The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for three capital acquisition proposals amounting to ₹4,276 crore. These include the helicopter-launched Nag (HELINA) anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), very short-range air defence systems (VSHORAD), BrahMos cruise missile launchers, and fire control …

The month-long Kashi Tamil Sangamam, which showcased Tamil culture, heralded a new era where ancient Indian traditions intermingle with one another and are revitalised with the help of modern practices so that they contribute to cultural and economic growth. It gave a rich cultural context to India’s mission to become …

Russia is “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” said Winston Churchill in 1939, referring to the West’s muddled understanding of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. The words of the Conservative leader, who led Britain during wartime, still ring true as the world, 10 months into Russia’s invasion of …

A new study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has shed light on how blackbuck in India have fared in the face of natural and human-induced challenges to their survival. The blackbuck is found only on the Indian subcontinent. While males have corkscrew-shaped horns and black-to-dark brown coats, …

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that it had constituted two expert committees to come up with a consolidated list of elephant corridors, comprising those that had already been identified as well as potential elephant corridors, in the State. A Division Bench of Justices N. …

The Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC) on Tuesday organised an outreach programme to raise awareness among exporters from various sectors on Indo-Australia trade dynamics in light of the Australia-India Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement (ECTA). The bilateral trade agreement came into force on December 29, 2022, and now, …

The launch of world’s longest river cruise with MV Ganga Vilas by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 13 January, 2023 in Varanasi luxury cruise will cover a distance of more than 3,200 kms across 27 river systems in 5 states in India and Bangladesh. The huge untapped potential …

It helps matters that Australia exports largely raw materials to India, while India exports finished goods. The ECTA builds on this complementarity, creating win-win opportunities for the two countries. The coming into force of Ind – Aus ECTA brings together two major economies of the world – India the 5th …

e-NAM, a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare,  has won the Platinum Award in the Digital Empowerment of Citizens Category in Digital India Awards 2022 held in New Delhi today. e-NAM is a digital platform integrating 1260 APMC mandis across 22 States and 3 UTs to …

In the latest in a series of wild elephant attacks in Kerala, SubairKutty, a daily worker, was attacked by a rouge elephant at SulthanBathery town adjacent to the Wayanad wildlife Sanctuary in the early hours of January 6. Subair, who was taken to a hospital with injuries, had a miraculous …

The decennial Census of 2021 has been pushed forward yet again and is unlikely to start till September 2023, at least. The Additional Registrar General of India communicated to States on January 2, without specifying a reason, that the date of freezing of administrative boundaries has been extended till June …

The governments of India and the U.K. marked PravasiBharatiya Divas on January 9 by kicking off the Young Professionals Scheme, which will permit up to 3,000 of their degree-holding citizens aged between 18 and 30 to live and work in each other’s countries for a period of two years. The …

Many raised a red flag against a massive infrastructural project called the Char Dham road project that is being implemented in the Uttarakhand Himalaya. It is indeed turning out to be an unscientific road-construction project with catastrophic consequences for the mountain ecology. The Armed Forces and the authorities, in their …

In a judgment in December 2022 — Neeraj Dutta v. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi) — the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court came down heavily on corruption among public servants in the country and lowered the bar for the quantum of evidence required to convict persons charged with corruption. This …

In a welcome move, the Supreme Court has transferred to itself petitions pending in several High Courts seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriage. A Bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala asked the Centre to file its reply to all the petitions on the …

The importance of the decennially conducted Census cannot be overstated. As it tallies data on several features of the Indian population, such as basic demography, literacy levels, caste status, educational levels, spoken languages, religion, marital status, occupation, and migration status among others, the Census is vital to administrative functions and …

In an unprecedented face-off, Governor R.N. Ravi on Monday abruptly walked out of the Tamil Nadu Assembly as Chief Minister M.K. Stalin disapproved of his selective deviation from the approved text of the Governor’s Address to the House and moved a resolution to take on record only the transcript distributed …

Foreign universities and educational institutions could soon be allowed to set up campuses in India as per the draft regulations made public by the University Grants Commission (UGC). What has the UGC proposed? The UGC announced the draft regulations for ‘Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational …

Following the narrow mid-term election victory of the U.S. Republican Party in the House of Representatives in November, California Congressman Kevin McCarthy waged a relentless campaign to become Speaker of the lower chamber of Congress. Facing a factionalised and conflict-ridden congressional conservative caucus, a record-making 15 voting rounds were conducted …

In February 1961, I was in primary school. I still remember the visit of the Census enumerator to our house. Fondly called Pachu Pillai, he was a teacher in our school and a family friend. Since many teachers were on Census duty, we (though not the entire school) got a …