Vertical transmission, or a mother infecting her foetus or newborn, is an emerging aspect of COVID-19. A look at the available evidence worldwide so far, and ICMR’s recent guidelines to address this concern.

Pandemics have triggered the collapse of empires, weakened pre-eminent powers and institutions, created social upheaval and brought down wars.

The Union Health Ministry has declared 170 districts as Covid-19 hotspots and 207 districts as non-hotspots.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Aisha Farooqui stated that “the sale of such sophisticated weapons to India will disturb the strategic balance in South Asia with security implications for Pakistan and the region.”

The open-door policy is intended to usher in development in the North-east, which could in turn facilitate the closure of insurgencies. For the Look East Policy to work, it was necessary to press the “pause” button on democracy and, instead, support the ruling military junta.

Start-up India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to catalyse start-up culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 is the upgraded version of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 1.0.The scheme is extended to all educational institutes; however under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 Participating institutes are selected based on the fulfillment of certain criteria.

Further, MSDE in collaboration with GIZ, Germany has launched a pilot project called ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ to support aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India.

When the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed the Protected Agricultural Zone Development Bill, 2020 on February 19, 2020, farmers heaved a sigh of relief.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos State Corp have delayed the launch of their second ExoMars mission by two years to 2022.

The Union government has notified the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Rules, 2020 which enables implementation of recent amendments to the Act under which provisions of punishment for child abuse has been made more stringent.

Ever since the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak began in China in end-December 2019, various measures have been mentioned to reduce the risk of infection.

The rapid spread of Covid-19 has predictably stirred fears around greater globalization and created ripple effects on financial markets globally, complicating the task of central bankers and policymakers across the world.

"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we're deeply concerned, both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction," he told a news conference in Geneva.

Satellite-driven technology, big data analytics, and digital solutions are helping farmers in many countries today make more informed cropping decisions with regard to weather, soil nutrient application, and pest and disease control. Many of these technologies are likely to be introduced in India over the next few years.

There is no provision under Startup India initiative for sanctioning of funds to startups directly. However, Government of India has established a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with corpus of Rs. 10,000 crores, to meet the funding needs of startups.

In order to protect, support and promote small enterprises as also to help them become self-supporting, a number of protective and promotional measures have been undertaken by the Government.

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution welcoming the recent deal between the US and the Taliban to bring lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan and allow US troops to return home from America's longest war.

On the concept of blockchain-powered satellites, Aharsh MS, Chief Marketing Officer, Accubits, tells YourStory, “Chainsat will serve two purposes. One, it will act as one of the nodes of a private blockchain network or consortium blockchain.

The latest data on global arms transfer by SIPRI shows that Indian arms imports have come down significantly (by 32%) since 2015, indicating that the ‘Make in India’ initiative is gaining ground but the country is still ranked as the world’s second biggest weapons buyers, just behind Saudi Arabia.

On March 5, the Reserve Bank of India announced that it was superseding the Yes Bank Board of Directors for a period of 30 days “owing to serious deterioration in the financial position of the Bank”.

As much as 67% of donations to national parties in 2018-19 came from “unknown sources,” an increase from 53% in the previous financial year, said a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms on Monday.

Agriculture and climate change are deeply intertwined. Agriculture is responsible for almost 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is the root cause of 80 per cent of tropical deforestation.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows across the world will witness a sharp decline of five to 15 per cent because of the global novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, according to a report.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) researchers have found that India saw the largest area-wise forest fires across a region comprising seven South Asian countries, over a 15-year period between 2003 and 2017.

Almost half of government schools in the country don’t have any electricity or playgrounds, according to a parliamentary panel on education. It identified shortfalls in both budgetary funding and utilisation, resulting in critical infrastructure gaps.

Though the launch was postponed for some time, ISRO veterans claimed that the the geo-imaging satellite GISAT-1, which is one of the first-of-its-kind satellites, is equipped with a very powerful telescope and very sensitive imaging sensors which have been developed indigenously.

As part of the scheme no subsidy is given, however subsidy to the tune of Rs.9.60 crore is provided for procurement of charkha and looms to the Implementing or Promoting Agency for a full-scale Solar Charkha Cluster involving a total investment of about Rs.38.625 crore.

33 States/UTs have adopted the rainwater harvesting provisions. The provisions of this chapter are applicable to all the buildings. The implementation of the rainwater harvesting policy comes within the purview of the State Government/Urban Local Body / Urban Development Authority.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the merger of 10 public sector banks (PSBs) into four entities, aimed at having fewer but stronger lenders in India.

In a judgment globally significant for online financial transactions, the top court found the prohibitive circular too disproportionate. The central bank should have opted for a less invasive mechanism to control the pitfalls of cryptocurrency transactions, the court has indicated.

To be called the National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA), the proposed body is expected to take up both inter-State and intra-State projects. It will also make arrangements for generating up funds, internally and externally.

“We make the greatest weapons ever made...and we’re dealing now with India,” US President Donald Trump told a cheering crowd at the ‘Namaste Trump’ event in the Indian city of Ahmedabad last week, as he shared the stage with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Till date, six consultation meetings of stakeholders in Tamil Nadu were organized across its various nodes. Further, Government has also appointed a consultant for the preparation of Detailed Project Report for these two Defence Corridors.

The Registrar General of India (RGI) has asked all States to “give highest importance, attention and time” to the Census and National Population Register (NPR) work as “the foundations of the statistics of the country” depend on them.

On February 26, for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak began in China on December 8, the number of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) cases reported in a single day was more outside mainland China than within the country. According to the World Health Organisation,

The Centre has recently revamped the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) that will have far-reaching impact on the implementation of this flagship crop insurance scheme.

The two sides on Thursday signed 10 agreements with a focus on socioeconomic development of Myanmar.According to the joint statement, the two sides will start coordinated bus service between Imphal and Mandalay on April 7.

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman today unveiled EASE 3.0, the Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda 2020-21 for smart, tech-enabled banking, and the PSB EASE Reforms Annual Report 2019-20 here today.

Accelerating deforestation and rampant poaching mean this noble creature could end up extinct like its Javan and Balinese counterparts.

US President Donald Trump, on his first State visit to India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided Tuesday to elevate ties between their countries to a “comprehensive global strategic partnership”, giving it broader scope and scale.

The novel coronavirus outbreak in China may end up saving one of the world's most trafficked animals after Beijing announced a total ban on the sale and consumption of the pangolin.

The government on Wednesday approved setting up of a National Technical Textiles Mission with a total outlay of ₹1,480 crore with a view to position the country as a global leader in technical textiles.

India was the 5 most polluted country in 2019, with Ghaziabad in the National Capital Region ranked as the most polluted city in the world, according to a global compilation of PM 2.5 particulate pollution data by IQAir, a company that primarily works on air filtration.

The United States has become India’s top trading partner surpassing China, according to 2018-19 data from the Commerce Ministry. The bilateral trade between the US and India amounted to USD 87.95 billion as compared to USD 87.07 billion with China.

In a note for G20 finance ministers and central bankers, the global lender mapped out many risks facing the global economy, including the disease and a renewed spike in U.S.-China trade tensions, as well as climate-related disasters.

Several Chinese cities, including Beijing, have dramatically improved their air quality in recent years, while Indian metropolises remain some of the world’s worst polluted, according to a new report.

Insect attacks are becoming stronger with rising temperatures and plants are not able to cope with the double whammy from pests and rising heat.

Global cooperation and partnerships are required to achieve “ecological connectivity” and implementation of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), it was declared as the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 13th Conference of Parties (CoP) on the CMS concluded in Gandhinagar on Saturday.

When the US on 4 March last year announced that it is withdrawing duty-free entry for Indian exports worth around $6 billion, it brought the curtains down to a year- long dialogue between the two strategic partners for hammering out a limited trade package.

Three Indian species –the mainland Asian elephant, Great Indian Bustard and the Bengal Florican were selected for priority bio-diversity conservation at the United Nations summit for conservation of migratory species of wild animals, on Thursday.

The forest cover in India is increasing, but is still lower than the targeted 33% of the total geographical area under the country’s forest policy, an official said here on Thursday.

Alongside another mission to the Moon, being planned for next year, and the first human space flight scheduled for 2022, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also preparing to send its first scientific expedition to study the Sun.

While the technology Isro is aiming to eventually have is one that will allow it to transfer humans from one vehicle or spacecraft to another, the immediate goal is to enable refuelling of spacecraft to give them a longer life and also transfer other crucial systems to an existing spacecraft, by transporting another to space.

The Law Commission advises the government on complex legal issues. The term of the previous law panel ended last August.

Water makes up about 0.25% of the molecules in Jupiter’s atmosphere along its equator — almost three times that of the Sun, according to a study based on data from NASA’s Juno mission launched in 2011.

Before stepping out for birding, I always utter a silent prayer that snakes don’t cross my path. So, last Sunday, while heading out with a group to explore the biodiversity of the Ennore-Kattupalli-Pulicat region, I make the usual supplication.

India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and secures 131st spot on a flourishing ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children, according to a UN-backed report.

“There may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in the 0.1-0.2 percentage space,” the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, told the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai.

The model is likely to be presented before the Commission next month and if approved, a prototype could be readied by the end of the year or early next year, Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena told The Hindu.

The country will send up an unusually large number of 10 earth observation (EO) satellites during 2020-21, according to the latest annual report of the Indian Space Research Organisation for 2019-20.

On February 11, the World Health Organization officially announced COVID-19 as the name for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The report, released by K. Kasturirangan, former Chairman, ISRO, lists failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation; extreme weather events; major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse; food crises; and water crises, as the five global risks.

There are no written rules on the recusal of judges from hearing cases listed before them in constitutional courts. It is left to the discretion of a judge. The reasons for recusal are not disclosed in an order of the court.

The first set of doors that cover the twin engines of the fighter jets has come out of the Nagpur facility, which is a joint venture of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence and French firm Dassault Aviation.

Global development and government representatives from across the world made an appeal to urgently spend more on rural development to avoid a catastrophic situation arising out of the climate emergency during IFAD’s 43rd Governing Council meeting in Rome.

Updation of preamble text and inclusion of Principal Purpose Test, a general anti abuse provision in the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) will result in curbing of tax planning strategies which exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Pesticides Management Bill, 2020, which, the government claims, will regulate the business of pesticides and compensate farmers in case of losses from the use of spurious agro chemicals.

In November, the IIP had expanded by 1.8% after witnessing three consecutive months — August, September, and October — of contraction. A key reason for positive growth in November was the favourable base effect.

The Puducherry Legislative Assembly Wednesday passed a resolution against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and urged the Centre to withdraw the legislation, which has set off nationwide protests and led to over 25 deaths.

The United Nations will miss its target of achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, a senior UN representative has said in Rome.

As per the UNICEF 2019 report, Globalization, urbanization, inequities, humanitarian crises and climate shocks are driving unprecedented negative changes in the nutrition situation of children around the world.

In a major judgement, the Supreme Court has said that there is "no fundamental right which inheres in an individual to claim reservation in promotions", and also no court can order a state government to provide for reservation to SC/STs.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act of 2018, which nullified its own controversial March 20, 2018 judgment diluting the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law.

Instead of dealing with such drawbacks of thermal catalysis systems for DRM reaction, researchers have attempted to drive the conversion of methane at dramatically lower temperatures using photocatalysts activated by light.

Stating that the rare Indian cheetah is almost extinct in the country, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had filed an application seeking permission for the introduction of the African cheetah from Namibia.

Kolkata Metro Rail Corp. expects to complete its East-West project, which runs partly under the city’s iconic Hooghly river, by March 2022 after a delay of several years doubled costs.

Urban areas are likely to receive a renewed focus under the government’s ICDS programme, which provides for anganwadis or day-care centres across the country for delivery of nutrition and pre-school education

At least 20 smart cities that are lagging behind in project implementation will be paired with top performers to provide a framework to improve their performance.

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has granted relief to persons with disabilities across the country by allowing reservation in promotion in all groups for those employed in public sector jobs.

"The e-waste clinic is being started on the basis of a three-month pilot project. If this project is successful, e-waste clinics will be established at other places in the country.

Pakistan appeared to make some progress on convincing members of the global watchdog FATF (Financial Action Task Force) of its efforts to curb terror financing at a key meeting in Beijing on Thursday

India’s ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI-2019) has slipped from 78 to 80 compared to the previous year, said Transparency International on Thursday, while questioning the “unfair and opaque political financing” in the country. Its score of 41 out of 100 remains the same.

India has consciously chosen a path for environment friendly and energy efficient technologies while phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs).

India and Brazil will upgrade their strategic partnership with an “action plan” and sign a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visits as the Chief Guest of the Republic Day celebrations from 24-27.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, is “uppermost in everybody's minds”, but refused to stay the law without hearing the government first.

The latest edition of the Democracy Index spells gloom for India. The world’s biggest democracy slipped 10 places in the 2019 global ranking to 51st place.

The rising levels of our global seas poses serious threats to low-lying coastal communities. Nature itself can go some way to offering a solution.

Global unemployment is projected to increase by around 2.5 million in 2020 and almost half a billion people are working fewer paid hours than they would like or lack adequate access to paid work, according to UN's International Labour Organization report.

Gujarat was the most water-efficient state in India, according to an HT report on rankings of the survey.

India has been ranked very low at 76th place out of 82 countries on a new Social Mobility Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, while Denmark has topped the charts.

The wetlands play a crucial role in recharging groundwater, increase the base flow of rivers and help in erosion control.

India's richest 1 per cent hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country's population, while the total wealth of all Indian billionaires is more than the full-year budget, a new study said on Monday.

Adding teeth to India's air and maritime dominance in the Indian Ocean Region, a squadron of fourth generation fighter jets Sukhoi-30 MKI equipped with the BrahMos missile was inducted on Monday at the airforce station here, the first such base in South India.

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday announced that the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme will be implemented by June 1 across the country.

A year of extreme weather events and mounting evidence of global heating have catapulted the climate emergency to the top of the list of issues worrying the world’s elite.

On Tuesday, Kerala became the first state to challenge the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) before the Supreme Court. However, the legal route adopted by the state is different from the 60 petitions already pending before the court.

Congress-ruled Punjab will become the second state after Kerala to bring in an Assembly resolution Friday seeking the repeal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

India is planning a new law to safeguard foreign investment by speeding up dispute resolution, aiming to attract more capital from overseas to boost stuttering domestic growth, two officials with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The Congress-led Chhattisgarh government Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against the 2008 National Investigative Agency (NIA) Act, stating it is violative of the Constitution.

The Army has proposed special pension for the Emergency Commissioned and Short Service Commission (SSC) officers of 1965 and 1971 wars, General Manoj Naravane said on Tuesday.

The Act aims to end discrimination against transgender persons in accessing education, employment and healthcare. It also recognises the right to self-perceived gender identity and provides for certification from a District Magistrate;

Kaziranga, home of the world's most one-horned rhinos, has 96 species of wetland birds — one of the highest for wildlife preserves in India.

A citizen’s right to own private property is a human right. The state cannot take possession of it without following due procedure and authority of law, the Supreme Court has held in a judgment.

India is among the few countries in the world where, in 2018, the mortality under-5 years of girls, exceeded that of boys, according to the ‘Levels and Trends in Child Mortality’ report by the United Nations (UN) inter-agency group for child mortality.

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to express any views on whether “access to Internet” is a fundamental right.

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre’s reply to a petition challenging a Delhi High Court order that dismissed a plea for measures, including a two-child norm, to control India’s rising population.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification on Friday that the provisions of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 will come into force from January 10 onwards.

Leaving behind the fast changing metropolitan cities behind, three smaller cities in South India have secured a place in the list of world’s fastest-growing urban areas in The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey released on Friday.

The Agreement was signed at New Delhi on 20 September 2019 during the state visit of the President of Mongolia to India.

The Ministry of Environment has notified the new Wetland Conservation Rules that prohibit setting up or expansion of industries, and disposal of construction and demolition waste within the wetlands.

The airports had adopted the grading system in 2018 and successfully implemented the carbon emission plan.

An average of 80 murders, 289 kidnappings and 91 rapes were reported every single day across the country in 2018, according to the latest data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Three cities in Kerala feature among the fastest-growing urban areas across the world, according to a ranking released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey.

