Trump touts Gaza deal, Hamas seeks Israeli exit

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday announced that the Board of Peace, an organisation Washington established to oversee a Gaza ceasefire, has reached a "historic agreement" for the disarmament of Hamas and other militant organisations in the Palestinian enclave.       

Lok Sabha passes Births and Deaths Bill amid protests over police crackdown

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amend-ment) Bill, 2026 without debate amid loud protests by the Opposition against the police crackdown on student protesters at Jantar Mantar on July 20.   

A healthy tax

The government must act to tax foods high in fat, sugar, and salt

India, which has a long history of addressing the challenges of undernutrition, has to pivot to attack the curious phenomenon of over-nutrition that evolving lifestyles have now laid at its door. The recent National Family Health Sur-vey data showed that in India, while stunting and undernutrition continue to be cause for concern, despite some gains, the sharp rise in adult over-weight and obesity, besides diet-related metabolic conditions, cannot be ignored any more. 

Western Ghats conservation with science and dialogue

The Western Ghats, spanning six coastal States of India, are internationally recognised for their rich biodiversity. They contain 39 biodiversity hotspot areas, including national parks, reserved forests, and wildlife sanctuaries declared World Heritage Sites (WHS) by UNESCO in 2012. To protect this natural heritage, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) was constituted in 2010 under the chairmanship of ecologist, academic, and writer Madhav Gadgil. Its report recommended declaring 142 talukas covering 44 districts in the entire Western Ghats into Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), while sub-dividing it into three Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ). Such a declaration would regulate human activities to protect fragile ecosystems and, once notified under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, would provide legal protection.

SC moots protocol to access court's livestream archives

The Supreme Court on Friday said it in-tends to lay down a protocol by which online users who want to post or circulate livestreamed judicial proceedings in the top court and the State High Courts can only access the audio-visual content through the courts' archives.    

Modi, Burnham discuss trade, technology, Hormuz over phone

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Andy Burnham, spoke on the telephone on Friday, agreeing to cooper-ate closely on a number of sectors and "fully harness" the recently operationalised trade agreement bet-ween New Delhi and Lon-don, as per the government.    

India likely to receive below-normal rainfall this month, says IMD

India is likely to receive below-normal rainfall during August, with precipitation expected to be less than 94% of the long period average, the India Meteorological Department said on Friday. The forecast also projects below-normal rainfall during the second half of the southwest monsoon season (August-September), although some parts of peninsular India, central, eastern, and north-eastern India, and the northern parts of the northwest could receive normal to above-normal rainfall.

Cabinet approves scheme to promote 'floating' solar plants

The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana, a ₹5,070-crore scheme aimed at accelerating float-ing solar power by providing central financial assistance of up to 1 crore per MW for projects installed on reservoirs and other water bodies. The programme targets 5,000 MW of floating solar capacity by 2030-31.

SC issues notice to Centre on petition to ban polygamy

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on a petition to declare polygamy among Muslims as unconstitutional, for a direction to take legislative steps to abolish the practice for all citizens regardless of religion. A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant issued notice to the Union government on a petition filed by activist Zakia Soman and others, represented by advocates Shriya Maini and Rajive Maini, for an order to apply Section 82 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which punishes bigamy, uniformly and by removing any exemptions under Muslim Personal Law. The petitioners contended in court that polygamy was a "primary driver of female destitution".   

Centre extends PM-Kisan for four more years, allocates ₹3.15 lakh cr.

The Union Cabinet on Friday approved continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Ki-san Samman Nidhi (PM-KI-SAN) Scheme from 2026-27 to 2030-31, with a total financial outlay of ₹3.15 lakh crore. The scheme provides a financial assistance of ₹6,000 per year for farmers. The government said it had transferred more than ₹4.47 lakh crore directly to farmers' bank accounts in 23 instalments under the scheme which was launched in February 2019. "Under the 23rd instalment, more than 9.49 crore farmers benefited, with over 18,984 crore re-leased," the Union Agricul-ture Ministry said in a release.

Bengaluru gets first tariff-free Scottish salmon via U.K.FTA

Bengaluru received the first tariff-free shipment of Scottish salmon to India under the U.K.-India Com-prehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), marking one of the earliest commercial outcomes of the trade pact.       

Cabinet okays ₹84,084-cr. Samudra Manthan for offshore exploration

To boost India's offshore exploration efforts, the Un-ion Cabinet approved an outlay of ₹84,084 crore to the Union Petroleum Ministry's National Offshore Exploration Scheme Samudra Manthan. The corpus is to be utilised until FY2030-31. The overall outlay is categorised into four key components the most important of which relate to drilling 60 deepwater exploration wells for which the Cabinet has allocated ₹43,200 crore.