The Quality Council of India (QCI), in association with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), organized the Inter PSU Gunvatta Manthan at BHEL’s corporate headquarters in New Delhi, bringing together leading Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to promote a culture of quality and operational excellence.

The event highlighted QCI’s pivotal role in advancing India’s national quality movement through structured frameworks, excellence models, and collaborative learning. Participating PSUs shared their best practices and initiatives in Six Sigma, Lean, Quality Circles, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), digital automation, and supplier development programmes. The interactive sessions enabled benchmarking of practices and identification of improvement areas across industries.

President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday participated in the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Angola’s independence in Luanda, at the invitation of Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço.

The event, held at Praça da República, featured a grand ceremony showcasing Angola’s military and cultural heritage. President Murmu joined Lourenço and other dignitaries in witnessing the colourful display commemorating five decades of Angola’s independence.

Following the ceremony, President Murmu reached Gaborone, Botswana, for the final leg of her two-nation visit to Africa. This marks the first-ever State Visit by an Indian Head of State to Botswana.

Upon her arrival at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, she was received by Botswana’s President, Advocate Duma Gideon Boko, and accorded a ceremonial welcome with a guard of honour.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Bhutan’s Fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in Thimphu on Wednesday and jointly inaugurated the Kalachakra Empowerment ceremony, marking a key moment in the deep spiritual and cultural ties between the two neighbouring countries.

The Kalachakra, one of the most revered and intricate rituals in Tibetan Buddhism, is being observed as a three-day empowerment ceremony aimed at conferring blessings and authorisations for advanced meditative practices leading toward enlightenment.

The ceremony forms part of the Global Peace Prayer Festival 2025, organised by the Royal Government of Bhutan from November 4 to 17. The event brings together spiritual leaders, monks, and peace advocates from around the world, promoting the message of global harmony and compassion.

Australia and Indonesia have agreed on a new security treaty that commits them to consult each other if either country is threatened, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in Sydney on Wednesday with Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto.

Albanese, who accompanied Prabowo on a visit to an Australian naval base in the city, said the treaty was a major extension of previous security deals, and commits to regular security dialogue between leaders.

“If either or both countries’ security is threatened, to consult and consider what measures may be taken either individually or jointly to deal with those threats,” he said.

Indonesia and Australia recognised that acting together was the best way to secure peace and stability in the region, he added.

Researchers identified SGK1 as a key chemical connecting childhood trauma to depression and suicidal behaviour.

High SGK1 levels were found in the brains of suicide victims and in people with genetic variants linked to early adversity. Drugs that block SGK1 could offer a new kind of antidepressant, especially for patients resistant to SSRIs.

Neuroscientists from Columbia University and McGill University have identified a brain chemical that appears to drive depression and suicidal thinking in individuals who faced trauma or hardship during childhood.

The researchers found that high levels of a stress-related protein called SGK1 are closely associated with depression among people who endured early-life adversity.

India has developed its first indigenous Quantum Diamond Microscope (QDM) for dynamic magnetic field imaging, marking a major milestone in the field of quantum sensing. The breakthrough, achieved by the P-Quest Group at IIT Bombay under the National Quantum Mission (NQM) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), was announced during the Emerging Science Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC 2025).

Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh, Principal Scientific Adviser Prof. Ajay K. Sood, and DST Secretary Prof. Abhay Karandikar were present at the announcement ceremony.

The QDM, led by Professor Kasturi Saha’s team, is based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond — atomic-scale defects that retain quantum coherence at room temperature. These NV centers are highly sensitive to magnetic, electric, and thermal variations, enabling optical readouts of local magnetic fields through a process known as optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR).

India’s unemployment rate declined to 5.2 per cent in the second quarter of this year, down from 5.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, for individuals aged 15 years and above.

According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) monthly labour force and unemployment data, the overall unemployment rate for Rural people was at 4.4 per cent while the urban people’s rate stood at 6.9 per cent, during the July to September quarter this year.

The Female participation in the labour force witnessed an increase to 33.7 per cent in the second quarter, up from 33.4 per cent in the first quarter, this year.

The number of billionaires worldwide is rising steadily each year — and India is no exception. The list of the country’s ultra-wealthy continues to expand, with two Indian cities now ranked among the world’s top ten billionaire hubs.

According to a recent report by the Hurun Research Institute, shared by World of Statistics on social media platform X, the cities with the highest number of billionaires include New York, London, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Moscow, New Delhi, and San Francisco.

The eleventh edition of the joint military exercise MITRA SHAKTI-2025 between India and Sri Lanka began on Monday (November 10, 2025) at the Foreign Training Node in Belagavi, Karnataka. The exercise will be held till November 23.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the Indian contingent of 170 personnel is represented mainly by troops from the Rajput Regiment, while the Sri Lankan contingent of 135 personnel comprises troops primarily from the Gajaba Regiment. In addition, 20 personnel from the Indian Air Force and 10 personnel from the Sri Lankan Air Force are participating in the exercise.

In a significant step towards strengthening bilateral defence relations, India and Vietnam on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Mutual Submarine Search, Rescue Support and Cooperation on the sidelines of the 15th India–Vietnam Defence Policy Dialogue (DPD).

The DPD, co-chaired by Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Deputy Minister of National Defence Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, was held in Hanoi.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said, “Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress made in areas such as hydrographic cooperation, capacity building and training, UN peacekeeping operations, increased port calls and ship visits, and collaboration in niche domains including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and shipyard upgradation.”