The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it would be the States’ prerogative to provide 10% economic reservation in government jobs and admission to education institutions.

India begins 2020 on an ambitious note. In December 2019, the government launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0, a programme that seeks to escalate efforts to achieve the goal of attaining 90% national immunization coverage between December 2019 and March 2020.

As heavy rain, record heat waves and severe cold waves intensified across the country in 2019, the year served as another reminder of how India is one of the countries that are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a five-year multiple-entry visa scheme for all nationalities, in a move that is geared towards promoting tourism in the country.

Bihar suffered the most – with 650 deaths – due to various extreme weather conditions in the country last year, a compilation by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) from media and government reports showed.

Pollution from single-use plastics is a major problem in Bangladesh, where nearly 170 million people live in a tiny sliver of low-lying land criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers and tributaries.

India's government is likely to cut spending for the current fiscal year by as much as 2 trillion Indian rupees as it faces one of the biggest tax shortfalls in recent years, three government sources said.

The IDRSS is planned to track and be constantly in touch with Indian satellites, in particular those in low-earth orbits which have limited coverage of earth.

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and the Assam government, seeking a reply within four weeks on a plea that has said that 60 children were in detention centres because their citizenship was yet to be established.

Organised by the Marine Biological Association of India, MECOS-3 will serve as a platform for discussions on a range of topics, including the impact of the climate crisis on marine ecosystems and an unusual warming of the Arabian Sea.

"The Agri Export Policy was announced last year with an objective of doubling the export and ensuring doubling of farmers' income...Many states have nominated nodal agency and nodal officer.

The bushfires raging across Australia have had a devastating impact on the country's unique flora and fauna, with some estimates putting the death toll at nearly half a billion animals in one state alone, and experts believe it could take decades for wildlife to recover.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry has prepared a blueprint to further improve India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index with a focus on six parameters, including enforcing contracts and starting a business, an official said.

Pakistan could seek more time from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to comply with its demands to cut finances to terrorist groups, two people familiar with the matter have said, ahead of Islamabad this week submitting responses on queries sent last month by the global watchdog, demanding clarification and data on steps taken by Islamabad to curb terror financing.

About 21.40% of forest cover in India is prone to fires, with forests in the north-eastern region and central India being the most vulnerable, the 2019 report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has said.

The Centre is all set to provide protection to domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir in government jobs, educational institutions and land rights, a senior government official said on Friday.

Nurses and midwives play a vital role in providing health services and are often, the first and only point of care in their communities. “

The Government has launched a new scheme National Animal Disease Control Programme for FMD and Brucellosiswith a financial outlay of Rs. 13,343.00 crore for five years (2019-20 to 2023-24) by vaccinating 100% cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig population for FMD and 100% bovine female calves of 4-8 months of age for brucellosis to prevent loss of Rs. 50,000 crore to the Government exchequer and also to increase the economic output of farmers.

In 2018, the number of tiger deaths recorded was 100 (93 mortalities and seven seizures). The number of tiger deaths in 2017 was 115 (98 mortalities and 17 seizures), and the number of tiger deaths in 2016 was 122 (101 mortalities and 21 seizures).

The annual river ice cover will decline by about six days for every one degree Celsius increase in global temperatures, posing economic and environmental consequences, according to a study.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday said the resolution passed by the state assembly demanding scrapping of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has no constitutional or legal validity.

Nepal’s Supreme Court has sought within 15 days the country’s original map exchanged with India during the signing of the Sugauli Treaty in 1816 after a petition seeking the apex court’s intervention to secure the Nepali territory.

India’s standing vis-a-vis United Nations-mandated goals has improved marginally, but the country has slipped in key areas, related to food security, livelihood and standard of living.

India is planning to make its third visit to the Moon, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman K. Sivan said on Wednesday.

India adopted redefined global units of measurement of kilogram, Kelvin, mole and ampere from 20th May 2019 i.e. the World Metrology Day

The strengthening of the strategic partnership was reflected in the India-US Joint Statement issued at the conclusion of their second 2+2 dialogue towards the end of the year, which was definitely the key highlight of 2019.

On February 06, 2019GSAT 31 communication satellite was successfully launched from Kourou, French Guiana onboard Arianespace rocket.

Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have emerged as top performing States in Niti Aayog’s SDG India Index 2019, which evaluates progress in social, economic and environmental terms, according to a report released on Monday.

India’s total forest cover has increased 0.56% over the last two years, according to the latest India State of the Forest Report 2019. India is among the few countries in the world where both forest and tree cover has shown a consistent increase.

The story so far: On December 24, the Union Cabinet approved an outlay of over ₹3,941.35 crore for updating the National Population Register (NPR) across the country, barring Assam.

More cybercriminal groups will target online payment processing systems in 2020, researchers from global cybersecurity and anti-virus brand Kaspersky have warned.

Ahead of the announcement of interest rates on small savings schemes for the January-March quarter by December 31, the RBI has asked the Finance ministry to align their interest rates with market rates which govern the banks also in a bid to improve transmission.

The CDS will also head the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), to be created within the Ministry of Defence and function as its Secretary. This follows the announcement made by the Prime Minister on August 15, 2019, in his address to the nation, inter alia, “India should not have a fragmented approach. Our entire military power will have to work in unison and move forward…All the three (Services) should move simultaneously at the same pace.

Alaska is set to finish 2019 with a record average high temperature after a year of extremes ranging from a sweltering summer and rampant wildfires to vanishing sea ice and winter rains where heavy snows were once the norm.

India and Japan have vowed to deepen maritime cooperation and also held consultations on disarmament, non-proliferation and export control.

The NPR exercise has become controversial because the Citizenship Rules 2003 link the Population Register to the creation of a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) or National Register of Citizens.

At a time of widespread protests by university students, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has launched new guidelines for values and ethics in higher education.

The researchers' calculations show that a truck using one kilogramme (kg) of conventional fuel could produce 3kg of liquid CO2, and that the conversion does not involve any energy penalty.

A small swarm on average eats as much in one day as about 10 elephants, 25 camels, or 2,500 people.

Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 – focus on granting Indian Citizenship to persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities on ground of religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Marathon deliberations held by Union Home Minister with various stakeholders from North East and their concerns against the CAB 2019 addressed in the final Amendment Act.

Puducherry gets the first position among the union territories, Himachal Pradesh ranked first in the north-east and hill category.

The FATF, a global watchdog for terror financing, that kept Pakistan on the Grey List for an extended period till February 2020, had warned in October that Islamabad would be put on the 'Black List' if it did not comply with the remaining 22 points in a list of 27 questions.

The GST Council will set up a grievance redressal mechanism for taxpayers.The decision was taken at the 38th meeting of the GST Council held on December 18.

Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the state of Kerala, has shown how decentralised waste management is the answer to minimising waste creation.

The developments came to light in a report of the Standing Committee on Defence, which was presented to the Lok Sabha speaker on Friday

India and Brazil are major consumers of energy in the world and Brazil is one of the most important trading partners of India in the entire LAC (Latin America and Caribbean) region.

Census of India will cover the entire population in the country while NPR will also cover all the population except in the state of Assam.

The scheme aims to improve ground water management through community participation in identified priority areas in seven States, viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday said it was "closely" following the recent developments "affecting" Muslims in India as it voiced concern over the Citizenship Amendment Act and the verdict in the Ayodhya case.

Hyderabad has emerged as the top domestic destination for Indians travelling in 2019 while Dubai as the most preferred international spot, according to a survey.

The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying under the FIDF provides interest subvention up to 3% per annum for providing the concessional finance by the NLEs at the interest rate not lower than 5% per annum.

Ahead of Oman Jaishankar will visit Iran for the Joint Commission meeting on Sunday-Monday eyeing to safeguard India’s interests in the region close on heels of Indo-US 2+2 meet.

As protests spread all across the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 and the proposed National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), West Bengal and Kerala suspended work related to the preparation and update of the National Population Register in their respective States.

Rising inequality across the world made collective action against climate change difficult, according to the Human Development Index 2019 (HDI). The report by United Nations Development Programme, released earlier this month, highlighted the need to address inequality and climate crisis together.

The Ministry of External Affairs is organised on the basis of divisions, which are based on geography or along certain themes. Over the years, these divisions have evolved, split or have been merged based on foreign policy priorities.

This number has increased by four-fold today. Thanks to scientific data collection on tiger population, increased patrolling and better management of forest areas, the big cat numbers have gone up steadily, say officials.

There are two other resolutions on Gandhi pending in the Congress -- one by Senators Bob Menendez and Ted Cruz in the Senate and other by several other lawmakers led by Congressman Raja Kishnamoorthi in the House of Representatives.

Restrictions may be imposed under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on personal liberties in the interest of public order, but they should never be “too general”.

The second meeting between officials of India, Afghanistan and Iran took place here on Friday to monitor implementation of the 2016 agreement regarding development and management of the Chabahar port in Iran, according to an official statement.

The Centre has designed a standard format for ration cards as it moves ahead with ‘one nation, one ration card’ initiative and has asked State governments to follow the pattern while issuing fresh ration cards.

The statement came after Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Punjab, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh announced that the CAA was “unconstitutional” and has no place in their respective States.

The Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) has been recognised formally by the National Department of Regulation of Medicines and Health Products of the Ministry of Public Health of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Speaking at the launch programme, Prof. VijayRaghavan said India has recently embarked on a number of national-level efforts to promote ecological and environmental research on the subcontinent; however, there remains a lacuna of trained scientists with interdisciplinary skills and collaborative mindset.

The fossil forest in Cairo would have spread from New York all the way into Pennsylvania and beyond, according to the researchers from Binghamton University, and New York State Museum in the U.S.

At the Dialogue, both sides positively appraised the growing partnership between India and the United States, and noted that important milestones had been achieved since the inaugural 2+2 dialogue in New Delhi in 2018.

The government on Tuesday announced a new ‘mission’ aimed at providing broadband access in all villages in the country by 2022, entailing investments of around ₹7 lakh crore from various stakeholders.

Several studies conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), Centre for Science and Environment and others published in journals such as The Lancet have linked pollution with premature deaths in India.

The Pinaka MK-II Rocket is modified as a missile by integrating with the Navigation, Control and Guidance System to improve the end accuracy and enhance the range.

The consultative meeting being organised in partnership with Population Foundation of India (PFI) will bring together senior officials, experts and subject matter specialists to discuss ways and means of strengthening India’s population policy and family planning programmes.

The Supreme Court has set up a two-judge committee to expedite disposal of rape cases across the country. The panel will exclusively monitor the cases and ensure trials are swift and efficient.

Forum's Global Gender Gap index to 112, behind neighbours China, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, due to rising disparity in terms of women's health and participation in the economy.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed by both houses of Parliament in the winter session is now known as the Citizenship Act.

The Indo-Pacific concept is also moving beyond economic, cultural and historical linkages to include an overarching strategic imperative, which shows India gradually evolving this new foreign policy concept into a hard power attribute, “one which drives existing mechanisms with a new sense of purpose”.

After getting the longest ever extension in the history of annual UN climate conferences, two weeks of talks ended on a disappointing note on Sunday with all key issues — rules on carbon markets, ‘ambition’ and long-term finance — being pushed to the next round of talks in Glasgow in 2020.

World Environment Day takes place every year on 5 June. It is the United Nations’ flagship day for promoting worldwide awareness and action for the environment.

Two years after Bihar began developing organic farming corridors along Ganga, the Centre may renew its push for such farming along the river in five states to combat increasing pollution from toxic pesticides.

After remaining defunct for over two decades, the Islands Development Agency has moved in swiftly to develop the Andaman and Nicobar islands as an optical fibre cable project which is expected to be completed by the middle of 2020.

Over three lakh rural habitations across the country continue to be deprived of the government’s minimum prescribed provision of 40 litre per capita per day (lpcd) of potable drinking water with assured quality.

Of the total 19,600 endangered species of flora and fauna in the country, the Himalayan region is home to 133 which are passing through a critical phase due to changing weather patterns and massive deforestation, scientists warned at a seminar in Almora on Wednesday.

three milestone judgments - Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab of 1980 being the last of the series - the Supreme Court laid the principle of "rarest of rare" for awarding death penalty to convicts found guilty of murder.

The United Nations Human Rights Office voiced concern on Friday that India's new citizenship law is “fundamentally discriminatory in nature” by excluding Muslims and called for it to be reviewed.

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) Authority Bill, 2019 towards setting up a unified authority to regulate all financial services in IFSCs in the cpuntry.

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) Authority Bill, 2019 towards setting up a unified authority to regulate all financial services in IFSCs in the cpuntry.

The Autonomous Region of Bougainville, a chain of islands that lie 959 kilometres northwest of Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) capital, Port Moresby, has voted unequivocally for independence.

An Indonesian cave painting that depicts a prehistoric hunting scene could be the world's oldest figurative artwork dating back nearly 44,000 years, pointing to an advanced artistic culture, according to new research.

Tamil Nadu has overtaken Karnataka to become India's top renewable power generating state in FY20 (till October).

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the introduction of the Aircraft (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Parliament. The Bill is intended to carry out amendments to the Aircraft Act, 1934 (XXII of 1934).

Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar on Wednesday introduced the Code on Social Security, 2019, in the Lok Sabha. The Bill seeks to amend and consolidate laws relating to the social security of employees, subsuming eight Central laws.

The second two-plus-two dialogue between India and the US will take place on December 18 in Washington during which the two sides will take stock of the entire gamut of strategic ties between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

More than 3.13 lakh cyber security incidents were reported in India this year up to October, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

“Renewable energy is increasingly cheaper and better for the strategic interests of India, and the IREDA Green Window would provide a significant boost to the renewable energy market.

The Indus river and its tributaries, which flow through parts of China, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are among the most vulnerable ‘water towers’ in the world, a new study has said.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill or CAB, which grants Indian citizenship to the non-Muslims of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

With the launch of RISAT (Radar Imaging Satellite) – 2BR1 on Wednesday, India has completed the stationing of a quartet of satellites in space to ensure its borders are protected, say analysts.

Approved as part of the conference report of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2020, it designates Russia's GLONASS and Chinese Beidou as a “non-allied system”.

Provisions for reservations for SCs/STs and Anglo- Indians are extended under Article 334 (a) and (b) of the Constitution. While the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar confirmed that the SC/ST reservation under 334(a) was extended by 10 years, he said details of the Bill would be clear when it is tabled in Parliament in the ongoing session.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce Index 2019 has been topped by the Netherlands for the second consecutive year.

Global carbon emissions boosted by soaring natural gas use are set to hit record levels in 2019 despite a decline in coal consumption and a string of countries declaring a climate emergency, researchers said Wednesday.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that the bill has been approved by the Cabinet and would be introduced in the Parliament.

Even as world leaders meet at the COP25, underway in Madrid, to discuss climate change issues, the Global Climate Risk Index released by international environmental think tank Germanwatch on Wednesday, shows that India has fallen from its 15th rank of countries hit most by climate change-induced weather phenomena in 2017, to number five in 2018.

A press release from the Ministry of External Affairs announced both sides signed the Protocol of Cooperation between the Department of Science and Technology of India and the Swedish Energy Agency and the MoU between the Ministry of Earth Sciences of India and the Ministry of Education and Research of Sweden on cooperation of polar science.

Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said in the Rajya Sabha that tiger population in the country has increased by 750 in the last four years to 2,976.

Signalling a climate crisis, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday said 2019 marks the end of warmest decade on record with global average temperatures about 1.1 °C above the pre-industrial period.

Shri Reddy said that there will be no change in administration and service conditions and reservation. Similarly, there will be no change in the status of Group III and IV employees.

The Home Minister noted that there is a perception that the amendment in SPG Act is being brought only for the purpose to remove the SPG security cover for the Gandhi family.

Waiver of Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) charges and losses for inter-state sale of solar power for projects to be commissioned up to December, 2022

Employees in India are expected to see 9.2 per cent salary growth in 2020, highest in Asia, but inflation may play a spoiler as real-wage salaries in the country is anticipated to be just 5 per cent, a report said on Monday.

The Centre in the Lok Sabha on Monday moved the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill 2019 for its passage, seeking changes in the Income Tax law aimed at lowering tax rate options to domestic companies to promote growth and investment and attract fresh investment in the manufacturing sector.

