Daily & Latest Current Affairs in 2025

Correct Answer :   Narendra Modi

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a unique week-long programme for Aspirational Blocks in New Delhi on 30th Sep 2023.  The programme has been named as Sankalp Saptaah.

It is linked to the effective implementation of the Aspirational Blocks Programme which is aimed at improving governance at the block level to enhance the quality of life of citizens. 

The event will witness the participation of about three thousand panchayat and block-level people's representatives and functionaries from across the country at Bharat Mandapam in the National Capital.

In addition, about two lakh people including block and panchayat level functionaries and farmers will join the programme virtually.

Sankalp Saptaah will be observed in all of the 500 Aspirational Blocks across 329 districts in the country from 3rd to 9th of next month. Each day during the period is dedicated to a specific development theme on which all Aspirational Blocks will work.

The themes for the first six days include Sampoorna Swasthya, Suposhit Pariwaar, Swachhta, Krishi, Shiksha, and Samridhi Diwas.  The last day of the week will be a celebration of the work conducted during the entire week, as Sankalp Saptaah - Samavesh Samaroh..

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   28th September

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World Rabies Day is an annual event to raise awareness of rabies prevention and the progress being made in the fight against this terrible disease. It is also the anniversary of the death of Louis Pasteur. He was a French chemist and microbiologist who developed the first vaccine against rabies.

Aim :  To bring together all groups, organisations and stakeholders in the fight against rabies. A contagious viral disease, rabies is almost always fatal once clinical symptoms appear.

The veterinary and human medical professions must work together to combat this disease, which still affects both humans and animals and is still prevalent in Africa and several Asian countries. Read on to know more about this day.

When is World Rabies Day 2023 : World Rabies Day will be celebrated globally on Thursday, September 28.

World Rabies Day 2023 theme : This year we are celebrating the 17th World Rabies Day. And this year's theme is "All for 1, One Health for All". It highlights that one health is not for a select few but for everyone.

History of World Rabies Day :

World Rabies Day was established by the Global Alliance for Rabies Control in 2007 and later endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The purpose of the day is to highlight the progress made in eradicating rabies and to raise awareness of rabies prevention. The first rabies vaccine was developed by the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, whose death on 28 September is the reason why 28 September is observed each year as World Rabies Day. The Global Alliance for Rabies Control chooses a theme for World Rabies Day each year. The different themes have been chosen to highlight different facets of the disease and methods to cure it.


World Rabies Day significance :

World Rabies Day is an opportunity to reflect on how rabies affects your community and others around the world. Rabies is most commonly found in wild animals and is still widespread in the United States. Rabies in pets or other domesticated animals is relatively rare because of the high vaccination rates for dogs and cats in the United States. However, dogs can get rabies in many other countries. In fact, dog bites sustained while travelling abroad account for about 25% of recorded human rabies deaths among Americans. Although rabies is a completely preventable disease, it still claims the lives of about 60,000 people each year. World Rabies Day is an opportunity to reflect on our efforts to control this deadly disease and to remember that the fight against rabies is not over..

Source : Hindustan Times

Correct Answer :   5

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Five villages in the country won the ‘Gold’ award by the Union Government in the category of Best Rural Tourism Projects.

They are Dawar in Kashmir, Sarmoli in Uttarakhand, Reiek in Mizoram, Kanthalloor village in Kerala, and Mandla in MP.

Kanthalloor village in Idukki district, where the sustainable and inclusive STREET tourism project of the state Responsible Tourism Mission was successfully implemented, has won the ‘Gold’ award by the government of India in the best rural tourism project category.

State tourism director P B Nooh received the award from the Union ministry of tourism secretary V Vidyavathi at a ceremony held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on the World Tourism Day, on Wednesday (27th Sep 2023).

STREET, which stands for ‘Sustainable, Tangible, Responsible, Experiential, Ethnic, Tourism’, was implemented in selected places across the state, based on UNWTO’s theme ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’.

Kanthalloor was selected for the honour after an eight-month-long extensive evaluation of rural projects across the country. In all, 767 projects vied for honours, and five of them won ‘Gold’, 10 were selected for ‘Silver’ and 20 of them won ‘Bronze.’.

Source : India Times

Correct Answer :   V.O. Chidambaranar Port

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On September 23, 2023, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Authority , Tamil Nadu successfully handled 3x20 ISO Green Ammonia Containers, weighing 37.4 tons of Green Ammonia, from Damietta Port, Egypt, for M/s. Tuticorin Alkali Chemical and Fertilizers Ltd (TFL).

Conventionally, Grey Ammonia is utilized for soda ash production. As a Go Green initiative, TFL has imported Green ammonia to produce Green soda Ash, on a trial basis. Further, TFL is planned to import 2000 MT this year (2023) subject to the availability of Green Ammonia.

On 24.09.2023, V.O. Chidambaranar Port created a new record by handling 2,01,204 MT in a single day surpassing the earlier single day record of 2,00,642 MT on 26.08.2023.

The Major Cargos that contributed to the achievement are Container (1,03,528), Thermal coal (35,018), industrial coal (27,233), Limestone (12,868), Sulphuric acid (10,930) and Others (11,627).

