The season is the most busy time for workers, who view their work as ‘spiritual’ In Vietnam’s “incense village”, dozens are hard at work dying, drying and whittling down bamboo bark to make the fragrant sticks ahead of the busy lunar new year holiday. It is the most frantic time …

HD 21749b orbits a dwarf star about 53 light years away in the constellation of Reticulum NASA’s latest planet-hunting probe has discovered a new world outside our solar system, orbiting a dwarf star 53 light years away.This is the third new planet confirmed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) …

TNA MPs challenge speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s decision Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was on Tuesday named the Leader of Opposition in the Sri Lankan Parliament, amid pending questions about his eligibility to hold the position. The announcement came as a reaffirmation of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s earlier position acknowledging Mr. Rajapaksa as …

‘210 approved, only 62 completed’ Tardy implementation of projects under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) between 2008-2017 led to an almost threefold jump in the cost of these projects to Rs. 1.20 lakh crore, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabled in Parliament on …

PM calls up U.S. President, extends New Year greetings Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump discussed strategic cooperation on Afghanistan and trade issues on Monday. The conversation came days after the American leader argued for greater Indian contribution for ending the civil war in Afghanistan. A White …

CM, Finance Minister welcome move; leaders of communities concerned sniff an ‘election gimmick’ Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday welcomed the Union Cabinet’s nod for granting Scheduled Tribe status to six communities listed as Other Backward Classes in Assam. Leaders of these communities, however, were more sceptical than happy …

It allows regulated use of genetic information to establish identity of persons The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill that allows regulated use of DNA technology to establish the identity of certain defined categories of persons, including offenders, suspects, and undertrials. The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill …

Allows U.S. firm to pursue patent suit on Bt cotton variants The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a Delhi High Court Division Bench decision that held that U.S. agro major Monsanto did not have patent for its genetically modified BT cotton seed variants and had allowed it to claim …

Protects investigative agency from political interference The Alok Verma divestment case has led the Supreme Court to further protect the tenure of the CBI Director and the independence of the country’s premier investigative agency from interference by political higher-ups. The judgment by the three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of …

If the Supreme Court rejects the idea, the reservation can be provided only by eating into the SC, ST and OBC quota share Who will the new 10% quota apply to? To all those who are not covered in existing quotas and have a family income below Rs. 8 lakh …