Researchers have found a solution for retrofitting old non-earthquake-resistant buildings with a technology that can prevent major damage to such buildings from earthquakes without compromising on their strength. The technology called semi-confined unreinforced brick masonry (SC-URBM) can resolve the problem of spread of settlements in earthquake-prone areas with constructions that have …

The 7th ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting (AIMMAF) on Agriculture and Forestry was held virtually today. Union Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, in his opening remarks during the meeting, reiterated Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of keeping ASEAN at the center of India’s Act East Policy He also emphasised on  mutually …

Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked captains of industry what was holding them back from investing in manufacturing. In an article in The Hindu, Pulapre Balakrishnan, argued that capital expenditure by the government is a precursor to private investment but that it would take a sustained trend in public …

India’s imports from China have risen 31% for the nine months ended September, propelling two-way trade past $100 billion and the trade deficit to a record high. India imported $89.66 billion worth of goods from China in the period, the highest on record for three quarters in any year. Imports …

A colony of bats was evicted from a Manipur cave system with a Palaeolithic past to make it tourist-friendly, a zoological study that recorded new fauna in the State has said. The Khangkhui, locally called KhangkhuiMangsor, is a natural limestone cave about 15 km from Ukhrul, the headquarters of Ukhrul …

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on a series of improvements to NavIC, or India’s equivalent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), so that more people are motivated to install and use it. Plans are also afoot to give it a global reach, S Somanath, ISRO Chairman, said …

A popular theme at seminars this autumn is de-colonisation. The concept notes explaining the theme treat it like a new deodorant — much required, of course, and expected to cure a chronic problem for good. Not that earlier generations had ignored it, but perhaps they lacked determination and propitious circumstances. …

The Kerala government has constituted a technical committee for preparing an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for the downstream part of the Mullaperiyar dam in Idukki district. Headed by the Chief Engineer (Inter-State Waters), Irrigation department, the six-member technical committee is expected to draft and submit the EAP within three months. …

Ambassadors of all countries in the UN Security Council (UNSC) will attend a memorial for victims of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai on Friday, as part of a special session of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) at the Taj Mumbai hotel, one of the sites of the attacks in 2008. …

The beginnings of a renewable energy revolution rooted in agriculture are taking shape in India with the first bio-energy plant of a private company in Sangrur district of Punjab having commenced commercial operations on October 18. It will produce Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) from paddy straw, thus converting agricultural waste …

Tuesday was a historic day for the United Kingdom, which got its first-ever non-white Prime Minister in Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Britain’s youngest Prime Minister in recent times. Sunak, 42, is of Indian descent and was born to parents who migrated to Britain from East …

The CCI, the country’s competition watchdog is empowered under the Competition Act, 2002, to check whether companies especially large tech companies are not eliminating healthy competition in the market and creating a monopoly. The CCI said that due to Google’s various agreements with manufacturers, one of its major revenue-earning apps, …

There is good reason for the Supreme Court to ask the police to be proactive in dealing with hate speech by taking immediate legal action without waiting for a formal complaint. The Court has also warned of contempt action if the police showed any hesitation in compliance. Directed at the …

Background: On Friday, the Financial Action Task Force, the global watchdog on anti-money laundering and combating financing terrorism (AML/CFT) efforts, announced it would take Pakistan off its “grey list” of countries under “enhanced monitoring”, and welcomed what it called Pakistan’s “significant progress” in improving legal and government mechanisms. Pakistan, which …

Genetic mutations are the drivers of evolution of organisms. Not all mutations are functional. However, the ones with a functional advantage tend to emerge over time than those without. However, viruses rarely could evolve by exchanging large fragments of the genome called recombination. Recombination events are rare and occur when …