The Government has announced the National Sports Awards 2025. India’s premier women’s badminton doubles pair, Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand, along with fifteen other sportspersons from various disciplines, will be presented the Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games. Veteran Indian footballer Isaiah Arumainayagam will be honoured with the Arjuna Awards (Lifetime).

Athletics coach Parveer Singh, Boxing coach Chhote Lal Yadav and Shooting coach Neha Nandkumar Chavan will be presented with the Dronacharya Award. Meanwhile, Army Paralympic Node, Pune will be awarded with the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar. This award is given to a corporate entity or non-governmental organization that has played a visible role in the area of sports promotion and development. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports noted that the National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.

Over 200 Indian peacekeepers deployed with the UN mission in South Sudan have been awarded the prestigious UN medal for their exceptional service. The UN Mission in Sudan, UNMISS, in a social media post today informed that 210 Indian peacekeepers, including 6 women and 7 Staff Officers, were awarded the UN Medal for their exceptional service in Juba, South Sudan. The Mission called it a proud moment for India’s Blue Helmets. It added that through crises, medical emergencies and lifesaving missions, the courage and compassion of the Indian peacekeepers continue to protect lives and advance peace.

India is the second-largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping. It currently contributes more than 4,200 military and police personnel, including 155 women to UN peace operations in various countries. These include Abyei, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, the Middle East, Somalia, South Sudan and Western Sahara. As of April this year, India was the top troop contributor to UNMISS, with 1,775 Indian military personnel deployed with the UN mission.

The Defence Ministry has notified the sixth Positive Indigenisation List (PIL), comprising 405 strategically important items with an estimated business potential of 3 thousand 70 crore rupees. These include 16 items of the Indian Coast Guard and 389 items of Defence Public Sector Undertakings.

The list contains Line Replaceable Units, sub-systems, sub-assemblies, spares, components and raw materials. The Ministry said that this sixth PIL marks another step in the government’s efforts to promote self-reliance in defence manufacturing under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative. It is expected to further expand opportunities for the Indian industry, strengthen the domestic defence manufacturing ecosystem, promote investment and innovation, and contribute to reducing dependence on imports.

The Ministry informed that the detailed list of items is also available on the SRIJAN Portal (srijandefence.gov.in). The Department of Defence Production had launched the SRIJAN Defence Portal in August 2020 as a dedicated platform through which the Defence Public Sector Undertakings and Service Headquarters offer defence items to the industry for indigenous development and production.

The fifth edition of SEMICON India 2026 will be held from the 17th of next month in New Delhi. The three-day conference will witness the participation of more than 500 exhibitors and around 240 exhibiting companies from more than 40 countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the event. Mr Modi will also chair a roundtable conference with global CEOs from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands, and Malaysia.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today, Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, S. Krishnan, said that the exhibition will feature six international pavilions from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, and the Netherlands. He said the theme of the fifth edition of the SEMICON India Conference is “Silicon to Systems, Building the Ecosystems”.

The event reinforces confidence in the progressive policies and schemes of the Government and highlights the country’s commitment towards developing a robust, resilient, and sustainable semiconductor ecosystem.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday said that it has revamped its team to make the examination process more secure and robust. It has removed about 600 experts who had been guiding the setting of its numerous examinations so far and is currently onboarding the new experts.

An official release from the education ministry said education minister Pralhad Joshi held a follow-up meeting on Tuesday after the meeting on Monday. “He directed that all necessary security and related infrastructural facilities should be put in place for the smooth conduct of examinations.”

Among the key exams that the NTA conducts are entrance examinations like JEE-Main, NEET-UG, CUET and other eligibilty examinations like the UGC-NET.

NTA Director General Abhishek Singh apprised the minister of the steps taken so far. “A four-tier question paper checking system will be put in place to strengthen the scrutiny of examination papers,” the release said.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has expanded its online FASTag Local Pass facility to 121 toll plazas across the country, allowing eligible commuters to apply for monthly passes digitally through the Rajmargyatra mobile app.

The initiative is aimed at making National Highway travel more convenient by eliminating the need for eligible local commuters to visit toll plazas and submit physical documents for obtaining a Local Pass.

Under the digital system, residents living within a 20-km radius of an eligible toll plaza can apply for the pass online. The Local Pass allows eligible commuters to make unlimited trips through the respective toll plaza during the month, subject to applicable provisions.

The first digital Local Pass facility was launched in July 2026 at the Mundka-Bakkarwala Toll Plaza on Delhi’s Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II). Following the rollout, NHAI has now extended the facility to more than 120 toll plazas across the country and plans to cover additional toll plazas in the coming months.

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today inaugurated the gauge-converted Kailaras-Sabalgarh-Birpur rail section in Madhya Pradesh through video conferencing. The Minister also flagged off the extension of the Gwalior-Kailaras train up to Birpur virtually. Union Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav were present on the occasion. The extension of the Gwalior-Kailaras train service will provide direct rail connectivity to Birpur, Vijaypur and Sabalgarh with Gwalior, offering more affordable and convenient travel options for passengers from rural and tribal areas.

Addressing the event, Mr Vaishnaw said that the inauguration of the gauge-converted 56-km Kailaras-Birpur section is a significant milestone for the Gwalior-Chambal region. The Minister said that residents of more than 100 villages across Bamor, Joura, Kailaras and Sabalgarh tehsils of Morena district, and Birpur, Sheopur and Karahal tehsils of Sheopur district, will benefit from this gauge conversion. He highlighted that the connectivity would be further extended to Sheopur Kalan and ultimately to Kota, which would connect the region with major educational and industrial centres. He added, the project would provide connectivity to several important stations and contribute to the development of rail infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh. Railways Minister also mentioned that the work on the next section from Birpur to Seroni Road and from Seroni Road to Sheopur Kalan is almost complete. Mr Vaishnaw also highlighted 80 stations are being redeveloped in the state, the operation of five Vande Bharat trains connecting the State and introduction of seven Amrit Bharat trains.

China has moved another step closer to the reusable-rocket era after private company LandSpace successfully landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket following an orbital launch on August 18.

The achievement came on the rocket's second attempt and makes LandSpace the first Chinese private company to successfully recover an orbital-class booster on land using landing legs.

The 66.1-metre-tall rocket also successfully placed the Honghu-03 satellite into orbit.

The milestone puts China alongside a growing group of countries and companies pursuing a technology that could soon make space launches cheaper and more frequent.

The Maharashtra government has declared snakebite a notifiable disease, making it mandatory for all hospitals, medical colleges and healthcare professionals to report every suspected or confirmed case and death.

The move comes after three tribal schoolgirls died and three others were hospitalised after a venomous snake bit them at a state government-aided residential school in Japtalai village of Gadchiroli district on August 9. The government later cancelled the school's license.

Informing about the government's decision, Health Minister Prakash Abitkar on Tuesday said the move will help strengthen monitoring of snakebite cases, ensure timely treatment and improve planning for the availability of anti-snake venom (ASV).

SpaceX set a new launch record after two Falcon 9 rockets lifted off from opposite coasts of the United States just 38 minutes apart.

The rapid-fire launches took place on Saturday, with one Falcon 9 carrying eight Globalstar satellites from Florida and another launching the classified USSF-366 mission for the US Space Force from California.

2 launches in 38 minutes
The first Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 9.12 pm EDT on Saturday (6.42 am IST on Sunday). It carried eight satellites for Louisiana-based telecommunications company Globalstar into low Earth orbit.

SpaceX said all eight satellites were successfully deployed, with the spacecraft separating over a period of about six minutes beginning roughly 56.5 minutes after liftoff.