The International Organisation for Migration said in its ‘Global Migration Report 2020’ that the number of international migrants in 2019 is now estimated at 270 million and the top destination remains the U.S., at nearly 51 million.

On October 24, 2019, about 200 officials, including policemen, gathered at Sherkot in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district. It was a planned raid, not to apprehend criminals, but to check on organised factories that were making paint brushes with mongoose hair.

The oil-rich kingdom is promoting a liberalisation drive, the signs of which can be seen in granting greater rights to women and more transparency.

The central government on Monday asked the Supreme Court to refer the matter concerning the exclusion of the creamy layer from the Schedules Caste and Schedules Tribes for reservation benefits to a seven-judge bench.

Government is planning to set up a new rocket launch pad in Tamil Nadu. Currently, the Indian Space Research organisation (Isro) has two launch pads at Sriharikotta, Andhra Pradesh. The development comes on the backdrop of increasing launches from India, both for domestic and international customers.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found that aerosols from biomass burning, such as black carbon, can be transported by wind to tropical Andean glaciers.

The laboratory that will be housed in the UNDP India office has partnered with the Indian government’s Atal Innovation Mission to achieve its objectives.

Milky Way is estimated to contain 100 million stellar black holes -- cosmic bodies formed by the collapse of massive stars, and so dense even light can't escape.

The firing was witnessed by the top Infantry hierarchy of the Indian Army, including the Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, who were all at Mhow for the annual Infantry Commanders' Conference.

NFVI has three components: (1) the country’s GDP per person, (2) the share of food in household consumption, and (3) the net food imports. The lower per capita GDP, a higher percentage of food in household consumption, and top net food imports would make a country more vulnerable to spikes in food prices.

Amid a row over the Centre’s decision to revoke special protection group (SPG) cover from Congress president Sonia Gandhi and senior party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Union home ministry on Monday tabled the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha.

While a quarter of population still don't have access to sanitation facilities, hand pumps continue to be the major source of drinking water for households in rural areas, a report by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has said.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, rising faster than the average rise of the last decade and cementing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

But the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA), which is under discussion, is unlikely to be concluded.

The story so far: The Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement in the Rajya Sabha earlier this week that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be implemented across India, and repeated again in Assam, has ignited interest in the existing legal framework in India for illegal migrants.

The Centre's ambitious project to interlink rivers is on fast track and the work on at least four such projects is set to start soon as the detailed project reports (DPRs) are ready, the Union Jal Shakti Ministry said in a written reply in Parliament on November 21, 2019.

Overall percentage of persons with disability in the population was 2.2% during July 2018 to December 2018 in the country, showed a National Statistical Office (NSO) survey report on Saturday.

The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Bill, 2019, seeks to replace an ordinance issued on September 18.

In a written response to a question in the Lower House, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the demand of plastic has increased significantly due its increased use in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, which has indirectly resulted into the challenge of plastic waste management.

The petition was filed jointly by former Army officer S.G. Vombatkere and activist Bezwada Wilson against the legality of Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the Aadhaar (Pricing of Aadhaar Authentication Services) Regulations, 2019.

Ministry of Women & Child Development has released funds (central share) for three aspirational districts in Andhra Pradesh namely Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and YSR Kadapa for undertaking block level activities in 8 blocks per aspirational district.

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research initiated a study on Evaluation of Zero Budget Natural Farming practices in Basmati/ coarse rice-wheat system from Rabi 2017 at 4 locations namely Modipuram, Pantnagar, Ludhiana, Kurukshetra .

Government is taking all efforts for the mitigation of air pollution in the country. Central Government has taken a number of regulatory measures for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution in the country.

Two Union Territories -- Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli -- will be merged into one and a bill in this effect will be tabled in Parliament next week, Union Minister Arjun Meghwal said in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

What makes this moon so alluring is the possibility that it may possess all of the ingredients necessary for life. Scientists have evidence that one of these ingredients, liquid water, is present under the icy surface and may sometimes erupt into space in huge geysers.

“The Ministers commended the progress in defence technology collaboration. They witnessed the exchange of a Letter of Intent to register both sides’ commitment to conclude a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the use of Chandipur Integrated Test Range by the Singapore defence establishment,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

"Two Prithvi-2 missiles were test fired consecutively and both tests met all parameters," the official said from the Interim Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur.

Around 75 operational NH projects have been identified for potential monetization using the TOT Model, and bundled into 10 separate bids to attract economics of scale for the private sector.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019, which lowered the corporate tax rate for domestic and new manufacturing companies through an Ordinance on 20 September, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has projected a rapid increase in installed capacity of solar power by 2040, from 495 GW now to 3,142 GW, in its latest World Energy Outlook (WEO).

N2O is the third-most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). It has the highest global warming potential among the three — 300 times than CO2.

The largest of Saturn's many moons has lakes, mountains and dunes, with its surface scarred and crafted by many of the same forces which have shaped Earth, scientists said Monday.

India has slipped 6 places to 59 rank on a global annual list of 63 countries, due to low quality of life and expenditure on education, according to the latest edition of IMD World Talent Ranking, which was topped by Switzerland.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would launch its earth imaging and mapping satellite Cartosat-3 along with 13 commercial nano satellites from the US, on November 25, the space agency said.

India is leading mobile ad fraud in Asia with a rate of 62 per cent as marketers are spending nearly 20 per cent of their advertising budget on ad fraud, a new report said on Monday.

Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), faced renewed pressure on Monday to overhaul the organisation's influential projections for fossil fuel demand from investors and scientists concerned about climate change.

Human-caused climate change is on track to make the Arctic Ocean functionally ice-free for part of each year starting sometime between 2044 and 2067, according to a study.

Darjeeling green and white teas, whose price varies from Rs 3,000 -Rs 10,000 per kg, have received Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the domestic market, which will put to rest any doubt about their authenticity and quality.

The signatories to the second project loan for the Karnataka Integrated and Sustainable Water Resources Management Investment Program (IWRM) were Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance who signed for the Government of India and Mr. Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, who signed for ADB.

Over the last few years, India has embarked on a journey towards providing improved access to high-quality, affordable healthcare for the most unreached and vulnerable population of the country.

Union Government today launched announced Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh which would be a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones for better nutritional outcomes.

A joint press release issued at the conclusion of the 10th session of the European Union-Pakistan Joint Commission in Brussels on Friday said that the two sides emphasised the importance of the implementation of FATF action plan by Pakistan, the Dawn reported.

Besides the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the government also plans to convert two crucial ordinances into law during the session.

India on Saturday successfully conducted the first night trial of nuclear capable intermediate range ballistic missile Agni-II from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.

Incentives to use cleaner construction material, less polluting fuel for power generation and tighter norms for use of diesel in power generation are among steps required to improve air quality in the national capital region, a high level report said.

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday said that tap water in Delhi and several other cities did not comply with the requirements according to a study conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

As the air quality in the national capital entered the 'emergency' category again on Friday, Delhi tops the chart of most polluted city in the world, according to the weather forecasting agency Skymet.

The corporate affairs ministry has notified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2019 (Rules).

NITI Aayog will on Monday release a report which integrates viewpoints on the efforts required for strengthening the existing fractured health system to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

The Union Environment Ministry on Friday withdrew a draft amendment that proposed updates to the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Activist groups and some State governments had protested this proposed law after it was mooted in March.

While the office of the CJI is now under the RTI’s ambit, the CBI is exempt. When the UPA government brought the RTI law on October 12, 2005, the CBI was under it.

Counsellor at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Anjani Kumar announced India’s pledges at the UN General Assembly Pledging Conference for Development Activities.

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down in entirety Rules framed by the government under the Finance Act of 2017 to alter the appointments to 19 key judicial tribunals, including the Central Administrative Tribunal.

China on Thursday successfully completed a crucial landing test in northern Hebei province ahead of a historic unmanned exploration mission to Mars next year.

At current emission rates, a child born today will face lifelong health impacts of climate change, according to a new report. By the time he or she turns 71, the world will be 4 degrees-Celsius (deg-C) warmer than the pre-industrial levels of the mid-1700s.

Elon Musk-run SpaceX has launched 60 "Starlink" satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida that will bring cheaper Internet access to the world.

The Narendra Modi government finally released the farm sector suicide data for 2016 after three years on November 8, 2019. According to it farmers' suicide numbers has declined sharply from previous years though the number of agricultural labourers taking their lives have jumped 11 percent.

The Supreme Court will, on Wednesday, pronounce the verdict on whether or not the office of Chief Justice of India comes under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Can a secular State be ordered to facilitate the construction of a temple, which is an essential part of the Hindu belief? Does this not amount to a secular State fostering a particular religion?

At least 72% urban Indians believe that India is headed in the right direction compared to 61% global citizens who feel their country is on the wrong track, says a survey by market research firm Ipsos.

The report titled “Why Girls Run Away To Marry — Adolescent Realities and Socio-Legal Responses in India” is based on a qualitative study of 15 girls aged 15-20 years from Jaipur, Delhi and Mumbai who had been in a consensual romantic relationship, some of which resulted in self-arranged marriages.

A draft of the social security code, one of the four codes that are part of the Centre’s labour reforms agenda, was published on September 17 for public comments and suggestions till October 25.

The government has approved setting up four medical device parks with a view to support Make in India initiative and provide world-class treatment at affordable prices.

The IAF is looking at speeding up the development and production of the LCA by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).“We are taking delivery of the last four aircraft in the Initial Operational Configuration (IOC).

This is among the findings of an analysis of lightning strikes in India — the most widespread killer among natural calamities — from January to August by the private weather agency Skymet.

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.

India also witnessed the addition of 7 unicorns in 2019 till August, taking the total tally up to 24, which is the third highest number of unicorns in a single country in the world. Here are the key highlights of the report.

The banking regulator mandated banks not to charge savings bank account customers for online transactions via NEFT from January 2020

report compiled by a group of sectoral experts, ranging from human rights groups to legal policy groups, show that women account for seven per cent of India's 2.4 million police personnel.

NASA scientists at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, looked at ground and satellite data to track moisture in Amazon rainforest’s atmosphere for this study.

In an unanimous and historic verdict, the Supreme Court on Saturday settled the long-festering Ayodhya dispute by allowing Hindus to build a Ram temple on the disputed land while sanctioning Muslims five acres to build a mosque in the temple town.

Pesident Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill, a controversial anti-terror legislation passed by the BJP-ruled state in March 2015.

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said that this decision of government will open a new chapter in the field of Khadi export.

Among the small states (where population is less than one crore each), Goa has topped the list followed by Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, it said.

The first ever BIMSTEC Conclave of Ports, being held at Vishakhapatnam on 7-8 November, 2019 was inaugurated by Minister of State for Shipping(I/C), Shri Mansukh Mandaviya today.

“The present form of the RCEP Agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirit and the agreed guiding principles of RCEP,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address at the RCEP summit in Bangkok, according to a tweet by official broadcaster Prasar Bharati.

The draft rule also said HRA will be 10% of the minimum wage but will not classify whether it will be based on the category of the cities people live in.

More than four decades after beginning its epic journey, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has crossed the elusive boundary that marks the edge of the Sun’s realm and the start of interstellar space, scientists have announced.

There was no immediate reaction from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog now monitoring Iran’s compliance with the deal.

In Freedom on the Net 2019: The Crisis of Social Media, the Washington-based independent watchdog organization evaluated 65 countries between June 2018 and May 2019, and found that 33 were on an “overall decline” in terms of internet freedom.

To further strengthen its capabilities of hitting enemy targets from submarines, India is planning to test-fire the 3,500 kilometre strike-range K-4 nuclear missile from an underwater platform off the coast of Andhra Pradesh on Friday.

Shri Gopal Krishna. Secretary (Shipping) today flagged off the sailing-vessel, M Y Maheshwari via a video conference from Deep Bhawan at Taratolla. This vessel will carry 53 TEUs (containers) of petrochemicals, edible oil and beverage.

Speaking on the occasion at the CBIC’s DG Systems office here in New Delhi , Finance Minister lauded the measures taken by CBIC to leverage technology for providing better taxpayer services.

The forum concluded on Friday and was co-chaired by Sanjiv Nandan Sahai, Secretary (Power) from the Indian side and Christian Hirte, Secretary of State, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany, according to an official statement.

The Nirbhaya Fund was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the sensational December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case in the national capital. Its aim was to support initiatives of the government and the NGOs working towards the safety of women.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its older commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. are poised to commercialise India’s regional navigation satellite system, NavIC, with Antrix recently floating two separate tenders to identify industries that can develop dedicated NavIC-based hardware and systems.

“The first regiment of 18 guns will be in place by March 2020. We will get another 36 guns by March 2021 and another 40 by March 2022. The entire order for 114 guns will be completed by 2022,” an Army source said.

Disclosing this while briefing the media after an exhaustive meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh said, the birth of two new Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh will also herald the beginning of a bamboo revolution in the region.

India and the US on Friday committed to enhance cooperation in tackling money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

A Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose clarified the law while setting aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court decision of January 15 that a carbon copy signed by the parties in a dispute cannot be treated as primary evidence under Section 62 of the Indian Evidence Act.

Submarines are essentially of two types: conventional and nuclear. Conventional submarines use a diesel-electric engine, and must surface daily for oxygen for fuel combustion.

The blanket of haze over Delhi thickened on Friday morning with the national capital's pollution levels increasing overnight by around 50 points, taking the overall air quality index to 459.

While strengthening Cooperation in the Field of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation formed a major part of the joint statement, there was also a large section on combating terrorism.

UCCN,created in 2004, is a network of cities which are thriving, active centres of cultural activities in their respective countries. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network now counts a total of 246 cities.

The NHP covers demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, human resources in the health sector and health infrastructure.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Thursday said that the Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) payload on Chandrayaan-2 has detected Argon-40 (40Ar) from the lunar exosphere.

Glaciers will melt faster than current models on climate change account for as algae blooms colonise them and reduce their ability to reflect the sun's heat, scientists studying glaciers said.

Life expectancy in India has increased from 49.7 years in 1970-75 to 68.7 years in 2012-16, as per the National Health Profile 2019 released on Wednesday.

Pollution levels in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region of the country rose by nearly 72% in last 18 years, reducing the life expectancy of people by seven years, says a new research.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against India in a crucial trade dispute with the US, ordering all export promotion schemes to be stopped within the next four months. The WTO also said the SEZ Scheme should be closed within the next six months.

Delegations from 78 countries are participating in this Assembly, this includes 29 Ministerial delegations of which 25 are from ISA member countries, 2 from signatory countries and further 2 from prospective member countries.

Peatland health is under threat from drainage for agriculture, commercial forestry, peat extraction, infrastructure development and, of course, the effects of global heating.

Justice S.A Bobde is set to be sworn in as the next Chief Justice of India, after President Ram Nath Kovind signed his appointment order on Tuesday, according to news reports.

Prime Minister said, Neighbourhood First continues to be the guiding vision for my government's foreign policy. India's relations with Saudi Arabia are one of the most important bilateral relationships in our extended neighbourhood.

Cyclone 'Kyarr' intensifies to become the first Super Cyclonic storm in Arabian Sea in last 12 years after Cyclone Gonu ravaged the Oman coast in 2007.

Snow Leopard enumeration of the Nation, which is the first of its kind, has been developed by scientific experts in association with the Snow Leopard States/UTs namely, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunanchal Pradesh.

The Indian Air Force has carried out successful firing of BrahMos surface-to-surface missiles from a mobile platform at Trak Island in Andaman Nicobar islands, officials said on Tuesday.

India climbed 14 rungs in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 survey to stand at 63, among 190 countries, making it the one of world’s top 10 most improved countries for the third consecutive time.

The US, while still expected to contribute a sizable portion to world growth, is projected to fall to third place, after India.

The States need not take the Centre’s approval to define what constitutes unclassified land as forest, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the environment ministry, comprising independent experts and officials in the Centre’s forestry division, has clarified

Venezuela was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday with 105 votes and a round of applause, despite fierce lobbying by the United States and rights groups, and the late entry of Costa Rica as competition.

Processed milk, including of major brands, have failed to meet the prescribed quality norm in 37.7 per cent of the total samples tested, according to a Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) study.

