The project is expected to be finished within five years. "I'm confident that it will be completed during your (Modi's) tenure as prime minister," Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said at the closing ceremony for the birth centenary celebration of the 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated two hydroelectric projects in Jammu & Kashmir, indicating his government's political will to respond to Pakistan's use of terrorism against India with every option at its command, including using in full India's share of water from western tributaries of the Indus, as possible leverage points.

Unless the culprit is found and stopped, the recovery of the ozone layer, which protects life on Earth from damaging UV radiation, could be delayed by a decade. The source of the new emissions has been tracked to east Asia, but finding a more precise location requires further investigation.

The step was taken to address the problem of people's inability to access diagnostic services, thus failing to receive the correct treatment.

Toughening its stand against a review of its ruling diluting the arrest clause in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not allow arrest of an innocent merely on a complaint even if Parliament made a law.

Jharkhand has emerged as the best-performing state in terms of cleanliness, while Indore in Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the cleanest city in the country, according to the government cleanliness survey released on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court will examine fervent pleas for a five-judge Constitution Bench to decide whether special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir is unconstitutional.

India emerged as the third largest solar market in the world in 2017 behind China and the US, Mercom Communications India said in a report.

A gender discrimination study has found that 2,39,000 girls under the age of five die in India every year because of society’s preference for sons. The study, conducted by the Austria-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, did not include the figures of female foetuses that are aborted.

The government is planning to bring an ordinance to overturn the Supreme Court verdict putting safeguards on arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and subsequently introduce a bill to insulate it from further judicial scrutiny.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has issued National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy here today. The objective of the policy is to provide a framework for promotion of large grid connected wind-solar PV hybrid system for efficient utilization of transmission infrastructure and land.

People in South Asian countries experienced at least 97 instances of Internet shutdown, a barometer on freedom of press and expression, between May 2017 and April 2018, with India alone accounting for 82 such cases, according to a UNESCO report.

Scientists have recorded a wave measuring 23.8 metres, the height of an eight-storey building, in the Southern Ocean near New Zealand’s Campbell Island, AFP reported on Thursday.

The government also plans to allow youth in the age bracket of 16-18 years to drive electric scooters, besides mandating taxi aggregators to have a certain percentage of e-vehicle fleet.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked chief justices or acting chief justices of all high courts to set up anti-sexual harassment committees in courts across the country within two months in accordance with a 2013 law.

The IMF's Asia and Pacific Regional Economic Outlook report said that India was recovering from the effects of demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax.

Despite United States President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal itself won’t be scrapped as long as Iran and the other signatories: the U.K., France, Russia, China, Germany and the European Union remain committed to it.

Awards from the 9th CGD licensing round would help bring gas coverage to 174 districts in 22 states and Union Territories, covering 29 per cent of the country's area and 24 per cent of the population, said Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launching the bidding round here.

The Lowy Institute Asia Power Index measures power across 25 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching as far west as Pakistan, as far north as Russia, and as far into the Pacific as Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The Press Council of India has rubbished the recently released Press Freedom Index, in which India slipped two places to rank 138th among 180 countries, saying there was a “lack of clarity” on the inputs that weighed in the rankings which were based on “opinion or perception”.

Time is running out for the seven-satellite Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), also known as NavIC (Navigation in Indian Constellation).

The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Saturday launched a spacecraft to Mars to study the deep interior of the Red Planet for the first time.

The POSHAN (PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) Abhiyaan was launched by the Prime Minister on 8th March 2018 at Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.

A Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed to this effect by Ms. Anna Roy, Advisor, NITI Aayog and ShriRajanAnandan, Vice President, India and South East Asia, Google in the presence of the Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITIAayog.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who had for months questioned the private equity structure of GST-Network (GSTN), demanded transfer of Finance Secretary Hashmukh Adhia to a lesser important ministry for his alleged role in the "GSTN scam".

NITI Aayog and IBM signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) today to develop a crop yield prediction model using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide real time advisory to farmers in Aspirational Districts.

The NWIC will also collaborate with leading national and international research institutes to provide technical support to central and state organisations dealing with water emergency response of hydrological extremes.

Briefing media after chairing the 27th meeting of the council through video -conferencing today, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the government will acquire the 51 percent stake held by private entities and subsequently the central and the state governments will hold a 50 percent stake each in the entity.

China launched a new communication satellite "APSTAR-6C" late on Thursday at the southwestern Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Only anti-Dalit atrocities' complaints which are felt “absurd” or “absolutely” frivolous need to be probed by the police before proceeding to arrest the perpetrator, Justice A.K. Goel qualified the apex court's March 20 judgment which led to widespread unrest and violence across the country.

Developing this integrated database with locally obtained and validated data is crucial for tracking our risks and progress towards resilience without which India will not be able to meet its developmental goals.

In what is set to aggravate concerns over climate change, a new joint Indo-US study has found that global warming is leading to large-scale fish kills in the Arabian Sea by fuelling the growth of harmful bioluminescent algae.

Responding to the air pollution data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday, the government claimed that various measures have led to pollution levels actually falling in 2017.

Accused persons usually move the High Courts in the middle of criminal proceedings in trial courts on various issues, ranging from quashing of charges to transfer of cases to appeal against interim orders, etc.

