A.P. braces for second cyclone within a week

Barely a week after being battered by "very severe" Cyclone Arnab, Andhra Pradesh is bracing for Cyclone Murasu, expected to make landfall on Tuesday, with five districts put on red alert. The weather system over the Bay of Bengal inten-sified into a cyclonic storm and was centred at around 350 km east of Chennai on Sunday night.

Even as unemployment falls, lack of 'decent work' in India

India's unemployment rate fell from 6.1% in 2017-18 to 3.2% in 2023-24. At the same time, female workforce participation increased for the first time in decades as has been widely reported in government documents. In light of these positive developments, it is the right time to ask what kind of jobs have been generated in India recently, and what working conditions accompany them. 

Slow recovery

With the successful launch of the GSLV-F18 mission and the NVS-03 satellite's healthy status, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is on course to heave a sigh of relief. Its last 18 months have been constrained by the consequences of two launch fai-lures involving PSLV rockets, which share some of their design aspects with GSLV, to the extent that the F18 mission was only the second success-ful launch of 2026.

Sardar Patel and the many facets of his political legacy

From playing a major role in integrating princely states into the Indian Union to advocating Hindu-Muslim coexistence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's legacy is more complex than his popular Iron Man image suggests

GST mop-up surges 23% to 2.31 lakh cr. on festive demand

Goods and Services Tax collections jumped 23% year-on-year to the second-highest level of over 2.31 lakh crore in October as festive buying boosted domestic demand, accord-ing to government data re-leased on Sunday.

Navy to launch ₹80,000-cr. warship project

The government has given a major push to the Indian Navy's next-generation destroyer programme amid the growing maritime security challenges posed by China and Pakistan, both of which are streng-thening their own under-water warfare capabilities. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, had recently accord-ed in-principle approval to futuristic warships under Project 18A.

Chandigarh will be India's first drug-free city, says Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the Centre has resolved to build a drug-free India and Chandigarh will be the first city to be rid of drugs.

Bhutan builds 108 stupas in 9 hours, dedicates Chorten no. 76 to Modi

Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk on Sunday dedicated one of the 108 Buddhist stupas erected in a nine-hour con-struction feat to Prime Mi-nister Narendra Modi as a mark of appreciation for India's support for the country's ambitious Gele-phu Mindfulness City (GMC) project. About 40,000 trained volunteers built the 108 Jangchub Chortens in what could be a potentially record-breaking royal initia-tive to lay the spiritual foundation of the planned city.

Why even a strong El Niño does not guarantee a poor Indian monsoon

• The Indian Ocean Dipole helped off set El Niño's impact in 1997, but had little eff ect in 2015, with one 2024 study linking this to wind changes around Antarctica that prevented the dipole from strengthening

• IMD has improved its monsoon forecasting since 1997 by updating its April forecast in late May and, since 2021, using a combination of multiple global climate models

• Despite El Niño conditions in 2023 and 2026, seasonal rainfall remained within the forecast error margin, highlighting gains in forecast accuracy