The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved a Rs.1,500 crore Incentive Scheme to develop recycling capacity in the country for the separation and production of critical minerals from secondary sources.
This scheme is part of the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), which is aimed at building the domestic capacity of and supply chain resilience in critical minerals. The critical mineral value chain comprising exploration, auction and mine operationalization, and acquisition of foreign assets,
has a gestation period before they could supply critical minerals to Indian industry. A prudent way to ensure supply chain sustainability in the near term is through the recycling of secondary sources.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit 2025 brings together major Eurasian leaders in Tianjin, China, with regional security, trade, and geopolitical alignments topping the agenda.
About the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Founded: 2001 in Shanghai.
Members: 10 (China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Belarus).
Mandate: Regional security, counter-terrorism, economic cooperation, connectivity, cultural and technological exchanges.
Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has introduced a major reform through the notification of the Environment Audit Rules, 2025 on 29th August 2025. Drawing upon international best practices, these rules have been conceptualized to address the existing gaps in environmental compliance monitoring.
Compliance with statutes such as the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Green Credit Rules, 2023 and other related regulations is essential to safeguard the environment from degradation while promoting sustainable development.
South Indian Bank has partnered with MoEngage to drive digital innovation and enhance customer engagement across all channels. This collaboration signals a major shift in the bank’s approach to personalising customer interactions through automation and advanced data analytics.
Before the partnership, South Indian Bank relied on multiple marketing technology tools and in-house workflows that required significant manual effort from its data science teams. The integration of MoEngage’s unified platform will streamline the bank’s technology stack, enabling secure customer data management, faster campaign rollout, and a scalable digital strategy.
Bank of Baroda has introduced Bob Digi Udyam, a pioneering digital platform aimed at transforming the manner in which Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) access working capital finance. This offering provides collateral-free loans ranging from above Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh, catering to both existing and new customers,
and directly addresses the critical need for quick and convenient credit among small businesses.
The launch of Bob Digi Udyam is in alignment with the Union Budget 2024–25 directive, urging public sector banks to strengthen their internal MSME credit assessment capabilities.
Harnessing the digital footprint of MSEs, the platform generates automated, risk-based scorecards to facilitate efficient credit appraisal. This enables a provisional sanction in just minutes, after which applications are routed through the TEJAS Loan Origination & Processing System to branches for final approval and completion of post-sanction formalities.
The scheme offers Cash Credit and Overdraft facilities for a tenure of 12 months. Notably, there is no collateral requirement for these loans, as the scheme is covered under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), removing a longstanding barrier to entry for smaller firms seeking credit.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, during its 56th meeting, decided to revamp the tax structure into a primarily two-rate system as proposed by the Central government, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced.
She added that the decisions would come into effect from September 22 for most items. Only tobacco and tobacco-related products will move to the new structure at a date to be specified by the Finance Minister.
DRDO’s Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) in Hyderabad has transferred three advanced materials technologies to the industry partners.
Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat handed over the Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology (LAToT) documents to the industry partners at an event organised at DMRL, Hyderabad on August 30, 2025. The technologies transferred are:
Manufacturing of high strength Radomes to BHEL, Jagdishpur for enabling production of high-quality Radomes (protective covers for crucial missile sensors) to support key defence programs and enhance self-reliance in missile systems.
Manufacturing of DMR-1700 Steel Sheets and Plates for Defence Applications to JSPL, Angul offering an excellent combination of ultrahigh strength and high fracture toughness at room temperature.
DMR 249A HSLA Steel Plates for Naval Applications to BSP, Bhilai, SAIL, offering a robust and reliable material.
Further strengthening DRDO’s collaborative ecosystem, an MoU was also signed between DMRL and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Civil Aviation for utilising the lab’s experience, facilities & capabilities to support the bureau’s activities.
