Mepco bill

In Pictures | Artemis II’s voyage to the moon and back

by

On April 10, 2026, NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, splashed down in the Pacific, successfully concluding their journey to the moon and back.  It was the first time in over 50 years that humans had been in the … Read more

Artemis astronauts splash down into Pacific Ocean

by

The Artemis II crew capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean in this screengrab from a livestream video after the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon, April 10, 2026. | Photo Credit: Reuters The NASA spacecraft that carried four astronauts around the Moon splashed down as planned Friday (April 10, 2026) into the Pacific … Read more

Artemis astronauts gird for re-entry and splashdown

by

The NASA Artemis II crew, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover, pose for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home following a flyby of the far side of the Moon. Photo: NASA/Handout via REUTERS The Artemis II astronauts conducted a historic lunar … Read more

In breakthrough, cheap aluminium may replace costly catalysts in pharma

by

Catalysts are required to speed up important processes in industrial chemistry, including drug manufacturing. Representative image. | Photo Credit: Mina Rad/Unsplash For more than a century, aluminium has been chemistry’s workhorse — useful, abundant, cheap, albeit limited in its abilities as a catalyst. New work reported in Nature may change that. Transition metals such as … Read more

Poll-bound Assam trails in health and education indicators

by

Poll Prep: Officials check their EVMs and other election materials as they depart for their respective polling stations on the eve of Assam Assembly Election, in Guwahati on April 8, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI With Assam set to vote on April 9, for its 126-member Assembly, in a contest between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and … Read more

An increase in colleges, students but not enough teachers

by

College expansion has not been matched by a commensurate expansion in teaching capacity. | Photo Credit: lakshmiprasad S While India’s higher education sector has expanded rapidly in recent decades, with many new institutions and more students enrolled than ever before, has this expansion truly translated into equitable access alongside adequate capacity for delivering quality education? … Read more

Indian scientists find new way to measure distances in deep space

by

The Vela pulsar wind nebula. Light blue represents X-ray polarisation data from the NASA Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Pink and purple colours correspond to data from the NASA Chandra X-Ray observatory. | Photo Credit: NASA Indian astronomers, including from IIT-Kanpur, have developed a new way to measure distances in the universe using the pulsating cores … Read more

Poll-bound Assam trails in health and education indicators

by

Poll Prep: Officials check their EVMs and other election materials as they depart for their respective polling stations on the eve of Assam Assembly Election, in Guwahati on April 8, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI With Assam set to vote on April 9, for its 126-member Assembly, in a contest between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and … Read more

Launch date of first uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan to be announced this week: ISRO Chairperson

by

The Human-Rated Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (HLVM3) for Gaganyaan’s first un-crewed flight, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. | Photo Credit: File photo Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairperson Dr V. Narayanan said that the launch date for the first uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan would be announced this week. The HLVM3 G1/ OM1 … Read more

Semaglutide guidelines based on BMI may exclude at-risk Indians

by

Global semaglutide eligibility criteria based on BMI may not reflect Indian risk patterns, potentially excluding high-risk patients who develop cardiovascular disease at lower body weights |Image used for representational purpose only | Photo Credit: AFP The SELECT trial, led by A. Michael Lincoff and published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2023), showed that … Read more

Fast-moving cornstarch acts like a liquid before hardening

by

When cornstarch water is deformed quickly, it behaves like a solid. This series of images shows a hammer pulling a nail out of the mixture. | Photo Credit: A. Baumgarten, K. Kamrin, and J. Bales/MIT If you mix cornstarch and water, you will have a substance that defies common sense. If you punch it with … Read more

Why do the oceans have currents?

by

A map showing the various ocean currents on the earth. | Photo Credit: Public domain A: The earth formed as a molten world. Around 4 billion years ago, its surface cooled enough for water vapour to condense. Torrential rains then fell for centuries, filling basins to create the first oceans around 3.8 billion years ago. … Read more

Amid welfare pitch, Kerala ranks highest in most indicators

by

Political party symbols are displayed for sale at a shop in Palakkad on Sunday, as campaigning for the Assembly elections enters its final phase. | Photo Credit: K K Mustafah Kerala is set to hold its Legislative Assembly elections on April 9, and the results will be announced on May 3. The stage is set … Read more

Dung test to detect early pregnancy in tigresses expanded to cattle

by

Scientists from Centre for Cellular and Mole4cular Biology (CCMB) conducting tests at a dairy farm. | Photo Credit: BY ARRANGEMENT What began as an effort to prevent tigresses in captivity from killing their own cubs has turned into an unexpected boon for Indian farmers. Scientists at the CSIR–Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in … Read more

India and the second Space Age

by

India stands at a pivotal crossroads in its journey in space. The era of state-led exploration has given way to the “Second Space Age”—a competitive frontier defined by commercial interests, private enterprise, and new geopolitical ambitions. This collection of articles from The Hindu provides an essential record of how a nation, once celebrated for its … Read more

LPG price hike, Artemis launch, Left-Wing Extremism districts re-classification and more: The week in 5 charts

by

(1) Commercial LPG prices hiked Commercial LPG prices (19kg cylinders) were hiked on April 1, amidst an increase in international crude oil prices due to the Iran-U.S. war in West Asia. State-owned oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation revised refill costs by more than ₹200 in most cities. The … Read more

What is space-based solar power?

by

A conceptual illustration of a satellite collecting solar energy in earth orbit and beaming it down as microwaves. | Photo Credit: NASA A: The Shimizu Corporation in Japan has proposed a belt of power plants sitting along the moon’s equator, which is 11,000 km long, called the “Lunar Ring”. According to the company’s plans, robots … Read more

Kalpakkam fast breeder reactor attains criticality

by

A file image of fast-breeder reactor in Tamil Nadu‘s Kalpakkam | Photo Credit: The Hindu India’s first prototype fast-breeder reactor (PFBR) in Tamil Nadu‘s Kalpakkam on Monday (April 6, 2026) came another step forward in its civil nuclear journey as it attained criticality. First criticality in a fast breeder reactor is the moment when the nuclear … Read more

Psychedelics are revealing how the brain builds the sense of self

by

Many people have reported moments when the sense of being a distinct self ‘loosens’. Among astronauts, it is called the overview effect while deep-sea explorers report a similar shift sometimes called the underview effect. Both involve sudden changes in perspective in which the usual boundary of ‘me’ briefly softens, as if the vastness they encounter … Read more