Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in collaboration with the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization South Asia Regional Office hosted a Workshop on Safe, Trusted and Ethical Artificial Intelligence in New Delhi. The workshop aimed to establish a foundation for informed policy development that promotes equitable and sustainable AI.
Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the premier Telecom R&D centre of the Government of India, awarded UN’s WSIS 2024 “Champion” Award for the project “Mobile-Enabled Disaster Resilience through Cell Broadcast emergency Alerting”, recognised under AI, C-7, E-environemnt, in the category of 'Benefits in all aspects of life - E-environment”.
The C-DOT’s mobile–enabled Cell Broadcast Emergency Alerting Platform is an end-to-end solutions for near real time delivery of life-saving emergency information to mobile phones through cellular networks. This indigenous system has enabled geo-targeted multi-hazard alerting with multi – language support, improving overall efficiency of disaster management.
The initiative aligns with global Early Warnings for All (EW4All), International Telecommunication Unions (ITU’s) – Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), ‘Call to Action’ and promotes SDGs (Susatinable Development Goal) targets while enhancing country’s capacity building efforts towards disaster resilience.
UN Russian Language Day is observed on 6 June, and was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010. This day is dedicated to promoting the study and appreciation of Russian language. It coincides with the birthday of Aleksandr Pushkin, one of the most prominent Russian writers and creators.
There are six official languages of the UN. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
The days are as follows:
Arabic Language Day (18 December)
Chinese Language Day (20 April)
English Language Day (23 April)
French Language Day (20 March)
Russian Language Day (6 June)
Spanish Language Day (23 April)
Peru will soon have a UPI-like instant payments system, as NPCI International Payments Limited, the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India inked a pact with the central bank of the South American country to develop the technology. he payments body entered into an agreement with the Bank of Namibia for developing an instant payment in African nation.
In January 2024, NPCI announced the launch of the UPI-PayNow linkage that enables Indians to receive remittances directly into their bank accounts from Singapore and vice-versa.
In February it announced partnership with e-commerce and proximity payments company Lyra, to enable UPI acceptance in France.
The same month, UPI services were rolled out in Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
SBI Mutual Fund (SBI MF) made history by becoming the first fund house in the country to achieve the Rs 10 trillion milestone in assets under management (AUM). The industry leader has adeptly navigated the post-pandemic equity boom and capitalised on the increasing awareness of MF investing. It is been driven by the equity market rally and expanding MF investor base.
As of April 2024, SBI accounted for Rs 2 trillion of SBI MF’s AUM. Over Rs 5 trillion of the AUM was in direct plans, with the remaining Rs 2.2 trillion linked to other distributors. Most other top five fund houses are also backed by leading banks.
ICICI Prudential MF, HDFC MF, Nippon India MF, and Kotak MF complete the top five.
Capital markets regulator Sebi proposed to enhance the threshold for the basic service demat account (BSDA) to Rs 10 lakh from the current Rs 2 lakh in a bid to boost the participation of retail investors in the securities market. A basic service demat account, or BSDA, is a more basic version of a regular demat account for BSDA.
The facility was introduced by Sebi in 2012 for reducing the burden of demat charges on investors with small portfolios. At present, an individual can hold debt securities worth up to Rs 2 lakh and other than debt securities worth up to Rs 2 lakh in a single demat account to be eligible for BSDA. It has proposed to review the maximum annual maintenance charges.
IIT Bombay has secured the top spot in India in the latest QS World University Rankings 2025. QS World University Rankings said that 61 per cent of Indian universities have improved their standings as compared to last year.
Globally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has maintained its position as the best institute in world for the 13th consecutive year.
The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) has risen from 149th in 2024 to 118th in the 2025 rankings, marking an improvement of 31 places. IIT Bombay is followed by IIT Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, which are ranked second and third in India, respectively.
The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) has secured the fourth spot, moving up from 271 in 2024 to 222 this year. It is followed by IIT Madras, which climbed 58 ranks (from 285 to 227). IIT Madras has overtaken IIT Kanpur, which, despite improving from 278 to 263, has slipped to the sixth position.
The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG), and Anna University have secured the 8th, 9th, and 10th ranks, respectively. University of Delhi (DU), which jumped 79 ranks, from 407 last year to 328 this year in world rankings.
Asirvad Micro Finance Limited, a subsidiary of Manappuram Finance Limited, has appointed Satish Nair as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Asirvad, headquartered in Valapad, Kerala, is the third largest microfinance institution (in terms of AUM as of June 2023), offering microfinance loans to low-income women.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has launched a mobile app 'Saathi 2.0' on personal finance for investors to simplify complex financial concepts. It includes financial calculators and has modules that introduce and explain KYC procedures, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, buying and selling shares on stock exchanges and investor grievances redressal mechanism.
Nokia signed an MoU with Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, to pursue research and development opportunities in the areas of transportation and logistics in India. It will team up to do research opportunities in 5G/6G communications targeting air, land and sea transportation use cases, standards development, smart factory/automation, and AI/GenAI labs.
The collaboration has a research focus specifically on leveraging Nokia’s Network as Code platform with a developer portal and digital twins for transportation and logistics sectors, fibre sensing and AI, and optical network planning. In October 2023, Nokia established a 6G Lab at its Global R&D centre in Bengaluru.