Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, on January 22, 2026, released the Military Quantum Mission Policy Framework, a comprehensive document that includes the policy and the roadmap to implement Quantum Technologies in the Armed Forces.
It aims to integrate the four pillars of Quantum technologies – Quantum Communication, Quantum Computing, Quantum Sensing & Metrology and Quantum Materials and Devices - into the Tri-Services to empower them to prepare for the future battlefield and to achieve technological dominance in the rapidly evolving world.
The vision document defines the way ahead to achieve synergy in the amalgamation of quantum technologies, alignment with the National Quantum Mission of which the Defence Forces are an integral part and formulates an indicative roadmap and policy for implementation of this niche field in Defence forces.
The Government of India has notified Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity (GEI) targets for additional carbon-intensive sectors under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). The notification, issued on 13.01.2026, brings Petroleum Refineries, Petrochemicals, Textiles and Secondary Aluminium under the compliance mechanism of the Indian Carbon Market (ICM).
A total of 208 obligated entities across these sectors will now be required to meet specified emission intensity reduction targets. With this expansion, the compliance mechanism of the ICM now covers 490 obligated entities across India's most emission-intensive industries.
The Government of India first notified GEI targets in October 2025 for the Aluminium, Cement, Chlor-Alkali, and Pulp & Paper sectors covering 282 obligated entities.
The CCTS notified by the Government of India in 2023 provides an overall framework for the functioning of the ICM.
The CCTS operates through two mechanisms: the Compliance Mechanism and the Offset Mechanism. Under the Compliance Mechanism, emission-intensive industries designated as Obligated Entities are required to meet assigned Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity (GEI) targets.
Obligated Entities that outperform their targets are eligible to receive Carbon Credit Certificates which they can trade with obligated entities which are unable to meet their targets.
This progress reflects years of sustained engagement with industry, rigorous technical assessment, and coordinated efforts across institutions and stakeholders.
In a major step towards deepening multilateral cooperation in skill development, vocational education, and training, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Economic Forum (WEF),
to collaborate on strengthening India’s skills and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem.
Through this MoU, MSDE will collaborate with the World Economic Forum to launch and implement a Skills Accelerator in India, a multistakeholder platform,
aimed at identifying, scaling, and accelerating innovative solutions and public–private partnerships to address critical skills gaps in the workforce. The Accelerator will support efforts to strengthen India’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem by ensuring closer alignment between skilling initiatives and,
Training (TVET) ecosystem by ensuring closer alignment between skilling initiatives and the evolving demands of industry and the global economy.
This collaboration marks a new chapter in India and WEF relations, building on the momentum generated during India’s participation at the 55th WEF Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, in January 2025.
Election Commission of India (ECI) launched ECINET, its one-stop digital platform for all election-related information and services at the India International Conference on Democracy and Election Management (IICDEM) 2026. The 3-day Conference (from January 21-23, 2026) is being held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) has released the thirty second edition of monthly report of NeSDA Way Forward for States/UTs, December 2025 which provides a detailed overview of status of e-service delivery across States/UTs.
Tata Communications, a leading global digital ecosystem enabler, has appointed Mr. Ganesh Lakshminarayanan (Ganesh) as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer-Designate of Tata Communications Limited.
Mr. Ganesh has more than thirty years of international management experience, working with multinational corporations, B2B start-ups, and Indian enterprises.
Most recently as the MD, Group Vice President for ServiceNow India and SAARC where he was responsible for driving market growth for ServiceNow.
Before joining ServiceNow, Mr. Ganesh was the CEO of Airtel Business in India and prior to that the CEO of Airtel's Enterprise Business unit.
The Ministry of Finance announced salary and pension revisions for several financial institutions. The latest move included wage hikes for Public Sector General Insurance companies (PSGICs) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), as well as pension revisions for retirees of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Nabard.
The move assumes significance, given that it will benefit about 46,322 employees, 23,570 pensioners, and 23,260 family pensioners. The revisions are expected to provide financial relief by helping employees and retirees manage rising living costs while maintaining a dignified standard of living after retirement.
The latest guidelines will provide much-needed relief to the public-sector employees. It will significantly change the wages, pension, and family pension while also increasing the total outgo.
As part of healthcare cooperation between India and Afghanistan, New Delhi has sent 7.5 tonnes of life-saving cancer medicines to Kabul to address the needs of cancer patients in Afghanistan.
In December, Afghanistan’s Minister of Public Health, Mawlawi Noor Jalal Jalali, held a meeting with Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda in New Delhi and discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in the healthcare sector.
Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan released the book “Chalice of Ambrosia: Ram Janmabhoomi – Challenge and Response”, authored by former Secretary to the Government of India Surendra Kumar Pachauri, at the Vice President’s Enclave in New Delhi.
Describing Lord Ram as the soul of the nation and of India’s dharma, V-P Radhakrishnan said the Ram Janmabhoomi movement reaffirmed the timeless truth that dharma ultimately prevails. Referring to Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of Ram Rajya, he said it symbolises justice, equality and dignity for all citizens.
India and Namibia held the fifth round of Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) and agreed to deepen collaboration in key sectors, including health, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), agriculture, defence, and critical minerals.
According to a release by the Ministry of External Affairs, the meeting was held on January 19 and January 20 and,
was co-chaired by Janesh Kain, Joint Secretary (East & Southern Africa), Ministry of External Affairs and Ambassador Charles Josob, Acting Head of Department for Bilateral Relations and Cooperation, Ministry of International Relations and Trade, Namibia.
The FOC was held in a cordial and friendly atmosphere, providing an opportunity to assess progress from recent high-level exchanges and explore ways to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation. Both sides also agreed to hold the next round of consultations in Namibia's Windhoek at a mutually convenient date.
The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Survey of India (SoI) on 20 January 2026 to support the digitisation, transcription and standardisation of geographical place names (toponyms) using AI-based speech and language technologies.
The collaboration will strengthen the creation of accurate, multilingual and standardised toponymic datasets aligned with the National Geospatial Policy, 2022.
The Survey of India, as the national nodal agency for standardisation and maintenance of geographical names, undertakes large-scale toponymic field surveys to collect place names in local vernacular languages,
for integration into national mapping systems. Under this collaboration, BHASHINI’s speech-to-text and language processing capabilities will be used to convert large volumes of audio recordings of place names into structured digital text, supporting the creation of a comprehensive and validated Toponymy Database covering more than 16 lakh locations.
The collaboration will support the development of the National Geographical Name Information System (NGNIS) by enabling efficient processing of field-collected audio data into local language scripts, Devanagari, Roman and other formats, ensuring consistency across national maps, digital platforms and governance systems.
The integration of automatic speech recognition, language normalisation and validation workflows will significantly enhance the speed, accuracy and scale of toponym data processing.
Payoneer India, a subsidiary of Payoneer Global, received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA-CB).
The in-principle approval comes at a time when the banking regulator has fully authorised 19 entities with a PA-CB licence.
The licence is awarded to companies that enable cross-border transactions for merchants facilitating inward, outward or both types of transactions.
The company’s global parent operates as a regulated entity in jurisdictions such as the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, China and Australia.
