Come August 1 and woman passengers will not be able to avail the free bus service in Delhi without the ‘Pink Saheli’ smart card anymore, as the government has made it mandatory for such travel, officials said on Friday.

Concerned over the slow adoption of the Pink Saheli card by women commuters, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has also launched a special drive across its buses advising women to get the cards, an official statement said.

“With effect from August 1, pink tickets shall be issued only to those women passengers who have a valid Pink Saheli smart card, which they need to tap at the time of boarding. These passengers will continue to avail free bus service as per the terms of the scheme,” the DTC said in its order.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has once again been ranked third in the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft's (WDMMA) 2026 global airpower rankings, retaining its position ahead of China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) for the fifth time since 2022, according to reports.

The latest rankings place the IAF behind only the United States and Russia. This is the sixth occasion overall that the IAF has been placed behind the US Air Force, US Navy, Russian Air Force, US Army and US Marine Corps in the WDMMA assessment.

WDMMA evaluates 129 air services across 103 countries and tracks more than 48,000 aircraft. Its proprietary True Value Rating (TVR) system assesses fleet size, composition, modernisation, logistical support and overall capability.

Indian Railways has approved two infrastructure projects worth a combined Rs 381 crore to strengthen railway safety and maintenance capabilities, sanctioning the rollout of Kavach Version 4.0 on key Northern Railway routes and the creation of additional homing facilities for electric locomotives at Raipur.

The Ministry of Railways said a Rs 206-crore project has been approved for installing Kavach Version 4.0 on 680 route kilometres (RKm) covering the Rewari-Delhi and Shakurbasti-Bathinda sections, including feeder branch lines, of the Delhi Division under Northern Railway.

The project is part of Indian Railways' nationwide expansion of the indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system across high-density and strategically important routes.

Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday inaugurated the Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Human-Wildlife Conflict at the Wildlife Institute of India-Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (WII-SACON), Coimbatore, and launched the National Human-Wildlife Conflict Portal.

The inauguration was followed by a national workshop on human-wildlife conflict, bringing together policymakers, forest officials, scientists, researchers, technology experts and conservation practitioners from across the country to discuss strategies for reducing conflicts between humans and wildlife. The event was also attended by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh.

Addressing the gathering, Yadav said human-wildlife conflict has emerged as one of India’s major conservation and development challenges due to increasing interactions between people and wildlife caused by habitat fragmentation, changing land-use patterns and expanding human activities.

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has emerged as one of the world’s largest digital health ecosystems, with over 93.95 crore accounts created, 105 crore health records linked, and 5.33 lakh health facilities and 9.85 lakh healthcare professionals registered on the national digital health registries, the Union health ministry said on Friday.

The initiative has also enabled 2.72 lakh healthcare facilities to adopt ABDM-enabled software, generating around 24 crore scan and register tokens for faster OPD registration and facilitating seamless, consent-based exchange of health information across the healthcare sector, according to an official statement.

The observations were made at the third meeting of the Mission Steering Group chaired by Union Health Minister J P Nadda, which reviewed the progress of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and deliberated on the roadmap for further strengthening India’s digital health ecosystem.

Indian Potash Limited (IPL) and Jain Irrigation Systems Limited (JISL) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on promoting scientific, sustainable, and technology-driven sugarcane cultivation across Gujarat.

The partnership will focus on the survey, design, supply, and installation of drip irrigation systems, along with capacity building, farmer training, and field demonstrations to encourage the adoption of modern sugarcane farming practices, IPL said in a statement Friday.

Under the MoU, both IPL and JISL have agreed to jointly work to promote efficient irrigation and fertigation technologies for sustainable sugarcane cultivation, demonstrate modern irrigation solutions, precision input management, and improved agronomic practices.

NABARD said on Friday that it has facilitated the Geographical Indication registration of 28 new products such as traditional handicrafts, handloom textiles and bamboo crafts among others across the country. Till date, NABARD has supported 176 products in securing GI registration.

The latest additions span a diverse range of traditional handicrafts, handloom textiles, bamboo crafts, metalwork, pottery, paintings, and musical instruments, further strengthening India’s portfolio of region-specific products with legal protection and global market potential, NABARD said in a statement.

Among the newly registered products are Nalanda Bawanbuti Saree and Fabrics and Gaya Pattharkatti Stone Craft from Bihar; Kuchai Silk Saree and Fabrics from Jharkhand; Ba Shilp (Bamboo Craft) and Bihu Pepa from Assam; Himachal Wood Carving Craft; and Khajuraho Metal Craft from Madhya Pradesh, along with several other traditional products from across the country.

India and New Zealand on Saturday (local time) elevated their bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership and adopted the 'India-New Zealand Strategic Partnership: Roadmap to 2030', an ambitious blueprint aimed at expanding cooperation in trade, agriculture, security, innovation and people-to-people exchanges over the next four years.

According to the India-New Zealand joint statement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon agreed to upgrade the bilateral relationship and endorsed the roadmap as "a framework to guide joint action over the next four years."

The two leaders also agreed on a long-term vision for the Strategic Partnership to take bilateral ties to a new level by strengthening existing cooperation mechanisms and exploring new avenues of collaboration in both bilateral and multilateral forums.

A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Friday (July 10, 2026) at the Delhi Secretariat under the ‘Catch the Rain’ initiative for a rainwater harvesting project to be implemented in 75 CM Shri Schools across Delhi. The MoU was signed between Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL), the Directorate of Education, and Ehsaas NGO in the presence of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.

The project will be implemented under IGL’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative and it includes the audit and restoration of existing rainwater harvesting systems on school campuses, as well as the installation of new rooftop rainwater harvesting systems. Water conservation and environmental awareness programmes will also be organised for students and teachers, as per Delhi government.

XDanish drugmaker Novo Nordisk on Wednesday launched Awiqli or insulin icodec, the world's first once-weekly basal insulin for adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, marking a significant shift in diabetes treatment by cutting insulin injections from 365 a year to just 52.

Insulin is a hormone that helps move glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream into cells to stop it from building up in the bloodstream. Patients with type 1 diabetes or advanced type 2 diabetes need to administer insulin, usually once a day and sometimes multiple times a day, in order to keep their blood sugar in a healthy range.

The maker of blockbuster diabetes and obesity drug semaglutide said the new therapy is designed to address one of the biggest barriers to insulin adoption in India – fear of daily injections – which contributes to insulin initiation being delayed by an average of seven to nine years.