Ms. Bhavina Patel, Assistant Director with the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), Regional Office, Ahmedabad, has brought immense pride to India by securing top honours at two prestigious international para table tennis championships, held in Spokane, Washington, USA.
From 9th to 13th August 2025, at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Para Elite event, Patel delivered a phenomenal performance, clinching the Gold Medal in the Women’s Singles Class 4–5 category. This victory is the result of her exceptional skill, determination, and strategic play against some of the best para table tennis players in the world.
Just days earlier, from 6th to 8th August 2025, at the ITTF World Para Future event, also held in Spokane, Patel had bagged the Silver Medal in the same category.
Ms. Bhavina Patel has now risen to the No. 1 position in the World Rankings for the Women’s Singles in Class 1 to 5 Women's categories in para table tennis.
Wholesale price inflation (WPI) stayed in negative territory for the second consecutive month at (-) 0.58% in July, as prices of food articles and fuel saw deflation, even though prices of manufactured items increased, government data showed on August 14, 2025.
WPI-based inflation was (-) 0.13% in June. It was 2.10% in July last year.
As per WPI data, food articles saw a deflation of 6.29% in July, as against a deflation of 3.75% in June, with vegetables witnessing a sharp drop.
Deflation in vegetables was 28.96% in July, compared to 22.65% in June.
In the case of manufactured products, inflation was higher at 2.05% in July, as against 1.97% in the month before.
Fuel and power saw a negative inflation or deflation of 2.43% in July, as against 2.65% in June.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which takes into account retail inflation, had kept benchmark policy rates unchanged at 5.5% earlier this month. The retail inflation in July dropped to an 8-year low of 1.55%.
Shareholders of Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, the unlisted holding company of the $150 billion Tata group, cleared the appointment of Noel Tata and three others as directors at the company’s 107th annual general meeting (AGM).
Noel Tata, who became chairman of Tata Trusts in October 2024, was nominated to the Tata Sons board by the Trusts and appointed as an additional director. Now this appointment has got shareholders’ nod.
Shareholders also approved the reappointment of Venu Srinivasan and Saurabh Agrawal, and appointed Anita Marangoly George,
cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO) of emerging-markets growth fund Prosperete — as an independent director. The fast-paced shareholders' meeting ended within 30 minutes after clearing all the resolutions. Chairman N Chandrasekharan addressed the shareholders in the online meeting.
A self-help group (SHG) from a small village in Kundgol taluk of Dharwad district has bagged the ‘Equator Initiative Award’ given by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is also referred to as the Nobel Prize for Biodiversity Conservation.
The Bibi Fatima Women’s Self-Help Group from Teertha village in Kundgol taluk is one among the 10 winners of the Equator Prize 2025. The awards were announced on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and are presented annually to honour nature-based solutions led by indigenous people and local communities that promote sustainable development.
As per UNDP official release on its portal, Bibi Fatima Women’s SHG is the sole group from India to win the award, other winners are from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Peru, and Tanzania. The award includes a cash prize of $10,000 (approximately Rs. 8.5 lakh).
This year’s award selection was based on the theme Women and Youth Leadership for Nature-Based Climate Action”. Around 700 competitors from 103 countries competed for the prize.
The Bibi Fatima SHG has also established a community seed bank to distribute these seeds free of cost to interested farmers.
A committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to develop a Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of Artificial Intelligence (FREE-AI) in the financial sector has recommended the establishment of shared infrastructure by regulated entities (REs) to democratise access to data and compute, and for the creation of an Al Innovation Sandbox.
The panel submitted its report, which has been uploaded on the RBI website. The report sets a framework to guide on the use of AI in the financial sector, aiming to harness its potential while safeguarding against associated risks.
The finance ministry removed the 11 per cent duty on raw cotton imports for a period of 42 days till September 30, giving temporary relief to the textile and garment industry amid concerns over revenue loss from higher US tariffs.
The exemption will benefit the textile chain — yarn, fabric, garments and made-ups — and provide relief to the textile industry and consumers.
Through a notification by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, the government removed the basic customs duty and the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) on cotton imports from August 19 to September 30.
The removal of import duty on cotton was a long-pending demand of industry bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI).
This move is crucial in making the industry competitive, as it requires high-quality, contamination-free cotton to meet global quality compliance standards for exports. Removal of duty on raw cotton is expected to have a salutary effect on cotton prices in India.
India has set a target of achieving textile exports worth $100 billion by 2030.
