Shiksha.com, India’s leading educational portal, has launched ShikshaGPT, an advanced AI-powered chatbot on its mobile app. The new AI tool aims to make searching for reliable education information faster and easier. Designed for students navigating college admissions, courses, and exam options, ShikshaGPT serves as a conversational tool that leverages the latest AI technology to provide accurate, up-to-date answers directly from Shiksha.com’s extensive database. This new feature aims to simplify students' content discovery journeys, empowering them with immediate responses to their inquiries and supporting more informed decision-making.  

'ShikshaGPT' is a large language model (LLM) & RAG based conversational chatbot coupled with NLP layers including Intent Classification, Named Entity Recognition, Spell Check, and Hinglish understanding, tuned to help students get direct answers to their questions related to colleges, course, exam & career. This helps students receive accurate and relevant responses to their natural language queries. Utilizing Shiksha.com's extensive content repository as its reliable source of truth, this innovative tool enhances the accuracy and accessibility of information, providing students with a seamless and intuitive experience as they navigate the platform.  

India and New Zealand on Sunday launched negotiations for a “comprehensive and mutually beneficial” free trade agreement, paving the way for second bilateral trade deal in the Oceania after concluding an FTA pact with Australia in April 2022.

“We are delighted to announce the launch of India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. This marks a significant milestone in our partnership, reflecting our shared vision to deepen trade ties and expand economic opportunities,” commerce minister Piyush Goyal said in a post on X.

Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel, inaugurated the India Innovation Summit – “Pioneering Solutions to End TB” at the Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre in Delhi.

The event comes as India’s National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) reaches a major milestone, with 26.07 lakh TB cases notified in 2024, the highest ever recorded. Since 2015, the incidence rate of TB has dropped by 17.7%, from 237 cases per lakh population to 195 in 2023, while TB-related deaths have decreased by 21.4%.

Addressing the summit, Patel highlighted these achievements and praised the transformative role of innovation in India’s TB elimination efforts. “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has made remarkable strides in TB control,” she said. “The number of missing cases has been reduced from 15 lakh in 2015 to 2.5 lakh in 2023.”

Indore, which has been ranked India’s cleanest city for seven consecutive years, is set to take a major step towards environmental sustainability with the launch of the country’s first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model-based green waste processing plant under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U).

This groundbreaking initiative aims to revolutionise the city’s waste management system by converting green waste into valuable resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) said.

Built on 55,000 square feet of land in Bicholi Hapsi, the plant will recycle wood and branches to produce wood pellets, serving as an alternative to coal and promoting energy conservation. The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) will earn approximately Rs 3,000 per tonne in royalty for supplying wood and branches to the facility.

India & Dallas, TX, United States – Business Wire India

IKS Health, a global leader in care enablement solutions, is honored to be named the 2025 Black Book Research leader in the newly established category of AI-driven Revenue Cycle Management (RCM). This recognition highlights IKS Health’s expertise in harnessing AI’s rapid advancements to develop and enhance its powerful RCM workflow solutions for more than 700 U.S. healthcare organizations. The win also strengthens IKS Health’s position as the leading partner in the industry’s most comprehensive care enablement platform across the patient journey.

Ranked as the No. 1 vendor out of 20 vendors in AI-driven RCM services, the distinction demonstrates IKS Health’s excellence in claims processing optimization, denial prevention, and revenue integrity solutions, as rated by RCM professionals in hospitals, health systems, physician practices, and medical groups. Black Book Research, a highly regarded independent healthcare research firm, conducted its comprehensive annual survey with responses from 1,037 validated RCM professionals.

Vantage Markets participated as a Titanium Sponsor at Money Expo Mexico 2025, held on February 26-27. The event, known as one of the most significant gatherings for traders, investors, and financial experts globally, provided an excellent platform for Vantage to engage with industry professionals and showcase its innovative offerings.

A major highlight of the event was Vantage being honored with the 'Best Global Broker 2025' award. This recognition reaffirms Vantage's commitment to providing cutting-edge trading solutions, transparency, and client-centric services. As a trusted multi-asset CFD broker, Vantage continues to set new industry standards with its advanced trading platforms, deep liquidity, and innovative copy trading solutions.

