Roughly 150 km from Delhi, the national capital, down the Delhi-Sirsa highway, a meandering road leads to the twin villages of Rakhi Shahpur and Rakhi Khas in Haryana’s Hissar district. The narrow, dusty road, typical of small-town India, belies the importance of the place to which it leads — the archaeological site of Rakhigarhi. A plaque here reads that it is the largest site of the Harappan culture. Ninety-nine years after it was discovered, the findings have raised questions about history and identity.

Mound 7 of the excavation site, that extends across 3.5 sq km or 350 hectares, has been identified as a burial plot from which 56 skeletons were recovered. Of these, a woman’s, roughly 4,600 years old, has created a buzz among those who work in history, anthropology, genomics, and linguistics. The DNA analysis of the skeleton says “the individual we sequenced fits as a mixture of people related to ancient Iranians (the largest component) and Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers”, as per Cell. It also says that there was no Steppe Pastoral gene (from people in Central Asia) in the Rakhigarhi woman.

Colin Munro, a South Africa-born power hitter who smashed a slew of batting records for New Zealand, has retired from international cricket after missing out on a spot in the Black Caps' T20 World Cup squad.

The 37-year-old lefthander's last international was a T20 match against India in 2020 -- but he had long hoped to claw his way back into the squad.

"Although it has been a while since my last appearance, I never gave up hope that I might be able to return off the back of my franchise T20 form," he said in a statement on Friday.

"With the announcement of the Black Caps squad for the T20 World Cup now is the perfect time to close that chapter officially."

During the earnings call for the March quarter, chief executive officer (CEO) Dara Khosrowshahi announced that Uber has over 1 million drivers, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).

India has become the third country, following the US and Brazil, to achieve the milestone of 1 million drivers.

The ET quoted Khosrowshahi as saying, "We continue to see healthy audience growth of 17 per cent due to continued penetration into new geographies and expansion of new use cases, along with consistent frequency growth."

Diksha Dagar will become the first Indian woman golfer to play 100 events on the Ladies European Tour when she tees up at the Aramco Team Series Korea, her first appearance in the series.

Diksha, who turned pro in 2019 and won on LET in her first full season, has been a regular on LET since then.

Currently ninth on the LET Order of Merit, Diksha turned 23 in December. She is one of the three Indians to tee off at the New Korea Country Club. The other two Indians in the field are Pranavi Urs and Vani Kapoor

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) on May 7 approved the appointment of Keki Mistry as Chairman of HDFC Life. “We now wish to inform that IRDAI on May 7, 2024 has accorded its approval for the appointment of Keki Mistry as Chairman of the Board of the Company,” HDFC Life said in an exchange filing on May 8.

Earlier, the insurer had appointed Mistry as the Chairman of the Board as Deepak Parekh stepped down from the post. “The board has unanimously approved the appointment of Keki M Mistry as the Chairman of the Board with immediate effect subject to approval of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority,” the company said on April 18.

The Indian Army and the Air Force are planning to jointly deploy MQ-9B Predator drones at air bases in Sarsawa and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, for upgrading their surveillance capabilities all along the Line of Actual Control with China from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

The drone deal, expected to be worth around USD 4 billion is being done at tri services level with the Indian Navy leading the negotiations for it with the American side.

"The MQ-9B drones require a significant runway length for take off and landing which are available with the Indian Air Force. That is why, the Army dornes are planned to be deployed with the IAF at airbases in Sarsawa and Gorakhpur," defence officials told ANI.

The attraction of cosmopolitan cities for the ultra-wealthy is clear. These centres are home to big corporations and high-end real estate.

Henley & Partners, an international wealth migration specialist, in collaboration with New World Wealth, a global data intelligence firm, recently published the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2024, which highlights the richest cities globally for the year 2024.

The report highlights New York City, which has continued to maintain its position as the world’s wealthiest city, with 11 other US cities joining the top 50 list. In contrast, Tokyo, which held the top spot a decade ago, has fallen to third place due to a decline in its high-net-worth individual population.

Thailand and Sri Lanka have extended the visa-free entry facilities for visitors from India and other select countries.

Thailand has announced the extension of visa-free entry till November 11,
2024. The facility, implemented on November 10, 2023, was initially till May 10, 2024.

The Sri Lanka government has announced the extension of the facility till May 31, 2024. The country started visa-free entry as a pilot project in October last year. In both countries, the facility is valid for 30 days for visitors from India.

Tourism Authority of Thailand officials said there had been a sharp increase in the number of tourists from India since the facility was implemented.

India will formally convey to the governing authority of Antarctica its plans to develop a new research station in the icy continent when the body meets for its annual meeting in Kochi later this month. The 46th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the 26th Meeting of the Committee for Environment Protection will be held in Kochi from May 20-30 where countries engaged in research in the southern polar region will share the outcome of their scientific pursuits and also their future plans.

"This year, we are going to inform the ATCM that we are planning to go for a revamp of our research station Maitri. Revamp means, Maitri is very old, we have to re-construct," M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said in an interaction with PTI Editors here.

India has two active research stations - Maitri and Bharti - in Antarctica. The first research station, Dakshin Gangotri, set up in 1983, had to be abandoned after it sank in the snow.

Tech giant Google on Wednesday announced the launch of the Google Wallet app in India, enabling users to save their travel tickets, gift cards and event passes in one place. It however does not support payment features such as saving credit cards or debit cards in the wallet for on-tap payments.

This Wallet app offers fast and secure access to everyday essentials, enabling people to conveniently store and retrieve important digital documents like boarding passes, loyalty cards, movie tickets, and more. Google Wallet complements Google Pay, which will continue to serve the payments needs of users across India.