Bank of Baroda accounted for 16% of all such charges collected for non-maintenance of minimum balance between FY23 to FY25 | Photo Credit: ANUSHREE FADNAVIS More than Rs 8,000 crore was collected as charges by 12 Public Sector Banks (PSBs) for non-maintenance of minimum balance in the last three financial years, Parliament data showed. With over … Read more
A decade ago, I heard a talk by an environmental activist in Chennai. This person almost always worked in settings with significant resource constraints and on activities that society had a tendency to overlook. Jeffrey Epstein had not been the well-known name it has become in India, and around the world, today. But the activist … Read more
Grok has faced a global backlash after it emerged that its image creation feature allowed users to sexualise pictures of women and children using simple text prompts [File] | Photo Credit: REUTERS Indonesia will restore access to Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok after the billionaire’s social media platform X promised to comply with the country’s … Read more
The website tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources [File] | Photo Credit: REUTERS Elon Musk’s social media platform X was back up after a brief outage affected more than 19,000 U.S. users on Sunday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. The outage lasted about 45 minutes and was largely resolved … Read more
Ultra-precise “POMbranes” sieve out larger molecules (red) and allow only 1-nm species (green) to pass through, enabling sharp molecular sorting. | Photo Credit: CSIR-Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute, Bhavnagar Imagine trying to filter sand from pebbles using a fishing net: it won’t work because the holes are too big and uneven. In chemistry, … Read more
A view of a waste-to-energy plant at Bidadi, near Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: RAVICHANDRAN N./The Hindu A: Waste-to-energy (WtE) is a technology to convert non-recyclable waste materials into usable fuel, typically heat or electricity. A common method is incineration in which trash is burned at a high temperature to boil the water off, creating steam … Read more
For centuries, ecology and biology have been built on muddy boots, mosquito bites and long days spent in forests, wetlands and oceans. Fieldwork was not just a method; it was an identity. To be an ecologist meant to be outdoors, immersed in nature, observing life in its raw, unpredictable complexity. But the age of artificial … Read more
India’s electric mobility (e-mobility) initiatives saw a significant dip in FY27 budget | Photo Credit: – In the Union Budget 2026, allocations for India’s electric mobility (e-mobility) initiatives saw a significant dip, marking a departure from the recent years. Collective allocation for such schemes declined by over 3,700 crores in the 2025-26 Revised Estimates (RE) … Read more
The Indian space program has moved out of its post-pandemic slump and is entering a phase of sustained, if also cautious, consolidation. Since 2012-2013, the national space budget has grown by 182%. This sounds massive but most of the growth actually happened in the last decade, especially between 2014 and 2019. Allocations have increased more … Read more
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with Union Budget. | Photo Credit: Ravi Choudhary A total outlay of over ₹50 lakh crore for all Ministries was given in the 2026-27 Union Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament today. Here is how each Ministry’s allocations shaped up. Looking at allocations, the Ministry of Finance … Read more
The FM mentioned in her Budget speech that Odisha, Karnataka, and Kerala will develop Turtle Trails to protect and promote nesting sites. | Photo Credit: Asit Kumar In her Union Budget 2026 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman explicitly named 14 States. However, when accounting for the States and Union Territories associated with the 27 specific … Read more
The FM mentioned in her Budget speech that Odisha, Karnataka, and Kerala will develop Turtle Trails to protect and promote nesting sites. | Photo Credit: ASIT KUMAR In her Union Budget 2026 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman explicitly named 14 States. However, when accounting for the States and Union Territories associated with the 27 specific … Read more
Image used for representative purpose only. | Photo Credit: Reuters Industry body CII on Sunday (February 1, 2026) welcomed the Union Budget proposal to establish dedicated rare earth corridors in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha stating it would help India’s leadership in rare earth magnets. The Union Budget 2026 proposal towards establishment of Rare … Read more
Image used for representation purpose only. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto The total budget allocation for the Department of Space has seen a marginal increase compared to 2026-2027 but a double-digit jump compared to actual revised spending. Importantly, while the allocation of ₹13,705.63 crore represents a modest growth of 2.16% from 2025-2026, there is a … Read more
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) a record-breaking eleven times, marking the highest frequency the term has appeared in any Indian budget speech to date. | Photo Credit: Dado Ruvic It was Arun Jaitely who first mentioned the term Artificial intelligence (AI) in a Finance Minister speech in the 2018-19 Budget. It was … Read more
