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The land subsidence in Joshimath has become emblematic of a geological disaster that has in fact manifested across India, in the neighbourhood of several large resource-extraction projects. There have been reports of subsidence from the Jharia, Bhurkunda, Kapasara, Raniganj and Talcher coal mines; from Delhi and Kolkata due to the …

● The Union Cabinet approved an outlay of ₹2,600 crore to promote payments using RuPay cards and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), said Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav on Wednesday. Banks will be provided this incentive money to promote such digital payments, an official press release said. ● The fund will be paid …

In order to enhance the safety, transparency and effective management of safe deposit lockers provided by banks, apex banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a list of revised guidelines, which came into force from January 1, 2022. The guidelines followed observations made by the Supreme Court in Amitabha Dasgupta vs United Bank of …

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 …

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 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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

The Tamil Nadu government has asked banks to offer tree loans to farmers as a part of its Green Mission aimed at increasing the State’s green cover (areas including forest and the tree cover around it) to 33% from 23.71%. Under the mission, the State plans to encourage farmers to …

Residents of Joshimath, the Himalayan pilgrim town that appears to be sinking, are blaming major power and road infrastructure projects for their plight and are demanding that the government resettle and give new homes for all those who have lost their properties in the town. Members of the National Disaster …

Access to clean and drinkable water has now not only become a local problem but global as well. Water contamination is one of the world’s leading causes of death and the problem is only getting worse. To tackle this, our team at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), …

The XBB.1.5 Omicron recombinant variant that was first detected in the U.S. (New York and Connecticut) in late October 2022has now spread to at least 29 countries. It is rapidly increasing in number to become the dominant variant in the U.S., particularly in the northeast part of the country. The …

In 1911, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity in mercury. He found that at a very low temperature, called the threshold temperature, solid mercury offers no resistance to the flow of electric current. The BCS theory Scientists later classified mercury as a conventional superconductor because its superconductivity could be …

The extremist groups of Manipur operating from their hideouts across the International Border are increasingly feeling the heat of the civil war in adjoining Myanmar. Officials of the security forces manning the India-Myanmar border said the once-tolerant local people have been turning on the members of extremist groups in Manipur, …

Taming inflation is the top priority for South Asian countries as risks to growth and investment outlook could rise if price pressures persist at high levels, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday. Speaking at an event organised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the RBI …