SIR: At 16.3%, Haryana records 3rd-highest deletion in draft stage

The draft roll of Haryana's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) published on Friday showed 16.39% deletions, the third-highest among states where the exercise has been held so far.

Only Arunachal Pradesh, where the draft SIR electoral roll was published on July 21, and Uttar Pradesh, where the drive was completed in April this year, have recorded higher deletions in the draft stage at 19.09% and 18.7% respectively.

Robust conflict of interest policy in place: Govt on selecting firms for RDI funds

The Selection of companies for receiving money from newly created Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund followed "robust evaluation mechanisms", "strict conflict of interest guidelines" and "merit-based selection processes", Ministry of Science & Technology said in a statement on Friday.

'Will take partnership to new heights': PM Modi speaks to UK counterpart

After his first call with newly elected UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that both countries would strengthen cooperation across technology, defence and security sectors, while also taking the recently operationalised India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to new heights. 

Cabinet clears 5-yr extension for PM-KISAN

The Centre on Friday approved continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme for the next five years. A decision of this effect was taken during the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

A tough road to Hamas disarmament

Whether US President Donald Trump's announcement of the "complete disarmament" of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza proves to be the breakthrough he claims it will be depends on all parties honouring their commitments. The US President has said Hamas's disarmament would pave the way for a Palestinian committee to take over governance in Gaza and for Israel's military withdrawal, as envisaged under his 20-point peace plan, which Hamas and Israel agreed to nearly 10 months ago. That Hamas will agree to disarm is, based on current evidence, highly improbable. Whatever legitimacy it still commands is rooted in its use of terror as resistance against Israel's illegal occupation.

America's tariff state is expanding. India must be patient

There is a fundamental shift underway in US trade policy. After more than a year in which President Donald Trump relied mainly on executive powers to impose tariffs, the US Congress is now moving to strengthen and expand his tariff strategy through legislation.

The clearest example is the Russia sanctions Bill. On July 28, the US Senate voted 86-12 to advance the Bill, which would authorise Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on countries buying Russian oil, including India. 

In Indo-Pacific, a steady projection of power

In the past decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has substantially increased engagement with the countries in the region. He has participated in ASEAN-India Summits 12 times, East Asia Summits nine times, visited Japan eight times, Singapore five times, Indonesia four times and Australia three times. He has been present at all six Quad leader-level summits since 2021. Modi is the only Indian PM to have visited almost every country in the Indo-Pacific. Despite differences, Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping bumped into each other over 20 times in the last 12 years, although not all can be called serious engagements. 

60,000 cross into Spain's Ceuta, 57 die after breach

About 60,000 MIGRANTS crossed from Morocco into Spain's tiny Ceuta territory in the past 24 hours, Ceuta's president said Friday, a figure that is equivalent to 70% of the population of the city in North Africa. At least 57 migrants died on the journey.

But roughly half of the people who made the crossing soon made their way back voluntarily, the Spanish government said, after the sudden arrival of so many triggered chaos and a humanitarian crisis.

Discarded SpaceX rocket on collision course with moon

A drifting SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after launching a pair of lunar landers more than a year ago.

The rocket's upper stage will unintentionally slam into the moon Wednesday, carving out a crater and sending up a plume of dust and rubble that scientists and skygazers are eager to observe. 

Every week, a ton of uncontrolled space junk tumbles to Earth

Huge objects weighing a metric ton or more arrive about once a week, he said. Much of the debris incinerates in the atmosphere or splashes into the Pacific, but when it does not, it plummets to the ground, uncontrolled and unpredictable.

The more objects humans launch into orbit, the more debris they will have to dodge on Earth.

Over 300 rockets launched last year, nearly four times as many as a decade ago. That means many more bits and spent parts are expected to drop back.

Dying satellites are another common detritus of this space age. A good number of the roughly 16,000 satellites in orbit will ultimately come back to Earth. In 2024, discarded hard-ware from the International Space Station crashed into a Florida home. 

Between long wet and dry spells, July rain reduced much of deficit from June

After a poor start to the monsoon season, and a particularly dry June, India finally received some good rainfall in July. The overall rainfall deficit for the season, which stood at 40% at the end of June, has come down to 14%.

But the rainfall in July was not uniformly spread out. There were several heavy rain days, some of which created historic records, and also prolonged dry stretches.

Weekly rainfall figures for the country as a whole swung from 45% more than normal to 51% less than normal. 

Can Chinese Al models shape future of tech race

• Kimi K3 is an advanced AI model released by the Chinese company Moonshot. It is said to rival the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.

• It is an 'open-weight system, which means it can be downloaded and modified. 

What strong IIP growth conceals: Persistent weakness in consumer demand

This week, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the recently updated Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data. It showed that the IIP grew by 7.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in June 2026.

Many things stood out about this data. First, the spike was the highest in almost two years. Moreover, it was the third consecutive month of accelerating y-o-y growth. It comes when most observers suggest India's growth will slow down this year. A closer look, however, reveals more about the state of the economy. 

Govt nod to Rs 84K-cr scheme to boost offshore oil & gas exploration

The Union Cabinet on Friday approved a Rs 84,084-crore scheme to boost oil and gas exploration and production from the country's offshore basins, and reduce the dependence on imported energy. 

Bloomberg defers India's inclusion into global index

Despite the best efforts of the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Bloomberg Index Services Ltd (BISL) on Friday again deferred the inclusion of Indian government bonds into its Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index, saying the announced reforms need to be "fully reflected in day-to-day market practice" before such a decision is made. 

N-reactor cost soars 55%: Why price escalation may affect clean energy plans

The Project cost of the four under-construction Russian-designed nuclear reactor units at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant has increased by nearly 55% over the original sanctioned cost since the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine. 

Central government's capex soars 66% in June, subsidy bill jumps too

The Central government's capital expenditure surged 66% year-on-year in June to Rs 89,255 crore, data released Friday by the Controller General of Accounts showed.

Despite this sharp increase in capex, the Centre's total spending in June was unchanged from the same month last year, as a 31% decline in interest payments helped lower revenue expenditure by 8%. 

EU says it's necessary to monitor high risk Al systems

Artificial intelligence developers should have in place tools to monitor their systems for security risks, senior European Commission officials said on Friday, following hacking incidents by OpenAI and Anthropic Al models.

The comments came two days ahead before Europe's landmark Al Act with transparency rules kick in, the first in the world to regulate a technology used in almost all sectors of businesses and society.