Telangana Government’s ambitious breakfast scheme for students from pre-primary to 12 standard (junior colleges) at government institutions was launched in Hyderabad on Monday (June 15, 2026), which also marked the beginning of the academic year 2026-27. Text books and note books too were distributed to the students.

Under the breakfast scheme, different food items are served for breakfast from Monday to Saturday, with one item repeated on two days, including millet based food. Either milk or ragi jawa is served too.

In a significant move aimed at modernising military traditions and reinforcing an indigenous identity, the Indian Army has introduced Army Uniforms–2026, a revised dress regulations pamphlet that progressively removes residual colonial-era practices, terminology and non-essential accoutrements.

The new policy reflects the Army’s effort to align its dress regulations with contemporary Indian values while maintaining the service’s rich traditions and professional standards. The Army has described the uniform as a symbol of identity, discipline, order and collective belonging.

India’s AI ambitions received a major boost on Monday as Bengaluru-based Sarvam announced a fresh $234 million funding round, pushing its valuation to $1.5 billion and making it India’s newest AI unicorn. The funding comes at a time when governments and businesses around the world are increasingly looking to build local AI capabilities rather than relying entirely on foreign technology providers.

The round is led by HCLTech, which will contribute $150 million as a strategic investor. Existing backers including Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Peak XV Partners also participated. Sarvam said it aims to expand the round to $300 million in total.

The investment is a big step forward for Sarvam, which has emerged as one of the few Indian startups attempting to build a complete AI ecosystem. Unlike many companies that focus only on applications, Sarvam is working across AI model development, computing infrastructure, and enterprise software solutions.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V Narayanan has informed that they have collaborated with the Department of Atomic Energy to develop an advanced artificial heating system that can protect lunar lander from the freezing weather of the Moon.

Addressing the CSIR-RISE Conclave in Bengaluru, ISRO chief explained that Chandrayaan 3 lander Vikram fuelled by solar energy, operated only for 14 days on Moon. ISRO will now work with the Atomic Energy Department to develop a lunar lander that can survive on the Moon for up to 200 days. This lander with artificial heaters can survive harsh weather conditions on the Moon. He added that this will help long-duration lunar exploration in future missions.

The lunar days and nights last about 14 Earth days each, and heat reaches 121 celsius and temperature dips to minus 129 celsius at night. Speaking further about research partnerships, V Narayanan disclosed that ISRO and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR have identified 40 areas of technological cooperation and 17 among them have already been approved for implementation in the first phase.

India is aiming to achieve an installed capacity of 100 GW (gigawatt) of wind energy by 2030 from more than 56.1 GW now and scale it up to 155 GW by 2035, Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi said on Monday.

The wind industry has played an important role in advancing the vision of an ”Atmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India) by creating a resilient and world-class supply chain ecosystem, he maintained.

Axis Securities' Rajesh Palviya recommends SRF and Phoenix Mills as buy calls

The Union minister was speaking after launching India’s first wind turbine supply chain management portal, WT-MARUT.

Indian Railways has approved Kavach deployment projects worth a combined Rs 341 crore across key sections of the Northern and Western Railway zones, reinforcing its commitment to enhancing rail safety through the indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system.

The projects, sanctioned under the umbrella programme for provision of Kavach with an LTE-based communication backbone on balance routes of Indian Railways, will cover a total of 1,409 route kilometres across strategically important rail corridors in northern and western India.

In the Northern Railway zone, Indian Railways has approved a Rs 201-crore project for installation of Kavach on 811 route kilometres of the Ambala Division. The project will cover major sections including Ambala Cantonment–Ludhiana, Kalka–Chandigarh–New Morinda–Sahnewal, Sirhind–Daulatpur Chowk, Rajpura–Bathinda–Shri Ganganagar, and Ludhiana–Dhuri–Jakhal.

It was something infectious disease expert Heather Ferguson never expected to see in her lifetime: a mosquito-borne virus originally from Africa spreading in Scotland. But a laboratory result confirmed just that: in April, UK authorities said that Usutu virus had been identified in blackbirds in Scotland for the first time. Despite climate change pushing temperatures higher, scientists still thought it too cool in Scotland for Usutu to thrive. The "shock" discovery was a "clarion call that... some risks might be coming here sooner than we thought," said Ferguson, a professor of infectious disease ecology at the University of Glasgow.

"We need to be prepared," she told AFP.

In the wilds of Scotland, scientists are trapping brown-grey culex pipiens mosquitoes -- the main vector of Usutu virus -- to study and better understand how the disease might spread. They were alerted by residents on the Isle of Arran, southwest of Glasgow, who noticed last summer that blackbirds were dropping dead with strange symptoms.

In a significant step towards strengthening digital inclusion and expanding access to government procurement opportunities, the Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) and the Government e Marketplace (GeM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to integrate advanced multilingual capabilities across India’s public procurement ecosystem.

The partnership, signed under the “BHASHINI for Seva/Sanchalan – A BHASHINI Sahayogi Program,” aims to leverage BHASHINI’s artificial intelligence-powered language technologies to make GeM’s services accessible in multiple Indian languages, thereby enabling greater participation from businesses, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), startups, entrepreneurs, and local enterprises across the country.

The State government will introduce the Maharashtra Women Farmers Empowerment Bill, 2026, during the upcoming Monsoon Session of the Legislative Assembly beginning on June 22, seeking to grant women farmers independent legal recognition and improve their access to welfare schemes and institutional support, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced on Friday (June 12, 2026).

Mr. Fadnavis reviewed a preliminary presentation on the draft Bill at a meeting attended by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Ajit Pawar, Agriculture Minister Dattatray Bharane and Minister of State for Agriculture Ashish Jaiswal at his official residence on Friday.

Students taking admission in government colleges and universities in Odisha will no longer have to pay fees, with the state government announcing that education will be “free and universal”.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Friday announced free education from kindergarten to postgraduate level (“KG to PG”) as the BJP government completed two years in office.

“Probably Odisha is the first state in the country to make such a provision in the education sector. It will immensely benefit the scholars especially the economically backward section,” Majhi said.

Officials said the decision is likely to benefit more than 10 lakh students.