Mr Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as the first BJP Chief Minister of West Bengal today at a ceremony at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata. Five Cabinet Ministers also took the oath along with the Chief Minister.

The Governor R N Ravi administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers. The Cabinet Ministers are Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kirtania, Nisith Pramanik and Kshudiram Tudu.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, along with several Union Ministers and Chief Ministers from BJP-ruled states, were present on the occasion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Suvendu Adhikari paid tribute to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary.

Earlier, the Prime Minister held a road show before reaching Brigade Ground.

The much-awaited Maharashtra State Compressed Biogas (CBG) Policy 2026 was officially approved and released on May 5, 2026. Stakeholders across the state have been eagerly anticipating this framework, which is designed to upscale a sector where Maharashtra already holds a strong position. The state currently ranks third in India with 24 commissioned CBG plants, trailing only Uttar Pradesh (40) and Gujarat (25).

The policy rightly emphasises the utilisation of municipal organic waste, agricultural residues, and other biodegradable materials as primary raw materials. It aims to empower local self-government bodies to efficiently segregate, collect, and process waste, promoting its use in the CBG sector. By focusing on a circular economy, the state intends to reduce the burden on landfills, improve public health, enhance environmental quality, and significantly lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The Karnataka government has finally appointed retired Karnataka High Court judge Ramachandra D. Huddar as chairperson for the Admission Overseeing Committee (AOC) for professional courses.

Judge B. Manohar’s term as AOC chairperson had ended in October 2024.

The Government of India has appointed Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani as the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). He will succeed General Anil Chauhan, who is set to complete his tenure on May 30.

Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani is currently serving as the Military Adviser at the National Security Council Secretariat, a position he has held since September 1, 2025.

Prior to this, he served as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff from July 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025. He also held the position of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C), Central Command, from March 2023 to June 2024.

Former Vice Chief of the Indian Army Lieutenant General NS Raja Subramani (retd) has been appointed as the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). He will succeed Gen Anil Chauhan, who retires on May 31.

The Government has also appointed Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, the present Western Navy Commander, as the next Chief of the Indian Navy. He will succeed Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, who is retiring from service on May 31.

Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan

Both appointments were announced on Saturday morning.

The government order announcing the appointment of Lt Gen Subramani as CDS stated that he “will continue until further orders”.

Census enumerators have been given identity cards with QR codes to enable residents to verify authenticity, said Lalit Jain, Director of Census Operations (DCO), Haryana, amid resistance from several high-end gated societies to grant access to enumerators.

In an interview with The Hindu on Friday (May 8, 2026), Mr. Jain said, “We understand that there may be some apprehension in their [residents] minds that maybe people [enumerators] are not genuine. Now, we have introduced the scan code enabled identity cards. Any person who has any doubt about the authenticity of our enumerator can scan the code on the ID card for verification.”

Astronomers have gotten their clearest look yet at the surface of an exoplanet - a planet beyond our ‌solar system - thanks to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Webb gathered data on a rocky exoplanet with a diameter about 30% larger than Earth that indicates it is a desolate and airless world whose ⁠surface may resemble that of Mercury, our solar system’s innermost planet. Its lack of a discernible atmosphere and its extreme temperatures - fiercely hot on one side and frigid on the other - seem to render it uninhabitable.

The planet is called LHS 3844 b, or Kua’kua, the ‌word for butterfly in an indigenous language spoken in Costa Rica. It orbits a star smaller and less luminous than the sun, located about 49 light-years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels ‌in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar concluded his official visit to Suriname from May 6 to 7, during which he reviewed the full spectrum of India-Suriname bilateral relations and agreed to further deepen cooperation across several sectors, including defence, health, energy, trade, technology and agriculture.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday, Jaishankar co-chaired the 9th India-Suriname Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) with Suriname's Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and Cooperation, Melvin W J Bouva.

The two sides discussed strengthening collaboration in defence and security, health, trade and commerce, infrastructure, education, sports, culture, traditional systems of medicine, and agriculture.

People having pending traffic challans can avail the benefit of “One Time Traffic Challan Settlement Scheme” under which they can get 50% of relaxation in depositing the challan fee.

The fine amount for paying the traffic challan will be taken up at Lok Adalat, which will be held tomorrow (May 09) in every district of the State, Additional Director General of Police (ADG) (Traffic) Sudhanshu Kumar said while addressing the press at Police Headquarters (PHQ) in Patna and added that only 90-day-old e-challans will be taken up at Lok Adalat.

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) launched a road pollution control programme to increase monitoring and control of sources of dispersed air pollution across the city. It has deployed 13 dedicated field surveyors to survey roads daily, with a total coverage of nearly 18,000 kilometres of roads across MCD, PWD, NDMC, and Delhi Cantonment Board areas.

Surveyors will use the MCD-311 mobile app to log a minimum of 70 geo-tagged, photographic pollution issues per day per surveyor, with a citywide target of around 1,000 identified issues daily. The entire road network of Delhi will be comprehensively covered every month, with each surveyor assigned a minimum of 20 kilometres of roads to be covered daily.