Liquidity in the the banking system seems to have come under strain following GST-related outflows, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in a surprise move, conducting a two-day variable rate repo (VRR) auction to infuse liquidity amounting to ₹50,000 crore.

Against the notified amount of ₹50,000 crore, banks put in bids aggregating ₹71,902 crore for drawing liquidity from the RBI.

The central bank accepted bids aggregating ₹50,001 crore from banks at a weighted average rate of 5.58 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved Currant Sea Investments B.V., an affiliate of global private equity major Warburg Pincus, to acquire up to 9.99 percent stake in IDFC First Bank. The bank disclosed the development in a stock exchange filing on Saturday.

we wish to inform that Currant Sea Investments B.V. has received the approval of the RBI with respect to its proposed investment of up to 9.99 percent of the paid-up share capital of the Bank," the filing stated.

This follows a similar clearance granted by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on June 3 for the proposed investment. Currant Sea had approached the CCI in April seeking approval for the stake acquisition.

Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah today unveiled the National Cooperative Policy 2025 in New Delhi this evening. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shah said the Policy will play a huge role in achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047. He added that the Policy aims to realize the vision of prosperity through cooperation by creating a roadmap at the grassroots level. He said that the country’s first National Cooperative Policy was issued in 2002 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday instructed the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) to upgrade its online recruitment portal to ensure it is more accessible and user-friendly for visually impaired applicants.

The directive emerged from a plea filed by the National Federation of the Blind, which highlighted the difficulties these candidates face, particularly with the mandatory live face recognition step required to upload photographs during the application process.

The Court expressed concern over the lack of accessible options, especially for exams such as the Combined Graduate Level (CGL), Combined Higher Secondary Level (CHSL), and the Multi-Tasking Staff and Havaldar (MTS) recruitment slated for 2025.

In Chess, India’s Divya Deshmukh beat China’s Tan Zhongyi in Game 2 of the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 semifinal to secure a spot in the final, in Batumi, Georgia yesterday. The Indian chess star outplayed her opponent with white pieces to claim a 1.5-0.5 win in the semifinal, after having drawn the first game on Tuesday.

With this win, Deshmukh also claimed a spot in the Candidates tournament set to happen in 2026, while also securing her first Grand Master norm. The 19-year-old also became the first Indian to enter the final of FIDE Women’s World Cup.

Divya will take on the winner of the second semifinal played between top seed China’s Lei Tingjie and India No. 1 Koneru Humpy. The Humpy vs Lei game moved to tiebreaks after the duo played two draws in the Classical legs.

Ozzy Osbourne, the gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of the pioneering band Black Sabbath who became the throaty, growling voice — and drug-and-alcohol ravaged id — of heavy metal, died on Tuesday (July 22, 2025), just weeks after his farewell show. He was 76.

Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents’ groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the reality TV show “The Osbournes.”

Black Sabbath’s 1969 self-titled debut LP has been likened to the Big Bang of heavy metal. It came during the height of the Vietnam War and crashed the hippie party, dripping menace and foreboding.

India has climbed eight places on Henley Passport Index 2025 to 77th rank from 85 last year though the number of countries allowed visa-free access to Indian passport holders has mariginally been increased to 59. A passport is a government-issued document that allows an individual to travel overseas.

The Henley Passport Index is a popular ranking of global passports that measures passport strength by the number of destinations that holders can visit without a prior visa. The index ranks countries based on statistics provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

According to the most recent data, Singapore’s passport remains the most powerful in the world, granting visa-free access to 193 of 227 locations.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to implement a paradigm shift in its policy regarding excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) from January 2026, announced the Ministry of Finance and Federal Tax Authority (FTA) .The new rule will shift from a flat 50% tax rate to a tiered volumetric model, where the tax per liter is directly linked to the sugar content per 100ml of a beverage. This move aims to reduce sugar consumption, promote healthier dietary habits, and combat lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Under the current system, introduced in 2017 and expanded in 2019, all sweetened beverages—including carbonated drinks, energy drinks, and products with added sugars or sweeteners, are subject to a uniform 50% excise tax. The new tiered system will impose higher taxes on beverages with greater sugar content, incentivizing manufacturers to reformulate their products to lower sugar levels. “The updated mechanism encourages manufacturers to reduce added sugars and empowers consumers to make more informed dietary choices,” the Ministry of Finance stated.

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has reported notable progress under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), with over 20 lakh candidates trained in the financial year 2024-25 alone. The flagship scheme, launched in 2015, aims to equip India’s youth with skill development through Short-Term Training (STT) and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) initiatives.

Over the last five financial years, a cumulative effort across States and Union Territories has contributed to a significant rise in skilled manpower. Uttar Pradesh led the training numbers in FY 2024-25, with more than 4.63 lakh individuals trained, followed by Rajasthan with 2.79 lakh and Madhya Pradesh with over 2.58 lakh trainees.

Placement tracking under PMKVY was actively carried out during its first three phases-PMKVY 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0-covering the period from 2015-16 to 2021-22. As per official data, the placement rate of candidates certified under the STT component during these phases stood at 43%. Under the current phase, PMKVY 4.0, the emphasis has shifted towards empowering candidates to make informed choices in their career paths with necessary orientation support.

Bestselling author Rhonda Byrne, known for "The Secret", is making a comeback with "Countdown to Riches: 21 Days of Wealth-Attracting Habits", which will release on November 25.

In the upcoming book, which is the first in a planned series of Byrne's new books and will be published by HarperCollins, she argues that financial struggle is caused by barriers in our mind, and to free ourselves from financial burden, we must learn how to train the brain to become wealthy.

"I'm so excited for the opportunity to share the secrets of abundance and living your best life with my readers, as well as a new generation," the 74-year-old author said in a statement.