President Droupadi Murmu will confer the National Teachers’ Awards on 48 school teachers on the 5th of next month at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

The Education Ministry said school teachers have been selected through a three-stage selection process at the District, State and National levels by the Department of School Education and Literacy. The 48 selected school teachers are from 27 States, 7 Union Territories and 6 organisations of the Central Government. Of the 48 selected school teachers, 26 are male and 22 are female.

The Ministry said online self-nominations from eligible teachers for the National Teachers’ Awards 2026 were invited from 15th June to 20th July this year through the Ministry of Education’s portal, nationalawardstoteachers.education.gov.in. The event will be telecast live on Doordarshan and the SWAYAM PRABHA channels of the Ministry of Education.

Astronaut Sophie Adenot, from the European Space Agency (ESA), will be making history today. She will become the first French woman to conduct a spacewalk. She will leave the International Space Station (ISS) with NASA astronaut Anil Menon. This spacewalk will be approximately 6.5 hours in total.

The astronauts will carry out an important maintenance operation. They will replace a high-speed communications antenna on the ISS. The system contributes to reliable communication between the space station and ground.

For the French spaceflight, the mission is an important achievement. Adenot will become the first French woman to perform an extravehicular activity (EVA). In February 2026 she arrived at the ISS. She flew on Board SpaceX's Crew-12.

The Union Cabinet has approved the establishment of a Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in Ladakh. Union Home Minister Amit Shah disclosed this in a social media post. Mr Shah said that the decision will significantly enhance access to justice for citizens living in remote areas of Ladakh by reducing the time required to avail themselves of the legal services they are entitled to. He added that the government is fully committed to the all-round development of Ladakh and to ensuring constitutional safeguards.

Ministry of Jal Shakti today issued the policy on Data Sharing, Interoperability and Stakeholder Access under Sujalam Bharat Digital Public Infrastructure. The Ministry said that the policy is aimed at enabling governed and interoperable data exchange between the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, States and Union Territories, Gram Panchayats, Government organisations and authorised sectoral stakeholders.

The policy establishes a secure, federated, interoperable and accountable framework for sharing and governing rural drinking water data across States, Union Territories, local governance institutions and approved sectoral stakeholders. Ministry further added that the policy also lays down governance principles for data sharing, interoperability and stakeholder access within the Sujalam Bharat Digital Public Infrastructure.

It promotes the use of common identifiers, standardised metadata, interoperable registries and secure digital services to facilitate seamless exchange of information, while ensuring institutional accountability, privacy and cybersecurity.

The Himachal Pradesh government has prohibited the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of non-dairy "analogue paneer" being passed off as genuine paneer across the state.

The order, issued by Commissioner of Food Safety Ashish Singhmar under Section 30(2)(a) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, has come into immediate effect and will remain operational for one year.

The action follows market surveillance and laboratory testing conducted by the state Food Safety Department, which detected instances of adulteration, misbranding and violations of food safety and traceability requirements.

The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti organised a national workshop on multi-stakeholder consultation for capacity building under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) 2.0, bringing together representatives from States and Union Territories, rural WASH partners, training institutions and other key stakeholders.

The workshop, titled “Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on Capacity Building under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0 for GPs, VWSCs and Sujalam Shakti Groups”, focused on reviewing and strengthening training modules developed for field-level functionaries, including Gram Panchayat representatives.

Participants deliberated on the content, pedagogy and field applicability of the modules, drawing on experiences from States and Union Territories and on-ground realities. The consultation aimed to support the finalisation and effective rollout of the capacity-building framework under JJM 2.0.

S Somnath, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), was on Thursday appointed to the central board of the Reserve Bank.

Somnath, who retired from Isro in January 2025, has been appointed as a part-time, non-official director on the central board for a period of four years with effect from August 20, 2026, as per an official statement.

The aerospace engineer, who has served the space programme in different capacities, was appointed as the chancellor of the Chanakya University, a liberal arts varsity near Bengaluru, after retiring from Isro.

Meanwhile, the RBI also reappointed billionaire Anand Mahindra for another four years as a part-time, non-official director on the central board, as per another statement.

The Himachal Pradesh Forest Department on Thursday signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business (ISB-BIPP) to unlock the state’s estimated ₹22,600 crore untapped forest and pastoral economy potential through science and technology-enabled governance.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dr Sanjay Sood on behalf of the Forest Department and Executive Director of BIPP, ISB, Professor Ashwini Chhatre on behalf of the institute.

Speaking on the occasion, Sukhu described the partnership as an important step towards strengthening Himachal Pradesh’s rural economy and creating long-term economic opportunities around the state’s forest resources.

India and Mauritius on Thursday signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mauritius on cooperation in the oil and gas sector, alongside a five-year agreement between IndianOil and the State Trading Corporation (STC) of Mauritius for assured supply of petroleum products to Port Louis, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

Puri signed the MoU with Mauritius Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection John Michaël Tzoun Sao Yeung Sik Yuen, as India and Mauritius moved to further strengthen bilateral energy cooperation.

There will be no further sale of loose edible oil or repeated use of cooking oil in Maharashtra, as the food safety body, led by Tukaram Mundhe, has issued a stringent 14-point statewide compliance and enforcement order to curb adulteration and ensure food safety.

Violations can attract penalties of up to Rs 10 lakh for unsafe food, possession of adulterants or operating without a valid licence; substandard and misbranded oil can attract penalties of up to Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively. Licences can also be suspended or cancelled.

What does it cover? The food safety body’s latest order covers all edible oils and fats, including groundnut, mustard, soybean, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed, rice bran, palm, coconut, sesame and maize oils, as well as vanaspati.