📊 Index & Rankings
According to a Time Out 2025 survey involving over 18,000 participants, Mumbai has been declared Asia’s happiest city.
- Joy quotient: 94%
- Community spirit: 89%
- Growth in happiness levels: 87%
- The city’s vibrant culture, strong sense of community, lively lifestyle, and diverse street food scene.
- Iconic elements such as Bollywood, nightlife, and street delicacies like vada pav and bhel puri.
- Despite challenges like congestion and housing, Mumbai surpasses major Asian hubs like Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore.
🇮🇳 National News
Gujarat has initiated the country’s first-ever tribal genome project, spearheaded by the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC).
- Aims to address genetic disorders prevalent in tribal communities, such as sickle cell anaemia, thalassemia, and G6PD deficiency.
- Uses precision medicine and DNA sequencing technologies.
- Part of the broader Genome India Project.
- Will involve sequencing 2,000 tribal genomes from 17 districts across Gujarat.
- Objective is to develop a genetic reference database that will support affordable diagnostics, genetic counselling, and targeted therapies.
- Expected to significantly reduce the burden of hereditary diseases in tribal populations.
The Government of India has introduced two major programmes — DRAP (Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme) and UiWIN (Urban Investment Window) — to eradicate legacy dumpsites by 2026, aiming for cleaner and investment-friendly cities.
- Focuses on 214 major landfill sites.
- Accelerates waste remediation, preventing new waste accumulation, and restoring land for community and green purposes.
- Supported by a funding allocation of ₹4,181 crore.
- Political leadership
- Public finance
- Public advocacy
- Project management
- Partnerships
On November 4, 2025, India announced revised deep-sea fishing regulations for its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to promote sustainable marine practices and empower local fishers.
- Prohibits foreign vessels and prioritizes fisher cooperatives and Farmer Producer Organizations (FFPOs) for fishing rights.
- Fishermen will receive digital Access Passes through the ReALCraft portal, which facilitates vessel registration and real-time tracking.
- System integrates with MPEDA and EIC to ensure traceability, fish health certification, and export quality assurance.
- Enforces bans on LED, pair, and bull trawling to protect marine ecosystems.
- Additional measures include QR-coded IDs, transponders, and ecological safeguards to enhance safety, transparency, and sustainability in the blue economy sector.
The Indian Navy’s INS Sahyadri, a stealth guided-missile frigate, is participating in Exercise Malabar 2025, held in Guam under the Quad alliance.
- Partnering navies include the U.S., Japan, and Australia.
- Focuses on anti-submarine warfare (ASW), gunnery operations, and fleet manoeuvres.
- Encompasses both harbour and sea phases, enhancing joint operational readiness and interoperability among the Quad nations.
- Conducted in the strategically critical Indo-Pacific region.
- Underscores India’s blue-water naval capability, Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision, and commitment to a free, open Indo-Pacific.
During COP30 held in Belém, Brazil, India joined the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) as an observer nation.
- A $125 billion global fund led by Brazil.
- Incentivizes forest conservation through results-based payments to participating countries.
- India expressed strong support for the initiative while urging developed nations to honour climate finance commitments and intensify emission reductions.
- Highlighted its own environmental achievements:
- 36% reduction in emission intensity
- Over 200 GW of renewable capacity
- Reiterated its leadership in sustainable development and forest protection.
The Sahitya Akademi, under the Ministry of Culture, released the Hindi translation of the Lithuanian novel “The Last Day”, titled “Antim Din”, at an event held at Rabindra Bhawan, New Delhi.
- The initiative was organized in collaboration with the Embassy of Lithuania.
- The novel, authored by Jaroslavas Melnikas, a Lithuanian-Ukrainian writer, has been translated into Hindi by Dr. Poonam Tiwari.
- Spanning 250 pages, the book delves into existential and philosophical themes exploring human identity, transformation, and cultural evolution.
- The Hindi version aims to make this acclaimed work accessible to Indian readers, encouraging introspection and cross-cultural understanding.
💼 Business & Economy
Google has launched its 7th-generation TPU (Tensor Processing Unit), named Ironwood, delivering four times higher performance and ultra-fast parallel computing capabilities.
- Designed to efficiently handle AI model training, real-time inference, and multi-modal AI operations.
- Each Ironwood pod can scale up to 9,216 interconnected chips, optimizing speed and energy efficiency for large language models.
Anthropic plans to deploy 1 million Ironwood chips, posing a competitive challenge to Nvidia and boosting Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure dominance.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has repatriated 274 tonnes of gold between March 2023 and September 2025, increasing India’s domestic gold reserves to 575.8 tonnes out of a total 880 tonnes.
- Enhances financial sovereignty.
- Reduces foreign custodial risks and storage costs.
- Provides greater control over reserve assets.
- The share of gold in India’s foreign exchange reserves has risen to 13.92%.
- Reflects improved reserve diversification and economic resilience.
- The gold is now secured in high-security vaults within India, ensuring better flexibility and strategic autonomy.
🌐 International News
On November 8, 2025, Pakistan introduced its 27th Constitutional Amendment, raising widespread concerns about the erosion of democracy and federalism.
- Proposes creating a powerful Field Marshal/Chief of Defence Forces, consolidating control over the military, intelligence, and paramilitary forces.
- Aims to curtail judicial independence, bringing the judiciary under executive authority.
- Reducing provincial autonomy.
- Critics argue this could result in military dominance over civilian institutions, undermining free elections, democracy, and federal structure.
- Observers warn of implications for regional stability, particularly concerning India, Afghanistan, and South Asia.
- The move strengthens the position of Army Chief General Asim Munir.
📅 Important Days
National Education Day 2025 is observed on 11 November to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India’s first Education Minister.
- A prominent freedom fighter and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress.
- A key architect of India’s modern education system.
- The observance was first initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now Ministry of Education) in 2008.
- The first celebration took place on 11 November 2008 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, inaugurated by then President Pratibha Patil.
World Science Day for Peace and Development was celebrated on 10 November 2025.
“Unleash Your Inner Scientist”
- The day emphasizes the importance of science in fostering peace, sustainability, and innovation-driven progress.
- Encourages students and young thinkers to engage in curiosity-based learning, problem-solving, and scientific exploration.
- Addresses issues such as climate change, public health, and resource conservation.
- Highlights how scientific thinking can promote collaboration, tolerance, and youth empowerment.
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