Mepco bill

BSNL’s once-flourishing landline business has bottomed out | Photo Credit: SOMASHEKARA GRN The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) reported a quarterly net profit in FY25Q3, its first in over 17 years. While this is a significant moment for the beleaguered State-owned telecom company, there is still a long road to recovery. BSNL has achieved a … Read more

Imagine going about your day when a heavy metal object suddenly crashes in front of your house. You and your neighbours are shocked. You rush out to check what has happened and struggle to make sense of the sight: a misshapen piece of hot metal, blackened by fire and soot, with a cloud of dust … Read more

One of Africa’s giant beetles is just one step away from extinction. New research has found that one species of the enormous Goliath beetles has been almost wiped out by the west African cocoa industry and, to a lesser extent, by the international trade in dried insects. Luca Luiselli, a professor of biostatistics and ecology at the … Read more

For decades, scientists have been learning more about the diets of early hominins, particularly their reliance on plants. Yet we still don’t know when these ancestors of humans started eating meat. | Photo Credit: AFP For decades, scientists have been learning more about the diets of early hominins, particularly their reliance on plants. Yet we … Read more

Scientists have long suspected that gut bacteria may influence a person’s risk of developing multiple sclerosis.  | Photo Credit: Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library/Brand X Pictures via Getty Images Multiple sclerosis is a disease that results when the immune system mistakenly attacks the brain and spinal cord. It affects nearly one million people in the U.S. and over 2.8 … Read more

A young man killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE was likely overcome by a fast-moving cloud of gas at a temperature of more than 500°C in a process that transformed fragments of his brain into glass, according to new research. The man’s remains were discovered in 1961, and in 2020 researchers … Read more

Questions: 1. This element is included in the US’s list of critical minerals. It is prized for use in the control rods of nuclear reactors and for use in compounds that change their shape when magnetised (i.e. magnetostrictives), especially Terfenol-D. Name it. 2. _________ __________ come in two types and are useful to convert the … Read more

In this Feb 2025 photo provided by Colossal Biosciences a genetically edited mouse with long, thick, woolly hair at a lab in Dallas, Texas. | Photo Credit: AP Extinction is still forever, but scientists at the biotech company Colossal Biosciences are trying what they say is the next best thing to restoring ancient beasts — … Read more

From seed distribution to crop calendars, the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) has an action plan to tackle the dry conditions it expects in Kashmir this summer. Kashmir has had a dry winter this year with the months of January and February recording a rainfall deficit of around 80%. Even though the … Read more

Kangaroos and cockatoos are synonymous with Australia and tigers and orangutans with Asia. Both these continents boast rich biodiversity that is also very unique. A simple yet popular way to understand these ‘separate greatnesses’ has taken the shape of the Wallace line. What is the Wallace line? In the late 19th century, the English naturalist … Read more

The latest exchanges between Tamil Nadu and the Centre over Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds have reignited the long-standing language debate. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has reaffirmed the State’s opposition to Hindi imposition and reiterated its commitment to the two-language policy. Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has dismissed allegations of Hindi imposition, … Read more

Firefly Aerospace succeeded in its first attempt to land on the moon with its uncrewed Blue Ghost spacecraft on Sunday, kicking off a two-week research mission as a handful of private firms compete to reach the frontlines of a global moon race. The size of a compact car, the four-legged Blue Ghost carried 10 scientific … Read more

About a fourth of men and women in India were either ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ in 2019-21, an increase of 4 percentage points from 2015-16, underscoring the rising health risk posed by obesity in the country. While the problem is prominent among women in most South Indian States, as well as in Delhi and Punjab, the … Read more

SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster is seen on the launch pad, as Starship is prepared to be placed on top, at the company’s Boca Chica complex, ahead of Starship’s eighth test flight which is targeted from Starbase, near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. | Photo Credit: Reuters SpaceX on Monday (March 3, 2025) called off its eighth Starship … Read more