Over 45% of India’s rare earths are imported from China | Photo Credit: Steve Marcus Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Union Budget 2026 speech that the government will support the mineral-rich States of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu in establishing rare earth corridors to promote the mining, processing, research, and manufacturing … Read more
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to support the mineral-rich states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu in establishing dedicated rare-earth corridors. Image used for representative purpose only. | Photo Credit: Reuters Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to support the mineral-rich states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu in establishing … Read more
The history of India’s Union Budget is effectively the biography of a nation in transformation. This timeline traces the shifting centre of economic gravity through five decisive phases and how the ‘Briefcase’ has carried India’s destiny — from grain sacks to smartphones — in each Finance Minister’s own words. Year: 1947-48 | A free nation … Read more
India’s Labour Codes came into force in November 2025, marking the most significant labour law reform since Independence. By consolidating 29 central laws into four Codes, the reform aims to simplify compliance, universalise minimum wages, expand social protection, and modernise workplace regulation. Policy debates often portray the Codes as a balancing act between labour flexibility … Read more
The ACC PLI scheme, launched in October 2021, was designed to catalyse a domestic battery manufacturing ecosystem and reduce a near-total reliance on Chinese imports. File image for representation only. | Photo Credit: PTI The story so far: An ambitious ₹18,100 crore scheme to facilitate the manufacture of advanced chemistry cell batteries in India, particularly … Read more
India observes Anti-Leprosy Day on January 30, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. For most of history, leprosy was treated not as a medical condition but as a moral one. Across major religions and ancient traditions, people with leprosy were described as impure, cursed, or unclean. They were made to live outside towns, barred from … Read more
Lawyers for xAI and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment [File] | Photo Credit: REUTERS A U.S. federal judge signaled on Friday she may dismiss a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI accusing Sam Altman’s rival OpenAI of stealing trade secrets to gain an unfair advantage in developing AI technology. … Read more
ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan. File | Photo Credit: ANI ISRO is working towards the first uncrewed mission of its ambitious Gaganyaan Mission scheduled for 2027, Chairman V. Narayanan has said. The Gaganyaan mission is India’s first human spaceflight programme currently under development. It aims to send a three-member crew on a three-day mission to space … Read more
As India prepares for Budget 2026-27, it must confront a fundamental, yet persistently ignored, constraint on growth: women’s time poverty. Women contribute only about 18% to India’s GDP, not because they work less, but because a large share of their labour remains unpaid and uncounted in national income. About 40% of India’s women are now … Read more
Two rivers meet, and yet, they do not become one. They run side by side, different in colour and texture, divided by a sharp, visible line that seems to defy everything we know about water. After all, place two droplets together and they merge instantly. So how can two massive, fast-moving rivers touch, and still … Read more
On January 25, India observed National Voters’ Day, which aims to promote electoral awareness and encourage informed participation. Close on the heels of the moment, let us take a close look at how voter participation and political behaviour have evolved over the past decade. Lokniti-CSDS survey data offer important insights into the stability of electoral … Read more
It is known that the Indian population, particularly vegetarians, is deficient in vitamin B12. The vitamin essential for the formation of blood cells and the functioning of nerve cells is mainly found in animal-derived food. B12 deficiency during pregnancy has been associated with neural tube defects and poor foetal growth, affecting long-term health. In 1993, … Read more
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections spew material from the sun’s surface into space. | Photo Credit: SOHO/NASA The sun is a giant magnetic ball that goes through roughly 11-year cycles of activity that drive solar flares and space weather that can disrupt satellites and power grids on the earth. But predicting the strength and … Read more
From the historic high of landing on the moon to the recent sobering reality of failed launches and near-misses that have triggered internal reviews, the last five years have been a period of strategic volatility for the Department of Space (DoS). What began as a celebrated era of ‘unlocking’ the sector, marked by the Indian … Read more
The Doomsday Clock, set at 85 seconds to midnight, is displayed during a news conference on January 23 in Washington DC. | Photo Credit: AP On January 27, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been to the metaphorical point of global catastrophe. … Read more