Nothing wrong in caste count: SC; rejects plea against move

The Supreme Court Wednesday said there was nothing wrong in the government of the day ascertaining caste as part of the ongoing nationwide Cen-sus exercise. "Any government of the day must know how many people are backward and how many need welfare. This is a matter of policy," Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, said.

India, Italy seal defence pact, boost ties to 'special strategic partnership'

India and Italy have been in continuous contact over the conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, reiterating his call for "dialogue and diplomacy" to resolve the festering wars. Delivering a press statement in Rome at the end of his multi-nation Europe trip, Mr. Modi described India-Italy relation as a "win-win partnership", and welcomed the up-grade of bilateral ties to the level of "Special Strategic Partnership".

Maharashtra completes documentation of over 23,000 wetlands, paves way to bring them under legal protection

The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) has completed the documentation and ground truthing of Maharashtra's 23,415 wet-lands, paving the way to formally notify and bring the water bodies under le-gal protection under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules.

Preparing India for a credible digital Census

The house listing phase of the 2027 Census is now progressing in some States and the work in other States will be taken up soon. The questionnaire for this phase was pre-tested last year. It was reported that the inclusion of questions on caste has delayed the pre-testing of the questionnaire for the population enumeration phase of the Census. Field testing of the schedules is essential to ensure that the concepts and definitions are easily understood by the enumerators and respondents.

Steel, cement help quicken April core sector growth to 1.7%

Growth in activity in the eight core sectors of the economy quickened marginally to 1.7% this April, up from 1.2% in March, official data released on Wednesday showed. Data on the Index of Eight Core Industries released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry saw a significant revision of the growth rate for March - now coming in at 1.2% compared with the preliminary contraction of 0.4% that had originally been reported for the month.

Rajnath holds wide-ranging defence talks in South Korea. pushes strategic cooperation

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held comprehensive bilateral discussions with South Korea Minister of National Defence Ahn Gyu-back in Seoul on Wednesday, with both sides agreeing to expand defence cooperation across industry, maritime security, emerging technologies, logistics, and military exchanges.

Marco Rubio to begin India visit on May 23; discuss trade, energy

U .S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will pay his first visit to India between May 23 and 26, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

The visit will be closely watched as it comes against the backdrop of the U.S.'s continued engagement in hostilities in the Persian Gulf region, which have had consequences for India's energy security.

13-nation military exercise commences in Meghalaya

A 13-nation military exercise began at the Umroi Military Station in Meghalaya on Wednesday. Apart from host India, soldiers from "12 friendly nations" are participating in the PRAGATI 2026. They are Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. The exercise seeks to provide a common platform for participating armies to engage in professional exchange and build closer military-to-military ties, the Defence Ministry said.

SC flags lack of uniform excise laws across States

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre and States on a plea that excise laws differ widely from State to State, even on the point of clearly identifying what a liquor "bottle" really looks like. Chief Justice of India Su-rya Kant agreed that the lack of a clear, uniform and harmonious definition of the term "bottle" in excise laws across the country has led to a "very deceptive packaging" of cheap alcohol, which is even la-belled as "fruit juice". The duplicitous marketing of liquor has led to a dramatic increase in the public consumption.

Rules for new rural employment scheme to be issued soon

Rules governing the new rural employment guaran-tee scheme, the Viksit Bha-rat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gra-min), which is scheduled to come into force from July 1, will be released by the government in the next few days, officials of the Union Ministry of Rural De-velopment informed a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Wednesday.

The committee, headed by Congress leader Saptagiri Ulaka, met on Wednesday to review the preparatory work for the scheme's implementation.

Australian LNG supplies to India will surge, says Green

Amid the global A energy shortage triggered by the West Asia crisis and tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, enhanced LNG supplies from Australia could become a viable alternative to bridge India's energy demand-supply gap, Australian High Commissioner to India Philip Green has said.

Putin, Xi hail ‘resilient' relations in talks days after Trump's China visit

President Xi Jinping hailed China and Russia's "unyielding" ties in talks with Vladi-mir Putin on Wednesday, as the pair met to under-score their alliance days after Donald Trump's own visit to Beijing. The two countries' ties have deepened since Mos-cow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as Russia has become increasingly dependent on China.

Taiwan Travelogue wins International Booker Prize 2026

Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zi and translator Lin King won the International Booker Prize on Tuesday for Taiwan Travelogue, a historical romance set in Japan-occupied Tai-wan in the 1930s.

It is the first novel writ-ten in Mandarin Chinese to win the prestigious prize for fiction translated into English. This is also the second year in a row that the independent press, And Other Stories, has taken home the prize, following Heart Lamp last year.

'Ebola risk high at regional and national levels, low worldwide'

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said the risk of the Democratic Republic of Congo's deadly Ebola outbreak was currently high at the national and regional levels but low worldwide. WHO experts said that while investigations into its origins were ongoing, given the scale of the situation in the eastern DRC, the outbreak probably began a couple of months ago.

But the UN health agency's emergency committee said it did not currently meet the pandemic emergency threshold.

Sperm whale 'clicks' have complex patterns similar to human speech

Researchers have revealed that sperm whales, which communicate using clicking sounds, also vary the sounds in ways that resemble how humans use vowels; these vocalisations show clear parallels with human phonology - the system of rules that organises sound patterns in human language