♦ Eminent Hindustani classical vocalist and Padma Bhushan awardee Pandit Chhannulal Mishra passed away in Uttar Pradesh on 2 October 2025. He was 89.
♦ He was born on August 3, 1936, in a village in Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh.
♦ He underwent extensive tutelage under Ustad Abdul Ghani Khan of the Kirana Gharana and became a celebrated exponent of the Banaras Gharana, particularly renowned for his mastery in Khayal and Purab Ang Thumri.
♦ His soulful performances earned him both national and international recognition.
♦ Pandit Mishra received several prestigious awards, including the Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Naushad Award, Yash Bharati Award, the Padma Bhushan in 2010, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2020.
♦ He was also conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in recognition of his immense contribution to Indian classical music.
Posted Date: October 1, 2025Persons in News
♦ Vice Admiral Sanjay Bhalla assumed charge as the flag officer commanding-in-chief, Eastern Naval Command (ENC) at Visakhapatnam on 31 October 2025.
♦ He succeeded Vice-Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar.
♦ Sanjay Bhalla was commissioned in the Indian Navy on Jan 1, 1989. In a career spanning 36 years, he has held a number of command and staff appointments, both afloat and ashore.
♦ He has been awarded the Ati Vishist Seva Medal and the Nau Sena Medal.
Posted Date: October 31, 2025♦ Vice Admiral Sameer Saxena, AVSM, NM assumed charge as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command on 31 Oct 2025.
♦ He succeeds Vice Admiral V Srinivas PVSM, AVSM, NM.
♦ Saxena was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 01 Jul 1989 and is a specialist in Navigation & Direction.
♦ He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, and the Naval War College Newport, USA.
♦ He was awarded the Nausena Medal in 2017 and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2023.
♦ He has also been commended by the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Commissioner of Police of Mauritius, both times for acts of gallantry at sea.
Posted Date: October 31, 2025♦ Sri Lankan writer Vajra Chandrasekera has won the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for his second novel, Rakesfall.
♦ He will get a $25,000 (approximately Rs 22 lakh) award recognising “writers who imagine real grounds for hope.”
♦ Established in 2022, the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction honours the legacy of the legendary author known for critiquing capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism through fantasy and science fiction.
♦ Published by Tordotcom Publishing in 2024, Rakesfall was selected from among eight semi-finalist works.
♦ Chandrasekera’s novels move between myth, politics and philosophy.
♦ In them, the ghosts of empire share space with the mechanics of faith and the ruins of progress.
Posted Date: October 28, 2025♦ The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the reappointment of C S Rajan as Part-Time Chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited for another term beginning January 1, 2026, until October 21, 2027.
♦ Rajan has been serving as Part-Time Chairman since January 1, 2024, following his appointment as an Independent Director on the Bank's Board in October 2022.
Posted Date: October 28, 2025♦ Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai on 27 October 2025 recommended Justice Surya Kant, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court, as his successor to office.
♦ Justice BR Gavai's term is set to end on November 23.
♦ Once the recommendation gets a go-ahead from the Law Ministry, Justice Surya Kant will become the 53rd CJI and is expected to serve till February 9, 2027 - a tenure of about 14 months.
♦ If he is elevated as CJI, Justice Kant will be the first from Haryana to occupy the top judicial post.
♦ Justice Kant was born on February 10, 1962, at Hisar in Haryana.
♦ He started his legal practice at the Hisar district court and shifted to Chandigarh in 1985 to practice in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
♦ He was appointed as a Supreme Court judge on May 24, 2019. He is due to retire on February 9, 2027.
Posted Date: October 27, 2025♦ Indian-American security expert Paul Kapur was officially sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the Trump administration.
♦ He was among 107 nominees approved by the Senate and will now lead America’s diplomatic engagement with key South and Central Asian nations, including India.
♦ Kapur succeeds Donald Lu, who served as Assistant Secretary from September 2021 to January 2025.
♦ He previously served in the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, where he worked on issues related to South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and India-US relations between 2020 and 2021.
