India and Vietnam are holding discussions on the possible sale of several defence platforms, including the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system, as both countries move to elevate bilateral ties during Vietnamese President To Lam’s visit to New Delhi.

Speaking after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Lam on Wednesday, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, P Kumaran, said defence cooperation between the two countries is expanding across multiple areas. He noted that BrahMos remains one of the platforms under discussion, while emphasising that a stronger Vietnam contributes to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

India also offered assistance in the maintenance, repair and modernisation of Vietnamese military platforms, including Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft and Kilo-class submarines operated by the Vietnamese armed forces.

Delhi will host the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship 2026 at the Thyagraj Stadium, with players from more than 35 countries expected to participate. Jointly organised by the Delhi government and the Table Tennis Federation of India, the championship will be held from July 27 to August 2.

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced that Delhi has a long legacy of hosting international sporting events and the championship will further strengthen the city’s position on the global sporting map. She said, Delhi government is committed to ensuring world-class infrastructure, seamless arrangements and an excellent sporting environment for players and spectators alike.

Participants from countries like England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Scotland, Wales, Nigeria, Kenya, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago are likely to take part in the tournament. The seven-day championship will feature competitions across multiple categories, with the finals scheduled for August 2.

Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Prasar Bharati, has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

As per a notification issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Shashi Shekhar Vempati shall hold the CBFC office for a period of three years from the date of joining.

"Shashi Shekhar Vempati brings with him extensive experience in media, broadcasting, and public communication. His appointment is expected to further strengthen the functioning of the CBFC," stated a press release from the Ministry.

India and Vietnam set a $25 billion annual trade target by 2030, up from $16 billion last fiscal, and elevated ties to an enhanced comprehensive strategic partnership in a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese President To Lam on Wednesday.

The talks focussed on areas including trade, investments, banking, defence, agriculture, health, ICT and critical minerals with 13 MoUs signed in diverse areas such as digital payments and cooperation in rare earth elements and emerging technologies.

“We have taken several important decisions today to take our bilateral trade to $25 billion by 2030. The MoU between our drug authorities will now increase access to Indian medicines in Vietnam. The export of Indian agricultural, fisheries and animal products to Vietnam is also going to become easier. Very soon, Vietnam will taste India’s grapes and pomegranates, and we will taste Vietnam’s pomelos,” Modi said in his speech at the joint press briefing with Lam following their bilateral talks. The Vietnamese President is on a three-day visit to India and is accompanied by a business delegation.

The Centre will retain the pari passu model in the upcoming phase of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM 2.0), signalling a preference for tighter fiscal management even as it doubles down on building a domestic chip ecosystem.

Pari passu, a Latin term meaning “on equal footing”, refers here to a funding structure in which government incentives are released in proportion to a company’s own capital expenditure. Under ISM 1.0, the Centre committed to providing 50 per cent fiscal support for project costs, but disbursed this support only as firms invested their own money. In effect, public funds move step-by-step with private spending, rather than being front-loaded.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav launched the website and logo for the 1st International Big Cat Alliance IBCA Summit 2026 in New Delhi this evening. During the event, he also released a promotional film on the Summit.
Addressing the occasion, Mr Yadav said, the summit is an important milestone towards a landmark global gathering dedicated to the conservation of the world’s iconic big cats. He informed that India will host the first IBCA Summit on 1st June this year in New Delhi, with participation expected from Heads of State and Heads of Government of Member and Observer countries.

Highlighting India’s journey in big cat conservation, the Minister noted that it has been marked by commitment, innovation, scientific management, institutional collaboration and community participation. Referring to the success of Project Tiger and initiatives for lion, leopard, snow leopard and cheetah conservation, he stated that India has demonstrated that conservation and development can go hand in hand, strengthening ecosystems, improving livelihoods, resilience, and mitigating climate challenges. Mr Yadav informed that a key outcome of the Summit would be the adoption of the first-ever global declaration on big cat conservation, titled the ‘Delhi Declaration’, which will articulate shared priorities, strengthen transboundary cooperation and promote a landscape-based approach for conserving big cats and their habitats.

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras Global Research Foundation has announced the establishment of its first centre in the United States, expanding India’s deep-tech innovation footprint into global ecosystems.

The announcement of the centre at Menlo Park in California, which was launched on April 24, was made at the SelectUSA Investment Summit at National Harbour in Maryland near here on Tuesday.

“The Menlo Park centre, enabled through our partnership with CA Startups, is a strategic anchor for IITM Global’s US operations,” Thirumalai Madhavnarayan, CEO of the IIT Madras Global Research Foundation, told PTI.

SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Ramapuram, on Wednesday launched the Mission Mausam Urban Testbed and observational facilities, developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The facility is aimed at monitoring aerosols, clouds, precipitation, atmospheric dynamics, and thermodynamic parameters across the city to enhance monsoon prediction and provide early warnings of severe weather.

M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, inaugurated the facility in the presence of A. Suryachandra Rao, Director, IITM, Pune; R. Shivakumar, Chairman, SRMIST, Ramapuram, Chennai & Trichy; Thara Prabhakaran, Project Director, IITM; and M. Sakthi Ganesh, Dean (E&T), SRMIST.

India and Japan strengthened their strategic partnership in science and technology with the exchange of key agreements in the fields of healthcare innovation and emerging technologies during a high-level bilateral meeting in the national capital.

According to an official statement from the Ministry of Science & Technology, on Tuesday, the meeting took place in the presence of Japan’s Minister for Science and Technology Policy and Minister of State for Space Policy, Kimi Onoda and Union Minister of State for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh.

The discussion expanded cooperation across critical and frontier technologies, with the exchange of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in the field of health and medical devices between the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Development activist and leadership trainer R. Balasubramaniam and economist K. V. Raju from Karnataka have been appointed as full-time members of NITI Aayog by the Centre. This marks the first time that two distinguished professionals from the State have been appointed simultaneously to the policy-making body.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the chairman of the NITI Aayog, reconstituted the body by appointing new members. Economist Ashok Lahiri, former BJP MLA in West Bengal, has been appointed as vice-chairman.