The member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have committed to ramping up their defence spending, affirming an "ironclad commitment" for their collective defence by investing 5 per cent of their country's GDP annually on "core defence requirements" as well as defence- and security-related sectors by 2035 as outlined in The Hague Summit Declaration.

As per the declaration, released on Wednesday following the summit, the 32 Heads of State and Government of the military alliance resolved to bolster its military capabilities, particularly the long-term threat posed by Russia and the persistent challenge of terrorism, while reaffirming the transatlantic bond and collective defence principles.

In Athletics, two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has clinched the Javelin Throw title in the Ostrava Golden Spike 2025 meet in the Czech Republic. The 27-year-old Indian star clinched the yellow metal with a best throw of 85.29 metres in the one-day competition last night. Douw Smit of South Africa, with a throw of 84.12 metres, finished second, while Anderson Peters of Granada, with a throw of 83.63 metres, came third.

The victory also marked Neeraj’s second consecutive top finish, following his impressive performance at the Paris Diamond League last week. He crossed the 90-metre mark for the first time in his career with a throw of 90.23 metres at that event. He will next participate in the Neeraj Chopra Classic, India’s first global javelin competition at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, in Bengaluru, on July 5th.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah today released a book ‘The Emergency Diaries-Years that forged a leader’ in New Delhi. The book delves into the compelling role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then a young RSS Pracharak, played in the fight against Emergency. The book paints a vivid picture of Mr Modi fighting for the ideals of democracy. Mr. Shah launched the book during an event Samvidhan Hatya Diwas 2025 marking the 50th anniversary of the Emergency.

During the event, the Union Home Minister flagged off the Loktantra Zindabad Yatra. The yatra will travel across the country with the aim to spread awareness about constitutional values, democratic rights, and the lessons learned from the Emergency.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Shah highlighted the atrocities faced by the people during the emergency. He pointed out that all must keep the memories of the emergency alive so that it is never being repeated. Referring to Mr. Modi’s fight against emergency, Mr. Shah said, a 25-year-old boy opposed Indira Gandhi’s dictatorship at that time and today the same person, in 2014, uprooted the reason for which the emergency was imposed. He said the reason was dynasty politics. He said, the youth who struggled against the dictatorship is now strengthening the roots of democracy in this country.

Private universities come under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act as they are `public authority', the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has ruled.

In its order dated June 16, the commission asked the state government to issue directions to ensure that all the universities established under the Gujarat Private Universities Act, 2009, implement the provisions of the RTI Act.

The order came in response to an appeal filed by Prof Devdutt Rana against Vadodara-based Parul University.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will conduct the first-ever Household Income Survey in 2026, with a Technical Expert Group (TEG) being set up to guide the ministry on the method of estimation and other aspects of the survey. In addition to measuring household income, the proposed survey will also try to assess the impact of adoption of technology on wages, the statistics ministry said on Monday.

The survey will be MoSPI’s latest attempt to measure household income in India, with pilots conducted in the past not resulting in a nationwide survey due to difficulties in collecting reliable income data, the ministry said. These past attempts date back to the 1950s, when it tried to collect information on income as part of its consumer expenditure surveys on an experimental basis. Further attempts were made in the 1960s as part of the Integrated Household Survey.

The annual JCB Prize for Literature, the most expensive literary award — Rs 25 lakh — in the country, has been shut down.

The discontinuation of the award, which was last given to writer Upamanyu Chatterjee for ‘Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life’, in 2024, was confirmed by Mita Kapur, Literary Director, JCB prize, on June 21, even as she refused to elaborate on the events that led to decision. “The prize has been shut down. I am not going to deny something that is evident. But for everything else, ‘no comment’,” she said.

The news comes after the cancellation of the JCB Literature Foundation’s licence “issued to it under section 8(5) of the companies Act, 2013”. According to a notice, dated March 12, on the JCB Prize website, the foundation had sent an application to the Registrar of companies, Delhi & Haryana at Delhi for revocation of the licence. “The company will be required to add the word ‘Private Limited’ to its name in place of ‘Foundation’,” the notice said. The literary award was given by the ‘foundation’, which was established with the purpose of promoting “the art of literature in India”.

Global electric vehicle (EV) giants can now apply for the scheme to promote manufacturing of electric passenger cars in India, which offers significantly lower import tax for automakers that pledge to invest in domestic electric vehicle production.

Union Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy inaugurated the portal for accepting applications under the scheme, which will remain open till October 21. He reiterated that EV giant Tesla is only interested in opening showrooms in India to sell its cars, and not inclined towards setting up manufacturing facilities in the country.

"Their [Tesla's] interest is only to open the showroom. They want to sell their car in India. Other than that, actually, there is no further development about this," he said.

Thousands of devotees have arrived in Assam for the Kamakhya Temple’s annual Ambubachi Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings in Northast India.

The festival is held during the monsoon, generally in June at the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati, a shrine to the Goddess Kamakhya and one of the most important centres of Tantrik Shaktism. The period of Ambubachi is believed to be the period of the goddess’s annual menstruation, and the shrine is closed for this. At the end of the period, the shrine’s doors are opened ceremonially and devotees flock for darshan of the deity. This year, the shrine will remain closed from June 22 to 25, and will re-open on June 26.

The festival is associated with fertility, with the onset of monsoon, and the common historical association across cultures of the Earth as a fertile woman. The name ‘Ambubachi’ itself translates to water flowing.

In what would be a life, time and cost saving move for people with rare blood groups in India the Central Health Ministry is looking at integrating the country’s Rare Donor Registry with the national online platform for blood bank management and blood availability information called e-Rakt Kosh.

The integration will allow those with rare blood groups to access a centralized system developed under the National Health Mission (NHS), providing details on blood banks, blood availability, and blood donation camps across the country. Essentially, it will help people find blood and blood banks, and assist blood banks manage their stock and donors.

“Indian Council of Medical Research- National Institute of Immunohaematology (NIIH) along with four partnering institutes created a data base of 4,000 carefully screened donors, tested for over 300 rare blood markers. It helps doctors find rare and specially matched blood quickly. Rare donor registry of India (RDRI) platform has been developed to help patients across India,” said Manisha R. Madkaikar, director, Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR)-NIIH and Centre for Research, Management and Control of Heamoglobinopathies (CRMCH).

India is among the six countries that received 2025 Bloomberg Philanthropies Awards for Global Tobacco Control for prioritizing tobacco cessation approaches to reach a significant number of tobacco users in the country.

The National Tobacco Control Cell of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, was presented with the award at the World Conference on Tobacco Control held in Dublin, Ireland, on Monday.

India was presented the ‘O’ category award for promoting tobacco cessation. The ‘O’ is the MPOWER policy package of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that stands for ‘Offer help to quit tobacco use.’