Syed Modi International 2025 badminton tournament

♦ Top seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand successfully defended their women’s doubles title at the Syed Modi International 2025 badminton tournament on 30 November 2025. They defeated Japanese eighth seeds Kaho Osawa and Mai Tanabe 17-21, 21-13, 21-15 in the final at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow.  

♦ Ranked 14th in the world, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand had also finished as runners-up in the women’s doubles in the 2022 edition of the Syed Modi International. The duo also became the first Indian doubles team to win a BWF World Tour title this year (2025). 

Javokhir Sindarov

♦ Javokhir Sindarov (19 years) of Uzbekistan won the FIDE Chess World Cup on 26 November 2025, beating China's Wei Yi in the final in the tie-breaker round. He also became the youngest champion in World Cup history and has qualified for the Candidates, too. 

♦ Javokhir became a grandmaster at the age of 12, was seeded sixteenth in the World Cup which saw top seeds fall like nine pins before the knockouts. He is the third teenager to clinch a major title in the chess world in the past year, with Gukesh winning the World Championship last year and Divya Deshmukh winning the Women’s Chess World Cup earlier this year.

2030 Commonwealth Games

♦ Ahmedabad has been formally awarded hosting rights of the 2030 Commonwealth Games. The decision was approved by delegates from 74 Commonwealth nations at the General Assembly in Glasgow, United Kingdom on 26 November 2025. This has paved the way for staging the event second time as New Delhi hosted the game in 2010. 

♦ Commonwealth Sport also confirmed that 15–17 sports will feature at the 2030 Games. The next Games, to be held in Glasgow, will feature 10 sports.

♦ The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave and the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium are going to be the prime venues for the Games. The Narendra Modi Stadium — situated within the Sports Enclave — is equipped to host aquatic, football, and indoor sports events.

♦ The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave, currently under construction, will stage multiple sporting events and serve as the athletes’ village, accommodating up to 3,000 people.

♦ The first Commonwealth Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada. The 2030 edition will mark the 100 years of the Games.

Womens Kabaddi World Cup

♦ India women’s team secured their second successive Women’s Kabaddi World Cup title in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 24 November 2025. India beat Chinese Taipei 35-28 in the final.

♦ This was the Indian women’s kabaddi team's second World Cup crown on the trot, having also won the inaugural edition hosted in Patna, Bihar, back in 2012. India beat the Islamic Republic of Iran in the final 13 years ago.

♦ India led a field of 11 kabaddi teams competing for the world title. Hosts Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Germany, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, Poland, Thailand, Uganda and Zanzibar were the other countries in the tournament.

Lakshya Sen

♦ Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen clinched the men’s singles title at the Australian Open 2025 on 23 November 2025.

♦ He  defeated Japan’s Yushi Tanaka 21-15, 21-11 in the final to secure his first crown of the 2025 BWF World Tour.

♦ Sen earned USD 475,000 after winning the Australian Open Super 500 event.

♦ A bronze medallist at the 2021 World Championships, Lakshya had earlier won the Syed Modi International Super 300 title in Lucknow in 2024.

♦ After winning the Canada Open in 2024, he endured a challenging spell this year, coming close to another title at the Hong Kong Super 500 in September, where he finished runner-up.

♦ With his Australian Open triumph, Sen becomes only the second Indian shuttler to win a title on the 2025 BWF World Tour.

♦ Earlier, rising star Ayush Shetty captured his maiden Super 300 title at the US Open.

Nikhat Zareen

♦ India's Nikhat Zareen clinched the gold medal in the 51 kg gold at the World Boxing Cup Finals in Greater Noida on 20 November 2025.  She defeatwed Xuan Yi Guo of Chinese Taipei with 5-0.  She sealed India's fifth gold medal in the women's category in the tournament. 

♦ Apart from Nikhat in the 51 kg category, Minakshi Hooda was the champion in the 48 kg category, and Preeti Pawar won the gold in the 54 kg category. 

♦ Furthermore, Arundhati won in the 70 kg category, and Nupur Sheoran won the gold in the 80+ category. A total of five gold medals were won by the women in the event, marking a historic day for the country. 

♦ India finished with 20 medals - nine gold, six silver and five bronze.

FIFA rankings

♦ The Indian men’s football team has been ranked 142nd in the latest FIFA rankings, issued on 20 November 2025.

♦ This was the worst ranking of the team since October 2016, when it was placed at 148th. The team has lost 40 places since December 2023, when it was ranked at 102nd. 

♦ The lowest FIFA ranking India has reached is 173 in March 2015.

♦ India's best ever ranking was 94 in February 1996.

♦ The Indian team is now ranked 27th among the 46 Asian countries included in the FIFA rankings, with Japan on top at 18th, followed by Iran (20th), South Korea (22nd), Australia (26th) and Uzbekistan (50th).

Roger Federer

♦ Roger Federer will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) in an induction celebration set for August 2026 in Newport, Rhode Island, the ITHF said on  19 November 2025. 

♦ Federer won 20 Grand Slams, the first male player to reach the benchmark, and clinched 103 career titles before retiring in 2022. He held the world number one ranking for a record 237 weeks straight between 2004 and 2008.

♦ The Swiss held the top spot in the ATP rankings for 310 weeks during his career, and had long rivalries with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two others in the “big three” of men’s tennis at the time.

