The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, hosted a high-level Egyptian delegation led by H.E. Prof. Dr. Ayman Bahaa El Din, Deputy Minister of Technical Education, for a pivotal round of deliberations at Kaushal Bhawan, New Delhi on 28th April, 2025.
This engagement marks another milestone in the ever-strengthening India-Egypt relationship, building on the momentum of the 2023 elevation of bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership and the recent recognition of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi with Egypt’s highest civilian honour.
The Egyptian delegation shared insights into Egypt’s comprehensive TVET reforms, including the EU-supported TVET Egypt Reform Programme and the establishment of Sector Skill Councils, which resonate with India’s scalable and affordable skilling models. Both sides acknowledged the success of ongoing collaborations,
such as the 2024 MoU between India’s NIELIT and Egypt’s Information Technology Institute, the El-Sewedy Group’s partnership with Amity University, and the Indian-supported Vocational Training Centre in Cairo.
Looking ahead, the two countries identified several promising avenues for future cooperation.
President Droupadi Murmu conferred the prestigious Padma Awards to 71 distinguished individuals at the Civil Investiture Ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan's Durbar Hall. The honours included four Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan, and 57 Padma Shri awards, recognising outstanding contributions across diverse fields.
The National Archives of India is set to launch a new book on Srinivasa Ramanujan, widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians in history.
The launch ceremony will be held on Wednesday at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.
Titled Ramanujan: Journey of a Great Mathematician, the book chronicles the life and work of Ramanujan,
offering insights into his journey from modest beginnings in Erode, Tamil Nadu, to his revolutionary contributions in number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. Despite having little formal training in mathematics, Ramanujan produced theorems that continue to astonish and influence the global mathematical community.
In a significant development for archival research and digital access, the National Archives of India will also launch Abhilekh Patal Version 3.0, a revamped platform for accessing historical records. The organisation recently received ISO Certification, marking a milestone in its commitment to excellence and accessibility.
The government has formed an inter-ministerial committee to design the main plan for new national manufacturing mission, an official said. The mission was first announced in the Budget on February 1 to boost the Make in India initiative.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has approved the annual master plan under the River Cities Alliance (RCA) to chart a roadmap of initiatives to be undertaken across the year. As per the Jal Shakti Ministry, the plan focuses on integrating river-sensitive urban planning within India’s growing cities.
It encompasses a series of capacity-building programs, knowledge exchange platforms, development of technical tools, expert guidance, and thematic case studies.
The Ministry highlighted that the promotion of river considerations within city master plans through the organisation of River-Sensitive Master Planning training programs across states will also be in focus in 2025.
To support the formulation of Urban River Management Plans, the NMCG will conduct training sessions, including onboarding programs specifically for RCA cities in Tamil Nadu, with further sessions planned for additional states.
The annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April promotes the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. It is an awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem and on how promoting and creating a safety and health culture can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries.
In 2003, the International Labour Organization (ILO), began to observe World Day in order to stress the prevention of accidents and diseases at work, capitalizing on the ILO's traditional strengths of tripartism and social dialogue.
28 April is also the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers organized worldwide by the trade union movement since 1996.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has directed members of the unified payments interface (UPI) network to adhere to its guidelines on application programming interface (API) calls, whose overuse resulted in an outage of the real-time payments system earlier this month.
APIs are sets of protocols and tools that enable secure data exchanges between banking systems and the UPI network.
The retail payments body, in a circular, said that payment service provider (PSP) banks and acquiring banks should ensure that API requests to UPI should be monitored and moderated for appropriate use.
The Reserve Bank of India will purchase government bonds worth 1.25 trillion rupees ($14.71 billion) via open market operations over four tranches in May, its latest measure to infuse liquidity into the banking system.
The first tranche of Rs 50,000 crore is scheduled for May 6, followed by three tranches of Rs 25,000 crore each on May 9, 15 and 19, respectively.
The announcement is the RBI's latest liquidity infusion measure, with 1.2 trillion rupees added in April via debt purchases and FX swaps. It is scheduled to buy bonds worth Rs 20,000 crore, its last tranche for the current month.
The central bank had also reduced the repo rate for a second consecutive time and changed its stance to "accommodative" earlier this month.
The RBI is expected to keep sufficient surplus in the banking system to ensure policy transmission, and is looking at a level of around 1% of deposits, Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in a press conference after the monetary policy decision on April 9.