The 9th India Japan Energy Dialogue was held in New Delhi, today. Minister of State(IC) for Power and New &Renewable Energy, Shri R.K Singh, and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Mr. Hiroshige Sekosigned a Joint Statement at the conclusion of the meeting.

According to report, more than 90 per cent of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, including India.

Even though ties between India and Pakistan continue to remain strained, the two neighbours will participate together for the first time in a multi-nation counter-terrorism exercise in Russia in September.

Manipur's Leisang village became the last non-electrified inhabited village to join India's mainline supply network at 5.30pm on Saturday, an important milestone in the country's journey towards universal electricity access.

The Supreme Court has asked a PIL petitioner to submit a representation to the government to reschedule office hours and provide drinking water and medical facilities to the public and in educational institutions to beat the heat wave sweeping across the country.

India is tying up with the United States and Finland to develop a pollution-forecast system that will help anticipate particulate matter (PM) levels at least two days in advance and at a greater resolution than what is possible now.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the government to respond to a plea by a hotelier to strike down the colonial Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting on May 1 will deliberate on the pros and cons of converting the GST Network (GSTN), the GST’s information technology backbone, into a government-owned company.

Diu had been importing 73% of its power from Gujarat until last year. It has now adopted a two-pronged approach whereby a 9 MW solar park spread over 50 hectares rocky barren land has been developed besides installing solar panels on the roof tops on 79 government buildings thereby generating 1.3 MW annually.

The Global Findex Report, 2017 released by the World Bank on Friday gives India more than one reason to cheer, as it notes the rapid increase in financial inclusion that has taken place in the country.

Every third city that failed to meet national air quality standards in India–where most people die of air pollution than any other nation–was in two of the country’s biggest states, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, in five years to 2015, according to government data.

A giant asteroid gave Earth a surprise close shave this week, flying by at a distance of 192,000 kilometers, just a day after astronomers discovered the object, scientists say.

An 11th- hour technical glitch prompted SpaceX to postpone its planned launch on Monday of a new NASA space telescope designed to detect worlds beyond our solar system.

The UN's Economic and Social Council held elections to a number of its subsidiary bodies on Monday. The ECOSOC focusses on advancing the three dimensions of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental.

The World Bank said on Sunday that India’s economy has recovered from the impact of demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax regime, and would grow at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5% in 2019.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018.

It’s been well-established that steep mountain ranges can draw carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere. This is because erosion of the mountain exposes new rock, initiating a chemical reaction between the CO2 in the air and the minerals on the mountain face, weathering the rock and using CO2 to produce carbonate minerals such as calcite

Seven MoUs were signed at the Defence Expo 2018 by Indian private companies and Russian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to manufacture and develop spares and sub-assemblies of identified Russian-origin platforms in use by the Indian armed forces.

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the assistance of attorney general K.K. Venugopal on a petition challenging the administrative powers of the chief justice of India regarding allocation of cases.

TESS is take up the mantle of the Kepler Space Telescope, which is expected to run out of fuel by the end of this year. Kepler has found more than 5000 exoplanet candidates so far, and confirmed about half of them.

The International Monetary Fund has said that India should ensure privacy and security controls while implementing biometric identification programmes like the Aadhaar.

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the web-based application ‘e-FRRO’ (e-Foreigners Regional Registration Office) at a function here today.

Shrinking reservoirs in India, Morocco, Iraq and Spain could result in water taps going completely dry in these four countries, a study based on a new early warning satellite system has warned.

The five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra told Attorney General K.K. Venugopal that the supposed deemed consent for parting with biometric data can't be stretched to mean waiving of fundamental rights to privacy of the people.

The trade review released in the lead up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) next week. ‘Commonwealth Trade Review 2018: Strengthening the Commonwealth Advantage’, compiled by the Commonwealth secretariat, also found that India has moved into the top five providers of intra-Commonwealth services trade, surpassing Canada, and alongside Australia, Singapore and the UK.

The three-day event is being organised by the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, Govt of Nepal in association with the Society of Public Health Engineers Nepal (Sophen) and Nepal Engineers Association.

India and World Expo 2020 signed participants contract today for India’s pavilion in the prestigious World Expo 2020 held once in 5 years.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will on Thursday launch a navigation satellite, the eighth such satellite to be a part of a constellation, from Sriharikota, the space agency said on Tuesday.

India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer after the US and China, will host the 16th International Energy Forum Ministerial (IEF—16), that will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

Among the largest economies in the G-20 group, China, the US and India have been hit the hardest by protectionist measures in 2017, according to data from the Global Trade Alerts (GTA) database.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Monday following rival requests by Russia and the United States after a deadly chemical attack in Syria and a warning by US President Donald Trump that there would be a “big price to pay.”

Lending to the corporate sector, particularly small and medium enterprises, is becoming increasingly difficult with more than half the country’s public sector banks (PSBs) now under the RBI’s Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework, which restricts lending activities of the banks, government sources said.

As part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s neighbourhood-first foreign policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal’s premier K.P. Sharma Oli on Saturday remotely attended the ground breaking ceremony of South Asia’s first transnational petroleum pipeline, that will supply fuel to India’s land locked neighbour.

Black holes are hanging out at the centre of our galaxy by the thousands, according to scientists who have detected a bunch of them in the neighbourhood of a supermassive black hole already known to reside at the heart of the Milky Way.

