2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGS) and the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, two significant milestones in the global effort to promote gender equality and women's empowerment.
On 20 December 2013, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on science, technology and innovation for development, in which it recognized that full and equal access to and participation in science, technology and innovation for women and girls of all ages is imperative for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
As UNESCO mentions, Science in the 21st century is dynamic, collaborative, and diverse, serving as a powerful tool to address global challenges beyond labs. This year marks the 10th International Day of Women and Girls in Science, with a theme of ‘Unpacking STEM careers: Her Voice in Science’.
The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India in partnership with Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, IndiaAI Mission and Sciences Po Paris organised an official side-event to the AI Action Summit 2025, titled ‘2nd India-France AI Policy Roundtable’ on 10th February 2025 at the Sciences Po Paris university campus.
The Second Roundtable built upon key objectives from the First Roundtable organised in IISc, Bengaluru during Technology Dialogue 2025 on 25th January 2025. The First Roundtable discussion focussed on inclusive AI frameworks, diverse datasets, infrastructure and skills, and foundational models. It also addressed governance and innovation, public-private partnerships.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah chaired a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs on the topic of 'Cyber Security and Cyber Crime' in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai, Shri Bandi Sanjay Kumar, members of the Committee.
Shri Amit Shah said that Cyber Crime Forensic Training Labs have been established in 33 states and union territories. On the 'CyTrain' platform, a "Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)" platform, 101,561 police officers have registered, and over 78,000 certificates have been issued.
Union Home Minister emphasized the importance of raising awareness among the public to prevent cybercrime and requested all the members of the committee to promote the I4C helpline number 1930. India has become the third-largest country in terms of digital landscape in the world. The digital economy contributes 20 per cent to the total economy of India.
The largest edition of MRO Middle East and Aircraft Interiors Middle East (AIME) 2025 has opened in Dubai, marking a significant milestone for the regional aerospace industry. The two-day event has attracted over 250 international exhibitors, highlighting the aviation sector’s robust growth amid record-high passenger demand.
Airbus unveiled its Middle East Services Forecast for 2024-2043, projecting global services demand to reach 32 billion dollars by 2043, with a 4.5 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over 20 years.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) officially launched a seven-year project with Somalia that aims to enhance climate adaptation and resilience for vulnerable communities in the country. The 95 million dollar “Climate Resilient Agriculture in Somalia” project, dubbed “Ugbaad,” which means hope in Somalia, will tackle climate change challenges.
In Somalia, the agricultural sector is the main economic activity for an estimated 65 percent of the population, contributing about 75 percent of the gross domestic product. Somalia is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change in the world. Serious weather shocks are hitting more often, harming livelihoods and economic growth.
India ended their participation in the 2025 Para Archery Asia Cup in Thailand with six gold medals, finishing at the top of the medal table. On the final day of the competition today, India won six medals, including two golds. Sarita won the gold in the women’s compound open, beating Singapore’s Nur Syahidah Alim 143-142 in the final.
Shyam Sundar Swami also won gold in the men’s compound open, defeating Indonesia’s Ken Swagumilang 143-141. Rakesh Kumar won a bronze medal in the men’s compound open after a tie at 140 points with Malaysia’s Wiro Julin, winning in a shoot-off. Later, Pooja lost the women’s recurve open final to Slovakia’s Zina Lavrinc, earning a silver medal after a 6-0 defeat.
Harvinder Singh, the Paralympic champion, secured another bronze medal in the men’s recurve open, winning 6-2 against Nurfaizal Hamzah. Adil Mohamed Nazir Ansari won a bronze medal in men’s W1 (Rec/Comp) by defeating Yung Man Tai of Hong Kong 120-116. India pocketed a total of 12 medals in the competition, including six gold, three silver, and three bronze.
The country’s largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has increased its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) on the overnight tenure by 5 bps, with new effective rate being 9.20 per cent versus 9.15 per cent earlier. With this revision, the bank’s MCLR now ranges from 9.20 to 9.45 per cent.
This comes even as the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the policy repo rate by 25 bps. This was the first cut in the repo rate in as many as five years. About 40 per cent of the banking system’s loans are linked to the external benchmark, and a similar percentage of loans are linked to the MCLR.
Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) is a component of PM-AASHA scheme. Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) is implemented on the request of State/UT Government for procurement of various perishable agricultural/horticultural commodities such as tomato, onion and potato etc. for which Minimum Support Price (MSP) is not applicable and there is a reduction of at least 10%
in the market prices in the States/UTs as compared to the rates of the previous normal season, so that farmers are not forced to sell their produce under distress.
To encourage more States for implementation of MIS, Government has revised the MIS Guidelines in the following provisions:
1. Made MIS a component of the integrated scheme of PM-AASHA.
2. MIS will be implemented only when there is a minimum reduction of 10% in the prevailing market price as compared to the previous normal year.
