The International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, observed annually on May 23, is a global initiative to raise awareness and mobilise support for women affected by this devastating childbirth injury. Obstetric fistula, a hole between the birth canal and bladder or rectum, is a significant health and human rights issue, particularly in low-resource settings.
This year's theme, “Her health, her right: Shaping a future without fistula,” underscores a powerful truth: that every woman and girl has the fundamental right to health—particularly sexual and reproductive health—and that the continued existence of obstetric fistula is a clear violation of that right.
Obstetric fistula is a traumatic childbirth injury that robs a woman or girl of her health, rights and dignity. It is a hole between the birth canal and bladder or rectum that causes uncontrollable urinary incontinence. A hole between the birth canal and rectum causes faeces to leak. This is usually caused by prolonged and obstructed labor.
The annual celebration of 23 May brings individuals from across the globe to pay their respects and celebrate one of the world's oldest and most tranquil animals — the turtle. World Turtle Day serves as a reminder of our own duty to safeguard these slow but incredibly important inhabitants of our world.
World Turtle Day began being celebrated in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue (ATR), a non-profit organisation that was formed in 1990. ATR is headquartered in California and was established by Marshall Thompson and Susan Tellem, who are both avid turtle and tortoise enthusiasts.
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology; Earth Sciences and Minister of State for PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated "Sagar Bhavan" and "Polar Bhavan", two first-of its-kind facilities in India and among the very few in the world at Goa's NCPOR.
Polar Bhavan, now the largest building at the NCPOR (National Centre of Polar and Ocean Research) campus, spans 11,378 square metres and was constructed at a cost of ₹55 crore. It includes laboratories for polar and ocean research, 55 rooms for scientific personnel, a conference room, seminar hall, library, and canteen.
Sagar Bhavan, covering 1,772 square metres, was built at a cost of ₹13 crore. It includes two -30°C ice core laboratories and +4°C storage units for archiving sediment and biological samples. The building also features 29 rooms, including a metal-free Class 1000 clean room for trace metal and isotope studies.
President Smt Droupadi Murmu conferred six Kirti Chakras, including four posthumous, and 33 Shaurya Chakras, including seven posthumous, to the personnel of the Armed Forces, Central Armed Police Forces and State/Union Territory Police during Phase-I of Defence Investiture Ceremony 2025 at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi on May 22, 2025.
The Gallantry awards were given to the personnel for displaying raw courage, unparalleled bravery and total disregard to personal safety in the line of duty. The bravery, which has been awarded, was displayed during various operations related to counter-terror/counter-insurgency in J&K and North-East.
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a Government of India undertaking and Aditya Birla Capital Limited (‘ABCL’), India’s leading diversified financial service company has announced their strategic partnership to broaden the reach and accessibility to loan products across Bharat.
This partnership integrates Aditya Birla Capital’s diverse suite of lending products with IPPB's extensive network and digital infrastructure, aiming to provide seamless credit access to IPPB customers nationwide.
The United Kingdom signed an agreement handing sovereignty over the contested and strategically located Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The move, the British government said, ensures the future of a US-UK military base that is vital to security. Under the agreement, the United Kingdom will pay Mauritius 136 million dollars per year to lease back the base for at least 99 years.
The Chagos Islands, officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, are located in the Indian Ocean about 9,332 km south-east of the UK. The Chagos Archipelago – a group of seven atolls with a population of just over four thousand, was separated from Mauritius in 1965, when Mauritius was still a British colony.
Britain purchased the islands for three million pound but Mauritius has argued that it was illegally forced to give them away as part of a deal to gain independence from Britain. In the late 1960s, Britain invited the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, removing thousands of people from their homes.
Shooter Kanak Budhwar has bagged India’s first gold medal at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany. Kanak, the silver medalist at the junior world championship in Lima last year, scored 239 in the Women’s 10 metre Air Pistol final to claim the yellow metal.
She outperformed Anna Dulce of Moldova, a two-time Olympian and reigning European Champion, by 1.7 points. Chen Yen-Ching of Chinese Taipei won the bronze medal. Meanwhile, another Indian shooter, Prachi, finished fifth.
India’s outward remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) moderated by 6.85 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $29.56 billion in FY25, after reaching an all-time high of $31.73 billion in FY24. The decline was attributed to global uncertainty, muted domestic income growth, and a high base effect.
In March 2025, outward remittances grew by 10.65 per cent YoY to $2.55 billion, driven by growth in international travel, according to the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). During the same month, the international travel segment posted 12.3 per cent YoY growth to $1.12 billion.
The LRS was introduced in 2004, allowing all resident individuals to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for any permissible current or capital account transaction or a combination of both, free of charge. Initially launched with a $25,000 limit, it has since been revised upward.
In FY25, international travel — the largest LRS segment, accounting for nearly 60 per cent — dipped marginally by 0.25 per cent YoY to $16.96 billion. Funds transferred for maintenance of close relatives and overseas education declined by 19.28 per cent to $3.72 billion and 16.09 per cent to $2.92 billion, respectively.
Additionally, the Indian rupee depreciated by 2.4 per cent in FY25, which impacted the funds sent for maintenance of close relatives. Remittances under the gift component fell by 17.9 per cent YoY to $2.9 billion. LRS remittances in equity and debt investments rose 12.45 per cent YoY to $1.69 billion, while the purchase of immovable property abroad increased by 33.11 % YoY.
Fitch Ratings, on 23 May 2025, revised India’s medium-term GDP growth potential till FY2026 upwards to 6.4 per cent, from its earlier projection of 6.2 per cent. Fitch Ratings has slightly lowered its medium-term potential GDP projections over the next five years for the 10 emerging market economies covered in its Global Economic Outlook.
