HAL wins ISRO deal to build launch vehicles

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has bagged a Transfer of Technology (ToT) deal, valued at ₹511 crore, from the Indian Space Research Organisation, to build and operate Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLVS). 

Andhra Pradesh's 'City of Destiny' decked up to host International Yoga Day today

Visakhapatnam - the City of Destiny - is all geared up and decked up to host the biggest public event ever held so far on Saturday. All arrangements appear to be in place to host the International Yoga Day, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, on the Beach Road. The event is being held over a road stretch of about 28 km, from the Kali Matha temple at RK Beach to Bheemunipatnam. 

It is still not too late for India's voice to be heard

On June 13, 2025, the world has, once again, witnessed the dangerous consequences of unilateral militarism when Israel launched a deeply troubling and unlawful strike against Iran and its sovereignty.

The Indian National Congress has condemned these bombings and targeted assassinations on Iranian soil, which represent a dangerous escalation with grave regional and global consequences. As with so many of Israel's recent actions, including its brutal and disproportionate campaign in Gaza, this operation was executed with utter disregard for civilian lives and regional stability. These actions will only deepen instability and sow the seeds of further conflict.

That such an attack should come at a time when diplomatic efforts between Iran and the United States were showing signs of promise makes it all the more distressing. Five rounds of negotiations had already taken place this year, with a sixth that was scheduled for June. And, as recently as in March 2025, the Director of National Intelligence of the United States, Tulsi Gabbard, clearly testified to Congress that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, and that its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had not authorised its resumption since its suspension in 2003. 

Lighting the spark in U.K.-India cultural relations

May was a month of magical bonanza for United Kingdom-India relations. The long-anticipated Free Trade Agreement was ratified by both Prime Ministers, and it was another milestone that illuminated a different but equally significant dimension of their partnership: culture. 

Quantum challenge

Scientists from IIT-Delhi and the DRDO recently demonstrated a key advance in quantum cybersecurity that stands to revolutionise how the world will communicate in the future. The world's secrets are currently stored and communicated via channels that are protected by difficult mathematical problems. Over the years, an increasing amount of computing power available to certain actors has forced these problems to become difficult and nigh-uncrackable. The imminence of quantum computing requires this paradigm to change because quantum computers can (at least on paper) solve problems currently out of reach of the most powerful conventional supercomputers. Quantum cybersecurity is one prong of this change, promising to protect communication channels irrespective of the computing power available to malicious actors. The IIT-Delhi and DRDO team successfully demonstrated a quantum key-distribution scheme through one kilometre of free space on the institute's campus. Such a technology allows two individuals (or stations) located a kilometre apart to securely access messages they send each other. If an eavesdropper tries to intercept any message, instantaneous changes in the keys the individuals use to decrypt the messages will reveal the channel has been compromised, and in a way that the eavesdropper cannot prevent. If scaled up to include satellites, the technology could allow stations anywhere in India to exchange information through a quantum network without fear of being compromised. 

Lighting the spark in U.K.-India cultural relations

May was a month of magical bonanza for United Kingdom-India relations. The long-anticipated Free Trade Agreement was ratified by both Prime Ministers, and it was another milestone that illuminated a different but equally significant dimension of their partnership: culture. 

Sowing seeds of mistrust in Assam

Sobjer Ali is a man of routine. Every day, for nearly 50 years, he has travelled by boat between Kuntirchar Part 2, the village where he lives in Dhubri district of Assam, and Patharghat, where he ran a shop selling cattle feed. The routine, disturbed in the past sometimes by festivals, floods, and communal conflicts, was disrupted on June 14 when his world turned upside down. The shop that sustained Ali's family of six was one of the 110 deemed illegal and demolished by the local authorities. This happened a week after the body parts of cattle were allegedly found on successive days near a Hanuman temple about 2 kilometres away, triggering anger in the district. 

Centre forms panel to review Competitive exams, cut dependency on coaching centres

The Union Education Ministry has constituted a panel, headed by Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi, to suggest measures to reduce dependency of students on coaching centres and assess the effectiveness and fairness of competitive entrance examinations. 

Steel sector in a fix as govt. gives less than a day to meet QCO

A new notification by the Ministry of Steel on quality certifications for steel in-puts has given industry players less than one business day to comply with it and stands to create huge disruptions and cost escalations for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the sector, according to steel industry participants and trade experts. 

'Monetary policy left with limited space to support growth'

Given the uncertainties and after having reduced the policy rates by 100 bps in quick succession since February, in the prevailing growth-inflation scenario and the outlook, monetary policy would be left with very limited space to support growth, Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra observed in his MPC statement. 

Indices gain 1.3%, mirroring Asian markets

Benchmark stock indices broke their three-day losing streak and gained 1.3%, buoyed by robust Asian market performance and advancing U.S. futures. 

Core sector growth slows to 9-month low of 0.7% in May on oil, gas, fertilizers

Growth in the eight core sectors slowed to a nine-month low of 0.7% on contractions in crude oil, natural gas, fertiliser and electricity sectors. 

Bangladesh, Pakistan, China hold trilateral discussion

Bangladesh, Pakistan and China held an inaugural trilateral foreign office-level discussion this week in Kunming, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan has announced. The trilateral consultation was led by Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, Bangladesh's Acting Foreign Secretary Ruhul Alam Siddique and Additional Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Imran Ahmed Siddiqui.