Retrospective green nod: SC strikes down Centre's order, opens window for exception

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court Wednesday held that the Centre can retrospectively grant environmental clearance for projects "in public interest" under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and

not through a mere administrative office memorandum.

Voter ID, Aadhaar, PAN not conclusive proof of Indian citizenship: Calcutta HC

The Calcutta High Court has held that voter identity card, Aadhaar number, PAN and bank account passbook are not conclusive proof of Indian citizenship.

RS passes Bill criminalising insult to Vande Mataram

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill that criminalises intentional disruption or prevention of the singing of the national song, Vande Mataram, thereby according it legal sanctity at par with the national an-them, Jana Gana Mana.

The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, seeks to amend a 1971 law by the same name, which makes insults to-wards the national anthem, national flag and the Constitution a criminal offence.

IRDAI ushers in reforms to revamp insurance sector

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has introduced a set of reforms aimed at modernising the insurance sector, strengthening governance and accelerating insurance penetration across the country.

The measures span regulatory, supervisory and developmental areas.

'Oil price surge could be a strain for financing fiscal deficit & current account'

In the wake of persistent stand-off in West Asia, the Indian economy continues to face an upside risk to inflation, fiscal and current account deficits and downside risk to growth, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.

May services growth halved to under 10%, data suggests

India's Services sector growth may have more than halved in May from around 20.5% in April, the statistics ministry's experimental Index of Services Production (ISP) for 19 sub-sectors, released Wednesday, suggested.

Heat wave threatens to intensify France's mega-fire near Bordeaux

A Wildfire covering an area four times the size of Paris remained uncontained in south-west France on Wednesday as temperatures were forecast to reach 40 C, threatening to erase firefighters' overnight gains.

An 850-seat Lok Sabha means more MPs, less Parliament

The Government's seeming determination to proceed with a revised delimitation that drastically increases the size of the Lok Sabha to 824 or 850 seats marks a disastrous watershed in India's institutional architecture. The underlying justification offered by the government is purely mathematical: The size of the Lower House cannot remain frozen at the 543-seat limit established in 1972, since when the nation's population has more than doubled.

A medical education more inclusive

The National Medical Commission's (NMC) revised guidelines for admitting persons with disabilities to undergraduate medical courses mark an overdue shift towards making medical education more inclusive. Is-sued on Monday, the new benchmark stipulates that a candidate's eligibility for the MBBS course will be based on a functional assessment rather than merely a certificate recording the disability. Designated medical boards will carry out evaluations. The mess-age is significant: Disability, by itself, should not be treated as a disqualification. What matters is whether an aspiring doctor can acquire the competencies necessary to practise medicine, with appropriate support. The guidelines recognise that technology, institutional support and accessible infrastructure play an important role in determining whether disability becomes a barrier.

From Ravidas and Begumpura, a philosophy of governance

Ravidas is a saint amongst the saints". Kabir's line captures the place of Sant Shiromani Guru Ravidasji Maharaj in awakening the consciousness of the Bhakti era. To carry that consciousness to every household, BJP president Nitin Nabin has launched a special campaign from Varanasi, running from Guru Purnima on July 29 to Magh Purnima on February 20, the 650th jayanti of Sant Ravidas.

Dengue vaccine must complement prevention

India has taken an important step in the fight against dengue. On July 21, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation granted marketing authorisation to Qdenga, the country's first approved dengue vaccine. It has been approved in 42 countries. Over 24 million doses have been administered worldwide, and it has the WHO's imprimatur.

India's fertility decline story is not yet a crisis. It is a policy story

Today, India's most popular headline about its population is simple: The average woman is having about two children over her lifetime. That single figure has become a shorthand for "India has reached replacement-level fertility", and in one sense it is true. But successive Sample Registration System and National Family Health Survey rounds tell us something that should make us pause: India has achieved below-replacement fertility despite the near universality of marriage-only about 1 per cent of women remain never married by ages 45-49, the median age at first birth is 21.2 years, and childbearing is virtually imposed within marriage with a lower socio-economic status, a demographic pathway that sharply contrasts with the experience of most other low-fertility countries.

On antibiotics, problem isn't just overprescribing

The latest global study in The Lancet Public Health has again highlighted what infectious disease experts in India have known for years: India uses too many broad-spectrum "watch" antibiotics and too few first-line "access" antibiotics. It estimates that India's antibiotic consumption is higher than the optimal target and that the antibiotic mix is skewed towards drugs that should ideally be reserved for more serious infections.

As conflict expands to Red Sea, India's crude options

• West Asian crude that can bypass regional chokepoints are practical emergency options for Indian refiners.

• There are also options to increase purchases of American and South American oil, but the long voyage times are a challenge.