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The Tamil Nadu government has sanctioned ₹7.5 crore in equity investments to five start-ups that were founded and managed by entrepreneurs of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Chief Minister M.K.Stalin handed over the sanction orders on Friday in the presence of Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management …

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the Aditya-L1 mission by June or July this year. Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space mission to observe the Sun and the solar corona. ISRO chairman S. Somanath, speaking at the handover ceremony of the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC) …

The fact that the multipolar international system is fast unfolding is reinforced by clear trends in polycentric global geoeconomics. There is significant trade within the Global South; currency swap agreements; trade in national currencies bypassing the dollar; steps towards trading oil and gas in national currencies; the promotion of such …

Speculation abounds that the Indian Navy could cancel Project-75 India (I)-class for submarine production and instead acquire more Scorpene (Kalvari class) submarines — the fifth submarine from this class, INS Vagir, was commissioned into the Navy on January 23. A media report last week claimed that the Navy, faced with …

Japan is expected to start flushing 1.25 million tonnes of wastewater from the embattled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean this year, as part of a $76-billion project to decommission the facility. The project received the Japanese cabinet’s approval in 2021 and could take three decades to complete. …

On January 18, the Steering Committee of the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) held its third meeting in New Delhi. It was chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Water Resources, in the Ministry of Jal Shakti, who reiterated that the KBLP was a “flagship” project of the national government …

Today is National Tourism Day (January 25) and the Ministry of Railways, in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, is launching its Jagannath Yatra train package, an eight-day tour that begins in from Delhi, traverses Kashi, Baidyanath Dham, Jagannath Puri, Bhubaneshwar and Konark, and ends at the Vishnupad temple in …

Hundreds of dead Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) have washed ashore along the coastline between Kakinada and Antarvedi in the Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh during the ongoing annual breeding season on the east coast. The breeding grounds — Sakhinetipalli, Malikipuram, Mamidikuduru and Allavaram — have been witnessing the mass …

Sustainable fashion has found its supporters in Tamil Nadu as well. A variety of leather products made with sustainable technology will be displayed at the Indian Finished Leather Manufacturers and Exporters Association (IFLMEA) on February 1. International participants from 15 countries will also take part. R. Vijayan, Chairman, IFLMEA, speaking …

The fifth Scorpene class conventional submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Vagir in the presence of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral R. Hari Kumar, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on Monday. The sixth and the last of the French-origin Scorpene-class submarines, Vagsheer, being built in India under technology …

On December 14, 2022, the district administration of Ladakh designated six hamlets within the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary as a “dark-sky reserve” — an area whose sky is free of light pollution. The designation meant that the reserve had a responsibility to keep the skies dark, particularly for the astronomical observatories …

The current practice of translocating leopards from conflict area, in vogue since many years, will be disbanded in due course as Karnataka is set to establish multiple rehabilitation centres to house leopards and tigers captured from the conflict zones. Senior officials of the Karnataka Forest Department are already studying similar …

E-commerce major Amazon on Monday launched Amazon Air, a dedicated air cargo service to enable faster deliveries to customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Quikjet Cargo Airlines, with whom it has partnered, will operate two Boeing 737-800 aircraft to transport customer shipments to the four cities, VP-Customer Fulfilment (APAC, …

India’s foreign trade data for the first eight months of 2022-23 have been significantly revised, with the import bill being scaled up or down by at least two billion dollars in each of those months, in comparison to the preliminary estimates issued by the Union Commerce Ministry. The total merchandise …

On January 20, foodtech delivery platform Swiggy announced that it was laying off 380 employees due to challenging macroeconomic conditions. In this article dated September 30, 2021, Sowmiya Ashok explains how the Indian public need to be more informed about the plight of gig workers, taking a leaf out of …

India’s financial sector is highly exposed to the risks of the economy transitioning from being largely dependent on fossil fuel to clean energy, says a study in the Global Environmental Change journal, published last week. An analysis of individual loans and bonds found that 60% of the lending to the mining sector …

The All-India Consumer Price Index Number for Agricultural Labourers (Base: 1986-87=100) for the month of December, 2022 remained stationary at 1167 (One thousand one hundred and sixty seven) points and for Rural Labourers increased by 1 point to stand at 1179 (One thousand one hundred and seventy nine) points. The …

The first ever joint exercise between the special forces of the Indian Army and the Egyptian Army named “Exercise Cyclone-I” is in progress at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan since 14 January 2023. The exercise aims to bolster defence co-operation between the two nations and focus on sharing professional skills and interoperability …

Nano fertilizers produced by IFFCO and dairy products from Amul will be among the first few products that are expected to be exported by the first-ever National Export Cooperative Society that was approved by the Union Cabinet on January 11. The society’s registration will be complete in the next few …

Tucked away in the nondescript town of Naduvattam in the Nilgiris is a wonderfully preserved monument whose story encapsulates the complex history of the picturesque hill district. The injudiciously named “ancient sub-jail” that lies off the national highway was used to intern Chinese prisoners captured by the British during the …