Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh has called for a major transformation in the handloom sector, stressing innovation, market-driven designs and sustainable production to revive the industry and create new opportunities for weavers and artisans.

Addressing the first Annual Conclave of the Indian Institutes of Handloom Technology-IIHT, SUTRA 2026, in New Delhi, Mr Singh said that handloom had once become a powerful tool of resistance against British colonial rule and now needs to become a tool for economic empowerment. He urged students to think about the market before designing a product, saying handloom products must meet consumer needs and have real market value.

Mr Singh also stressed that handloom must evolve through design upgrades, modern technology, and stronger industry linkages to help revive the sector and expand opportunities for weavers and artisans.

Lieutenant-Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhuon Wednesday approved the Delhi Master Plan 2047, aimed at planned growth of the capital, officials said. Sandhu, who chaired a meeting of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), also approved a policy for reconstruction and redevelopment of old two-storey DDA-built residential units and a land-use change for a Metro depot for the Rithala-Kundli corridor in Narela.

“With Delhi’s population projected to grow significantly by 2047, the Master Plan adopts an integrated approach towards housing, economic growth, mobility, environmental sustainability, infrastructure, heritage conservation, urban regeneration and citizen-centric governance,” the DDA said.

The DDA had been working on Master Plan Delhi (MPD) 2041 after the expiry of MPD 2021. It has now been changed to MPD 2047 to align it with the Centre’s vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. The plan will be sent to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for final nod and notification.

India and the five-member Southern African Customs Union (SACU) signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) on Wednesday to start negotiations for a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), with an aim to conclude the trade talks within a year.

The agreement will cover eight chapters, including trade in goods, market access, customs procedures, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, trade remedies, technical barriers to trade (TBT), rules of origin and dispute settlement. However, both sides agreed that the chapters can further expanded if the negotiations demand.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said India hopes to conclude the negotiations in the next few months, underscoring the need to move quickly while cautioning against rushing the process.

“Speed is necessary for outcomes,” Goyal said, adding that he was not advocating haste. “India will not touch sensitive issues on your side as we would expect reciprocity and your consideration on sensitive issues on the Indian side,” he said.

The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), under the Digital India Corporation (DIC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, and NITI Aayog, Government of India, have signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to collaborate on advancing multilingual, voice-first AI solutions for inclusive governance and citizen-centric public service delivery through the BHASHINI for Seva/Sanchalan initiative.

The SoI was signed by Shri Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India BHASHINI Division, and Shri Shoyabahmed Kalal, Director, NITI Aayog.

The collaboration aims to leverage BHASHINI's multilingual AI ecosystem to enable more inclusive and accessible governance by integrating AI-powered language technologies across NITI Aayog's digital platforms and services. The partnership will facilitate access to government information and services in citizens' preferred Indian languages, strengthen communication between government and citizens, and promote multilingual operations across public service delivery.

Under the SoI, both organisations will collaborate across BHASHINI Udyat, BHASHINI Mitra, BHASHINI AppMitra, BHASHINI Sahayogi and BHASHINI Pravakta. The partnership will facilitate multilingual access to NITI Aayog services through BHASHINI's language translation APIs and reference applications, support the development and continuous improvement of translation models, and enable the integration of language technologies into digital platforms, document management systems and communication workflows.

Indian Railways has approved the provision of Kavach Version 4.0 on 660 route Kilometer of the Izzatnagar Division of North Eastern Railway at an estimated cost of 295 crore rupees. The Ministry of Railways informed that Kavach Version 4.0 has been approved under the umbrella work Provision of Kavach with communication backbone of Long-Term Evolution on balance sections of Indian Railways. It added that the approved work covers the balance sections of the Izzatnagar Division of North Eastern Railway. The provision of Kavach Version 4.0 will further strengthen the safety infrastructure on the identified railway sections.

Kavach is India’s indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection system designed to prevent Signal Passed at Danger incidents and train collisions through continuous monitoring of train movements. The system automatically applies brakes whenever required, enables trains to safely operate at maximum permissible speeds, improves operational reliability and supports safe train operations even during adverse weather conditions such as dense fog.

The Defence Ministry has issued a global Request for Proposal (RFP) for 60 multirole transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), in a programme estimated to cost around ₹1 lakh crore, or about $10 billion.

The acquisition is aimed at replacing the IAF's ageing Soviet-era Antonov An-32 fleet and supporting some roles currently handled by the larger Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft.

The tender has been issued to multiple Indian companies, including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Tata and Mahindra. Defence officials told ANI that Indian companies will take the lead in the programme and partner with foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

The Karnataka government has banned the sale and distribution of products containing tobacco and nicotine across the state for one year in the interest of public health. However, the notification does not impose any ban on their consumption.

The Food Safety Division of the Department of Food Safety and Drugs Administration is carrying out enforcement measures against the manufacture, storage, transportation, distribution and sale of gutka, pan masala and other prohibited products containing tobacco and/or nicotine.

Special inspection and enforcement drives are being conducted across Karnataka under the leadership of Food Safety Officers.

The department issued a government notification on August 10 under Section 30(2)(a) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and Regulation 2.3.4 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the Gramin Gyan Setu app through video conferencing yesterday. The app has been developed to integrate libraries in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency of Gujarat.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shah said the app was launched on the birth anniversary of Padma Shri S R Ranganathan, observed as National Library Day. He said the objective is to establish a library in every village, preferably near schools, to encourage children to read and learn.

Mr Shah said around 63 village libraries have already been established, while 7 hundred 52 libraries are now connected through the app. He said four libraries, together having around two lakh 80 thousand books, have been linked with the rural libraries. He said vans, arranged through his MP Local Area Development funds, will visit villages every fortnight to collect issued books and deliver books requested through the app.

Moving to strengthen their partnership, US space agency NASA has invited ISRO to join its Moon Base programme, the recently-launched effort to get humans back to the Moon with the larger objective of setting up a permanent settlement there.

The offer, disclosed Tuesday, was made at the ninth meeting of the India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group in Bengaluru on August 5 and 6 which US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor also addressed.

In 2023, India had joined the Artemis Accords, a US-led space alliance, whose stated purpose is to evolve and commit to a common set of principles that govern the civil exploration of outer space including the Moon. India was the 27th country to sign on the Artemis Accords. Now, a total of 70 countries are part of the Accords.

Skyroot Aerospace's maiden orbital launch is continuing to generate momentum for India's emerging private space sector. Just weeks after Vikram-1 successfully reached orbit on its very first attempt, the Hyderabad based company has announced a fresh commercial win, securing a multi-launch agreement with space technology firm HEX20 for three dedicated launches beginning in late 2027.

The new contract underlines growing customer confidence in Vikram-1 and signals that Skyroot's successful debut has started translating into more business opportunities.

At the same time, Skyroot has also disclosed the performance of SCOPE, its own in-house technology demonstrator satellite that flew aboard Vikram-1. While the CubeSat was successfully deployed into orbit and established parts of its communications chain, it ultimately failed to deliver usable housekeeping telemetry, preventing engineers from verifying several important spacecraft systems, including its imaging payload. As a result, key capabilities that the mission was intended to test remain unconfirmed.