01st May 2026

1. UPI’s 10-Year Journey: From The Modest Start to Global Benchmark
2. Maharashtra Day 2026: Celebrating Unity, Identity and Cultural Pride
3. Gujarat Foundation Day 2026: History, Significance and Celebrations
4. Labour Day is Celebrated on May 1 & Theme of 2026
5. US Fed Keeps Interest Rates Unchanged, Signals Policy Uncertainty
6. Bengaluru Police Introduce AI Multilingual Feature in Namma 112 Helpline
7. Gaganyaan Programme Expands With Civilian Astronaut Selection Plan
8. Maharashtra Cabinet Approves AI Policy 2026 to Boost Investment and Jobs
9. Infosys Appoints Nitin Paranjpe as Non-Executive Vice Chairman Details
10. Karnataka’s Move to Safeguard Gig Workers Sets New Benchmark
11. Shreyas Iyer Named Brand Ambassador of F1 Programme in India
12. Indian Scientist Parveen Shaikh Wins 2026 Whitley Award for Conservation Work
13. NARCL Recovery FY 2025-26: ₹4,364 Crore Recovered, Total Hits ₹6,345 Crore
14. India Post Payments Bank Unveils Zero-Balance Accounts for SHGs
15. Government of India Announces Kailash Mansarovar Yatra 2026

National News

Ministry of External Affairs Announces Kailash Mansarovar Yatra 2026

• The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra 2026 will take place between June and August through the Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand and Nathu La in Sikkim for 2,000 selected pilgrims.

State News

Maharashtra Celebrates 66th Foundation Day Anniversary on May 1

• What: Maharashtra Day is celebrated on May 1, 2026, to mark the anniversary of the creation of the largest Western state in India following the Bombay Reorganisation Act of 1960.
• Tell me more:
  • The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 originally grouped provinces into the Union of India based on languages.

Gujarat Celebrates 66th Foundation Day Anniversary on May 1

• What: Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel celebrated the 66th Gujarat Foundation Day on May 1, 2026, highlighting the state’s progress since its separation from Mumbai on May 1, 1960.
• Tell me more:
  • The Jyotigram Yojana provides 24-hour uninterrupted three-phase electricity to all villages including remote areas.
  • The government declared 2025 as the Urban Development Year.
  • High-tech industrial growth includes two operational semiconductor plants with hubs developing in Sanand and Dholera.
  • An AI Centre of Excellence started operations at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
  • The Surat Economic Region Development Plan was prepared with the support of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog).
  • The state government launched the Catch the Rain campaign to promote rainwater harvesting and environmental conservation.
  • Gujarat received the opportunity to host the Commonwealth Games to develop world-class sports infrastructure in Ahmedabad.
  • The state has charted a roadmap for a Developed Gujarat at 2047 (Viksit Gujarat @2047) to support national goals.

Bengaluru Police Launch First Multilingual AI Emergency Helpline

• What: Bengaluru Police introduced an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered multilingual feature in the Namma 112 emergency helpline to remove language barriers for people seeking help from the police control room.
• Tell me more:
  • The system uses Multilingual Voice AI for Nationwide Key Interventions (VANKI) to support over 10 Indian and foreign languages.
  • Bengaluru Police developed this initiative in collaboration with Monday Ventures and Aeos.

Maharashtra Government Launches Artificial Intelligence Policy 2026

• What: The Maharashtra government announced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy 2026 to boost investment, innovation, and employment during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai.
• Tell me more:
  • The state government expects investments exceeding ₹10,000 crore through this new policy framework and aims to create more than 1.5 lakh jobs across the state.
  • The cabinet approved the establishment of six Artificial Intelligence (AI) centres of excellence.
  • Five Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation cities will be developed to promote research and industry collaboration.
  • The government will establish a chair named after Dr B R Ambedkar at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in London, UK.

Karnataka Launches India’s First Gig Worker Grievance Mechanism

• What: The Government of Karnataka officially operationalised a specialised grievance redressal mechanism to secure the rights of the platform-based labour force, marking the first initiative of its kind in India.
• Tell me more:
  • Gig workers can now officially lodge grievances through the Integrated Public Grievance Redressal System (IPGRS) portal.

International News

United States Federal Reserve Maintains Current Interest Rates

• What: The United States Federal Reserve (Fed) kept its benchmark interest rate steady between 3.5% and 3.75% following an 8-4 vote that recorded the highest number of internal disagreements within the committee since 1992.
• Tell me more:
  • Jerome H. Powell is the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Banking and Economy

Unified Payments Interface Completes Ten Years of Transformation

• What: The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) completed ten years of operation in April 2026, evolving from a digital experiment into a foundational layer of India’s digital public infrastructure that handles billions of transactions.
• Tell me more:
  • The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched UPI in April 2016 under the regulatory ambit of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
  • Annual transaction volumes surged from 2 crore in Financial Year (FY) 2017 to over 24,000 crore transactions in FY2026.
  • UPI accounts for nearly 49% of global real-time payment transactions by volume.
  • The system is operational in countries like Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bhutan, Nepal, and France.

