DAILY GK 20-21 AUG 2025
1.
PANELS TO DRIVE NEXT-GEN REFORMS
·
The Government of India (GoI) constituted
two High-Powered Groups (HPGs) of secretaries,
technocrats, and economists, chaired by Rajiv Gauba, full-time
member of National Institution for
Transforming India (NITI Aayog)
·
These HPGs
were formed after Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s 2025 Independence
speech, where he emphasized the need
for next-generation reforms and announced the formation of a task force for
it.
·
Panel 1: Tasked with driving
the Viksit Bharat vision, this panel aims to
transform India into a developed nation by 2047.
·
Panel 2: Focused on
executing regulatory reforms in the non-financial
sector, this panel seeks to boost economic competitiveness and improve the ease
of doing business.
·
Composition: The newly formed groups
comprises the secretaries of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal
Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce &
Industry (MoCI); Expenditure, Ministry of Finance (MoF); and Micro Small and
Medium Enterprises (MSME); and Ministry of Power (MoP).
·
These groups will include the Director
Generals (DGs) of industry chambers such as: Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI) and Associated Chambers of
Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
·
HPGs also include industry leaders like: Dr. Pawan Kumar,
Chairman of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation
(IN-SPACe), Goenka; Human Resources(HR) firm head Manish Sabharwal;
and Janmejay Sinha, Chairperson of Boston
Consulting Group India, as members of one of the committees.
2.
WHO: RUBELLA ELIMINATED IN NEPAL
·
The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s
South East Asian Region (SEAR) office has officially declared that Rubella has
been eliminated as a Public Health Problem in Nepal.
·
Nepal has
now become the 6th country in WHO SEAR after Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic (DPR)
Korea, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste to successfully eliminate
rubella.
·
Rubella, commonly known as German Measles, is a highly contagious
viral infection that usually causes
mild fever and red rashes on body.
3.
S. JAISHANKAR’S VISIT TO RUSSIA
·
Union Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam
(S.) Jaishankar, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), undertook
a 3-day official visit to Russia at the invitation of Denis Manturov, the
1st Deputy Prime Minister (PM) of Russia.
·
During his visit, S. Jaishankar met
Russian President Vladimir Putin
·
He co-chaired the 26th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission
on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural
Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) Session with Russian Deputy
PM Manturov in Moscow.
·
Finalise the Programme of Economic
Cooperation till 2030.
·
Early conclusion of the
India-Eurasian Economic Union FTA and consistent business engagements to
achieve the USD 100 billion trade target by 2030.
4.
AIBD 23RD GENERAL CONFERENCE IN THAILAND
·
India has been elected as the Chairman of
the Executive Board of the Asia-Pacific
Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), by
securing the highest number of votes during the 23rd AIBD
General Conference, held in Phuket, Thailand.
·
Currently, India holds the position
of President of the AIBD General Conference since
2022, which ends in August 2025.
·
Earlier, India held the position of
Chairman of AIBD in 2016.
·
The 23rd AIBD General Conference and
Associated Meetings of AIBD was chaired
by Gaurav Dwivedi, Chief Executive Officer
(CEO), Prasar Bharati(PB).
·
The
2025 theme of the 23rd AIBD General Conference was “Media for People, Peace & Prosperity”.
·
AIBD,
based in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) is an intergovernmental
organization, established in 1977, under the
auspices of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).
·
The AIBD currently comprises over 92 member organizations from 45 countries, including:
including 26 Government Members represented by 48 national broadcasters, 44
Affiliate Members from 28 countries and regions, spanning Asia-Pacific, Europe,
Africa, Arab States, and North America.
·
India
is
a founding member of AIBD, with PB,
the nation’s public service broadcaster, representing the Ministry of
Information &Broadcasting(MIB) in the organization.
5.
INDIA SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRED ‘AGNI-5 BALLISTIC MISSILE’
·
India successfully test-fired
its indigenously developed Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Agni-5 from
the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha.
