The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has announced a new Aadhaar mobile application for iOS and Android devices. The authority has announced an early access that will allow residents to test the service and share feedback before its final rollout. As per the announcement, the app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store,
offering users a digital option to carry their Aadhaar and use it for instant verification.
The new app enables residents to use Aadhaar digitally without relying on physical documents. While the government continues to issue physical Aadhaar cards, the digital copy helps streamline verification for banking, admissions, driving licences, passports and other services.
London-based QS Quacquarelli Symonds released its QS World University Rankings for Sustainability 2026, showing that India, with 103 universities, had the fourth-highest number of institutions in the list, behind the United States, China, and the United Kingdom.
The QS sustainability rankings, established in 2023, assess institutions across environmental and social sustainability categories such as environmental impact, social impact, and governance. These include indicators covering environmental research, sustainability, and education, along with equality, employability, knowledge exchange, and health and wellbeing.
The rate of unemployment for those aged 15 and above remained steady at 5.2 percent in October, according to a government survey.
The unemployment rate (UR) was 5.2 percent in September, 5.1 percent in August, 5.2 percent in July and 5.6 percent in May and June, as per Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The UR was 5.1 per cent in April as per the first PLFS bulletin released in May 2025.
"The UR among persons of age 15 years and above remained unchanged at 5.2 per cent between September, 2025 and October, 2025," an official statement said.
According to the statement, a marginal decline in the rural unemployment rate, from 4.6 per cent in September 2025 to 4.4 per cent in October 2025, coupled with a moderate rise in urban UR from 6.8 per cent to 7.0 per cent, resulted in overall stability in the pace of joblessness among persons aged 15 years and above.
It stated that UR among females aged 15 years and above declined to 5.4 per cent in October 2025 from 5.5 per cent observed during September 2025.
The drop in UR among rural female, from 4.3 per cent in September 2025 to 4.0 per cent in October 2025, mainly contributed towards the decline in overall female joblessness rate.
Among males, the rate of unemployment remained stable at 5.1 per cent in October 2025 as compared to previous month.
A minor decrease in rural male UR, from 4.7 per cent in September 2025 to 4.6 per cent in October 2025, was offset by a slight uptick in urban male UR from 6.0 per cent to 6.1 per cent during the same period, which contributed to overall stability.
The overall Worker Population Ratio (WPR) in October 2025 was 52.5 percent, which is consistently rising since June 2025, it stated.
Rise in the female workforce in rural areas has brought about this increase.Overall WPR among females of 15 years and older increased steadily for the fourth month in a row,rising from 30.2 percent in June 2025 to 32.4 percent in October 2025.
The female workforce in rural areas has increased consistently for four months, reaching 36.9 per cent in October 2025 from 33.6 per cent in June 2025.
The overall LFPR (labour force participation rate) among persons of age 15 years and above continued to increase for the four successive months to 55.4 per cent in October 2025 from 54.2 per cent recorded in June 2025.
The country's gold imports surged about threefold to hit a record high of USD 14.72 billion in October, mainly due to higher festival and wedding demand, according to commerce ministry data.
Gold imports stood at USD 4.92 billion in October 2024.
Cumulatively, imports during April-October this fiscal year rose 21.44 per cent to USD 41.23 billion from USD 34 billion a year ago.
High gold imports have pushed the country's trade deficit (difference between imports and exports) to a record high of USD 41.68 billion in October.
Prices of the yellow metal are hovering around Rs 1.29 lakh per 10 grams in the national capital.
Switzerland is the largest source of gold imports, with about 40 per cent share, followed by the UAE (over 16 per cent) and South Africa (about 10 per cent).
The precious metal accounts for over 5 per cent of the country's total imports.
Imports from Switzerland jumped by 403.67 per cent to USD 5.08 billion during the month. In April-October this fiscal, inbound shipments increased 10.54 per cent to USD 15.4 billion.
India is the world's second-biggest gold consumer after China. The imports mainly take care of the demand by the jewellery industry.
Gems and jewellery exports last month declined 29.5 per cent year-on-year to USD 2.3 billion.
India's current account deficit (CAD) narrowed to 0.2 per cent of the GDP, or USD 2.4 billion, during the April-June period of 2025-26 compared to 0.9 per cent of the GDP, or USD 8.6 billion, in the year-ago period, helped by services exports.
In January this year, the government revised gold import data to rectify double accounting of inbound shipments. The revision was prompted by an unusual surge in imports of the precious metal in November 2024.
Silver imports in October 2025 also jumped by 528.71 per cent to USD 2.71 billion. Silver has industrial applications.
Actor Keerthy Suresh has been appointed as the Celebrity Advocate for UNICEF India. Known for working across Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Hindi cinema, the National Award-winning actor will further join the movement to champion the rights of children with UNICEF.
Keerthy, who has been recognised for her nuanced portrayal of strong women, has consistently reflected her belief in gender equality, empowerment, and social change through her films. She will not only lend her voice and influence to advance children's and adolescents' mental health and well-being, along with other key child rights priorities,
but will also help to build greater awareness and action for every child.
UNICEF India Representative Cynthia McCaffrey acknowledged the actor's profound connection with audiences, which she believes will provide a powerful and inspiring platform to advocate for children's rights and well-being.
Nine-time Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri has won Australian sport's highest honour, the Don Award, with the Formula One star calling it a "massive privilege".
