DAILY GK 11-12 AUG 2025
1.
GCC-INDIA TRADE COMMISSIONER
·
Indian Actor, Producer and Investor, H.E.
Zeenat Kureshi has become the 1st woman from
India to be appointed as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-India
Trade Commissioner under the global chamber of commerce.
·
GCC is a political and economic alliance
of 6 Arab countries, established in 1981.
·
It comprises countries namely, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
2.
WORK FOR VIKSIT BHARAT PORTAL FOR SKILLED HIRING
·
The NITI Aayog, a
policy think tank under the Government of India (GoI),
has introduced the “Work for Viksit Bharat” portal
to recruit professionals for national development
initiatives.
·
PM Viksit Bharat RozgarYojana (PM-VBRY),
to create of 3.5 crore jobs by 31 July
2027, with an outlay of Rs. 99,446 Cr.
·
Available online at workforbharat.niti.gov.in,
the portal allows candidates to register, complete their profile, select areas
of interest, and apply for roles in ongoing national development projects.
3.
INDIA’S FIRST ANIMAL STEM CELL BIOBANK IN HYDERABAD
·
Union Minister of State (MoS) Dr. Jitendra
Singh, Ministry of Science and Technology (MoS&T), Ministry
of Earth Sciences (MoES), inaugurated India’s first-of-its-kind Animal Stem Cell Biobank and Animal Stem Cell
Laboratory at the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) in
Hyderabad, Telangana.
·
The biobank
will focus on regenerative medicine and cellular therapies for livestock.
4.
PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES VISIT TO INDIA
·
The President of the Philippines Ferdinand Romualdez (R.) Marcos
Jr. undertook a 5-day state visit to India.
·
PM Modi and Philippine President jointly unveiled commemorative postal stamps to
commemorate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic
relations between two countries.
·
These postal stamps were themed on
National Flowers of two countries i.e. Lotus (India) and Sampaguita (the
Philippines).
·
Both India and The Philippines announced
the ‘Declaration on the Establishment of
a Strategic Partnership.
·
Among 14
MoUs signed, 3 Terms of References (ToRs) were signed between the Armies,
Navies and Air Forces of India and the Philippines.
5.
INDIA’S LONGEST VANDE BHARAT EXPRESS
·
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra
Modi virtually flagged off India’s
longest running Vande Bharat Express between Ajni (Nagpur,
Maharashtra) and Pune (Maharashtra), spanning approximately 881 Kilometre , at the
KSR Bengaluru Railway Station in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
6.
SAFEST CITY IN INDIA
·
Numbeo, a crowd-sourced
global database, released Numbeo Safety Index Mid-2025
Rankings.
·
Mangalore
is ranked as the safest city in India and 49th globally.
·
Abu
Dhabi (United Arab Emirates, UAE) has topped the list.
·
Delhi has been ranked as the most unsafe city in India, 316th globally.
·
The index features 391 cities from across the world.
·
The
Middle East region has dominated the list with 5 cities ranked in top 5.
·
Four cities of UAE and one city of Qatar
has occupied the spots.
·
Other top Indian cities include Navi Mumbai 127th globally, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) (148th globally),
Chennai (158th globally), Chandigarh
(175th globally).
7.
PRADHAN MANTRI UJJWALA YOJANA HIGHLIGHTS
·
As of July 2025, the Pradhan
MantriUjjwalaYojana (PMUY) has provided
over 10.33 crore Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) connections, empowering rural
households with access to clean cooking fuel.
·
The union cabinet approved a subsidy
of Rs.300 per 14.2 kg cylinder for up to 9 refills
per year and Rs.2200 government support per
connection for the beneficiaries of the PMUY during Financial Year 2025-26
(FY26), at an expenditure of Rs. 12,000 crores.
·
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
(MoPNG), introduced the PMUY as a flagship scheme for providing LPG connections
to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.
·
The scheme was launched on 1st May 2016 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh (UP).
·
Ujjwala-Phase 1: This phase aimed
to provide 5 crore LPG connections to women from BPL households.
·
Ujjwala 2.0: This 2nd phase was
launched on 10th August 2021 to expand the coverage and reach of the
distribution by another 1 crore households.
8.
‘SHRESTH’ INITIATIVE TO BOOST DRUG QUALITY AND SAFETY
·
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), launched
the ‘State Health Regulatory Excellence
Index (SHRESTH)’, a first-of-its-kind national initiative aims to benchmark and enhance state drug regulatory
systems using a transparent, data-driven framework.
