NITI Aayog launched the Report on ‘Unlocking a $200 Billion Opportunity: Electric Vehicles in India,’ which presents a timely and comprehensive assessment of current challenges while highlighting major unlocks essential to accelerate India’s Electric Mobility transition.
India seeks to attain a 30% share of electric vehicles, in the total vehicles sold, by 2030. Sale of EVs in India went up from 50,000 in 2016 to 2.08 million in 2024 as against global EV sales having risen from 918,000 in 2016 to 18.78 million in 2024. Thus, India’s transition has been slow to start, but it is picking up.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) launched its new and modernized website under the project PFRDA CONNECT initiative. It was launched by Shri S. Ramann, Chairperson, PFRDA at New Delhi.
This transformative digital milestone aligns with PFRDA’s vision of promoting transparency, efficiency, and accessibility in pension sector governance through cutting-edge technology. The new website has been designed and developed in accordance with Government of India’s guidelines and is fully compliant with GIGW (Guidelines for Indian Government Websites) and,
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), ensuring accessibility and inclusiveness for all stakeholders.
The upgraded website offers an enhanced user experience, enriched content structure, intuitive navigation, and improved functionality for ease of access by subscribers, intermediaries, and the public.
The Government has taken many initiatives to deepen financial inclusion and ensure that access to basic banking services leads to meaningful participation in the formal financial system, including access to credit.
The launch of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in August 2014 marked a significant step in banking the unbanked by facilitating the opening of basic savings bank deposit accounts, with associated features such as RuPay debit cards and an in-built overdraft facility. As on date, over 55.90 crore accounts have been opened under PMJDY.
The Government has, inter-alia, undertaken several measures to ensure that credit inclusion complements deposit inclusion, with a strong focus on funding the unfunded:
NITI Aayog today launched the India Electric Mobility Index (IEMI), a first-of-its-kind tool developed to comprehensively track and benchmark the progress of States and Union Territories (UTs) in achieving their Electric Mobility goals.
States are central to India’s ambition of reducing transport sector emissions and achieving net-zero by 2070. Proactive state level action is therefore key to designing tailored policies, deploying supportive infrastructure, and ensuring the benefits of e-mobility reach all communities and geographies equitably.
About the India Electric Mobility Index
The India Electric Mobility Index (IEMI) tracks, evaluates and scores all Indian States and UTs out of 100 across 16 indicators under three-core themes: Transport Electrification Progress to capture demand-side adoption, Charging Infrastructure Readiness to track allied charging infrastructure development and,
EV Research and Innovation Status: Covers supply-side ecosystem R&D efforts.
The IEMI enables evaluation across states and union territories, identifying key drivers of success as well as areas requiring targeted interventions. The Index aims to inform decision-making, foster healthy competition among states, and promote sharing of best practices.
The Index underscores the importance of state-level coordination, integrated planning, and cross-sectoral collaboration in achieving India’s electric mobility vision. By identifying strengths and gaps, the Index aims to support states in aligning with national goals while addressing local needs.
Two significant Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were signed by the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of Ayush, Government of India in the presence of Union Minister of State of Ayush (Independent Charge) and Minister of State for Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Prataprao Jadhav, at Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi.
The first MoU was signed between the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) and IshVed-Bioplants Venture, Pune, Maharashtra, and the second tripartite MoU was signed among National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
MoU 1 between NMPB and IshVed-Bioplants Venture-
To conserve and maintain the germplasm of rare, endangered and threatened (RET) medicinal plants through tissue culture methods.
MoU 2 among NMPB, AIIA, and AIIMS-
For the establishment of a national level medicinal plants garden in the premises of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, through the All India Institute of Ayurveda to spread public awareness about medicinal plants, sharing knowledge and expertise of all the parties.
IndusInd Bank has appointed Rajiv Anand, the former Deputy Managing Director of Axis Bank, as its new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for a three-year term, commencing August 25, 2025. This leadership change comes in the wake of governance upheavals and financial irregularities that had earlier cost the bank’s prior CEO and deputy their positions.
His appointment follows the Reserve Bank of India’s approval and the board’s clearance, and is subject to final shareholder ratification.