The surplus works out to be in the range of Rs 2.20 trillion to Rs 2.50 trillion.
Bonds in India rallied after the monetary authority announced a large debt purchase for May, a move which will significantly add to the cash surplus in the banking system.
The benchmark 10-year yield fell seven basis points to 6.33 percent to trade near a three-year low. The 7.1 percent 2034 bond also slid by the same magnitude.
The intervention is expected to coincide with a substantial dividend payout by the RBI to the government, further boosting system liquidity. The cash injections and rate cuts have sparked a sovereign bond rally, pushing the 10-year yield down by over 40 basis points this year — a decline that already exceeds all of 2024.
Bengaluru-headquartered BEML Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking announced the launch of the country's largest indigenously designed and developed electric rope shovel-BRS21. Describing it as a technological marvel, BEML said the BRS21 rope shovel is entirely designed, engineered, and manufactured in India.
According to BEML, the high-capacity electric rope shovel is purpose-built for large-scale overburden removal in opencast mining operations.
This electric giant marks a historic shift in large-scale surface mining by offering an eco-friendly, zero-emission solution for overburden removal in opencast mines.
Weighing an impressive 720 tons and equipped with a 21-cubic-meter bottom dump bucket, the BRS21 stands as one of the most capable and advanced machines in its class.
The monumental mining equipment was formally handed over by Shantanu Roy, Chairman and MD of BEML, to B Sairam, Chairman and Managing Director of Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), at Nigahi Mines, Singrauli MP.
Adani Group's Ambuja Cements announced that the company had crossed 100 million tonnes per annum (MTPA ) capacity, with more expansions in the pipeline. The company is aiming at achieving 118 MTPA by the end of FY26, which is in line with the eventual goal of touching 140 MTPA by FY28.
This makes Ambuja Cements the ninth-largest cement company globally. The milestone was achieved by the acquisition of Orient Cement and brownfield expansions, including a 2.4 MTPA grinding unit at Farakka and de-bottlenecking across plants.
Additionally, we have ongoing organic expansions at various stages across the country,
which will help us achieve 118 MTPA capacity by end of FY 2026, a significant step, bringing us closer to our goal of 140 MTPA by 2028.
Further, the company has entered a strategic partnership with Finland-based Coolbrook to implement its proprietary Rotodynamic Heater(RDH) technology.
This will significantly reduce fossil fuel dependency by harnessing Renewable Electricity for zero carbon high temperature process heating, it said in a press release, adding that its Net Zero commitment by 2050 has been validated by SBTi.
Ambuja Cements has commissioned 200 Mw solar and 99 Mw wind power in Khavda site & with green power share at 21% of power consumption in FY25 & targeting to reach 60% by FY28
Operationally, the company achieved its highest-ever quarterly sales volume at 18.7 million tonnes, supported by capacity expansion, stronger market penetration.
In IPL T20 Cricket, Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s historic century, alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal’s unbeaten 70, saw Rajasthan Royals register an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Gujarat Titans at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Chasing a target of 210 runs set by Gujarat Titans, Rajasthan Royals scored 212 runs for two wickets in 15.5 overs.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who scored 101 runs in 38 balls, was declared Player of the Match. Suryavanshi’s 101-run innings saw him surpass Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant and Devdutt Padikkal to shatter the record of the youngest centurion in tournament history as he did it at the age of 14 years 32 days.
It is also the second fastest century in the tournament, behind only Chris Gayle, who did it in 30 deliveries, and the fastest century by an Indian, surpassing Yusuf Pathan’s record of 37 deliveries.
In Football, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 to win the Copa del Rey final at the Estadio de La Cartuja in Seville, Spain. The victory gave Barcelona a record-extending 32nd Spanish Cup title.
Jules Kounde’s late strike in extra time secured Barcelona’s second trophy of the season, having earlier won the Spanish Super Cup, also by defeating Real Madrid.
In the 84th minute, Barcelona exploited Madrid’s high defensive line, with Ferran Torres equalising to make it 2-2. The match went into extra time, where Barcelona eventually clinched victory.
In Table Tennis, the Indian pair of Manush Shah and Diya Chitale have clinched the mixed doubles title at the WTT Contender Tunis 2025, held in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia. The Indian duo secured the summit clash with a thrilling 3-2 win over the second-seeded Japanese pair of Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto. The final scoreline read 11-9, 5-11, 14-12, 3-11, 11-6.
