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The latest World Bank report has commended India for pulling 171 million people out of poverty. Using the formulation of $2.15 a day as the poverty line, it has said that extreme poverty fell from 16.2% in 2011-12 to 2.3% in 2022-23. However, how has the consumption basket of India changed? The Household Consumption Expenditure … Read more

In September 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that American and British intelligence agencies had successfully cracked much of the online encryption internet users used to keep their personal data private. Snowden’s solution appeared ironic to many: to adopt end-to-end encryption en masse, rendering mass surveillance prohibitively expensive and cumbersome. In end-to-end encryption, an algorithm converts … Read more

A parachute lets you float in the sky, gazing at the vast lands below, before gently landing back on your feet. For adventure lovers, it’s an adrenaline rush and a moment to cherish forever. The purpose: Slow and steady A parachute’s main purpose is simple but life-saving: it slows you down in mid-air. When someone … Read more

A SpaceX Falcon Nine rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A carrying NASA’s Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., August 1, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters Seeds of seabuckthorn and buckwheat grown in the cold desert of Ladakh are part of the experiments on board the International Space Station … Read more

Researchers have found a ‘cold rain zone’ in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans where rain was associated with more heat loss. | Photo Credit: Hassan Rafhan/Unsplash When it rains over the ocean, does it make the surface water more buoyant? Scientists have long assumed so because rainwater is fresh and freshwater is lighter than … Read more

In the first half of 2025, India added around 3.5 GW to the wind sector – an 82% year-on-year growth – taking the total installed capacity to 51.3 GW. Even so, India’s wind power remains largely untapped. According to the National Institute of Wind Energy, India’s gross wind power potential is 1163.9 GW at 150 … Read more

A supervisor inspects pre-filled syringes of a biosimilar of Adalimumab at a Zydus Group facility in Changodar, Gujarat, 2014. The biosimilar is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. | Photo Credit: AFP Most of the drugs that we consume are called ‘small molecule drugs’. Their chemical structure is reasonably simple. Disprin, for instance, has a molecular … Read more

Search for power The concept of underwater transport is deeply embedded in human history. It wasn’t until the 17th Century, however, that the first practical submarine was built. And it was only during World War I that submarines became a huge factor in naval warfare.  Even in the decades after World War I, the submarines … Read more

ISRO Chairman V Narayanan in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. | Photo Credit: PTI The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is aiming for a 2027 launch for its first LVM3 launch vehicle equipped with a semi-cryogenic propulsion stage. “Right now we are on track. The power head tests (on the engine) are progressing with great success. Five … Read more

This image made from video provided by NASA and SpaceX shows from right in blue, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, NASA’s Zena Cardman, NASA’s Mike Fincke and Russia’s Oleg Platonov, with colleagues up there since March at the International Space Station during a welcome ceremony, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. | Photo Credit: AP SpaceX delivered a fresh … Read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump deliver a joint press statement after their meeting at the White House, in Washington, DC on Feb. 13, 2025. | Photo Credit: ANI U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (July 31, 2025) announced a 25% tariff on Indian imports into the U.S., effective August 1, following … Read more

A colourised scanning electron micrograph of a T cell. | Photo Credit: NIAID A team of Harvard scientists has used artificial intelligence (AI), in the form of AI-designed proteins, to generate large numbers of immune cells and enhance immunity against diseases ranging from cancer to viral infections, a new research paper published in Cell said. … Read more

Deep-sea animals called giant tubeworms rely on hydrothermal vents to survive. | Photo Credit: US NOAA A: Life often finds a way to survive even in extreme conditions. For example, in 1960, when Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard explored the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, they spotted a small fish at … Read more

Indian Railways is keen on increasing the number of AC three-tier coaches in long-distance trains In the last decade, the share of air-conditioned (AC) berths/seats in non-suburban trains (long-distance trains) has doubled, while the share of non-AC berths/seats has declined considerably in India. In parallel, the share of passengers who travelled in AC coaches has … Read more