·
The test was conducted under the aegis of the Strategic Forces Command (SFC)
under the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), validated all operational and
technical parameters.
·
The Agni missile is a family of medium to intercontinental range ballistic
missiles developed by India, named after Agni (Fire), one of the five elements of nature.
·
These are long-range, nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.
·
The first missile in the series, Agni-I,
was developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)
and tested in 1989.
·
Agni-I (700 kilometers, km), Agni-II
(2,000 km), and Agni-III & IV (2,500–3,500 km).
·
India became the 8th country to
possess intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM) capability, following the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, France, Israel, and North
Korea.
·
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
(ICBM)-class, with an operational range of over 5,000 km.
·
Nuclear-capable, the missile can carry up to 1.5 tonnes and has a total weight of around
50 tonnes.
·
It has Three-stage Propulsion and solid-fuel propulsion
system.
·
It is Equipped with Multiple Independently
Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology, Ring Laser Gyroscope-based
Inertial Navigation System (RLG-INS), Micro Inertial
Navigation System (MINGS), and supported by Navigation with Indian
Constellation (NavIC) and Global Positioning System (GPS).
·
DRDO successfully tested Agni-5 with MIRV
technology, under Mission Divyastra.
·
A MIRV payload allows a single missile to
deliver multiple warheads to different targets.
·
DRDO Chairman – Dr Samir V. Kamat.
·
Headquarters – New Delhi.
·
Established – 1958.
6.
NASA AND IBM CREATED ‘SURYA’: ADVANCED-AI TO PREDICT SOLAR
STORMS
·
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) has introduced ‘Surya Heliophysics Foundational Model (Surya)’,
an advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI)
system designed to understand and forecast space weather.
·
Surya,
a ground breaking open-source AI
foundation model (helio-AI), was developed by Interagency
Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) under
the Office of Data Science of NASA in collaboration with International Business
Machines (IBM) Corporation and other partners.
·
The
design of Surya is built on the success of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched in
2010.
·
SDO
has provided an un-broken, high-resolution record of the Sun
for around 15 years through capturing images every 12 seconds in multiple
wavelengths along with detailed magnetic field measurements.
·
It was trained on 9 years of continuous observations from SDO.
·
NASA Acting Administrator- Sean
Duffy.
·
Headquarters- Washington DC.
·
Established- 1958.
7.
SBI LAUNCHES LOAN FOR AGNIVEERS
·
The State Bank of India (SBI)
has launched a special personal loan scheme for Agniveers on
the occasion of the 79th Independence day.
·
This scheme builds on its existing Defence Salary Package (DSP), which provides
preferential banking services to armed forces personnel, including Agniveers.
·
The scheme is available to the
Agniveer account holders at SBI, offering loans up to Rs. 4
lakhs without collateral
and processing fees.
·
The bank is offering a flat interest rate of 10.50% to
all defence personnel until September 30,2025.
·
The
repayment tenure will align with the term of the Agnipath scheme, offering maximum flexibility and
convenience for service members transitioning to civilian life.
·
The
Agnipath recruitment programme is a central government scheme launched in 2022.
·
It is a recruitment scheme for Indian
youth to serve in the Armed Forces for
four years and the youth selected under this scheme will be known as Agniveers.
8.
SBI REPORT: UPI TRANSACTIONS SURGED IN 2025
·
State Bank of India (SBI)’s Economic
Research Department (ERD) released its latest report
on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions.
·
In
terms of value, the report showed that the average daily UPI transactions have
increased from Rs 75,743 crore (in January 2025) to Rs 80, 919 crores (in July 2025).
·
In
terms of volume, the average daily transaction volume has
increased by 127 million, to 675 million in August
2025 compared with January 2025.
·
Maharashtra has topped among all Indian states in UPI usage,
accounting for 9.8% volume share in July 2025.
·
It is followed by Karnataka (5.5%), Uttar
Pradesh (UP) (5.3%).
·
Maharashtra emerged as the
number state in terms of transaction
value, with 1,905 million UPI transactions worth Rs 2.30 lakh crore
(accounting for 9.2% value share in July 2025).
