Mepco bill

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan) are gearing up to face each other at the Bihar Assembly elections. Voting is scheduled on November 6 and 11 and the results will be announced on November 14. An indicator-based analysis of the State shows that it features somewhere at the bottom on most … Read more

The report finds countries are poised to reduce emissions only 17% of 2019 levels by 2035 — well below what is required to keep the earth from heating up 1.5°C or even 2°C by the end of the century. Image for representational purposes only. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Ahead of the Conference of Parties … Read more

The report finds countries are poised to reduce emissions only 17% of 2019 levels by 2035 — well below what is required to keep the earth from heating up 1.5C or even 2C by the end of the century. Image for representational purposes only. | Photo Credit: Getty Images Ahead of the Conference of Parties … Read more

In India as in many parts of the world, public money is the main funder of scientific research. Governments invest heavily in laboratories, equipment, and salaries for researchers. Yet the results of this publicly funded research are usually published in journals owned by just a handful of commercial publishers. These publishers don’t pay the authors … Read more

When our memory starts to feel strained, we instinctively turn to the world around us — writing, sorting or rearranging things to help us think better. This is known as cognitive offloading. While humans are good at this and have been doing it for a long time, a new review in Nature has reported that … Read more

Every antibiotic use puts pressure on bacteria to evolve and develop resistance. Representative image. | Photo Credit: James Yarema/Unsplash It might seem logical to combine different antibiotics to create a more powerful weapon against resistant bacteria, but this approach can surprisingly backfire. Instead of becoming stronger, some antibiotic combinations can work against each other, a … Read more

Observed (black line) and forecast track of Cyclone Montha at 11.30 pm hours on October 27, 2025. The green area depicts the cone of uncertainty. | Photo Credit: India Meteorological Department Tropical cyclones are carried by the large-scale wind patterns that govern the atmosphere. These storms form over warm ocean waters, where the sea surface … Read more

Heavy metals are polluting the Cauvery river and its fish, researchers from Tamil Nadu have reported. They have also cautioned against consuming “regular” or “excessive” amounts of fish from here. The study was conducted by a team at Bharathidasan University in Tiruchirappalli and was published in the journal Environmental Earth Sciences in August. Scientists from … Read more

Mehul Choksi attending a court hearing in Dominica in 2021 | Photo Credit: Clyde Jno Baptiste A Belgian court’s ruling in the extradition proceedings concerning Mehul Choksi, a prime accused in the Punjab National Bank scam, is an important development in India’s efforts to bring him back to face trial. Mr. Choksi, who had fled … Read more

Stanford University professor John Ioannidis recently published the latest version of the list of the world’s top 2% scientists. Its release every year causes much excitement among scientists and their institutions. And every year for a few weeks after, hardly a day passes without multiple announcements of the presence of Indian scientists on this list … Read more

Restaurant owner Xia Juan serves steamed hairy crabs at her restaurant in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China, October 21, 2025. | Photo Credit: REUTERS The last three years have been the toughest for Xie Dandan and her family during more than a decade cultivating one of China’s most esteemed culinary delicacies, the “hairy crab”, named for … Read more

Imagine a gaping, fiery crater in the middle of a barren desert — so deep it looks like an entrance to another world. This is the Darvaza gas crater, famously called the “Door to Hell,” blazing in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert. Spanning about 70 metres across and 30 metres deep, it has burned with relentless heat … Read more

For decades, autism has been understood as a condition that reveals itself in the first few years of life, with clinicians looking for tell-tale difficulties in toddlers. Yet a growing number of people today are diagnosed only in adolescence or adulthood, often after years of struggling in school or with relationships. A new Nature study … Read more

The government has announced a list of 24 individual scientists and a team as recipients of the second edition of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (RVP) awards, conferred by the Centre for scientific achievement. As in 2024, this year too has four broad categories: the Vigyan Ratna, Vigyan Shri, Vigyan Yuva-Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award and Vigyan … Read more

The Launch Vehcile Mark 3 (LVM3) which will launch the CMS-03 satellite on November 3 at the launch pad in the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. on October 26, 2025. | Photo Credit: The Hindu The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch military communications satellite CMS-03 on November 2 from the Satish Dhawan … Read more

Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences. The sky is a free resource, and those who live away from city lights are fortunate to enjoy it for their passion, imagination, and even livelihoods. That’s the story of Hanle, a small Himalayan village that hosts one of the darkest skies in the world. Its Bortle-1 skies … Read more

A hummingbird feeds on the nectar of a flower in Boquete, Chiriqui Province, Panama, 2020. Hummingbirds are known for their ability to hover mi-air by rapidly flapping their wings 15 to 80 times per second, depending on the bird’s size. | Photo Credit: AFP For decades, scientists and engineers have puzzled over how insects and … Read more

Two centuries after its discovery, the simple yet revolutionary molecule benzene continues to shape our world. From being the gas that illuminated London in the 19th century to the cutting-edge materials it has afforded in the 21st, benzene’s journey is a compelling narrative of scientific ingenuity, industrial might, and a growing awareness of the profound … Read more

The H3 (7th) rocket by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), carrying a new HTV-X cargo transfer spacecraft, is launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Minamitane, Tanegashima island, on October 26, 2025 | Photo Credit: AP Japan’s space agency on Sunday (October 26, 2025) successfully launched its new flagship H3 rocket carrying an unmanned … Read more

lluminating the sky with colourful firecrackers being burst during Deepavali festival celebrations in Chennai City | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B Many Indian cities, including Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad, recorded their highest PM10 levels of the year around Deepavali, but Chennai stood out for two reasons. First, unlike some other cities that experience consistently high … Read more

The story so far: In two papers published in Nature on October 22, researchers from Google, MIT, Stanford, and Caltech reported what they called a verifiable display of quantum advantage using the company’s Willow quantum processor. That is, the teams said they have shown that Willow clearly outperforms existing supercomputers on solving a specific problem. … Read more

The story so far: In two papers published in Nature on October 22, researchers from Google, MIT, Stanford, and Caltech reported what they called a verifiable display of quantum advantage using the company’s Willow quantum processor. That is, the teams said they have shown that Willow clearly outperforms existing supercomputers on solving a specific problem. … Read more

Nylon is everywhere… well, almost. You probably don’t realise it, but it surrounds us in our homes, schools, workplaces, transportation, and leisure activities. Well, we can go so far as to say that almost everyone of us begin our day — each and everyday — with nylon. This is because the bristles of the toothbrush … Read more