The new rules downgrading the office of the chief and other information commissioners at the Centre and in the states, flowing from the July 2019 amendments to the 2005 Right to Information Act, send out disturbing signals about the fate of one of the most progressive, democracy-enhancing pieces of legislation to be enacted in free India.

NITI Aayog with Institute for Competitiveness as the knowledge partner released the India Innovation Index (III) 2019. Karnataka is the most innovative major state in India.

Deficiency in vitamins and other essential nutrients arising from unhealthy diets is the main risk factor for several diseases among Indian children, a Unicef report said. The report also pointed to the prevalence of anaemia, insufficient protein intake and changing dietary preferences in the country.

In a major development, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Tuesday decided "in principle" that Pakistan will remain on its grey list till February 2020 and directed the country to take "extra measures" for the "complete elimination" of terror financing and money laundering.

Shri Arjun Munda, Union Minister of Tribal Affair announced the second phase of GOAL (Going Online as Leaders), a Facebook program aimed at inspiring, guiding and encouraging tribal girls from across India to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities.

Seventeen countries, including Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Cuba and Kuwait, shared the top rank with GHI scores of less than five, the website of the Global Hunger Index that tracks hunger and malnutrition said on Wednesday.

As part of India’s strategy to combat climate change, Indian Railways will become "net zero" carbon emitter by 2030, said railways and commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday.

India has warned of the inherent dangers in nuclear brinkmanship pursued by countries as a cover for cross-border terrorism, days after Pakistan Prime Minister drummed up hysteria over a possible nuclear war in South Asia after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Air India on Tuesday became the first airline in the world to use a Taxibot on a A320 aircraft with passengers onboard.Taxibot is a robot-used aircraft tractor for taxiing an aircraft from parking bay to runway and vice versa.

As with all previous Moon missions, national prestige is a big part of India’s Moon shot. But there are some colder calculations behind it as well.

After a broad-based deceleration in the initial quarters of this fiscal year, India's growth rate is projected to fall to 6 per cent, the World Bank said on Sunday.

Even as Indian children continue to grapple with undernutrition, the first ever national nutrition survey of children and adolescents shows a growing risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease, with many showing early signs of these diseases.

The word planet is a general term that describes any celestial body that moves around a star. Well, there are also “rogue” planets that do not orbit stars. An exoplanet is a planet outside our solar system. It is an extrasolar planet.

The global economy is wobbling and whether it topples over is the big question in financial markets, executive suites and the corridors of power.

Bangladesh and Nepal are estimated to grow faster than India in 2019, according to the World Bank, which said that overall growth in South Asia is projected to slow down this fiscal in line with a global downward trend.

To address the issue of land availability for clean energy projects, India will set up solar and wind projects on fallow land along its international border with Pakistan, according to a top government official.

The estimated prevalence of blindness in India has reduced by approximately 47% in last 12 years, while untreated cataract continue to be leading cause of blindness, a government survey has revealed.

India, one of the world's biggest agricultural producers, experienced its heaviest monsoon rains in 25 years this year.

The thousands of rhinos that once roamed Africa and Asia have been culled by poaching and habitat loss. Very few are found outside national parks and reserves, where they remain threatened.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will now provide technical support to India for government’s ambitious scheme Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

India has moved down 10 places to rank 68th on an annual global competitiveness index, largely due to improvements witnessed by several other economies, while Singapore has replaced the US as the world's most competitive economy.

The Centre will soon start consultation process to make mandatory compliance of the BIS quality standard for tap water to begin with in the national capital, state capitals and 100 smart cities, Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Thursday.

Around 53 per cent of top Indian companies have a male to female employee ratio of 10:1 or worse and 70 per cent of the top firms have less than one per cent of employees with disability, a study by a think-tank claimed on Thursday.

Taking cognisance of the worsening slowdown, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday cut its economic growth forecast for 2019-20 to 6.1 per cent, a huge downward revision of 80 basis points (bps) from the projection it made in the August policy meeting.

SROCC provides the best available scientific knowledge to empower governments and communities to take action, embedding that scientific knowledge on unavoidable change and plausible futures into their own context, to limit the scale of risks and climate impacts.

The government may soon roll out stringent norms and impose heavy fines on corporates, including hospitality industry, mobile manufacturers and packaging industry, for failing to stop use of plastic.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed its own verdict which introduced measures like prior inquiry before the arrest of an accused under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989.

But how did this entire ban come about? And what exactly is going to be banned after October 2? Although there is no official word from the Central government about the latter yet, we try to piece together information based on recent announcements and developments.

Indian Navy got its second Scorpene-class attack submarine INS Khanderi, after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, dedicated it to the nation on Saturday. India’s first Scorpene-class attack submarine is named INS Kalvari in December 2017.

Renewable energy generation fell 20% in August despite a notable expansion in capacity. This was the biggest monthly fall in at least three years, according to data collated by SBICAP Securities Ltd.

There are huge differences in the quality of school education across the country, according to a Niti Aayog ranking released on Monday.

A worryingly persistent slowdown dragged economic growth in India down to 5% in the fiscal first quarter, its weakest pace in more than six years.

The Central Pollution Control Board task force also asked Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan to submit it and the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority the weekly reports on implementation of anti-pollution measures.

A Presidential Order on August 5 read down Article 370, through which special rights and privileges were given to the people of Jammu and Kashmir since 1954 in accordance with the Instrument of Accession.

The Indian Navy on Saturday will induct its indigenously built Kalvari class diesel-electric submarine.Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will commission the submarine which will be known as INS Khanderi.

India has advanced four places to 44th position in terms of digital competitiveness in the world as the country has made improvement in terms of knowledge and future readiness to adopt and explore digital technologies, according to a global report.

The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today and even more tomorrow.

The estimated TB incidence in India stands at 27 lakh. Dr. Vardhan, however, noted there were still 5.5 lakh patients who were “lost” in the country. “There are still 5.5 lakh TB patients in our country whom we are not being able to find.

The Centre has proposed a new draft Code on Social Security that amalgamates eight laws — covering Employees’ Provident Fund, maternity benefits and compensation among others— that makes way for establishing funds for PF and pension as well as covering workers of the gig economy in social security schemes.

In its boldest gambit yet to stir up the economy, the government on Friday issued an ordinance to reduce the corporate tax rate for domestic firms and new manufacturing units by 10 to 12 percentage points, effectively bringing India’s tax rates on par with its competing Asian peers.

Antibiotic resistance in animals has increased by 50 per cent since 2000, according to the study, published in the journal Science on Thursday.

Some of the critical technologies to be provided by the DRDO to ISRO include space food, space crew health monitoring and emergency survival kit, radiation measurement and protection,.

Indigenously designed air-to-air missile Astra was successfully test-fired from the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Odisha on September 17.

India was the leading country of origin of international migrants in 2019 with a 17.5 million strong overseas Indian community, according to new estimates released by the United Nations, which said the number of migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million.

The Supreme Court said the nation has still not endeavoured to secure for its citizens a Uniform Civil Code. The government has till date taken no action, a Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose observed in a judgment delivered on Friday.

The policy aims to harness latent potential of the scientific community for strengthening linkages between science and society, and for making S&T ecosystem vibrant.

FATF had placed Pakistan on its Gray List in June 2018, giving it a 15-month action plan to complete implementation of a 27-point action plan, failing which the country could be placed in the Black List.

India’s best represented university — Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore — fell from the 251-300 cohort last year to the 301-350 bracket this time due to significant fall in its citation impact.

Astronomers have for the first time discovered water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life as we know it.

The missile was fired from a tripod and target was simulated to be a functional tank. The missile succeeded in hitting the target in the top attack mode and completely decimated the target.

Robust economic growth, higher level of education, greater internet penetration, low inflation and increase in credit to the private sector as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are the key factors that help drive digital payments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a report.

Cybercriminals are betting big time on fileless attacks due to their elusive nature. In fact, the use of fileless attacks went up by 265% in the first half of 2019, over the last year, according to Trend Micro’s mid-year cybersecurity report.

India runs the world’s largest food security programme, distributing more than 600 lakh tonnes of subsidised food grain to more than 81 crore beneficiaries every year. This is done through a vast network of more than five lakh ration or fair price shops.

According to the press release, with AEPS services any one with a bank account linked to Aadhaar can carry out basic banking services such as cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of the bank they hold their account with.

Lately, India has begun to obsess about water. However, the sense of urgency has waned because a 19 percent deficit has eventually turned into a 1 percent surplus as far as rain is concerned. That is because India prefers to react to crises than proactively trying to avert them.

India has moved up six places to rank 34th on world travel and tourism competitiveness index, driven by rich natural and cultural resources and strong price competitiveness, a WEF report said on Wednesday.

India may have missed the opportunity to attempt a historic soft landing on the moon, but its Chandrayaan-2 would continue to explore the earth’s only natural satellite with the help of orbiter that remains in orbit around the moon.

In order to improve transmission of interest rates, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday asked banks to link their lending rates on floating rate loans to retail, personal and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) borrowers to an external benchmark from 1 October.

According to the World Gold Council, India has gold reserves totalling 618.2 tonnes, which is marginally higher than the Netherlands’ reserves of 612.5 tonnes.

New Delhi has dropped by six places to rank 118th on a list of the world's most liveable cities due to increase in cases of petty crime and poor air quality, an annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit said today.

Addressing the plenary session of the 5th Eastern Economic Forum here, prime minister Modi said the friendship between India and Russia was not restricted to governmental interactions in capital cities but is about people and close business relations.

The Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, RK Singh launched the State Rooftop Solar Attractiveness Index-SARAL on 21 August 2019.

A Russian humanoid robot was making its way on Thursday to the International Space Station after blasting off on a two-week mission to support the crew and test his skills.

Day after it entered the lunar orbit, India's second mission to the moon Chandrayaan-2 has captured the first images of the moon.

The high-level government task force on direct taxes, which was appointed to review the existing 58-year-old Income Tax Act, is believed to have proposed several changes that could reduce the taxation burden for several companies and individuals taxpayers.

As Chandrayaan-2 prepares for its historic soft landing on the moon on 7 September, one of the biggest challenges for it would be to ensure that its orbit inclination is precisely on the mark, before it attempts touchdown on the moon.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea of Facebook Inc for transfer of cases related to demands for linking of social media profiles of users with Aadhaar number, pending before the high courts of Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh to the apex court.

These additions, including eight from Andhra Pradesh and six from West Bengal, have expanded the list of non-attainment cities (NACs) from 102 to 122 where different agencies are expected to take air pollution abatement measures under a dedicated action plan for each of them.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been somewhat careful in speaking of envisioning a change in India’s nuclear deterrence posture.

India is the world’s largest emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide, which is produced from coal burning, and greatly contributes to air pollution, a study claimed on August 19.

The heads of the two UN bodies agreed that although more than 150 countries have recognised the human right to a healthy environment in their constitutions, national laws and jurisprudence, or through regional agreements,.

India has got its first National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) finalised by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which aims to bridge the current regulatory system’s gap that do not cover all the medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic device (IVD).

GI is an indication used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.

The NDA government has formed a new ministry to address all water issues that looks at the management of water resources and drinking water supply

Today, this successful Joint Venture between India and Russia is not just transfer of technology but mutual production and upgradation of technology so as to ensure that the country becomes self-sufficient in supersonic strategic missile capacity.

When the British colonial rulers partitioned India before granting independence to the jewel in the crown, the two newly created countries began on a fresh note.

The four agreements were signed following the second meeting of the India-China High-Level Mechanism (HLM) on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges, chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

In a sign of changing times, Terror-hit Jammu and Kashmir is all set to host its first-ever global summit. Principal Secretary (Commerce and Industry) of Jammu and Kashmir NK Chaudhary said that a Global Investors Summit will be held between October 12 and 14.

The story so far: When Chandrayaan 1, India’s first moon mission was launched on October 22, 2008, from Sriharikota, using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), India became the fourth country to plant its flag on the lunar surface.

Promotion of biofuel will reduce the need of fossil fuel in the interest of environment, and also generate employment opportunities, he said in a function at Science Park here.

The IPCC, the world body for assessing the state of scientific knowledge related to climate change, its impacts and potential future risks, and possible response options, saw the Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Climate Change and Land(SRCCL) approved by the world’s governments on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today and even more tomorrow.

India placed thirteenth among the world's 17 ‘extremely water-stressed’ countries, according to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas released by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

In a first, India will soon run underwater metro under the Hooghly river in Kolkata. “The KMRC team, including engineers from abroad, has completed the construction of India’s first underwater tunnel under the Hooghly river,” said Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation (KMRC) Managing Director Satish Kumar.

The reference to the Shimla Agreement in this context is rare and significant, according to people familiar with these discussions, as it provides the framework for resolving the dispute bilaterally, which is a rebuff in a way to Pakistan's attempts to seek UN intervention.

"The SPYDER missile system is already in the process of deployment along the western borders where it will help in tackling any aircraft, cruise missile, surveillance plane or drone that tries to violate our airspace," senior defence sources had told MAIL TODAY.

The Registrar General of India will ask the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to verify biometrics of individuals for inclusion in the recently revived National Population Register (NPR) programme, instead of collecting them afresh.

The President’s notification of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order of 2019 of August 5 amends Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and scraps its 65-year-old predecessor, The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order of May 14, 1954.

As the government abrogated Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Article 371, which has special provisions for other States, mostly from the Northeast, has invited some attention.

India on Sunday test-fired a sophisticated all-weather and all-terrain Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) from a test range in Odisha.

Greenland, the world’s largest island, is a semi-autonomous Danish territory between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans that has 82% of its surface covered in ice.

India faces a serious challenge of safeguarding its future as rising population and rapid urbanization takes toll on critical natural resources of the country.

The decennial exercise would involve 31 lakh trained enumerators, with data collected digitally using Android based mobile phones.

• India is the seventh-largest economy (GDP of $2.72 trillion) with the UK ($2.82 trillion) and France ($2.77 trillion) ahead in the pecking order.

95.47 crores released as 1st year grant to 9 States under Skill India’s Sankalp scheme. 11.7 crores cumulatively released to 117 Aspirational Districts (10 lakh each district)

There is an obvious focus on cutting carbon dioxide emissions, the chief culprit for climate change, but there also lies a huge opportunity in reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.

The trial of the surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350km, was carried out from a mobile launcher from Launch Complex-III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, near here, at around 8.30pm, sources said.

India on Thursday won a major trade dispute against the US at the World Trade Organization, with a dispute settlement panel pronouncing that subsidies and mandatory local content requirements instituted by eight American states breached global trade rules.

Almost one in three Indian children under five years will still be stunted by 2022 going by current trends, according to an analysis of the country’s food and nutrition security released on Tuesday.

India has won the unanimous support of all countries in the 55-member Asia-Pacific Group at the United Nations in support of its bid for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term in 2021-22.

Automation, a growing part of daily life, can make work easier but has also raised concerns about potential disruption and job loss.

Pakistan has failed to complete its action plan on terror financing, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said Friday, warning Islamabad to meet its commitment by October or face action, which could possibly lead to the country getting blacklisted.

Greenland could lose 4.5 per cent of its ice, contributing up to 13 inches of sea level rise, by the end of this century if worldwide greenhouse gas emissions remain on their current trajectory, warns a new study.

How serious India is to gain UN Permanent Membership would be clear from the fact that the Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has called for renewed efforts by India to gain permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

However, a monitoring report by UN organisations released on Tuesday also shows that there has been absolutely no growth in the population with access to piped water facilities over that period, while large inequalities remain between rural and urban areas.

Himalayan glaciers have been melting twice as fast since the start of this century, underscoring the threat the climate crisis poses to water supplies for hundreds of millions of people across Asia, according to a study published on Wednesday.

To comprehensively tackle India’s persistent nutrition challenge, last March, the government launched an ambitious program.

India is projected to surpass China as the world's most populous country in the next eight years.As per a United Nations report, released on Monday, India is expected to add nearly 273 million people between 2019 and 2050 and remain the most populated country through the end of the current century.

India is in the process of acquiring the NASAMS-II from the US along with the Israeli, Russian and home-made systems. Once the deal is signed off, the missile system would cost Rs 6000 crore.