·
SHRESTH Index It is a virtual gap assessment tool for states
to assess their current position and help towards maturity certification.
·
It is a roadmap for states for ensuring safe and effective drugs and medical devices.
·
This initiative, proposed by the CDSCO aims to improve the performance of state drug
regulatory authorities nationwide, guaranteeing that drug safety and quality
standards are consistently met.
·
For this assessment purpose, the states will be divided into two categories
– Manufacturing states and Primarily
Distribution States (PDS)/Union Territories (UTs).
·
SHRESTH will have 27
indices for Manufacturing States across 5 key themes: Human
Resources, Infrastructure, Licensing Activities, Surveillance Activities and
Responsiveness and 23 indices for PDS.
·
Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO)-The
CDSCO was established under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and operates
under the MoHFW.
·
Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) -
Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi.
9.
79TH INDEPENDENCE DAY OF INDIA
·
Prime Minister (PM) of India
Narendra Modi addressed the nation and delivered his 12th consecutive
Independence Day speech which lasted for 103 minute, the longest by any PM in India’s history.
·
This year’s Independence Day theme is
centered on ‘Naya Bharat’, signifying the GoI’s vision of
achieving ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.
·
Indian Air Force (IAF) was
the coordinating officer service for
this year’s national event, featured a ceremonial Guard of Honour, a 21-gun
salute, and special flypast which carried the national flag and the Operation
Sindoor flag.
·
Key Announcements: launch
of PM Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PM-VBRY), Sudarshan Mission by 2035; National
High-Powered Demography Mission;
Introducing GST Reforms by October 2025;
‘made-in-India’ semiconductor chips
will be available in Indian market by
end of 2025, among others.
·
A total of 1,090 personnel
of Police, Fire, Home Guard and Civil Defence (HG&CD) and Correctional
Services have been awarded Gallantry and
Service Medals on the occasion of 79th Independence Day.
·
President of India Droupadi Murmu
approved 127 Gallantry Awards and 40
distinguished service awards to the Armed Forces and Central
Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel.
·
President of India Droupadi Murmu has
approved 3 Tatrakshak Medal(TM) (Gallantry) and 2
TM (Meritorious Service) to Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Personnel.
10.
PM MODI MARKS SIX YEARS OF JAL JEEVAN MISSION
·
Prime Minister (PM) of India Narendra
Modi marked the completion of six years
of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), a nationwide initiative
that has transformed access to drinking water in rural India.
·
The Government of India (GoI) has proposed
to extend the JJM till 2028 with higher funding as
announced in the Union Budget for the financial year 2025-26 (FY26).
·
The Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) launched
the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)
on 15 August 2019 with an aim to provide every rural
household with a Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) by 2024.
·
As of July 2025, more than 15.69
crore rural households have been connected to tap water, covering 81% of rural India.
·
Till now, over 2.63 lakh villages and 191 districts have been declared Har
Ghar Jal.
·
Tap
water has now reached more than 9.5 lakh schools and 10 lakh
Anganwadi centres, ensuring safe drinking water for children.
·
In the 112 Aspirational Districts, tap water coverage has gone up to 79.32%.
·
The number
of fluoride-affected habitations has dropped sharply from 7,996 in 2019 to
only 248 in 2025, protecting people from serious health risks.
11.
AI-POWERED TOOL ‘SABHA SAAR’ TO ACCELERATE GRAM SABHA MEETING
SUMMARIES
·
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), launched
‘SabhaSaar’, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered summarisation
tool designed to automatically generate structured Minutes of
Meeting (MoM) from Audio/Video (AV) recordings of Gram Sabha and Panchayat
meetings in New Delhi, Delhi.
·
A Gram
Sabha is supposed to meet at least four days (January 26, May 1, August 15,
and October 2) in a year.
·
As a first step,
all the 1194 Gram Panchayats (GP) of Tripura (including
traditional local bodies) used the tool to generate the MoMs for Special Gram
Sabhas on 15th August 2025 (79th Independence Day).
·
The tool is integrated with Bhashini, the Government of
India’s (GoI) National Language Translation Mission (NLTM),
and an AI-powered language translation platform.
·
Bhashini was launched in
July 2022 to provide language technology solutions
as a digital public resource.
·
It currently supports 13 Indian languages
(more will be added in the future) to ensure inclusivity and accessibility for
Panchayat functionaries across different linguistic backgrounds.