Ministry of Culture implements “Global Engagement Scheme" to promote India's rich cultural heritage internationally and enhance India's global image.

The key Scheme objectives include strengthening cultural ties with foreign nations, promoting bilateral cultural contacts, projecting India’s cultural identity on the world stage and encouraging inbound tourism. The Global Engagement Scheme is administered through Indian Missions abroad to achieve its objective through following components:

Festival of India:

The artists practicing Indian art forms, are given opportunity to perform abroad under the banner of ‘Festival of India’. The artists from diverse cultural fields such as Folk Art including Folk Music, Folk Dance, Folk Theatre & Puppetry, Classical and Traditional Dance, Experimental/Contemporary Dance, Classical/Semi Classical Music, Theatre etc. perform in the ‘Festivals of India’ abroad.

Grant in aid to Indo Foreign Friendship Cultural Societies:

Grant in aid is released to Indo Foreign Friendship Cultural Societies actively functioning in foreign counties through our Indian Missions with the object of fostering closer friendship and cultural contacts between India and foreign country concerned.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), an autonomous organisation under Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), promotes Indian culture (including folk arts & culture) worldwide through its Cultural Centres and Missions/Posts abroad. Activities conducted by them include inter-alia, teaching of Yoga, Dance, Music (vocal and instrumental), Sanskrit and Hindi; organising/supporting Conferences/ Seminars/ Workshops in different fields of Indian culture; supporting Chairs of Indian Studies in foreign universities; gifting of busts/statues of Mahatma Gandhi and other national icons, exchanging visual arts exhibitions, celebrating International Day of Yoga and Indian festivals, hosting visitors under various Visitors Programmes (Academic / Distinguished /Important /Gen. Next Democracy Network); and sponsoring scholarships to foreign students under different scholarship schemes.

Sharjah’s Faya Palaeolandscape, recently nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status, presents compelling evidence of human resilience and adaptation spanning over 210,000 years, while also serving as a crucial link in ancient trade networks connecting Arabia with India.

The 29,085-hectare site, located approximately 55 kilometers from both the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, features the distinctive Faya Range, a 20-kilometer stretch of limestone formations. This natural ridge acts as a barrier between the vast Rub’ al-Khali sand desert and the Dhaid-Madam Plain, forming what UNESCO describes as “an outstanding example of a Stone Age desert landscape.”

“The Faya excavations are significant because we have early evidence for the Out of Africa movement along the southern route,” explains Dr. Knut Bretzke, Head of the German Archaeological Mission in Sharjah. “People reached here about 120,000 years ago, maybe earlier, and they adapted to the desert environment.”

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing Rs 5 lakh crore in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) on its portal before the close of the financial year 2024-25. This achievement highlights GeM’s rapid expansion as a primary tool for public procurement, serving a buyer base of over 1.6 lakh government entities. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in a statement, said that the leap from four lakh crore rupees to five lakh crore rupees was accomplished in less than 50 days since crossing the previous benchmark on the 23rd of January this year. The Ministry added that GeM has undertaken major policy reforms in recent months to enhance market accessibility and streamline participation for sellers. Key initiatives, such as the reduction in transaction charges, vendor assessment fees, and caution money requirements, have made the platform more accessible, particularly benefiting micro and small enterprises, startups, and women-led enterprises. Over 22 lakh sellers and service providers are registered on GeM, contributing to a diverse and competitive procurement ecosystem.

India’s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation in February 2025 rose to 2.38 per cent, primarily due to an increase in fuel and power prices along with higher costs in the manufacturing sector, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday. This is higher than the WPI rate in January which stood at 2.31 per cent.

The fuel and power index increased by 2.12 per cent to 153.8 (provisional) in February from 150.6 (provisional) for the month of January. This was driven by a 4.28 per cent increase in electricity prices and a 1.87 per cent rise in mineral oil prices.

The index for manufactured products increased by 0.42 per cent, with notable price hikes in the manufacture of food products, basic metals, non-metallic mineral products, and chemicals.