Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, IRCTC has introduced a new tourism circuit titled “Divine East Temple Tour” on its Bharat Gaurav Deluxe Tourist Train. The 11-day rail-based journey offers devotees and travelers a unique opportunity to visit some of the most revered pilgrimage destinations along with culturally rich heritage sites across Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand.

The journey will begin from Safdarjung, Delhi and would cover Varanasi, Puri, Konark, Chilika, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Gangasagar and Baidyanath Dham before returning back to Delhi. The significant sites that will be toured are Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Ganga Aarti at Varanasi. From there, the journey will continue to Puri, and offering darshan at the revered Shri Jagannath Temple, along with a tour of the comprehensive Odisha circuit including Bhubaneswar, Dhauli Shanti Stupa, Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves, and the Konark Sun Temple.

India's ambition to transform itself into a global aviation hub has moved from blueprint to reality, with the launch of the country's first hub-and-spoke international flight network that promises seamless overseas travel for passengers from Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

The first service under the model, operated by Air India as an "Easy Connect" flight, was launched from Varanasi on Thursday, allowing international passengers to complete baggage check-in and immigration formalities at their origin airport before connecting to overseas flights through Delhi.

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the network will expand rapidly, with flights from six more cities expected to begin within the next six weeks.

Seven Indian schools have been named in the top 10 shortlist for the World’s Best School Prizes 2026, announced in London on Thursday. India has set a new record this year as the highest number of schools shortlisted in a single year by any country in the four-year history of the prizes.

The World’s Best School Prizes, presented across five categories, were founded by UK-headquartered T4 Education in the wake of COVID-19 as a platform to recognise schools that are changing lives in their classrooms and beyond.

External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar announced Operation Amistad, under which two Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft took off for Venezuela carrying urgent humanitarian assistance to support post-earthquake relief efforts. Amistad means friendship in Spanish.

In a social media post, Dr Jaishankar said the assistance includes an Indian Army Field Hospital Unit and over 35 tonnes of relief supplies, medicines and medical equipment, including two BHISHM Cubes.

He said India is committed to supporting the government and people of Venezuela during this difficult time.

OpenAI is expanding its India leadership while tightening model safeguards, announcing both a key executive hire and the release of GPT-5.6 Sol with what it calls its "most robust safety stack yet."

The company has hired former Uber India head Prabhjeet Singh as Managing Director for India. With his appointment, Singh will become OpenAI's most senior leader in India, with responsibility for performance across consumer growth, enterprise adoption and partnerships. The appointment comes as India is increasingly gaining importance in the AI space and is proving to be an important hub for Open AI as it scales ChatGPT, enterprise APIs, and developer adoption in one of the world's largest digital markets.

India has been a major driver of ChatGPT usage and a focus for OpenAI's outreach to startups, large enterprises, and government skilling initiatives.

Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Ajit Kumar Mohanty has inaugurated the world’s first Hydrogen Production Facility based on the Copper-Chlorine (Cu-Cl) Thermochemical Cycle utilizing nuclear process heat generated from the Fast
Breeder Test Reactor at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Mohanty said that the integration of nuclear energy with emerging clean energy technologies, such as hydrogen production represents a strategic pathway towards a sustainable energy future. He said that nuclear power with its unique ability to provide reliable carbon-free electricity is ideally suited to support large-scale hydrogen production while contributing to India’s energy security, decarbonisation goals and long-term sustainable development objectives.

More than 1.31 crore citizens participated in the nationwide ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat Saptah’ 2026, as the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment intensified its campaign against substance abuse through awareness drives, community engagement and strategic partnerships.

The week-long campaign, observed from June 17 to June 26 to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, concluded with a National Awareness Programme at Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya (DSVV) in Haridwar, Uttarakhand.

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar led the concluding programme, which was attended by Dr. Chinmay Pandya, Pro Vice-Chancellor of DSVV, along with government officials, representatives from states and Union Territories, volunteers, educational institutions and civil society organisations.

Senior IPS officer Mahesh Dixit has been appointed as the new Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), taking charge of India's premier domestic intelligence agency at a time of evolving internal security challenges.

A 1993-batch IPS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Dixit's appointment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. He succeeds the outgoing IB Director after the completion of the latter's tenure.

Dixit brings extensive experience in intelligence operations and internal security. He spent crucial years heading the IB's Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau in Srinagar, which has jurisdiction over Jammu, Kashmir and Leh. Officials said he played a pivotal role in maintaining internal stability and tracking regional security threats during the period following the abrogation of Article 370.

Thirty-five nations, including India, have signed on to the US initiative to build trusted and resilient supply chains to power artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

At the second Pax Silica Summit held in Washington on Thursday, 35 nations signed the Joint Statement on AI Opportunity, aligning behind a pro-growth, pro-innovation regulatory approach for the AI era, said Jacob Helberg, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.

"A commitment to trusted supply chains, to mobilising the private sector, and the infrastructure that will power the next century," he said.

Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, Chile, Costa Rica, Greece, Kazakhstan, Panama, and the European Union joined the Pax Silica initiative on the sidelines of the Summit.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with the Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) to engage two fellows under the Embark India Development Fellowship proposal, aimed at strengthening policy research, governance innovation, and capacity-building initiatives within the Ministry.

The agreement was signed during a ceremony attended by senior officials from both organisations. P. R. Meshram, Director General (Data Governance), MoSPI, was present at the event, while the SoI was formally signed by Dr. Basavaraju R. Shreshta, Executive Director of GRAAM, and Prasoon Verma, Director of the Training Unit in MoSPI’s Capacity Development Division.

The collaboration is designed to create a practical platform for highly motivated and research-oriented professionals to work closely with the Ministry on key developmental and governance-related initiatives.