In a significant step toward inclusive development and last-mile service delivery, the 4th Adi Karmayogi Regional Process Lab (RPL) was inaugurated today in Bhubaneswar. This week-long programme, held under the flagship Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA), aims to equip frontline tribal functionaries.
The programme brings together 25 selected participants from Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha, and is facilitated by the Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF). The Regional Process Lab (RPL) in Odisha is part of a cascading model of capacity building. The trained State Master Trainers (SMTs) will lead State and District Process Labs.
The Government has finalized setting up of PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks at 7 sites viz. Tamil Nadu (Virudhnagar), Telangana (Warangal), Gujarat (Navasari), Karnataka (Kalaburagi), Madhya Pradesh (Dhar), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow) and Maharashtra (Amravati) with an outlay of Rs. 4,445 cr for a period of seven years upto 2027-28.
The PM MITRA scheme aims to attract Rs. 70,000 crore in investments and create nearly 20 lakh direct and indirect jobs. Currently in Haryana state, 26 Implementing Partners with 80 active training centres are working in entry level training programme and Up/Re-skilling training programme under Samarth.
The Government is implementing Samarth (Scheme for Capacity Building in Textiles Sector) with the objective to provide demand driven, placement-oriented skilling programmes to supplement the efforts of the industry in creating jobs in the organized textile and related sectors, covering the entire value chain of textiles, excluding Spinning and Weaving sectors.
In addition, Government is implementing National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM) with an outlay of 1,480 cr. (2020-21 to 2025-26) to boost technical textiles in the country including in Haryana.
Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, AVSM, NM assumed charge as the 47th Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS) on 01 Aug 2025. An alumnus of the 71st course National Defence Academy, Pune, Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 01 Jan 1988.
In Feb 2020, he took over as the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, and led numerous operational deployments and exercises during a time of heightened maritime activity, post events at Galwan. On promotion to Flag Rank in Feb 2018, he served as the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy and Plans) prior to Commanding the Eastern Fleet.
Lieutenant General Pushpendra Singh assumed the appointment of the Vice Chief of the Army Staff on 31 July 2025. The General Officer was commissioned into 4th Battalion, The Parachute regiment (Special Forces) in December 1987. He is an alumnus of La’ Martiniere College, Lucknow, Lucknow University and the prestigious Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.
The General Officer has served in ‘OP PAWAN’, ‘OP MEGHDOOT’, ‘OP ORCHID’ and has had multiple tenures in ‘OP RAKSHAK’. The General Officer was GOC of a Corps headquartered in Himachal Pradesh and responsible for sensitive Jammu, Samba and Pathankot areas.
Shri Raj Kumar Arora took over as the Controller General of Defence Accounts on August 01, 2025. The officer has held prestigious assignments in the Government as Additional Secretary in UPSC, Finance Manager (Air) in the Acquisition Wing of Ministry of Defence, and Director in Ministry of Finance.
He has also worked as Integrated Financial Advisor in various Commands as well as field offices of Defence Accounts Department. He was Member (Finance) in the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unveiled the mascot of Asia Rugby Under 20 ( Sevens) Championship to be held at Rajgir on 9th and 10th August. Under the Championship Men’s and Women’s teams of Asia will lock horns for the trophy at Rajgir Sports Complex. This event is being organised first time in Bihar.
The top eight countries of Asia will participate in the championship which is a seven-member team event. Besides India, rugby-playing Asian countries like Hong Kong, China, UAE, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Nepal will play in the Championship.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the merger of New India Co-operative Bank with the largest urban co-operative bank, Saraswat Co-operative Bank. The merger will be effective from August 4, 2025. Consequently, Saraswat Bank will assume all assets and liabilities of New India Co-operative Bank, and all its branches will operate as Saraswat Bank branches.
Customers, including depositors of New India Co-operative Bank, will be treated as customers of Saraswat Bank from August 4, 2025, with their interests fully protected. The Scheme of Amalgamation was approved by the shareholders of Saraswat Bank at its Special General Meeting held on July 22, 2025.
It was also approved by the shareholders of New India Co-operative Bank at their Annual General Meeting and subsequently sent to the RBI for approval.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions reached 19.47 billion in July, up 6 per cent from the previous month, marking the continuing popularity of the digital finance platform. The transactions were worth Rs 25.08 trillion, a 4 per cent increase in value.
As many as 18.4 billion transactions worth Rs 24.04 trillion took place in June, said National Payments Corporation of India. The value of UPI transactions dipped compared to the record high of Rs 25.14 trillion in May, when there were 18.68 billion transactions. July UPI numbers increased 35 per cent up in volume and 22 per cent by value compared to the same month in 2024
There were 482 million Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions in July, up 8 per cent from 448 million in June. Such transactions were valued at Rs 6.31 trillion, up 4 per cent from Rs 6.06 trillion in June. There were 464 million IMPS transactions worth Rs 6.41 trillion in May.
India’s gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection for the month of July stood at Rs 1.96 lakh crore, marking a 7.5% increase compared to the same month last year, government data showed. For the previous month, India’s gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection for the month of June stood at Rs 1.85 lakh crore.
The gross domestic revenue grew 6.7% to Rs 1.43 lakh crore, while tax from imports rose 9.5% to Rs 52,712 crore. GST Refunds shot up 66.8% year-on-year to Rs 27,147 crore. The net GST revenue stood at Rs 1.69 lakh crore in July 2025, recording a 1.7% year-on-year growth. In April 2025, India's GST collections had surged by 12.6% to an all-time high of Rs 2.37 lakh crore.