A company has plans of launching a luxury hotel in space. The launching of Aurora Station aims at building affordable luxury hotel in space.

A dilution of the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is going to affect Dalit women far more than men.

WHO offices worldwide are organizing events to mark the day with WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joining celebrations in Sri Lanka.

An interdepartmental group has been constituted to study and provide guidance on the "desirability and feasibility" to introduce a "central bank digital currency" and will submit its report by June, the central bank said.

About 5.09% global threats were detected in India in 2017 as compared to 5.11% in 2016, according to ‘Internet Security Threat Report’ released on Wednesday by Symantec. The US was was most vulnerable to attacks at 26.61% followed by China at 10.95%.

Despite snapping of the communication link with its recently launched communication satellite Gsat-6A, Isro is gearing up for the scheduled launch of its next navigation satellite IRNSS-1I on April 12.

It proposes to include “National Commission for Protection of Child Rights” as deemed Member of the Commission; It proposes to add a woman Member in the composition of the Commission;

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched the much-awaited 'Virtual ID' which will be a random 16-digit number mapped to a person's Aadhaar number.

The observation came from a bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and R F Nariman on a petition by Kumari Vijayalakshmi Jha, who sought a declaration that Article 370 was a temporary provision that lapsed with the dissolution of the J&K Constituent Assembly on January 26, 1957.

Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, while announcing the rankings at an event in the Vigyan Bhavan, said the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has been adjudged the best engineering college and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) the best management institution.

Agricultural fires are to blame for about half of the pollution experienced in Delhi in October and November, a peak stubble burning season in Punjab, a Harvard study has found using satellite data from NASA.

New Delhi will host the strategically important trilateral dialogue between India, Japan and the US this week ahead of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago later this month, the State Department has said.

In the past five years, the Indian startup ecosystem has seen many ups and downs. While the years 2014 and 2015 saw a lot of investor activity, purse strings were being tightened towards the end of 2017.

The Centre moved the Supreme Court on Monday challenging a slew of directions passed under a ruling safeguarding government officials from arrest under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Ultra-clean Euro-VI grade petrol and diesel, at no additional price, supply has been started in the national capital from yesterday in a bid to combat alarming levels of air pollution.

Four minutes after executing the second orbit-raising operation, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan lost all contact with GSAT-6A, a mega communication satellite that was to provide mobile communications to both civilians and the armed forces.

Hyderabad and Bengaluru are at the top two positions in a list of 30 global short-term growth cities, according to property consultant JLL.

Cheap handsets and the proliferation of fourth generation, or 4G, services have helped India overtake the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market, trailing only China, according to a new report by analyst firm Canalys.

India’s antibiotics consumption has increased by 103 per cent from 2000 to 2015, the highest in low and middle-income countries, according to a new study.

The Indian banking sector reported 12,533 frauds worth Rs 18,170 crore in the 2016-’17 financial year, proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services said on Thursday.

Russia on Friday tested an intercontinental ballistic missile called the RS-28 Sarmat, which the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation nicknamed “Satan 2”, CNN reported.

The preliminary analysis of cores obtained from Mohenjodaro in Pakistan in 2015-’16 suggested that the site in present-day Sindh was likely the world’s largest settlement of its time between 2600 and 1900 BC, the Dawnreported on Friday.

Our Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy and India’s Act East Policy should be further merged,” said Mr. Kono, in remarks that appeared to target China’s actions in the South China Sea.

Background: The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 applies to establishments employing 10 or more persons. The main purpose for enacting this Act is to provide social security to workman after retirement, whether retirement is a result of superannuation, or physical disablement or impairment of vital part of the body.

Scheduled to launch on May 5, NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) -- a stationary lander -- will be dedicated to explore Mars' deep interior.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland regarding cooperation and exchange of information for the purposes of combating international criminality and tackling serious organised crime.

NITI Aayog has come up with a mechanism under which 101 most underdeveloped districts of the country termed as 'aspirational' would be competing with each other in terms of performance and they will be ranked on 49 indicators based on various data points.

Most Indians prioritise happiness and health over money with 72 per cent respondents in a survey defining success as 'being happy'.

An insect museum with the state-of-the-art amenities, a first of its kind in the country, opened in Coimbatore on Monday.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswamy unveiled the museum at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in the city, with the theme “Bugs are Kings”.

The six members of the monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are scheduled to meet next week to decide the future trajectory of interest rates.

The 27-hour countdown began on Wednesday for the launch of Isro’s GSLV-F08 mission carrying the GSAT-6A communication satellite from the space port of Sriharikota, about 110 kms from Chennai.

Mexicans, Russians and Chinese are the next big settlers of the lot after Indians. Pakistan remains among the top countries for Indian settlers because of the large post-Partition influx.

The agreement was signed by General (Dr.) V.K. Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs and Shri Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General, ISA in the gracious presence of Shri R K Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy.

The average download speed over the mobile increased to 9.01 mbps in February from the 8.80 mbps in November last year, but the country's rank continued to stay at 109th, Ookla's Speedtest index said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Saturday refuted reports about a fresh data leak of Aadhaar holders, and asserted that there has been “absolutely no breach” of its database.

he world's longest sandstone cave named Krem Puri was recently discovered in Meghalaya. It has a staggering length of 24.5 km, almost three times the height of Mount Everest, and contains some dinosaur fossils from 66-76 million years ago as well.

Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-2 mission, which was "originally scheduled for the April 23" will now be launched in the "first week of October".

The dictionary has been developed by Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre(ISLR&TC) under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), M/o Social Justice & Empowerment. Ministers of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Krishan Pal Gujar and Shri Ramdas Athwale and Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar were also present on the occasion.

India is among 20 nations that have pledged a total of about $100 million to the UN relief agency charged with the well-being of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has entered into a technology transfer agreement (TTA) with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) under which it will pass on the technology for the manufacture of space grade Li-Ion cells.

India successfully tested the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from Rajasthan’s Pokhran on Thursday morning.

The First meeting of the inter-departmental group of stakeholders on implementation of strategy on resource efficiency was held at NITI Aayog today. After detailed discussion,a road map for implementation of the RE in the country was evolved.

The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization on Thursday said that 2017 was the most expensive year on record for severe weather and climate calamities globally.

India, Iran and Afghanistan had signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar port.

Three Indian cities - New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, are among the cheapest cities in the world, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey, that named Singapore as the most expensive city.

The US argues that the subsidies violate WTO agreements.

As per a survey conducted by network security firm Sophos, around 67 per cent of Indian organisations were hit by ransomware and 38 per cent twice.

The overall list was topped by Sweden, followed by Norway at the 2nd position and Switzerland at the 3rd rank.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved an Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on income between India and Iran.

The ISA has also inked joint financial partnership declarations with the African Development Bank (AfDb), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Green climate fund (GCF), and the New Development Bank (NDB).

The high-precision Kinzhal (Dagger) missile was launched from a MiG-31 supersonic interceptor jet that took off from an airfield in the South Military District in Russia's southwest, the defence ministry said.

The first-ever multi-nation naval exercise at sea, MILES-18, began at the Andaman sea. 11 naval ships of 8 countries and nine Indian ships are participating in the three-day exercise.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched new guidelines on the role that tobacco product regulations can play in reducing tobacco demand, saving lives and raising revenues for health services to treat tobacco-related diseases, in the context of a comprehensive tobacco control.

India and France on Saturday outlined concrete steps to broaden the scope of their 20 year-old strategic partnership, signing 14 pacts in areas ranging from defence, security, nuclear energy to the protection of classified information besides agreeing to hold biennial summits between top level leaders of the two countries and an annual bilateral defence dialogue.

For 17 years now, the Best Exhibitor Award (BEA) is considered as a quality indicator for an attractive performance at ITB. This year, the BEA was awarded to India at the Palais am Funkturm.

India, a founding member of the International Solar Alliance, on Friday said that membership of the body will be thrown open to all countries that want to join the grouping, with no restrictions on duration of sunlight or geographical location.

E-way Bill will be implemented from April 1 for inter-state movement of goods: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday announced that the e-way bill will be implemented from April 1 for inter-state movement of goods.

In a milestone verdict expanding the right to life to incorporate the right to die with dignity, the Supreme Court on Friday legalised passive euthanasiaand approved 'living will' to provide terminally ill patients or those in persistent and incurable vegetative state (PVS) a dignified exit by refusing medical treatment or life support.

The MoU will strengthen the existing relationship between UPSC and Public Service Commission of Mauritius. It will facilitate sharing of experience and expertise of both the parties in the area of recruitment.

India's ranking in gender diversity has improved with the representation of women in top leadership positions rising to 20 per cent in 2018, even as the country ranks fifth lowest in having women in such roles, says a report.

The Prime Minister also awarded ten districts for showing outstanding performance in the areas of effective community engagement, enforcement of PC&PNDT Act and enabling education of the girl child.

NITI Aayog launched the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), on the occasion of International Women’s Day today. The initiative is aimed at building an ecosystem for women across India to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk-out sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses.

Eleven countries are expected to sign a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement in Santiago on Thursday, as an antidote to the increasingly protectionist bent of US, which last year pulled out of the pact.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in the field of Renewable Energy between India and Hellenic.

India has imposed new restrictions on trade with North Korea, a government statement said on Wednesday, in line with United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang for its ballistic missile programme.

Speaking at the inaugural function through video message, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Shri Suresh Prabhu said that technology is driving all activities and that young minds are the incubators of new ideas.

India saw a sharp decline in child marriages over the last ten years with 27 per cent of girls getting married before their 18th birthday as against 47 per cent a decade ago, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Tuesday.

The Government constitutes a Steering Committee on Fintech related issues to consider various issues relating to development of Fintech space in India with a view to make Fintech related regulations more flexible and generate enhanced entrepreneurship in an area where India has distinctive comparative strengths vis-à-vis other emerging economies.

SpaceX carried out the 50th launch of its signature Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday, a swift ascent to a milestone which many aerospace giants take far longer to attain.

As the Centre plans to clean the air in 13 south Indian cities, 26 more cities spread across four south Indian states reported annual particulate pollution levels higher than the national safe standards, according to an analysis of government data.

The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement body has agreed to set up a panel to determine whether India has complied with its ruling in a case against the US regarding domestic content requirements for solar cells and modules.

Myanmar has indefinitely deferred signing an agreement with India to streamline the free movement of people within 16 km along the border.

Wshington, Mar 4 (PTI) Indias exposure to US government securities rose sharply to a high of USD 144.7 billion at the end of 2017, according to latest official data.

