DAILY GK 12-13 JULY 2026

DAILY GK 12-13 JULY 2026

1.       US FEDERAL RESERVE MONETARY POLICY REVIEW TASK FORCES 

·         The United States Federal Reserve (US Fed) appointed three Indian-origin experts: Raghuram Rajan, Raj Chetty, and Asha Sharma, to lead three of its five task forces reviewing the Fed’s monetary policy framework under Fed Chair Kevin Warsh.

·         The appointments are part of five task forces announced by US Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh.

·         Raghuram Rajan appointed to the Balance Sheet Policy. 

·         Raj Chettyappointed to the Data task force.

·         Asha Sharma appointed to the Productivity and Jobs task force.

·         US Fed Established in 1913, the US Fed is the central banking system of USA.

 


2.       UKRAINE PRIME MINISTER

·         Ukraine’s Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) approved the appointment of Sergii Koretskyi as the country’s Prime Minister (PM), succeeding Yulia Svyrydenko.

·         He secured 289 votes in the 450-member Parliament.

 

3.       LITHUANIA PM

·         Mindaugas Sinkevicius, leader of Lithuanian Social Democratic Party(LSDP) was sworn in as 20th Prime Minister (PM) of Lithuania after the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) approved his party’s government Manifesto.

·         Out of the 141-member Seimas, 72 lawmakers voted in favor of the manifesto, 29 voted against it, and 4 abstained.

 

4.       INDIA’S FIRST CENTRE FOR HIGH-ALTITUDE MEDICINE

·         Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) laid the foundation stone of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Centre for High Altitude Medicine and Public Health Research at Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh (HP).

·         The Centre will be India’s first dedicated institution for research on high-altitude medicine and public health.

·         The Centre will collaborate with the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), HP Government.

 

5.       FIRST TRIAL INDEX OF SERVICES PRODUCTION

·         The National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) launched the 1st trial Sub-sectoral “Index of Services Production (ISP)”, India’s first official monthly indicator of services-sector output, complementing the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). 

·         The ISP is a new macroeconomic indicator to capture the performance of the services sector.

·         It is India’s first high-frequency indicator dedicated to measuring services sector output.

·         It tracks short-term changes in the volume of output produced by the formal services sector relative to a specified base year.

 

6.       INDIA LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN FOR UNSC NON-PERMANENT SEAT

·         Union Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officially launched India’s campaign for election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the 2028–29 term at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York.

·         The campaign, themed SHANTI: Securing Holistic Advancement through Norms, Trust and Integrity”, highlights India’s commitment to global peace, security, equitable development, and reformed multilateralism.

·         The elections for UNSC non-permanent seat for the 2028-29 scheduled in June 2027.

·         During these elections, India will compete against Tajikistan for the only seat in the Asia-Pacific group.
So far, India has served 8-times as a non-permanent member at UNSC (i.e. 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92, 2011-12, and 2021-22).

·         UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the UN, mainly responsible for maintaining international peace and security.

·         It comprises 15 members of which 5 are permanent members with veto power: China, France, the Russian Federation, UK, and USA.

·         And, the remaining 10 are non-permanent members who are elected annually by UNGA for a two-year term.

·         In June 2026, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly (UNGA) elected 5 countries namely: Austria, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe, as UNSC non-permanent members for 2027-28 term.

 

7.       PLFS MONTHLY BULLETIN

·         The National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Monthly Bulletin: June 2026, 15th in the series covering both rural and urban areas.

·         As per this report, India’s overall Unemployment Rate (UR) for people aged 15 years and above remained unchanged at 5.5% in June 2026.

·         Unemployment Rate (UR): The rural UR for persons of age 15 years and above decreased marginally from 5.1% in May 2026 to 5.0% in June 2026, while urban UR increased slightly from 6.4% to 6.6%.

·         Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons of age 15 years and above in the country stood at 54.4% in June 2026.

·         Worker Population Ratio (WPR) based on the CWS for persons aged 15 years and above was 51.4% at the all-India level, with 53.8% in rural areas and 46.8% in urban areas.

 

8.       12TH BRICS LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT MINISTERS’ MEETING

·         India hosted the 12th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting in Hyderabad, Telangana under its BRICS Chairship 2026.

·         Theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”

·         The meeting launched BRICS CONNECT, an initiative proposed by India to strengthen technical cooperation, knowledge exchange, and capacity building among BRICS nations.

·         The BRICS Women Ministerial Meeting (WMM) held in Kochi (Kerala)

·         BRICS Heads of Anti-Drug Agencies Meeting held in Guwahati, Assam.

·         3rd BRICS Transport Ministers’ Meeting held in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

·         India organised GO-BRICS India-Russia Energy-o-thon 2026, considered as the world’s 1st BRICS nations hackathon in Bengaluru, Karnataka.  

·         The BRICS Academic Thematic Conference on “Strengthening BRICS Connectivity: Fostering Cooperation”, organised jointly by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the BRICS Expert Council Russia in Moscow, Russia.

 

9.       ‘e-VSP PORTAL’ FOR LEGAL PUBLICATIONS

·         Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ministry of Law and Justice (MoL&J) launched the electronic – Vidhi Sahitya Prakashan (e-VSP) portal, a digital platform that provides easy access to legal books, publications, and educational resources.

·         These legal publications were developed in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the Official Languages Wing to provide content in Hindi.

 

10.    INDIA’S FIRST AI-INTEGRATED VERTICAL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS 

·         Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist and Co-founder of Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd., inaugurated VELS Institute of Science, Technology, & Advanced Studies (VISTAS)’s Thiruvanmiyur campus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, regarded as India’s 1st Artificial Intelligence (AI)-integrated vertical university campus.

·         These CoEs will enable the students to have experience in Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and other emerging technologies.