It was an evening of celebration, filled with fascinating anecdotes and a trip down memory lane during the launch of a book on former India leg-spinner V.V. Kumar to commemorate his 90th birthday.

The book titled Celebrating V.V. Kumar @ 90 features articles by former cricketers and other eminent personalities, including G.R. Viswanath and S. Venkataraghavan. It was released by C.D. Gopinath, the only surviving member of India’s first Test win in 1952 against England, with Kumar receiving the first copy.

“He and I played together for several years. He was a good team man. He was not only very popular but cheerful and made a lot of people laugh,” said Gopinath. “His bowling was phenomenal. He had so much control over his bowling that he could do anything he wanted. The way he was dropped was unfair. He would have been highly successful and won a lot of matches for India,” he added.

Beijing, China's former Vice Finance Minister Zou Jiayi was on Tuesday named as the next president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank here.

The AIIB Board of Governors chair during the 10th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors said Zou would succeed the Beijing-headquartered multilateral development bank's founding President Jin Liqun.

According to the bank's official data, China is the largest shareholder of the AIIB, with 26.54 per cent voting shares.

Set amidst idyllic surroundings, Salkhan Fossils Park in Sonbhadra—one of the oldest fossil sites in the world—has been included in UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage Sites. Detailed information about the park is now made available on the official UNESCO website. This milestone is expected to significantly boost Uttar Pradesh’s global tourism profile.

Following the chief minister’s directives, the Uttar Pradesh eco-tourism development board is preparing a comprehensive dossier to support the park’s nomination for UNESCO’s permanent World Heritage status, said officials. The dossier will soon be submitted to the government of India and officials are optimistic that the park could attain full World Heritage status within the next two years.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister for Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh on Thursday laid the foundation stone and performed the Bhumi Pujan for a state-of-the-art Green Data Centre in Sahibabad, Ghaziabad. The project, a collaboration between Central Electronics Limited (CEL), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Science & Technology, and ESDS, involves an investment of approximately ₹1,000 crore and boasts a 30 MW capacity.

Dr. Jitendra Singh described the data centre as a pivotal step in India’s journey toward becoming a self-reliant global digital power. The facility is designed with sustainability at its core, incorporating energy-efficient technologies, renewable energy sources, and eco-friendly practices to minimize environmental impact. It will feature a scalable infrastructure capable of supporting 200 high-density racks per floor, adhering to Tier III/TIA/Uptime-compliant standards for high availability and resilience. Equipped with a 40 Gbps ring fibre network and dual 10 Gbps links for cloud integration and disaster recovery, the centre will also include rainwater harvesting, reflective roofing, and smart cooling systems to enhance energy efficiency.

India was among the eight countries where more than half the unvaccinated children from around the world lived as of 2023, an analysis published in The Lancet journal showed, "emphasising persistent inequities."

Providing global estimates of current vaccine coverage, the study found that the same year, there were 15.7 million children -- 1.44 million in India -- who had received no doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine in their first year.

An international team of researchers forming the 'Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 Vaccine Coverage Collaborators' updated global, regional, and national estimates of routine childhood vaccine coverage from 1980 to 2023 for 204 countries and territories.

India has won the bid to host the prestigious 2029 World Police & Fire Games (WPFG). The announcement was made after a compelling presentation by Indian representatives to the WPFG Federation in Birmingham, USA.

The event is set to take place across Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Ekta Nagar in Gujarat.

In a social media post, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel called it a proud moment for Gujarat, highlighting the state’s growing status as a global sporting destination.

He added that this global victory reflects the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Karnataka’s Shaon Ganguly has clinched the gold in the 400 metre Individual Medley as he clocked 4 minutes 24.64 at the 78th Senior National Aquatics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Madhya Pradesh’s Advait came second at 4 minutes 26.90 seconds while Gujarat’s Nehra finished third with a timing of 4 minutes 30.35 seconds.

Ganguly set the new Meet Record and improved on the National Record of 4 minutes 25.62 seconds held by Aryan Nehra, which he set in Hyderabad in 2023. Ganguly also bettered the Indian best in the 200 metre Individual Medley, surpassing Sajan Prakash’s 2023 mark.

In the 100 metre backstroke battle, Maharashtra’s Rishabh Das finished ahead of Utkarsh Patil by 16 microseconds. Rishabh surged ahead to touch in at 56.13 seconds while Utkarsh came second in 56.29. Karnataka’s Akash Mani came third in 56.35 seconds in the event. Earlier, Rishabh had shattered Srihari Nataraj’s national meet record and best Indian time, in men’s 200 metre backstroke, achieving the World Championships B qualification time.

India created history as the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying the Axiom-4 crew, including Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, gently docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 4 p.m. this afternoon. With this, India has an astronaut in space after 41 years. Lucknow-born Shukla is also the second Indian in space, following Rakesh Sharma’s flight in 1984. This historic mission carries four astronauts from the US, India, Poland, and Hungary to the ISS for a 14-day scientific expedition in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), docked with the Harmony module’s space-facing port. The Axiom-4 mission is not just a scientific feat but a testament to India’s rising stature as a global technology powerhouse. It reinforces the nation’s capability to lead space innovation, promote sustainability, and contribute meaningfully to global missions.

Shukla will conduct pioneering experiments related to food and space nutrition. These experiments, developed under a collaboration between ISRO and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), with support from NASA, aim to enhance understanding of sustainable life-support systems, a crucial aspect of future long-duration space travel. The research will also study the effects of microgravity and space radiation on edible microalgae, a nutrient-rich, high-potential food source for future space missions. The experiment will evaluate key growth parameters and examine transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic changes in different algal species in space compared to their behaviour on Earth.

Bihar will be among the first six states in India will get its first atomic plant under the country’s new Nuclear Energy Mission.

On Tuesday, Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced a Small Modular Reactor (SMR)-based nuclear power plant in the state following the Centre’s approval.

The announcement comes ahead of assembly election in Bihar and comes after a meeting of eastern region power ministers, which included representatives from Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday chaired the 47th Annual General Meeting of the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society at Teen Murti Bhawan, New Delhi. Emphasizing the vital role of museums in connecting people with history, the Prime Minister outlined a comprehensive vision for the future of India’s museum landscape.

The Prime Minister proposed the creation of a “Museum Map of India,” a visionary initiative aimed at offering a unified cultural and informational platform showcasing museums across the country. He stressed the global significance of museums and their power to immerse people in historical experiences, calling for continuous efforts to enhance public interest and the societal standing of these institutions.

Highlighting the importance of technology, the Prime Minister suggested developing a national database of all museums in India. This database would include key performance indicators such as visitor footfall and quality benchmarks. He also advocated for regular workshops focused on capacity building and knowledge sharing among museum professionals.