Shri Bimal Kumar Jha, Chairman(i/c), V.O. Chidambaranar Port Authority, remarked “V.O. Chidambaranar Port has been a trendsetter amongst Major Ports of India in undertaking Green Port initiatives. Our Port Business Partners & Stakeholders have also undertaken various initiatives to use green products to reduce carbon footprint. On this special occasion, I take this opportunity to congratulate TFL for their green initiative and wish them all success in their future endeavors.”.

Source : PIB

Correct Answer :   Intel

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Intel has announced Gokul Subramaniam as Intel India President on Wednesday (27th Sep 2023) and in his new role, Subramaniam will be responsible for Intel’s overall engineering and design operations in India, including driving innovation, cross-group efficiencies and execution of Intel products from the site.

Subramaniam has been with Intel for over 11 years, and during this period, he held several technical and business leadership positions in product and systems engineering.

Subramaniam is based in Bengaluru and is currently working as vice president in the Client Computing Group (CCG) and serves as general manager of Client Platforms and Systems within Intel. Subramaniam is taking over this new role of Intel India President in addition to his existing functional responsibility of leading Client Platforms and Systems in CCG.

“As a critical engineering and design centre for Intel, Intel India plays a vital role in our company’s transformation journey and the trajectory towards product leadership. I am excited about the engineering prowess we have at the site and the opportunities it brings to accelerate innovation and advance excellence in the execution of our engineering programs,” said Subramaniam.

When it comes to educational background, Subramaniam holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering from the University of Madras, a master’s degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Texas and completed an executive program in general management from MIT Sloan School of Management. He is the inventor of six patents, with an additional five filed in the areas of computing, wireless, power management, industrial design, systems and software.

Santhosh Viswanathan, Vice President and Managing Director-Sales, Marketing and Communications Group (SMG) for Intel India, will continue to be responsible for Intel’s overall business in India, including driving new revenue and growth opportunities..

Source : Business Today

Correct Answer :   40th

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India has maintained its 40th rank in the latest Global Innovation Index (GII) 2023 released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), making it a leading position holder among the lower middle-income country group.

The country ranked first among the 37 lower-middle group income and first among the 10 economies in Central and South America.

“India maintains its 40th position overall and takes the helm in the lower middle-income group. It holds the record for overperforming on innovation for the 13th consecutive year. India holds top rankings in key indicators, including ICT services exports (at place 5), VC received (6), graduates in science and engineering (11) and global corporate R&D investors (13),” read a press state from the GII.

The GII tracks the innovation ecosystem performance of 132 global economies and the most recent global innovation trends. In 2015, India stood at the 81st spot and has been rising in the past eight years.

“The consistent improvement in the GII ranking is owing to the immense knowledge capital, the vibrant start-up ecosystem, and the amazing work done by the public and private research organizations. Innovation has been at the forefront of our battle against the unprecedented crisis created by the pandemic and will be pivotal in driving the country’s resilience, as enshrined in the Prime Minister’s clarion call on Atma Nirbhar Bharat,” NITI Aayog said in a statement on Thursday.

The GII is a reliable tool for governments across the world to assess the innovation-led social and economic changes in their respective countries.

Other parameters where India performed fairly better include– cultural and creative services exports as percentage of trade (18th rank), intangible asset intensity (8th rank), and overall market sophistication (20th rank).

The broad areas where a lot of improvement needs to happen are infrastructure (84th rank), business sophistication (57) and institutions (56).

NITI Aayog said that it has been working tirelessly to ensure the optimisation of the national efforts for bringing policy-led innovation in different areas such as electric vehicles, biotechnology, nanotechnology, space, alternative energy sources, etc.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has also been collaborating in India’s journey towards an innovation-driven economy, said the government think tank. This year, the NITI Aayog will virtually be hosting ‘the India Launch of the GII 2023’ in partnership with the CII and the WIPO.

Of the 21 economies that outperformed on innovation relative to their level of development, the majority are located in Sub-Saharan Africa and SouthEast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania.

Along with India, the Republic of Moldova and Vietnam have also been innovation overperformers for 13 years in a row and Indonesia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan have maintained their overperformer status for a second year and Brazil for a third consecutive year, according to WIPO..

Source : Hindustan Times

Correct Answer :   Lucknow

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Bhartiya Bhasha Utsav, a 75 day-long event to celebrate the Indian languages started 28th Sep 2023 in Lucknow.

Padma shree awardees and representatives of different Indian languages are taking part in the program which includes Bahubhashi Sangoshthi i.e. Multi-laguage conference and play based on Ramayana 28th Sep 2023.

The festival will continue from 28th Sep 2023 to 11 December 2023 which is birthday of Famous Tamil poet Subrahmanyam Bharti and celebrated as Indian Languages day.

The Additional Chief Secretary Jitendra Kumar said on the occasion that central government has decided to celebrate Indian languages for 75 days under The Indian Languages Festival and many programs will be organised throughout the state to celebrate different Indian languages..