FDI in India rose 15 per cent to USD 18.62 billion during April-June this fiscal year, while the inflow from the US nearly tripled to USD 5.61 billion during the quarter despite tariff issues, according to government data released.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during April-June FY25 stood at USD 16.17 billion. In March quarter 2024-25, the inflows fell 24.5 per cent year-on-year to USD 9.34 billion.
Total FDI, which includes equity inflows, reinvested earnings and other capital, increased to USD 25.2 billion during the quarter under review as against USD 22.5 billion in the same period of 2024-25.
During the period, the US emerged as the largest source of FDI with USD 5.61 billion as against USD 1.50 billion in April-June 2024-25 despite tariff issues.
It was followed by Singapore (USD 4.59 billion), Mauritius (USD 2.08 billion), Cyprus (USD 1.1 billion), the UAE (USD 1 billion), Cayman Islands (USD 676 million), the Netherlands (USD 667 million),
Japan (USD 551 million), and Germany (USD 191 million).
The US is the third-biggest investor in India with investments of USD 76.26 billion between April 2000 and June 2025. The top investment sources are Mauritius at USD 182.2 billion and Singapore at USD 179.48 billion in the same period.
The data also showed that Karnataka received the highest inflow of USD 5.69 billion during the quarter.
It was followed by Maharashtra (USD 5.36 billion), Tamil Nadu (USD 2.67 billion), Haryana (USD 1.03 billion), Gujarat (USD 1.2 billion), Delhi (USD 1 billion), and Telangana (USD 395 million).
The GST Council on Wednesday removed the tax on individual life insurance and health insurance policies. It was 18% earlier.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the move will make insurance more affordable for the common person and increase insurance coverage in the country.
The minister said the government wants to make it easy for people who are buying medical insurance.
Revenue secretary Arvind Shrivastava said insurance companies have publicly assured that they will be passing on the benefit to insurance policy buyers.
The exemption will cover all individual life insurance policies, including term life, ULIP or endowment policies and individual health insurance policies (including family floater policies and policies for senior citizens) and reinsurance thereof, the finance ministry said in a statement.
India's overall insurance penetration declined to 3.7% in FY24 from 4% in FY23, according to the latest data. Life insurance penetration declined to 2.8%, compared with 3% in FY23. Non-life penetration held steady at 1%.
Axis Max Life Insurance Ltd and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) have announced a partnership aimed at delivering affordable life insurance solutions beyond Tier 1 into emerging regional markets across rural India.
This partnership leverages IPPB's robust network of 650 banking outlets and over 1.64 lakh access points through post offices to deliver a comprehensive suite of need-based life insurance solutions to customers across Tier 3, Tier 4 and rural markets, a joint statement said.
US based Citibank has appointed former JPMorgan India country officer Kaustubh Kulkarni as co-head of investment banking for Japan, North Asia, Australia and South Asia.
Kulkarni will join Citi in December after necessary approvals and will be based in Singapore, the bank said in a statement.
Kulkarni will be co head of investment banking alongside Jan Metzger, Citigroup's head of investment banking in Asia Pacific.
Kulkarni was at JP Morgan for nearly three decades and held several leadership roles, including India head, investment banking head in India, and co-head of Southeast Asia investment banking at JP Morgan.
iti also has appointed Deepak Dangayach as managing director and co-head of debt capital markets for Asia and Australia.
In August, Citi had hired Vikram Chavali as managing director, head of global asset managers (GAM) for Japan, Asia and Australia from Goldman Sachs, where he was head of Asia ex-Japan M&A.
Institute of Medical Education and ResearchIndian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Madras has once again topped the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025. The premier tech-school is followed by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru in the second place, while IIT Bombay is third.
The list includes four more IITs in the top 10, including IIT Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee at positions 4-7, respectively. Meanwhile All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi is placed eighth.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) complete the top 10 list.
This year's rankings evaluated institutions under 17 categories -- including overall, universities, colleges, research institutions, engineering, management, pharmacy, medical, dental, law, architecture and planning, agriculture and allied sectors, open universities, skill universities, state public universities and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
