The Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched the revamped Mission Vatsalya Portal which is an integrated Digital platform for all the stakeholders related to child protection services. Mission Vatsalya portal is a technologically upgraded secure portal which provides digital working platform for various stakeholders across different levels at State and district.
The earlier Khoya-Paya and TrackChild services have been brought under this unified portal. The portal avoids duplication of work at grassroots level. It also ensures better monitoring through various MIS Dashboards and optimum utilization of resources for planning and implementation.
The key features of Mission Vatsalya Portal include single digital platform for use by the Stakeholders i.e. State Child Protection Society, State Adoption Resource Agency at State level and District Child Protection Unit, Child Welfare Committee, Juvenile Justice Board, Special Juvenile Police Unit at District level and Child Care Institutions.
The emergency response and outreach service under Mission Vatsalya is provided through Toll-free Child Helpline (#1098) which is a 24x7x365 service for children in difficult circumstances. It is integrated with the Emergency Response Support System-112 (ERSS-112) Helpline of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Women Helpline (181).
Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is implementing a Central Sector Umbrella scheme “Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY)”. Under PMKSY there are various component schemes including Integrated cold chain and value addition infrastructure scheme for cold chain projects and Mega Food Parks scheme to promote the Mega Food Parks.
With the Creation of Food Processing Infrastructure, the demand for Farm produce, which is raw material for Food Processing industries, increases, leading to better prices to farmers and increasing farm gate profitability. Under component schemes of PMKSY till June 2025, a total of 1601 projects have been approved, out of which 1133 are operational/completed.
66 number of cold chain projects have been sanctioned during the last three years, including 5 projects in the state of Odisha. No project has been approved under the Mega Food Park scheme as the scheme has been discontinued w.e.f. 01.04.2021 with provision only for committed liabilities during 15th Finance Commission cycle.
The Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a flagship social security scheme of the Government of India administered by PFRDA, has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 8 crore total gross enrolments with an addition of 39 lakh new subscribers in the current Financial Year (FY 2025-26) alone.
APY is meticulously designed to provide 'Sampurna Suraksha Kavach' (Complete Security Shield), by ensuring a guaranteed monthly pension of Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 5,000 for the subscriber post-60 years of age, the same pension to the spouse after the subscriber’s demise, and return of the accumulated corpus to the nominee after the death of both.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on 25th July at the President’s Office in Male, as both leaders reviewed the entire spectrum of India-Maldives relations and reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening bilateral ties.
Both countries announced later that they had agreed on the Terms of Reference of the India-Maldives Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and also signed several Memorandums of Understanding (MoU), including in the fields of fisheries and aquaculture.
The two nations also signed an agreement for a Line of Credit (LoC) of INR 4,850 crores to the Maldives, besides an amendatory agreement on reducing annual debt repayment obligations of the Maldives on Government of India-funded LoCs.
India’s Anahat Singh clinched the bronze medal at the World Junior Squash Championships 2025 in New Cairo, Egypt, ending the country’s 15-year wait for an individual medal at the prestigious under-19 event. The 17-year-old Indian squash player, seeded second in the women’s singles draw, lost to Egypt’s Nadien Elhammamy 3-0 (11-6, 14-12, 12-10) in the semi-finals.
Anahat, 54th in the senior world rankings and recently crowned the U19 Asian girls’ champion, was the only seeded Indian in the women’s draw. She also won the Asian senior titles in women’s and mixed doubles earlier this year and made her World Championship debut in Chicago.
Anahat has also won a string of PSA Challenger titles since winning two bronze medals in team events at the 2023 Asian Games. No Indian has yet won a gold medal at the World Junior Championships, with Joshna Chinappa (runner-up in 2005) coming the closest.
In a major boost to India’s defence capabilities, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully carried out flight-trials of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Launched Precision Guided Missile (ULPGM)-V3 at the National Open Area Range (NOAR) test range in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.
The ULPGM-V3 is equipped with a high definition dual-channel seeker that can strike a wide variety of targets. It can be fired in plain and high-altitude areas. It has day-and-night capability and two-way data link to support post-launch target/aim-point update.
The missile is equipped with three modular warhead options:
- Anti-armour to destroy modern age armoured vehicles equipped with Rolled Homogeneous
- Armour (RHA) with Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA);
- Penetration-cum-Blast warhead with Anti Bunker application and
Pre-fragmentation warhead with a high lethality zone.
The missile is jointly developed by DRDO laboratories namely Research Centre Imarat, Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, High-Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Integrated Test Range and Defence Electronics Research Laboratory.
Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO: - Dr Samir V Kamat
Regulator IRDAI, on 25th July 2025, has imposed a Rs 3.39 crore penalty on Star Health and Allied Insurance for various violations of Information & Cyber Security Guidelines. Star Health Insurance has a strong multi-channel distribution network, with 913 offices, over 14,000 network hospitals, more than 7,75,000 licensed agents, and 17,000 employees.
KreditBee has received the much-awaited nod to become a public entity, marking a significant milestone in its journey toward an initial public offering (IPO). The Bengaluru-based fintech company secured unanimous board approval to convert into a public limited company.
Following this, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted regulatory approval for the merger of KreditBee’s technology subsidiary, Finnovation Tech Solutions, with its non-banking finance company (NBFC) arm, Krazybee Services. Founded in 2017, KreditBee has rapidly grown to become a leader in India’s digital lending space.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Senegal as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Senegal becomes the ninth country in WHO’s African Region to have achieved this feat. Trachoma has been known in Senegal since the early 1900s and was confirmed as a major cause of blindness through surveys in the 1980s and 1990s.
