NATIONAL NEWS

Gratuity Benefits

• Minister of State for the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh announced that Central government employees covered under the Unified Pension Scheme will now be eligible for retirement and death gratuity benefits.

Cashless treatment of road accident victims

• Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi on the implementation of the nationwide scheme for cashless treatment of road accident victims.

Tripartite MoU signed to education for persons with disabilities

• A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding was signed in New Delhi between the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

FASTag-based annual pass

• Government will introduce a FASTag-based Annual Pass priced at three thousand rupees from 15th August this year, which will enable seamless and cost-effective travel across National Highways throughout the country.

FASTag

DPIIT inks MoU with YourStory Media Private Limited

• Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a private digital platform, YourStory Media Private Limited, with a focus on startups, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

First TTDF Symposium 2025

• Department of Telecommunications, in collaboration with IIT, Hosts the First TTDF Symposium 2025 at IIT Madras.

STATE SPECIAL NEWS

First Asia-Pacific Safety Engineering Centre

• Google has opened its first Safety Engineering Centre in the Asia-Pacific region and the fourth globally, in Hyderabad.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Operation Sindhu

• India has launched Operation Sindhu to evacuate its nationals from Iran in view of the deteriorating situation due to the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.

India-Croatia

• India and Croatia signed four MoUs in the fields of agriculture, cultural exchange, science & technology and the setting up of an ICCR Chair of Hindi in Zagreb.
• Both nations also decided to formulate a long-term Defence Cooperation Plan to include joint training, military exchanges and industry-level partnerships.

Croatia

ECONOMY & BANKING

Falcon 2000 business jets

• French maker of military aircraft and business jets, Dassault Aviation and Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary, Reliance Aerostructure Ltd. (RAL) announced a strategic partnership to make Falcon 2000 business executive jets in India for global markets with final assembly line at Nagpur in Maharashtra.

US Fed keeps interest rates unchanged

• The US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has kept interest rates unchanged for the fourth consecutive time at a 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent range in its latest meeting.

United States of America (USA):

PERSON IN NEWS

Aranya Rishi

• · Noted environmentalist, wildlife expert, and Padmashree awardee Maruti Chitampalli, fondly known as ‘Aranya Rishi’, passed away at the age of 93 in Solapur, Maharashtra.

AWARDS & HONOURS

Yuva and Bal Puraskar

• The Sahitya Akademi announced the names of 23 writers including Advait Kottary in English, Parvati Tirkey in Hindi, Latshmihar for Tamil and Prasad Suri for Telugu for its ‘Yuva Puraskar’ and 24 for ‘Bal Puraskar’ awards.

WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards 2025

• The Hindu was named the Champion of Digital Media Awards South Asia 2025, picking up 10 awards across various award categories, at the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards 2025 South Asia, presented by the World Association of News Publishers

RANKS, REPORTS & INDICES

QS Rankings 2026

• 54 Indian Institutes have been featured in the QS World University Rankings, with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) with rank 123rd rank, Delhi emerging as the country’s top-ranked Institute .

ART & CULTURE

Desi Oon wins Jury Award

• Desi Oon, an animation film by filmmaker Suresh Eriyat, has brought international acclaim to Indian animation by winning the Jury Award for Best Commissioned Film at the Annecy International Animation Festival 2025 in France.
• The Film was recently crowned Best Film at the World Audio, Video and Entertainment Summit -WAVES 2025 which was held in Mumbai.

SPORTS

World Team Blitz Championships

• Indian chess prodigy Divya Deshmukh made historic victory over World No. 1 Hou Yifan in the second leg of the Blitz semifinal at the World Team Blitz Championships in London.