A committee of the NITI Aayog has recommended drastic cuts in taxes on gold and also proposed a more liberalised approach towards the yellow metal to increase its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 3 per cent by 2022.

BS-VI fuel has 10 ppm (parts per million) of sulphur as against 50 ppm in BS-IV. Further, the BS-VI standards mandate PM emissions are reduced to 0.005 g/km from the BS-IV standard of 0.025 g/km.

India and Vietnam on Saturday inked three pacts, including one on nuclear cooperation, and resolved to jointly work for an open Indo-Pacific, while calling for a rules-based regional architecture.

Can carbon dioxide (CO2)—a greenhouse gas whose high emissions contribute to global warming—be turned into usable energy? Scientists believe this can be done.

The Rooppur project is the first initiative under an Indo-Russian deal to undertake atomic energy projects in third countries. This will also be the first time Indian companies will be able to participate in a nuclear power project abroad.

India and Jordan signed 12 agreements after the highlevel talks, covering areas as diverse as mass media, health, culture and tourism. But the area of interest for both countries is clearly defence and security.

India on Wednesday successfully test-fired Anti Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) Nag in desert conditions, defence sources said. The Nag ATGM has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Wednesday’s flight tests have once again proved their capability, they said.

The moon will get its first mobile phone network next year, enabling high-definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to earth, part of a project to back the first privately funded moon mission.

The Union Cabinet on February 28, 2018 approved the signing of four Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) between India and Jordan on cooperation in various fields.

The 15th Finance Commission, set up to recommend the devolution of central pool taxes to states as well as a fiscal consolidation roadmap for government finances, will require to define what constitutes a "populist" measure in order to fulfil its terms of reference, Commission Chairman NK Singh said on Wednesday.

To warn people about pollution hotspots, the National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) — the policy arm of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research — is ironing out a project to install pollution sensors at Delhi’s traffic junctions.

The Inclusive Internet Index, which has returned for its second year, provides a rigorous benchmark of national-level Internet inclusion across four categories:

“Besides fostering co-operation through naval exercises and professional interactions, MILAN also provides an excellent opportunity to the participating navies to come together in a spirit of collaboration and mutual understanding to nurture stronger ties,” the Navy said in a statement on Sunday.

The MoU was signed by Prof. Anil Kumar Tripathi, Director CSIR-CIMAP and Dr. A. Sedrpousan, Director, IORA-RCSTT. The Indian delegation was led by Dr. Girish Sahni, DG, CSIR and Secretary, DSIR.

The unanimous vote followed a Russian veto of a Britain-drafted text that contained language of Iranian "non-compliance" with the UN sanctions regime against individuals and entities deemed to be engaging in or providing support for acts that threaten the peace, security or stability of Yemen.

The Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains, are getting warmer, according to a study published in science journal Current Science.

The Sustainable Biofuel is one of the Seven Mission Innovation Challenges and India Co-leads this along with other countries Brazil, Canada and China.

The Dokalam standoff behind them, India and China have agreed on calendar for bilateral engagement in the coming months.

An Indo-German MOU has been signed for an “Implementation Agreement in Sustainable Urban Development and Smart Cities in India”, here today.

The surface-to-surface missile, a naval variant of the indigenously-developed 'Prithvi' missile.India today successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable 'Dhanush' ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 kms from a naval ship off Odisha coast, defence officials said.

ISA, a brainchild of India and France launched at the Paris climate summit in 2015 with the aim to efficiently exploit solar energy in the countries that lie between the tropics, expects to ink a host country agreement just ahead of the big day.

A team of scientists has identified a new shark species residing in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Union Government has issued order setting up the ‘Niti Forum for North-East’. The forum will be co-chaired by the Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog and Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER).

India has been ranked 81st in the global corruption perception indexfor 2017, released by Transparency International, which named the country among the "worst offenders" in terms of graft and press freedom in the Asia Pacific region.

The Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Radha Mohan Singh today launched six new features of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Platform to make it more users friendly.

This was the second of the 20 test flights planned for SARAS PT1N, before freezing the production version. The first successful test was carried out on January 24, this year.

Nearly 40 per cent of over 53,000 cyber attacks in India occurred in the financial services sector during 2017, placing it at the seventh spot in the list of targeted countries for Web Application Attacks (WAA), a new report said on Wednesday.

India has been ranked 12th-worst among 52 low-middle income countries based on the number of children dying within the first month of their birth, which is 25.4 per 1,000 live births.

India on Tuesday test-fired its medium range nuclear capable Agni-II missilewith a strike range of 2,000km from Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast, defence sources said.

“India will be a great global host of 2018’s World Environment Day celebrations,” said Erik Solheim, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Head, UN Environment at the announcement on Monday.

UK-India research projects on ‘Water Quality Research’ and ‘Energy Demand Reduction in Built Environment’were launched today by Dr V K Saraswat, Member, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST) India and Daniel Shah, Director, Research Councils UK (RCUK) India.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM- In a first in Kerala, the state government will soon be utilising the services of Robots to clean sewer holes. The trial runs of the robot, developed by a startup company, Genrobotics, have been successfully held recently and the product will be launched next week, Kerala Water Authority (KWA) Managing Director, A Shainamol said.

