Ministry of Jal Shakti today issued the policy on Data Sharing, Interoperability and Stakeholder Access under Sujalam Bharat Digital Public Infrastructure. The Ministry said that the policy is aimed at enabling governed and interoperable data exchange between the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, States and Union Territories, Gram Panchayats, Government organisations and authorised sectoral stakeholders.

The policy establishes a secure, federated, interoperable and accountable framework for sharing and governing rural drinking water data across States, Union Territories, local governance institutions and approved sectoral stakeholders. Ministry further added that the policy also lays down governance principles for data sharing, interoperability and stakeholder access within the Sujalam Bharat Digital Public Infrastructure.

It promotes the use of common identifiers, standardised metadata, interoperable registries and secure digital services to facilitate seamless exchange of information, while ensuring institutional accountability, privacy and cybersecurity.

The Himachal Pradesh government has prohibited the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of non-dairy "analogue paneer" being passed off as genuine paneer across the state.

The order, issued by Commissioner of Food Safety Ashish Singhmar under Section 30(2)(a) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, has come into immediate effect and will remain operational for one year.

The action follows market surveillance and laboratory testing conducted by the state Food Safety Department, which detected instances of adulteration, misbranding and violations of food safety and traceability requirements.

The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti organised a national workshop on multi-stakeholder consultation for capacity building under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) 2.0, bringing together representatives from States and Union Territories, rural WASH partners, training institutions and other key stakeholders.

The workshop, titled “Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on Capacity Building under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 for GPs, VWSCs and Sujalam Shakti Groups”, focused on reviewing and strengthening training modules developed for field-level functionaries, including Gram Panchayat representatives.

Participants deliberated on the content, pedagogy and field applicability of the modules, drawing on experiences from States and Union Territories and on-ground realities. The consultation aimed to support the finalisation and effective rollout of the capacity-building framework under JJM 2.0.

S Somnath, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), was on Thursday appointed to the central board of the Reserve Bank.

Somnath, who retired from Isro in January 2025, has been appointed as a part-time, non-official director on the central board for a period of four years with effect from August 20, 2026, as per an official statement.

The aerospace engineer, who has served the space programme in different capacities, was appointed as the chancellor of the Chanakya University, a liberal arts varsity near Bengaluru, after retiring from Isro.

Meanwhile, the RBI also reappointed billionaire Anand Mahindra for another four years as a part-time, non-official director on the central board, as per another statement.

The Himachal Pradesh Forest Department on Thursday signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business (ISB-BIPP) to unlock the state’s estimated ₹22,600 crore untapped forest and pastoral economy potential through science and technology-enabled governance.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dr Sanjay Sood on behalf of the Forest Department and Executive Director of BIPP, ISB, Professor Ashwini Chhatre on behalf of the institute.

Speaking on the occasion, Sukhu described the partnership as an important step towards strengthening Himachal Pradesh’s rural economy and creating long-term economic opportunities around the state’s forest resources.

India and Mauritius on Thursday signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mauritius on cooperation in the oil and gas sector, alongside a five-year agreement between IndianOil and the State Trading Corporation (STC) of Mauritius for assured supply of petroleum products to Port Louis, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

Puri signed the MoU with Mauritius Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection John Michaël Tzoun Sao Yeung Sik Yuen, as India and Mauritius moved to further strengthen bilateral energy cooperation.

There will be no further sale of loose edible oil or repeated use of cooking oil in Maharashtra, as the food safety body, led by Tukaram Mundhe, has issued a stringent 14-point statewide compliance and enforcement order to curb adulteration and ensure food safety.

Violations can attract penalties of up to Rs 10 lakh for unsafe food, possession of adulterants or operating without a valid licence; substandard and misbranded oil can attract penalties of up to Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively. Licences can also be suspended or cancelled.

What does it cover? The food safety body’s latest order covers all edible oils and fats, including groundnut, mustard, soybean, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, rice bran, palm, coconut, sesame and maize oils, as well as vanaspati.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Wednesday flagged off the scaled-up phase of India’s transshipment cargo reform at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, expanding the network to four additional domestic origin stations and two international destinations.

The expanded network will now connect Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Hyderabad with London and Copenhagen through Delhi’s Transshipment Excellence Centre (TEC), following the successful completion of a proof-of-concept project on the Chennai-Delhi-Frankfurt route.

The proof of concept for domestic-to-international transshipment began on June 20, 2026, with Air India operating the service end-to-end. Since its launch, around 280 metric tonnes of cargo has been transshipped through the Delhi facility, while aircraft capacity utilisation increased from 75 per cent to nearly 100 per cent.

Two Indian Parsi doctors based in Bombay (now Mumbai) are set to receive Pakistan's highest civilian award for keeping Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah's terminal illness diagnosis a secret during the crucial period before Partition in 1947. Islamabad has nominated physician Dr Jal Ratanji Patel and radiologist Dr Jal Dhaybho-Koo for the Nishan-e-Imtiaz award for their "quiet but extraordinary service" in ensuring that knowledge of Jinnah's terminal illness remained limited to just the members of his inner circle, announced Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives and head of the Awards Committee.

In a post on X, Ahsan Iqbal noted that Dr Patel and Dr Dhaybho-Koo had examined Jinnah's X-ray in 1946 and concluded that his tuberculosis had reached an advanced stage and he had only a year or two to live. But they maintained professional confidentiality about the seriousness of his illness -- a secret that many historians believed could have altered the timing of partition and the creation of Pakistan.

What if a cancer drug could remain inactive while travelling through the body and switch on primarily when it reaches a cancer cell? That is the idea behind RK-251, a new experimental cancer drug developed by researchers in India.

The Ministry of Science & Technology has shared details of the drug, which is designed to exploit a feature of cancer cells: they often have higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), molecules that can be harmful when present in excess. Researchers have used this difference to create a drug that can be activated preferentially inside cancer cells.

The approach could potentially make cancer treatment more selective and reduce damage to healthy cells. ”

“A new ‘smart’ cancer drug designed to switch on and work only inside cancer cells can replace traditional chemotherapy, which in many cases also harms healthy cells. In preclinical studies, RK-251 showed strong activity against aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cells, with much less effect on healthy cells. The behavioral study of the developed candidate drug in zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio) also showed no obvious signs of toxicity and exhibited the desired fluorescence in the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), suggesting the drug may be safe for further research and validation. More studies are needed before this technology can be tested in patients. The work is published in ACS- Journal of Medicinal Chemistry,” the ministry said in a press statement.