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.

India and Japan on Thursday agreed to further deepen defence and maritime security cooperation, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi signing a Memorandum of Arrangement on Maritime Security Cooperation in New Delhi.

The agreement provides a framework for strengthening cooperation between the Indian Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, including information sharing on Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), Search and Rescue (SAR), and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR).

The two Defence Ministers held the Japan-India Defence Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi, where they reviewed the expanding bilateral defence partnership under the Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership.

In a discovery that challenges current theories of planetary formation, astronomers have discovered an unusually dense, giant exoplanet that boasts 23 times the weight of Earth while remaining predominantly rocky. The 170-million-year-old planet is more than 2.5 times larger than Earth!

The celestial body, named GJ 523b, has been informally dubbed a "mega-Earth"- a rare category of exceptionally massive, dense, rocky worlds.

According to research led by Max Kroft at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the exoplanet is approximately 2.5 times wider than Earth (with a radius roughly 2.55 times larger), but packs an extraordinary amount of matter into its size, resulting in a staggering density of about 126.82 grams per cubic inch.

Fintech firm PhonePe on Thursday announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to integrate its enterprise data intelligence platform, PulsePro, into the PM GatiShakti framework.

The platform transforms aggregated and anonymised transaction data into market signals, allowing organisations to access real-world activity trends across various geographies and categories for smarter, data-based decision-making.

The collaboration is aimed at supporting national infrastructure planning, economic analysis, and holistic urban and rural development through granular, hyperlocal insights, the company said in a statement.

Under the agreement, PhonePe PulsePro metrics will be integrated into the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan portal, which is managed in collaboration with the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N).

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has paid tribute to Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur on his 118th birth anniversary today.

Mr Singh said that Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur took several steps for the all-round development of Tripura, contributing significantly to the development of agriculture, healthcare, education, infrastructure and communication systems during his reign. In a social media post, he said that Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur also promoted inclusiveness and harmony among different communities and his remarkable legacy continues to inspire generations.

On the occasion of World Photography Day, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ashwini Vaishnaw today interacted with photographers following the Cabinet briefing in New Delhi.

The Minister appreciated the contribution of photographers in capturing and documenting important moments of public life and national events through the power of visual storytelling. Mr Vaishnaw also clicked photographs with the photographers, marking World Photography Day through informal interaction with the media fraternity. World Photography Day is observed every year on 19 August to celebrate the art, craft and impact of photography and recognise the role of photographers in documenting history, society and significant events.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved four projects of the Railway Ministry with a total cost of approximately Rs 9,450 crore.

The projects include the construction of a fourth line between Kharagpur in West Bengal and Bhadrak (Ranital) in Odisha, covering 173 km, and a fourth line between Bhadrak and Haridaspur in Odisha, covering 75 km.

They also include the laying of the third and fourth lines between Gummidipundi in Andhra Pradesh and Gudur in Tamil Nadu, covering 90 km, and between Cuttack and Paradeep (Badabandha) in Odisha, covering 72 km.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has proposed a registration system under which a medical practitioner, once registered with a State Medical Council and allotted a Unique Identification (UID) number in the National Medical Register, would be eligible to practise across India without obtaining fresh registration or a licence in another State.

The proposal is part of the draft Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, notified by the NMC on August 11, 2026. The draft seeks to amend the 2023 regulations governing registration and licensing of doctors. The NMC has invited objections and suggestions for 30 days from the date of notification.