3. The procurement/coverage limit of production quantity of crops has been increased from the existing 20 percent to 25 percent.
4. The State has also been given the option to pay the difference between the Market Intervention
Approval has been given to NCCF for reimbursement of cost for transportation of Kharif tomato upto 1,000 MT from Madhya Pradesh to Delhi. It is being proposed to include, apart from NAFED and NCCF, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs), State nominated agencies and other Central Nodal Agencies, to undertake procurement of top crops under MIS
The 3rd edition of Joint Special Forces Exercise CYCLONE commenced at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Rajasthan. The exercise is being conducted from 10th to 23rd February 2025. Exercise CYCLONE is an annual event conducted alternatively in India and Egypt. Last edition of the same exercise was conducted in Egypt in January 2024.
Indian contingent comprising 25 personnel will be represented by troops from two Special Forces Battalions. Egypt contingent also comprising 25 personnel will be represented by Special Forces Group and Task Force of Egyptian Special Forces. Exercise will enable the two sides to share their best practices in tactics, techniques and procedures of conducting tactical operation
The 14th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (14AFAF), with the theme “Greening the Blue Growth in Asia-Pacific” is being organized in New Delhi during February 12-14, 2025. The Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (AFAF) is a triennial event of the Asian Fisheries Society with its Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This 14th AFAF is being jointly organized by the Asian Fisheries Society (AFS), Kuala Lumpur; Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi the Department of Fisheries (DoF), Government of India; and the Asian Fisheries Society Indian Branch (AFSIB), Mangalore. This prestigious event is being hosted in India for the 2nd time after the 8AFAF held at Kochi in 2007
The 14th AFAF brings together key players from the fisheries and aquaculture sectors and will host around 1,000 delegates from 24 countries, including researchers, policymakers, industry leaders, and stakeholders. The Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (AFAF) has a strong legacy of fostering global collaboration in the sector.
Payment solutions provider Easebuzz has received final authorisation from the Reserve Bank to operate as an online payment aggregator (PA), according to a release. The nod allows the company to continue operating as an authorised payments platform and help process online payments for Indian businesses across sectors, including e-commerce, travel and tourism, and education.
Easebuzz Payments platform is currently processing an annualised Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of USD 30 billion, and is serving more than 2,00,000 businesses, including SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and startups. Easebuzz has also been certified as Biller Operating Unit (BOU) on Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).
Global oil major BP Plc has signed an agreement with Engineers India Ltd to work together on identifying the capability to support oil, gas and refining activities, the two firms said on Tuesday. BP is an international energy company and is vertically integrated, operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution
Engineers India Limited (EIL) is a total solutions engineering consultancy company providing design, engineering, procurement, construction and integrated project management services from concept to commissioning with the highest quality and safety standards. The MoU is valid for three years under which both companies have agreed to work together in the areas identified.
Fintech firm PhonePe processed a record 8.1 billion transactions on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), followed by Google Pay’s 6.18 billion and Paytm’s 1.15 billion in January, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shows. PhonePe continued to dominate the UPI ecosystem, commanding a 47.67 per cent market share.
WhatsApp regained its position among the top ten UPI volume processors after slipping to 11th place in November 2024. The social messaging app's third-party UPI service more than doubled its total transaction volume, processing 61 million transactions in January 2025, up from 26.08 million in the same month the previous year.
In December 2024, the NPCI lifted the UPI user onboarding limit for WhatsApp Pay, the UPI platform of the messaging giant. The payments body had earlier placed a limit on the number of users that could be onboarded on WhatsApp Pay. The limit was set at 100 million users prior to the removal of onboarding restrictions.
Equated monthly instalments (EMIs) on retail and small business loans are set to fall as large public-sector banks, including Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda, have reduced the external benchmark-linked loans rates from 10 February 2025. The move comes after Reserve Bank of India on 8 Feb reduced the policy repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 6.25 per cent.
While PNB reduced the Repo-Linked Lending Rate (RLLR) by 25 bps to 9 per cent, Bank of Baroda has cut Baroda Repo-Linked Lending Rate (BRLLR) to 8.90 per cent. Bank of Baroda has added a spread of 2.65 per cent over the current repo rate of 6.25 per cent. Among private-sector banks, RBL Bank has reduced the repo linked lending rate to 11.35 per cent.
HDFC Bank, the country’s largest private-sector lender, has increased its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) on the overnight tenure by 5 basis points (bps) to 9.20 per cent from 9.15 per cent earlier. With this revision, the bank’s MCLR now ranges from 9.20 per cent to 9.45 per cent.
With a cut in the policy repo rate, external benchmark-linked loans get repriced immediately to reflect the cut, but MCLR-linked loans take up to two quarters to show the change in policy rates. About 40 per cent of the banking system’s loans are linked to the external benchmark, and a similar percentage of loans are linked to the MCLR.
