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Daily Current Affairs 18th April 2025 Daily GK Update
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National News
NADA India Hosts National Conference on ‘Building Together a Clean Sport Ecosystem’
- The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) India successfully organised a conference on “Building Together a Clean Sport Ecosystem” at the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi.
- The event, held as part of Play True Week 2025, brought together a wide spectrum of stakeholders committed to fostering a clean, fair, and values-based sporting environment in India.
- One of the key moments of the inaugural session was the unveiling of “NADA India’s Fair Play Guide” in ten different regional languages, aimed at making clean sport education more accessible to athletes and stakeholders across the nation.
- Participants also engaged in a pledge signing ceremony to reaffirm their commitment to fair play and doping-free sport.
Mansukh Mandaviya Inaugurates World’s 17th Athlete Passport Management Unit in New Delhi
- Union Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya has inaugurated the world’s 17th Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) at the National Dope Testing Laboratory in New Delhi.
- The Athlete Passport Management Unit is a specialised unit dedicated to monitoring and managing athletes’ biological passports, ensuring fair play and upholding the integrity of clean sport.
- APMU a key milestone in the country’s fight against doping, enabling the longitudinal tracking of Athletes’ Biological profiles through the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) system. This innovative mechanism will help in detecting doping patterns and protect the fairness of sports by identifying unethical practices.
Ministry of Ayush Organises Rashtriya Karmayogi Jan Seva Programme
- The Ministry of Ayush, in collaboration with the Capacity Building Commission under Mission Karmayogi, organised a special session of the Rashtriya Karmayogi Jan Seva Programme at Ayush Bhawan to enhance employees’ service orientation and professional skills.
- The second phase of the programme, led by Dr. Subodh Kumar and facilitated by Shipra Singh, featured interactive, team-based learning modules focusing on self-awareness, motivation, leadership, and real-world case studies from Ayurveda, Yoga, and traditional medicine.
- The initiative reflects the Ministry’s ongoing commitment to building a responsive and efficient workforce, encouraging officials to apply training insights for improved public service delivery.
Govt issues guidelines for setting up Excellence centres under Critical Mineral Mission
- The Ministry of Mines has released guidelines for establishing Centres of Excellence (CoE) under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) to boost research and technology development in critical minerals vital for clean energy, mobility, defence, and strategic sectors.
- These CoEs will focus on R&D to develop, demonstrate, and deploy extraction and beneficiation technologies for critical minerals, aiming to reach Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 7/8 and facilitate pre-commercial demonstrations.
- Reputed academic and R&D institutions will be selected as CoEs through a proposal-based evaluation and will be tasked with undertaking cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research in the field of critical minerals.
- Each CoE will follow a Hub & Spoke consortium model, with the main institute (Hub) partnering with at least two industry partners and two academic/R&D partners, to consolidate expertise and strengthen India’s critical mineral research ecosystem.
International News
AIIMS Delhi Ranks 97th Among World’s Best Hospitals in 2024
- The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi has been ranked the 97th best hospital in the world by Newsweek and Statista in their ‘World’s Best Hospitals 2025’ report.
- This is a major improvement for the institute that was ranked 122nd in the same report in 2023, moving up nine spots to 113th rank in 2024, and now another 16 spots to the 97th rank.
- The annual ranking, now in its sixth year, evaluated over 2,400 hospitals across 30 countries, measuring performance through patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes, hygiene standards, and peer recommendations from thousands of medical professionals.
- Aside from AIIMS, two other Indian hospitals made the top 250 list. Two other institutions — Medanta – The Medicity in Gurgaon and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh — also featured prominently, ranked 146th (ranked 166th in 2024) and 228th (ranked 246th in 2024), respectively.
- Topping the 2024 list are the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic in the United States, followed by Toronto General in Canada and Johns Hopkins Hospital, while Sweden’s Karolinska University Hospital rounded out the top five.
Banking and Financial
Fitch projects India’s GDP growth at 6.4% for FY26, retains 6.3% for FY27
- Fitch Ratings revised India’s GDP growth forecast for FY26 to 6.4%, citing global economic uncertainties, while maintaining its projection of 6.3% for FY27.
- The global ratings agency also lowered its estimates for FY25 and FY26 by 10 basis points to 6.2% and 6.4%, respectively, attributing the downgrade to rising concerns over a potential global trade war.
India to Grow 6.5% in 2025, Maintain Fastest-Growing Economy Tag: UNCTAD
- India’s economy is projected to grow by 6.5% in 2025, supported by strong public spending and continuing monetary easing, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
- Despite a slowdown from the estimated 6.9% growth in 2024, India is forecast to be the fastest-growing economy.
- In its new report, ‘Trade and Development Foresights 2025 – Under Pressure: Uncertainty Reshapes Global Economic Prospects’, UNCTAD stated that global growth is projected to slow to 2.3% in 2025, placing the world economy on a recessionary path.
