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By November, as the festival lights of Diwali fade and winter approaches, Guwahati usually enjoys cooler evenings, lower humidity, and a calm that signals the close of the tea-harvesting season. But in recent years, this rhythm has grown uncertain. Persistent heat, delayed rainfall, and muggy air now linger well past October, blurring the boundaries of … Read more

Supporters gather at a rally by LoP in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, unseen, during Bihar Assembly elections, in Kishanganj One of the most closely watched trends in the Bihar 2025 Assembly Elections was the Congress party’s performance within the Mahagatbandhan (grand alliance). In the 2020 elections, the party had recorded the … Read more

Chinese astronaut Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie meet the press before the upcoming Shenzhou-20 spaceflight mission, at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre near Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. File | Photo Credit: Reuters Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Friday, state TV footage showed, after a delay caused by their spacecraft being struck by … Read more

LoP in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram during the second leg of ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, in Bihar In the 31 Assembly Constituencies of Bihar where the Mahagatbandhan (Grand Alliance) conducted its 1300 km Voter Adhikar Yatra across more than 20 districts, … Read more

Science Quiz: Kindness in the animal kingdom Visual: Name these ants famed for their size, their termite-feeding behaviour, and for carrying injured mates back from termite nests. START THE QUIZ 1 / 6 | Name these ants famed for their size, their termite-feeding behaviour, and for carrying injured mates back from termite nests. 2 / … Read more

The COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil. The report warns that the world is critically under-investing in health systems needed to withstand climate impacts | Photo Credit: AP   As COP30 begins on Monday (November 10, 2025) in Belém, Brazil, a new international report from adelphi, Europe-based independent think‑and‑do tank, has spotlighted a critical … Read more

(1) NDA and INDIA bloc release their manifestos for upcoming Bihar Elections 2025 The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) released its joint manifesto for the upcoming Bihar Assembly election on Friday (October 31, 2025). Urging voters to choose Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister, the NDA’s slew of promises include creation of one crore jobs, freebies in power, ration, … Read more

India’s geographical diversity and growing climate vulnerabilities place it squarely in the path of a wide array of natural hazards — most of them weather-related. From cyclones and floods to thunderstorms, lightning, and heat waves, the country faces year-round meteorological challenges that differ by region and season. In recent years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) … Read more

Last week, online retail giant Amazon announced that it would reduce its global corporate workforce by about 14,000 people. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had already flagged the possibility of job cuts in June, saying the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and agents would lead to more corporate job cuts. A week before Amazon’s … Read more

The journey towards recognising and addressing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable countries has been long and fraught with resistance. In 1991, Vanuatu, representing the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), first proposed the creation of an international climate fund to support nations most threatened by rising sea levels. However, entrenched opposition from … Read more

The Data Point published on Wednesday discussed in detail the spoiler effect created by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the 2020 Bihar Assembly election and examined the possibility of it influencing the upcoming 2025 polls as well. This effect was one of the key reasons the 2020 election turned out to be … Read more

V. Rajaraman | Photo Credit: V. Rajaraman Among the few sectors of science and technology in which India has done remarkably well is software programming and services. Computer programming that started in a small way in academic institutions in the 1960s developed into a formidable industry within a few decades. This became possible due to … Read more

Image for representation. Due to the admission slump during the COVID-19 years (2020-21), colleges in the U.K., the U.S., Canada, and Australia saw a surge in international student enrolments in the post-pandemic years (2022-23). This created several challenges in the host countries, including locals being priced out of the housing market. This led governments to … Read more

File image for respresentational purpose only. | Photo Credit: K.K. Mustafah Development goals don’t always have to undermine environmental concerns. As the fourth largest economy in the world, and one of the top polluters, India cannot shy away from climate action citing historical reasons and pointing fingers at the industrialised West. Indeed, India seems determined … Read more

Public during Asaduddin Owaisi, President of AIMIM’s election rally in Aurangabad, Maharashtra on Friday November 15, 2024 | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI The 2020 Bihar Assembly election proved to be a close contest between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the RJD-led Mahagatbandhan (MGB). One key factor behind the MGB falling short of the … Read more