Rajiv Anand’s banking career began with Axis Asset Management, where, starting in 2009, he served as the founding Managing Director and CEO, rapidly establishing a reputation for building scalable businesses.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced on Monday the appointment of P B Balaji as its next Chief Executive Officer, marking the first time an Indian executive will lead the Tata Motors-owned luxury carmaker.
Balaji, currently Group Chief Financial Officer at Tata Motors, will take over as CEO of JLR in November 2025.
He will succeed Adrian Mardell, who will retire at the end of his contract. The decision was approved by JLR’s Board at its meeting on August 4, the company said.
Balaji is a member of Tata Motors’ Executive Committee and sits on the boards of several Tata Group companies, including Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc (UK), Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, etc.
Magnus Carlsen representing Team Liquid took home gold in Riyadh after a dominant performance against Team Falcons’ Alireza Firouzja in Chess at EWC 25.
Carlsen added another trophy to his legendary résumé on August 1, defeating Alireza Firouzja in the Grand Final of Chess at 2025 Esports World Cup.
The Norwegian grandmaster crushed his opponent with an overall score of four wins, two draws, and a single loss.
The gap between the world’s No. 3 Blitz player, Alireza Firouzja (2856), and the world No. 1, Magnus Carlsen (2937), couldn’t have been more apparent after the action concluded in Riyadh.
With two Falcons skewered, Magnus takes home the win for Team Liquid, earning 1,000 Club Championship points and rocketing them into contention to win the Club Championship. The grandmaster also wins $250,000 – one of the largest competitive chess prizes in recent memory.
Argentina dominated the 2025 Pan American Cup, winning gold in both the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments in Montevideo, Uruguay. The United States took silver in both categories, while Canada’s men and Uruguay’s women claimed the bronze medals.
With these results, Argentina’s men and the USA’s women secured qualification for the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Argentina women had already qualified via the Pro League, allowing the USA to claim the continental spot. In the men’s final, Argentina overwhelmed the USA with a stunning 10-0 win, marking their fourth consecutive and,
fifth overall Pan American Cup title. Tomas Domene, who scored four goals in the final, was named player of the tournament. On the women’s side, Argentina defeated the USA 3-0 to clinch their seventh straight title, led by top scorer Agustina Gorzelany with ten goals in the tournament.
Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Jitin Prasada, on received the Guinness World Record for Pariksha Pe Charcha, an annual event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship initiative, Pariksha Pe Charcha, is being organised by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with MyGov since 2018.
The recent edition held in 2025 has been conferred with the Guinness World Record for the “Most people registered on a Citizen Engagement Platform in one month”.
The Indian Army has joined hands with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras to establish ‘Agnishodh’, the Indian Army Research Cell (IARC) on the IIT Madras campus. The research facility was formally inaugurated today by General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), during his two-day visit to Chennai.
The initiative is part of the Indian Army’s broader transformation framework, guided by the Five Pillars of Transformation articulated by the COAS. Agnishodh specifically advances one of the pillars, Modernisation and Technology Infusion and represents the Indian Army’s drive to seamlessly integrate academic research with real-time operational applications.
The Agnishodh collaboration will further extend into the IIT Madras Research Park, working alongside entities such as the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Centre (AMTDC) and Pravartak Technologies Foundation. This will serve as a unique platform to convert lab-scale innovations into field-ready technologies.
Additionally, Agnishodh will play a vital role in upskilling military personnel in key emerging areas including additive manufacturing, cybersecurity, quantum computing, wireless communication, and unmanned aerial systems building a tech-empowered human resource base within the Armed Forces.
Bank of Baroda announced the launch of bob FxOne, which is a digital foreign exchange platform designed specifically for the Bank’s corporate and MSME customers.
The platform enables customers to execute forex and derivative transactions with real-time live rates, instant confirmations, downloadable deal tickets and a personalised dashboard with alerts, in a secure,
user-friendly and cost-effective manner.
bob FxOne aims to simplify forex and derivative transaction booking process, offering customers a real-time solution. This eliminates customers the need to visit the bank or manual intervention.
A few key features of bob FxOne include Instant Deal Booking with One Click Trade (1CT) and Request for Quote (RFQ), various forex booking options including cash, tom, spot, forward, bills, and options, simplified tracking of forex exposure and transactions.
Lalit Tyagi, Executive Director- Bank of Baroda.
