Amid rising tensions in West Asia, the Indian Navy has launched an operation to escort, guide, and safeguard India-bound energy shipments through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran.

The operation, called Urja Suraksha, is being conducted with calibrated precision and minimal publicity to ensure the uninterrupted and secure movement of Indian-flagged vessels carrying critical energy supplies, officials said. All India-bound ships transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and crude oil have been identified for protected transit.

“We are escorting and to some extent helping ships in navigation for smooth movement through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, till the Arabian Sea,” said a senior official, adding that Naval operations under the mission go beyond escort duties. Warships are actively providing route-specific guidance and navigational support to crews to help them safely traverse the narrow and sensitive waters of the region.

The National Housing Bank (NHB), the apex agency established by the Government of India to promote cost effective housing finance system, has launched the Gruh Sugam Portal, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Finance.

The portal enables Defence/Government personnel to avail home loans with ease from the location of their posting, the statement noted.

This portal will accelerate digital lending adoption and financial inclusion. It will facilitate increased home ownership through improved access to housing loans, strengthening the mission of promoting affordable and sustainable housing finance.

he Ministry of Railways is set to redevelop 13 stations in Delhi under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS). Launched in 2022, the ABSS aims at development and upgradation of stations over the Indian Railways (IR) network. The scheme has a long-term vision that involves creating master plans, promoting multimodal connectivity, better station accessibility for passengers, etc.

Amrit Bharat Station Scheme
The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme also envisages sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks, etc. as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centre at the station in the long term.

Improvement of access to station and circulating areas
Integration of station with both sides of city
Improvement of station building
Improvement of waiting halls, toilets, sitting arrangement, water booths
Provision of wider foot over bridge/air concourse commensurate with passenger traffic
Provision of lift/escalators/ramp
Improvement /Provision of platform surface and cover over platforms
Provision of kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’
Parking areas, Multimodal integration
Amenities for Divyangjans
Better passenger information systems
Provision of executive lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping, etc.

Indian Railways has approved a comprehensive set of projects worth approximately Rs 1,236 crore aimed at significantly upgrading its communication backbone and expanding the Kavach automatic train protection system across multiple zones, the Ministry of Railways said.

These approvals cover three separate proposals. Two are focused on optical fibre and ground wire infrastructure on Central and Western Railways, and one on the deployment of Kavach on high-utilisation routes of Southern Railway.

Central Railway Gets Upgraded Fibre Network: Rs 623.63 Crore. Two complementary works have been approved to build a robust, dual-path communication backbone across Central Railway's network, covering all five of its divisions -- Solapur, Nagpur, Pune, Bhusawal, and Mumbai.

Lok Sabha has passed the Finance Bill, 2026, by voice vote. The bill seeks to give effect to the financial proposals of the Central Government for the financial year 2026-2027. The House gave its nod to the amendments moved by the government.

Replying to the discussion on the Finance Bill, 2026, in the House today, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is empowering the MSMEs, farmers, and cooperatives, as they are at the centre of employment generation, production and overall development of the country. Mrs Sitharaman said that the government is also supporting key sectors such as digital infrastructure, electronics manufacturing, marine products, leather, critical minerals, and nuclear energy, among others, to make India a developed nation. She said the reforms are not happening out of compulsion but out of conviction with clarity, commitment and confidence. Mrs Sitharaman said that India is riding on the reform express under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Minister informed that this finance bill focuses on the middle class and the government has exempted basic customs duty on 17 critical life-saving drugs.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has responded to a representation submitted by environmental activist Ravindra Nayak from Sirsi regarding the proposed Aghanashini river-linking project. The organisation has advised the Centre to follow the regulations related to World Heritage Conservation.

UNESCO stated that any development or river-linking project must comply with the norms set under World Heritage Conservation frameworks and should not harm the ecological balance. On February 17, 2026, a memorandum was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre opposing the Aghanashini–Vedavathi river linking project.

The representation highlighted environmental, ecological, and geographical concerns, especially considering the sensitive Western Ghats. The protest forum strongly objected to the project. Thousands of families are expected to be affected, and memorandums were submitted to both central and state governments opposing the project.

The moon’s surface is covered by ancient lava flows that are often different from those found on the earth. While volcanic rocks on the earth rarely contain more than 2% titanium dioxide (TiO2), some lunar basalts — common volcanic rocks — carry up to 18%, a fact that planetary scientists have struggled to explain for decades.

A new study by researchers from IIT-Kharagpur and the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, has now offered an experimental account of how these titanium-rich basalts could have formed.

The study’s authors were Himela Moitra, Sujoy Ghosh, Tamalkanti Mukherjee, Saibal Gupta, and Kuljeet Kaur Marhas.

India will formally begin its tryst with narrower tracks and consistent conditions of indoor athletics by hosting the format’s maiden national championship starting in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, taking the first preparatory step towards conducting the world championship at the same venue in two years’ time.

The state-of-the-art facility in Bhubaneswar was last week named as the venue for the World Indoor Athletics Championships to be held from March 3-5, 2028. It would be the first time that the country will be hosting a global track and field showpiece.

The national championship would be a two-day affair at the facility that was inaugurated in 2024.

Jharkhand MLA Kalpana Soren was honoured with the ‘Women Empowerment Trailblazer Award’ at the BRICS CCI WE Annual Women Summit and Felicitation 2026 held in the capital, organisers said.

The award was presented at an event hosted by the women empowerment vertical of the BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry, recognising her contributions towards advancing women-led initiatives and community development.

Speaking at the event, Soren said the recognition was not a personal achievement but a tribute to women across Jharkhand and beyond who contribute to their families, communities and the economy.

Union Minister of State for Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh on Monday said that India's largest pregnancy cohort study of 12,000 women under the GARBH-INi initiative aims to develop indigenous, AI-driven solutions to prevent preterm births. Singh at an event here, said the study supports creation of AI-based pregnancy dating models tailored for Indian populations, identification of microbiome-based predictors of preterm birth, rapid diagnostic tools, and genetic markers for early risk assessment.

Such models and solutions can improve maternal and child health outcomes in the country and tackle preterm births, one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality as well morbidity in adulthood, he added.