Russia makes request, but no clarity on how the aircraft will be used A highlight on the sidelines of the upcoming India-Russia bilateral summit is likely to be the gifting of three MiG-21 fighter jets to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be in New Delhi on October 4 and …

Users can explore more than 150 different places Railway enthusiasts worldwide can now undertake a virtual journey with the Indian Railways, one of the largest and the busiest rail networks, on Google’s Arts and Culture platform. The Ministry of Railways, on Friday, partnered with the U.S.-based technology company for an …

Delegates from 68 countries attend Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention to learn from the experiment Political leadership and government financing, as well as the sparking of a people’s movement, are key elements of the Swachh Bharat story, Indian leaders told international delegates looking to learn from India’s sanitation successes at …

These have to be restored to their original habitats on the T.N. coast in 48 hours Unlike the other seizures in the past, officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) faced a different kind of challenge when they recovered 20 live corals from a house in Dum Dum in …

How a police dog and its handler turn into a crack team — it’s the long, gruelling hours of training When a dog sniffs out evidence of a crime, it barks out the discovery. Between the exploratory sniff and the exultant bark lies a story of rigorous training, stretching the …

Srinagar’s Oont Kadal, seen in Hindi films of yesteryear, to be restored The iconic 17th-century bridge, Oont Kadal, shaped like the hump of a camel and located in the middle of the picturesque Dal Lake in Srinagar, will be restored through a conservation project with the help of Germany. Going …

A Rajasthan village is free of open defecation — on paper The narrow village street is lined with gutters, dotted with excreta flushed out from latrines inside upper caste homes. Santa Devi pulls a corner of her sari over her mouth and begins to push the morning quota of waste …

Minister tears into Pakistan in her UN General Assembly address Pakistan’s duplicity is a key obstacle in the global fight against terrorism and India is an immediate and continuing target of terrorism originating from there, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Saturday. Osama’s …

Prohibition amounts to smear on individual dignity, says SCBan is the result of hegemonic patriarchy in religion, says CJIIt is a form of untouchability, says Justice Chandrachud The Supreme Court, in a majority opinion of 4:1 on Friday, lifted the centuries’ old prohibition on women from the age of menarche …

Says the actionis ‘unwarranted and mala fide’ The Indian Medical Association (IMA) action committee, in an emergency session in Mumbai, condemned the “supersession” of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and noted that “this action of the Government, at a juncture when the election to the MCI has been announced, …

Merely tinkering with import dutieswill not narrow the current account deficit The Centre’s decision to increase customs duty on imports of 19 “non-essential” items amounts to tinkering at the margins to address a structural macro-economic issue. Using tariffs to curb imports of these items will not have a significant impact …

With its Sabarimala verdict, the SC underlines the Constitution’s transformative power The Constitution protects religious freedom in two ways. It protects an individual’s right to profess, practise and propagate a religion, and it also assures similar protection to every religious denomination to manage its own affairs. The legal challenge to …

The Supreme Court decision to decriminalise adultery is a step in the right direction Following a series of landmark judgments delivered by the Supreme Court this month, it passed yet another remarkable decision on Thursday. It decriminalised the offence of adultery by holding Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code …

The first death anniversary of Santoshi Kumar, a Dalit girl from Simdega, Jharkhand, was this week. She died of hunger, at the age of 11, a few weeks after her family’s ration card was cancelled by the State government because they failed to link it to Aadhaar. The Aadhaar judgment …

In 1341, the ancient port town of Muziris on the Malabar coast was destroyed by a Periyar in spate. This August, the prized archaeological remains of this legendary trading post nearly met with the same fate, report S. Anandan and Shyama Rajagopal In its long history, the Periyar river, which …

Chemical pollutants could lead to the disappearance of half of the world’s populations of killer whales from the most heavily contaminated areas within a period of just 30 to 50 years, according to a study. More than 40 years after the first initiatives were taken to ban the use of …

A man in Hong Kong has been found to have a strain of hepatitis E that had only been seen previously in rats, researchers said Friday. While rats have passed on several other illnesses to people, this was the first discovery in humans of the rat variation of hepatitis E, …

‘Microstars’ is a show that mixes sport, circus and collective catharsis in what Mexicans call “fights” He is just 90 centimetres (less than three feet) tall, but he packs muscles, power and swagger in a little frame: meet Microman, the smallest star in Mexican professional wrestling. Mexico’s “lucha libre,” a …

It will also enable self-service analytics With a view to fast-tracking the adoption of data analytics in the government to improve delivery of services to citizens, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday unveiled a Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics (CEDA). The centre would help build analytic …

Move comes in the wake of challenges in global scenario Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has approved the constitution of a high-level advisory group (HLAG) to look into the opportunities and ways to address the ongoing challenges in the global trade scenario, the government said on Friday. “The terms of reference …