Axis Bank has opened 50 new branches across India, while Abakkus Mutual Fund has surpassed Rs 10,000 crore in AUM. YES Bank launched a new credit card for women, and J&K Bank partnered with HDFC Life to enhance its insurance offerings, showcasing significant growth and strategic developments in the Indian financial sector.
'Audiences are loyal to good content.'
Jharkhand students are protesting alleged recruitment exam irregularities with creative and non-violent methods, including mock job "rate cards," satirical posters, and recitations from the Mahabharata. Their agitation, spearheaded by the JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch, focuses on demanding reforms, cancellation of the 14th JPSC Civil Services Examination, and an independent probe, while adhering to a strict code of conduct against abusive language.
The Nagaland Baptist Church Council has voiced strong opposition to any directive making the singing of 'Vande Mataram' compulsory, especially for Christians. They argue that patriotism should not be reduced to forced conformity and that India's constitutional values of liberty, pluralism, and freedom of conscience must be respected. The council also called for dialogue and sensitivity from state institutions.
The Maharashtra government has approved the deployment of sovereign artificial intelligence solutions from Sarvam AI for its departments, with a two-year outlay of Rs 11.26 crore. This initiative includes the Indus AI workspace for 2,500 users, ensuring government data remains within India, along with citizen outreach agents and speech models for the MahaAI platform.
'The Bhashini Mission has delivered a working technology at large scale, which is as good as or better than the one with MNC tech giants.'
Mobile payments pioneer Paytm reported significant growth in its UPI payments business for Q1 FY27, driven by app simplification, AI investments, and a focus on attracting Gen Z customers. The company saw a 45% year-on-year increase in Consumer UPI Gross Transaction Value and a rise of 60 lakh in Monthly Transacting Users, outpacing the industry. Paytm's strategy prioritises customer retention and product innovation, leading to a profitable quarter with strong revenue and EBITDA growth, further supported by AI-led operational efficiencies and an India-focused language model.
The third edition of the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue (VBYLD) has commenced with a quiz contest, leading to a national finale in January 2027 where young leaders will present their ideas for a developed India to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The multi-stage event includes essay challenges, district championships, and state-level dialogues, aiming to foster youth participation in nation-building across various thematic areas.
With DC, Arun Matheswaran gives the tale of Devdas a stylish, blood-soaked treatment where Wamiqa Gabbi and Anirudh Ravichander steal the show.
From Ikkis to Balan: The Boy, these are the 10 Indian films that truly deserved the loudest applause in the first half of 2026.
'I don't need to wait for work to find me. I can find stories that excite me and make them myself.'
UEFA has introduced 'Clear Line', a new platform designed to provide clear guidelines on when and how the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system should intervene, aiming to reduce controversy and increase understanding among all football stakeholders.
'I was thinking how can I do something for these lonely, aging people in the villages. The parents stay and the children leave for a better future.'
Cine and TV Artistes Association President Poonam Dhillon has strongly refuted allegations of misusing her position, calling them 'deeply offensive' and stemming from disgruntled CINTAA members who failed to get their way through legal proceedings.
The last major business daily to launch in India was Financial Chronicle in April 2008, preceded by Mint on February 1, 2007.
From guns to handlooms. From forest trails to a public runway. Women who had once been associated with that conflict walked into the spotlight wearing Bastar's traditional textiles.
India's Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand staged a remarkable comeback victory in the women's doubles quarter-finals at the BWF World Championships 2026, defeating China's Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian to secure a semi-final spot and guarantee India a medal.
Indian hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh has called for a complete 60-minute performance from his squad in their "do-or-die" FIH World Cup match against Olympic champions Netherlands. Both Harmanpreet and coach Craig Fulton believe India can upset the hosts by playing smartly, maintaining impeccable defense, and capitalising on their underdog status.
Dutch hockey legend Taeke Taekema believes the Indian women's hockey team possesses the talent to replicate China's remarkable journey to an Olympic silver medal, provided they focus on fundamental skills and secure qualification for the Los Angeles Olympics.
The Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has completed interviews for its first full-time CEO, focusing on professional experience, vision, and management capabilities rather than personal beliefs or practices. The selection process involved multiple rounds, culminating in face-to-face interactions with 16 top candidates.
Toxic looks spectacular, but beneath its glossy, brutally violent exterior lies a hollow, confused film that mistakes style and swagger for substance, observes Sreeju Sudhakaran.
Three mute sisters from Dhadkai, known as India's 'Silent Village', refused to eat until their father provided fabric for them to stitch tricolours, which they then distributed to over 150 homes, bringing the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign to their remote Jammu and Kashmir village.
Catch Akshay chase off bhoots, Suriya's blockbuster, the King of Pop and more on OTT this week. Sukanya Verma lists your hot picks.
The protests changed how we see a generation. It shook us up, broke stereotypes and woke us up to smell the coffee.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has accused anti-India forces of using social media to spread rumours and mislead society, calling it a 'medium' for conspiracies against the country. He also criticised the alleged historical neglect of Indian revolutionaries in favour of one political family.
Ranveer's revenge, Karisma's return, royal romance, office romance, biopic of a watch, warmth of a Gullak, OTT has truckloads of surprises to offer this week.
'After announcing that she will return to Bangladesh, if she does not, her credibility will suffer.'
From Mollywood Times to Mohiniyattam, these black comedies from South Cinema prove that the darkest humour can also deliver the sharpest entertainment.
A World Bank report highlights how Artificial Intelligence-powered weather forecasts have enabled small farmers in Telangana, India, to save up to USD 560 by adapting their farming practices to specific risks. The report, "The Promise of Artificial Intelligence," advocates for developing countries to rapidly adopt small, low-cost AI tools to enhance productivity, improve government services, and avoid missing out on the AI revolution.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to alter hiring patterns in South Asia, with multinational companies (MNCs) and firms integrated into global value chains (GVCs) reducing recruitment more sharply than domestic firms, signalling the technology's early impact on the region's export-oriented services sector, according to the World Bank's World Development Report 2026.
India's burgeoning franchise volleyball ecosystem, particularly with dedicated Under-21 tournaments like the Guardians Trophy, is creating a structured pathway for young players. This initiative aims to develop talent from the grassroots to professional levels, fostering cultural adaptation and skill enhancement, with the ultimate goal of strengthening the senior national team and achieving Olympic qualification.
Read your counselling bulletin, start to finish. Each counselling body speaks its own language, lets you edit choices differently and puts a different price on changing your mind, says Ashok Hegde, founder, neet2seat.
The Toxic trailer seems to be deliberately ambiguous. It throws period drama, gangster wars, family conflict, violence, romance, and something fantastical into the same pot. At times, it feels as if I am watching several films fighting for space inside one trailer.
Polish envoy Piotr Antoni Switalski stated that Poland stands with India in the fight against terrorism, asserting his country's support for India's right to pursue terrorists globally, while also highlighting strong cultural and defence ties between the two nations.
Real estate startup Landeed plans to invest Rs 30 crore this fiscal year to expand its business, focusing on enhancing its AI-powered property title search engine, Terra. This investment will boost GPU infrastructure, develop specialised language models, and improve Indic OCR for Indian property records, aiming to streamline property due diligence across 26 states and 4 union territories.
'None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.'
Researchers have identified the extracellular matrix, a scaffold-like structure around brain cells, as a key physical mechanism explaining why individuals experience rapid progress in learning new skills followed by plateaus. This matrix loosens and rebuilds during initial learning, then stabilises as skills are mastered, protecting acquired knowledge.
The move comes amid growing demand from organisations in India for local access to Claude.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended his best wishes to the Indian contingent participating in the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow. He expressed the nation's hopes for outstanding performances. India has seen promising results, including a bronze medal and advancements in boxing and lawn bowls, while also facing some setbacks. Modi also highlighted a unique Sanskrit language initiative in Keralam.
The biggest challenge to widespread deployment is no longer AI. It is the financial and commerce infrastructure that was built decades ago for deterministic software and human interactions -- not autonomous AI agents.
