Current Affairs

Shubman Gill named ICC Player of the Month for July 2025

New Indian Test skipper Shubman Gill has been named the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for July 2025 for his terrific performance both as a batter and a leader of a young Indian side against England, where India drew the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy (five-match Test series) 2-2, the governing body announced on Tuesday.

Apart from Gill, England captain Ben Stokes and South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder were also nominated for the ICC Player of the Month award for July.

ICC released a statement which read, “India’s Shubman Gill has landed the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for July 2025 following his heroics against England in a thrilling Test series, after facing stiff competition from England Test skipper Ben Stokes and South African all-rounder Wiaan Mulder.”



Jharkhand Women’s Hockey Team Wins 15th Junior National Championship for Second Consecutive Year

Jharkhand Women’s Hockey team emerged as Champions consecutively in the second year in the 15th Junior National Women’s Hockey Championship, defeating Hockey Haryana by 2-1 in the finals.

The championship was being organised at Kakinanda in Andhra Pradesh from August 1-12. Sweety Dungdung and Shanti Kimari hit two goals for Jharkhand in the 10th and 12th minute of the match. Sweety Dungdung also became the highest goal scorer in the Championship with a total of 5 goals.

Jharkhand Womens Hockey team has won the Junior National championship for four times in the year 2018, 2019, 2024 and 2025. Adding another feather to their cap, the Womens Hockey team of Jharkhand has won the National Championship in all three categories viz Senior, Junior and Sub-junior in this year 2025



Namrata Batra Wins Historic Silver in Women’s 52 kg at 2025 World Games, Chengdu

India’s Namrata Batra has scripted history by winning a silver medal in the women’s 52 kg final at the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, China today. The 24-year-old, who won silver at the Asian Championships last year and is a four-time national champion, went down 2-0 to local favourite Mengyue Chen in the final. It was India’s first-ever medal in wushu at the World Games and the country’s second podium finish at the ongoing edition after Rishabh Yadav’s bronze in men’s compound archery. Namrata’s campaign began with a 2-0 win over Lebanon’s Barbara El Rassi in the quarter-finals, followed by another 2-0 victory over Krizan Faith Collado of the Philippines in the semis. India have now won a total of seven medals in World Games history – one gold, two silvers and four bronzes.



Cabinet approves Rs. 4,600 crore semiconductor manufacturing projects in Odisha, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday approved four additional semiconductor manufacturing projects under the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), marking a significant boost to the country’s semiconductor ecosystem.

With six projects already underway, the four new approvals bring the total to ten semiconductor initiatives with cumulative investments of approximately Rs. 1.60 lakh crore across six states. These projects are expected to create over 2,000 skilled jobs directly and generate many more indirect employment opportunities.

The new projects come from SiCSem, Continental Device India Private Limited (CDIL), 3D Glass Solutions Inc., and Advanced System in Package (ASIP) Technologies. They will establish semiconductor manufacturing units in Odisha, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh, addressing growing demands across telecom, automotive, data centres, consumer electronics, and industrial sectors.



UIDAI Signs Agreement with Indian Statistical Institute to Strengthen Aadhaar Security and Reliability

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has signed an agreement with the Indian Statistical Institute for joint research and development to further enhance the robustness, security and reliability of Aadhaar operations.

The agreement effective for a period of five years, will cover areas such as fraud and anomaly detection, development of biometric liveness detection tools, improvements in biometric matching algorithms, and other priority areas.



Centre launches SHRESTH Index to boost state drug regulatory systems

The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday launched the State Health Regulatory Excellence Index (SHRESTH), an initiative aimed at benchmarking and strengthening state drug regulatory systems through a transparent, data-driven framework.

Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, unveiling the index alongside Drug Controller General of India Dr. Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, said the initiative will help states identify gaps in their regulatory capacity and work towards achieving “maturity certification.”

“Ensuring the safety, quality, and efficacy of medicines is a commitment of the Government to every citizen in India,” Srivastava said, urging stronger Centre–state collaboration to maintain the credibility of India’s pharmaceutical industry. She added that the SHRESTH Index will target improvements in human resources, infrastructure, and digitisation, while also promoting cross-learning among states.



Supreme Court Appoints Justice Nageswara Rao As Ombudsman Of Bihar Cricket Association

The Supreme Court today(August 12) appointed Justice L. Nageswara Rao, former judge of the Supreme Court, as an Ombudsman of the Bihar Cricket Association ("BCA") to take action against illegal activities of the office bearers. Consequently, it disposed of the matter, remarking that dirty politics is going on in such associations, wasting the public revenue.

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan was hearing a special leave petition against the order of the division bench of the Patna High Court, which had set aside an order passed by a single bench directing the appointment of Justice Shaikesh Kumar Singh, former judge of Patna High Court, as Ombudsman.



India U20 Women’s Team Qualifies for AFC Asian Cup 2026 After 20-Year Wait

India’s U20 women’s football team today booked their place at the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup 2026 with a 1-0 win over hosts Myanmar in Yangon. Pooja’s first-half header proves decisive, ending a 20-year wait to book India’s place at the Asian Cup 2026 to be held in Thailand. Celebrations erupted on the pitch as the dream became reality.

For Women’s Asian Cup 2026, the hosts Thailand qualified automatically while the remaining 11 for the 12-team tournament will be decided through the qualifiers. For the qualifiers, 32 teams have been divided into eight groups of four.



Maharashtra Implements ‘Disha Abhiyan’ for Uniform Education of Students with Intellectual Disabilities

‘Disha Abhiyan’, which shows the direction of uniform and quality education for students with intellectual disabilities, has been successfully implemented in Maharashtra. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis informed that this innovative curriculum developed by Jai Vakil Foundation and approved by the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (NIEPID) has been implemented in 453 special schools in the state.

Mr. Fadnavis said that Maharashtra is the first state in the country to prioritize the needs of the disabled. He said that this initiative is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of an inclusive and self-reliant society, ‘Developed India 2047’.

Established in 1944, Jai Vakil Foundation has developed a curriculum based on research and universal methods based on its 80 years of experience. This curriculum is certified by National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.



Maharashtra CM Fadnavis Launches ‘Garuda Drishti’ to Detect Fraudulent Activities Through Social Media

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that the state has access to the world’s best systems and technology to curb incidents like communal hatred through social media, leading to riots. He stated that ‘Garuda Drishti’ tools are playing a vital role in tracking down such individuals and ensuring immediate action against them.

He was speaking at the presentation of the ‘Garuda Drishti’ social media monitoring and cyber intelligence project and the ceremony for distribution of an amount of ₹10 crore recovered from the investigation of various cyber financial crimes to the victims, held at Police Bhavan on behalf of the Nagpur Police Department.

The recovered amounts were handed over to the fraud victims by the Chief Minister.