E20 affects mileage, but West Asia crisis shows India must explore alternatives, says Gadkari

AMID a raging debate over the impact on vehicular performance from the shift to higher ethanol blends, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari reckoned that average mileage can dip as ethanol content increases in the fuel, but said the West Asian crisis has shown India must explore all alternatives to fossil fuel imports.

India, Australia ink defence pacts, fast-track trade deal

Signalling a significant deepening of bilateral ties, India and Australia on Thursday sealed a series of pacts across sectors, from defence and maritime security to energy, including one that paves the way to operationalise their 2014 Civil Nuclear Agreement that secures a stable corridor for uranium supplies to India for peaceful purposes.

11th-12th century antiquities from Tamil Nadu to finally come home from Australia

Three Antiquities from Tamil Nadu, dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries and housed at two museums in Australia, are all set to make their way back to India.

The repatriation of the antiquities is among the outcomes of the India-Australia summit during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongoing visit to the island nation. For its part, India has committed to the repatriation of the relics of an Australian First Nations ancestor presently held at the Government Museum of Chennai.

Novo Nordisk's weekly insulin injection to cost Rs 261 in India

The most common side effect of the medicine is hypo-glycemia a condition where the blood glucose levels fall too much-that can affect one in ten persons. Dr Wangnoo, however, assures that this is the same level as seen with other daily insulin shots.

In type-1 diabetics - those who have diabetes because their body does not produce insulin-hypoglycemic events are more common with this drug than the daily insulin. "This usually happens because of a mismatch in the insulin dose that the type-1 diabetics take before a meal and the calories in the meal," said Dr Wangnoo.

Type-1 diabetics have to continue taking their pre-meal fast-acting insulin shots, but they can replace their daily long-acting insulin shot with this, resulting in fewer pricks.

Despite 'major challenge' of US tariffs, India's seafood exports hit an all-time high

Despite an unprecedented 58% US tariff, India's seafood ex-port has increased to Rs 73,800 crore in 2025-26 from Rs 62,000 crore in the previous year, said Union Fisheries Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh on Thursday.

Addressing a gathering in Bhubaneswar during the national launch of Letter of Authorisation (LoA) for sustainable harnessing of fisheries in the high seas, Singh said growth in seafood export is a result of the free trade agreements (FTAs) India signed with various countries across the globe.

One in ten Indians faces risk of cancer before 75: Here is what WHO data reveals

Cancer is steadily becoming one of India's defining health challenges. According to the latest GLOBOCAN estimates, nearly one in ten Indians is at risk of developing cancer before the age of 75, while about seven in every hundred face the risk of dying from the disease before reaching that age.

India recorded 1.41 million new cancer cases and 916,827 deaths in 2022, while more than 3.25 million people were living with a cancer diagnosis made within the previous five years.

According to estimates presented in the WHO Global Status Report on Cancer 2026, India had approximately 1.6 million new cancer cases in 2024, with around 900,000 deaths. Experts now project that annual new cases could climb to 2.8 million by 2050, driven by population growth, ageing and changing lifestyles.

Rainfall in eastern river basins down 20% since 1951: Study

In the first-of-its-kind assessment of the impact of climate change on water availability in the Indus river system, a new study has revealed that the catchment areas of the three eastern rivers - Ravi, Beas and Sutlej saw a 20 per cent decline in precipitation in the period between 1951 and 2024.

On the other hand, rainfall in catchment areas of three western rivers - Indus, Jhelum and Chenab - was largely stable, with only a 6 per cent reduction observed over the same period, "which is statistically non-significant", the study has found.

'Tendency to treat statutory bodies as extension of govt arm': HC pulls up Centre

The Delhi High Court Wednesday pulled up the Centre for "treating every statutory body as an extension of the government's arm" while hearing a petition by former bureaucrats and others, flagging the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (SC-NBWL) has been constituted in contravention of statutory provisions and has been "stamp-approving" proposals at an "alarming" rate.

