The Home Minister, Mr. Y.B. Chavan said in the Lok Sabha to-day [December 16, New Delhi] that they had the greatest respect for the decisions of the Speakers’ Conference, that when a Chief Minister’s majority was in doubt the Assembly must be convened within a week to decide the fate …

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s decision to stay away from the December 9 Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh is the latest reminder of the growing disunity among the Gulf countries. Qatar, blockaded by three GCC countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, and their non-GCC allies, has …

Whether the Congress erred in privileging members of the old guard to lead the governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh has become a subject of debate. Those who argue that it missed a trick in not picking Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia as Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya …

A gathering of journalists, academics and the public at “Fourth Pillar: India Journalism Week” turned out to be another open house. This was an initiative by Academe India and the University of Chicago Center in Delhi to examine the role of journalism in democracies. Along with Pamela Philipose, Public Editor …

The last date for filing claims and objections for Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been extended by the Supreme Court to December 31, from December 15. This exercise of compiling the NRC in the first place has sparked a debate around its political, economic and humanitarian consequences, and …

India’s national income statistics are under a cloud. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released official revisions of the GDP estimates for the years 2004-05 to 2013-14 in the Manmohan Singh-led government’s tenure. The revisions make the Narendra Modi government’s performance on the economic front appear better than that of …

New space has emerged for de-escalating Sri Lanka’s political crisis with the timely and judicious intervention by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court. Following the two rulings made by the top court, last Thursday and Friday, Ranil Wickremesinghe — the Prime Minister who was sacked on October 26 by Maithripala Sirisena, …

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can successfully predict whether a patient is at risk of developing a serious, and possibly life-threatening infection after surgery. Staphylococcus epidermidis is an ubiquitous coloniser of healthy human skin, but it is also a notorious source of serious infections with indwelling …

Scientists have developed an ingestible capsule controlled using Bluetooth wireless technology, which can be customised to deliver drugs or monitor health over long periods of time. The capsule can reside in the stomach for at least a month, transmitting information and responding to instructions from a user’s smartphone. Source : …

Probiotics may help treat bipolar disorder and other psychiatric mood disorders, a study has found. Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition characterised by dramatic shifts in mood from depression to mania. Currently, the standard treatment includes a combination of psychotherapy and prescription medications. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/probiotics-may-help-treat-bipolar-disorder/article25760057.ece

A camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured the image of the InSight lander, which recently touched down on the Red Planet. The InSight lander, its heat shield and parachute were spotted by HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) in one set of images taken on December 6, …

Dutch ranger Andre Donker sighs as he looks out at the rippling grey waters of the Markermeer, one of Europe’s largest freshwater lakes. “Once upon a time it was teeming with fish here,” he said. But this vast 700-square-km expanse of water, which regulates the level of water in the …

We’ve read those stories of recent extinctions — Sudan, the last male northern white rhino and Brazil’s Spix’s macaws — with much consternation. But closer home, a tale of extinction may be unfolding before our very eyes: the Great Indian Bustard, that narrowly missed being christened India’s national bird, is …

The Union government is planning to raise about Rs. 10,000 crore through a follow on offer of Bharat-22 ETF in February, an official said. “Plans are on for launching the third tranche of Bharat-22 ETF around February. The offer is likely to have a base issue size of Rs. 5,000 …

At a time when the farming community here is switching to cash crops to tide over the huge loss in paddy cultivation, Thirunelly Agri Producer Company Ltd., a farmers’ collective in Kerala’s Wayanad district, has taken the plunge to revive rice production, albeit in a different avatar. The company made …

One of the biggest challenges that a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor faces is to maintain a balance between growth and inflation. Shaktikanta Das — who assumed charge as the 25th Governor last week — has a different challenge that he needs to balance, at least in his initial …

With the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) — India’s biggest reform in the tax structure — the government has succeeded in moving a step closer towards making the country a unified common market, leading the nation’s economy towards growth and sustainability. The agricultural sector continues to remain the …

We need to work hard to achieve double-digit growth, says the Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog The new RBI Governor will be much better as he is more of a team player and displays greater maturity, NITI Aayog Vice- Chairman Rajiv Kumar explains in an interview. He also, for the first …

Credit flow to industry, or the lack of it, has been a bone of contention between the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While RBI and its supporters assert that bank lending is now growing at a brisk pace, the government and industry lobbies insist that the credit …

Bangladesh on Sunday honoured 12 Indian war veterans as it celebrated the 47th anniversary of the ‘Victory Day’, marking its emergence as an independent nation following the 1971 Liberation War. President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged the nation to work together for the prosperity of the country, …