Coforge, an AI-native engineering services player, on Tuesday announced that Sunil Fernandes has been promoted to the position of chief operating officer (COO). Fernandes will oversee global delivery in addition to key Coforge operations, including admin, facilities, and internal IT services. He is based in Princeton, NJ, and will continue to report to Coforge Chief Executive Officer Sudhir Singh.

As COO, Fernandes will be responsible for improving the company’s execution and scale, accelerating the adoption of AI-native practices across engineering, delivery, and internal operations, and ensuring consistent, high-quality outcomes for clients.

“Sunil has a combination of leadership skills, technical expertise, and strategic thinking, which will be critical to transforming Coforge’s operations to support our growth ambitions,” said Coforge Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Sudhir Singh. “This promotion is based on his strong performance as CDO and reinforces our commitment to building an organisation that can compete and win in an AI-driven services landscape.”

India has marked a major milestone in its nuclear energy programme as indigenously designed and built Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu attained criticality.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed the landmark achievement. In a social media post last night, PM Modi said, India is taking a defining step in its civil nuclear journey, advancing the second stage of country’s three-stage nuclear programme.

Highlighting the technological significance of the reactor, the Prime Minister said that this advanced reactor, capable of producing more fuel than it consumes, reflects the depth of the nation’s scientific capability and the strength of its engineering enterprise. The Prime Minister also called this a decisive step towards harnessing India’s vast thorium reserves in the third stage of the programme. Calling it a proud moment for India, PM Modi congratulated the scientists and engineers involved in the project.

Telangana government has officially declared cancer a notifiable disease across the state to establish a robust surveillance system for monitoring the rising burden of non-communicable diseases. According to an order issued by the Health, Medical, and Family Welfare Department, all healthcare facilities, including government and private hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, and clinics, are now legally mandated to report diagnosed cancer cases within one month. This initiative aims to create a centralised, uniform cancer registry to estimate incidence and prevalence accurately while facilitating evidence-based policy formulation and better resource management for palliative and rehabilitative care.

The Mehdi Nawaz Jung Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre in Hyderabad has been designated as the Centre of Excellence responsible for validating data and coordinating with the National Cancer Registry. To ensure compliance, the government will provide digital login credentials to all medical institutions for reporting through a dedicated state portal. All collected patient information will remain strictly confidential.

The RBI on Monday said it has cancelled the licence of The Shirpur Merchants' Co-operative Bank as the lender does not have adequate capital and earning prospects.

Consequently, the bank ceases to carry on banking business, with effect from the close of business on April 6, 2026, the Reserve Bank said in a statement.

The Commissioner for Cooperation, Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Maharashtra has also been requested to issue an order for winding up the bank and appoint a liquidator.

On liquidation, every depositor would be entitled to receive deposit insurance claim amount of his/her deposits up to Rs 5 lakh from Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).

Over the past year, Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has spent billions of dollars to overhaul the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) efforts and assemble an elite team of researchers, aiming to push the social networking giant back into the fast-moving AI race.

The first results of that strategy are now emerging with the launch of Muse Spark, the first model built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, the firm’s revamped AI unit headed by Alexandr Wang.

However, in a departure from Meta’s prior open-source strategy, Muse Spark is a closed model, meaning its code will not be publicly available.

The company said it plans to offer the model in private preview to select partners through an API and may open-source future versions.

India has withdrawn its bid to host the 33rd edition of the Conference of Parties (COP 33) in 2028 — the annual United Nations climate talks — according to a report by Climate Home News (CHN) on Wednesday (April 8, 2026).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced India’s interest in hosting COP 33 at COP 28 in Dubai in 2023.

Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson has stepped down from his position and will remain in the role until his successor is announced and in place, the airline stated in a release on 7 April.

“Wilson had conveyed his intention to step down in 2026 to Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran in 2024 and, since then, has been working to ensure the organization and leadership team is on a stable footing for the transition,” the statement added.

Notably, this development sets the stage for a leadership transition at a time when the airline is grappling with operational disruptions, rising costs and a likely record loss this year. These challenges have been compounded by the fallout from the 12 June 2025 crash of Flight AI 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by the airline, which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad airport, killing 241 people on board and on the ground.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation launched the first-ever Annual Survey of Incorporated Services Sector Enterprises covering all States and Union Territories. Beginning from April, the survey aims at developing a comprehensive database of the incorporated services sector of the country. The survey covers incorporated services sector enterprises across India, with the reference period being the financial year 2024-25.

The Ministry said that under this, more than 1.21 lakh enterprises will be surveyed using the GSTN database as the sampling frame. NSO also published a reader-friendly explainer on the survey titled ‘Know Your Survey: A User Guide to the Annual Survey of Incorporated Services Sector Enterprises’ to engage with users and communicate survey processes in a more transparent and user-friendly manner.

She is the pride of India. The world’s first limbless archer, Payal Nag, delivered a moment that will be remembered for years.

On a tense evening in Bangkok, the 18 year old held her nerve to defeat her idol Sheetal Devi 139 to 136 and win gold at the World Para Archery Series Final in April 2026, in her very first senior international appearance. It was not just a win. It felt bigger than sport.

Born to a daily wage mason in Odisha, Payal’s life changed at the age of eight after a tragic electrocution accident that took all four of her limbs. For many, that would have ended everything. For her, it became the beginning.

A viral video of Payal painting with her mouth caught the attention of coach Kuldeep Kumar Vedwan, who saw her potential and brought her to his academy in Katra.

Researchers from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have identified two new species of free-living marine nematodes off the coast of Tamil Nadu.

The study, conducted by researchers Ritika Datta and Anjum Rizvi, identifies the species as Corononema dhriti and Epacanthion indica—microscopic organisms that play major roles in maintaining ocean health.

Corononema dhriti is particularly notable, marking only the fourth known species within its genus worldwide. Previously recorded in regions such as Australia, Thailand and Vietnam, its presence in Indian waters represents a significant development in understanding global marine distribution patterns.