Posted Date: October 24, 2025♦ Prathiba M Singh, a judge of the Delhi High Court was named Chair of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Advisory Board of Judges for its 2025–27 term.
♦ She was elevated as a permanent judge of the Delhi High Court in 2017.
♦ She also served as the Chairperson and Presiding Judge of the Delhi High Court’s first-ever Intellectual Property Division during 2021–22.
♦ She currently serves as Co-Chair of the World Health Organisation’s Working Group on Regulatory Considerations on AI in Health.
♦ WIPO is a specialised agency of the United Nations, works to protect intellectual property (IP) globally.
♦ Its advisory board of judges is a high-level international forum comprising judges from around the world with deep expertise in intellectual property (IP) law.
♦ It plays a crucial role in shaping WIPO’s engagement with judiciaries globally, ensuring that its initiatives are responsive to the needs of judges across diverse legal systems and traditions.
Posted Date: October 23, 2025♦ Renowned Indian space scientist Eknath Vasant Chitnis died on 22 October 2025 in Pune.
♦ He was 100.
♦ He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1985.
♦ Chitnis was one of the key figures behind the founding of the Indian Space Research Organisation, working closely with Dr Homi Bhabha in its early years.
♦ Chitnis also played a crucial role in selecting the site for India's first rocket launch at Thumba in Kerala.
♦ From 1981 to 1985, he served as the second director of ISRO's Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad.
♦ He played a crucial role in developing India’s first telecommunication satellite, INSAT, which laid the foundation for the country’s progress in space communication.
♦ He is also remembered for mentoring the then young scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
Posted Date: October 22, 2025♦ Olympic gold medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was conferred with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 22 October 2025.
♦ Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally conferred the insignia of Honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army on the star javelin thrower during a ceremony in New Delhi.
♦ Born on December 24, 1997, in Khandra village, Panipat district, Haryana, Neeraj Chopra joined the Indian Army in 2016 and has served with The Rajputana Rifles.
♦ He made history at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 by becoming the first Indian to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field.
♦ He followed this with a silver medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and a gold at the World Athletics Championships in 2023.
Posted Date: October 22, 2025♦ The Government of Tuvalu has officially become the 90th State Member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), following its formal endorsement of the IUCN Statutes.
♦ The Ministry of Environment will serve as the official liaison with the IUCN Secretariat, marking a significant step in Tuvalu’s commitment to global biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
♦ Tuvalu consists of nine atolls and low-lying islands, covering just 26 square kilometres.
♦ Despite its small land area, Tuvalu boasts a vast Exclusive Economic Zone of approximately 900,000 square kilometres.
♦ This area is rich in marine biodiversity, including coral reefs, fisheries, and migratory seabird populations.
Posted Date: October 21, 2025♦ Nirmal Kumar Minda took over as new President of industry chamber Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).
♦ Currently he is Executive Chairman of Uno Minda Group.
♦ Amitabh Chaudhry, Managing Director & CEO of Axis Bank as the new Senior Vice-President in his team.
♦ Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, one of the apex trade associations in the country.
Posted Date: October 18, 2025♦ Noted Chinese physicist and Nobel Laureate Chen Ning Yang, died in Beijing on 18 October 2025.
♦ He was 103 years old. He was born in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, in 1922.
♦ In the 1940s, he went to the United States to pursue academic studies and subsequently held teaching positions.
♦ He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, official media here reported.
♦ In 1954, he co-authored a set of equations with the American physicist Robert Mills that turned out to be as important to physics as Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Posted Date: October 18, 2025♦ The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has appointed Anant Goenka as its President-Elect for 2025–26.
♦ He will take over from Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, who will be stepping down next month at Ficci's 98th annual general meeting.
♦ Goenka is the Vice Chairman of the RPG Group.
♦ Also, he is currently senior Vice President of FICCI.
♦ Goenka was earlier the MD and CEO of CEAT.
♦ He has also worked with Unilever and KEC International.
