Ministry of Education has invited online applications and nominations for the National Teachers Awards 2026. Applications are now open and nominations can be submitted through the National Awards Portal till 10th of next month. The National Teachers Awards are conferred annually to honour teachers who have demonstrated excellence, innovation and commitment in the field of school education.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah paid homage to Baba Banda Singh Bahadur on his martyrdom day. In a social media post, Mr Shah said that Baba Banda Singh Bahadur was a great warrior, the first general of the Khalsa Army, and a symbol of unmatched valour. He added that Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, who was dedicated to the protection of the motherland, religion, and self-respect, defeated the Mughal army on several occasions through his unparalleled courage and skilful leadership and liberated a vast region from Mughal oppression.

Mr Shah said that Baba Banda Singh Bahadur established a just system to ensure that farmers received their rightful dues. He also noted that despite enduring unbearable torture, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur did not accept religious conversion.

Civil Aviation Minister K Ramohan Naidu today inaugurated the first Easy Connect flight from Varanasi’s Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Uttar Pradesh. The first hub and spoke flight connecting Varanasi to the world via Delhi is aimed at linking the length and breadth of India seamlessly with the world, and vice versa.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that the new hub and spoke model paves the way for a monumental shift in how citizens travel. He said that regardless of the city one lives in India, one can begin their international journey from their home city and travel across the globe with ease and confidence, on India’s own wings. He highlighted the development made by government in aviation sector in 12 years. He said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, number of operational airports in India has more than doubled, surging from 74 airports in 2014 to over 160 today.The minister announced that hat six more airports will be integrated into this Hub and Spoke model within the next six weeks.

The inaugural Easy Connect service, operated by Air India as flight AI1111, will depart from Varanasi this morning with passengers connecting through Delhi to several international destinations, including Dubai, Colombo, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kathmandu and Phuket. The initiative is part of the Government’s new hub-and-spoke framework designed to simplify international travel for passengers from non-metro cities.

Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas is being observed today. It serves as a reminder of what happened when the Constitution of India was trampled over on 25th June 1975. It is also a day to pay homage to each and every person who suffered due to the excesses of the Emergency.

On this day in 1975, then-President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed proclaimed a National Emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution, citing threats arising from internal disturbances.

The Emergency was declared amid growing political unrest and judicial developments that had undermined the legitimacy of the government led by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. As a result, the executive assumed sweeping powers, and greater central control was exercised over state authority. Following the proclamation, several constitutional safeguards were suspended.

India women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur has become the first cricketer, male or female, to play 200 T20Is. The right-handed batter achieved the historic milestone in Sunday’s 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup match against South Africa at Manchester’s Old Trafford.

A special presentation was organised in India’s pre-match huddle, with coach Amol Mazumdar giving a speech and handing over a special cap to Harmanpreet. Smriti Mandhana then made a speech and presented her skipper a jersey with ‘Harman 200’ behind it.

It marked the latest milestone in Harmanpreet’s inspirational 17-year-old career, where she has not only risen from humble beginnings to be one of the best atheletes in the world, but also changed the trajectory of Indian cricket for the better.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has appointed senior Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Vishvas Vidu Sapkal as India’s next Ambassador to the Slovak Republic.

Sapkal, a 1998-batch IFS officer, is currently serving as India’s Ambassador to Peru and is expected to take up his new assignment shortly, according to an official statement issued by the MEA on Saturday.

“Shri Vishvas Vidu Sapkal (IFS: 1998), presently Ambassador of India to the Republic of Peru, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Slovak Republic. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” the ministry said.

Nasa is preparing an unprecedented mission to save one of its most successful space telescopes from falling out of orbit and burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.

The agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, launched in 2004 to study powerful cosmic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts, is gradually losing altitude due to increasing atmospheric drag. Without intervention, scientists estimate the spacecraft could re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and be destroyed before the end of 2026.

Rather than allowing that to happen, Nasa decided to attempt something never done before: sending a commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the ageing observatory, capture it, and boost it into a higher orbit.

The Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) 2026 has become the first pharmacopoeia in the world to establish exclusive standards for blood and blood components, a move aimed at strengthening quality assurance and patient safety in transfusion services, officials said on Wednesday.

A pharmacopoeia is an official compendium of quality standards of the drugs being imported, manufactured for sale, stocked or exhibited for sale or distributed in a country. The pharmacopoeial monographs prescribe standards to ensure the identity, purity and strength of the given drugs through botanical identification, various physico-chemical parameters and the like.

The new standards were highlighted at a national conference organised by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) at its Ghaziabad campus to facilitate awareness and implementation of the newly introduced monographs for blood and blood components in IP 2026.

The fate of India's ambitious 2036 Olympic bid will be known in mid 2029 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the addition of a Strategic Dialogue phase in the host selection process, during which the candidate nations will have to provide "core financial guarantees" among other requirements.

At the global body's 146th Session in Lausanne on Wednesday, the IOC's Future Host Commission chair, former Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, proposed the introduction of the new phase, which was approved by the member nations.

"Potential hosts wanted greater clarity. All stakeholders wanted greater transparency," said Grabar-Kitrovic, adding that the aim is to announce the 2036 host by middle of 2029.

In a major crackdown on the cybercrime infrastructure facilitating Digital Arrest scams, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has raided over 80 locations across the country in connection with more than 200 cases. Two accused have been arrested so far.

They have been identified as Naresh from Chennai and Sanjib Saha, a resident of Kolkata.

Under Operation Chakra-VI, the agency constituted 60 special teams and conducted coordinated searches in 16 States, including Punjab, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, West Bengal, Manipur, Karnataka and Odisha.