Current Affairs One-liners — 18 October 2025

Sat, 18 Oct 2025

• On 18 October 2025 in Lucknow, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath flagged off the first batch of BrahMos missiles made at the BrahMos Integration and Testing Facility Centre, part of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor.
• Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said on 18 October 2025 that India has developed its first indigenously discovered antibiotic, Nafithromycin, through the Department of Biotechnology and Wockhardt, and has run its first successful indigenous gene therapy trial for haemophilia at CMC Vellore.
• The Election Commission of India said on 18 October 2025 that voters employed in any establishment are entitled to a paid holiday on polling day under Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, for the Bihar Assembly election (6 and 11 November 2025) and 8 bye-elections (11 November 2025).
• On 18 October 2025 in Lucknow, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh dedicated to the nation a Titanium and Superalloy Materials Plant at PTC Industries' Strategic Materials Technology Complex, which can make aviation-grade titanium and superalloys.
• At a joint press conference in New Delhi on 18 October 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Next-Gen GST rate cuts had been fully passed on for all 54 products the Finance Ministry was closely monitoring.
• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said on 18 October 2025 that the FASTag Annual Pass, launched on 15 August 2025, crossed 25 lakh users and about 5.67 crore transactions within two months, and can be gifted through the Rajmargyatra app.
• The Labour Bureau's Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (base 2019=100) fell 0.11 points to 136.23 and for Rural Labourers fell 0.18 points to 136.42 in September 2025, with year-on-year inflation of -0.07% and 0.31% (PIB, 18 October 2025).
• Lt Gen CG Muralidharan took over as Director General of Medical Services (Army) from Lt Gen Sadhna S Nair, who superannuated on 30 September 2025 (PIB, 18 October 2025).
• The IndiaAI Mission (MeitY) and the World Health Organization announced a global call for abstracts on scalable AI in health, due by 31 October 2025, for a joint casebook whose selected entries will feature at the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 (PIB, 18 October 2025).
• On 18 October 2025 at Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi (Kerala), BY 528 (Magdala), the sixth of eight Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts (ASW SWC) for the Indian Navy, was launched.
• On 18 October 2025, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a 'Gram Chaupal' at Dumri Khurd village in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, noting that GST on agricultural machinery had been cut from 12% and 18% to 5%.
• Kalmyk State University named after B. B. Gorodovikov, in Elista, Russia, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Nalanda University, Bihar, for exchanges, joint research and dual degrees (PIB, 18 October 2025).