Fitch expects total factor productivity in India to slow from recent years, reverting to its long-run average of 1.5 per cent. It also anticipates India’s labour force participation rate will continue to increase, albeit at a slower pace.
The RBI sold $34.5 billion in financial year 2024-25 (FY25) on the net basis, the highest since the global financial crisis of 2008-09, latest data released by the central bank showed. In addition, the RBI has cut down its forward book for the first time in seven months, which fell to $84.34 billion as on March 31, 2025 as compared to $88.75 billion in February.
After a period of relative stability of almost two years, the Indian rupee (INR) experienced a sharp depreciation in the latter half of FY25, primarily due to a surge in the US dollar index to 108, prompting the central bank to intervene in the foreign exchange market to curb undue volatility. The RBI had net sold the highest amount of $20 billion in November 2024.
The RBI gross sold around $399 billion during FY25. The rupee saw significant volatility over the year, allowing the RBI to capitalise on dollar sales and record gains. The central bank is expected to transfer a surplus between ₹2.5 trillion and ₹3 trillion for FY25, against ₹2.1 trillion in FY24.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mooted a proposal for urban co-operative banks (UCBs) with deposits of more than Rs 10,000 crore to issue Special Share Certificates (SSCs) to their members or to persons residing within their area of operations. This will offer an additional avenue for raising capital, alongside the existing arrangement for issuing member shares.
SSCs will form part of Tier I capital. The amount received against the face value of SSCs is to be classified separately under “Schedule I – Capital” of the balance sheet. The premium—defined as the difference between the face value and the book value—received on SSCs may be transferred to a “Special Shares Premium Account”.
The outstanding amount of SSCs (excluding premium), along with the outstanding amount of Perpetual Non-Cumulative Preference Shares (PNCPS) and Perpetual Debt Instruments (PDIs), should not exceed 35 per cent of the total Tier I capital at any point in time. The board of directors of the UCB will be empowered to determine the amount of SSCs to be raised by the bank.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is stepping up its supervision of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to prevent future disruptions caused by stress on the core network. In a circular issued on 21st May 2025, the payments authority outlined operational guidelines for 10 application programming interfaces (APIs) linked to UPI.
The body may also impose rate limits on the number of times an API can be called. UPI members and their partners are required to implement the guidelines by July 31. The body has defined peak hours as periods when UPI transactions hit their highest volume per second, typically from 10 am to 1 pm and 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm.
Common use cases for UPI APIs include checking transaction status, balance enquiries, executing autopay mandates, and verifying account details. APIs are protocols that enable secure data exchange between banking systems and the UPI network. NPCI has also asked acquiring banks to conduct a system audit by a CERT-In empanelled auditor to review API usage.
The UAE Accountability Authority has been elected to the Executive Board of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) during the body's first council meeting of 2025, in a move that reflects the UAE’s prominent standing in advancing good governance and integrity.
In September 2024, it was elected to the Steering Committee of the GlobE Network, under the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, affirming international trust in the UAE’s cross-border cooperation in anti-corruption efforts.
The International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA) comprises more than 180 countries and is an independent, non-political organisation dedicated to supporting the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. It focuses on empowering anti-corruption bodies and facilitating cooperation among them.
Markets regulator SEBI extended the timeline for implementing the framework regarding tightening of rules on issuance of offshore derivative instruments (ODIs) by FPIs to November 17. SEBI, in December, came out with the framework, which was to become effective from May 17.
The circular proposed to prohibit FPIs from issuing ODIs with derivatives as the underlying or using derivatives to hedge their ODIs in India. This was aimed at addressing regulatory arbitrage for ODIs and FPIs with segregated portfolios.
SEBI mandated that ODI subscribers disclose detailed ownership information, up to the level of natural persons, if they meet either of the following criteria: their equity ODI positions account for 50% or more of securities linked to a single Indian corporate group, or their total equity positions in Indian markets exceed ₹25,000 crore.
Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani, former Wipro chairman Azim Premji and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath have been named by Time magazine in its inaugural list of the 100 most influential people in philanthropy.
The list includes Mukesh and Nita Ambani who, Time said, gifted Rs 407 crore (about USD 48 million) in 2024, placing them among the country's biggest donors. Premji was the first Indian to sign the Giving Pledge and in 2013 endowed the foundation he launched nearly 25 years ago with over USD 29 billion in shares from his company, Wipro.
The list also includes co-founder of Zerodha Nikhil Kamath, who in 2023 at age 36 became the youngest Indian to sign the Giving Pledge. The list also includes legendary footballer David Beckham, billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffet, American philanthropist Melinda French Gates and Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales.
Counter-terrorism expert Tapan Kumar Deka was given an additional one-year term till June 2026 as the chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the second such extension for him.
The rules allow the central government to extend in "public interest" the services of the chiefs of IB and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary and others, beyond the superannuation age of 60 years.
The population of Asiatic lions in Gujarat has risen to 891 from the previous 674, chief minister Bhupendra Patel announced on Wednesday. The number shows an increase of 32.2% in the Asiatic lion population recorded in the last 2020 lion census. The 16th lion population estimation was announced during the seventh meeting of the National Board for Wildlife at Sasan-Gir.
Amreli district holds the highest population of lions in the Asiatic lion landscape, including 82 adult males, 117 adult females, 22 sub-adult males, 35 sub-adult females, 4 unidentified sub-adults, and 79 cubs (2 males, 10 females, 67 unidentified). Across the lion population within the landscape, the adult male to adult female ration is 1:1.68.
