23rd JUNE CURRENT AFFAIRS

1International Olympic Day

It is Globally celebrated on June 23, promoting fitness and the core values of the Olympic movement

The 2026 theme for International Olympic Day is “You Can Do This! Let’s Move,” focusing on encouraging young people to overcome self-doubt and build self-belief through physical activity.

International Olympic Committee (IOC):

Establishment: Founded in June 23 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin.

President: Kirsty Coventry

Headquarters: Lausanne, Switzerland.

This led to the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

The Olympic flag

Øfeatures five interlocking rings in blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a plain white background. Designed by Pierre de Coubertin in 1913, it symbolizes the unity of the five inhabited continents (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania) and the gathering of athletes worldwide

ØThe Olympics capture worldwide attention every time they pop up on the calendar. The 2026 Winter Games kick off in Italy in February 2026 and the 2028 Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in July 2028

2026 Winter Olympics

ØItwas held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Øtake place from Feb. 6-22, 2026.

ØAbhinav Bindra: India's first individual Olympic gold medalist served as a torchbearer for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics Torch Relay

2India’s first 3D-printed Reefs to be sunk off Tamil Nadu coast

ØTamil Nadu is set to deploy India’s first 3D-printed Artificial Reef Modules in coastal waters, as part of an ambitious Marine Habitat restoration initiative, under the second phase of the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana.

ØScheduled off the Ramanathapuram coastIt will serve as a pilot to assess the performance of six newly developed Reef designs created through advanced 3D-printing technology.

ØThe Modules, each weighing about 1 ton, were developed by Chennai-based startup Tvasta, an IIT Madras-incubated company, in collaboration with Visakhapatnam Regional Centre of the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute

ØThe initiative comes at a time when Coral Reef Ecosystems worldwide are under increasing stress from ocean warming and mass bleaching events. Researchers believe that innovative Habitat restoration tools could improve Ecological resilience and support the recovery of Marine Biodiversity.

Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana

ØThe Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) is a flagship Government of India scheme dedicated to the sustainable development of the fisheries sector.

ØLaunched to drive the "Blue Revolution," it provides financial assistance and technological support to fishers, farmers, and entrepreneurs to modernize aquaculture and boost seafood exports

3SHe-Box 2.0: Single-Window Portal to Strengthen the PoSH Act

vThe Ministry of Women and Child Development has rolled out an upgraded version of its grievance portal, SHe-Box 2.0 (Sexual Harassment electronic Box), positioned as a single-window system to register and track complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace across all sectors.

vThe upgrade operationalises the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 — the PoSH Act — by giving every working woman, whether in the organised or unorganised sector, a uniform digital channel to lodge and monitor a complaint.

vSHe-Box 2.0 is a consolidated single-window platform for filing and tracking workplace sexual-harassment complaints across public and private sectors.

vIt is available in 22 languages to widen accessibility for women across regions.

vIt supports both registration and real-time tracking of the status of a complaint.

vThe original SHe-Box was first launched in 2017; version 2.0 is the redesigned, expanded upgrade

vSHe-Box implements the redressal architecture of the PoSH Act, 2013, which itself codified the Supreme Court’s Vishaka Guidelines (1997).

vThe portal routes complaints to the appropriate Internal Committee (IC) or Local Committee (LC) for inquiry.

SHe-Box —

ØSexual Harassment electronic Box, a Ministry of Women and Child Development portal; original launch 2017, upgraded to 2.0.

PoSH Act, 2013 :

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act.

Vishaka Guidelines (1997)

vSupreme Court judgment in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan that preceded the statute.

vThe IC must be headed by a senior woman employee (Presiding Officer) and include an external member from an NGO/association familiar with the issue.

vInquiry is to be completed within 90 days; the employer must act on the report within 60 days.

vA complaint should ordinarily be filed within three months of the incident (extendable).

4Renowned physicist Prof. Jainendra K. Jainhonored with the prestigious Wolf Prize in Physics for his pioneering work in quantum mechanics

The Wolf Prize is widely considered second only to the Nobel Prize in prestige, with many recipients later going on to win Nobel honors.

Composite Fermions and Quantum Hall Physics

Composite fermions are quasiparticles used in the study of strongly correlated electron systems. Jain introduced the concept in 1989 while working as a postdoctoral scholar at Yale University. The idea is central to the theoretical description of the fractional quantum Hall effect, which was first observed in two-dimensional electron systems under strong magnetic fields

Prof. Jainendra K. Jain has made history by becoming the first person of Indian origin to win the prestigious Wolf Prize in Physics.

Prof. Jain was awarded the prize for his 1989 discovery of "composite fermions," a breakthrough concept that reshaped the landscape of condensed matter physics.