National Asset Reconstruction Company Realises Rs 4,364 Crores

• What: The National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL) realised ₹4,364 crore in 2025-26, representing about 70% of its cumulative recoveries while successfully acquiring 33 borrower entities with a total debt exposure of ₹1,65,862 crore.
• Tell me more:
  • NARCL aims to reach a targeted debt acquisition of ₹2 lakh crore.
  • NARCL is a government-backed financial entity commonly known as a “Bad Bank, incorporated in 2021, for managing and recovering stressed assets.
  • NARCL has been incorporated under the Companies Act and works as an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC).

India Post Payments Bank Launches Savings Account for Groups

• What: India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) introduced a new Self Help Group (SHG) Savings Account to promote financial inclusion and empower women-led groups across rural and semi-urban areas of India.
• Tell me more:
  • The initiative aligns with the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) and receives support from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
  • India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) offers a zero-balance and zero-charge account structure to eliminate traditional banking barriers for participants.
  • Gramin Dak Sevaks and post offices facilitate a digital and seamless onboarding process for these groups.
  • The account features no minimum balance requirements and no fines for group members.
  • IPPB provides free cash transactions and one free physical account statement every month, with a maximum balance limit of 2,00,000 and interest paid quarterly based on the applicable savings rates.

Science and Technology

Indian Space Research Organisation to Select Second Astronaut Batch

• What: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing to select a second batch of 10 candidates for the Gaganyaan programme, which will include civilian specialists from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) backgrounds alongside military personnel.
• Tell me more:
  • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) aims to build a long-term human spaceflight ecosystem to support a space station and a 2040 Moon landing.
  • Current astronauts including Shubhanshu Shukla, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap are helping develop training procedures and infrastructure for India’s first crewed mission.
  • Russia supported India’s human spaceflight programme by training the first batch of astronauts selected in 2020 through advanced medical testing and survival drills under the State Space Corporation Roscosmos (Roscosmos).

Awards

Indian Conservationists Win Prestigious 2026 Whitley Awards

• What: Barkha Subba and Parveen Shaikh won the 2026 Whitley Awards for their grassroots efforts in protecting the Himalayan salamander and the Indian skimmer through community-led habitat conservation.
• Tell me more:
  • About the prize
    • The UK charity Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) organizes these awards which people often call the “Green Oscars.”
    • Each winner receives £50,000 in project funding to scale up local solutions to biodiversity loss in the Global South.
  • About Barkha Subba
    • Barkha Subba serves as a scientific adviser at the Federation of Societies for Environmental Protection (FOSEP).
    • Subba works to protect the Himalayan salamander which is a lizard-like amphibian lacking scales on its body.
    • This species lives only in eastern Nepal and the Darjeeling region of India.
  • About Parveen Shaikh
    • Parveen Shaikh works as a scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). He manages the Guardians of the Skimmer initiative along the Chambal river.
    • The Indian skimmer is an endangered bird known for its bright orange bill.
    • India hosts more than 90% of the global population of approximately 3,000 Indian skimmers.

Important Days

Labour Day – May 1

• This year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) selected the theme for May Day 2026 as: “Ensuring a Healthy Psychosocial Working Environment.”
• May Day, also known as Labour Day, began with the Haymarket Affair in Chicago in 1886, when workers protested for an 8-hour workday.

Appointments

Nitin Paranjpe Appointed Vice Chairman of Infosys Board

• What: Information Technology (IT) company Infosys appointed Nitin Paranjpe as the non-executive Vice Chairman of its board with immediate effect to support the Chairman in guiding the strategic agenda of the board.
• Tell me more:
  • The new Vice Chairman will assist the Chairman of the Board, Nandan Nilekani, in leadership tasks.

Shreyas Iyer Appointed Brand Ambassador for Sim Racing

• What: Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited (MFRL) appointed cricketer Shreyas Iyer as the official brand ambassador for the F1 Sim Racing India Open 2026 to create a structured national platform for emerging esports racing talent.
• Tell me more:
  • Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited (MFRL) holds the rights to host an official Formula 1 (F1) sanctioned sim-racing competition in India.
  • Sim racing uses advanced software and hardware to simulate professional driving. Unlike real Formula 1 (F1) racing, which involves physical cars on tracks, sim racing occurs in a virtual environment.

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