- UNCTAD projects that the South Asia region will expand by 5.6% in 2025, as declining inflation opens the way for monetary loosening across most of the region.
IDFC FIRST Bank to Get ₹7,500 Crore Investment Boost from Warburg Pincus & ADIA
- IDFC FIRST Bank will receive a major capital infusion of around ₹7,500 crore from Warburg Pincus and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) to support its growth plans.
- The bank’s board has approved a preferential equity issue of ₹4,876 crore to Warburg Pincus affiliate Currant Sea Investments B.V. and ₹2,624 crore to Platinum Invictus B 2025 RSC Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ADIA.
- The investment deal is subject to approvals from shareholders and regulators, as stated in the bank’s stock exchange filing.
Revolut Gets RBI Nod to Launch UPI-Enabled Digital Wallets in India
- UK fintech giant Revolut has received full approval from the RBI (April 2025) to issue Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) like digital wallets and prepaid cards, enabling UPI-based transactions across India.
- With this license, Revolut can now operate as a domestic payment provider, competing with major players like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm, offering instant bank transfers and peer-to-peer payments via its mobile wallet.
- Revolut India, already licensed for forex and cross-border remittances, will now integrate domestic UPI payments with international services, aiming to serve tech-savvy and globally mobile Indian consumers.
- The company, with 50+ million global users across 38 countries and a $45B valuation, plans to double its user base to 100 million, leveraging India’s rapidly growing $2.1 trillion digital payments market by 2030.
Zaggle Secures NPCI Approval to Offer UPI Payment Solutions
- Listed fintech company Zaggle has received Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
- This significant development enables Zaggle to offer Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based payment solutions directly through its platform, empowering over 3 million users across its digital ecosystem.
- With UPI rapidly becoming the preferred transaction mode in India, Zaggle’s entry into the TPAP space marks a major step toward delivering a unified, cashless, and fully integrated financial experience for businesses and individuals alike.
- The TPAP license allows Zaggle to provide a comprehensive financial suite that combines payments, expense management, tax-saving tools, and value-added financial services within a single interface.
Awards
Bose Institute’s High-Energy Physics Team Wins 2025 Breakthrough Prize for Contribution to ALICE Collaboration at CERN
- Scientists from Bose Institute’s Experimental High Energy Physics group were awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contribution to the ALICE collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
- Over 13,500 researchers across four LHC experiments shared a total prize of $3 million, with $500,000 allocated to the ALICE collaboration to fund a Breakthrough Prize studentship program for PhD students at CERN.
- The institute contributed significantly to the ALICE experiment, including the development of the Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) and the upgrade of ALICE’s Time Projection Chamber (TPC), improving particle detection and analysis capabilities.
Recent Award
- Knighthood for his services to Cricket – James Andersons
- Key to the City of Lisbon – President Droupadi Murmu
- Sri Lanka Mitra Vibhushana (nation’s highest civilian honour for a foreign head of state) – PM Narendra Modi
- Fred Darrington Sand Master Award – Sudarsan Pattnaik (for his outstanding contributions to sand art)
- Uttar Pradesh Anmol Ratan Award – Nikhil Singhal
- Ugadi Award from the Andhra Pradesh government – Historian and archaeologist MyNaa Swamy
Science
Bangladesh becomes the 54th country to join NASA’s Artemis Accord
- Bangladesh has become the second South Asian country, after India, and the 54th in the world to join the Artemis Accord of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States.
- India joined the Artemis Accords as the 27th country on 21st June 2023.
About the Artemis Accord
- Artemis is a NASA-led effort to explore the moon, establish a human settlement on the moon and explore the planet Mars and beyond.
- NASA established the Artemis Accord in coordination with the United States government’s State Department (the foreign ministry) on 13 October 2020.
- The seven founding countries of the Artemis Accord were Canada, Italy, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America.
Sports
Inder Singh Suruchi and Saurabh Chaudhary win mixed Team Gold
- In Shooting, the Indian pair of Inder Singh Suruchi and Saurabh Chaudhary clinched a gold medal beating Chinese duo of Qianxun Yao and Kai Hu by 17-9 in the finals of 10 metre Air Pistol Mixed Team event at ISSF World Cup 2025 in Lima, Peru.
- Earlier, the Indian mixed duo of Olympic medalist Manu Bhakar and Ravinder Singh missed out on a podium finish after losing to Chinese pair of Qianke Ma and Yifan Zhang in the crucial Bronze medal match.
Important day
18 April – World Heritage Day
- World Heritage Day, also known as the International Day for Monuments and Sites (IDMS), is observed every year on 18 April to promote awareness about the diversity of cultural heritage, the vulnerability of monuments and sites, and the efforts required to preserve them.
- theme 2025 – Heritage under Threat from Disasters and Conflicts: Preparedness and Learning from 60 Years of ICOMOS Actions
- It was proposed by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 1982, and later approved by UNESCO in 1983. The day encourages local communities and governments to recognize the importance of preserving historical sites and celebrating the rich heritage of civilizations around the world.
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