Senior officials from the US, Japan, India and Australia are discussing establishing a joint infrastructure plan, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, amid reports it could act as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

WhatsApp will roll out its payments service in India, its biggest market, initially for one million users, National Payments Corporation of India said on Friday.

India and Iran signed nine agreements on Saturday, including in areas such as double taxation avoidance, extradition, agriculture and traditional medicine.

The Global Connectedness Index 2016, the fourth since it was first released in 2011, prepared by Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman (both teach management at New York University Stern School of Business, US), was released on November 15, 2016.

The first phase of the Chabahar port in south-east Iran, which India is developing, was inaugurated in December last year. The port opened a new strategic transit route between India, Iran and Afghanistan that bypassed Pakistan.

The Supreme Court of India on February 16, 2018 reduced Tamil Nadu’s share of Cauvery water by 14.75 tmcft water per year, diverting the same to Karnataka.

PM Modi while addressing the gathering at the inaugural speech laid emphasis on the major current environmental problems that are being faced by the developing nations.

The Economic Survey 2016-17 pushed for universal basic income (UBI).The survey discussed various arguments that may be put forth for implementing UBI. It was noted that the case for UBI has been enhanced because of the weakness of existing welfare schemes which are riddled with misallocation, leakages and exclusion of the poor.

India has called for a comprehensive political settlement and reconciliation in Iraq at the International Conference for Reconstruction of Iraq in Kuwait, where major world powers are meeting to chalk out a plan of recovery for the country.

India overtook the UK as the fifth-largest defence spender in the world in 2017 at $52.5 billion, up from $51.1 billion in 2016, according to the 'Military Balance 2018' report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The two-week-long campaign, will continue till February 23.Over 300 challans were issued on Tuesday under the 'Clean Air Campaign' - a joint venture of the Environment Ministry and the Delhi government to combat air pollution in the national capital.

India’s financial capital Mumbai has been ranked the 12th richest city in the world with a total wealth of $950 billion (approximately Rs 61.11 lakh crore) and is home to 28 individuals with net assets worth $1 billion (approximately Rs 6,433 crore) or more.

Half of the mountain springs in the Himalayan region are drying up, a NITI Aayog draft report has said. The report, which the organisation’s working group on “Inventory and Revival of Springs of Himalaya for Water Security” prepared, has asked all stakeholders to comment on it by February 19 to decide what can be done to save the water bodies, Mintreported.

While overall green cover, including tree patches outside recorded forest areas, reported an incremental 1% increase (8,021 sq km) over the last assessment year in 2015, the quality of forests remain a hotly debated subject even as satellite monitoring has increased availability of data.

India and Oman on Monday signed a key pact that extends dry docking and other facilities to Indian naval ships in the strategically located Gulf country.

Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Sunday made a strong case for setting up an independent debt management office, saying better servicing of loans could lead to substantial reduction in India's interest payment.

Amid continuing volatility in bitcoin prices and growing concerns about investors’ safety, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman Ajay Tyagi on Saturday said the regulations on cryptocurrencies should be out soon and the role various regulators will play is being finalised.

India could see a six-fold increase in the population exposed to the risk of severe floods by 2040–to 25 million people from the 3.7 million facing this risk between 1971 and 2004–according to a new studypublished in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed journal.

Among a slew of directions to ensure protection of child rights, the Supreme Court has asked the national and state child rights commissions to ensure that all their vacant positions are filled up well in time.

Judiciary must be “very cautious and circumspect” in diluting or setting aside an economic policy of the government, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday.

Kerala has topped the health index report prepared by NITI Aayog while Uttar Pradesh appeared at the bottom among larger states, though it has shown improvement in the recent past.

The report ranks economies based on 40 indicators that benchmark activity critical to innovation development surrounding patents, trademark, copyright and trade secrets protection.India’s overall score was 12.03 out of 40 in the latest edition.

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides five major categories known as "preferences" of green cards for people to immigrate to the US for employment reasons.

The banks-Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, and UCO Bank-recently reported the matter to the Union government. The staff of four public sector banks (PSBs) has been alleged to have salted away depositors’ money by misusing the latter’s Aadhaar-based authentication.

In New Delhi, India’s capital and its most polluted city, eight of every 10 children and youth below 20 years of age living in areas with constantly polluted air have poor lung capacity, according to a study by Hazards Center, a Delhi-based advocacy.

The European Union (EU) is committed to negotiating a broad-based trade and investment treaty with India with the next round of talks between the chief negotiators expected soon, the EU’s ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski said on Tuesday.

Anticipating an upswing in inflation, led by oil prices, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) changed its monetary policy stance from accommodative to neutral in February 2017. Given the uptick seen in inflation, it was a prudent decision.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been ranked the top environment policy think tanks in India while it has secured the 16th position in global rankings, climbing up two positions from the last year.

Days after the Centre announced an ambitious healthcare scheme to provide up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation, the Supreme Court on Monday reminded the government that such programme would not be effective till pollution crisis is effectively tackled first.

The Supreme Court decided to refer to a fresh Constitution Bench pleas to examine the validity of various aspects of a provision of the Citizenship Act 1955, including the cut-off date for awarding citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam.

India on Tuesday test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Agni-I ballistic missile as part of a user trial by the Army from a test range off the Odisha coast.

People living in eight of every 10 Indian cities breathe toxic dust particles, PM 10, at levels exceeding national safety limits, according to a recent report.

