Current Affairs One-liners — May 2026

Sat, 02 May 2026

• Indian Railways on 2 May 2026 sanctioned works worth ₹895.30 crore, including ₹671.72 crore to upgrade the power system of Kolkata Metro's North–South Corridor for a 2.5-minute headway and ₹223.58 crore to rebuild the Damodar Bridge (No. 520) in Adra Division.
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, addressing 'Shaurya' in New Delhi on 2 May 2026 in the run-up to the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor, called the operation a golden chapter in India's military history.
• The Kerala Cabinet on 2 May 2026 decided to give ₹10 lakh each from the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund to the families of five Valparai ghat-road accident victims who had no insurance cover.
• The Department of Financial Services on 2 May 2026 convened a colloquium of Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal chairpersons and Debts Recovery Tribunal presiding officers at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, highlighting mandatory e-filing, hybrid hearings and e-DRT 2.0 to reduce pendency.
• The Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Telangana's Department of Panchayati Raj held an outreach workshop on the Atmanirbhar Panchayat Programme at NIRD&PR, Hyderabad, on 2 May 2026, with over 400 participants including 70 sarpanches recognised for own source revenue generation.
• The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with campuses in New Delhi, Kolkata, Kakinada and GIFT City, celebrated its 63rd Foundation Day on 2 May 2026.

Fri, 01 May 2026

• Home Minister Amit Shah on 1 May 2026, Buddha Purnima, inaugurated the 'Sacred Exposition of the Holy Relics of the Tathagata' in Leh, bringing relics linked to the Piprahwa Stupa to Ladakh after 75 years; the exposition runs until 14 May and will also travel to Zanskar.
• House-to-house Houselisting and Housing Census operations under Phase 1 of Census 2027 began on 1 May 2026 in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while the online self-enumeration facility, used by nearly 82 lakh households so far, opened in five more States/UT.
• Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on 1 May 2026 launched India's first Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) barrier-less tolling system at Chorayasi Toll Plaza on the Surat–Bharuch section of NH-48 in Gujarat, using ANPR cameras and FASTag; about 41,500 vehicles crossed it on the first day.
• The Bureau of Indian Standards published six new Indian Standards for priority assistive products — elbow crutches, walking sticks, multi-legged walking sticks, portable ramps, tactile guide maps and Braille on signage — under ICMR's National List of Essential Assistive Products, the Consumer Affairs Ministry said on 1 May 2026.
• Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi launched PMGSY-IV in Odisha at Rayagada on 1 May 2026, with 827 new roads covering 1,701.84 km at a cost of ₹1,698.04 crore sanctioned in the first phase.
• Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on 1 May 2026 laid the foundation stone of a ₹25-crore, 10,000-litres-per-day dairy plant in Kargil and witnessed an MoU between Ladakh Milk Federation and Mother Dairy to take Ladakh's dairy products to national markets.
• Anugraha Narayana Das, a 1991-batch Indian Defence Accounts Service officer, took charge as Controller General of Defence Accounts on 1 May 2026, the same day his predecessor Vishvajit Sahay assumed charge as Secretary (Defence Finance) in the Ministry of Defence.
• The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on 1 May 2026 appointed filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker as Festival Director of the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), to be held in Goa.
• Maharashtra and Gujarat marked their statehood days on 1 May 2026, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting the people of both states; the two states were formed on 1 May 1960 under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960.
• President Droupadi Murmu, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited the headquarters of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) in Shimla on 1 May 2026 and was briefed on its drone training, 'Red Teaming' and digitisation initiatives.
• The Narcotics Control Bureau, under Operation WHITE STRIKE, busted a transnational cocaine syndicate and seized about 349 kg of high-grade cocaine worth nearly ₹1,745 crore from the Mumbai region, the Home Ministry said on 1 May 2026.
• The North Eastern Handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation, a CPSE under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, on 1 May 2026 launched 'Padma Doree', a textile initiative blending Northeast India's Eri (Ahimsa) silk with Madhya Pradesh's Chanderi weaving.
• The open-field observatory of the Coastal Atmospheric Research Testbed (C-ART), set up by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, under Mission Mausam, was inaugurated on 1 May 2026 by Earth Sciences Secretary M. Ravichandran.
• Bharat Khera, a 1995-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, assumed charge as Secretary of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the Ministry said on 1 May 2026.