Published on August 17, 2025 · 3 minutes read
Stay updated with the latest current affairs crucial for UPSC CSE preparation. This post presents a concise news summary of 16 August 2025, covering key national and international developments.
📝 UNEP-led plastic treaty talks end in stalemate
✅ The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 5.2), a group of about 180 countries, deliberated at the United Nations offices in Geneva from August 5-14 towards a consensus agreement, but failed to agree on a legally binding agreement to an ambitious treaty to end plastic pollution.
Read: UNEP-Led Plastic Treaty Talks: Nations Split Over Production Limits
📝 PM Modi’s 79th Independence Day Address: A Vision for a Viksit Bharat 2047
✅ PM Modi delivered his longest address from the Red Fort, lasting 103 minutes.
Key Highlights and Announcements:
- India will roll out its 1st Made-in-India semiconductor chip by 2025 and is opening the nuclear sector to private players.
- Mission Sudarshan Chakra: Launched to develop an indigenous air defence system by 2035, to boost India’s offensive and deterrent capabilities ⇒ All major strategic and public places will be covered by a security shield by 2035.
- A Task Force for Next-Generation Economic Reforms is formed to overhaul laws, rules, and procedures that govern economic activity.
- PM Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana: A ₹1 lakh crore employment scheme, launched to strengthen India’s demographic dividend ⇒ Newly employed youth will receive ₹15,000, targeting 3 crore young Indians.
- India reached its 50% clean energy target in 2025, five years ahead of schedule.
- India’s nuclear power generation capacity is to be increased tenfold by 2047.
- Agriculture: India ranks No. 1 in milk, pulses, and jute, and No. 2 in rice, wheat, cotton, fruits, and vegetables. Agricultural exports have crossed ₹4 lakh crore.
- PM Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana: Approved in July 2025 for a period of 6 years, beginning with 2025-26 to cover 100 districts ⇒ Focuses on agricultural productivity, crop diversification, sustainable agricultural practices, post-harvest storage, irrigation facilities and credit availability.
- High-Powered Demography Mission: To address the challenges posed by illegal infiltration ⇒ Aimed at ensuring India’s unity, integrity, and security.
- National Critical Minerals Mission (2025) is exploring sites to ensure access to minerals essential for energy, industry, and defence. Complementing this, the National Deepwater Exploration Mission will harness India’s offshore energy resources, boosting energy self-reliance.
📝 Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) to be led by women for the first time
✅ Shwetha Menon and Kukku Parameswaran were elected president and general secretary, respectively.
✅ Assumes significance amid the allegations of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry, as highlighted by the Justice Hema Committee report (2017-2019).
📝 PM Modi says women are key to India’s progress
✅ Namo Drone Didi Scheme (2023) has given rural women a new identity ⇒ It is a central sector scheme that aims to provide drones to 15000 selected Women SHGs during 2024-25 to 2025-2026 for offering rental services to farmers for agricultural purposes.
✅ Two crore women have become Lakhpati Didis ⇒ Lakhpati Didi scheme (2023), an initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development, aims to empower women in SHGs to earn a sustainable annual household income of ₹1 lakh or more.
✅ Hansa Mehta and Dakshayani Velayudhan were among 15 women members of the constituent assembly who helped frame the Indian constitution.
📝 E3 group
✅ An informal coalition of the UK, France, and Germany ⇒ Known for its collaborative efforts on major international security and diplomatic issues, especially nuclear negotiations with Iran.
✅ Eventually expanded as E3+3 (or P5+1) to include the US, Russia, and China, and played a central role in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).
📝 Axis of Resistance
✅ An informal coalition in West Asia led by Iran ⇒ Aims to resist the influence of the US and Israel in the region.
✅ Key members include Iran, Hezbollah (Lebanon), Popular Mobilization Forces (Iraq), Houthis (Yemen), Hamas (Palestine), and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Palestine).
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