Gearing up for its most challenging space mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is leaving no stone unturned to make the Chandrayaan-2 (lunar-2) mission a success. Unlike the first lunar mission when a PSLV rocket carried the spacecraft to the moon's orbit, this time heavy-payload lifter GSLV Mk II will launch the spacecraft weighing 3,290kg as the module will carry an orbiter, a rover and a lander to the moon.

Multinational companies continue to produce and sell unregulated antibiotics in India, worsening the problem of antimicrobial resistance in the country and impeding efforts to fight drug resistance globally, a UK study said.

The alleged diversion of water of Tsangpo-Bramhaputra river by China does not pose any threat to India, Former Army chief General (retd) Shankar Roy Chowdhury said.

India and the Wassenaar Arrangement.India is now a member of three of the four international export control groups. What does membership into the Wassenaar Arrangement mean and why does it matter?

With the much-awaited Chandrayaan-2 mission, India's second flight to the moon, Isro is attempting to pull off a daredevil manoeuvre. It will be the first-ever mission to soft land near the moon's south pole, which poses a number of challenges.

The Supreme Court on Friday referred a batch of petitions challenging the law passed by the Tamil Nadu legislature allowing the practice of the bull-taming sport, Jallikattu, to a Constitution bench.

Accession to the Agreement would diversify India's connectivity options with central Asia and have a positive influence on India's trade and commercial ties with the region," the ministry said in a statement.

Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley presents general Budget 2018-19 in Parliament.Budget guided by mission to strengthen agriculture, rural development, health, education, employment, MSME and infrastructure sectors.

Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone Pvt. Ltd—promoted by Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani, Jai Corp. India, SKIL Infrastructure Ltd and City and Industrial Development Corp (CIDCO)—will be developed in phases and be open to industrial units in 2019, two officials aware of the development said.

India has slipped to 42nd place on an annual Global Democracy Index amid "rise of conservative religious ideologies" and increase in vigilantism and violence against minorities as well as other dissenting voices.

A mere 28% of India’s city dwellers live in a rented house, which is a steep decline from the scenario in 1961 when a majority of them (54%) used to live in a rented house instead of owning one, according to a longitudinal analysis of India’s housing pattern undertaken by the Economic Survey 2017-18.

In an initiative to improve India’s weather forecasting, the ministry of earth science (MoES) on Tuesday launched a high performance computer (HPC) system named Mihir.

India has been ranked sixth in the list of wealthiest countries with total wealth of $8,230 billion, while the United States topped the chart, says a report.

It said Delhi remained the worst impacted city with annual PM10 levels exceeding approximately five times the national ambient air quality standards.

China on Monday offered to open talks with India to resolve differences on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), opening the door for removing a major irritant in New Delhi-Beijing ties.

This month is heading to be the driest January in the country as a whole since record-keeping began in 1901. Just 2.2mm of average rain was recorded across India till January 24. IMD officials said the figure is unlikely to change much as it has hardly rained since then and there's little in store in the next few days.

India is also in the trust zone as far as how the public sees business, media and NGOs. Though its position slipped to number three this year from first last year, its rating remains at 'trust level' with Indonesia and China ahead of it.

Hun Sen was on an official visit to India and had joined his Asean colleagues at the Republic Day parade.

The government will make a fresh push for the passage of the contentious triple talaq bill in Parliament's Budget Session starting on Monday but is likely to meet strong resistance from the Opposition, which had stalled it in the last session, political leaders here said.

The Supreme Court will hear a petition to exclude the affluent members, or the creamy layer, of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the benefits of reservation.

India and Seychelles on Saturday signed a revised agreement for the development of facilities on Assomption and held productive bilateral cooperation meetings.

The UN embarked on fresh efforts on Thursday to jump-start Syrian peace talks that Western countries and the opposition fear are being undermined by a separate Russian diplomatic push.

India is ranked second only to South Africa as the cheapest country to live or retire, according to a recent survey of 112 countries.

China’s urban-registered jobless rate fell to 3.9 per cent in 2017 — the lowest since 2002 — as the country witnessed its first economic rebound in seven years, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Friday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has welcomed India’s positive role in the Indo-Pacific region and described it as an important factor for peace and stability, a senior Indian official said on Friday.

Changes in ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean influence rainfall in the western hemisphere and the two systems have been linked for thousands of years, according to a study published on Friday.

The Rotavac vaccine, developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Limited last year, was included in India’s national immunisation programme. To be “pre-qualified” means that the vaccine can be sold internationally to several countries in Africa and South America.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to give India's 'Act East' policy a push as he rubs shoulders and holds bilateral meetings with the leaders of Asean nations on Thursday. New Delhi will hold the Commemorative India-Asean Summit to mark 25 years of India-Asean partnership on Thursday. The heads of state or government of all 10 southeast Asian nations will be in attendance at the summit, which has a theme of "shared values, common destiny".

India is among the bottom five countries on the Environmental Performance Index 2018, plummeting 36 points from 141 in 2016, according to a biennial report by Yale and Columbia Universities along with the World Economic Forum.

The gradual repatriation of more than 680,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, scheduled to begin Tuesday, has been delayed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladesh official said Monday.

Global growth will accelerate to the fastest pace in seven years as US tax cuts spur businesses to invest, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

The Supreme Court (SC) collegium has sent to the centre the names of senior advocate Indu Malhotra and Uttarakhand high court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph for their appointment as judges of the apex court, people in the know said on Friday.

