At least 260 leopards were poached in the country between 2015 and 2018, with Uttarakhand accounting for 60 cases and Himachal Pradesh reporting another 49, according to information given to Parliament by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Of this, 64 cases of leopard poaching were recorded …

Authorities in tourist hotspot Leh have put 65 tonnes of waste to productive use after the ecologically sensitive region’s garbage output went up drastically following the release of 3 Idiots on Christmas day nine years ago, drawing tourists in hordes. “The 65,000 kg of waste was first collected from the …

The draft rules proposed by the government to curb “unlawful content” on social media that make it mandatory for intermediaries to trace the “originator” of such content have drawn strong criticism from the Opposition. The latter contend that the state is expanding the scope for surveillance of citizens. However, a …

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday underlined the NDA government’s focus on improving connectivity in the northeastern region while inaugurating the 4.94 km Bogibeel Bridge, India’s longest rail-cum-road span, across the Brahmaputra. The strategic bridge, which connects Dibrugarh district on the river’s south bank in Assam to Dhemaji district on …

The U.S. Apollo 8 astronauts to-day [December 24] beamed a television broadcast to earth from their spacecraft skimming the surface of the moon. The first picture came about two and a half hours after the moonship swooped into lunar orbit. It showed a brightly-lit stretch of the moon’s surface, including …

Recently, while covering Cyclone Gaja, I stayed in Thiruvarur, the birthplace of the Carnatic Trinity (Thyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri) and of many other famous musicians. Thiruvarur V. Namasivayam, flautist N. Ramani, nagaswaram player T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai and mridhangam player Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam were born and trained in this temple …

While the string of high-profile departures from the Donald Trump White House is longer than in the case of any of its recent predecessors, last week’s announcement by the President that Defence Secretary James Mattis would step down by the end of February 2019 set alarm bells ringing in Washington …

Under attack on how the indirect tax regime has panned out, the Goods and Services Tax Council on Saturday announced a set of feel-good moves to reassure diverse stakeholders. For consumers, the peak tax rate of 28% levied on cinema tickets above Rs. 100, large screen television sets or monitors, …

In People’s Union For Civil Liberties v. Union Of India (September 27, 2013), the Supreme Court had ruled that a None of the Above (NOTA) option “may be provided in EVMs” so that voters are able to exercise their “right not to vote while maintaining their right of secrecy”. On …

Last week, in its report, ‘Strategy for New India@75’, the NITI Aayog mooted the creation of an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) for making appointments to the lower judiciary through an all India judicial services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in order to maintain “high standards” …

The December 1978 Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) might sound obscure, but its global repercussions were of seismic proportions. Deng Xiaoping’s series of economic policies, termed “reform and opening up”, went on to catapult China from an agricultural backwater into …

Last week, a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification authorising 10 Central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt online communications and data caused a furore in both Parliament and the wider civil society. The notification was described as an incremental step towards a surveillance state. The government’s defence was equally …

A NASA spacecraft is hurtling toward a historic New Year’s Day flyby of the most distant planetary object ever studied, a frozen relic of the early solar system called Ultima Thule. The unmanned spaceship New Horizons, 6.4 billion km away, is poised to zoom past Ultima Thule at a distance …

It all started in 2016 with a bronze statue commemorating the tragic day in November 1963 when a giant octopus upended the Staten Island ferry, killing nearly 400 people in New York. Wait, what — a giant octopus? Artist Joseph Reginella smiles. Yes, you read that right. In 2017, another …

Scientists have successfully used sound waves to levitate and manipulate multiple objects simultaneously for the first time, using the system to “sew” a thread into a piece of fabric. The system could be use to acoustically stitch up internal injuries or deliver drugs to target organs. Sound exerts a small …

About 97.5% of goods are already in the 18% or lower Goods and Services Tax bracket, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wrote in a blog post on Monday, adding that though the GST revenue targets set are ‘very stiff’, several States are already achieving those targets. Mr. Jaitley also wrote that …

Lupin Ltd. on Monday announced a partnership with global pharmaceutical giant AbbVie for the development and commercialisation of its novel oncology drug to treat hematological cancers. AbbVie has entered into a licensing agreement with Lupin for its MALT1 (Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma Translocation Protein 1) inhibitor programme and taken the …

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has not received orders to pull forces out of the war-torn country, NATO confirmed on Monday, days after it was revealed that President Donald Trump plans to withdraw 7,000 troops. General Scott Miller’s remarks on Sunday capped a tumultuous few days for Afghanistan as …

Experts warn that more deadly waves could slam the devastated region near Sunda strait Dozens of filled body bags were hauled away from buildings flattened by Indonesia’s volcano-triggered tsunami on Monday, as the death toll climbed to 373 and search teams pushed on with the grim hunt for corpses. Rescue …

The agencies investigating the alleged bribery in AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal are of the view that Italian authorities did not properly pursue the international dimensions of money laundering involved in the transactions under scrutiny. “In any bribery case, the consideration originates from somewhere, can be routed through entities or individuals …