Lost in India's celebrations of trade pacts, the big deal

For the period 2020-25, India's annual goods trade surplus with America averaged approximately $42 billion. India's combined goods trade surplus with the EU, the UK, and Japan together was approximately $12 billion.

Not till cities reduce time, safety, care costs

The latest plfs city estimates from the National Statistics Office seem to offer a hopeful story: India's largest cities provide women with better jobs. In the 46 million-plus cities, 65.1 per cent of employed women are in regular salaried work, compared with 50.9 per cent in urban India overall. Yet female labour force participation in these cities is only 25.5 per cent, lower than the urban average of 27.7 per cent. Big cities produce better jobs, but the real question is why so few women can access them.

From Hormuz to Malacca, Delhi must draw the right lessons

As Washington finished celebrating America's 250th Independence Day, millions in Tehran, defying predictions, filed past their slain Supreme Leader's remains to pay homage. The Strait of Hormuz, locked in a volatile "strategic pause", has now erupted in a renewed spasm of extreme violence. The tension and uncertainty that have become inherent in the Persian Gulf vividly illustrate how geography can be weaponised to hold the global economy and world peace to ransom.

How Indonesia's iconic Prambanan temple was lost and rediscovered

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this week marked the beginning of India's effort to help restore the iconic Prambanan Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Prambanan Temple Compounds, located on the island of Java, comprise Prambanan Temple (also known as Loro Jonggrang or Candi Prambanan), Sewu Temple, Bubrah Temple, and Lumbung Temple.

The birth of a temple

The Sanjaya dynasty ruled the Mataram Kingdom in Central Java during the eighth and ninth centuries. It is generally associated with the revival of Shaivite Hinduism on the island. Its dominance was challenged by the Sailendra dynasty, a powerful Buddhist royal house.

Following the end of the reign of Samaratungga of the Sailendra dynasty, Rakai Pikatan of the Sanjaya dynasty is believed to have married Samaratungga's daughter, Pramodhawardhani, and ruled between 842 and 856 CE. He commissioned Prambanan as a grand Hindu sanctuary.

Lessons for India from Brazil's ethanol pathway

Brazil's FFV push

Flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) are engineered to operate on more than one fuel.

FFVs have been driving cleaner mobility in Brazil for around two decades now.

Tabling report on Justice Varma: Accountability after resignation

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's decision to table the report of the parliamentary committee probing former Allahabad High Court judge Yashwant Varma puts India's judicial accountability framework into uncharted territory. When Justice Varma resigned in April, it was thought the impeachment proceedings against him had hit a dead end. But experts argue that tabling the report is a crucial step for public accountability, challenging a long-held assumption that a judge's resignation automatically extinguishes a parliamentary probe.

Revamped EPFO portal: Centralised database, with easier claim filing & info access

As the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), India's retirement fund body, rolls out a revamped portal, members will be able to access all their details on a unified portal along with faster auto-crediting of interest by July 15.

One of the most important features of the Centralised IT Enabled Services (CITES) project under the EPFO 2.01 initiative is the move towards a centralised database. It follows the merger of information from all regional centres, which will allow members to resolve their issues at any regional EPF office and not necessarily in their city of employment, where Provident Fund deductions may have happened.

GCC costs rising, others are copying India, cautions CEA

While the rise of global capability centres (GCCs) has been "one of the quiet successes" of India, the country can't be complacent as costs are rising domestically and other nations are copying us, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Thursday.

Govt waives import duty on inputs for manufacturing batteries, display assemblies

The Union finance ministry has exempted customs duty on 85 capital goods used in lithium-ion cell manufacturing, as well as on inputs used in the manufacture of display assemblies and inductor-coil modules for wireless charging in cellular mobile phones, till March 2029 to promote domestic manufacturing in the electronics sector.

India questions e-comm interim pathway at WTO

India has raised questions in the World Trade Organization (WTO) over an interim arrangement as a pathway for implementation of an agreement on e-commerce, which has been agreed upon by only 66 member countries of the WTO.