Today’s important current affairs, which are essential for students preparing for government jobs-
NATIONAL
1. Mehli Mistry resigned from the board of ‘RNT Associates’
- On 3 July, Mehli Mistry resigned from the board of family investment office ‘RNT Associates’.
- RNT Associates was a company established by Ratan Tata, which was created to manage his funds.
- Mistry wrote this letter to the Board of Directors on 30 June.
- Mehli joined the board of RNT Associates in March 2023.
- Mehli joined as an advisor to Ratan Tata in the year 2000.
- In October 2022, Mehli joined the trustee board of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.
- Mehli was included as a trustee board member of Sir Ratan Tata Trust in October 2022 itself.
- He had joined the board of Tata Education and Development Trust in October 2022 itself.
- Even after leaving RNT Associates, Mehli Mistry continues to be a board member of ‘Tata Education and Development Trust’.
- Mistry was removed from Tata Trusts in November 2025.
- Mistry has challenged the decision to remove him from the Trust before the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner.
- Tata Trusts is the holding company of Tata Group and holds majority stake in ‘Tata Sons’.
RNT Associates
- RNT Associates was established in March 2009.
- RNT Associates was started by Ratan Tata and was created to invest in new startups.
- Currently, its board includes Ratan Tata’s sisters Shirin Jejeebhoy and Deanna Jejeebhoy.
- Tata Sons’ senior executive Jamshed Poncha and Tata Sons’ general counsel Siddharth Sharma are also part of this board.
- RNT Associates’ main work is to earn through dividends and consultancy services.
- As of March 2023, the company’s total revenue was ?36 crore, of which half the earnings came from dividends.
- This investment office has invested in about two dozen startups including Paytm, Ola and online jewelry brand BlueStone.
This resignation of Mistry came a few months after being removed from Tata Trusts.
2. India-Japan Joint Economic Forum Concluded
- On July 3, PM Modi announced the launch of ‘Japan Business Week’ during the India-Japan Joint Economic Forum.
- 129 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were announced at the India-Japan Joint Economic Forum.
- The purpose of these agreements is to strengthen investment, industry, manufacturing, technology, skill development and supply chain cooperation between the two countries.
- Along with this, Japan has announced an investment of more than 2 trillion Japanese Yen (₹1.18 lakh crore rupees) in India.
- During Takaichi’s visit to India, PM Modi and Takaichi inaugurated Maruti Suzuki’s fourth vehicle manufacturing plant in Kharkhoda, Haryana.
- During this visit, both countries also released a 16-point roadmap for cooperation in economic security, artificial intelligence, and the energy sector.
- India has announced the launch of Power Asia and Compressed Biogas initiatives for clean energy with Japan’s cooperation.
- Along with this, Japan has also announced to provide 88 thousand crore rupees for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project. The total cost of this project is 2 lakh crore rupees.
- India and Japan have set an investment target of 10 trillion yen in the next 10 years.
- On 1 July, Japan’s PM Sanae Takaichi came on a three-day official visit to India. This was Takaichi’s first visit to India as PM.
APPOINTMENT
3. Prashant Sitaram Lokhande appointed as new Chairman of CBSE
- On July 3, Prashant Sitaram Lokhande was appointed as the new Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
- Prashant became Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in April 2026.
- In April 2022, Prashant was working as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Prashant is an IAS officer of the 2001 batch from the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-and-Union Territory) cadre.
- Prashant Lokhande replaced Rahul Singh, and Rahul has been made Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
- Recently, there was a controversy in CBSE regarding the OSM Online Screening System.
Prashant became Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in April 2026.
INTERNATIONAL
4. Nepal’s Jestha Varna Mahavihara receives UNESCO Asia Pacific Award
- On July 3, the Jyestha Varna Mahavihara built in Lalitpur (Patan), Nepal, was honored with the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Conservation Award 2025.
- This award was announced in February 2026.
- Nepal’s Jyestha Varna Mahavihara received this honor for the scientific and traditional conservation of the Mahavihara damaged by the earthquake.
- Nepal’s Jyestha Varna Mahavihara has been preserved as a Living Heritage Site.
- The upper part of the Mahavihara had collapsed in the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
- To preserve this Mahavihara, a balanced use of traditional architecture and modern engineering technology has been employed.
- No religious rituals were stopped in this conservation work. Also, the project took full care of research, structural strengthening, archaeological studies, and long-term conservation planning.
- The Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India provided funding to Nepal for this project.
- INTACH (Indian Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) carried out the conservation and project management work for this project.
The upper part of the Mahavihara had collapsed in the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
MISCELLANEOUS
4. Indian Government Bans Chinese Apps Controlling E-Rickshaws
- On July 3, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) ordered the removal of apps that control e-rickshaws.
- Primarily, a Chinese app called ‘BAT-BMS’ has been removed from the Play Store, which is a real-time battery management tool.
- It has been developed by the Chinese company ‘Shenzhen Grenergy Technology’.
- Its main function is to monitor Bluetooth-enabled lithium batteries.
- This app displays overall battery information.
- Complaints were received that vehicles were being remotely shut down through these apps.
- These apps were tampering with the Battery Management System (BMS) of e-rickshaws.
- The government has directed app stores to enhance security standards.
- Security experts have termed this as a violation of data privacy and cyber security.
- Recently, complaints were received that some people were stopping moving e-rickshaws by shutting down the e-rickshaw batteries through Bluetooth using these apps.
- This action has been taken for national security and the safety of the Indian transport ecosystem.
- In India, a large number of e-rickshaws currently run on old lead-acid batteries, which do not have Bluetooth or digital management systems. Therefore, they are completely safe from these apps.
5. HCLTech’s massive $1.14 billion AI deal
- On 3 July, Indian company HCLTech signed a contract worth 1.14 billion US dollars (approximately 9,500-9,700 crore rupees) with a European Fortune Global 50 company.
- This contract is for AI-based digital transformation. This contract has been signed until December 2031.
- This contract can be further extended for the next 5 years.
- The objective of this contract is to modernize and manage the client’s technology infrastructure and enterprise IT systems.
- This contract will enhance cloud, data, cyber-security and digital engineering capacity.
- Through this contract, the aim is to enhance operational capacity, innovation, and long-term business growth through Advanced Technology Solutions.
- This contract is a multi-year strategic partnership and one of HCLTech’s largest deals.
- HCLTech will modernize the customer’s global digital workplace and enterprise network through an AI-based operating model.
HCLTech
- HCL Technologies is India’s leading international company providing IT and digital services.
- HCL’s headquarters is located in Noida and it provides its services in more than 60 countries.
- HCL works in AI, cloud, digital engineering and IT services.
Today’s History
- In 1902, spiritual guru Swami Vivekananda passed away.
- In 1997, NASA’s ‘Mars Pathfinder’ landed on Mars after a 7-month journey.
