The Centre has issued model rules for the felling of trees on agricultural land in a bid to promote agroforestry with the aim of doubling farmers' incomes, increasing tree cover outside forests and mitigating climate change.

In a letter sent to all state governments on June 19, the environment ministry said the objective of 'Model Rules for Felling of Trees in Agricultural Lands' is to enhance the ease of doing business in agroforestry and incentivise farmers to integrate trees into their farming systems without facing undue procedural hurdles.

The government has been promoting agroforestry to double farmers' income, enhance tree cover outside forests, mitigate climate change, reduce timber imports and ensure sustainable land use. It also supports India's climate goals under the Paris Agreement.

In today’s fast-moving world, the role of a doctor is no longer limited to diagnosing and treating illness. With smartphones in every hand and health advice flooding social media, doctors now face a new kind of challenge—helping patients make sense of it all.

The patient-doctor relationship is undergoing a noticeable shift. What was once built on deep trust and deference is increasingly taking on a more transactional tone, similar to the dynamic between a client and a service provider. This change has been driven by growing health awareness, widespread access to information via social media, and a more consumer-like approach to healthcare. As a result, doctors today find themselves doing much more than diagnosing and treating. Most important, they are helping patients see through misinformation, helping them interpret health data from apps and wearables, and offering reassurance in the face of rising anxiety.

The controversial immigrant remittance tax has been further reduced to 1% in the latest version of the bill as introduced in the Senate, reports Politico.

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill has introduced a ‘tax on remittance’ made by immigrants living in America. The US House of Representatives enacted the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ in May 2025. It is now being debated in the United States Senate and will be voted on.

Called the ‘Excise tax on remittance transfers’, the newly proposed provision initially imposed a 5% excise tax on remittance transfers. Before being passed by the House, there were some amendments to it. The tax on remittance was reduced to 3.5% of the amount remitted by immigrants to their home countries, including India.

Bihar has become the first state in the country to launch e-Voting facilities using mobile applications in municipal bodies elections and by-polls being held in the state today. Polling is taking place in Six Nagar Panchayat and 36 different other municipal bodies. Voting began at 7 am and will conclude by 5 pm. For e-Voting, voters can cast their votes from till 1 pm from their homes.

State Election Commissioner Deepak Prasad called it a historic day.
In Bihar, by rolling out e-Voting feature today in municipal bodies polling the State Election Commission has added another feather in its hat, by incorporating a big technological innovation to enhance voter turnout. It will support the motto of inclusive voting which is sacrosanct in democracy. It may prove a solution to voter apathy which has been witnessed in urban areas.

The State Election Commission has so far introduced FRS- Face Recognition System for voter verification , OCR Optical Character Recognition system in counting of votes and digital lock for EVM making it a pioneer body in adoption of wide range of technology in election process of Panchayati Raj and Urban local bodies.

In what could mark a turning point in modern biology, a team of scientists in the UK has officially begun work on building human DNA from scratch. Backed by a £10 million grant from the Wellcome Trust, the newly launched Synthetic Human Genome Project is being described as the world's first serious attempt to assemble parts of human genetic code molecule by molecule. The research, which builds upon the legacy of the Human Genome Project completed 25 years ago, seeks to go beyond reading DNA to actually constructing artificial chromosomes. If successful, it could lead to next-generation therapies that regenerate damaged organs, treat age-related illnesses, and even correct genetic disorders.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh presented a Madhubani painting from Bihar to his Chinese counterpart General Don Jun during their meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers Meeting in China's Qingdao.

This painting has its origins in the Mithila region of Bihar. It is also known as Mithila or Madhubani art. It is characterised by line drawings filled in with bright colours and contrasts or patterns. These paintings are popular because of their tribal motifs and use of bright, earthy colours.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) launched ‘Tec-Verse 2025’, a two-day technology showcase, on June 27.

The event convened India’s leading research and development organisations to promote innovation, collaboration, and the commercialisation of indigenous technologies.

S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, inaugurated the event and outlined the Ministry’s vision to establish a unified innovation platform with active participation from its leading R&D institutions—C-DAC, C-MET, and SAMEER.

The initiative is aimed at creating a launchpad for Indian tech products with global relevance, encouraging early-stage industry participation, and aligning innovation with real-world demands.

Recently, when Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind won Nobel Prize he did not win it for physics. Instead, he won in for chemistry, specifically the kind of chemistry that goes into our bodies inside our genes and DNA. Now, DeepMind has introduced a new artificial intelligence model AlphaGenome. This is a new AI model that is specifically tuned to accurately predict how individual mutations in human DNA affect their functions.

In other words, the AI will help scientists and doctors better understanding of genome functions. This advanced AI model, developed by DeepMind, is said to bring a major leap in the research around genome. The human genome is a complete set of genetic instructions. Think of it as a comprehensive instruction manual which has the data to build and operate a living thing. Its genetic material primarily consists of DNA. Genomes can influence everything from physical traits of a human being to possible risks of diseases like cancer.

In a bid to reduce litigation and promote compliance under the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) Act, 1948, the ESI Corporation (ESIC) on Friday approved a one-time amnesty scheme – applicable from October 1, 2025.

“The scheme aims to reduce the number of litigations by providing a mechanism for the resolution of disputes outside the court, offering employers an opportunity to come forward for a mutual settlement to promote ease of doing business,” the labour ministry said in a statement after the meeting of the apex decision making body of the social security organisation.

The scheme will be applicable till September 30, 2026.

Under the scheme, the regional directors have been empowered to withdraw cases where contributions and interest have been paid, and also to withdraw cases filed against insured persons over five years ago where no notices were issued. For the first time, disputes along with cases involving damages and interest regarding coverage are included.

State and Central Government officials from across the country working in the domain of tribal welfare have concluded after a two-day workshop in New Delhi that the reason tribal areas continued to face backwardness was not a lack of schemes for them but a “lack of motivation” in the implementers.

Based on these conclusions, parts of which were presented during the two-day “Adi Anveshan” National Conference of the Tribal Affairs Ministry, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram on Friday (June 27, 2025) announced the government’s “Adi Karmyogi” programme.

The programme was announced at the end of the brainstorming session and is meant to build a “cadre of officers” dedicated to working with a citizen-centric ideation and delivery-orientated approach to implementation of schemes, government officials said on Friday (June 27, 2025).