Four states along the Narmada River, including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, on Tuesday signed a landmark agreement in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah to resolve decades-old disputes over rehabilitation and land compensation for families displaced by the Narmada Project.

The agreement settles long-pending issues related to the rehabilitation of people living in flood-affected areas and compensation for land acquired under the multi-state river project, officials said. The pact marks a significant step in the Centre’s push to help states resolve long-standing disputes through dialogue and consensus.

The Narmada agreement follows a series of recent breakthroughs on water-sharing and river infrastructure projects involving multiple states.

A mega drive to plant 70 lakh trees in the Capital and a campaign to revive the Ridge were launched on Tuesday by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among other initiatives, in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to realise what he called “a vision of a greener and more sustainable Delhi”.

‘Mission 70 Lakh Plantation’ campaign, he said, has been in the Capital under Centre’s ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ initiative in 2024 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Home Minister planted trees at the Central Ridge and Nanakpura Ridge, marking the beginning of the Delhi Ridge Rejuvenation Campaign.

He said that the Centre and Delhi government have resolved to develop 6,300 hectares of green Ridge area into forest land over the next four years and give legal protection to it to conserve its biodiversity, soil, water and Delhi’s environment.

The Environment Ministry has designated the Natural History Museum (NHM) in Mizoram as a designated repository, making it the 21st such repository in the country, officials said on Tuesday.

Designated repositories constitute an important component of India's biodiversity governance framework by preserving authenticated biological specimens accessed under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

"Based on the recommendation of the National Biodiversity Authority and after due examination of the proposal, the central government notified the institution as a designated repository on June 19, 2026," a senior ministry official said.

"With this notification, NHM becomes India's 21st Designated Repository, further strengthening the country's biodiversity conservation and scientific infrastructure," the official said.

The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has unveiled a renewed vision for strengthening Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs) as centres of knowledge, innovation and evidence-based policymaking for tribal development.

Inaugurating a national workshop in Bhubaneswar, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram called for integrating indigenous knowledge with modern technology to preserve tribal heritage and promote inclusive growth.

The two-day National Workshop on Strengthening Tribal Research Institutes began in Bhubaneswar this morning, bringing together policymakers, researchers, academicians and technology experts from across the country.

The government on Tuesday approved the pan-India roll-out of the Rs 60,000-crore Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs (PM-SETU) scheme across 200 Industrial Training Institute (ITI) clusters, while also clearing strategic investment plans worth Rs 1,237.58 crore.

The decision was taken by the 4th National Steering Committee (NSC) chaired by Debashree Mukherjee, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

The approved plans include Jindal Naveen Avasar Limited in Odisha and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India in Gujarat as anchor industry partners, along with Apollo Medskills and two other approved ITI clusters in Telangana.

China’s DeepSeek is developing its own chip to help power artificial intelligence systems, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.

The chip is designed for inference — the stage in AI when models are trained and begin generating responses to users’ queries — rather than for building new models themselves, Reuters reported on Tuesday. DeepSeek didn’t respond to a request for comment on the report.

Nvidia Corp. shares fell 2.2 per cent in early trading on Tuesday.

Virtually every major AI developer is said to be developing its own chip in an effort to gain an edge by tailoring hardware that’ll work most efficiently with their systems. Just last month, OpenAI unveiled its first custom chip developed in partnership with Broadcom Inc. Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to sell custom chips for use in other companies’ data centers. Alphabet Inc. has seen significant demand for its own chips known as tensor processing units, or TPUs for short.

The second Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) meeting between India and Rwanda took place in New Delhi on July 6-7, 2026. The two sides decided to expand the partnership in the field of military training, military exercises, medical cooperation and defence industries, an official statement said.

An implementation plan with timelines for the action items emanating from the meeting was also agreed to during the meeting.

The meeting was co-chaired by Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Government of India Amitabh Prasad and Chief for Joint Force Development, Training and Doctrine (Chief J7- RDF HQ) Brig Gen Louis Kanobayier. The Indian delegation comprised representatives from Department of Defence, Department of Defence Production, Defence Research & Development Organisation, Ministry of External Affairs, Armed Forces Medical Services, Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff and the Services.

In a move aimed at strengthening patriotism, discipline and national consciousness among students, the Tripura Government has made it mandatory for all schools in the state to begin their daily morning assemblies with the full rendition of the National Song, ‘Vande Mataram,’ followed by the National Anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana.’

The decision was issued through a government order on Tuesday and has drawn widespread public attention across the state. The initiative has been welcomed by many citizens who view it as an effort to instil a stronger sense of national identity and civic responsibility among school children.

Chief Minister Manik Saha shared the government’s objective in a social media post, stating that the decision has been taken to further strengthen patriotism, discipline and national consciousness among students.

In a significant step towards strengthening the pharmaceutical supply chain and facilitating ease of trade, Centre has enabled the import of drugs through the recently inaugurated Navi Mumbai Airport in Maharashtra.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has notified Navi Mumbai Airport as a Port for Import of Drugs under the Drugs Rules, 1945. With this the total number of notified ports for import of drugs has now reached to 42. The amendment is expected to facilitate smoother movement of pharmaceutical consignments, strengthen logistics infrastructure, and provide greater flexibility to importers by adding a new alternative for import of medicines into the country. T

The initiative is in line with the Government’s continued efforts to strengthen the regulatory framework, improve trade facilitation, and promote Ease of Doing Business while ensuring effective regulatory oversight of imported drugs.

Punjab Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities Minister Dr Baljit Kaur on Sunday announced the launch of the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Caste (SC) students for the 2026-27 academic session through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP).

The minister said the portal has been accepting applications since July 1 and urged all eligible SC students to apply before the deadline to avail financial assistance for higher education. She said the Punjab government is committed to ensuring that no deserving student is deprived of higher education due to financial constraints.

According to the schedule issued by the department, students can submit applications till November 15, while defective applications can be corrected up to November 30.