For decades, Hut Number 224, located amid pine trees in Srinagar’s Chashmashahi locality, was like any other senior bureaucrat’s home. But for many weeks now, the address has become a hub for Kashmiri students looking for a particular subject book that is otherwise hard to find or unaffordable. The house’s …

Punishment for murder attempt A 32-year-old doctor has been ordered by the Supreme Court to plant 100 trees in the next one year as punishment for attempting to commit murder at the age of 16. Solemen S.K., a doctor practising at Murshidabad in West Bengal, was sentenced to three years’ …

However, Mr. Goyal made it clear that the procurement of propulsion equipment or complete trains should be done in accordance with the ‘Make in India’ policy. The move follows a row over India’s first semi-high-speed Train 18 or Vande Bharat Express and the decision to stop production of the train …

Earns SC’s ire for excessive litigation While the debate continues over taxing disability pension for military personnel and assurances by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to look into the matter, information provided under the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows that between 2013 and July 2018, the Defence Ministry paid about …

The annual crime report compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2017 will be published soon as requisite data from all States has been received, a senior official said. The publication of “Crime in India” for 2018 will have to wait a little longer as the NCRB plans …

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had raised the issue in Parliament on July 11 Restricting the speeds of vessels and blowing sirens and horns is how the Ministry of Shipping plans to safeguard the population of the Ganges River Dolphin, in the country’s one dolphin reserve through which National Waterway-1 connecting …

Proposal to be placed before the Union Cabinet in the next few days With the country left without a Law Commission since September 2018, the Law Ministry has initiated the process of setting up the body which gives advice to the government on complex legal issues. The three-year term of …

Funds set aside under a 2010 action plan for resolving sanitation and drinking water issues were allegedly misappropriated by the State’s rehabilitation wing It’s 2 a.m., and the stench of sewage wafts in through the only window of Aziza Jawahar’s crumbling house. Taking the cue that she is now long …

‘There should be no imposition of any language nor should there be opposition to it’ Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu has underlined the importance of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in educational institutions, at least at the primary level. He was delivering the inaugural address of the golden jubilee …

But rebuilding refugees’ trust is tough Two years after more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to camps in Bangladesh alleging ethnic cleansing by Myanmar forces, the Indian government says it is stepping up efforts to help them return to their villages. On July 9, Ambassador to Myanmar Saurabh Kumar handed over …

Consuming a healthy diet rich in fibre during pregnancy may promote the wellbeing of both the mother and child, and reduce the risk of preeclampsia, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications. Plant-based fibre is broken down in the gut by bacteria into factors that influence the …

The method offers a portable, low-cost and safe alternative to X-ray and MRI scans Uday Khankhoje’s team at IIT Madras is interested in developing a way of detecting breast cancer using microwaves – or radio frequency (RF) waves, as they are called. While several groups have worked on this in …

These elephants remained solitary or associated in mixed-age and mixed-sex groups within the forested areas. Environmental and anthropogenic factors have not just degraded elephant habitats and left them stressed, but also changed their social behaviour, notes a recent study conducted by the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. The …

Alternatively, gold nanoparticles can be used to convert carbon dioxide into methane Using gold nanoparticles that absorb sunlight over the entire visible region and even the near infrared light, researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, have been able to desalinate seawater to produce drinking water. Unlike …

Russia launched a space telescope on Saturday from the cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, in a joint project with Germany. A video posted on the website of the Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, showed a Proton-M rocket carrying the Spektr-RG taking off from the launch pad. The launch was originally scheduled …

Will help in studying human evolution In 2014, a virus called crAssphage that infects bacteria was discovered as part of the human body’s intestinal environment. Now, a recent study indicates that it may have co-evolved with human lineage. The study published in the journal Nature Microbiology showed that the virus …

Egypt on Saturday opened two ancient pyramids south of the capital Cairo and unveiled a collection of newly found sarcophagi, some containing well-preserved mummies. Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani told reporters that the Bent Pyramid of King Sneferu, the first pharaoh of Egypt’s 4th dynasty, and a nearby pyramid would be …

Fossil discovered in Myanmar Some 99 million years ago, a small creature with a weird elongated toe died and became partially entombed in amber. Its lower leg and foot remained undisturbed in the hardened tree resin until amber miners eventually discovered the fossil in Myanmar’s Hukawng Valley in 2014. The …

Zoo tours give insights into homosexuality among animals Organisers of this year’s Gay Pride week in Munich have a group of rather wild partners — penguins, giraffes and lions at the city zoo — where tours are being run about same-sex love in the animal kingdom. The Munich Zoo has …

U.S. officials began to clean up a massive oil spill on Friday that dumped nearly 30 lakh litres of oil and water into a California canyon, making it larger if less devastating than the State’s last two major oil spills. The newly revealed spill has been flowing off and on …