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   United Nations

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India and the United Nations launched a joint capacity-building initiative for the Global South on Sunday (24th Sep 2023). The “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative” aims to share India’s development experiences, best practices and expertise with partner countries in the Global South through capacity building and training programs.

The initiative was announced at the India-UN for the Global South in New York.
 
The India-UN initiative also complements the India-UN partnership in the form of “India-UN Development Partnership Fund” which has developed a portfolio of 75 development projects in 61 countries in the last 6 years.
 

As part of this initiative, the UN India team and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will partner to leverage India’s Technical and Economic Cooperation platform.

A Joint Declaration of Intent was exchanged today between the UN Resident Coordinator in India and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
 
This Initiative will also operationalise the development-relevant deliverables of India’s G20 Presidency. These include the G20 Action Plan for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs, technological transformation and building Digital Public Infrastructure..

Source : AIR

Correct Answer :   SIDBI

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With an aim to enhance the economic and financial sustainability of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is in the process of launching an app-based 'invoice financing' loans platform 'GST Sahay', an official said.

This was announced by SIDBI, Chief General Manager (CGM), Rahul Priyadarshi at a customer outreach programme here on Wednesday (27th Sep 2023).

"The MSMEs are vital for the economic growth and development of India. They (MSMEs) create jobs and contribute enormously to the socio-economic development of the country. Although several measures for the MSMEs have been taken in the past few years by the government, the crunch in working capital credit is one of the major issues for them. Now, SIDBI is in the process of launching an app-based 'invoice financing' loans platform for them," he said."

The new invoice platform-GST Sahay will reduce the problem of delayed payments and consequential cash flows mismatches for the MSMEs. The GST Sahay will be an invoice-financing marketplace where MSMEs can use their unpaid invoices to get quick working capital loans", said Priyadarshi.

While speaking about industrial growth in Bihar, the CGM said, "There is no doubt that the industrial growth is taking place in the state, but SIDBI wants to take this region at a greater height. There is a lot of scope for agro-processing, medical and agri tourism in the state. We are always focused on such businesses and SIDBI wants this region to prosper further".

SIDBI wants to enhance its loan assistance further in the state, he said, adding the loan book of SIDBI's Patna region has grown at 35 per cent (from March 2023 till the date).

"The jump of 35 per cent in lending (of the Patna region), which is at Rs 232 crore now, is quite satisfactory. We want to increase it further. Now the accelerator of growth is on in this region", he said.


Transparency and trust is the principle on which SIDBI does its businesses, he said.

Anubha Prasad, Regional Head of SIDBI Patna, speaking at the event said, "SIDBI is dedicated to fostering strong relationships with its valued customers. SIDBI hopes to aid the development of the two states (Bihar and Jharkhand) through its credit-plus approach, and create stronger footprints for enterprise development at the grassroots level, creating employment and empowering entrepreneurs, as well as work with the two state governments to add value to their initiatives".

SIDBI has appraised 17 proposals involving assistance of approximately Rs 196 crore under Micro and Small Enterprises - Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP) for Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) clusters in the state, she added.

Highlighting the bank's comprehensive range of offerings, Prasad said, " SIDBI is also providing financial assistance and support for green projects in the MSME sector as aligned to the nation's commitment to reduce the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions"..

Source : Zeebiz

Correct Answer :   28th Sep 2023

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Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (MS Swaminathan), legendary agricultural scientist and father of India’s ‘Green Revolution,’ died at the age of 98 in Chennai on Thursday (28th Sep 2023).

Born on August 7, 1925 in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district, he was an agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator, and humanitarian who played a crucial role in developing high-yielding varieties of paddy that helped ensure India’s low-income farmers produce more yield.

Swaminathan started his career in 1949 researching on the genetics of potato, wheat, rice and jute. When India was on the verge of a mass famine leading to scarcity of food grains, Swaminathan along with Norman Borlaug and other scientists developed the high yield variety seeds of wheat.

Swaminathan, who is known as the "Father of Economic Ecology" by the United Nations Environment Programme, worked with agriculture ministers including C Subramaniam and Jagjivan Ram during 1960s and 70s for the success of the ‘Green Revolution,’ an initiative that paved the way for exponential rise in productivity of wheat and rice through adaptation of chemical-biological technology.

For developing and spearheading the introduction of high-yielding wheat and rice varieties into India, he was awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987 following which he set up the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai. Swaminathan was also awarded with Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1971 and the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986.

He had also been conferred with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan. He is also the recipient of the H K Firodia award, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award and the Indira Gandhi Prize.

The Indian agriculturalist had also held administrative positions in various agricultural research laboratories. He served as the director general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research and later International Rice Research Institute. He also served as the principal secretary of the ministry of agriculture in 1979.

In 1988, Swaminathan became the president of the International Union of the Conservation of Nature and Natural resources. In 2004, he was appointed as chair of the National Commission on Farmers.

Beyond his work in the country, Swaminathan was an spectacular figure globally, contributing to various international agricultural and environmental initiatives. He was named one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century by Time magazine.

He is survived by his three daughters Soumya, Madhura, and Nitya. His wife Mina died in 2022..

Source : Hindustan Times