Indian Embassies and Consulates across the world launched the 'Swachhata Hi Seva 2026' campaign yesterday. During this, officers and staff took the Swachhata pledge and carried out cleanliness drives in their premises. Indian Missions in Azerbaijan, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Liberia and Tanzania also launched the campaign. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri launched the campaign at the Ministry of External Affairs headquarters in New Delhi. The campaign is being run from September 17 to October 2 with the theme 'Swachhata Mein Sanitation, Clean India, Developed India'.

India’s agricultural carbon market has moved from policy discussions to farm-level payments, with more than 2,500 farmers in Punjab and Haryana receiving over Rs 2.9 crore for adopting regenerative farming practices.

The first payments were released at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, where M L Jat, Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), initiated direct benefit transfers to the farmers.

“The payments are part of ‘Aadi’, a Grow Indigo farmer-carbon programme launched in 2019, with technical guidance from ICAR. Farmers participating in the programme adopted practices such as direct-seeded rice (DSR), reduced tillage and crop-residue management between 2019 and 2022,” an official of the Ministry of Agriculture told The Tribune.

N Chandrasekaran has been reappointed as Tata Sons chairman for another five-year term, but questions remain over whether the board's vote was enough to complete his reappointment. The issue stems from a disagreement between Tata Trusts' two nominee directors.

Tata Trusts and its affiliated trusts hold around 66% of Tata Sons' equity and have two nominee directors on the company's board, which are Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan.

At Thursday's meeting, Noel Tata voted against Chandrasekaran's reappointment, while the other Trusts nominee, Venu Srinivasan, voted in favour.

With the two Trusts nominees voting differently, the board vote ended in a tie. Independent director Harish Manwani, who was chairing the meeting, then used his casting vote in favour of Chandrasekaran, and the resolution was passed.

US drone company Powerus has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Pakistan Army, and has already secured its first order under the arrangement, the firm’s co-founder Brett Velicovich has confirmed. Speaking to Reuters, Velicovich said the deal falls under the category of unmanned aerial systems, though he declined to give further details or reveal the value of the order, citing security sensitivities and confidentiality. Neither the signing of the MoU nor the initial order had been reported before now.

The deal is significant for two reasons: it marks a fresh step in warming defence ties between Washington and Islamabad, and it lands just weeks before Powerus merges with a US-listed firm backed by two of President Trump’s sons.

Astronomers have discovered the youngest exoplanet ever recorded, finding the “newborn” world hidden in archival data.

About as massive as Jupiter, Elias 2-24 b is less than a million years old and lies about 450 light-years from Earth. Unlike most known exoplanets, it is still embedded in the swirling disc of gas and dust from which it formed.

The previous record-holder for the youngest known exoplanet was more than five million years old. “Elias 2-24 b shows us that even our best planet-formation models are still missing some important processes,” said Lucas Cieza, co-author of the study and a professor at the Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos in Chile.

Now motorists would not have to change their FASTags while changing the issuing banks. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Thursday announced the rollout of ‘OneTag’, a FASTag portability service on its Rajmargyatra app, allowing users to change issuing banks while keeping the same physical tag on their vehicle.

The initiative enables FASTag users to change their issuer while retaining the existing FASTag affixed to their vehicle, eliminating the need to obtain a new physical tag. The availability of ‘OneTag’ FASTag portability has expanded citizen centric services available for National Highway users on Rajmargyatra App, which include FASTag Annual Pass, FASTag Local Pass, Emergency Helpline 1033 among other services, said a PIB release.

The Rajmargyatra app guides users through the FASTag portability process. FASTag users can login to the App and enter their vehicle registration number to check eligibility. The user will receive a verification six-digit Mobile Verification Code (MVC) from the current issuer bank.

Double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker and defending shot put champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor were on Friday named India's flag-bearers for the Asian Games opening ceremony, scheduled to be held here on Saturday.

"Manu Bhaker will be one of the flag-bearers," India's chef-de-Mission Sahdev Yadav said.

Later, the Athletics Federation of India confirmed that Toor will be the second flag-bearer.

Bhaker made history at the 2024 Paris Olympics by becoming the first athlete from independent India to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympic Games.

Zimbabwe's Tavengwa Mukuhlani was named as the new deputy chair of the International Cricket Council until November 2027 as he replaced Singapore's Imran Khwaja. The appointment comes at a time where Zimbabwe is gearing up to host the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup along with Namibia and South Africa.

"Mukuhlani, who is the Chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket and represents it on the ICC Board, succeeds Khwaja following his departure from the Board. Mukuhlani currently serves on the ICC Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) and the Nominations Committee, and chairs the HR and Remuneration Committee," an ICC release stated on Thursday.

"I warmly congratulate Tavengwa Mukuhlani on his appointment as Deputy Chair of the ICC. His experience in cricket administration, understanding of the global game and commitment to its development will be invaluable to the ICC Board," ICC Chair Jay Shah said. "Tavengwa has earned the confidence of his fellow Directors, and I look forward to working closely with him to strengthen cricket across our Members and create greater opportunities for the game to grow worldwide. His election is also a significant milestone for Zimbabwe, as he becomes the first Zimbabwean to serve as Deputy Chair," Shah added.

Tata Consultancy Services on Thursday launched its Custom System-on-Chip (SoC) Design Services for automotive original equipment manufacturers and semiconductor ecosystem players.

The end-to-end semiconductor engineering service is designed to help auto manufacturers conceive, design, verify, implement, and validate custom SoC solutions for the next generation of software-defined vehicles (SDVs), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said in a statement.

The custom SoCs will enable automakers to align compute capabilities with software requirements, enhance performance-per-watt, and differentiate user experiences and vehicle applications.

Indian Railways has approved the doubling of the 10.86-km Chouk-Karjat railway section of Central Railway in Maharashtra at an estimated cost of ₹497 crore, in a move aimed at increasing rail capacity and improving passenger and freight train operations.

The project has been approved under the umbrella works covering doubling, tripling, quadrupling, flyover and bypass projects undertaken to augment capacity across the railway network.

The Chouk-Karjat section forms part of the Panvel-Chouk-Karjat route, an important corridor for both passenger and freight traffic. The section is currently a single-line stretch, and its doubling is expected to provide additional capacity and facilitate smoother train operations.