  A metal is a material defined by specific properties, including conducting electricity well. Every metal has a finite conductivity — a measure of how well it conducts — in particular conditions. It changes when the metal is heated or cooled. For example, at a pleasant 20º C, the electrical conductivity of zinc is roughly … Read more

  Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun. | Photo Credit: ANI The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released the second set of scientific data from the Aditya-L1 solar mission. “The datasets comprise valuable scientific information about the Sun’s photosphere, chromosphere and its outer atmosphere (corona) along with the in-situ particles … Read more

  This April 2024 image provided by NASA shows the SPHEREx telescope at a facility in Boulder, Colorado, in the US. | Photo Credit: AP NASA is preparing to launch a megaphone-shaped observatory on a mission to better understand what happened immediately after the Big Bang that initiated the universe and to search the Milky … Read more

  (1) Telangana tunnel collapse: Rescue operations continues on day 10 In a breakthrough, the South Central Railway’s (SCR) mechanical engineering team has managed to cut the platform of the damaged Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) deep inside the collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel late on Sunday (March 2, 2025) night facilitating faster removal … Read more

  Planetary parades are not particularly significant to scientists but they can create a visual spectacle. | Photo Credit: Getty Images In a small window of time around February 28, people on the earth were in for a visual treat as seven planets, plus the moon, lined up in the night sky. These events are … Read more

  Nicknamed ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky,’ the mission comes just over a year after the first-ever commercial lunar landing and is part of a NASA partnership with industry to cut costs and support Artemis, the program aiming to return astronauts to the Moon. | Photo Credit: AFP After a long journey through space, a … Read more

  Traffic can contribute up to 40% of total organic aerosols at urban roadside A study published in the journal Nature Communications has investigated the sources and health impacts of PM2.5 in Northern India, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The study has examined PM2.5 composition and oxidative potential, a key indicator of its health risks, using samples … Read more

  Living symbiotically with sea anemones that shelter them from predators, anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii) drive away organisms that nibble at their hosts. Anemonefish have also shown they will provide their hosts with the food given to them by humans. A new study shows such feeding behaviour does happen in the wild by investigating food provisioning … Read more

Intake of excessive selenium leads to a condition called selenosis, which is characterised by sudden hair loss | Photo Credit: CDC Three Zika virus cases in Gujarat detected between November 2016 and February 2017 were kept under wraps till WHO announced the outbreak on May 26, 2017; the Health Ministry had informed WHO about the three … Read more

Scientists have created a new gene therapy for a debilitating genetic disorder called maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). The treatment can prevent recurrence of deadly symptoms in a cow calf born with the disease. Their protocol could one day be translated into a much-needed therapy for patients with two types of classic MSUD, who currently … Read more

Hipposideros srilankaensis a new species of bats endemic to Sri Lanka has been discovered and described by researchers from Osmania University in a global collaborative effort. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement HYDERABAD A team of researchers led by Bhargavi Srinivasulu of Zoology Department of Osmania University here, have identified and described a new species of … Read more

Jammu and Kashmir had 3 instances of Internet shutdowns due to protests in 2024 | Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD;NISSAR AHMAD – Globally, there were 88 Internet shutdowns due to communal violence in 2023 and 2024 and all of them were in India. In fact, nearly 95% of all Internet shutdowns ordered by the state due … Read more

Generative AI systems like large language models and text-to-image generators can pass rigorous exams that are required of anyone seeking to become a doctor or a lawyer. They can perform better than most people in Mathematical Olympiads. They can write halfway decent poetry, generate aesthetically pleasing paintings and compose original music. These remarkable capabilities may … Read more

File image of Union Minister Jitendra Singh | Photo Credit: PTI India will overtake the United States in the number of scientific publications by 2029, Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said at a public function on Friday (February 29, 2025) to commemorate National Science Day. “Future projections say that we will overcome … Read more

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and others participate in ‘Vigyan Vaibhav 2025’ programme at Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad on February 28, 2025. | Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal “Today, Indians are living in cyberspace, working on the cloud, and talking to artificial intelligence,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh remarked … Read more