Kudankulam 'data breach' unrelated to nuclear activity: govt.

Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh on Thursday down-played concerns regarding the data breach involving electronic files linked to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. "This [the breach] has nothing to do with the nuclear plant or nuclear security," he told The Hindu. "There's no need for any immediate review because what has happened is not linked to nuclear activity."

Parliament set to take up Bills to amend FCRA, prevent insult to Vande Mataram

The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amend-ment) Bill, 2026, which seeks to amend the 1971 law to make the intentional in-sult of, or disruption during, the singing of National Song Vande Mataram a punishable offence is among the five new Bills listed by the government for the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament. 

Modi set to flag off India's first hydrogen-powered train from Haryana's Jind

In a push towards sus-tainable transport, modern health care and advanced connectivi-ty, Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi is scheduled to visit Haryana, Chandigarh, and Punjab on Friday and unveil initiatives worth over ₹25,000 crore.

The highlight of the mul-ti-State visit will be the flag-ging off of the NaMo Green Rail, India's first-ever hy-drogen-powered fuel cell train in Haryana's Jind.

Beyond political reshuffles, renew education in India

A demographic dividend is realised by producing better thinkers, wiser leaders, confident innovators, skilled researchers and teachers, ethical entrepreneurs, honest public servants and compassionate citizens. This, therefore, is the moment to rise above personalities, parties and politics. Sonam Wangchuk's fast should become the catalyst for a national awakening on the future of education. The question is larger than whether one Minister should resign. It is whether India will dare rebuild the education system that will shape the next century. We need more than a reshuffle - we need reform, renewal, and a renaissance. In my view, that renaissance rests on 10 urgent reforms.

Wealth of lacunae

Cybersecurity, transparency are non-negotiable in vital installations

The ransomware attack against a contractor involved in the Kudankulam nuclear T power project is concerning, even if noth-ing threatening the plant's integrity was stolen. In 2019, malware was found on the same facility's administrative network, but the NPCIL main-tained that the operational reactor network was unaffected. The new incident extends the same theme. India's breach disclosure regime is incon-sistent and often plainly opaque. Affected organ-isations tend to believe admitting a breach will damage public confidence, share prices, con-tracts, and invite regulatory scrutiny.

Breaching the target

India's retail inflation breached the RBI's 4% target for the first time under the new CPI se-ries, rising to 4.38% in June from 3.93% in May and about 2.7% a year earlier. The latest print reflects a broader pass-through of price pressures that had, until recently, remained con-centrated at the producer level, largely driven by spiralling transport and fuel costs since the U.S.-Iran conflict in late February. Consequently, the gap between wholesale and retail inflation has only marginally narrowed.

It is not all bad between India and Pakistan

How serious is Kudankulam data leak?

The data has been hosted on World Leaks, which is a Dark Web site hosted by cybercriminals who infect vulnerable firms with ransomware, threatening to leak the data if the ransom is not paid. Yotta, which runs data centres across the country, characterised Reliance as its "customer's private cloud environment," but said it took steps to address the infiltration as it was detected on May 29. The revelations have sparked "absolute commotion" among top officials at the power plant, even as they downplay the impact of the findings.

NITI Aayog suggests ₹50,000-crore fund for biotech growth

A NITI Aayog road map has proposed creating a ₹50,000-crore BioEconomy Growth Fund, a dedi-cated production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for biomanufacturing and six national missions as part of an ambiotechnology bitious strategy to trans-form India into one of the world's top three biotech-nology powers by 2035.

'Frame policy for release of aged, terminally ill inmates'

The Supreme Court on Thursday di-rected all States and Union Territories to put in place, within three months, a uniform policy governing the premature release of elderly and ter-minally ill prisoners, observing that such inmates are entitled to a humane and time-bound mechan-ism for remission or early release on compassionate grounds.

Revised CAFE III unveiled for stakeholder suggestions

The Centre on Thursday released the third draft of the fuel efficiency norms for passenger vehicles set to kick off from April 2027, proposing to recognise eth-anol, compressed biogas (CBG) and other biofuels in compliance calculations by allowing manufacturers to claim specified reductions in declared tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions. The latest draft has been released for stakeholder consultation until August 6 after a year-long battle between small and big car makers on compliance methodologies.

Moisture-absorbing nature of ethanol is contaminating fuel, claim petrol dealers

Petrol pump owners claim ethanol's hygroscopic na-ture or affinity towards water is leading to contamina-tion of E20 stock during monsoons and in coastal areas since existing under-ground storage tanks were designed for conventional petrol, not higher ethanol blends. The claims come amid viral videos on social media purportedly showing customers collecting what appears to be muddy water, rather than E20 from fuel dispensers.

Beyond weight loss: how GLP-1s can affect your skin, hair and nails

GLP-1 based medicines have changed the management of obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic health across the world. However, their effects are often visible externally

These changes are not usually dangerous, but they can affect comfort, appearance, confidence and quality of life. In some patients, they may also signal nutritional deficiency, worsening of an underlying condition, or the need for medical intervention

From an aesthetic perspective, the priority should be to plan rather than panic. Patients who already have hair loss, acne, pigmentation, psoriasis, eczema, hidradenitis suppurativa, loose skin concerns or nutritional deficiencies may benefit from a baseline dermatology review before, or early during treatment

Cyclosporiasis outbreak: what is gastrointestinal illness that has affected over 1,500 in the U.S.

A widespread outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness has been reported in the United States. The infection, cyclosporiasis, caused by the cyclospora parasite, occurs when people consume food or water that contains the parasite. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a health advisory issued on July 14, it has received reports of 1,645 confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis since May 1 and is aware of 5,100 cases that require further analysis to confirm the illness, from 34 States, substantially higher than the 249 cases reported in the country by this same time last year. Because cyclosporiasis is often underdiagnosed and underreported, the true number of illnesses is likely higher than what has been reported, it noted. At present, a specific food item has not yet been confirmed as the source .