For well over a century, our understanding of the magnetic world had been neatly compartmentalised into two categories: ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Ferromagnetism, which is the familiar force that pins a souvenir magnet to a refrigerator door, arises because many small, atom-scale magnetic moments are aligned in parallel, creating a strong, external magnetic field. Antiferromagnetism, its … Read more

Supporters of Democratic New York City mayor elect Zohran Mamdani attend a campaign event with Mamdani and New York City elected officials on November 1, 2025 in the Queens borough of New York City. | Photo Credit: STEPHANIE KEITH Last week, Democrat Zohran Mamdani, 34, defeated Andrew Cuomo, an independent, to become New York City’s … Read more

Over the past year, a considerable amount of recognition for machine learning (ML) has gone to researchers working in or alongside large technology firms, even as recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have been financed and built on corporate infrastructure. In 2024, the Nobel Foundation awarded the physics prize to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton … Read more

(1) Bihar records improved turnout in phase one polls For the first phase of Bihar’s two-phase Assembly elections, over 64% turnout was recorded. This was the highest turnout in several constituencies since 2010 for an Assembly election. Moreover, in phase one, no constituency recorded a decrease in turnout, unlike previous elections in 2020 and 2015, … Read more

In every living being through history, stress from a perceived threat has automatically and immediately triggered an avalanche of reactions. ‘Fight or flight’ is an example of the choices these life-forms have confronted. Every bodily function that isn’t essential for survival is moved to the sidelines as the being prepares to respond. All available resources … Read more

Women voters stand in a queue to cast their votes for the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections, in Katihar on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: ANI Preliminary turnout data released from the Bihar elections by the Election Commission of India reveals that at least 4,34,000 more women than men turned out to vote in … Read more

Recycling happens only when there is a steady demand for the recycled pellets. | Photo Credit: StickerIt/Unsplash A: ‘Plastics’ is an umbrella term for various materials with some similar properties. Each type of plastic has a different polymer structure and set of additives. These differences decide how a piece of plastic behaves when it is … Read more

Women voters stand in a queue to cast their votes for the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections, in Katihar on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: ANI Based on Bihar election results’ trends released by the Election Commission of India, which are now available for 240 of the 243 seats, a distinct pattern is emerging. … Read more

For the Gaganyaan Crew Module, the parachute system comprises a total of 10 parachutes of four types. Photo: X/@isro The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently conducted an important test on main parachutes for the Gaganyaan Crew Module. The test was conducted at the Babina Field Firing Range (BFFR) in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi on November … Read more

Women voters wait in a queue to cast their vote for the second phase of the Bihar assembly election, in Katihar on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: ANI The Bihar 2025 election results reveal a clear pattern: in districts where the share of women voters exceeded that of men, the National Democratic Alliance’s vote share is … Read more

UNESCO issued the first global normative framework on the ethics of neurotechnology on November 5; it is set to enter into force on November 12. This recommended standard is designed to maintain a balance between innovation and human rights to protect the human brain and brain-related data from misuse. Such misuse includes exploiting brain signals … Read more

The National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) sweeping victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, securing over 200 of the 243 seats, represents more than just electoral dominance: it exemplifies how India’s first-past-the-post system can magnify vote share advantages when party systems consolidate around two principal alliances. The arithmetic tells a compelling story. The NDA secured 47.2% of … Read more

The rare earth hypothesis was proposed in a 2000 book by palaeontologist Peter Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee. It argues that while simple, microbial life may be common in the universe, complex, multicellular life is likely uncommon. The idea is rooted in a particular place in the universe meeting a chain of successive conditions. While … Read more

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) resurgence in Bihar’s Seemanchal region has emerged as a decisive factor in explaining the Mahagathbandhan’s (MGB) failure to convert Muslim-majority constituencies into electoral victories. In areas where the community forms a substantial proportion of the electorate, the AIMIM’s presence fragmented opposition votes, delivering an unexpected advantage to the National … Read more