The Ramon Magsaysay Award, 2025 has been announced for ‘Educate Girls’, an Indian organisation that works to educate unprivileged girls across the country. Educate Girls, also known as Foundation to Educate Girls Globally, is one of the three winners of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award.
The other winners are Shaahina Ali of Maldives and Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva of Philippines.
Acknowledging the award, Gayatri Nair Lobo, CEO of Educate Girls, said the announcement was “historic and humbling”
The Ramon Magsaysay Award was started in 1958 to celebrate “greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia”. Since 1958, over 300 achievers and organisations from Asia have received this award.
Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated India’s first Tempered Glass Manufacturing Facility for Mobile Devices at Noida. The facility has been set up by Optiemus Electronics in collaboration with Corning Incorporated, USA, and will produce high-quality tempered glass under the globally recognised brand “Engineered by Corning”.
The products will be supplied to both domestic and international markets.
About Tempered Glass Manufacturing Facility by Optiemus-
With an initial investment of INR 70 crore, the facility in Noida will feature a state-of-the-art infrastructure that will enable a complete transformation of raw material into excellent quality tempered glass.
Phase 1 will have an installed capacity of 25 million units per annum, generating direct employment for over 600 people. In phase 2, it will scale up capacity to 200 million units per annum for local and global markets, with an additional investment of INR 800 crore – creating over 4,500 direct job opportunities.
About Optiemus Infracom
Optiemus Group is a high-performance telecommunications and manufacturing enterprise headquartered in India. The company has nearly three decades of experience across telecommunications, technology and manufacturing, and has a unique understanding of the Indian electronics market.
The Odisha government said that the state ranks fifth in the country in green mobility, and the authorities have set an ambitious target to enhance its electric bus fleet to over 1,000 in the coming years.
According to data, 14,329 e-buses are currently in operation across India, of which Delhi has the highest number of vehicles at 3,564, followed by Maharashtra (3,296),
Karnataka (2,236), and Uttar Pradesh (850), according to an official statement.
Odisha is in the fifth position among all states in the adoption of electric buses.
Odisha has outpaced the neighbouring states in this field West Bengal (391), Andhra Pradesh (238), Chhattisgarh (215) and Jharkhand (46), it claimed.
Singapore has been ranked the safest country in Asia in the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2025, securing the sixth position worldwide. The index, released in its 19th edition by the Institute for Economics and Peace, assessed 163 countries on safety, conflict, and militarisation.
Despite slipping one rank from fifth in 2024, Singapore improved its score from 1.339 to 1.357.
India is ranked at 115th position with a score of 2.229, highlighting no change from last year. Iceland retained the top spot globally, followed by Ireland and New Zealand.
Capital investment by the private sector is likely to rise 21.5 per cent to Rs 2.67 lakh crore in 2025-26 aided by robust macroeconomic fundamentals, and a 100-bps policy rate cut, according to an RBI article.
Despite global uncertainties, Indian firms entered the 2025-26 fiscal year with healthier balance sheets, higher cash buffer, improved profitability, and greater access to diversified funding sources, said the article 'Private Corporate Investment: Growth in 2024-25 and Outlook for 2025-26' published in the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) August bulletin.
The continued policy push for infrastructure, sustained disinflation, combined with lower interest rates, easy liquidity conditions, and rising capacity utilisation, is fostering an environment conducive to private investment, it said.
Drawing on data related to the phasing of capital expenditure (capex) plans announced by private corporates, the article assesses their investment intentions and provides insights into the near-term outlook.
Infrastructure sector continued to attract a major share of envisaged capital investment, led by the 'power' industry.
"The phasing profile of the pipeline projects based on all channels of financing taken together, suggests that the envisaged capex is estimated at Rs 2,67,432 crore in 2025-26 as against Rs 2,20,132 crore in 2024-25," the article said.
The article has been authored by Snigdha Yogindran, Sukti Khandekar, Rajesh B Kavediya and Aloke Ghosh, all from the RBI's Department of Statistics and Information Management.
ICC announced a landmark women’s-only global partnership with Google.
The collaboration will lead to the world cricket governing body leveraging Google’s advanced technology and commitment to supporting women’s sports, enhancing fan engagement and increasing accessibility.
The groundbreaking partnership comes at an exciting juncture in the women’s game, with two major global events scheduled in the next 10 months - the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 in India and Sri Lanka and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in England and Wales.
The alliance paves way for fueling further growth and visibility of women’s cricket following the announcement of Unilever as the ICC’s first global women’s partner earlier this year.
SAVE Microfinance Private Limited, a prominent microfinance institution under the SAVE Group, has successfully raised USD 3 million through Non-Convertible Debentures from Impact Investment Exchange’s flagship Women’s Livelihood Bond™ 7.
This significant investment reinforces SAVE Microfinance’s commitment to deepening financial inclusion for India’s underserved communities, with a distinct focus on empowering women from low-income households by expanding their access to affordable credit and sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Women’s Livelihood Bond™ 7 forms part of IIX’s globally recognised bond series focused on mobilizing private capital to drive gender equality and financial resilience across emerging markets. IIX, a leader in impact investing since 2009, has channeled over $500 million into initiatives that foster sustainable development, gender equality, and climate action.
The Women’s Livelihood Bond™ Series, supported by international stakeholders including IFC, has empowered hundreds of thousands of women, and WLB7 will continue this mission—directing resources to entrepreneurs, promoting financial literacy, and expanding responsible lending.
