Bharat Tribes Fest 2026 will commence in the national capital on March 18, bringing together tribal artisans, entrepreneurs and cultural performers from across the country.

Organised by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) in collaboration with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the festival will be held at Sunder Nursery from March 18 to 30.

Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram will inaugurate the festival in the presence of Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Durgadas Uikey and other dignitaries.

The festival, open to the public daily from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM, aims to showcase the diversity, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of tribal communities through art, handicrafts, handlooms, cuisine and cultural performances.

Uttarakhand government has made special health arrangements for this year’s Char Dham Yatra. The health of pilgrims visiting the Yatra will be monitored in real time through the ‘e-Swasthya Dham’ portal so that medical assistance can be provided immediately when required.

Experienced doctors and paramedical staff will be deployed at permanent and temporary medical units along the pilgrimage routes, major halting points and at all four Dhams. To deal with emergencies, 177 ambulances will be stationed along the Yatra routes, including 108 emergency service ambulances, advanced life support ambulances and cardiac ambulances.

In addition, one boat ambulance will be available in Tehri and a helicopter ambulance will also be deployed, which will be operated through AIIMS Rishikesh. Health Minister Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat said that the response time of ambulances along the Yatra routes will be kept to a minimum so that pilgrims can receive timely medical care.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati have developed a new material that can generate hydrogen fuel through the electrolysis of water.

Although overall water splitting requires a thermodynamic potential of 1.23 V, this material demonstrates an ultralow Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) overpotential of only 12 mV, outperforming the commercial Pt/C electrode, thus highlighting its outstanding electrocatalytic performance.

In addition, the same material is also shown to support the desalination of seawater using solar energy.

The findings of this research have been published in the prestigious Advanced Functional Materials journal, in a paper co-authored by Prof PK Giri, Professor, Department of Physics, along with his research scholars, Koushik Ghosh, and Sanjoy Sur Roy, at IIT Guwahati.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal will move a motion in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday seeking permission to withdraw The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, as Parliament continues the second phase of the Union Budget 2026-27 session.

The Bill, originally introduced in 2025, seeks to amend various laws to decriminalise and rationalise minor offences, with the aim of promoting trust-based governance and improving ease of living and doing business. According to the revised List of Business, the withdrawal follows recommendations made by a Select Committee.

India Tourism Development Corporation, under the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, has inaugurated a capacity building programme for tribal homestay owners in New Delhi.

The inaugural ceremony was held at Kautilya Hall, Hotel Samrat, marking a step towards strengthening community-based tourism and enhancing the professional capabilities of tribal homestay operators across the country. The programme is designed to improve service standards, enhance visitor experiences and create sustainable livelihood opportunities through structured training delivered by IHM Ashok under ITDC.

The first batch of the programme includes 40 participants from Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Gujarat.

The Indian Navy along with multiple partner nations is participating in Exercise Sea Dragon 2026, a United States Navy-led multinational anti-submarine warfare drill being held at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam throughout March.

The exercise has brought together maritime forces from several partner nations, including the United States Navy, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

The multinational is being conducted by the nations to strengthen cooperation among allied forces and improve understanding for better anti-submarine warfare capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region.

Scientists have identified an entirely new category of "liquid planet" that exists in a permanent, molten state. Traditionally, small exoplanets were categorized as either rocky "gas-dwarfs" with hydrogen atmospheres or "water worlds" with deep oceans and ice. This new discovery, detailed in Nature Astronomy, suggests a third class: planets that are essentially global oceans of magma. The primary example of this new type is L 98-59 d, a planet located approximately 35 light-years away from Earth, Guardian reported. The planet was detected by the James Webb telescope, the most powerful telescope ever put into space. 

In a moment of international recognition for Indian animation, the animated short film 'CHYIMI,' directed by Dr. Partha Sarathi Mahanta, IGP of Assam police and Commissioner of Police, Guwahati, has won the Best Director Award at the New York Short Animation Festival (NYSAF) 2026.

The New York Short Animation Festival celebrates creativity, originality, and craftsmanship in the art of animation, bringing together innovative works from animators across the world. It recognises outstanding animated storytelling and provides a global platform for emerging and established filmmakers.

Sahitya Akademi has announced the winners of the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2025 in 24 Indian languages today. The awards, recommended by distinguished Jury members, were approved by the Competent Authority of the Sahitya Akademi. The awards will be presented on the 31st of this month in New Delhi.

This year, eight poetry books, four novels, six short stories, and two essays will be conferred the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2025. Meanwhile, one literary criticism, one autobiography, and two memoirs have also been selected for the award. Prominent writer Mamta Kalia will be awarded for her Hindi memoir Jeete Jee Allahabad. While the noted diplomat Navtej Sarna will be awarded for his English novel Crimson Spring. The award will also be conferred to the Urdu Poetry titled Safar Jaari Hai by Pritpal Singh Betab. Meanwhile, other writers who will be awarded include Devabrat Das for his novel Karhi Khelar Sadhu in the Assamese language and Prasun Bandyopadhyay for his Bengali poetry Shrestha Kabita. An amount of one lakh rupees, along with an engraved copper plaque, will be presented to all the awardees.

The Government of Gujarat has launched an intensive statewide vaccination campaign to control the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), reinforcing its efforts to safeguard livestock health and protect farmers from potential economic losses. The drive, which began on March 1, will continue until April 15 and is being carried out under the National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP).

Foot and Mouth Disease is a highly contagious viral infection that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats. The disease typically causes fever, mouth ulcers and excessive salivation, often leading to a sharp decline in milk production and overall animal productivity. For dairy farmers, such outbreaks can result in significant financial losses.