, seed and financial support for startups and MSMEs.

The Government of Chhattisgarh, under CM Vishnu Deo Sai, launched the ‘Adarsh Shahar Samriddhi Yojana’, allocating Rs 200 crore in the 2026-27 budget to build modern civic infrastructure in emerging towns and smaller urban bodies.

• Model: Modelled on the Mukhyamantri Nagarotthan Yojana (which focused on large corporations in FY26), extended to Nagar Palikas and Nagar Panchayats.
• Phase 1: 32 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) selected across five revenue divisions — Bilaspur (9), Bastar (6), Surguja (6), Raipur (6) and Durg (5).

IOA President P.T. Usha, alongside Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey, released the book ‘India’s Olympic Gold: Hockey Triumph at Amsterdam’, authored by hockey historian K. Arumugam, in New Delhi, Delhi.

• Publisher & Milestone: Published by Stick2Hockey, marking the 98th anniversary of India’s first Olympic hockey gold at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, where India beat the Netherlands in the final.
• Significance: The 16th book by K. Arumugam, documenting Indian hockey history.

One MobiKwik Systems Limited, parent of MobiKwik, secured in-principle approval from the RBI for a Payment Aggregator-Physical (PA-P) licence, enabling the fintech to process offline merchant payments across India.

• Growth Plan: Plans to scale soundboxes and Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines, targeting 10x growth in its merchant business by FY28.
• Financials: Reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 4.38 crore in Q4FY26 (vs a Rs 56 crore loss in Q4FY25); profit rose 8.3% over Q3FY26.
• Payment Aggregator (PA): An entity that aggregates customer payments to merchants via one or more channels for the purchase of goods or services.

India and the United States (USA) inked the ‘Framework on Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths’, aimed at building resilient, diversified supply chains for minerals vital to advanced technology and energy. It was signed on the sidelines of the 11th Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi.

• Signatories: EAM Dr S. Jaishankar (India) and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• Scope: Cooperation across mining, processing, recycling and related investment; protection of supply chains from coercive practices and single-source dependence.
• US Funding: The US has mobilised over USD 30 billion in investments, loans and public-private support to secure global critical mineral supply chains.
• Quad Angle: A parallel critical minerals framework was agreed among the four Quad partners — India, USA, Japan and Australia — mobilising up to USD 20 billion across the Indo-Pacific.

The RBI approved a three-month extension for Ketan Merchant to continue as Interim CEO of Fino Payments Bank, effective 27 May 2026, under Regulation 30 of SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015.

• Context: He was appointed interim CEO after MD & CEO Rishi Gupta was arrested by GST officials in a tax-evasion fraud case in March 2026.
• Profile: A veteran banker with over 27 years of experience; played a key role in Fino Payments Bank’s IPO and its listing on the NSE and BSE.

An international team led by Indian scientist Dr Ronaldo Laishram of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) discovered a 12.6-billion-year-old cosmic structure named the ‘Loktak Protocluster’, an ancient ‘city of galaxies’ named after Manipur’s Loktak Lake. The findings appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

• The Structure: Located about 12.6 billion light-years away in the constellation Sextans — seen as it existed when the Universe was just ~1.2 billion years old (about 9% of its current age).
• Data Sources: Combined observations from Japan’s Subaru Telescope (Hawaii, USA) and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
• About the Scientist: Dr Laishram discovered a Main Belt asteroid at age 18, was honoured by former President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and is founding coordinator of the Manipur Astronomical Society (MAS).

Three significant global observances fall on 28 May 2026, making this a high-yield date for competitive exams.

• World Hunger Day: Observed annually on 28 May to raise awareness of food insecurity. 2026 theme: ‘The End of Hunger is in our Hands’. Founded by The Hunger Project (THP), a New York-based non-profit, in 2011; first observed 28 May 2011.
• International Day of Action for Women’s Health: Also called International Women’s Health Day; observed on 28 May. Established in 1987 at the International Women’s Health Meeting in Costa Rica, led by the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN).
• World Menstrual Hygiene Day: Observed on 28 May; 2026 theme continues as ‘#PeriodFriendlyWorld’. Launched by Germany-based NGO WASH United (campaign 2013; first observed 28 May 2014). The date 28/5 reflects the average 28-day cycle and 5 days of menstruation.

Renowned shooter, five-time Olympian and veteran sports administrator Raja Randhir Singh passed away at the age of 79 in New Delhi, Delhi. Born on 18 October 1946 in Patiala, Punjab, he was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1979 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MYAS).

• Roles Held: Former Secretary General of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the first Indian to serve as President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
• Career: Specialised in trap and skeet shooting; represented India at five Olympics (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984) and won a Men’s Trap Shooting gold at the 1978 Asian Games — the first Indian shooter to win an Asian Games gold.