The second leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2025, the fifth edition of India’s flagship winter sports event, is taking place in Gulmarg from March 9 to 12. Originally set for February 21-25, it was postponed due to insufficient snowfall.

Key Points

• Khelo India winter games held in two phases, the first leg was hosted in Ladakh from January 23-27.
• This year’s event features over 400 athletes from 19 teams across six winter sports, competing for 136 medals.
• Indian Army currently tops the medal tally with seven golds, five silvers, and six bronze medals.

Final Medal Tally

GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited is proud to announce that its subsidiary, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), has been honored with the prestigious Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Airport Experience Award, 2024, for Best Airport Over 40 Million Passengers in the Asia-Pacific region.

• This exceptional achievement marks the seventh consecutive year that Delhi Airport has been recognized for its commitment to excellence in customer service.
• The ASQ Awards, presented by Airports Council International (ACI), are globally regarded as the gold standard in airport experience.
• They recognize the world’s best airports for the quality of their customer service, as rated by the passengers themselves.
• The ASQ program is the only global benchmarking initiative that measures passenger satisfaction while they are physically at the airport, with over 400 airports worldwide participating in the program.
• The awards are based on comprehensive, impartial feedback from passengers, offering in-depth insights into the customer service experience at airports.

IIFL Finance, one of India's largest non-banking financial companies, has rebranded seven existing branches into all women staffed 'Shakti' branches on the occasion of Women's Day. 

• The seven rebranded branches are located across the Delhi National Capital Region and Mumbai Metropolitan Region, underscoring IIFL Finance's commitment to empowering women in financial services.
• 'Shakti' branches celebrate the strength and resilience of women who drive social and economic change in their communities. 
• These branches will cater to all borrowers and offer financial literacy programs tailored for female entrepreneurs.
• These seven ‘Shakti’ branches, staffed entirely by women will provide employment opportunities to female professionals, thereby bolstering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). 
• Beyond financial services, these branches will offer skill development programs designed to support women entrepreneurs in scaling their businesses.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, escalating the language row with the central government, dropped the official rupee symbol with the Tamil letter for ‘ru’ from ‘rubai’ (rupees in Tamil) for the state budget 2025-26.

Stalin shared on X a teaser for the state budget, which will be presented on March 14 in the state assembly.

Along with hashtags ‘Dravidian Model’ and ‘TNBudget2025’ the logo for the budget was conspicuously missing the official Rupee symbol, which is inspired by the Hindi alphabet for ‘R’.

Key takeaways

• Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam is an Indian academic and designer noted for his design of the Indian rupee sign. 
• Rupee symbol was officially adopted by the Indian government on July 15, 2010.