Fitch Ratings revised its GDP growth estimate for India to 6.3% for the financial year ending March 2026, down from its earlier projection of 6.4% made in April. The credit rating agency, however, said it sees a limited direct impact on Indian corporates from the higher tariffs imposed by the United States.
In its latest India Corporates Credit Trends report, Fitch said the modest downgrade in growth expectations still reflects strong momentum in infrastructure spending, which should continue to fuel demand for core sectors.
Domestically focused sectors like oil and gas (both upstream and downstream), cement, building materials, engineering and construction, telecom, and utilities are expected to remain largely insulated, Fitch said, supported by “local demand and/or regulatory stability.”
CARE Ratings Ltd has upgraded the credit rating of South Indian Bank’s Basel III Tier II debt from CARE A+ Stable to CARE AA- Stable. According to the rating agency, the upward revision was based on the improvement in the bank’s risk profile and asset quality among others.
The bank’s return on total assets (ROTA) for FY25 increased to 1.08 per cent compared to 0.95 per cent for FY24, while its net NPA to net worth ratio improved to 8.10 per cent from 13.38 per cent in the previous year and its net stressed assets to net worth ratio reduced to 12.11 per cent from 22.59 per cent in the previous year.
The rating also factors in long track record of operations, established depositor base and diversified advances portfolio. The bank is expected to grow at par with the industry while maintaining adequate capitalisation and witnessing diversification in the advances mix with increase in proportion of retail and MSME advances.
Manappuram Finance has announced the appointment of Deepak Reddy as its new Chief Executive Officer. Reddy will be primarily responsible for steering the company and its subsidiaries through the next phase of growth and innovation.
Before joining Manappuram, Reddy was associated with Bajaj Finserv Ltd. for over 17 years. He also served as the Head of Human Resources at Bajaj Finance Ltd. Prior to his tenure at Bajaj Finserv Ltd, he spent over nine years at American Express, where he headed the personal and small business loans business and held the role of Director – Platinum Credit Cards.
The Union Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved a total outlay of Rs 6,520 crore for the ongoing Central Sector Scheme Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) for the 15th Finance Commission Cycle spanning 2021-22 to 2025-26. This includes an additional allocation of Rs 1,920 crore to strengthen key components under the scheme.
A key highlight of this approval is a Rs 1,000 crore investment earmarked for the development of 50 Multi-Product Food Irradiation Units under the Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure (ICCVAI) scheme, as well as the establishment of 100 NABL-accredited Food Testing Laboratories (FTLs) through the Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure component.
An additional Rs 920 crore will support the implementation of various component schemes under PMKSY during the current Finance Commission period. The move aims to bolster the food processing ecosystem, encourage private sector participation, and ensure safe, quality-assured food reaches consumers across India.
The planned 50 food irradiation units are expected to enhance food preservation capacity by approximately 20 to 30 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) annually, depending on the types of products treated. Irradiation helps extend shelf life and reduce spoilage, which is especially critical for perishable goods.
The market regulator, Sebi, announced an extension of the timeline for the implementation of the second and third phases of the nomination process in the securities market, citing operational difficulties expressed by the Depositories, depository participants, and Industry Associations as the primary reason.
In its circular, Sebi stated that the implementation date for Phase II, originally scheduled for June 1, has been extended to August 8, while the date for Phase III, earlier set for September 1, has been deferred to December 15.
This extension follows representations from the Depositories (CDSL, NSDL), depository participants, and Industry Associations (ANMI, CPAI) requesting more time to carry out system developments and process changes required for implementing Phase II.
Additionally, the depositories, after consultation with depository participants and ANMI, requested an extension of the timeline for implementing Phase III of the Nomination Circular until December 15, 2025, to allow sufficient time for development and testing.
In January, Sebi issued guidelines to revise and revamp nomination facilities in the Indian securities market. Following these guidelines, based on representations from various stakeholders and discussions held, amendments and clarifications to the January circular were announced.
Tech giant Google is set to build a massive 1 gigawatt (GW) data centre and its supporting energy infrastructure in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, with a total investment of $6 billion (approximately Rs 51,000 crore). This marks Google’s largest-ever data centre project in India and is expected to be one of the biggest in Asia in terms of both scale and investment.
Nearly $2 billion (about Rs 17,000 crore) of the total outlay will go toward establishing renewable energy capacity. These clean energy sources will be used to power the high-capacity data centre, reflecting Google’s global push towards sustainable infrastructure.
Globally, Google, part of Alphabet Inc, is ramping up its data infrastructure footprint. In April this year, Alphabet announced a global investment plan of $75 billion to expand its data centre network in 2025. The company is also developing large-scale data hubs in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, as part of its ongoing efforts to support growing digital demand.
Malta is set to host the eighth edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in 2027, with over 1,000 athletes aged 14 to 18 from 74 nations and territories expected to compete across eight sports.
The Sport Programme will feature eight sports, with Sailing and Water Polo making their debut at a CYG, alongside Athletics and Para Athletics, Netball, Squash, Swimming and Para Swimming, Triathlon and Weightlifting. The distinctive programme was designed to maximise local and Commonwealth youth appeal and utilise existing state-of-the-art venues.