US President Donald Trump will formalize his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by transferring the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in 2019, vice president Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, railways and coal minister Piyush Goyal, actor Shah Rukh Khan, director Karan Johar and a handful of Indian origin business executives will shape the dialogue on key economic, social, cultural and developmental issues confronting the world on the first day of the four-day World Economic Forum (WEF) annual summit, which begins at Davos in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Even as climate change sceptics rubbish rising global temperature, a latest report by US-based Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has said that Earth’s global surface temperature in 2017 ranked as the second warmest since 1880 when global estimates became feasible.

Having cancelled investment treaties with about 50 foreign governments last year, India is struggling to convince some to accept new terms that make it harder to seek international arbitration for disputes, sources familiar with the talks said.

India today successfully test-fired its nuclear capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-5 - the most advanced missile in the Agni series with a strike range of over 5000 kms -- from a test range off Odisha coast.The user associate test-flight of the missile has further boosted indigenous missile capabilities and deterrence strength of the country.All radars, tracking systems and range stations monitored the flight performance, defence sources said.Describing the trial as "fully successful", the sources said, the sophisticated missile travelled for 19 minutes and covered 4,900 km.The sleek missile was test-fired from a canister launcher, mounted on a mobile platform, at about 9.54 am from No. 4 launch pad of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Abdul Kalam Island, earlier known as Wheeler Island, they said.After four successful developmental trials, this was the first user associate test of Agni-5 missile, the sources added.'Agni-5 is most advanced missile in the Agni series with new technologies incorporated in it in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine.

Ahead of the Mumbai visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 18 January, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Israeli company Mekorot Development & Enterprise Ltd to develop a water grid in the drought-prone Marathwada region. The state cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday approved signing of the MoU to seek Israeli expertise at drought management and cost-efficient use of water in regions vulnerable to chronic droughts.

A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court began hearing petitions against the Aadhaar programme on Wednesday, with one lawyer describing it in opening arguments as a “giant electronic mesh”.

Delhi high court on Wednesday reserved its order on the extension of the production sharing contract (PSC) between Cairn India Ltd and state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd for the Barmer block in Rajasthan after it expires in 2020.

The two-day "Bengal Global Business Summit 2018" organised by the state government has so far received new investment proposals worth Rs 2.19 trillion, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New Delhi on Sunday on a six-day visit during which he will hold extensive talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, who received him at the airport, setting aside protocol.

Pakistan is examining a proposal for a DGMO-level meeting with India after a gap of four years to reduce tensions along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary through fresh confidence-building measures, a media report said on Tuesday.

Bangladesh said on Tuesday it would complete the process of returning within two years many of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had fled a conflict in Myanmar, following a meeting of the neighbours.

Global economic winds have begun to shift. What does this mean for the Indian economy?

The National Security Advisers (NSAs) of India and Pakistan met on December 26 in Bangkok, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed on Thursday.

Under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the government has mandated the linking of Aadhaar with all banking and financial instruments by March 31

Indu Malhotra will be the first woman lawyer to be directly recommended from the Bar to Supreme Court judgeship.

Government think tank NITI Aayog is working to revamp the existing system of identifying medicines for price control, two persons aware of the matter said.

The US on Tuesday asked Pakistan to take decisive action against terror groups, including the Taliban and the Haqqani network, operating from its soil, and said it was ready to work with it to combat terrorism.

India and China held a Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) last week to resolve the incident of road building by Chinese civilians at Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a larger Bench a writ petition filed by five petitioners to quash Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin linked the measure to recent anti-government protests, arguing that Iran ought to spend more on public welfare rather than banned weapons.

The NITI Aayog on Friday said India’s transportation architecture should comprise a mix of fuel sources, in what could provide relief to automobile manufacturers, under the pump with the government’s push for an all-electric fleet of vehicles by 2030.

Taking the strictest action against Pakistan, the US has announced that it was freezing most security aid and the delivery of military equipment because Islamabad continues to shelter terrorists despite several warnings from President Donald Trump and other leaders.

Strong collaboration between the government and the private sector can help close the gap between Indian and Western manufacturers faster

The passing of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill 2017 will make the resolution process more efficient.

One hundred and forty-five Indian fishermen on Friday crossed the Wagah border into India after Pakistani authorities released them from jail.

India on Thursday successfully test-fired an Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile, capable of destroying enemy ballistic missiles at low altitude, from a test range in Odisha.

The project for setting up the Naval Alternate Operating Base involves diversion of 676.12 hectares of forest land in Rambilli and Kalavalapalli regions of Visakhapatnam.

The government argued that the exclusion of bamboo from the definition of "tree" would promote bamboo cultivation

The 2018 edition of the historic Indian Science Congress will be held at Manipur University, Imphal, in March.

China will maintain communication with India to deal with massive lakes formed by landslides on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet following an earthquake, which caused concerns of a sudden flooding on the Indian side, a Foreign Ministry official said today.

Indian security forces hit back at Pakistan, hard, overnight Monday, killing three Pakistani soldiers across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), and separately, neutralising a wanted Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist in J&K's Pulwama district.

AWACS aircraft deal has been stuck for a over a year due to Israel quoting higher price than the permissible level.