·
It is followed by Karnataka with Rs 1.45
lakh crore (5.8%), UP with Rs 1.31lakh crore (5.3%).
·
As per the report, SBI emerged
as the top remitter bank with 5.2 billion transactions,
which is 3.4 times higher than HDFC Bank Limited, the 2nd –biggest remitter bank.
·
Yes, Bank Limited emerged as
the leading beneficiary bank with
nearly 8.0 billion transactions.
9.
1ST PSB IN INDIA
TO MIGRATE TO ‘. BANK. IN’ DOMAIN
·
Punjab National Bank (PNB), India’s
2nd largest Public Sector Bank (PSB), has become the 1st Indian
PSB to migrate its corporate website www.pnb.bank.co.in) to the
secure ‘.bank.in’ domain (https://pnb.bank.in).
·
This move is in alignment with Reserve
Bank of India’s(RBI) circular on ‘Migration to ‘. bank.in’ Domain’ issued in April 2025.
·
The ‘. bank.in’ internet domain reserved
exclusively for Indian banks, aims to combat fraud in digital
payments, cyber security threats and malicious activities such as phishing, and
enhance public confidence in the digital banking.
·
As per RBI directions, the Institute for
Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) will
act as the exclusive registrar for this domain.
10.
500 GLOBAL BRANDS LIST
·
The TopBrand
Union released the 4th edition of its “Top 500 Global
Brands List”
·
Microsoft has
ranked first with a brand value of
approximately USD 1,062.5 billion.
·
The brands from USA have dominated the top
5 spots.
·
Apple,
which claimed the top rank since the first edition has slipped to the third spot for the first time.
·
NVIDIA has
shown significant progress by climbing 2 places from 4th in 2024 to 2nd in
2025.
·
Amazon has
slipped one spot to 4th place in 2025 compared to 3rd in 2024.
·
Google has retained its 5th position.
11.
CHENNAI GRAND MASTERS 2025
·
Vincent Keymer, Chess Grandmaster (GM) from Germany, won the
Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters 2025 held in Chennai,
Tamil Nadu(TN).
·
He became the first sole champion in the tournament’s history, securing the title
with a round to spare.
·
Anish Giri (Netherlands)
finished second.
·
Arjun Erigaisi finished third.
12.
AUSTRIAN GP
·
6-time MotoGP champion Marc
Marquez (Ducati Lenovo team), from Spain, won Austrian GP’.
·
This GP marked the 1,000th premier
class race in history.
·
Spanish Fermin Aldeguer,
representing the Gresini Racing team finished at the 2nd place.
13.
ITTF WORLD PARA EVENTS
·
Ms. Bhavina Patel, wins top
medals at two prestigious international
para table tennis events held in Spokane, Washington, USA.
·
Patel won the Silver Medal
in the Women’s Singles Class 4–5 categories.
·
She clinched the Gold Medal, at
the ITTF World Para Elite event in the same category.
·
With these successive performances, Patel
rose to the No. 1 World Ranking in the Women’s Singles
Class 1–5 category.
14.
18TH INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIAD ON ASTRONOMY AND
ASTROPHYSICS
·
The 18th edition
of the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA
2025), an annual competition in Astronomy and Astrophysics for
secondary school students was held in
Mumbai, Maharashtra.
·
The 18th IOAA, the first edition hosted by India, was the largest in the event’s
history, featuring over 300 students
from 64 countries.
·
India’s win 4 Gold and 1 silver medal.
·
Aarush Mishra from Bengaluru,Banibrata Majee from
Delhi, Panini from Patna (Bihar), and Akshat
Srivastava from Kolkata have won
gold medals.
·
Sumant Gupta from Gurugram
(Haryana) won a silver medal.
·
During the IOAA Board Meeting,
representatives of 64 countries voted to
suspend Israel as a recognized national team in future editions.
·
Israeli
students may participate only as individuals, without official
national.