Posted Date: October 15, 2025♦ Sonali Ghosh, the Director of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, has become the first Indian to receive an international award for innovation in national parks and protected area sustainability.
♦ She received the Kenton R. Miller Award, constituted by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), along with Ecuador’s Roque Simón Sevilla Larrea at a function in Abu Dhabi.
♦ The WCPA is one of six technical commissions of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a 1948-established global network dedicated to the conservation of nature and the sustainable use of natural resources.
♦ Established in 2006, the Kenton R. Miller Award for Innovation in National Parks and Protected Area Sustainability is presented every two years by the IUCN-WCPA.
♦ Named after a former Director General of the IUCN, the award recognises individuals or teams whose innovations in planning, management, finance, governance, monitoring, capacity building, and communication have a significant impact and peer recognition without prior international awards.
Posted Date: October 14, 2025♦ Inspector Bhawna Chaudhary became the first woman flight engineer in the Border Security Force (BSF) air wing.
♦ Bhawna along with four male subordinate officers were recently awarded their flying badges by BSF director general Daljit Singh Chawdhary.
♦ Since 1969, the BSF has operated the aviation unit of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), catering to the operational needs of paramilitary forces and special units like the NSG and the NDRF.
♦ During the training, which started in August, the personnel underwent 130 hours of skill development and gained real operational exposure as various BSF air wing assets flew sorties, including during recent floods in Punjab and other states.
Posted Date: October 12, 2025♦ The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed Sonali Sen Gupta as Executive Director (ED).
♦ Before this appointment, Sonali Sen Gupta was the Regional Director for Karnataka at the Bangalore Regional Office.
♦ She has represented the RBI in G20's Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and OECD's International Network on Financial Education (INFE) and has served as a Director on the board of the National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE).
♦ As Executive Director, Sonali Sen Gupta will oversee the Consumer Education and Protection Department, the Financial Inclusion and Development Department, and Inspection Department.
Posted Date: October 11, 2025♦ Indian badminton player PV Sindhu was named on the BWF Athletes’ Commission for the 2026-2029 term.
♦ She was also a member of the BWF Athletes’ Commission from 2017 to 2025 and has been a BWF Integrity Ambassador since 2020.
♦ The Republic of Korea’s An Se-young, the reigning women’s singles Olympic champion and a former world title holder like Sindhu, and the People’s Republic of China’s Jia Yifan, one-half of the Paris 2024 Olympic women’s doubles gold medallists, are the two other Asians in the list.
♦ Egypt’s Doha Hany and the Netherlands’ Debora Jille are the other two members.
♦ All five nominees were automatically confirmed as the only candidates put forward, with PV Sindhu returning for her third term.
♦ The others, including Paris 2024 Olympic champions An Se-young and Jia Yifan, are first-timers to the Commission.
Posted Date: October 10, 2025♦ Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to reach the International Space Station (ISS), was appointed as the brand ambassador for the "Viksit Bharat Buildathon" on 5 October 2025.
♦ The initiative is a nationwide innovation movement aimed at students from classes 6-12.
♦ The Buildathon, the largest-ever school hackathon, will mobilise more than one crore students from 1.5 lakh schools across the country to ideate, design, and develop prototypes under four themes.
♦ The hackathon is being organized by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission.
♦ The students will work around four themes of national importance: Aatmanirbhar Bharat – building self-reliant systems and solutions; Swadeshi – fostering indigenous ideas and innovation; Vocal for Local – promoting local products, crafts, and resources; and Samriddhi – creating pathways to prosperity and sustainable growth.
Posted Date: October 5, 2025♦ Tesla CEO Elon Musk on 1 October 2025 became the first person ever to achieve a net worth of nearly $500 billion, propelled by a rebound in the EV company’s shares and surging valuations of the tech entrepreneur’s other startups this year (2025).
♦ His net worth stood at $500.1 billion, according to Forbes’ billionaires index.
♦ Oracle founder Larry Ellison follows Musk as the second-richest person on Forbes’ list, with a net worth of about $350.7 billion.
Posted Date: October 1, 2025