The International Hockey Federation

♦ The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has awarded India’s Raghu Prasad the title of FIH Male Umpire of the Year 2025 for his “professionalism, dedication, and excellence" in officiating matches.

♦ Prasad has accumulated 198 international umpiring caps and 33 video umpire appointments, is set to make history at the 2025 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia by becoming the first Asian umpire to achieve 200 international caps. 

♦ The Female Umpire of the Year Award was given to Argentina’s Irene Presenqui.

♦ Recipients of the FIH Umpire of the Year Awards are chosen by the FIH Umpiring Committee.

Anupama Ramachandran

♦ India’s Anupama Ramachandran clinched the IBSF World Snooker Championship title in Doha on 13 November 2025. She defeated Hong Kong’s Ng On Yee with 3-2 in the final. Anupama became the first Indian woman to annex the IBSF World Snooker (15-red) crown. 

♦ Anupama won the Asian title in 2024.

Jyothi Surekha Vennam

♦ Jyothi Surekha Vennam clinching gold medals in both individual and team events at the Asian Archery Championships 2025 in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 13 November 2025. She defeated India's Prithika Pradeep with 147-145 in the final. 

♦ Jyothi and Prithika teamed up with Deepshikha to clinch the women’s compound team gold, edging the Republic of Korea’s Park Yerin, Oh Yoohyun and Jungyoon Park 236-234. 

ISSF World Championships

♦ Samrat Rana won the men’s 10m air pistol gold at the ISSF World Championships in Cairo on 10 November 2025.

♦ He became the first Indian to claim an individual world title in the event.

♦ Rana shot 243.7 to finish 0.4 points ahead of China’s Hu Kai.

♦ Fellow Indian Varun Tomar took bronze with 221.7, giving India two medals in the event.

♦ Rana became only the fifth Indian shooter to win a World Championship title in an Olympic discipline, joining Abhinav Bindra, Rudrankksh Patil, Tejaswini Sawant, and the mixed team pair of Shiva Narwal and Esha Singh.

Ravinder Singh

♦ Indian shooter Ravinder Singh clinched the gold medal in the Men’s 50-meter Pistol event at the ISSF World Championships in Egypt, Cairo on 8 November 2025.

♦ Ravinder shot 569 in the men’s free pistol to finish on top of the 47-man pile and also combined with Kamaljeet (540, 20th) and Yogesh Kumar (537, 24th) to win the team silver in the event.

♦ Ravinder Singh is a Naib Subedar in the Indian Army had won individual and team bronze in the 2023 edition of the Worlds in Baku.

♦ Ravinder, who has been in and out of the India squad since 2019, shot 569 to take the top spot ahead of Kim Cheong-yong of South Korea, who shot 556, and Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Anton Aristarkhov (556), who settled for the bronze.

♦ The Indian women’s team of Elavenil, Meghana Sajjanar and Shreya Agrawal took bronze with an aggregate of 1893.3.

♦ China (1901.7) and South Korea (1899.9) took gold and silver respectively.

Hockey Centenary Celebrations

♦ The Sports Authority of India and Hockey India on 7 November 2025 celebrated the centenary of Indian hockey at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi.

♦ The celebration marked a century of sporting excellence, pride, and unity, honouring the journey of Indian hockey from its beginnings in 1925 to its resurgence in the modern era.

♦ A commemorative book, “100 Years of Indian Hockey,” chronicling the sport’s journey, was launched, alongside a special photo exhibition showcasing archival photographs, Olympic moments, and memorabilia tracing Indian hockey from the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics to the present day.

Ilamparthi AR

♦ Ilamparthi AR (16 years) from Chennai became India’s 90th Grandmaster and the 35th from Tamil Nadu.

♦ He achieved his final Grandmaster norm at the Bijeljina Open 2025 in Bosnia and Herzegovina as he surpassed the 2500 points in the International Chess Federation rankings. 

♦ Born in 2009, Ilamparthi had earlier achieved his first GM norm at the Ha Noi tournament in Vietnam (December 2023), followed by his second at the Singapore International Open (2024).

♦ He crossed the 2500 Elo mark during the Rilton Cup (2024–25), and the final norm in Bosnia sealed his grandmaster title.

ICC Womens ODI World Cup

♦ The Indian women’s cricket team won their first-ever ICC Women’s ODI World Cup on 2 November 2025.

♦ India defeated South Africa by 52 runs in the final at Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium.  India scored 298 for 7 in 50 overs and South Africa all out for 246 in 45.3 overs.

♦ Shafali Verma was declared the Player of the Match, while Deepti Sharma won the Player of the Tournament award.

♦ With this victory India received USD 4.48 million (Rs.39.78 crore) in prize money from the International Cricket Council (ICC). Runnerup South Africa received Rs. 20 crore prize money. 

♦ First played in 1973, two years before the inaugural men’s World Cup, the Women's ODI Cricket World Cup is the oldest global event in the sport.

♦ India hosted and made their debut in the 1978 tournament, and they were joined by Australia, England and New Zealand. 

♦ Over its 13 editions so far, the marquee event has been dominated by Australia with seven titles while England are the second-most successful team with four trophies.

Winners of Women’s ODI Cricket World Cups