Novak Djokovic set the Open Era record for the most consecutive first-round wins at Grand Slam tournaments — 75 in a row.
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India's young archer Chikitha Taniparthi made history by becoming the first Indian female compound archer to win the Under-21 women's compound title at the 2025 World Archery Youth Championships held in Winnipeg, Canada. At just 20 years old, she secured India's first-ever gold medal in this category at the Youth World Championships by defeating South Korea's Park Yerin with a score of 142-136 in the final. Chikitha also showed remarkable composure and skill throughout, defeating tough competitors including her compatriot and 2023 senior Asian champion Parneet Kaur in the quarter-finals.
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Banu Mushtaq is an acclaimed Indian Kannada-language writer, lawyer, and activist from Karnataka. She became the first Kannada author to win the 2025 International Booker Prize for her short story collection Heart Lamp, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi. The award-winning collection focuses on the lives of Muslim women in southern India, highlighting issues of patriarchy and social injustice. Mushtaq’s literary work spans six short story collections, a novel, essays, and poetry, and she is noted for her activism on women’s rights and minority issues. She made history not only as a writer but also as a symbol of progressive social thought in Karnataka.
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In a rare ruling, the Supreme Court (Aug 2025) reopened the death penalty case of Vasanta Sampta Dupare (Nagpur) under Article 32 of the Constitution, holding that capital punishment cases can be reconsidered if sentencing guidelines are not followed. The Court, referring to the 2022 Manoj vs Madhya Pradesh judgment, said trial courts must collect psychiatric and psychological evaluation reports before awarding the death penalty. A fresh hearing will now decide Dupare’s punishment.
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A posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre — titled “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” — will be published on October 21, 2025 by Knopf (Penguin Random House). Giuffre, who accused Jeffrey Epstein and Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, died by suicide in April 2025 in Australia at the age of 41. The book recounts her experiences of exploitation by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, her escape at 19, and her later advocacy for victims of sexual abuse.
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India is now the world’s 3rd-largest aviation market, but a parliamentary panel has flagged a serious safety concern — the DGCA is operating with nearly 50% vacancies (only 553 of 1,063 posts filled), undermining aviation oversight and safety, especially after the Ahmedabad air crash of June 12, 2025 (260 deaths).
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The world’s top two aviation markets (by passenger traffic as of 2025) are:
United States – 876 million passengers per year
China – 741 million passengers per year
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On August 26, 2025, the Indian Navy is commissioning two advanced stealth frigates, INS Udaygiri and INS Himgiri, at Visakhapatnam — the first time two frontline surface combatants built at different shipyards (MDL Mumbai and GRSE Kolkata) are inducted simultaneously. These Project 17A (Nilgiri-class) warships, with 75% indigenous content, showcase India’s naval self-reliance and will join the Eastern Fleet to strengthen maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region.
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Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kerala, India, was sentenced to death in Yemen in 2020 for the murder of her Yemeni business partner. The Indian government is actively working to save her life, ensuring careful handling of media reports to avoid speculation until the case reaches a final resolution. Her execution was temporarily postponed in July 2025, with ongoing negotiations for her release, including efforts to pay blood money to the victim's family as per Yemen's legal custom. The Supreme Court of India has been informed that the government will continue diplomatic efforts quietly and effectively to secure her freedom.
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Madan B. Lokur is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India and is also currently a judge on the Supreme Court of Fiji. He served in the Supreme Court of India from June 2012 until his retirement in December 2018. Later, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Fiji in August 2019, becoming the first Indian judge to serve on the apex court of another country.
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Sam Altman-led OpenAI announced the launch of an India-first initiative called the OpenAI Learning Accelerator, which will provide 500,000 free ChatGPT licenses for six months to students and teachers across government schools (classes 1 to 12), engineering and technical institutes, and K-12 educators. This program aims to transform education by making AI a personal tutor and learning assistant, helping teachers focus more on teaching while enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes. The initiative also includes a $500,000 research partnership with IIT Madras to study AI's impact on education and teaching innovation.
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For the first time since its inception in 2016, Ayurveda Day will be observed on a fixed date i.e., on 23 September, every year.
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China Evergrande, once the largest property developer in China and famously the most oversubscribed IPO in Hong Kong in 2009, was officially delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August 2025 after a prolonged financial crisis marked by over $300 billion in debt. Its collapse symbolizes China’s real estate boom and bust, with thousands of unfinished projects and massive unpaid debts affecting investors, homebuyers, and the broader economy. The government has tried to manage the crisis by preventing a sudden crash while avoiding a full industry bailout, resulting in a slow and painful slowdown of the sector that still weighs heavily on China's economy today.
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Taylor Swift set a new Guinness World Record by appearing on the "New Heights" podcast, hosted by her boyfriend NFL star Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce. Her episode on August 13, 2025, achieved the highest number of concurrent viewers ever for a podcast on YouTube, with 1.3 million people watching simultaneously, and has amassed over 20 million views since. This record-breaking appearance also included the announcement of her 12th studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl".
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