Nagaland’s Paralympian Hokato Hotozhe Sema has added another feather to his cap by climbing to the World No. 1 in the men’s Shot Put F57 category. According to the latest World Para Athletics Rankings, Subedar Hokato Hotozhe Sema of the 9 Assam Rifles secured the top position.

Sema recently became the first Paralympian to be conferred the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal. He is also a recipient of the Arjuna Award and has won the bronze medal in the men’s Shot Put F57 event at the Paris Paralympics 2024. Fellow Indian athletes Rana Soman and Juyal Shubham were ranked second and third, respectively, in the latest rankings, underscoring India’s strong presence in the event.

As Gujarat rapidly emerges as India’s semiconductor manufacturing hub, the state is now turning its attention to building the talent pipeline needed to support the sector. A ₹190-crore semiconductor research and training centre, christened SAMARTH (Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Research and Training Hub), will be established at IIT Gandhinagar to train engineering students, faculty members and industry professionals.

The facility, being jointly funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Gujarat government’s Department of Science and Technology, and IIT Gandhinagar, aims to create a steady pool of “fab-ready” engineers as semiconductor manufacturing gathers pace in the country. The institute has already initiated the procurement of advanced equipment and the appointment of consultants for construction of the centre, which will focus on semiconductor research, workforce development and industry-oriented training.

The government has confirmed that two mobile applications linked to concerns over the remote shutdown of e-rickshaws have been removed from app stores, following reports that certain vehicles could be disabled through the Chinese smartphone application BAT-BMS.

Speaking on the sidelines of a CII Cybersecurity Summit on Friday, IT Secretary S Krishnan said the apps were taken down after they came to the government's notice. He also stressed that app stores must exercise greater due diligence before hosting applications that could pose cybersecurity risks.

Confirming the action, Krishnan said, "That is right. There are a couple of apps, which came to our notice yesterday and both of them have been taken down from the app stores."

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has revised the appointment terms of IAS officer Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, assigning him the additional charge of Chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) while appointing him as Additional Secretary in the Department of Home under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

CBSE 10th Second Board Result 2026 Live Updates

According to an official order issued by the ACC, Lokhande, a 2001-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, will serve as Additional Secretary in the Department of Home, Ministry of Home Affairs, and concurrently hold the additional charge of CBSE Chairperson. The order states that this arrangement will continue until a regular Chairperson is appointed or until further orders are issued, whichever is earlier.

The Central government on Thursday amended the Drugs Rules, 1945, bringing stem cell derived products, gene therapeutic products and xenografts under the ambit of the Centrally Licensed Approving Authority (CLAA) framework to enhance regulatory oversight of new and emerging therapies.

Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, certain drugs and biological products are under joint regulatory supervision of the Central and State regulators. These include vaccines, large volume parenterals and r-DNA based medicines.

With this amendment, this set is being expanded to cover additional emerging technologies, the health ministry said in a statement.

Cell and genetic therapies are complex and rapidly evolving fields with several cutting-edge cancer treatments, including the Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T). With high costs of the patented therapies, many Indian companies are making their own immunotherapy to treat blood cancer.

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday launched ‘Delhi Next – Code, Create and Change’, describing it as the country’s largest civic-tech innovation programme aimed at using technology-driven solutions to address the Capital’s civic and urban challenges.

Gupta said the initiative would bring together young innovators, start-ups, researchers and educational institutions to develop solutions for challenges such as waterlogging, traffic management, smart parking, air pollution, waste management, the electric vehicle ecosystem, digital governance and citizen grievance redressal.

Calling the initiative “more than just a hackathon”, the Chief Minister said the selected innovations would move beyond demonstrations and be implemented as pilot projects in government departments.

India’s rural economy is witnessing a quiet but significant transformation as digital technology reshapes the way traditional artisans connect with consumers. From handwoven Chanderi sarees in Madhya Pradesh and intricately carved marble handicrafts in Rajasthan to exquisite Pashmina products from Jammu & Kashmir, thousands of rural artisans—particularly women organised through Self-Help Groups (SHGs)—are finding new opportunities to expand their businesses through the eSARAS platform.

Developed by the Ministry of Rural Development under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), eSARAS has emerged as a flagship initiative that combines Digital India’s technological framework with grassroots entrepreneurship. By providing women-led SHGs with direct access to national markets, institutional support and digital commerce infrastructure, the platform is strengthening rural livelihoods while preserving India’s rich craft traditions.

“Young people should become job creators rather than job seekers — that is, entrepreneurs; and the food processing industry is the real path to sustainable development for a region like Marathwada,” said Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Chirag Paswan. He was speaking at the inauguration of the Common Incubation Centre (Jaggery, Sugarcane Juice & Spices Processing Unit) set up at Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth (VNMKV), Parbhani, under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries’ (MOFPI) Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme.

In a region like Marathwada — and particularly at an agricultural university — there had been no precedent of a Union Minister visiting in person to take such a substantial step in the food processing sector. For the first time in the university’s history, a Union Minister himself came and dedicated the centre to the nation, making it a special highlight of the programme.

NASA on Tuesday (June 30, 2026) is set to launch a daring robotic rescue mission, a long shot bid to prevent one of its aging telescopes from vanishing into dust.

If successful, the effort could pave the way for giving other satellites a second life.

The operation is set to last several months, kicking off with the launch of a robot designed to rescue the Swift space telescope that's currently falling towards Earth.

Without intervention, Swift is expected to soon burn up in the atmosphere.

The rescue spacecraft developed by the U.S. startup Katalyst is slated to lift off on Tuesday (June 30, 2026) at 1023 GMT from a Pacific Ocean atoll aboard a small rocket named Pegasus.

India’s indigenous GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system has emerged as a key pillar of the country’s satellite navigation ecosystem, enhancing flight safety through precision navigation while expanding its applications across sectors including transport, disaster management, defence and telecommunications.

Developed jointly by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), GAGAN is a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) that improves the accuracy of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals by providing real-time corrections and integrity information to aircraft.

Operational since 2015, GAGAN has placed India among a select group of countries with an operational SBAS, alongside the United States, Europe and Japan. It is also the first SBAS certified for operations in the equatorial region.