This year’s science Nobels compel us to relook at evolution, and also at gender parity The Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year is a tribute to the power of evolution. The laureates harnessed evolution and used it in the laboratory with amazing results. Frances H. Arnold, an American who was …

The RBI chooses to stick to its core mandate, ignoring other pressures such as on the rupee The Reserve Bank of India pulled a surprise on the markets on Friday by keeping its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 6.5%. The decision to stand pat comes even as the central bank …

Internationalisation of the rupee will serve India well The Indian rupee was once a multilateral currency, its usage prevalent across the Indian Ocean in places as varied as Java, Borneo, Macau, Muscat, Basra and Zanzibar. The historic dhow trade ensured that the Gulf had a familiarity with the rupee for …

A trend of splintering of political and social alliances has picked up in Uttar Pradesh The State of Uttar Pradesh is fascinatingly diverse and a story in contrasts. It has a history of both intense political and religious contestation and of syncretic accomplishments. The State did not witness a social …

Last month in Rewari, a student on her way to class was abducted, drugged, and gang-raped by three young men. Ashok Kumar reports on how the growing crimes against women in Haryana are stifling their freedom and aspirations Rewari’s Civil Hospital is a drab, double-storey structure that caters to roughly …

Ukraine launched on Friday a park of photovoltaic panels at the former Chernobyl power plant as the country seeks to use solar power to give the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster a new lease on life. The $1.2-million, one-megawatt plant is located just a hundred metres from a …

NASA has announced the first crewed flight by a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to take place in June 2019. It will be the first manned U.S. launch to the orbiting research laboratory since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011, forcing U.S. astronauts …

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Friday said the GDP growth is expected to be higher than the RBI’s projection of 7.4% for the current fiscal. “Government welcomes MPC statement and decision to keep the rates unchanged. Government’s assessment of inflation is in line with the MPC’s assessment. We …

‘Focus on equity for long-term funding’ The on-going crisis in IL&FS has made Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to consider tightening the norms of asset-liability management (ALM) of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). The RBI observed that those entities were relying heavily on short-term funds for lending to long-term projects. “I …

As new data comes in, we would look into changing our policies, says RBI Governor It is important that the fiscal deficit target is maintained, says RBI Governor Urjit Patel, in an interaction with the media. Edited excerpts: Is there a risk to fiscal deficit in an election year as …