The southwest monsoon has started advancing to more parts of eastern India. The advance is slow and the strong winds that typically accompany the monsoon current are missing.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Wednesday conducted the maiden test of an indigenously developed Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) along with several technologies on Wednesday morning

The Cabinet has approved the Indian Medical Council (Amendment Bill), 2019, and the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment Bill), 2019, both of which had lapsed in the 16th Lok Sabha session.

Once a small player, India may break into the league of top 20 countries for outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) as early as the end 2019, according to a survey of investment promotion agencies (IPAs) by United Nations Conference on Trade and Investment (UNCTAD).

ISRO has confirmed that it is hoping to find water on the lunar surface on the back of ‘the thousands of tests’ conducted by the agency.

Come July, India will launch its first-ever simulated space warfare, as reported in the media. Stakeholders from the military forces and scientific fraternity will join hands to execute the space warfare programme named IndSpaceEx.

Scientists have developed an insulator that mimics the structure of individual polar bear hairs and may have many real world applications in the architecture and aerospace sectors.

In so far as the statistical reforms are concerned, it is important to note that system reforms are an ongoing process and are necessary for ensuring responsiveness to the changing needs of society

The story so far: A 50-year-old controversy got a new lease of life recently when a paragraph in the Draft New Education Policy 2019 referred to the mandatory teaching of Hindi in States where Hindi is not spoken.

Despite the repo rate—the interest rate at which RBI lends to banks—dropping from 6.5% to 5.75%, banks haven’t cut their lending and deposit rates. Mint looks at whether RBI will be lucky the third time around.

Group of 20 finance ministers agreed on Sunday to compile common rules to close loopholes used by global tech giants such as Facebook to reduce their corporate taxes, a final version of the bloc's communique obtained by Reuters showed.

The ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) passed an order on 23 May to merge the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) into the National Statistical Office (NSO). Mint analyses what led to the decision.

In welcome news, India has been gradually improving its performance in preventing child marriage and related health indicators, the Global Childhood Report 2019 released by UK-based NGO Save the Children on Wednesday revealed.

India has moved up one place to rank as the world's 43rd most competitive economy on the back of its robust economic growth, a large labour force and its huge market size, while Singapore has toppled the US to grab the top position, a global study showed Tuesday

The US government has removed India from its currency monitoring watchlist. In its semi-annual foreign-exchange report to the Congress, the US Treasury Department did not mention India's name in the watchlist of countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange policies.

The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to examine the powers of tax authorities to arrest an individual for GST evasion saying that different high courts have taken divergent views on the issue and it was necessary to clarify the position in law.

Searing heatwave conditions are likely to continue over most parts of north-western India, as maximum temperatures are likely to rise by 2-3°C over the next few days, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD), here on Wednesday.

• The proposed rules that mandate non-bank lenders to keep liquidity coverage ratio would shave off some margin

• The IMD, too in its April forecast had indicated that weak El Nino conditions could impact the monsoon during the first half

The architectural heritage of Orchha town in Madhya Pradesh which depict peculiar style of the Bundela dynasty have been included in UNESCO’s tentative list of world heritage sites following a proposal sent by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to the U.N. body.

SpaceX on Thursday launched a rocket carrying the first 60 satellites of its "Starlink" constellation, which is intended to provide internet from space and could one day number 12,000 satellites.

The US has added India to its monitoring list for currency practices and macroeconomic policies, alleging undervaluation in its currency.

Last week, the Indian Navy conducted successfully a live firing test of a medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) using the cooperative engagement capability (CEC) sensor netting system, which allows the real-time sharing of sensor data on incoming air targets among warships.

For the first time in five years the Supreme Court will have the approved full strength of 31 judges as four new judges are likely to be sworn in as justices soon.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is all set to embark on its most complex mission ever undertaken as thespace agency is gearing to launch Chandrayaan-2 between July 9 and 16.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not in favour of providing special credit window to the NBFC sector to tide over the liquidity crunch as the cash crunch phenomenon is not systemic, said sources.

After heavy reverses suffered by Odisha's telecom infrastructure due to extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani, the state government has set the ball rolling to create disaster resilient mobile infrastructure.

The Indian Navy and the Republic of Singapore Navy began a major bilateral naval exercise on Sunday in the South China Sea. The exercise, code-named SIMBEX 19, will run through May 22.

Corporate affairs ministry plans to introduce artificial intelligence system in the MCA 21 portal as it seeks to make compliance process easier as well as ensure routine enforcement activities are done round-the-clock on autopilot basis.

A proposal by India to prevent developed countries from dumping their electronic and plastic waste onto developing countries, was defeated at the recently concluded meeting of the Basel Convention in Geneva.

India and the U.S. are cooperating to prevent all forms of terrorism both from land and sea, U.S. Chief of naval operations Admiral John M. Richardson said on Thursday.

Highlighting the hazards of air pollution, a new study has found that Asian summer monsoon rainfall has been decreasing over the past 80 years due to human-caused air pollution causing regional droughts.

The Moon is shrinking as its interior cools — getting over 50 metres skinnier through the last several hundred million years — and causing quakes on the lunar surface, a study has found. Just as a grape wrinkles as it shrinks down to a raisin, the Moon gets wrinkles as it shrinks, researchers said.

GFDRR is a global partnership that helps developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the states and UTs to submit the action plan within three months to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Karnataka law granting a quota in promotions for state government employees from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.

China, which is developing its navy at a feverish pace, has commissioned two more guided missile destroyers taking the total of such warships to 20 with more in the pipeline, state-media reported on Monday.

In 2018, the US imported goods worth $539.5 billion from China. It exported goods worth just $120.3 billion during the same period. Hence, the US’s trade deficit with China was $419.2 billion.

The inner workings of Facebook Inc.’s blockchain team are still shrouded in secrecy, but it’s staffing up, according to people familiar with the group. Those people said that its product, which Bloomberg earlier reported will be a type of cryptocurrency, could be announced as soon as next quarter.

For North America, El Nino’s greatest impact can be spreading more wind shear across the Atlantic, which rips apart budding tropical storms and hurricanes

Its latest report on measuring progress on environmental aspects of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) shows that the mortality rate attributed to air pollution was highest in ‘Sub-Sahara Africa’ and ‘Central & Southern Asia’ with 187 and 170 deaths per lakh of population, respectively.

Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history and its impact will see extinction of one million of the eight million estimated number of animal and plant species.

Researchers from the University of Vermont in the US and colleagues found that the price tag for cutting global emissions may seem expensive, until the human toll of deaths from air pollution and climate change are factored in.

"In terms of policy, France and Germany have strong policy which is to work together to enlarge the Security Council and to succeed in terms of the negotiations that should lead to the enlargement of the Security Council that we consider absolutely needed to better reflect the world as it is.

The United Kingdom is in talks with the Indian government on building a new state-of-the-art aircraft carrier along the lines of Britain’s HMS Queen Elizabeth as part of the ongoing ‘Make in India’ negotations, according to a media report.

India is set to get another 'eye in the sky' as Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch its latest radar imaging satellite (Risat-2BR1) from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on May 22.

India has expressed apprehensions about the European Union’s (EU’s) proposal on Friday to create new e-commerce rules on grounds that the high standards being proposed could decimate both the goods and services tariff rules under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), impacting its domestic industry and job creation.

Environment ministers of the G7 nations met in France Sunday, a day ahead of the release of what is expected to be another alarming report on the state of the planet.

“Big, small, all join together. Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist in @UN Sanctions list. Grateful to all for their support,” India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.

Glaciers from almost half of natural World Heritage sites -- such as the Khumbu Glacier in the Himalayas -- may disappear completely by 2100, if emissions continue at current rate, a study warns.

The Union Environment Ministry has constituted a committee to implement the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which aims to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20%-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024.

After much deliberation, the RBI is expected to approach the Election Commission to put in place a new circular on bad debt resolution, paving the way for smooth implementation of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code and loan restructuring by banks.

India’s decision to skip the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) may have led to the exclusion of the Bangladesh- China- India- Myanmar (BCIM) Economic corridor from the list of projects covered by the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) umbrella.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), one of the country’s premier research and development units, is developing India’s own certification facility for air pollution monitoring equipment.

"Our results show that most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been without global warming," said climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh, from Stanford University in the US.

The allegations made by a former Supreme Court employee against the Chief Justice of India have brought the focus on the mechanism that exists to examine charges of misconduct against members of the higher judiciary.

China on Saturday removed map from website of Belt and Road Initiative (BR) Forum which had shown entire Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as part of India and India as part of BRI.

The US on Thursday placed India on its 'Priority Watch List' alleging lack of "sufficient measurable improvements" to its Intellectual Property (IP) framework on long-standing and new challenges that have negatively affected American right holders over the past year.

For expeditious redressal of complaints against deficiency in services concerning loans and other matters, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today extended the coverage of ombudsman scheme to non-deposit taking non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) having asset size of ₹100 crore or higher.

The Supreme Court on Friday said that the Reserve Bank of India was “duty bound" to disclose its annual inspection reports of banks along with the list of defaulters under the Right to Information (RTI) Act unless they are exempted under law.

Indian and the US Navies have held a joint submarine-hunting exercise in the Indian Ocean, aiming to lay the groundwork for coordinating maritime patrol and reconnaissance, according to the US Navy.

What is a model code of conduct and when does it kick in? The Code comes into play as soon as the EC announces an Assembly election in a state or the Lok Sabha polls.

The US on Monday is set to ask five nations, including India and China, to completely end their imports of Iranian oil or be subject to US sanctions, a media report said, a decision that comes about a year after America quit the Iran nuclear deal and imposed toughest ever sanctions on the Persian Gulf nation.

The celebrations are being held by the Chinese as part of the 70th Anniversary of the People's Liberation Army's Navy there and major navies are likely to take part in it.

The 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy which killed thousands of people is among the world's "major industrial accidents" of the 20th century, a UN report has said, warning that 2.78 million workers die from occupational accidents and work-related diseases each year.

A study commissioned by the Union Water Resources Ministry to probe the “unique properties” of the Ganga found that the river water contains a significantly higher proportion of organisms with antibacterial properties.

Scientists have detected the most ancient type of molecule in our universe in space for the first time ever.

It said a stricter regulatory and enforcement mechanism is being worked and the issue of the reopening the trade routes will be revisited once they are implemented.

India has slipped down two spots on the 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). An annual report, the index is an indicator of how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence in countries across the world.

IMD has forecast a “near normal” monsoon this year while also indicating that a weak El Nino is likely to persist through the rainy season.

The team used measurements of the 'skin' temperature of the Earth taken by a satellite-based infrared measurement system called AIRS (Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder) from 2003 to 2017.

With its three planets orbiting two suns, Kepler-47 is the only known multi-planet circumbinary system. Circumbinary planets are those that orbit two stars.

The GSLV Programme - Phase 4 will enable the launch of 2 tonne class of satellites for Geo-imaging, Navigation, Data Relay Communication and Space Sciences.

The missile took off vertically and subsequently turned horizontal into the desired direction. Its booster got separated, wing was deployed, the engine started and cruised all the intended waypoints. The first test of the Nirbhay missile was conducted in 2013.

The lack of good jobs is one of the most significant issues affecting societies globally. A combination of technological and economic forces, such as globalization, automation and the gradual decline of public sector jobs, is causing social unrest in developing and developed countries alike.

An MoU has been signed between the CMFRI and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the ISRO to develop a mobile app and a centralised web portal with a complete database of wetlands that are smaller than 2.25 hectares in the country.

The Bill will have to first pass the House and Senate, before the President gives the final go-ahead. However, if enacted, the legislation will ensure that the US State Department treats India as a non-member NATO ally for the purposes of the Arms Export Control Act.

The release of the first ever images of a black hole on April 10, marked the culmination of an enormous collaborative effort that lasted several years.

The Supreme court on Friday issued an interim order directing all political parties to disclose to the Election Commission details of donations received through electoral bonds till 15 May.

India’s population grew at an average annual rate of 1.2 per cent between 2010 and 2019 to 1.36 billion, more than double the annual growth rate of China, according to a report by the United Nations Population Fund.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully lifted off Thursday, marking the towering booster’s second flight and its first commercial launch. This was also the first time that all three of the rocket's reusable boosters returned safely to Earth.

Scientists have revealed the first-ever glimpse of a super-massive black hole today, as the Event Horizon Telescope released the first results of its findings, in a ‘ground-breaking’ discovery that proved Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The limited air battle between India and Pakistan that occurred over Kashmir on February 28, 2019, is one of the most hotly contested military events we have seen in a long time.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is clearly in an accommodative phase with two consecutive policy rate cuts. What stops the central bank, though, from giving full support to growth impulses through a change in its stance is core inflation.

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has released the 2019 rankings of higher educational institutions across the country.

After much speculation and anticipation, DCMS’s Online Harms White Paper has been published today. The Paper proposes fundamental changes to the UK online regulatory environment.

“Remittances grew by more than 14% in India, where a flooding disaster in Kerala likely boosted the financial help that migrants sent to families,” the global lender said.

Earlier, under the ECI guideline 16.6, only the VVPAT slips from one EVM in every Assembly segment/constituency was subjected to physical verification.

Months ahead of a major global expedition to explore the Arctic, researchers found that rising temperatures in the region is causing the sea-ice to melt faster than expected, impacting a major ocean current linked to extreme weather events.

The currency in circulation as on 29 March stood at ₹21.40 trillion. It was up by 60.2% from ₹13.35 trillion as of March 2017, the end of the fiscal in which demonetization took place. Mint dwells on what this means for the Indian economy.

Only 14 of India’s 35 regional pollution boards filed information on plastic waste generation in 2017-18, according to the latest report of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

India has imposed anti-dumping duty of up to USD 1,559 per tonne on imports of a certain type of sheet used in solar cell making from China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand for five years to safeguard domestic players against cheap shipments.

Days after India tested its first anti-satellite missile, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has fired off a new variant of its old workhorse, PSLV sending 29 satellites into three different orbits in space.

India and the US Friday renewed a pact that provides a framework for promoting bilateral cooperation to meet the developmental aspirations of partner countries, particularly in Asia and Africa.

Beating private sector lender ICICI Bank, state-run Bank of Baroda (BoB) will become India's third largest bank after its merger with Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank comes into effect tomorrow.

India is expected to be among the top-10 entertainment and media markets globally by 2021 in terms of absolute numbers, according to a joint study by ASSOCHAM-PwC.

For example, the Chinese ASAT test in 2007 created a huge debris problem. The US ASAT test in 2008 was done at an altitude of 275 kms and the debris possibly came down in a few weeks.

The French-drafted resolution orders all countries to ensure that their domestic laws are sufficient to prosecute and penalize those responsible for directly or indirectly financing "terrorist organizations or individual terrorists for any purpose."

In a circular, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, CBIC said, that the transferee or the successor will be liable to be registered with effect from the date of such transfer or succession, where a business is transferred to another person for any reasons, including death of the proprietor.

In its latest State of the Climate overview, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reaffirmed that the last four years had been the hottest on record — figures previously announced in provisional drafts of the flagship report.

In an incremental advance, India on Wednesday successfully conducted an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile test, named Mission Shakti, becoming the fourth country in the world to demonstrate the capability to shoot down satellites in orbit

The MoU will help in mutual cooperation in regulation of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and in combating drug trafficking. It will come into force on the date of signing and will remain in effect for a period of five years.

India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-2, scheduled for launch in April, will carry NASA's laser instruments that allow scientists to make precise measurements of the distance to the Moon, according to the US space agency officials.

• An entity will continue to be recognised as a startup if its turnover for any of the financial years since incorporation and registration does not exceed ₹100 crore.

India has moved up two places to rank 76th on a global energy transition index, which has ranked 115 economies on how well they are able to balance energy security and access with environmental sustainability and affordability.

Six years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a mammoth infrastructure project straddling many countries and continents. Of the projects, the most ambitious is the $60+ billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, aimed at linking China’s Xinjiang province with the Arabian Sea.

On March 19, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh was appointed as India’s first Lokpal. The announcement came after a delay of five years as the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, which envisaged appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the States to look into cases of corruption against certain categories of public servants, was passed in 2013.