The US is India’s largest market for textile and apparel exports. According to CITI, India’s exports to the US rose to $5.36 billion, up 12 per cent from $4.79 billion during the first six months of calendar 2024, ranking the country third. Vietnam, now the second-largest supplier, registered $8.54 billion worth of exports, a rise of 19 per cent.
Bangladesh rebounded strongly after last year’s political turmoil with a 24 per cent surge to $4.36 billion. China, still the largest supplier, saw a 16 per cent decline to $9.34 billion.
The Centre has released Rs. 36,027 crore to all states and union territories under the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure and Investment (SASCI) till 11 August, according to a Parliament reply by Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance.
Chaudhary said that total funds amounting to Rs. 3,66,249.45 crore have been released by the government to states under the scheme since its inception in FY21 up to FY25.
According to the Parliament reply, under certain parts of the scheme, incentives are provided to states by the Centre for carrying out reforms in different sectors.
In 2024-25, 22 states availed these incentives by implementing land-related reforms in rural areas, and 22 for reforms aimed at stimulating industrial growth through regulations for industrial and commercial buildings. None of the states could utilise the incentive linked to land reforms in urban areas, the Lok Sabha reply showed.
The unemployment rate in the first quarter (April-June) this financial year stood at 5.4 per cent in the country, showed the first ever quarterly periodic labour force survey (PLFS) data, released for both rural and urban areas by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
The data showed that the headline unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above in current weekly status (CWS) terms for rural areas stood at 4.8 per cent, while the rate for the urban areas was recorded at 6.8 per cent.
In CWS, activity is determined on the reference period over the past seven days preceding the date of the survey. Under this, a person is considered unemployed in a week if she or he did not work even for one hour on any day during the reference week but sought or was available for work at least for one hour on any day during the reference week.
Indian mutual funds' overseas assets dropped 5.6 per cent to $ 8.3 billion in FY25, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.
At the end of FY24, Indian mutual funds held assets of over $ 8.81 billion in foreign assets, as per the central bank's annual survey of foreign assets and liabilities of mutual funds.
There was a 3.9 per cent drop in equity securities held abroad by MFs at market value in the US at ₹ 44,500 crore, while the same in Ireland and Taiwan also witnessed declines.
Over 95 per cent of the overseas equity investment of the MFs were concentrated in the US, Luxembourg, and Ireland, the RBI said.
The flows into MFs' equity schemes surged nearly 25 per cent to Rs. 29.45 lakh crore in FY25, indicating stronger preference among investors to punt on the domestic markets.
The RBI survey revealed that the foreign liabilities of MFs increased 19.9 per cent in FY25 to $ 30.5 billion at market value, due to the rise in units issued to non-residents.
People in the UAE were the biggest holders in Indian MFs' schemes at ₹52,549 crore, while Australia had the highest growth at over 40 per cent in the liabilities of domestic MFs.
Carlos Alcaraz won the Cincinnati Open after top seed Jannik Sinner retired as he was feeling unwell on August 18, 2025
The Spanish second seed snapped the world number one's 26-match winning streak on hard courts when his ailing rival signalled he could no longer continue while trailing 5-0 in the first set of the final.
Alcaraz came from two sets down and saved three championship points to triumph at Roland Garros, while Sinner emerged victorious at Wimbledon.
The Union Government launched the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojna portal on August 18, 2025. Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya asked first-time employees and employers to take advantage of the scheme.
The Centre had said that the scheme, recently approved by Cabinet, will generate 3.5 crore jobs.
Dr. Mandaviya said all employers and first-time employees are covered under the scheme. He said people can avail incentives by registering on the portal or by uploading their Universal Account Number on the UMANG Application. Part A of the scheme is for first-time employees, and Part B is for employers.
“Under Part A, a one-time incentive equivalent to an average of one month’s wages (Basic+DA) of up to ₹15,000 will be offered to first-time employees in two instalments,” Mr. Mandaviya said.
The employer, on the other hand, will get incentives under three slabs.
For an employee with a salary of ₹10,000 per month, the employer will receive a one-time incentive of ₹1,000. For a salary between ₹10,000 and ₹20,000, the employer will receive ₹2,000. For a sum up to ₹30,000, the employer’s incentive will be ₹3,000. “The scheme will promote new job creation and support new employees,” the Minister said.
On 19 August, we mark World Humanitarian Day — a time to honor those who step into crises to help others, and to stand with the millions of people whose lives hang in the balance.
This year the message is clear: the humanitarian system is stretched to its limits; underfunded, overwhelmed and under attack.
On 19 August 2003, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Five years later, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day (WHD).
