Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal has said that international benchmarking, deliberations with the industry, and demand assessment are critical to identifying high-value and high-volume potential products to catalyze research and innovation in Technical Textiles in India. He said this while chairing the 6th Mission Steering Group meeting of the National Technical Textiles Mission in New Delhi today.

Ministry of Textiles approved 20 Research and Development projects worth over 61 crores rupees across key strategic areas of Geotech, Protech, Indutech, Sustainable Textiles, Sportech, Buildtech segments, and Carbon Fibre and Ultra High Molecular Weight Poly Ethylene during the MSG meeting.

Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport said in a statement on Thursday that it has introduced a new facility called 'DigiYatra' that allows passengers to enjoy its benefits without having to download the mobile application. The initiative, launched at Terminal-3 of the airport, simplifies the registration process into three simple steps.

Passengers can utilize the facility by scanning their boarding pass and their face, and presenting an identification proof to the security personnel near the registration desk. Once successfully registered, passengers can experience seamless travel within the terminal, including the security check area and boarding gates.

Ritu Kalra, an Indian-American investment banking and financial management expert, has been named vice president for finance and chief financial officer of Harvard University. She currently serves as assistant vice president of finance and treasury and special projects adviser in the university.

The university in The Harvard Gazette said Kalra will oversee all aspects of financial management, including long-range planning, annual budgeting, endowment fund spending policy, treasury, and financial accounting and reporting. 

The RBI on Thursday issued first loss default guarantee (FLDG) guidelines for digital lenders. The central bank has allowed a 5% default loss cover for bank-fintech deals. The RBI had earlier specified that banks and NBFCs must abide by securitisation norms before entering into any guarantee arrangement.

Subject to certain guidelines, the RBI has decided to permit arrangements between regulated entities and lending service providers or between two regulated entities involving default loss guarantee. The limits are aimed at reining in the risk of large slippages in tie-ups between lenders and fintechs.

The first ever known case of a crocodile laying eggs without a male mate – a rare reproductive strategy that could be traced back to dinosaurs – has been documented by scientists.

Over the last two decades, zoologists have increasingly documented the very rare vertebrate reproductive strategy of facultative parthenogenesis (FP) in which females lay eggs or give birth to their offspring without mating.

Until now, a wide range of organisms including birds, non-avian reptiles like lizards and snakes as well as some fishes, including sharks, have been shown to reproduce in this strange mode.

The Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) of Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice for Judicial Infrastructure, with technical assistance of NRSC, ISRO is catering to a user-friendly and transparent web portal to facilitate better delivery of judicial infrastructural projects via Nyaya Vikas Portal. https://bhuvan-nyayavikas.nrsc.gov.in

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the third revival package for BSNL with a total outlay of Rs 89,047 crore. It includes the allotment of 4G/5G spectrum for BSNL through equity infusion. The Cabinet allotted four spectrum bands – 700 MHz worth Rs 46,338.60 crore, 3,300 MHz for Rs 26,184.20 crore, 26 GHz for Rs 6,564.93 crore, and 2,500 MHz worth Rs 9,428.20 crore.

The authorized capital of BSNL will be increased from Rs. 1,50,000 crore to Rs. 2,10,000 crore. BSNL has been facing intense competition from Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea which have rolled out 4G services at low prices on voice calls and data. “With this revival package, BSNL will emerge as a stable telecom service provider focused on providing connectivity to remotest parts of India,” the cabinet said in a release.

One of the finest news anchors that the country has seen, Gitanjali Aiyar passed away in Delhi on Wednesday. The 71-year-old had been ailing for some time.

One of the prominent faces of Doordarshan’s prime-time news at 9 p.m. for decades, Gitanjali, like many of her contemporaries on the public broadcaster, brought grace and dignity to television news before news studios started looking like war rooms and news presenters began indulging in shouting matches. She read the news and read it well. Fluent and articulate, she belonged to an era when teachers asked students to listen to Gitanjali, Neethi Ravindran, and Rini Simon to improve their English and when anchors maintained a neutral tone.

In order to encourage entrepreneurs to manufacture 'M-Sand', the Uttar Pradesh government, led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, is considering providing industry status to all the 'M-Sand' units in the state by bringing a new policy. The government also proposes to give the benefit of MSME to these units. Additionally, fixed power costs and mineral royalties are also being considered for M-Sand units.

Tata Elxsi has partnered with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for the upcoming Gaganyaan Mission. The leading global engineering company has designed and developed the crew module recovery models (CMRM) for the recovery team training of the space mission.

ISRO's Gaganyaan project envisions a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching the crew into a 400-kilometer orbit for a three-day mission and safely bringing them to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters. One of the key requirements of this project is the safe recovery of the crew, which must be carried out with minimum lapse of time.