India is developing its maiden deep-sea port in Indonesia's Sabang, not far from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, amid China's attempts to have a greater say in the region through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to ease disclosure rules on the transfer of various categories of state government bonds held by high-street lenders, a move that could help increase treasury incomes at traditional banks.

Indians are not as happy in 2019 as they were in 2018 and the country figures at 140th place, seven spots down from last year, on this year's UN World Happiness Report released Wednesday which is topped by Finland for the second year in a row.

Scientists with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are warming up to undertake the pending trials of this stateof-the-art missile without further delay.

India is developing its maiden deep-sea port in Indonesia's Sabang close to Andaman and Nicobar Islands making its maiden foray in the southeast Asian amid China’s slew of connectivity plans for ASEAN under BRI.

El Nino, characterised by a warming of surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, is associated with lower than normal monsoon rainfall in India. The El Nino weather phenomenon is gaining strength, latest global forecasts indicate, potentially affecting the South-west (June to September).

Secretary Economic Relations (ER) TS Tirumurti tweeted, "In response to request from Mozambique hit by tropical cyclone causing loss of lives and damage, India has diverted 3 Indian Naval Ships to port city of Beira to provide immediate Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief of food, clothes and medical help to affected people."

The agreements signed during the trip were on visa facilitation for diplomatic and official passport holders, development cooperation and renewable energy. Under the agreements, Maldivian diplomatic passport holders can stay in India longer via free visa.

It is the sole prerogative of the government to frame schemes, courts should stay out of governance, the Supreme Court has said in a judgment.

The global nitrogen use efficiency is low, resulting in pollution by reactive nitrogen which threatens human health, eco system services, contributes to climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion.

The armies of India and Myanmar conducted a "coordinated operation" from February 17 to March 2 against insurgents in Myanmarese territory to avert a possible threat to the Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project, official sources said.

India’s lacklustre effort to sell indigenously developed missiles has helped neighbouring China to boost its export prospects of its weapons system to potential buyers, which New Delhi has been eyeing.

After the first-ever vulnerability assessment of 12 Himalayan states to climate risks, the Department of Science and Technology has now decided to carry out a climate vulnerability assessment of all states and union territories (UTs).

The Supreme Court made it clear on Thursday that it will decide first on the preliminary objections raised by the Centre and then go into the facts of the Rafale fighter jet deal case.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set an ambitious 2019 deadline to achieve results on nirmalta (cleanliness) of Ganga when he launched the project in May 2015. Union minister Nitin Gadkari last year extended the deadline to March 2020.

India on Tuesday successfully carried out the third test-fire of the guided Pinaka rocket from Pokhran ranges after two successful runs on Monday, March 11, the Defence Research and Development Organisation said in a statement.

The civil aviation ministry will create a simplified regulatory regime to speed up clearances for airport development and other aviation projects while taking due care of environment sustainability, according to a white paper.

Even if the world were to cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, winter temperatures in the Arctic would rise 3-5°C by 2050 and 5-9°C by 2080, devastating the region and unleashing sea level rises worldwide, finds a new report by UN Environment.

A quarter of all premature deaths and diseases worldwide are due to manmade pollution and environmental damage, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a landmark report on the planet’s parlous state.

The agreement came after two days of talks in Washington. The United States under President Donald Trump has been looking to sell more energy products to India, the world's third-biggest buyer of oil.

During colonial times, the British largely followed a policy of non-regulation of “personal law", leaving “communities" free to manage their own internal affairs (something akin to the Ottoman “millet" system).

Air pollution due to crop stubble burning in northern India is a leading risk factor of acute respiratory infections and causes an estimated economic loss of $30 billion annually, according to a study unveiled Monday.

France, which assumed the March Presidency of the United Nations Security Council, has reiterated its support for India as the permanent member of the powerful UN organ, saying the UNSC’s enlargement is the “first crucial part” towards its reform.

Seven of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world are in India, according to a new study by Swiss-based IQAir AirVisual and non-profit organisation Greenpeace.

The deal for the Akula class submarine — dubbed Chakra III after the first two similar vessels India obtained from Russia — will be the biggest signed with Moscow since the $5.5-billion contract for the S-400 air defence system was finalised last year.

The second advance estimates of national income show that gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to grow at 6.98% in 2018-19. This is the slowest growth in five years, and even this wouldn’t have been possible without fast growth in government expenditure.

President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to an ordinance that allows voluntary use of Aadhaar as ID proof for obtaining mobile SIM cards and opening bank accounts.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the National Policy on Software Products - 2019 to develop India as a Software Product Nation.

The government on Thursday gave its nod to the promulgation of an ordinance for giving reservation benefits to SCs and STs in Jammu and Kashmir by amending a clause of the contentious Article 370, which gives special status to the state.

India’s third-quarter economic growth confirmed the widespread worry that it is losing momentum and needs policy support. Now, should the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut policy rates by a bigger margin than the 25 basis points most expect?

Trusts now can approach the government to set up units in special economic zones as the Cabinet on Thursday approved the promulgation of an Ordinance for amendment to the SEZ Act, 2005.

India’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) can rise an additional 13% by 2031 if family planning policies are actively prioritised, according to a new study.This can also prevent 2.9 million infant deaths and 1.2 million maternal deaths and save households Rs 77,600 crore (20%) of out-of-pocket health expenditure on childbirth and child hospitalisation, it added.

The Brazilian government on Wednesday asked the World Trade Organization to start a consultation regarding India's sugar industry subsidies, which the South American country says is distorting global trade.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan on Wednesday said that the Bengaluru-based space agency is set to launch an electronic intelligence satellite Emisat for the DRDO in March.

The flow of foreign direct investment into India is dropping and may suffer its first full-year decline since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.

A fleet of Mirage 2000 deep-penetration fighter jets was chosen for the pre-dawn strike on the biggest terror camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror outfit in Pakistan due to the combat aircraft's capabilities of hitting long-range targets with "pin-point" accuracy and dropping a range of bombs and missiles including laser-guided ones, government sources said.

Addressing the gathering, Shri Gadkari said that India does not have a shortage of water, rather, the management of water is not adequate. He said that a need to institute national level water awards spanning all sectors was strongly felt to encourage people to play their respective roles in conservation of water.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi launched the PM-KISAN Scheme on 24th February 2019 at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to electronically transfer the First Installment of Rs 2,021 crore directly into the bank accounts of 1,010,6,880 (One Crore One Lakh Six Thousand Eight Hundred Eighty) Eligible Farmers of 24 States and the Union Territories.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani traveled Sunday to the western border city of Zaranj to see off the inaugural convoy of 23 trucks loaded with 570 tons of cargo to the Chabahar port in neighboring Iran.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Second Ordinance, 2019; The Companies (Amendment) Second Ordinance, 2019; The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Second Ordinance, 2019; The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019.

Under the Indus Waters Treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, all thewaters of three rivers, namely Ravi,Sutlej and Beas ( Eastern Rivers)averaging around 33 million acre feet ( MAF) were allocated to India for exclusive use.

The government’s latest capital infusion into public sector banks has taken its total aid to over ₹1 trillion for FY19, and nearly ₹2 trillion for the past two fiscal years. When the bank recapitalisation plan was first announced, the government had talked of an infusion of about ₹1.55 trillion over a two-year period.

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises of Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei.

China and the US may be the largest producers of coal power, but power plants in India take the highest toll in the world when it comes to health, a global study claims.

"We are planning to fly two defence satellites, each weighing about 120 kg in our new rocket SSLV this July or August. The rocket design recently underwent a detailed integrated technical review," K. Sivan, ISRO Chairman, told IANS on Wednesday.

France is leading Western efforts to collar Pakistan-based terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar whose group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack that killed at least 40 Indian security personnel.

The proposed scheme consists of three components:Component-A: 10,000 MW of Decentralized Ground Mounted Grid Connected Renewable Power Plants.

Bowing to sustained pressure from start-ups and venture capital funds over the so-called angel tax, the government on Tuesday eased tax norms for new businesses in a bid to boost investment and job creation.

“India and Saudi Arabia have a strong independent strategic partnership and it will be further strengthened with the launching of the Strategic Partnership Council that will cover critical areas of mutual interest,” said a source.

After Kerala, it is now the turn of Punjab and Gujarat to have Price Monitoring & Research Unit (PMRU), set up by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in collaboration with the Department of Health and State Drug Controller.

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will launch various initiatives for women safety here tomorrow. These initiatives will include launch of Emergency Response Support System in 16 states/UTs and Mumbai city, Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday approved an early transfer of a part of its profit to the government, which is desperate for cash to fund populist pledges ahead of a national election.

India is sending an official delegation to the event led by the Shipping Ministry, where about 200 guests from 35 countries have been invited, officials said.

The Centre has exempted industries like steel, cement and metal from mandatory prior environment clearance for setting up a new or expanding the existing captive power plant employing waste heat recovery boilers (WHRB) without using any auxiliary fuel.

The number of beneficiaries comes from the number of land holdings of two hectares or less, according to the last agricultural land census. However, the guidelines say a single family may hold multiple land parcels, which will be pooled to determine their eligibility for the benefit.

On February 8, the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against three men accused of killing a cow near Kharkhali village.

With India finally deciding to withdraw the unilateral non-discriminatory market status it granted to Pakistan in 1996 — popularly known as Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status in World Trade Organization (WTO) parlance — after the Pulwama terror attack, the already weak trade links between the two neighbours in South Asia is set to worsen.

An El Nino, which can alter weather worldwide, has formed but it's so weak and late that it shouldn't be a big deal, US forecasters said.

Nearly half of India’s waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, meant to convert non-biodegradable waste, are defunct. Further, the country’s inability to segregate waste has resulted in even the existing plants working below capacity, says an analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment.

Just a day after at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel lost their lives in a dastardly suicide bombing attack in Pulwama, the Indian government has withdrawn "Most Favoured Nation" or MFN status accorded to Pakistan.

A wildlife expert, formerly associated with the NBWL, described it as a “clearance house.” From 2009-2013, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) recommended 260 of the 328 that came into its purview — or about 80% of the projects.

The Bill provides for amendment of the legal framework to act as a deterrent to the erring NRI spouses and creating more accountability and offer protection against exploitation of Indian Citizens married to NRIs.

The budget session of Parliament drew to a close on Wednesday with two crucial Bills—the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and the Triple Talaq Bill—lapsing.

Ironically, in some of India’s coldest outposts, lack of adequate snow is increasingly becoming a concern. And men like Namgail are beginning to seriously worry about water.

The pricing of the Rafale jet fighter deal is likely to be mentioned in redacted form — which is without absolute numbers and with variables such as x, y and z — in a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which may be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

India and China are leading the global greening effort, which is quite contrary to the general perception worldwide, a latest NASA study said Monday, observing that the world is a greener place than it was 20 years ago.

The government Tuesday introduced a Bill to set up a unified authority for regulating all financial services in international financial services centres (IFSCs) in the country.

Honouring this obligation, a Pakistani delegation recently visited the Chenab river basin in Jammu and Kashmir for an inspection. Since the signing of the treaty, 118 such tours on both sides have been undertaken.

The number of pending cases in the Supreme Court has come down marginally, by 3.8% between 2015 and January 2019. In the 24 high courts across India, however, the number of outstanding cases has gone up by 375,402, or 9.7%, during the same period.

According to the ADJD, this step was aimed at helping foreigners to learn about litigation procedures, their rights and duties without a language barrier, in addition to facilitating registration procedures via unified forms available through the Department's website, The Khaleej Times reported.

The figures released by the UK Met Office include data from a number of sources including the latest publication of provisional figures for 2018. Records for annual global average temperature extend back to 1850.

Courts cannot impose less than the minimum sentence prescribed by lawmakers for an offence, the Supreme Court has held.

The trade disputes posed bumps on the road as President Donald Trump called India a “tariff king" in September. However, two months later, he praised Indians as tough negotiators as the two countries started talks on a bilateral trade deal.

The Supreme Court has said that linkage of PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory for filing of Income Tax returns.A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said the top court has already decided the matter and upheld the section 139AA of the Income Tax Act.

"If we imagine that such a treaty is made, then most of our ballistic missiles - the Agni class missiles - may fall under its limits," he said.

The RBI policy is a very dovish one and signals further rate cuts. Inflation estimates have been revised very sharply lower by the central bank.

The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018 was introduced in Parliament on 18th July, 2018 and was referred to the SCF, which submitted its Seventieth Report on the said Bill to Parliament on 3rd January, 2019.

The satellite derives its heritage from ISROs earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series, the space agency said, adding that it provides Indian mainland and island coverage.

In August 2018, the government imposed restrictions on export of bio-fuels for non-fuel purposes. After this restriction, exporters operating from SEZs and EoUs made representations to remove this prohibition stating they only use imported material for export of final product.

The government's push to provide clean cooking fuel to every household has turned India into the world's second largest LPG consumer whose demand is projected to rise 34 per cent by 2025, Oil Secretary M M Kutty said Tuesday.

A new study has said that if adequate steps are not taken to limit global warming, two-thirds of glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayas could melt by 2100, and large increases in run-off could lead to flooding of major rivers.

India is among a handful of countries that stand to benefit from the ongoing trade tensions between the world's top two economies - the US and China, the UN has said in its latest report.

Russia has suspended the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, after the United States announced it would withdraw from the arms control pact, accusing Moscow of violations.

At least a third of the ice in the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush will thaw this century as temperatures rise, disrupting river flows vital for growing crops from China to India, scientists said on Monday.

Almost 38 years after India sent a cosmonaut into space on a Russian aircraft, the country will become one of the handful of countries to embark on a crewed spaceflight again.

The National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO's) data showing a record spike in unemployment in 2017-18, which was published in a news report on Thursday, is a validation of trends seen on the ground, according to labour economists, job-seekers and workers’ representatives.

The key highlights of the Interim Budget 2019-20 presented by the Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs, Railways & Coal, ShriPiyushGoyal in Parliament are as follows:

The research, published in the journal Science, questions the reliability of how sea-level rise in areas such as southern Louisiana in the US is measured.

A Signing ceremony of Agreement between India and OECD for India’s participation in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2021, in presence of Union HRD Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar was held in New Delhi today.

Earlier on 25 January 2018, New Delhi hosted the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit themed “Shared Values, Common Destiny”, attended by the leaders of the ten ASEAN States.

"While 111 cubic kilometres of ice disappeared per year in 2003, 10 years later this figure had almost quadrupled to 428 cubic kilometres," the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Space Lab said in a statement.

Women and children walk miles each day in search for water in a crowded, downtrodden district of Pakistan’s financial capital, Karachi — a scene repeated in cities throughout the country.

Each high court judge is saddled with nearly 4,500 pending cases, according to the Law Ministry.At the same time, each judge of the subordinate judiciary has nearly 1,300 cases pending, the same data shows.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) blasted off from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 11.37 pm at the end of a 28-hour countdown.

India's 2018 thermal coal imports rose at the fastest pace in four years, according to two industry sources, despite moves by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to cut imports in a bid to reduce its trade deficit.

India has tested a new indigenous air-launched missile called NGARM, which is designed to destroy a variety of surveillance and radar targets on the ground after being fired from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter.

The fourth and final stage of the rocket normally turns into debris after ejecting a satellite. This time, the workhorse PSLV DL’s fourth stage, with a satellite built by school students strapped to its back, will continue orbiting the earth at a distance of 450km above it for six months, maybe more.

India and South Africa on Friday concluded a three-year strategic programme to boost cooperation in key areas, including defence and trade, after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in New Delhi.

The Supreme Court Friday decided to examine the Centre’s decision to grant 10% reservation in jobs and education to poor candidates belonging to general category.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the framework on currency swap arrangement for SAARC member countries by incorporating a stand-by facility of $400 million.

The MoFCC said that the new CRZ notification, issued under Section 3 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 seeks to "to promote sustainable development based on scientific principles taking into account the dangers of natural hazards.

The oral observation came from a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in response to an oral mentioning for early hearing of the petitions.

India will grow at a world-beating 7.5% in 2019-20 amid slower global expansion, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, upgrading its October forecast of 7.4%.

The government has revived plans to change the fiscal year to January-December from the current April-March, a report by business news channel BTVi, quoting news agency Cogencis, said. Opposition from the states had forced the central government to put the idea on the backburner after first being very enthusiastic about it.

