The Ministry of Rural Development continuously strives to ensure the transparent and effective implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act so that the rural households get benefitted from the provisions of the Act. MGNREGA has a huge reach covering 2.69 lakh Gram Panchayats across the country with over 26 Crore registered workers.
Job card verification is a continuous process, whereas job card renewal is required to be done once in 5 years. To simplify and support these statutory processes, States/UTs have been requested to utilize the e-KYC feature already available in the NMMS app (National Mobile Monitoring System) for job card verification and subsequent renewal after following extant processes.
This facilitative measure is intended to assist States in completing verification in a timely, transparent, and efficient manner. As 99.67% active workers’ Aadhar have already been seeded, e-KYC feature could be used as a simple, reliable, accurate and efficient way of verification of job cards.
In a historic decision, the Government of India has announced that the four Labour Codes - the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 are being made effective from 21st November 2025, rationalising 29 existing labour laws.
By modernising labour regulations, enhancing workers' welfare and aligning the labour ecosystem with the evolving world of work, this landmark move lays the foundation for a future-ready workforce and stronger, resilient industries driving labour reforms for Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
The ICG successfully conducted the comprehensive Coastal Security Exercise Sagar Kavach-02/25 along the Maharashtra & Goa coastline from November 19-20, 2025, demonstrating high inter-agency coordination, strong operational readiness and robust capabilities to counter maritime security contingencies, including threats posed by Anti-National Elements targeting critical asset
The exercise aimed to assess the preparedness of all participating agencies in handling coastal security emergencies, preventing attacks on vital coastal installations and further strengthening the multi-layered Coastal Security Network.
A wide range of maritime and aerial assets were mobilised, including Indian Navy and ICG ships, ICG Dornier aircraft, Chetak helicopters and Air Cushion Vehicles. Marine Police boats, Customs & CISF craft and Maharashtra Maritime Board resources were also deployed, along with boats from the Police & Fisheries Department, ensuring seamless coordination in all domain.
In a move aimed at strengthening security across all major and minor Indian seaports, the Centre has designated the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) as the new safety regulator for about 250 facilities located along the country's maritime borders.
The paramilitary force has been designated as a Recognised Security Organisation (RSO) for seaports under the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code. An RSO acts as a regulator for seaport security. ISPS is a mandatory security regime for international shipping.
Core security functions, like counter-terrorist and anti-sabotage operations, at all EXIM (export-import) ports will be carried out by the CISF, while non-core duties such as traffic management, gate control and other ancillary jobs will be rendered by private security agencies or state police forces.
India’s real-time payment rails, Unified Payments Interface will be interlinked with TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), the instant payment system operated by the Eurosystem, and the Reserve Bank of India. The UPI–TIPS interlinkage is aimed at facilitating cross-border remittances between India and the Euro Area and is expected to benefit users of both jurisdictions.
RBI, along with NPCI International Payments (NIPL), was engaging with the European Central Bank on the initiative to connect UPI with TIPS. Acceptance of UPI as a payment method for Indian tourists has been enabled in countries such as Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Qatar and France.
There are more than two million international merchants taken on board to enable UPI acceptance, according to NIPL data. NIPL is supporting countries such as Namibia, Trinidad and Tobago and Peru to develop a system similar to UPI.
UPI clocked its highest-ever numbers in volume and value in October, with 20.7 billion transactions worth ₹27.28 trillion being made during the period, driven by increased business activities due to the festival season, coupled with GST 2.0 reliefs. There are 509 million UPI users in India.
India is set to lead economic growth among emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region excluding Greater China, Moody's Ratings said in a report released on Thursday. The ratings agency projected India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7% in 2025 and 6.4% in 2026, supported by strong domestic demand amid global uncertainty.
India and Australia will lead growth among emerging and advanced markets on robust domestic consumption, the report said. Australia's GDP is estimated to grow by 2.3% in both 2026 and 2027. Other emerging markets in the APAC region include the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Advanced markets include Singapore, Korea, Australia and Japan.
Across the broader APAC region, GDP growth is expected to remain steady, averaging 3.4% in 2026 compared with a projection of 3.6% for 2025, as per the latest report. It was 3.3% in 2024. Sectors such as oil & gas, airline and telecom are experiencing higher dollar-linked costs due to currency mismatches between rupee-based revenues and dollar-denominated inputs.
The financial health of banks in the country continues to strengthen, with non-performing assets registering a steady decline in the second quarter of the current financial year FY26, highlighted a report by CareEdge Ratings. According to the report, the Gross Non-Performing Asset (GNPA) ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) improved to 2.1 per cent as of Q2FY26.
Gross Non-Performing Asset (GNPA) ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) improved to 2.1 per cent as of Q2FY26 (from 2.6 per cent a year earlier), with GNPA declining 11.1 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 4.05 lakh crore.
In contrast, the Net Non-Performing Asset (NNPA) ratio remained stable at 0.5 per cent for the third consecutive quarter, compared to 0.6 per cent in Q2FY25, supported by a 9.9 per cent y-o-y decline in NNPAs to Rs 0.88 lakh crore. Sequentially, SCBs' GNPAs and NNPAs recorded a decline of 4.2 per cent and 5.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), respectively.
On the growth front, credit offtake grew 11.7 per cent y-o-y, outpacing deposit growth at 9.7 per cent during the quarter. While a pickup in deposit mobilisation is expected in the second half of FY26, overall credit growth is projected to remain moderate.
The Miss Universe 2025 Finale concluded with Mexico’s Fatima Bosch bagging the crown in Thailand. As the final results were announced, Miss Thailand was named first runner-up, while Miss Venezuela was declared second runner-up. Miss Philippines was announced as third runner-up, and Miss Côte d’Ivoire as fourth.
India’s Manika Vishwakarma exited the competition after failing to make it to the Top 12 list, extending India’s wait for the crown since Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu’s win in 2021. India has won the Miss Universe title three times: Sushmita Sen in 1994, Lara Dutta in 2000, and Harnaaz Sandhu in 2021. Indian badminton legend Saina Nehwal served on the pageant’s judging panel.
Turkiye will host next year’s COP31 summit in the city of Antalya, ending a long standoff with Australia over the location of the top United Nations climate meeting. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that Australia had reached an arrangement with Turkiye to host negotiations in the lead-up to the 2026 UN climate meeting along with Pacific nations.
The presidency of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change traditionally rotates among five regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and Western Europe and others.
The 26th edition of the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland will host five country partners - Austria, Malta, UK, Switzerland and Ireland - underscoring the growing international appeal of the state government’s flagship tourism event, chief minister Neiphiu Rio announced this week.
The festival, which celebrates Naga culture, tradition, food, music and unity, also features business networking events and workshops. Last year, Wales, US, Japan and Peru had partnered, along with Sikkim and Telangana as state partners.
Rabih Alameddine's blend of family comedy and wartime tragedy, “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother),” has won the National Book Award for fiction. The nonfiction prize was given to Omar El Akkad's “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” while the poetry winner was Patricia Smith's “The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems.”
Daniel Nayeri's “The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story” won for young people's literature and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara's “We Are Green and Trembling,” translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers, was cited for translated literature. The National Book Awards were presented by the nonprofit National Book Foundation.
