Author: Sushmita Jana
General Dhiraj Seth has officially assumed charge as the 31st Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), succeeding General Upendra Dwivedi, who retired after more than four decades of distinguished service in the Indian Army. The change of command marks a significant milestone, with General Seth becoming the first officer from the Armoured Corps to lead the Army since 1997.
West Bengal has formally initiated the process of implementing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), with the state government constituting a high-level committee to prepare a draft of the proposed legislation. The panel will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran has come under renewed pressure following fresh military exchanges that threaten to derail recent diplomatic efforts aimed at easing tensions in the Gulf region.
Escalating the West Asia theater into its most volatile state of direct confrontation since the 2026 conflict ignited, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched coordinated ballistic missile and suicide drone salvos targeting United States military installations in Kuwait and Bahrain. Executed under the operational banner of “Operation Martyr Soleimani II” on Sunday, June 28, 2026, the massive counter-offensive was explicitly declared by Tehran as direct retaliation for the devastating U.S. Navy and Air Force precision bombings on Qeshm Island earlier this weekend. Iranian state-run media confirmed that waves of Fateh-110 tactical ballistic missiles and Shahed-136 delta-wing kamikaze drones simultaneously targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base in western Kuwait alongside maritime infrastructure housing the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet at NSA Bahrain. While the Pentagon’s integrated air defense network—including localized Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors—successfully neutralized a significant majority of the incoming threats, local defense ministries reported minor structural debris damage and runway craters near both installations. The White House issued an emergency national security condemnation, branding the multi-state barrage a reckless breach of international sovereignty, as global energy trading desks braced for an immediate freeze of maritime trade lines through the critical Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.
A fresh controversy has emerged in West Bengal after reports suggested that eggs may no longer be served in mid-day meals at several government and government-aided schools in Kolkata. The development comes after the state government decided to engage ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) to provide cooked meals under the PM POSHAN scheme in schools under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation area.
In one of the most significant and surprising structural shifts in the global technology ecosystem, Meta Platforms Inc. announced on Monday, June 22, 2026, that Indian billionaire entrepreneur and CRED founder Kunal Shah will take over as the new global head and CEO of WhatsApp. Shah replaces longtime chief Will Cathcart, who is stepping down after a highly successful seven-year tenure—during which the encrypted platform crossed the historic 3 billion monthly active user milestone—to transition into a specialized internal sandbox focused on building new Meta products from the ground up. This high-profile executive elevation is structurally anchored by a massive corporate alliance: Meta is investing $900 million (approx. ₹8,550 crore) into CRED through a combination of primary and secondary capital, securing a 20% minority financial stake that values the Bengaluru-based fintech premium platform at $4.5 billion. While Shah will fully transition away from his day-to-day executive duties at CRED to relocate to Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, he will retain his personal equity stake as CRED promotes strategy and finance veteran Miten Sampat as interim CEO. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg lauded Shah’s “builder mentality” on social media, signaling that the deal aims to weaponize WhatsApp’s massive 500-million-user footprint in India by integrating CRED’s high-trust consumer finance layer to transform the messaging giant into a global monetization monolith for peer-to-peer commerce, subscription frameworks like WhatsApp Plus, and localized AI services.
Kolkata is set to get a second airport as the West Bengal government announced an ambitious aviation infrastructure expansion plan in its 2026 budget.
South Africa Women registered a vital six-wicket victory over India Women in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026, boosting their semifinal hopes while dealing a major setback to India’s campaign. Marizanne Kapp starred with a magnificent unbeaten 81, guiding the Proteas to a memorable chase at Old Trafford, Manchester.
Entering its final high-visibility phase, the global countdown for the 12th International Day of Yoga (IDY) 2026 culminated on Saturday, June 20, 2026, as extensive institutional infrastructure locked in arrangements for mass public demonstrations on June 21. Orchestrated under the definitive theme “Yoga for Healthy Ageing” (स्वस्थ आयु के लिए योग), this year’s global layout shifts the clinical focus of the ancient discipline toward preventive wellness, long-term mobility, cognitive protection, and geriatric resilience. Marking a massive logistical deployment for West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will personally lead the premier national congregation at Kolkata’s historic Red Road starting at 5:00 AM, guiding thousands of physical attendees through the structured Common Yoga Protocol (CYP). The massive public outreach is backed by a record-breaking domestic registration surge, with the Ministry of Ayush’s Yoga Sangam Portal crossing over six lakh corporate and civic participants. Mirroring this domestic scale on the international stage, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) alongside 210 foreign missions has finalized footprints across 2,500 locations globally, while the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) simultaneously transforms 100 iconic domestic heritage landmarks—including the Red Fort in New Delhi—into synchronized mass wellness hubs.
New Delhi is set to host the 16th Meeting of BRICS National Security Advisers (NSAs) and High Representatives on National Security on June 22–23, 2026, under India’s BRICS chairmanship. The high-level gathering will bring together senior security officials from BRICS member nations to discuss key regional and global security issues, including counter-terrorism, strategic cooperation, cybersecurity, and multilateral coordination.