India will surpass China to become the second-largest oil demand growth centre globally in 2019 on the back of buoyant auto fuel and LPG consumption, research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie said on Tuesday.

Davos: India is among the most trusted nations globally when it comes to government, business, NGOs and media but the country’s brands are among the least-trusted, according to a report.

Members of the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are over-represented, in relation to their population, in India’s prisons, a new study has found.

You need to know that an eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through Earth’s shadow, and the Sun, Moon and Earth lineup in space.

India is likely to surpass the United Kingdom in the world’s largest economy rankings in 2019, according to a report by global consultancy firm PwC.

The Project for the Construction of Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (Phase 1) aims to meet increasing traffic demands in Chennai metropolitan area by constructing the Chennai Peripheral Ring Road (Section 1) and installing Intelligent Transport Systems, thereby contributing to mitigation of Traffic Congestion and promoting Regional Economic Development.

With two and a half months to go for the end of this financial year, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) scheme to provide housing for the rural poor has achieved only 66% of its target to complete one crore houses.

So far, there was just one UGF in Tibet, with another one which could possibly target India being a fair way away in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Floods triggered by heavy rains took more than 800 lives across states in 2018, which was the sixth warmest year on record, raising concerns over the increasing human cost of climate change.

A source in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change said Friday the conference of the UNCCD, which has participation from over 100 countries, is likely to be held in October.

Air quality tests done in Delhi and Gurgaon in the last two months showed presence of alarming levels of toxic heavy metals, according to a new report released Thursday.

The move is part of recommendations made by a task force on the use of space technology in improving border management which have been accepted by home minister Rajnath Singh.

An agreement for Renukaji Dam Multipurpose Project will be signed here tomorrow among six states- Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand in the presence of Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Fourth Amendment) Bill of 2019 providing up to 10% reservation for economically weaker sections of the society may be notified as the law of the land sooner than expected.

The Centre on Thursday stepped up its efforts to combat air pollution by launching a five-year action plan with a tentative target of 20-30% reduction in concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 by 2024, with 2017 as the base year.

The swap arrangement is an agreement between India and Japan to essentially exchange and re-exchange a maximum amount of USD 75 Billion for domestic currency, for the purpose of maintaining an appropriate level of balance of payments for meeting short-term deficiency in foreign exchange.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held talks with his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues, and on the ways and means to further strengthen the growing bilateral partnership.

Assam is in the throes of violence yet again over citizenship. In the past couple of days, life in the northeastern state has come to a standstill as the BJP-led government at the Centre brought in an amendment that will, effectively, grant citizenship to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh.

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh has said that National Council for Cooperative Training (NCCT) besides being responsible for training, awareness and evaluation programmes of employees working in the cooperative sector also facilitates the same for other stakeholders in the cooperative sector in the country.

Parliament on Wednesday cleared the Constitutional Amendment Bill guaranteeing 10% quota in education and employment to economically weaker sections in the general category, following an approval by the Rajya Sabha.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of state for Shipping, Road transport and chemical & fertilizer Mansukh L Mandaviya informed that the "infrastructure at Sittwe Port in Myanmar, constructed with India’s assistance, is ready for operation."

The Supreme Court on Tuesday “re-instated” exiled CBI Director Alok Verma, but ordered him to “cease and desist” from taking any major policy decisions till a high-powered committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decides afresh the question of his divestment.

The Government on Tuesday introduced in Lok Sabha amendments to the POCSO Act, which provides for death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children, making it gender neutral and introducing provisions against child pornography and for enhancing punishment for certain offences.

The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nation’s southern coast is easily accessible from India’s western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan’s Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 km from Chabahar.

A Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman, who wrote the judgment in March 2015 upholding online free speech against Section 66A, said “strict action” would follow if the claims in the petition filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) are found true.

A bill seeking to remove leprosy as a ground for divorce was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday.“Leprosy is being removed as a ground for divorce as it is now a curable disease as against the earlier notion of it being incurable,” minister of state for law P.P.

In a landmark move just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government ha s decided to give ten per cent reservation in jobs and higher education for economically backward persons in the general category.

Under the Modernization of Police Forces (MPF) programme, two pilot projects of smart fencing were unveiled along the Indo-Pak International Border in Jammu.

Not a lot of information is available on Chandrayaan-2 just yet, but the overall mission is similar in objectives and area of operation to the Chinese craft, Chang’e-4.

Just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the people of Assam of safeguarding their interests, in a rally in Silchar on Friday, the Union Home Ministry has set up a high powered committee to look into the successful implementation of the Assam Accord.

Apart from the signal rate i.e. repo rate of 6.5%, there is a policy rate stance of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which gives the future guidance.

A parliamentary panel on Thursday asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ease its rules on capital requirements for banks so that they can increase lending.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the re-structuring of existing National Health Agency as “National Health Authority” with an aim to efficiently implement Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).

The amalgamation will be the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in India, with the amalgamated bank being India's second largest Public Sector Bank.

The United States and Israel officially quit the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias.

In mid-November, dangerously high levels of particulate matter pushed Delhi’s air quality index into the orange “very poor” air zone, throwing Delhi’s administration into panic, with talk of bringing back restrictions on private vehicles to combat the deadly air.

Indian economy's roller-coaster ride during the year gone by was best captured by the GDP growth. In the first quarter of 2018-19 ending June 30, it grew at an impressive 8.2 per cent, after 7.7 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Speaking at the inaugural sessionDr. Harsh Vardhan,said that India is among the first five countries in the world, the first in Asia and the first among the biodiversityrich megadiverse countries to have submitted NR6 to the CBD Secretariat.

The scope of BUR is to provide an update to India's first BUR to UNFCCC.The BUR contains five major components — National Circumstances; National Greenhouse Gas Inventory; Mitigation Actions; Finance, Technology and Capacity Building Needs and Support Received and Domestic Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) arrangements.

Expressing concern over India tightening restrictions on foreign e-commerce companies operating in the country, leading American industry advocacy groups have said that such a move would have a long-term negative impact on the foreign direct investment as well as consumers.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the Gaganyaan Programme with demonstration of Indian Human Spaceflight capability to low earth orbit for a mission duration ranging from one orbital period to a maximum of seven days.

The government on Friday approved amendments to the POCSO Act 2012, to bring punishments for sexual assaults against boys on par with those against girls, including the provision of death penalty when a child is under 12-years-old.

When complete, the 359-meter high bridge on river Chenab will be the world's highest. The base support of the bridge was completed in 2017 and according to the tweet by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, the construction work of the main arch is in full swing.

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the amended Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, which criminalises Triple Talaq, after over four hours of debate even as Congress and AIADMK MPs staged a walkout.

Union Government constituted National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS) headed by Chairman, CWC and representatives from State Governments and PSUs. The objectives/mandates of NCDS are:

China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), touted as a rival to the widely-used American GPS, has started providing global services.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday set up an expert committee, headed by its former governor Bimal Jalan, to suggest how the central bank should handle its reserves and whether it can transfer its surplus to the government.

Hit by the Rafale controversy, the defence ministry has not moved to amend its offsets policy since May this year, when a draft was presented for comments. (The opposition has targeted proposed offsets to Reliance Defence in the Rafale deal.)

In the race to outpace developed economies, emerging countries such as China, India, and Brazil suffered a setback this year and will outgrow them later than previously expected, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said.

The districts have been ranked in a transparent basis on parameters across Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure through key performance indicators.

The move, which was mulled during a meeting with internet companies and the IT ministry, will impact platforms that promise encryption and enhanced privacy to users.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed all mining activities within 10 km radius of the Sariska Tiger Reserve be stopped immediately.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shortlisted six major IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Wipro Ltd and IBM India, to set up a wide-based digital Public Credit Registry for capturing details of all borrowers and wilful defaulters.

India on Sunday successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable long-range ballistic missile Agni-IV, with a strike range of 4,000 km, as part of a user trial by the Army.

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016 that prohibits commercial surrogacy and allows altruistic surrogacy to needy Indian infertile couples.

The NITI Aayog today unveiled its comprehensive national Strategy for New India, which defines clear objectives for 2022-23. It is a detailed exposition acrossforty-one crucial areas, that recognizesthe progress already made, identifies binding constraints, and suggests the way forward for achieving the clearly stated objectives.

A new study suggests that if nothing is done to reduce our carbon emissions, we could essentially reverse 50 million years of long-term cooling in just a few generations.

A code of conduct for employees of all organisations and a declaration signed by them agreeing to ensure the safety of children are some of the provisions included in the Centre’s draft national child protection policy, prepared on the prodding of the Supreme Court in the wake of the Muzaffarpur shelter abuse case.

India’s monetary policy committee sounded cautious on inflation and preferred to wait for more data to see for how long price pressure and growth momentum would remain soft, according to minutes of its December 5 meeting published on Wednesday.

GSAT-7A will be the first satellite built primarily for the IAF to qualitatively unify its assets and improve combined, common intelligence during operations.

India has been ranked 108th in World Economic Forum (WEF) gender gap index, same as 2017, while recording improvement in wage equality for similar work and fully closing its tertiary education gender gap for the first time.

Scientists have discovered the most-distant body ever observed in our solar system -- located over 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun.

The compact on refugees, aimed to reduce the burden on host nations, received 181 votes in favour from the 193-member Assembly, days after a UN conference in Morocco adopted a similar compact on migration, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

A total Government equity of Rs. 6,000 Crore, has been approved. All funds for educational infrastructure in centrally funded educational institutions will henceforth be in the form of ten year loans through HEFA to the institution, the interest liability of which would be borne by the Government.

Almost 80% of Indians polled across 17 cities believe that air pollution affects their quality of life, and 32% reported an effect on lifestyles, according to a new study.

he Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, seeking to define transgenders and prohibit discrimination against them, was introduced in the Lok Sabha two years ago. It was passed with 27 amendments.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) preferred fundamental changes to smoothen loan flow to micro-businesses through a public credit registry, rather than doling out forbearances, deputy governor Viral Acharya said on Saturday.

Nations on Sunday struck a deal to implement the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty after marathon UN talks that failed to match the ambition the world’s most vulnerable countries need to avert dangerous global warming.

K-5 missile developed under the secret ‘K Series’ project is the fastest missile in its class and can deliver nuclear warhead of more than one tonne 5,000 km away. The three-stage missile propelled by solid propellants can deceive enemy radar making it more lethal.

The developments comes up after forest officials and representatives of non-government organisation of the three countries visited parts of the landscape and later held a meeting at Siliguri in north Bengal earlier this month.

Built by the Adani Group and Israel-based Elbit Systems, the 50,000 square feet facility will develop Hermes 900 medium altitude long-endurance UAVs for the Indian and global markets.

The SC narrated how the UPA's deal for 126 Rafale jets got replaced in 2016 by an inter-government agreement to procure 36 fully-loaded jets.

Nations at UN climate talks were haggling Friday over the world’s plan to avert disaster as host Poland dumped a draft decision text on delegates just hours before the summit was due to end.

The step is likely to make packaged drinking water dearer.The Central Ground Water Authority has notified revised guidelines for ground water extraction which will be effective from June 1, 2019.

With the DSRV's induction, the Indian Navy has joined the select league of world navies that have an integral submarine rescue capability, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba said after the induction at the Western Naval Command here.

The government on Wednesday included two currencies -- Korean Won and Turkish Lira -- in the list of currencies for which it notifies the exchange rate for assessing the value of imports and exports.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is working on a new technology where it will use the last stage of the PSLV rocket for space experiments.

Fifteen game-changing initiatives in 14 countries were honoured as winners of the award at a special ceremony at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 24) in this Polish city on Tuesday evening.

Inflation is quite often called the thief of purchasing power. Why is that so? That is because inflation measures the rate of price rise per annum. If the price of food, fuel, clothing and housing are growing very fast each year then it means that your income will be able to buy less of the same thing.

India and Russia are set to finalize the modalities of the much anticipated logistic support agreement during the meeting of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Military and Military-Technical cooperation on Friday.

Notwithstanding their inclusion and a 6% growth in sales from the previous year, the total volume of Indian arms sale remains less than 2% of the global arms sale – an indication of India's poor export performance at the international arena.

The Supreme Court on December 11 laid down an absolute bar on the media to publish or air the names or any material which may even remotely reveal the identity of victims of sexual crimes.

Under the amendments, a separate entry in the form will ask the applicant: “Do you belong to one of the minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs and Christians?” The Centre has made the changes under Section 18 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta issued notice to Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand governments for amending their States’ land acquisition laws to the extent that consent of farmers or land owners is not required before their land is acquired for projects like industrial corridors, expressways, highways, etc.

The surface-to-surface missile having a strike range of 5,000 km was launched at 1.30 p.m. from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Bhadrak district, said Defence Ministry sources.

Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, along with senior IAF officers, witnessed the exercise at Suryalanka for two days on Friday and Saturday.

China's dramatic increase in liquefied natural gas imports over the past two years may have hogged the headlines, but India may well emulate its neighbour in switching to the cleanest and fastest-growing fossil fuel.

The Supreme Court’s interpretation of a constitutional concept “can be very, very dangerous” Attorney General K K Venugopal has said, warning the court was granting itself vast power.

India can save three times its gross domestic product (GDP) and help the world save a million lives a year if it scales up its climate actions to help the global community limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (oC), said a World Health Organization (WHO) study released on December 5, 2018.

India will retain its position as the world's top recipient of remittances this year with its diaspora sending a whopping $80 billion back home, the World Bank said in a report Saturday.

A range of innovative technology and financial innovations will drive the Ganga cleaning program as was deliberated during the three-day India Water Impact Summit, that concluded on Friday in New Delhi.

Global carbon emissions are set to hit an all-time high of 37.1 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2018, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Global Carbon Project.

Termed the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, the framework is an agreement between the UN chief, 36 organizational entities, the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) and the World Customs Organisation, to better serve the needs of.

In order to provide an impetus to agricultural exports, the Government has come out with a comprehensive "Agriculture Export Policy" aimed at doubling the agricultural exports and integrating Indian farmers and agricultural products with the global value chains.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday brought in place a witness protection regime in the country noting that one of the main reasons for witnesses turning hostile is that they are not given security by the State.

India will import crude oil from Iran using a rupee-based payment mechanism, an industry person involved in discussions told Reuterson Thursday, adding that 50% of those payments will be used for exporting items to Tehran.

One out of every eight deaths in India was attributable to air pollution in 2017, which now contributes to more disease burden in the country than tobacco consumption, revealed a report released by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday.

The warming of the Indian Ocean due to global climate change may be causing a slow decline in India's wind power potential, according to a study.

A team of top officials and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), now stationed in the Guiana Space Centre, South America, is going over the last steps before it sees off the heaviest Indian communication satellite, GSAT-11, to its space orbit.

While India has maintained its position among the top five nations in the Global Firepower (GFP) List 2018, Pakistan has slipped four spots to 17 from 13 in 2017.

India and the UAE on Tuesday signed two agreements, including one on currency swap, as external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj held exhaustive discussions with her counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan to step up cooperation in areas such as trade, security and defence.

Qatar said on Monday it was quitting Opec from January to focus on its gas ambitions, taking a swipe at the group’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia and marring efforts to show unity before this week’s meeting of exporters to tackle an oil price slide.

The World Bank on Monday unveiled USD 200 billion in climate action investment for 2021-25, adding this amounts to a doubling of its current five-year funding.

Following a year of devastating climate disasters around the globe, from California to Kerala, and Tonga to Japan, the annual UN climate change conference (COP24) opened in the Polish city of Katowice on December 3 with the goal of finalising the implementation guidelines for the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

PAN card rules will no more be the same from this Wednesday as the Income Tax department has brought in some important changes aimed at preventing tax evasion and allowing new PAN card applicants greater flexibility.

Imagine, as a leader of a small developing nation, you are faced with the oncoming existential crisis that is climate change, but every time you try and implement a new policy your Treasury tells you the coffers are empty.

In a year, if all goes to plan, the dusty roads leading to the Kartarpur shrine in Pakistani Punjab’s Narowal province will be transformed into a bustling network of tourists and pilgrims. In this town by the river Ravi, the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, spent his last 18 years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the agenda in the second session of the G20 Summit on international trade, international financial and tax systems here on Friday.

