India’s evolving role as a global manufacturing backbone for next-generation biologics came into focus during a panel discussion on advanced therapies at BioAsia 2026 here on Tuesday where industry leaders pointed to the country’s capacity to scale complex technologies ranging from vaccines and RNA platforms to cell and gene therapies.

The panel, moderated by Gil Bashe, chair, Global Health and Purpose at Finn Partners, brought together senior executives and clinicians who underlined that innovation in biologics was no longer a solo pursuit but depended on collaboration, manufacturing depth and the ability to deliver therapies at scale.

Setting the context, Raches Ella, chief development officer of Bharat Biotech, highlighted India’s centrality to global vaccine production. “One in three children worldwide receives a vaccine produced in India, with manufacturing spanning research and development through to commercial production. The company’s ambition is to reach the entire global birth cohort of about 125 million children each year,” he added.

In a major boost to India’s indigenous shipbuilding capabilities, the first Cadet Training Ship (CTS), ‘Krishna’, was launched on 16 February 2026 at L&T Shipyard, Kattupalli, Chennai, for the Indian Navy.

The vessel is being constructed by Larsen & Toubro (L&T) as part of a three-ship Cadet Training Ship project.

The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense on Sunday (February 16, 2026) for the first time ‌transported a small nuclear reactor on a cargo plane from California to Utah to demonstrate the potential to quickly deploy nuclear power for military and civilian ⁠use.

The agencies partnered with California-based Valar Atomics to fly one of the company’s Ward microreactors on a C-17 aircraft — without nuclear fuel — to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Under ‌Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey were on the C-17 flight with the reactor and its components, and hailed the event as a breakthrough ‌for U.S. nuclear energy and military logistics.

NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the international arm of NPCI, has signed an agreement with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet), Malaysia's national payments network, to enable QR-based merchant payments between India and Malaysia.

The rollout of this initiative will happen in a phase-wise manner, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a statement.

In the first phase, Indian travellers visiting Malaysia will be able to use their UPI apps to make seamless cross-border merchant payments at DuitNow QR acceptance touchpoints, it said.

"DuitNow QR is Malaysia's national QR standard, operated by PayNet. In the subsequent phase, Malaysians visiting India will be able to scan UPI QR codes to make merchant payments using their DuitNow apps," it said.

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the Ol Chiki script at an event organised by the Ministry of Culture in New Delhi, highlighting its role as a powerful symbol of Santal identity and linguistic pride.

Addressing the gathering, the President said the Santal community possesses a rich language, literature and culture. However, in the absence of its own script, the Santhali language was earlier written in Roman, Devanagari, Oriya and Bengali scripts. Members of the community residing in Nepal, Bhutan and Mauritius also used the scripts prevalent in those countries.

She noted that these scripts were not fully suited to accurately represent the original sounds and words of the Santhali language. In 1925, Raghunath Murmu invented the Ol Chiki script, which has since become the standard writing system for the Santhali language and a unifying force for the Santal community worldwide.

India has climbed to the 75th spot in the latest Henley Passport Index, with its passport now offering visa-free access to 56 destinations. The ranking, released by Henley and Partners in its Global Passports Index, places India 10 positions higher than in 2025, when it stood at 85th. However, despite the rise in rank, Indian passport holders can travel to two fewer countries (Iran and Bolivia) visa-free this year, down from 57 last year.

India shares the 75th position with Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Madagascar and Mauritania.

David J. Farber, a gregarious professor of computer networks who was sometimes called the “grandfather of the internet” because of the ultimately groundbreaking students he trained, died Feb. 7 in Tokyo. He was 91.

His son Emanuel said the apparent cause was heart failure. Farber had been teaching at Keio University in Tokyo since 2018.

When Farber started his career in the mid-1950s, at Bell Laboratories, computers were practically islands unto themselves. If they communicated at all, they talked by means of a teletype or punch card reader down the hall.

Since then, thanks in part to his work, the realms of communication and computation merged into that one powerful glue for society that is the internet; The New York Times once described him as “an early architect” of it.

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen added another crown to his collection on Sunday by becoming the first official FIDE Freestyle Chess world champion ‌after a comeback win over Fabiano Caruana in Germany.

He secured the title with a cautious draw in the fourth and final game, clinching a 2.5–1.5 match victory over his 33-year-old American opponent in Weissenhaus.

Sunday’s turning point came in the thrilling third ‌game, in which 35-year-old Carlsen pulled ‌off ⁠a stunning win from a seemingly lost ⁠position, swinging the entire contest in his favour.

French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigette Macron arrived in Mumbai on Monday night (February 16, 2026) for a four-day visit to India till February 19.

On Tuesday (February 17), the French President will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mumbai, and the two leaders will exchange Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) before giving a press statement at the Lok Bhavan in Mumbai.

Rashid Khan is still only 27 years of age, but the Afghan leg-spinner has already reached where no bowler has gone before, becoming the first player to get to 700 T20 wickets.

The first global cricketing superstar to emerge from his country, Rashid reached the milestone in the ICC T20 World Cup game against the UAE in Delhi on Monday, Muhammad Arfan becoming the victim when the batsman hit his own stumps while going for a fancy reverse sweep.

Rashid had taken his 698th and 699th wicket in the heartbreaking loss to South Africa in Ahmedabad last week – a topsy-turvy match that went into two Super Overs. He had to wait till his final over on Monday, the 16th of the UAE innings.