Recent 6 months news in National

Union Minister Amit Shah has inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 944 development projects worth ₹5,755 crore across 15 districts of Rajasthan.

On the occasion of the 8th death anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he unveiled a 21-foot-tall statue of Vajpayee in Chittorgarh district installed at a cost of over ₹1.5 crore.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi has launched a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)-based Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) pilot initiative under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) in the Union Territories (UTs) of Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Under the new mechanism, food subsidies will be transferred directly into the Digital Rupee wallets of beneficiaries instead of conventional bank accounts.

The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has approved the proposal to establish Asia’s first desert zoological park and desert-themed night safari at Juna Deesa in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

The project, with an estimated budget of ₹542.14 crore, spans across 103 hectares of contiguous government land. It will be developed as a 100% eco-friendly space utilizing solar energy, rainwater harvesting, and advanced sewage treatment systems.

PM Narendra Modi has inaugurated ‘Param Pragya’, an AI-enabled high-performance supercomputing facility at the Sonipat (Haryana) campus of the IIT Delhi. The inauguration took place during the 57th convocation of IIT Delhi, where he attended as the Chief Guest.

The 140-year-old ‘Parichha Weir’ in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, has been designated as a World Heritage Irrigation Structure (WHIS) by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).

It is to be noted that the weir was originally proposed in 1855 by Captain Strachey to serve the Bundelkhand region.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) has amended the Prime Minister’s Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) Scheme. Under the amendment, the incentive for electric two-wheelers (e-2Ws) has been reduced to ₹2,500 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (capped at ₹5,000 per vehicle) for the period from April 2025 to March 2028.

Notified in 2024, the PM E-DRIVE Scheme was initially launched for a 2-year period, with its implementation subsequently extended up to March 31, 2028. The scheme has a total financial outlay of ₹11,900 crore.

Chennai-based Aheesa Digital Innovations, a fabless semiconductor startup, has achieved first-pass silicon success with ‘VIHAAN’, the first domestically designed broadband networking System-on-Chip (SoC) in India.

The development of ‘VIHAAN’ is supported under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme of the central government. It is built using the indigenous 64-bit VEGA microprocessor developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), offering a royalty-free RISC-V architecture.

Union Minister Amit Shah has launched the 'Gramin Gyan Setu', an mobile application, via video conferencing to interconnect libraries across the Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat.

The objective of the initiative is to establish a library in every village to encourage reading habits among children.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal has felicitated top buyers and leading sellers during the 10th foundation day celebration of the Government e Marketplace (GeM) held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.

During the event, GeM launched a nationwide 5-digit short code helpdesk number '14550' to improve its support services. A customized 'My Stamp' and a commemorative film showcasing the 10-year journey of GeM were also launched.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has mandated specific response timelines and financial penalties for ambulances deployed on national highways.

Ambulances must reach accident sites within 10 minutes if the crash occurs within a 10 km radius, failing which an automated penalty of ₹10,000 will be imposed.

They are also required to transport victims to the nearest hospital within 1 hour, with a fine of ₹10,000 for failing to meet the deadline.

Union Minister Amit Shah has flagged off the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga Yatra’ campaign at Murugaa Theatre Signal in Puducherry. The special focus of the campaign this year is the commemoration of 150 years of “Vande Mataram”.

It is to be noted that the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ initiative was launched by PM Narendra Modi in 2022 under ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’. The campaign encourages citizens to celebrate the Tricolour as a symbol of national unity, sovereignty, and identity.

The central government has officially standardized the names of 27 prominent geographical locations and features in Arunachal Pradesh on official Survey of India (SoI) maps.

The 27 standardized features include 21 land areas and settlements, 4 strategic mountain passes, 1 lake named Sambho Sarovar, and 1 war memorial named Sher-e-Thapa Memorial.

The VO Chidambaranar (VOC) Port Authority in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, has become the first major port in India to achieve ‘Scope-2 emission-free’ status. The status was conferred by global certification body Bureau Veritas.

The port has also secured the ISO 50001:2018 certification for its Energy Management System, awarded by the Indian Register Quality Systems (IRQS).

The central government has notified 11 additional international ports (9 land ports and 2 airports) to allow entry for e-Visa holders.

With this, the total number of designated e-Visa entry ports in India has increased to 88, which includes 37 airports, 38 seaports, and 13 land ports. It is to be noted that India processes 95% of e-Visa applications in less than 72 hours.

India is set to host the inaugural Global South Film Festival in 2027 to promote international cooperation in the entertainment sector. Brazil, Russia, and Vietnam will serve as the key partner countries for the festival.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) Bazaar in Mumbai.

The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI), has launched the first Accreditation Scheme for Mobile Food Testing Laboratories in India under the Integrated Assessment Programme.

The scheme was launched during the ‘Gunvatta Samanvaya – A Multilateral MoU Exchange Ceremony’ held in New Delhi. Developed by NABL, it establishes a framework for mobile food testing laboratories to deliver reliable, quality-assured, and internationally benchmarked testing services closer to communities.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the Asiatic lion population in India has grown by over 70% in the last decade. The population of the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) has increased from 523 in 2015 to 891 in 2025.

It is to be noted that India is the exclusive habitat for the wild Asiatic lion, which is localized within the Gir National Park and its surrounding landscape across 11 districts of Gujarat. Project Lion, launched in 2020 to ensure the long-term conservation of the species, has led to an expansion of the lion range from 30,000 sq km in 2020 to nearly 35,000 sq km.

The PM Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana (PM-VBRY) has completed one year of implementation, during which more than 72 lakh first-time employees have joined the formal workforce. The scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoL&E) through the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

The scheme, scheduled to run from August 2025 to July 2027, has a total financial outlay of ₹99,446 crore. It consists of two components: an employee-focused part that provides financial assistance to first-time formal workforce entrants, and an employer-focused part that offers incentives to establishments for generating additional employment.

The Government of India (GoI) is launching its first-ever high-altitude wildlife safari in the Union Territory of Ladakh. This initiative aims to promote sustainable eco-tourism, curb illegal off-roading, and safeguard the rare wildlife of the region, including the snow leopard.

The safari will cover multiple wildlife-rich sanctuary landscapes, specifically including the Hemis National Park (the largest national park in South Asia), the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Karakoram Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Supreme Court of India (SCI) bench, comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, has extended the mandatory third-party insurance period for newly purchased vehicles by one year to strengthen compliance with the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA), 1988.

Under the revised mandate, new cars are now required to have 4 years of third-party insurance coverage, while two-wheelers are mandated to have 6 years of coverage.