Current Affairs 24 June 2025

Gold Emerges as the World's 2nd Most-Held Reserve Asset After the U.S. Dollar.

• Gold surpasses euro to become the second most-held global reserve asset, per ECB report.
• Central banks have been increasing their gold holdings due to factors like geopolitical instability, inflation, and declining trust in major currencies.
• The Russia-Ukraine conflict has played a significant role in this shift.
• Despite gold’s growing importance, demand from central banks is slowing down, suggesting a change in strategies for accumulating reserves.

Govt to set up Centre of Excellence to mitigate man-animal conflict.

• Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change proposed the establishment of a Centre of Excellence dedicated to human-wildlife conflict management.
• Centre of Excellence will be established at Wildlife Institute of India-Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History WII-SACON, with advanced technologies, including AI, for the management of human-wildlife conflict.

India Develops Solar-Based Technology for Green Hydrogen Generation.

• Scientists from Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, have developed a scalable next-generation device that produces green hydrogen by splitting water molecules using only solar energy.
• The device uses a silicon-based photoanode with n-i-p heterojunction architecture, composed of:
• n-type TiO₂
• intrinsic Si (undoped)
• p-type NiO

NACH 3.0: Faster salary credit, SIP debit, EMI payment and more.

• Starting from July 2025, the NACH 3.0 system can bring faster salary credits, EMI payments, and mutual fund SIP processing.
• NPCI's update includes enhanced security, improved user interface, and optimized file handling.
• Consumers will benefit from quicker transaction times, real-time monitoring, and more secure data protection, minimizing errors and improving overall experience.

IIPB wins Digital Payments Award for expanding financial inclusion.

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a 100% government-owned entity under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications, has been conferred the prestigious Digital Payments Award 2024–25 by the Ministry of Finance.
• IPPB secured the 1st position among all Payments Banks in India for the Financial Year 2024–25, after earning a ‘Special Mention’ in the previous fiscal.