L&T Finance has cemented a strategic partnership with Google Pay to expand access to digital personal loans for eligible users across the nation. This landmark collaboration follows a series of digital integrations by L&T Finance in FY25, including successful alliances with fintech giants such as PhonePe, CRED, and Amazon Pay,
and reinforces its robust product diversification and customer engagement strategy.
The synergy combines L&T Finance’s financial expertise with Google Pay’s extensive reach and seamless user interface, creating an ecosystem where consumers can efficiently secure personal loans tailored to their unique needs.
The country's biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) said it has signed a Line of Credit agreement of EUR 100 million with Agence Franaise de Dveloppement (AFD) at its GIFT City branch at Gandhinagar.
The funds mobilised through this partnership will be utilised in climate mitigation actions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to slow down global warming and climate adaptation measures designed to adjust systems, practices, and infrastructure to minimise the damage caused by current or anticipated impacts of climate change, SBI said in a statement.
By empowering these measures, this collaboration strives to further advance India's transition to a low-carbon economy while enhancing resilience to climate-related risks, it said.
The partnership is a strategic step towards SBI's goal of achieving a green portfolio constituting 7.5-10 per cent of its domestic gross advances by 2030, it said.
Additionally, it will also enable the bank to provide competitive financing solutions that would further strengthen India's green transition drive, it said.
The collaboration allows SBI to leverage AFD's expertise in climate finance and align with global sustainability frameworks.
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) celebrated its 8th Foundation Day, known as IPPB Day, marking another milestone of transforming the banking landscape by delivering inclusive, accessible, and affordable services at the last mile.
Since inception, IPPB has emerged as one of the largest financial inclusion initiatives globally, leveraging the unmatched reach of more than 1.64 lakh Post Offices and more than 1.90 lakh Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS).
The Bank has successfully on-boarded over 12 crore customers, processed billions of digital transactions, and enabled doorstep banking services in rural, semi-urban, and remote regions.
Recent innovations have further strengthened IPPB’s portfolio.
Ms. T.C.A. Kalyani, a 1991-batch officer of the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS), has assumed charge as the new Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. She is the 29th officer to hold this prestigious position.
Before assuming charge as CGA, Ms. Kalyani served as the Principal Chief Controller of Accounts (Pr. CCA), Ministry of Home Affairs, where she oversaw the budgeting and accounting of one of the largest Ministries of the Government of India.
In a significant move to enhance IMC 2025 engagement and provide a seamless, intelligent experience for attendees, Hon’ble Union Minister for Communications and Development of North East Region, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia launched the AI-powered interactive mobile application for India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2025 with the theme “Innovate to Transform”.
The 9th edition of IMC will be held from October 8 to 11, 2025, at the Yashobhoomi Convention Centre, Dwarka, New Delhi.
The IMC APP:
The IMC 2025 app brings a suite of next-generation features designed to streamline access and supercharge the participant journey.
The app will allow the users to live-stream sessions in real time, ensuring participants can engage from anywhere in the world. A standout innovation in this year’s app is IMC Suggests, an AI-powered concierge that tailors recommendations based on user interests, suggesting sessions, networking opportunities and F&B zones to optimize engagement and comfort.
To provide seamless and barrier-free tolling experience to National Highway users the Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL), a company promoted by NHAI has signed an agreement with ICICI Bank, to implement country’s first comprehensive Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) tolling system at Choryasi Fee Plaza in Gujarat on NH-48.
The landmark agreement was signed in presence of NHAI Chairman Shri Santosh Kumar Yadav and senior officials from NHAI, IHMCL and ICICI Bank at NHAI Headquarters in New Delhi.
The signing of the contract agreement marks a major step towards barrier-free tolling, enabling seamless Electronic Toll Collection through FASTag.
Choryasi Fee Plaza in Gujarat will serve as the first barrier-free toll plaza in the country. In addition, an agreement was also signed with ICICI Bank for the implementation of MLFF at Gharaunda Fee Plaza in Haryana on NH-44. NHAI is planning to roll out Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) based tolling at around 25 National Highway fee plazas during the current financial year.
In a landmark step towards inclusive tribal empowerment and preservation of India’s rich linguistic diversity, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, is launching the Beta Version of “Adi Vaani”, India’s first AI-powered translator for tribal languages.
Developed under the banner of Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh, this pioneering initiative is set to transform the linguistic and educational landscape in tribal regions.
Adi Vaani is designed to bridge communication gaps between tribal and non-tribal communities, while safeguarding endangered tribal languages using advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI).
About Adi Vaani-
Adi Vaani is an AI-based translation tool that serves as the foundation for a future large language model dedicated to tribal languages. The project combines advanced AI technologies with community-driven approaches to protect, promote, and revitalize tribal languages and cultures across India.
India’s Linguistic Landscape
India is home to 461 tribal languages spoken by Scheduled Tribes and 71 distinct tribal mother tongues (Census of India, 2011). Among these, 81 languages are vulnerable and 42 are critically endangered. Many face the risk of extinction due to limited documentation and intergenerational transmission gaps.
Developed by a national consortium of premier institutions led by IIT Delhi with BITS Pilani, IIIT Hyderabad, and IIIT Nava Raipurin collaboration withTribal Research Institutes (TRIs) in Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Meghalaya, the project aims to:
In a transformative moment for global equality, the General Assembly adopted a new resolution in December 2024, launching the Second International Decade for People of African Descent. Running from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2034, this decade embraces the theme “People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice, and Development,”.
On 31 August, the International Day for People of African Descent calls on us to honour the immense and diverse contributions of people of African descent to the rich fabric of our societies and to human progress as a whole.
