Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat inaugurated the 25th edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM) at the National School of Drama (NSD), Mandi House, marking the silver jubilee of the world’s largest international theatre festival.

Speaking at the opening ceremony on Tuesday evening, Shekhawat said the festival serves as a major cultural bridge, connecting India’s diverse artistic traditions with global audiences. He noted that such platforms contribute to reshaping international perceptions of Indian heritage and creativity.

The event saw participation from prominent personalities representing theatre, cinema, arts and cultural institutions. Those present included Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Culture (Guest of Honour), K. Nandini Singla, Director General, ICCR (Special Guest), and actor Mita Vashisht, who attended as “Rang Doot”.

The Karnataka government is set to roll out an auto-mutation system that will automatically update property ownership records following land and property transactions, officials announced on Wednesday. The move is part of a wider effort to digitise land records and reduce delays in mutation formalities.

Under the current system, property buyers must separately apply for a mutation — the official update of ownership in land revenue records — after completing a sale, gift or similar transaction. There is typically a 7-day notice period for registrable instruments such as sale and gift deeds, and a 15-day period for non-registrable cases before mutation is effected.

With the new auto-mutation process, many of these updates will be triggered automatically online as soon as the transaction is registered, eliminating the need for buyers to file a separate mutation application with the revenue department. Experts say this could drastically cut bureaucratic wait times and make property ownership changes faster and more transparent.

Bharat Taxi is officially here. The cooperative ride-hailing service was launched by Union Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah, at an event held at Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. A Bharat Taxi rally was also conducted, with drivers and customers participating to mark the launch of the service.

During the launch, Shah said, Bharat Taxi "empowers drivers as owners of profits and bestows them with respect and dignity."

The Bharat Taxi app is now available for all users in Delhi-NCR. The app was previously in a pilot phase in the region. It is expected to expand across more states and cities in the coming months.

Reigning world champion Samrat Rana and World Cup final winner Suruchi Singh joined forces to clinch silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship 2026 in New Delhi today. The hosts extended their domination of the Championship with their gold count reaching 10 after two days of competition.

Southpaw Rashmika Sahgal and Vanshika Chaudhary in the 10m air pistol women junior and Priyanshi Purva and Chahek Kohla in the corresponding youth category, also delivered back-to-back 1-2 finishes. Their combined efforts help India finish the day with a rich haul of 10 gold, five silver and one bronze medal, ahead of Uzbekistan, who are second on the table with three gold medals. Two more gold medals for the hosts came through the team competitions, where the trio of Rashmika, Vanshika, and Agam Grewal won the junior women’s air pistol team gold with a combined tally of 1714, a good 43 points ahead of the silver-winning Kazakhstan team. Priyanshi, Chahek, and Shiksha Saran also won the women’s youth air pistol team gold with an effort of 1709. Kazakhstan had to settle for silver again with a score of 1627.

Indian teacher Rouble Nagi has won the Global Teacher Prize 2026, receiving the one million dollar award at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

The award, presented by GEMS Education in its tenth edition, was handed over by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Nagi was honoured for transforming neglected walls into interactive educational murals that teach reading, writing, arithmetic, as well as public health and environmental awareness.

Over the past two decades, her work has helped integrate more than one million children into formal education using art as a learning tool. She was chosen from over 5,000 nominations from 139 countries.

Hyderabad’s Esha Singh won her second Asian Championship gold in the 10m air pistol event at Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range. India claimed nine medals on day one, including six golds, with Jonathan Antony also securing a double gold in juniors

Former mixed team world champion Esha Singh struck her second career Asian Championship gold, winning the 10m air pistol women’s event with a score of 239.8 at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi on Wednesday, the opening day of the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship.

The Hyderabad shooter, who had won the event two years ago in Jakarta, was seventh after the first series of five shots before mounting a strong climb up the leaderboard and taking a decisive lead after the 19th shot of the 24-shot final. Chinese Taipei shooters Cheng Yen-Ching and Yu Ai-Wen followed the Indian Olympian to the podium, winning silver and bronze respectively.

The Ministry of Railways, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, has launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to prevent elephants from being hit by trains.

According to a release, the system uses Distributed Acoustic Sensors (DAS) to detect the presence of elephants on railway tracks and alerts loco pilots, station masters, and control rooms in real time.

The system components include Optical Fibre, hardware and pre-installed signatures of elephant locomotion. The system is designed to generate alerts for loco pilots, station masters, and the Control Room about the movement of elephants in the vicinity of railway tracks, enabling timely preventive action.

Researchers in India have developed a novel lead-free and environmentally friendly photodetector that operates without external power and delivers stable, long-term performance, opening new possibilities for its use in consumer electronics, industrial monitoring, security systems and biomedical imaging.

The breakthrough has been achieved by researchers at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad – an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) – in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad. The findings have been published in the journal Solar Energy (Elsevier).

Photodetectors are essential components in modern cameras, environmental sensors, smart wearables and imaging systems, as they convert light into electrical signals. While many high-performance photodetectors currently rely on lead-based perovskites, these materials pose environmental and health concerns due to their toxicity and also tend to degrade under real-world operating conditions.

Dubai will become the second city after Las Vegas to introduce the Dubai Loop, an underground transport system developed by The Boring Company, with the first phase set to connect the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Mall, the Roads and Transport Authority said.The project was announced at the World Government Summit, where Roads & Transport Authority. (RTA ) Director General Matar Al Tayer described the Dubai Loop as an iconic project aimed at linking high-density areas through one-directional tunnels to enable faster and more efficient travel across the city. The full Dubai Loop network will span 22.2 kilometres, include 19 stations and is estimated to cost around 681 million dollar.

It is expected to be completed within one to two years and is projected to serve about 13,000 passengers per day.Once fully developed, the system is expected to have a total capacity of up to 30,000 passengers per day. The electric vehicle-based system will offer direct travel to destination stations without intermediate stops and is designed to reach speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour.

The Dubai Loop is based on tunnelling technology developed by Elon Musk’s Boring Company, which has promoted high-speed, underground transport concepts as a way to ease urban congestion.