Current Affairs this week
Check the major development that took place India’s Independence Day a Big Festival for India took place this week.
1.National Anubhav Awards, 2025 to be conferred by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on 18.08.2025
In the current year, under National Anubhav Awards Scheme, 2025, write-ups from 42 Ministries/Departments/Organisations were published. Out of a total of almost 1500 write-ups published by the Ministries and Departments, 15 write-ups have been painstakingly selected through a detailed process of scrutiny.
Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister of Statefor Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions will felicitate 15 awardees from 11 Ministries or Departments. CRPF with 04 awards has the highest representation followed by 02 awardees from DRDO. For the first time, employees from Public Sector Bank (SBI) and Central Public Sector Enterprise (BHEL), Department of Land Resources and Ministry of Jal Shakti are finishing the podium. Also, 33% percent of the total awardees are women employees this year, indicating their growing participation and contribution in the Governance.
2.Pensioner Counselling Programme
The Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare has been conducting Pre-Retirement Counselling (PRC) Workshops, throughout the country, as part of Good Governance, to facilitate officials who are about to retire, in the superannuation process. The Workshop, being held for the benefit of retiring employees of the Government of India, is a revolutionary step in the direction of ‘Ease of Living’ of the pensioners. In this workshop, the retiring employees will be equipped with the issues relating to timely payment of pension and processing formalities through Bhavishya, CGHS benefits available to pensioners, grievance redressal through CPENGRAMS portal, Anubhav portal, investment options and the income-tax incentives.
3.Sakura Science Program
the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) has been implementing the ‘Japan-Asia Youth Exchange Program in Science,’ also known as the ‘Sakura Science Programme,’ since 2014. India was included in the Sakura Program in 2016. Under this programme, students are invited for short-term visits to Japan, providing them with the opportunity to experience Japan’s cutting-edge science and technology as well as its rich culture.
India participated in the program for the first time in April 2016. So far, 639 students along with 93 supervisors have visited Japan under this programme. The most recent batch visited Japan in June 2025.
For the upcoming Sakura Programme 2025, JST has invited 34 school students and 3 supervisors from India, alongside participants from six other countries (Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia), for the period between August 17th to August 23rd, 2025. These 34 students (13 boys & 21 girls) are from Government Schools of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Odisha, Puducherry, West Bengal and Demonstration Multipurpose Schools of RIEs-NCERT at Ajmer (Rajasthan), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Mysore (Karnataka).
India hosts 10th Meeting of AITIGA
4th Meeting of India-Singapore Joint Working Group on Trade & Investment (JWGTI) held in New Delhi
Discussions during the JWGTI focused on deepening bilateral trade and investment ties, identifying priority sectors for greater alignment, improving logistics and supply chains, streamlining regulatory frameworks, and exploring ways to facilitate cross-border trade.
India hosts 10th Meeting of AITIGA Joint Committee to review ASEAN–India Trade in Goods Agreement
INDIAN NAVAL SHIPS IN SRI LANKA FOR SLINEX – 25
Indian Naval Ships INS Rana (a Guided Missile Destroyer) and INS Jyoti (Fleet Tanker) arrived at Colombo to participate in the 12th edition of Sri Lanka India Naval Exercise (SLINEX-25) scheduled from 14 to 18 Aug 25. Conceptualised in 2005, SLINEX is a bilateral naval exercise that has strengthened maritime cooperation between the two nations over two decades. SLINEX aims at enhancing interoperability, maritime cooperation and exchanging best practices while jointly undertaking multi-faceted maritime operations. The previous edition of SLINEX was conducted at Visakhapatnam, India from 17 to 20 Dec 24.
Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana
Marking his 12th Independence Day address from the historic Red Fort, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today announced the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana. With an outlay of ₹1 lakh crore. This transformative scheme aims to support creation over 3.5 crore jobs in two years. The scheme will provide incentive of up to ₹15,000 in two instalments to newly employed youth and upto 3000 per month per new employee to employers for creation new job opportunities.
CP Radhkrishnan new VP
The governor of Maharashtra CP Radhakrishnan has been nominated the next VP of India replacing the past VP Jaideep Dhankar