India’s march towards its 100th Grandmaster gathered momentum yesterday, with 17-year-old Aswath S from Kanyakumari becoming the country’s 98th Grandmaster after clinching his final GM norm at the 2026 Pune International Grandmaster Round Robin.

Needing a win in the final round, Aswath defeated USA’s FM Kannan Vaidyanathan with the black pieces to complete the Grandmaster title requirements. He finished the tournament with 7 points from 9 rounds, recording six wins, two draws, and one loss to secure second place.

Aswath had earned his first GM norm at the Grenke Open last year and his second at the First Saturday GM Round Robin in Budapest in December, where he also crossed the 2500 rating mark.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) today conducted a successful flight-test of Pinaka Long Range Guided Rocket (LRGR) at the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha. Defence Ministry said that the rocket was tested for a user-defined minimum range of 60 kilometres.

The Pinaka LRGR rocket is designed by Armament Research and Development Establishment in association with High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, with support from Defence Research and Development Laboratory and Research Centre Imarat. The rocket was launched from the in-service Pinaka launcher demonstrating its versatility and providing launch capability of Pinaka variants of different ranges from the same launcher.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has congratulated DRDO, the Indian Army and the industry on the successful flight-test. The Minister described it as a major milestone in indigenous design and development capability for long range guided rockets.

Switzerland has announced that the Geneva AI Summit 2027 will take place on June 21-22, 2027, at Palexpo in Geneva, positioning the event as the next major milestone in international efforts to shape the future of artificial intelligence governance. The summit will be held back-to-back with the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit, bringing together world leaders, policymakers, researchers, businesses and civil society under one roof.

The announcement was made by Swiss Federal Councillor Albert Rosti during his opening address at the AI for Good Global Summit 2026 in Geneva, where he underscored Switzerland's commitment to fostering global cooperation on AI and ensuring the technology delivers broad societal benefits.

The Centre has lowered import costs for a range of components and capital goods used in electronics and battery manufacturing by issuing three customs notifications providing basic customs duty (BCD) exemptions on select inputs and machinery.

The notifications, issued on July 8, extend duty relief for components used in display assemblies and wireless charging modules while expanding the list of machinery eligible for concessional duty for lithium-ion cell manufacturing. The move aims to improve cost competitiveness and support domestic value addition in electronics and electric mobility.

According to one notification, the government has exempted five components used in manufacturing display assemblies for automotive, medical and industrial applications from BCD until March 31, 2029. These include cells, flexible printed circuit assemblies (FPCAs), backlight units, frames and anisotropic conductive film (ACF).

The Gujarat government on Thursday launched the ‘Viksit Gujarat – Data Centre Policy 2026-29’, aimed at attracting investments in hyperscale data centres, artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and digital services, with Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel unveiling the policy booklet at an event in Gandhinagar.

Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, Science and Technology Minister Arjun Modhwadia, Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Das, senior government officials and representatives from the technology sector attended the launch programme.

Speaking at the event, Science and Technology Department Secretary P. Bharathi said the policy was designed to create the infrastructure required to support India’s expanding digital economy.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that a new chapter has been added to India’s education sector with the approval for the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore to establish an overseas campus in Indonesia. The proposal was approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Indonesia. He added that the establishment of an overseas campus of such a prestigious institution marks a significant step towards globalising India’s knowledge traditions and education system.

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.