The Indian government has restricted industrial, commercial, and institutional users from purchasing petrol and diesel from retail petrol pumps, directing them to bulk sale points instead. This move, which can last up to 90 days, aims to address abnormal demand growth and prevent localised shortages caused by a significant price difference between retail and bulk fuel prices.
Eastern India sends the least number of scholars, North leads.
Appellate tribunals in West Bengal have only disposed of a small fraction of the appeals filed against decisions made during the electoral roll revision, raising concerns about the efficiency of the process.
A World Inequality Lab paper reveals significant land inequality in rural India, with the top 10% of households owning 44% of the land, while 46% are landless. The study highlights the impact of historical institutions, social stratification, and agro-ecological conditions on land distribution.
OpenAI reports India is a leading AI market with strengths in coding, data analysis, and reasoning, but adoption is heavily concentrated in top cities, highlighting a significant regional disparity.
The Haryana Assembly was informed that nearly 18,000 people aged 18-45 died due to heart attacks or heart failures between January 2020 and January 2026. The government stated that no survey was conducted to ascertain if these deaths correlate with COVID-19 infection or vaccinations.
Phunchuk Stobdan's forte was candour and strong views on India's defence. Naturally, India's adversaries were in awe of him, fearing his views and unyielding stand on boundary issues, remembers Tarun Vijay.
Despite a 21 per cent minimum wage hike in parts of Uttar Pradesh, factory workers in India, particularly in states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, continue to experience wages below the national average and a widening disparity compared to supervisors and managers.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Jammu and Kashmir faces scrutiny due to a low conviction rate in corruption cases over the past six years, despite a high volume of complaints and enforcement actions.
'India cannot speak of a demographic dividend if half its young women are unable to participate in paid work.'
The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is facing logistical and contractual challenges as several overseas players withdraw to participate in the Indian Premier League (IPL), which offers more lucrative contracts. The PCB is considering actions against players breaching contracts but fears deterring future talent.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called for the establishment of a Supreme Court bench in South India to improve accessibility to justice. Speaking at a conference on Artificial Intelligence in the judiciary, he also highlighted the need to address algorithmic bias and ensure judicial independence in the age of AI.
'Workers are the people who create all the wealth in this country. How can you call them anti-national?'
On World Sleep Day, Sailendra Raane, yoga expert and founder of Mahati Wellness, explains how yoga and small lifestyle fixes can help you lay the groundwork for a good night's sleep.
'It's harder to attract women initially, but once they come in, retention is significantly higher.'
'Given that the population is almost evenly split, the Indian economy cannot grow without women participating in the workforce.' 'While women's participation has increased, it is still well below 40 per cent,' says Kartik Narayan, CEO of the professional networking and jobs platform, Apna.
'Don't look at Russia only as a place to earn quickly and then leave.' 'Try to build experience in serious companies, skills and certifications that will serve you anywhere in the world.'
'The question for the TMC is not whether it can hold its bastions, but whether it can expand effectively into regions where the BJP already possesses a good ecosystem.'
Sonia Gandhi criticizes the Modi government's environmental policies, claiming they endanger the Aravalli hills and disregard environmental protection.
'Our politics is transparent -- it's about ensuring farmers don't die by suicide, about ensuring agriculture remains viable, about ensuring food security for the nation.' 'If that's politics, then yes, we do politics.'
President Droupadi Murmu addressed the nation on the eve of Independence Day, praising the response to terrorism, highlighting achievements in defense self-reliance, and emphasizing unity and progress.
'Scuttling 25 years of momentum with the only country that can serve as a counterweight to Chinese dominance in Asia would be a strategic disaster.'
'No one anticipated magical solutions or miraculous interventions.' 'However, people across the entire spectrum -- whether residing in the valley or the hills -- expected the prime minister to dedicate at least five to ten minutes to genuinely listening to the voice of the people.'
President Droupadi Murmu's address to the nation on the eve of the 79th Independence Day.
'These Marathas are farmers and they only do farming. They have no other business other than farming. Now, they want reservations because farming is no longer a profitable business.'In this interview, veteran farmers' rights advocate and founding member of the Shetkari Sanghatna, Vijay Jawandhia, with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff unpacks the historical and structural roots of the agitation.
South Indian filmmakers have kept their focus on the single-screen cinemagoer. They have kept their finger on the pulse of the single-screen cinema fan, who goes to movies once a month or more, to forget his weekly chores, explains Ambi Parameswaran.
India's economic growth forecast for 2025 has been revised downward to 6.3 per cent, and despite a projected moderation, the country remains one of the fastest-growing large economies, supported by resilient consumption and government spending, the United Nations has said.
Speaking at the National Integration Council meet in New Delhi, Modi identified 'economic strife on account of growing disparities' as the root cause 'promoting divisive feeling and hindering the process of national integration.' Quoting from a speech made by Singh during the NIC meet in 2005, Modi pointed out that the Prime Minister also held a similar opinion when he said that 'relative inter-regional disparities are also a problem and must be addressed'.
Why has the shift from ICE to electric slowed down despite initial enthusiasm?
The BJP may be in the Opposition in many states, but nowhere is it as divided as it is in Karnataka, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Several leading scientists, academicians, and agriculturalists have called for raising government support for research and development to make Indian agriculture future-ready.
India's opposition parties have sharply criticized the Union Budget, calling it inadequate to address the country's economic woes and accusing the BJP-led government of using it to woo voters in Bihar and Delhi ahead of upcoming elections. Leaders from the Congress, TMC, DMK, SP, and CPI(M) voiced their disapproval, highlighting concerns over inflation, unemployment, and the lack of substantial measures to support the agricultural sector and the poor. They also criticized the tax cuts for the middle class as insufficient and coming too late after years of high taxes and rising prices.
Reiterating his party's commitment to provide equal development opportunities to all in Jammu and Ksahmir, the Peoples' Democratic Party has said 'self rule' was the only viable solution for removing regional disparities in the state.
'Peninsular Indians could ask 'Why should we contribute half of India's tax revenues if we account for only a quarter of the seats in the Lok Sabha?'.' 'The rest of the country seems likely to counter that 'democracy means one vote per person irrespective of where that person resides in India'.' 'With no easy answers to this thorny debate, the south's economic ascendancy could end up creating a Hobson's choice.' A revealing excerpt from Nandita Rajhansa and Saurabh Mukherjea's book, Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India.
'When so many young Baloch men and women are willingly volunteering as fighters and even suicide bombers.'
Created over the past 12-15 months, Niti's new Export Preparedness Index flagged the major intra-and inter-regional disparities in export infrastructure, problems in trade support and lack of unique exports as the main challenges hampering export growth.
It said a "sudden rise" in terrorist-financing investigations was seen in 2023 and this was attributed to events arising out of incidents in Manipur that led to such probes in more than 50 cases.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
However, a central BJP leader downplayed the development and ruled out any changes in the state government, noting that tussle between different interest groups has been a feature of Manipur politics.
The economy never had it so good as in the year gone by, but chronic problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment, regional disparities and inequalities among citizens continued to plague India.
