The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Thursday appointed IAS officer Naresh Pal Gangwar as the Secretary of the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education, according to an official government notification.

The move marks a major bureaucratic shuffle amid the ongoing NEET-UG paper leak protests and demands for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, news agency ANI reported.

Gangwar's predecessor, Vineet Joshi, a 1992-batch officer, has now been transferred as Secretary in the Department of Panchayati Raj.

Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy, Dr Jitendra Singh has said that the government is aiming to bring at least five indigenous small modular nuclear reactors into operation by 2033. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, the minister said parliament has enacted the SHANTI Act, 2025, which opens the nuclear energy sector to private participation.

Dr Singh said Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is developing a 220-megawatt Bharat Small Modular Reactor, a 55-megawatt reactor and a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor designed to produce hydrogen.

The government has drawn up a roadmap for reaching the 100 gigawatts nuclear power capacity by 2047 as announced in the Nuclear Energy Mission.

The minister stated that as per the roadmap, the present nuclear power capacity of 8.78 gigawatts is expected to reach about 22 gigawatts by 2031-32 on progressive completion of projects presently at various stages of implementation.

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has taken charge as Interim President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) after its Russian President, Arkady Dvorkovich, was placed on the latest European Union sanctions list.

Anand will serve as Interim President for as long as Dvorkovich remains subject to the restrictive measures under the applicable Swiss and European Union laws and regulations.

The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has launched DeepDATA, a mobile application that lets users explore scientifically verified information on deep-sea fish species and upload field observations to help build a national digital repository. The app is currently available on the Google Play Store.

CMFRI said the app is aimed at students, researchers, fishermen and others interested in India’s deep-sea resources. Users can browse photographs and read information on deep-sea fish species, including their taxonomy, identifying features, distribution and conservation status.

In a statement, the institute said, “It serves as a digital learning platform for those interested in exploring India’s rich and largely unexplored deep-sea biodiversity.” It added that the app was developed under the Deep Ocean Mission project with funding from the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The Supreme Court today urged the Union government to make suitable amendments to the National Highways Act so that land acquisition compensation disputes thereunder are decided by "judicially trained minds" and not government officers.

A bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was hearing a batch of SLPs that arose from the Punjab and Haryana High Court's judgment, which declared Sections 3G and 3J of the National Highways Act, 1956, unconstitutional.

These provisions constitute the statutory framework for determining compensation through arbitration when landowners dispute the amount awarded. The concern of the Court is grounded in a disparity between landowners whose lands were acquired under the NH Act vis-s-vis those whose lands are acquired under other statutes. This is because the compensation disputes under the former are decided by government officers, while the latter's are decided in courts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Central government has prepared a comprehensive draft Bill to introduce stricter provisions and stringent punishments for paper leak cases.

The proposal will be discussed in the Union Cabinet meeting on Friday and is expected to be introduced and passed in the ongoing session of Parliament next week.

Taking to his official X account, PM Modi in a video message said: “More strict actions against paper leaks to come in tomorrow’s Cabinet!”

Addressing the deep distress caused by paper leaks to students and their families, the Prime Minister said on Thursday that the Union government has taken multiple measures over the past two-and-a-half months, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of those responsible.

EnKash, India's leading business payments and spend management platform, today announced the launch of UPI-based payments on its Meal Card. With this addition, employees can make payments directly from their meal card balance by scanning eligible UPI QR codes at food and grocery merchants.

This makes EnKash the first provider in India to enable UPI payments directly from a meal benefit balance.

The new capability extends the UPI infrastructure that EnKash already offers across its Prepaid Payment Instrument portfolio. It brings the familiarity and convenience of UPI to structured meal benefits, allowing employees to use their meal allowance through a payment method that has become a part of everyday life in India.

The timing is also significant. Under the revised Income-tax reforms, eligible meal benefits of up to ₹200 per meal are available under both the old and new tax regimes, subject to prescribed conditions. Employees can receive up to ₹1,05,600 annually as a tax-free meal benefit. For HR teams, this makes meal benefits more inclusive, valuable and easier to offer across the workforce.

In a significant boost to India’s defence indigenisation efforts under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Wednesday signed two major contracts with industry partners for the development of the Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) Mk-II programme.

The Centre for Air Borne Systems (CABS), a DRDO laboratory, signed a contract with AI Engineering Services Limited (AIESL), New Delhi, for the conversion of six Airbus A321 aircraft from commercial to green configuration. The modified aircraft will serve as the platform for the indigenous AEW&C Mk-II system.

In a separate agreement, CABS partnered with Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Limited (ADSTL), Ahmedabad, as the Development-cum-Production Partner (DcPP) for the mission systems of the AEW&C Mk-II programme.

The government on Wednesday appointed Anurag Jain, a 1989-batch Indian Administrative Services officer and currently the Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh as the Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog. In an order, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet said the appointment will take effect from the date of assumption of charge by him for a period of two years.

An officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Jain was appointed as Chief Secretary in October 2024 and his term was to come to an end on August 31 this year. Before that, Jain had served as Secretary, Road Transport & Highways and also Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Jain did his B.Tech Honours in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1986 and then obtained his MA in Public Administration from Maxwell School, USA.

From a solar-powered e-boat cruising through the maze of mangrove creeks in Pichavaram and honey produced through scientific beekeeping in the same ecosystem, to hybrid solar power systems installed at government buildings that reduce electricity consumption and the desilted waters of the Buckingham Canal that strengthen the health of the local ecosystem, these interventions now define daily life in Killai, Tamil Nadu’s first fully operational Climate Resilient Village (CRV).

Implemented under the Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission (TNCCM) of the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Killai has transformed a climate-vulnerable coastal settlement into a working model of how ecosystem restoration, renewable energy, and community-led action can jointly address cyclones, sea-level rise, saline intrusion, coastal erosion, and biodiversity loss.