The 24-year-old has spring-boarded into the elite this year, igniting national pride as he bids to become Australia's third Formula One world champion after Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.
He has a battle on his hands, losing the lead in the title race at last month's Mexico City Grand Prix and is now 24 points behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris with three races left.
Piastri was recognised at the annual Sport Australia Hall Of Fame awards in his hometown Melbourne, which honours the Australian athlete or team who most inspired the nation.
The Don Award is named after legendary Australian cricketer Donald Bradman.
Previous winners have included Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman, Adam Scott, Ashleigh Barty and the Australia women's football team.
Beachley claimed her first world championship at 26 before dominating the sport from 1998 to 2003 with six consecutive titles -- a feat unmatched in surfing history.
Curaçao etched their name into football history by becoming the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, sealing their place at the 2026 tournament with a nerve-shredding 0–0 draw against Jamaica in Kingston.
With just 158,000 residents, the Caribbean island, within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is now the tiniest country (by population) to reach the global finals, surpassing Iceland’s 2018 record when the Nordic nation qualified with more than double Curaçao’s population.
To illustrate the scale of the achievement, Curaçao’s population is almost one-tenth that of NOIDA, a city in India’s National Capital Region projected to reach one million people this year. India's capital, Delhi, is currently home to about 3.5 crore people.
Curaçao’s qualification came at the end of an unbeaten campaign that saw them finish atop Group B with 12 points. Managed by veteran Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, who missed the decisive match due to a family issue, the team known as the Blue Wave impressed throughout qualifying.
Their run included a thumping 7–0 victory over Bermuda, the largest win by any team in the round and a result that ultimately proved crucial as they edged out Jamaica by a single point.
Ace art director Thota Tharrani has been selected for the prestigious French honour, the Chevalier de Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters), the Alliance Francaise Madras announced.
Ambassador of France to India Thierry Mathou would confer one of France's most prestigious distinctions on Tharrani on November 13.
Alliance Francaise of Madras is an Indo-French cross-disciplinary cultural and teaching centre offering a wide range of French courses and cultural events. It works to promote the cultural ties between India and France in Tamil Nadu.
The award would be presented to Tharrani in recognition of a legendary figure of cinema and visual arts in India.
Tharrani has had a remarkable career marked by numerous awards and rich collaborations with France, the release said.
The French government's award is conferred on 'persons who have distinguished themselves' by their creativity in the field of art, culture and literature or for their contribution to the influence of arts in France and throughout the world.
Some of the other recipients of the top award include top Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, contemporary artists Bharti Kher, music director Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia among others.
Alliance Francaise of Madras Director- Dr Patricia Thery-Hart.
India clinched a double podium in the mixed 10m air rifle at 2025 Deaflympics in Tokyo, Japan. The duo of Dhanush Srikanth and Mahit Sandhu defeated South Korean duo of Jeong Dain and Kim Woorim by 17 – 7 in the gold medal match.
While duo of Mohammed Vania and Komal Waghmare overpowered Ukrainian duo Lykova Violeta and Kostyk Oleksandr of by 16 – 12 to clinch the bronze medal.
Olympian Gurpreet Singh clinched the silver medal in the men’s 25 metre centre pistol fire event at the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championships in Cairo, Egypt. Gurpreet settled for silver after losing on inner 10s to Ukraine’s Pavlo Korostylov.
This was Gurpreet’s second individual medal in the World Championships, the first also being a silver won back in 2018 at Changwon in the 25m Standard Pistol event.
India ended their world championship campaign in third place with a total of 13 medals, including three gold, six silver and four bronze behind China and Korea.
The Telangana government has launched MeeSeva on WhatsApp with an eye on improving access and convenience for people seeking to access government-to-citizen (G2C) services across nearly 40 departments.
The MeeSeva WhatsApp Services introduce an advanced, conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven platform that enables citizens to access government services through a simple chat interface.
The service can be accessed by sending a ‘Hi’ message to WhatsApp Number 80969 58096. Users can apply for certificates such as birth, death and caste;
make payments for utilities like electricity and water as well as property tax; remit police challan payments, track applications; receive updates and download issued documents.
The WhatsApp facility will supplement the network of 5,000 MeeSeva service centres across the State.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched a trade intelligence portal, which will help stakeholders track and evaluate the utilisation of the free trade agreements (FTA) signed, map global demand patterns, monitor global supply chains, identify emerging products, explore export opportunities and support timely strategic interventions.
The Trade Intelligence & Analytics (TIA) portal is a one-stop trade intelligence and analytics platform that integrates multiple global and national databases along with macro-economic indicators into a unified analytical model offering more than 270 analytics across more than 28 interactive dashboards.
The platform provides real-time, interactive insights on India and global trade, commodities and sectoral analytics, market intelligence including export opportunities and competitor analysis. The portal also includes automated trade reports and tracking of trade trends for the production-linked incentive (PLI) sectors and critical minerals.
World Toilet Day has been an annual United Nations Observance since 2013. It was first celebrated in 2001 by the World Toilet Organization.
World Toilet Day is held every year on 19 November to celebrate toilets and raise awareness of people living without access to safely managed sanitation.
It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Sanitation is a human right.
Everyone should have access to a toilet that is secure, hygienic and private, and connected to a safely managed sanitation system to properly dispose of waste.
