Current Affairs One-liners — 19 August 2025

Tue, 19 Aug 2025

• NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the 24th round of Special Representatives talks on the India–China boundary question in New Delhi on 19 August 2025.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 19 August 2025 approved a 6-lane access-controlled Capital Region Ring Road (Bhubaneswar Bypass, 110.875 km) in Odisha on Hybrid Annuity Mode at a capital cost of ₹8,307.74 crore.
• The Government exempted all customs duties on raw cotton imports with effect from 19 August 2025 until 30 September 2025, removing an effective 11% import duty to stabilise domestic cotton prices.
• INS Tamal, the Indian Navy's latest stealth frigate, arrived at Souda Bay, Greece on 19 August 2025 during her return passage to India after commissioning in Russia.
• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said on 19 August 2025 that Amarnath Yatra 2025, with over 4 lakh devotees, was run as a zero-landfill, plastic-free pilgrimage in line with Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0.
• The Election Commission of India on 19 August 2025 listed 28 initiatives taken over the past six months, including the ECINET platform, a cap of 1,200 voters per polling station and faster EPIC delivery.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on 19 August 2025 and handed over President Xi Jinping's invitation to the SCO Summit in Tianjin, which the Prime Minister accepted.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 19 August 2025 approved the Airports Authority of India's proposal for a greenfield airport at Kota-Bundi, Rajasthan, at an estimated cost of ₹1,507 crore.
• The President appointed judicial officer Ramesh Kumari as an Additional Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Ministry of Law and Justice notified on 19 August 2025.
• Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh presented the 8th National Anubhav Awards to retired government employees at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 19 August 2025.
• The 20th meeting (Part-II) of the Central Monitoring Committee on river rejuvenation, chaired by DoWR Secretary Debashree Mukherjee on 19 August 2025, reviewed progress in 15 States and noted Sikkim had no polluted river stretches in the latest CPCB assessment.