Senegal joined the WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma in1998,Conducted its first national survey in 2000, and completed full disease mapping by 2017 with support from the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and Tropical Data. Senegal implemented the WHO-recommended SAFE strategy to eliminate trachoma reaching2.8 million people who needed them across 24 district
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has granted a loan amounting to ₹975.26 crore for building infrastructure in nine industrial areas in Tripura. Tripura Industrial Development Corporation (TIDC) Chairman Nabadal Banik said building of industrial sheds, power substations, underground electric lines, fire service stations and 34 roads will be taken up under the project.
Industrial areas in Bodhjungnagar, R K Nagar, Dukli and AN Nagar are among the nine zones. The TIDC has recovered 28 acres of land from 24 dormant industrial units because new entrepreneurs are coming up to set up industries in the northeastern state.
NSDL Payments Bank, which has received the ‘scheduled bank’ status from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is working on a strategy to become a so-called ‘capital market bank’ with a unique 3-in-1 account offering while collaborating with broking entities that do not have the backing of a bank.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notification on June 19, 2025, announcing the inclusion of NSDL Payments Bank Limited in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
PhonePe has launched two co-branded credit cards in partnership with SBI Card, India’s largest pure-play credit card issuer. The new products — PhonePe SBI Card PURPLE and PhonePe SBI Card SELECT BLACK — mark the second such partnership by PhonePe, following its earlier tie-up with HDFC Bank.
The cards, issued on the RuPay and Visa networks, are looking to broaden formal credit access while offering rewards on everyday spends. RuPay variants are UPI-linkable, enabling seamless use across millions of merchants nationwide, while the Visa cards can be tokenised on the PhonePe app for secure digital use.
The SELECT BLACK card, positioned as a premium variant, offers up to 10 per cent value back on PhonePe and Pincode app spends, and 5 per cent on other online transactions. PURPLE cardholders can earn up to 3 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, on the same categories.
Additional benefits include welcome e-gift vouchers — ₹1,500 for SELECT BLACK and ₹500 for PURPLE — alongside annual travel vouchers, fuel surcharge waivers, and complimentary domestic lounge access. SELECT BLACK users also receive a Priority Pass membership for international lounge use.
The Tamil Nadu government has approved the establishment of a centre of excellence for hornbill conservation at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), Coimbatore. A sum of Rs 1 crore from the Endangered Species Conservation Corpus Fund has been allocated to support this initiative in the Western Ghats, a region home for four hornbill species.
The four hornbill species include the Great Hornbill, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Malabar Pied Hornbill, and Indian Grey Hornbill. Under hornbill conservation initiative, a nest adoption programme is mooted to encourage local community in protecting hornbill nests. Seed collection and sapling propagation will provide livelihoods for stakeholders.
India has achieved its target of 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol five years ahead of schedule, the Indian Sugar & Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA). The achievement represents dramatic growth from the modest 1.5 per cent blending rate when the program began in 2014 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration.
The program has provided significant financial benefits to India's agricultural sector, with farmers receiving Rs 1.18 lakh crore and distilleries earning Rs 1.96 lakh crore over the period. The initiative has also helped India save Rs 1.36 lakh crore in foreign exchange costs.
Ethanol production surged from 38 crore litres in 2014 to 661 crore litres blended as of June 2025, while generating 698 lakh tonnes in carbon dioxide emission reductions. The early achievement of the 20 per cent blending target, originally set for 2030.
Indian economy is expected to grow a tad slower at 6.5 percent compared with 6.7 percent projected earlier, as policy uncertainty and US tariffs weigh on exports and investments, Asian Development Bank said on July 23, 2025. The Indian economy is projected to grow 6.5% in FY2025, lower than the 6.7% forecast in the April 2025 ADO.
Data released on July 21 showed that crop output in the country was 4 percent higher compared with the previous year, while monsoon was trending 6 percent above normal. ADB now expects inflation to settle at 3.8 percent, compared with 4.3 percent in April. In June, India's inflation dipped further to over six year low of 2.1 percent.
Founded in 1966, ADB is owned by 69 members- 50 from the region.
Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Co-Founder and Chairperson – Sustainability, ReNew, has been elected as the President of the United Nations Global Compact Network India (UNGCNI) for the 2025–27 term.
This marks the first time in over two decades that a leader from India’s private sector has been appointed to the role—traditionally held by representatives from large public sector enterprises such as ONGC.
NASA launched its latest space science mission. At 2:13 p.m. EDT, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the twin TRACERS satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The TRACERS mission - short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites—aims to study how Earth’s magnetic field responds to solar activity.
The two satellites will fly in tandem, just seconds apart. They’ll collect over 3,000 measurements during their one-year mission. Their instruments will focus on a process called magnetic reconnection, where magnetic fields snap and realign.
Alongside TRACERS, the Falcon 9 carried three more NASA missions. Athena EPIC, PExT, and REAL were all deployed successfully. These small satellites will test new technologies and collect Earth and space data. Athena EPIC will track Earth’s heat radiation for one year. PExT will test switching between different space communication networks.
The United States informed Director-Generalof the United States’ decision to withdraw from UNESCO. The US first withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan and didn’t rejoin for two decades. Fourteen years after re-entry, the first Trump administration withdrew from the organization in 2017, which was reversed under President Joseph Biden in 2023.
Pursuant to Article II(6) of the UNESCO Constitution, U.S. withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2026. The United States will remain a full member of UNESCO until that time.