The SpaceX logo is displayed on a building, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. | Photo Credit: AP An international crew of four astronauts launched toward the International Space Station from Florida on Friday (August 1, 2025) aboard a SpaceX rocket, beating gloomy weather to embark on a routine NASA mission that … Read more

ISRO’s launch vehicle GSLV-F16 carrying the NISAR earth observation satellite lifts off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, on July 30, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is hoping to launch the Block 2 BlueBird communications satellite, developed by the U.S.-based AST … Read more

ISRO chairman V. Narayanan (file) | Photo Credit: NASA via PTI Photo The failure analysis committee has pinpointed the problem that caused the failure of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C61/Earth Observation Satellite-09 (PSLV-C61/EOS-09) mission in May 2025, V. Narayanan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said on Friday (August 1, 2025). The analysis is over … Read more

ISRO’s launch vehicle GSLV-F16 carrying the NISAR earth observation satellite lifts off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota. | Photo Credit: PTI The historic NISAR mission, a landmark collaboration between NASA and ISRO, has entered its crucial 90-day commissioning phase, during which scientists will carry out rigorous checks, calibrations … Read more

In 2023, malaria infected nearly 294 million people and killed close to 6,00,000. Despite early victories in the fight against malaria, global progress has stalled in recent years. The parasites are adapting, becoming resistant to treatments, while mosquitoes are surviving insecticides. It’s a shape-shifting enemy—and the old tools are slipping. India has reduced its malaria … Read more

Radha Krishna Kavuluru highlighted the mission’s importance as ISRO’s first major partnership with NASA for an Earth observation satellite. File Photo: X/@iamkrishradha The NISAR mission, a collaborative effort between ISRO and NASA, will demonstrate Indian space engineering capabilities for Earth observation on a global scale, a top scientist has said. The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic … Read more

On July 31, the India-US space collaboration crossed a historic milestone with the successful launch of NISAR, or the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, a flagship earth observation mission jointly developed by the two nations’ space programmes. It is the first satellite to use radars of two frequencies — the L-band radar by NASA and … Read more

To prepare for possible manned space missions to the Moon and potentially Mars, Protoplanet, a Bengaluru-based company involved in space science popularisation, launched human outer planet exploration (HOPE) in Tso Kar, Ladakh, according to a statement from the company. HOPE is intended to be a research station where selected ‘crew’ — beginning August 1 — … Read more

This article forms a part of the Data Point newsletter curated by The Hindu’s Data team. To get the newsletter in your inbox, subscribe here As the Supreme Court is hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to undertake the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls ahead of … Read more

Could your gut help clear out toxic “forever chemicals”? Scientists are beginning to explore the possibility that certain gut bacteria might help remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – colloquially known as forever chemicals – a class of chemicals linked to cancer and other health harms from the body. A study published in Nature Microbiology … Read more

Image used for representation. | Photo Credit: Fabrice Coffrini (This article forms a part of the Science for All newsletter that takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Subscribe now!) Usually, scientists believe that an immune system response kicks in after the infecting pathogen has entered the body. However, a new … Read more

The Indian portable harmonium is a close cousin of the larger foot-pumped organs once found in European churches and homes. It’s a wooden box roughly the size of a small suitcase. You sit on the floor behind it and pump a pair of bellows with one hand and play piano-like keys with the other. All these … Read more

GSLV-F16 rocket carrying the NISAR satellite lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, on July 30, 2025. Screengrab: X/@isro The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F16) with the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite successfully lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on (Wednesday (July 30, 2025). … Read more

GSLV-F16 rocket carrying the NISAR satellite lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, on July 30, 2025. Screengrab: X/@isro The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F16) with the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite successfully lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on (Wednesday (July 30, 2025). … Read more

Quiz: Lands kept apart, or together, by a sliver 1 / 6 | Clockwise from top left, these are the cities of Auckland, Manila, Seattle, and Madison. What do they have in common in line with this quiz’s theme? 2 / 6 | Name the narrow waterway that separates Europe from Asia and which has … Read more