The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its 56th meeting which lasted over 10 hours Wednesday, cleared the next-generation reforms under the eight-year old indirect tax regime. This effectively paves the way for a broad two-slab structure of 5 per cent and 18 per cent with a demerit rate of 40 per cent rate only for super luxury, sin and demerit goods.

The aim: lower tax burden on common people with sweeping rate cuts and reduction in GST slabs, ease blocked working capital, and facilitate ease of doing business with automated refunds and registration process.

All the rate changes, except those for tobacco and tobacco-related products, will come into effect from September 22, the first day of Navratri, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who chaired the meeting that was attended by ministers from 31 states and Union Territories.

For decades, the golden blooms of Senna spectabilis deceived South India’s forests. Introduced from South America in the 1980s, the fast-growing tree was planted for shade, beautification and firewood. Its resemblance to Kerala’s beloved state flower Cassia fistula, known locally as kanikkonna, sealed its popularity among forestry officials.

What seemed a miracle species has since turned into one of India’s most destructive ecological mistakes. Senna forms dense, sterile thickets, choking out native plants, altering soil chemistry and depriving herbivores of food. Its rapid spread across one of Asia’s most critical wildlife corridors, Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, has quietly accelerated biodiversity collapse and intensified human-animal conflict.

Now, in a corner of Kerala’s Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, a different story is beginning to take root.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has granted safety clearance to Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd (AISATS) for the first time. With this, India has become the second country after Malaysia in the Asia Pacific region to implement such a comprehensive framework in alignment with ICAO guidance. The DGCA has said, this move reinforces its commitment to strengthening safety management systems (SMS) and enhancing regulatory oversight in ground handling operations across India. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday virtually launched the Bihar Rajya Jeevika Nidhi Saakh Sahkari Sangh Limited, a new cooperative initiative aimed at providing affordable credit to rural women entrepreneurs.

According to an official release, Jeevika Nidhi has been designed as “an alternative financial system to reduce dependence on microfinance institutions (MFIs) and ensure the availability of larger loans at lower interest rates.”

The initiative will be jointly funded by the Bihar government and the Centre.

As part of the launch, PM Modi transferred Rs 105 crore into the institution’s bank account to kick-start operations.

Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a memento containing the ‘Made in India’ Vikram 32-bit Processor Launch Vehicle Grade chip at the Semicon India 2025 on Tuesday (September 2, 2025).

The microprocessor chips were designed and developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of the Indian Space Research Institute (ISRO) and the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Chandigarh. Utilised for space flights, it is an advanced version of the indigenously designed 16-bit VIKRAM1601 microprocessor, which has been utilised in the Avionics system of ISRO’s launch vehicles since 2009.

Other than containing the ‘Made in India’ chip, the memento also contained 31 more prototype chips created by academic institutions, including IIT Jammu, IIT Roorkee, IIT Dhanbad, NIT Durgapur, NIT Calicut and IIT Ropar, among others.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Semicon India – 2025 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi today. The three-day Conference will focus on advancing a robust, resilient, and sustainable semiconductor ecosystem in the country. It will feature sessions on the progress of the Semicon India Programme, smart manufacturing, innovations in Research and Development and artificial intelligence, investment opportunities, state-level policy implementation, among others. The Prime Minister will also participate in the CEOs’ roundtable tomorrow.

Over 20 thousand attendees, including more than two thousand 500 delegates from over 48 countries, will participate in the conference. It will also include six countries’ round table discussions, country pavilions and dedicated pavilions for workforce development and start-ups, among others.

The Telangana State government has announced plans to celebrate Bathukamma on the lines of Brazil’s Rio Carnival, aiming to draw international tourists and showcase Telangana’s cultural heritage on a global platform. Bathukamma is the festival of flowers, celebrated before the Dasara festival in Telangana, in which women worship goddess Gowri by placing her on a floral arrangement.

The state will also attempt a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of women. The nine-day festivities will begin on the 21st of this month at the Thousand Pillar Temple in Warangal. State Tourism Minister J Krishna Rao briefed the media in Hyderabad last evening about the details of the celebrations.

Unified Payments Interface, UPI has achieved a new milestone with first time ever crossing twenty billion transactions in the month of August this year. According to the National Payments Corporation of India, the total number of transactions stood at 20.01 billion, marking a 34 per cent year-on-year increase from 14.9 billion in August last year. UPI has also registered transactions of 24.85 lakh crore rupees in August this year, which represents a 24 per cent increase year-over-year. The average daily transaction count in August has reached 645 million.

World Junior Champion Pranav Venkatesh achieved a resounding victory over Grandmaster Alan Pichot of Spain to secure the title at the Fujairah Global Superstars chess tournament in the UAE. Pranav accumulated seven points out of a possible nine, finishing a full point ahead of the closest competitors, Brandon Jacobson from the US, Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara from Mexico, and Amin Tabatabai from Iran, who all tied for second place with six points each. Despite needing only a draw to secure the top prize, Pranav played aggressively with white pieces and won his final game, finishing with 7/9 points.

The winners of the upcoming ICC Women's Cricket World Cup will receive the biggest-ever prize money in the history of the tournament, a massive hike from USD 1.32 million (Rs 11.65 crore) in the previous edition to USD 4.48 million (Rs 39.55 crore), the sport's global governing body announced on Monday.

The 13th edition of the global showpiece event, beginning on September 30, is being jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

Overall, the the eight-team event will witness nearly a three-fold increase in prize money, with the ICC announcing a total prize purse of USD 13.88 million (Rs 122.5 crore approx) for the mega event.