What do your car, phone, soda bottle and shoes have in common? They’re all largely made from petroleum. This nonrenewable resource gets processed into a versatile set of chemicals called polymers – or more commonly, plastics.

The NITI Aayog today organized a day-long dialogue on “Health System for A New India: Building Blocks”, with national and international academia, practitioners, Indian policymakers and other stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem.

From January 2015, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) updated base year for GDP calculation to 2011-12, replacing the old series base year of 2004-05, as per the recommendations of the National Statistical Commission.

2018 is set to be the fourth warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which found that extreme weather this year due to climate change left a trail of devastation across the globe, including in India.

India on Thursday successfully launched its latest earth observation satellite HysIS, the data from which can be used in wide-ranging areas including agriculture, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here onboard ISRO’s trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The strategy - referred to as A Clean Planet for All - shows how Europe can lead the way to climate neutrality by investing into "realistic technological solutions, empowering citizens, and aligning action in key areas such as industrial policy, finance, or research", according to the Commission.

Feeding a hungry planet is growing increasingly difficult as climate change and depletion of land and other resources undermine food systems, the U.N.

Climate change has the potential to hurt everyone, but one particularly vulnerable group is farmers. Agriculture, especially in India, depends on favourable weather conditions; so climate change-induced temperature rises can significantly hurt farm productivity.

Global leaders will gather in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires this week for the Group of 20 summit, a meeting of the world’s largest economies responsible for 85% of global economic output and two-thirds of the world’s population.

The workhorse of ISRO will be carrying India’s earth observation satellite HysIS and 30 satellites from other countries out of which almost 23 belong to the US.

The delegations participating in the Strategic Economic Dialogue from India and Russia discussed the development of bilateral ties in trade, investment, and industry at the platform provided by the two-day forum.

The Narcondam hornbill, its habitat restricted to a lone island; the Nicobar megapode, a bird that builds nests on the ground; the Nicobar treeshrew, a small mole-like mammal; the Long-tailed Nicobar macaque, and the Andaman day gecko, are among the 1,067 endemic faunal species found only on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and nowhere else.

The Government of India and the People's Republic of China have signed a protocol on 26 November, 2018, to amend the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) for the avoidance of double taxation and for the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.

NITI Aayog organized todaythe Second Phase of Urban Management Programme on ‘Water Recycling and Reuse’.in collaboration with the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise & TF Internationalat India Habitat Centre in the capital today.

People in India would live an average 4.3 years longer if the country met the global guidelines for particulate pollution, according to a study which found that effect of pollution on life expectancy is worse than HIV/AIDS, cigarette smoking, and even terrorism.

The United Nations on Sunday selected Noida and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh to participate in its Global Sustainable Cities 2025 initiative.

United Nation Environment has awarded Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India with Asia Environment Enforcement Awards, 2018 for excellent work done by the Bureau in combating transboundary environmental crime.

India is planning to pay in rupees for Very-Short-Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) systems from Russia; the deal is likely to be concluded next year, a government official told Sputnik.

Two Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV) ships for Indian Coast Guard were simultaneously launched on Thursday at the defence PSU and warship builder – Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd. at Kolkata.

India today announced that it will start construction of the Kartarpur corridor up to the international border.

Under Section 47 of the RBI Act, only surplus profits can be transferred, and transferring reserves will require an amendment to the Act.

In February next year, the Gulf nation, hopefully, will sign a pact with Indian space agency ISRO for training and research purposes, Kamal Bin Ahmed Mohammed, Minister for Transportation and Telecommunications, Bahrain, said.

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would direct all the states to implement the draft witness protection scheme framed by the Centre in consultation with the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).

To cater to the needs and aspirations of the youth, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has come up with a youth-friendly scheme ‘Yuva Sahakar-Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme” for attracting them to cooperative business ventures.

Till March 25, 2015, the deal for 126 aircraft was on; 108 jets were to be produced by HAL. In just two weeks, on April 10, 2015, a joint statement is issued for a new deal for 36 Rafale jets with same equipment…The 2007 deal for 126 aircraft was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council.

While New Delhi and other Indian cities choke amid worsening air conditions and half-hearted government measures, neighbouring China -- the world's largest polluter -- is slowly winning its war against pollution.

Two-thirds of India’s households are projected to own an air conditioning unit by 2040.

The National Data Repository (NDR) is an integrated data repository of Exploration and Production (E&P) data of Indian sedimentary basins

Representatives of atleast three Russian banks operating in India, including Vnesheconombank, Sberbank and VTB, will meet executives from top Indian banks in Mumbai on Monday to discuss rupee-rouble settlements between businesses of the two countries.

Indian Armed Forces scripted another success with the test launch of nuclear capable ballistic missile Dhanush from a Naval warship off Odisha coast as part of a secret mission.

By ensuring Germany’s economic ruin and political humiliation, the post-war settlement provided fertile ground for the rise of Nazism and its horrors.

The 25th edition of SIMBEX, an acronym for “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise” is scheduled from 10th to 21st November 2018 off Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. Bilateral cooperation between Singapore and India was first formalised when RSN ships began training with the Indian Navy in 1994.

India has been elected as a member of the International Telecommunications Union Council (ITU) for another 4-year term - from 2019 to 2022.

As the political controversy over the Rafale fighter jet deal continues in India, manufacturing of the aircraft customised as per specifications of the Indian Air Force (IAF) is making progress.

The 25th edition of SIMBEX, an acronym for “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise” is scheduled from 10th to 21st November 2018 off Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. Bilateral cooperation between Singapore and India was first formalised when RSN ships began training with the Indian Navy in 1994.

The Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka has achieved a historic feat.

The government has banned the construction of jetties, ports or “permanent hydraulic structures” in the Ganga, unless permitted by the National Ganga Rejuvenation Authority, according to a proposed ‘Ganga Act’

Indians believe strongly in their country's education system rating it 7.11 out of 10 the fourth-highest of any country polled, with only Finland (8), Switzerland (7.2), and Singapore (7.1) higher.

For thousands of communities across India, the process of getting drinking water is now the same as the process of getting cash: they head to an ATM.

Professor Veezhinathan from Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IITM went on and said, "The microprocessor will not get outdated as it is one of the few 'RISC V Microprocessors' in the world now".

Air quality in India’s haze-hit north, including the capital, New Delhi, deteriorated sharply on Monday because of unfavourable weather and an increase in smoke from stubble burning in fields across the region.

The Reserve Bank has initiated steps to set up a wide-based digital Public Credit Registry (PCR) to capture details of all borrowers, including wilful defaulters and also the pending legal suits in order to check financial delinquencies.

The plea, stating that the government cannot “frustrate” the process of appointment of judges in the apex court and high courts in “an oblique way” by sitting on collegium’s recommendations and not responding to names reiterated by it, came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today launched a historic support and outreach programme for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

India leads the world in the number of internet shutdowns, with over 100 reported incidents in 2018 alone according to a report titled 'Freedom on the Net' by a US think tank.

India has jumped 23 places to rank 77 in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 report. While improvement on quite a few parameters has pushed up its overall ranking, there are some in which it is lagging.

The Maharashtra state cabinet on Thursday cleared the decks for the Navy's longest-serving aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, now retired, to be converted into India’s first-ever moored maritime museum-cum-marine adventure centre.

ISA is an alliance of more than 121 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy so as to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The satellite was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern Sichuan Province, state-run Xinhua reported.

In case of older public service vehicles –those registered up to 31"December,2018, the respective State/ UT Governments will notify the date by which these vehicles have to install Vehicle Location Tracking Device and Panic Buttons.

The US plans to re-impose oil-related sanctions on Iran on November 4 to choke the Islamic Republic’s biggest source of income and pressure it to renegotiate a new nuclear deal.

This decision was taken in a meeting held here today under the Chairmanship of Shri C.K. Mishra, Secretary, EF&CC to discuss the urgent steps for air pollution mitigation and regulating fire crackers in the light of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s Order.

India leapfrogged to the 77th rank in the World Bank's latest Ease of Doing Business rankings, jumping 23 notches from last year, a news that is likely to bring cheer for the Narendra Modi-government that is caught in an apparent turf battle with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The government has sent letters to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking consultations on key regulatory issues under a never-before-used provision in the law, according to sources.

The launch of the surface-to-surface missile was undertaken as a part of periodic training activity by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) from Dr Abdul Kalam Island to consolidate operational readiness, the sources said.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu held a meeting with a Russian business delegation on raising investments and business between the two countries on Saturday, where he said "all issues may be resolved in order to operationalise the route as early as possible".

The Indian Navy has put out a proposal for its third aircraft carrier, tentatively titled the Vishal due to enter service in the latter 2020s.

The CAF World Giving Index 2018 finds that when it comes to donating money, volunteering time and helping a stranger among 146 countries, India ranks at 124 in 2018 as opposed to its position of 81 in 2017.

One in ten deaths in children across the world is being caused by air pollution, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report.

The Supreme Court on Monday prohibited the plying of 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the national capital region (NCR) and directed the transport department to announce that such vehicles would be impounded if found plying.

A look at the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), calculated by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and UNDP reveal the variations.

Narendra Modi along with Shinzo Abe reviewed developments in bilateral relations and explored new areas of cooperation, focusing on shared vision for peace & prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.

The UN Department of Field Support announced that the Indian government had donated about USD 300,000 for the 'Pipeline to Peacekeeping Command Programme' with a specific focus on issues of conduct and discipline.

Beijing-based Landscape said late Saturday that the first and second stage of its ZQ-1 rocket worked normally but something went wrong with the final of the three-stage rocket.

In March, the US dragged India to the global trade body's dispute settlement mechanism over export subsidies, saying that these incentives were harming the American companies.

Concerned over the “disappearance” of many intangible legacies of India over time, the UN will soon launch a project on creating an “inventory” of art forms, craftsmanship and other intangible cultural heritage of the country.

The capital Delhi is experiencing a number of difficulties due to poor environmental pollution. Pollution in the air is getting worse day by day.

The HD-1 missile test was a success and “verified the launch, power and flight control systems,” according to China’s Global Times.

Indian Railways is moving fast to connect Ladakh with New Delhi through rail lines by expediting work on the strategically significant Bilaspur-Manali-Leh broad-gauge rail line.

The moon lander, Vikram, named after the father of Indian space programme Vikram Sarabhai, will carry out various tests on the moon surface.

India and Myanmar held a national level meeting here today to chalk out strategies to crack down on insurgent groups operating in the region.

Russia on Thursday successfully launched a Soyuz rocket for the first time since the failure of a similar rocket aborted a manned take-off to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 11.

The two sides agreed to consider inclusion of Rupnarayanriver (National Waterway-86) from Geonkhali to Kolaghat in the protocol route and to declare Kolaghatin West Bengal as new Port of Call.

The association is guided by international leaders who believe in the value of networking, knowledge exchange and the promotion of good governance for the betterment of citizens in the Commonwealth countries.

Barak-8 is a long-range surface to air missile jointly developed by India’s DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries (which subcontracted the work to Israel’s Elta Systems and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems; the latter has a JV with Indian private firm Kalyani).

he Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved a Rs 7,522-crore Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) from which enterpreneurs, fishermen, cooperatives will get loans at subsidised interest rate and two years moratorium on repayment of principal amount.

Driven by a self-propulsion module sans a separate locomotive, the train, capable of running at a speed of up to 160 kmph, comes with technical features for enhanced quick acceleration.

Appointment of an Adjudicating Authority, along with the three additional Benches and to establish the Appellate Tribunal under the PBPT Act;

Unlike the first mission which carried only Chandrayaan orbiter and the Moon Impact probe, this mission will have a lander and a rover apart from the orbiter, which has been developed by Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).

The Indian delegation to the first meeting of the Coordination Council on Chabahar was led by T.S. Tirumurti, secretary, economic relations, India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The award was presented by Armenian President Armen Sarkissian to Deepak Bagla, the CEO of Invest India, on Monday in Geneva at the inaugurations of the World Investment Forum organised by the UN Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The order passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S.K. Kaul came on a PIL filed by Anoop Baranwal seeking an “independent mechanism for appointment of ECs” outside the exclusive power of the government.

The Supreme Court has allowed use of fire crackers that are within permitted decibel limits and emission norms.

Recommends adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law of Cross Border Insolvency, 1997

A U.N.-backed fund has approved more than $1 billion for 19 new projects to help developing countries tackle climate change, officials said Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. would pull out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia.

The S-300 began development in the 1960s as a follow-up to a multitude of prior surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. The primary missile it planned to replace is the S-75 (SA-2) missile system, which was famously used against the U-2 spy plane and deployed in Cuba and Vietnam. The missile underwent testing in the 1970s and entered service in 1978.

The UNICEF said on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Chile President Michelle Bachelet and chair of PMNCH will deliver the keynote addresses.

India on Saturday (October 20) rejected reports in Pakistani media that New Delhi has refused "permission" to Pakistan from inspecting water projects being built on the River Chenab.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) may officially maintain that it is not in race with China so far as its space endeavours go, but the space programmes of the two leading economies cannot be viewed in isolation given that both are trying to make their mark.

India, Japan and the U.S. are set to elevate the bilateral ‘Cope India’ air exercise to a trilateral format. The three countries already conduct naval war games under the expanded Malabar naval exercise.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Monday in its ‘Investment Trends Monitor’ report that in South Asia, India attracted USD 22 billion of FDI (foreign direct investment) flows, contributing to the sub-region’s 13 per cent rise in FDI in the first half of the year.

RK Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy announced an award scheme under Saubhagya here today to felicitate the DISCOMs / Power Department of the States and their employees for achieving 100 per cent household electrification in their area of operations.

"It might be the wish of many people that Allahabad can be renamed Prayagraj. It will be a very good message. If everyone agrees, we should know this city as Prayagraj and it can be a good start," the Chief Minister had said earlier.

The Centre recently announced its plan to set up a panel of judges to look into the legal and institutional framework to curb sexual harassment at workplaces following the #MeToo campaign on social media.

“This will be the first of the 36 Rafale fighter jets ordered by India,” said a top Ministry of Defence source. The fighter jet has been numbered as RB 008, after Air Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria, who is Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Training Command of the Indian Air Force.

The system - called Air Quality Early Warning System - will have an in-built web-based dissemination tools to inform public and enforcement agencies about episodic high pollution events in advance.

The 2018 award announcement on Friday said: "Sikkim is the first organic state in the world. All of its farmland is certified organic. At the same time, Sikkim's approach reaches beyond organic production and has proven truly transformational for the state and its citizens."

This initiative will be a part of the drive to make cities across the country flood resilient. The urban affairs ministry will soon come out with the guidelines for this competition as cities face more threats of flooding because of blocked drainage system and dying natural water bodies, where rain water accumulates.

Enhancing its operational capabilities, the Navy has inducted its first deep submergence rescue vehicle which is deployed to rescue downed or disaster-struck submarines at high sea.

An understanding to launch a joint programme in Afghanistan was reached during an informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held in April at China’s Wuhan city.

The GSLV MK-III vehicle’s upper stage is powered by the CE-20, which operates on a gas generator cycle using a combination of liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) propellants.

India is planning a major mission to sequence the genes of a “large” group of Indians — akin to projects in the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Australia — and use this to improve health as well as buck a global trend of designing ‘personalised medicine.’

India was vying for a seat in the Asia Pacific category. Along with India, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Fiji and Philippines had also staked a claim in the same regional group.

As a top US official headed to New Delhi for talks on Iran sanctions, a state department spokesperson said “it’s not helpful” to note India plans to continue buying Iranian oil and Russian S-400 air defense systems, both subject to secondary sanctions under separate legislations.

According to directions issued Wednesday, political parties too will have to give publicity to the criminal records of candidates fielded by them.

Noting that there are 102 cities where air quality does not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the panel formed an Air Quality Monitoring Committee (AQMC), comprising directors of environment, transport, industries, urban development, agriculture departments and member-secretary of state pollution control boards.

The Global Hunger Index report released on October 11 is the thirteenth edition. Welthungerlife and Concern Worldwide has been issuing reports on hunger levels in the world since 2006.

The World Bank Group unveiled a new system on Thursday to rank countries based on their success in developing human capital, an effort to prod governments to invest more effectively in education and healthcare.