In a major step towards ecological restoration and community-driven conservation, the Senapati Forest Division on Thursday, January 8 launched Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercises as a pilot initiative to rejuvenate the Barak River watershed while simultaneously strengthening local livelihoods.

The PRA exercise was conducted at Saranamai village in Senapati district, falling under the Barak catchment area. The initiative involved comprehensive community engagement to map natural resources, land-use patterns, wealth distribution, matrix rankings, village timelines, and a detailed SWOT analysis. The exercise aims to generate crucial baseline data that will guide the preparation of a detailed action plan under the new CAMPA scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

Forest staff who are to be involved in census of tigers and other wild animals will be using the advanced Monitoring System for Tigers: Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (M-Stripes/MSTrIPES) app.

Earlier, they had been documenting the signs of all wild animals, along with GPS tags, in forms and then uploading them on the app. Now, the staff have been trained to operate the app and they will feed all the information related to the census, which will be conducted as part of the All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) Survey 2026 from Wednesday in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR).

The Kalpetta judicial district in Kerala’s Wayanad has become the first district in the country to function as a completely paperless court system, marking a major milestone in India’s judicial digitisation efforts. Under the new system, all courts in the district judiciary will operate entirely in digital mode, from the filing of cases to the delivery of final judgments.

Every stage of the judicial process—including pre-trial proceedings, recording of evidence, interlocutory applications and final adjudication—will now be conducted electronically. The system also integrates Artificial Intelligence-based judicial assistance tools that generate structured case summaries from digital records, helping judges quickly grasp the factual and procedural background of cases.

Addressing scholars, linguists and international delegates, the Vice-President described language as the conscience of civilisation, carrying collective memory, knowledge systems and values across generations. From ancient stone inscriptions and palm-leaf manuscripts to the digital scripts of today, he said, languages have preserved philosophies, sciences, poetry and ethical traditions that define humanity.

Recalling his recent participation in Siddha Day celebrations in Chennai, the Vice-President said he had seen a large number of palm-leaf manuscripts, which stand as enduring testimony to India’s vast and multilingual knowledge traditions. He observed that every Indian language has contributed profoundly to philosophy, medicine, science, governance and spirituality.

The Vice-President underlined that India’s many languages have never divided the nation; instead, they have preserved and strengthened a shared civilisational ethos and a common Dharma.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Thursday inaugurated a cancer screening ‘Asha Van’ in Gandhinagar, designed for the early detection and diagnosis of cancer.

The mobile unit is equipped with EVA-Pro diagnostics, a mammography unit and expert teleconsultation facilities. It will enable the diagnosis of several life-threatening diseases, including lung, oral, blood, cervical, pancreatic, liver, breast and prostate cancers, using ultra-modern equipment at any location.

The van is expected to play a key role in advancing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Health and Wellness for All’, particularly in rural areas.

World Hindi Day is being observed today. The day is commemorated every year with the objective to promote use of Hindi language abroad. It aims to encourage the use of Hindi on international platforms, including diplomacy, education and cultural exchange. On this day in 2006, the First World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur with the aim to promote the language worldwide and since then, every year 10th January is being observed as the World Hindi Day. The Ministry of External Affairs and Indian Missions abroad also observe the day annually.

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh has stressed that language keeps culture alive and the aim is to spread country’s culture and rich heritage through Hindi language. Addressing an event organised by External Affairs Ministry yesterday to mark World Hindi Diwas, Mr. Singh said, the Ministry is playing a big role in connecting Indian diaspora with Hindi. He highlighted that Indian Council for Cultural Relations is working to promote Hindi language worldwide. He said that around 770 institutions in over a hundred nations teach Hindi language.

NASA said Thursday that it will bring four astronauts aboard the International Space Station back to Earth more than a month earlier than planned because of a medical issue — the first such evacuation in the space station’s 25-year history.

Citing medical privacy concerns, NASA did not provide additional details about the issue, including the identity of the affected crew member, the nature of the medical problem or its severity. Agency officials said the situation is stable, however.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said at a news briefing that the astronauts will return home in the coming days. The agency has not yet given a precise timeline for undocking or landing.

The Finance Ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND) on January 8 updated guidelines for virtual digital assets (VDAs) bolstering regulations around cryptocurrency.

Particularly focusing on self-custody or unhosted wallets, the guidelines seek to delineate organisational responsibilities and operational readiness, reporting and compliance mechanism, and assist entities engaged in or seeking to engage in VDA activities.

Taking a risk-based approach, the guidelines deemed any crypto tokens enhancing anonymity as “unacceptably high risk” due to their inherently elevated ML/TF (money laundering/terror financing) risks.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Safdarjung Hospital's Sports Injury Centre (SIC) to ensure priority care for athletes after the collaboration got in-principle approval from Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Under the proposed framework, SIC will handle advanced sports medicine and surgical interventions, while SAI will manage applied sports science rehabilitation and return-to-play protocols.

The collaboration would ensure "priority care and safe return to competition for Indian athletes."

Dr Deepak Joshi, who is the Director of SIC, said that coordinated integration of sports science, sports medicine, and injury management can fundamentally alter an athlete's career trajectory.

"This collaboration will be a boon for India's sports ecosystem. Athletes referred by SAI will receive priority treatment, continuous clinical management, and a seamless pathway back to training and competition," he said.

Estimation of tigers, co-predators, prey base and habitat assessment as part of the All-India Tiger Estimation - 2026 started in Pollachi and Tiruppur Forest Divisions of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) on Wednesday.

The exercise, which follows an eight-day protocol of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), will cover Pollachi, Valparai, Ulandy and Manambolly forest ranges of Pollachi Division and Udumalpet, Amaravathy, Kozhumam and Vandaravu forest ranges in Tirupur Division.

Forest Department sources said that a training for the staff on the exercise was held on Monday. Enumerators were trained to use the M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tiger-Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) app, which is used for the estimation. The field survey started on Wednesday and the estimation will conclude on January 13.